Cian Goes to the Fair

There was no school in Hillsborough County Friday.  It was "State Fair" day.  Since Michael's employer doesn't recognize this as a legal holiday, Cian had to stay all day with us, his grandparents.

Cian got a free ticket at school.  So why not go to the fair?

Here is Cian with "Granma" just inside Gate 2.

There were all kinds of yummy food for sale at the fair.

Fortunately, we had just eaten lunch before going to the fair.

This is not a place for agoraphobics.  Times Square has nothing on the midway at the Florida State Fair.  Fortunately, Cian coped with the crowds very well.

There were long waiting lines for the rides, some worse than others.  Fortunately, Cian has no more patience for standing in line than I do.  We choose rides not on the basis of how exciting they looked, but on the length of the line.  Here is Cian in line for the Skyride.  It only took us about ten minutes to get on.

There were multiple Ferris wheels.  But Cian wasn't interested.  (Too tame?)

 Here we are waiting for a go around in circles and up and down very quickly ride called the Himalaya.  I think this girl was ready to get off!

Once we got on and got started, I thought it would never end.  The operator teases us by slowing down as if to stop and then speeding up again.

Fortunately we finally got off, cookies intact.  Cian spotted his friend Gabriel in line to get on.  Gabriel's mom expressed some admiration for my getting on the ride with Cian.


Here we are at the roller coaster.  Mercifully, Cian was too short to get on, even accompanied by an adult.

Cian climbed to the top of this really big slide by himself.  (No adults allowed!)

Here he is at the bottom.  He said that he was not afraid.

The paddle boats were really cool.  This was the only ride where you could stay as long as you like.

Cian wanted to go under the fountain.  I didn't.  We compromised, and I carefully steered the boat beside the fountain so that the water fell on Cian but not on me.

Here is Granma Sherry sitting on the shore, waiting for us to get back. 

There was a live animal exhibit, where you could buy stuff to feed to the animals. 

A very bored giraffe, in a small pen.  It really seems  unconscionable to keep a large animal like this penned up.  He should be running across a savanna in Africa.


People were holding up carrot strips for him, which he grasped with his tongue.  But by the time Cian got up to the wall, he (the giraffe) had lost interest.

Venice

Yesterday, Sunday January 22, Sherry and I made a trip to Venice. (Venice, Florida) Venice was a favorite cruise destination when we had a sailboat. We just wanted to walk around and see the places we used to go.

We parked on Venice Avenue (near the bottom of the picture below) and walked along the avenue.  We  meant to go to our favorite ice cream shop, The Soda Fountain, which actually does have a soda fountain, the only one I have seen in the last forty years.  But, walking up and down Venice Avenue, we didn't find it.  We decided it must have closed and gave up and went to a generic ice cream shop for hot fudge sundaes.

After finishing our hot fudge sundaes, we walked down Venice Avenue toward the beach (right to left at the bottom of the picture.)  We found The Soda Fountain in the next block west of where we gave up looking for it.

The beach was a popular place right at the end of Venice Avenue.



But just a bit further north, it was almost deserted.

We walked along the beach for a while, then back to the street that runs along the beach.  We wanted to visit  The Crow's Nest Marina , where we used to park our boat when we came to Venice. 

You can see the location of the Crow's Nest in the first picture, near the upper left corner. If you look closely, you can see the two jetties that protect the channel into The Venice Inlet .

We stopped for drinks at the Crow's Nest Tavern, and then walked out to the South Jetty

Here is a boat coming into Venice Inlet, with the North Jetty in the background.

Beachfront condos seen from the South Jetty.

A pelican in the channel beside the South Jetty.

I'm sure these are common water birds, but I have not been able to identify them.

Sherry took this sunset picture from the South Jetty

Once the sun set, we headed back to Tampa.  But we had to stop in Gulfport for dinner at Backfin Blue.  Old favorites from our boating days,  corn and crab chowder and bacon wrapped, basil stuffed, BBQ shrimp.

Adventures in Home Maintenance

Sherry doesn't like the knobs on her shower.



She wanted handles, like the sink has, rather than these ugly round knobs.

Seemed like a modest request.  We found "universal" handles to her liking at Lowe's and took them home.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the universal handles to work with this shower.  But in the process of trying to install them, I more or less disassembled the valves that the knobs attach to.  Fortunately, I was able to reassemble the valves and they still worked.  Unfortunately they now worked backwards.  Turning a knob in the direction that originally opened the valve now closed it.

This didn't seem like a particularly big deal, until I used the shower.  As I tried to make the water a bit warmer, I made it completely cold.  This can be a big deal when you are in the shower.

So today, I decided to fix the problem.  It obviously had something to do with the way I reassembled the valves.  Should be simple enough to disassemble them again and put them back together differently.  Right?  How many ways can a water valve be assembled anyway?

I took pictures as I disassembled the values, to use as a guide when I reassembled them.  (I used to draw sketches in a situation like this.  A digital camera makes it a lot easier.)

Recalling my previous experience with these valves, I knew that I just needed to remove the thingy that the knob attaches to, disassemble it, put it back together (differently somehow), and reinstall it.

I unscrewed the retaining nut that holds the working parts of the valve in place, and stared trying to remove the valve.  Seems like last time, the little white parts that you see in the picture came out easily.  But this time they didn't.  Finally I grabbed the whole thing with pliers and pulled it out.

Hmmm.  This is not how it worked last time.  It appears that I now have a open pipe directly connected to the water main.  The water is coming out more forcefully that I have ever seen it come out of a faucet.  About 100 gallons per minute.  Fortunately, it is going into the shower.

I go outside and around the house to the main cutoff.  Fortunately it works.

Now I disassemble the value and try to figure out what needs to be different in order to reverse the twisting direction. 

It's not obvious what needs to be done differently.  I am reduced to the strategy of "try something".  (A strategy that I used to warn my programming students against.)  I reassemble the valves and reinstall them, hoping for the best.

Back outside to the main cutoff.  Open the main cutoff.  Back inside to check the result.

The shower is running now.  Seems normal.  I twist the knobs.  Nothing happens.  The shower just goes on running.  I try both directions, in all combinations.  The shower just goes on running.

The only way to stop the shower is to cut off water to the entire house.  I am starting to have visions of checking into a hotel while we wait for a plumber.
Back outside to the main cutoff.  Close the main cutoff.  Back inside to try something else.  The only problem is that I don't know what I did differently that caused the values not to work at all.

I remove the valves and disassemble them again.  Try to use logic.  What determines whether these valves stop the flow of water or permit it to pass through?  It's not obvious.  Try something.

I reassemble and reinstall the valves.

Back outside to the main cutoff. Open the main cutoff. Back inside to check the result.



Mercifully, this time the shower is not running.

I try the valves.  Each one starts water running when I twist it.  Unfortunately, I have to twist the two knobs in opposite directions to open or close the valves.

Acceptable solution.  I am greatly relieved to just get the system more or less back to where it was when I started. 

The old round knobs no longer seem so ugly.

Cian Gets a Job

Overcoming the high youth unemployment level, my grandson Cian has gotten a job. I offered him a dollar to rake up the leaves in a 20 by 30 area of my back yard. This is the kind of job that most workers, including my regular lawn service guy, don't find attractive. But Cian thought it was a good opportunity.

Surveying the Job

Hard at Work

Still At It

Time for a Break

I estimate that the job is about one third finished. I'm hoping that he will stick with it and finish the job this week. Or at least before starting to college.

Sidewalk Construction

Hillsborough County is building sidewalks on North Dale Mabry Highway, near my home. This is a busy commercial area and major north-south artery through my part of town, which has always been hostile to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. The area was built up in the 1970s, at a time when everyone in suburbia went everywhere by car. Not to mention the fact that three county commissioners were selling development rights to the highest bidder. http://origin.tampabays10.com/news/article/73000/0/Public-Corruption-Arrests-25-years-later Sidewalks were just not on anyone's priority list.

Finally, that is changing. http://carrollwood.patch.com/articles/pedestrian-pathways-project-begins-soon-along-dale-mabry

This is the area I am talking about:

(Click on an image to see a much better enlarged copy.)

I frequently ride my bicycle through this area, from my home, a bit south of Bearss Ave. and a bit to the right, to the YMCA on Northdale Blvd., a bit to the left. The new sidewalks will make the ride safer and more pleasant.

New concrete segment on east side of North Dale Mabry Highway, north of Carrollwood Springs Blvd. to Zambito apex. On the right is a small wetland mitigation area, the blue triangle on the map where Zambito meets North Dale Mabry.

Wetland Mitigation Area

Bridge from north end of new segment back to preexisting sidewalk on east side of North Dale Mabry, south of Northdale Blvd.


Entrance to Northdale subdivision, on west side of North Dale Mabry Highway. New boardwalks are being built both north and south of this entrance.

Looking north from Northdale Blvd., on the west side of North Dale Mabry Highway. New boardwalk under construction over ditch. Most of the new sidewalks are of this form. Evidently there is not much space available to build concrete sidewalks.


Looking south from Northdale Blvd.


South end of section shown above (looking north, on the west side of North Dale Mabry Highway.)

Beside parking lot for Sonny's BarBQ, just north of Carrollwood Springs Blvd, looking north.

At Carrollwood Springs Blvd, on west side of North Dale Mabry Highway, looking north.

A completed segment of boardwalk on west side of North Dale Mabry Highway, at Bearss/Ehrlich looking north. I rode this section on my bicycle for the first time today.

A completed segment on the east side of North Dale Mabry Highway at Bearss/Ehrlich, looking north. (Walmart is just behind the trees.)

Lake Park, Tampa

Lake Park is a little bit of old Florida, right beside one of Tampa's busiest suburban commercial strips, North Dale Mabry Highway. It is usually uncrowded, despite the heavy traffic just a stone's throw away.


There are nice, well maintained playgrounds and picnic areas.


A family of sand hill cranes shares a picnic area.