Author: marionvermazen

I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter and genealogist. I am retired after working for almost 30 years in the Computer Industry. I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband Duke.

Broken Brezaire Wine closet cooler

Our new house has a wonderful wine closet where the front hall closet used to be. When we first walked into the house it was a real Wow feature.

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Unfortunately the cooler in the closet doesn't work. The cooling unit is a Brezaire WK1060. It is a 14 x 16 x 18 inch box installed in the top of the closet. Duke has taken the unit out of the closet to trouble shoot the problem. You can see the hole where the unit used to be in the top of the picture above. Right now the unit is in the back seat of our truck.

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The compressor and fan in the cooler seem to run just fine but the unit doesn't cool. Duke talked to Breezeaire, the manufacturer and they said we could send it back to them in San Diego but since it probably just needs to be recharged with coolant it would be cheaper to find someone here in Reno to repair it. The problem is that we are having a heck of a time finding someone who will work on it. We have called or stopped by at least 10 different places. We'd just buy a new cooler but they cost about $700!! As I started writing this one place did call back and say they would have a look at it. So maybe we are in luck. I'll keep you posted. If anyone out there has any experience with something like this please let me know.

New House for Thanksgiving

I haven't posted anything in almost 3 weeks but if you follow my Twitter updates in the right hand column you know that we just bought a new house and have been busy moving out of the old one and getting settled in the new one.We are having a open house tomorrow so have had a deadline for getting unpacked. We also had the family here for Thanksgiving which was great fun.

We had to buy a new refrigerator and we also ended up buying a new washer and dryer. Our old dryer was gas and the quote to install gas to the dryer here was $1,200!

I love the new house. We have a great view and it is just nice to know that it is ours.
Here is part of the view from the back door.
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And here is a four generation picture from Thanksgiving.
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First Snowshoeing of the season

Duke and I went out with the Sierra Canyon Hiking Group today for our first snowshoeing trip of the season. We went to Tahoe Meadows. It was sunny and warm and we had a wonderful time. There was only about 8 inches of snow but the ground was well covered. The views of Lake Tahoe and the mountains were breathtaking. The lake looked like it was frozen there were swirls of fog that looked like blowing snow on ice but Lake Tahoe never freezes. I don't know when we will get to snowshoe again. the weather is supposed to be quite warm for the next several days and there is no more snow predicted. If you would like to see all of my pictures of the hike you can see them on Flickr here.
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Snowshoeing Tahoe Meadows 11-13-08 002

Petroglyphs at Lagomarsino Canyon

Last Friday Duke and I went exploring. Several people have told us about the petroglyphs at Lagomarsino Canyon. Our real estate agent said he used his mountain bike to find them and was blown away by the magnitude of the site. We used the directions on the Backyard Traveler blog and headed out in our truck.We drove over some very rough dirt trails.  I am kind of surprised that we found the site on our first try because there are no signs and there are lots of dirt roads. The site is probably no more than 10 miles east of Reno as the crow flies but we were the only people there on Friday. I'm sure the remoteness limits the visitors.

The  sign at the entrance to the canyon says

"Lagomarsino Canyon is one of the largest rock art sites in Nevada. Most
motifs appear to be 4-5,000 years old, but some may be as old as 10,000
years. Although we do not know what the images mean they still hold
great significance and deserve to be respected. This site is protected
by law and is monitored regularly by concerned local citizens and
Storey County law enforcement. If you want to learn more about rock art
or want to help protect this special place go to www.nevadarockart.org or call the Storey County Sheriff @ 775-847-0950"

We climbed up the rocks to the lip of the canyon. It is easy to suppose  that the ancient Indians who did this rock art used this canyon for hunting. It seems like it would be a good place to drive game over the edge of the cliff. The drive was really pretty and the rock art was amazing. If you would like to see my pictures they are on Flickr here.

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