In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2) by SIGNYM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yeah, if it was just me I'd probably eat sandwiches and maybe salads. I'm not sure I'd even cook. It's such a bother.

I don't know anything about you, physically, but at an average height and weight you should be getting somewhere in the realm of 50 grams of protein a day, at a guess. That's seven ounces of COOKED meat. Or you can substitute one egg or 1.5 ounces of cheese for each ounce of COOKED meat (which is about 10 ounces of uncooked meat). A 3.5 ounce burger, about half of your daily requirement, is a bit bigger than a deck of playing cards.

I'm fortunate I have a very accurate weigh scale from 30 years ago, when dear daughter was on a medically supervised ketogenic diet for seizure control. At the time, she was limited to three grams of carbs a day (about one small slice of apple or one big strawberry or a couple small bites of cantaloupe) and 12 grams of protein (about 1.5 ounces of cooked meat). I had to weigh everything to the nearest gram. That scale saves me the trouble of having to translate weights to volumes, since I can just weigh everything directly. Maybe you could get yourself a kitchen scale. You might find it useful?

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

I've got a handle on this snag with meds again. Just took a little rearranging of my diet. Just cut down on how much veg I eat.

Was trying to find a small piece of broccoli today without much luck. Maybe tomorrow.

I tend to eat a lot of chicken. Got a small package of split chicken wings yesterday and I will have some more of those with rice tonight.

Last night was sort of grilled tortilla chicken and cheese sandwich. I took the meat off the bone.

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Saturday, February 17, 2024 12:56 AM

My car worries might be over for a while...

My old man gave my youngest brother a Toyota years ago, and it's been riding a little rough recently. About a week ago he had to go pick it up and bring it back home and he told me the check engine light was flashing and it was riding really rough for the mile he had to drive it back to his house.

I told him it sounded like a misfire.

My brother ended up buying a new car and told my dad that I could have it for nothing if I could get it working and he wasn't going to trade it in since it was a gift anyhow.

So I ordered my dad an early birthday present and had an OBDII scanner sent to his house.

He tested it, and sure enough, it was a P302 code, which is a cylinder 2 misfire (Bonus: The car is so much newer than mine that it actually tells you which cylinder is misfiring instead of just giving a generic P300 code like my current car did).

This car also doesn't have a distributor cap, rotor or wiring kit like mine did, and it won't be a huge pain in the ass to fix like my current car was either.

I already ordered plugs and coil packs. I'm going to go over there on Sunday and as long as it isn't a bad fuel injector I'm going to spend 15 minutes getting that thing running like it was brand new and amaze my old man in the process.

I really, really hope it's not a fuel injector.

Dad says it doesn't leak any oil, let alone any other fluids, and the last time he drove it around it got at least 35mpg on the expressway, which is at least 10mpg more efficient than my rust bucket gets.

And all the monitors were complete with no emissions codes being thrown other than the misfire on the cylinder. I'll have to detach the battery and reset all the monitors to swap out the coil packs so it will be a little while before they complete and I know it will pass an emissions test, but since there aren't any codes now it shouldn't be a problem.

Fingers crossed!

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, February 17, 2024 12:05 PM

The super glue idea was inspired.

That was the answer for sure. The 5 poles on the right in the kitchen are rock solid now. I'll just make sure to sand lightly around the bottom to remove any that got on the actual piece before caulking. Between that and the caulk and caulking the tops those things are never going to move.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the ones I caulked yesterday. I wish I caulked them up top to test and not on the bottom. There's no way I can shoot the super glue into the tops because gravity is a thing in this dimension. I've got an Xacto knife, so I'm going to see if I can dig that caulk out and put the glue in without damaging the piece. I actually caulked 3 of them toward the center, not just one. That's another project. I mean... they still hold. I didn't twist them until the caulk broke or anything, but it's obvious that they would give MUCH sooner than the ones with the super glue in them. I'm sure I could break all of those glue bonds too if I really tried, but by applying about 3 times the pressure they weren't budging, and the ones that were caulked made it obvious I could spin that caulk to the breaking point without much more pressure. That could actually work to my benefit though. Maybe I'll just spin them and break the caulk out and it will allow me to dig it out without too much problems. I'd just have to take the time to re plum them with my torpedo level before gluing at that point.

It turns out I only had 4 more tubes of the glue, and the possibility of about 1/3 of a tube if I could even get the top to twist off or apply a new top to it.

That's one of those free after rebate things that I usually buy the max of when they come on sale, maybe twice per year. I give a lot of that stuff away though, so I probably had 40 more tubes at one point. Why would I keep 40 tubes of super glue? How often do you ever need the stuff? Surely it would have all gone bad before I ever got a chance to use it, right?

But I just checked online and they do have a rebate sale on them right now. Not free this time, but only .49 cents for a 4 pack after rebate, so $2 to finish them off isn't half bad.

Got lucky with the timing on another sale I didn't even know I needed.

I'm going that way today anyhow to pick up the spark plugs. I've already gone out to the garage and got my ratchets and wrenches in my trunk for tomorrow. Pretty sure all I need is a 10mm socket and the 5/8" spark plug socket, but I'm bringing a ton more stuff just in case of any surprises.

So... gotta do all that, and I'd like to caulk and spackle the top piece in today as well. That's probably all I'll do though because my old man is going to come to my house when I drive one of the cars back and take me back to pick up the other car (assuming I get it running right). Since he's got nothing going on tomorrow I figure he can stick around a while when he gets here and we can watch a movie or something. He showed some interest in watching Pulp Fiction of all movies. He's never seen it before and I'm game since it's been at least 10 years since I watched it. Gonna deep clean the house just in case everything goes well tomorrow.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, February 17, 2024 1:04 PM

Laundry day then a walk in the sunshine.

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Saturday, February 17, 2024 3:06 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Hey SIX, I hope your car fix works. It would be great not to have to worry about a car for the next 10 years.

*****

Over here, I decided today is my day off. Between the Dr appts (9 in the first three weeks of this month) and the stress and worry about dear daughter's health and mine, the constant sinus/ breathing problems, and the daily chores plus the few hours I've been able to fit in here and there for projects... I'm beat.

Just took the car in for regular maintenance. Dog walk and cooking on schedule, but that's it for me. Gonna do only what I have the energy and inclination to do today.

Surgery, which I have been waiting for anxiously, may be put off. I might need another kidney function test, and if it's not good enough ...

Well, it is what it is. I'm gonna let the docs worry/ deal with that. In the meantime, I'm staying hydrated cause that's all I can do.

Time for a nap!

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Saturday, February 17, 2024 3:39 PM

I hope it works too Sigs. I'm pretty confident it will. I'm already about $75 invested in it and I don't think I've even ever been inside that car in my life or I've even seen or noticed it in years. I didn't even know it was red until yesterday. Not my favorite color, but I'm not going to complain if it works.

Boy... Bidenflation sucks. I bought 16 more tubes of that off-brand superglue today and just used it all up in the poles. I was worried I wasn't going to have enough. Those four tubes of the same brand that I used the other day went a long way. These tubes are exactly the same size and in identical packaging as the old ones, but they're filled with about 70% air now. What a scam. Even worse, because of the stupid airbubbles this caused I got glue where I shouldn't have been getting it.

I'll never buy those again, even if they're free after rebate. Insult to injury, these weren't even free this time and I had to pay for this crap.

I'll let it sit for a few days before I do anything else.

I was able to get the caulk out of the 3 poles that I caulked instead. Like I suspected, simply giving them a hard twist got about half of it out. Between my Xacto blade and a few dental picks I was able to get the rest out with minimal damage so I could hit them with the glue first.

Enjoy your nap!

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, February 17, 2024 5:22 PM

Back and all done for today. Suppose to rain this evening. Have to see if it arrives.

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Sunday, February 18, 2024 1:40 PM

Sunday, Sunday

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Sunday, February 18, 2024 1:57 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I guess yesterday was my day off. I pay for it today by catching up on the things I didn't do yesterday. But I'm limiting my list of "things to do" today too, just to immediate necessities and whatever small things come to hand.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Sunday, February 18, 2024 7:02 PM

Daddy's got a new ride.

I fixed the car.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Sunday, February 18, 2024 8:18 PM

Oh, and my new OBDII monitor that I sent to my dad and swapped him for my old one when I saw him today is pretty awesome too.

I figured it was just the color screen and icons on the menus that you were paying the extra few bucks for. Nope.

Instead of just being a simple code reader and Monitor readiness meter, this thing tells you a TON of stuff that I don't even understand most of yet. I'm going to have to find the manual online and do some reading. It does a lot of live testing and tracking of all sorts of figures that I'm sure will help me diagnose any problems in the future.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Sunday, February 18, 2024 8:48 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Daddy's got a new ride.

I fixed the car.

Sweet!!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Sunday, February 18, 2024 9:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Daddy's got a new ride.

I fixed the car.

Sweet!!

Yeah.

The paint's peeled off of half of it from being in the sun all the time, but other than that she's not too bad. That's great for me. I don't have to do anything intentional to make it carjack proof.

My dad said that it runs better now than it has for years. Those spark plugs were SHOT. I can't believe that only one cylinder was misfiring. The coil pack was the issue though. Once I swapped that it ran fine. I was already going to replace all the plugs, so I just decided to replace all 4 coil packs while I was at it. They came in a really nice box with tight protective padding, so I threw the bad one out and kept the other 3 as spares.

I didn't even know what a coil pack was 48 hours ago.

Here I was a month ago resigning myself to needing to spend $3k to $4k on another car and the huge hassle of looking for one before mine wasn't legal anymore. Instead I spend $70 on parts, $3 on tolls, 1/5th a tank of gas and whatever I'll need to do to get the title and taxes paid.

I can't believe how much pep this thing has. I'm going to have to relearn how to drive because it just wants to fly the second I put my foot on the gas and the old ride was such a sloth.

My old man's back room carpet and 2nd bathroom flooring got ruined just before winter when a pipe burst. They already ripped out what they needed a long time ago and he was thinking about paying somebody else to do the work. I told him just tell me when he's ready to do it and I'll bring the tools and we can do it ourselves. I'm indebted to him now, and that's a very rare thing for me. Gotta pay that good deed off with another and get this Ob off my back.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Sunday, February 18, 2024 11:38 PM

Got a phone meeting set up for getting ready to send stuff to a new publisher. Not till Thursday but that is okay as I need to double check some stuff my end to make sure I am ready.

No rain today and since I missed the news and the weather, I will have to check out the weather site I use for tomorrow.

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Monday, February 19, 2024 10:14 AM

Good luck with the publisher Brenda.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, February 19, 2024 10:30 AM

The bummer about my new car is that it looks like there's almost nothing that I can take out of the old car for spare parts.

My old man said that all 3 cars they had at the house including this one used the same battery, so I figured that I'd have a pretty great chance of swapping in my 1 year old battery from the old car. Nope.

I'm going to have to replace that as soon as Sams Club has a sale on them. The existing battery is 9 years old. I'm not exactly surprised it didn't give my brother any troubles this winter because my old battery was around 12 years old when I finally got around to replacing it, but looking back on car issues I'd had, I'm sure that replacing that battery earlier would have been good for the longevity of the car. I wouldn't have beat the hell out of it last winter and melted the wiring kit for the plugs anyway.

The real bummer is that the tires don't match. I've got 4 tires on the old car with probably around 6,000 miles on them. Granted, they were off brand tires and the new car has BF Goodrich tires, but they've probably only got about 15 to 20k miles left on them. With how little driving I do, that won't be a problem for a while. But it's only got a donut spare tire. My spare tire was full size and probably had 30k worth of tread left on it. I'm going to have to get myself a full sized replacement. I know my buddy knows a smalls shop that sells used rims and tires. I'm going to see how much they'd charge me for that.

I'm going to look into other things like starters and alternators and such, but I don't have a lot of hope. But my old man kept all the records of repairs even after he gave the car to my brother and the starter, alternator and serpentine belt are virtually brand new. They shouldn't be problems for a very long time.

Since it appears that nothing is going to be usable on the new car, I have to see if I want to go through the hassle of trying to sell my car or not. It would be a shame to put it straight into the junk yard just because the government tells me that I can't drive it anymore because of my address. Go 20 miles east or south of me and anybody could drive that thing into the ground outside of Indianapolis. I'm sure the leaking fluids wouldn't be that big of a deal to fix either if the possibility of failing an emissions test because of an expensive catalyst weren't a concern.

I'm pretty sure I could find somebody who would be thrilled to get it for $750-$1,000 with the price of cars these days. It doesn't even have 175k miles on it, and those mid 90's Toyota engines can go 300k miles.

But if I'm dumping it I need to get my good 3x6 speakers out of the trunk and my aftermarket radio out of the dash. I'm hoping it would fit in my new car easily since I'm going to miss not having that USB port for playing MP3s. This thing has a CD player, but I haven't played music off a CD for more than 2 decades at this point.

Decisions, decisions...

Not sure what I'm doing today. Maybe I'll work on the overlook. Maybe I'll start making calls about getting this thing officially transferred over to me. It's insured through the end of the month and the license plate is good through the end of next month. Maybe I'll do both. Maybe I'll do nothing.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, February 19, 2024 12:53 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Indeed! Good luck with the publisher!

*****

Yeah, too bad those parts don't fit. You'd think there would be some standardization on replacement items like batteries and tires. But... no.

You did use a term I never heard before. You have a friend that sells "smalls"??
What's that?

*****

A rainy holiday. I did some cleanup in the backyard yesterday and potted up some basil that had been languishing in a rocks glass.

But today, no yardwork and no appointments.

Think I'll do office work today, and tomorrow they'll let me know whether I need to go in for a kidney check (tomorrow), and after that, whether I can have surgery on Thursday. It's all so contingent it drives me nuts. But I've been hydrating, hydrating, hydrating to bring my creatinine and BUN down to more normal levels. I hope it's working.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Monday, February 19, 2024 1:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Good luck with the publisher Brenda.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

Thanks. This will be I think the 5th one I will have sent too. So far one rejection letter.

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Monday, February 19, 2024 1:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yeah, too bad those parts don't fit. You'd think there would be some standardization on replacement items like batteries and tires. But... no.

You did use a term I never heard before. You have a friend that sells "smalls"??
What's that?

Oh... I just meant to say I have a friend who knows a "small" shop that sells used tires and rims. I'm sure they do other mechanic stuff there, but he never buys new tires and always goes there when he needs a replacement.

I get batteries and tires not fitting. The cars are 9 years apart and they're different models. It's just weird that all 3 of the cars at my dad's used the same size battery even tough there's a pretty big range between the years and one of the cars was produced by a completely different company. He must have just gotten real lucky there because who plans for something like that?

Quote:
A rainy holiday. I did some cleanup in the backyard yesterday and potted up some basil that had been languishing in a rocks glass.

But today, no yardwork and no appointments.

Think I'll do office work today, and tomorrow they'll let me know whether I need to go in for a kidney check (tomorrow), and after that, whether I can have surgery on Thursday. It's all so contingent it drives me nuts. But I've been hydrating, hydrating, hydrating to bring my creatinine and BUN down to more normal levels. I hope it's working.

Yeah... I spent about 45 minutes working on the overlook and stairs, but I'm not feeling it today. I think I'm going to do paperwork myself, and maybe figure out how to get the car legit.

Good luck with the health issues.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, February 19, 2024 1:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Indeed! Good luck with the publisher!

*****

Yeah, too bad those parts don't fit. You'd think there would be some standardization on replacement items like batteries and tires. But... no.

You did use a term I never heard before. You have a friend that sells "smalls"??
What's that?

*****

A rainy holiday. I did some cleanup in the backyard yesterday and potted up some basil that had been languishing in a rocks glass.

But today, no yardwork and no appointments.

Think I'll do office work today, and tomorrow they'll let me know whether I need to go in for a kidney check (tomorrow), and after that, whether I can have surgery on Thursday. It's all so contingent it drives me nuts. But I've been hydrating, hydrating, hydrating to bring my creatinine and BUN down to more normal levels. I hope it's working.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

Thanks. I think this will be the 5th one I will sending too. Not sure if I mentioned I have gotten one rejection letter.

Holiday Monday up here too. Family Day in BC. You and Washington state got all of BC's rain. Was suppose to be wet yesterday but it was dry.

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Monday, February 19, 2024 1:18 PM

Out for my walk in a bit on a bright sunny day. Not sure how warm it is out. But I need some groceries. Supper last night was a grilled cheese tortilla sandwich.

Should be able to find some chicken and maybe a small can of tomato sauce. I can add some pasta to that and it will be fine.

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Monday, February 19, 2024 4:54 PM

Back and done for today.

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Monday, February 19, 2024 10:30 PM

Sweet.

I took me a nap earlier when I wasn't feeling the work on the projects today. I woke up and watched YouTube for about a half hour and just decided that even though the daylight was gone I wanted to get something done.

I still can't caulk the top piece to the top jamb yet because I put up wood putty on the right side where the gap was too big for caulk this morning and that needs to dry and get sanded down and hit with a coat of primer first, but I did finally get around to the worst part of the job and I caulked all 19 of those poles in on the top and bottom.

What a crap job that was to do. Had to be done from both sides, so sitting cross-legged in the kitchen on one side, then quickly down to the basement on the step ladder to do the other side, then repeating that up and down action using my fingers to wipe it into the crevices and off of the pieces. I started doing one pole at a time but realized I'd be at that forever so ended up doing 3 poles at a time until it was done. That high-gloss paint is no joke. It's really hard to caulk round poles that are already painted with a few coats of it because it's just so damn slippery. It looks great now. Hopefully I got enough in there and it doesn't sink too much.

Tomorrow I should be able to sand down the wood putty in the two spots that needed it and caulk the rest of the stuff that needs to be caulked.

I've been using the excess wood putty I've been using to fill in the screw holes on the steps as I'm going along because it's already hard enough to keep that wood putty from drying out and I'm not putting unused stuff back in. I really need to power sand those steps, but I don't want to do that until I get everything caulked and the caulk dries so it doesn't suck up any stray sawdust.

I think I can cut out those vent holes tomorrow and not worry about that now. I don't think sawdust from those cuts would reach up that high if I get that top plate caulked tomorrow.

I've got to decide what I want to do with those vent cuts on the stair risers. They did such a piss poor job when they cut them. It wouldn't be a problem if I had to cut away more than they cut away, but in some spots they cut off way more than they should have and unless I build that back out somehow it will be noticeable behind the grates when they go back up. Maybe I will frame it out with the L-shaped corner trim if I can verify that the grates will still go on flat with that extra wood on the front. Otherwise, I may have to use up most of my wood putty building that back up and that's really a waste of time and money. I'll figure something out.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 10:11 AM

Nice. Looks like the wood putty dried and is ready for sanding. All the caulk around the poles looks good too. Going to sand the spackle on the nail holes for the top board down while I'm shaping that wood putty first, clean it up and hit the putty with some primer and then get the top piece caulked to the top jamb and caulk the casing on the basement side first. Once that's all dry, I can finally put finish paint on the whole thing. I'll probably wait another day on that and paint it tomorrow.

In the mean time, I can cut out those vents in the risers to size, figure out how I want to "finish" them, and then sand down the steps in prep for primer and paint.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 12:54 PM

Shaped the wood putty, sanded her down, sanded the rest of the spackle down, wiped it all down after vaccuming it and ready to put the last of the caulk on that piece. Also put two 3 pieces of backer rod in gaps that will be caulked that warrant them. All that's left after that is final paint once it's dry and ready for it.

Onward to prepping the stairs for primer and paint after this.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 2:02 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I'll bet it's looking real good, SIX!

I hope you post pictures at some point.

Oh BTW I looked at image hosting websites. Is yours easy to use? Some day, I'd like to post pix of my own.

*****

In the meantime, anesthesiology called up. No, they don't need another kidney function check, they were going to treat me like a person with moderate kidney disease anyway. So surgery on Thursday. Honestly, I'm SO loking forward to it! I know recovery is going to be difficult, my nose will be filled with clots and scabs, but it's already a mess anyway. And then it will get better.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 2:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'll bet it's looking real good, SIX!

I hope you post pictures at some point.

I will eventually. Sadly, the pictures of the overlook really aren't going to look much better than the last ones that I showed you even though a ton of work still needed to be done after the fact. I've got some closeup pics of the before/after on the wood putty that I just did and of a couple of the poles and the holes they went in before they were super glued tight and caulked, but the pictures with the whole thing shown don't even really pick up the unspackled brad nail holes or the even much more noticeable in real life spackled but pre-sanded holes, let alone the fact that holes needed wood putty or gaps needed caulk.

Quote:
Oh BTW I looked at image hosting websites. Is yours easy to use? Some day, I'd like to post pix of my own.

Yeah. imgbb is my favorite site to use after photobucket got shut down. I never signed up for an account there, so I don't even know if that's free or not. I guess if you have an account that it actually tracks all of your uploads for you so they're easy to post somewhere else. I'm free to repost any pics I upload there as many times as I want, but unless I have the direct link they're lost. So when I'm posting old pics up against new ones in here, sometimes I have to go through a dozen pages in this thread to find the old one I want to post so I don't have to reupload it.

In all the years I've been using them, I can only think of one or maybe two times they must have been down and the pictures wouldn't load here, but they always came back up. ... speaking of backup, don't use imgbb as a place to store your stuff and expect them to be up there forever. Photobucket was around forever until they weren't around anymore and anybody who put stuff up on it lost all those photos if they didn't have backups on their end.

I'd love to see some pics. I'm a visual guy, so even though I've got an imagination when it comes to the work I plan on doing, it's hard for me to visualize things other people are talking about and what they plan to do unless I have some pictures to look at.

Quote:
*****

In the meantime, anesthesiology called up. No, they don't need another kidney function check, they were going to treat me like a person with moderate kidney disease anyway. So surgery on Thursday. Honestly, I'm SO loking forward to it! I know recovery is going to be difficult, my nose will be filled with clots and scabs, but it's already a mess anyway. And then it will get better.

I really hope it all goes well for you Sigs. Hang in there.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 2:58 PM

Kinda did things out of order here. Next thing on my list is caulking that top board to the top jamb. I forgot that I wanted to prime the shaped wood putty first, and I wanted to allow it plenty of drying time before caulking.

So I moved down to the steps and got my rough cuts in for the vent. It's such a mess because of the butcher job they did on it already. The top one was cut so far to the left that I'd never bother building it back out, but at least the grate will cover it. I may or may not choose to cut the bottom one on the left side that far out just so you don't see either of them. I don't think it will matter because I'm going to paint anything behind the grates with the dark grey color so hopefully it barely shows at all. I'm sure I'm the only one that is going to notice this anyhow.

The bottoms suck though. The top one that I just did is going to be fine since they cut that one much smaller on the bottom half of the grate and I could get it cut where I wanted it while still being able to attach the grate with screws, but the bottom riser was mangled on the bottom cut, and I can't go any lower than it already is because I'd be messing with the integrity of where the bottom screws need to be affixed at that point. They also mangled the middle of the two holes on either side of the bottom vent, not only screwing up the cut on the riser, but cutting into the center stringer on an angle... not enough to screw the integrity, but enough for me to be forced to build it out with wood putty so those pieces will look uniform behind the grates.

I can't use L-shaped pieces to frame it out and hide all that like I wanted to. The grates go flat against the risers and that would push them out 1/4". But you can't see anything at the top of the holes unless you were laying on the cold tile floor in the basement, and the right sides are fine.

I'm probably overthinking all of this... As many times as people have been in my house nobody even noticed that there were horribly cut exposed holes in the risers of those stairs for a return duct for the last 12 years and didn't know what I was even talking about until I showed them.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 4:29 PM

Back and done for today. Went out in the rain and came back in the dry. Suppose to be dry the rest of the week.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 6:50 PM

Got the stairs mostly sanded down... Mostly.

Since my palm sander broke and I haven't replaced it yet, I've got to use my almost brand new corner cat sander. It was going to have to be used for the corners anyhow, and it's still a power house. I just never got around to buying any of the hook and loop sandpaper for it, so I'm being conservative with what I've got. Doing all the rough stuff and whatever else I can get with the old piece that was already on it. All I have after that is 120 and 240 grit. The 240 isn't going to help me out at all. I just want to have a fresh piece of 120 to smooth down the paint they got all over the stairs when they knew they were covering it with carpet once I know I'm not going to snag it on anything rough. I don't need to get the wood totally raw because it's being painted again and not stained, but I need to have it smooth.

Looks like they dripped some poly on one of the top steps too, so I ended up having to gouge the wood to get that off. The paint won't stick to that. I'll fill it with the putty when I'm hitting the screws and nail holes and other imperfections.

It all sure looks a lot cleaner than it ever has right now. I won't be priming it tonight with the wood putty going down. Might have to give that 2 days before I do anything else with it. We'll see.

I think I'll be cleaning the house tomorrow anyhow since the sawdust is getting everywhere. I hate doing that, but if I sanded all of this by hand to clean it up this good it would have taken me all week.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 8:22 PM

Sanding done. Vaccummed the heavy traffic areas after cleaning the steps with a microfiber rag. So most of the living room and kitchen, and I vacced the steps going up to the 2nd floor as well as the hallway up there. I can't imagine that dust found its way into the 2 bedrooms upstairs with the doors closed. Jeez, I hope not. I'll have to see if it's all over my furniture or not when the sun is out tomorrow.

Gonna get that wood putty in those stairs and probably call it a night.

My buddy called me up and said his daughter needs my help. She bought a desk that she wanted put in the closet. Some sort of IKEA thing with pressed wood that has veneer on it. The problem is that it's just about 1" too deep to fit in there. He said his wife said they can get something that would work an alternate top for it, but it was going to cost like $90 or something crazy. I don't know what he's talking about, but whatever it is sounds like a major ripoff.

He's got a table saw, which is good, but if he tries ripping that down he's going to destroy the veneer. I told him that I could come out tomorrow if it works with their schedule and I'll get it cut down for them. The trick is that you have to get a level on it where you want to cut it first and score the veneer on both sides and the ends before you cut it on the saw. Even better to use painters tape to protect it when you're ripping it down.

So hopefully I get up early enough to sand and prime the steps if the wood putty dried enough to do that, and then I can grab a quick shower before I head over there.

I'm also hoping that the EVAP monitor clears while I'm driving, because I want to get that car cleared on emissions ASAP since that needs to be done before I get it licensed.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 10:32 PM

Pick up game of mah jong tomorrow.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2024 11:29 PM

lol... there was so much damage on those stairs. It took hours for me to get all that wood putty in there. I'm going to make one hell of a mess again when I sand it all down.

Shouldn't need any 2nd coats on anything except for that piece in the center I had to build out by the center stringer. I shaped it pretty good though, so it shouldn't be too much more work.

If I had a ton of wood putty I'd fill in large holes that were there from the risers and the steps not filling everything out from the sides (again, they did that because they knew they were putting in carpet). But I've only got a moderate amount left. I'm going to cut some small chunks of wood that fit in there super tight and just putty over them whenever I get to that. This won't slow me down on the rest of the stairs because that can be done whenever.

Another long day. Just wrapped up and it's almost 10:30.

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Wednesday, February 21, 2024 1:25 PM

Out in a bit. Couple of things to do before my pick up game. There will be two tables of us playing today.

Little more rain to get through before it dries out for a day. There is some talk of snow next week. I just hope it stays in the ski hills.

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Wednesday, February 21, 2024 6:31 PM

My friend's dad always used to talk about karma, although he never called it that. He was always big on doing good deeds for people because you'd be rewarded for it, and if you did shitty things and cheated people the negative would come back to haunt you as well.

So I got gifted a car out of the blue that's going to cost me less than junking my car is to get it properly titled and running.

And then just today before I even pulled out of my driveway to go do that job for my friend's daughter, the final monitor cleared and I tried taking it up to the emissions place even though it's not even in my name yet. I explained to them how my old man still needs to order a duplicate title, but after he does I'll be getting it transferred into my name and I knew getting the test was part of that. Usually I'd either have to wait for the title transfer or I'd have to pay $50 to get an emissions test done with out of state plates, but they went ahead and gave me the test and waved the $50 fee.

Boy it's nice knowing that I've already passed that test before I even have anything else I need to get this thing legal. Usually I'm waiting months or even over a year and doing all sorts of stupid stuff like dumping gallons of lacquer thinner into the tank to get it to pass. This time all my monitors cleared after about 90 minutes of driving after the battery was pulled.

After working in all those weird positions on the stairs until about 10:30 last night, I'm too wiped out to bother starting any work on my house this late. I'll get back to working on the stairs tomorrow morning.

We were able to cut that table down for my friend's daughter without damaging it by scoring it on both sides and putting painters tape on it before ripping it down on the table saw just for good measure, but we still couldn't get it in the closet without taking 2 of the legs off. I just had to crawl under the table once we got it in and I was able to get most of the screws for the legs on with the drill and I had to use a screwdriver on the rest of them.

She's got two somewhat shallow closets in her bedroom with bifold doors, and this one is going to have a mirror behind it and it will be her little desk for her little office and have her laptop and a few other things on it now.

She was thrilled. It was exactly what she wanted.

Had a good meal and then played a few games of pool with my buddy after that, but then he had to go back to work.

I think I'll get some paperwork done and call it a day.

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Wednesday, February 21, 2024 9:01 PM

Nah... I lied...

I wasn't feeling just sitting around. Started sanding from the bottom stair up and made my way up two steps so far. Unfortunately, I had to empty out the shop vac after that. I forgot that it has been a while. Not something I usually like to do in the winter. It's really nice outside here today though, so perfect timing.

Not sure how far I'll get tonight, but I'll keep working as long as I feel like it.

Who knows? Maybe I get a coat of primer on there before I go to bed?

I should probably skip a few steps though so I don't trap myself in the basement. I could work my way up and paint myself upstairs, I suppose, but I'd rather be looking up at the work than working down onto it. Especially the risers. If I thought my body was aching this morning I can't imagine what it would feel like after doing that.

A few weeks ago I could have just crawled out the overlook into the kitchen from my ladder.

Speaking of which, painting that should be fun. I'd better put something on my head to cover my hair unless I want paint in it. When I was caulking and patching and sanding it, I kept wanting to put my head through it while I was working for a better vantage point. I did a good job with those 4" spaces in between, but man I kept wanting to look around the work I was doing. I think when you're seeing all those gaps peripherally, your mind makes you think they're bigger than they actually are. Nope... the only way to get to the other side of it now is using the stairs.

ETA: I'm not going to do it tonight because it's just primer, but yeah... when I'm putting actual paint down that needs a lot of drying and curing time, I'm actually going to crawl out one of my windows and get back in through the back porch when I'm done putting a coat down.

I forgot that's an option.

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Wednesday, February 21, 2024 11:26 PM

Got back after 5pm today with the weather being some rain and a little dry. Had to restart mah jong at the table I was playing at twice. First lady got all 4 flowers of one colour and then what she collected so that was almost 5,000 points. Once we restarted my first hand was horrible but on the second I got all 4 flowers of one colour and winds and dragons. That hand was 9 doubles and over 31,000 points. So we restarted again and the lady that won the first round won that one as well. She beat me the second time by 2,000 points. She finished with over 8,800 points. My score was over 8,600 points.

It took us all afternoon to finally get the flowers from clumping up.

Anyways we were 2 tables of 3 players.

Have to see what happens at my regular game tomorrow morning. Then lunch and hot foot it home to get my phone meeting in with the lady helping me.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 12:27 AM

Good luck with your meeting tomorrow Brenda.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 1:31 AM

Still at it...

I'll probably be cleaning up my brush at around 2:00 or 2:30 AM.

It's looking great. But I'm leaving one step unprimed tonight. I'm not going to worry about climbing out a window during the day when I paint the steps down the road, but I really don't want to be climbing out the window during the middle of the night. We actually still have laws around here and cops that do their jobs in these parts. No reason to invite a 3AM knock at my door for causing a ruckus.

I can easily reach the 3rd step from the top from my ladder and get up without stepping on anything painted.

4 more steps and 5 more risers to go. Already did the sides and the decorative trim on the side. I'm going to have to figure out what if anything I want to do to fill in crevaces and bad carpentry. It never bothered me before when everything looked like crap, but the steps and risers don't actually meet the trim on the wall. I might have to get me a huge tub of wood putty and do it all right before I paint anything.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 3:17 AM

Cleaned the brush off at 2:02

I got all the steps painted too. I did about 3/5ths of the 3rd step from the top as I went down, then when I got up the stairs off my ladder I was just able to reach down and paint the rest of it.

As much as I'd love to start painting it tomorrow, that's going to have to wait. I for sure have to buy a big tub of wood putty and fill all that in the right way. Can't do all this work and just half ass it at the end.

Oh well. It will be worth the wait.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 12:28 PM

I haven't walked back down there yet, but when using my socks I can tell it's safe to walk on the steps now. Not going to be walking on them with shoes anytime soon for sure...

But I'm looking at the photos I took yesterday and I'm thinking that I probably won't get that wood putty to fill in the gaps between the steps and the wall. It's really not that noticeable when you're face isn't right down in it.

There would only be two real solutions to this, and neither would be ideal. The wood putty would look perfect when it was done, but if there was any more settling to the house in even the slightest, there's no give to that solution and things would potentially break. The other solution would be backer rod and caulk, which would be much more forgiving with slight shifting, but caulk in an application like that is guaranteed to be uneven, and it could very well lead to a much worse looking finish paint when trying to cut the brown of the steps into the white trim on the wall than just leaving the gaps there would.

I'm just going to start painting the white risers and the overlook today and not think about it. I'll still have time to decide if I want to do anything about it, but in the meantime I'll get some second opinions.

Maybe I'll find the time to get some pics up here and ask you what you think about the gaps.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 12:48 PM

Big day for both of you.

Hope all goes well.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 3:53 PM

Back from mah jong and I got first place today. Been a while since I have done that. Had one decent hand with over 13,000 points. Winds and dragons and both my flowers.

Double checked something on my writing, now just waiting on my meeting on the phone.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 4:29 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back from mah jong and I got first place today. Been a while since I have done that. Had one decent hand with over 13,000 points. Winds and dragons and both my flowers.

It's a good omen, right?

Quote:
Double checked something on my writing, now just waiting on my meeting on the phone.

Good luck Brenda.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 4:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back from mah jong and I got first place today. Been a while since I have done that. Had one decent hand with over 13,000 points. Winds and dragons and both my flowers.

It's a good omen, right?

Quote:
Double checked something on my writing, now just waiting on my meeting on the phone.

Good luck Brenda.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

I hope it was.

Phone meeting went good and everything that needed to be uploaded to a publisher is done.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 5:02 PM

Slight problem with uploading to a publisher. My fault, I needed to push another button and the lady helping me went to get her husband to help. But I decided to take another look at what I did and I figured it out. *L* No need for her husband. We are going to get setting an actual in person meeting in another couple of weeks. Until then I will be back looking at publishers to see where else it can be sent too.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 11:08 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Slight problem with uploading to a publisher. My fault, I needed to push another button and the lady helping me went to get her husband to help. But I decided to take another look at what I did and I figured it out. *L* No need for her husband. We are going to get setting an actual in person meeting in another couple of weeks. Until then I will be back looking at publishers to see where else it can be sent too.

. Fingers crossed BRENDA!

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 11:11 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Slight problem with uploading to a publisher. My fault, I needed to push another button and the lady helping me went to get her husband to help. But I decided to take another look at what I did and I figured it out. *L* No need for her husband. We are going to get setting an actual in person meeting in another couple of weeks. Until then I will be back looking at publishers to see where else it can be sent too.
. Fingers crossed BRENDA!

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

Thanks SIG.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024 11:18 PM