Only one week left of the Big Top Chautauqua's season. I am hoping to climb the hill and get some photos on my last day (next Saturday) but in the meantime,  ( here are some mushroom pictures that I took... :) )



( Click here to see more.... )

Well, my Spouse was asked to stay longer aboard the M/V Manoa so, as I believe we all knew was inevitable, it fell to me to winterize the inboard engine of the Golden Girl. It being my first time I had to be guided through it by telephone. But what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right.............?

On my way to the Big Top yesterday I took the truck instead of the Prius and threw in the large ladder needed to climb up to Golden Girl where it sits on its cradle. The winterization consisted of running the engine to make it suck antifreeze out of a bucket, pushing out all the water currently in the engine for coolant. 

There were a lot of firsts for me here. For example it was my first time to climb into the surprisingly deep crevice inside a boat engine compartment to retrieve a hose way too far away to reach by hand. It was also my first time personally observing the phenomenon of the sun heating up a clear hose and making it suck up fluid without any motor doing the work. Apparently this leads to boats being sunk upon occasion. By far the most memorable part of this process was afterward when I was asked to stick my finger in the boat's... well, I can only describe it as the boat's nostril, to see if the um... discharge... was green. If it hadn't been, I'd have to repeat the exercise adding more anti freeze to push more water out.

I'm here to say it was indeed green. Note to self... bring hanky for wiping finger next time.

Also someone had left a discarded lamp near the dumpster, which I kept in revenge as a present for my Spouse:



It's about a 6" diameter chrome spotlight head with what appears to be a good working lamp inside. The head itself appears to have been dented at one time, and the dent successfully pounded out. There is still a small crack where the dent was pounded out.



The other end resembles a chrome eyestalk with a fitting allowing it to be mounted on a deck or some such. The inside/underside half of the mounting has a handle, presumably for rotating the head, and also a toggle switch for on/off. I would judge this thing needs to be rewired. That will be a good project for someone who missed out on all the fun of the winterizing.