Sunday on the Road

For the second consecutive night I woke up in terrible pain. My jaw and now my neck and left shoulder. Obviously this is not a muscle problem and must be nerve related. I'll be going to the clinic bright and early Monday morning even if, as it is currently doing, the pain eases up.

******

Terry left Louisville, KY early this morning hoping to get home around 5 PM. I got a phone call around 8:30 AM and she reported she was stuck somewhere on I-71. There had been a traffic accident involving a fatality and everything was at a stand still. The trucker next to her was her source of information. He also told her that, based upon his personal experience, they might be there for a few hours. She has water, grapes and energy bars. What she lacks is a toilet. I told her to look for a motorhome/travel trailer but she says there's nothing but truckers. I then reminded her that some of those sleeper cabs may have a toilet, too. She said she'd pass.

******

After Terry's call, I decided to get outside myself and do some more birding. I went back north to the Tioga-Hammond Lakes overlook, then to the Ive's Run Campground (both the lakes and the campground are Corps of Engineers projects created after the floods caused by Hurricane Agnes back in 1972) and finally drove the Rail Road Grade Trail but stopping at the food plots about half way.

Saw a couple of new birds for the year and listed more than I saw. (I've seen Rock Pigeons, Starlings and Grackles as I drive around, but never listed them on eBird until today. I mean, the roof of a barn or the spillage of a grain mill are not your prime birding spots. Well, at least they aren't mine.)

Here's the list(s) from today's foray: Again, first-of-the-year birds are denoted with an *.

Hammond-Tioga Lakes Overlook, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 13, 2016 9:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.5 mile(s)
Comments:     I started counting from the spillway of the Tioga Lake dam and right on up to and including the overlook of the weir between Hammond and Tioga Lakes.
16 species

Canada Goose
Redhead *
Common Merganser
Bald Eagle
Ring-billed Gull *
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) *
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
European Starling *
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle *

Ive's Run-Hammond Lake, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 13, 2016 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Comments:     Drove from the first boat launch to the second through the day-use areas between.
15 species

Canada Goose
Bald Eagle
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin
European Starling
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Rail Road Grade Trail, Tioga, Pennsylvania, US
Mar 13, 2016 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.5 mile(s)
Comments:     Drove the trail from east (Hammond Lake) to west. Stopped at the state gameland's food plots for a time and it was there I saw most of the birds.
14 species

Canada Goose
Common Merganser
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker *
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
American Tree Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird


This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

The addition of these "new" birds brings me up to 41 species in Tioga County this year. I was hoping for more today since the wind shifted from the south to coming out of the north and that should have produced something of a fall out. Didn't happen here. The lakes were pretty much devoid of ducks . (Except for Tioga Lake which had quite a few Common Mergansers and Redheads.)

I ran into Gary and Ken, two of my birding buddies and they reported the same thing. The lakes are empty when they really shouldn't be. 

Oh well, there's always tomorrow...or the day after.

Saturday Birding

I was awakened by a very sore and aching left jaw at around 3:15 AM and could not get back to sleep. I think I actually woke the cats up for a change. Since I had a premolar extracted about 18 days ago, I've had to alter my chewing/biting habits and this has affected the muscles in the jaw. Aches start at the jaw bone beneath the ear and radiate upward behind the ear and end at the top of the ear in the scalp. Even Tylenol doesn't help. Tonight I'll try bourbon.

******

Temperatures fell to 27 degrees overnight and with the heat in the house turned off, that meant the temperature in the house dropped, too. It was 58 degrees inside when I came down stairs at 3:45 AM and dropped another degree before I left to go birding at 6:30 AM.

It got even colder as I went down the hill and the lowest I saw was 24 degrees. With the temperatures that cold and the water having already warmed up in the lakes, ponds and streams, there was some pretty dense fog in the valley. Made me question why I was going birding.

But things started looking brighter--literally--as I got to Hills Creek State Park. There was virtually no fog and the sun was out. It was just a matter of time before things would warm up...right?

I spent an hour at Hills Creek, confining myself to the day-use area near the beach. Birding wasn't great but it wasn't bad either considering the limitations I put on myself. I then went west to The Muck off Route 287 on the other side of Wellsboro. The Tiadaghton Audubon Society maintains a blind there and there's usually a goodly number of water fowl and marsh birds around. Again, not great but not bad with a few new species for the year. After an hour at the Muck (some of it in the company of the Methodist Minister from Wellsboro (Nice guy, about 26-27 years old. He's joined our Audubon Society--son-of-a-gun has more Tioga County eBird check list than me! And he's only been here since July!) I headed north on Route 287 for the Rail Road Grade trail along Crooked Creek as it enters into Hammond Lake (Ive's Run Corps of Engineers). It's a short ride which took me about 40 minutes at a snails pace. Fewer birds than expected but it's early and this is often a good place for warblers and summer birds.

The results: A total of 22 different species at the three sites. I'm sure I could have done better if I had gotten out of the truck along the Rail Road Grade Trail to explore some of the game food plots along the way.  (An * indicates a first for the year species for me.)

Hills Creek - 15 species

Canada Goose
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Hooded Merganser
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow *
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Pine Siskin 

Marsh Creek/The Muck - 13 species

Canada Goose
American Wigeon *
American Black Duck *
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Common Merganser *
Great Blue Heron *
Belted Kingfisher *
American Crow
American Robin
American Tree Sparrow *
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird 

Rail Road Grade Trail - 11 species

Canada Goose
Common Merganser
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird

 

Doings At the Aerie

Nothing much going on around here the last two days. We enjoyed some lovely 70 degree weather on Thursday bit the wind shifted and brought rain and colder temperatures overnight. The rain ended early on Friday and the sun eventually made an appearance in the afternoon but the temperature never got above 54 degrees. Tonight's sunset was spectacular! Bright reds lit up the western evening sky for almost half an hour.

******

Not much new on the birding front. Thursday we had winds out of the south-southwest and skein after skein of geese and Tundra Swans were taking advantage of the favorable tail winds. to head north. Every time I stepped out on the deck there were three or four that flew overhead. We still have the same old birds at the feeders however. The Pine Siskens, Chickadees, White and Red Breasted Nuthatches, and Tufted Titmice don't seem to have decreased in number. That can't be said for the Goldfinches. While they are still pretty numerous, there seem to be a few less than a week ago. Perhaps they've started to look for other sources of food and/or nesting areas.

I'm going to go out tomorrow and hit some of the better birding areas in the county. I need to build my species list for this year before I fall too far behind.

******

I didn't mention it the other day but Terry is down in Louisville, KY for an executive board meeting of the Embroiderer's Guild. She's a regional director and a member of their finance committee. She says things are going smoothly and they may even finish a day early.

******

I spent a few more hours in the workshop straightening things out and got the paint situation pretty much in hand. I put a set of shelves under the stairs and managed to get (almost) all the pan and stain cans on it. That alone freed up considerable room.  The majority of the plastic drop cloths along with rollers got put into a box. Brushes got sorted and some chucked. What I'm going to do with about eight or more paint rollers and trays is yet to be determined. I think the bulk of them will end up being taken to the dump. (If I ever have to paint walls I will NOT have to buy much but the paint..and even that is doubtful if I stick to white.)

I may rearrange the position of the one work benches and the bandsaw so the sawdust from the sander and router is kept under better control.

I should be able to get back to building stuff next week. I better hurry up and get some birdhouses outside and clean up the ones that are already out there. Very little in the way of cold and snow in the forecast for the next 15 days.

I Ain't Dead! (Yet.)

Go ahead. Say it. "Rich, you're a slacker!" Yeah, I am. I last posted here back on October 18th when we had our first dusting of snow. Then I fell into hibernation/slacker mode from which I'm just now arousing myself.

I say "just now" but I've been creeping back into a little more active life for about a month. It started with Joe and I going to the Great American Outdoor Show down in Harrisburg back on February 11th. We went with the express purpose of confirming our reservation with Caesar's North Camps for this coming June.

When we got back I started messing around with my fishing tackle and trying to figure out a way to store my stuff more neatly. (Just jamming the poles in a five-gallon bucket wasn't cutting it any more.) So I ended up in the workshop building a rod holder and moving a set of shelves into the utility room on which to stack my six(!) tackle boxes and the boxes holding reels and line.

That led me to start sorting the wood that I had stockpiled. Which, in turn, led to me trimming some old drawer wood of its dovetail ends and mortised edges. And THAT left me with lots of little 1/2 inch square pieces about a foot long.

Well, that little bit of woodworking got me itching and I started building some birdhouses. Starting with this log/timber home using those cut offs from the drawers.

And then I decided a log cabin needed an outhouse.

And, since a log cabin is often found in the mountains, the neighbors might have a chalet.

 That last one was a pip! I had to rip all the 1/2" wide pieces for the decorative "timbers" on the table saw and then used the bandsaw and sander to get the angles just right. I almost succeeded too!

All that sawing and sanding was putting lots of sawdust in the air and it was ending up everywhere. (One of these days I'll get some wiring done and install the air filter I bought two years ago.) I had an open shelf just below the workbench for storing some of my power tools and started to think about how best to close that up.

Doors seemed the logical solution, so I built some using select grade 1x2 and 1x3 pine and 5/32" luan plywood. I used my biscuit joiner to hold the frame together and glue and corner braces to attach the luan to the frame. They ended up looking like a hollow core door and would have been if I had added luan to the back sides. I got interrupted by another project for a couple of days (I'll explain shortly), bit finally hung the doors this afternoon.

I think they came out pretty nice.

About that other project....

As I was building the doors (and creating sawdust), I got to thinking...I had open shelves holding all kinds of stuff including boxes and boxes of nails and screws and hardware and they were both unsightly and (saw)dust collectors. I started to think about building cabinets in which it store/hide all this stuff. I drew up some plans based on the same principles as I used in building the doors: a 1x3 frame with luan sheath. Then I did a little calculating and came up with about $130-150 for materials for one 30" wide, 12" deep, 72" high cabinet.

Saturday I decided to go online and see what Lowe's and Home Depot had in storage cabinets. Lowe's didn't have what I wanted in stock and I didn't feel like waiting. Home Depot had a plastic, snap together cabinet measuring a near perfect 27x15x72 for just $80. And, the best part, they had several in stock at the store in Painted Post (just west of Corning and "only" 45 minutes away). (Bad news was I wold have to pay NYS and county taxes--and I hate paying anything to NY.) Terry and I went and picked one up on Sunday.

It took me a couple of hours to snap that cabinet together. The directions were hieroglyphics with very, very few words but things could only snap in place one way so there was that.

I liked the look so much, I went up on Monday to pick up another. This time I also picked up some 1/4 plywood to put on top of the plastic shelves so as to better distribute the weight and prevent sagging. (Each shelf was rated to 44 pounds but I had a lot of nails and screws. A. Lot.) This second cabinet went together easily but I spent more time preconstruction de-buring the injection molded plastic parts. (It was easier to do prior to construction and ensured a better fit for some of the parts.)

So I now have two matching cabinets where the open shelves used to be.

Look at that second picture. See the coffee can? Right behind it is the belt/disc sander and it shoots sawdust right at those cabinets. That's why the shelves had to go. Maybe I should look into a dust collection system? If I could ever figure out a good layout.

For now, it's a matter of sorting and storing all the stuff and trying to decide what to do with all the extra tools I've got. Besides those hand saws on the wall (seven of them), I've three back saws, two coping saws, three keyhole saws, three sets of metal snips (and by sets I mean one set has three snips: Straight, Left and Right), two orbital sanders, two hand held circular saws, wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, etc. up the whazoo, and enough fasteners of all types and sizes to open a hardware store.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to besides some birding off the deck, picking up the bird feeders after the bears knock them down, going on some bird walks, getting a pre-molar extracted and a post put in for a cap.

For now I've got my eye on either building more birdhouses or figuring out what to do with this:

Boxes and boxes of baseball cards, painting materials (brushes, rollers, trays and drop cloths), and several boxes of craft paints. And there are cans of paint and stain under the stairs on the right. Maybe I'll be building a cabinet and a few roll-out storage units soon.

And So It Begins...

Woke up to 26 degrees this morning and a dusting of white on the ground. Didn't amount to much, perhaps a 1/4 of an inch, but it IS a harbinger of things to come.

Snow capped Sumac and Goldenrod

Oak leaves with a dusting of snow

Oak, ash, maple and poplar leaves with snow

Deck is coated, too

With so many trees still hanging on to their leaves, it's a good thing there wasn't more snow.

Snow + Leaves = Power outages.

Still, it does look pretty when the edges of the colored leaves stick out from beneath the central coating of snow.

This should all disappear sometime today as the forecast is fro 50+ degrees and plenty of sunshine.

A Taste....

Had visitors on the deck again last night. I heard some thumping out there and got up to flick the deck lights on but the bears scurried off before I hit the switch. Sounded like two or three of them as they banged into each other in their haste. Anyway, they got no sunflower seeds from me as I had brought the feeders in before 7 AM. They did leave a mess of muddy footprints on the newly stained deck.

There was a little bit of rain around 10 PM and the temperatures fell steadily overnight reaching 30 degrees this morning. There was a bit of frost on the deck but not on the lawn. I guess the cold air under the deck helped ("Bridge Freezes Before Roadway").

Scudding clouds thinned more as the day went on but at 10 AM it was still just 35 degrees and one gray cloud was spitting snow flakes.

The lows tonight and tomorrow night are forecast to be in the mid 20s so we can expect more frost and perhaps some more snow flurries. Things get a little warmer after Monday with highs around 60 and lows around 40.

We just may get out of October without any measurable snowfall.

Ch-ch-ch-changes! (And a lot of the same old-same-old.)

Spent last week doing a lot of nothing much.

The lawn got cut. The garden has been pretty much retired. (Though the zukes and tomatoes are still producing! In October!) I sorted out lots of stuff in the workshop and am (nearly) ready and able to do some woodworking. Even built a couple of extensions for the hooks that hold the stick bird feeders on the deck and a new tray feeder--although the latter will need some work. And I spent time watching the Mets vs the Dodgers, college football and pro football. Sunday morning I went up to Bath, NY for the Southern Tier Outdoor Show, Did some reading, too.

The Outdoor Show was nice. They had demonstrations of how to train a retriever for duck, goose and upland bird hunting. There were falconers there doing demonstrations of their craft. They had archery games (try skeet shooting with a bow and arrow) and a 3-D contest. There was a .22 rifle range and a hatchet throwing area. The kids had an obstacle course to play on as well as those other things. There were vendors of hunting and fishing equipment. And there was lots of food. I only stayed for maybe two hours but it was enjoyable. Much smaller than the one in February down in Harrisburg, of course--the Southern Tier show didn't have all the outfitters and many fewer vendors--but nice.

******

Monday I worked on winterizing the Vibe. That required draining the water system and pumping antifreeze into it. And, of course, that required purchasing a proper sized socket to remove the water heater's drain plug and that required a new socket wrench because the socket was a 1/2 inch drive and all my wrenches were 3/8 inch. And I got soaked because I failed to drain the water through the outdoor shower (clearly labeled "low drain point") before I pulled the plug and some six gallons of pressurized water came shooting out. A one hour job took me closer to four, but I got 'er done!

******

Terry spent a few days down in Valley Forge for an EGA regional convention. She left here on Thursday for a couple of days of business meetings--she's a regional rep--and then enjoyed some classes. She got to see many of her far-flung friends from around the country and came back late Sunday.

She spent Monday over at the hospital in the dermatology ward having a couple of questionable moles on her back removed. She says the doctor didn't seem to be too concerned but a biopsy was ordered as it's standard. She's got a few stitches for each that will have to come out when she's on the road down to San Antonio (SAGA convention) in a week and a half.

******

Weather has been pretty great with nice cool nights and warm sunny days with highs only getting to the mid 60s. The leaves have hit about 90% color so the hills are beautiful. Only problem has been some real breezy days that have knocked some of those leaves to the ground. It's supposed to be getting even cooler the rest of this week and there's a slight chance of some frost. At least it's not snow.

******

Even though the knees and back are feeling fine--only moderate pain--I've been a slacker with regards to hunting. Haven't even lifted the bow to check the sights let alone gone out in the woods. Don't feel that I'm missing much as I've seen only a couple of does in the yard in the last two weeks. There's still time, however. AND muzzelloader season starts on Saturday.

Sunny Sunday. Surprise!

So, since I wrote yesterday afternoon, the NY Mets have suffered a no hitter (Max Scherzer's second of the season in which he tied Nolan Ryan's 17 strikeout record for a no-no) and went 7 + innings without scoring a run on the final regular season game of the year. Lucky for them, the Mets' pitchers were almost as good as Scherzer today. They held Washington hitless into the 7th inning and tossed a shutout punctuated by Granderson's solo home run in the bottom of the 8th.

The last day victory gave the Mets 90 wins for the season, put them 7 games ahead of second place Washington, and sent them into the post season with a wee bit of momentum.

The Mets begin their post season play at Los Angeles against the Dodgers on Friday, October 9th. Jacob deGrom, who started today's game and threw 4 hitless innings while striking out 7, will be on the mound. Noah Syndergaard will start game two. Mat Harvey will start game 3 back in New York.

******

Oh yeah, the Jets (3-1) and Giants (2-2) won today.

******

I spent a couple of hours this morning over at the range. It was the Sportsmen's Club's annual work day. Guys were there to repair shooting tables and rails, weedwack around the target pits and do general repair and maintenance. I have been a member for a couple of years but have never taken advantage of the range. It's got rifle targets out to 200 yards as well as a pistol area and a rim fire area. They have sponsored pistol competitions and various types of rifle competitions. (A running deer competition will start on November 1.)

In the past, I would take my rifles up the Bolt Hole and shoot on the 50-yard  lane that I created. Now that we've sold that place, I need to find some other place to shoot. Besides. I couldn't take my pistols up north into New York.

******

Today's weather was surprisingly nice. The last couple of days were cold, rainy and dreary. We had 0.45 inches of rain in the gauge this morning. Today, contrary to the forecast earlier this week, we had clear, sunny skies with a high going up to 65 degrees. All with Joaquin heading further and further out to sea. I bet there are lots of folks in the journalism community who are very disappointed. Except for the exceptional monsoon-like rainfall in South Carolina, they have no "disaster" to write about.

Sunday's 8 PM prediction fr Joaquin

That Was The Week That Was

I finished busting my butt and staining the deck on Sunday (September 27) and then retired with my bourbon and pro football. The stain calls for 24-48 hours of curing before walking on the surface. It also says to not apply if there's rain expected within 24 hours. I got through the entire week with no rain and pretty low humidity. In fact, it didn't rain until late Monday night...more than 36 hours after I finished staining. I must say that the deck looks good.

The only part I didn't stain was the top surface of the top rail. I had hit that with a different stain about a month ago and it really would need sanding before it gets stained. That will have to wait until spring. Why? Well, it has rained every day since Monday. (We had 1.95 inches of rain in the gauge on Wednesday morning, October 1.) In addition, the temperature hasn't climbed above 45 degrees these last three days and it may not get much higher for a good long time.

******

I began to wonder what was up when Adam didn't show up on Monday or Tuesday. (He was supposed to return from Peru late Sunday.) Terry had a meeting with her church ladies on Tuesday and hear the sad news. Adam's dad, Don, died on Friday. He had been battling lung disease that had been destroying his ability to function. While Adam had told us he was showing some improvement, Don passed quietly at home. Don was 66 years old.

Don was the contractor whom we hired to build the Aerie back in 2006. He, Adam and I were the only three on the job from start to finish. He and his wife, Deb, allowed me to stay with them during the building process from April through November. I got to know them and their family quite well.

******

Terry and I sat down on Sunday afternoon to activate our new iPhones. We had no difficulty setting hers up but when I tried to set mine up, the phone said there was no sim card inside. There was, however, so I had to wait until Monday to head for the Verizon store to find out if the problem was the phone or the card. The very helpful young lady at the store took the sim card out of my old phone and installed it into my new phone. At that point the new phone saw the sim card and I was in business. She then started the set up process and sent me home where my wifi is faster than theirs to finish retrieving stuff from the Cloud. I left the old phone with them as part of their rebate/recycle program. Didn't get as much for it as I was originally promised, but, hey, it had a faulty sim card.

To sum it up, both our phones are iPhone 6ses and both are now activated. Life is good.

******

I've been watching the progress of Hurricane Joaquin this week. Initially predicted to impact the Atlantic coast somewhere between the Chesapeake and Long Island, it has slowly been shifted further and further off shore. This is due to the presence of a stationary front just off the coast that is steering the storm.

Friday, Oct 2: Stationary front runs from Florida to Nova Scotia

As of 5 PM this evening, the storm will stay well out to sea.

 

Predicted storm track at 5 PM Saturday.

Even so, the storm is throwing lots and lots of moisture on shore and it has been raining hard from Georgia to Boston for several days. And that will continue for a couple of more days before the storm moves far enough north. I saw a prediction that Columbia, South Carolina may end up with as much as 18 inches of rain before it's all over.

******

The Mets...*sigh*...gotta love 'em. After clinching the NL East title and a place in the playoffs, they have been...well, horrible. They've dropped three to the Phillies on the road and one to the Nationals at home. (A second game will be played tonight and the final will be on Sunday afternoon, weather permitting.) A few players have been dinged up, some of the young pitchers are being sat down and "saved" for the playoffs and, frankly, they have been playing like they've got hangovers from the celebration or something. Snap out of it guys!

Doing Some House Work

So....

Adam finished staining the house on Thursday last, and then took off for a week in Peru. I looked around and decided I'd start work on the deck. First I started cleaning all the old bird seed from between the boards using a spackling knife then the air compressor. (This after Adam had hit it pretty good with the pressure washer!) That took much of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (Okay, not much much of Saturday or Sunday because....FOOTBALL!)

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I hauled out the extension ladder and started on the outside of the deck staining the stiles and rails. There are a boatload of them! More than 100 stiles with top and bottom rails. Each 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" x 22" stile presents three surfaces to be stained when viewed from the outside. And, since the stiles are screwed on the outside that leaves a small--about 4" wide--pocket between each. And that needs to be stained, too. Very time consuming. Lots of up-and-down on the ladder, too. Good exercise for the knees and thighs!

Thursday and Friday I finished up those stiles I couldn't get because the ladder was in the way and started on the inside where I only had those two rails (top and bottom) and the one surface of the stiles to do. Still, there are well over 100 of them on the 10' x 36' deck and the 8' x 16' covered porch. While I had very limited need for the use of a ladder (just three posts on the covered porch), everything was below the waist so there was a lot of bending over and/or squating. Good exercise for the back and thighs!

Thursday afternoon I was working on the east end of the deck. The sun was shining directly into my eyes and its reflection off the house windows was getting me from the other side. I had to ask Terry to come out and be my portable shade umbrella just so I could see where I was supposed to be putting the stain. I haven't looked closely, but I think I got it where I wanted it.

Any way, I finished all the hard stuff this afternoon around 2 PM. Tomorrow, I'll get to work on the deck itself. I also used up 1-1/4 gallons of stain, so I went and got two more gallons this afternoon just to be safe. If I have extra, it does call for two coats--or there's the front of the shed.

When Adam does return, he won't have too much to do! (Except stain the front door porch, fix the electrical outlets on the deck (they have never worked properly) and touch up a half dozen log ends he missed because they are hiding behind a downspout.)

******

I mentioned that Terry and I purchased new iPhone 6ses last week. They arrived today. One delivered via UPS and the other via FedEx. From different directions.

Now we have to figure out how to transfer our data/settings from our iPhone 5s to the new phones. I've backed up to the Cloud several times and so has Terry. Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to doing the transfers.