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That's right! I'm in the hot tub and I totally deserve it.
I've been in the throws of manual labor, hot sweat glistening over my toad belly white toad belly. The smell of toil exudes from my pores and gathers in my crotchal region, with pheromones seething through my moistened toggery and affecting all downwind females within my aura.
So here's what I accomplished today.
As stated in an previous post dated yesterday, I set out to clean the Carriage House today. It is an overwhelming mess full of dust and stored what-nots, as well as my workshop for fashioning wood products into stained and varnished wood products. My goal: make it less whelming.
The day was heavy with humidness hanging in the humidinary. The sun shone warmly overhead, which is the best place from which the sun should shone.
I began at 9 to remove the retched refuse of the teaming walls and moving it into the yard. Once most of it was out of the way, I was able to realign some stuff and vacuum the floors. That took some doing. I've been sanding in there for months and a nice layer of dust hung on everything in there like the aforementioned sun in the humis sky.
Wait! That's a horrible metaphor. Let's just say it was dusty in thar.
So with rearranging and a fair amount of purging, I was able to get everything back into the place and create a great deal of room in which to move, work, dance and store more crap.
I am pleased to say that the crap has been removed, reduced, and reorganized into a semi efficient arrangement of former crap.
Now I can move on to the basement!
Now that we are through all the stressful parties and projects, we essentially have nothing to do. We can do whatever we want. I am taking on a project I want to tear into tomorrow. The cleaning of the Carriage House. It is packed with lots o' crap.
My plan is to pull out as much crap as I can, toss what I can and replace the rest in a smart, orderly, military fashion. Not having been in the Military, but having been a Cub Scout, the result of that description remains to be seen.
Check in tomorrow!
I began having Solstice parties in 2001...prior to my relationship with Susan. When she came along, she embraced the party Whole Solsticely and turned it into a major food event.
Last night was no exception and fun was had by all. I brewed a five gallon keg of home brew and we had a bunch of wine. We were feeling a little small this morning but not so bad that we got up at 10 and proceeded downtown to paint a sky walk.
We had about 50ish people show up including my friend Doug, who died last December. His sister brought him and we propped him up on the piano bar with an "I Love Lucy" tie wrapped around the box of ashes between two bottles of Skyy Vodka, which he loved and contributed to his demise. It may be as close as we get to a Memorial for him. I hope not. I'd like to do it up right.
The weather was the big question mark. The trend over the last few weeks is to be nice during the week with an occasional sudden cloud burst, and then pour on the weekend. It was looking iffy all day until about three. Then the clouds parted and blue skies made way for a lovely warm summer evening.
With the Solstice behind us and the end of our most recent project, we have a little time to do some little things around the house. I need to make a list of the little things. One little thing is to clean out all the crap in the Carriage House. If I can just get it out and reorganize it, that would be a major advance in the course of human civilization.
Another little thing is to get a liner installed in our chimney. It is essentially an open vertical window and we need to close it. That's going to be a thousand dollars but the sky walks we are painting will cover most of that.
And so, it's on to summer!
I realize I'm kind of late getting the word out, but if you happen to be in the Spokaloo area this evening around the near North Side of town, we will be hosting our annual Solstice Party, to which you, yes You, are invited.
The weather does not look promising but it's a big house and we can accommodate a few more souls......who bring beer...and an appetizer...and cash is good too.
I have had so much I wanted to get in here and so little of it has happened. So, this is my opportunity to try and catch up.
Ketchup Item #1: Remember my hops? Both plants are doing well. They are doing extremely well. One might say exceedingly swell-ly well. Take a look!
You could reference my posts back in April when the first shoots started poking out of the ground. It's hard to believe these are the same shoots.
Ketchup Item #B: I have an old beat up fiberglass canoe that I use out on the Little Spokane River. It has developed many cracks and holes over the years and I have repaired them. You can see some of my former repair work on the under bow there.
The time had come again to make some patches. I had two cracks right at the water line amid ships. They weren't critical but they allowed water into the boat so...like I said, it was time.
Repairing a fiberglass boat is really pretty easy. I make it one step easier by not caring how it looks. Like I said, this is a knock around boat. I don't want anything out of it other than river worthiness.
You just paint a little resin onto the area to be patched, lay the fiberglass cloth onto the resin and work it in. You can sand it after it dries to smooth it out, or just leave it for that classic White Trash look.
Ketchup Item III: While cleaning the house prior to the Solstice Party, I pulled all the furniture out of the living room and had a real good look at the floors. For the purposes of this particular Blog entry, I'm going to assume that Dave, the privious owner of the house, doesn't read this.
He didn't do a great job refinishing the floors. He made the one mistake that people make all the time when they re-do floors. He used a drum sander. While very efficient, they are difficult to control. You can see the divots in the floor in the picture above.
I don't want to be too hard on Dave because my skills are nothing to brag about. The only difference is we used a large pad sander which completely eliminates divots. We may re-do the finish on this floor, but I doubt it. We have a large carpet covering most of it so you really can't see it.
But I did feel the need to comment, and now I feel better. In the meantime, I think Dave is on a beach in the South Pacific not caring about my floors.
The last thing to do with our hallway project is to create a Time Capsule. We have a little open space at the top of the main floor bathroom door and we are placing a few things in the space. Including a copy of this Blog posting.
We put in a medallion from Expo 74 that I got from my parents. There is a swatch of the wall paper Susan just applied in the entry. There are a couple of pins, some of the invitations we've made for our parties, one of our Christmas cards and a few wine labels from wine we have made. Additionally, there is a thank you we got from a friend of my Mom's concerning the Mother's Day event we hosted this year. There is also a blue ribbon from the Spokane Interstate Fair for the Piesporter we made in 2009.
We closed it up on this date.
It is June First and in my world, that means it is time to shut down the furnace. I turned off the heat on the thermostat and closed the gas valve on the furnace. I suppose I could let the pilot light burn all Summer but that seems terribly wasteful. With it turned off, I still get charged about six bucks a month. I'm not sure why...providing access to gas?
Anyway, the furnace is off and it is now time to enjoy some Summer.
I say that as I sit on the front porch writing this entry at 11:35 PM and notice that it is just starting to rain. I guess I should go turn off the sprinkler that I set earlier.
I can hear activity out in the park. Some kids are out there doing what kids do. Lots of liberal use of the "F" word.
Susan has just arrived home from working at the arena. She was working a concert. It was some happening rap fellows named "LMFAO". To show how unhip I am, I will tell you I have no idea what that stands for.
And yet, life goes on.
It is 2:09 in the after the noon and I am finished with my project. I am mostly happy with the results although I have one piece that I am going to replace.
I made one huge error today on my very first cut. What an idiot!
I had to add the upper piece to this corner and I had one length of wood that was plenty long enough to complete the corner. I measured it out and when I cut it, I missed my mark. It resulted in this piece being about a quarter of an inch short. I had no other wood. I had to use what I had.
So, I cut a little quarter inch piece and glued it into place. You can hardly tell. The problem is I can tell.
Well, here are some pictures of the whole hallway and the completed project. Another one in the "Finished" column.
Now I have to clean up and put everything away. The job isn't really complete until the clean up is finished.
I think I need to amend that statement. The job isn't really complete until I'm dead and it has finished me!
I should have been posting all along this week but I have been busy. I need to go back to work in order to get break.
This job has entailed several phases. It's hard to even consider which was the first phase. Was it buying the wood for the trim or was it milling that wood into the shape and size I needed. What phase was staining. And what about the sub-phases to the staining process.
Surprisingly, I am pretty close to being on schedule with this project. I have one more day and only two final phases to get through.
I have to put up thirteen corner guards and then finish off with the quarter round.
Here are some pictures of the project in progress.
I jokingly implied to Susan that Phil had come over to do all the work while I just sat around all day eating bon bons. She said that would be a hard story to sell considering the quality of the craftsmanship.
She is sooooo mean to me!
9:26 AM: Okay so we are rolling out of bed a little late. But we are going to to do so much that we deserve the rest.
Welcome to Justication Corner.
A little shower, a little breakfast, and then...toil!
10:06 AM: Here is what I did yesterday.
I placed these "Dutchman" patches on three places on the door jam. There had previously been a couple of hinges and a strike plate. Today I have a bunch of sanding to do. I best get to it!
3:55 PM: It is time for a break. We are going to the Hub for a beer. We will return and work s'mo!
7:33 PM: I forgot to come back and describe the end of the day. Well, we did a little more work when we got home but called it a night just a while ago in order to watch an episode of "Downton Abbey". Tomorrow begins my three days of personal toil.
8:48 AM: Okay! We're up! Jeez, it's a Holiday Weekend. Let us sleep in a little. We are getting ready for church and then we have a big busy day in front of us with lots to be done!
11:43 AM: We have returned from church and now it is time to get busy. I have to go out and buy some gas for the yard equipment and some charcoal for tonight's dinner. Then I will be getting to work on the hallway.
6:00 PM: I feel like I have accomplished nothing today. I told Susan, and she agreed, That I am going to need every one of the following four days to complete the front entryway.
I got my gas and stuff but then I stopped at the Hub for a quick schooner and some pop corn. Perhaps that laps in due diligence is why I feel like I wasted the day.
If nothing else, I have a clearer picture of how much I have to do. It's all touch up and set up. I think once I can start putting up trim and baseboards, it will go fast.
Famous Last Words!
It's the first day of the Memorial Weekend and we start it off feeling a little small. Perhaps too many inebriates were consumed last evening. I don't like to judge.
While we have great plans of working on the house over this three day break, none of it was to happen today. We planned a canoe trip with friends. The weather wasn't completely cooperative but neither was it a rain out. It was actually quite comfortable except for the wind, and that wasn't a constant.
Here are a few pictures.
Fun was had by all during our three hour adventure, and that included stopping for a picnic lunch along the way.
Now we have a few hours to kick back before going to see a play at the Civic Theater. "Annie"! I'll tell you about it "Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I'll tell ya, tomorrow. It's only a day away."
Here's a quick run down of the week for anyone who may be interested. And if you are interested, you really need to assess your priorities in life because trust me, what you are about to read is not interesting.
I screwed up the lawn mower last weekend and had to take it in for repair. A brace in the front undercarriage got bent and hit the blade and then it really got bent and screwed up the whole lawn mowing system.
So I hauled it over to my local Lawn Mower Repair Facility and for $70.00, he fixed the brace, tuned the engine and sharpened the blade.
I think the blade sharpening was a mistake because the mower works really quite well now. It's only been a week since I mowed and it seems like I was emptying the bag every three or four passes around the yard. The bag holds 2 bushels and I am sure I harvested about 30 bushels of lawn. That's a lot for a 60 gallon garbage can to contain. I hardly have any room for garbage.
I rode my bike to work three out of five days this past week. You can see from the picture I had great weather on my side. I like to keep track of the river flow as the year progresses. This is already down from just a couple of weeks ago. It was running as high as 35,000 c.f.s. This picture shows it at about 21,000 c.f.s.
I take back my earlier statement. That last paragraph was really interesting.
And now, here's something for the bird lovers in my readership
The baby robins at my Mom's seem to be doing well. The Mom Robin is no longer freaked out by us sitting on the patio and she flies right in to feed. The three chicks seem to be eating and getting larger but they are still quite helpless.
We went down to see the Lilac Parade last night. I am of the opinion that if you have seen one parade you have seen them all and too many at that. However, we do like the parade for the fact that it is the one night of the year that you can walk right in to the Olive Garden and get a table.
Pictured above are photographs of our dinners which brings me back to my original assertion.
This is not interesting!
Another hurdle has been successfully conquered by us with the passing of Mother's Day. Susan prepared a fantastic meal that we carted over to Mom's this afternoon and enjoyed with a party of se7en.
It turned out to be a beautiful day. I would have liked to have had the time for being around the house, but I was okay with making the mother's Day thing happen.
We went to church and then finished the Historic Home Tour sponsored by the museum. We saw 4 houses today situated on the South Hill in the Rockwood Blvd area. We saw some really nice homes.
We then returned home and got to work on our catering job. Susan had most of it under control and I just followed directions.
We got over to Mom's just before four and got to work getting everything set. Once at Mom's, I had to fire up the grill to cook a couple of flank steaks for the main course.
While there, we discovered a good example of a bad mother. Well, perhaps that is too harsh. Let's say a mother who did not plan well or think ahead very far.
Above is a picture of the back patio light at Mom's. You can see she has lost a battle with a persistent Robin. While we were all out there on the patio enjoying the weather, we discovered that eggs had hatched and there were hungry chicks in need of nourishment.
The pinkish feathery shapes in the picture above are the three freshly birthed chicks. At least, I think they just hatched. While we were on the patio, Mama Robin was having a fit trying to figure out how to approach the nest and feed. We finally went inside to give her a break.
The whole Mother's Day thing went well and we went home where Susan passed out from exhaust...I mean, exhaustion.
The alarm went off at 7. That's too early on a Sunday. But, it's Bloomsday and that means getting downtown to get in line to run the 10K's. Or the seven and a half...which ever you prefer.
Susan is running as well as our friend Mark. They have both been training but not seriously. Just enough to not doe on the course.
My running daze are over and while I think I could walk it, I prefer not to. So I drive them down and find a place to park. Then I unload the bicycle that seems to be attached to the bike rack and ride around and check out the Bloomsday sights. Lots of people hate Bloomsday because of the massive crowds but that is the exact reason I love it. It's a great energy and it's fun to see all the fun stuff going on in the park.
Here's an assortment of pictures.
The river is running waaaaaay high right now. It's great to have so many people from out of town here and able to see the falls at their best. I like that picture above because of the Powerhouse building in the background. It still says Washington Water Power. They changed their name a few year back in order to represent a more global, non-descript identity. Avista. Boy, does that suck!
We went to the salvation Army yesterday in order for Susan and Mark to purchase cast off clothes. It's a win-win for Goodwill and the Salvation Army. They sell them one day and then get them right back. You're not buying the cast off clothes. You're renting them.
It's about 3:30 right now and I'm sitting on the front porch making this entry while Susan is blissfully napping upstairs. I did a short little bike ride earlier with a major hill climb and now I'm thinking of going over to the Hub for a beer. But then again, I could have a beer here. That sounds more appealing.
I really have no desire to leave the front porch. It's nice out here right now.
In fact, here's a picture.
Okay, now I have a beer...I'm happy!
One last thing for today. As long as I'm showing pictures, I might as well get the hops progress cataloged here. So here they are.
That is the Sterling Hops up above there and below is the Hallertau.
I suspect they will reach the top of the rail by next weekend.
Some would prefer that I acknowledge Cinqo de Mayo but it is not a holiday I endorse or participate in. Instead, it is the day before Bloomsday and that means CARBO-LOADING!
The whole carbo-loading deal is a myth perpetuated by the Italian Restaurant Association. For it to be effective, you have do eat specific carbs during the week leading up to a race...not the night before. Also, gorging yourself is probably not the best idea.
Anyway, we went out to enjoy some carbs with some people from church. We had a great time and played some game I can't remember with a machine that gives you words or phrases that you give clues to in order to make your team guess the word or phrase.
It was an early night home cuz Susan and Mark are running tomorrow.
It's the Fourth of May. You probably already know that today is Star Wars Day. I think my favorite line from one of those movies is, "Dammit Jim, I'm a Doctor, not a Bricklayer!"
It is also the end of a perfectly retched week. The weather has been rainy and cold. Work has been hectic and busy. And I got a Dear John letter in relation to my attempt to get a part time job at the ballpark. The Dear John letter did come with a couple of vouchers for box seats to any up coming game...so it's not a total loss.
So now it is time to move into the weekend. It looks to be a busy one but with good weather. God is looking out for us working stiffs, making it rain during the week and cleaning it all up for the weekend.
That is why God is great!
May the Fourth be with you!
This is not the first picture taken with the new camera but it should have been. Let's just lie to ourselves and say it is.
So we have a camera and we have a mini deck.
Life is good!
