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We started our Holiday Window Painting Season last night. Yup, I've broken my tradition of not painting before Thanksgiving. I've sold out and I'm no better than WalMart. I suck!
I could console myself by saying that the customer wanted it done now while the venue is closed for annual repairs. I could make myself feel better by pointing out that images we painted are not really "Holiday" fare, but more of a winter theme. But the truth is I wanted the job (I wanted the money) and I would have lost the job (the money) if I had held off a week. And so...WalStan!
I am very dis-satisfied with my memories relating to this day fifty years ago. I was six, so I guess I can be forgiven for my lack of political awareness. I can only remember not being able to watch Sky King or Roy Rogers because a casket was rolling down the street for what seemed like three weeks.
I read through the paper this morning and they featured a reprint of the front page from fifty years ago. The main thing that struck me about it was the size. After shrinking the old front page to fit the width of the contemporary format, they still had about a third of a page to fill the bottom with a current article. It reminded me again of how much smaller newspapers are today and to me, that smallness translates to quality.
No wonder the industry is in trouble!
A quiet day here at the Club House as we start to begin to get ready to commence the kick off for embarking on a plan to prepare for the upcoming Holiday Window Painting Season. We have several jobs lined up but are still waiting to hear about the majority of sky walks downtown. It looks like we are going to do okay though.
So we went to church this morning and then goofed around after getting home...playing the piano, drinking beer and planning what we are going to do for Thanksgiving. It seems we are going to have a few friends over (about eight of us) and have a nice early Thanksgiving gathering.
I went back out to where I got all the firewood and dropped off our pumpkin remains for the deer out there. Then I grabbed a large stump that I will use as a chopping block for the turkey I plan to raise from a puppy (in the next two weeks) and the copious amounts of kindling I will be creating.
It's a rainy day and we should be doing some work around the house...but sometimes you have to give yourself some down time. Since we were parading around the state last week and had no time for down time, it occurred today. It is, in fact, occurring as I write.
They keep telling me that the snow is coming. They are often wrong but everyone feels some sort of fealty to the predictions that They make. So today was really my only day to get the rest of the leaves up off the ground.
As it turned out, I only got the leaves from one part of the ground to another part of the ground. It didn't feel like I accomplished a lot but the front yard looks largely leaf free and is ready to accept snow...whenever "They" deem it is coming.
My big accomplishment of the day was to reload my wood pile. You can see above that I was getting low.
I have been given access to a friends wood pile that has sat unused behind his house for a couple of whiles.
It took two loads in my car, stacked three rows deep and up to the roof, to get it all, but I should be good for a couple of months or so, depending on how much we burn. I'm burning right now!
So now I have this large pile by the back door and more in the Play House out back. I have a feeling I'm going to be chasing spiders out of my car for the next several days.
Susan's sister Margaret, along with Margaret's son, Neil have been visiting us from Iowa for the last week. They jet out early tomorrow morning. I'm not sure of the time exactly. All I know is that I have to get up at four to take them to the airport.
Susan worked half days last week. She took them on a tour of all the exciting Spokane landmarks as they ventured around town and went to things like the museum, a few local wineries, and the suction goat.
We also had the annual pumpkin toss which was great fun.
Last Thursday, we packed up the car and set out for Seattle for a couple of days. We toured all the exciting Seattle landmarks as we ventured around town and went to things like the Space Needle, Pike Street Public Market, the Seattle Aquarium and any establishment that sells alcohol.
On Saturday, our plan was to leave town by ferry and tour Bainbridge Island, return by ferry from Kingston to Edmonds where the antique stores are voluminous and then drive to Leavenworth for a day of walking from shop to shop full of crap.
A small monkey wrench was thrown into our plans as I went to retrieve the car from the Parking Garage only to discover I had a dead battery.
I'm usually pretty well prepared for such emergencies. However, while loading up the car prior to our departure from Spokaloo, I removed the box that contains my jumper cables and a bunch of tools in order to make more room for luggage.
That fatal mistake cost us about three hours on Saturday as I roamed the streets of Seattle on foot trying to find a place that would sell me a car battery.
If you want coffee in Seattle, you needn't walk any further than the guy sleeping on a bus bench. But if you want a car battery...in the immediate Seattle downtown area...good luck!
Fortunately, I found a Jiffy Lube that was not too far of a walk that was able to accommodate my battery needs.
One hundred and fifty dollars later, we were on the road again.
Sure! A new set of jumper cables would have cost much less, but then I would be required to search out someone willing to give me a jump...in a parking garage. The battery I had was old and probably due for replacement so it just made more sense to get the battery and move on.
So we boarded the Ferry Wenatchee for the 30 minutes crossing to Bainbridge. There was a charming little seaside hamlet where we found a little 50's styled diner for lunch. After the girls spent some more time shopping, we headed north towards Kingston.
Susan and I spent an evening in Kingston a while back with our friends, Mike and Steven. We cruised over on their ChrisCraft floating home and spent the night.
Another 20 minute ferry ride got us to Edmonds where I went to a bar while everyone cruised the town in search of booty.
The drive to Leavenworth was a bit hairy as the rain was coming down which of course turned to snow on Stevens Pass. I'm coming to find that I don't enjoy driving at night as much as I used to. Not being able to see has something to do with that, I think.
All in all, it has been a nice visit with Neil and Margaret but I am sure I have gained ten pounds over the last few days. Also, I am sure I spent about $70.00 in two days just on parking in Seattle.
Here is a small selection of the many pictures I took over the last four days.
Space Needle from below.
Space Needle from Inside
Shadow of Space Needle
No Space Needle in this Picture
Can you tell they are sisters?
The whole city of Levenworth was Christmassy and out of focus.
Hooray for JeigerSchnitzel!
After getting dressed this morning, I walked downstairs and let the cat out. It was a normal chilly Autumn morning, like every other morning in recent memory. Susan came down about three minutes later and said, "It's snowing!".
I looked out and it was really coming down. It had only just started and the ground was already turning white.
By the time I got out to the car to drive to work, it had a nice coat of heavy white on it.
Since this was going to be my first snow drive of the season, I was cognizant of the fact that it was possibly going to be a hairy commute. I never really worry about myself. I worry about the other drivers. All you other people! So I give everyone lots of room.
At the same time, I do not drive like a slow moving snow covered turtle. I'm deliberate and aggressive while giving everyone else lots o' room.
The conditions were damp and there was snow piling up between the lanes but it wasn't slick.
So I'm driving along on Interstate 90 in the fast lane and approaching the overpass at Evergreen Road. There was an SUV about 100 yards in front of me with one car between us.
I suddenly saw the rear end of this SUV swerve to the left and then to the other left, commonly referred to as right. It fishtailed dramatically a couple of times and then it rammed into the center divider. I was already slowing and I could feel the anti-lock brakes working. The SUV bounced off the divider and spun around a couple of times and stopped facing the wrong way straddling the center and outside lanes.
No other collisions occurred and the SUV didn't really look that bad. I drove past and could see the woman at the helm. I'm sure she was shaken up but it didn't appear that the air bag had gone off. It looked as though she could have turned around and driven off. I ended up driving on past the SUV and continued my journey.
As I rolled on, I thought I should have stopped to offer help or something...but I'm not sure what I could have done other than block traffic.
I talked to a co-worker who drove through the scene after the event and she said the SUV was off on the shoulder of the freeway, still facing the wrong way but traffic wasn't backed up.
So that was my first snow drive of Winter 2013-14.
On Halloween at Corbin Park, one does not sit idly behind the front door waiting for a Trick or Treater to come ambling up and ring the bell. One stands on the front porch and drops candy bar after candy bar into the little satchel of the constant throng of little darlings.
Our neighbors sit on the front porch as well and they have a clicker to count the throngs of little darlings and their number is the number I use for the official count of little darlings.
And so, according to the Horobiowski Meter, the official count for Halloween 2013 is 1,437. Not all of them were little darlings. In fact, I handed out many a candy bar to big fat 35 year old groty-monsters.
What's the deal with being a full grown adult and out collecting candy. Obviously, I don't know the back stories and I frankly don't have time to grill every Trick or Treater. But I know that some of those guys and gals, dressed up in full costume (to their credit) were not getting candy for some kid.
It was a GREAT night! The weather was just right. We had a sunny, warm afternoon for the set up which makes everything much more enjoyable. The work goes faster and the beer tastes better.
I need a synonym for "Trick or Treaters". I can't keep saying "the Trick or Treaters arrived at 5". "The Trick or Treaters were like the multitude upon the desert". "The Trick or Treaters were really old".
Anyway, things got underway with the really little kids at 5ish and we went until about 8:30. By then, the crowd is dying down and we are all getting very tired. So tired that the last groups that come up to the house get hands full of Twizzlers so we can run out of candy.
Many thanks to Ron, Kelly, Randy, Karen, Mark, Ellen, Rob, Olga and Natalie, our friends that came by to help out and enjoy the party. We could never pull this off and enjoy it like we do without their help.
We got a chance to break away and walk around the neighborhood and see what the other neighbors are doing. There are still a lot of houses that are dark. In fact, of the 80 plus houses around the park, I would say no more than 25 were participating in Halloween.
I've always thought that is such a weird dichotomy where we have 20-ish houses giving out candy and a thousand people show up.
I will say that the houses that participate really make it worth the price of admission. Down the street from us was "The Walk of Doom" and of course, the Walter Clan across the park from us put together a virtual amusement park across three houses.
The Full Size Candy bars don't hurt either!
One Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty-Se7en
Sunday involved more work with leaves. We have managed to bag up 5 large trash bags packed tight with leaves. As I looked out on the yard this morning, it looks as though we don't even own a rake.
Yesterday was extremely windy and the first really cold day of the season. The leaves are piled everywhere. I was going to take my bags of leaves to the dump this week, but I have decided to wait until the weekend when I will clearly have more bags to take with me.
We got the rest of the Halloween stuff down from the Carriage House and the special hideaway where we keep the fake pumpkins.
All this crap will be sitting around the house for the next few days and until it is placed out in the yard on Thursday.
I still haven't achieved Flying Ghost yet. I'm still messing with the posts and getting the post anchors securely pounded into the ground. I think I have discovered something important as far as pounding these post anchors into the ground.
I have been using short lengths of 4x4 posts to place in the sleeve of the post anchor and then pound with my sledge hammer. The short length really takes a beating and is generally destroyed and splintered apart before I get the thing completely pounded to the ground.
If I use a longer length of the 4x4, it doesn't seem to get destroyed like the shorter length. Hence, it is easier to remove the 4x4 post when I am finished.
I have yet to complete all my experimentation with this theory and will report back when my findings are more conclusively definitive.
There was a ton to do today and very high on the list was to get the leaves in the front yard raked up. But there was also the installation of a new cover lift for the hot tub, getting more Halloween decor into position and doing something with our Cabernet wine. The must has been sitting in pulp for nearly two weeks now and it's time to get the rest of the juice out of the pulp.
But first, let's stop and take note of the birthday of my sister, Sherry. She would have been 51 today. Oh well, I guess forever 50 is better...except for the part where you are dead!
The first job we tackled was the wine. Yes, that is the way our priorities go.
I took the wine that was sitting in a se7en gallon bucket and poured it into a clean ice chest. As I poured it, Susan held a large mesh bag and collected the pulp. There was still a lot of juice in that pulp and we aim to get it.
Then we let the juice in the ice chest drain into a six gallon carboy. It looks like we got about three gallons.
Next I tied the mesh bag to my camera tripod to allow the juice to run out.
I squeezed the bag throughout the day but this is a very inefficient way of getting that juice. We really need a fruit press.
We next had to do some maneuvering of furniture and carpets in the Dining and Living spaces. We still have the piano up on casters so we can move it around as we need to when we get back in there to really finish the project.
With that accomplished, I moved to the backyard and the hot tub.
There is an earlier post that shows the old lift and how it has pulled its screws right out of the side of the tub.
We purchased a side mounted lift, which is what we really should have had from the start.
It was clearly made in China because the directions were really bad. I had to figure most of it out myself. The directions provided lots of useful information but it left out giant parts, like how to install the hydraulic struts onto the brace arm.
In the end, I won.
My next task was to get the Flying Ghost display set up. I had pounded the post keepers into the ground earlier in the week so all I had to do was drop the post into the sleeves and tighten them up.
At that point, I could no longer ignore the leaves. I got out my Power Vac and my Leaf Blower and went to work.
I'll have to pick them up tomorrow. Today I was only able to get them in piles.
Susan had to work the Hockey game so I had the evening to myself.
I had gone over to Jim's Home Brew to price a fruit press. They had one there in stock but it was much larger than I would ever need and it cost $700. I came to find out that even a smaller one was going to run about $300. That's too much for something I would use once, maybe twice a year.
I decided later in the evening to cover that mesh bag containing the pulp. I untied it from the tripod and was going to move it to a different bucket and pour off the juice we had when it slipped from my hand and plopped down hard in the bucket of juice.
A giant funnel of juice was unleashed upwards. My face and body took the brunt of the impact and then the remaining juice distributed unevenly all about the adjacent area. I'm certain I'll be cleaning up sticky dried juice for weeks to come.
Another typical Saturday on Corbin Park!
We have a week to go and lots to do. But that is not why I'm writing today.
Years ago, I bought a poster that displayed all the different chords and the fingering positions on the keyboard. I also bought a corresponding poster for guitar chords. I always thought it would like nice next to the piano.
Now that the Living Room is finished and back full of furniture, I thought it was time to hang that poster.
We've been in the house almost nine years now and we still have not hung a lot of pictures. We've been very weary of putting nail holes in the walls.
We would love to get a bunch of our family pictures up on this wall on the stairs. But again, we've not wanted to punch a bunch of holes in the wall. Especially after all the plastering work we put in getting it smooth and great looking as shown above.
I've been looking into these stick-on hooks that 3M makes. I bought a couple a few months back and put them in my closet to hang my bathrobe and pants on. They have been working really well and I think they will work for the pictures we hang in the stairway.
That does not appear to be the case for a larger poster in a heavy frame.
It's my own damn fault! The package says that the weight limit is 5 pounds. This frame weighed about 7 or 8 pounds. I thought I could mitigate that issue by putting up two hooks. Math doesn't work with sticky hooks. At least, not the way I use math.
It ended up holding for about 4 hours. Susan got home late from the Arena and was taking a bath when she heard a loud crash around 1AM.
The poster is okay but my $20 frame is toast.
With the completion of the Living Room, we can now move on to the next most pressing issue facing us. Halloween!
With nine days to go, we have hardly decorated at all. People are starting to wonder.
Now that the furniture is back in the Living Room, and all the crap that has been packed into the Dining Room is cleared out, Susan has started laying out her decorations in the house. She completed a major goal today and had the carpets cleaned.
The white one in the Living Room has been rolled up for the past nine months so it was in pretty good shape.
But the red one in the Dining Room has had nine months of sitting under a covered Dining table, with cats lolling about the place and barfing all around. It was in bad shape. But it sure looks good now.
My efforts to Halloweenize the house have included getting the posts out in the front yard for the flying ghosts, and getting some lights up on the house. I've also got the skeleton hanging from the noose upstairs.
*Because I am a well known environmentalist, always concerned for the well being of the planet and my impact on it, (*Text in italics should be considered sarcastic.) I have started replacing outside lights with L.E.D. bulbs. These bulbs have finally technically caught up with the basic desire of the light bulb consuming public in that they can dim. They are still wildly expensive and the lights classified as "Daylight" emit a tone of light that Emergency Room Technicians would covet.
This picture of the new bulb over the back door does not do the light justice. It actually looks pretty good here.
Anyway, I have written today's date on the bulb and we shall see how far the $18.95 I spent on it shall go. It had better last at least two years (and more five) or I'm going to get even more sarcastic.
Susan and I both agree that the Living Room is not finished. We also both agree that the Living Room is finished.
Yea!
Here's the deal! The main stuff we wanted to get done is done. The ceiling is drywalled and painted to a satiny smooth surface, the crow molding is up and looking good, the trim is up, the wall paper is in, the radiator is back from the powder coater and looking good, and the stenciling, while not complete, looks awesome.
The stenciling needs to be completed, the radiator needs to be re-installed and all the woodwork needs to be varnished. But it's done!
The statistics are that it took 275 days for us to complete this two month remodel. I have not figured out the cost yet but I'm thinking we are around one thousand dollars. That does not include the hours and hours we put in.
But who couldn't be happy with these results.
I should point out that today was a particularly beautiful autumn day. This is what it looks like out of doors.
One might notice that pile of leaves in the yard. It is my first raking of the year. More to come. I must admit that the pile of leaves is gone now and gone to the same place I took them last year, as chronicled in a post on Oct 4th. let's never speak of this again, again!
Pictured above is the last piece of my chair rail puzzle to be installed tonight...and forevermore, for that matter. The whole installation went very smoothly except for the part where I seemed to be missing a section of base shoe.
I looked all over for it and cannot find an extraneous piece that I have seemed to forget about. So, my mission for Saturday is to get a piece of base shoe and get it stained and installed. October 20th is coming.
In the meantime, the rest of my chair rail looks great!
I am very pleased with my coping joints.
