Peter A. Klein's Blog, page 9

On the Road Again – Just Getting Ready to Travel in 2022

It had been eighteen months since our last cruise. We LIKE cruising. We missed cruising. We were supposed to cruise on Viking from Budapest to Amsterdam in early April 2020. Then COVID hit and the lock down caused us to have to cancel that trip. After a few months, we changed our booking to a Viking cruise of the Great Lakes. It finally happened!

COVID has made travel a bit more challenging. That, and everything has gone digital, well almost everything. More on that later. Before departing for Toronto, we had to get a COVID test 72 hours before our flight, complete the Verifly app, complete the ArriveCan app, and get our boarding passes.

15 Steps – Small Repairs Pay off for Safety and Cost

Keeping your home safe is an ongoing proposition. As with life in general, your home is always changing. Like our bodies, as homes age, things wear out. Also, the area surrounding our homes changes, as does the climate.

Climate change is having a drastic impact on many states. In 2021, Oregon had one of the worst wildfires in the state’s history. Most residents were not ready for the fires. As of May 1, 2022, wildfires have blown through New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado.

On the Road Again –Traveling with Friends and Family

Traveling with friends or family may present problems or make things much more enjoyable than traveling by yourself. By yourself includes your significant other.

Had a shared vacation when my boys were children. During the vacation, one of the boys had a birthday. A birthday cake and gifts were presented to him. Almost immediately, a cousin started being a royal pain because they were no longer the center of attention. Not the highlight of the vacation for my son! Yet on another trip, with that side of the family, things went smoothly, and a good time was had by all.

On the Road Again – What Do We Learn from Traveling?

In past blogs I have written about why I like to travel. The other day I wondered what others’ thoughts were on the subject, so I asked several people what their primary interest was on vacations. In some respects, there are as many reasons to travel as there are travelers. With that in mind, I will rule out obligatory travel such as memorials, funerals, and weddings.

One response I received was, “I like to learn about things and places I have seen on TV, in books and magazines, or I learned about in school.”

Gout Got Me 900 Days Ago. Now I am Better

Some of you may have been unfortunate enough to experience a gout attack. My sincere condolences! For those who have not, gout is a type of arthritis. It is triggered by a buildup of uric acid in your body. At one point I was getting the attacks every three to four months. Now it has been almost two and one-half years since my last attack. 

When gout hits me, it is in one of my big toes. It makes walking painful. The last time it hit me was the day we started a vacation, so I was walking through three airports, as well as to and from dinner at a restaurant the front desk said was a short walk away. Turned out to be a mile away. But the food was great!

On the Road Again – What to Take and How to Pack Your Suitcase

If you have ever watched one of Rick Steves’ travel programs on PBS you may wonder if the backpack contains all his belongings. I would guess that he carries more than that and the backpack is a prop. After all, he is traveling with a camera and sound crew.

We will assume that when you travel, you do not have a camera and sound crew with you. So, what do you take with you and what is the most efficient way to pack?

Protecting and Maintaining Your Home Time Change Tasks Spring 2022

Benjamin Franklin is credited by most people as the person who originated the idea of Daylight-Saving Time. It was first used in the United States during World War I. It has been praised and panned since then. Arizona appears to be the only state that does not observe Daylight Saving Time. However, you feel about it, Daylight Saving Time can be a useful trigger.

Each year I use the start and end of Daylight-Saving Time to remind myself to do a handful of chores around the house that are easily forgotten. With one exception, I do them in the Spring and again in the Fall. They are

Take Your Time and Do Your Research Selecting a Contractor

Regardless of the size of a project, selecting a good contractor is one of the most important tasks for the homeowner to accomplish!

The first step in this task is to contact people you know and trust. Ask them for referrals if they have hired a contractor in the last few years. Not only does a referral from someone you know give you the name of a contractor, a referral is also a reference for that contractor. That is much better than picking a name off the Internet.

Get many names. In my book I suggest that you try to acquire the names of twelve contractors of the type you need. Why so many you ask. As I wrote in my book, you may not want to work with some of them. Also, some of the proposals, or bids, that are submitted to you, you will reject.

15 Steps – Make It a Clean Sweep for Your Fireplace

In the movie Mary Poppins, which is set in London, England in the early 1900s, Dick Van Dyke plays Bert, a chimney sweep. For those of you who have not seen the movie, a chimney sweep is a person who cleans chimneys. In that era, most buildings were heated by one, or more fireplaces. England is not known for its warm weather, so the fireplaces were used almost daily.

Whether burning wood or coal, fires make a mess. In the fireplace itself there is ash. In the chimney, the gases that are created by the fires accumulate on the inside of the flue, leaving a black coating. Over time this debris gets in the way and may get into the room where the fireplace is located. The debris can blow out of the fireplace and stain flooring and furniture.

On the Road Again – Finding the Good in the Unexpected

Driving back to San Diego from San Francisco recently, I texted the following to family to let them know I had arrived safely at that night’s stop:

“On the way south we had traffic, wind, tumble weeds, snow and rain.”