Christmas Wrap Up

We have made it through Christmas and tomorrow is back to the grind, with a brief respite on Wednesday for New Years Day.

I've had a week off which has been great. However, I don't seem to have accomplished anything to show for the time off. I had wanted to completely clean out my closet and throw a bunch of stuff away. But I am lazy so it didn't happen.

We got three new items for the house. First, a wireless printer. We have been without one for a while and it was becoming frustrating. so we are back in business on that account.

Second, a new scale. The one we have had for several years has been unreliable. I can gain or lose as much as 5 pounds every day. My weight has been hovering around 215. With the new scale, I have gained ten pounds overnight. I'm now hovering around 225. I may go back to the old unreliable.

Thirdly, we have a new wine kit to start. We'll probably do that within the next week. Sounds like a good project for the weekend.

In the meantime, it's back to work tomorrow. It should be an easy week as a lot of people are not back to work yet. i have plenty to do either way.

Merry Christmas from Us

Half String

We are back on track with our regular lives, but regular lives thrust into the middle of the Holiday Season. I am trying to get some lights up in the house but I am running into this problem.

Shown above are two strings of lights. The string on the left works on the front half and the string on the right works on the back half.  Together, they make one good string with lots of extra bulbs in case one goes out...and you can find it. 

I believe this is all part of a huge Chinese conspiracy to take more of our money for lights whilst driving us insane at the same time.

Complimentary Me

I'm going to take a moment to brag about us. So if you're not interested in that sort of thing, I suggest you don't read this any further. But I know you will.

We have finished this years' round of Sky Walk decorating. We did ten sky walks this year and finished our last one just last night. 

Everything went well except for last Thursday night when my defibrillator went off on me. I was up on the ladder and felt the dizzy spell coming on. I got off the ladder and went to the floor and it hit me. It's very shocking! (I love that line) 

There is a period of disorientation afterwards but when I came out of it, Susan was in panic mode (justifiably) and said we were done painting. The odd thing is that after the event, I am fine. I felt okay and I wanted to keep painting. That was not going to happen.

Here is a photo of us in the STA sky walk with our artwork. The theme this year was snow globes. Here are a few more pictures of our work.

Maybe now we can get on with our lives to finish decorating the house and get our Christmas Card sent out.

Second Snowfall of the Year

We woke up this morning to this lovely wintry scene. There was about two inches. It was enough to activate the Snow in the Neighborhood Overwatch Workshop (S.N.O.W.) which allows me to break out the snow blower before 9AM. In this case, it was 6AM.

How was I to know that it would all be gone in two days?!

Holiday Decorating

Leaf Day-The Second Wave

With Halloween mostly cleaned up, it was time for me to get to the second wave of leaves.

So I got out the rake, the leaf bags, the leaf blower and the Leaf Vac.

I had the Leaf Vac tuned up earlier this Fall. It Started right up and ran like a top. It turns out that the condition the leaves are in today is perfect for the Leaf Vacuum. They were dry enough to get sucked right up. However, they were also very thick, which was not great for the Vac.

So there was raking involved as well. I was out there for about three hours and I went from this...

to this...

And now I'm happy.

There are still a bunch of leaves in the street. The deal is that the leaves that fall in the street are the responsibility of the city. However, it takes them forever to get around to it. I'm always afraid that it will snow before the city comes by.

So I decided to be a helper. Sometime in the middle of last week, the Parks Department people showed up and blew all the leaves in the park into several piles. One is conveniently located just across the street from me.

So, as a helper, I decided to pile the leaves into my wheel barrow and transfer them to the city pile. I got one whole side of my parking strip cleaned up. But then, it was three o'clock and I had worked enough.

Anyway, I will take more over unless the Parks people come back to get their leaves.

Post Halloween Video

Halloween 2019

We're getting too old for this.

The video above shows the yard after we had everything set up. I took it about 4:30 and amazingly, we were ready to go. Our many thanks go out to Randy, Bob, Mark, Ron, Kelly, Rob and Kyle. Without the help of these fabulous friends, we could never pull this off.

We don't have very good statistics for this year but I would estimate we had somewhere around 1500 people (mostly kids) come to the door. Our first Trick or Treaters showed up just before 4:00 and we shut everything down at 8:30.

We still have candy left over but it's good stuff. We managed to get rid of the 500 Twizzlers we had from last year.

I took the day off to get everything ready and Susan took half a day. Randy, Kelly and Rob showed up early and we got a lot of stuff set up quickly.

The pallets that Susan had me attach shelves to worked out great and we'll be using those again. The pumpkins all looked great.

Here's my favorite pumpkin that I carved this year. If you can't figure it out, you're too young.

Susan carved her traditional cat pumpkin and once again, it came out perfect.

To revisit my original thought at the top of the post, we are getting to a point where we cannot keep this going much longer. It takes a lot of energy to set up and manage.

By the time we shut down, I was completely drained. I'm still very sore this morning. I think that is an indication of the kind of shape I'm in more than anything else.

I'm happy to say Halloween is behind us. Now for the clean up.

Grape Run 2019

We have just returned from our Wine Tasting Weekend in the Columbia Valley region of Washington State. Prosser, basically.

We usually go down about this time of year to procure grapes for home wine making. This year, they had a freeze near the end of September and a lot of grapes were lost. That really sped up the harvest and there were no grapes for us this year.

We're going to end up buying a kit from Jim's Home Brew just so we have something the ferment this winter.

It was a lovely weekend as usual and we bought a lot of wine, as usual.

We returned to Spokane in time to go to our neighborhood Halloween party. It was held at a neighbors house down the street and they decided to do it outside. They had two fires going and we had lots of food and lots to drink. It was a fun annual event which means that Halloween is days away.

I'm taking Thursday off so we can get ready for the big night. We have a lot to do this week. I better go!

Eighteen Days to Halloween

We have been breaking out all the Halloween stuff and believe me, it's a lot of stuff. We are also beginning the task of acquiring candy and believe me, we need a lot. For this year at least, I've given up on my pledge to buy 300 full size candy bars to give out. We just feel we need the money to cover 1800 kids this year.

Today, I completed putting up a modified version of the Axworthy Flying Ghost. The thing has always been a major pain in the ass to put up and then to take down. I decided to make it easier on myself  to put the thing up. Yes, it's all about me!

Rather than three posts in the yard, I have modified it to run between the two trees in the front of the house.

Here is how it looks.

Susan, as always, is badgering me to add a second ghost but I'm not excited about that idea.  It's a small enough span that one ghost is fine and she is not the one who has to get everything back on track when it falls off.

The one thing I am worried about is that it is in great danger of being whacked as kids go under it. We are going to have to be very attentive to whackers.

We will be on whack patrol.

Attention Scumbags

It sure is nice to be around smart, stable, honest people you can depend on. That is because there appears to be so many stupid, unbalanced, dishonest shit for brains Scumbags out there.

The picture above displays a small part of what I have to do regarding the afore mentioned Scumbags. The wicker chairs on the front porch must be secured from Scumbags. 

This all comes up because I was putting the chairs away for the season and got a little pissed off at how difficult it was to disengage the chain from the chairs. Then I was reminded that if not for the chain, we wouldn't have any chairs at all. Hence, this mini tirade!

EffU Scumbags!

Autumn Work

Today, with the death of our cat Oscar, we have accepted that Autumn is here. So we are trying to clean up the yard and put away some flower pots. I have already taken down the massive vines of hops and I need to trim back the grape vines.

Once we got the flowers packed up, Susan went to work on more window scraping and I set about to get those two last window panes installed. I bought two panes of glass at Home Depot that were 11" x 14". I needed to cut them to 10.25" x 10.75". 

I butchered the first pane and then broke into unusable pieces. Susan showed me the proper way to cut glass and I easily installed that first pane.

Then it was back to the Depot to get another piece of glass.

That one cut easily once I knew what I was doing and the installation is complete, glazing and all.

So now our day is winding down and it is time to go to the Hub for some richly deserved frosty malt beverage. 

Oscar 2000-2019

When we went to bed last night, we were pretty sure Oscar was not going to be with us in the morning. I've been thinking that for the last several days. We sat in front of the fireplace and he sat on our laps, very weak and not moving much. I'd like to think he was comfortable and content.

At the end of the evening, we placed him on the warm floor in the bathroom and he passed sometime during the night. We took him to the Vet this morning and arranged for a cremation.

So now we are catless and expect to be that way for a while. Oh, there will be cats. Susan will see to that. But when will there be cats? That is the question. Perhaps we can start the Cat Game. I predict there will be cats by Thanksgiving.

You were a good cat. Rest in Peace, Oscar.

End of the Boiler Game-2019

It tried to snow several times yesterday and in some parts of town, it succeeded. But not around Corbin Park. It has been quite chilly which prompted me to turn on the furnace this morning, thus ending the Boiler Game for 2019.

I am presently between computers and am currently using the laptop from church. It has an annoying feature where the curser will suddenly jump from it's place and reappear in the middle of a previous paragraph. Since I'm not a touch typist, it is most confounding to look up from the keys and see I've typed a whole bunch into the middle of a previous paragraph. It has done it twice while I typed the last sentence.

But it is better than the Google Chrome book I've been using, which won't even let me access this blog.

We are coming to the end of the road with Oscar. Our 19 year old cat has slowed down dramatically in the last few weeks and now he is hardly eating.

Last night, I came home and found him hanging by his claw from the couch. He got stuck on a cushion and then fell off the couch and remained hooked. No telling how long he was stuck there. He was a little wobbly when I got him free but he seems to have bounced back.

For the last week, whenever I come down in the morning, or Susan comes home in the afternoon, we pensively look around and hope to find him still alive.

It's rainy and cold so we are not doing much today. It feels like a good day to sit and watch football.

Frosty Mornings

It was 37 degrees when I left the house this morning. Today was the first day I wore a jacket, more of an insulated work shirt. And it was big time driving into the sun this morning until we hit the Sullivan Road over pass. I drove into a thick shroud of fog that blocked out the sun. Yet, if I looked straight up, I could see a hint of blue sky.

I think I'm losing my car heater. It was blowing warm on Wednesday, hot yesterday and today not so much. I am not prepared for a repair bill so this isn't good.

On top of all of this, the forecast calls for the chance of snow this weekend. If it does snow, it will be the earliest instance of snow fall in Spokane recorded history.

I'm hoping I can make it through the weekend without turning on the boiler. I will run the space heaters and even light a fire in the fireplace.

Another sure sign that autumn has arrived is the annual Greek Festival at the Greek Orthodox Church. It's going on this weekend and we are going tonight. I'm looking forward to Orzo and Lemon Beans.

Solstice to Equinox

It's the last full day of Summer and I celebrated by packing up the air conditioners and placing them in the closet.

We also continued to work in the TV Room, starting on removing the paint from the other window...the front window. Susan made great progress while I worked on replacing two plexiglass window panes with real glass. 

I went to the Home Depot and bought two 10" x 12" window panes. It turns out I need the panes to be 10.25" x 10.875" I could actually shave a sixteenth off the .875 dimension.

Anyway, I could not use the panes I bought and will return them tomorrow. I'm also in search of window trim that is somewhat similar to the existing painted window trim so I don't have to spend the painstaking hours to remove the layers of paint on the trim we have.

Fixin' for the Boiler Game

The Autumnal Equinox is just a few days away but there are signs of Fall all over the place. Things like driving into the sun on my way to work, no sun this morning because of the thick blanket of chilly fog, trying to decide if I should wear a jacket, and the wall heater in the bathroom coming on automatically.

So that got me thinking about the Boiler Game. I have been hoping that I could make it to the middle of October before firing the boiler up. That is always the goal anyway. We have plenty of space heaters that can warm specific living areas...most prominently the kitchen.

But I must ask myself if that is cheating. The point of the Boiler Game is to see how long we can go before the furnace must be turned on. But that is a whole house issue. Being able to heat areas where we happen to be...most prominently the kitchen...does not abrogate the intention of the Boiler Game. That is my professional opinion as Commissioner of the Boiler Game. I just hope that it is the proper use of "abrogate".

Let's take a moment to review past Boiler Games.

• 2018 October 3rd
• 2017 September 23rd
• 2016 October 6th
• 2015 September 21st
• 2014 No Record
• 2013 October 8th
• 2012 October 5th

I found a note where I stated that the record is October 21st but I cannot find out what year that was.

Then I started reading posts from October of 2013. We were working on the Living Room and coming to the end of the project. I started looking at posts trying to find out the color of stain I used on the woodwork. It's the same color I will be wanting to use in the TV Room.

Then I remembered that I have already created a special page for such information. So that problem is solved.

2019 Wine Competition Results

We did okay with our wine entries at the fair. We got a Blue Ribbon with our Petit Verdot and a Blue Ribbon with a Special Commendation for our label.

Here are the judging sheets

No Grand Champions for us this year but we did do better than Ellen...which is all that really matters.

SpokeFest Number 12

Today is the 12th running of Spokefest and we were all set to go. In fact, we went. We just didn't stay.

As we pulled out of the driveway, a very light rain started to fall. We parked the car at the Arena and rode our bikes down to Kendall Yards where they are staging the ride.

In the course of waiting for the ride to start, we decided it was going to be a miserable ride and we are not that fanatical about bike riding.

So we rode back to the Arena, packed up the bikes and drove home.

As I sit here now, imagining that we would be about half way through the ride at this time, the rain is pouring down. We are both glad that we wienied out of the ride. I would have been hating it if I was out there right now.

We have also continued our legacy participation in this event. We have entered every one of them and ridden in all but two now. 

VaCay Day Last

It is our Labor Day tradition to go to the Spokane Symphony Concert in Comstock Park. We'll be heading up there later but first, we have some stuff to do around the house on the last day of my vacation extravaganza.

First, I have to collect up all the accouterments we will need for the concert. I go up early and stake out a piece of real estate. This year I have a flag pole to designate our spot This will be helpful to others who will join us.

So, that is my first job.

Okay, that is done. I have the flag and base, some chairs and a tarp to designate our property.

Next, I'm doing more window work.

1:28 PM: I've been doing a little work on window trim and cleaning out the TV Room. I'm getting all the remodeling equipment stowed away so we can do a thorough clean of the house. It has finally gotten to a point that Susan can no longer stand it.

As I said, we will be heading for Comstock Park later and then after, maybe I'll be able to return one more time and conclude todays' post.

8:30PM: Wow! WE are home already. The concert was great as always and we got out of the area really fast.

Well, that's the end of summer!

VaCay Day 9iner

We are back from church and ready to rock. It is noon straight up and we have an agenda for the day. 

The day will conclude with a visit to Riverfront Park so we can take part in the annual Pig Out in the Park. We will listen to Sammy Eubanks at 8PM and return to the homestead after.

But first, it's back to the windows.

Later: We made pretty good progress. There is a therapeutic aspect to this work that is quite relaxing.

Here are some pictures of the rest of the day.

I was working on the window frame, trying to get all that gunky paint off the frame and trim.

Susan was working on the window.

Here is the problems she is dealing with. The little nooks and crannys on the trim are very time consuming. We are just going to keep working on it, little by little, until we are satisfied.

We went down to Pig Out about 6:00. We ate some good food and some not so good food. The Mac n'Cheese booth was disappointing. Kind of bland. It took no time for us to spend $25.00 a piece on food and beer.

Sammy was playing at the Clocktower Stage and he was great. Sammy is always a good show.

We left about ten and returned to the front porch for a malty beverage night cap.

VaCay Day 8ight

We got a late start on our activities today for which we DO NOT apologize. It's Saturday and we'll take it at our own pace.

I'm down to the waning days of my vacation and it doesn't feel like I accomplished very much. I think I'm feeling that way because there is so little progress in the look of the TV Room. That doesn't mean we haven't been in there working. It's just at a point where the daily progress is not very visible.

Susan and I both spent the afternoon working on the windows. We are removing the paint to return them to a dark stained wood look that is the main motif of the house. It's slow and it's tedious.

We shall continue with the same tomorrow.

VaCay Day Se7en

The tree is coming down today. I'm up early and getting things ready for the tree trimmers. 

Avista showed up yesterday and trimmed the branches away from the power line. David at All Seasons Tree Trimmers called and said he had an opening and would be here at 9:00.

Here are some pictures as it looks now.

9:17AM: The first guy for the All Season's Tree Crew has arrived.

And so has the rain! 

It started light but quickly ramped enough to a steady drizzle. I stopped working out in the yard stripping trim. 

Here are some pictures as the trimmers do their work.

Here's the final stump. It's finally to a manageable size.

It sure does open the area up.

There's a little damage from the hoist on the lawn but my lawn is not in that great of shape. It'll grow back.

They beat the crap out of the cement in the back of the house. Now I don't have to hit it repeatedly with a sledge hammer to haul it away.

 Look at the size of this root. 

There is a nice close up. You can also see how the cement got broken up.

That's one of the reasons the cement is going away. The damn tree has lifted and cracked it all over the place.

I left this four foot stump because if we want to completely remove the stump rather than grind it down, the backhoe operator wants something large to chain up to. Apparently, they work it back and forth until they can loosen it enough to cut the big roots and yank it out.

My only other concern that is not a concern is the lawn. The lift they brought in chewed up my grass a little bit but I bet you won't see it in two weeks. You definitely won't see it in five months cuz it will be under snow.

VaCay Day Sex

I got up at 7 and immediately went to work on a stripping project. I got most everything off the channel trim that holds the big window in place.

At ten, I had to run up to Mom's to take her sewing machine back to the repair shop. 

Once I got home, I went to work on a project I have been putting off for months. I replaced the Utility Sink next to the washer/dryer.

It ended up taking about three hours and three trips to the General Store. I had to replace the fixtures coming out of the wall and it took a while to get the size right. For the record, it's half inch pipe coming out of the wall and the hose attachment is 3/8". The hose has the 3/8" connection and a regular hose connection at the faucet.

Everything is groovy now and it seems to work okay. That means it is not leaking. It's a pretty cheap replacement but it will have to do for now.

VaCay Day 5ive

I am half way through my designated vacation period and I'm going to make up for yesterday's slovenly performance.

I'm heading out shortly to pick up some glass. The east window in the TV Room is a sheet of plexiglass.  I've been replacing plexiglass wherever I encounter it.

I'm also going to stop by Windsor Plywood in search of door casing and baseboard. I did purchase crown molding yesterday at the Ugly Duck.

So that is my set up for the day. Let's see how it goes!

6:17PM: Okay, I've had a myriad of experiences today and I think I was at least, a little bit productive. I got the piece of glass I needed for the east window. That cost $40.00. I had some printing that Susan needed done. AND...I did a lot of scraping on the windows in the TV Room. I made major progress on the east window. 

Here are a few photos of my progress...proof really.

8:27PM: Oh...I also did laundry!!!

VaCay Day Dee

I am trying to plan my day. I am not going to do much in the Carriage House because of the stuff in there I want to sell.

So I'm thinking about straightening up the basement. That could use some attention. But first, I have to do some work on my Wine Label for this year. I have to have it finished by next Tuesday, which is the day our wine bottles are due at the fairgrounds.

10:58AM: I just spent some time working on the wine label and I would like to reiterate that I do not like Macs. I can't find files, I can't find programs. I have to trick it to open Photoshop. I connect my camera to the computer and it does not seem to recognize it. It doesn't show up on the desktop or ANYWHERE except in a photo gallery. The photo gallery is inaccessible to the Photoshop program I tricked into opening. It took me an hour and a half to complete something I could do in 20 minutes on my PC...which is at work. Which is why I'm complaining about the Mac.

Later: I didn't accomplish much today. I'll try better tomorrow.

VaCay Day Trois

I got out of bed a little after 7AM and it was glorious. The house was quiet when I came downstairs and I was on my own. I just finished up a nice hearty breakfast and I am heading over to church to complete the first task of the day. I have to do some work on our Reader Board out front of the church building. Then I have to see if I can figure out the church website.

When I return, I will go full bore on the garage.

Success! I removed our old Pastor's name and replaced it with our new Paster's name.

NooN: I did not go as crazy cleaning out the garage as I originally anticipated. Nonetheless, I am pleased with the results. I moved some stuff around. I found a lot of crap that is going to the Salvation Army and a lot of stuff that's going to the dump.

The main thing now is that one can easily access the car when it's parked in there and I can get the mower out without pulling the car out.

3:12PM: Since I finished with the garage so early, I got to work on the rail on the front porch. It's amazing how paint immediately improves the look of something.

Here is a section of the rail that I had to sand and scrape and patch.

Here it is after the paint is applied.

This pillar has been looking like this all summer.

It looks much better now. I need to get a second coat on the pillar tomorrow.

I also mowed the backyard and did some general organizing.

VaCay Day Two

Susan is not happy with the ceiling. There is a hump that is barely noticeable but it is all she can see. 

I say, if you can't see it in this picture, it's not a problem.

Clearly, I lost this battle. Oh well, it would have driven her crazy if she had not made the attempt to assuage her concerns.

Now we have to wait for that to dry so we 're in a holding pattern for an hour or so. I'm going out to survey the Carriage House.

I'm back from my survey. The Carriage House is a conundrum. I have a bunch of furniture out there that we want to get rid of but haven't. I've advertised some of it on Craig's List but got no takers. I guess I need to do it again and lower the price. I just did that. No takers yet but I couldn't even find it so I'm not sure it took.

Until that furniture is gone, there's not much I can do with the space.

VaCay Day One

Today is the first day of ten days off for me. I'm not going 
anywhere because Susan doesn't have any vacation time built up with her new job. So I'll be trying to do some productive stuff around the house. One project is to clean out and organize the garage. I'm going to do that on Monday.

Another project is to clean out and organize the Carriage House. That will be set for Tuesday.

It's 1PM right now and we are finally getting around to working on the TV Room. We are getting a late start because I had to help Mom with an errand this morning regarding her Sewing Machine. If that is not working, Mom is not going to be happy. 

Our first move is to head to the General Store to get some paint...Primer, really. So we'll be right back!

9:56PM: That was a transformation. As you can see from the pictures, it looks dramatically different once the walls are painted. 

We are mostly pleased with the results, although the paint has highlighted a couple of problem areas that need attention.

That attention will have to wait until tomorrow.

So that's day one of my vacation. I could get used to this.

Lake Pend Orielle - NOT

I am 62 years old and I cannot learn to put stuff away. I spent a good portion of last weekend wandering around the yard looking for a set of pruning shears that I left not in it's proper place.

I think I left them somewhere in the yard and some late night visitor (a skunk or a scumbag) made off with them. Today I spent and good chunk of unproductive time looking for my air nozzle. 

I had to take one of the yard maintenance machines I own to the repair guy today and I wanted to blow it off to clean it up. I can't take the guy a dirty machine. What will he think of me.

Anyway, it took me 20 minutes to find the damn nozzle. It had fallen on the floor.

Susan did another round of mudding in the TV Room. We might be there. She'll know more tomorrow after she sands.

I gathered up all the trim from the room that has been laying on the front porch for over a year and figure out a better place to store it all. I pulled all the nails and wrapped it up in individual bundles and labeled them so I know which opening it previously graced: east window, south hall door, whatever.

I ended up storing them in the garage up in the rafters.

I also performed what has become my Saturday thing, blow the leaves out of the garden and suck them up with the mower. I mowed the whole front lawn but it really didn't need it.

I was working out back and noticed the hops that looks ready to harvest.

There's not a whole bunch up there but it's enough to make a few batches of home brew. Maybe I'll advertise on Craig's List.