New York September 2022 NYC Meet-Up

[Calzone]

Some kind of wonky. Sorry for the double post.

Saw the grandson today. 8 pounds 2 ounces when born. A gentle baby, not moody, or picky, fussy, or temperamental like my grand daughter. Just a plain happy boy.

When I asked the grand daughter if she thinks he looks like her, crickets… LOL.

Anyways I was expecting a response. Lots of stuff going on inside an eight year old’s head at this time.

So I kinda figured that I could use the 11-34T XTR for a 9 speed, but not use the 11 tooth to keep the 8-speed shifters. Pretty much the spacing and the pull on the derailleur cable is the same for 8 and 9 speed. This also allows me to still fit within the max cap design of the derailleur so I can use the existing 53/39 double chainrings for a wide range of gears. Kinda dumb, but also kinda smart. Also a bit strange and odd, but to me that is cool.

Very out of the box, perhaps a bit crazy, but I get the low gears I require, and I utilize what I have. I can live without a 134.91 inch gear for a high gear, but having a low gear that extends down to a 32.12 inch gear is mucho useful. Know that one revolution of the cranks moves the bike 134.91 inches as far as pure distance goes to understand the gear I am loosing. Kinda nice to crank on a downhill, but a rather tall gear to push otherwise.

Bonus is that it uses what I already own, and I don’t have to buy anything.

I also get to keep a medium cage 11-speed XTR rear derailleur as a spare as intended. BTW right hand XTR SR-M9000 trigger shifters are back ordered everywhere. This is what I hate about pandemic shortages.

Don’t know if I’ll ever need or use all the Dura-Ace cassettes I acquired, but they were bought on the cheap years ago, and at this point they are like holding gold coins that will only appreciate in value. Already I can kinda doubled my money. I think I’ll hold onto them as a hard asset.

So another research experiment will be ongoing on this road bike. This bike weighs 18 1/2 pounds with mucho heavy training wheels that are 16 straight gauge spokes with heavy brass nipples on not lightweight rims.

Know that I have a set of racing wheels that are made with double butted spokes, alloy nipples, and light weight rims. My guess is that with my racing wheels a sub 16 pound bike. I also figure that when I upgrade to XTR trigger shifters I’ll likely unload about a pound by getting rid of the first generation XTR shifter levers. Know that this would require buying new brake levers north of $150.00, but that is cheap to save about a pound in weight.

The first generation XTR is so overbuilt. They used sealed bearings which is crazy in a shifter. Full metal construction. Very pretty, but heavy.

Not sure if my long cage derailleur can handle the 11 tooth with a 53/39 spread. I could lower the 53 to a 52, but that likely would not get me there, but a changing the 39 to a 42 brings me into the max cap range where it will work, but I loose some of my low gearing. Oh-well, still kinda low…

Peddling a big gear with a tiny 11 tooth on the rear is great for exploiting gravity and momentum that can be gains on the downhills to get one into terminal velocity about 50 MPH on a road bike.

BTW 50 MPH on a bike is kinda fast. A lot can go wrong. Did you know that at 55 MPH you are traveling 80 feet a second?

Do you see all the math and physics involved in cycling? To me mountain biking is studying and doing physics in real time.

Did you know that about 50 MPH the wind causes enough turbulence to make your eyes tear to inhibit your vision. It is a heightened reality that includes a bit of tunnel vision.

Cal

 

[Nokton48]

Afternoon Cal,
Found this old 200mm Imagon print. I used warm toned color paper at the time. I also like it in silver.


Alice 1995 200mm Imagon 4x5 Norma by Nokton48, on Flickr

Alice 1995 4x5 Norma 200mm Imagon HP5 D76 1:1 Photogenic Mini Spotlight "Imagon Lighting". She liked this one and I did too

 

[Calzone]

Afternoon Cal,
Found this old 200mm Imagon print. I used warm toned color paper at the time. I also like it in silver.


Alice 1995 200mm Imagon 4x5 Norma by Nokton48, on Flickr

Alice 1995 4x5 Norma 200mm Imagon HP5 D76 1:1 Photogenic Mini Spotlight "Imagon Lighting". She liked this one and I did too

Dan,

I like it too.

Today I patched the hallway ceiling in the Creature’s house. Her husband somehow managed to take a misguided step in the attic and fell through the ceiling.

Oh-well.

So I bought some pull down attic stairs. They need to be installed. Been waiting for cool weather, and I think this is a job I could take on myself. The idea is to be able to insulate the attic. The old R13 has compressed to nothing. I’ll put down a floor and build a big/huge walk-in closet to make up for the lack of closets elsewhere.

Cal

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Cal,
XTR 8 speed cassettes are all but unavailable. I have one on my touring bike right now and they are the best because they have the best gearing spread. After that, the XT cassettes are also hard to find. Pretty much nothing brand new. It's easier to find NOS Suntour New Winner and Winner freewheels for my old 1981 Miyata than it is to find 8 speed cassettes for my cobbled-together touring bike with late 90's drivetrain. Insane. I'm running the old 7 speed XT topmount thumbshifters, the ones with the extra secret click that accurately indexes a low gear on an 8 speed cassette. Once the indexing fails in a decade or so, I'll flip the switch to friction and continue riding. I need to get a new chain soon before I start wearing out teeth.
Last night I just finished a wheel build with a Shutter Precision dynohub laced to a Sun Rhyno Lite. The hub is powering a Schmidt Edelux II headlight and a Busch & Muller taillight. The wheel went together perfectly while sitting on the couch watching tele two nights ago. Took about a half-hour on the couch to lace, and another hour last night to fully tension and true, which I did in the fork.
Moving forward I'm just going to be putting on a Tubus cargo rack in the rear and possibly some Tubus low-riders on the fork, but I also have a trailer which I'm hooking up a generator wheel to, so I can recharge a USB powerbank while riding, so I may choose to keep the weight off the front end of the bike. We'll see. Sometimes the balance is nice though.

Phil Forrest

 

[Calzone]

Phil,

Where I have the most invested right now is 11-speed XTR and 9-speed XTR and 9-speed Dura-Ace The thing with the 9-speed XTR is this is the last upgraded mountain indexing system that has the same cable pull indexing for road. I have a long cage 9-speed XTR rear derailleur and I have a 9-speed Dura-Ace rear also. For shifters I have bar cons with a pair of Paul’s Thumbies, or XTR trigger shifters.

I loaded up the truck with 9-speed Dura-Ace cassettes a few years ago when they were affordable, before the prices got bloated. I knew it would not take long for things to get crazy. I even loaded up on 17-19 tooth clusters (bought a lot of 6) as well as other loose clusters. In particular I made sure I got plenty of 12-25T capability.

So for now I’m using my 8-speed XTR shifter/levers, but when my cassettes wear out I know who can use the bombproof 8-speed XTR shifters/levers. These shifters are so overbuilt, it is almost like German made instead of Japanese. Sealed bearings in a shifter is kinda insane.

I also have Suntour XC Pro 7-speed shifters, and like your XT thumb shifters they have the extra click to manage 8-speed indexing. Pretty much I have two XC Pro rear derailleurs, an XT derailleur. An spare Dura-Ace 8-speed RD, and some other retro stuff I’ve been saving for you. I think you’ll have 8-speed indexing going for decades more. Some of these rear derailleurs are fitted with purple Bullseye jockey pulleys.

Pretty much some of your advice from perhaps 4-5 years ago is coming home to roost. I had the opportunity to think forward about making a durable upgrade. Pretty much 11-speed XTR was bought up big time when Shimano announced the new 12-speed. I loaded up the truck at clearance prices.

Today I rode for 2 1/2 hours. Just pumped some blood and went exploring. Went south on 9A and ended up in Croton on the Hudson. I crossed over to the river bikeway and headed further south to Croton Point Park, which formally was a landfill site, but now s a grassland bird sanctuary and campground.

Did you know that Peekskill is a city that only covers 4 square miles, population 25K? So on a New York State DEC map what becomes very evident is how big a wilderness is nearby: Bear Mountain State Park is huge; and abutting that is Harriman State Park.

Two other large wilderness areas, one is the Catskills; and the other is the Adorandacks, but they are not so close to NYC. Anyways Peekskill is kinda blessed.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

BTW the new Berthoud tan saddle came today. I installed it on the Ti Basso Newsboy before the ride. At Croton Point I explored a little bit of dirt trail and some gravel roads. The 1x11 XTR 11-42T did well, even with kinda urban tires (Maxxis Cross-Mark 2.1).

Actually not so different than an old Ti Flite Saddle, minimal padding, Ti rails for spring, kinda flat, but of very high quality in the leather and design. I can see owning and using it for decades…

Still waiting on mucho bike parts to filter in. Anxious to get the Billy Bonker tires that have a skin wall for the big retro look. Also about 200 grams lighter for the pair of tires over the current Maxxis Cross Marks that are mounted.

Rotating mass difference is meaningful. Think about how flywheels work, and how much energy is required to keep them spinning or especially how much energy is needed to accelerate mass.

The Ti Basso “Newsboy” is a cool bike, but it definitely has some old man style. Not ashamed of it. It gets my blood flowing, is good looking, and most of all it is mucho comfortable. It definitely overbuilt and built to last. A simple 1x11 XTR bike with everything sealed bearings.

Cal

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Cal,
When Shimano introduced XTR, they created the ultimate components group, in many an opinion. So much so, that it was like Henry Ford almost collapsing the automobile market by creating a durable good that a family only needed one of which was eminently repairable. The XT line was excellent and made of forged materials but what it didn't have were the hardened steel pins, and replaceable bushings. My old XTR long cage derailleur that I sold to Beacon on my 1996 Stumpjumper was rebuilt three times, once by myself, and once by each of the two pro racers who used it before it was given to me. The whole system could be completely rebuilt by a skilled user, and it could also survive exposure to saltwater since it was hard anodized main components with stainless and titanium hardware throughout. After they figured out that there is no money in people not buying new products, they began swaging the pins as they did in the XT line so, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." Nowadays, XTR is merely lighter, but far less durable than XT and XT is less durable than LX, Deore or whatever they are calling their lower end lines which used to be equivalent to the STX or RX100 grade. We live in a pure profit-oriented disposable world these days, unfortunately.

Phil Forrest

 

[Calzone]

Cal,
When Shimano introduced XTR, they created the ultimate components group, in many an opinion. So much so, that it was like Henry Ford almost collapsing the automobile market by creating a durable good that a family only needed one of which was eminently repairable. The XT line was excellent and made of forged materials but what it didn't have were the hardened steel pins, and replaceable bushings. My old XTR long cage derailleur that I sold to Beacon on my 1996 Stumpjumper was rebuilt three times, once by myself, and once by each of the two pro racers who used it before it was given to me. The whole system could be completely rebuilt by a skilled user, and it could also survive exposure to saltwater since it was hard anodized main components with stainless and titanium hardware throughout. After they figured out that there is no money in people not buying new products, they began swaging the pins as they did in the XT line so, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." Nowadays, XTR is merely lighter, but far less durable than XT and XT is less durable than LX, Deore or whatever they are calling their lower end lines which used to be equivalent to the STX or RX100 grade. We live in a pure profit-oriented disposable world these days, unfortunately.

Phil Forrest

Phil,

The new XTR is cheaply made for sure. Lots of complaints about jockey pulley cages snapping easily.

Not inexpensive to replace. “Moo,” said the Pig.

The first generation XTR is amazing though.

What a huge difference between 8-speed XTR and 9-speed XTR. I own both presently. Already I bought a spare 11-speed XTR rear derailleur knowing that it is not as durable as the old stuff.

Also the Suntour XC Pro thumshifters seem to be the pinnacle of that style of shifting. Just works so well even after decades of hard use.

I hate buying cheap stuff that are throw aways. I’d rather pay more for something I would like to keep forever. Also I’m trying to limit things to be sensible.

I could easily live without having bought my new Robot camera. Pretty much a luxury good. Now I have to get it serviced, but that’s alright because I’ll be using it for decades.

Cal

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Cal,
Back when I was in undergrad, maybe 2009, I accidentally pulled the stem out of "old" Swiss Army watch which I had bought right as I entered the Navy in 1997. That watch went everywhere with me, literally; through shipboard fires, combat, swimming in the Pacific Ocean, swimming in the Atlantic swimming pool, everywhere. I took it off to shower, that's it. When I yanked the stem, I took it to a friend of mine who is a Marine who survived the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing and happened to work for a jeweler. He was also a cyclist and I'd built him a set of wheels. Anyway, he said the watch was worth far less than the labor it was going to cost to fix the watch. I told him where it had been and he said he could see the history in the nearly frosted crystal, and he understood the sentimental value. All that said, I splurged and bought a Citizen diving watch which hasn't been nearly as durable but I still like. The watch I really want though, is a military grade/issue Bulova in a completely demagnetized stainless. They just keep working. I've got a few mechanical watches that I need to get serviced but money... Like all mechanical goods, they need to be used but when used and taken care of, they will provide many years of service.
I don't need a luxury good, but these days, yesteryear's average durable goods are becoming luxury goods simply due to the fact that they are not disposable and they work. Look at the Nikon FM2. Garden variety camera that's not really special but can fetch quite a bit on the used market right now. Nikon F2 even more so. The FM3a competes with Leica M film bodies in pricing. I see Pentax K1000s, Spotmatics, Minolta SRTs, Canon FD mount cameras all starting to creep up in price because people are realizing that the integrated circuits of 20-40 years ago are breaking down and the inside of the Kodak film box (Sunny 16) still works as an exposure guide.
I guess I'm saying that one of these days, what was once a garden-variety mechanical durable good (Canon FT, Elgin Durapower wind-set wristwatch, Suntour XC Pro group) will all be considered luxury goods because they are so durable that they will have outlived everything else and they just keep working. Look at your old Chevy pickup. Even if it had been abused, it would still be working.

Phil Forrest

 

[jsrockit]

Cal,
I don't need a luxury good, but these days, yesteryear's average durable goods are becoming luxury goods simply due to the fact that they are not disposable and they work. Look at the Nikon FM2. Garden variety camera that's not really special but can fetch quite a bit on the used market right now. Nikon F2 even more so. The FM3a competes with Leica M film bodies in pricing. I see Pentax K1000s, Spotmatics, Minolta SRTs, Canon FD mount cameras all starting to creep up in price because people are realizing that the integrated circuits of 20-40 years ago are breaking down and the inside of the Kodak film box (Sunny 16) still works as an exposure guide.
I guess I'm saying that one of these days, what was once a garden-variety mechanical durable good (Canon FT, Elgin Durapower wind-set wristwatch, Suntour XC Pro group) will all be considered luxury goods because they are so durable that they will have outlived everything else and they just keep working. Look at your old Chevy pickup. Even if it had been abused, it would still be working.

There's some truth to this Phil especially since rangefinders are going through the roof in pricing. That said, it seems that things like the Contax T2 and T3 (and similar higher end 90s P&S cameras) have really went crazy. And they will not last forever or be repairable forever (some already aren't). I think nostalgia is the biggest influencer though. Many digital items from the past have went up a lot too. Film cameras are especially prone since they aren't making too many new ones other than the super cheap plastic cameras and things like the Leica MP and MA. Not much in between small format wise.

 

[Calzone]

Phil,

I have a set of XC Pro thumbshifters with your name on them. I also have two XC pro rear derailleurs. PM me your address again, and I’ll send them.

I also have some Shimano XT I have been saving for you.

I just looked into XT 9-speed cassettes. They are still available new from Jensen. I think I’ll load up the truck while they are still available.

I don’t think you are wrong with the retro durability in mind. Those XC Pro thumbshifters are still the pinnacle of bombproof simplicity. Just so elegant.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

Been about 10 days since I contracted Covid. I still have the ugly cough, and by the late afternoon a tiredness sets in.

Anyways for some people they say it can take up to a month to clear.

We picked up the framed print from the framer’s today and now this large square limited edition print is displayed in our kitchen. WOW…

The framer did a really nice job.

This house is getting mighty cute.

Because of inflation we bulk up on sales when we can, but overall we like stopping at Trader Joe’s for a lot of our stuff for pricing, then we dropped by at Shop Rite to hose them big time using coupons. Basically we only bought sale items, and we saved a lot of money.

I added a lot of bike parts into my warehouse from a delivery today. More are coming: two different shipments of tires, and a BMX stem that should come by Friday.

Thinking of changing the Ti IBIS into a 3x1 and setting it up with a pair of Billy Bonkers just because I’m a bit bored of having a single speed. The Billy Bonkers are 2.0 and 2.1 wide, and the tires I have on the bike are Kodak slicks that are only 1.5 and 1.35 wide.

Now when I look at my Newsboy a smile comes to my face. Such a pretty bike and the look is pure evil. Not built for speed, but mighty comfortable. The new tan leather seat is an exclamation point.

A rainy and overcast day in New York.

Cal

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Cal,
You should check out the Sturmey Archer Kickback rear hub. There are two versions of it, the more common one has a coaster brake, the less common, but more desirable one is a freewheel design. This is a 2 speed internally geared hub that is shifted by a set of centrifugal weights that pull a screw-type cam against a spring which engages the epicyclic gears and gives a 1.33x overdrive. This is done by rotating the crank backwards about 1/5 turn. To shift back to the 1:1 you do another 1/5 backwards rotation. I have a rear wheel that I used for a 1x(2) commuter using the kickback here in Philly and it was perfect for a quick bike while I was a bike mechanic and later during graduate school. These days, the jobs I'm finding available will be taking me in excess of 10 miles away, and most of them crossing the Schuylkill river, so there will be quite a bit of elevation change. They are great for around town and can provide a nice range of gear ratios. The only issue is they are narrowly spaced for 130mm frames, so you have to squish the rear triangle a little. This is a perfect rear hub for an older steel bike that can take the flexing of 2.5mm on both sides. That, or a late 80s road bike with some clean lines and no rear derailleur. I've been thinking about sticking this on a bike with a double or triple crankset so I'd effectively have a 3x2 with zero overlapping gear ratios. I might stick it on the big touring Univega and tool around west Philly just for proof of concept. As long as the chain slack is taken up by a derailleur or chain tensioner, it doesn't matter what chainring I'm running in the front.

Phil Forrest

 

[Calzone]

I’m glad I still have a set of Suntour XC Pro 175mm cranks because I also happen to have in my bike warehouse a compact drive 48T and 32T to help me adapt the Ti Basso Road to a 2x9 11-34T 9-speed XTR for mountain gearing.

With a Ti straight bar, a Ti mountain stem with a rise, and already XTR 8-speed it already has much of a mountain bike stance, so the 175mm cranks is another step in that direction.

The 48T chain ring has a long history, it was initially used on the steel IBIS set up with a rather tall 75 inch gear. I lived on the Southside of Williamsburg at the time, but I would do this loop that got me almost to the city border of Queens. Of course there were hills, but I had leg strength and could grind hills flat, but I could really “honk” on the the flats pushing the higher gear.

So now decades later this 48 tooth will replace a 53 tooth to get lower gearing I need to deal with the hills in my hood and surroundings.

A 48/32T with an 11-34T XT cassette pretty much is ideal gearing for me and my style. Glad I secured XTR derailleurs and shifters years ago. Nice thing is that 11-34T cassettes are still available new for about $75.00 a pop. This is mucho Cheapo when compared to trying to secure Dura Ace 9-speed especially the Hyperglide cassettes I already have stockpiled.

I also have a Dura Ace rear derailleur to utilize the mountain bike shifters with road gearing I have stockpiled. Know that with the advent and development of 10-speed this interchangeability between mountain and road groups ceased. No bueno… 9-speed is mucho hip even though it is retro.

I still sleep and rest a lot. The Covid cough lingers… I want to recover that strength I had for pushing bigger gears for more speed. Two ways to go faster: one is to push bigger gears and use more strength; or spin higher RPM’s.

The setup I’m pursuing has enough gears and wide enough range to have legs for a long-long time. Building out a very durable bike that will be future proof for decades. Need to stockpile mucho XT 11-34T cassettes.

Cal

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Cal,
Keep in mind the XC Pro cranks are a JIS taper, so they are going to affect your chainline greatly if you try to do a straight swap; as a matter of fact, the chainrings will probably hit the stay. If you switch to an XC Pro, the best bet is to probably get a Suntour BB or an aftermarket unit like TA industries or White Industries or Chris King. Considering how bad supply is on the new stuff these days, I'd go with sourcing an old Suntour unit from ebay and ride into the sunset.

EDIT: My solution has always been to have a Suntour bike and all others (ISO, French, Whitworth, Whatever). This keeps the Suntour/JIS shenanigans a moot point if I don't mix and match. Suntour and Shimano 7/8 speed index shifting are close but not interchangeable, so to make them work across systems (any mixture of rear shifter + derailleur + cassette) one needs either pure friction shifting (a perfectly suitable option) or one of the very old, experienced heads that knew where to place the exit point of the cable on the derailleur, thus changing the rate of pull. We used to mix and match this stuff all the time back in the mid/late 90s when Suntour went belly up and riders had to switch to Shimano cassettes. There was some awesome black magic going on in those shops at what I call the end of the real mountain bike era (after that, the finesse was gone and people began treating mountain biking like motocross, just hammering over everything at speed.) Anyway, I feel privileged to have been a part of it and I'll be happy to get a bike up in the stand with a bit of mix and match to back-engineer the Shimano/Suntour index recipe. But since I left the Navy, I've always had separate bikes, it's just a bit of an issue with space...

Phil Forrest

 

[Calzone]

Cal,
Keep in mind the XC Pro cranks are a JIS taper, so they are going to affect your chainline greatly if you try to do a straight swap; as a matter of fact, the chainrings will probably hit the stay. If you switch to an XC Pro, the best bet is to probably get a Suntour BB or an aftermarket unit like TA industries or White Industries or Chris King. Considering how bad supply is on the new stuff these days, I'd go with sourcing an old Suntour unit from ebay and ride into the sunset.

Phil Forrest

Phil,

The road cranks are old Graftons that are not around anymore, but were a big-time boutique components maker back in the day.

Already a White Industries Ti Bottom Bracket was in use on the Ti Basso Road. I should be good to go once I repack the sealed bearings.

Understand that this Ti Basso is just a rebranded Litespeed “Classic” that was bead blasted, has a Im-A-Ron blue fade from Rainbow Cycles and was clear coated. It also features a Time carbon fork. Headset is a Chris King.

I have another White Industries Ti Bottom Bracket on the Ti Basso Newsboy. The adjustable chain line feature came in handy for optimizing that 1x11. All I had to do is repack the sealed bearings and again it is like new. These bottom brackets are well into their third decade. I’m already riding into the sunset.

The chain rings I am using are Middleburn made in England. These hard coated chain rings wear very well.

A lot of this old stuff is mucho hard to kill.

I love the look of the XC Pro. The cranks have a custom polish from my shoe rub. All that character is all me, and made by me. Originally the XC Pro cranks came from the steel IBIS which dates back to 1987 or so. Ronald Ray-Gun was President.

Pretty proud that I held onto all this retro stuff, and that I’m able to recycle so much of it. “One and done,” was always my lifestyle.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

It’s been more than 10 days since contracting Covid. We performed home tests and still test positive.

Bought some ImmuneMax to boost vitamin C and Zinc uptake to try and help speed things up.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

I checked my math. Fact is that with the 48T and a 16T cog my gearing was 72 gear inches and not the exaggerated 75 gear inches.

I was young and dumb, it wasn’t until Snarky Joe educated me that 63 gear inches is what most bikers consider as the all-rounder multi-purpose single speed gear, and that pretty much I like pushing bigger gears.

But one clever thing I did do with the 48-16 is that I had the perfect chain length and required no chain tensioner.

Anyways the 72 gear inches promoted strength and pushing bigger gears and not RPM’s.

Cal

 

[raydm6]

Hey Cal, sorry to hear you are still a bit under the weather.

Have you tried Oil of Oregano (Oreganol P73). I remember when Covid hit, I was taking it semi-religiously (7-10 drops into 8oz. water then drink before a meal). Not sure if it helped but I never got Covid. It is strong and takes a bit getting used to. I use this stuff - Super Strength Oreganol P73.

I only take when I'm starting to feel a cold coming on or some digestive issues or as preventative like when Covid was hitting us.

Feel better soon!

 

[Calzone]

Hey Cal, sorry to hear you are still a bit under the weather.

Have you tried Oil of Oregano (Oreganol P73). I remember when Covid hit, I was taking it semi-religiously (7-10 drops into 8oz. water then drink before a meal). Not sure if it helped but I never got Covid. It is strong and takes a bit getting used to. I use this stuff - Super Strength Oreganol P73.

I only take when I'm starting to feel a cold coming on or some digestive issues or as preventative like when Covid was hitting us.

Feel better soon!

Ray,

Thanks for the best wishes.

I feel a bit more normal every day, but the cough lingers which is annoying. Trying to boost my immune system with Zinc and Vitamin C spppliments can’t hurt.

I’m resting a lot, but progress seems mucho slow.

The moldings tested negative for lead paint. The doors also.

Part of the Craftsman style is a natural wood finish. We plan on restoring things further.

I’m also pleased that “Maggie” is not in a rush or one of her frenzies over getting things done.

Cal