Porch Work

Pictured above is a shot of the house back in December. There was three feet of snow on the ground and every day was an adventure. I chose this picture to point out the piers upon which the columns are seated. They have both settled after one hundred years but the one on the left has significant settling. If you follow the siding from left to right, you will see that it is overlapping the siding below it.

This is a condition we were aware of when we bought the house. It was an obvious problem but not one that needed immediate attention. Four years later, we have decided to attend to it. There is no danger of it collapsing or anything but we are going to start painting the house this summer and this is a situation that needs to be fixed prior to painting.

As a Quazi-Amature Builder, I have elected to job this one out. We have hired our friend and consultant Phil to perform this job. Phil has worked on many house projects in the past. The upstairs balcony, the doors in the Carriage House, things like that. He had nothing to do with the gas pipe.Here is his progress after one day. I am not sure how he plans to jack that column up but I will find out tomorrow when I see him.

I haven't had a chance to see him because we are busy downtown still. I had to bartend today so Susan spent a good deal of time downtown getting us caught up. We have one skywalk left and I hope we can complete it tomorrow. We may have to work on Monday night as well. We'll see how things go.

This skywalk on Main Street is the one we completed today. Even with tinted windows, it loks great in the afternoon sun.

Memorial Weekend Fun

We went camping over Memorial Day. We went to Sullivan Lake, about 90 miles north of Spokane, almost to the Canadian border. We camped with my buddy Rob and his sigot (significant other) Olga, plus her daughter Natalie.

This was a different type of camping for Susan and I as Rob as a nice big roomy trailer with many of the comforts of home. We usually camp in a tent.

I reserved a campsite in the Sullivan Lake campground back in March. It turns out I picked one of the better ones; close to water and bathroom but tucked back from the main road so it felt secluded.

The weather was great and I spent Saturday night sleeping under the stars. It was chilly but my sleeping bag kept me toasty and the bright night sky was beautiful.

Here are a few selected photos.

Fun was had by all but I spent a good deal of my lounging time thinking about all the things I should be doing at home. I need help!

The Wonder of Nature's Miracle

Or the Nature of Miracle's Wonder.

The Miracle of Wonder's Nature.

Blah blah blah

I have the morning off as I have an appointment with the Cardiologist to discuss my waning health...or least my totally fabricated sense of my waning health.

In the meantime, I have been out fussing in the yard. I sprayed down the dandelions, I did a little watering and I did some urban landscape planning.

Pictured below is one of the lovely trees in our front yard. On the left is a shot of one of the many flowers sprouting all about the lovely trees. I counted 30 before I gave up. There is probably something like ten thousand of them.

On the right is the evil spawn that those flowers will produce and drop upon the lawn this fall. I have a hard time justifying the beauty of the flower that is there for about four days against the major pain in the ass chestnuts that will be around for decades.

To our credit, I had a hard time finding that chestnut to use as an example. We cleaned up pretty good last Autumn. It's hard now to think back and remember all the back breaking work we did. I'm sure it will come back (breaking) to me.

Bike to Work Week

Last week was "Bike to Work Week" and it was a pretty crappy week of weather for the event. I tried several times to ride my bike but the weather just would not cooperate.

Yesterday was a very nice day and would have been perfect for a bike ride. Unfortunately, I had a meeting after work that prevented me from biking. I could have ridden today except for the rain and the wind.

Perhaps tomorrow...oh wait! I have an event to attend after work. I might be able to bike there and then meet Susan and ride home with her. But I probably won't.

Maybe Thursday...oh wait! I have a Doctor's appointment that morning. Still, I could ride to work after that.

How 'bout Friday. Nope! Leaving work early that day to prepare for the three day weekend. I have many home improvement projects planned for Memorial Day.

I'll try to make riding my bike to work happen in June.

More Money for Nothin'

We took a much needed day off from working on the house in order to go downtown and work in a skywalk.

Hoopfest is a big event here in Spokaloo...as big as Bloomsday or Laundryday. Susan and I have been commissioned again this year to decorate some of the skywalks downtown to help jazz up and promote the event.Above is an artist rendering of how I envisioned a typical skywalk would look when completed. This is the picture I sent to the Hoopfest peoples to get their approval.Here is a photo of an actually completed skywalk that we painted today. This was our first so we knew it would take a while to complete. Five and a half hours was our time. That means, between Susan and I, we earned about $4.37 per hour.

We are both pretty pleased with the outcome. Although, if you were to walk through the skywalk, you would wonder what Fourth Grader they got to paint this crappy looking artwork on the windows. It looks much better from the street.

We chose to paint this skywalk first because it is directly adjacent to the Hoopfest offices. When the Hoopfest peoples arrive at work in the morning, they will look out their windows and see how fabulous they are...and thereby making Susan and I fabulous as well.

My Buds

Finally, the grape vines are showing signs of life. They are budding and starting to grow. This is not a great picture of the plant but you can see the leafs and the buds. I am so happy!

In the meantime, I am so sad. It continues to look as though the Clamatis has not survived the winter. I am going to hold out some hope that it is just sleeping a bit longer and getting ready to explode.

The Garage

Last night, I installed a bike lift in the garage for the tandem bike. I bought it at Joe's Sporting Goods, a national chain that is going out of biz. It works great! It lifted the bike easily off the ground and out of the way. Now I have to get out there and clean out all the other crap that has been building up for...well, we've been here four and half years now.

I'm continuing my daily battle with dandelions. I got a big bottle of Weed B Gon a couple of weeks ago. It's a concentrate bottle that you mix with water so I have plenty of ammo. But it seems the damn things sprout up new flowers everyday. I must be vigilant.

AND, I still have to get back out on the roof and finish my repair job for the squirrel hole.

Then after that....

Flora Update

The hops is cruising. The Sterling has already grown more than it did last year. It's pretty much one long vine with some shorter ones trying to catch up. The Hallertau started slow but is starting to spurt. It's a bunch of vines, maybe seven, growing at about the same rate.

The grape plants are finally showing some signs of life. They haven't grown any but there are buds that are about to sprout and then, look out, baby.

The Clamatis is the only casualty of winter. It does not appear to be stirring at all. I'm keeping a hopeful eye on it but it doesn't look promising.

Mad at the Dirt

I had to make a stop downtown after work yesterday. I found an open parking space very close to my destination and pulled in. When I opened the door, the wind blew the door handle right out of my hand. The door swung open hard, right into a light pole. The dent is not huge, but it stands out to me like a gaping hole. I was so pissed and there was nobody to be pissed at. I guess I could be mad at the wind but doesn't that ultimately lead to being mad at God?! I can't really blame God. It would have been nice if He had warned me though.

I pulled out the mower for the first time of the year and got the lawn done. The mower started on the third pull. It ran really well. I have been dubious in the past as to how much longer this mower will last me. I have taken it in for tune ups, but it has never really improved its performance. It tends to surge for a while upon start up and you have to kind of coax it to keep running until it is warmed up. Yesterday, it just ran like the wind. And yet, I'm still mad at the wind.

Bloomsday 2009

Susan has another successful Bloomsday to add to her resume. She wasn't very happy with her time. She ran it in about 1:22, which was a minute slower than last year. Still, she is happy she did it and especially happy that it is over.I was not able to participate as I think I'm having some heart issues. I have an appointment next week to undergo a Nuclear Stress Test. I'll find out then Wassup!

In the meantime, I watched the start of Bloomsday from the comfort of the Spokane Club with a nice Bloody Mary.