Captain Dumb Ass

Thank the Lord for my neighbors, who are looking out for me, which is needed on a daily basis because I made an appearance this afternoon as Captain Dumb Ass Ass Ass Ass.

After having cut up a bunch of pallets a couple weeks ago, We have been enjoying lots of fires in the fireplace. That means lots of fireplace clean up. 

I cleaned out the fireplace after getting home from work and then went on about my other business of sitting around and avoiding doing stuff. I didn't bother to notice that the ashes were still hot when I put them in my garbage can packed full of dry leaves.

Hence the pretty picture.

My neighbor behind me rang the bell and alerted me to the situation. My water faucets were still turned off for the winter so it was a mad dash to find some water. 

Fortunately, it smoldered for a long time but never really took off, which could have been disastrous for the garage.

The garbage can is a total loss. I wonder what the city is going to ding me for that.

Update: March 28th, 2014, 10:05AM: I just got off the phone with the Solid Waste Department and they said they would get a new container out to me on Monday. I took total responsibility for the damaged receptacle but they did not indicate that I would incur a penalty or fee.

Big Weekend Roundup

I've been trying to post here all last week and it just never happened. So here I am, late on Sunday evening with the big Weekend Roundup.

It's the first week of the NCAA Basketball Madness and so we were all wrapped up in keeping track of our various brackets. One of the venues for Round Two games was here in Spokaloo. That means Susan had to work Thursday night and a good chunk of Saturday.

As for me, I'm unemployed on the weekends other than the income I can earn living off my wiles. 

My big accomplishments of the weekend include a little yard clean up and that's about it.

And then I skied on Sunday.

Vernal Gets Gassy

I had the evening to myself because the NCAA Tournament is in town and that means Susan is working at the Arena, which is the same place where the NCAA Tournament is taking place.

I bought myself a nice thick lean piece of sirloin to put on the barbeque to celebrate the arrival of my good friend, Vernal Equinox. I fired up the barby and waited for it to get good and hot. 

Whilst I waited, I played a little piano and started a load of laundry. It's important to pay attention and not confuse these activities. Getting soap in the piano makes my playing sound even worse and I totally screwed up the washer when I tried to tune it.

The steak went on the hot grill over indirect heat and began it's short trip to warm rare. I had it in there about 20 minutes but flipped it every four minutes.

Just as I was about to remove the steak there was a stern knocking, pounding really, at the front door. I opened the door to a fireman and suddenly noticed that there were fire engines parked all over the place.

They must have rolled up in stealth mode because I never heard a siren. I had been pretty intent on my steak and watching the NCAA Tournament where Susan was working.

Apparently, there was a gas leak in the neighborhood. More specifically, in the alley behind the house. I was asked to evacuate to the park. I told the guy I had a steak on the que that needed to be removed. When I went to the deck to get the steak, that's when I smelled the gas.

I then spent the next 15 minutes standing around in the park and chatting with all my other neighbors who got evacuated. I think they went to every house around the block and asked everyone to get out.

By then, the smell of gas was in the air. 

I walked up to Cleveland street with my neighbor Lou and we scoped the situation out there. I saw some firemen draining fire hoses but other than that, there really wasn't anything to see there either.

As I walked back towards the house, I passed a group of fire persons who told me all was well. I returned to the house to replace my steak on the grill to warm it up. 

And it was worth the wait!

Halloween Clean Up

For some time now, since Halloween if you must know, I have been wanting to remove the post holders I pound into the ground for the Flying Ghost display. 

In the past, I have found it to be a most arduous task, causing sweating, cursing, beer drinking, shortness of breath, and back pain.

In the past, I have always removed them soon after Halloween.

This year, the remained skewered to the ground all winter. 

So now it is approaching four months that they have been out there and it is time for me to be a responsible home owner and remove this blight.

I went out with shovels and rakes and implements of destruction, but no beer. I'm on my Season of Lent South Beach Insanity Diet and that means no beer. I was anticipating a fight and a beer would have been nice.

I proceeded to input my multi-pronged plan.

Prong 1: Place a post in the sleeve and move it back and forth and side to side to help loosen the soil around the post holder.

Prong 2: Place the post on the ground and use it as a fulcrum in concert with my trusty shovel to (hopefully) easily lift the post holder from its moorings.

Prong 3: With no beer to steel my nerves, say a short prayer.

Prong 4: Raise post holder from ground with the shovel as a pry bar and my courage as a force to be dealt with.

Prong 5: Remove the reaming post holder with the same ease and flare while imagining how much better this all would have been if I had a beer.

Surprisingly, they all came out easily. I attribute this to all the rain we have gotten in the last week...close to an inch.

With that job out of the way, I felt it was time for beer. Doo!

A Snowy Spokaloo Sunday

I might have to consider writing a song that goes with today's header. It's probably a country song, kind of ballad like.

I have just taken this picture and it is not a clear indication of how much it is snowing right now.

It snowed a couple of inches last night and I didn't get around to clearing it until after church this morning.

So I went out about noon to tackle the snow. As I started up the snow blower, it began to snow again. By the time I finished clearing the driveway and sidewalk, it was coming down pretty good.

And now, three hours later, there's almost an inch on the ground. 

It continues as I write.

We were supposed to paint St Patrick's windows at a nearby Barber Shop today. But they were really busy and the gal who runs the place asked us to come back later.

We are kind of bummed that we didn't get this job out of the way. But I think we are both happy to have sudden unplanned time land in our laps. 

Susan is relaxing with her time. Well deserved, I might add. She had to work hockey the last two nights.

I'm going to try and get another coat of varnish on the mantle.

Let's see how I do!

5:04PM: I just went outside and stuck a tape measure in the snow. It came back cold so it must still be snowing. It has snowed 2 inches since noon.

10:00PM: I have just come in from shoveling a good three inches of snow from the front walk. 

We watched the Academy Awards tonight and it snowed for quite a while. I went out and brushed the snow off the cars and then cleared the front walk way and side walk. I may snow blow in the morning but I have to wait and see what comes down in the next few hours.

As I finished shoveling, a sleety wet snow started to fall. The forecast is calling for rain all week so I don't feel very compelled to get out there and get everything cleared. It will clear itself in a couple of days.

The Four Corners of Spokane

A productive weekend was had by...well, somebody probably had a productive weekend. It wasn't us!

I had lots of little projects to do over the weekend and I did a lot of them. But it felt like I drove around on Saturday to all four corners of Spokane.

Mom's cars are not being driven so I went up to her place and started them and drove around briefly. I had to drive the Honda more than the other because the battery was stoned cold dead. Even after I started it and drove it home, it was not charged enough to restart the vehicle. I'm thinking it may need a new battery.

Anyway, while I was driving around to the four corners of Spokane, Susan was busy finishing the stenciling in the Living Room.

I think she is finally finished. And it looks marvelous!

Icy to Sloppy

What a difference a weather system makes!

Last week we were hovering just above zero. Two days ago, it snowed four inches. Today, it's 45 degrees and that snow is a sloppy slushy soup of goop.

I'm going to have to go dig out the corner sewer grate after work tonight. There is a lot of water pooling out there.

I'm part of a Neighborhood Social Media thing called Corbin Park Spokane. People who can be on it are limited to the immediate borders of our neighborhood.

It's got a lot of superfluous stuff on there...lost pets, stuff for sale. But it is also a great spot to find out about suspicious people seen in the area, break ins, and other news.

Last week, one neighbor posted about everyone being sure to clear their sidewalks and make Corbin Park safe for walking. Last night, she reported that Corbin Park was 100% sidewalk clean.

That's pretty cool! Of course, a day of higher temperatures and rain helped with that as much as the shovelers, methinks.

Mo Sno

The two inches of snow that were forecast for today turned into four. I got home and got my designated portion of the world cleaned off and ship shape.

We are finally having a winter around here. 

We are just hanging out tonight. Susan is looking to do a little more stenciling and I have some work to do on my computer upstairs. No, my work does not involve visiting some sites of questionable repute.

Here's a picture of what Susan painted tonight. She is almost done.

She just has to finish this last portion on the right side of the fireplace, and then I think she will have reached the end of the stenciling line.

Broken String

I finally broke the string of consecutive posts at 35. Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The good news is that now I have some actual stuff of interest to post.

I skied yesterday with Mark. We went to Lookout Pass, which is my preferred ski hill.

We had planned to go up on Friday. We went so far as to take the day off. We concluded upon rising that it was too cold. The temperature on the mountain was 4. We decided to wait a day and see if it got better.

It did!

We drove up yesterday and arrived to a great parking spot and a clear blue sky. We only skied 6 runs due to a complication.

On our ride up the Number One chair for our fourth run, the lift stopped when we were a little more than half way up. After five minutes of no progress, we began to think there was something wrong.

Above is a picture of our view for most of the ordeal. We were close too a pole, but not close enough. After about 25 minutes, the lift moved suddenly...and then stopped just as suddenly. It continued doing that for the next 15 minutes. 

They finally got it moving steadily but slowly...which was fine at that point. Just get us off.  We unloaded at the top 50 minutes after the lift first stopped. 

You have no idea how heavy skis can get when they are just hanging off your legs for that length of time. 

A ski patrolman took our names and numbers at the top (we're not sure why)and we continued on our way. 

The number two lift was still running so we took a couple of runs but by then, the chill in our limbs was taking hold. 

We realized that if we went to the lodge, that would be it for skiing.

They had gotten everyone off the lift and now it was shut down. We ended up getting a voucher for another day, so all those runs were for free...or $39, depending on how you look at it.

I have chores to do today. Chief among them is to hook up an extension cord to the roof to prevent a giant icicle from ruining the ceiling of the Dining Room.

Okay! I was successful in getting the cicle down.

Susan continued to work on stenciling and I got a coat of paint on my window frames. Before that however, I was able to custom fit them to their respective places. It's a good thing I did too because they would not have fit. I'm still not sure they will after I get glass in them.

Colder Than A . . .

It is clear and cold out. I think the temperature is about 10 degrees right now.

We have both just gotten home a short while ago and are puttering around the house. I'm going to go out and get a coat of paint on my storm window frames. I don't think Susan is going to do anything other than her nightly exercises and then her nightly arm curls with wine.

Piano Man

I have just finished my weekly piano lesson. I'm not sure I have talked about them much here and since I really don't have anything else to write about, I shall expound now.

I took piano lessons from age 7 to 12. I learned the basics and then forgot them all. I can figure out songs when I have the music but it is long and arduous. I want to learn to sight read better.

I've been taking piano lessons since last Spring. I stopped during the Summer and then picked it up again just before Thanksgiving. 

The big reason I decided to dive in again is that my teacher comes to the house on Mondays after I get off work. Before, I met him at Music City on Saturday afternoons. Breaking up my Saturdays like that was too intrusive. This works out great now.

My instructor is Art Rosenau. He is the organist at church and very very VERY talented.

I'm paying $20.00 for a one hour lesson.

Tonight, I paid $20.00 so Art could sit there and listen to me practice. I didn't sit down at the piano at all this past week. I have to make the effort to sit down and practice as soon as I get home.

I hope to make that happen this week.

Excellent Day

It has not been often in my life where I am on the side of a winning Championship team. But I can not ever say that again.

The Seattle Seahawks kicked some Denver butt today. I don't think anyone figured the game would be that lopsided. Seattle dominated from the very first play. Denver had maybe two good drives. 

We watched the game at the Hub and enjoyed the day immensely.

We started the day with church and then tried to do a few projects. Susan did very well with her stenciling.

I did okay with my storm window project.

We went to a neighbors house briefly to check out a remodel. Actually, our neighbors Tami and Lou bought a house down the block and are going to rent it to their niece.

We went through it back in November and it was pretty bad. It's remarkable what they have accomplished in four months. It makes us feel pretty inadequate.

We returned home with new remodeling vigor and did a little more work on our projects until it was time to walk over to the Hub to watch the game.

The Hub served barbecued ribs and chicken and taters and a mess of other good stuff, including beer...which we again enjoyed in copious amounts. Joining us for the game was Lee, Robin, Mark and the rest of the regulars at the Hub.

Afterwards, we returned home to take a hot tub and now we are just wondering what time to go to bed.

It's been a great day and a really good reminder of how blessed and lucky we are.

Ski Day

Today was our first day of skiing this season. The day was great as indicated by the following pictures.

As great as the day was, it also reminded us that we are old and out of shape. It didn't help that we drank copious amounts of beer towards the end of the day. And wasn't that last picture a bottle of some sort of peppermint elixir...or should I say a half bottle?

We got home and got into the hot tub to soothe our weary joints and muscles. Not long after that, we got into bed.

Life with Skip and Muffy

Both Susan and I have been trying to work on our respective remodeling projects during the week but it just never works out. Every night we have something that comes up that prevents us from working on project. Also, we lay ZEE!

Last night we were unable to do any work because we attended an Open House at the office of our Financial Advisor. We enjoyed beer and delicious Italian fare and stood around with people we don't know talking about debentures and pork belly futures.

Tonight we attended a Christian Comedy Show with some other folks from church. Verily, I say unto thee, it was chucklesome and rich with jocularity!

Every Day is a New Record.

I am on track for my most intensive year of posting. That coincides with a nomination for the most useless information in a year as well.

I don't know what my previous record was for consecutive posts but I have left it far in the dust.

But again, just because I'm posting doesn't mean I'm writing anything good.

Let's take today for example.








You see!

I will say that we are getting some snow today but it seems to be very wet. I won't know until tonight if the snow blower needs to come out or not

Snow Blow Day

We got some snow last night.

This is the view I had when I got the paper. It doesn't really show the snowy scene outside but you can see that TJ is tentative about going out.

Here's a better illustration of the snow we got. That's about four inches. There's supposed to be more coming.

The main thing is that I got to break out the snow blower and cover the immediate neighborhood.

I'm ready for more!

Luke, I Am Your Grandfah-tha!

Say hello to Lucas Gauge Martens. He was born just after midnight on the 27th. His Mom Jennifer was having some problems and so they induced labor a month early and he appears to be fine.

His father, Rob is my step son from a former relationship. And so while it is not by blood, I'm still claiming him as a grand son.

Consternation in the Congregation

Today is a follow up to last Tuesday's post where I spoke about our church and the big vote by the membership to rent our building to another church.

We had the vote yesterday and it was decided to allow the other church to rent our building. The vote was 24 for, 22 against and 1 abstention. What the hell is up with THAT. You can't feel passionate enough about this to make a decision?! Jeez!

The most amazing thing to me about this vote was that we have 47 members. That's a thriving church!

So now we move forward with a rental agreement. The 22 against are going to be all over that.

Moron Manor

Neither Susan nor I had a good day with home remodeling.

She was working on stenciling and hoping to make good progress. 

She ended up going backwards. The placement of the corner stencil was off a bit...enough to be painfully obvious and not at all acceptable.

And so, it had to go.

She'll have another go at it tomorrow...or the next day.

I went to the lumber store (Lowe's) and bought what I needed for my next storm window frames.

I got everything figured out and cut two pieces too short. About a quarter inch short, which is not at all acceptable. So, I had to go back and get another eight feet. Cost: $7.00 plus gas...and my time (.07).

This time around I'm using 1x2 pieces of poplar rather than the 2x2's I used on the first window. I had some issues fitting my last frame into place. I'm eventually going to have to trim part of the frame to make it work.

This time I'll make sure the frames fit properly before I continue to painting and glazing.

On a positive note, Susan did some touch up work on the fire place tile and it looks pretty good. Above is her repair work of the chipped tile. She has already painted the chipped tile to the left.
 Here is how it looks now. 

The color is slightly off but we are the only ones who will notice.

Storm Window Central

It has been a lazy morning but it is now time to get serious and make a storm window. I'm heading out to my Storm Window Work Shop and getting on it. I'll check back with pictures and diagrams and a paragraph describing the action to be used as evidence against me.

2:57PM: The storm window is complete but not installed. I have been wanting to get the Metal snap clips that hold the window in place but at $3.00 a clip, that seems prohibitively expensive for my budget. So, at least for today, I'm going to buy these cheesy little plastic turnbuckles. 

8:08PM: It's half time for the Gonzaga game so I have a little bit of time to finish up here.

My plan for using Plexiglas in the storm window was a disaster. I was using my jigsaw to cut the sheet to size and because it was a large 8 foot x 4 foot sheet, I did it outside in front of the Carriage House. That was a mistake. Since it was close to freezing, the plex did not cut well at all. 

I was making my first cut and I got about a third of the way through the cut when I realized how badly the blade was cutting. I stopped to see if I had a fresh jigsaw blade and when I returned, I couldn't find my cut.

It was then I realized that the plex had snapped where I had started cutting. Of course it did not snap evening or cleanly and I lost that piece.

After destroying the first piece and nearly losing another, I gave up and called my glass guy and got a piece of 1/8th inch glass for $30.00.

I'm still hoping I can salvage the remaining plexiglas to use for the other storm windows I plan to make.