Cooler Weather for the JPA Meeting

 We have had a very distinct change in the weather for the past two or three days. The heat and humidity have been replaced with dreary, damp and getting-close-to-fall type weather. I have been listening to crickets and bluejays this weekend, and that's a sure sign summer is coming to a close. That said, I'm sure we'll have more hot weather before snow flies, but each day brings us closer to snow and cold.

The final meeting for 2021 was held at the Joe's Pond Association pavilion on Saturday. There was good attendance - more than sometimes at end-of-the-year meetings, I thought. The business reports were brief, especially Secretary Jamie Stewart's (he forgot his notes!) but you can read it on the website. Then we had two people address the crowd. I had been asked to give some history of the JPA, so I told about the early years, trials and achievements of JPA over the past 100 years. Michelle Parker recorded this - it's about 15 minutes. JPA History.

Glenn Schwartz from Lake Elmore gave some information about Wake Boats, and there was some discussion, pro and con. As with any issue, there is more than one way to look at it and everyone was able to voice their opinion. Schwartz said there is a petition circulating with names of lake associations that wish to ban or regulate wakeboat use. As with any issue of this sort, it will take months or possibly years to make it's way through all the committees and investigative procedures before any decisions are made. Members here did not take a vote regarding whether JPA should join the protest against these boats or not. 

A couple of wakeboat owners at the meeting said they always try to be responsible with their use and explained that if there are concerns, people should come to them and they will make every effort to work out a solution.

 At this meeting, the slide show that was shown at the cocktail party last week was playing, and I am including a link to the Joe's Pond Association website where the whole thing is posted for those of you who haven't seen it or want to review.

Photos of Saturday's meeting are by Jamie Dimick.

I've had a string of unusual things happening in the past few days. I was having trouble with the phone in my office not showing the caller id until after I had picked up the receiver. I checked everything, went on line to try to figure it out, put in fresh batteries, but it still wouldn't work. So I decided to buy a new phone and put the offending one downstairs in the laundry area. When the new phone came, everything went very well and it works flawlessly. However, the next morning, I was sitting in my living room chair with a cup of coffee watching the morning weather when a man's voice came from the phone beside me, saying something about "messages." It startled me, but figured it probably had something to do with the new phone. It didn't happen again, so I forgot about it until a little later when I was in the kitchen and a woman's voice announced, "low battery." The sound seemed to come from the kitchen phone, so I replaced the batteries with fresh ones and went into the garage to do some painting. Then I heard it again. I ignored it, but it kept announcing every few minutes. Finally, I went back into the kitchen and stood by the counter where the phone is and waited. The next time I heard it I realized it wasn't coming from the kitchen telephone, it was coming from a cell phone on the counter nearby! Mystery solved! I put the phone on charge. You may have guessed, I'm clueless when it comes to gadgets - especially cell phones.

The rest of my day went pretty well, but when I came in to get some supper started, I noticed the clock on my microwave wasn't showing. My first thought was that the microwave, only a couple years old, had quit on me.  I opened the door and the light went on, the clock lit up, and it seemed fine, but when I closed the door, the clock showed up for about 5 seconds and then it went off. Everything on the computer worked, so I went ahead and got my supper, and then, because things like that really bug me, I did some research on my computer. I didn't find much there, so gave up and figured as long as the darned thing worked, I could do without seeing the clock.

On Saturday afternoon, something prompted me to Google the microwave problem again, and that time I came up with a solution. Instructions were to unplug the microwave for at least 30 minutes and then see if the clock resets when you plug it back in. It did, and everything is operating perfectly. Who knew?

That isn't the end of my weekend "problems," I had to have a heating element moved to make way for the door to my new porch, and when the plumber left, he had told me not to forget that he'd had to turn off the thermostat for the zone that element was in. With all the hot weather, heat was the last thing I had needed, and I didn't think about it again until I went to turn up the thermostat to warm the house up and I wouldn't do anything. It was like it was frozen. I fiddled with it, but finally gave up and used the heat  pump instead. Within a few minutes I was comfortably warm, and I figured I'd call the plumber and ask him to talk me through whatever I had to do to get that zone on the boiler turned on. (I had been down in the basement to see how the zones were set up, but decided not to try changing anything.) This morning, I took another look at it, thinking that if I couldn't get it to work, as a last resort I would try to find the instructions. I have a very large file with instruction for every gadget we've ever brought into the house plus manuals for all sorts of machines and appliances, some of which I no longer have. Then I took a closer look at the thermostat. I discovered some little switches on the side that allowed me to reprogram the clock (that I didn't even know was on it) and by the process of trial and error, I got it to work! The time on the clock is off by an hour, but that's close enough! There will be a time change soon and then it will be correct.

I haven't decided whether I should congratulate myself for being so smart in figuring these things out, or be dismayed that I'm so dumb about the gadgets that are supposed to make my life easier. I still haven't figured out how to detach the hose on the vacuum cleaner, and one day I'm going to have to read the manual that came with the car to learn about the Bluetooth, or whatever it is that interfaces with my cell phone. I still have trouble remembering to take my cell phone with me but that's ok, not very many people have that number anyway. Anyway, it's a great feeling when I find the solution to these nagging little problems!

I did figure out how to get stain on all the surfaces of the new door to the porch today without having to take the sliding part off, and that felt good. There is an overlap of about two inches where weatherstrip is between the two doors. It was difficult to reach, so I used a flat "edger" pad that's used for painting walls, and with a little stain on that, I was able to slide it in between the two panels and stain that small area with no trouble at all! I like to put stain on with a rag, but the space wasn't wide enough for my fingers. Now it will be ready for a coat or two of polyurethane after the stain has dried for a few hours. Maybe tomorrow if I have time and nothing else breaks down . . . !