I cannot think of a worse job than being a roofer. Today is the first day of a forecasted heat wave that is supposed to have temperatures in the 100's through next Friday. If that happens, it will break a record set in 1881 for most.
The roofers are out there today and they are close to finishing the sheathing.
Here are some pictures:
This has nothing to do with the main purpose of this blog but I feel it is important to post it. My mom died today. She went in for hip surgery back in the first part of May. Everything started out swell but a number of setbacks led to pneumonia, at which point she decided to call it a life. We made her comfortable and she lasted two days. She was a week away from turning 88.
I'll miss you Mom.
We were told the roofing would start tomorrow and then that it wouldn't.
When I got home from work, a couple of guys came wandering into the backyard looking at the roof. We had a bit of a communications gap as I speak English and they did not. Well, the one guy could communicate enough.
They wanted to grab a ladder and get up there, which is a first for this project as far as I know. They said it was going to need to be completely torn off and then sheathed. That was not in to quote.
So, I'll call the contractor tomorrow and see what's happening.
When I was mowing on Thursday, I was trying to get a bunch of dead leaves out of a basement window well where they had built up. In the course of doing that, the mower hit the window and broke it. I didn't even notice because I thought I was being careful not to do that.
So I noticed the broken yesterday and realized it had to be fixed. Fortunately, Susan is into glass and keeps large amounts of it down in her glass room. I spent a good amount of time cleaning out the old hardened glazing compound out of the mullions. I had Susan cut the glass to 22" x 12". I should have had her cut it an eighth inch shorter in both directions. We ended up breaking out her glass grinder and shaving the sides a bit. I finally got it to fit but had a hell of a time with the fresh glazing compound. It got all over my fingers and wouldn't stick into the mullions. I'm going to watch something on YouTube to get some tips.
In any event, the window is in and mostly secure.
It's looking to be a rainy, chilly weekend so that means it is time for the Corbin Park Neighborhood Yard Sale.
I put out signs this morning directing people to the Corbin Park Community Yard Sale and drove around the park to see if anyone is participating. It looks like about 11 houses are participating. We've had pretty good traffic and a lot of people checking out the sales.
We have a bedroom set that we never wanted in the first place and it is on display out in the yard. It's the only thing we are selling. The price is currently marked at $150.00, but I will take $100.00. I would really like to sell it today because I want the space back in the Carriage House.
The guy that bought it (Caleb) lives in the neighborhood. He just bought the house on Washington and Buckeye that was for sale for about two hours. Well, it didn't sell that fast but it is a very hot market right now. He said they were happy to get it.
Caleb and his wife and two kids moved here from Havre, Montana.
Since I have a truck, I offered to deliver. I even helped him carry everything into his house. I really earned that money.
1:45PM: Once I was able to close up shop, Susan and I walked the park to check out the deals. I might be interested in some tires but they're not quite the right size.
The day has turned out to be pretty nice as far as the weather goes. I felt a few drops of rain but it's nice out there right now.
One last thing, referring to my post on May 29th where I talked about paying an Idiot Fee because I forgot to write down my new password.
I found where I wrote the password down today. Susan was working on the curtains and had a large piece of cardboard on the table to protect it. I wrote the password on that.
Then, when she was done, I put it back in the Carriage House.
I pulled it out today to write down the price of the bedroom set we sold. I noticed it in the corner of the cardboard. It was Grumpy307!
What a dumbass!
Well, I've got money burning a hole in my wallet. Time to go to the Hub.
It has been a stellar weekend. Here we are at Monday morning and it looks to be a beautiful day. Laundry is in the washer, dishes are in the washer, and the sprinkler is running in the front yard. So we are using a LOT of water this morning.
We have a few projects going for the day but not before enjoying the morning with a newspaper and a cup of coffee on the front porch.
10:37AM: I went across the street to check the pool filter and decided the pool needed to be used. I jumped in and baby, it is cold. If I wasn't awake then, I am now.
Next, we are installing the final curtain in the TV Room.
Here's something I hardly ever say. "I was wrong!" I hardly ever say that because I have Susan, who says it for me.
So that's one project down.
4:57PM: Wew! What a day. I would like to tell you about it but we have to head over and visit Mom with some Kentucky Fried Chicken.
7:14PM: We are back from visiting Mom. She is not having a good day. She can't put any weight on her hip leg. It's pretty painful. She wasn't hungry so we have KFC for lunch.
I now have the time to talk about our work on the Arbor Vitae.
We continued today and really got in to the foliage and cut out a shit load of dead branches. I completely cut out a dead trunk and we left a little Charlie Brown sprig of a bush that has a little green growing on it. I will be watering these a lot over the coming days and see what happens.
All in all, it's been a great weekend.
Back to work!
Susan, milking all she can out of this curtain project, continues work on her final curtain. It will go on the front window in the TV Room.
I have been avoiding work all day. Here is what I did.
Next I cleaned the front porch. I took my blower to it and that did the job pretty well. For a super cleaning, I would have mopped as well.
I filled up the little pond in our deck side backyard and turned on the vomiting turtle.
Once that was done, I got the vacuum out and cleaned the truck bed.
It is Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. It looks to be a nice day as I wake up and begin the day at 8:00 AM. That's sleeping in for me. I already have sprinklers going in the yard and there will be a reckoning with a lawn mower later in the day.
But first, breakfast! We have decided to go to the Cottage Café out in the valley. They have a new cook there that we wanted to check out. His name is Scott and he is my son.
He has been a guest of the Federal Government for the last eight years after an ugly incident involving opiates. He returned to Spokane a week ago and is living in a halfway house in the valley. I think today is his second day on the job.
So we are meeting Mark and Kelly and Ron for breakfast at 10:00. In the meantime, I'm going to read the paper and plan my day.
12:08PM: Just returned from the Cottage Café. I am full. Time to work it off with a little mowing!
Have I mentioned that I got myself a truck.
I have already made a trip to the dump with it. Today, I hauled some wood, as previously mentioned.
One of the troubling discoveries of the day is that my little old Canon camera has bit the dust. The screen no longer works properly.
I’m locked out of my computer because I made up a fancy new password to gain entry, lost the piece of paper I wrote it down on, and now I can’t recall it. Dumbass!
I finished my work on the windows in the TV Room. Susan is finishing the curtains. We are almost done. If we can open it by Memorial Day, it will be three years exactly.
Susan got her planting mostly finished today. There are a couple of hostas that will get planted tomorrow.
I do not like making these entries on the iPad. It is cumbersome. Plus, I can’t figure out how to add pictures. I will be taking my computer to the fix it place so I can pay the “Idiot Fee” and get back in my computer.
I made a run to the dump today. I didn't have a whole lot so I checked in with Mark to see if he had anything he wanted to get rid of. And he did. We ended up with 400 pounds of crap to dump.
This was all facilitated by my new truck. New to me, anyway. My old piece of crap GMC Envoy went to sleep with the fishes a couple of weeks ago. I managed to limp it home from work one night and that was pretty much all she wrote.
So I began the task of looking for a new vehicle. I quickly decided it was going to be a truck. My budget started at $10,000.00. It grew to $12K pretty quick. Trucks are hot right now and there a not a lot of them on the market. When something of a good value shows up, it doesn't last long.
I'm still suffering from the shock of spending that much money. But so far, I like it. It's big and roomy. I climb up into into and jump out of it. The AC works well which was needed with todays 80 degree high. It has remote locks, cruise control, electric everything and it all seems to work so far.
I'm getting a new wind shield for it and then I have to figure out what to do with a big rip in the drivers seat upholstery.
Today is my last day of vacation and to celebrate, I stayed in bed a little bit longer than normal. I got up at 7:35 rather than 7. (For me, getting up at 7 is sleeping in)
Cat Update: We finally got her out from under the stairs by pounding on the treads. I was actually going to tear up a couple of steps but didn't have to when Delilah got in range for Susan to grab.
I'm off today because Mom needs a ride to the hospital for her hip surgery, and I'm that guy. I'll be hanging around and staying a bit after to see how she fares. Providing they let me. I'm not sure what the protocols are in the hospitals right now.
I took a picture of my Covid card with my phone so I have ready access to it.
Tomorrow, it's back to the grind.
I'm going to be taking some more time off later this month because I want to be here when they get to work on the new roof.
Did I mention we're getting a new roof?
I'm leaving Delilah alone for the next few hours. She seems mellow enough. She has proven that she knows where the litter box is. She sure doesn't eat much. Of course, she may not need much food. I have observed that she is a fairly low activity sort of animal, even for a cat.
5:46PM: After they took Mom into surgery at about 3:30. I came home. I just the call from Dr. Lynch and everything went as it was supposed to. She'll be in recovery for the next 90 minutes. I'm going to go down with some flowers and see if I can see her.
And that's the end of vacation.
I just finished putting on the first coat of stain on the remaining three pieces of trim I have yet to install on the north window of the TV Room. I finished with the locking clasp but I'm not happy with it. I need to sand down the block that I attached to the window sill in order to match the height of the cross bar that the locking clasp is attached to.
I finished my staining. Now I'll be ready to put up those pieces of trim and that is a wrap on the window...and quite possibly, the TV Room.
Mom is having hip surgery tomorrow so we are cat sitting for her. Delilah is not very happy. She is currently in hiding. She has done that once already and really freaked out Susan. I'm going to go hunt her down.
She's good. She managed to elude me on my first search. I'm tempted to just wait her out and see what happens. That would be the easier route.
4:55PM: We found her. She has managed to crawl up into a tiny space under the old back staircase. If she doesn't come down soon, I'm going to have to go up and pull up a bunch treads on the stair case to reach her.
Stupid Cat!
I looked over my To Do list that I posted last Saturday and I'm a little over 60% on completion. I did the work on the windows in the TV Room. I have to finish the locking clasp on the front window. I cut down the Arbor Vitae in the back. I restacked the wood pile. I went canoeing. I jumped in the pool. And I got the weather station off the roof.
I decided the roofers could remove the heat cable so I did not complete that job. I never even started on organizing the Carriage House. I may do a little work on that today. I have a drafting table in there that is disassembled and I would really like to make a space for it and get it reassembled.
It looks like today is going to be a nice day as far as the weather is concerned, so I guess I better get busy.
Susan and I both tasted it and thought it was good. It felt ready to drink now. It's 12%. Since we started it on May 15th, 2020, I think we will bottle it on May 15th, 2021. That's in two weeks.
Today is the Kentucky Derby and we are watching it at the Hub, as usual. We paid $3.00 to get on a board where you are randomly given a number which corresponds to a horse. Post time is 3:57 PM PDT. We're heading over at three.
It is after 5:00 now and we have returned from the Hub where we watched some horse racing. Who won? Who cares! No one will remember. I can tell you that the horses we were assigned were not in the top ten finishers.
Susan is napping and I'm going to see if I can complete my work on the front window.
The answer is no. The mounting block I cut to place the locking clasp on is still too short. It needs to be a little more than 3/8" thick. I'll try again tomorrow.
I have just gotten up and begun my day. I got up because I had to get the garbage out. But Susan did it when she left for work. I guess I could go back to bed, but I'm already up and have a nap scheduled in a couple of hours.
So, my first thing this morning is to shave off the goatee.
Well, almost.
Now I'm going to take my new look and run over to the General Store to buy an air filter for the car. Then I'm going to drop my car off for a tune up. It's not running great and there is something wrong when starting it. It takes about three tries. It might be serious. It could well be the end of the car.
10:45AM: The car is over at the oil change place. It's costing $200.00 because I'm having them replace a belt. Every time I go to one of these oil change huts, I feel like I'm getting ripped off.
While the car is being worked on, I'm going to work on the front window in the TV Room. 'Bout time!
Hey! I just thought of something. Anywhere I go out there in public, I'm going to be wearing a mask, so it doesn't matter what ridiculous style I come up with for my chin.
1:12PM: I'm back with the car and it still has a problem with starting. I didn't expect the Oil Change guys would be able to look at it. I'll try to take it in next week.
I got the windows done but not really. I still need to do some work on the locking clasp. It's not a good fit yet.
I guess I'll get the deck chairs down from the Carriage House.
1:31AM: Okay. That's done! I've got a few more little things to do and one of them is going to be the Hub Tavern.
3:48PM: Turns out I haven't made it to the Hub yet. Susan is home now so it is time to start celebrating the weekend. And that will happen at the Hub.
Today is canoeing day. I've had my breakfast and read the paper. Now I have to get in the shower and prepare myself to go to the river.
Once that is out of the way, I can buckle down and finish my work on the TV Room front window.
Pictures to follow later!
Later: I took a shit load of pictures. Mostly because my camera has the motor drive function that just snaps away. I took over 180 pictures today. Here's the best of them.
I slept in a little bit today which is my prerogative and I make no apologies for. Todays marks the half way point of my time off. I have been enjoying the week off immensely and have been imagining it as if I were retired. It looks to be another great day and I'm trying to organize my schedule.
I think I shall mow and get that out of the way. Perhaps I can fit in a trip to the river later but I think I will wait until tomorrow. It's supposed to hotter tomorrow and I need to be available at 3:30 today for an appointment with a Financial Advisor.
12:58PM: I've been out working in the yard for about two and half hours. I still have some work to do but I'm going to take a break with a free pizza slice and a beer at the Hub. Back shortly.
3:20PM: I have to get out of these work clothes for our 4:00 appointment with a financial guy.
It's after 7 now and I am full. After meeting with the financial advisor, I went with Susan and her girlfriends to the Cathay Inn. I had my usual, the Number 6 and ate most of it. I have some chow mein and some rice to nibble on today.
Another good day of vacation!
Waking up at 7:00 is so civilized and a wonderful way to start the day. I'm not prompted by an alarm to get up. I'm not thinking about my agenda for the day. I just get up when I'm ready. Coincidentally, I'm ready at 7.
Now, time to think about the agenda. It's a nice day out so I'm going to get some paint on the deck railing. This is something we have learned we need to do every other year. The railing is just too exposed, too abused by the elements of the earth warming around it on an ever growing basis for the paint to stick around for very long. And so, we adapt, we overcome, we improvise, and the railing gets painted.
I really want to make it out to the Little Spokane and drop the canoe in the river. I think I will schedule that for tomorrow at some point.
I also need to acquire some peat moss. I want to mix it into the front yard dirt patch before I lay down the seed.
For now, I'm eating some bacon, enjoying a nice cup of decaf coffee with Irish Cream generously slopped in and reading the newspaper.
9:28AM: I clean and refreshed and I have a clean shower. I always wait too long to clean the shower.
I just turned on the tractor sprinkler in the backyard and I'm warming some more coffee to keep me company as I hand water the parking strip on Wall street. It gives me a nice chance to be contemplative whilst accomplishing an task. My next task, and it is no minor feat, is to find the right color of paint I'm going to use on the deck railing.
10:42AM: I found the paint with alacrity, sagacity, and my thesaurus. I just finished my coffee on the front porch. It is a great looking day, perfect for painting a rail. Here I go!
5:16PM: I did great on the railing.
It's not an intensive re-paint. Just getting the rails looking good.
I made it to the Hardware store and found peat moss. I had to make a second trip because I forgot to bring a $10.00 off coupon I had.
I stopped my the house of my pal Jerry, only to learn they are packing up the stuff and leaving town for a year. He and Janet are letting their new pastor live there for a year. They are going to travel around in the motorhome he's had for a few years. Catch later, Jer!
I got the peat moss spread and it pretty much filled up my bare patch. I need to get another bag and some more grass seed. But my patch has a head start.
When Susan got home and went out for her run, I decided to hop on the bike and go for three laps around the park. That's three miles to you and me.
It was a bit of a workout and it definitely gave me a workout. The good news is that my feet didn't hurt when I was done.
