Year in Review 2022

It's the last day of the year so I have to get in some kind of post. Even if it isn't very informational or interesting.....the way the rest of this year has been.

So, to start off, we got up. I hopped into the hot tub which we have not been using very much. The problem for me with the hot tub is that I come out of it very very relaxed. Almost to the point of comatose.

Plus, I have a sweaty forehead for the next hour after I'm out. I attribute these effects to my excellent health, which is to say, sarcasm. 

We are having Randy, Karen and Mark over tonight. We will be having Susan's traditional New Years meal, Hoppin John. Karen and Randy are bringing some smoked salmon. It should all be fabulous.

We're going to a movie to see "The Fableman's". I'll elaborate after.

Then we will return to the house to play cards until we tucker out...about 12:01.

End of Night Recap: Karen was down with a severe cough she couldn't shake so it was just Randy and Mark and ussuns.

We ate, we saw the movie which was okay, and we played baseball while we rang in the New Year. I think it got to bed about 1:30. That's pretty impressive for me.    

Still Warm

 I managed to get in a ski day yesterday. It was not one of the better days on the mountain. Very foggy right up to the time that we left.

There was a slight skiff of snow over night but it has been warm all day and now it’s just sloppy out there.

My snow stake is down to se7en inches.

Susan did some repair work in the Dining Room and has pretty much fixed the wall problems and the ceiling problems. Now we have to hope that the musty smell goes away.

The damage to the side of the armoire where we keep the stereo is not repairable. The water got under the veneer and made it bubble in a few spots.

The Big Warm

The weather service says we received over an inch of rain yesterday. It’s gone from sub zero temperatures to 40° in a week. My snow depth meter has gone from 13 inches of snow to 8 1/2 inches since Monday. 

It’s quite sloppy out there but it has cleaned up my sidewalks and driveway. I allowed them to get in a horrible state after the last snowfall. We got about 3 inches last Friday after getting about 5 inches. I snow blowed the five but left the three.

It was bad news for the sidewalks but my shame has been washed away.

I’m expecting someone to show up today from the construction company that did our roof. I’m hoping they will have some suggestions for solving my ice dam problem. I think the solution is heat cable. I hope they will help me install it.

The only other thing on todays’ agenda is a basketball game betwixt the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the Eastern Oregon Fighting Mormons. (I don’t think that is really their mascot but I’m too lazy to confirm it.)

6:15PM: The roof guys showed up about 1:30 today. When I showed them what was going on, they jumped into action and actually went up on the roof and tackled the problem.

Here is a picture of the flat spot between the two peaks. That black tarpaper area is where the water builds up and pools when the icicle forms a dam on the eve. There are plenty of seams there for the water to get under and then flow into the house.

They repositioned my heat cable to cover that whole area which will warm up the water as it rolls of the roof. That should be the end of the icicle.

Christmas and the Day After

It is the day after Christmas 2022, but we are only getting to it today.

We got up yesterday morning and went to church. Susan was the Worship Leader, which meant she did the introduction, opening prayer and so on. For the last several years, she has read a Christmas story on Christmas Eve that is accompanied with pictures on the big screen from the book. The first time she did it, she read “Christmas Day in the Morning” by Pearl S. Buck.

This year she read "A Christmas Candle” by Richard Paul Evens.

When church was over, it was back to the house to prepare Christmas dinner. My son, Scott was coming from Northport with his girlfriend, Erica and her daughter Janey.

We told them to come at 1:30 which gave us enough time to get everything prepared.

Just as they arrived, we discovered  a major problem in the Dining Room.

Water was dripping from the ceiling at a pretty good rate. This picture doesn’t really show it.

This picture shows the aftermath, after the water had stopped.

We originally ran into this problem several years ago and it is chronicled in this blog. I found a post from November 30th, 2010 where I explained laying out some heat cable on the roof to mitigate this giant icicle and ice dam that forms to cause the leaks into the Dining Room.
This picture shows a few little drops coming down. I suppose I should post the video I took.

We solved the problem by having Scott climb up to the edge of the roof and break the icicle away. Then I used some heat cable I have wrapped around an outdoor faucet and we threw that up into this little valley where the roofs come together and cause the problem.

I had heat cable up there for many years but it was removed when the new roof was installed. I was told that the new flashing and tar paper they put up would fix the problem but that is not the case. Heat cable will be returning to that portion of the roof as soon as the weather permits to get up there...like August. In the meantime, I think we have patched it. Now Susan will go to work on whatever repair is required for the walls and the ceiling panels.

 Anyway, the leaking had stopped so that is our Christmas Miracle.

Here is the picture of the destruction for today. We finally got around to opening our gifts. 

We done good! I got some new flannel shirts, a belt and a device that helps me put on my socks. It's not something I need but Susan saw it at the Church Rummage Sale and thought it was hilarious.

Christmas Cookies

 Today is pretty much over which means there are only two days left for Christmas Shopping. I think I’m done with my shopping but it seems like I always come up with some last minute ideas.

It is currently 4° out there. It is cold! It was below zero this morning. We are supposed to be warming up in the next few days.

In the meantime, tonight is Christmas Cookie Decorating Night. A night that Susan loves and I tolerate. Pictures to follow.

9:00PM: It’s time for Christmas cookies!

Sub Zero Solstice

Now is the time of year when I consider cleaning out the freezer. It is cold enough to put everything in a cooler long enough to defrost the freezer.

The temperature has been around 7° all day. Currently, it is -1°. The skies are clear and it is cold. I would take a picture but the camera would just freeze.  

Next Round of Snow

While snow blowing this morning, I happened to check my makeshift snow stake and saw that it measured 12 inches. We got about 3 inches overnight and 2 to 3 inches are expected today.

As I look out the window on the back yard, it looks like the next round of snow may have started.

I’m glad I got ahead of the snow by getting out there early.

Along with the snow, we are expecting some pretty chilly temperatures. It is currently 18° out there but it’s expected to go as low as 6° tonight.

Another Snowy Day.

8:01AM: The snow was forecasted to start falling around 3:00AM. It was coming down strong at 6 and continues now just after 8:00. My weather app says it’s going to turn to rain soon. That means I need to get out there and get my area blown before the snow gets too heavy. The question is how long do I wait.

I don’t an exact number yet but I think we have over a foot of snow on the ground. I’ll get an accurate reading off my Weather Table some time today.

As I look outside now, it seems that the snow is turning to rain. I guess the time is NOW!

8:17AM: I have my official snow depth report.

You can see I have a yardstick placed in the middle of the snow in the Weather Table. It measures 11 1/2 inches. Okay, time to blow!

10:25AM: The snow blowing is complete. I did it at just the right time. It was snowing when I started but had turned to rain about half way through. I’m glad I have kept on top of it.

11:13PM: It rained off and on all the rest of the day. I'm glad I got my snow blowing out of the way because we were engaged in many activities pretty much the whole day after.

We went downtown with Randy and Karen to see the Christmas Tree Elegance show at the Davenport. It's a fund raiser for the Spokane Symphony that has become a tradition for us. We purchase tickets and deposit them into bins associated with a tree display. One was giving away a motorcycle. Others included gifts and cash. 

I've never known anyone who won one of these drawings but I'm hoping we will be so drawn upon. Note: We did not win.

The drawings are tomorrow.

After that, we spent the afternoon at V du V Winery. It's owned by a friend and he has hired us to help out in the tasting room when he is out of town, which he is. Today, we sold three bottles of wine. We're making John rich!

Festivous!

 

Snow Blowing with a Real Blower

I did some actual snow blowing today.

We woke up to a light dusting of snow that started falling last night. I would guess there is about a half an inch on the ground. Not enough to breakout the snow blower for but just right for a snow blower in the form of a leaf blower.

It worked quite well for the small fluffy amount we got and cleaned everything up quite nicely without all that back breaking shoveling and scooping and bending.

We’re heading out to Northtown for our morning walk and then I have to finish reassembling my Traeger Grill.

Winter Under Glass

 I got up around four to use the bathroom and the snow was falling thickly, like molasses. You know how molassessy snow can get.

It’s 8:30 now and the snow continues. There is easily three inches on the ground. I’m going out at 9:00 with my leaf blower to clean up the front porch and blow the snow off the front steps.

I plan to wait out the snow before I go for the heavy equipment and blow the neighborhood.

In the meantime, it’s time for breakfast.

10:37AM: I just checked the webcams at Mt Spokane and captures this shot from the Snow Stake.

Then I clicked on the webcam focused on the Hour Glass and caught this adventurous guy.

An inspiration that I shall not emulate!

6:02PM: It finally stopped snowing around 3 and I got out to finish what Susan and I started earlier. We had about 7 inches.

It turns out that this was another batch of really wet snow. It took the snow blower a long time to get through it.

Susan insisted on helping and I thought it was high time she learned how to run the snow blower.

It's all cleaned up out there for now. They say more snow is coming on Friday.

More Wonderland on the Way

We’re very excited. Well, I’m very excited. Susan is mildly excited. There is a winter storm warning starting about now and continuing through tomorrow. We are supposed to get eight to twelve inches of snow. 

I went out and got gas for the snow blower so I guess I’m as ready as I’m going to be.

My weather app says it’s going to start snowing in about half an hour. I’ll check back and let you know how accurate that was.

8:07PM: The weather app just updated and now snow is 50 minutes away.

10:59PM: Okay, my weather app sucks. No snow yet. Susan says it won't start until 2:00AM. I guess I'll find out in the morning.

Winter Wonderland II

Some time between 5:00 and 8:00 this morning, it started to snow. And I woke up to this picturesque vista.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see small snow flakes falling everywhere. There is an old Indian saying that I have used here before: Little Snow, Big Snow. There was about an inch and a half of snow and more to come.  Up to three inches was forecast. 

So we shall see if this little snow will become a big snowfall.

Hoarder House

I have made a commitment to myself to spend a little time every day cleaning up and organizing the Carriage House.

It all began yesterday when I decided to pull my Traeger Smoker in out of the cold weather and get it cleaned up. I've left it out in the snow and rain and it has stopped working again. Fortunately, I have dealt with this before and know more about what I'm doing. 

But I need to make room in the Carriage House for doing such projects. So yesterday, I started trying to tidy up. There is soooooo much shit in there that needs to just go away. 

Unfortunately, I'm not capable of doing that. I think I'm one step away from qualifying as a hoarder.

Here's how it looks today. We'll check back in a week and see where we are.

  

Thanksgiving 2022

The Wednesday night before Thanksgiving has always been one of Susan's favorite nights to go out. You have Thanksgiving to look forward to and four days off from work. 

So last night we went out with Ron, Kelly and Mark to the Red Lion, which has recently re-opened under new owners.

Although it was nice to get out with friends, the night did not have the usual luster we remember. We concluded it was because we are retired now and every day is a day off.

On our way home, we started talking about Thanksgiving last year and what we did. Neither of us can remember. I looked back at this Blog to see what we did and I got no clue.

So this year, I'm going to make sure we have a record of the holiday.

We are hosting 11 peoples tonight. Along with Susan and I, there will be my son, Scott, his girlfriend Erica and her three kids, our friends Randy and Karen, and Scott's old boss, Drew and his girlfriend.

We have a ton of food planned. Susan is putting the turkey in the oven shortly and I'll be throwing a salmon on the grill. Karen is bringing a bunch of sides and I think it very possible that we won't run out of food.

I shall take lots of pictures and post a few of them here in just the next few paragraphs. In the meantime, I've got some work to do.

I'm afraid that's all I got for pictures. 

3:00PM: I am about to put the fish on the grill. It been heating up for 20 minutes and ready for fishy goodness.

7:00PM: Unfortunately, it didn't work out quite the way I planned. The charcoal I used would not light. I've had problems with this charcoal before and bought good ol' Kingsford Charcoal that I used up over the course of the summer.

Anyway, we made it work with a final shot in the microwave.

Everyone enjoyed a bunch of food, I met Erica's children and have a couple of questions about the two year old...whose favorite word appears to be "No!"

Holiday Decorating 2022

We have just returned home from finishing our last Holiday Decorating Job. YEA!

We got shut out of painting skywalks last winter because a new entity took over holiday decorating for downtown and they weren't interested in having us paint the skywalks.

This year, I got a call from one of the skywalk tenants who asked if we still decorated the skywalks. I explained what happened but they still wanted their two skywalks decorated. I managed to lock down three more.

In addition, we painted the windows at an assisted living facility on the South Hill, which we finished today.

So here it is, not even Thanksgiving, and our Holiday painting is complete. That feels pretty good.   

Boiler Game Scandal😢

 I have just come upon an interesting yet disappointing statistic. We did not break the Boiler Game record this year. 

I somehow missed that our record was set in 2011 on October 26th. I previously thought the record was October 21st, set back in 2015.

So now I am very sad and a bit disheartened. I thought we really beat it this year and I was thrilled. 

It takes very little to thrill me.

Three Inches and Rising

It’s one week since Halloween and it is all but a memory. Everything has been stowed in its proper place. I even managed to create a little more room up in the Carriage House with some creative stacking. Now it’s time to move on to our unusual weather.

I believe the climate is changing. Much the way it has for the last many thousands of years. While I think that human activity contributes to the changes, I don’t think we are the main contributors. Again, climate changes. It always has. Humans adapt to the weather. We always have.

That being said, we’ve had a really weird year of weather. Spring lasted through June, which was very wet and may have set a record for rainfall. At the very least, we came close to matching a record. 

Summer was hot and lingered well into October. The first 19 days of the month had daily high temperatures in the 70s. That was a record.

Now it’s November 7th and I wake up to this.

I’m measuring 3 inches over night here at the house. The snow continues to fall which is why I’m not out with my snow blower. But I will be.

Here’s a screen shot I took of the Mt Spokane Snow Stake.

There’s another eight inches up there on top of at least nine inches they got last week. I haven’t seen a figure from the Mt Spokane staff on total snow depth so far. They still have a ways to go before they can open.

I can remember only once in my life that we were skiing before Thanksgiving. It was back in the 70s. We have the potential to beat Thanksgiving this year, but I'm not going to dwell on it. Just let it happen.

Serenity Now!

12:28PM: I have just come in from snow blowing. I covered the whole block like I usually do. This was easily the most difficulty I've had snow blowing since I got the thing 24 years ago. The snow is wet. I don't mean damp. I mean, how can it even be snow with so much wetness saturated in it.

I would blow a swath and then have to dig the compacted slush out of the chute. It was just horrible. Add to that, all the leaves that we meant to rake up yesterday but decided to put off for a day.

Did I say it was horrible?! It was!!! 

Halloween Hangover

It is the morning after and we are still feeling pretty rung out. We were enjoying the fact that we are now retired and didn’t have to get up at 5:30 this morning. That was a happy thought.

So now we have to start cleaning up. It’s almost eleven and we haven’t started yet. Add to that the fact that it’s been raining since we shut everything down last night.

I will check back with updates.

12 Noon: We got all the craft pumpkins stowed and the balcony cleaned off and returned to normal. I’m going to work on removing the lights from the front porch.

4:08 PM: Well, we have done pretty good. A damn good start, in any event. We got the first wave of stuff out of the kitchen and up into the Carriage House.

I got all the lights down from the front porch and it’s looking almost back to normal out there, except for the three ghouls hanging from the tree.

The rain continues to fall so we are pacing ourselves until it stops, which doesn’t look like today.   

1485

We have survived Halloween but we are exhausted.

We are coming to a point where we have to ask how much is too much.

As you can see from the pictures, we kind of go nuts for Halloween. But it is coming to a point where we are getting too old for all this. It takes a week of mild preparation, getting stuff out of storage in the upstairs of the Carriage House, getting batteries into the things that need batteries, pounding stakes in the ground for our impromptu fence. It's becoming quite an ordeal...even for retired people.

It's always fun once the action starts and it is still unbelievable to see the number of people who show up in our neighborhood. As noted in the title of this post, we really had 1485 kids come to the house this year.

And we would be remiss to not mention the friends who help us out. Thanks to Randy, Karen, Robba, Ellen, Mark, Kyle and Krystal. We could not do this without you. Seriously, we would be dead.

I'm so glad it's over.

Here are s'more pictures.

 

Weekend Away and the End of the Boiler Game 2022

We have just returned from a weekend getaway to Walla Walla.

We met some friends in Walla Walla for their annual Balloon Jamboree. There was supposed to be 38 balloons scheduled to show up.

Our extended summer ended last Friday and it rained all day all the way to Walla Walla. Apparently, rain and hot air balloons do not go well together. The jamboree was canceled.

So we had nothing to do but visit wineries and breweries.

Our friends were staying in their camp trailer at an RV Park while we reserved a room at the local Super 8. 

On Sunday, we drove to Prosser to collect some grapes. We purchased 100 pounds of Cabernet and 100 pounds of Syrah...just like last year.

We spent the rest of the day visiting a few more wineries in the Prosser area and then checking into our favorite place in Sunnyside, the Sunnyside Inn.

We also returned to a restaurant we discovered last year called Las Islas. It is an authentic Mexican restaurant with authentic Mexican people who may or may not speak English. we thought their food was fantastic last year and we have been looking forward to our return.

But, like everything that you remember fondly, it did not live up to our hype. The food was good and the atmosphere was about like we remembered. 

The problem was they were playing that really shitty Ranchero music loaded with accordions and a tuba to play the bass line. I don't really object to the music other than it all sounds the same to me.

 What we objected to was the decibel level that the music was played at. We could hardly talk to each other, let alone order any food.

For some reason, I have always enjoyed looking at this barn next to the freeway.

This year, we stopped and took some pictures. I think this will make a nice pen and ink drawing.

We had a nice leisurely drive home today and got back about 2:00. 

My first order of business was to fire up the boiler. So the new record is October 24th.       

Boiler Game Excitement

 It is looking like we are going to set a new record for the Boiler Game. This Fall has been extremely unusual. Summer has extended well into October. I golfed yesterday with Rob and Mike and I wished I has worn shorts. It was a beautiful, warm day.

I believe the city has already set a record for the most days in October with daily high temperatures in the 70’s.

Tomorrow is the date to tie the Boiler Game record and from the looks of things, I am confident we can easily make it Saturday and perhaps beyond.

We are living in exciting times!

Number Eighteen

Eighteen years ago my wife married the luckiest man in the world...ME!

We had a real low key anniversary today without cards or gifts but we did go to dinner. I made her pay cuz I'm still the luckiest man in the world.

We have run into a pattern when we go out for our anniversary dinner. It's difficult to find a place that's open. The first place we chose to patronize, the Park Lodge was closed. The second place on the list was Azar's since they are closing up shop for good at the end of the week. They are closed on Sundays as well.

So we settled for our third spot, O'Donnell's, which was lovely. We had quite a time finding how to get in the building due to all the street construction going on around them.

Susan had Fish and Chips and I had Whiskey Mac n' Cheese.

I love you, Susan.  

Victor on Parade

We are in the midst of an extraordinary extended summer. The days have been really warm. We could possible break a record for the most October days in the 70’s. That also means that we could have a new record for the Boiler Game. 

It’s been such a nice, warm day that I'm going to surprise Susan tonight with a pit fire.

I took a few pictures of our doorman, Victor tonight.

 I was trying to get something scary that was a little in focus.

You can see I didn't do very well.

Well, there's a reason for that. I blame it on Susan.

She got into one of her cleaning jags the other day and made me move my tripod. Therefore, I couldn't get good steady low light pictures because I don't know where I moved my tripod to.

This is probably the best one.  

The Seahawks Lost Today.

 Yesterday, I rented an Aerator from the local Sun Rental shop and split the cost of it with Mark and Ted. Mark did his yard first, Ted went next and since I was next door, he brought over for me to use. Ted actually did some of the aerating on my yard because I'm such an invalid.

I'm hoping to augment some of the aerating today near the front porch steps with the little hand aerator I have and throw some grass seed in the ground as well. 

The only problem with this strategy is that Halloween is three weeks away and any grass I get growing is likely to get trampled Halloween night.

First item on the work agenda for the day is to put up some Halloween lights on the front porch.

10:19PM: We got the lights up and we also cleaned the porch carpets and I performed a blow job on the porch and front walkway with my leaf blower. I also had a little stump fire which sort of went unsupervised. But nothing burned down.

I guess I'll get to throwing down some lawn seed tomorrow.

Time For Hallowen

I was looking back through the archives of this blog trying to find references to the paper mache pumpkin heads I was working on earlier in the year. I only found one reference back in May that showed this picture.

I'm really disappointed in myself for not tracking this project better. I thought I took a lot more pictures but so far, I can't find any.

I bring this up now because we started hauling down some of our Halloween décor to start getting ready for the upcoming scary day.

I went to grab my pumpkin head and discovered this.

The damn mice have been feasting on my pumpkin. They didn't touch the other pumpkin I made and left the one Susan made years ago alone.

I am now on a mission to destroy every mouse within the world. I will have to figure out how to save this poor poor pumpkin. I have an idea which I hope I will document here. But my history tells a different story.  

Major Kitchen Decision

We are about to make a major commitment to the kitchen remodeling project. We have selected Cabinet Pro as our cabinet provider and are going to make a down payment of eighteen grand. The total cost for cabinets, floor and counter tops is about $24,000. That does not include the cost of moving the sink and having a gas line run in the island.

We have decided that we will not be doing the actual kitchen destruction and installation until January. The cabinets are six weeks out and that puts us square in the Holiday season. We don’t want to be without a kitchen for Thanksgiving or Christmas. But lookout January second.

Project of the Day - A.C. Abatement

It is not yet even noon o'clock yet and I have finished my designated project of the day. I guess it is nap time.

The project was to remove the air conditioning units from their various places around the house. We are up to four units now but really only consistently use the one in the kitchen and the one in the back bedroom, where we sleep.

With this being the second day of fall, it is another sign that the good ol' summertime is over.

Also indicative of the end of the summer, it's Greek Fest weekend. We went last night after attending a Sales Pitch for a Resort Vacation Scam sort of thing. $15,000 for a life time membership to get discounted airfare, hotels and resorts.

I had a Gyro and Greek Donuts called Loukoumathes (loo koo MAT is). Susan had Spanakopita and Greek Fries, which are french fries with feta cheese sprinkled on them. 

Autumn Cometh and The Post Man Finisheth

Today we finished the back stairway rail project.

Yesterday we measured the post to size and then brewed up some cement to file the hole, with the post in it of course.

Initially, I bought 2 ten pound bags of cement. I ended up buying two more yesterday and then went back for a fifth. The five bags cost about 25 bucks.

The post was firmly in the ground by the end of the day yesterday and so I felt it was no problem to reattach the rail today. It didn't go back exactly as I had hoped but it is definitely more sturdy and stout than it was. That post will be there long after I'm gone.

And we have our SJB logo scratched into the cement to forever immortalize our effort. However, it will probably get buried in the dirt.

As of today, Summer of 2022 is in the history books and it is time to prepare for the colder months. I have not turned on the boiler yet so the Boiler Game is still in progress.

I have noticed that the bathroom heater, which is on it's own thermostat has come on a couple of times in the morning this week. So that's another sign to indicate the end of Summer.   

Rail Work

We are in limbo with the kitchen right now so I decided to work on another project that won't take too long.

The post on the stair rail at the back door has totally rotted away and is just propped up by a nub on the ground. I tried to make it a little more secure by pounding a couple of rebar posts into the ground next to the suppoet post and then securing the post to the rebar. The problem with that solution was that the rebar was not at all secure. 

At one point, I hit the rebar into the ground with my hammer and the whole thing almost disappeared into the ground. The old rotted fence post made the area quite fluid.  

So, I removed the rail and pulled the old post off.

I ended up having to dig out the hole so I can fill it with concrete. 

I have a bunch of old 4x4 posts that I can use as a replacement but I need to clean them up and paint them.

 

That's a project for tomorrow.