More Pictures from Niagara Falls

Oh Oh, - The BIG SIX OH!

The Prime Rib at the Keg is as good as ever and the ice cream birthday cake was devine.

I couldn't belive how the old tourist trap was even trappier. Amazing place!

Too cold to stroll around but the frozen falls were truly awesome.

Niagara Falls Web Cam

Go to www.fallsviewcam.com to see live pictures of Niagara Falls.
It looks like they only got a 'dusting' of snow from the storm yesterday. That's good news for the drive down this morning.
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Niagara Falls - “Slowly I turned...step by step...inch by inch...,"

This image by James Gillray is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. Wikipedia

How can we be so busy when we really do nothing? Our good friends from Bayfield, Susan and Mike wanted to get together one of these days, and we haven't seen them for ages, but a visit just isn't going to fit this weekend. Hopefully we can connect later.

My other good friends David and Bill have been talking for weeks about this weekend. They want to go to the Toronto Internatonal Boat Show. I thought that might be an excellent day’s outing had it not been for the return of a health problem I almost forgot about. Thursday, I got out of bed with 'the gout'. I haven't had a gout attack for about 12 to 15 years because I take medication for it, but wouldn't you know it? I've got it now. I can't get around too well because it is in the side of my right foot and causes pain when I stand on it. Not good for walking around a boat show... So much for that!

Slowly I turned…

Every week I get an email from Travelzoo showing their Top 20 Vacation Spots. You might want to subscribe to the Canadian Version as well as the USA Version. They often feature a Niagara Falls special and this week was no exception. Niagara is only a two hour drive for us and we haven't been there for quite a while. We don't care much about the casino, but exploring around Niagara Falls and driving up to Niagara-On-The-Lake is always nice. Besides Monday is my Birthday, so this could be the excuse. We booked Sunday and Monday in the Junior Presidential suite (with fireplace and whirlpool) at the Marriott Fallsview Hotel. The freebies they offer covered almost the whole amount of the room cost. Each night includes $45 credit for the Keg Restaurant (attached to hotel) $20 in Casino chips $24 value for unlimited use of the attractions shuttle and a buffet breakfast each morning.

The Bishops thought the price was right and they like to gamble, so they booked a room too. They are meeting us there Sunday. That’s the plan anyway and like most of my plans, they come with at least one string attached: A huge winter storm is headed from Chicago to New York City. So far there is no indication that it will affect our plans. It is supposed to stay south of us. We’ll see...

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The action never stops around here. Part II

“Everything happens at once” may not be an entirely accurate description of the somewhat mundane occurrences here at Wistful Vista. In our case it would appear that things, although seeming to happen “at once” are more likely a culmination of multiple procrastinations all converging at the same point. I guess more like an accumulation of postponed projects. Such is the case with our laundry machinery.

The washing machine has become increasingly noisy over the past weeks. Noise is a machine’s way of telling you that something is wrong and it likely won’t improve its' situation by itself. More often than not these things sneak up gradually so you don’t even notice. But this machine has become more “vocal” to the point that you cannot pretend it’s normal. It has started to make a sound like it is out of balance in the spin cycle even when it was empty! In fact it sounds like someone is kicking the sheet metal panels with army boots to the beat of a New York rap group. I mean it would actually walk around the room if it wasn’t confined by its' neighbor, the dryer.

Consulting the internet, I arrived at a diagnosis of a defective bushing at the base of the drum, under the agitator. In reality it seemed to be quite fixable by removing and replacing a very stubborn, very large nut. After determining that the nut had “left hand threads” we figured the job would progress much smoother but in the end, we did have to split it with a cold chisel to get it loose. Cleaning, greasing and re-tensioning the big nut has miraculously silenced the noisy washing machine.

We finally got the "big nut" off by splitting it with a chisel, but there was no faulty bushing to be found.

But our old friend the GE gas dryer isn’t Simon Pure either. For the past few months, the aging old slave was starting to rebel by chirping, or more like squeaking at every revolution of the drum, while seizing the odd sock or undergarment and chewing a hole in it. These annoyances in themselves were not adequate provocation for a complete overhaul as; believe it or not, the squeak seemed to contribute somewhat positively to the rhythmic cacophony of sound emanating from the washing machine and the socks were consumed fairly rarely. But last night the poor old dryer completely stole the show as it screeched to a grinding halt. Wendy, having just removed wet clothes from the recently repaired washing machine, had less patience than me so… I received a verbal work order for immediate remedial action, if you know what I mean.

Here you can see a sock that is being devoured

Ah ha! Being a man with unusual foresight, I had already, many weeks ago purchased the “rear bearing repair package” which included the parts I thought I needed to stop the squeaking, the rear drum bearing, a new drive belt, and 4 replaceable wear plates for the front of the drum. Of course, as is so often the way of “hardware”, as soon as Tim and I finished tearing the machine down to its very foundation, we realized that we also needed more in order to repair this problem. Due to our tardiness in deploying the aforementioned repair kit, the drum had continued to wear its way through the front drum bearing assembly. The innocuous little squeak had progressed to an enduring metallic screech, finally ending in the entire machine coming to an unceremonious halt.

We tore it apart, I mean ALL apart. Not much left of the dryer now

The main front bearing holder is worn right through

Fortunately the parts store had just received a backorder for the plastic part

So… off to the appliance repair parts store where I was very fortunate to find a rather obscure plastic part for the princely sum of $16. This allowed us to restore the dryer right back to its former self.

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You know, you can knock these old GE appliances, but for simplicity and availability of parts at bargain basement prices, they can’t be beat – in my humble opinion. Including the parts I had bought a few months ago, when I should have done the job, our total parts bill was under $50 for both the washer and the dryer. Considering the machines are over ten years old, that isn’t too bad I’d say. I wonder how many hundreds of thousands wind up in the dump when $50 could make them like new?

Just as we got the dryer all back together and working fine, Tim heard another noise. This time from the gas water heater. What next?

Checking it out it appeared we had a live animal in the flue pipe.

Upon turning off the gas and separating the vent pipe we discovered a terrified young Grackle which must have fallen down the chimney. I placed the bird in a bag and we took it upstairs for release.

A very scared young bird flew away and sat on the grape vine catching its breath for several minutes. It would never know how close it came to being broiled or baked in the pipe.

And so for now at least, everything appears to be working as it should. It's a long winter and you can bet this won't be the last event. I'll post the next adventure as it happens. Happy New Year to everybody!

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The action never stops around here. Part I

I bought 3 used Panasonic cameras on eBay (2 like new and one basket case) so Wendy and I went to Port Huron to my UPS Box to retrieve them. Erins camera succumbed to a cup of coffee which spilled into her purse a few months ago, so I had already promised her a replacement as one of her Christmas gifts. (Since we all use Panasonic DMC-FX9s, replacement or repair is relatively simple) The trip to the States always offers the opportunity to check out the usual stores. No big deal because we wanted to check on the condo anyway.







Did you know that Pepsi in Canada stopped producing Diet Vernors Ginger Ale? (Wendys Favorite) So we found it at Meijers 2 x 24 for $6. We bought 96 cans.

We always welcome an excuse to cross the border into the USA. Of course I admit to being somewhat of a xenophile anyway. First we went to the UPS box, then to Macys (up to 80% off) then Target, then GFS for groceries, then Meijers, then to look at three repossessed houses Id seen on Fanny Mae, then to Art Van Furniture and home. Whew!



One of the cameras I bought on eBay, I paid only $6 (+ $7 Freight) because it was broken. The viewfinder LCD was smashed and the shutter button was missing. On the other hand, Erins coffee camera had a good LCD and the top module with the shutter button was of course fine. When I got home Tim and I went to work on the two cameras. The transplant interchange was successful. We could see from the factory coded picture history that the $6 camera had only been used for 26 pictures before it was destroyed. Probably dropped. Using the good parts of Erins camera, we resurrected the camera from the trash can. We now have an almost brand new Panasonic DMC-FX9. These cameras routinely sell on eBay for $100 to 200+ so its kind of fun to make one from junk.

Skier Suffers Exposure - Face May Look Familiar, But I Was NOT In Vail!

Click any picture to enlarge

Man left dangling upside down, pantsless after Vail lift mishap
JANUARY 6--In a bizarre incident that will surely lead to litigation (or an out-of-court settlement), a skier at Colorado's ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Thursday morning. The January 1 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier, 48, and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin. It appears that the chairlift's fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding. As seen in the photos above (which were snapped by fellow skiers), the Skyline Express lift was stopped shortly after the pair's botched boarding resulted in the man dangling from the lift. The exposed skier was stuck for about 15 minutes before Vail personnel backed the lift up and successfully dislodged the unidentified man from the four-seat chair. The images were taken by a Vail photographer who happened upon the rescue scene. In a statement released this afternoon, Vail Resorts, which operates the ski area, reported that the skier was not injured after being "suspended for approximately seven minutes." The press release did not explain how the mishap occurred, only that "the man was caught on the chair."