Standing on the threshold of 2020.....

6:46 am - Thursday - January 2nd - Ramona, CA - 37° F, 93% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the east by northeast......overcast this morning with a forecast high today of 69° F.

You could not have drawn up a finer New Years Day than we had this year, January 1, 2020.  It was the kind of January day that inspired the original organizers (Valley Hunt Club) of the Tournament of Roses Parade back in 1890.  They wanted to show the world what a great place Southern California was in which to spend the winter, or to even live full time.  While a lot of the country was buried in snow each January 1st, Pasadena had flowers blooming, and their orange trees are about to bear.......

.....January 1st, 2020 was the kind of January day that inspired the original founders 130 years ago.  We were up watching the annual Rose Parade by 8 am, and the day just improved from there.  

One of my plans for New Years Day was to repair our patio awning.  The thread in one of the seams came apart in the last Santa Ana episode.  Our Zip Dee awning is 38 years old, and although the Sunbrella fabric looks as good as it did 38 years ago, those same 38 years of UV exposure have damaged the heavy duty thread used on the seams to the point where it is now giving way.  When the first seam gave way a few years ago I called Zip Dee to find out how to fix it and they told me to use clear, silicone caulk to rebind the seam (Sunbrella is made out of silicone).  I did, and it worked.   Trying to hand sew that 6.5' seam would be a nightmare, and short of replacing the entire awning, using the silicone caulk is a good half measure.  The original seam I fixed about 5 years ago is still holding just fine.  

So, it was now 1 pm, and the awning was bathed in sunlight, and would be for about 3 hours, so I set up the outdoor TV (The Rose Bowl game was set to begin at 2 pm), and began to work on the seam.  With TLE's help I had it repaired in about 90 minutes.  I first used some black sail thread to tack the seam together in two places so the rest of it would overlap properly, then applied the caulk.  With an hour the caulk had cured to the point where the seam was once again sealed.

Once we were done we went inside to watch the rest of the Rose Bowl game (#6 Oregon Ducks vs. #8 Wisconsin Badgers), and what a game it was!  The score seesawed back and forth the entire 3+ hours........the final score as the clock wound down to zero was 28-27 in favor of the Oregon Ducks.  The other two games were very one sided, and not worth mentioning.

Around 5 pm I lit the Sea-B-Que to grill our New Year filet mignons......I grilled them for 5 minutes on each side, and they came out a perfect medium rare.  TLE added mashed potatoes, and a salad......

......what a great way to wind down the first day of the New Year!  We were standing on the threshold of dreamland by 9:30 pm with big smiles upon our faces.

Thanks for stopping by!

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