These Maineiacs are continuing to enjoy fall here in the great State of Maine. We were fortunate to have the NJ Gang here for a few days last week and enjoyed our short visit. Since all the kids/grandkids were in the area we took advantage of the rare occasion and hosted an early Thanksgiving day feast here at our house. You just can't beat a turkey feast with all the trimmings complete with homemade apple pie ... and all the fun that goes with having family just being themselves.
I also found time to complete the Honda restoration projects I had on the list. As I did earlier with the rear wheel, I completed the restoration of the front wheel with a new rim, spokes, and tire and then moved on to disassembling the speedometer and tachometer to replace the sun faded/crazed gauge faces with new vinyl faces. they came out pretty nice if I do say so myself.
Also on the list was designing and constructing a solar powered battery charging system for WTT. The spot where I store Winne does not have "shore power" available and the batteries tend to lose capacity over time while in storage. Since I really didn't want to remove the 6 large batteries and bring them home for charging like I used to do with the original Winne -- a new solution was required.
After doing some on-line shopping I opted to purchase a small 50 Watt solar panel and charge controller made by Renogy through Amazon.com. I made a stand for the panel using some aluminum stock purchased from the local Home Depot and made up the necessary wiring harness.
After doing some testing here at home to make sure it all worked like I hoped - I took it over to Winne's storage spot yesterday morning and completed the installation. Lo and Behold it worked just as planned! Even with the low sun angle we have here in the northeast (especially this late in the year!) I was able to obtain the full output of the panel (about 3 Amps) and the batteries began charging right off the bat. I'll check it frequently over the next few days to make sure it continues to work OK ... but for now I'm claiming success!
The leaves are just about all off the local trees so it looks like I am mostly done with the annual leaf removal chore. My new (to me) Yard Tractor really made that chore much easier this year. With that task behind me it was time to get the Honda put in storage and the Yard Tractor into its winter home in the shed. I have a few more small tasks to accomplish before the snow flies -- but the Maineiacs in Motion Maine Mansion is pretty much ready for what winter has to offer.
And with not much time to spare. I see our friends down south have already received their first snowflakes -- and I note that there are no days with high temps forecast above 50 degrees for the foreseeable future around here. So it must be time to roast a turkey, smoke another turkey, make another apple pie, and have another Thanksgiving Day feast .... before we move on to getting those Christmas lights up, decorate the Christmas Tree, and deck a few halls with boughs of holly.
53 days and a-wake-up ... but who's counting!
It is done.
No ... not in the Biblical sense ... In the voting booth sense.
Peggy and I made the drive over to our local polling place, stated who we are and where we live (nobody bothered to check if we were telling the truth by the way), and in a few moments there I was, face-to-face with "the Presidential decision." Do I vote "for" a person who I have no idea what (s)he believes, or do I vote against a person who I don't want within 10 miles of a position of authority? In the end I made my decision and my vote will be counted - at least I hope it will.
With the Presidential decision out of the way the rest of the ballot was pretty easy to fill in. Vote for persons who say they are for limiting government to only those things absolutely necessary, against all the referendum questions seeking to dole out social and economic justice outside of the normal government process, and then for a bond issue to fix our failing infrastructure. I would rather fund those repairs on a pay-as-you-go basis ... but alas ... we have no money in the coffers after paying for the previous attempts to provide social and economic justice to the masses.
Ho Hum ... another election cycle will soon be over. Or will it?
I know a couple of things for sure. Someone later tonight will make a plea for bipartisan cooperation going forward. And I will laugh.
With that out of the way I can now look forward to all the political signs disappearing from the highways, a return to what passes as normalcy on television, and visits with kids and grandkids over the holidays.
We are looking forward to seeing Brian, Nicky, Alyssa, and Emily (AKA the NJ Gang) later this week for a few days of pre-Thanksgiving fun and feasting, followed by an overnight visit from Miss Taylor and her wonderdog Tut next Sunday while her parents travel to lovely Foxboro, MA to watch the New England Patriots battle those pesky Seahawks from Seattle.
With those festivities out of the way we will rest up for some "real" Thanksgiving fun, feasting, and football the following week.
In the meantime ... we will continue the battle against the leaves while awaiting the onset of winter.
It's November in Maine ... it's what we do!
