It's a Wii world we live in.

We got a Wii for Christmas.  It was about the only thing Sheryl and I bought for Christmas (plus the first round of games and accessories).  Becky quickly became a MarioKart superstar of such caliber that I [Michael] lose to her much more often than I win.

Then came the Lego series: Star Wars and Indiana Jones.  These are games rated for 10+ years, partly because of the violence, partly because of the level of difficulty.  Even so, both of the kids can do almost everything the games call for, and they are both thrilled by them.

As for the violence I tell the kids – and myself – that they are just Lego pieces.  They aren't even real Legos!  Sheryl and I have both talked to them consistently about this, and they say they agree that hurting people (and getting hurt) for real is a very bad thing.

On the plus side, the two-player mode is a spectacular team exercise while still allowing both players considerable opportunity for independent action.  I have worked through some of the more complex puzzles with both of them, but I've also seen them work together to unlock levels on their own, and I'm amazed at how well both of them work through the intricacies of the games.  The other day playing with Michael I didn't activate my character (I kept it in single player mode) and watched as he maneuvered his way through well over half the level before he needed my help.

In short, the games provide a demonstration that both of our kids are adept at working through complex, multi-step challenges.  Lovely. 

Posted at 7:33 PM YST

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We've had very little precipitation for the last couple of weeks, coupled with temperatures that stay mostly below freezing back in our part of the valley.  Mostly.  Unfortunately, we have been seeing a couple of hours almost every day where the temperature does creep into the thaw zone.  This is unfortunate because it means we have ice.

Snow I can handle, it's the ice I have trouble with.  I spent nearly an hour breaking up the inch of ice on the front porch today, and sprinkled gravel on the worst parts of the walkways.  Did the same thing last week.  Our two entry corridors to the front door each follow under an eave of the roof, and with the gutters full of ice any water that comes off the roof drops directly onto the walkways and porch.  We've recognized the problem since we first moved in but it's always been a secondary priority, at least until now.

It's the ice dam on the roof that's pushing the eave issue front and center.  Snow and ice melt slowly from our roof, even slower on the bottom edges which do not get any warming from the house envelope.  As a result water tends to collect just uphill from the dam on the roof, water looking for a way to oblige the pull of gravity.  The weight of the water is enough to push past the gaps in the shingles down to the tar paper underneath, then to the nail holes left by the shingle nails (which in a thirty-five year old house have enough space to channel water).

Where this is happening under the eaves (as in this picture) it isn't a big problem.  That threshold is crossed as the water level on the roof rises and water starts coming in above the structure itself.  I have one such water leak right now, or did until I put in a deflector to draw water out beyond the exterior wall.  I saw this last winter too, in a different location.  I see evidence of this kind of leakage on three of our roof surfaces.

SO...

I guess we'll be reroofing the house during the remodel.  We'll get rid of the water leaks, the whole roof will match, we'll extend the eaves out over the front walkway, and we'll be able take out the furnace chimney (we might put a skylight in in its place).

And we'll be doing our part to put money into the economy!

Posted at 7:13 PM YST

Updated: Monday, February 23, 2009 7:19 PM YST

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It's funny how life can sometimes coast along for long periods of time without very much out of the ordinary.  Then one little event comes along, then another, and then a whole flurry of events both little and large, often interrelated and amplified by each other.

This week is a little busier than most.  This is my [Michael's] week for shoveling the walks at Michael's preschool.  The National Weather Service has accomodated me by offering snow in the forcast for the next couple of days (after a record snowfall for the date yesterday).  This means clearing snow in two locations, here and there.  Make that three: my neighbor is going in for foot surgery today and I told him I'd look after his driveway for him too.

Tomorrow will be further complicated by the moving of pianos, although I have hired a crew to do the heavy work.  We bought the grand yesterday, and they liked our piano too.  This is a good trade.  They get a Kimball that looks bad but plays well, a piano they can let anybody use without worrying about it getting damaged.  I get an antique Sohmer that looks great and has great potential, and is marginally playable (the one unglued hammer will have to be secured first) but will require extensive work to restore its playability. 

I bought the first piano as a non-playing hobby, so that I would have a musical/mechanical instrument to tinker with (my Industrial Mechanics degree is one manifestation of my love of tinkering).  I only learned to play piano because I couldn't play the guitar for a couple of years (blog history) and we just happened to have a piano.  Now we're buying a piano that will require a great deal of tinkering, especially if I intend to continue playing!

I broke the Metro yesterday so we're down to two cars.  We never sold Sheryl's Trooper after buying the Mariner last summer, and it wasn't even running during our last cold snap (moisture in the fuel line probably), but it has come in handy a couple of times when the Metro has been unavailable.  And the Metro is currently unavailable.

It doesn't make me feel better that the only initial problem was loose lug nuts on the right front wheel.  I started my investigation with the right front axle, which has joints on either side that typically make the kind of noise Sheryl and I heard on Saturday night, and in order to gain access to the axle I needed to drop the front exhaust pipe. Ordinarily, taking the four bolts off and one rubber hanger that attach pipe to car isn't a big deal and I didn't treat it as such...   until one of the bolts snapped off, preventing me from putting the pipe back on.  Not only did it snap off, but it remains off more than a day later as the tools I had available were unable to extract it, even after removing the entire exhaust manifold.  I did buy tools to extract the bolt today and will eventually make it all right.

The irony, of course, is that I needn't have removed the exhaust in the first place.  It wasn't until after I was unable to find fault with the axle (without removing it, thankfully) that I determined the actual problem.  It still seems implausible that the lug nuts got loose but that is exactly what happened, and on the bright side there appears to be no damage to the threads.  It's possible I didn't tighten them – or tighten them enough – when I changed tires over (I change the tires myself twice a year between summer tread and winter studs, which gives me the chance to look at the brakes and suspension, and I always try to ensure the lugs aren't so tight that I can't get them off in case I ever have a flat).  I once had a boss in Reno who had a posessed car with lug nuts that were continually loosening themselves, though I doubt my car has become likewise posessed.  We bought new studded tires this year and they've always felt rather odd on the road, so it's also possible that the vibrations of the new studs could be loosening things.  I'll check all the studs before the Metro goes back on the road.

And Sheryl's dad is in town for a visit and meetings too!  He stayed with us over the weekend, and volunteered to watch the kids while Sheryl and I went out to dinner on Saturday night (when we had the car trouble and cut short our drive) and Sunday afternoon to hear the symphony (and later to drive home through snow that fell so hard it covered over our headlights, which then cast a uniform glow out in all directions that lit up the snow-filled sky much better than the snow-covered road).

Do I know how to show a date a good time or what?

Posted at 2:29 PM YST

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Once upon a time, not too many months ago, I [Michael] mentioned a passing interest in finding a baby grand (piano) to Sheryl.  Sheryl said it was worth looking into, and that was pretty much the end of the conversation; how often do baby grands change hands in Juneau?

So, while Sheryl was in Anchorage last weekend I took the kids to a garage sale hosted by the Church of All Nations.  They placed an ad in Friday's paper about the sale, in which they also noted a baby grand piano.  The kids were extraordinarily well behaved while I played a song on it and gave it a cursory inspection, standing close beside me and gazing at the strangers and strange surroundings.  The church was asking $3400 for the piano, way out of my price range, but they said they'd consider any serious offer.  I left my name and phone number and offered my hope that somebody would offer close to their asking price, but to call me if it didn't sell (I didn't offer a price).  I let the kids pick any toy they wanted from the toy racks as a reward for their behavior, and they both brought home airplanes for a dollar apiece.

I emailed Sheryl about it.  She said to buy it if I wanted it.

Not too surprisingly, I saw an ad in Monday's paper offering the piano and listing the price.  I called and said I might be willing to go $1500 but wanted to look it over again before commiting, and if they wanted more cash than that I needn't waste their time.  I inspected it last night, then came home and showed the pictures to Sheryl.

According to my Interent research, Sohmer was a good name in pianos for many years.  This one was made between 1915 and 1919 according to the serial number. The piano has obviously seen a lot of use.  The action feels loose in places.  There are problems with at least four keys: a sticking dampener, a poorly installed hammer, and two keys (the exteme high and low) that have apparently been cannibalized for parts.  There is only one major mar in the finish, about four square inches of abrasion on one side, and the finish is also worn along the strip where sheet music and fingers would frequently be expected to rub during normal use.  The finish on many of the black keys is heavily worn.  Overall, the piano appears to have been reasonably well taken care of despite its heavy use.

So I made my $1500 offer and they said they'd get back with me, that there were a couple of other people who expressed interest.  I suspect I may be one of the "other people" because of the note I left on Saturday.  This morning I also offered to donate my current piano to them (I was planning on giving it away if I got a replacement) in addition to the cash offer, plus I'd pay to have both pianos moved.

Is there an old piano in our future?   Stay tuned...

Posted at 10:56 AM YST

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Juneau is still waiting for our hydroelectric power to be reconnected.  There was a stretch of very pleasant weather here for a couple of weeks after last month's avalanche that allowed the power company to complete most of a temporary repair – bypassing the one fallen tower – and they were only a couple of days from completion when then weather returned to "normal".  The remaining work should only take a day or two; the trick is keeping the avalanche chutes clear long enough to get workers on the wires.

I [Michael] have been making use of facebook lately (here's my current "face").  It was Sheryl's idea that I join, and I was somewhat reluctant...

Yes, reluctant.  Despite my techological savvy, I must confess to a certain disdain for all the accoutrements  that come with a technology driven society.  I don't even have a cell phone!

...at first, but now that I have a presence there I've been able to reconnect with some old friends, and even better than that, I've become reacquainted with several of my high school classmates from Texas.

I have been quite pleased with this reintroduction: these are people whom I hardly knew back then, people who hardly knew me.  In that day I was a shy kid, and my timid nature did not lend itself to what could have been happier teenage years.  As a result, my classmates then were not much more than acquaintances and certainly didn't fit the definition of "friends". Now that I'm older, more confident, and more comfortable with myself (or maybe because I just don't give a darn), getting back in touch with these folks is just like old home week, except better: it's like reuniting with old friends.

I have also been taking advantage of facebook's photo album pages.  When the snow fell hard I was posting snow pictures.  I posted some pictures from the beach a week later when we had some good weather.  When the rains came I took some pictures of some flooding in our creek.  Then when we got some serious rain I took more pictures of the resultant lake.  After posting all the flood pictures I thought a brief history of the West Creek project was in order, so I put that up too.

And all this despite a disdain for technology.  I don't know.  Maybe I just don't like cell phones.

Posted at 10:29 AM YST

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