A message came just before retiring last night that the name of our newest grandchild is Tziyon Akiva McGuire.

The forecast for today indicated the high would be near 80F and sunny, the warmest day since our arrival and a goo day for doing laundry. So five loads were done and we hung them on the rotatable clothesline. We ran out of clothespins, so a drying rack was also taken outside into the sun and breeze.

The garage door appeared to be jamming. It could usually be opened or closed by giving the opener a bit of manual assistance. The door is a roll-up style door which uses 8 pulleys and a cable almost 50 feet long. Eventually, I found that the cable had come off one of the two pulleys that are at floor level, Managed to get the cable back in the pulley’s groove, but after a couple up/down cycles of the doo, the cable jumped off again. Careful inspection revealed that the cable now had kinks in it from rubbing over a sharp edge, after jumping off this pulley. These kinks were just enough to ‘derail’ this cable when it slackened in the ‘up’ direction. I tightened the slack cable multiple times before it was taut enough for the kinks to stay in the groove. In addition, the door has not been fully closing and required foot assistance to close the last inch or so. I adjusted the ‘down’ limit on the opener, so the door now completely closes. It also pulls the cable tighter, so that with time the remaining small cable kinks should disappear.

In the middle of this project, Virginia said the washing machine was stopped and showing an error code. Fortunately a manual found on-line, indicated the code meant ‘slow drain’. One of the causes was a clogged drain filter. That filter is behind a door on the lower front of the machine. When I pulled it out, water gushed out and there was a lot of trash (pebbles, small sticks, lint and even two Swaziland 10 cent coins).

We have noticed the exhaust fan in the bathroom was almost clogged up with black colored dust/lint. I couldn’t reach it off a chair, but, with the kid swimming pool ladder stored in the garage, I could reach it by stretching. Tried to get the cover off, but it would not come, so a vacuum cleaner was used to get the worst of the dirt off. That is when I saw an embossed arrow in one place that read “pull here” in tiny letters. Now the cover popped right off and Virginia gave it a good scrub in the kitchen sink. We wonder when it was last cleaned? This house was built 30 years ago!

Before taking our trip to Royal Natal National Park on Wednesday, I decided to inspect the Honda Fit Hybrid that we have been loaned while here. Checked out the normal things (oil, water, and brake fluid levels) and, since there was no operator manual in the glove, looked one up on-line. In the hybrid model, there is no spare tire, just a can of ‘fix-a-flat’! The batteries are where the spare is normally located.