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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out soon to meet my friend.

And waaaah! Didn't get the leg show from Pedro. Not that I mind them concentrating on his face. Still it would have been nice. The main guy had nice legs too and saw more of his.
Pedro's character is dead where I left off last night and they killed Derek Jacobi's character too. Though he had less to do this time. But still.

Sorry for the spoilers. So if you haven't seen it or don't ignore this post.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out soon to meet my friend.

And waaaah! Didn't get the leg show from Pedro. Not that I mind them concentrating on his face. Still it would have been nice. The main guy had nice legs too and saw more of his.
Pedro's character is dead where I left off last night and they killed Derek Jacobi's character too. Though he had less to do this time. But still.

Sorry for the spoilers. So if you haven't seen it or don't ignore this post.

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Hehe... No worries about spoilers for me. I can't imagine any scenario where I watch Gladiator II and pay any attention to it. I honestly can't believe they didn't show off Pedro's legs in the movie.

I gave you a happy early birthday, but now I'll give you a happy late birthday.


Finally going back outside to work today. We still had some rain early in the morning yesterday, so I didn't go out in the slop. It's going to be 87 degrees today, with 3 more in the 80's and that's it for the toasty weather this year around here. Gotta make the most of the time I have left.

That damn mole didn't take a break after I quit on last Saturday. For a full week he's been ripping up that sandpit that I had leveled out last week. He still doesn't appear to have gotten into stuff that I've finished, although I'm a little worried about behind the garage. It's hard to really tell though because I've got about 5,000lbs of rock stacked up on top of it so I won't know until I start filling in the main sand pit later next week after I get all the other stuff done.

Going to trench out the foundation on the back and side of the house first so I can scrub and rinse it before putting on the tar. After that, I'm going to work on the fencing to try to keep the mole out of the 2nd half of the main sand pit. At least so far, it doesn't look like he's been able to get in and damage anything other than possibly the back of the garage slab.

My old man asked me what do I do if I trap him in the sand pit. I laughed and said that he can go above ground and just dig a hole outside of it. But I do wish I had been able to build those underground fences for the sand pit before the week long rain made its way in here. It would be nice to be able to verify he couldn't do any damage in there over the last 6 days before putting down stone.

There's really only two fences I need to put down to keep him out of that pit though. I'm going to try to get those done along with 1 coat of tar today. There are still a few more fences I want to make inside of that sand pit too as double protection around the porch and the side of the house foundation, and I do want to allow enough dry time for the tar to apply a 2nd coat like I did everywhere else, so I should have a few days time to see if I'm successfully keeping him out or not.

Gotta start getting up earlier. Sun is going down way too quick these days.

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Originally posted by Brenda:

Nope, no real leg on Pedro but lots of face shots which like I said I could more than live with. The movie was good and different from Russell's Gladiator. Going to get a copy but not sure if my birthday or Christmas.

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Nice.

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Oooh, you get dry and we get rain all weekend, even on my birthday. Waaah. S'no fun.

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Yeah. Nothing but rain for a full week now that really put me behind on my work. We were only supposed to get 1.5 days of rain, but it turned into 6.5 days. But it got so hot again that even with all that rain the sand was dry on top so I didn't get too messy today until the tar came out.

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Sorry about the mole. But I doubt they can get through rock. Dirt and sand would be nothing to the critters.

Yeah it is too bad that you couldn't have put that fence down deeper with the wire. Is the chicken wire holes really small because if they are too big a mole could get through easily. Just my thought.

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They're strong, but I doubt they're made for lifting a bunch of river rock to get below it. I think their strength lies when they're underground and they wouldn't have the leverage to lift those rocks out of the way when they're top side.

I still couldn't tell for sure if it got up under the rock I put behind the garage, but closer inspection on both sides leads me to believe that it actually couldn't even though it REALLY was trying to. I won't know for sure until I remove that rock, but at both ends where I blocked it off it looks like the earth wasn't displaced inside of that.

It's not really chicken wire. I just call it that. It is fairly rigid metal, and it's got 1/2" by 1/2" squares. It's quite a bit more expensive than chicken wire, actually, but I knew if I did that chicken wire it wouldn't be protecting anything. I don't think that moles can scrunch themselves down like mice can when they get under doorways because their entire existence is much different than a mouse's. If it was able to get that small to get between the 1/2" holes, they haven't figured out how to do it yet. The only time I've had a mole get past where I wanted it to go was when I didn't make a fence deep enough on the far side of the garage. So far it looks good.

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Well, I hope you can keep the mole from doing too much or any more damage to all your work.

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Me too. Thanks.

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Tell me about the sun setting too early. After 6pm and I have to turn on a light or it starts to get too dingy in here.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I don't know why I thought today was Tuesday this morning when I was posting. Thought I missed your B-day but I didn't.

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Originally posted by Brenda:

Nope, no real leg on Pedro but lots of face shots which like I said I could more than live with. The movie was good and different from Russell's Gladiator. Going to get a copy but not sure if my birthday or Christmas.

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Nice.

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Oooh, you get dry and we get rain all weekend, even on my birthday. Waaah. S'no fun.

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Yeah. Nothing but rain for a full week now that really put me behind on my work. We were only supposed to get 1.5 days of rain, but it turned into 6.5 days. But it got so hot again that even with all that rain the sand was dry on top so I didn't get too messy today until the tar came out.

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Sorry about the mole. But I doubt they can get through rock. Dirt and sand would be nothing to the critters.

Yeah it is too bad that you couldn't have put that fence down deeper with the wire. Is the chicken wire holes really small because if they are too big a mole could get through easily. Just my thought.

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They're strong, but I doubt they're made for lifting a bunch of river rock to get below it. I think their strength lies when they're underground and they wouldn't have the leverage to lift those rocks out of the way when they're top side.

I still couldn't tell for sure if it got up under the rock I put behind the garage, but closer inspection on both sides leads me to believe that it actually couldn't even though it REALLY was trying to. I won't know for sure until I remove that rock, but at both ends where I blocked it off it looks like the earth wasn't displaced inside of that.

It's not really chicken wire. I just call it that. It is fairly rigid metal, and it's got 1/2" by 1/2" squares. It's quite a bit more expensive than chicken wire, actually, but I knew if I did that chicken wire it wouldn't be protecting anything. I don't think that moles can scrunch themselves down like mice can when they get under doorways because their entire existence is much different than a mouse's. If it was able to get that small to get between the 1/2" holes, they haven't figured out how to do it yet. The only time I've had a mole get past where I wanted it to go was when I didn't make a fence deep enough on the far side of the garage. So far it looks good.

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Well, I hope you can keep the mole from doing too much or any more damage to all your work.

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Me too. Thanks.

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Tell me about the sun setting too early. After 6pm and I have to turn on a light or it starts to get too dingy in here.

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I could have probably worked until 7PM tonight still with the light, but I had wrapped up something big and anything else I need to do was too large a project to try starting at 6:20PM when I got the other thing wrapped up.

I trenched out all the foundation like I said I would, I cleaned it up with a wire brush and gave it a good scrubbing with water and a brush before letting it all dry and getting a coat of tar up there. I'll see how that dries and hopefully in a few days I can get another coat up there before I back fill it all. I can't put any of the fencing where I need it for the pavers along the back foundation of the house until that is done and filled back in.

I also dug out all around the concrete slab that is under the water spigot too, so I could clean that off with a wire brush and dust it off real good. Now it's ready for bonding agent and new concrete when I'm ready to do that.

I may or may not have mentioned that before but this stupid slab is around 4.5 feet by 3.5 feet with the longer side being perpendicular to my house. The idiots poured the slab so that it grades down into my foundation instead of away from it. It's made of the concrete with rocks in it and it's at least 6" thick, so there's no way I can cut it off with one of my concrete blades.

Not only don't I want to bust it out with a sledge hammer because I could probably bust my foundation too, but it's also got the top of the cleanout valve for the back drain in the middle of it, so I'd almost certainly bust that too. So as much as I hate the idea, even with good prep work, I'm going to be pouring concrete on top of concrete to raise that up about 4.5" in the back and have it slope away from the house into the grass.

I never bothered measuring it before, but since I got it nice and clean I brought out my level and found out that the outside of the slab that is in the grass is 3" higher than the part of the slab touching the foundation.

NO WONDER I GOT SO MUCH WATER IN MY BASEMENT!!!!!

Tomorrow I will be putting down the rest of the fence boundary to the sand pit, and I'll probably put the edger bricks down while I'm at it too. I've kind of got to wait on that tar, and I'm getting my gas meter swapped soon and it's in the middle of my work and kind of close to that slab. I don't want to do anything with that slab or the landscaping back there until next week after they've swapped the new one in.

So this week now is all about fencing in and protecting the rest of the sand pit and getting those rocks down finally.



Oh yeah... and I was about to lose my CGM, but I caught it just in time. Most of it had peeled off, but enough was there to keep it inside and getting readings. Nothing I tried worked when I was trying to tape it back up, so I saw some box tape and actually wrapped 3 layers of it around my stomach to keep it in place. It's worked for about 3-4 hours of reaching and scrubbing low walls and then painting them all with tar. I can't believe it's still working right now.

I don't change the CGM until tomorrow night, so I'm afraid that's going to be staying wrapped around me all tonight and during work tomorrow.

:(

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
No worries about loosing days. I lost last Monday for a bit. I thought I had just gone from Sunday to Tuesday. Took me a bit of thinking before I realized what had happened. Nope, not missed at all.

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Yeah. Totally weird. It was only for a moment when I replied to you and thought that I missed your birthday and Monday was yesterday. I knew that it was Saturday when I was outside working. Brain fart.

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As I said. I haven't decided yet. I found a Funko of the Adama from Battlestar Galactica that I used to watch in high school. You wouldn't know the actor but he was Canadian. Lorne Greene. No relation to Graham.

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That's fun too. My brother has a ton of them. I know they're cute and most people think they're cute, but they kind if creep me out. I dunno why.

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Well at least the sun dried up all the rain and it won't hurt the sand anyways. Yeah, we get rain starting Sunday well into next week. Oh, well. Welcome to Fall in BC.

Have to agree with you there. I doubt that they could shift river rock like you are describing. I hope it didn't do any damage to your work.

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I think I'm good so far. Everything that I can see is good anyway. The good news about the activity is that I've had several tests now where I know it's tried to get in somewhere and it couldn't. I've also had 2 times where it was able to get in somewhere and I knew to go back down and double up deeper and they haven't got back in there now.

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Got ya. I was just thinking as I can remember my dad using chicken wire around a veg/fruit garden at a house we were living in in the Valley. Here's another memory from that time. A cougar took a walk through our yard when we were all in bed. My dad found the print in my brother's sand box. He was worried for a bit incase the cougar came back when my brother or I were outside. I saw the print but to me it looked like a big dog print. My dad let me think that. It wasn't until well after he was gone that my mum told me about the print. And my dad would have known what a cougar print looked like.

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Yeah. I think what I got is called "wire rebar" or something like that. I'm assuming that with a smaller concrete paver like the one I'm going to slope away from the house, you could use that to make it more solid. Probably wouldn't do much for a large slab, but something small it could help keep it from cracking during the cold weather.

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Yeah, with the sun going down so early you don't want to be starting anything big.

Sounds like you have a fair number of projects to get to next Spring.
Okay. Those pavers were really dummies. I mean had they never heard of a level. It is no wonder. Like I said dummies. Sledge hammer and foundation not good.

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Yeah... Lots of stuff needs to be done. I got enough to last me a few more years. I'm glad I'm back to working on it now.

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Ouch! I hope you don't have a lot of hair in that area. But still be careful as you could also pull off a whole lot of skin.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
No worries about loosing days. I lost last Monday for a bit. I thought I had just gone from Sunday to Tuesday. Took me a bit of thinking before I realized what had happened. Nope, not missed at all.

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Yeah. Totally weird. It was only for a moment when I replied to you and thought that I missed your birthday and Monday was yesterday. I knew that it was Saturday when I was outside working. Brain fart.

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As I said. I haven't decided yet. I found a Funko of the Adama from Battlestar Galactica that I used to watch in high school. You wouldn't know the actor but he was Canadian. Lorne Greene. No relation to Graham.

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That's fun too. My brother has a ton of them. I know they're cute and most people think they're cute, but they kind if creep me out. I dunno why.

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Well at least the sun dried up all the rain and it won't hurt the sand anyways. Yeah, we get rain starting Sunday well into next week. Oh, well. Welcome to Fall in BC.

Have to agree with you there. I doubt that they could shift river rock like you are describing. I hope it didn't do any damage to your work.

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I think I'm good so far. Everything that I can see is good anyway. The good news about the activity is that I've had several tests now where I know it's tried to get in somewhere and it couldn't. I've also had 2 times where it was able to get in somewhere and I knew to go back down and double up deeper and they haven't got back in there now.

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Got ya. I was just thinking as I can remember my dad using chicken wire around a veg/fruit garden at a house we were living in in the Valley. Here's another memory from that time. A cougar took a walk through our yard when we were all in bed. My dad found the print in my brother's sand box. He was worried for a bit incase the cougar came back when my brother or I were outside. I saw the print but to me it looked like a big dog print. My dad let me think that. It wasn't until well after he was gone that my mum told me about the print. And my dad would have known what a cougar print looked like.

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Yeah. I think what I got is called "wire rebar" or something like that. I'm assuming that with a smaller concrete paver like the one I'm going to slope away from the house, you could use that to make it more solid. Probably wouldn't do much for a large slab, but something small it could help keep it from cracking during the cold weather.

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Yeah, with the sun going down so early you don't want to be starting anything big.

Sounds like you have a fair number of projects to get to next Spring.
Okay. Those pavers were really dummies. I mean had they never heard of a level. It is no wonder. Like I said dummies. Sledge hammer and foundation not good.

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Yeah... Lots of stuff needs to be done. I got enough to last me a few more years. I'm glad I'm back to working on it now.

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Ouch! I hope you don't have a lot of hair in that area. But still be careful as you could also pull off a whole lot of skin.

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I got a bit. Not much though. It's only box tape. I thought about putting duct tape on, or even the aluminum tape, but I'd rip every hair out of my body that it was touching if I did. Most of the tape has already come off my skin and is more like a rope around my back than anything else now. It's actually probably going to be pretty uncomfortable to sleep, but I do want to try to make this last as long as possible tomorrow. If I can make it to the end of the night, that was kind of a freebie since it was time to change it tomorrow. I'm going to be a lot more nervous 2 days from now when I'm out there sweating and working with a fresh one that has to last me 10 days.

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Oh, no SIX. That must have been really rough on you.

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Hope you feel better tomorrow.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
It is raining on my birthday but I want to go out. Have return Gladiator 2 to the library and I think I will get that Funko Adama. Save Gladiator 2 for Christmas.

Will also take myself out to lunch as someone gave me a gift card on Thursday for a local restaurant.

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Also miracles of miracles I actually got a birthday message from my cousin up in Northern Alberta. Wasn't sure if I would or not. I answered her once and she replied. I will get back to her later.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
I hope you can get sleep tonight.

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Don't over do it today and that will help maybe with your glucose levels.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Happy Birthday, Brenda.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
It is raining on my birthday but I want to go out. Have return Gladiator 2 to the library and I think I will get that Funko Adama. Save Gladiator 2 for Christmas.

Will also take myself out to lunch as someone gave me a gift card on Thursday for a local restaurant.

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So what did you get???

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Also miracles of miracles I actually got a birthday message from my cousin up in Northern Alberta. Wasn't sure if I would or not. I answered her once and she replied. I will get back to her later.

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Why don't you give her a ring and figure out when the next time you're meeting up is?

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Originally posted by Brenda:
I hope you can get sleep tonight.

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I did.

I actually took a nap during the day which was why I was worried I wouldn't. But I must have needed it because I had zero problems. Woke up on my own at 9AM this morning without an alarm, which is the earliest I've been up in quite a while.

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Don't over do it today and that will help maybe with your glucose levels.

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I don't think I overdid it. I don't feel wrecked like I have some other days. I was worried though because there wasn't a single cloud in that hazy sky and the sun was blaring, and it actually hit 90 degrees today.

Took as many breaks as I felt I needed and didn't try doing more than I needed to get done in one day. I thought maybe I'd start putting some rocks down at some point when I started, but I quickly dismissed that idea and just set a good pace.

I trenched out 9" deep from where my edger blocks (and mole fencing) ended in the back of the garage all the way to where it will meet the edger blocks on the back of the house. After that I got all the paver blocks in up to the house. I put some additional fencing in some critical spots, mostly around the corner of the garage and the corner of the house where the pavers are going to meet. Then I caved in all the mole tunnels in the section of the sand pit that is all fenced in now. I also used a wide dirt rake to break up the topsoil so I could grade everything away from the house/porch/garage and down into the center away from all 3 of them and tamped everything down. As long as that little shit doesn't go above ground to dive back into the pit over the fences, I should be good to put rock down pretty early tomorrow.

I've decided I want to put a divider with those edger blocks up along my back porch in the sand pit even though there will be nothing but rocks up to the foundation anyhow because I can get the dirt up higher on the foundation that way, and I can also slope that slightly downward to meet in the back of the house which will all be graded into the center of the sand pit. So I'm going to have to trench 9 feet for fencing along that tomorrow before rocks go down. I will probably put a "cage" underground in front of my concrete slab out back there too where I have two chairs and a little table. That will be another 16 feet or so worth of trenching. If I did all this work right, that's just a waste of time, but if a mole does manage to get its way back in, I really want to make sure it can't get up along the foundation anymore.

I'm actually really excited now. If that mole doesn't ruin my day tomorrow by making a huge mess tonight and I get to just get right to work in the morning, I'm going to finally have the vast majority of my rocks down by the end of the day tomorrow.

The only thing keeping me from finishing off the landscaping along the house now is that concrete slab I need to level out. Hopefully on Thursday that meter swap goes well and I can focus on the slab after that.

Once that's done, we'll see how much rock I have left. I'm pretty sure I should have enough to do the far side of the garage and then all my garage landscaping will be done. I probably don't have enough rock to continue that down the driveway to the street like I want to do, but that's probably a project better saved for next spring anyway. I've got some work to do on the land (grass) around that area first anyhow. I've basically got to remove some of the dirt that is under the grass in a few spots because it's just way too high and uneven. The goal is to get water to wick away from the driveway and not pool up on it close to the garage. There's an area that is just stupid high compared to the rest, and whenever they built that garage they should have removed all that extra dirt and put down some sod after they flattened it out. It's hard to explain without showing pictures, but after a few years of thinking about how I would deal with that with landscaping tricks, nothing has come to mind that would drain it properly.


I'm really bummed that I can't share photos of all of this, Brenda. Maybe when I'm finished I can look at all the pics I've taken along the way and see if there's any way I can crop them so they can't be identifiable but I can still show you what I've been doing.



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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Thanks Six. I got myself the Funko Adama and it was also on sale. So instead of paying $20 CAD. I got it for around $10 CAD.

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Sweet!

The rare times I ever treat myself to anything I always make sure it's on sale. It's usually a power tool, 9 times out of 10.

But I'm serious about that new toilet. I'm not going to buy anything crazy like a bidet or something that has a bunch of computer do-dads on it, but as far as being a tall boy throne, the sky is the limit on the price here. I'll even buy me a nice new seat for it if it comes with a cheapo.

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That would be hilarious. Don't think she would fly out here and I don't feel like paying long distance. I never know if I will hear from her on birthday or not. Maybe I'm hearing more from her now because I'm getting older.

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Oh wow. You still have to pay long distance? I didn't even know that was a thing that people did anymore. I hate to ask a stupid question, but are you absolutely sure???

I take it that you always remember to call her on her birthday, but she doesn't always return that courtesy, huh?

I'm sure it's nothing personal. When I really had my shit together I was great about calling everyone on their birthday for a few years there, but I kinda stopped remembering to do that for a year or two now. Not everyone, but about half of them... Even people I hang out with pretty regularly. We can't all be on top of our game all the time, and I know it feels shitty when somebody forgets but you can't take it personally. I'm sure they feel real lousy when they later realized that they forgot.

Long story short, I think maybe she's remembering to reach out to you on your birthday because SHE is the one getting older.

Anyhow... I'm glad she remembered this time.

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Great and naps are good thing. I'm sure you did need the sleep. Also nice you could wake up without an alarm clock.

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I am really dreading the day when I go back to work and I need to use an alarm clock all the time. For the last 5 or 6 years, there's probably only been about 50 days that I needed to wake up to an alarm. I kind of just do whatever... but when I dive into computer projects and forget about everything else that's no good. Especially when I fall back into old routines where I'm up all night and I go to sleep after the sun comes up. Half of my adult life I've worked overnights, and I thrive at that time of day (). But there ain't no sense in doing that to myself if I'm not making a living while doing it. I tend to crawl pretty deeply back into my shell if I'm up all night doing the work alone, and then I'm not getting any of the things I need to be doing done.

I need a bit more sleep after working like this than I used to for sure. It's not really an age/diabetes thing. I just need to get my ass back into prime shape and I can't let myself do nothing but computer projects for 4 to 6 months between late fall and mid-spring.

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Good. You don't need to add extra stress to cause even more problems with your glucose levels.
Don't tell me about 90degree weather. I got rained on and it has been raining most of the evening.
That is what you need to do. Pace yourself and if you feel like you are over heating stop and drink something cold.

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Slow and steady wins the race and avoids having a stroke.

Sorry about the rain. :(

I used to really love rain and thunderstorms when I was a kid. It was the best sleep I'd ever get, day or night. They've become nothing but a major source of stress in this house with all the issues. Hopefully I'm almost done taking care of them so I can enjoy a thunderstorm in this house one day. Maybe by the end of next Summer.

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That's great SIX. I think you will be able to get things sorted tomorrow.

No. I think you are doing a good job of explaining because I can sort of see in my mind's eye what you are talking about.

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Yeah. I still have tons of work left to do before the cold on this project, but being able to put down probably around 2/3rds of the river rock I have left tomorrow is real exciting. At that point I think I'll be finished with around TEN TONS of rock that I carted in 50lb bags from the DIY store to the all around the front and back of my house and garage.

It only took me something like 4 years to finally get it done.

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It would be nice to see what all your hard work ends up looking like.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Thanks Six. I got myself the Funko Adama and it was also on sale. So instead of paying $20 CAD. I got it for around $10 CAD.

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Sweet!

The rare times I ever treat myself to anything I always make sure it's on sale. It's usually a power tool, 9 times out of 10.

But I'm serious about that new toilet. I'm not going to buy anything crazy like a bidet or something that has a bunch of computer do-dads on it, but as far as being a tall boy throne, the sky is the limit on the price here. I'll even buy me a nice new seat for it if it comes with a cheapo.

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That would be hilarious. Don't think she would fly out here and I don't feel like paying long distance. I never know if I will hear from her on birthday or not. Maybe I'm hearing more from her now because I'm getting older.

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Oh wow. You still have to pay long distance? I didn't even know that was a thing that people did anymore. I hate to ask a stupid question, but are you absolutely sure???

I take it that you always remember to call her on her birthday, but she doesn't always return that courtesy, huh?

I'm sure it's nothing personal. When I really had my shit together I was great about calling everyone on their birthday for a few years there, but I kinda stopped remembering to do that for a year or two now. Not everyone, but about half of them... Even people I hang out with pretty regularly. We can't all be on top of our game all the time, and I know it feels shitty when somebody forgets but you can't take it personally. I'm sure they feel real lousy when they later realized that they forgot.

Long story short, I think maybe she's remembering to reach out to you on your birthday because SHE is the one getting older.

Anyhow... I'm glad she remembered this time.

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Great and naps are good thing. I'm sure you did need the sleep. Also nice you could wake up without an alarm clock.

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I am really dreading the day when I go back to work and I need to use an alarm clock all the time. For the last 5 or 6 years, there's probably only been about 50 days that I needed to wake up to an alarm. I kind of just do whatever... but when I dive into computer projects and forget about everything else that's no good. Especially when I fall back into old routines where I'm up all night and I go to sleep after the sun comes up. Half of my adult life I've worked overnights, and I thrive at that time of day (). But there ain't no sense in doing that to myself if I'm not making a living while doing it. I tend to crawl pretty deeply back into my shell if I'm up all night doing the work alone, and then I'm not getting any of the things I need to be doing done.

I need a bit more sleep after working like this than I used to for sure. It's not really an age/diabetes thing. I just need to get my ass back into prime shape and I can't let myself do nothing but computer projects for 4 to 6 months between late fall and mid-spring.

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Good. You don't need to add extra stress to cause even more problems with your glucose levels.
Don't tell me about 90degree weather. I got rained on and it has been raining most of the evening.
That is what you need to do. Pace yourself and if you feel like you are over heating stop and drink something cold.

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Slow and steady wins the race and avoids having a stroke.

Sorry about the rain. :(

I used to really love rain and thunderstorms when I was a kid. It was the best sleep I'd ever get, day or night. They've become nothing but a major source of stress in this house with all the issues. Hopefully I'm almost done taking care of them so I can enjoy a thunderstorm in this house one day. Maybe by the end of next Summer.

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That's great SIX. I think you will be able to get things sorted tomorrow.

No. I think you are doing a good job of explaining because I can sort of see in my mind's eye what you are talking about.

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Yeah. I still have tons of work left to do before the cold on this project, but being able to put down probably around 2/3rds of the river rock I have left tomorrow is real exciting. At that point I think I'll be finished with around TEN TONS of rock that I carted in 50lb bags from the DIY store to the all around the front and back of my house and garage.

It only took me something like 4 years to finally get it done.

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It would be nice to see what all your hard work ends up looking like.

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I'll see if I can cook something up when it's done. Got over a hundred pictures already.



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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
I didn't know it was on sale that was the nice thing. Since it is one of the older collectables it was 40% off.

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I know power tools are expensive and if you can get something good on sale, more power to ya.

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If you need a new toilet then go for it. I'm sure you can find something nice at a reasonable price.

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I have a landline and as far I know I still do. Last time I called Alberta it wasn't a huge amount as those rates are coming down since everyone has a cell phone now. Not sure about her though. That was last year when I called friends up Edmonton.

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No, landline providers in Canada no longer automatically charge for domestic long-distance calls, and most plans, including those from providers like Bell and Rogers, include unlimited "Canada-wide" or "Canada-US" calling, meaning you won't incur extra charges for calling other Canadian numbers. However, you should check your specific landline plan details to confirm this, as some older or basic lines might still have per-minute long-distance charges.

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Funny thing I don't know when her birthday is. All I know it is sometime in May. My mum would have known but not me.

My friends or at least one I always remember her birthday which is at the beginning of June. I call and then see her.

That could be the thing. She is 18years older than me. She just turned 79 this year.

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Alarm clocks are a drag for sure. I don't even use mine anymore when I have to go somewhere early. Seems my internal clock is good for that. Don't know why. Maybe it was because I got so conditioned looking after my mum and Blair.

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Of course working hard makes you sleep more and harder and that's not a bad thing. Body needs to recharge.

Slow and steady does and your health is important.

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Like I've said welcome to fall in BC. Suppose to get rain today. :(. Yuck

When I was a kid it was the fog. Still like fog now that I am an adult. Walking in it was cool and I could imagine all kinds of things.

Thunderstorms don't bother me at all. My mum used to freak at hearing one. My response was someone is mad up there.

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It takes what it takes to get things the way you want. Time isn't something to worry about with these projects.

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That would be cool.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
I didn't know it was on sale that was the nice thing. Since it is one of the older collectables it was 40% off.

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Nice Birthday Surprise.

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I know power tools are expensive and if you can get something good on sale, more power to ya.

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I only rock the Ryobi tools, so they're cheaper than you'd think, especially when they're on sale. Depending on which tool it is, most of them seem to do their jobs forever when you're a DIY guy and you're not doing it for a living, but other ones don't. The square palm sander I used for those kitchen cabinets went kaput on me sometime shortly after I did the kitchen. But I really beat the hell out of that thing on that kitchen job, so I don't know if I really can blame Ryobi for that one. You're supposed to "let the power tool do the work for you", but sometimes you don't have time for that shit. Like when you've got 15 cabinets and 4 drawers to strip and sand inside and out and you didn't want the job to take any longer than the 6 months I was working on it.

Sure... a DeWalt would still be working today, but I would have paid 3 times the price for it, and I'd have to be buying batteries that are SUPER expensive. The batteries are why I switched to Ryobi when the 2 batteries on my very expensive starter Dewalt Pack crapped out. My brother on the East Coast gave my Dad 2 replacement batteries and a charger to use on my old Drill/Saw combo my step-dad gave me years ago, and I've been a Ryobi fan ever since. What seemed at the time to me to be a really awesome sacrifice that my brother just gave to me was still really cool, but now I get why he did it. I'm swimming in Ryobi batteries right now. Sometimes I get REALLY lucky and they have a 2-pack of tools that I don't already own at a great combo price, but most of the time when I buy a new tool the "sale" is paying anywhere from $10 to $30 more than the price of the tool, but getting 1 or 2 free large batteries and a charger with it. I'm still a battery hoarder, but I've given away 3 or 4 chargers myself.

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If you need a new toilet then go for it. I'm sure you can find something nice at a reasonable price.

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I want a THRONE!!!

I'm still going to be looking for a sale because I always look for a sale, but I want a toilet that I know is going to make people say "Nice Toilet" so I can grin and say "I know".

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I have a landline and as far I know I still do. Last time I called Alberta it wasn't a huge amount as those rates are coming down since everyone has a cell phone now. Not sure about her though. That was last year when I called friends up Edmonton.

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Oh. When you said she sent you a message and you sent one back, I figured you meant text messages.

I know the rates on long distance came down in the Midwest here many, many, many years ago now. Pretty much when cell phones started giving you unlimited minutes and free long distance, they had to in order to stay in business. I think that's been a phone company Monopoly scam dating back to probably sometime in the 60s or maybe the 70s. They developed tech upgrades that allowed that to all be nearly infinitely cheaper than it was in the early days, but everybody was used to paying for long distance and just kept paying the long distance. It's not as if the phone companies were advertising innovations they made to bring their costs down if it didn't benefit you somehow. They were finally forced to do what they should have done decades earlier, and I'm sure a few rich people had to start buying a brand new yacht and plane every 3 years instead of every year.




If you and your Cousin were subconsciously not figuring out if you pay long distance charges on purpose, I'm going to have to apologize to you upfront here but...

I just asked Google if Canadians have to pay long distance charges for land lines and here's the response I got:

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No, landline providers in Canada no longer automatically charge for domestic long-distance calls, and most plans, including those from providers like Bell and Rogers, include unlimited "Canada-wide" or "Canada-US" calling, meaning you won't incur extra charges for calling other Canadian numbers. However, you should check your specific landline plan details to confirm this, as some older or basic lines might still have per-minute long-distance charges.

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You both should check. And if you are stuck on some old plan that does charge you, I'm sure you can get on a newer plan where there are no long distance charges, possibly even to the US if you have people here that you'd like to talk to.

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Funny thing I don't know when her birthday is. All I know it is sometime in May. My mum would have known but not me.

My friends or at least one I always remember her birthday which is at the beginning of June. I call and then see her.

That could be the thing. She is 18years older than me. She just turned 79 this year.

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I'm REALLY bad with BDays and you sound just like me on most years. I REALLY have to make an effort to remember them. What I did do over time was create a document that had everybody's birthday on it. Easy ones were like my brothers who I always had memorized, and my Grandma's who was born on a holiday. My mom and dad I always forget (and still do), but I finally remembered to write them in on that doc one year when my one of my brothers reminded me. Then other people I've gotten over time like my half and step-bros, the step-parents, friends, etc.

When I'm paying attention to that doc I remember to wish people a happy bday. But I haven't done that in 2 years and I keep telling myself I need to just print it out and put it on the fridge next to the calendar, but I never do.

I'm going to try to remember to do that before I go to bed tonight. Glad we had this talk.

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Alarm clocks are a drag for sure. I don't even use mine anymore when I have to go somewhere early. Seems my internal clock is good for that. Don't know why. Maybe it was because I got so conditioned looking after my mum and Blair.

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Yeah. I bet you're on to something there. I think I'd be the same if it wasn't for my chronic insomnia that I've had since I was a real little kid. It comes and goes. When I was a kid I just couldn't go to sleep at all. For years now I usually don't have too much trouble falling asleep, but I tend to wake up every 3 or 4 hours and then it's hard for me to go back to sleep. If I have something I need to do on time the next day, I'll set the alarm for sure.

Might need an alarm to get up on time, but if somebody is in the room with me when I fall asleep, they won't wake me up no matter what they do, but if I fell asleep in a room alone and somebody comes into the room, I shoot right up out of sleep into a sitting position, totally alert. Been that way since I was a kid too.

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Of course working hard makes you sleep more and harder and that's not a bad thing. Body needs to recharge.

Slow and steady does and your health is important.

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Yeah. And it's really going well. Did everything I wanted to do today. I got those additional fences put down along the side of the house foundation and the concrete slab behind the porch. Even decided to go through with putting 9 of the edger blocks 14" away from the foundation so I could make that part even higher than everything else graded away from the foundation, and I graded it in such a way where anything at the top by that concrete slab would slide down to the corner of the house where it will meet a similar grade coming from the back of the house, and then it all goes down into the center of the sand pit, which I made really low. I had to use a lot more bags of rocks to keep it even on top and in an effort to keep that grade interlocked in place over the years, but I accounted for that and now that it's done it was well worth it.



The best news of the day wasn't even getting all of the Bermuda Triangle finally sorted out and joined up with the back of the garage landscaping, but it was the mole activity the previous night...

It works!!!! It actually works!!!!

The mole was all over the place outside of my fencing protecting the foundation and the landscaping. Since I changed the shape of the landscaping vs. grass, I have a large pizza wedge piece of land that is bare dirt and needs to be seeded, that is right outside the fence I put in to protect 25 or so 10lb edger blocks that would be ruined immediately if a mole went under them. And when I finished that the other day I had a gigantic portion of land that was now fenced in from all sides up to the different foundations.

So he really made a mess of that dirt I need to seed later this year, but he couldn't get in.

It is something that nobody is ever going to see unless I tell them about it and show them pictures, but I think that might be the one thing I've done in/on this house that I'm the most proud of so far. It wasn't a "YouTube University" solution, or something that I ever read or heard from anybody else. I just knew the problem that I was having and I had a solution in mind.

Unfortunately... The first attempt on the front of the house where the hoasta beds are was a failure. The idea to put in small fences perpendicular to the foundation while I already had the side trenched out so I could clean them off and re-tar them. I was close, but that wasn't it. But I just realized today that I can fence everything in the front pretty easily and only for about $200 next year if I wanted to.

It will still trash my lawn, but who cares? It's already made the grass so bad that my lawnmower bounces all over the place when I'm pushing it, front to back. As long as it can't get in my landscaping or up against my foundation I"ll be happy.

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Like I've said welcome to fall in BC. Suppose to get rain today. :(. Yuck

When I was a kid it was the fog. Still like fog now that I am an adult. Walking in it was cool and I could imagine all kinds of things.

Thunderstorms don't bother me at all. My mum used to freak at hearing one. My response was someone is mad up there.

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Heh... Hope you get some good weather soon, Brenda.

I always thought fog was cool when I was a kid until I read Stephen King's "The Mist". After that I didn't like it so much.

When I was a little kid I remember being afraid of them. But I'm talking real little though, because by the time I was 5 I was already watching The Thing and Aliens with my parents and thunder was a baby thing to be afraid of.

Haha. "Someone is mad up there". My mom would try to comfort me and tell me that it was just the Angels bowling.

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It takes what it takes to get things the way you want. Time isn't something to worry about with these projects.

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Yeah. It's why I make a good employee but would be lousy at doing business for myself. I need to have somebody forcing me not to be a perfectionist. I've never had any complaints about my abilities or my work ethic anywhere I've worked, but particularly in the trades I've gotten more than my share of flack for taking too long to get something done. It's just hard for me to leave a project before it's as good as I can possibly make it, and when you're trying to make money or somebody is paying you to do the work, you just don't have time to be making everything perfect.

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That would be cool.

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Yeah. We'll see. I think I can make it happen.

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Congrats SIX in solving the mole problem! And congrats on getting so much of your yard graded, foundation waterproofed, and landscaping done! Well done!

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Thanks! I've taken pics of the recent damage outside of my barrier over the last two days and it was the first time I look at mole damage and smile about it. It doubled in size this morning from yesterday morning too, but it's not in my landscaping.

I've got pics from before I started any of this work too. It was August 30th when I started pulling the weeds out of the sand pit. It may have well have been grass because it covered practically every square inch of the sand, and it was growing up through every paver walkway and every crack in the driveway/sidewalk/curb, and they were BIG. I really love taking pictures when I'm working because it's great always being able to look back at the place you started and how far you've made it on any give day.

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Ach! about birthdays. I don't even remember my older sister's, much less my mom's and dad's when they were alive. I only remember hubby's and dear daughter's bc they both make a Big Deal about it. But was shocked to realize that hubby's b'day is literally just a couple days away! It's weird, I know the date, but the day of the week didn't click. It's like those two pieces of info are in two different silos.

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Wow. That's an interesting relationship you got there. Your husband won the lotto. He gets a Get Out of Jail Free card every year on forgetting your birthday, and I have a friend or two that I would worry their wives would actually, literally, try to murder them if they forgot.

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I never remember holidays either except July 4th, Christmas and New Year's. Things like President's Day or Labor Day snuck up on me EVERY year no matter how many years I'd been working. I call it my scheduling dyslexia.

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I'm the same way. If it's not a big holiday I don't remember it at all. I've probably had it pointed out to me a hundred times in my life, but I'm almost half a century old and I still don't know if the summer begins/ends with Veteran's Day/Labor Day.

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Took Zippy to the vet's today, I was worried about her lack of energy and lack if appetite, and the fact that she squirms extra hard when I clean her upper canine. Turns out she got all chipper and bright eyed the day before the vet visit, but vet checked her over, even her teeth and all looks good.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
No worries. I should have said the messages were over Face Book, that was how I got hold of her earlier this year when the fires were bad in Northern Alberta.

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Oh. Right. I forgot people do that.

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Most likely and I know about the phone company monopoly. The main phone company in BC and a lot of the country for years was BC Tell which is now called Telus. They do landlines and cell phones now to keep up with the cell phone companies. I haven't called anyone in the US since my aunt died.

No we're not. I have her number but not sure if she has mine. So no worries.

I didn't know that as like I said it was sometime last year that I had called out to Alberta.

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Yeah. It's probably free.

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Well, I remember friends from high school bdays. The one I saw last Friday and another friend. I remember my mum's and dad's even though they are both gone now. I even remember their anniversary. Course that one is easy. My dad's birthday. It got picked so he wouldn't forget. My aunt had a book like that. It had all her grandkids, nieces and nephews in it. She needed it because there were so many of us.

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My mom's mom and her sister were the people I knew who were really good about that. My aunt had even taken the time to print one off for me at one point, but I was still a dumb little shit and I lost that thing a long time ago.

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I hope you do remember to do it.

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I actually did. And only because I read this part of your reply last night but wasn't up for writing another post. And I panicked when the drive I thought it was on didn't have it along with a bunch of other important documents. A few months back I did a lot of swapping thumb drives getting different operating systems on them for the end of Windows 10, and I was panicking last night that I had overwritten it on accident because I mixed it up with an identical looking drive. I ended up finding everything, but it took about 2 hours of going through all the thumb drives and computer hard drives.

I have a "notes" file where I wrote down that I did this, and where it was at. But that notes file doesn't do you any good when you can't find it after you moved it from the place it's been sitting for a decade.

My memory on certain things just ain't what it used to be. Good thing I'm a creature of habit. I don't even remember why I switched the spot for all that stuff, but just looking at the drives I'm sure it's because I needed another 16GB+ drive and that was the only one I had left, because all the stuff that used to be on it is on a 4GB drive now. I don't remember doing this, let alone why I did it. So all I can do now is Sherlock Holmes the reason out of myself.

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I can do that too. Waking up every couple of hours. That's a pain. Never had any problems like that when I was a kid. Not even as a teenager. My friend and my mum used to kid me about how someone could set off a bomb near me and it wouldn't wake me up.

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I feel for you. I think I've probably only slept around 4 hours per day on average since I was 5 years old. The only thing that would make that number higher is if you count all the crashout days where I can sleep nearly 24 hours, or when I get myself about 32 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period.

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That's cool and yay! for what you are doing about the mole problem. I'm glad it's working. You know you don't always need books or YouTube to figure out something. Sometimes all you need is to think about it and look at it and you come up with a solution.

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Yeah. Went back out there today to just mow and clean out my gutters and saw that there was twice as much damage outside of the fence than there was yesterday, so it tried again and still couldn't get in.

It's a shame I didn't do it right in the front of the house the first time, but there was no manual on how to do it. It's literally dealing with an invisible enemy, and figuratively fighting a war against somebody who lives in a different world, who can also clone themselves endlessly. I can't see the tunnels. I can't know how they all tie in together. The only reason I know it even exists is because of how much damage it does. And if I kill it, another one will be back in a year or two anyway.

It's already ruined my lawn. Mowing is basically an eXtreme sport now, and my lawnmower bounces around like a jet ski in rough waters. I can deal with that. I just don't want it doing any damage to all of this work with how nice everything is starting to look from the outside now.

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I would be worried about the mole and your seeding. It could eat what you lay down.

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Probably not. It won't eat any of that mole bait poison you buy in the stores. It just wants the bugs. My concern whenever I put grass seed down is the birds eating them all up.

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I do too. But suppose to rain the rest of this week and it is raining right now at 9:15pm pacific time.

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You're having my week last week. It was like 8 or 9 days of rain straight, and we were only supposed to get 1 or 2 going into it. It was so nice to see the sun again.

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Since I never read horror stories as a child, fog doesn't bother me. When I was a kid it was kind of mysterious and I could let my mind wander.

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It's why horror movies are just about my least favorite genre next to musicals. I watched every one you could find at a rental place and all of the crap they put straight to cable with my brothers and my friends, and that started when I saw Poltergiest on HBO with my folks before they got divorced. It came out in '82, and they split in '84, so somewhere in between those years.

I just don't get scared anymore. You build a tolerance to certain stuff if you expose yourself to enough of it. Most horror doesn't do anything for me. It's gotta have more than cheap jump scares and "Oh! Scary monster!". That movie "Smile" a few years back was pretty good for the first 3/4, but then they showed the monster in the end and ruined it.

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I've heard that one about angels bowling. I picked up a bad habit from my dad of watching thunder and lightening storms, mind he picked it up from his dad. He would go out onto the porch and watch them. In Alberta the sky goes almost black with the clouds and I think it fascinated my grandfather some what. They didn't get storms like that in Scotland.

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I don't think it's a bad habit. I used to do it all the time. Especially when I hung out with other people all the time and usually had somebody around to enjoy the show with. Had a few power outages at my Grandma's back in the day that would have been a real bummer if my uncle wasn't around and we weren't out in the garage watching the show while drinking some beers.

Yeah... The black clouds aren't fun. I have nightmares about black clouds to this day. I think that's a residual effect of having watched The Neverending Story so many times with my brothers when we were growing up.

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Me either really. When I was working even at that lady's house, I am a hard worker. Just don't get me talking because my attention will wander.

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Hehe... I don't have that problem. I'll make chit chat on smoke breaks, but when I'm working I don't want to be bothered and watching other people talking and slacking off gets under my skin, even (and especially) if they're wasting time talking to me.

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It would be great if you can.

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I'm trying to take some pictures with this in mind now.

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
No worries. I should have said the messages were over Face Book, that was how I got hold of her earlier this year when the fires were bad in Northern Alberta.

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Oh. Right. I forgot people do that.

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Most likely and I know about the phone company monopoly. The main phone company in BC and a lot of the country for years was BC Tell which is now called Telus. They do landlines and cell phones now to keep up with the cell phone companies. I haven't called anyone in the US since my aunt died.

No we're not. I have her number but not sure if she has mine. So no worries.

I didn't know that as like I said it was sometime last year that I had called out to Alberta.

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Yeah. It's probably free.

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Well, I remember friends from high school bdays. The one I saw last Friday and another friend. I remember my mum's and dad's even though they are both gone now. I even remember their anniversary. Course that one is easy. My dad's birthday. It got picked so he wouldn't forget. My aunt had a book like that. It had all her grandkids, nieces and nephews in it. She needed it because there were so many of us.

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My mom's mom and her sister were the people I knew who were really good about that. My aunt had even taken the time to print one off for me at one point, but I was still a dumb little shit and I lost that thing a long time ago.

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I hope you do remember to do it.

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I actually did. And only because I read this part of your reply last night but wasn't up for writing another post. And I panicked when the drive I thought it was on didn't have it along with a bunch of other important documents. A few months back I did a lot of swapping thumb drives getting different operating systems on them for the end of Windows 10, and I was panicking last night that I had overwritten it on accident because I mixed it up with an identical looking drive. I ended up finding everything, but it took about 2 hours of going through all the thumb drives and computer hard drives.

I have a "notes" file where I wrote down that I did this, and where it was at. But that notes file doesn't do you any good when you can't find it after you moved it from the place it's been sitting for a decade.

My memory on certain things just ain't what it used to be. Good thing I'm a creature of habit. I don't even remember why I switched the spot for all that stuff, but just looking at the drives I'm sure it's because I needed another 16GB+ drive and that was the only one I had left, because all the stuff that used to be on it is on a 4GB drive now. I don't remember doing this, let alone why I did it. So all I can do now is Sherlock Holmes the reason out of myself.

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I can do that too. Waking up every couple of hours. That's a pain. Never had any problems like that when I was a kid. Not even as a teenager. My friend and my mum used to kid me about how someone could set off a bomb near me and it wouldn't wake me up.

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I feel for you. I think I've probably only slept around 4 hours per day on average since I was 5 years old. The only thing that would make that number higher is if you count all the crashout days where I can sleep nearly 24 hours, or when I get myself about 32 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period.

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That's cool and yay! for what you are doing about the mole problem. I'm glad it's working. You know you don't always need books or YouTube to figure out something. Sometimes all you need is to think about it and look at it and you come up with a solution.

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Yeah. Went back out there today to just mow and clean out my gutters and saw that there was twice as much damage outside of the fence than there was yesterday, so it tried again and still couldn't get in.

It's a shame I didn't do it right in the front of the house the first time, but there was no manual on how to do it. It's literally dealing with an invisible enemy, and figuratively fighting a war against somebody who lives in a different world, who can also clone themselves endlessly. I can't see the tunnels. I can't know how they all tie in together. The only reason I know it even exists is because of how much damage it does. And if I kill it, another one will be back in a year or two anyway.

It's already ruined my lawn. Mowing is basically an eXtreme sport now, and my lawnmower bounces around like a jet ski in rough waters. I can deal with that. I just don't want it doing any damage to all of this work with how nice everything is starting to look from the outside now.

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I would be worried about the mole and your seeding. It could eat what you lay down.

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Probably not. It won't eat any of that mole bait poison you buy in the stores. It just wants the bugs. My concern whenever I put grass seed down is the birds eating them all up.

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I do too. But suppose to rain the rest of this week and it is raining right now at 9:15pm pacific time.

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You're having my week last week. It was like 8 or 9 days of rain straight, and we were only supposed to get 1 or 2 going into it. It was so nice to see the sun again.

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Since I never read horror stories as a child, fog doesn't bother me. When I was a kid it was kind of mysterious and I could let my mind wander.

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It's why horror movies are just about my least favorite genre next to musicals. I watched every one you could find at a rental place and all of the crap they put straight to cable with my brothers and my friends, and that started when I saw Poltergiest on HBO with my folks before they got divorced. It came out in '82, and they split in '84, so somewhere in between those years.

I just don't get scared anymore. You build a tolerance to certain stuff if you expose yourself to enough of it. Most horror doesn't do anything for me. It's gotta have more than cheap jump scares and "Oh! Scary monster!". That movie "Smile" a few years back was pretty good for the first 3/4, but then they showed the monster in the end and ruined it.

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I've heard that one about angels bowling. I picked up a bad habit from my dad of watching thunder and lightening storms, mind he picked it up from his dad. He would go out onto the porch and watch them. In Alberta the sky goes almost black with the clouds and I think it fascinated my grandfather some what. They didn't get storms like that in Scotland.

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I don't think it's a bad habit. I used to do it all the time. Especially when I hung out with other people all the time and usually had somebody around to enjoy the show with. Had a few power outages at my Grandma's back in the day that would have been a real bummer if my uncle wasn't around and we weren't out in the garage watching the show while drinking some beers.

Yeah... The black clouds aren't fun. I have nightmares about black clouds to this day. I think that's a residual effect of having watched The Neverending Story so many times with my brothers when we were growing up.

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Me either really. When I was working even at that lady's house, I am a hard worker. Just don't get me talking because my attention will wander.

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Hehe... I don't have that problem. I'll make chit chat on smoke breaks, but when I'm working I don't want to be bothered and watching other people talking and slacking off gets under my skin, even (and especially) if they're wasting time talking to me.

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It would be great if you can.

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I'm trying to take some pictures with this in mind now.

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Yeah, people do.

My friends and I will be talking around Christmas time and if I can get out there next year I will call them. *fingers crossed*

That's cool. My aunt was alive before computers really came into household use. If they had been around at the time, I am sure one of her grandkids could have printed something off for her. But she had her book and that served her well.

I'm glad you did and I'm glad you found all your stuff. No having notes doesn't help when you think you have lost things. I am and I'm not a creature of habit. But when I rearrange days when I normally do things that can become when I think I have lost a day.

Yeah, I've almost done the sleep 24 hours when home back around the time of the brain surgery. But then I have also done the all night awake thing. Sleep is good when I am in pain because when I wake up the next day, I am fine.

I'm glad that it's working. Mistakes happen and I would think more when DYIing things. My dad used to do a lot of DYI. Once my dad found a bunch of odd paints left by the people who previously owned this house. He wanted to paint so instead of buying new paints, he just mixed them all together and called it whatever colour.

'kay. Yeah, it's probably having nice dinners on worms. Yeah, I forgot about birds going after grass seed.

Yup, suppose to dry out by the weekend. But it is a soaker.

I've never seen Poltergiest. The first one was the one with Will Sampson in it? I remember he was in one of them. You do develop a tolerance to them. I haven't seen many and the ones I've seen do nothing for me really either.

I wouldn't watch them when I was a kid but they didn't bother me. I didn't start really watching them till I was in my 20s. My dad's oldest sister was terrified by them till she was in her 70s. Mind she had been electrocuted as a kid. It must have been after that that my grandmother would try to get my grandfather to come back into the house. My dad probably never had time to watch them until he got older.

No they aren't. They are a sign that a real big storm is coming and time to batten down the hatches. I've seen Neverending Story and it never bothered me.

That is my bad habit. Never ask me a question when I am doing something else because I will answer. Annoys her to no end, so I try very hard not to do that.

I hope you can as you are putting in so much hard work.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Got my stuff done early today. Didn't think I'd even start running errands for another few hours.

Had my gas meter upgraded today and that went real smoothly. I might have mentioned I was worried about not being able to relight the pilot since I stopped turning it off after winter when I struggled for hours trying to relight it one year, but we got it lit right back up first try before they left.

Dude told me I've got one of the cleanest houses he's been in, and then went on to tell me about some of the horror stories he had to work in just this week.


Didn't sleep much last night, and got up early to make sure everything was prepped for easy access when they came and verified everything was good inside when they fired the gas back up. Did a lot more than I needed to do, but the whole thing did get me to clean my basement and attic finally. I always make things out to be bigger than they are and if we weren't bullshitting so much he would have been here and gone in 15 minutes.

I think I'm going to have me a screw-off day. Only 4 hours of daylight left anyhow, and I'm not dirty at all. I think I'll stay clean the rest of the night.





If I don't reply to your post tonight, Brenda, I'll just say that you've got to rent Poltergeist from your Library ASAP and watch it in the dark.

You'll thank me later.


Oh... and no. It's not the one with Will Sampson. I wasn't sure who that was, but when you asked I did assume he was only in the 2nd one, which was a MUCH different movie than the 1st was, even though the same girl and her family were the primary focus. I actually hated the 2nd movie when I saw it as a little kid because it just seemed so boring, but I've seen it again maybe 20 years ago as a young adult and enjoyed it a lot more. The 2nd one has some real creepy parts, one of them involving a tequila worm, but it wasn't anything like the special effect fest of the first movie, so for a little kid it was just a boring watch. I don't remember what Will Sampson did in the movie, but I think he may have been trying to protect them from the evil that he knew was following Carol Anne. I do remember a fairly heavy Native American theme to the 2nd movie. It didn't come out of the blue either, as a heavy plot point of the movie was surrounding Native Americans, although it's been a long time since I've watched it and I don't recall if any were actually depicted in the first movie even as minor characters.

If I would pass on one movie in the series it would be the 3rd one. There's many reasons why it shouldn't have been made, but putting it out right after the death of the lead child actress during filming and then using a body double for her in a few scenes while they patched something together to make a profit always rubbed me the wrong way. If it were a great movie that people absolutely needed to see and would be something that she would have been proud of, that could have been a different story, but it was an obvious franchise milking and although most of the original cast were in the 2nd movie, almost none of them bothered to come back for the 3rd one. In fact, Carol Anne might have been the only person from the 1st movie to be in the 3rd... I don't remember. But I think it's really sad that either the actor/actress's playing her parents didn't want to come back and do a 3rd movie, or they were too expensive for the budget, so she's off to live in the city with her aunt and uncle. Really dumb stuff and a shame that the series went out on that note. I disregard that movie completely.


I know I've posted this before, but ever since I saw that movie when I was 4 years old the ending theme song has stuck with me.

This is an extended "full" version of it...

So good. Probably the lullaby 4 year old me needed after seeing what I'd just seen. I'm sure it's not the reason I've been an insomniac since I was 5 years old, but watching this movie at 4 years old probably didn't help.



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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Huh. Never heard of Red Rose or Speilberg and King working together on anything. Shows you how much I paid attention on some things.

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Rose Red was after I'd tuned out of King miniseries stuff. I think it was somewhere around 2003 that it came out. I loved "It" and "The Stand". "Langoliers" wasn't terrible, but he had a lot of stinkers and in 2003 I was way too busy and social to be stuck at home straight nights watching 8 hours worth of another King movie. I hear that one was pretty good though.

I didn't even know about the Spielberg/King collaboration until recently on a youtube video about Rose Red. But that was the reason. King wanted to go dark, and Spielberg always wanted the audience to leave smiling.

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I did hear about a lot of bad things happening to the cast after first or second movie coming out. Claimed everything was haunted. Didn't realize Will Sampson had passed so soon after the movie came out.

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Yeah... It's not just Sampson and both daughters dying either. There was a lot of bad luck going around to most of the cast. I don't remember any real specifics anymore, but when I heard about it I thought boy... that seems like more than just coincidence.

Oh... right. The creepy old guy from the 2nd movie died right after the movie was made, but he was already dying when the movie was being made. That was a large part of why he looked so creepy and they didn't have to use much makeup to get him in that state.

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Maybe for concrete a little reading up or YouTube might help if you aren't sure. I know you need it but knowing a little more might be a good thing.

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Yeah... I did. Last night and last week. I was as prepared this morning as I was ever going to be.

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I do wish you luck on all you are doing around your house to make the yard and indoors more livable.

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Thanks. I think it's going really well. Can't be positive until the next time we get Noah's Arc style floods around here, but maybe I'll luck out and won't even have to test it. Knock on wood.



I'll tell you what though. I sure picked the wrong day to do concrete. That is a young man's game for sure. It hit 91 degrees today, and while I was making my form and making wooden vampire stakes to drive into the ground to hold the form in place, the sun was blazing down without a cloud in the sky. Fortunatley, by the time I got back from the DIY store and was ready to start with the concrete it had gotten fairly cloudy and took the edge off the heat.

Didn't matter though. What a miserable, miserable job pouring a slab is unless you're a pro and you have all the pro tools. I'm wrecked right now.

I'm REALLY glad I didn't cheap out and under-buy the concrete. I thought for sure all I needed was 5 to 7 bags, but I bought 10 of them just in case. I used more than 9 1/2 of them to finish the job. Almost 600lbs of concrete and $135 worth of concrete and tools to fix somebody else's huge mistake. Since I already had all the river rock and edger blocks from a few summers ago, I spent more this year fixing that damn slab than I have on doing all the rest of the landscaping.

I thought I'd be able to take the forms down and shape the concrete tonight, but looks like I'm supposed to wait 16-24 hours before doing that. I have a feeling that the difficult work is still not done and I might have to break out my virgin belt sander and use that to form the edges at the top, because I think after 16-24 hours that is going to be way too hard for me to shape it with the edge tool I bought.

In any event, the back of the slab is now 5.5" higher than it was this morning, and the front is 1.5" higher. Should be fairly close to keeping water out of my basement for good now.



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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.