Friday, May 4
6:00 am
It is 0 °C, with a high forecast of +15 °C.
From the Environment Canada website:
Today Mainly sunny. Wind becoming west 40 km/h gusting to 60 this morning. High 15. UV index 5 or moderate.
Tonight A few clouds. Increasing cloudiness before morning. Wind west 40 km/h gusting to 60. Low plus 5.
6:20 am Musings
I am slow off the blocks this morning. Even the first coffee has failed to perk me up. Nor the first pun.
The sun is shining and the day looks to be a lot brighter than the last couple.
Today is the day for a visit to the LFC. I will have to join the club for a few months in order to keep using the facilities. The price/month goes down as the number of months goes up. I think a 4 month period is a good way to begin. There is no doubt in my mind that by doing this I will making a commitment to the regular use of the equipment.
While visiting friends yesterday I was impressed with their new barbecue. Ours is in need of some maintenance and this may be a good time to look at a new one.
It would be nice if I received a phone call this morning saying that the telephoto lens I am interested in has arrived and that I can come down and try it out. The call should come either today or tomorrow.
8:40 am Mathematics
Chapter 2 Operations [p. 19 - 24]
I have completed exercises 2, 3 and 7 in part B (Properties of Operations). Exercise 7 had an answer at the back of the book which corresponded with mine. Good.
I looked at the exercises in parts C and D and have decided to move on to the next chapter on Groups.
The advantage of doing the exercises was primarily about developing skill in manipulating symbols. I need some practice with this so that was worthwhile. In general I am also aware that depending on the way an operation is defined, any combination of commutativity, associativity, and existence of identity elements and inverses is possible. Take nothing for granted when dealing with a new operation. A couple of non-algebraic operations are concatenation and permutations. Neat.
When I began this activity at 7:20 am I was still feeling somewhat lethargic, but focusing on the exercises soon had me feeling alert as I concentrated on the task at hand. This surprised me - I was prepared to give up early as I wasn't sure I was ready to do this at the time, but instead it became a way of waking up. I'm not sure if this will aways work. Then again, maybe it will.
11:00 am Life
I am back from my latest LFC session. I had used up my 3 free sessions, so today I signed up for one year with a special senior's discount. I'm not sure if the discount is because they think I will only use a few weights or because they don't think I will survive the year. Either way I spent less than the full rate.
The fellow who runs the center showed me the locker room which has an infra-red sauna room. I have just googled this and it seems that it might be a very good placebo.
But I do think the weight training program I am on will be beneficial.
5:00 PM Life
I received a phone call from the photography store indicating that the lens I am interested in was not in Edmonton but Red Deer. They now say that it should be here by Tuesday of next week. Fortunately I am not in any hurry.
I bought a new barbecue at noon. The store said they would assemble it for free but that it would take a week. I said I thought I could do it a little faster than that so I ended up with a large, heavy cardboard box in the back of the truck. I soon was home and we had no problem unloading it in the garage.
I spent all afternoon assembling it. There are 14 steps to complete and I was on number 11 when I wasn't sure what it was saying.
beginning opening the box
Instructions
Now to begin ...
So far, so good. End of step 2.
Looking good. Step 11. But notice the plastic wrap around the hose.
I eventually figured the step out, but then noticed that the hose that connects the burners to the propane tank was still stored behind the control panel. Unfortunately I do not seem to be able to retract it.
A check of the instructions in step 3 when we lowered the main burner frame onto the cart included the sentence "Be sure the hose is hanging inside the cart". I was so pleased that the burner frame slid neatly onto the cart that I failed to notice that sentence. I am not sure how many screws and bolts I will need to remove in order to lift the burner frame up and release the hose.
I will find that out tomorrow when I begin phase two.