We Live In A Great Neighbourhood

Ruth is gone for another week and I'm getting lots of dinner invitations.

Markus and Janice had me over on Monday night.

They live in a 54 foot Hatteras.

Markus grilled some chicken out back.

While Janice worked away in her kitchen.

It was a feast.

Too many of us over for dinner so we couldn't fit around the kitchen table.

I scored the big easy chair in the main salon.

Janice is so sweet.

She gave me a go plate with leftovers for tomorrows dinner.

Another Busy Week In Florida

So I noticed Daisy was having an itch that didn't look right.

I was referred to the is vet by a gal on the docks.

The Dr. is great. I asked if she could see me today(Friday) 

and she asked if I could be there in 25 minutes.

She's such a great little dog. 

She just waits for her examination with lots of patience.

She's fine now. 

The vet said "Welcome to Florida".

When we came back to the marina there was an unbelievable rain storm happening.

One of my neighbours was laughing the next day when he described how Daisy

 and I looked coming down the dock in that storm.

She was so wet and it was so cold I felt sporty for her so I got out the hair dryer.

She was a lot happier when I dried her off.

With good reason. It went down to freezing .

We were catching the end of the end of that snow storm that hit New York.
This is my iPhone temp site at 9:00 A.M.

So on Saturday evening Daisy and I went for dinner at Kathi and Lees house in Jupiter.

Daisy doesn't usually play with toys but she loved this ball.

I'm trying to train Daisy to beg.

Everyone says I'm doing a great job.

Here we are having a toast to life in Florida.

I love being down here.

They asked me to stay the night but there was a storm happening.

I wanted to be on the boat to keep an eye on the lines. 

My neighbour has a wind gauge and the winds were gusting to 55 MPH.

Daisy can sleep thru anything. It was very bumpy.

So I dropped over to Stans boat to watch him reinstall a tv.

This was a self inflicted problem he had.

I had to laugh. His feet were cold so he was wearing these funny little hospital cloth shoes 

over his socks. He loved them.

So it was very cold here in Stuart today but we had a beautiful blue sky all day.

The sunset was so nice I had to walk to the end of the dock and get a picture.

I've got the furnace cranked on the boat tonight.

I sure love this boat.

The Time Is Just Flying By

So Janice is here living on her boat and her husband will be down by the weekend. 

It's nice to have someone to hang out with while Ruth is up north.

Janice and Marcus are our neighbours. 

There is a major winter clean up happening on their boat these days.

I had Stan and Claire as well as Janice over for dinner the other day.

Lots of laughing and good food.

Life is nice on the docks.

The storm cleared up  by Tuesday and the ocean was nice and calm.

Looks like a crossing day.

My 81 year old neighbour asked me to give him a ride after he dropped his scooter off at a working marina. 

Wednesday morning he plans to take his boat to this marina for a 2 day job and needed a way to get back to his car. 

If his scooter is there he has transportation. 

Scary . His turn signal flashed for most of this ride.

Wednesday evening muscle Don was telling me I should join his gym.

He said it is a great place to go and meet people. 

He said "There are lots of OLD,oops I mean Lots of people your age going there.

I walked on down the dock calling him an a** h***  over my shoulder.

We both were laughing as I left. He's a nice guy.

So on Tuesday evening Dave and Claire had me over for a fantastic dinner.

I love pot roast. It was a really nice evening.

I'm not sure what is going on with Daisy these days.

I tried to take her for two walks today and on both of them 

she resisted when we got to the edge of the resort.

I'd then ask her if she wanted to go back to the boat and she's almost drag me back onto the docks.

I'm wondering if she is finding our 5 k. walks in the morning a little too long.

 Well it looks like we're in for another crappy weekend.

I was planning on spending Saturday night at Kathi and Lee's house but after seeing the weather report I think I should stay on the boat and keep an eye on the lines.

The Weather Has Gone CRAZY

So on Friday we had huge winds and a tornado warning.

The pictures don't really show what it was like.

 It was so rough in the harbour that I couldn't walk thru the boat without hanging on to the walls.

We had whitecaps rolling into the harbour.

Daisy needed a walk but the weather was so bad I decided to hold off on the walk for an hour.

This bay never sees action like this.

When I took Daisy for her walk we saw lots of damage in the resort.

I thought this was the worst that could happen.

I thought that until about 5:00 A.M. Sunday morning.

I was woken up a little before 5 with the water crashing on the stern of the boat.

Unbelievable. I saw that my lines were good so I just stood in the back room of my boat watching .

I was really reluctant to go outside on the dock until I saw my neighbour step outside his boat at 6:00 to check his lines. That's when I went out. I didn't want to be out on the docks if no one knew I was there. The winds were reaching 60 MPH and there was a tornado warning coming across my iPhone screen.

We walked the dock checking everyone's boat.

One of our neighbours wasn't so lucky. 

His fenders blew/exploded from the boat smashing into them for over 5 hours 

and the poles along the dock were eating into his gunnel and hull.

I grabbed a couple of fenders off of my boat 

and we managed to get them between the dock and his boat.

Ten's of thousands of $ damage done this morning.

Glad I was here to help and really glad I was strapped in as good as I was.

Bill was waiting for a window to the Bahamas but now his plans have changed.

I took Daisy for our usual ocean walk around 11:30 after I went back to bed for a few hours.

The ocean was calm along the shore but I'm sure it was wild a few miles out.

The wind was off shore.

Our poor Canadian flag was the only casualty for In Tune.

I've Had A Fun Piano Project. It Only Took 4 Days To Do.

So Ruth is about to leave for Kelowna to do some child care until Jan. 31.

I wonder why the kids didn't ask me to come along.

This was our last ocean walk before she left.

6:30 A.M. we headed into West Palm Beach to get her on the plane.

Daisy was quite happy to get into the co-pilot chair after we dropped her off.

Next stop was Kretzer piano in West Palm.

So Kathie had a little piano painted last year by a local artist in the Alice in Wonderland theme.

Unfortunately it was rained on and the piano and stopped working.

Because it is such a beautiful piece of art she didn't want to just throw it away.

She was pretty sure I could install an electric piano into this cabinet so she has been waiting 6 months for me to return to Florida and take a crack at it.

Here my helper is inspecting this fun piano.

First job was to remove the iron frame. 

It makes up about half the weight of a piano and I wanted to make this piano as light as possible.

Luckily Kathie borrowed a special drill and bit from one of her tuners for me.

It is such an ugly job removing tuning pins.

Next job was to unscrew all the 4 inch screws from the frame.

I almost gave up until I realized they were brass screws and the only big screw 

I couldn't turn was easily drilled out.

I wanted to lay the piano on its back so that I could lift the frame out.

I have learned from experience to lay pianos on their back by putting 2x4's under them 

before they go down. 

Otherwise it is very hard to get your fingers under the edge to lift them back up.

Got her down with no problems and pulled the frame.

After lunch we had a customer come in who wanted to see how the karaoke worked on the electric pianos.

Jessica was more than happy to do a demo. Glad they didn't want me to sing.

So the piano is ready to put together.

I mounted the keyboard after I painted the insides in black. 

It cleans up the insides after being painted.

Here is the stripped down Yamaha Digital Piano I took all the parts out of.

Here is the cabinet after I butchered it to get the brackets I needed for my install.

I told Jessica there was no turning back now.

Up to this point I could turn around and put the yamaha back to factory condition.

Here it is. 

I mounted the control piano under the lid.

When the lid of the piano is closed , you don't see it.

All the electronics and speakers are mounted on the keybed.

This is the bottom board . Front of the piano. So cute.

It is such a sweet piano.

Bass end. She is such a good artist.

Treble end. 

The artist has moved to England and is very happy we have been able to save her works.

The coolest thing was when Jessica said I should bring the power out thru the little door 

on the back of the piano. Perfect.