Airflow is a Wonderful Thing

Today is dreary and overcast, and we got down to 61 degrees last night. Days like this only come about a few times a year, and I am usually out of town when they happen. I love weather like this! Just a few days ago, I was complaining about the heat in our bedroom.  With the windows open and all the fans in the house going full-speed, it meant a lovely night of sleeping in a cool house last night.

This guy certainly helped. Meet our new bedroom ceiling fan, Gus.

Usually, when we wander the aisles of Home Depot, all I hear from Hubby is that awful word, “No.” Sometimes he follows it up with something supposedly to make me feel better, like “We don’t need that,” or “We don’t need a front porch bistro set because we don’t use the furniture we have in the backyard.”

In my defense, I would love to be outside more often. I’m not blaming anyone here, but we need to face the facts, folks. My husband is made up of 100% mosquito food, and he can’t be outside for more than a minute on any evening before he has thirty bites all over him. They don’t bother me in the least. I am going to attribute being outside 24/7 as a kid. I’m just sayin’…the reason we aren’t outside enough (“using our outdoor furniture”) is because the mosquitos like him. It feels awkward to leave him behind protected walls while I head outside to enjoy the evening. However, if it will help him realize that our outdoor furniture is necessary, I will do it. Team player, remember?

Anyway, on a recent trip to Home Depot, and while preparing myself for that awful word, “No,” I steered Hubby down the ceiling fan aisle.

Here was my reasoning. Our bedroom ceiling fan is builders-grade and certainly does us no favors. When I researched it once, I found it to be around 2,700 CFMs, which is how they measure fan circulation. While perusing the fourteen-thousand options in the fan aisle in Home Depot, we were able to find a white ceiling fan-and-light combination with a CFM of 5,486. Heck, yes. I’m all about double.

My further trick tool to convince Hubby that this might be a pretty good idea was that one of the dining room ceiling fans went kaput late last year. We didn’t care too much since we were coming into the cooler winter months. However, with temperatures already in the triple digits, we need all the air circulation going on that we can muster. So I suggested that we get a new, higher-power fan for our bedroom and use that old fan to replace the broken one in the dining room.

I crouched behind some chandelier boxes, waiting to be told that awful word that makes me cringe. I closed my eyes and started to rock back and forth while humming. For some unknown reason, it caught quite the stares from other Home Depot patrons.

But he agreed. To my great astonishment. We looked at fans together and compared the best options. And then we put one in our cart and brought it home. I guess it helped that the day’s temperature was a record-breaking one-hundred and five.

While I was at work on Monday, Hubby surprised me with installing the new fan in our bedroom. Oh sweet, sweet Gus. You are awesome. And I can actually feel your airflow! You’ve helped us sleep better the past few nights. Bless you.

Maybe tonight we can swap out the old broken dining room fan for the old bedroom fan. Airflow moving on that side of the house is critical in keeping this place habitable. It’s amazing how hot it has gotten already! Gus is helping in every way he can, and that makes me very, very happy.

Home Depot victories like these are rare indeed and need to be fully savored.

FarmingTON of Fun

I went to work yesterday.

We simply dropped off some passengers at Farmington, New Mexico’s Four Corners Regional Airport and came home.

Considering that it was 74 degrees in Farmington, I really regretted not staying for the entire week. I’ve heard lovely things about Farmington, after all.

 

Everyone who knew that I was coming here (hi, Dad!) said to visit Durango a few hours away. Does that mean nothing in Farmington is worth my time? That I should just leave town as soon as I can?

It was hard to climb back into that airplane, knowing that next time I opened that beautiful air door was going to be to triple digits. It’s literally a hot, dry slap in the face.

Really, Mother Nature? You saw fit to completely skip the 80s and 90s this year? Sheesh. I’m already dying.

Luckily, we are getting both the house air conditioning fixed and (hopefully) my car air conditioning fixed this very morning. It’s only going to get worse from here. We need to be prepared. And we also need to not be sweaty.

And I’m writing this late Monday night because I can’t sleep in a house that is stubbornly staying at 87 degrees. Good grief, it’s impossible!

Anyway, enough whining! If I lived somewhere cold, you know that I would whine about scraping ice off my windshield, too.

I would much rather be hot than cold, so please forgive the pertinent ranting and raving of a rather warm person on this fine summer mid-spring evening.

The flight was awesome. We landed less than fifty minutes after taking off out of Scottsdale. The weather was beautiful, and only a few bumps were felt leaving the Valley.

This airplane has a much lower wing-loading than my previous Beechjet, so the bumps are way more obvious. The best thing about the Beechjet was that it felt like flying a much larger airplane…and the bumps felt that way, too. In the Phenom, I notice every little current in the air. It’s the only downside to this new (practically-perfect-in-every-way) airplane, that I’ve found.

We wondered if it was the busiest the airport has been all day. We landed just after a medical King Air touched down (an ambulance pulled up to his airplane just as we were taxiing in). Shortly after us, a Pilatus took off. Then, two helicopters landed on the ramp not too far from Gladys. They are in town filming a Johnny Depp movie, apparently.

Who knew people made motion pictures in Farmington, New Mexico?!

I had called ahead with our credit card so we could pay for the ramp fee. FBOs charge a ramp fee if you don’t buy fuel. We usually need fuel and thus get to bypass paying this silly ramp fee. In this case, it was much cheaper to pay the $130 fee rather than purchase their required 150-gallon minimum at $7.59 a gallon. We get it at home for less than $4, so it made perfect sense to just tanker fuel and make it home without paying an arm and two legs for their gas.

I hate being ripped off for fuel prices. But it isn’t always avoidable.

We let the hefty brakes cool down while we loaded bags into the awaiting car. Then we watched as the helicopters made their noisy arrival. I love helicopters. I think I’m too chicken to fly them, but they are always fascinating to watch.

Then I got our clearance from Ground Control back to Scottsdale while El Capitan did the Before Engine Start checklist. Before long, we were taxiing on our way to Runway 25 and cleared on course after takeoff.

I can sweet-talk shortcuts like no other. I really love talking on the radio. This may come as a surprise to everyone, but it’s true.

Rather than flying our assigned routing all the way up to Flagstaff for the Jacobs Two Arrival, I got Albuquerque Center to give me direct to SWIRL intersection. That is just north of Scottsdale and not out of the way at all! We crossed SWIRL at 11,000 feet and 250 knots, as assigned.

Soon we were touching down back at home.

And it was evening, so the heat wasn’t as bad as I was expecting when that door was opened.

It’s nice to be home for the week to work on so many projects. A return trip to get our passengers will take place on Saturday. Maybe I can stay longer than just ten minutes this time? I think it looks like a beautiful place!

Most places are beautiful from the air, though…

Gate Progress Report

Since I was finally out of bed after being sick for almost two weeks, we used Saturday to catch up on the gate.

Hubby had removed the old boards while I was working last week, and he threw away the water-damaged or shredded-beyond-repair ones to replace them with new versions from Home Depot.

Since it wasn’t yet 103 degrees (yes, it got there later that day. Records were broken all weekend…), we headed out on Saturday morning to do some spray painting before it got too hot. We removed one side of the gate and placed it on three cinder blocks in the front yard (cue the banjo music!) It was over-crowded with bushes had we left it on its hinges, so we moved it to a clear area.

Hubby cleaned the gates with soap and water to give the spray paint a nice, smooth surface to adhere. There is something special about a man with a dishcloth in his hands. Especially if he knows how to use it!

Meanwhile, I bubble-wrapped the house to prevent it from overspray for the other half of the gate. I also used some old boxes underneath the gate to prevent the rocks from getting black. Black grass can be cut away, but rocks are harder to handle if they get sprayed!

Spray spray spray!

The paint made a huge difference. My arm muscles and pointer finger are still recovering from holding down six cans of spray paint for the two gates. But it was worth it. What an improvement!

  

After I removed the bubble wrap, we still had the glaring problem of their high-tech gate-hanging skills coming to light. Three 2x4 boards were used instead of cementing in a proper pole to hang the gate. This was the main reason I was hoping to just replace the entire thing…but no such luck.

So I decided to paint the boards the color of the house to hopefully blend them in. I am hoping that these are all just temporary fixes (something in my gut tells me otherwise), so these painted boards will certainly do for now!

    

Now we have the boards left to stain, seal, and hang. We bought new screws and nuts on Saturday, and they are the perfect length! This gate is going to look smokin’ when it’s all done!

We have officially decided to stain the wood a dark walnut, since that is what we have available for free. Hubby is all about saving money, in case you didn’t know. The stain is left over from the desk project, and I absolutely love the color. It will look great outside on the gate!

I’m headed to work today, and Hubby is helping some folks move when he gets home from work. So it’s doubtful that the staining will take place today.

I think the gate should be up and finished by Thursday, if all goes as planned. Stain tomorrow, seal Wednesday, install on Thursday.

When have my timing plans ever worked out in the past?! Keep your fingers crossed!