Social Isolation Project: Old Speaker Repair

Thirty-one years ago Linda and I were finally both working in our careers of choice and with that came slightly more prosperous days. Like many young families starting out, we invested in the one thing everyone needed in their home, a set of bitchin stereo speakers!

Back then I researched the different loudspeakers available on the market: Klipsch, Bose, Advent, Dahlquist, SpeakerLab, and Acoustic Research (ARs). I spent hours listening to these models over at Huppin’s in Spokane or anywhere hi-fi sound was produced.

I would sit down and have the salesman play cuts from three albums that I carried with me during my search. Aja by Steely Dan, Rumors by Fleetwood Mac, and Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd were my go-to vinyl. I know, my selections fell in the middle of the road when it came to audiophile listening. I chose the cuts because I believed they covered the range of listening my vinyl collection demonstrated.

After hours of intense listening and making a true assessment of my financial status, I chose a set of Acoustic Research AR TSW 610 speaker towers built between 1987-89. They had a sound I liked and their price came in on the high end of affordable. I felt they were beautiful towers with a sound that was close to perfect.

Each speaker has a 12″ woofer, 6.5″ midrange and. 75 Titanium dome tweeter. They could take up to 175 watts of power and the sound they produced could make your ears hurt. (I never listened at that volume, LOL.) My love affair for those speakers began.

Fast forward to about three years ago when I was watching TV. We were running our home entertainment system through my Denon amp and using my ARs for the sound. (I know, how fast love fades! My precious speakers have become a TV sound system.)

All of a sudden my amp shut down! I thought my amp was going bad so I traded the Denon amp for a Pioneer amp that I had collected as a media center back up.  Within fifteen minutes the Pioneer shut down and gave me an error message that pointed to a short in my speakers.  I quickly traded out the ARs and hooked up some old shelf speakers I used in my garage. They worked fine and are still working!

This pandemic we are suffering through has given us one interesting by-product. Time at home, separated from other distractions. Linda and I have cleaned our house, cleaned up our yard, and started several projects that have been procrastinated for years. My AR speaker repair was one project that I put off and felt that maybe I would never complete.

I talked to my brother about the short in the speaker towers and I took a closer look at the speakers and found that the foam rubber gaskets on all four of the speakers had deteriorated and ripped/flaked apart.

Doing an internet search I found that replacing the foam was standard practice and I was able to order a kit to make the repairs. I placed the order and then went back to the internet and found YouTube videos showing exactly what the repair process was all about. This all looked like something I could do given my free time in self-quarantine.

I removed all four speakers and started the scraping and cleaning needed to prepare them for the replacement of the new foam. While the speakers were removed, my brother Dale came out and looked over the power boards inside the speaker boxes. He tested everything and drew up a schematic of these boards inside.  At this time we haven’t discovered a short, but we are still working on assessing if we need to update the electronics.

Home

3272 miles, 24 nights, four national parks and a host of state campgrounds, what a trip! Both Linda and I agree that it is good to be back home, but we are already planning our next outing. This past one will be hard to beat.

As you know, I found a phone app called Polarsteps. All you do is download the app, create a login and then tell it the day you will leave and return from your trip, it basically does the rest. I would look at the app every night and then take a picture or use a picture I took during the day and that would mark our day of travel. You can see the results below. Very easy to use and in the entire trip there were only two times that something went wrong and the GPS goofed up. Oh, just another toy for me to goof with as we explore.

Home

We have been home a couple of weeks now, the first few days were sunny and very nice. Then the rain came and we have settled into the gray of North Idaho. Projects that needed to be attended to are the focus of our days. Vehicle maintenance, home repairs, and planning for our next outing keep me busy.

It is nice to get back home. Our bed is fantastic, the sower in our house is amazing! There are many good things about being home, but that doesn’t stop us from thinking about our little winter hideaway. Since our return there hasn’t been a day that we haven’t talked about the Melaque, the people or the warmth. Here is a quick couple of lists I made.

The things I miss about Melaque:

The ocean

Waves crashing on the beach

The perfect weather

Walking everywhere

Passing smiling people on the street and saying “Buenos Dias”

Skip Bow

Jacquie and Grant

Waking up, avoiding eye contact and saying good morning

Pool volleyball

Pollo Asado and food smells throughout the town

The breeze coming off the ocean

Buen Gusto, Pedro’s Tacos, Maui Burger, Pechecane Pizza

Chelly, smiling from his cash register any time you walk by

Mexican Train

Reading, after climbing 36 steps up to the palapa

Rosita’s for breakfast or a torta

Watching Linda examine the entire menu and then choose “Una quesadilla con Pollo, por favor.”

Shower before bed

Being able to buy five sprigs of cilantro from Chelly

Drinks and games under the palapa.

Listening to the ladies order “Margaritas en las rocas, sin sal” during beach time

Walking around the Zocolo

Riding the “chicken” busses

The vendor that sells “Tamales!”

Listening to Zags games or cuddling and watching movies in Linda’s bed

Paying 110 pasos at Pedro’s for a full dinner for two with drinks

Pelicans flying two inches over the ocean waves
Evening treats, cookies, Ice cream or churros

Things I don’t miss:

Dogs barking at night

Uncomfortable chairs and small beds

A few hot, very humid, days

Small bugs in the evening if I forgot my spray
Loud fireworks at 4 am in the morning

Bands at night with Tubas

Motorcycles with no mufflers

Real bad street smells

The good things far out weight the bad. Guess we will be going back!

Windows

Several weeks ago we had the pleasure of having a visit from our two good friends from Canada, Jacquie and Grant. Before they arrived, Linda and I cleaned our house from top to bottom. One of the tasks led us into the guest bedroom where we set about cleaning the window glass. Linda was inside and I went outside and we started cleaning. When Linda pressed on the glass to clean it, the whole window glass fell out and I barely caught it in time.


I pushed it back into place and rushed into the garage, grabbing some caulk. I smeared the glass and the window frame with the calk and pushed it back into place. It held and our visitors had a window. My next big project was crystal clear (like our windows). I would have to replace that window and two others.

All the windows in our house need a bit of attention, but three were very bad. I checked the size and found that they were standard-sized window frames. Then I priced them and did some research dealing with replacing the windows myself. My neighbor, Steve, said that he didn't think it would be hard and offered to help.

On a sunny Monday morning, I walked into the backyard and tore off the window frames exposing the old window to the world. It didn't look like a huge task so I took everything off down to the window. I then went over and got Steve.

For the next four days, Steve and I played home improvement and tore out and installed three windows. These pictures will tell the story. I finished painting today.

Linda's Quail

For the past 10 days or so, Linda has been nesting. Actually, Linda has been doing everything she can to draw quail to our backyard. She loves to listen to their calls and always laughs as they run across streets, their little legs spinning like a Peanuts cartoon character would. My wife has liberally distributed bird food designed to attract quail. She has even placed a little lid out by the food in which water collects. Our backyard has become quail nirvana.

The problem is getting those cute little things to find that our yard is their bird utopia.

As I worked on a housing project (check out the next blog post for the specifics) I noticed one lone male quail intently watching me work. This silly bird would stand on top of the fence and stare at me as I went about installing new windows. When I walked out to the front, he would walk along the fence to the front yard and watch me. While in the backyard, I called Linda out and told her about this quail's strange attraction to home improvements.


We watched as the quail watched.  After a bit, Linda said that she thought this quail was the one she had spotted a couple of days earlier hanging around on our neighbor's roof. At this point, Linda started calling this bird Quincy.

We were both amazed and intrigued at how comfortable Quincy seemed to be as he sat and watched us.

Our work took us inside the house and after a few minutes Linda called me over and pointed out the window. There was Quincy on the fence and huddled below on the grass was a very puffy female quail. As we watched, we could see movement underneath her. She was hiding six ping-pong sized babies under her feathers!

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching this little family feed in our backyard. We figured that they had a nest somewhere near because the chicks were so small.

The past two days we have kept a close eye on them. They move about our yard and sometimes venture out into the front area. I had to chase a cat away yesterday; it was a close call.

We will continue to watch them and hope they all grow up happy and healthy!

Eagles Concert -Amazing!

May Long Weekend

Post Falls Dam wide open!

Over the weekend our friends Jacquie and Grant from Canada came down to visit. It was their first time in the area surrounding Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls so most everything we did was a new and exciting adventure for them.  The beauty of our area makes it easy to entertain guests.

Our first day as guides we loaded into the truck and provided them with what we called the Falls Tour.  Starting in Post Falls we visited the dam and viewed the city's namesake. The water going over the dam was very high due to a large amount of snowmelt. I admit it is a very impressive site.

Footbridge over Spokane River.

The next stop was in Spokane, WA. This city has several falls with footbridges or bike paths that give you spectacular views of the rushing water.  We parked on the north side of the river and walked the footbridges of Riverfront Park to the south. It was a wet and wonderful walk. Below one of the footbridge sections, we spotted a big blue exercise ball that someone had tossed into the river.  It was stuck in an eddy and kept circulating around. At times it would enter the turgid water under the falls and get spit out, only to float down and catch the eddy line again and again. It was quite mesmerizing. We watched it for quite some time before we walked on down and looked at the lower falls.

When we had enjoyed the views the falls provided we went to lunch at PF Chang's, where we had a wonderfully relaxing lunch. Once we were finished the group did some quick shopping and then walked back to the truck.

Now you can't visit Spokane without dropping by Manito Park to view all the flowers, so that's what we did next! We were a bit early for the spectacular viewing of the petunia beds. They had just been planted and were not blooming at this time. We visited the greenhouse and got a chance to see the plants in bloom there.

After we finished the park tour we drove down to the Perry District and Linda and Jacquie went shopping at the Title 9 clothing store. Both ladies purchased some beautiful clothes. Grant and I did our best to stay out of the frenzy.

The big blue ball that we watched.

Saturday we went down into Coeur d'Alene and showed off my hometown. We ate breakfast at Bakery by the Lake and then we hiked around Tubbs Hill. After the hike, we did some shopping at the stores along Sherman Ave. It was nice to be able to show off the place I was raised.

Looking at the lower falls in Spokane.

Each night we had a special dinner either cooked at home or out at one of our favorite restaurants. On Sunday we went out along the lake and hiked a trail up to the top of Mineral Ridge. The views of Lake Coeur d'Alene are spectacular and we had a beautiful day to show off these wonders.

We did our best to give our friends a taste of the region without completely wearing them out. In the evening Jacquie beat us in Skip-Bo and we made plans for our stay together in Mexico next December through the middle of March.  We hoped it was a restful, relaxing, and fun visit away from school and home for our friends. It ended too soon.

Run Forest, run!

The big blue ball again!

The Mineral Ridge hike.

Lake Coeur d'Alene, from the top of the ridge.

Ridgetop selfie!

Jacquie and Grant.