The True Meaning of Christmas

Christmas means different things to different people. Everybody has their own tradition. For some people its about wearing ugly sweaters or singing Christmas carols or just getting together with family. For other people its about how many lights they can put on their house or how big their Christmas display can be. Last Thursday, I took the day off, and rode part of the Henry Hudson trail from Matawan to Sandy Hook and back. I got Jack, Ricky and Pete to join me. It was a windy day so it good that we were on a trail surrounded by woods most of the time. 

On the way through Hazlet I made a detour off the trail. I had read on NJ.com about a house that had one of the largest Christmas displays in the area and wanted to take a look. Even in the day time without the lights the amount of Santa's, snowmen and other figures was ridiculous.

After checking out the display we headed to Sandy Hook on the trail. It was about 15 miles to get there. Because of the wind we didn't go past the second parking lot. On the way back I decided to check out the Mt Mitchill overlook which I always wanted to do. 

It really wasn't a hard climb to get there and it gave a really good view of Sandy Hook. We road along the cliffs for a few miles continuing to get some views of the bay before we made our way back to the trail. On the way back the only thing of interest was some kind of cat half way house.

It was parking lot with some cat houses on one side and bowls on the other side with cats eating out of them. 

On Christmas eve while driving home we decided to make a stop at the same house in Hazlet since it was only a few miles out of the way. It was worth the stop to see it at night and was a fun thing to do. At night the brightness of the lights was almost blinding. We walked around the display for about 10 mins and took some pictures. The display is not only in the front yard

But spills over to the backyard.

Putting out a big light display may not be part of your Christmas tradition but I hope you all have a joyous holiday season.

Home Improvements

 

We are entering the winter doldrums where you are either riding in cold, windy or wet weather and sometimes all three. When the weather gets colder the rides get shorter and less often. If I'm lucky I usually get out once a week for a 40ish mile ride. The last few weeks I have been doing rides from MCP, Reed Rec Area, and from my house. Although these rides let me keep riding and hanging out with the posse there is nothing much worth writing about for these rides. 

The winter is also the time when I work on some home improvements since I have more time indoors. One of the reasons we moved was to have a house that required less maintenance. The house we bought was in pretty good shape so there is nothing urgent that needed to be done. Still there were some improvements we wanted to make to keep it in good shape and enhance it to fit us a little better. 

Although we had the interior of the house painted right after we moved in there was one room we didn't have painted.

When we bought the house we weren't sure that we wanted all the book shelves and cabinets in the office as we don't have a lot of books to display or files to store. We thought we might want to remove some of the cabinetry but after living with it for a few months the built in desk and shelves work pretty well. We may add some doors but otherwise we like the room so I spent a few days painting it a better color.

So now every room in the house has been painted and we shouldn't need to do any more painting for quite a while.

The house we bought is 17 years old so there are a few things that needed to be replaced. The first thing we replaced was the water heater. Although it was it good working order it is better to replace a water heater before it starts leaking and causes damage. The other thing we replaced was the stove. It was the one thing in the house that was really worn.

It was not only scratched up but one of the burners was actually not working. When they built the house the put both electric and gas fittings under the stove so we replaced the electric stove with a gas one which my wife had been wanting for years.

Even with the supply chain issues we got lucky and only had to wait a week to get the stove. The dishwasher which we also decided to replace will probably take a few months to get.

One of the other home improvements I have been working on is making the house more automated. I updated the thermostat to a smart the ecobee lite which not only works a lot better than the old thermostat but I can control it from my phone which means when I'm away from home I can now check to see if the heat is working and not worry about the pipes freezing.

I also added some smart switches and plugs. This not only make it easier to set timers for my lights to go on and off but also allows me to control then using voice commands. This is convenient when the dog gets up in the middle of the night and I need to put her out without tripping over the furniture.

As any one who owns a house knows there will always be a list of things to do to maintain and update a house.  I still have a number of projects that will keep me busy this winter. Although I have started to build a small workshop in the garage it still needs more work to be fully functional. I also want to improve the shelving inside some of the closets to provide better storage. I enjoy these type of projects so look forward to taking the time to make the house work better for us. 

This house does not require the same amount of work as our old house especially since the community takes care of all the landscaping and yard work so I have had more free time which I have been using to explore the area. I have been walking the golf course in our community when it is closed to golfer and have taken a few good sunset pictures like the one at the top of the post. I have also visited some of the local parks. There is one right behind my house that is a good place to hike and do some mountain biking. 

It has been fun getting to know this area a little better. Between the home improvements and area exploration the new house is starting to feel like home.