Some tasks achieved

Hi again, universe.

I saw an old friend of Sharon's in the yard: that cat from the beach.

I spent some time cleaning out the garage. I managed to get the chopsaw blade guard back together. (Luke, the "catch" in the motion of the guard was happening because the bearing in the mechanism was shredded-- all that was left was the inner race of the bearing and some metal shreds that probably used to be washers. I tried to adjust it so it's reasonably smooth, but it's not going to last long. I ordered a replacement bearing from the internet; I'll send it to you next week.) By the way, the blade guard is actually designed to be removeable *without* disassembling the spring mechanism-- remove the right 3 bolts, and it will come off intact.

I discovered one bad thing-- the old brake cylinder from the mini was left on an old sewing machine table. The brake fluid leaked through the box and onto the table; it basically melted the varnish in a few regions. Kind of unpleasant. I reorganized the stuff in the corner and put the table under the workbench where it will be a little more protected. (In reality, it will probably still be there untouched in 2050, but at least it's out of the way.)



There was also a mechanical failure with one of the hoses-- the end fitting popped loose while I was watering the grass seed. (You all would have found this very amusing if you had witnessed it.) I ordered a couple of replacement fittings; I'll send those with the saw bearing.

One other thing-- I think the large removable screen on the front of the lower blew off. When I found it, it was lying across a chair, and one of the screen panels was damaged. I'll try to arrange it on the porch so it doesn't get hurt more.

Grassroots organizing

Hi everyone. Brandon here. You might remember me from such classic pictures on this blog as this shot of me sailing Lyra or maybe you just remember me as the clown sucking wind in the island road race last year.

Anyway, Sharon and I live in Somerville, MA. Sharon's working late the next couple of nights, I work from our non-air-conditioned home, and it's supposed to be 98 in Somerville tomorrow, so I thought it would be better not to be there. Got up at 7, made it to Portland by 9:30, hopped on the 10 AM ferry and walked 27 minutes from Chandler's Cove to this fine location.

Now, on to the grassroots organizing. Adam pointed out to me that the grass was suffering from patchiness. I happened to have half a bag of Pearl's special grass seed in the basement (plant zealots like Sharon know about grass seed (well, OK, it came from the grocery store, but it really is some new hybrid that can supposedly tolerate drought)). I brought it along on the trip, and it's now distributed in various bare spots.

Using the science of the internet, I have created a diagram that shows where the grass seed is.

You might notice that I have missed all but a 4 foot wide swath of the major bare patch. This is not because I am an idiot, but because (1) the hose wouldn't reach/spray any farther and (2) even if it would, I ran out of seed.

This seed should germinate around June 14 or 15th, which is when I believe Luke and Holly will be here. If you guys spent 10 minutes every other day watering the seed, it would have a good chance of surviving.

In closing, a moment of reverence for the Sacred Rock.

[moment]

Brandon