the force of uncountable thought

The up north picnic went well. Nobody got injured that I know of. Lots of visiting, a few new projects, some nice photos and video. It was the first real outing for the new Sony camera I bought a few months ago (eBay) and it performed as well as I had hoped, it's quite good.

Last Saturday was Ann Arbor Pride where the choir sang at noon - the crowd was a bit sparse as we were the first thing on stage and people were just arriving, but still fun. I didn't get the chance to run the music before as I had hoped, but I think I still may have been one of the better memorized people on stage.

The next day was a family reunion across the state. It's gotten to where there are only about 10 of us showing up, basically my two brothers, my two closest cousins, and spouses.

On the way home (loosely speaking) I took the trailer and loaded up some equipment and hauled it to Kalamazoo. The guy with the equipment was preparing to go into assisted living and my friends wanted to bring some of that home for their shop.

The election on Tuesday went pretty well, with a few technical challenges. On the previous Saturday the phones and internet went down. I got things running again with a bodge, it failed again on Sunday, I applied a bigger bodge and ordered some new equipment. The bodge got us through Tuesday, and on Wednesday I installed new equipment to properly fix it. The problem was a faulty telecom UPS (48VDC output). The first bodge was dropping in a battery scrounged out of my motorcycle because I thought it was just a bad battery. But it turned out the AC input was dead and it was not charging the battery, just running from the battery and by Sunday the battery was dead. The second bodge was to put the original (not bad after all, and I had taken it home and charged it) battery back in and clip an automotive battery charger across it. I found that there's only one make and model that is a drop in replacement and the one US distributor had no stock. But I found an open box unit on eBay for very cheap, and it arrived in 2 days and was indeed new, with a new battery. All is well.

Yesterday I set off on a giant circle of tasks. First up to Fowlerville to pick up a bandsaw that was on Marketplace for $100. I talked for 45 minutes with the very interesting man who owned the one-man shop the band saw came out of. He just bought a bigger one (several years ago) and the little one hadn't been used in years. He gave me the two brand new Lenox blades he had for it also - they're $40 each so in effect I paid $20 for the bandsaw.

I went down to Ypsi to a friend's house - we were going to do something about the horrid lighting situation in their basement. About the time we had hammered out plans and were about to start work, Jenn texted that the asphalt guys were on site and working. I left for home.

But on the way I had already told a friend that I would be dropping by to pick up stuff he had borrowed and drop off stuff I had borrowed, and I didn't want to ghost that. And while I was there, I had old equipment from the township hall that needed to be e-wasted and Staples is on my way back to the expressway, so I took the 5 minute detour there as well.

As with the driveway pulverizing a few weeks ago, I arrived just as they were all loaded up and getting ready to leave. I had wanted to be there to make sure they understood exactly what we wanted, but I needn't have worried, they got it exactly right without us there. I wrote them a quite reasonable check for the work they did, signed up for their long term maintenance (seal coating every 2 years) contract and they're on their way.

I have some work to do to fill and smooth down the areas around the new driveway - it's significantly thicker than the old one and the new parking area in back is on a slope. I have a little soil remaining in a pile that I can use there, though I may have to buy/find more elsewhere as well.

Going forward this month, next weekend there's a GALA choir event in Lansing, I volunteered to drive, if anyone asks I'll be truckin' up there otherwise motorcycling. It looks like about 35 people said they were going (out of about 130 in the choir). Lots of the choir are students so summer events will have fewer people. I'd do choir events every week if they were happening.

Then over Labor Day is bridge walk, same procedure as last year ma'am. In the past we've buzzed up to the shipwreck museum at Whitefish Point. It'd be neat to find something similar to add to the mix, but if not it's still a very nice weekend in a cozy cottage in the woods with a few friends, then a walk with 50,000 other people.