Awake: 5:58am Temp 62 sleep 6+50 sunny overnight @ Watertown, WI.
First thing this morning Sallie & Kathy go shopping for paint & supplies so K can start painting the renovated main floor bathroom & entry room. After wiping down the ceilings & walls & removing light switch plates and various nails & hooks from the walls, Kathy was ready to commence painting. Starting from the top, she gave the ceilings (2) coats of white then primed the new sheetrock walls and gave them a coat of texture paint.
Sallie had been grocery shopping & upon her return she got a floor fan and turned it & the air conditioner on; both bringing welcome relief to the heat and paint fumes. Sallie was eager to see color and now Kathy was ready to paint color on the entry room walls. She finished @ 5:00 &, though exhausted, was pleased with the way the room looked and with Sallie’s, Marsha’s, & Cindy’s exclamations of joy and delight over the color and appearance of the room. It was time to shower and get ready for Shabbat. Sallie’s painter will come on Wed. to finish painting the bathroom; only needs a coat of color so it shouldn’t take him very long.
Last night, I asked Larry to ring our bell when he is ready to go to his factory & tackle that crane starter. Now it’s after 9:00am & still no Larry. Later I find out, he is not feeling well today.
@ 10:10, Larry rings our chime. He says he is feeling better now but has a priority family meeting @ Bruce & Marsha’s place. He has asked Alex & now asks me to get after that crane in the factory; he already drew a block diagram of the (5) or more breaker boxes so we would have plenty of light when working on the crane.
Alex is a good worker; once we were organized with the proper tools, I bet it took a mere 35 min or slightly longer to have that starter in place. The nuisance 3rd bolt was still a nuisance but our modified tool worked very well.
That starter was much easier to replace than to remove; Bob the re-builder, told us he had to replace the field winding, the brushes, a bearing & the solenoid.
With the battery connected, I ask Alex to climb onto the driver’s seat & crank the starter. All of a sudden, that engine started right up with a lot of blue smoke. We opened another door & let the engine run longer; after some 5-8 min, the blue smoke turned to black & then cleared up.
Now here’s the best part. “Shut it down!” I yelled to Alex. He turned the ignition key off….. & it kept running. Oops, it’s a diesel. “You have to starve the engine of fuel” I told him. Alex carefully pushed & pulled a few more controls on the dash but that engine kept on running.
I told Alex I would check with the Galion manual & he yells back that he will call his dad. The Galion manual really didn’t spell out the exact control except that it was a pull knob on the lower side of the dash. Shortly after I return from speed reading the shutdown procedure, Alex had found the red knob to pull & the engine slowly came to a halt.
We were both excited. This was the major accomplishment that I wanted to fulfill before leaving town & now it’s happened. Larry can’t remember when this crane engine was running last.
Speaking of Larry, after getting a phone call from his son Alex that the crane engine was running, he was @ the factory in less than 10 min with a big smile on his face. He said getting that phone call from Alex was the sweetest message he has had in a long time.
Larry played with the crane for about 20 min; moving the outriggers, steering controls, backing up, moving forward, etc. I’m sure there’ll be more systems that will need some attention but @ least, with the engine running, he can troubleshoot the hydraulic systems a lot easier.
Back to the house where Larry uses the hot water pressure washer to clean up their back porch grill. Of course, we moved the grill far away from the house to shoot off the grease & crud from the many cookouts they have here.
Tonight’s Shabbat brings (20) people to the twin tables for dinner; there were a lot of smiles & Sallie & Cindy’s cooking fed right into our exuberant thoughts.
K & I got the word earlier that Bruce & his pyrotechnic crew will be setting off fireworks tonight @10:00pm. Most of the people @ Sallie & Larry’s house, because of their own choosing & the late hour, did not venture down to enjoy the fireworks, but we sure did along with Sallie, Debbie, Ethan, Carrie, & Benji.
There must have been (50) + people down @ the viewing area ready to see the sky light up, plus another (40) watching from a rather large boat on the river nearby + others further up toward the Bruce & Marsha house. For a full (20) min that sky was dancing with magnificent colors & booms right above our heads; we’ve never been that close to the real McCoy fireworks before. It was fantastic. So many different colors & patterns, we loved seeing this display up close.
Then it’s time to say our thanks & goodbyes to Bruce & Marsha & others that we got to know during our stay; we walked back to our bus with Debbie, Ethan & Sallie. Debbie & Ethan hadn’t seen the inside of our bus so we gave them a good tour & Sallie wanted to see it again.
Larry & Sallie & their many friends, who came & went during our (3) weeks stay, were always very interesting, kind, friendly, fun, & gracious to us. We enjoyed them all.
Earlier this evening, at dinner time, a very touching closing statement was made: we were honored to have 1st cousin status bestowed upon us before we left. They told us that this honor has not been given to anyone in over 34 yrs.
High temp=87 Lights out: 12:00 midnight
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