Yesterday was National Chocolate Ice Cream Day! I did my part to celebrate. Did you?
The poppies are popping.
Gorgeous, even though we only have a few.
Sun set on a lovely lake day.
Today was one of our first days on the lake this year! Usually we’ve been tearing it up for several months already. But life has keps us both busy. Julie and Ryan joined us for the day. We were excited to see Marty and Sue and their beautiful new boat!
We both went out for a sail in light winds. It was nice to be out there – a beautiful sunny day.
Back at the marina, we enjoyed watching the setting sun together. The lake is at 683.66, several feet over full. The water is flooding parts of the parking lot at the marina. A site we have not seen for 6 years or more. The flood gates on the dam will be opened on Monday to lower Lake Travis a bit, as more rain is expected next week. I have not forgotten the feeling that many years of drought brought, but to see the lake brimming is truly a sight to see.
And another.
I’m going to have to learn to tell these guys apart.
Hummingbird Nectar Recipe
- Mix 4 parts water with 1 part granulated sugar in a saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved and the mixture reaches a light boil for a minute or two. Let cool before filling feeders.
Hmmm.
First snaps of the hummingbird feeder with the Olympus. Playing with focus, aperture and shutter speed.
Render unto Caesar.
Done.
Birdies abound.
Lots of action in the backyard this weekend.
I don’t usually care much for the mourning doves, as they aggressively hog the feeders. But I like the color around the eyes of this dove.
Red-winged blackbird:
Red-bellied woodpecker:
Bluejay:
Beautiful, red cardinal:
Eyes of Texas.
I was on campus tonight to join an old college roommate and her family watch one of her daughters in a dance competition. And her team won!
I caught a quick shot of the UT Tower. It is lit up in orange tonight; for Honors Day. Hook ’em!
By the way, if you ever want to know what the occasion is for a lit up tower, checkout this link. And a background on the university tradition of lighting the tower here.
BVI 2016!
Sheila365 has been rather quiet lately, as I’ve had many irons in the fire. But I’m making up for it with this long post. For the past week and half, I’ve been enjoying our latest sailing trip to the British Virgin Islands. Before that, I was busy just getting ready to leave.
This year, Colleen and Lee joined Monte and I on a 40′ Beneteau called Forever Young. Also on the trip were Kurt, Ken, Kevin and Greg on the guys’ boat, Ada, a 43′ Beneteau. This is our fourth trip to the BVI, each time coming back to charter from ProValor Charters, well-run by Jim Gulczynski & Cecilia Donegan.
We all flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico and met up. The next morning we headed to Tortola and the boat fun began.
Our island hopping route, more or less:
Our boat, Forever Young, is on the right in this shot, and the guys’ boat, Ada, is on the left. This shot is from Little Harbour on Jost Van Dyke.
I brought my new big-girl camera, equipped with polarizing filters for the lenses. I was excited to try it out. It seems to have worked, the blues and greens in some of these shots are nearly as amazing as the real thing. I took way too many pictures to upload here, but here are a mess of my favorite shots.
Day 1: Fat Hogs Bay, Tortola
So it begins….
Day 2: Tortola – Indians – Little Harbor, Jost Van Dyke
The BVI Spring Regatta was underway the first few days we were there. We had front row seats.
One of the races literally sailed through the mooring ball field at The Indians just off our stern. We we had stopped there to snorkel for the afternoon.
Pelican Island:
The Indians:
We sailed to Jost:
We caught a ball for the night in Little Harbour. This is a shot looking towards Tortola. Lobster at Abe’s for dinner!
Day 3: Little Harbour – White Bay – Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke
We sailed into White Bay, and snorkeled the reef. While we were doing that, a 40′ cat hit the reef just a few feet away from us, leaving bits of its hull floating to shore (!)
After some painkillers at Soggy Dollar bar, we headed to Great Harbour for the night.
12’s representing at Foxy’s:
Day 4: Jost – Key Bay, Peter Island
We sailed to Peter Island to a bay that we had anchored in overnight 2 trips ago. The weather permitted us to do it again this trip. We had the place to ourselves.
This is a shot looking east from Key Bay, Key Cay to the right, more of Peter Island in the background.
Glorious sunsets. St John USVI in the background of this shot:
And yet another:
Goodnight, Forever Young:
I saw the Southern Cross constellation overnight. It was due south from us, just above Norman Island – I didn’t get a photo, but my SkyGuide app image will give you an idea of what I saw:
Day 5: Peter Island – Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda
We enjoyed a long sail up to the North Sound of Virgin Gorda, and caught a ball in Leverick Bay. Our refrigerator had died on us, so we had to toss some of our provisions. But the repair guy was quickly on the boat and had us back in business in very short order.
We went ashore to Kurt’s friend’s villa overlooking Leverick Bay for dinner. The food and the views were divine.
A shot on the way to Virgin Gorda:
On a mooring ball in Leverick Bay, looking out through the Mosquito cut at a clipper sailing by:
Views from the villa:
Frangipani!
Day 6: Leverick – The Baths – Cooper Island
Heading out of North Sound, Ada is right behind us; Leverick Bay is in the background:
Going by Mosquito Point:
Rain in the distance outside North Sound:
We got a ball at The Baths and dinghied ashore. It was as beautiful as ever, but we encountered just way too many people inside along the trail (with tour guides) – more than I have ever seen before.
Then we motored on over to Cooper for the night. Ada had kindly saved us a ball. We went snorkeling at Cistern point:
Painkillers, bougainvilla and critters ashore at Cooper Island Beach Club:
And, the unbeatable sunset views looking out over Tortola:
Day 7: Cooper – Fat Hogs – The Caves – The Bight, Norman Island
We sailed on the outside of Norman to The Caves for a snorkel, then caught a ball in The Bight on Norman Island for the night. Dinner ashore at the Pirate’s Bight.
Somewhere in the Atlantic:
The Indians and Pelican Island from the Bight:
In the Bight for the night, Treasure point to the right:
Day 8: Norman – Sandy Cay – Diamond Cay & Little Jost Van Dyke
We sailed to Sandy Cay for lunch and a trip ashore. We anchored first, and then saw that they now have mooring balls – they didn’t the last time we were here.
Then we got the next to last ball in front of Foxy’s Taboo at Diamond Cay. Little Jost was just to our port:
I caught a rare not-blurry-shot from the boat of the sliver moon and Mercury below it to the right, just barely visible over the hill of Jost:
Day 9: Little Jost – Monkey Point, Guana Island – Tortola
The next morning we walked ashore to the Bubbly Pool.
Mangroves in the bay:
Waves breaking on the rocks:
Above the Bubbly Pool:
And the Bubbly Pool in action:
We decided to head east to complete a circumnavigation of Tortola for this trip. We stopped at Monkey Point on Guana Island, and then headed back to the marina for the night.
One last look over at Cooper, on our way into Fat Hog’s Bay:
Day 10: Homeward bound
Up early and headed home. Flying over Trellis Bay. Goodbye BVI!
Looking to the east at Virgin Gorda with the Dogs in the foreground:
Now I’m back home with great memories, lots of pictures, and these treasures:
Catching up.
Yikes, my last post was on March 3rd! I’ve been a tad busy. Since then, life has happened. I have been taking pictures along the way. Let me bring you up to speed:
– My 6th blogoversary! Six years ago I started sheila365.com. I’m not as diligent as I used to be about posting, and my posts have gotten less photo-worthy, but I do enjoy it. How time flies!
– Celebrated a friend’s birthday – this shot is from the lobby of the Hotel Van Zandt downtown. I accidentally left my Harvard Business School umbrella in the restaurant there. Oh well. 😦
– Lots of little birdies out back. I think I have 9 feeders out, altogether. I love watching them.
– We have been dealing with battery problems on Nirvana for the last couple of months. Ok, I’m using the “Royal We” there. Short story: our batteries crapped out on the boat. The charger was apparantly kaput as well. Monte has been researching chargers and new deep-cycle house batteries to keep our floating second home powered while we’re not hooked up to shore power. We have since ordered, and Monte has installed, all the various bits and pieces, and this is a snapshot of the voltmeter on the control panel down below after the installation. All is well! I think we will be anchoring out before too long!
– Work took me to Raleigh all last week. I have been taking advantage of the Austin Library’s on-line e-book and audio-book collection that can be easily checked out via the accompanying Overdrive app. On this trip, I checked out the audio book for Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley – a story about a roadtrip he took across the country with his poodle in the early 60’s. The jury is still out on how much I enjoyed it.
– It rained in Raleigh. Monte’s birthday also happened while I was there – the first that I haven’t been home to celebrate with him.
– I flew home home on Saint Patrick’s Day. Slainte!
– And then it rained some more in Austin. After MANY years of drought, and a little help from last year’s El Niñ0, Lake Travis is officially full now at 681′ above mean sea level. Hallelujah!
– Once I was back in Austin, we celebrated Monte’s birthday at a favorite restaurant. Baked Alaska for dessert!
– And, this weekend we worked in the yard and welcomed in the first day of spring!
Now you are up to date. 🙂
Tread lightly.
Last week I was using my treadmill when the motor unexpectedly stopped. In the days since then, I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about the inner workings of my treadmill (a 12 year old, well-loved Schwinn 845P).
The important bits under the cover include the digital display console, a hydraulic incline motor, a DC motor that drives the belt, a sensor that measures the speed at which the treadmill’s belt is turning, and an electronic board that controls all these things.
The symptom: The motor and belt just stopped abruptly during a workout. The console still works. The incline motor works as well. Any time I subsequently turn the treadmill back on, the console lights up, prompting for the usual inputs. Then when I press the start button, I hear a “click” after which the motor used to start-up, but now doesn’t. And after a few seconds the console just displays the message “Err LS” (looks also like “Err L5”) which apparently stands for Loss of Speed, which is an error message related to a number of different failures. I had to figure out which component had failed, causing that error.
Disclaimer: I am in no way suggesting you do this at home yourself. I’m not an expert.
The patient:
The diagnostic process in my case:
- No belt movement at all.
- The circuit breaker next to the power switch has not tripped. And, besides, electricity is able to power the console and the incline motor.
- None of the capacitors on the control board appeared to be swollen or visibly failed.
- All of the wire harnesses and leads seemed to be seated firmly – no loose connections that I could see.
- The fuse on the motor control board is not blown.
- If I move the belt with my hand, I can see the “SPEED” led on the control board flashing as it turns, meaning the speed sensor is not the problem in my case. It appears to be working and sending a signal to the control board, which is receiving it and flashing the LED as the magnet on the drum passes the speed sensor.
- I disconnected the (DC) motor (P/N KK 2566) power leads from the control board and hooked them up to the terminals of a 12V car battery to test it by itself, and the motor worked fine. An inspection of the brushes also showed them to be in good shape. The motor is just not apparantly getting power from the control board as it should be.
- I can hear the relay click after pressing the start button, but the board is just not sending power to the motor, or at least not the right amount of power. A multimeter showed 3 Volts coming from the board to the DC motor.
- I googled “Err LS” and “treadmill” and read as much as I could find. There are alot of problems that can cause an Err LS message. I
- I called Schwinn to got their take, and even though the treadmill is out of production, I experienced great customer service from Joseph as he talked me through things to check to narrow down the problem.
The consensus diagnosis: Through process of elimination, the problem appears to be a failed control board (motor control board, actually). Apparantly this is a very common failure on treadmills of all makes and models.
The fix: I found a website called FitnessBoardsDirect, that carries such things. The replacement for my motor control board (P/N QQ 2197) is a new-from-the-manufacturer item, not a refurbished one. I called them as well. A guy named Nick answered the phone and was very nice and helpful; he confirmed the diagnosis and gave me a little more confidence that the item I would order might actually fix my problem. So, I decided to shell out $225 plus shipping for a replacement motor control board. Not cheap, but much less expensive than a new treadmill – a comparable new model retails for $800-$1000, depending on who you buy it from.
My replacement board arrived tonight and I installed it, and it worked. I’m back in business! 🙂
Must be March.
The bluebonnets are beginning to pop in our back yard, and all over the hillcountry.
Can’t wait for spring.
I spent some time this weekend working in the garden, getting it ready for spring. The african daisies are way ahead of me. 
My ride is here.
Lots of delays today after the strong storms last night.
Almost home.
Sheila365 