Outdoor Show

The Gs came up for a fast weekend visit. It was crappy weather outside, so we hit the Outdoor Show downtown and then went over to Brit's for some fried cod.

 

Morning Fog

The fog off the lake has made for some great photographic lighting.

 

False Spring

We had a week of temps in the 50s for our false spring. The forecast for the end of the week is highs in the 20s.

 

Frozen Lake Fog

The ice is melting fast and giving up its moisture as fog.

100 Year Roofing

The big Spanish house on the corner by the lake is getting its original old tile roof replaced after 100 years. 

 

Ice Falls

We took the new car over to the falls to see what the ice looked like. There's still a lot there!

 

End of the Line

Last Thursday when we got how from running errands, the Mazda was making some sick sounds from under one of the valve covers. We've been putting off replacing it because it runs great and we like its comfort and lack of a monthly car payment. 

The sounds were menacing enough that we went car shopping Friday morning. We went to the Toyota dealer; they had one car on-site, and it had been sold already. If we wanted a Toyota, it would be three or four weeks to get one and there were none to test drive.

Then we went to the Subaru dealer and test drove a new Outback. It drove well, but the new 2026 model is UGLY, and it was $10k more than we wanted to spend. While we were test driving it, the dealer test drove the Mazda and broke it. He said that it died on him twice and overheated. When we got to it, the coolant overflow tank was empty and the engine oil looked like chocolate milk! Oh no!! It blew a head gasket!!! We were right about the noise not being good.

JP was more than a bit upset about the death of her pride & joy. We left the Subaru dealer on foot and crossed over 494 and walked to the Honda dealer. Six hours later, we drove home in a new CR-V hybrid. It's quite a bit smaller than the Mazda, but it will get better milage and it's not making any weird sounds.

 

Snow Fort Rebuild

It took a half day of shoveling and all the snow from the driveway to build the snowfort back up. 

 

Forecast: 1-3"

We were forecast to get 1-3" of light snow. Instead, it snowed all day and we got 7".

The preceding week was well above freezing, and it destroyed the snow fort..

We took advantage of it and skied out on the lake.