The work began today promptly at 7. They started shoveling gravel into the wheel barrows and putting down pipes into the trenches dug along the foundation walls. Libbie is pretty sad this morning. She got a text from Mary that Bill is a lot worse than they originally thought. We don't know what any of that means yet but she is pretty down. The gravel trailer is blocking the driveway so we're not going anywhere this morning. I got the account statement for NC Quick Pass. Libbie took Anne on a wild goose chase to the orlando airport last week and had to use the toll road which cost $1.09 twice. This is a discount over the $1.25 charge.
I went out to RE Michel and picked up the Fan capacitor for the outdoor AC upstairs unit. After I installed it I fired the system up and it happily worked . We don't need it though since the outdoor temp is in the 70s.
It's been a down and sad day, neither of us wanted to fix dinner so we went over to Ruckus Pizza near Costco for dinner around 7 PM. The place was surprisingly crowded. Libbie left her cell phone at home intentionally since she didn't want any bad news while we were having dinner. I had the chicken Parmesan with whole wheat penne, Marinara sauce and a Red Oak beer. Around 9:30 while in the Family Room we got the word that Bill had died. What a sad day. This is even sadder than when a parent dies since parents are much older and expected to die first. Bill was 71. I'm thinking that the last I saw him was shortly after Valentines Day when I brought the security bits back from our Apex trip to disassemble his battery charger. We lent him Libbie's charger and said we could look inside his charger to see if there's a fuse.

Cesar arrived at our door at 7:15 AM ready to begin the crawl space work. It was great that they are prompt and ready to begin working. They started by moving their giant tool trailer into place. The guys donned hazmat suits and masks and began pulling insulation down and bagging it into plastic garbage bags. These guys came ready to work. They next began washing mold off the joists. They worked like this all day until 4. In the late morning i disassembled the outside compressor unit for the upstairs air. I pulled the fan motor starting cap and went to RE Michel on Tryon Rd. They were out of stock but ordered it for me. It will be here tomorrow morning. I did some website updating during the afternoon then picked up some groceries at Kroger. For dinner we made a cooking light recipe of Pork Torta sandwiches. They were yummy and consisted of pork cutlets on a baguette with crushed beans and salasa, jack cheese and avocado with slices of tomato.

We got up early and left the hotel by 7 AM. We went next door to the WaWa and got a tank of gas. Next stop was across the street to the McDonald's drive through for coffee and a Bacon Egg and Cheese biscuit. The drive up I-95 was uneventful. We had a bathroom break at the GA visitor's center then got gas up in SC around exit 50 where we filled up at a Marathon and had snack wraps inside at a McDonalds. Our next stop was to top off the tank in Florence at the Pilot at exit 170. Wow was it jam packed. There was no parking space free so i had to leave my car at the pump. We got home around 4:30 PM in time for the rain to start. Lucky!!! Libbie had time to thaw a pizza crust for dinner while i went out to Kroger to pick up milk for our cereal tomorrow. After our dinner of Pizza and a Dos Equus I went upstairs to lay down and instantly fell asleep. I slept and slept and did not wake up until morning.

This morning we had the usual breakfast at McDonalds then went to breakfast across the street. I had a nice chat with Dave Kiesler and Amy about passwords and decided we don't really need a USer ID. The password is good enough and we should make it the AVSA number. People will have that on their magazine label and it won't change. Amy can dump the member list every Thursday afternoon. Candace has volunteered to update the website with the passwords. We then went to the Kurt Jablonski presentation which was excellent. Kurt is a good presenter. We had lunch at Popeyes. I wanted a Shrimp Po and had one with a cup of water. It was great. After that we went to the membership meeting. The banquet stuff started early. We went over shortly after 5 for fruit plates and wine. We sat at table 2 with Janet Reimer, Michael Jackson, two ladies - TN and FL, and the 4 Russians. Janet is going to send me the list she made of all the BIS back to 1946. We said hi to the Nicholas family- Laura, Brian and the two girls as well as Anne's sister and husband who were all there for the installation of Richard as President.

After a McDonalds breakfast we had an easy drive to Epcot where we paid the $20 parking fee and parked in Amaze row 32 which wasn't too far from the entrance. i bought the single day ticket to one park which was $253 with tax. After entering the park we walked right into the Epcot ball which was a very nice ride that showcased the development of man through the ages up to technology and computers. Of course it wa nicely done. We found a kiosk and put in for 3 Fast Passes. We wandered over to the Land and used the first Fast Pass and took the boat ride through the greenhouse. We stopped by the Soarin' desk and bought 2 tickets to the Behind the Seeds tour which began at 10:30, great timing since it was 10:20. Our host, Whitney, was a Disney intern and college horticulture student. We started in a room with Integrated Pest Management. Next stop was the tissue culture lab where we could peer into a window. After that we entered the greenhouse and studied many of the vegetable varieties being grown hydroponically. After the Seeds tour it was time for another Fast Pass into the Pixar experience for a mini 3D film festival. This was incredible. We saw Mickey jump out of the screen and onto a stage and then all kinds of antics. This was highly entertaining. We chose to have lunch at the Seasons restaurant in the Land pavilion. We split a turkey and cheese club sandwich with a bottle of water and Dorito chips. This was $19. Our next step was to cross into the World Showcase where we went to the O Canada 360 movie narrated by Martin Short. This has been updated since last time we saw it. It started getting windy while we enjoyed an English tea garden then listened to a performance of drummers at the Japanese pavilion. I was a little disappointed in the Japanese Garden. I thought they were better the last time I saw them. We picked up 2 craft beers, a light and a dark, and sat and listened to the American Music Machine, a group of 7 talented young singers reviewing American pop songs through the years. Since we were in front of the American pavilion we went inside and listened to an acapella group singing American folk songs in full 1700 costumes. We then attended the American experience movie which was about American history narrated through time with Mark Twain. When we walked outside it was pouring buckets. We made our way to an umbrella and stood there gathering a plan. A wine shop a short distance away was selling ponchos for $10 each, we bought 2. We plodded along through running water on the walks and made our way to the Mexico Pavilion. Surprisingly there was no line so we got on one of the boats and rode through what essentially is a Mexican version of Small World. In the rain we continued to the Mars Mission. What fun. We were teamed with two teenage girls who did it before. I was the pilot and had to deploy the shields and do a few other things. The "cockpit view" was amazing of our journey through meteorites, other satellites and the Mars landing. what fun. Meantime the seat vibrates and pitches and yaws. Next stop was the World of Energy which didn't even look open but it was. There was no one inside. We took the ride through time with Ellen and Bill Nye the Science guy. What fun, it was a little campy and had a smattering of history and science. When we exited we had a call from Mary telling us that Bill had a stroke during surgery. We made it back to our car in some light rain but fortunately the car was in row 32 which is relatively close. I-4 going back was an easy ride and we made it back to the hotel in 15 minutes. We immediately went across the street to Fishbones again. We were seated at a table near Linda Hall and Albert and chatted with them a while. We ordered a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignnon and also had a table side prepared dish of Shrimp Cocktail. Wow, good stuff. For dinner I had the Flounder which was huge and was flash glazed with a sweet sauce, I don't remember the name. We walked back across the street where it started raining again. It was a nice night.

I ordered the laptop disk drive again for my computer from NewEgg. This time I had it sent to Downing Place instead of Sarasota. It's a beautiful day outside, I want to walk somewhere again but walking opportunities are limited. We had breakfast at McDonalds across the street. The food was food, the coffee tasted like hot water.
I had a nice meeting with Amy and David Kiesler about passwords and the AVSA website. It was productive, we decided that login will be the AVSA number only.
At around 2 we went into the Showroom and did our photography of the show. I worked with a new photographer from Las Vegas, David and it was a nice time.
Of course I was incredibly tired. We had a beer and California Flatbread at BJs brewery for lunch. The evening was the banquet, we sat with Sue and Jeri Anderson, Leonard Rei, 2 ladies from Michigan and a lady from jacksonville. Kurt was the best in show winner.
After dinner i went to the Wyndham info desk where they sell Disney tickets. The guy tried to sell us discount tickets that came with a Wyndham vacation club tour. He was pushy and kept lowering the price. His Disney tickets were not the correct price either. We decided to pass and chose to buy our tickets at the ticket booth in Disney world.

Breakfast with Anne and Richard today in the hotel restaurant. The buffet for two with tip was $40. Ouch for breakfast but not bad for what we had. Coffee, eggs, bacon, French toast and juice.
We took a drive to Disney Springs and spent the morning walking around the lake. i don't know how many miles it was but I would guess it was around 3 miles.
When we got back it was almost 1 PM so we went to BJs brewery for lunch. We had a BJs Amber along with a shared California Flatbread which had chicken bacon, avocado on flat bread. Yummy.
We had an uneventful Internet meeting. The todo items for me include making the newsletter archive secure, adding the userid/password system from the office, adding a google custom search to the photo gallery.
For dinner we drove 2 miles to Cuba Libre, a pretty pricey Cuban restaurant. I had the Visit to Havana with a Mojito. The Visit to Havana was a Cuban with salad and black bean soup for $20. It was good. We had to pay $4 for the Parking garage,
When we got back we went to the Opening Night slide show by Nancy Hayes which was boring and did not stay for the growers forum.

We got going today at 7 AM and had an easy drive to AVSA Orlando. We had a McDonalds biscuit and gas stop at Florence then stopped again at Lake Mary for a Wendy's Single and tank of gas. The drive was easy, this was our first time on the new 6 lane I-4 which was nice but we hit a thunderstorm for about 10 minutes. We got to the Wyndham around 4:30 PM which was great timing.
We met up with Anne and Richard and were shocked at how deteriorated Anne was mentally. She has very limited mental abilities. What a shocker. She announced she is giving up the Library and Penny would be the new chair.
We went to diner at the FishBones grill which is a private independent Grill and was a fantastic restaurant. it's a little pricey but so worth it. i had a Tuna steak and also shared a Shrimp cocktail with Libbie. Wow was the shrimp great, the salad was out of this world and I loved the fully loaded baked potato that came with the fish. This was expensive, $126 but was outstanding.

I'm very glad we did not go last Saturday. I got aa number of things cleaned up but unfortunately I could not remember the password for Veracrypt where I stored a few files I need. Bad news. We had the last of the Nathans Hot Dogs for lunch then in order to continue the Memorial Day Grilling tradition we had hamburgers for dinner. We have a mouse so I put some almonds in glue traps around the back foyer. Libbie reported that the upstairs AC was sounding bad. I went outside and found that the fan was not running. i took the cover off the unit but did not get very far. I'm afraid it's the starting capacitor. I'll deal with it when we get back which unfortunately is when the crawl space construction work begins. I packed the rest of my stuff and am now ready to travel in the morning.

We decided not to drive to FL today. I waited for Best Buy to open at 11 this morning and swapped my cable modem for a new one. It was still covered by the extended warranty. This is the 4th modem since I purchased the first one 18 months ago. I hooked up the multimedia PC on the ethernet output of the modem and authenticated the device. This went smoothly but I had a little trouble getting the router hooked up. I noticed it still had the old mac address in the status screen. I killed the power to both the router and the modem for about 5 minutes. I then powered both up and WiFi internet came alive!!!! This whole thing was so frustrating but I'll be prepared next time. I ordered an ethernet cable adapter for my laptop and I will order a second cable modem when we return. Lunch today was the traditional Nathans Hot Dogs for Memorial weekend. Dinner was Libbie's outstanding pizza.

Good lesson this morning with Justin covering eighth notes. I have a lot to do in learning rhythms. I did the First Class update successfully and also submitted the revise app to the Apple store. Since both of these jobs were done I worked on the Mary Ellen Condon DVD and made 4 copies plus did an upload to the MS OneDrive site for sharing. We decided on an all American Memorial day meal so bought a Sirloin Steak, Ravenswood Zinfandel, green beans and baked potatoes with Sour Cream. It was all yummy. After dinner I unplugged the modem and the output went bad. I can't believe it was this simple to destroy it. This jeopordizes our trip tomorrow.

It's a nice day. Libbie went out walking while I read some more about Android TV. I need to organize my home movies as TV shows so they will show up as series in the listing. Right now it's a disorganized mess. I picked up Roach gel and glue traps for the Violets downstairs. The pollen is being eaten on the plants so I'm going to try this stuff. After a dinner of hamburgers and baked beans we went out to the studio for the party. Our dancing was terrible tonight, I couldn't do anything right. After dance we went out to Abbey Road on 1010. This is a new location for them and was quite nice. We sat outside and had beer and a Quesadilla.

I got all the movies organized and was impressed by the speed of the Android TV box when it plays a movie. My organization of the movies needs improvement. Right now they are all coming up displayed in a disorganized mess. Dinner tonight was spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese.

It's still raining today although the two day total is under 1 inch so far. I uploaded the new version of First Class for IOS to Apple but I still need to do something because it's not showing as ready for review. I need to figure out what else to do. We watched a movie, Zootopia, on the Android device tonight. It was not as smooth as when we watched Hidden Figures on this box last night. Dinner was Taco salad again using the rest of the beef from yesterday.

It's a rainy day. i went out for groceries then left the car in the driveway in the rain to get it rinsed off. Later I went out with a sponge and an umbrella and sponged down the car. Dinner tonight was Taco salad with the lettuce and beef I bought at the store today.

It was another day of playing with the Android TV box. It's too complicated to pick up and just watch TV. I wish it were a lot simpler. I'm looking at how to get home videos into this thing. i would like a category for Home Movies which is what it seems to be missing. We left for the Pittsboro Roadhouse at 6. We had flatbread salmon sandwiches with sweet potato fries and a bottle of beer. I enjoyed the Triangle Youth Jazz Orchestra. They were an incredibly talented group of high school kids and also had 2 high school girls that had unbelievable voices. Libbie commented on the short shorts that one of the girls, Emma, had on. Emma was one of the vocalists with an incredible voice. I told her I saw them a lot shorter on some High School girls. We danced a few foxtrots and swings to the jazz pieces that were danceable. We sat tonight with Joan and Bill. They left early but we stayed until the last number which was a swing which we also danced.

I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to learn the Android TV box especially all the plugins for Kodi. Apple still hasn't approved my first class subscription update product. I put the subscription into the store with a new product ID. I matched up the ID in the program to the subscription ID which means I will also have to update the software. Libbie made her pizza for dinner again and it was yummy as usual. Using Kodi I downloaded the 2016 movie I.T. which starred Pearce Brosnan as the rich owner of a jet aircraft leasing company. A disgruntled hacker hacks his home automation system, company, emails etc. It was pretty good if you like geeky stuff, otherwise it would be forgettable. It's amazing that i can watch a streamed movie like this.

I had a Clarinet lesson with Justin that was good. He was 15 minutes late because of a new puppy and said he would not charge for this lesson. I learned 2 new keys this morning. The register key which exposes the higher register and then the B flat key which is almost impossible to get with my pinky.
In the early part of the morning I tried various versions of Alexa control programs. The multi channel ones off the Internet seem to crash. I'm hoping to get my own version of multi channels put together that is more stable.
I went to Walmart looking for a new cover for my iPad but no luck. i bought one that was for an iPad Air. It was about an inch too narrow when I tried it in the car. I took it back into the store and returned it.
The Kodi box came this afternoon. I hooked it up on my HDMI monitor and started going through the Android TV screens. This thing is more complicated than I imagined and may not be a good choice as a media box for pictures and videos. I will have to see how this works out. I had to stop playing and quickly get dressed for Century Club. We were running late which was made worse when enroute Libbie asked if I remembered the wine. I gave her my smartphone and asked her to find a grocery store near the shriners facility that we were going to. She found there was a Kroger only one mile inside the 540 beltline on Creedmoor. We went to the store and bought a bottle of Rodney Strong for 16.99 which wasn't too bad but worse than the price we pay at Costco. We really enjoyed the evening. The band was the two Dons which really is 3 piece which now includes a percussionist. Their music is quite excellent. They have a good mix of swing, cha cha, foxtrot and waltz and even had a Tango. The dance floor is very roomy so we were able to do quite a bit of dancing of various types of dance. At our table were Art and Nancy who are now members, Janet and Gary and Jim and jane. We stayed until quarter after 10, one of the last couples on the floor along with Nancy and Art.

A lot of the day was spent just watching Youtube tutorials. In the afternoon the mail came with the Android box i ordered. We had a light supper of tuna sandwiches before we left for dance at 8 PM. I didn't want to go but instead stay home and play with the Android box. After dance we went to the new Ruckhouse Pizza next to Costco. We each had a slice of pizza with a beer.

After Clarinet practice I joined Libbie under the greenhouse cleaning out junk. We filled garbage bag full of plastic pots and also hauled out fencing, pond pumps and parts as well as pipes and rods. We filled the Corolla with all this stuff along with the crawl space screen door and 2 folding doors from the garage and took it to the dumpster. It was almost disaster. The bungy cord slipped and hit Libbie in the chin. It could have been worse. The rest of the misc stuff I gathered and took to the street in the rolling garbage can. Dinner was spaghetti with homemade spaghetti sauce consisting of fresh basil, tomato chunks, marinara sauce and tomato basil sauce.

Clarinet is coming along good!!! I can do scales rapidly but not always perfectly, however my playing is significantly better. I installed a new version of FC4i on the desktop for the FC4i program. After a password issue with the remote builder I am able to compile and debug FC4i. I put a new subscription in the Apple store. My old one says withdrawn by developer. Now I need to test the program with the subscription. I wasn't keen on going to the dance lesson this afternoon but during the lesson I came around. It was a good Cha Cha lesson, we learned a few new patterns which was excellent. Robert suggested we participate in the Showcase now rescheduled Aug 5. I would like to do a Tango. Lib has all kinds of excuses of not doing it.
I finished the Mt Rushmore blog. Now I need to add Panama/Costa Rica. Dinner tonight was chicken thighs in Curry Sauce with Basmati Rice and Green Beans. This is Yummy!!! We finished a glass of Shiraz on the back porch then got into the car and drove to Brusters for a Vanilla Black Raspberry Waffle cone. A little league baseball team was there and fortunately they had already been taken of, all eating their ice cream outside in the parking lot.

I continued my quest to play perfect scales and think I am getting there. I finished up the New Orleans blog and started the completion work for the Rushmore blog. Rushmore was begun 2 years ago but sat there unfinished until now. I also started taking a serious look at the Telecine project. I need to set up a work space in the back area of my shop to disassemble the projector and file off the shutter gates. For dinner we had the Cooking Light Taco salad with a glass of Shiraz wine. I called Newegg customer service and reported the undelivered disk drive that was showing delivery May 11 at 2:09 PM but was not there on my doorstep.

Now that the In-Forcer project is complete, I didn't have to go into the crawl space today. I pumped up the wheelbarrow to 30 psi as denoted on the tire and used it to move the broken blocks i had thrown outside the door. I dumped them into the power line ditch down by the creek. I practiced several times today on the Clarinet. I want to be able to play the scales perfectly by Saturday. I worked quite a bit more on the Mardi Gras blog and almost finished it. It was fun reliving our New Orleans trip. Unfortunately I am behind in completing our Rushmore trip and then adding the Alaska and Costa Rica trips to the mix. We left at 6 for the Roadhouse. The Triangle Jazz Orchestra were playing. This is an 18 piece orchestra of 5 saxophones plus lots of brass and one vocalist. We had fun dancing swing, foxtrot and rumba. Bruce was there again and gave a free swing lesson. For dinner we split a flatbread salmon sandwich. i had a Carrboro brewery Amber which was good and a little stronger than a Yuengling. I liked it. We left after 2 songs after the break.

After the Sunday programs I tried doing scales on the Clarinet before practicing a little bit of the songs. Next I went under the house and finished wiring the In-Forcer device. I cut into the furnace control cable and wired it in series with the gas valve. Now when power goes to the gas valve, it turns on a relay in the inforcer which starts the blower. The air flow trips a microswitch which in turn completes the power flow to the gas valve. I tested it in the house and all works well. the in-Forcer blower is surprisingly quiet. We had fun this morning using Google hangouts to communicate with Paige and see Emily as well as Christa and Joe. I could tell Libbie really liked doing this.
Libbie made her pizza from scratch for dinner.
I worked the rest of the day on the Mardi Gras blog. I started this a few months ago when we returned from Mardi Gras but I needed to follow though.

I had a good Clarinet lesson with Justin today. I need to practice the scales beginning at G which is all 6 holes covered with both hands. Need to work both up and down the scale. When I came home I got into work clothes and went under the house i finished wiring the junction box by the fireplace and the one above the crawl space door. This complete the AC wiring. Now I need to tie the In-Forcer box into the furnace as soon as I get a diagram of my furnace controller card.
We have the Mardi Gras party tonight so i go t motivated to continue my mardi Gras blog. i added a trip to the French Market. This is slow going and I have so much more to cover.
The party at the Pub was a lot of fun. We left at 7:12 for the 7:30 party. Blaise, Darryl and Cathy all played their instruments and marched through the pub playing our Second Line songs. What fun. We each ordered a Jambalaya and split a poh boy shrimp sandwich. The food was yummy delicious. Sharon made bread pudding which she served to everyone. I started with a bottled Yuengling but it wasn't great bu I had a Red Oak amber for my second drink and it was much better.