In the garden, and RAIN!!!! by SIGNYM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Right now I would say anything is possible with the wacky weather this year.

But for right now I will take dry over wet. Maybe we'll get a nice, dry and sunny September this year. That would be welcome.

I hope you can get all that work done on your drive Jack.

I took the risk and did it.

Looked really sketchy this morning and I was second guessing myself the first few hours, but I got that topcoat down and it looks like 29 hours with a 0% chance of rain now and early Tuesday morning we raise to 1% chance and top out at about 7% all day. Hopefully we stay dry until Friday at least.

It looks fantastic!

Hope it's dry for you too, Brenda.

Oh... and I hope you have better health insurance than HMO insurance down here.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Alright! Sounds like you did the right thing.

Going to be dry for the rest of this week and maybe into the start of September.

BC medical is really good.

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Tuesday, August 25, 2020 11:10 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back at my doc's today to get the results of the second bit of blood work she wanted done. She was pretty happy. My liver function is now back to normal. It was my seizure meds causing the problem. The level I should be at is 2,700mg but I am actually under that at 2,540mg. So all is rosy. She wants to do a recheck in three months.

SIGNYM: IS she planning on testing for the possible breakthrought seizures that you may be having? Did she even address them? Or is she content to stick her head in the sand?

Sorry if I sound a little pissed, but I am. This sounds like the half-assed treatment my other Canadian friend (in Ontario) is getting, and like the half-assed treatment WE used to get from our half-assed HMO. (He has prostate cancer but they refuse to operate.)

Yeah, I know... properly diagnosing and treating people sometimes takes more than the average amount of money. About 30% of the time the first drug that a doctor tries DOESN'T WORK. (That is the sad reality of pharmacology!) Sometimes it requires ... what is that word ... thinking ... on the part of the doctor. They need to have a very well-grounded understanding of what is happening, not just a lookup table of possible diagnoses and treatments, with one eye on the lookup table and one eye on the bottom line.

Anyway. I hope that what you had was just your body's temporary adjustment to lower seizure meds, not the beginning of a trend. (But in my experience once you lose control of seizures it's hard to get it back again, and things tend to go from bad to worse until you find something that really works.) IF the breakthrough seizures ... or whatever they are ... continue, does the doctor ... OR YOU ... have a threshold beyond which something will be done? It's important that your doctor, and you, have established a "line in the sand" that -once crossed- will precipitate further action

BRENDA: Truthfully, I didn't mention what happened in the store because looking back I am now not sure. I know I was heading for a yawn at that time and that could have been another reason that I stopped, and my eyes may have just closed. I did mention the dizzy spells and she thought I had had a seizure, so if I had said yes then the route would have been the neurologist.

I will keep a close eye on things and if I have any more episodes like that, I will go back in before November and tell her as well as keep a list of what happened and where.

If anything else does happen most likely I will be sent back to a neurologist at the office I was going to and they will run an EEG. Then there will be the discussion about most likely a different medication.

So for right now it is just wait and see.

Great! It sounds like you have a plan! I like the idea of keeping a diary. I'm trying to get dear daughter to do that so we can address her IBS or wherever the heck she has, but it's too much trouble for her.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

I was actually told that years ago by the neurologist that was handling my file at the time. So, if anything does happen I can write it down with date and time.

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Tuesday, August 25, 2020 11:13 PM

Thanks!

From across the street it looks like a brand new driveway. It's only when you get up close you see all the cracks that were filled in. I'm hoping that it looks as good after winter. If I did the job right it should.

I ended up using 7 1/2 five gallon pails for just one coat. I had to stop in the middle of the job when I ran out and went to pick up my order for the second coat.

Unfortunately that means that when I do the 2nd coat I can't even think about starting that job without buying 2 more 5 gallon pails, and and just hope that I'll be able to take them back and not need them since they're going to cost $11 or $12 more each now that the sale is over.

It took me a while to figure out that because the driveway was in such poor shape that I was better off using the brush side of the tool instead of the squeegie side. I've seen videos of how to do it online and that just wasn't working for me. They were all on driveways that were relatively new and still mostly black. Mine was grey and extremely porous. The buckets were rated for 250 to 350 sq feet, but I probably only got about 175 to 200 sq ft out of each one.

Going to wait a few days now and use the remaining 3 bottles of crack sealer that I've got to do touch ups when the weather permits before putting the final top seal on there.

I think I'll park my car out in the street for at least the next few weeks.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020 10:06 AM

I think I'll mow the lawn today even though it probably doesn't need it since we haven't had any rain in almost 3 weeks. It looks ragged though. Maybe I'll edge the front walkway since the driveway got edged and everything looks sweet on that side of the house now.

Not much more to do outside on the yard right now with summer winding down. No ants around the house at all. Zero weeds.

Gotta figure out what I'm doing with those columns and start wrapping that all up so I can get the gutters up. Not sure if it's my imagination or not, but it seems like a lot of the "creaking and cracking" has died down. Especially telling is the difference in behavior of the stairs leading up to the attic. They barely creak at all right now and that was the worst spot in the house back when my brother was visiting here.

I'm going to spend some time updating my TO-DO and DONE list today and try to make a game plan. Lot's of things still need to be done before the weather turns. And when it does, I've already bought most of the stuff I need to work on inside to remodel the kitchen and livingroom.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020 12:32 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I think I'll mow the lawn today even though it probably doesn't need it since we haven't had any rain in almost 3 weeks. It looks ragged though. Maybe I'll edge the front walkway since the driveway got edged and everything looks sweet on that side of the house now.

Not much more to do outside on the yard right now with summer winding down. No ants around the house at all. Zero weeds.

Gotta figure out what I'm doing with those columns and start wrapping that all up so I can get the gutters up. Not sure if it's my imagination or not, but it seems like a lot of the "creaking and cracking" has died down. Especially telling is the difference in behavior of the stairs leading up to the attic. They barely creak at all right now and that was the worst spot in the house back when my brother was visiting here.

I'm going to spend some time updating my TO-DO and DONE list today and try to make a game plan. Lot's of things still need to be done before the weather turns. And when it does, I've already bought most of the stuff I need to work on inside to remodel the kitchen and livingroom.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

There is always outdoor work to do here in SoCal! But that has been mostly suspended because of the prolonged hot spell that's been going on since about the 12th, when temperatures have been over 95 for 5 days and over 100 for three or four more days. But I think today and tomorrow are the last gasp of this heat wave, after that temeratures are going back to average (88) or below, and I can start outdoor work again.

So definitely have not been as productive as you! But I did manage to get my tax papers in yesterday with special instructions, have one additional question for our lawyer which I'm going to email today, and we can address all of that at our next scheduled phone meeting.

So I also need to revise my "to do" list, and start addressing some of those indoor repairs and vehicle maintenance.

Just a garden update: I harvested the first of the orange-fleshed honeydew melons. They're small (about 9" across) but VERY sweet; the family likes them so they'll probably be on the planting list next year, too.

In a bit of a conundrum about what to do with the garden beds. I have two: One is an approx 40 X 9.5 bed which was originally a xeric garden; I dug up some of it (tore out the groundcover sage) for my current vegetable garden, the other is about 15 X 7 which used to be the old vegetable garden because it has the best sunshine (along a south-facing wall) but is now a flower garden because family couldn't bear to see the nastutriums dug up when I was ready to plant my veggies.

I like the idea of a pollinator garden: I like to see bees of all kinds, butterflies and hummingbirds in the yard, plus it's good for the garden because it draws pollinators to the vegetables.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020 1:36 PM

Out for a walk in the sunshine. Couple of things to do.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020 2:59 PM

Glad it's cooling down by you finally Sigs. We had a little heat wave ourselves this week with the real feel over 100 degrees today.

Got the lawn mowed and remaining debris picked up. I decided against edging today. It's been so long without any rain I don't want to be causing any damage to the lawn by doing that now. Everything is looking pretty brown.

The driveway looks amazing today. I was a little unhappy that anywhere where I patched things it didn't seem to be blending in, but looks like it just needed an extra day of baking in the sun. It's almost completely uniform right now and will probably look even better in a few days.

My neighbor across the street yelled for me when I turned off the mower to empty a bag to tell me how great it looks and that I should go into business for myself.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020 5:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Glad it's cooling down by you finally Sigs. We had a little heat wave ourselves this week with the real feel over 100 degrees today.

Got the lawn mowed and remaining debris picked up. I decided against edging today. It's been so long without any rain I don't want to be causing any damage to the lawn by doing that now. Everything is looking pretty brown.

The driveway looks amazing today. I was a little unhappy that anywhere where I patched things it didn't seem to be blending in, but looks like it just needed an extra day of baking in the sun. It's almost completely uniform right now and will probably look even better in a few days.

My neighbor across the street yelled for me when I turned off the mower to empty a bag to tell me how great it looks and that I should go into business for myself.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Good load of work you got done Jack.

Hope you get a little bit of rain for your lawn.

Comfortable temperatures around me.

Got my errands run for today.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020 7:40 PM

Two more days in the 90's by me then another coin toss for thunderstorms on Friday night. I'm thinking these ones might actually happen though since the rest of the 10 day forecast only shows 2 days in the low 80's and every other day in the mid to high 70's.

I want to say it's probably our last heat wave, but in this part of the country you can't rule anything out. So nice have A/C now. After showering and taking it easy it dawned on me that tomorrow as trash day and I had to pull my 3 cans out to the foreclosed house for pickup so they don't come anywhere near my driveway. It's still a scorcher outside, which surprised me. It's so cool in my house. :)

Yeah... Got a lot done. Even without any rain to help the grass grow I still filled an entire large can with grass. If I start bagging from now on like I want to so I'm not giving the ants all that food, I might have to request a 3rd or 4th can from the city. If I was putting it in the cans when I was mowing my lawn twice a week during the rainy spring, I think I could easily fill 3 cans and get dangerously close to filling 4 without much room for actual trash.

As much as my lawn needs the rain, I know I'm not going to be too happy to get it. I'll have a mess to clean up on the driveway before I can give it a proper 2nd coat. Hopefully the seal does what I think it will do though and I can just wash it off with a garden hose. No way I'm power washing it any time soon.

Glad it's cooled down by you.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020 11:27 PM

Here's to hoping about the seal Jack.

Yes, it's good. Hopefully it will hold out for the beginning of September. *fingers crossed*

I am seriously hoping for a dry September. Already some small leaves on a trees starting to change colour.

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Thursday, August 27, 2020 6:43 PM

Had my walk, grocery shopping done and vacuuming. A relatively good day.

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Friday, August 28, 2020 1:27 PM

Out for a walk in the sunshine in a bit.

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Friday, August 28, 2020 10:00 PM

We're finally done with the heat wave...

Well, at least in a few hours we should be. It's still hot at 9PM and damn near 100% humidity. But highs in the 70's and low 80's is in the 10 day forecast now. I can finally turn my A/C off after letting it run 5 or 6 days straight.

And despite the A/C use, I just got my monthly usage report and I still used 25% less than my most efficient neighbors last month, with the "most efficient" meaning the average of the top 20% when it comes to the least usage.

It's still a coinflip on the rain tonight. We haven't had a drop in over 3 weeks now. As much as everyone's grass around here needs it, it might not be the worst thing in the world if we don't get any. I'd be able to go back and start putting a 2nd coat on the crack seals and put the topcoat down before it rains again, theoretically. If we don't get any tonight it looks like we probably wont' until at least Tuesday.

Just been deep cleaning inside the house today. I even vacuumed the ceiling on the 1st floor. My new vacuum is pretty sweet.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, August 28, 2020 11:52 PM

Tiny bit of rain heading my way for tonight and tomorrow morning. Then dry again.

Laundry day tomorrow. Hope the jacket I washed today dries over night just in case I need it tomorrow.

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Saturday, August 29, 2020 3:39 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Cooling off here too, earlier than expected. I thought it would be 91F today, but it only got up to 85ish. So dd and I did some outdoor cleanup- sweeping the driveway, weed whacking, cutting up a couple of fallen palm fronds, and raking. I bought a new shovel and tested it out, so now dd and I can BOTH be digging up weeds at the same time. I'm sure she'll be happy about that. (NOT!)

I get to pick up my new glasses tomorrow- I hope they've gotten the prescription right, but if it's not quite right I can use them in the interim and have them use my second set of frames to make it better. Funny thing about glasses... at my age, they have to be ground to the right distance. I need reading, intermediate/computer, and distance lenses and they can't be interchanged. I asked for computer and distance in a bifocal lens; I hope they took me seriously and didn't try and substitute anything.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Saturday, August 29, 2020 5:28 PM

Everything done for today and I didn't need the jacket. Plenty warm enough with a shirt over my t-shirt.

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Saturday, August 29, 2020 7:22 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well, I made bbq pork last night, and bc I hate making different foods for different allergies and sensitivities I ate it for dinner, altho I'm allergic to tomatoes. And I confirmed what I've suspected for a while; when I eat something that my body doesn't like, my feet get hot. REAL hot. Sometimes my legs, too. I get all uncomfortable in a twisty sort of way, too. I spent an hour or so sitting at table, moving my feet around trying to find a cool spot on the floor that my feet hadn't already heated up, when I remembered I had some gel packs in the freezer. Oh, blessed relief! I felt MUCH better after I had iced my feet down for an hour or so.

Today, dd and I got outside for a hour+ of weed digging. That part of the yard looks a whole lot better!!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Saturday, August 29, 2020 11:50 PM

That's some reaction Sig.

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Sunday, August 30, 2020 5:04 PM

Glad to hear it's finally cooling off by you, Sigs.

Yesterday was perfect. Had my grams and my aunt over. The first time I've seen either of them since Christmas, and they got to see all of the work I've been up to since then. Spent the afternoon on the front porch and had lunch.

I usually don't eat that early and didn't feel like starting any work for the day at 3PM so I just relaxed the rest of the day.

Today was a little hotter, but hoooooo boy, did it feel MUCH hotter than any other day I spent working on the driveway now that it's actually black. I used up my last 3 gallons of crack sealer and hit all the bigger cracks a 2nd time. Overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out so far.

I'm going to give it quite a few days now to all dry before putting the 2nd topcoat on. It's another coinflip for rain on Tuesday, but beyond that no rain until early next week. So finger's crossed.

Since I'm done early, I'm going to go food shopping and pick up an extra two 5 gallon buckets of the topcoat. (At full price..... grrrrrrrrrr).

Hopefully I won't need both of them since it should spread a lot better than the first coat, but I don't think there's any way I'm getting away without using at least one of them, and since this is the final coat I don't want to have to break for 30 minutes to pick up more because it is somewhat obvious (at least to me) where I had to do that for the 1st coat.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, August 30, 2020 5:16 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That's some reaction Sig.

It's so unusual that I didn't credit it at first, but I've sort of noticed at about a dozen times by now. That day was so extreme that it really confirmed my earlier observations.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Sunday, August 30, 2020 5:17 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Glad to hear it's finally cooling off by you, Sigs.

Yesterday was perfect. Had my grams and my aunt over. The first time I've seen either of them since Christmas, and they got to see all of the work I've been up to since then. Spent the afternoon on the front porch and had lunch.

I usually don't eat that early and didn't feel like starting any work for the day at 3PM so I just relaxed the rest of the day.

Today was a little hotter, but hoooooo boy, did it feel MUCH hotter than any other day I spent working on the driveway now that it's actually black. I used up my last 3 gallons of crack sealer and hit all the bigger cracks a 2nd time. Overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out so far.

I'm going to give it quite a few days now to all dry before putting the 2nd topcoat on. It's another coinflip for rain on Tuesday, but beyond that no rain until early next week. So finger's crossed.

Since I'm done early, I'm going to go food shopping and pick up an extra two 5 gallon buckets of the topcoat. (At full price..... grrrrrrrrrr).

Hopefully I won't need both of them since it should spread a lot better than the first coat, but I don't think there's any way I'm getting away without using at least one of them, and since this is the final coat I don't want to have to break for 30 minutes to pick up more because it is somewhat obvious (at least to me) where I had to do that for the 1st coat.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Sounds like you had a nice day, SIX! I'm glad you got to see your grams and aunt, and to have a nice credible home to show them. Just OOC, is that on your dad's side? I wouldimagie so.

Sounds like you're closing in on getting that driveway done! Good for you!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Sunday, August 30, 2020 7:29 PM

Yeah. It was really nice. We're already planning the next one. My Aunt says my grams needs to get out of the house more often.

She even tried to back out of it at the last minute saying that she wasn't feeling well, but I said "you can't bullshit a bullshitter" cause she sounded exactly like me when I was back in the drinking days and would worm out of doing things. And I guilted her letting her know that I was up until 10:30PM the night before cleaning the house and even vacuuming the ceiling for her.

My aunt took care of that though and made sure she was ready to go.

Yeah. They're on my old man's side. I lived with both of them for around 5 years back in my 20's and my uncle lived there too.

I actually talk to my mom's family more these days than she does. Everybody on that side just kind of drifted apart when my other grams died. That's the only time I cried in the last 20 or so years. I know I'm going to have a hard time when this one goes too.

Got all my stuff from the store. Even bought another squeegie/brush thing just in case. I'm hoping I can re-use the old one since I (kind of) cleaned it when I was done, but since it's the final coat I'm going to figure out real quick if that's a bad idea, so I'll have the new one ready to go if I need to swap it out.

Time to relax and figure out what if anything I'm going to do the next two days while I wait for the rain to pass and hopefully miss me one last time.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, August 30, 2020 11:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That's some reaction Sig.
It's so unusual that I didn't credit it at first, but I've sort of noticed at about a dozen times by now. That day was so extreme that it really confirmed my earlier observations.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

That's a reaction to the tomatoes? If I am remembering right.

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Sunday, August 30, 2020 11:22 PM

Well the rain is back for this evening and part of tomorrow according to the weather lady. Then the heat will start building in for Labour Day weekend.

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Monday, August 31, 2020 6:40 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I hope you have a nice weekend!

Our upcoming weekend will also be warning up, predicted high of 93, but looks to cool down right after that.

*****

Yes, tomatoes. Or at least ketchup, so there may be something in the ketchup.

Did you know that the secret spice in ketchup is mace??

*****

I planted sunflowers just for looks, bc they're hubby's favorite flower. Who'd have thought they would see so much pollinator action?!?!

I've seen honeybees, green headed bees, sweat bees, and other native bees I don't even know the names of! California skippers (small golden-brown butterflies) and best of all, a bumblebee. I know that bumblebee populations are crashing even worse than bee populations, so it was very gratifying to know that I planted something that bumblebee like!

Next year, we'll replant the beautiful lemon-yellow sunflowers, but also plant pink and rose-madder too, and it will look fabulous!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Monday, August 31, 2020 7:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
I hope you have a nice weekend!

Our upcoming weekend will also be warning up, predicted high of 93, but looks to cool down right after that.

*****

Yes, tomatoes. Or at least ketchup, so there may be something in the ketchup.

Did you know that the secret spice in ketchup is mace??

*****

I planted sunflowers just for looks, bc they're hubby's favorite flower. Who'd have thought they would see so much pollinator action?!?!

I've seen honeybees, green headed bees, sweat bees, and other native bees I don't even know the names of! California skippers (small golden-brown butterflies) and best of all, a bumblebee. I know that bumblebee populations are crashing even worse than bee populations, so it was very gratifying to know that I planted something that bumblebee like!

Next year, we'll replant the beautiful lemon-yellow sunflowers, but also plant pink and rose-madder too, and it will look fabulous!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

Weekend was okay.

Never knew they put mace in ketchup. I know there is sugar or at least molasses in it. I don't like it because of too much sweetness.

I love sunflowers but the seeds to eat. Mighty yummy. Good for the bees. Yay!

I am still seeing bees up here and will into October at least.

Fantastic on the bumble bees.

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Monday, August 31, 2020 7:06 PM

Welp, I am trying to hit the publishing trail again. Stuck my nose into the Canadian book publishers web site and pulled out one thing for now. I got something to tell friends in Alberta.

Found a publisher in one of their local malls in Edmonton.

They'll get a bang out of that for sure.

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Monday, August 31, 2020 9:53 PM

The old man came by to visit for a few hours today. First time since Coomphmania took over. He didn't even wear a mask. I was shocked. He's still not into hugs though, apparently. I wasn't going to initiate one, and he didn't either. Didn't want to push it.

He's amazed at the driveway. He said he even showed my step-mom the pictures from the album the other day and he usually never does that. He actually said that if all that work didn't need to be done in the house still the outside looks so good now with the work I've done this summer that from the street it looks ready to put on the market.

Rain coming. Hope it passes us... Not looking good this time though since one site says 60% and the other says 80%. Pretty sure we're going to at least get some, which will create a lot more cleanup work for me before I can put the final touches on.

I decided I'm going to use the extra half pail I've got to hit all the potholes and cracks that I re-sealed a day before I put the final coat down. The topcoat did a pretty decent job blending in after a few days and hiding the seal stuff, but I'd imagine that a quick prime will make it blend almost seamlessly.

It will be about 70 to 75 hours worth of work and close to $600, but I think I just added about $5k to the future asking price on curb appeal alone.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, August 31, 2020 11:24 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Whatever your weather is going to be, I envy it. They changed the forecast, from an expected high of 91 and 93 to 99 and 104.

That's not fair!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Monday, August 31, 2020 11:36 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Mine are at 105F and 109F. But Wunderground typically under-predicts, so I expect temps to be higher.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2020 12:10 AM

Geez. That sucks. Mostly 70's and 80's here, but the down side is that winter isn't too far behind it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 1, 2020 6:38 PM

Got a good walk in today.

Ran into my old landlady in Walmart, she never really could remember my name and so today she called me "Peggy." I answered to be polite and all she did was ask me if I was okay and how was my new place. I replied, "That I am fine and my new place is good."

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Tuesday, September 1, 2020 6:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Geez. That sucks. Mostly 70's and 80's here, but the down side is that winter isn't too far behind it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

I don't want to know about winter. It's only the beginning of September and in a local Dollar Store and Walmart there is Thanksgiving Day stuff along with Halloween stuff.

I haven't even gotten to my birthday yet!!!!!!!!

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Tuesday, September 1, 2020 6:41 PM

Made the effort to get some shredding done today. And for some reason I had stuck my music books in a pile of material to be shredded. Good thing I check everything before I shred it or it could have been adios to my music books.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2020 8:23 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Made the effort to get some shredding done today. And for some reason I had stuck my music books in a pile of material to be shredded. Good thing I check everything before I shred it or it could have been adios to my music books.

*****

It is SUCH a pleasure accomplishing something that you know you won't have to do again in a day/week/month!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Tuesday, September 1, 2020 11:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Made the effort to get some shredding done today. And for some reason I had stuck my music books in a pile of material to be shredded. Good thing I check everything before I shred it or it could have been adios to my music books.

*****

It is SUCH a pleasure accomplishing something that you know you won't have to do again in a day/week/month!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

It is. I am hoping to get some more done tomorrow. I've been staring at this pile for months.

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Wednesday, September 2, 2020 10:49 AM

We got the rain. A ton of it, actually.

Good news is that the driveway is still black, and now it's mostly clean except for some valleys and around the edges. It didn't just wash right off the driveway like that cheap shit my friend used last year only 6 or so hours before a thunderstorm.

The seal stuff must work great too because it hasn't rained since late yesterday afternoon and there are still puddles on the drive where there wouldn't have been anymore after it sunk into the dirt. That's probably not good news in the long run, but really there isn't much I can do about that. The only way to really build up any valleys is with pothole filler, but it looks pretty bad doing that and should only be used sparingly. Crack filler likely wouldn't be a good fix either because it's not really designed for the task and would probably cost me another $500 if I wanted to attempt to make the driveway level with it. And I'm pretty sure that even if you didn't drive on the thing for a year, the first time a car rolled over one of those filled valleys, it would be ruined anyway.

I'll have some cleaning to do before I can get any more work done.

I'm going to take that topcoat stuff and paint over any stuff I repatched and around the pothole stuff today. Kind of like priming it before the final coat.

My bud who tried it last year saw it now and says it looks like a professional did the job.

I won't be going into business doing this work though, even with three people now telling me that I should. It is a terrible job I'd have to do everyday, and there's no way that I could make it lucrative. Even if I only charged $10 per hour to do it, including the supplies that would be around $1,200 so far. Granted, my driveway is probably 3 times the size of most people's driveways and in really bad shape before I started, but I can't imagine it would cost more than $4,000-$7,000 to put a new driveway this size in... that top end figure being my guess if you demolished the old one and disposed of it first. If I actually wanted to make any decent money on it, I'd have to charge at least $2,000 to make it worthwhile, and that's probably half the cost of just having a crew come by and pour a new layer of asphalt and roll it over the existing one.

That's also not to mention that in between dodging rain and being a perfectionist, this is going on my 3rd week working on the thing. I can't imagine people would want to go a month without being able to use their driveway, and I know I wouldn't want to be stressing every single day over whether or not it was going to rain like I did for half of August.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, September 2, 2020 7:58 PM

Cleaning that driveway without a hose or power washer was NOT easy...

Blew off what I could, but then I had to use a bucket of water and a sponge to get off residual sand/dirt from the fringes and out of some cracks as well as pull up some bird crap, since it seems that the birds love to crap on the driveway now that it looks nice.

Used a little over a half of a pail and a paint brush to "prime" all the crack filler and to hit some areas I thought could use it before the final coat.

I may just end up picking up one more pail before doing the final coat. I went into today with 6 1/2 pails and now I have only about 5 4/5ths or so. First coat took 7 1/2. I was feeling really confident that 6 1/2 would do it for the 2nd coat, but I don't think I want to risk not having enough to finish the job with only 5 4/5ths.

Pricey, pricey, pricey..... All in all about 3 to 4 times what I thought it was going to cost me. And now I'm well over 70 hours in the job so far.

It does look fantastic though, and I can't wait to see the final product.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, September 2, 2020 9:19 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Ran into a snag at my end, too. I have thru tomorrow to do any weeding/cleanup. after that there's going to be a 5-day gap while I wait for the weather to cool down again.

So dd and I were busy digging up weeds in the front yard when my spade hit a THUNK. Not a tree-root "thunk" but ... with a little scraping more like a metal-on-metal thunk.

Turns out I had unearthed a pretty substantial- but rusted! iron pipe in the ground, and now I'm wondering if it's the gas main that got heaved up by big tree roots. It could also be an old irrigation pipe, since they were all originally iron and this seems way too shallow for a gas main. So I dug up the pipe along towards the gas meter, and SO FAR have not found a T or an elbow that would tell me it's heading that way. Still, I had to break off due to setting sun and I want to follow it either to the property line or an elbow that will tell me definitively what this pipe is. So that put a dent in the cleanup effort.

To be continued ... I hope to solve the mystery tomorrow!

In the meantime, my sister came over to visit and we had a nice time. Since we're both avid gardeners ... but she is WAY more thoughtful than I am about landscape design and plantings! .... we walked the front yard and I got her opinion on what's wrong, what's right, and what she thought of my planting plans. We both also like to cook, so we exchanged recipes, plus dd got to talk to her favorite auntie.

It was great seeing someone else for a change!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Wednesday, September 2, 2020 9:27 PM

You should IMMEDIATELY call on that pipe.

I'm not sure who you would call, but around here you call either 811 or 611 before you do any digging (for fences, etc.) and they'll make sure you're not digging around any gas pipes.

Really sigs, don't take a chance on that. This is a big reason you pay taxes and they have a very strong financial incentive to not want to see you blow yourself up any more than you do.

Be careful.

Good you're seeing some family too. It was a nice break from all the work for me.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, September 2, 2020 10:53 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Oh, I'm being as careful as a friggin' archelogical dig. When I "found" the pipe, it was only about 3-4" below the soil. Even where I'm unearthing it, it's only about 9" below grade. If this is a gas pipe. it's waaaaay too shallow and needs to be replaced! But I'm going around it with a hand trowel. Not going to bust thru the pipe for sure, and if at the end of tomorrow (have to do grocery shopping first before going back outdoors) I still can't figure it out, I'm going to call SoCalGas ("Glad to be of service!" /snicker) to look at it. Or I can call one of my dog-walking friends ... he retired from the gas company ... maybe HE can tell me what it is!

Right now, I'm just super curious about it!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Wednesday, September 2, 2020 11:53 PM

Got a bit more shredding done today. Now, I just got to take what I did and some other paper and boxes down to recycling.

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Thursday, September 3, 2020 1:55 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Hey Signy - they used 'black iron' pipe for gas lines.

Call DigAlert @ 811 for any underground utilities including cable and electrical. 811 or 800-422-4133.
This seems to indicate that if you call SoCalGas they'll just refer you to the 811 number:
https://www.socalgas.com/stay-safe/safety-and-prevention/digging-and-y
ard-safety
Contact 811 Before You Dig

They'll come by and put flags over the utilities.

It may not tell you what that line IS, but it'll be somewhat reassuring to know what it ISN'T.

I ran across old gas pipe which was replaced with newer gas pipe in my yard, which was then later replaced about 12 years ago by a semi-flexible polymer tube (it was coiled on a large drum), as well as buried romex cable, and what may have been a phone line buried inside a garden hose. I STILL have buried romex, but fortunately it's been disconnected at both ends so there's no live wires about. And when I dug out a tree stump in the front yard I found my galvanized iron water main (which I had replaced with copper). What one finds digging in the yard!! Fwiw I called DigAlert so many times over the years they put paint on the curb instead of the little flags marking the water and gas lines locations where they enter the property.

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Thursday, September 3, 2020 2:01 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Signy - they used 'black iron' pipe for gas lines.

Call DigAlert @ 811 for any underground utilities including cable and electrical. 811 or 800-422-4133.
This seems to indicate that if you call SoCalGas they'll just refer you to the 811 number:
https://www.socalgas.com/stay-safe/safety-and-prevention/digging-and-y
ard-safety
Contact 811 Before You Dig

They'll come by and put flags over the utilities.

It may not tell you what that line IS, but it'll be somewhat reassuring to know what it ISN'T.

I ran across old gas pipe which was replaced with newer gas pipe in my yard, which was then later replaced about 12 years ago by a semi-flexible polymer tube (it was coiled on a large drum), as well as buried romex cable, and what may have been a phone line buried inside a garden hose. I STILL have buried romex, but fortunately it's been disconnected at both ends so there's no live wires about. And when I dug out a tree stump in the front yard I found my galvanized iron water main (which I had replaced with copper). What one finds digging in the yard!! Fwiw I called DigAlert so many times over the years they put paint on the curb instead of the little flags marking the water and gas lines locations where they enter the property.

Good deal! I'll call tomorrow!

I know that "they" went thru the neighborhood a while back, locating SoCalGas lines for a tree-planting program. I can tell because the curb is marked with blue and NoSCG is painted on the curb. So that's where they planted. But they didn't do that for my yard because I already have many trees and so they didn't bother to check.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Thursday, September 3, 2020 2:40 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

hottest days: 104 and 107.

This just keeps gettin' better 'n better.

Sigh.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Thursday, September 3, 2020 2:50 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Got a bit more shredding done today. Now, I just got to take what I did and some other paper and boxes down to recycling.

Ah, one more thing to do on my "list of things to do"!
Glad you're getting it out of the way, BRENDA!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

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Thursday, September 3, 2020 3:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Got a bit more shredding done today. Now, I just got to take what I did and some other paper and boxes down to recycling.

Ah, one more thing to do on my "list of things to do"!
Glad you're getting it out of the way, BRENDA!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

#WEARAMASK

So am I. It's slow going as I have to check things over and make sure that I'm not accidentally shredding anything I may need or have to keep. But at least I am finally getting it done.

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Thursday, September 3, 2020 10:07 AM

Glad to hear you didn't accidentally shred your music books, Brenda.

You must have a BEAST of a shredder if you were worried you could do that on accident. I'm assuming you mean those 20 to 30 page think books like the ones I had for my guitar? Even still, if I put one of those in any shredder I ever owned it would have been instant regret and smoke.

I kept breaking them. I'd always start off with just a few sheets, but then I kept getting bolder (and bored) and shove more and more in them. I'd be able to fix it a few times, but eventually it would just end up in the trash with the last one.

I burn everything now.

After the house purge, I only have a small plastic tote with some folders with anything that is actually important. Aside from any mail that comes (which is mostly junk) that little box is the only thing left that has my name on paper.

I just tear off my name and address in any of the mail or statements, throw them in a grocery bag, recycle the rest, and burn the bag every spring when it's raining a lot and it's not a windy day.

Nothing goes into the trash with my name on it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, September 3, 2020 10:13 AM