Category: Adventure

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Adventure

Buddy

Buddy the dog, also known as Buddy girl, Buddy the girl, and good girl passed away. Buddy was 16 1/2 years old and the easiest dog we ever had. Rarely if ever did she need any instruction or correction, she also just knew what to do.

Frank found Buddy on Facebook at the age of 5. Her previous owner had to move and he wasn’t able to keep a dog Buddy’s size (which was pretty big). He wanted to make sure that she went to a good, loving home and we did our absolute best to give her that and more.

My very first impression of Buddy was how wide and dark she was. Her fur was jet black with a little bit of white on her one paw and her chest. Her most striking feature by far was her one blue eye. It was so blue it almost appeared to be pure white and that’s what pretty much anyone who met her would comment on.

Buddy’s favorite things were going for walks and eating treats. She was always up for a walk, regardless of weather or time of day. Pouring rain out, snowing, heat wave, none of this bothered her. She wanted her walk. When it was hot I would make sure to walk her early or later in the day and in the shade where possible, but besides that the elements would have to bow to her joy of the walk.

Our walks will be certainly what I will miss the most. As much as she loved her walks, I was just behind her (literally as she always took point). It was often the high point of my day too, we really were a great walking team.

She also enjoyed belly rubs, and any attempt to pet her she’d cleverly maneuver herself and your hand to rub that belly. You could start petting her head and within a few seconds somehow have your hand rubbing her belly. It was a true skill.

While Buddy never begged or attempted to steal food, my dad did eventually teach her the joy of treats. In time she had my parents fully trained to deliver kibble or treats whenever she demanded it. She was really running the show over there.

One thing that I will always be amazed by and thankful for was her longevity. She was a big dog and made it to 16 1/2 very happy years. In fact I think part of her secret was her happy personality. I don’t think she ever had a bad day in her life, stressed over nothing, and was just a happy dog who didn’t worry about human affairs.

While I will miss my Buddy very, very much I do consider myself the luckiest guy for having to have the honor of having so much time with her. She really was the best.

Categories
Adventure Projects

Fixed a Randomly Running Toilet

Recently (overnight of course when I needed to get sleep) I noticed the toilet was occasionally running on its own every few hours. So I suspected there must have been some sort of slow leak that was causing it to want to refill.

I had a similar issue a few years back with a faulty fill valve and was able to fix that, so I figured it was likely something different this time. Did a little research and it sounded like an old flapper was the possibly the culprit.

Initially I tried removing some sediment around the flapper and that seemed to resolve the issue for a few days. Then of course as I was getting ready for work one morning I noticed it occurring again. So, this time I figured lets see how hard it is to just replace the flapper.

A few tutorials later, I was very confident I could do the replacement. On my way home from work I stopped at the hardware store to get a new flapper. Of course I didn’t think of taking a photo earlier in the day, but it is a pretty standard toilet so I got a nice, fancy universal one and thought it looked about right to me.

I got home and drained the toilet tank after I shut off the water to it by flushing it. Then used an old sponge to soak up the remaining water in the tank to make it easier for me to work in there. The water was really gross and rusted looking, so I’ll look into cleaning that up a big more another day.

Removing and snapping the new flapper into place was as simple as can be. I was really excited to attach the new flapper chain to the handle rod to give a flush test when I realized that the handle rod was bent funny.

Upon close inspection I snapped the metal rod in half. Apparently it’s been in pretty bad shape for a while, and I suppose rusted at some point? Not sure, but it snapped more like paper than metal. So alas, now I needed and new handle and rod too.

Back to the hardware store I went to get a new handle and rod. They had quite the selection, but I found one that I felt looked like it would fit and seemed rather sturdy.

Installing the handle and rod was easy. Instructions said you can bend it if the tank requires, but luckily mine did not. Which is good as at this time I felt I might break anything I could touch,

I connected the chain, turned the water back on gave a test flush. It was beautiful, it was like a brand new toilet to me.

I was able to then adjust the flapper to use less water turning a dial on the flapper itself and testing the strength of the adjusted flush. It really felt great to figure something new out!

The only thing remaining for me is that I noticed that when I flush the top of the handle rod in the tank seems to be just barely touching the top of the tank. I don’t think it’s anything too serious, but the instructions did say I could trim the row with a hacksaw if necessary to fit the tank. Then plan is to give that a shot and then call it complete.

All in all I was impressed that I was able to solve the issue at around $25 (it’s cheaper if you go with lower end parts) and probably a half hour of labor if you don’t count running to the hardware store twice. Good times!

Categories
Adventure

Escaped the Hellevator

I’m a big fan of Escape Rooms and any puzzle really, and had a blast successfully completing the Hellevator at Escape at the Shore.

Stacey and I took on the challenge. The room was very small and shook and simulated like an old elevator. It was really impressive. Don’t want to give away any secrets, so I’ll keep it vague.

The beginning was great. Everything in the room was setup perfectly for experience. There was a pay phone that could be used, all sorts of combinations, locks, and drawers to open. Pretty nice.

A creative twist is that we did have to interact/combat zombies at some point, but again will keep it vague on the exact details.

I did have a piece of the room break or malfunction on me, but I shared it with the game master through the camera in the room and they promptly remedied the situation. Ha, always my luck!

The end got pretty intense as we saw the time ticking down. We knew we had to hustle with only seconds remaining, but I ran to save every last precious second and we wound up beating the room with a scant 13 seconds to spare. We really cut it close!

Lots of fun, good teamwork and highly recommended!

Categories
Adventure

Capybaras

Capybaras eating bamboo at the Cape May County Zoo
Capybaras eating bamboo at the Cape May County Zoo

For my birthday I was treated to a Capybara encounter at the Cape May County Zoo! Capybaras have been my favorites at my local zoo for as long as I can remember, even for the few years when they were absent. I got to go into the enclosure, get fairly up close and feed my friends some bamboo.

We got there a little extra early as it was forecast to rain most of the day, but not until around our start time. Luckily the super friendly zoo staff showed up early as well, also hoping to beat out the showers (which we ultimately did).

The staff was great, very friendly and began sharing all sorts of facts about the capybaras. They let us into the enclosure and reminded us that we could get close, but don’t make too sudden of a motion as it will likely scare them off.

There were 3 adults and 2 tiny babies. If we made the slightest move the babies would retreat, most of the time I think they just ran away because someone else had run. It was pretty awesome and hilarious at the same time.

So I just sat there fairly still and offered up some bamboo for the capybaras to feast on. Budette was the hungriest with the other 3 joining early on too. Mikey stayed back, apparently he’s been dealing with some stomach issue as of late.

I eventually got him to come over and eat up as well. Within minutes his stomach issues were on full display as here ripped an extremely loud fart accompanies with a decent poop. While it was pretty gross, we couldn’t stop laughing. He just kept munching along like nothing that epic has just taken place.

This was a pretty amazing experience and one I’m very glad I got to take!

Categories
Adventure

New England Road Trip

mountain view from Flume Gorge in New Hampshire

Took a nice road trip up to the New England area for the first time. We took Stacey’s fancy new Prius up there. The hybrid made amazing and most importantly efficient work the whole trip. I came away very much impressed with the vehicle.

On the first day we visited Boston. Took a short train ride in early in the morning, and got some advice (both directional and political) from a construction worker. He was really nice and made sure we were on the right train, as well as let us know not to vote too progressive in our upcoming election.

Once we got into Boston we waled the Freedom Trail. It’s a 16 stop trail throughout the city that involved a lot of walking, which is great as I do enjoy moving around. It was incredibly warm out for the time of year, I’d say it was perfect walking/touring weather.

We walked the entire tour, stopping for food and treats along the way. Also were fortunate enough to see a street performer put on a nice show atop a unicorn unicycle. He really gave it his all and did a great job working the audience.

Perhaps the most interesting thing for me was the size of the squirrels in Boston. They all were massive, much larger than the squirrels in my yard. They were huge and fearless of humans.

The next day we drove over to the Blue Hill Reservation park. This was pretty scenic with the hills, foliage starting to kick in, etc. We hiked the Skyline Loop, which was justly ranked as a challenging hike.

The hike was intense! Right off the bat you’re going straight up a very stony hill. It was so steep. Then the trickier part to me is descending a stony hill. It’s just a bit more slippery going down for me than going up. After completing that, I pretty thought much we were done. We went up a steep hill and down, right? Nope, this had 5 big hills to climb.

It was very exhausting, but a really great hike. I’d highly advise for those seeking a challenging hike.

After that hike we stopped at Wegmans to pick up a quick bite. They were conveniently right next to the hotel, so we would make many refueling stops there.

After the refuel, we headed out to Salem to check out all the Halloween stuff. When we arrived we realized that most of the world had a similar plan, it was packed beyond comprehension. Rows and rows of people. All parking was full, and the only available was a lot asking for $60. We aborted the mission and headed back to home base, hanging out at the Natick Mall (largest in New England).

Got the check out their Lego store, Peloton store, tried on a winter coat (kinda looking to replace this season), and just enjoyed walking on level ground for a bit after the extensive hike/climb earlier. The did have a cool place of indoor activity called Level 99, but I didn’t partake. I was still a bit tired and honestly it looked a bit packed and I’m still being a bit cautious with crowds with the Coivd-19 and all.

The last day we drove up to New Hampshire and check our the Flume Gorge. This was awesome and I’d highly recommend it to anyone to check it out. It was so scenic and massive, not something that I’m used to seeing on the east coast (or anywhere really).

Everything was so scenic and fall like, it was pretty great. Another great hike outdoors, this time the temperature was a bit closer to what I’d expect this time of near up north. Again, a very much recommended place to go.

This as a pretty awesome and active trip. A great time.

Categories
Adventure

Replaced the Fill Valve on My Toilet

The dreaded occurred just a few days ago, my toilet stopped working. Luckily I do have more than one bathroom, so it wasn’t the worst, but still not a good feeling. It was draining just fine, it’s just the tank wasn’t filling back up.

So I did some tinkering. It seemed that if I shut the line off then back on, then the tank would fill. I thought that a bit strange, but after doing some research figured that the fill valve maybe had some sort of block in it. I followed some hardly videos and tutorials to try flushing the fill valve

Flushing it was pretty easy, you shut off the line, then remove remove the fill valve cap (which I’m always terrified of breaking things). Inspecting the cap, it was surely dirty, but didn’t see anything that would be causing a block or anything wrong with the washer. So I held a cup over the open fill valve and turned the water on from the line and let it run for a bit, hoping that it might flush anything out.

Unfortunately that didn’t seem to do the trick, so my next option was to just replace the fill valve. It was clearly quite old and dirty, and at under $10 why not. Picked one up at Lowes and got to work.

Replacing the previous fill valve only took probably 20 minutes in total. That was with me double checking each and every step! When I was all done, I turned the line on and watched the tank fill up. It was beautiful to behold.

Gave the toilet a few flushes, and made some minor height adjustments to the water level and do believe I have a working toilet again. I know it isn’t the most complex plumbing task, but it still felt pretty good to be able to fix something on my own (with a lot of help from the internet of course).