Day 73, Year 10: Cleaning the Soul Pad
Date: Monday, December 22, 2014
Weather: No Change–Beautiful, Sunny Day, Temp in the 80’s F
Location: Visiting with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco in Aguada, PR
Today was all about cleaning the Soul Pad. This is the16-foot diameter canvas tent (looks like a very wide-based conical teepee) that was home-base for Justin and Jo at the Pirate Camp on the island of Culebra this past summer. During the heavy rainy season, the Soul Pad developed a bad case of mildew, and in a phone call with Justin before we came to visit, he asked for advice in how to deal with the problem. So after Justin’s phone call, I researched how to clean the tent and told him I would give a go at doing the job while we were visiting. When we arrived in San Juan we stopped at West Marine to get fabric guard protectorate and had hoped to get the magical Jomax for cleaning it at a Home Depot here. But unfortunately they don’t carry it and I had to order Jomax on Amazon and wait for the delivery. It arrived Saturday, but we weren’t home, so Mark and I went into the PO this morning to pick it up. When we returned, I launched my cleaning attack. The tent is set it up in the side yard for the kids to play in and as an extra place for guests to stay. I spent five hours spraying on the cleaner, waiting for it to do its job, spraying it off, and then doing the same over again. On a scale of 1 to 10, the mildew was a 10 and in the end I didn’t get it all, but the Soul Pad sure looks better. While I was doing this, Mark alternated between resting and spending time with Ziggy. Jo and Coco were out shopping, and Justin was working. Ziggy kept asking me if I was finished cleaning and hour after hour I had to keep telling him that I was not done. The last hour was spent cleaning up all the water off the floor of the tent after I had sprayed off the cleaner. And that was the hardest job of the day. But in the end, the tent looks much better and will hopefully dry by mid-afternoon tomorrow so we can apply the fabric guard to the outside.
We ended our evening by listening to an interview our daughter Heather had today with Dr. John Holdren, President Obama’s science advisor. I realize that we are a bit prejudiced, but it really was a good interview. If you are interested in hearing it, you can listen here: http://capeandislands.org/…/advising-president-science…
This link will take you to the Cape and Islands public radio site. Just scroll down a bit and click on ‘Listen’.
