The annual exodus from Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort is well underway. Most of the Canadian visitors have already departed. This morning, our next-door neighbors headed back to Iowa. The neighbor on the south side of us stays here year ’round. We’ll be here through the first week of May.

Things are slowly shaping up in our new-to-us park model home. This week, I hung drapes in the front room. Donna’s been watching the Facebook Marketplace and found some deals on rods and curtains.

Construction of these park model homes is different from what I’d expect to find in a regular sticks-and-bricks home. When I drilled holes for the curtain rod mounts, I didn’t know what I was drilling into. It turned out the center mount was on a solid header board. If I had known that from the start, I would have drilled smaller holes and tapped wood screws directly into the wall. But, having drilled oversized holes I had to insert anchors. It worked out fine. The end mounts were into thin plywood and required anchors.

The front window is curved. Donna found an articulated rod made for bay windows that fit perfectly. When I installed the curtain rod on the side window on the north side of the front room, I piloted the holes with a small drill bit first to see if I would be in solid wood or thin ply. Once again, the center mount went into solid header board while the end mounts needed anchors inserted into thin plywood.

Another thing I worked on this week was getting my guitar amps and pedal board set up and working. The amps have been locked away in a basement compartment of our coach for nearly eight years. I’ve really neglected my guitar and hardly played at all for the last couple of years.

I expected trouble with the vacuum tubes in the amplifier. They had to get shaken up on some of the roads we’ve traveled. I was pleased to find my Egnater Tweaker amp fired up with no issues at all. Then I was surprised to find the Marshall 18 Watt clone I built in 2011 worked fine. My luck didn’t hold out on the Trainwreck inspired amp I built in 2012 – it just crackled and made a few really fuzzy tones.

I suspected one or more vacuum tubes were shot. When I was a kid, back in the 1960s and ’70s, you could find a vacuum tube testing machine in almost every hardware store and even pharmacies and supermarkets. Nowadays, these testers are just a fading memory. Without any way to test the vacuum tubes, I broke out my credit card and ordered a complete set – three 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL34 power tubes (plus an extra 12AX7 to keep on hand).

When the tubes came, I almost switched them all out with the new ones, but then I decided to do one at a time and see which ones were bad. The first tube in the V1 position was a Tung-Sol 12AX7 and I had ordered one of these. These are made in Russia. All of the new production tubes I used are made in Russia or China. Vacuum tube manufacturing completely disappeared from the Americas and Europe as the technology is no longer used in most consumer applications. At one time, every television set had a complement of vacuum tubes and high-quality tubes were made in the USA and western Europe and were readily available. Today, it’s a niche market for audiophiles and guitar amplifiers.

After I installed the first tube, I plugged in the amp and tried it. It worked fine. The V1 position was the only bad tube! The Tung-Sol tube was under $20, but now I have three Shuguang 12AX7 tubes that I use in the V2 position of the Trainwreck and in two positions of the Marshall clone. I also have a Sovtek 12AX7LPS and two Ruby EL34s. So I’m set with spares, but if I could’ve tested first, I wouldn’t have ordered $130 worth of tubes.

I have the amplifiers stacked to save space and I can easily switch from one amp to another when I play. I also set up my pedal board and I’m happy to report that all is well with my effects pedals. I’m back to playing my guitar, but man am I rusty.

Donna had her second Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday. She got the shot in Fountain Hills and while she was there, she was able to visit two of her friends in the area – a gal she met through her church and a former neighbor, both of whom she hadn’t seen in a few years. She also enjoyed a solo alfresco lunch at her favorite Italian restaurant on the lake before heading to the pharmacy to get her vaccine. She felt fine when she went to bed, but woke up in the night with severe chills. By morning, she had a fever of 101.7 degrees. She was ill all day Wednesday and most of Thursday. She’s fine today and played tennis this morning.

I mentioned in my last post the Teruyasu Fujiwara Maboroshi gyuto I bought. You might wonder why I would want to have two Japanese chef’s knives. My two gyutos have completely different character with their own strengths. The Kintaro forged by Yoshimi Kato has a thin, light blade. The cutting edge of the blade is 215mm long and the knife weighs 131 grams. My TF Maboroshi is more stout – it has a cutting edge 200mm long and weighs in at 195 grams.

The Kintaro excels when slicing cabbage. It seems to float right through the produce like a ghost. But I have issues using it on potatoes. Potato slices stick to the side of the blade like they’re suctioned on – I practically have to peel the potato slices from the knife. The Maboroshi cuts cabbage fine, but it doesn’t have the feeling of just floating through. It’s super sharp though and excels on carrots and potatoes and just about anything. Potatoes do not stick to the hammered finish on the blade.

Lately, I’ve been handling the dinner prep – Donna tells me what’s on the menu and what she needs. I break out the cutting boards and prep whatever veggies she needs. This saves her some time and we both participate in the meal preparation.

On Monday, I made Japanese style fried rice while Donna grilled salmon and shishito peppers. It was a great meal.

On Tuesday, Donna kept it simple. She sauteed onions and mushrooms and baked spuds while I grilled filet mignon. Donna wrapped the filets with a strip of bacon. The filets were delicious and tender.

Last night, Donna made a new recipe. It was crispy chicken with turmeric-lemon cabbage and peas. It was a labor-intensive recipe that took nearly an hour and 15 minutes to prepare. The meal was great, but I don’t know if Donna wants to put that much effort into making it again.

The hot weather held over the weekend and through the start of the week. It was in the 90s until Wednesday when the high temperature was 87. Thursday cooled to 81 degrees for a high and today we expect 80 degrees. Last night was a comfortable 54 degrees. Looking ahead, we should maintain the highs in the 80s with maybe a day or two around 90 in the coming week.

I found the problem with our swamp cooler. There’s supposed to be a standpipe to drain water if the level gets too high. The standpipe was broken, so not enough water was in the sump. I fixed it and now the swamp cooler is awesome. We haven’t needed to run the air conditioner these last few days – the swamp cooler is doing the job great with just a box fan to circulate air to the front room.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!