Day 44 1/15/17 - The Funeral & Overnight in Boston

Today was the family funeral.  I have things to do before we arrive at the funeral home at 9:30.

The home computer needs updates, and one piece of software needed replacement.   Also I needed to delete mail and scan documents so I can work on the taxes while on the road.

Of course I didn't finish these tasks leaving them to this afternoon.

After the funeral home gathering by family, it was off to the church for a mass.

Then to the Massachusetts Veterans Cemetary for internment. (Picture above)

The veterans cemetery here does an excellent job.

The family pitched in to assist with readings at the church and at the cemetery it was nice to have a joint effort. 

Everyone was invited to a local restaurant (picture of the pond outside the restaurant room we had for the gathering) to enjoy food and friendship.  Last night at the wake I saw many people I don't usually see and even more today.

It was fun to catch up with folks and share some quality time.

My son from MD is heading back on a flight from Boston tonight.  My CA son and I have a 6:00 flight back tomorrow am.  So, it was decided to get a room for the night near the airport to save having to get a ride back into the airport first thing in the am. Plus it would be a trip in starting at 3:30 am to be able to make the flight. 

I will be back in CA tomorrow afternoon and will stay the night with my son and family before heading out on Friday to resume my Travels.

Although there was lots of snow and it was cold the fun of seeing friends and relatives made the trip all worth while.

In addition, the MacAloney boys seldom have the opportunity to see each other making our gathering more special to me

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Day 43 1/14/17 - Baltimore to Boston/Home

Happy Valentine's Day

It was up at 4:30 am this morning in Baltimore for my son and I to catch the 7:00 am flight to Boston.  Since my body is still on west coast time, that is like 1:30 am on my body.

We arrived at Logan Airport about 8:30 am and it was right out to get Uber or Lyft as we didn't have checked bags.  I tried Lyft and couldn't get a car, my son tried Uber and got one right away for a 6 minute arrival.

The $16.00 Uber ride was simpler than taking public transportation to get to our next stop North Station.

We had to wait for the 10:00 am train to Wachusett Station, the newest and last station on the line closest to my town.  My sister in-law picked us up at the station and dropped us at home.

The first thing on the list to do was shovel the 15-20 inches off the back deck.  I did this while my oldest son, I flew with, went on a teleconference call for work.  My youngest son who did arrive home last night on s direct flight from San Diego, was at the ski area skiing. 

After an hour of clearing the back deck and my son was finished with business we went to the small city by us for lunch.

Check out the snow banking on the side of the city streets!

-------------------------

After eating lunch, I picked up my son that was skiing.  Then I had time to shovel the walk and salt it for tonight's gathering after the wake.

There was still time for more shoveling and I went after the street side mail box that is snowed in, hampering postal delivery.  It was tough shoveling as the bottom was packed and turned to ice.  

I got this mailbox shoveling done and it was just time to clean up and get to the funeral home for the wake.  

It was one of the few times that people will see the 3 MacAloney men in suits!

Finally, after the wake it was a family gathering time at the house this evening.

  

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Day 42 1/13/17 - San Diego to Baltimore

It was an early rise (4:00 am) in San Diego, leaving my Prius street side for a few days to travel east for a death in the family.

I called a Lyft ride to the airport for my flight to Baltimore where I will stay over at east coast son's house for the night.

 

I arrived in Baltimore early on our coast to coast flight picking up a tailwind.

Above you can see my canceled flight to Boston.  There was a later flight, but since I wouldn't be arriving the same time as my west coast son, it was easier to fly with my east coast son first thing tomorrow morning.

Then another Lyft from BWI to son's house for an afternoon with my two east coast granddaughters that I haven seen in 2 months.  

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Other Activities For My Week In San Diego

Since last June when my son bought his house in San Diego and I spent a couple weeks working on it, he has done a lot more by himself.  Rather than me being the lead, he is now taking the lead and I help him.  He has done a great job of jumping into this home ownership business.

With him taking the lead, it means that I run to Home Depot for him if he is working the main project and in the attic.

I did this (go to Home Depot) twice on Saturday and I was lucky enough to catch this antique VW Bus in the parking lot making my trip more enjoyable.

My son was installing bathroom vents in two bathrooms, where neither had any before.

Adding vent fans, also required some changes in the old wiring in the walls and to the switches.

The wiring also needed to be augmented to control the fans and to fix some of the wiring to the lights.

I took on adding insulation to the heating and cooling ducts, as this too should be done before more insulation is added to the attic making moving around more difficult.

My son is looking to have insulation added to his attic so his work on the ceiling fans, wiring, ductwork, needs to be done prior to adding insulation.

Since I did the pipe insulation wrapping on Saturday and I am writing this section of this post on Sunday, I can tell you that even with all the disc golf and hiking I have done, I wasn't sore.  

24 hours after crawling in the attic for hours balancing on rafters, I am sore in mussels that I don't usually use.

(Google photo)

Saturday night I was on my own so I decided to go to a movie.  The LOT is an upscale movie theater with large reclining seats with your own end table and dining table that swings out of the way.  This plush setting is augmented with light food service at your seat where you can be delivered food and drinks including alcohol beverages.

This is the lobby of The LOT. To the left is a full size restaurant and to the right the theater.  Tickets for the show is $21.50 and the bathrooms have attendants.

I reserved my seat online and good thing I did as the theater was sold out to see Fifty Shades Darker on the opening weekend. There is a surcharge for ordering the tickets online where you choose your seat.

Sunday it was off to The San Diego Zoo. As I've stated before this is a world class zoo that if you are in town you shouldn't miss.  We have season passes so it makes it a great place to take the granddaughters. 

Here is a view from the zoo sky ride looking at the buildings in Balboa Park built for the 1915 Worlds Fair.

If we are all good on the weekend we go to get ice cream.  I guess we were all good, as we went to Baskin Robbins and I got the flavor of the month.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Day 41 1/12/17 - Travel And Weather

My east coast son is a meteorologist and sent me this model the other day of the storm that is forming today over New England.

We often share weather information.  What makes this storm more important is that my two boys and I are trying to converge on New England as this storm passes to attend a family funeral.

A few days ago our area in MA got 14" of snow, then Friday night 5" more and now this storm predicted to dump 12" to 16" now on the nearly 20" on the ground.

I woke this morning 24 hours from flying to Boston (Monday) and my flight has been canceled.  Since I had a layover in Baltimore, I decided to change my flight to stay overnight in MD at my son's house there, and join him on his flight to MA on Tuesday AM.

This current storm will cause it to snow for many hours as it slows down to form a new low pressure in the lower golf of Maine where it will become very strong storm. As the snow ends, winds will become very strong too. 

My west coast son I'm staying with had booked different flights due to cost and as I write this Blog his flight has not been canceled even though it is scheduled to arrive within a half hour of mine that was already canceled.  We are wondering if he will get there before me or find out in the morning that his flight is canceled.  If his is canceled he has less choices than me in arriving for the proceedings Tuesday at 5:00 pm.

I do have the same flights back to San Diego with my west coast son on Thursday.  I resume my Prius Travels on Friday, if weather doesn't cause more problems. 

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Day 40 1/11/17 - A Big Reason Why You Should Consider LiFePo4 For Your House Battery

Before my LiFePo4 house battery upgrade this year, I would need to remove my compressor fridge and plug it in when I would come to my son's house.  I needed to do the same when I would randomly stay at a motel.

With my Lead Acid Gel cells I could get 8 hours of running my compressor fridge in a full charge.  So even one night not tending to charging the old batteries was not possible.  If I did want to leave the fridge running in my Prius for the night I would need to fully charge the batteries before bed and be up and out at the Prius by 7 am to start charging the batteries again.

(Bioenno photo)

The upgrade to the LiFePo4 has been a game changer for me.  It allows me to charge as I drive each day and supplement leaving the Prius in ready mode for when I don't drive enough in a day.  

Since the LiFePo4 battery doesn't care if you only partially charge it, 15 minutes here, or 20 minutes there is acceptable. I don't have to bring it to a full charge like the Lead Acid batteries. 

When I flew to Seattle for a few days I needed to remove items from the fridge that may spoil and shut it off for the duration of my travels because I would exceed the capacity of the LiFePo4 battery over more than a couple days.

Above is my LiFePo4 battery installed in the drivers side rear storage hole.

Now that I have been staying with my son for a week I can now keep the fridge in my Prius. As long as I go out for a couple hours of total driving a day charging using my 400 watt pure sine wave to a 10 amp LiFePo4 charger, provides a sufficient charge to run my fridge all day and night.

This has allowed me to have my fridge with me so I can stop anywhere to make lunch.

This battery upgrade was so liberating to me in a number of ways.

1.  I can leave my car for a day and overnight leaving my compressor fridge run the whole time.

2.  I don't have to look for shore power as often to fully charge the LiFePo4 battery.

3.  I can run my fridge all night and have sufficient power to go on a hike or play disc golf during the day before charging.

4.  I can charge without fully charging the battery without damaging the battery.

5.  I can visit people without running out in the evening to put the Prius in ready mode to have a sufficiently charged battery to run the fridge through the night.

6. I don't need to leave the fridge at my son's house, taking it in and out of car, allowing me to make my lunch anywhere, like I do when traveling. 

If there is one thing that my conversion to LiFePo4 technology has given me is freedom from a daily obsession of charging my house battery to get by 8 hours at a time, as now I can go 24 hours before charging.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

.

Day 39 1/10/17 - A Week In San Diego

Hi all,

I was to stay in San Diego for a week and then head back to AZ, but things changed and I'm going to be here another week before leaving.  Well, my Prius will be.

My Prius is parked at the curb outside my son's house and I've been keeping my fridge running on my LiFePo4 house battery while I've been here.  

I will start with why I'm staying longer than planned in San Diego.  The family had a death this week that requires me to fly back to MA, and my son here is going too.  My son in MD, that I met in Seattle, is heading to MA also.

It's only for a few days but since it takes a day to fly each way, we are making it a 4 day trip.  My plan now is to leave San Diego a week from today to continue my Travels.

Back to the picture above.  This is the only colorful sunrise I've seen where I'm staying.  The view is from the room I'm calling home.

My goal for this first week in San Diego, beyond visiting the family, was to get in shape for my backcountry hike in March, as well as assess my backpacking needs and buy lightweight equipment for the hiking trip.

I met these goals and I also worked on the house here with my son.  Overall it's been a great time.

My youngest granddaughter who is 6 wanted me to put her American Girl doll's hair in a bun, but all I could do is a pony tale.  It's a though request for a grandfather, but I tried. 

The oldest granddaughter has me working in books and doing homework before school each day.  I had to be careful how they are teaching math as it is different than how I learned.

 

I hiked many days mostly Cowles MT/Pyles Peak.  I hiked it yesterday by myself and today with my daughter in-law.  

This is a great hike with lots of people on the trail with all different abilities.  Today I felt the burn in my legs for the last couple hundred feet of elevation.  I generally take a day off in between my hikes and haven't felt a strain. The fact I felt it was good as I was pushing hard today and included more weight in my daypack.

Yesterday after my hike I found this 9 hole disc golf course in Santee, CA.  It is the next town over from Cowles MT/Pyles Peak.

This picture shows the course as mostly open but the few trees that exist, I seemed to find my disc flying into them, a number of times.  It is a good par course, even with my drives that are not nearly as long as the younger guys that play.

As I was going through the McDonald's drive through in Santee after playing disc golf, I was in my glory with the temperature on the sign saying it was 81 today.  I like it warm and we have had a number of cool days since I arrived.

Here in San Diego near the ocean tends to be cool with an on-shore flow keeping the temperatures in the 60's and Santee that is 20 or so miles inland is in the 80's.

It was a great week getting out every day to do biking, hiking and or disc golf.  This is what I truly like to do on my travels.  

I will be writing during my travels back home but yet again I may take a day or two off from posting once I'm on the road.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com