Monday, August 15, 2016

Hi Tech Home

Setting:
Late afternoon, Tokyo on a warm summer day.Nannie and the old guy are sitting on the couch in living room after a long flight, hauling the suitcases unto the apartment and spending a few minutes with Chris trying to figure out how to turn on the air conditioner. 

One might think that task not too difficult for a librarian and a teacher who specializes in helping students learn to read. Of course all the controls are labeled in Japanese and  It turns that the air conditioning system is also a heating system and when they old guy clicked the wrong button, cold air was reluctant to enter the apartment. With a little exploration, however, That mission  was soon accomplished and they get a brief overview of the rest of the apartment.  

"Here's the controls for the bathtub. You turn the system on, then click this button to fill the tub. The water will come in at the preset temperature and stay there. "



Later that evening Nannie went into the little room that was the "bathroom" ( and contained nothing but the bathtub and an adjacent handheld shower sizzle attachment. She click the buttons, took a bath and luxuriated in stepping into a hot bath and steeping the stress away.

The old guy found that a couple of glasses of water and the passage of some time were resulting in a need to relieve himself of extra liquids so he went into the "toilet" room (which contained nothing but the electronically controlled porcelain throne). He sat down to discover that the seat was warm and the control panel on the wall adjacent offered a number of interesting choices in Japanese again, but luckily these included helpful pictures :


As one might note from the picture above, a person can adjust the temperature of the seat as well as the temperature and force the water sprays in addition to the force of the flush (which happens automatically when you stand up ). Very interesting.

The stove controls are fairly simple : on and off for each burner and up and down arrows for the level of heat desired.

But the washing machine. Here's an interesting conundrum. Our Muzungus were given a brief exploration which included something about timed wash and etc. but they haven't quite figured this all out yet. They do greatly appreciate the two English words found there as quite appropriate "fuzzy control"


The exploration continues, as does the adventure ...

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Enjoying Michigan

Living in Michigan
Nannie and the old guy (aka the Mzungus) live in a great old house in a beautiful part of the US - Holland Michigan. Here are just few glimpses into why they enjoy Michigan so much ...

Biking 

"Let's do something this weekend."
"Good idea. What do you wanna do ?"
"I don't know, but let's do something fun."
"Go for a bike ride ?"
"We could go back over by Rockford on that bike trail I like - what's it called again ?"
"The White Pine Trail. Fun. Let's do it!"

So the old guy put the bike rack on the car, Nannie filled her water bottle, they both changed into their very attractive biking shorts, and the Mzungus headed off to Comstock Park. Arriving at the trail head parking lot, (behind some stores and restaurants downtown), they slathered on the sun block, straddled their metal steeds, and peddled up the converted railroad bed.




It was a perfect day with a mix of sun and clouds, a light breeze, and very pleasant temperature for a nice ride.  The couple rode about 22 miles, stopped for a couple of refreshing and well deserved local brews and then finished with about 8 more miles back to the car.

Kayaking

"Hey Kate - wanna go Kayaking?"
"That sounds like fun. Is Nannie coming?"
"Of course"
So Kate, Nannie, and the old guy bundled into the car and headed down to Douglas and the kayak livery at Wades Bayou. All the kayaks were rented out so they decided to have a little lunch and come back a little later.

A couple of hours later, the kayaks were available and off they went.

It was a beautiful cloudy day and not too hot as they meandered around the lily pads and tall reeds.