Friday, February 19, 2021 -- Manhattan Beach Pier -- Warm & Sunny Day (high 60s)

There were quite a few people out and about.

I waited for the area to clear to take the pictures...

Electric bike.  An older guy had a dog riding in the front basket.

The bike has full suspension (pretty basic) and a front hub motor (not typical).  I'm guessing it's a "conversion" of a pretty basic (big box store) mountain bike into an electric bike (note that the wheels don't match and the bike has full gearing like a normal bike - front and rear derailleurs).  The battery is the silver box in the rear rack.

This is not a bad way to go, especially if you already have a bike that doesn't get used much (with rim brakes) and if you can economically install a simple kit, then it's much cheaper than buying a new dedicated electric bike & now it may get more use...

 

Let the Smoke out of the Air Fryer...

Got this around Christmas.

Was working fine until...

The electric (acrid) smoke got let out...

Lasted about 6 weeks?

Dell Reflection & Desk Parking

 

Lotus Esprit Book -- Part 5

 

Corkboard next to the Work Station...

 Some more stuff added recently...

Trimming the Bougainvillea on the side of the house - part 3

The bougainvillea was already there when we moved in 28 years ago.

Over the years, it has grown to the point that it sticks out from the wall 3 to 4 feet.

Originally, it was pretty much like a vine against the wall but the growth has been up and out from the wall.

The concrete between the cutouts for the bougainvillea planting is 55 inches wide.

This area of the bougainvillea has been trimmed back about 80% of what was there before the trimming started...

There's a pile of wood stalks/branches that need to be cut down smaller and put in the green bin.

The green bin is full so will have to dispose of it over the next several weeks...

There's three places where the vines come out of the ground.

Still need to trim more between the three locations to clear the space between the plants some more...

Nearly 180 degree panorama of the wall with the bougainvillea...

 

Porsche Boxster (1/87 scale)

 

Lotus Esprit Book -- Part 4

 

Wednesday, February 17, 2021 -- Manhattan Beach Pier -- Warm but windy day

This is the elevated section of the beach bike path that goes along the berm where they do the hang gliding lessons (it's at the end of this picture, about 100 yards down from where the picture was taken).

It's been very windy the last 4 to 5 days.

The wind has blown sand on the bike path...

Most of it is traversable with the bike but it's not good for the bike to have the sand get into all the moving parts, especially the chain and gears.

Using a dry lube helps quite a bit with this issue (wet lube and sand don't mix...).

 The flags are at full flutter...

The water is pretty choppy...

Usually the waves are pretty bad in these type of conditions.

Catalina is pretty clearly visible...

Package from TS - part 3