Getting Ready for Spooks

Susan and I went out today to get our supply of candy for Halloween. By my estimation, we spent about $120.00 and have just short of 2,000 pieces of candy. That total includes candy we already had on hand. I expect our friends who come and help out will bring some too so we are pretty well prepped for Halloween, as far as candy goes.

Our front porch is pretty well decorated so we are definitely in the Halloween season.

Beware of Tracy King

We are only a few days away from the start of the Fall Equinox, which has out us in the wonderful place where we don't have to run the air conditioner at night. The weather has cooled off dramatically in the last week but not so much that it leaves you feeling like Summer is over. Even though Summer is over.

We haven't been doing a lot around the house other than the side yard. Susan has been working out there trying to get it cleaned up. It's the one area of our yard that we've neglected and it pretty much shows it. The grass is all dead and the gardens are just growing wild. 

We planted three arbor vitae's earlier this year and they have all died. Every time we try to fill in our hedge, they just don't make it. I'm sure I watered enough but the shrubs tell me different.

Next weekend, we are cleaning up all the stumps from the tree we took down. Some friends are coming over with a wood splitter and we are going to split them chunks o'wood.

The big challenge we are dealing with right now is an attack on our bank accounts. Yesterday, Susan got a call from a guy named Tracy King who said he was with Publishers Clearing House and we won two and half million dollars.

I was at the Hub when he called and he told her he had sent a verification code to my phone that we needed to confirm that we are who we are. I got the code on my text and was wondering what it was when Susan called. I ended up going home from watching the Apple Cup to call this guy back.

We are not stupid, just greedy. So we didn't give this guy any information. He already had all our phone numbers, our names and our address.

I finally got to the point where I told him this sounded like a scam and Tracy immediately told me to "Go suck off my wife." 

I'm not sure how they train people at Publishers Clearing House but I'm pretty sure that kind of language is not in their guide book.

I used several choice words myself and the phone was hung up.

Shortly after, we got a call from our bank saying somebody was trying to add a different contact phone to our account.

As of now, our bank account is locked, as is all my credit cards.

We have to go to the bank tomorrow and change all our accounts. This really sucks and I wish we hadn't let the ever so slight possibility of winning big money cloud our better judgement.

Of course, taking advantage of otherwise well meaning folks is how these utter pieces of shit make their money. I still have Tracy's number and I am tempted to call him up and have a conversation, but to what end. Even if he answered, he would just hang up.

So, I'm going to try and fight the urge and just live my life...and change all my passwords.  

Front Porch Rail Completion

 Susan has finally completed the front porch railing project and it looks great. Here are just a few pictures to show before and after.

She really put a lot of time and effort into this. It really came out well.

Front Porch Work

Things seem to be okay with the refrigerator. It does not appear to be leaking on the floor anymore and the ice being made is no longer brownish.

Susan is going great guns on the front porch railing. Here are some pictures of her progress.

She is using a lot of Wood Bondo. It’s an epoxy wood filler that sets up really hard and really fast. She only has a brief amount of time to apply the putty once it is mixed up. Therefore, she only mixes small amounts at a time.

I did some staining of two long lengths of quarter round that I need to finish up in the kitchen.

I hope to get a coat of varnish on it tomorrow and get this damn kitchen job finished.

Bird of Prey Sighting

I was sitting in the kitchen trying to avoid work when Susan shouted at me from the front door and told me to come out to the porch. She had been working on scraping the railing when this large bird of prey landed on the lawn. 

By the time I got out there, it had flown up into our chestnut tree and posed there long enough for me to get some pretty good pictures.

I have since gone on line to try and identify the race of this bird.

I think it is a Red Tailed Hawk. According to what I looked up, the Red-Tailed Hawk is the most common hawk seen in Washington. I don't have any good shots of its tail so I can't be sure. But the breast coloration and the color of the eyes make me think it's a Red-Tail.

I'm happy to entertain anyone who has a different or more educated  opinion.

In any case, it was pretty cool!

Reefer Madness

Last week, we noticed a big puddle under the refrigerator. We pulled the fridge out and sopped up all the water. It had clearly been there for a few days. You could see that the cabinets on either side of the fridge had absorbed some water and at least one of our floor planks looks a little curled. Not enough to have to replace it but we’re keeping an eye on things.

I checked today and there was some water under the refrigerator. Not as much as last time but we clearly have a problem.

We pulled the fridge out and I pulled off some of the backing to get a look under the fridge. There is a tray under there that was full off water and it was pretty slimy and dirty too. We sucked out the water with the shop vac and tried to clean out as much dust and debris as we could.

After trying to diagnose the problem, I decided to replace the water filter located at the bottom of the fridge. There was a very slow leak I saw that was located in the area of the filter. 

I made the mistake of pulling out the old filter while the water line was still on. That has never been a problem before when I replaced the water filter but today, something had changed.

I had to scramble under the house to turn off the water.

Once I had the new filter installed, I went back downstairs and climbed into the crawl space. Susan and I were connected on the phone so I could easily hear her tell me to shut off the water if we had to.

To my pleasure, she did not scream to turn off the water. I came back up and checked underneath the refrigerator and all seemed well. We are keeping an eye on it. I just now took a look and it looked dry in the tray.

I really hope this solves the problem. This fridge is about 25 years old. I don’t want to have to buy a new one. We both like this refrigerator and would like to keep it.

Summer on the Porch

 This time of year when the temperatures regularly approach 100°, my favorite time of the day is morning on the ol’ front porch. It really is spectacular. There aren’t enough superlatives to express how enjoyable it is. 

I have the sprinkler running in the yard, there are people playing Pickleball across the street, and all kinds of folks are walking or jogging by.

I’m sitting on the porch swing and there is a nice cool breeze blowing by that makes it quite comfortable.

Too bad it’s not going to last. The weather report shows a high of 94° today leading to a very hot weekend. 106° is predicted for Sunday. We’ll keep an eye on that and let you know. 

In the meantime, I’m going to sit here with my decaf Irish coffee and my newspaper and enjoy the day.

Shredded

After cleaning out the closet of the back bedroom, we have two beer case sized boxes of old bank records that we want to dispose of.

I called the bank to see if they had a free shredding day coming up…and they don’t. They referred me to the company they hire for the shredding but they have a minimum fee of $25.00.

I decided that my time isn’t worth that much and we have a little home shredder, I would go to work on shredding all that stuff.

You can only throw a few pages at a time through the shredder but I made great progress with a stack of old bank statements going back to 2007. Next I had boxes of old checks that I had to rip out in three small groups.

I set myself up out in the backyard in the shade of the Carriage House. Things were shredding along nicely for about 15 minutes and then the shredder shred no more.

I’m giving it a rest right now and we’ll see if it comes back.

Stand by!

Good news. The shredder came back. I’ve decided that the best way to do this is to take a break every time I fill the bin.

It probably doesn’t help that it’s going to be 100 degrees today.

Tree-Mageddon

We spent some money today.

We got a quote from a couple of tree services to remove and trim some of our trees.

We ended up going with A-1 Tree Service. Their bid came in at about $4,500.00

A crew of about seven guys showed up this morning and immediately went to work on the side yard. We had them remove a bunch of bushes and two large trees.

They were incredibly efficient. It really helps to have the right equipment. After seeing all they did, I think we got a pretty good deal. 

Here are a few more pictures.

They were here for about three hours and really tore through everything we wanted plus a few little additions. They had this great stump grinded that really ate up the stumps. I had them chew up a couple more that weren't on the work order and they only charged $50.

We kept the rounds from the Black Locust tree so we're going to have some pretty good fire wood after we have a splitting party later this summer.

We are pretty happy with the results.

Shower Revitalization

I finally got to use my shower again.

Susan decided that the upstairs shower needed a thorough cleaning. I didn't think it was that bad. But once I saw the finished result after she went through it, I was startled and a bit ashamed. I had let it get far too grungy.

On top of taking a course brush and scrubbing every grout seam in the whole shower, she resealed the grout with a sealer she painted on. It was white so it nicely covered the old grout lines.

It had to dry for 72 hours so I had to use the downstairs shower all week.

It was glorious to get back to my shower space and really enjoy and good clean stall.

I WILL NOT let it get that bad again.

Television Issues

 I have been in the hospital for the last five days. So what happens when I go in the hospital? The TV at home goes on the Fritz. 

Susan was good and stressed out by what was going on with me and my heart. All she wanted was to come home and relax and wind down with a little television.

But Noooooooooooooo!

She got home to an empty house to find no TV working.

I got out of the hospital yesterday and I’m mostly okay. She scheduled a visit from the Dish TV people for today. The guy arrived around 11:30 and was gone by just after 12.

The issue was the cable lines that went up our deck post to the satellite dish. We had a grape vine growing there and over the years, the vines rubbed away all the insulation on many parts of the wire. 

The technician replaced a section of wire and we cut down the grape vine. So much for Gerwertstrameiner.

Now I am home from the hospital and we have TV! Life is good!!!

The Start of a Saga

Back on May 15th, I had an appointment at Providence Medical Center for a Stress Test. The test involved a bunch of breathing sessions where I have a mouthpiece and breath normally until the technician tells me to take a deep breath and blow blow blow blow blow blow blow blow blow until I almost pass out. That goes on for an hour. 

After that torture, they put me on a stationary bike, mouthpiece firmly in mouth, and make me peddle until I almost pass out.

All of this was a precursor to an appointment I had on May 17th with Dr. Diedre Mooney, my Cardiologist. I started seeing her a couple of years ago. She is one of the lead doctors at the Heart Institute office of Heart Failure and Transplanting.

I have asked her in the past whether I’m a candidate for a transplant. She has said, “No, not yet.”

At this appointment she said, “It’s time to put you on the transplant list.”

My stamina has not improved since they implanted the pace maker last September. My blood pressure has been all over the place. A few days ago, it was 90/63.

So the saga begins. I have many appointments coming up in the months ahead. I have to have all kinds of tests to determine my viability for a transplant. I shall be stepping up my posts on my other website, www.porkymccorpulent.blogspot.com. That site is more dedicated to me talking about my health issues, and this news seems to qualify. That’s something I should have started after my heart attack almost 30 years ago. Of course, I don’t think Blogging was a thing 30 years ago.

Stay tuned!

Porch Opening 2024

Yesterday, we got the whicker chairs down from the Carriage House and put them on the porch. We got it all set up for another fabulous Summer season.

Tonight, we had our first dinner on the porch. Tacos, refried beans and Spanish rice. I augmented my meal with a frosty cold Modelo Negro. It was quite tasty.

Shortly after we sat down, we heard a loud screeching of tires from down the block on Post Street. This black pick up came serving around the corner, almost hitting the far curb, and then accelerated down Waverly Place right past us at a high rate of speed.

All I can say for sure is it was a black late model pick up, possibly a Chevy. It was a white guy driving. Beyond that, I don’t have any information.

If there was a hit and run accident down the street, I couldn’t tell.

I’ve been wishing that I had paid more attention, maybe get a partial license number or a more accurate description of the trunk or the guy.

After dinner, I was sitting on the porch swing and I made a point of looking at license plates of cars as they drove by. There is no way I can make out a plate from the porch.

So I don’t feel quite so bad now but I need to make more of an effort to notice more details in the heat of the moment.

Straining from Staining

I have been told in no uncertain scolding that I need to finish up the trim and baseboards in the kitchen. In accessing what I have left to do, I realized I need more wood. 

So yesterday, I spent $225.00 on four door trim boards (hemlock), 50 feet of base shoe and three 8 foot corner moulding pieces.

It’s a beautiful Spring day outside so I’m out there prepping and staining all the new wood I bought.

This will take up most of my day. As I said, it’s a great sunny day out there so I’m going to enjoy it.