Last Day of the Year

It is 34 degrees outside but it feels much colder. I have undoubtedly said this before in this blog but it bears repeating. As I get older, winter gets colder.

We have nothing major planned for the day. The Seahawks play in an hour or so and we will probably go over to the Hub to watch the game. (The Seahawks LOST!!!)

I have an ongoing battle with the new garage door. Not the door so much as the motor that opens and closes the door. It started on Friday when I got home from work about noon.

It had been snowing all morning so the driveway and walks needed attention.At the end of my work I had an issue with the door closing properly. It was open and when I hit the button to close it, it went down about a foot and then stopped and went back up. I pressed the button a couple of more times with the same results. On the third try, it went down properly.

Later in the day, Susan and I were returning from the Hub. She pressed the button. The door went up about two feet and then down a foot and stopped. I kept trying the button and again, continued getting the same result. 

The problem was that I could not get under the small gap. Finally after several tries, it went up another two feet and down one. That provided enough of a space to slide under and get inside the garage. Once there, I was able to disconnect the door from the carriage and open and close it by hand.

Last night Susan had to work a Hockey game, Before she left, I showed her what to do to open and close the door by hand. It goes up and down quite easily but it did require some sort of rope to grab in order to close it.

After Susan left for work, I cut a short strand of rope and went about the task of attaching it to the door. Once that was accomplished, I decided to try the opener one more time. I don't really know what possessed me to try it. However, when I pressed the button, the carriage traveled the whole length of the span and stopped in the door up position. Again I pressed the button and the clasp covered the span to the door closed position and stopped. I kept this up a few more times until I was satisfied it was working and then reattached the door.

For now, it seems to be working. 

One thing that may be causing the malfunction is that there is a small hole in the garage roof directly above the motor unit. I noticed that it get rained on. That may be causing the problem. So I need to get up there and patch it. I'm going to try and do a temporary patch from the inside.

As for now, it is time for the Seahawks. (The Seahawks LOST!!!)

I forgot to mention anything about the fun I had yesterday with the sidewalks and driveway. 

After I finished snow blowing on Friday, it continued to snow for a couple of inches and then the snow turned to rain. I was hoping it would rain enough to wash away the excess snow. It didn't. It only made for a thick crust of snow and ice on all the walks.

So I spent a good hour with my shovel scraping up the ice. I had great success on the sidewalks and not such good luck with the driveway. Nonetheless, I'm happy with the results because my sidewalks are passable.

New Years Weekend

We are enjoying the final weekend of the year. Susan is just getting up from some powerful sleeping in and I've been up for a little longer.

One of my projects for today is to figure out how much trouble I'm in with regard to my Snow Removal Area (S.R.A.). It snowed a goodly amount yesterday, at least four inches and then it all turned to rain. I was able to get out there and blow the S.R.A. but then a couple of inches fell before the rain came. 

Now it's really sloppy out there. I can't tell how sloppy because I haven't actually gone out and examined it. It's still early so get off me.

I haven't had the opportunity to report on Christmas. We had a good one. What more do you need to know?!

Christmas Eve: We were up early for church and then to get ready for the next day. Our church partnered with Southside Christian Church to prepare and deliver "Meals on Wheels" on Christmas Day.

Saturday was a prep day with the cooking of ham, the peeling of potatoes and carrots, the cutting of cakes and the mixing of fruit salad.

We were out of there about 4:00 and immediately headed home for more prep for the evening. After a brief stop at the Hub. We were hosting the family for the Christmas Eve dinner.

We had Mom and my sister Stacey. Stacey's sons, Ferris and Torin joined us from California. Then all my DuPree nieces and nephews showed up as well...along with a couple of boy and girl friends. Finally, we invited Kelvin and Crystal Jones, our new Interim Pastor and his wife.

The food was a sort of buffet affair and there was plenty of it. I was a particular fan of the beef brisket. Then we sat around the piano and sang Christmas Carols and a few other popular songs.

Christmas Morning: Again we were up early, this time 6:00AM. Today was for final prep and then packaging the meals to be delivered. And then of course, the delivery.

Susan and I had a route with 5 deliveries on it. It went really well and fast but there was one meal we could not deliver. We could not get in to the apartment building and the intercom system was beyond our comprehension to figure out.

When we returned to the church building, most of the clean up was complete and we just had to wait around for everything to be buttoned up and then lock the building.

Again, we were home at by 2:00 and we opened some presents. 

We had to be at Mom's at 5 for Christmas Dinner featuring Prime Rib. I wasn't going to be missing that meal. And it was wonderful.

We didn't get to our final round of present opening until Tuesday night. Susan and I agreed to spend our money on a Grape crusher so we did not spend a lot on each other. But we did have a couple of gifts plus stocking stuffers.

All in all, a great Holiday! And then back to reality.

Mo' Sno

Some time during the night, we got a light snow fall, maybe half an inch. It's enough to cover my car and perhaps enough to make me break out the snowblower. I never need much of a reason to break out the snowblower.

But first...Church!

11:37 AM: My Christmas Tree hunt yesterday took longer than I thought. I started out at the General Store but did not care for their selection.

I decided to drive north on Division street and surely I would come upon a humble Christmas Tree lot that held the perfect tree. I had to go all the way to Nevada...and Francis to find my first lot.

It's a place I have gone to before so I thought I would give them a shot. They had a very nice tall busy douglas fir for $59.99. I took it!

I put it in the Carriage House so the snow would melt off of it. I'm just about to go pull it out and bring it inside.

But first, I have to attach an extension cord to my roof. I have an area of snow melt cord to prevent a giant icicle from forming up there. It an easy thing to do but the set up is time consuming. Especially since I have to go upstairs and get the ladder.

Later: I never got the wire attached. It is something I will need to do but as of today...no go.


Editors Note: This is being written a good month after this post. I was just reviewing a few posts and noticed the paragraph four up from here where, for some reason, I described the tree as tall and busy. I bet I meant bushy. I could have edited it and you would never know but I like the idea of a busy tree.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

I got home last night and broke out the snow shovel since my snowblower was still at the shop getting tuned. There was a good solid four inches of snow and the main thing I learned is that I really miss my snowblower.

Had I bothered to check the messages on my phone, I would have heard the message from Wednesday that my snowblower was ready. Once I heard the message, I piled into the car and went to retrieve it.

It cost $92.00. That's a tune up, new shoes and a new cutting bar. I brought it home and immediately went to work on everything I didn't get to with the shovel.

Man, it is great to have the snowblower back and ready for action.

And here is how we look today. Quite Festive!

My next job is to go out and hunt down a Christmas Tree. I know, Christmas is a week away and we don't have a tree yet. Well, we've been busy.

There have been lots of reports about a tree shortage this year. I'm thinking that going to be more of an issue in a big city, not here in the Evergreen State. I just don't want to spend more than 50 bucks. That may be a pipe dream. 

In any event, I won't know that until I get out there and get on the hunt.

Snow Fall

We got our second snowfall of the season today.

I measured four inches on the deck.

It was a typical nightmare out there on the roads today since people who live here have totally forgotten any driving skills from last winter. My motto; leave plenty of space between me and the maniac in front of me.

Our previous snowfall was back in the start of November. It stayed on the ground only a few days.

The bad news for me is that I took the snowblower in for a tune up last week and it's not ready yet. I have to go out and shovel. Just as soon as I finish my beer. I'm really savoring it!

2017 Carriage Ride

We have been busy decorating sky walks downtown. I am happy to say we are done being busy. We have completed painting ten sky walks, one office front, one coffee shop and the Hub Tavern.

It is good to be done!

Last night was the annual Corbin Park Carriage Ride. We had a much smaller turnout than we have had in past years. That was kind of nice because we didn't have to wait out there in the cold for 40 minutes. On the other hand, we paid $450 for this guy to come up and drive his horses around the park for two hours.

So we got through that with no problems. We are ambling along life's highway proceeding to the next hurdle, which may be Christmas itself.

We still have to get a tree, put together a Christmas Card, and organize a Meals on Wheels event for Christmas Day. I should say that Susan is doing the organizing, in conjunction with another gal from another church who we partnered with.

No Pictures to Show You

I am sitting at my desk writing these very words on my computer. A computer that has just had a glitch and erased all the pictures on my camera.

I was downloading pictures of the days activities when everything kind of locked up. I couldn't access any of the drives. I turned the camera off and tried access the drives through "My Documents". That brought everything back but when I turned the camera back on and looked for my pictures, the memory card was clean.

So you will not get to see any of the pictures I took today, which is really a shame because I took some good ones. Perhaps the best of my picture taking career. I feel bad for you!

Garth Brookes is in town and is performing se7en shows in five days. Susan is working them all. Since Thursday, she has worked her day job and then trundled off to the arena to work there until midnight. Yesterday and today he did two shows so Susan went in at 11:30 and will be home tonight at 12.

I feel quite a bit of guilt because she is working so hard and so much. The guilt has spurred me on to work just as hard here at the house. I doubt I have even come close.

But here is what I did get done.
     *I showed up at church yesterday morning and participated in the annual Fall Yard Cleaning Day. We raked a lot of leaves.
     *I visited Mom. She wasn't home!
     *I raked the front yard and bagged the leaves. This was particularly difficult due to the wetness of the leaves. Also, this activity took the majority of my time since I am old and move slowly.
     *I took pictures of Susan's car in preparation for selling it on Craig's List. Yup, the very pictures my camera just deleted.
     *I separated out the grape skins from our wine and racked the juice into a clean carboy.
     *I drank some beer.
     *I got the hoses put away.
     *I got a great series of pictures of this raccoon that comes up on the deck and eats the remaining grapes. You won't be seeing those.
     *I finally completed putting all the Halloween stuff away.
     *I drank some more beer.
     *I carved up a bunch of the pumpkins remaining on the front porch into small pieces that fit more compactly into the garbage can.
     *I drank some wine.
     *I wrote this post.

So you can see I've been busy and productive. I only wish I had some pictures to prove it.

Back to Standard Time

It snowed the other day and it's still on the ground. Usually, a snow fall this early in the season doesn't hang around.

The winter conditions persist as the weekend rolls along.

I spent part of last night going through the house to set as many of our clocks back to Standard time as I could. We have a lot of clocks!

We spent our extra hour exactly where one should spend it. In bed. Snoozing away. Loving it!

Winter Weekend

We received our first official measurable snowfall yesterday and as I write, a soft gentle snow fall is occurring out my window. That makes it a perfect day for a fire in the fireplace and Cougar football. It is almost to the end of the third quarter and WSU is behind Stanford 21-17.

I'm not worried yet because there is a whole quarter left. But as with all Cougar games, they have the potential to "Coug it" at any time.

From the TV, it looks like a very wet snow is coming down pretty hard.

I did some final Halloween clean up in the yard and now the only thing left is to stow everything properly upstairs in the Carriage House. Our friend Mark is coming over at four to help with that effort.

Update: The Cougars won in the last few minutes by three points. Mark came over and helped with the stowing. Now, I am going to get a good head start on that extra hour I gain tonight.

Halloween Pictures

Here is a small assortment of photographs I took throughout the evening last night.

There is our pile of candy for the evening.

As stated in the previous post, the reported total of Night Urchins from my neighbors with the clicker is 1,799. It was a very busy night! And they weren't all urchins. 

What are you doing if you're an adult and out Trick or Treating? Where did things go wrong for you?

Once it got to 8:00, we were throwing hands full of candy at the kids. Susan brought a shit load of Twizzlers.

I am now happily able to report that my Flying Ghost display performed flawlessly. It never jumped the tracks and ran all night. I had been reluctant to comment to anyone to keep the bad juju away...and it worked!

I am very happy to move on now.

One Thousand Se7en Hundred Ninty-Nine

Halloween is over and Susan and I are wiped out. The number in the headline is indeed the total for Trick or Treaters this year. The yard is a mess, the house is a disaster and I am going to bed.

All Hallows Prep

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth like...1,043.

Leaf Removal Begins

After messing with the battery in Susan's car, we ended up doing some impromptu yard work in the front yard. Susan cut back all the Hosta's, we plucked the impatiens and I fired up the vacuum to suck up some leaves. We got everything more or less cleaned up and ready for the rest of the leaves to fall.

Working Class Heroes

After the previous weekend of lounging about a large urban park, taking in a variety of blue grass and not so blue grass acts while inhaling enough second hand marijuana to mellow an angry skinhead, it was nice to be home and accomplish a whole shitload of accomplishments.

It has been rainy the last couple of days and Saturday was supposed to be nice. It didn't rain but it was not nice. However, it was nice enough.

I prepared for a trip to the dump the following day by arranging a pile of crap that was dump worthy. I did not have as much as I was hoping because I did not do a very thorough job of cleaning out the garage and the Carriage House. The Carriage House really needs a complete emptying and sorting. Most of the sorting should include tossing.

I also got to work cleaning up the backyard of all the wood debris I have collected.

I finally got around to cutting down the telephone posts from the alley into manageable sizes for splitting. Then I got to the task of splitting and it went really well. They split like butter. I took a couple of rounds and split them down to kindling. We now have a crap load of wood.

In the coarse of splitting the wood, I cut my splitting stump in half.
I suppose that is inevitable if you split a lot of wood. I split one half and kept the other as my new, smaller splitting stump.

Sunday (today) turned out to be the nice day. We returned from church and got to work in the yard. I finished cutting up wood and now we have a substantial wood pile. We shall be having some fires.

Mark came over about noon-thirty and we got to work loading up the U-Haul he rented with my garbage. Mark already had a sizeable amount in there. I asked my neighbor Ted if he had anything and he said he did. We ended up filling the rest of the truck with Ted's crap. It came from the rental house across the alley from us that Ted owns. He is preparing to sell it.

WE had just under a ton, 1,980 pounds. It cost $106.00 to dump. I had a $20 dump pass which brought it down to $86. Ted and Mark worked something out and I'll give him some money as well.

Now it is time for beer.

Proof of Fall

The picture above is for anyone who questions the existence, or even the presence of Autumn.

SF Day Four

We had a low key evening after a hearty day of festing. We got up and walked down to the little business district below Arnie and Haley's house. We found a place for breakfast and then we had the horrible walk back to the house.

It's horrible because it's all uphill. But, I made it!

We packed up and stopped for some sandwiches and another box of the finest quality wine.

We got in to the Friends and Family again but there was a new password. It really seemed as though the people manning the gate were really pissed at the people going in through their gate. Maybe the skunks were pissing them off.

Today's big acts were Randy Newman, Emmy Lou Harris and Lucinda Williams. We also heard Lukas Nelson. This is going to be one of my new favorites. His band really rocked. He is the son of an famous country star.

We left the park at the end of the day and went to a divey bar down by the beach appropriately named "The Riptide". We enjoyed a couple of beers and listened to a marginal country-ish band. We also had an assortment of bar patrons try to make us dance.

From there, we went home and crashed.

SF Day Three

It's Saturday and we woke up to huckleberry pancakes and bacon.

I have made it official now and can no longer drink coffee. I tried and it just makes me dizzy. I don't need that.

Haley gathered up some food to keep our strength up and we headed off to the park. Today we camped at the Swan Stage. We had an extra edge because Haley knew someone who gave her the password to enter the Friends and Family area. It's a great spot right next to the stage. The lady running the gate was a bit testy but we made it in and out several times. We set up camp and mostly hung at the Swan Stage.

The main person we wanted to see today was Patty Griffin, which we did. She was good but didn't sing the one song we wanted to hear. 

We also saw Gurf Morlix. I was not aware of Gurf prior to today but I'm glad I know about him now. He had a great song that was a tribute to his chain saw.

There are still a lot of skunks loose in the area because that is all we could smell all the day long.

SF Day Two

We slept in a little but not too bad. Especially considering the late night we had at the Sweetwater Music Hall. 

Robert Earl Keene was a really fun band. We also had a great dinner at this little place in Mill Valley right near the venue. Special thanks to Arn-Dawgs friend Tony who drove us there in his Tesla. What a sweet automotive product!

Arnie's wife Haley had to go to work for the morning but was planning on joining us at the park later in the day. Arnold made us omelettes which we devoured and then packed up for the park. We bought a couple of boxes of high quality wine for the day. We decided not to pack food so we could check out what was available in the park as our hunger required it.

We set up camp at the Banjo stage and that's were Susan and I pretty much stayed all day. As the grassy lawn in front of the stage got populated, the smell of the air became inundated with skunk. They sure must have a lot of them there.

We saw Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands. Very Bluegrassy! Next was the Dry Branch Fire Squad. They were traditionally bluegrassy and really fun. At 2:30, Billy Bragg took the stage. He's an Australian troubadour in the style of Pete Seger or Woody Guthrie. Our politics didn't exactly line up. There was a lot of talk about the greatness of Socialism.  

At one point Billy mused about what Socialism might look like. He said to imagine a park with hundreds of people gathered to peacefully listen to free music. The crowd roared. Nobody said anything about the capitalistic millionaire who paid for the free music. Next we heard the Bo-Keys who were also really fun.

The final act of the day at the Banjo Stage was T Bone Burnett. He was horrible. Rather than play music, he decided to descend into a slam poetry sort of out there space music riff with lots of angry anti establishment imagery. "You don't know what you don't know what you don't know."

We were standing there, watching it as the field slowly emptied and couldn't believe what we were hearing. I finally went up to another group equally mystified by what they were hearing and asked them if this was horrible. They laughed and agreed that it was.

The concert was followed by an impromptu party at Arnie and Haley's by several of their friends we met during the day.

One day down, two to go.

SF Day One

We are on vacation. I am writing from San Fran. They hate it when you call it that, but this is my blog and I will pronounciationalize anything I want, any way I want.

We are on vacation! We will be spending the next few days in San Fran City for the wonderful three day music festival known as Golden Gate Banjo Party. It is three days of free music of the bluegrass variety in Golden Gate Park. It is not strictly limited to bluegrass. It looks as though there will be some jazz, some rock, some country, some hip hop, and some horrible slam poetry.

Our plane left Spokane at 9:30 and we landed in Seattle before we even got off the ground. There was a slight delay because somebody found a drop of fluid somewhere around one of the engines and they decided they had better look at it. I'm okay with that. Then we had to sit around Seattle for a couple of hours before getting on the next plane that was delayed because they had no barge.

This is why I always say that planes should have reverse.

We landed in Frisco (they hate it when you call it "Frisco") about 4:30 and were picked up by my pal Arnie, with whom we were lodging.

We are now securely settled in the West Portal district of town and awaiting a ride to Mill Valley for dinner and a concert with Robert Earl Keene.

Garage Door Day

Today is a momentous occasion in the journey to someday getting a better garage.

They are coming to install a new garage door on our tiny little single car garage.

This is how it looked last night.

I got home and got to work cleaning the space they need to work in. I hope I have it properly cleared for them to do the work. 

Susan is dealing with the Door Guys. She left early for work and then is planning to return around 10 when they get there. Then she will leave them alone and return to work until they call and tell her they are done. Then she will drive back home and write them a check for the remaining 600 and some dollars we owe. We already gave them a down payment of half the cost of the door.

One of the things I'm going to have to do is wire in a new electrical box and outlet to plug in the opener.

The other more immediate thing I need to do is figure out what to do with the old doors. They are large and heavy but not without charm. I'm sure someone will be able to find a purpose for them. We don't want a whole lot of money for them. Perhaps a couple of hundred dollars.

6:54PM: I am home now and so very excited. Look at our bitchin' new door!

And look! It opens at the push of a button.

Another great feature is the light. It's just as good as the fluorescent light bar I have been using but much easier to access. I'm very pleased with the results. Now I'm just waiting for Susan to get home so we can see if a car will fit in there. Stand by.

It FITS! Just barely. I could still stand to remove more stuff. The main stuff in there that's blocking is all power equipment. Mowers, snow blowers, vacuums and assorted other yard implements.

I didn't take a picture cuz it was too dark.

Splitting Headache

I did it! I rented a log splitter today to take care of the headache pile of really hard wood left to split. It was definitely the right thing to do.

I picked it up just before noon and had it back by 2:30.

I managed to get everything split that I wanted to do. And now, as the day winds down, I'm starting to feel it. When Susan gets home (hopefully soon) I'm going to suggest a hot tubbin' session.

Here are some pictures from todays' lumber jacking activities.

Boiler Disappointment

It has been six days since I lit the pilot light on the boiler, officially ending the Boiler Game. Since then, I do not believe the boiler has come on once.

The weather has been warm and beautiful since Saturday and I am pissed. There is no telling how much longer I could have gone with the Boiler Game, allowing more people to get in and take a chance, thereby making a whole lot more money for me.

I'm just sick about it.

I'm still trying to decide whether to rent to log splitter this weekend or not. There is a lot going on Saturday and so it doesn't feel like I can fit it in then. Sunday is difficult because I can't get to it before noon.

Next weekend is already booked so there won't be any log splitting then. 

I guess we'll find out together on Sunday.

I Found It!

Refer to my post for September 9th to find out what I found.

I found while cleaning the kitchen tonight. It was hidden on the TV stand behind a camera.

The bad news is that it doesn't work anymore.

Hops, Paint, Air Conditioners and Beer

Boiler Game Results: If you picked Saturday, September 23rd at 5:45PM, you are the winner. Take a substantial amount of your own money and buy yourself something pretty as a reward.

I just called in to the local rental place a learned that it costs $55.00 to rent a log splitter for four hours. I'm going to reserve one for next weekend.

Susan is continuing her work on her car. She is applying a little Bondo to a wheel well and then will paint.

I am going to tackle air conditioners and hops. I will also be consuming some hops in the form of beers.

3:24PM: Susan has done a pretty good job on her car. It still needs some buffing but it looks better than it did.

I was successful with both my projects. The A.C.'s have been removed and packed away for the winter. The hops has been cut down but remains unharvested. I decided not to bother. I use only a small amount when I brew and I've never been able to find anyone who wants my hops.

Now we can just sit back, watch the Seahawks lose and enjoy some more hops.

First Day of Fall

For those of you who picked September 23rd for the end of the Boiler Game...don't start spending your winnings yet. I believe I'm going to light the fuse today but as of 2:23 PM, I have not.

It's the first full day of Autumn and it seemed appropriate to get out there and prepare for winter with the splitting of the wood. 

I have a lot of unsplit wood sitting in the yard and as you can see, it's quite a mess.

So I started out by cleaning the area where the wood will go, which was also, quite a mess.

Once everything was arranged, the chopping began.

With a chop chop here.

And a chop chop there.

And a LOT of recovery from chop chopping. My stamina is still pretty shitty.

Even with less than stellar stamina, I am pretty pleased with the results.

I have a nice stack of wood by the back door and a little bit more of the messy yard cleaned up.

The pile that I left is too hard for little ol' me to split. I'm going to rent a power splitter in the next week or so to handle the rest of it.

Whilst I toiled with ax, Susan worked on her car s'more. 

She was sanding some rusty spots which she will paint over later.

As for now, I am spent. It is time to sit down and watch some Cougar Football. And some Iowa Hawkeyes Football.

GO SPORTS TEAM!!!

Boiler Game Data

It's not Autumn yet but it feels like it. The hot temperatures we have enjoyed for the last several weeks appear to be behind us.

I'm not yet ready to give in and fire up the boiler but it seems like we won't be setting any records in the Boiler Game this year.

Susan spent yesterday cleaning her 1989 Honda Civic in preparation for selling it. She got out the shop vac and really scrubbed the car down. She removed all the little knickknacks that one accumulates in ones car. Today she plans to work on a couple of the rust spots and do some touch up painting.

I'm just puttering around doing this and that. And some of the other stuff too. I drove over to the car wash and hosed down the floor mats for my car and for Susan's. The floor mats that go on the drivers side of both vehicles were filthy. I'm still not sure I got all the dirt out of them.

We enjoyed a late afternoon visit to the Hub to watch the W.S.U. Cougars play against the Oregon State Beavers. The Cougs crushed the Beavs.

We finished off the evening with dinner at the Cathay Inn, one of our local favorite dinner spots.

I'm not sure what is on the schedule for the rest of the day. I guess I'll just go out and see what needs to be done out there.

I'll get back to you and let you know.

Later: Well, it was threatening to rain so Susan did not do any work on her car. I didn't do any work on anything. I did make a fire. It's the first one of the season. That's how you go another day in the boiler game.

The next few days look rainy so the boiler game is definitely in jeopardy of ending.

The plans for the rest of the day are to barbecue a couple of steaks. We haven't used the barbecue at all this summer. Mostly because my faithful old Weber finally fell completely apart. It's given me a good 20 years of service so I can't complain. 

We ended up with a small Weber that Ron and Kelly gave us. It will do in a crunch but I need to get back on the full size Weber wagon.

I filled up the hot tub the other night and have the temperature properly adjusted so we may take ourselves a soak later on. 

Even Later: Hi! I'm back. I have done a little research on the Boiler Game and here are my findings.

2016 - October 6th
2015 - September 21st
2014 - Oct 15th
2013 - October 5th
2012 - October 6th
2011- October 21st

So October 21st is the date to beat. If I can make it through this week, I will beat the failure of 2015, which seems to be my earliest date to start up the furnace.

Activity Laden Sunday

The busy weekend, bustling with activities continues.

Today we got the bikes out and went downtown to participate in the Tenth Annual SpokeFest. It's Bloomsday for Bikes. We are not bike riders so we chose the Nine Mile Route. The best part of it is a paved path on the ridge above the Spokane River. It ends at the base of  Doomsday Hill, which is a long steady climb. 

In the past, I've been able to make it all the way up. That was not to be the case today. I not only did not make it up the hill, I had to stop three times on the way up to catch my breath. The good news is that there was no chest pain or pressure.

I stopped at the First Aid station at the top of the hill to have my blood pressure checked and it was fine.

We finally got to the finish line and quickly got out of the party area and back to the car for the drive home.

After a short breather, we got back in the car and headed for the Fair. At this point, I'm feeling the effects of having pedaled a good solid ten miles. Now I'm going to walk around a large expense of fairgrounds for the next several hours.

However, it is a tradition that we must adhere to. We entered Wine in the Fair again and as is always the case, I was anxious to see how we did. This years offering was Sangiovese. I was not very optimistic because we only bottled the wine last month, after having it age for about seven months. 

We entered a second bottle of wine which was a blend of the Sangiovese with a few pounds of grapes from our backyard. Susan and I both liked the blend better than the Sangiovese.

Even the labels we entered in the Label Contest were thrown together in the last week before everything had to be delivered to the fairgrounds.

The Blend got a White Ribbon...third place. Susan's label for the Blend got nuthin'. My label for the Sangiovese got a Blue Ribbon. Our friend Ellen got a Grand Champion Ribbon for her label.

The big surprise was the Sangiovese. Grand Champion! How can that be?! I am incredulous. I am astonished. I am very pleased!

As with last year, I am anxious to see the comments we get from the judges.

I should explain the label because it really is not very good. Sangiovese has been referred to as "the blood of Jupiter". So I found a statue of the Greek God Jupiter. I covered his nether region with grapes. I removed the staff from his hand and added a crudely drawn glass of wine in one hand and the bottle in the other. And then I called it "Jupiter Juice".

It really is one of my worst efforts. 

And yet...a blue ribbon.

Unfortunately, our friend Ellen got the Grand Champion for Labels. And a second place for her wine. A kit wine, I might add. She didn't go out into the fields and toil in the dirt to acquire the grapes. (Neither did we) She bought a kit and followed the instructions. 

We at least made the effort to go the the vineyard and purchase the grapes.

We stayed at the fair until about 7:00. By then we had eaten a crap load of food...all high calorie and bad for us...and we were ready to call it a day.

Grand Champion! Go figure.

Stupid Stuff

A while back while shopping at Costco I came upon a multi-pack of razor blades that happened to fit my handle. Someone had left them in the wrong place so I didn't know how much they cost. I thought, "Oh well, how much could they be?!" 50 bucks! That's how much they could be.

I was already in line so I bit the bullet and bought them. That was September 9th, 2012. I am now down to my last blade. They have lasted me five years.

I'm amazed at the stupid stuff I keep track of.

Speaking of stupid, my stupidity is going to cost me $135.00. I cannot find my keys to my Escape. Because the keys all come with a chip in them, they cost extra special more.

I have a mobile key guy coming but I don't know exactly when. Hopefully it will be before three. We have events to attend today.

The key guy showed up about 1:00 and got me a double set of keys in no time. I paid an extra $35.00 for an extra key and he gave me a key fob for free.

He told me that I can buy the key fobs on line for about $25.00 and then he showed me how to program it.

Of course, now that I have paid for the replacement key, I'm just waiting to find out where my old key has been hiding. I know it will reveal itself to me.

As I said, we have a very full social calendar for the rest of the weekend and we must get to it.

First a Hill Billy Hog Roast at the way out farm place of my brother-in-law Dale. The food was fabulous.

Then a retirement party on the complete other side of the city for our friend Randy, who has retired and who we now hate. Well, we at least have disdain for him. The disdain helps to hide the jealousy.

Tomorrow, we have the tenth annual edition of SpokeFest. We are planning on doing the nine mile ride. 

Mouse Emergency

Having grown up with rats as pets, I'm not too freaked out by rodents. Susan did NOT grow up with rats as pets. So when she saw the mouse last night, it was most disquieting. Not disquieting enough to wake me up. That required her coming upstairs and screaming, "MOUSE!"

By the time I got downstairs it was nowhere to be found. 

So today, we purchased some mouse traps. I'm about to set them up.

I have returned with most of my fingers. Those little bastards are hard to set up. They do not set very securely, which I suppose is what you would want in a mousetrap.

The smoke from forest fires around the region is thick today. We thought they might cancel the Labor Day Concert at Comstock Park. So far, it appears things are on track.

This is how it looks here in the neighborhood.

It got worse as the day went on. We went up to Comstock Park at 5PM for the annual Labor Day concert put on by the Spokane Symphony. We were worried it might get canceled.

Instead, the concert went on in an abbreviated form. They cut out a few songs and it lasted about an hour.

Saturday on the Park

It is a sunny Saturday morning in late August. I got up this morning to find the heater running in the bathroom. It really wasn't cool enough to need the heater but I guess the thermostat thought otherwise. We are approaching that time of year when we will need it. 

I guess it won't be long before we are playing the boiler game. It's been shut down all summer and as you know, the goal of the boiler game is to keep it shut down for as long as possible.

We have a few things we would like to accomplish today, but first, there is some action going on outside.

The darker car belongs to my neighbors Shelby and James. She parks that car on the street and James parks his truck behind her. This guy in the silver car came down the street crossed over into the parking lane and crashed  head on into the Charger, hitting it hard enough to knock it back six feet into James truck. The Charger hit the truck hard enough to roll it back a couple of feet.

I have since learned that the driver of the silver car said he had insurance but did not provide any proof. So...uninsured driver. He apparently had at least two other people in the car but they left pretty quickly. The guy pulled three backpacks out of the car, plus a box and after the police officer finished the investigation and issued him a ticket, let him go on his way. So he loaded up all the crap and walked off across the park. Never to be seen or heard from again, I suspect.

With that excitement out of the way, it's time to get to work. I need to find a stencil we used on windows last year. So far, I'm not having any luck.

Another project I'm working on is draining and cleaning the hot tub. I borrowed Lou's sump pump and drained the thing in about 10 minutes. If I attach a hose and let gravity do the draining, it takes about 4 hours. 

Later on, I'll try to get in there with a scrubber and clean the sides.

All seems to be going well with the hot tub so it's time to move on. I'm going to attempt to find my stencils some more.

VICTORY! I found them. Boy am I pleased?! Yes I am! I was worried because I did not find them on my initial attempt. I figured they would be at the top of the heap of saved stencils that are sloppily stored in the Carriage House. I had to dig down a little into the rolls to find what I was looking for but I was successful. That saves us about three hours of preliminary work which means we earn more money.

Next up on the list is some garage cleanup. I have to remove a bike and bike rack that are blocking where the door will go.

So that is my next project.

Okay, that went fairly well. The next item was to move more stuff out of the garage. There are six sandwich boards in the garage that belong to our home owners association. I'm the Prez so that is why I have them.

I wanted to get them out of the garage and into the Carriage House

We have a nice access door to the upstairs from the alley. My plan was to have Susan hand the signs up to me and I would get them packed away.

In the midst of bringing up the first one, I suddenly found myself in the middle of a swarm of bees. They seemed to be quite agitated. I had disturbed them and their nest which appeared to be in the wall of the Carriage House and the entrance right at the base of the door.

So that put an end to that plan. I got stung on my wrist but bee stings don't really effect me. I'm getting kind or drowsy now so I think I'll go take a...

Solar Eclipse

Stop everything! Everything must come to a complete stop and not continue in any fashion until after the event.

There! The event has occurred. And now it is over and we can continue with our lives.

I continued working on cleaning out the garage after work today. In the middle of my work, I done seen my pole saw and remembered how out of control the tree next to the garage was. I grabbed it and cut down a few branches. Now I have a crap load of branches to clean up.

I'll get back to the garage and the tree later this week and definitely this weekend.