Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

So we bought a new KitchenAid dishwasher at the end of December (DW) (LJ), as the one that came with the house in the summer of 1993 was dying. We'd been talking about upgrading the heavy kitchen appliances, since they were over twenty-one -- and replacing a fridge when it fails on its schedule is no fun.

Back on the day of the Earthquake (DW) (LJ) we'd been in Grand Haven back at Bekins looking at new refrigerators. No, the old one wasn't dead. But I've had too many people have to deal with old refrigerators which died. Less of a big deal in the dead of winter in Michigan, but Summer is Coming. And since, like the dishwasher we replaced at the end of 2014 (DW) (LJ), the refrigerator was going to be twenty-two years old this year, I'd say we got our money's worth out of it.

Besides, we hadn't yet deposited the Federal tax refund check yet. (grin)

We came to a decision about a refrigerator pretty quickly. We're on well water, so really have no need to waste door space with an ice-and-water maker. We both hated my mom's side-by-side refrigerator-freezer and liked the freezer underneath of our first unit. Ended up there was a nice KitchenAid which had the bonus of matching the stainless steel and curved handles of the new dishwasher. Why not?

While Mrs. Dr. Phil was across the room taking shelves and drawers apart, I was parked in a chair -- right next to this stove. A stainless steel KitchenAid with the same curved handles, two ovens, a smaller one over the usual big stove, a fifth "fish burner" with grill pan, and much easier to clean and heavier duty grates. Oh, and ball bearings on the adjustable racks, with a cutout handle to make getting in and out easier. Really nice.

At first Mrs. Dr. Phil said no, but a couple things became clear. One, and you can call this trivial, but those nice curved handles we like? Naturally, they are going away and all the new models from all the companies are having straight handles. Two, the ovens are convection ovens, too. The more we looked at the range, well, we had been talking about upgrading the stove, too, at some point. Apparently some point was now. And given the cooking Mrs. Dr. Phil does, and we didn't pick the stove 22 years ago either, why not? Call it in between your basic consumer gas range and those semi-commercial grade Viking units popular with the granite counter yuppie remod people. Pretty much same size as the old one, so it's a drop in.

Delivery day was set for Thursday. We have the 2.5 cu.ft. minifridge downstairs we bought for storing IV bags of antibiotics a year ago, so critical supplies like milk didn't have to depend on coolers or ice bags. And there was plenty of stuff to weed and certain things we've kept in the refrigerator that can stand to be out for a time. Plus we spent ten days eating down some of the reserves. Oh, blueberry-rhubarb crisp... from last year's wonderful bumper crop of lovely blueberries.

The Old


Our kitchen since 1993. Mrs. Dr. Phil at first declared the fridge a magnet-free zone, but between my mother and my sister and other friends and relatives, that was quickly a lost cause. These are almost all wide angle shots with the 12-24mm f4G DX AF-S NIKKOR at 12mm (18mm equivalent, 99°). (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


GE XL44 gas range. Converted to LP. (They ran natural gas down the road less than two years after we moved. Mostly we've saved money by not paying for the pipe and converting all our appliances... again.) (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Sears Kenmore 21 cu.ft. refrigerator with 6 cu.ft. freezer. When we bought it, this was the first of new ultra energy efficient units, with an EPA estimated annual cost of $58/year -- and off the charts below the range listed for all 21 cu.ft. refrigerators. So we've been fairly immune to all the news articles saying CHANGE YOUR FRIDGE AND SAVE BIG MONEY! (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

The New


Bekins is not the cheapest store, but they have a lovely showroom, really knowledgeable sales staff and really great repair and installation teams. With the fridge emptied and de-magnetized, and the stove top cleared in the morning, they came in at 1:30 and had both units out really fast. Hardest thing was figuring out if the doors needed to come off the fridge to fit through the door -- they did. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Old units in the garage. Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity will pick them up next week -- nothing wrong with either unit. Oh, and if you are prone to worry, yes we left the fridge doors open so it doesn't turn into some horrible biology lab experiment in the meantime. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Fridge in. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Bringing in the range. Mrs. Dr. Phil really liked the carrying straps the guys were using. Because we had stairs, they weren't going to use a handtruck or dolly. And you can clearly see the curved handles here, which won't snag or catch as you walk past. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Hooking up the LP line and checking for gas leaks. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Paperwork to sign. Well, it's ours now. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Our new kitchen for the next ten-fifteen years plus. Oh, and just like with the new dishwasher, there is an issue with the nice curved handles when their doors are shut and a small utility drawer. But, we can mostly make it work. The new stove can't get as close to the wall as the old one, since the cutout in the back isn't in the right place for the shutoff valve on the LP line. So much for standardization, guys. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


I forget to take a close-up picture of the new fancy range display. Besides a clock, it displays the actual temperature of both ovens, you care barely make out the red numbers on this blowup, plus chase messages in blue -- these are saying Pre-heating. Both ovens were put on 350°F for half an hour to take off the oil all the inside parts are coated in.
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Open wide. The crew took a good long time to get this exactly leveled. Not so easy in a house where it's always had a few issues with horizontal floors. (We're built on sand and I think there's some settling over 20+ years.) (Click on photos for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

To Celebrate!

Three hours after the new appliances were installed... we drove to Coopersville and picked up the Bravada, which needed an A.C. recharge and picked up a pizza. What? You thought Mrs. Dr. Phil was going to cook after unloading and loading a refrigerator and cleaning stuff all day? When the fridge is purged and allowed to be understocked because... reasons?

327 Pizza and Pub, named for both their street address on Main Street in Coopersville, and Chevy's iconic 327 cu.in. V8 -- Wendy's used 1969 Camero had a 327. And they say they do: "Chicago Style Thick crust pizza that is just like a PIE! We build our pizza inside a deep dish pan, put another crust on top of that, and finish it off with another helping of sauce and Romano cheese."

Did somebody say Chicago stuffed pizza in Coopersville, even closer than Crust 54 in Holland? Hello? ... sets Speed Dial 327 on phone...


Chicago style two crust pizza with sausage, mushrooms, black olives and green peppers. About $24. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Though it's really too thin to be a real Chicago stuffed pizza, it's a nice pizza pie. The sauce on top has lots of Romano and the crust was really tasty. They have other pizzas and calzones -- methinks this is probably closer to their calzones than Edwardo's.

Oh, and the appliances are really nice. They look like they belong. We think we'll keep them for a while.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Friday. May the First. Temperature hit 73°F in Kalamazoo. Saturday was similar.

These days I mostly commute with a single Nikon and one lens. For the D100 I usually use the 28-80mm f3.5-5.6G AF NIKKOR. But Friday I took a camera bag and from the start of my drive, I used the 80-200mm f4.5-5.6D AF NIKKOR. Ken Rockwell lists this as "Nikon's Lightest Telephoto Zoom", yet optically it is a worthy successor to the original 80-200mm f4.5 Zoom-NIKKOR manual focus lens.


I love furry dry weeds and grasses, especially backlit. This is the edge of the cedar swamp on 84th Avenue less than a mile from our house. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Cropped shot of a tractor plowing with a dust plume behind. I thought I'd try to stay for a shot of it coming back withe plume behind the tractor, but he was driving around in big squares, not up-and-down, so I'm glad I got this shot. Was impressed that the autofocus still locked on the tractor, despite the dust. This is also on 84th Avenue, where all the fields have been plowed now. The big corn fields east of 84th on M-45 Lake Michigan Drive haven't started yet. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Every spring this line of pink flowering trees in front of Family Fare in Allendale glows as I go to work in the mid-morning and early evening on the way home. Since I had a long lens mounted, I pulled into the gas station and shot down the line of trees. A breeze was knocking petals off in big clouds, but this shot didn't have many. Tough lighting for a D100 -- you can see the overblown highlights in the sky. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Leaving the office on Friday, there were dandelions in the grass below the raised sidewalk. I tried to shoot a clump straight down, but the 80-200mm has a minimum distance of 5 feet -- too close. So angled and got this dandelion, slightly backlit by the late afternoon sun. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Saturday I found that the 80-200mm lens on the D100 still fit in the neoprene Zing camera case, so hoping I didn't need a shorter lens, didn't even bother with the camera bag. We had half an hour to kill in Grand Haven before going to see Avengers: Age of Ultron, so we went down to Grand Haven Harbor. While waiting for Mrs. Dr. Phil to return with a couple of chili dogs, I was able to take a few shots.


Cropped shot of a red bench along the boardwalk. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Kids, a dog, parents -- all happy on a warm spring day. Love the pose on the kid in the middle, and the smile on the dog. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Cropped shot of our hearty little stand of daffodils next to our driveway. Looks very happy coming up the drive. Evening light to the left backlighting here. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Pretty pleased with these. Going backlit with a Gen 1.5 DSLR is pretty tough. The only thing I might've changed would have been to take a 70-300mm instead of the 80-200mm. But that would've taken the Zing Pro camera case. Funny thing about zooms -- one tends to use the extremes a lot.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Finally

The Grand Rapids Press reports that construction of M-231 in Ottawa County is about to begin.

Also known as the M-231 bypass, it will include a 3,700-foot-long bridge over the Grand River that will connect M-45 (Lake Michigan Drive) to the interchange at I-96 and M-104 near Nunica. It also will involve putting additional lanes on M-104 near I-96 and additional ramps at I-96 and 112th Avenue and, later, the widening of U.S. 31 in parts of Holland and Grand Haven.

There's been talk about bypassing US-31 out of Holland and Grand Haven for forty years. A full freeway bypass was around $170 million -- this project will run a hundred million less.

Sure, getting the traffic out of the cities sounds nice, but the real issue is the number of crossings over the Grand River. There's US-31 in Grand Haven and 68th Avenue due north out of Allendale. The problem? The US-31 bridge is a lift bridge to allow sailboats out to Lake Michigan. And sometimes the bridge gets stuck. The detour from M-45 to 68th Avenue to I-96 -- is nearly forty miles. Crossing on the 120th Avenue corridor will cut that in half.


18 Years Ago

About two weeks after we moved into our new house, word came around that MDOT was having a public meeting to discuss three bypass options. These were full-bore freeway proposals. One was right around Grand Haven, one at 120th Avenue and one at 84th Avenue. The last one would've taken out our brand new house. Yikes!

Still, the 84th Avenue corridor was the lowest probability option, because it required the longest road swinging down to I-196 outside Holland and was so far east it would only would have cut ten miles off the forty mile detour. But for a while there was a nervous sense of impending doom. (grin)

Dr. Phil