Beautiful Day!

 78*, sunny, light breezes, what a wonderful day. The apple tree picture is from before all the rain started, which knocked all the petals off. It was already starting to drop them when I finally grabbed a picture of it.

They don't seem to be particularly fragrant, and nowhere near what the lilac and lavender are, which you can smell all over the front and side yards when they're blooming.

 And being such a beautious day, my son and I went to the NOCO Record Show at one of the local breweries to see what's out there in new and used vinyl.

Also found out we have some really good record stores here that charge fair prices, and carry re-releases along with used records.

So, I bought a few. It's a good thing I had limited ca$h with me, or I would have come home with a truckload. Ca$h was King, resulted in discounted prices and some fun haggling, and no receipts.

The Foreigner 4 and Bob Seeger albums are used, but very close to "pristine". No visible scratches or scuffs, and play great. The King Crimson album is scratched and scuffed on both sides, and one of the tracks I like has a big, nasty scratch through it. I should have pulled it out to inspect it, but it was sealed, so I didn't open it. Caveat Emptor! The two albums peeking out from behind Foreigner and KC are two new re-releases from the Eagles, pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl. One says "Made in the Netherlands", and the other just says "Made in the EU".

So vinyl has quite a strong following here, both as used items (Caveat Emptor!) and as new releases. I was talking to the young guy who was the DJ, and noticed he was using Technics SL-1200 turntables. I commented I had an SL-1210 MK5, and he about wet his pants. Yes, it's that good a turntable, and damn near unbreakable. Several people noticed the tee-shirt I was wearing and asked about Reel-To-Reel machines. Pretty soon I was talking to several of them, and while many have considered a Reel-To-Reel deck, the lack of anybody around here willing to work on them makes them a bit gun-shy. So I might hear back from one of them, I might not.

And I've gathered up all the bits and pieces to install SLW's drip irrigation system for her front garden area. Made a crude (for me) sketch of where the 1/2" Main Line will run, and how much I'll need, and counted plants. After that it gelled, I realized I'd need a whole bunch more stuff than came in the "Starter Kit" I bought last year. Took about another $175 @ Home Depot to square that away. Parts should be here (FREE Delivery!) by Wednesday. Now that I know all the bits and pieces that make up a system, it should be easy install. I ordered enough "extra" stuff so that SLW can expand it with parts-on-hand, while leaving plenty of spares. The stuff is plastic. It ages, gets brittle, and breaks. Better to have the stuff in stock to fix it immediately. I'll also have to fab a blow-out adapter so I can winterize the system, but that's easy-peasy. I even splurged and bought the solar-powered, programmable timer to control the water coming out of that spigot.

SLW has a history of turning on the water and forgetting about it.......