SV Orion - Annapolis, MD - David & Cathy's Journey

Late August - Baby Steps

8/31/2020

Freshly stained deck and steps on Appamattuck Cabin 1

With the help of some planned and unplanned volunteers, we are getting a head start on this year’s group cabin site work. Enough that we started to expand our efforts to a 2nd site. And as the park management came up for air after the flash flood damage, we could resume planning efforts for the 2-weeks of Cabin Work Week this fall. All of these are small steps that will make a big difference when we arrive at Cabin Work Week in October.

Appamattuck, Chickahominy and Weyanock

No. This isn’t a lesson in local tribal history, but a list of the group cabin sites that we’ve been working on this month.

Appamattuck's Cabin 2 looking sharp as with its newly stained deck. Time to move on to another site.

Appamattuck was the focus of last year’s work, and we had one last task to complete – putting a coat of stain on all of the cabin decks. All but one had been stained last year, so most just needed a single coat to refresh them. We also stained the deck of the nearby Nurse’s cabin that had received a new cedar roof last year. It’s prominent position next to the dining hall makes its new look stand out.

Volunteers on ladders are worth their weight in gold.

Chickahominy, Appamattuck’s neighbor, is the primary focus of this year’s Cabin Work Week (CWW). Our goal is to leave it looking like Appamattuck when CWW is done, and we are already well ahead of last year at this time. The weekend after the flood, an army of volunteers descended on the park. While several hundred focused on the flood clean-up, a dozen from Hands On RVA joined us at Chickahominy to scrape, paint and prime. We had several who were willing to get up on ladders or work under porch ceilings, which is like gold to us. This event also gave us a contact with a local agency directing the work of teens given court-ordered community service. Since that Saturday, they have returned several times, continuing to make progress staining decks, priming and painting in Chickahominy. This was a win-win, since the number of community service opportunities has been severely limited due to Covid-19, and we appreciate the extra help. With all the decks stained now, we won’t be literally “under foot” during the more active 2 weeks in the fall. And if the progress continues, we will need to expand to another site to keep everyone engaged.

Dave power washes the lodge ramp at Weyanock.

With that in mind, we moved to Weyanock – another group camp site on the other side of the Powhatan Dining Hall. By pressure-washing a couple of cabins, the lodge deck and picnic tables, we hoped to stay ahead of the scrapers and painters.

Rich helped us validate our estimates for supplies for CWW.

Not all the work on the cabins is physical. We spent time assessing the cabins to estimate the lumber supplies needed, as well as the myriad of other essentials needed to make repairs. By reviewing last year’s orders and talking to Rich who was responsible then, we developed our best guess at this year’s needs. We are in good shape to place the orders with enough lead time to have everything here for Cabin Work Week. Following up with Park Ranger Dustin, we continued planning the project’s activities and nailing down the scope. It’s all slowly coming together.

Recovered paddleboards, canoes and life jackets

After the Flood
The park has made some amazing progress since the flash flood damaged the area surrounding Swift Creek and Beaver Creek lakes. Those hundreds of volunteers collected missing canoes, paddle boards, life jackets, oars, and lots of trash. They started the hard work of restoring trails. Contractors had arrived within days and repaired the bridge over Swift Creek, making access to the Park’s north side easier for the helpers. And just before the month was out, VDOT was on site to start repairing the road to the cabins. (We are, of course, closely monitoring this work.) Work continues throughout the park, and the results are encouraging despite the amount of effort required to get things back to “normal”.

Parting Shots

It’s been a while since we have pushed a mower around. We don’t really miss it, but it’s one of the “perks” of staying in a site for a month.

Cathy has turned her attention (mostly) from mushrooms and moved on to other interesting features, like this stump’s decorations.

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Early August - Stormy Weather

8/17/2020

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Flash floods wreak havoc in areas of the park a couple of weeks after Isaias

Leaving Florida when we did, we thought we might be escaping just ahead of the hurricanes. That was partly true. However, when Isaias was bearing down on Virginia shortly after our arrival, we had to question that belief. And when 2 weeks later, flash floods tore through the park after 9” of rain fell within 24 hours, we discovered we didn’t just have to watch out for hurricanes. In between the storms, we kept making progress on the cabins and planning for the upcoming Cabin Work Week.

Beaver Lake spillway with submerged pedestrian bridge at its base after flash flood. The water had receded several feet when this was taken.

Rain, Rain, Go Away
We were busy at the group cabins, finishing up some minor painting in last year’s Appamattuck cabin site, when we got a phone call. “What are you doing?” Mark, one of the other hosts in the campground wasn’t asking us about our current project, but how we planned to weather Isaias now that the campground was closed. Closed? Were we planning on staying? Nothing in the forecast that morning had alarmed us, but the high winds in the forecast had prompted the closure. The hosts were allowed to stay and 3 of the four of us decided to do that. So, we had the rare privilege of having the campground basically all to ourselves. It was eerie and wonderful at the same time.

Dave follows the blower clearing Isaias debris from park roads.

Most of Isaias arrived – and departed – overnight that night. The park had some light debris on the roads that was cleared easily with a blower. So, rather than hunkering down the next day, we had a beautiful, breezy, low humidity day to work on the cabins. It was great. In the afternoon, we toured the campground by minibot and even took them all the way to the group cabins. We had the roads mostly to ourselves. By the end of the week, the campers were trickling back into the park, so we had to once again share it with them. It was only fair.

A couple of weeks later, the story was much different. Daily forecasts of heavy rain storms in isolated areas were becoming the norm. For the most part, they never materialized, or showered quickly and moved on. So, we were all caught by surprise when the torrential rain started early Saturday morning and didn’t ease up until Saturday afternoon. Although we were blissfully unaware in the campground, the rest of the park staff was scrambling.

Swift Creek, which was dammed by the CCC to create the park’s Swift Creek Lake, was rising fast. Most at risk was the boat rental area, which is on a flood plain next to the water. As the staff scrambled to save what they could, the water rose from their ankles to their waists. Nothing more could be salvaged. The waters swept away 2 buildings along with canoes, kayaks, life jackets, and oars. Amazingly, all but 1 of the heavy paddleboats and the dock they were tethered to held fast. There were also several cars parked nearby from a scout group that was hiking the park. All but 2 were removed before it was too late. Those 2 did not fare well. The water rose above their roofs and then it pushed them around, leaving skid marks on the pavement.

Although the rain stopped in the afternoon, the waters kept rising. By that evening, the dam was at flood stage 3 with water up near the top on both sides of it, requiring constant monitoring. The smaller Beaver Lake, held by a spillway, had been overtopped, with water covering a pedestrian walkway at its base. The water found any way it could to flow as it collected throughout the park. The side road leading to the group camps had to be closed when the force of water flowing under it overwhelmed the CCC-built culvert and washed almost half the roadway with a huge sink hole. (This was especially deceptive, since the roadway surface looked as if the damage was only a few feet wide.) And for those leaving the park, the main routes were closed, forcing them – many pulling RV’s -- to find another way to go.

Damage to Powhatan trail

On Sunday, we did some exploring on our own further into the park. We saw gullies dug into trails, vegetation flattened far away from the water, and huge trees downed. The river level was still high, flooding pedestrian bridges, a low-lying group campfire site and was still too high to reach much of the boat ramp area, including the 2 cars. There was a huge tree entangled in the bridge over Swift Creek, and the canoes and kayaks were lodged in trees. That was just what we could see. There was also serious damage to the bike trails on the north side of the park. Coming back from this will take quite a bit of work.

Cathy staining deck on Appamattuck cabin

Cabin Work
Fortunately, the group cabins were undamaged by the storms. Although our route to get to them changed pretty dramatically. The Monday after the storm, we made our way down East State Park road, avoiding its new sinkhole. However, on our return, our way was blocked by plastic fencing and a locked gate, for which we had no key. A call to the park ranger gave us another way out using fire roads. A little bit bumpier, but our golf cart was easily able to make the trip.

Our work on the Group Cabins took two forms: physical work on the buildings in Appamattuck and Chickahominy, and planning for this year’s Cabin Work Week and other volunteer work on the cabins. Appamattuck was the focus of last year’s work. There wasn’t too much to do. The repairs made with new pressure-treated wood needed to be primed and painted. And all of the decks needed to be stained, especially the cabin nearest the lodge that had its boards replaced at the end of the season and the nurse’s cabin near the Dining hall. We power washed all of the decks and the shower house in preparations for staining and painting. We managed to finish priming and painting all the cabins and lodge and moved on to staining the decks, starting with the new deck on cabin 1.

Power washing cabin in Chickahominy

In Chickahominy, we powerwashed all of the buildings. This was made easier with the purchase of a new electric powerwasher and several hundred feet of hose that allowed us to double-team the effort. We were then ready for a volunteer group to arrive to scrape and paint the weekend of (oops!) the flash flood. No problem, more will be coming.

In the meantime, we needed to work on the myriad of tasks for this fall’s event. We met with Dustin, Park Ranger in charge of Volunteerism, and ran through some ideas for activities and meals, as well as the project scope. We surveyed supplies left from last year, and placed orders for paint, primer and stain that we could use for volunteers starting now. We posted flyers for Cabin Work Week and responded to interested volunteers. With an eye to social distancing, we started looking at Weyanock, another group cabin site in the same area as Appamattuck and Chickahominy. This would give volunteers plenty of area to spread out and there was quite a bit of work to do there as well, which we documented in pictures.

Adam and Jayden enjoying pizza at a belated birthday celebration.

Park Life
We were thrilled to get a visit from Adam and Jayden. We had a belated birthday celebration (with our first take-out in 5 months – pizza!), and on their return visit, Jayden learned to ride the minibots with grandpa. A week later, Bonnie and Troy and the kids arrived for a visit as well. Social distancing makes it a little hard, but it’s still great to see them and know they are well.

Now that we’re taking more showers in the RV, we were pleased that the Friends of Pocahontas SP purchased a new, larger portable waste tank. (Of course, Dave had some suggestions to guide the purchase.) We’ve used it several times now and it works great. The new one is towable with 4 sturdy wheels, has a larger capacity than the park’s old model, and has secure fittings that lock with our sewer hoses. Its only drawback is the height of the tank, but we accommodate that by setting it downhill from the RV. We picked this site with that in mind.

And our days are not only work. In addition to evening walks, we’ve taken some hikes through the park. Cathy has been collecting pictures of mushrooms of every color, which are thriving after all the rain.

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Late July - Transitions

7/31/2020

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In place at Pocahontas State Park

Leaving Jacksonville just before the end of July, we said our goodbyes and made our way to Pocahontas State Park on a leisurely trip north. Arriving on Thursday the 30th, we pulled in ahead of the weekend rush. After settling in, we were ready to start work in our role as Park Hosts for August.

Finishing Up
With only a couple of weeks left to take care of unfinished projects at Faith, we had to be sure any new ones could be finished before we left. One that had been bugging Cathy since we arrived last fall was the sign above Asbury Hall that had been hanging down precariously by a single screw, as the wood was rotting. Entering Faith’s campus from the campground, it was the first building you come to. The one where all of our project meetings were held. Where the Ocean Roads class met on Sunday mornings. Where Cathy had done all of her sewing this year. Where we staged groceries during the pandemic. Where we went to have Zoom calls. Passing by it multiple times a day, the sign begged to be fixed, but other priorities kept getting in the way. Cathy decided she had a small window to take care of this before we left town.

The wood was rotting, so it was not just a matter or re-attaching it. With Dave’s help, Cathy found a pressure-treated board in the wood shop that was already cut to the right length. After priming and painting it white, she used the old sign as a template to create stencils for the letters and traced them onto the new sign. Once she had filled them in with black paint, it was ready to hang. With Dave’s help, the sign went back up easily and looks so much better.

"Do you want to try?" Barton's "yes" put him to work for a couple of hours cutting plexiglass.

Lori and Barton from Beyond 90 sought our help with a small project that would help them in a big way. In an effort to serve more clients and still preserve social distancing, they wanted to create plexiglass partitions they could erect between computer work stations. The only catch was the shape required an L-shaped cut in the large plexiglass sheet. Our last foray into cutting plexiglass with a jig saw had worked, but left a jagged edge that wouldn’t do well with this finer cut. Dave studied YouTube for tips on making a smoother cut than we had made last time. Armed with that advice, he brought out his multitool with a semi-circular saw blade, which worked much better. This time, he managed to convince Barton to join the project. With his much steadier hand, Barton operated the tool to make the cuts, while we held the large sheet in place. In a few hours, all cuts were done, and the first partition was in place, working as they had hoped.

Installing the final lock (for this season)

There was the occasional printer, computer or internet issue that Dave helped resolve. But we had one more locksmithing duty before we left as well. The church’s Mission House had recently been vacated and needed new locks. We re-keyed all of the exterior door knobs and deadbolts before we left. Since we had made so many lock changes, Dave printed up a cross-reference to leave behind that showed the key codes, locations and associated master keys, along with spare keys for each lock. Hopefully that will last until we return. Of course, by then, our skill will be pretty rusty.

Dave clears leaves from the roof and the awning

Packing Up
The RV was demanding more attention as we prepared to move again. Some things were just easier to do in Jacksonville, like cleaning the roof, scrubbing and stowing the grill, defrosting the freezer and washing the truck. There were also some repairs that we had been “meaning” to get to, that finally made the priority list – like replacing the plug on the RV’s power cord. This had been taped up for more than a year. We had the replacement plug for almost as long. However, when we moved the RV out of our site and up to the parking lot a week before leaving, we noticed a blackened prong on the old plug. Replacing it seemed much more urgent now.

Dave tapes up the covering under the RV, exposed by the water leak.

We also had some unpleasant surprise repairs at the last minute. Like the sewer hose that had a leak in it. Luckily the hole was near one end of the hose and our Rhino system of sewer hoses makes it pretty easy to simply re-attach the fitting to the cropped hose. Then there was the steady drip of water under the RV that we discovered one night when returning from our walk. Being parked on pavement, the flow of water was more obvious than it would have been back in the campground. How long had this been going on? Was it fresh water? Grey water? Black water (ugh)? We determined that it was grey water from the galley sink. We apparently had filled the galley grey water pretty full and it was leaking from the pressure on the fitting at the top of the tank. We’d never encountered it before, because we’ve never eaten so many meals (and washed so many dishes) in the RV over the course of a week before the pandemic hit. Once we dumped that tank the leak went away. Being sufficiently warned, we will make sure not to get it too full in the future. The leak had caused the covering on the underbelly to sag. We taped it back up (it had been opened a few years ago to repair a different leak), and we were good to go.

Then there were the things we wanted to upgrade, but had never gotten around to. We have an internal router that connects to a stronger antenna to pick up distant wifi signals. We had been having some problems with this becoming increasingly unreliable. Dave spent some time devising a better solution using the satellite connection pre-wired into the RV. By connection the internal wifi adapter to the one end of the satellite cable, he could connect the external high-power antenna to the other end of the cable outside. With the set up, the internal unit was more accessible in the center of the RV, and the outdoor antenna could be moved to take advantage of nearby wifi. The result is that the network rarely goes down any more. And we could mount the wifi adapter out of site under the TV. Cathy likes that particularly well.

A few years ago, we upgraded our TV, only to discover after the fact that it didn’t have a connection to the RV’s stereo speakers. However, with our noisy AC running most of the time, it could be difficult to hear the TV sound. Dave was considering a new TV, when he discovered a simple solution with our existing TV. He bought a cable that connected the TV’s fiber optic port to the sound system. And magically, the speakers work again. How many years ago did we buy that TV?

Tightening Up

Then there’s the boat. Despite her best attempts to ignore it, Cathy drug herself up the ladder to check out the cover and the boat’s interior. It was still dry inside, but it needed some attention. One of the cover supports had bent back so that it wasn’t supporting the cover. Also, there were more spots where water was accumulating, blackening the cover and causing more leaks. Then, there were the bugs. Ants from the nearby trees had found their way onto the boat.

So, having made sure the nearby bushes and trees were away from the cover, Cathy treated the interior more than once to reduce the ant population. Next, she and Dave scrubbed the cover to remove dirt and mildew. To remove the low spots on the cover, she fixed the support bow, tightened all the exsting lines between bows and added some, along with balls to boost the height even more. Much better. Then, she sprayed waterproofing on the upper half to keep the interior dry. This last step was a little tricky, given the daily showers in Jacksonville. To her surprise, within minutes of finishing the job, the skies opened up on her. Hardly the 6 to 12 hours of drying time. So, we bought some more and she did it again. Hopefully, it will remain dry for the next few months while we’re away.

New Green Acres RV Park in Walterboro SC

Traveling Up

With the sweltering summer heat, we couldn’t face sleeping in an RV with no or limited A/C, so boondocking on the trip north was out of the question. Cathy found 2 campgrounds, close to I-95 and reasonably spaced to make for shorter days. The first was in Walterboro, SC about 50 miles north of the GA line. And the 2nd was in Roanoke Rapids, NC which gave us the opportunity to see Christina and Serenity for the first time in a long time. Both campgrounds allowed us to check in over the phone and stay no-contact. We limited our stops en route to fuel and rest areas, keeping away from others successfully, and making for an uneventful trip.

Serenity and Christina at Carolina Crossroads RV Resort

We were excited to see Serenity, who has grown a lot since we saw her last. We were lucky to arrive between softball nights. We kept our distance and donned our masks for the visit, as we sat outside Mother Nature smiled on us with a cooling breeze at the end of a hot day. Hopefully, it won’t be so long before our next time together.

Dave and Kerstin discuss the work to be done

Starting Up
Shortly after arriving at Pocahontas, we met with the new volunteer coordinator, Kerstin and her boss, Dustin to discuss the work for the coming months. The Appamattuck group cabins that had received so much attention last fall had some minor painting tasks to consider them complete. Our primary focus for this year’s Cabin Work Week would be its neighbor, the Chickahominy group cabins. There would be some smaller volunteer groups between now and October, so we agreed on some suggested projects for them that varied to accommodate their skills.

No question we’ll have plenty to do.

Parting Shot
Our last walk on the evening before we left Jacksonville was during the remnants of a rain storm. We got a blessing as a result with a beautiful rainbow (with a faint double as well). Guess that means it’s OK to move on.

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Early July - Packing Up

7/17/2020

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Dave secures the bikes to the RV

“When are you heading north?” That question or ones similar to it has been put to us for months now. Over the past month, the answer finally became specific. We will be leaving the end of July, headed for Pocahontas State Park. So, we needed to start packing up and tying up loose ends at Faith.

Sound card from Orion Jr used with our Ham Radio to receive email

Sounds . . . good?

How to describe it? The piano keys that normally produced beautiful music had been transformed into a calliope. Dave said it reminded him of the rides at Seabreeze amusement park. What started out crisp and melodic wound its way through the sound cables and computer components and was transformed into just noise. This needed to be fixed.

It took a few weeks after the transition to in-person services to focus on the problem, but once we did, the solution became clear. First, we had the sound coming into the new computer much too loud. Adjusting this down to 25% of the original volume erased much of the distortion and the melody could be heard again. But it just wasn’t quite the same as before.

There could be several reasons for this. We had switched from the laptop to the new desktop, replacing the external sound card from Orion Jr with the one internal to the computer. The grand piano was now kept closed. The pulpit mike was also being used in the sanctuary, which meant it could be picking up the piano on a separate mike from the one positioned next to it. We isolated each component to see how it impacted the finished sound. The conclusion? While there were some problems with the pulpit mike, the overwhelming concensus was that the external sound card was much better than the computer’s internal sound card at delivering the sound we had become used to. Maybe we were just spoiled.

At any rate, since we weren’t using it any time soon, we re-connected the SignalLink external sound card and everyone is happy. In the event we need it for the boat, we can find a replacement at that time. Until then, the music sounds good. And we think we are good to go.

Loose Ends
In the process of diagnosing the problems with the internet speed and throughput, we started noticing some cable ends that looked pretty fragile. Years ago, when Cathy had been learning how to terminate an ethernet cable, there was a lot that she didn’t know about how to make a good connection. So, we took a Friday afternoon and worked our way through some of her “early work”, ensuring the cables were solid and not likely to create problems.

Dave had some more improvements to the internet infrastructure that he wanted to do. One morning that was a little cooler than normal, he crawled into the office attic and we ran a line to the building next door, providing internet to some of the “P” building rooms that didn’t have it before. Also, to help Beyond 90 have some independence from the rest of the network, he reconfigured their routers to be a separate subnet.

We also had a small locksmithing duty to create a new lock on the gym concessions door for the new tenant. The list is definitely getting shorter.

Getting Ready

After a discussion with Pocahontas State Park about how we would manage social distancing for our time as hosts in the park, we made the decision to continue with our planned August and October park host duties. We would be able to use our RV’s facilities more, with the park’s purchase of a larger portable waste tank, and we would be able to work on projects that were away from others.

So, we’ve started packing up and prepping to move the RV at the end of the month. That had some its own challenges in the current environment. Topping off the propane tank went smoothly, as U-Haul seemed to have good procedures in place. Dave and the employee worked together, but at a distance to position the tank and take payment. Both wore masks and Dave didn’t have to go inside. We were even able to deliver our used oil to Advance Auto with a curbside pickup and got a container of Def from Walmart delivered to the truck bed along with our groceries. However, the trip to Discount Tire to rotate the truck tires didn’t go quite so well.

After initially being told the rotation could be done without contact, his experience upon arrival differed greatly. Most service people were not wearing masks, even the one driving the vehicles into the bay. (Dave had been told that he could stay in the truck and take it into the bay himself.) Calling from the parking lot to say he was not comfortable with what he saw and was leaving, the person simply acknowledged his cancellation without comment. After he passed his comments on to the Discount Tire management, he got several calls back and was encouraged to try again at a different location.

The next day, he did try again and social distancing worked mostly as advertised. The only problem was an oversight by a worker in checking the tire pressure. One tire was at a lower psi than it should be, and Dave's efforts to get it corrected took more effort than it should have,. In a subsequent call from the manager, it was clear that the service manager realized he could have handled it better.

The rest of the prep was work we needed to do ourselves – topping off the batteries and cleaning up the connections, mounting the bikes, packing up the sewing supplies, etc. The only problem being that even the smallest task left us dripping in sweat. It is hot outside.

Computers, computers, . . .

Despite its being the newest of our computers, Cathy’s laptop had struggled during livestreaming of Faith’s services, which pointed to the need for an upgrade. In researching a replacement, Dave located a Lenovo computer that was a good buy and should be much faster, since it had a faster Intel I3 10th gen chip and a Solid State Drive instead of the more traditional hard drive. Shortly after picking it up (in another no-contact Walmart transaction), Dave got a call from his sister. One of her clients needed an inexpensive computer to take advantage of a better job opportunity. How about the same computer we just bought for Cathy? By the time we were done, at least 5 of these computers had been purchased by us, friends, family, even one for the church office.

Once in place, Dave was asked to help configure these devices. That meant a lot of phone time, frustrating on both ends. However, completely by coincidence, we had a long conversation with Jahaziel (our fellow livestreamer for his dad in West Palm Beach). Almost as an afterthought, he mentioned software that allowed his aunt to help solve problems on his computer. That was the day before Dave had to do the same for someone in PA. It was called TeamViewer. And it worked amazingly well. Much easier than trying to decipher screens you can’t see.

With Diane’s new laptop, (and some assistance installing Zoom remotely), it was easier to have a Zoom call to celebrate Dave’s mom’s 89th birthday. Although it didn’t make singing Happy Birthday any easier.

Fifteen Minutes

The transaction took place Memorial Day weekend, but resolution was slow in coming. Dave had purchased the computer for the church’s livestream on a holiday weekend. So, he was told he had to wait until Tuesday for the tax exempt form to be processed and the tax to be refunded. But despite promises that it was coming, week after week passed with no result. Each week Dave escalated the problem. Eventually that led him to the local news reporter who claimed to solve these problems for frustrated consumers.

To our surprise, he responded to Dave's email a few days later, asking for more info. Within an hour, Dave had cleaned up and changed for a Zoom call with Ben Becker of “Action News Jax” from the local CBS and Fox stations. (Interesting mix.) He promised to contact the company. And sure enough, the next morning Lenovo called Dave looking to resolve the problem. A few days later, the refund had been processed.

Thinking we would get a heads up before the story went on the air, we were again taken by surprise when Ervin called to talk to the “star”. The story had made the news.

Dave became a local celebrity, enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.

Parting Shot

Our evening walk sometimes has its rewards, including this rainbow after a storm.

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Late June - Opening and Closing

6/30/2020

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Sunday worship back in the sanctuary

On Father’s Day, Faith’s congregation gathered once more in the sanctuary in a long-awaited re-opening. Later that week, Cathy closed the chapter on her cancer treatments as her port was removed in a procedure delayed 3 months due to the pandemic. And a few days after that, we finally were able to gather, albeit virtually, for a service for Cathy’s mom, allowing us to celebrate her life as we had hoped to do for several months.

How Fast Is Your Internet?

Having transitioned our Sunday morning responsibilities, we weren’t quite done with livestreaming. While the service started well the first Sunday back, the internet stopped cooperating about halfway through the service as it had the week before. Since we were keeping our distance, we were monitoring the service remotely from our RV and saw the all-too-familiar seesawing of the internet and therefore the livestream. There had to be a solution. We spent the next week working on the problem.

Dave running another ethernet cable from office to Wesley

The church’s Comcast service was supposed to deliver 150Mbs for download and 20Mbs for upload. The question that kept coming up was why did we never see this performance in the sanctuary? Was it Comcast? Or losses downstream from the Comcast box? So, we started testing. We first connected directly to the Comcast box and tested the speed. It was as advertised. So, could we deliver this speed to the sanctuary for the service by running a line directly without any access points in between? We gave it a try. We actually didn’t have to run a line all the way, since we had recently run a new line from Wesley to the sanctuary. We just had to run the line from the Office to Wesley.

Once in place, we started seeing the speed in the sanctuary that was close to the same as that in the office. Progress. But we weren’t willing to stop there. As we tested the speed along the way at our internet access points, we knew we should be able to get better performance out of the church’s network. We made some improvements by replacing older cables and ensuring the routers and switches were not throttling the speed unnecessarily or causing unstable access.

When we had done all that we could, the next step was to get Comcast involved. Their technician discovered problems in the wire that led from the pole to the office and replaced it. He also replaced the box that delivered the signal to the rest of the campus. Did this solve the problem of the internet going off and back on? Only time would tell.

But we didn’t have to wait until Sunday. Cathy would be hosting a Zoom call / livestream for her mother’s Celebration of Life on Saturday. It would either work – or not.

On another end of the campus, the Zoom tutoring sessions run by Kim’s Open Door had been problematic for a couple of weeks. Like many changes during the pandemic, the increase in demand for online performance was not linear, but exponential. Holding 4 simultaneous Zoom calls during the virtual summer camp was putting a severe strain on the service and causing her sessions to freeze. After lots of discussion and analysis, Dave helped Kim with a decision to install 2 new routers that would help her service. With the other improvements being made upstream, the hope was that this should ease her problems. And it seemed to work.

Cathy's Mom's Celebration of Life service Zoom gathering

Celebration of Life

Remembering Cathy’s mom in a virtual service seemed the only way we would be able to gather given the concerns and restrictions from the pandemic, which had begun immediately after her death in March. Cathy sought to bring together the thoughts and memories of the family in a remembrance slideshow. The Zoom call brought together family members from different cities and states, some of whom we had not seen in quite some time. We were offered music from Matthew Bacon, the organist at Mom’s church and joined by her pastor, Matt Farabow, who opened and closed the service.

Despite some audio difficulties, the service was well-received. Cathy posted a cleaner version on YouTube afterward. And all the efforts on the internet were proven to work well. Good job Dave.

Dave on his Father's Day present

Happy Father’s Day

Dave set his sights on a new toy for Father’s Day. It was a Ninebot Minipro. Since he couldn’t ride by himself, we actually bought 2. After passing our training test, we took them on the “road”, and managed to stay mostly upright. But it doesn’t quite have the same benefits of a walk, so we haven’t stopped taking them each evening. Check him out at: Dave In Motion

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Early June - Preparing to Open

6/15/2020

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Social distancing stickers we helped design and place in the sanctuary

The church continued Drive-in services for the first 2 Sundays in June, but their hope was to be able to return to the sanctuary by Father’s Day Sunday, while continuing the livestream for those not able or not comfortable attending in person. Since the livestream was so popular, we needed to work out a plan to make this possible. And we took some time for some needed maintenance in the RV.

Barry weathering the storm on Sunday. Click on the picture to see more of the service.

Out of the Storm

The weather forecast was not promising, and sure enough Sunday morning ,June 7, dawned with threatening skies. We were to have a drive-in service, which meant that Pastor Barry was planning to stand outside, under the wide roof overhang on the side of the church. We re-positioned our cameras to the side to protect them from the weather, and scurried back inside to set up for the livestream.

As the service began, Barry had barely begun to speak when a nearby lightning strike, created a loud clap of thunder. This was not going to be pretty. We continued on with the service, but as the storm worsened, Barry started dispensing with bits of the service. First the offering. Since the usher couldn’t get out of his car to collect it in the torrential downpour. Then the next hymn disappeared. Cathy struggled to keep up, as she advanced the slides for the service. As he started Holy Communion, the storm intensified. Distilling the sacrament to its essential parts, Pastor Barry worked his way to the end. We sang the final hymn with him having retreated inside. Unfortunately, he didn’t receive the sympathy he deserved, since those of us in the sanctuary were laughing hard as the weather took its toll on him.

When the congregation starts gathering inside again, at least Barry would stay dry

Testing the Livestream in the sanctuary in preparation for the congregation to return.

Transitioning

The last drive-in service was scheduled for June 14th, with the plan to gather in sanctuary the following Sunday. We were unlikely to be able to be there for that service (more about that later). So that meant we had to ensure others were ready to take over and that the pieces were in place to help ensure their success.

Upgraded Hardware and Streamlined Software
Having purchased and configured a new computer capable of managing the livestream more effectively, we were ready to use it for Sunday services. We also made changes to make our process as close as possible to one that could be used in combination with the in-person service. That meant creating a presentation, similar to a typical Sunday morning, and keeping the camera always on screen next to it. We would need fewer “scenes” in OBS. All that was needed was to advance the slides in the presentation, which would display in the church as well as the livestream. Ironically, the first Sunday we tried this, was the day of the “storm”, meaning Cathy could not easily skip over a bunch of slides, but otherwise it worked well. We had also increased the resolution of the stream to make it a higher quality video. With the upgraded computer, that worked well too.

Passing the Baton
So, since we are not going to be here indefinitely (all evidence to the contrary), we needed to transition this process to church members, training them on what we had put together. Who to train? One obvious choice was Mark, who currently managed the presentation and sound. The second volunteer was Nelson, a young teen, who most often sat quietly at the back of the church. Dave distilled the process into a checklist and set up a training class to step through the ins and out of what we do. A second session had them hands-on setting up the camera, presentation, displays etc and streaming to youtube. With a couple of passes under their belt, they felt ready to go. We were feeling better as well.

Falling off the cliff
Wanting to complete our final livestream on a high note, we walked into the service on the 14th thinking we were well-prepared. We had moved the computer back to the sound booth, where it would need to be the next Sunday. The presentation was ready. The cameras were working. All was well.

Until it wasn’t.

The internet kept going down … and up … and down. And then OBS stopped responding. Presumably because of the internet problems. Our cell phone cameras froze (again because of the internet problems). And we had trouble with the presentation, which we later discovered was because of changes made in anticipation of the next Sunday. Luckily, we had recorded the service, so it took less time to recover afterward and load the full version to Youtube and Facebook.

So much for the high note.

More Internet Stuff?

With ever increasing demands on the church’s internet, Dave continued to upgrade the service. By installing faster (i.e. gigabit) switches and routers, he was hoping to extend a faster service to the sanctuary and further into the Education buildings (A, B, and C).

To give some more redundancy, we also ran a wire from a new ATT service over to the sanctuary as well.

Dave works to repair the toilet flange in the RV

What’s That Smell?

The box had arrived in February. It was huge, but we sat in on the couch until we had time to focus on the project we both dreaded. The toilet. The annoying, but persistent problem with the seal inside the toilet bowl had been superseded by a more worrisome one.

The toilet was rocking. It was obvious, without removing it from the floor that some piece of the flange that secured the base to the floor had broken. But was that all that was wrong? And would the flange have to be replaced as well as the toilet? We had purchased a toilet identical to the one that we were replacing, so the footprint would remain the same. The other questions wouldn't be answered until we were willing to remove the existing one.

Broken toilet flange

And then the pandemic arrived. How would we get replacement parts if we found the worst once the old toilet came out? More time passed. Until we felt we needed to take our chances and start this project. Sure enough. We found a flange that had lost a chunk on one side, and was cracked on the other. And two of the 6 screws that held it to the floor were rusted. When sheer force wouldn't remove these 2 damaged screws, we resorted to a borrowed "Easyout" screw extractor. It worked great on one, but when he tried to repeat the process on the 2nd, the bit broke inside the hole, meaning the tool wouldn't work. There was one more possibility. Since the screws were longer than the floor was thick, they stuck out in the compartment below the toilet. Cathy was just able to squeeze in and, using vise grips, unscrew the problem screw from below. Who would have thought that would work?

Given these problem, it was clear that removing the flange would be risky, since it was likely to cause a crack in the pipe to which it was attached. Several youtube videos later, we opted for a repair with a “spanner”. A 3 inch piece of metal that was secured over the flange on each side. This would give the strength to hold the new toilet in place.

Spanner installed on one side of flange. The finished repair had one on each side.

But we need to get the parts. More internet surfing found that we could get curbside pickup at Home Depot for the spanners and bolts we needed. It worked great. Within an hour of placing the order, we were on our way home with them. They fit as advertised and the toilet seated on the new bolts without a problem. We were back in service. The new toilet holds water in and the smell of the holding tank out. And we have our couch back.

It’s the little things that make you happy.

Success!

Final Piece of the Puzzle

Although Cathy’s infusions ended in March, she had one more procedure that was needed – removing the port that had been used for the infusions. The original surgery was planned for March 31, but had been canceled due to the restrictions on elective surgery. So, we finally decided it was time to reschedule. The new process requires a Covid 19 test. Hers had to take place on Sunday morning, June 21st. So, now you know why we won’t be able to help livestream the service that day. Assuming all goes well, she will be port-free the following Thursday.

Parting Shot
We saw this guy on our walk one evening. We think he was interested in the small dog that lived on the other side of the fence.

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Late May - Keeping the Faith

5/31/2020

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Sharing ideas on the just completed Sunday service

Our activities still follow a pretty predictable pattern – streaming Sunday services and making masks. We continue to make improvements to both processes: working our way toward the transition to live services later in June and preparing for the summer tutoring by Kim’s Open Door.

Working on the camera feed - Dave in triplicate

Improving the Stream
With all the moving parts ( 3 computers, 3 cell phone cameras, 2 access points, an external sound card, lots of cables, etc.), there was no way this livestreaming process was going to work when the congregation returned to the sanctuary. We knew that we couldn’t take up half a pew with all of our gear, nor have wires strung throughout the sanctuary. But, Dave had a plan.

The Computer
The church service (in normal times) in displayed on screens at the front and back of the sanctuary. A presentation slideshow displays the hymns, prayers, and scriptures. Although we had tried to duplicate this approach using our computers, the drain on the CPU was too much. Even without the presentation running, opening the streaming software on either of our computers could take a long time – several minutes. We had been creating images of each slide of the hymns and scriptures and placing them in folders for the streaming software to use. This was too much work to lay on top of creating the Sunday service presentation. We knew that the right computer could handle the presentation as a source, would have a video graphics card, and a sound input jack to take the soundboard output. So the search began. After weeks of research, Dave finally found a desktop that would work for (of course) a good price. And work it did. OBS opened in seconds. The service presentation didn’t degrade performance at all. We were getting closer.

The Sound
When the service moved back outside, we started using the wireless mike outside for Pastor Barry, instead of the wired mike inside. However, the wireless mike failed frequently. When a wired version also had problems, we got permission to search for a wireless mike that Barry could clip to his collar. It arrived within a week, and got rave reviews from the congregation for the improved sound.

The Checklist

As you may remember, we had developed a checklist after a near meltdown of problems with the restart of the drive-in services. We’ve been using it ever since, and it has made a difference. Especially when things start to go wrong. Luckily we haven’t lost the internet completely again.

Yet.

Staying Connected

With the increase of Zoom meetings, the church needed a computer that could be used for this without interfering with the Secretary’s work during the week. The “guest office” computer wasn’t usable because the internal speakers and microphone didn’t work, although it did have a webcam. Several weeks ago, Dave had purchased a sound card that we thought we could use to make the sound input work on Cathy’s computer. We went a different way, but the device was the perfect solution to allow the mike to work on the guest office computer. The speakers were easy as well. There were 2 external speakers sitting on the shelf in the office. Once plugged in, we had camera, mike and sound.

To test the set-up, we called our grandkids. First Taylor got online with us. (This was actually a bad move, since our call threw her mom off a tutoring session. Oops.) Then we tried Droz. That turned out to be a good move for a couple of reasons. We got to have a long conversation with him. And we were there to see him open his acceptance to college! That was special.

Taylor's Birthday celebration

Cathy tested the connection the next day on a Circle meeting, and it worked great. It has been used several times since. However, most of the time we have to do a Zoom meeting, we use Cathy’s computer. We had our largest gathering yet on Taylor’s birthday, where we all got to sing Happy Birthday from multiple states. Technology, when it works, can be amazing.

Child masks for Kim's Open Door

And more masks
When summer school starts in a few weeks, Kim’s Open Door will be working with rotations of small groups of kids on campus here at Faith. To ensure they can do this safely, they needed masks. Adult-sized masks were acquired quickly, but child-sized masks were more of a problem. Cathy went to work making 20 child masks. With Barry’s donation of some more sheets, we were able to change up the colors a little bit as well.
She’s also made some more masks for relatives, and as a thank-you to Fermin and Angelica for changing the oil in the truck. One way or another, they keep disappearing.

Parting Shots

No. We aren’t heroes. But there are more of them on campus here at Faith than are sometimes recognized. This sign was placed outside Beyond 90 and Kim’s Open Door who are helping the local immigrant community navigate and obtain services during the Covid-19 shutdown.

This guy showed up with a couple friends beside our RV one night after a rain. Never seen one up close before.

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Early May - What Day is It?

5/17/2020

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Early morning in the campground at Faith

It used to just be us old folks who had trouble remembering what day it was. Now it seems the problem is spreading to everyone. However, even for us the days are blurring together a bit more. That is, except for Sunday. Sunday is pretty easy to remember.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Just when we thought we were getting the hang of broadcasting the church service to Youtube and Facebook, the ground shifted again. The church switched back to Drive-in services, which the congregation welcomed as an opportunity to see each other in person, if at a distance. It meant a few changes for us, though.

For one thing, we needed to put a couple of our phone cameras outside. Back in March, we were having some problems with the camera image freezing, which we believed to be related to them being too far from the nearest access point. To fix this, Cathy made up another longer ethernet cable, which allowed the access point to move outside. Dave tested it midweek, and it worked like a charm.

Dave running ethernet cable into sanctuary

We were also concerned about how to ensure the internet was present and working on Sunday morning. Earlier in the year, we had run a redundant ethernet cable to several of the buildings on campus, but not the sanctuary. To give us an option to fail over if there were problems, we ran a redundant cable to the sanctuary, as well. If one route failed because of a bad device, we could quickly switch to the other and continue on. Bases covered. Right?

Not so fast. On the Sunday that the Drive-in services returned, we put the cameras in place, but they were showing jerky movements – a problem we hadn’t had in weeks. Dave rebooted the phones, switched devices and cables. Shortly before the service started, we thought we were reasonably good. Until we weren’t.

We didn’t have any internet.

Dave switched over to the other line. Still no internet. Eventually working his way back to the office, we finally concluded that the internet to the campus had gone down. So much for our redundancy.

This would have been no problem if Cathy had been recording the service on the PC. We would just upload the service after the fact. Except, in all the confusion, Cathy had forgotten to record the service. And, by the way, she forgot to go live on Facebook. Sigh. We ended up spending the rest of the day cobbling together the pieces we had, re-recording part of it, and then uploading the results to Youtube and Facebook. Dave created a checklist that should help us keep all the pieces in place, so even if we lose the internet, we’ll have a way to upload the service after it is done. Good thing they don’t pay us for this.

So, what next?

More Church Stuff
When not fixing internet issues or changing locks, or working on Sunday’s service, we find a few small things to work on. Cathy cleaned the directional sign in front of the church. We hung some drywall to finish off the bathroom in one of the mission rooms. Dave installed a new router in the office. He helped Pastor Alex determine a problem with his internet on Sunday morning, during the Spanish Zoom Sunday service. And so on.

And we help with some of the tasks to prepare for return to church with social distancing. To space out the congregation during Sunday services, the plan is to close off every other pew and the middle 6 feet of the remaining pews. Dave purchased a spool of rope to accomplish this. We spent an afternoon cutting it into lengths that we could place around the pews and run down the middle. Since it is cotton rope, we couldn’t use our boating technique of burning the cut ends. Instead we knotted each end and Cathy spent time making the resulting tassels look “pretty”. It does give a different look to the sanctuary, though.

RV Stuff

The small strip of plastic had started to split quite a long time ago. It covered a metal channel containing the screws at the leading edge of the RV’s front panel on both sides. The cover was only cosmetic, but even so, Dave had purchased a replacement roll over a year ago. We just hadn’t quite made it around to putting it in. But now that we had more time on our hands, and some cool weather, we dug out the replacement and got to work. It inserted easily, but since we didn’t have enough to do the entire run, we had to overlap a section on the passenger side. Dave re-applied roof sealant to cover the seam at the top of the channel on both sides. It looks much better now. Why didn’t we do that sooner?

More Masks?

We had a need to make some more masks, both for ourselves and others. Dave had read that 3 layers of cloth was preferable to 2, so Cathy did some research on the evolution of mask making since we’d made the first batch. She discovered the benefit of using non-woven material (like that in some reusable grocery bags) as a liner on both the front and back fabric. It gave the resulting masks more shape and that made it more comfortable on the face (and easier to sew). Although we’ve ordered some of this fabric, we didn’t want to wait to get started. So, we cut up some of our grocery bags and they worked great.

Parting Shot

In honor of local health care workers, the Navy’s Blue Angels flew over Jacksonville. We got to see them pass over twice before they returned to base. It was an amazingly blue sky, and my photo was only one of some amazing shots taken by others who got to watch it.

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Late April - Just Chillin'

4/30/2020

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Hemingway's latest resting place

We continue in much the same routine here in Jacksonville, honing our locksmithing skills and staying on top of the changes in Faith’s Sunday worship livestream, and tending to other minor repairs around the church. And we participated in our first Zoom meetings. It is a brave new world.

Going Live

While we were getting used to broadcasting the Sunday services to Faith’s Youtube channel, the desire was to have a similar livestream on Facebook. The attempts to use a separate cellphone to do this were not working well, so we came up with a plan to broadcast the service to Facebook as well. Using a separate computer, we displayed the Youtube service and used this as input to upload to Facebook. That preserved the slides showing the words to the scriptures and songs, as well as the sound quality of the Youtube stream.

It seemed to work well, and it caught the attention of Jahaziel, who was streaming his dad’s service at his church in West Palm Beach. We gave him some ideas for using the cell phone cameras for his service, which he used the next Sunday. We are all in this together.

The popularity of the livestream is increasing, and the congregation wants it to continue once they can gather again. Since our current set-up takes up half of a pew and has loose wires all over the church, we have some work to do to make this happen routinely with a lot less clutter and time investment. We’ll see what develops.

Locking Up

Most of our locksmithing efforts were devoted to making it possible to have a key that would work for mission teams and individuals that come to stay at the church. By creating an operating key that would open the rooms that were common to these guests, there would be less unnecessary access for these individuals.

Also, in the absence of a locksmith over the past few years, some tenants had put their own locks into doors that the church had to have special keys for. We re-keyed these to allow the staff to use a master key, while still giving the tenant their own unique keyed access.

There is still work to do in the gym, but, hard to believe, we are starting to run out of locks to work on.

Waxing the RV

RV Stuff

We are starting to run out of cool days, so we decided to take advantage of the few remaining ones by washing and waxing the truck and the RV. While the truck had been waxed not too long ago, we think it has been 2 years since we have done the RV and it showed. Of course, once we were into it, we were reminded why we had waited 2 years to do it. Also, while up on the ladder, we finally put a ball under the slide topper to raise up a low spot that had been routinely collecting water. We had purchased the ball about this time last year. Not that we’re procrastinating or anything.

Dave installing new brake cable

We also had some minor damage to our quick-release brake cable that engages the brakes on the trailer in an emergency if it breaks away from the truck. We replaced the whole mechanism to ensure it was sure to work if ever needed.

Making the Most of Staying Safe

We’ve had some new experiences inspired by the pandemic’s restrictions. We had to order a custom paint color at Lowe’s and managed, with several phone calls, to get it ordered, paid for, tax exempt status recorded, and delivered to the bed of the truck. It would have been completely contact free, except we had to sign the tax exempt form. Whoops.

Another challenge came when Cathy’s sneaks started to give out. (All those nightly walks.) We managed to order some replacements at Kohl’s for curbside pick-up. It worked pretty smoothly, though it’s not clear how many people were taking advantage of this service.

$Picture$ Virtual Math Fair on Zoom

And then, we got initiated into Zoom meetings. Cathy started with a Circle meeting on her phone. That was followed by a church council meeting on the computer. Not a surprise that us techies had problems with the mike (turned off for the livestream) and the internet. By the following Friday, we had worked out most of the kinks, which was good, since we got to participate in Bonnie’s Virtual Math Fair. One of the presenters was Troy, who tied for first place. It was fun to see the kids’ hard work. There was a lot of talent on display and a lot of organization that made it successful.

Barry's birthday celebration

We had a birthday celebration for Barry, complete with cake and ice cream, that we enjoyed with social distancing. And our resident population increased by one with Don’s release from rehab. He was greeted by a parking lot full of cars honking after almost 2 months of hospital and rehab. Now we see him walking the campus as he regains his strength. Glad to see him out and about.

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Early April - It's a Small World

4/15/2020

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Our world has remained pretty small over the last 2 weeks, rarely leaving the grounds of the Faith UMC campus. However, it’s given us time to get better at Youtube livestream, re-keying locks and sewing. Our confinement is to the church’s and the park's benefit.

Finding the Key

We’ve expanded our locksmithing skills to work on more styles of locks – deadbolts and lever locks – in addition to the padlocks and doorknobs we mastered earlier. Of course, one tenant had to live without an interior doorknob for more than a week, but we didn’t say we were perfect.

The scariest part is Dave’s expansion into lockpicking. You had to know that was coming right? He has watched hours of youtube videos on the subject. The goal is not so much to begin a life of crime, but rather to reclaim numerous locks and key cylinders that we no longer have the key to. You can’t reuse a lock, if you can’t first unlock it. With his new skills, he’s managed to reclaim several key cylinders that were previously unusable.

It’s hard to say what skills we will develop in another 2 weeks.

Livestreaming

As March drew to a close, so did the ability to have drive-in services. The bishop indicated that all services had to be virtual. So, we moved inside on Sunday morning and set up our cellphone cameras in the sanctuary. It was actually easier being in the same “room” as the service. However, each Sunday brought another challenge or problem.

Palm crosses and sealed communion were prepared for Palm Sunday service.

For example, on Palm Sunday, the sacrament of communion was observed. This meant another camera was needed to cover the pastor at the altar. In addition, we needed to display the communion liturgy. We wanted to combine the 2 in a “splitscreen”, which worked well enough that we had a request to do it for more of the service. So, the next week, we used it in several more places.

Some of the problems that appeared disastrous turned out to be in our own heads. Dave was distressed to find that the audio track was doubled and offset by several minutes to disastrous effect. Thinking the recording was ruined, we tried to figure out what could have been the cause. It turned out that Dave had been playing back the livestream on 2 different tabs without realizing it. The stream was fine.

So, maybe the best lesson we should be learning is to relax a little.

Dave cuts out several masks for Cathy to sew.

Sewing Large and Small

After making a few masks for Adam and his co-workers, we moved on to sewing masks for Bonnie’s family and several people around the church. Unfortunately, the pattern we used was a little too small for Adam and Troy, so Cathy re-sized the pattern and we made a few more using the bigger size that worked better.

Screens for the yurts at Pocahontas

Cathy next turned her attention to making screens for the yurts back at Pocahontas. She had started this project while there in the fall, but there was enough screen material and velcro to make many more. This was much easier than the tiny seams of the masks, and sewing them was what her Sailrite machine seemed to like doing much better.

Hibiscus are always in bloom, and always spectacular.

Parting Shot

So, it’s not all about work. We take a walk every evening, which have remained cool for the most part. We greet our neighbors while still maintaining social distance. There is usually an unspoken shift in our path or theirs to keep from getting too close. The church is open during the day for the parish to stop by, and we sometimes run into folks there as well. Not to say it’s not awkward on occasion, but it’s what we are all doing to stay safe, so it’s worth it.

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