Real World Event Discussions

In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1007770
PAGE 26 of 116

Sunday, September 1, 2019 12:43 AM (P)

Yeah, Jack, Signy asked an important question that I really didn't want to get into, and that's that your foundation blocks should not be shifted out of place if they're part of the main structure. If you're just talking about the porch it's not so bad.

Structural foundations are really technical. They need to be engineered and checked for compliance with local codes. You need a footing - all engineered as to how deep (due to the frostline), how thick, how wide, what kind and how much rebar and where, what kind of psi concrete (it's the pounds-per-square inch compressive load capacity of concrete which is what pressure can it take before it fails structurally, normal is about 3000 - 3500psi; generally improved by adding more sand to the mix) ... and so on. And then there's the block walls!!

Way, WAAAAaaaaaaay above my pay grade! as they say.

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 1:17 AM (P)

Since here's where I've been posting about earthquakes ...

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-31/an-earthquake-faul
t-long-thought-dormant-could-devastate-los-angeles-reseachers-say


Earthquake fault long thought dormant could devastate Los Angeles, researchers say


By Deborah NetburnStaff Writer
Aug. 31, 2019
9:42 AM

Scientists citing new research say an earthquake fault along the Los Angeles coast, previously believed to be dormant, is active and could cause a destructive 6.4 magnitude earthquake if it ruptured.

And if it linked with other faults, it could trigger an earthquake in the magnitude 7 range, according to a team of researchers from Harvard, USC and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The fault, known as the Wilmington Blind-Thrust fault, stretches for about 12.5 miles, running northwest from Huntington Beach, directly beneath the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors, past the east side of the Palos Verdes Pensinula and out toward Santa Monica Bay.

Researchers have known for decades that the fault existed, but it was long thought to be dormant and therefore of no concern for the residents of Los Angeles.



However, a new report, led by Franklin Wolfe, a doctoral student in the structural modeling and earth resources group at Harvard, has found that the Wilmington Blind Thrust Fault is in fact alive and kicking and could affect the overlying ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

“It doesn’t rupture frequently, but it’s like a sleeping giant beneath the harbor, " Wolfe said. “Just because it’s slow, doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous.”

A blind-thrust fault is so named because the fault itself doesn’t reach the surface of the Earth. There are no hills, cracks or breaks to indicate its existence.

Scientists knew the Wilmington fault was there because it sits below the Wilmington Oil Fields and data collected by the oil industry revealed folding in deep layers of rock that indicated the existence of a fault. However, the tell-tale folding of the rock did not appear to extend to more shallow layers of earth. Therefore, the data suggested that the fault had gone dormant at least 2 million years ago.

Then, about 10 years ago, a scientist at the USGS who was studying the architecture of groundwater reservoirs discovered that, in fact, there did appear to be some folding in the rock in more shallow layers than the oil industry researchers would have looked at.

Further research revealed that he was right. The folding in both the deep rock and the very shallow rock appeared to be caused by the same fault. That meant the Wilmington fault was still active.

https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/83d110a/2147483647/st
rip/true/crop/1300x730+0+0/resize/840x472!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fca-times.brightspotcdn.com%2Ff3%2F18%2Faef22fff7777c01387e5be9e2a02%2Fla-me-g-newport-inglewood-map-20150630


Wolfe said that the fault is very slow moving and could be expected to rupture sometime in the next 3,000 to 5,000 years.

“It makes you wonder how many other faults are in California that are not detected and slow moving,” Wolfe said. “The San Andreas fault is the most noteworthy, but many other of faults in California capable of generating damage.”

The Wilmington fault runs near another notorious fault, the Newport-Inglewood.

That fault unleashed the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, which killed 120 people and prompted some of the state’s first seismic building regulations.

The Newport-Inglewood has long been considered one of Southern California’s top seismic danger zones because it runs under some of the region’s most densely populated areas, from the Westside of Los Angeles to the Orange County coast.

Research published in 2017 found the fault may be even more dangerous than experts had believed, c

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 2:22 AM (P)

About the sealer/ primer

SIX, as much as people swear by the KILZ oil-based primer, it's not sold anywhere in theSouth Coast Air Basin (SCAB) so that's out of the question.

I think the problem happened because I used KLIZ 2 (Latex paint, probably a styrene/divinyl benzene/acrylic formulation) on bare plaster instead of KILZ PVA (polyvinyl acetate). KILZ2 works best on pre-painted surfaces as a stain blocker/matte finish, PVA is literally a matte-finish glue, much better at bonding to and sealing fresh drywall or plaster. The funny thing is, I had actualy used PVA on almost all of the fresh drywall, but I ran out and switched to the latex stuff instead for that part of the wall. Fortunately, it only failed in a few small spots.

The specialty primer that I painted over the other primer worked well, it seems very durbale and it did not fail, the KILZ2 did.

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 2:37 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Yeah, Jack, Signy asked an important question that I really didn't want to get into, and that's that your foundation blocks should not be shifted out of place if they're part of the main structure. If you're just talking about the porch it's not so bad.

Structural foundations are really technical. They need to be engineered and checked for compliance with local codes. You need a footing - all engineered as to how deep (due to the frostline), how thick, how wide, what kind and how much rebar and where, what kind of psi concrete (it's the pounds-per-square inch compressive load capacity of concrete which is what pressure can it take before it fails structurally, normal is about 3000 - 3500psi; generally improved by adding more sand to the mix) ... and so on. And then there's the block walls!!

Way, WAAAAaaaaaaay above my pay grade! as they say.



Yeah...

It's just a three season room attached to the house that was built 20 years after the house went up. There is electricity run to it (and, I know it's shocking, but it was done up right with conduit), but there's no heat/air-conditioning out to it or water.

It's VERY apparent that Uncle Bob came over and built it and it wasn't done by a professional mason. Even without gutters for who knows how many years and that busted drain pipe the masonry the house is sitting on is still rock solid. The porch cinder block masonry is cracked to shit. Fortunately, the only place where they were being pushed in was right under the screen door and was relatively easy to put back into place. Also fortunate, there is enough "crap" still inside the seams that everything is still level and none of the bricks are sinking, so my idea is to get the right stuff and push as much into the cracks as I can.

I'm going to do a little research today and get the right stuff to put in all the cracks around the interior of the whole thing while I've got it exposed. My friends dad who's done this a lot actually told me to use tile grout. I'm just going to double check that this is a good solution before going what would be a pretty cheap way. I don't mind paying more for something better and doing it right if this is not ideal. Then I'm going to at least tar all of the stuff from the outside that is currently exposed. I might do the front down the line as well at some point, but that's on the back burner for now.

I might even tar all the stuff inside when I'm done filling it in, but I'd have to know that it was even worth doing or not first. I don't think you can buy that stuff in smaller than 5 gallon pails, so I'm going to have a ton left over if I don't find something worthwhile to do with it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 2:45 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
About the sealer/ primer

SIX, as much as people swear by the KILZ oil-based primer, it's not sold anywhere in theSouth Coast Air Basin (SCAB) so that's out of the question.

I think the problem happened because I used KLIZ 2 (Latex paint, probably a styrene/divinyl benzene/acrylic formulation) on bare plaster instead of KILZ PVA (polyvinyl acetate). KILZ2 works best on pre-painted surfaces as a stain blocker/matte finish, PVA is literally a matte-finish glue, much better at bonding to and sealing fresh drywall or plaster. The funny thing is, I had actualy used PVA on almost all of the fresh drywall, but I ran out and switched to the latex stuff instead for that part of the wall. Fortunately, it only failed in a few small spots.

The specialty primer that I painted over the other primer worked well, it seems very durbale and it did not fail, the KILZ2 did.

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY



That's a shame about Kilz2. I've only ever used it for drywall before painting and nothing heavy duty. I knew there is no way it could compete against the oil based variety on heavy duty stuff, but I didn't think it would be crap either. :(


Is Kilz not sold by you because of some environmental regulations that make it illegal to use there? (I ask because, well yanno, California!)

If it isn't (or maybe even if it is), you should look on Amazon and see if you can get some that way if you ever need something that works. As much as I'm not a fan of what Amazon is doing, I have to admit that I made 4 purchases with them in the last few months and aside from a $1.99 fee I had to pay for an extra week of Prime shipping vs a $9.99 shipping charge for the last order (because my free 30 day trial had expired a month or so earlier), I got these things within a day or two tops and much cheaper than I would have got them in a store.

But if Kilz is illegal by you, knowing how far we've come with computers and tech, it wouldn't surprise me if Amazon flat out prohibits the sale of it in your area.



Glad you seemed to have figured it all out though. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 2:50 AM (P)

Hey Signy

Thanks for letting me know !!! about the specialty sealer.

When I went to Lowes for genuine TSP I did look up oil-based KILZ, and you're right, it's no longer sold (according to them). I should check out Ace hrdwr b/c they're usually more on top of things. It might be available in small containers. (Many years ago I was looking for oil-based porch floor paint at Ace, and it was available in small containers but not large ones.) Just a detail to track down.

Lowes did recommend another product they said works even better than Kilz did. You know I have a particular reason to be looking for something like Kilz but my second pick was milk paint with maximum tung oil.

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 2:53 AM (P)

Hey Jack - phew !!! about the foundation !!!

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 2:56 AM (P)

Weird...

Amazon seems to only have oil based Kilz in 1 quart interior.

https://www.amazon.com/Original-Multi-Surface-Blocking-Interior-Oil-Ba
sed/dp/B000SKURCS/ref=sr_1_1?fst=as%3Aoff&qid=1567284804&refinements=p_89%3AKILZ%7CKilz%2Cp_n_material_two_browse-bin%3A17870950011&rnid=17870948011&s=hi&sr=1-1



Just did a search at Home Depot and they've got it in 1 and 5 gallon buckets for $18.27 and $82.98 respectively. That is with my local store plugged in though. I'm thinking that they banned Original Kilz and similar paints in your area, perhaps the entire state of California.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 2:58 AM (P)

Oil-based anything paint, due to high organic vapors, which create serious air pollution here!

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 4:25 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hi Brenda!

BTW, I'm assuming these are 'machine' screws (fine threaded, flat-tipped) that fit into a metal threaded fitting, and not wood screws or sheet metal screws (coarse threaded, pointed tip).

A good salesperson should be able to match the screw thread and width (and head style, which may be important if it's a counter-sunk head

)

or merely cosmetic otherwise); and if the off-the-shelf replacement is too long, be able to cut it down to the right length without damaging the thread. Unless you have a preference either phillips or slotted should be OK if there isn't a match otherwise,



but stay away from anything else including torx if you are asked.



If you know something about its origins (time and place of mfg) it might be easier to determine metric v 'standard' thread. Sometimes a metric thread can look like a 'standard' thread. If you get one for the other, oftentimes you'll be able to get about 3 turns in before it gets stuck-ish. Don't force it if that happens, just back it out and get the right one instead.

That's why, when installing screws, bolts, or nuts, it's important to thread them down by hand ALL THE WAY - so you can feel if it's either starting cross-threaded or getting tight a few turns down. Use your tools to tighten ONLY after it's installed.

Very small, fine-threaded screws can be tricky to install ... hard to hold on to and easy to cross thread. Try PARTIALLY removing your 'example' screw, and then putting it back in all the way a few times for practice; then once you remove it completely, try putting it back in its original hole a few times for practice; and then in the empty hole (to check for bad threads in the MT hole) a few times.

I've had some very skilled people give me many of these tips, and also, too many times by my own self getting hung up on what should be an easy job because it was trickier than I thought!!!



Hi Kiki

The screws are easy to see. Flat head, slotted. The box is wooden. The screw would be standard as this box is older than me. Metric wasn't brought in Canada until the 70s. This box was something that my dad bought my mom in Vancouver BC. Not sure if it was made here though.

I have tightened the other screws but I am sure that I can get one of them out if I choose to go that route.

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 4:32 AM (P)

Laundry done and a bit of shopping done as well today.

Went into an electronics store thinking about buying one of those combo jobs that have CD-Tape-Radio-Record player all together. Talking to the guy who worked in the store. Thought the picture on the front of the box was a large CD. I had to tell him no that was a phonograph record. He said, "I've seen one but don't know how to use it."

Told him that I was a lot older than him and I grew up with one. Some of these items are made under the old "Victrola" name. I said my grandparents would have had one of those.

Rotten whipper-snappers.

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 4:43 AM (P)

It sounds like these are wood screws, that go through a hole in a metal piece directly into wood, to hold the metal piece on? If so, then you don't need to worry about matching threads. That only counts when you're trying to fit a metal screw into a threaded metal fitting or nut.

ASSUMING it's a wood screw, once a wood screw comes out, it leaves a slightly bigger hole in the wood than the size of the screw, meaning the exact same size screw might fall out. Depending on how big the screw hole is, you can sometime insert a piece of a wooden toothpick to fill up the hole a bit. Or you may need to upsize the screw. Or you could put epoxy in the hole and put the screw in, and count on the epoxy to keep it all together.

Those are the 'fixes' I can think of offhand, but I'm sure google knows more!

I'd be happy to chit chat back and forth!

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 4:51 AM (P)

Oh and Jack, I wanted to highlight what Signy said earlier, which is that you're probably dealing with surface water and poor drainage, not a high water table. I think that might have gotten lost in the mix.

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 5:20 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Oh and Jack, I wanted to highlight what Signy said earlier, which is that you're probably dealing with surface water and poor drainage, not a high water table. I think that might have gotten lost in the mix.



Dunno. Hard to say other than I'm on a semi-minor flood plane that used to be a really terrible flood plane before the ditch system was made sometime in the 60's or early 70's. Maybe once I've got the gutters up and the drain pipe fixed my problems will go away.



I'm STILL working on laundry today. I think I've only got 2 more loads left to do though. I didn't count, but I easily did over a dozen loads over the last 3 days.

I didn't pitch any of my suits yet. I knew I had two, but it turns out I have 4. I was going to get rid of any dress pants I had that were dry clean only outside of the suits, and any that weren't "wrinkle free", but I must have done that already, so keeping them too. Got rid of a few dress shirts that weren't extremely low maintenance. I hate keeping all of that stuff when I almost never use any of it. Maybe I'll pare it down further once I go through the rest of the clothes.

I threw away three coats that were damaged. Two are going to Goodwill. I've still got 5 more but I can't bring myself to get rid of them yet. I love having nice coats and the ones left are all pricey stuff that I bought new myself and are in great shape. I also threw away a bag of crap clothes. It turns out I had a lot of junk shirts that I'd never wear going out for use while doing yard work or painting that I've forgotten about. I'll be getting rid of quite a bit more I imagine once all the laundry is done and I take an inventory.

1 1/2 more bags full of coats and clothes to go to Goodwill so far. Already brought 2 there yesterday.


My end goal is the following:

1. To have all of my suits and coats I'm keeping in my living room closet with room to spare for guests coats (mission accomplished there).

2. Maybe call a local dry cleaner and see if I can get new bags to put the suits I ultimately keep in. I don't need anything fancy. Plastic is fine. I'd just rather have something that was designed for the task rather than cut out large black trashbags to cover them.

3. No more clothes and linens than what will fit in my two dressers I'm keeping and a single closet in my Master Bedroom.

I may have already accomplished this. I won't know until the rest of the laundry is done and I start packing stuff away. My space for hung up clothing that I would frequently use and isn't crap clothes for yardwork/painting is nearly full, but aside from a few drawers in one dresser that have all of the good towels, I've got a lot of dresser space for the rest.




Going to watch some DIY youtube stuff tonight and make a shopping list for my porch homework the next two days. It's already raining right now and should be through the morning, so I wasn't going to get anymore outdoor work done today. Hopefully it dries up pretty quickly tomorrow so I can jump right into it after picking up what I need.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 6:48 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hey Signy

Thanks for letting me know !!! about the specialty sealer.

When I went to Lowes for genuine TSP I did look up oil-based KILZ, and you're right, it's no longer sold (according to them). I should check out Ace hrdwr b/c they're usually more on top of things. It might be available in small containers. (Many years ago I was looking for oil-based porch floor paint at Ace, and it was available in small containers but not large ones.) Just a detail to track down.

Lowes did recommend another product they said works even better than Kilz did. You know I have a particular reason to be looking for something like Kilz but my second pick was milk paint with maximum tung oil.


What works better than KILZ? Zinsser? Something else?

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 7:29 AM (P)

Today is my vacation day! It's the day I slept in, and didn't plan on doing anything other than taking the dog out for potty breaks (she refuses to poop in the backyard), lunch with dear daughter, and weekly grocery shopping. I promise to clean upthe kitchen, but only after a nap!

This has been the month of baby lizards! Baby fence lizads everywhere. plus a ginormous skink in the potted succulent up front, and another ginormous skink between two 4X4s laid down on the ground in back. This also seems to be the year of orb spiders ... spiders that create those lovely webs that go round and round

When I let the dog out for a pee at night, there's been an orb spider right across the kitchen door sidewalk. It diligently spins its web every night, and diligently disassembles it every morning - clearly, a night-hunting spider!

DD pointed out another orb spider web this evening. The sunlight was shining thru the threads, and each thread refracted the entire rainbow of colors. The entire web was rainbowed, and the colors shifted depending on the angle that we looked at it. I've literally never seen a refractive orb spider-web before. I've seen them at all hours of the day, and night, and sparkling with dew (or less frequently, frost) but never with rainbows. It was quite impressive!

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 8:02 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hey Signy

Thanks for letting me know !!! about the specialty sealer.

When I went to Lowes for genuine TSP I did look up oil-based KILZ, and you're right, it's no longer sold (according to them). I should check out Ace hrdwr b/c they're usually more on top of things. It might be available in small containers. (Many years ago I was looking for oil-based porch floor paint at Ace, and it was available in small containers but not large ones.) Just a detail to track down.

Lowes did recommend another product they said works even better than Kilz did. You know I have a particular reason to be looking for something like Kilz but my second pick was milk paint with maximum tung oil.


What works better than KILZ? Zinsser? Something else?

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY



I've used both Kilz2 and Zinsser. That's really all my experience with water based primers. Both of them are really good for drywall applications, but if I've ever needed anything more than that I've used Original Kilz.

Well, that's not exactly true. I've used Zinsser for outdoor applications before. It certainly doesn't hold up as well outside, even with a coat or two of Sherwin Williams outdoor paint on top of it. But to be fair, there was an inordinate amount of water splashing up onto it that wouldn't have been if I had gutters up, and the birds LOVED the spot and shit all over it everyday before I took it out. It was the fence on the front porch attached to the pillars. Pillars are still there (just primered with outdoor Zinsser), but the fence is gone. Really need to get that outdoor paint on it now too.


Clothes/linens are done. Got everything out I needed to so I'm only taking two small closets and two dressers with all of them. Ended up with two more bags of trash and two more bags for Goodwill.

Decided to wash a bathroom mat that I have that's pretty heavy duty. Freakin instructions says it's machine washable, but to also wash it alone. Gorram thing is far to heavy with all the water in it and my washer keeps shutting down when it tries to put it through the spin cycle... and I have a great Amana designer series washer and dryer. I think I'm just going to throw it out, even though it's a great little bathroom mat.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 8:47 AM (P)

Top loading? If you're mterested in finishing, put something else in that sucks up a lot of water, like a couple of bath towels you don't care about. When it starts to spin and bonks out, open the washer and rearrange the bath mat on one side and the towels on the other for balance.

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 8:51 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Top loading? If you're mterested in finishing, put something else in that sucks up a lot of water, like a couple of bath towels you don't care about. When it starts to spin and bonks out, open the washer and rearrange the bath mat on one side and the towels on the other for balance.




Great idea!

I just happen to have a whole pile of towels that I don't care about suited just for things like this.



Loading it up with water again for the 3rd attempt. Probably not a bad idea to rinse it this many times either since it's super nappy and I bet it's still got a lot of detergent to get out.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 9:32 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
It sounds like these are wood screws, that go through a hole in a metal piece directly into wood, to hold the metal piece on? If so, then you don't need to worry about matching threads. That only counts when you're trying to fit a metal screw into a threaded metal fitting or nut.

ASSUMING it's a wood screw, once a wood screw comes out, it leaves a slightly bigger hole in the wood than the size of the screw, meaning the exact same size screw might fall out. Depending on how big the screw hole is, you can sometime insert a piece of a wooden toothpick to fill up the hole a bit. Or you may need to upsize the screw. Or you could put epoxy in the hole and put the screw in, and count on the epoxy to keep it all together.

Those are the 'fixes' I can think of offhand, but I'm sure google knows more!

I'd be happy to chit chat back and forth!



The screws do go through a piece of metal before going into the wood as this box has a little tray that closes and folds down when you close the lid on the whole box.

Thanks for the ideas. Will let you know what happens next week when I begin again the search for a screw to repair this with.

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 9:37 AM (P)

I seem to have misplaced a notebook that had a couple of Firefly stories in. Must be around the kitchen somewhere.

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 9:59 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Top loading? If you're mterested in finishing, put something else in that sucks up a lot of water, like a couple of bath towels you don't care about. When it starts to spin and bonks out, open the washer and rearrange the bath mat on one side and the towels on the other for balance.

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:



Great idea!

I just happen to have a whole pile of towels that I don't care about suited just for things like this.



Loading it up with water again for the 3rd attempt. Probably not a bad idea to rinse it this many times either since it's super nappy and I bet it's still got a lot of detergent to get out.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

I have to do that with my kitty's bed, which soaks up water like crazy! So the towel that goes on the chair for him goes on the other side. HA HA! Good luck!

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 8:55 PM (P)

It worked.

What a mess. The rug looks fine, but so much crap in the washing machine left behind from it.

Supposed to "line dry". I don't think I've seen anybody line dry anything in a decade or two.

Got it hanging on my weight bench in the basement for now. I think I can do better than a smelly basement for drying though. Once I get put together to pick up the materials I need for the next two days I'll hang it out in the garage. Got a perfect spot for it out there.




My bud used this great wood putty stuff on his house that his old man gave him a few gallons of. Comes in a paint gallon bucket with a black label. I didn't pay attention to the name and wish I had because it seems nobody else did either. Even called his dad to ask him what it was and he said what I already knew. "It comes in a black gallon paint bucket and the name has initials".

JB Weld? Not coming up with anything under that name. Bummer. He says it's at Home Depot, but I'm not driving 12 miles round trip on a hope and prayer that not only is that the correct big box store, but that I can find it and that it's even in stock there.

Oh well... DAP it is then. Can get a 32oz bucket of it for about $9.00. That's probably more than I'll need, at least for the time being.



Gotta get my ass in gear. I have some basic tools that I shouldn't have to purchase for the tuck pointing/tarring job on the cinder blocks. I need to do an inventory and figure out how much this is going to set me back.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, September 2, 2019 12:08 AM (P)

Also found some arcade games for sale. They had Space Invaders and Pac Man and one other. I didn't catch the name. I played the Space Invaders one for a couple of minutes. That was fun.

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Monday, September 2, 2019 1:24 AM (P)

Legit arcade machines? Always wanted to get one of those.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, September 2, 2019 1:36 AM (P)

Cloudy, wet, depressing day here.

I'm trying to stay motivated to work, but it's not going very well. I'm going to have to at least do some mortar fill on the inside since I already chipped away at the worst spots. As much as I'd love to make those walls look brand new, it occurs to me I don't know the first thing about what I'm doing here. But I have played Jenga before...

Those cinder blocks aren't going to do me the favor of magically hovering in place until I get around to putting concrete in there if I took out all of the bad stuff.

So... I'm just hitting really bad spots. And just like Jenga, I'm only messing with stuff that I could move with my fingers. At this point, there's no way the thing is ever going to be water tight, at least from the inside. I think that would require a complete knockdown and rebuild from scratch. My focus here is strictly on stabilization and solidification, particularly where we were able to knock the wall back out under the worst spot beneath the screen door.

I hope to get at least that done, and possibly the mortar fill on the ouside where I have the ground trenched out. I don't think I want to rush into putting on the tar, so that'll wait until tomorrow. I probably won't mess with the windows at all today.

Tomorrow is supposed to be at least somewhat sunny. Hoping my mood is better then.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, September 2, 2019 1:50 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Legit arcade machines? Always wanted to get one of those.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



They are but they aren't regular size. These sit on a table. They had one a little bigger than what I was playing with. They seem to be running at around $300 Canadian. I've seen them in my local Walmart as well. They had bigger ones there though.

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Monday, September 2, 2019 4:16 AM (P)

Hey Jack

So here's a story about ants under pavers, and a possible solution.

One of the big problems here are Argentinian ants which can make supercolonies that cover thousands of miles with many, many queens.
https://ants.com/5-ant-supercolonies-worlds-largest-ant-colonies/
5 Ant Supercolonies: All About the World’s Largest Ant Colonies

There's even a supercolony on the CA coast (not here, which is near the foothills). But here near the foothills, they are, nevertheless, a nasty, year-round, and sometimes overwhelming, problem.

Anyway, I initially had 'landing strips' (3 really wide paths from curb to sidewalk) in my parkway made of a lovely dark brown, smooth, flashed brick, set in sand with sand in between. But I found out much to my dismay that it made a perfect Argentinian ant home. The bricks up top were good mechanical protection AND a heat moderator for the ant tunnels and chambers in the sand underneath. I took the walkways out and gave the brick away.


ANYWAY - polymeric sand to use in between the bricks may be the answer.

https://www.bahlerbrothers.com/blog/bid/107030/what-is-polymer-sand-fo
r-pavers

https://www.techniseal.com/en-US/professional/content/polymeric-jointi
ng-sand-faq

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Monday, September 2, 2019 5:33 AM (P)

Yeah... I dunno. Sounds pretty specialized as far as ease of installation. It also basically bonds with the bricks to be pretty watertight, and is intended to be used as an entire graded surface to wick the water away from the main structures.

Sounds great, but water is probably a bigger enemy of mine than even the ants here. With moles also being a huge problem around here, I bet it wouldn't be long until my graded surface isn't graded properly anymore and I'm stuck with areas that now grade toward the home. As shitty as everything back there looks right now, at least it's allowing water to penetrate and isn't pooling up anywhere by the house.

I actually imagine that underneath my slab in front, a small slab in the back and under each and every single paver stone in the back there are thousands, if not millions of ants combined. I don't even want to know how deep they go too, but they LOVE being directly under the surface of these things and I've never pulled anything up that didn't have a ton of them right under the surface.

Not exactly sure what the solution is, but I think when I pull up the pavers and poison everything that I'm not going to be putting any sort of pavers back down at all.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, September 2, 2019 5:39 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Legit arcade machines? Always wanted to get one of those.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



They are but they aren't regular size. These sit on a table. They had one a little bigger than what I was playing with. They seem to be running at around $300 Canadian. I've seen them in my local Walmart as well. They had bigger ones there though.



Oh yeah. I've seen those.

I've got the ability to play about 10,000 games on my XBox, including most arcades from the late 70's up through the early 2,000 and most console and handheld systems. Always wanted to either build my own cabinet or mod one of these newer systems to play all of them, but never got around to doing it and don't see that in the pipeline anytime soon. Plays great with a regular controller on a regular TV right now though (although purists would argue that now it isn't the same since I got rid of all of my old tube TVs, but I don't notice any difference).

I'd really love to have an original arcade in my home someday. I think if I had my pick, it would be Rolling Thunder. Probably my favorite arcade of all time when I was a kid... and I played a lot of them.



The music was just fantastic. Burned into my brain forever.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, September 2, 2019 9:44 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Legit arcade machines? Always wanted to get one of those.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



They are but they aren't regular size. These sit on a table. They had one a little bigger than what I was playing with. They seem to be running at around $300 Canadian. I've seen them in my local Walmart as well. They had bigger ones there though.



Oh yeah. I've seen those.

I've got the ability to play about 10,000 games on my XBox, including most arcades from the late 70's up through the early 2,000 and most console and handheld systems. Always wanted to either build my own cabinet or mod one of these newer systems to play all of them, but never got around to doing it and don't see that in the pipeline anytime soon. Plays great with a regular controller on a regular TV right now though (although purists would argue that now it isn't the same since I got rid of all of my old tube TVs, but I don't notice any difference).

I'd really love to have an original arcade in my home someday. I think if I had my pick, it would be Rolling Thunder. Probably my favorite arcade of all time when I was a kid... and I played a lot of them.



The music was just fantastic. Burned into my brain forever.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



I would love one too. Since seeing it for fun I started thinking where I could put it in here. But I would never waste that kind of money on something like that.

I don't know that game. I had a Nintendo system for a few years. Played Mario Brothers.

Don't this game you mentioned. Before I got out of High School a couple of friends and me would go to a local comic book shop and play Galaga. Man, I don't know how much money we pumped into that machine but it was fun.

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Monday, September 2, 2019 10:36 AM (P)

Yeah. I think Rolling Thunder would have been after the time you were playing them. I have some vague memories of playing games like Pac-Man and Galaga in an arcade back before my folks split, but by the time I was like 10-12 years old they had advanced a bit and games like Rolling Thunder, Gauntlet and Pyros were big. Then a few years later they even got better with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons, and fighting games like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct. Around that time I grew out of the arcades myself. Kids don't even play them anymore these days since the home systems are so advanced. I think the only reason there's a market for arcades at all is nostalgia. They've got arcade/bars all over my area, and those retro arcade machines have been around for about a decade but started going mainstream enough to hit WalMart shelves about a year or two ago.



I had fond memories of Galaga and Dig-Dug on my Atari 7800 when I was a kid. Almost as good as the arcade machine and you didn't have to keep pumping quarters into it.

Now I've got all of them and can play them anytime. You don't need to even buy a beast of a machine like an XBox or have a full computer to play them anymore these days either. With a little machine called a Raspberry Pi that is around 30 bucks and the size of a credit card, if you know somebody who can set it up for you, you could play all of them on your TV with any generic control pad that has a USB port on it. It's not easy to set up on your own though unless you really make a hobby out of it like I have.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, September 2, 2019 11:46 AM (P)

Hey Jack - yeah, I looked it up. The Argentinian ants here behave very differently from your various ant species up there. So ...

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Monday, September 2, 2019 11:26 PM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah. I think Rolling Thunder would have been after the time you were playing them. I have some vague memories of playing games like Pac-Man and Galaga in an arcade back before my folks split, but by the time I was like 10-12 years old they had advanced a bit and games like Rolling Thunder, Gauntlet and Pyros were big. Then a few years later they even got better with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons, and fighting games like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct. Around that time I grew out of the arcades myself. Kids don't even play them anymore these days since the home systems are so advanced. I think the only reason there's a market for arcades at all is nostalgia. They've got arcade/bars all over my area, and those retro arcade machines have been around for about a decade but started going mainstream enough to hit WalMart shelves about a year or two ago.



I had fond memories of Galaga and Dig-Dug on my Atari 7800 when I was a kid. Almost as good as the arcade machine and you didn't have to keep pumping quarters into it.

Now I've got all of them and can play them anytime. You don't need to even buy a beast of a machine like an XBox or have a full computer to play them anymore these days either. With a little machine called a Raspberry Pi that is around 30 bucks and the size of a credit card, if you know somebody who can set it up for you, you could play all of them on your TV with any generic control pad that has a USB port on it. It's not easy to set up on your own though unless you really make a hobby out of it like I have.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



Yeah, that would explain why I don't remember it. I do remember when the Mortal Kombat games came out but I never played any of those. Shortly after that the company pulled the games out of the shop.

My tv is too old to do stuff like that and I really shouldn't be thinking along those lines anyways. Seizure disorder and arcade games not a real good mix. But it is fun to think about.

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Monday, September 2, 2019 11:26 PM (P)

Things to do on a pretty nice holiday Monday.

Later peeps.

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 4:54 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hey Jack - yeah, I looked it up. The Argentinian ants here behave very differently from your various ant species up there. So ...




lol Gilda

Argentinian or not, they're a bunch of dicks.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 5:03 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Yeah, that would explain why I don't remember it. I do remember when the Mortal Kombat games came out but I never played any of those. Shortly after that the company pulled the games out of the shop.

My tv is too old to do stuff like that and I really shouldn't be thinking along those lines anyways. Seizure disorder and arcade games not a real good mix. But it is fun to think about.



If you ever wanted to, let me know. I'm not really in a place to help and most of my stuff is packed away now, but whenever I get my new normal down to a tolerable copaceticism, I'll have more time for these things. :)


Unless you have a super old TV where you had to use a screwdriver to put wires into it, your current TV is fine. They make cables for pretty much anything these days. If you have a tube TV instead of a flat TV, it would just require either a USB to composite or a HDMI to composite cable. We could talk about that stuff if and when we ever do this. As far as setting things up, the internet allows for such huge file transfers these days at a speed that is pretty unreal. All you would pretty much need to do is buy what I would tell you to buy (the credit card sized computer board, a plug to power it, a small aluminum heat sink that you'd just need to pull off some plastic and press onto the CPU chip, a nifty looking case to protect it, a few cables, a controller or two and an SD card), and I could direct you to an image I create that would have everything you needed to "flash" to your own SD card with a free flashing program. After that, you could just hook it all up to your TV, power the thing up and you should be good to go. The only thing you might have to do after that point is "calibrate" the controller you've got. I'd also recommend getting two controllers because it's always more fun to play the games with a friend.


All mine does right now is really list out games and play them when you pick it. I'm working on putting all sorts of other goodies in there like the artwork to the boxes and arcade cabinets as well as preview videos of all the games to check out as you scroll through the numerous lists.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 5:10 AM (P)

Masonry sucks, or more accurately I suck at masonry. What an epic failure with that today. Word to the wise... don't use anything with a 5 minute set time unless you're a god at working with it. Otherwise you might as well take your money and just set it on fire.

I only got about half of the stuff patched that I needed to before I ran out. Most of it ended up in the trash.

Worked a bit on fixing a bad window sill and trying to make windows water tight. That's not done either. But when you're dealing with things like drying time, there's really not much you can do.

It's a 50% chance of thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon and night. Going to be visiting my brother, so I'm going to try not to think about it while I'm gone. It's not as if I wasn't going to take on water before I did any of this work anyhow. It hasn't made anything fall over yet.

I pulled up more of the floor that my friend wanted me to before he came back. Glad that he talked me into it. I don't like the look of some of the joists, sills and outer joists down there now that I have full light on the situation. I think I'm going to have to talk him into replacing all of the joists with me before this is done, or at least marrying new ones all the way down the line. I also want brand new sills and outer joists all the way up to the house like we did on the far side as well. This is going to add a few more days of his help for sure, and it will probably more than double what I've already spent up to this point. But it's got to be done. I don't imagine I'm going to be living here more than a few years at max, but I don't want to screw the next owner and leave them with the fucking mess that the idiots who lived here before me left me with.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 8:25 AM (P)

Cleaned up the kitchen a bit and got some more stuff in the trash. 1st floor is looking great, especially since I was able to pack up all the stuff that's been hogging the curio cabinet shelves for weeks that I'm bringing down to give to my brother.

Put out a few more mouse traps since I still see the occasional new turd over clean spots. I think I'm going to have to resign myself to that just happening until this porch is fixed and sealed. I'm sure that's where they're getting in.

Now I just need to relax and try to get the problems out of my mind for a few days and enjoy the time with my old man and my brother. Maybe I'll contact the real estate agent down there again and see if she'd be around so I can show the house I like to my dad since only me and my brother went to check out all those houses last time.


Anyhow... I might pop in the morning for a minute, but I'll talk to ya'all when I get back.

Good luck with your projects.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 10:10 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Yeah, that would explain why I don't remember it. I do remember when the Mortal Kombat games came out but I never played any of those. Shortly after that the company pulled the games out of the shop.

My tv is too old to do stuff like that and I really shouldn't be thinking along those lines anyways. Seizure disorder and arcade games not a real good mix. But it is fun to think about.



If you ever wanted to, let me know. I'm not really in a place to help and most of my stuff is packed away now, but whenever I get my new normal down to a tolerable copaceticism, I'll have more time for these things. :)


Unless you have a super old TV where you had to use a screwdriver to put wires into it, your current TV is fine. They make cables for pretty much anything these days. If you have a tube TV instead of a flat TV, it would just require either a USB to composite or a HDMI to composite cable. We could talk about that stuff if and when we ever do this. As far as setting things up, the internet allows for such huge file transfers these days at a speed that is pretty unreal. All you would pretty much need to do is buy what I would tell you to buy (the credit card sized computer board, a plug to power it, a small aluminum heat sink that you'd just need to pull off some plastic and press onto the CPU chip, a nifty looking case to protect it, a few cables, a controller or two and an SD card), and I could direct you to an image I create that would have everything you needed to "flash" to your own SD card with a free flashing program. After that, you could just hook it all up to your TV, power the thing up and you should be good to go. The only thing you might have to do after that point is "calibrate" the controller you've got. I'd also recommend getting two controllers because it's always more fun to play the games with a friend.


All mine does right now is really list out games and play them when you pick it. I'm working on putting all sorts of other goodies in there like the artwork to the boxes and arcade cabinets as well as preview videos of all the games to check out as you scroll through the numerous lists.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



I would say that my tv is about 12years old.

Never know but for right now I am trying to figure out to get a futon for a couch. That's really next on my agenda.

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 10:12 AM (P)

Managed to get a paper into the recycling but some yutz put a bunch of cut-up boxes on top of the other bins and they went onto the bin I had to use. Some people. So, until that is hauled away, I can't take down any more paper.

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 10:13 AM (P)

Watched the first episode of "Swamp Thing" tonight. Not bad. But I'm not much on DC stuff.

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 7:50 PM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:

I would say that my tv is about 12years old.

Never know but for right now I am trying to figure out to get a futon for a couch. That's really next on my agenda.



I got ya. I'm not in any position to help with it right now myself. Most of my stuff is packed away since I didn't want to be tempted to work on it while I have all of this much more important stuff to work on, so I wouldn't have been able to help right now anyhow other than to give advice.

People working the last few decades on this stuff as well as advances in technology have made the entire process much easier than it was when I first got into 2 decades ago, but the barrier to entry is still pretty high unless you're pretty tech literate, and even then it requires a lot of work.

That is... unless you know somebody who's done a lot of the work already.


I think this is a good thing though. When something like this gets to be so easy that anybody with a smartphone can do it in 3 seconds it all tends to get shut down overnight.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 7:52 PM (P)

Guess I don't have to wonder if it's going to rain while I'm gone. Woke up this morning to thunderstorms. Like 8 hours earlier than it was predicted we'd get them. Dorian must have everybody all f'd up right now.

Doesn't look as though I'm taking on any water right now anywhere, and the bare wood I put in yesterday and didn't paint yet hasn't gotten wet yet, but that's only because there's zero wind to go along with the storm right now. I don't expect that to be the case all day.

Anyway... see ya in a few.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 9:28 PM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Guess I don't have to wonder if it's going to rain while I'm gone. Woke up this morning to thunderstorms. Like 8 hours earlier than it was predicted we'd get them. Dorian must have everybody all f'd up right now.

Doesn't look as though I'm taking on any water right now anywhere, and the bare wood I put in yesterday and didn't paint yet hasn't gotten wet yet, but that's only because there's zero wind to go along with the storm right now. I don't expect that to be the case all day.

Anyway... see ya in a few.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Have a good visit, SIX! See you when you get back.

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 9:38 PM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:

I would say that my tv is about 12years old.

Never know but for right now I am trying to figure out to get a futon for a couch. That's really next on my agenda.



I got ya. I'm not in any position to help with it right now myself. Most of my stuff is packed away since I didn't want to be tempted to work on it while I have all of this much more important stuff to work on, so I wouldn't have been able to help right now anyhow other than to give advice.

People working the last few decades on this stuff as well as advances in technology have made the entire process much easier than it was when I first got into 2 decades ago, but the barrier to entry is still pretty high unless you're pretty tech literate, and even then it requires a lot of work.

That is... unless you know somebody who's done a lot of the work already.


I think this is a good thing though. When something like this gets to be so easy that anybody with a smartphone can do it in 3 seconds it all tends to get shut down overnight.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



I hear ya.

That was my problem at the old place but not of my own choosing.

Have a good trip and visit.

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019 9:41 PM (P)

Ran into a lady that I know who lives in the area of where I used to be. She told me that she thinks that my old landlady has rerented that space I was in out again. I've only been gone about 4 months, I wonder if they fixed all they were "supposedly" talking about before I left. Feel sorry for the guy but maybe he won't stay too long once he really sees how crappy that place is.

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Wednesday, September 4, 2019 12:27 AM (P)

Have a relaxing visit, Jack!!

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Wednesday, September 4, 2019 12:29 AM (P)

Hey Brenda

I hope the new guy is young and strong and can tolerate the awful living conditions better.

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Wednesday, September 4, 2019 1:48 AM (P)

KIKI, I'm amazed that you manage to stay functional and cogent with the weather the way it's been. Mid 90s here, there it's 10 degrees or more warmer, and WE have central AC!!!

Jeezuz it's been hot.

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Wednesday, September 4, 2019 2:55 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
KIKI, I'm amazed that you manage to stay functional and cogent with the weather the way it's been. Mid 90s here, there it's 10 degrees or more warmer, and WE have central AC!!!

Jeezuz it's been hot.

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

My workpace has, sadly, slowed to a crawl of late.

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Wednesday, September 4, 2019 3:23 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hey Brenda

I hope the new guy is young and strong and can tolerate the awful living conditions better.



Lady did say he looked young.

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Thursday, September 5, 2019 10:04 PM (P)

Wow, yeah, good luck to the new tennant! Maybe he can help them shovel the sidewalk!

How's the jwelery box coming?

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Thursday, September 5, 2019 10:04 PM (P)

Still having problems with my hearing aides.

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Thursday, September 5, 2019 10:06 PM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Wow, yeah, good luck to the new tennant! Maybe he can help them shovel the sidewalk!

How's the jwelery box coming?

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY



I'm not sure if I wish him luck or not. Maybe.

Screws are too wide on the end. Won't go into the hole. Gotta trek out to the hardware store tomorrow. Think I can get one screw out of the box to take with me to show and hope they can help me.

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Thursday, September 5, 2019 10:45 PM (P)


Quote:

SIGNYM:
KIKI, I'm amazed that you manage to stay functional and cogent with the weather the way it's been. Mid 90s here, there it's 10 degrees or more warmer, and WE have central AC!!! Jeezuz it's been hot.

KIKI: My workpace has sadly slowed to a crawl oflate

Well, if it makes you feel any better, so has mine. Once the room was (mostly) painted I kind of collapsed for three or four days I was so achy and tired. All I could manage was the necessities of family life - cooking, grocery shopping, bill-paying, VERY short walks with puppy-wuppy. I just got back to working on it yesterday with dear daughter, and it was just touch-ups and cleaning some equipment and pulling the cardboard off the floor and sweeping. I think one of my new meds is creating problems but I'll tough it out until my doctor's visit in a couple of weeks, by then I should know definitively what's going on.

There's supposed to be a big cooldown this Sat/Sun in my area. I hope you get some relief as well.

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Friday, September 6, 2019 7:57 AM (P)

Hope it cools down for everybody soon. Take a break and catch up on some Netflix and just chillax until it does. No sense in pushing yourself and getting yourself hurt or sick right before the cool down so you can't do right when the weather is more agreeable.


Had a great time with my dad and brother. My dad, who is now a Dave Chappelle fan, had us watch his new Netflix comedy "Sticks and Stones" and let me tell you I don't think I've laughed so hard and consistently at something in the last decade. I've been a huge Chappelle fan since before even the days of the Chappelle Show on Comedy Central, and I couldn't get my dad to watch him in all that time. The "woke" left has gone so crazy that they turned my old man into a DC fan. Crazy times we live in today.

If anybody is curious, the Rotten Tomatoes scores of this comedy special are a 30% critic rating vs a 99% audience score. The first week that it was out, the critic score was ZERO percent. I think this is a good barometer for how out of touch with the public the woke-left elitists are in 2019.



Anyway...

My friend is busy all week and we won't be working on either of our houses, but he's coming here next week after work to pick back up where we left off. I'm going to use that time to get even more of the stuff done that I can do while he's not here before we seal the floor up. I'm considering pulling up all of the patio pavers and building a 2nd support wall with them inside the hole where it had begun to cave in before we did the work. I'm also going to use that opportunity to dig out some of the sand to fill the hole as well. This will preclude the need for me to rent a dumpster at a later time when I pulled all of that crap up. Hopefully all of this structural work is done by springtime, I've got poison down to eliminate all of the ants, and I can do my research on how to lay a nice new bed down properly and maybe fill everything back there with some nice river rock or something when the snow melts.

I was going to get rid of the two "surplus" antique bed frames that I've had in my garage since my parents moved since I can't find anybody who wants them. I was in the process of putting them out on the street when a neighbor was walking his dog and asked if he knew anybody who would be interested in them. His wife volunteers for some Christian outfit that places things like furniture and food with people who need them. She came by and checked it out and will likely have somebody picking them up on Tuesday now. If I can get my brother out here by then, hopefully I'll have the 2nd bedroom set out in the garage and they'll take all of it off my hands. :)


I had to laugh when she said that she had actually been the one to take a dresser that I had put out on the street previously and that she felt bad about doing it. She said she had knocked on my door to ask permission first but I wasn't home. I said "are you kidding? I'm always thrilled to see that stuff that I put out there is taken before the trash men pick them up." I let her know that there's not much more going out on the curb at this point, but if she ever sees anything they can use to please feel free to take it. I also said there was no way I'm letting those bed frames go out to the trash either and if nobody had picked them up tonight I was going to pull them back in the garage and try again next week.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, September 6, 2019 11:06 PM (P)

Looks like I need 2 screws for that box I want to repair.

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Friday, September 6, 2019 11:21 PM (P)

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-09-05/second-blob-may-b
e-coming


News from this side of the US ...

Quote:





A giant mass of warm water off the Pacific Coast could rival ‘the blob’ of 2014-15

By Deborah NetburnStaff Writer
Sep. 5, 2019
6:53 PM

A large and unusually warm mass of water is threatening to disturb the marine ecosystem along the Pacific Coast from Southern California to Alaska, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday.

They call it the Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave of 2019, and if it doesn’t dissipate soon, researchers said it could be as destructive as the infamous “blob” of warm water that caused massive toxic algae blooms along the coast and wreaked havoc on whales, salmon, baby sea lions and other marine life in 2014 and 2015.

If I recall correctly, it was also associated in time with dissolving sea stars.
Quote:

“Really, only time will tell if this feature will persist and if it will rival the past event in duration and impact,” said Andrew Leising, a research oceanographer at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla.

Marine heat waves are defined as oceanic events in which the surface temperature of the water is warmer than 90% of past measurements for at least five days in a row.

The Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave of 2019 currently covers about 4 million square miles of ocean surface. The affected area is roughly the shape of a triangle, with Hawaii, Alaska and Southern California as its vertices.

At its peak, the blob was just a bit bigger, covering a similar area that stretched for roughly 4.8 million square miles.



That makes the current event the second largest marine heat wave since scientists started tracking the phenomenon in 1981, NOAA researchers said.

'The blob' was thought to have been caused by the multi-year 'ridiculously resistant ridge' in the atmosphere, that kept a high pressure ridge of hot dry air over the west coast of North America. And those caused both the record multi-year drought and stagnant wind conditions over the west coast that led to 'the blob'. And the RRR in turn is thought to be related to global warming.
This event appears to be related to a stationary low pressure not related to global warming.
Quote:

Scientists first noticed the Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave in June. It appears to be caused by a persistent area of low pressure in the atmosphere directly above the warm water. That low pressure led to a general weakening of the ocean winds that normally cool the water’s surface and mix that top layer with cooler water from the deep, researchers said.

However, scientists are still unsure what caused the low-pressure system to stay put for so long.

“Usually it intensifies and weakens day to day. It doesn’t sit there for months at a time,” said Nate Mantua, a research scientist at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz. “It may not have a cause other than the chaotic motion of the atmosphere.”

Scientists said there is no evidence that climate change is responsible for the current marine heat wave, although it might have exacerbated it.

“Human- caused climate change has contributed something like 1 degree Celsius of warming across much of the North Pacific,” Mantua said. “This event is much bigger — at least 3 degrees Celsius in the last three months.”

Researchers said the 2019 marine heat wave

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 3:23 AM (P)

Kiki,

I hope it doesn't.

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 3:27 AM (P)

Well, my mom's jewellery box is repaired. Yay! me. It did need only 1 screw. A couple of pieces over lap which is when I looked at again it seemed to need another one. I made the trip to the local home hardware store with a screw from the box and found what I needed. New screw isn't slotted but it fits and works. So repair job done.

Problem with hearing aides solved as well. Security system setting too high in the store that I went into where the arcade games are. So, I just have to remember the proper program for them when I am in a noisy environment.

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 3:32 AM (P)

Here is one for the weird file. Went to a local coffee place to get a cup of coffee this morning. Lady at the counter asked me if I was Korean. I said no then she asked me if I spoke Korean and again I said no. She apologized for her question and I told her not to worry about it as that has been happening since I was a child. But it is usually Chinese that I am mistaken for and the person asking the question is white.

Think that is the first time that I have had an Asian person ask me if I was Asian.

Now as I was born in Vancouver and we lived there until I was three years old, that question could have been asked when I was a baby. But then the person answering it would have been my mother.

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 3:38 AM (P)

Hooray! I have hearing aids too, but when I was working it was a really noisy environment, so I never put them in ... which means I never quite got used to them either. I think I need them to be readjusted to whatever further decrements in hearing I've acquired over the frequency bands they amplify.

But again - hooray !!!

Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Well, my mom's jewelery box is repaired. Yay! me. It did need only 1 screw. A couple of pieces over lap which is when I looked at again it seemed to need another one. I made the trip to the local home hardware store with a screw from the box and found what I needed. New screen isn't slotted but it fits and works. So repair job done.

Problem with hearing aides solved as well. Security system setting too high in the store that I went into where the arcade games are. So, I just have to remember the proper program for them when I am in a noisy environment.

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 3:47 AM (P)

Hey Signy,
The cooldown here doesn't start until tomorrow when it gets down to the 90-95 range, there's 4 days in the 80-85 range (oh blessed relief!) then 4 days in the 90-95 range; with crappy air quality to match the heat and sun.

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 3:48 AM (P)

Hey Jack

I'm glad you had a good time!

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 3:56 AM (P)

As for me, still noodling along. I met an elderly lady at the laundromat a couple of evenings ago (still haven't gotten my washing machine fixed). I offered to help her with any heave-ho she needed doing. Yeah, my back always hurts and I'm tired as shit, but I have enough spare oomph to help out with that. One of the reasons why she was in the laundromat so late - she came in after 9:30 PM - is because she has no AC at home, apparently not even in her bedroom - and the laundromat at least has a couple of pretty effective swamp coolers. I feel for her. I'm sure she's got at least a few old-age illnesses going on, and this heat has got to be a strain. But what can you do?

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 9:29 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hooray! I have hearing aids too, but when I was working it was a really noisy environment, so I never put them in ... which means I never quite got used to them either. I think I need them to be readjusted to whatever further decrements in hearing I've acquired over the frequency bands they amplify.

But again - hooray !!!
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Well, my mom's jewelery box is repaired. Yay! me. It did need only 1 screw. A couple of pieces over lap which is when I looked at again it seemed to need another one. I made the trip to the local home hardware store with a screw from the box and found what I needed. New screen isn't slotted but it fits and works. So repair job done.

Problem with hearing aides solved as well. Security system setting too high in the store that I went into where the arcade games are. So, I just have to remember the proper program for them when I am in a noisy environment.




It is good to have that problem with my hearing aides solved.

Yours Kiki may even need to be upgraded. Mine were just around the time they were repaired. There is a program for the buzzing I get in my ears and the one for a noisy environment. To work either program I have a small remote for them.

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 9:31 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hey Signy,
The cooldown here doesn't start until tomorrow when it gets down to the 90-95 range, there's 4 days in the 80-85 range (oh blessed relief!) then 4 days in the 90-95 range; with crappy air quality to match the heat and sun.



It is heading for a rain where I am in the next couple of days. By Sunday or late tomorrow it should start.

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 9:31 AM (P)

Congrats on the box.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, September 7, 2019 9:34 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Congrats on the box.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



Thanks Jack. It feels good to get that done.

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Sunday, September 8, 2019 4:04 AM (P)

Decided to finish emptying the one bin left that had my earring trees and jewellery boxes in it. Found the mates to a couple of pairs that I thought were lost. That was good. A mess of book marks too. Also a couple of pairs that must have fallen out of a box into the bin and both are there.

Shredded another pile of old papers. Then decided to look up the old addresses that I lived when I was a whole lot younger. Before and just around the time my dad died.

One the address still comes up but looks like the house is gone. The other house is still there but looks like it has been added to and repainted over the years. I still remember walking from those houses to the elementary schools that I attended.

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Sunday, September 8, 2019 4:09 AM (P)

Street music thing going on in my city today. Food trucks out and little stalls selling stuff.

Electrical fields setting off my hearing aides again. Left one is the worst.

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Sunday, September 8, 2019 4:57 AM (P)

I couldn't be more pleased with myself right now.

Well... I guess if I'm being honest, I could be if I'd finally gotten around to doing the rest of the tuck-pointing that needs to be done, but tomorrow is another day for that.


I started the day off working on the windows on the back side of the porch. Plastic wood is all up there now and laid on thick, and the new wood is installed. Built everything out in a way that nothing should grade to the house this time when it's all sealed up. It's not pretty since I'm bad at that, so I'll have a lot of sanding to look forward to. Also prepped the other two windows that hardly had any damage and re-caulked them. I will probably have to wait at least 2 days for the plastic wood to properly dry, but then I'll primer everything up in preparation for the finish coat or 2. At that point, I'll take a garden hose and spray all over and see if any water is getting inside before new floor is put down.

That's not what's got me giddy right now though...


I may or may not have mentioned my (expensive) shop vac was on its last legs. My cheap/stupid ass neglected many years ago to buy a new filter when the one I had was in super bad shape. I didn't really know any better. The insides of things like that were a complete mystery to me all those years before I took that Mechatronics class. I've since replaced it once or twice, but that thing had been wheezing every time it turned off for years now.

Last week, after vacuuming up most of my house and a lot of crap in the porch, I was working on vacuuming the basement and it really started behaving poorly. Then I smelled the burning.

Damn...

It set me back about $90 back in the early 2000s. A quick Amazon search later I discovered that if I wanted to replace it with a new one of the same brand and caliber I was looking at around $150 after taxes. Not only that, but I'd just sprung $15 for a brand new filter for that one, and if I went with a cheaper model this time that filter would likely go to waste.


But today, without any youtube videos, I took the entire thing apart down to the bare motor.

The housing for the motor was filthy. Not with dirt and standard dust, but everything was coated with white. It was the super-fine white powder you create when sanding drywall. Every square inch of the motor and the housing inside was coated in it.

So I pulled all of the plastic I could safely pull away from it and washed all of that in the sink. I took a new bottle of canned air I had when I repaired my computer last year and sprayed the motor and wiring down as best as I could, and the rest of the plastic housing that I couldn't safely remove from the wiring and motor I cleaned by hand with some Clorox spray and paper towels.

Grabbed some 3-in-1 oil I had in the garage and oiled up the parts that needed oiling. I could already tell just by hand at this point that everything was running much smoother.

Then I went out to the garage to get the Yellow weatherproof gasket sealer tube I had leftover from the car repairs last summer. There's a gasket in the vac that has seen better days which I had pulled out carefully. Loaded up with the sealer, placed the gasket back in, then loaded another bead on top of it all around, fitted it back together and used the screws to bond it all tight.

Screwed all of the various parts back into place, put on my new filter.

Fingers crossed, I plugged it back in, turned it on and it works like brand new!

No weird sounds or wheezing, and I'd forgot just how powerful this beast was when it was brand new.


Not going to celebrate until I've got a few weeks of hard use on it, but it looks like I may have just saved myself $150 for about 45 minutes of my time and a bunch of stuff I already had lying around my garage.

Even cooler that I knew where everything that I needed was and didn't have to spend 3 hours looking for it all.







Now I'm kind of

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Sunday, September 8, 2019 7:20 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Congrats on the box.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



Thanks Jack. It feels good to get that done.

It's so satisfying when things like that get finished!

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Sunday, September 8, 2019 9:34 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Congrats on the box.

Do Right, Be Right. :)



Thanks Jack. It feels good to get that done.

It's so satisfying when things like that get finished!

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY



It is. Now, I can take my time transferring things into it.

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Monday, September 9, 2019 12:44 AM (P)

Rain last night at about 1am. Heavy. Silly seagull on the roof of the apartment building next door enjoying the water that collected there.

Flipside Environment Canada is predicting a warmer fall for BC.

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Monday, September 9, 2019 7:42 AM (P)

Found my note book with 3 Firefly stories in it yesterday evening. It was under my recipe book which I dug out to make my birthday cake in 3weeks.

Anniversary today. My Blair's been gone 8years today. Didn't really hit me until around suppertime. Guess that is time softening the day.

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Monday, September 9, 2019 8:07 AM (P)

Dropped off one small bag of video games to Goodwill (I know I said I was done with that, but my step brother didn't want old sports games I was going to have my dad give back to him and instead of just throwing them out I wanted to give them away). Picked up the right masonry concrete this time. 80lb bag with a 90 minute work time for 7 bucks and change. WHAT WAS I THINKING BUYING A 10 LB BAG WITH 5 MINUTES SET TIME FOR 9 BUCKS!!!!

If that works out well, I plan on pulling up all of those patio pavers before the floor gets put down and building a 2nd wall on the south side to buttress up the cinderblock wall I need to finish repairing before sealing everything up. Then I'm going to put all of the sand in the hole too and put a ton of ant poison down. Might as well use that hole to get rid of everything instead of renting a dumpster or spending 6 months salting it out with my trash, right?

Rainy and overcast all day long. Didn't feel like doing much, but didn't mind the break from real life. Just got all my monthly paperwork and bills sorted out. Taking a break now before I go and try to figure out the 11% Menards rebate stuff and get that ready to mail out tomorrow.

BTW... Just got another credit card with a $200 bonus if you spend $1k in 3 months. Should be quite easy to do with the work coming down the pipe. Even if I don't think I'll hit it, I can always just pay my internet bill for the next 10 months or something if I run out of time.

Between that (20% off), the 11% menards rebate and the 2-3% cash back on the card, I'll get nearly 35% off the next $1k of materials and tools I need for the upcoming jobs. Even more if I catch stuff on sale.

Just found out Aldi takes cards now? They've been doing it for 3 years and I didn't even know it. My dumb ass was paying with cash like I used to do and missing out on rewards points. Can use that to get to the $1k too now.


Bro is coming over tomorrow to get the rest of the big furniture I'm not keeping out to the garage, then my neighbor is going to have the Christian outfit she volunteers for come pick it up with the two bed frames. Somebody is going to be thrilled when they get that nice furniture for free.


Didn't give my newly restored shop vac the workout I was planning on giving it today. I really want to put that thing through its paces and make sure it's going to give me more years of great service. I'm hoping that a replacement gasket isn't too costly if I need to open it up again. I will destroy it completely if and when I ever need to get back to the motor.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, September 9, 2019 10:11 AM (P)

Man...

Menards rebates are simple as could be. Can even stuff as many in a single envelope as you get too, so since I have until the 21st to mail in the first batch, I'm just going to hold on to all of them that I acquire until that point and then start a new batch after that one.

So far, I'm looking at nearly $32 bucks coming back my way. And once you get them, anything you buy with the in-store credit they give you doesn't get sales tax put on it (double bonus).

I'm going to have to start paying attention to Menards mailers too. From what I read online, not only do you get the 11% rebate on everything, but certain things from week to week get additional rebates, and some items you can just get for free after the rebate. I might have already missed out on some cool free stuff these last two weeks.




Hmmmmmmm...

Might have to decide quickly if I want to start buying stuff for other things that need doing in the house.

Got some pre-fabbed shelving units that have a good rebate on them that I could use when I get to finally finishing the closets in the bedrooms. You don't realize how nice it is to have a few shelves in closets in your home until you've lived 8 years without any.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, September 9, 2019 7:43 PM (P)

Quote:

Between that (20% off), the 11% menards rebate and the 2-3% cash back on the card, I'll get nearly 35% off the next $1k of materials and tools I need for the upcoming jobs. Even more if I catch stuff on sale.
That's some serious savings, SIX. Heck, I'm happy to get a decent grocery coupon!

Sounds like you had a rain delay and took it easy. Good for you! Everyone needs a mental and physical recovery period once in a while.

As for me, I took an unplanned 5 day vacation. I just couldn't get my rear in gear! But we finally got the big cooldown that was predicted ... it'll be pleasant for four days or so ... and that triggered a restart on that VERY long list of "things to do" so the bedroom floor is now cleaned up 100% of paint (Yes I know, I said I wouldn't get involved, but I did) and I helped out in the garage modifying the woodworking bench, plus puppy-wuppy finally got a decent walk in.

Today I have a service tech coming in to do a top-to-bottom cleanout of the AC system. I know we have a less-usual refrigerant so I had to dig out the file to show them DON'T put in the "usual stuff" if the system needs a top-up! Fortuitously, today is one of those cooler days, so we won't mind the AC being turned off.

Also we are finally going to stucco the holes that the plumbers left. Since the mesh is already in place they've been critter=proof for a while.

Just OOC ... what do you all do for fun? What do you do in your spare time?

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Monday, September 9, 2019 9:40 PM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Between that (20% off), the 11% menards rebate and the 2-3% cash back on the card, I'll get nearly 35% off the next $1k of materials and tools I need for the upcoming jobs. Even more if I catch stuff on sale.
That's some serious savings, SIX. Heck, I'm happy to get a decent grocery coupon!



Yeah... It's a little experiment I've been doing over the last 2 years or so. See how long they'll keep throwing free money at me, and how much I can get away with without killing my credit score. Once I collect on this $200, that will be $1k in rewards for getting new cards, not including the cash back you get on them. (2 cards at $150 for $500 in 3 months and 2 at $200 for $1k in 3 months) It hasn't negatively impacted my score. I recently found out from a bank my FICO score is 806. That's typically the one that is used when you're queried for things like home loans, although that's not the score you get on websites who usually use the Vantage score from both Experian and Transunion, which have me at 819 and 814 respectively.

My thought, at least right now, is that any negative impact that the inquiries have (which are considered low impact anyhow and age off after a year) have been negated simply by having more credit at my disposal.

Part of me thinks I should have just gotten this card before I was already $300-$400 in repair expenses, but I really don't want to go too crazy with it. Not only are there a limited number of cards and banks offering them, but I've heard that if you get several cards from the same bank they tend to catch on to what you're doing and they don't pay out the reward (I'm sure it's in the fine print somewhere).

I've got my eyes on one more that would be doable for sure without further strategizing. I might wait until 2020 to get it though. I can't remember if I've done only 1 last year and 3 this year now, or 2 last year and this would by my second this year. I don't want to push my luck and I want to keep it at 2 per year until they stop offering it to me.

Anyhow, it's a cool little experiment and who am I to turn down tax free money?

Quote:

Sounds like you had a rain delay and took it easy. Good for you! Everyone needs a mental and physical recovery period once in a while.


Yeah. Being lazy by nature, it's kind of hard on me to be working so much without breaks. I go crazy when I do work, but I love my days off. Trying not to get too vested in any recreational activities that I used to though, because I don't want them pulling me away from what needs to be done. Not going to start binge watching Game of Thrones yet, or start playing a RPG that I could easily lose 500 hours to. Don't have time for that stuff in my life right now. :)

Quote:

As for me, I took an unplanned 5 day vacation. I just couldn't get my rear in gear! But we finally got the big cooldown that was predicted ... it'll be pleasant for four days or so ... and that triggered a restart on that VERY long list of "things to do" so the bedroom floor is now cleaned up 100% of paint (Yes I know, I said I wouldn't get involved, but I did) and I helped out in the garage modifying the woodworking bench, plus puppy-wuppy finally got a decent walk in.

Today I have a service tech coming in to do a top-to-bottom cleanout of the AC system. I know we have a less-usual refrigerant so I had to dig out the file to show them DON'T put in the "usual stuff" if the system needs a top-up! Fortuitously, today is one of those cooler days, so we won't mind the AC being turned off.

Also we are finally going to stucco the holes that the plumbers left. Since the mesh is already in place they've been critter=proof for a while.



Sometimes you need a break... an extended one. Especially when it's hot. No shame in that. Don't beat yourself up too much over it.

I can't believe I've be

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Monday, September 9, 2019 10:46 PM (P)

Looks like I need to get my left ear flushed again. Will make an appointment about that. Rainy day here. Need an umbrella.

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Tuesday, September 10, 2019 1:03 AM (P)

The last of the big furnature I'm not keeping is out of the house now. :)

Staged in the garage until they hopefully pick all of it up tomorrow morning.

A bit unfortunate since it's now in the way of the work space and lumber. Was kind of hoping in light of that my friend wasn't going to call me today about doing work, but he did, and I'm not going to say no when he wants to come out to work. We'll just have to work around it and I'll have to get up extra early to make sure everything is clean again before they pick it all up tomorrow. Hopefully she'll call me a bit ahead of time and I could just stage everything outside of my garage before they get here.


Getting so close to having the hoard completely out of here. Just some minor things still to go through in the house and I've got to do a deep clean everywhere before I decide what home improvident projects I want to start as soon as the porch issue is wrapped up. I'll be able to clean up the garage now soon too that the furniture and the bed frames will be gone tomorrow. As soon as we get the porch complete and it's not stuffed with lumber I'll be able to organize everything. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 10, 2019 9:23 AM (P)

Rain today and just some errands ran. Might rain again tomorrow.

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Tuesday, September 10, 2019 9:25 AM (P)

Had to undo a little of our previous work. Marrying joists is a lot easier on paper than it is in real life on an existing structure. Funny thing about brand new solid pieces of wood is that they don't like to bend like play doh to fit where you want them to go.

Learning process for both of us here...

Good news is that we did get a few brand spankin' new joists in tonight, they fit nice and tight and are level. Only two of them though. But at least I didn't have to convince my friend to remove the bad stuff altogether instead of marrying them. There was no way around removing them. It would be impossible to fit the new ones in without taking the bad ones out completely first. Pesky existing walls keep getting in the way...

I'm sure this is all much easier when building from the floor up.

We seem to be developing a system though, and I think things will go a lot smoother from here on out. The only problem is that we won't be able to marry joists on the other end where everything was much better and the floor hadn't caved in, but I'm a still a bit iffy on the structural integrity. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and end up doing a lot more work than I initially wanted to. There are youtube videos on how to do what I think needs to be done. It involves putting two half joists next to existing joists, sandwitching the bad joist with them, fitting them in tight along the walls and then drilling large holes through all 3 of them and bolting them together in the middle. My friend will probably think that this is overkill, but when we seal this up I want to know that it's going to stand for another 30 or 40 years.

This is probably going to end up being twice or even three times as expensive as I was hoping, but it sure beats knocking it down. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 10, 2019 11:58 PM (P)

2nd bedroom set is finally out of my garage and out of my life forever.

I'd have my garage back now completely if I didn't have all of that lumber out there and the three pallets that I had used to span the crevasse of the bad porch floor the last year or two. Those won't be coming with me, but with all the upcoming work they might still prove useful, whether for their intended use or repurposed for another task.

Well... I still have one of the bed frames that I'm not keeping. They didn't take both of them. Got it out on my street now. Somebody should take it by the end of the night, but it is the one that I never glued, so somebody might not take it when they try to lift it and see that it's going to need some work. Supposed to thunderstorm tonight, so I might have to move that back in and just keep taking it out on the nice days until somebody takes it.


Unless my friend calls me today, I'm not planning on doing any rehab work. It's hot AF today. I think I might vacuum and clean the floors behind all the old furniture in the master bedroom so I can move the antique set I'm keeping all in place and get the nice bed in there too. It's going to be a huge upgrade for my bro when he comes in for the holiday season this year, going from a claustrophobic mess of a small bedroom to a huge room with plenty of leftover space when all the furniture is in there.

Now I just have to decide if I'm going to keep the 2nd futon or not. If I get rid of it, the small bedroom is now added to the list of completely empty rooms in my house (3 total now). I think I might keep it though. When the porch is finally done, it would be nice to have out there. If we get it sealed watertight and do it all right it should also keep the bugs out which was always a problem before. It would actually be a nice place to lounge and even sleep on cool nights, so the futon is something I should probably keep until I move.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, September 11, 2019 4:30 AM (P)

No rain today but two bags of books with little puzzles taken in to the local thrift shop.

Looks like the stuff I've been storing in my dad's old dresser maybe useful. Some of it. Had to throw out two sheets that were just too holey to be useful anymore. But other stuff may just need a wash to be useful. Will have to see.

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Wednesday, September 11, 2019 10:47 PM (P)

Rainy weekend and rainy next week expected here.

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Wednesday, September 11, 2019 10:53 PM (P)

Hey guys, I'm going to be less present for the while. The weather is turning, and more needs to be done. I'll be reading and taking encouragment from your progress, it's awesome to see how everyone is making progress and will be chiming in from time to time but not as often as before. Carry on!

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Wednesday, September 11, 2019 11:13 PM (P)

Good on you Brenda. :)

Make sure not to throw out any sentimental stuff till the end (of course linens with holes are acceptable). Just keep plowing through the easy stuff first. Once you've done that you can re-evaluate where you're at with the clutter and where you want to be before you go more in-depth during the next round.

It's one thing to kick yourself at a later date because you threw out something useful that you would absolutely have made use of now if you hadn't thrown it out, but it's another thing entirely to be sitting there looking at stuff that you decided to save during round one and chide yourself for choosing that junk over a box full of precious memories.

I think you're already doing that, but just wanted to offer that reminder based off of my experience. I'm already dealing with a twinge of regret on a few smaller items that are gone now. I think if I had to do it all over I wouldn't have started boxing up things for a future move while I had been doing this. There's definately pros to that method, but when I consider the two boxes of Christmas junk I still haven't gone back through to remove all non-sentimental items, I wish I had kept a few things I got rid of to fill in those boxes instead.

No real regrets though. In a year or two I'll probably never give it another thought, and I did keep most of the stuff with sentimental value.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, September 11, 2019 11:14 PM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hey guys, I'm going to be less present for the while. The weather is turning, and more needs to be done. I'll be reading and taking encouragment from your progress, it's awesome to see how everyone is making progress and will be chiming in from time to time but not as often as before. Carry on!

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY




Good luck!

Weather "turned" here too, but extremely and unseasonably hot. Even with my blower on all night I woke up and it was already 75 and humid as hell in my house. One more day of this before it cools back down for the weekend. I don't think I'm doing much the next few days, so I hope it's nice and dry this weekend to help my friend on his house.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, September 11, 2019 11:18 PM (P)

So I had put the last bed frame out on the curb yesterday after they didn't take it. I thought I heard somebody knocking on my door while taking a nap, but by the time I got there nobody was outside. Later, I looked back at the street and the bed frame was gone. Since my neighbor told me before that she had knocked to ask permission for the dresser I put out on the curb, I wondered if that was her and she went and took the frame after her Christian outfit turned it down. She had given me numbers to a few other organizations, but I didn't want to deal with that anymore and just wanted it out.

Happy to see it was gone and I wasn't going to have to retrieve it for the night of rain, I wasn't going to give it any more thought.

I was making a pot of coffee this morning though and saw my neighbor across the street loading it into his car. lol

Going to have to ask him what they did with it when I see him walking his dog next time. Not that I don't appreciate the trouble they went to there, but I wasn't going to let it get ruined and I told them that.

It's a beautiful bed frame. Hope it finds a good home.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, September 12, 2019 2:58 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Good on you Brenda. :)

Make sure not to throw out any sentimental stuff till the end (of course linens with holes are acceptable). Just keep plowing through the easy stuff first. Once you've done that you can re-evaluate where you're at with the clutter and where you want to be before you go more in-depth during the next round.

It's one thing to kick yourself at a later date because you threw out something useful that you would absolutely have made use of now if you hadn't thrown it out, but it's another thing entirely to be sitting there looking at stuff that you decided to save during round one and chide yourself for choosing that junk over a box full of precious memories.

I think you're already doing that, but just wanted to offer that reminder based off of my experience. I'm already dealing with a twinge of regret on a few smaller items that are gone now. I think if I had to do it all over I wouldn't have started boxing up things for a future move while I had been doing this. There's definately pros to that method, but when I consider the two boxes of Christmas junk I still haven't gone back through to remove all non-sentimental items, I wish I had kept a few things I got rid of to fill in those boxes instead.

No real regrets though. In a year or two I'll probably never give it another thought, and I did keep most of the stuff with sentimental value.



Do Right, Be Right. :)



Nah, I think I am okay on sentimental stuff. I'm keeping things that my dad bought me and I've had them for years. My dad's dresser while a little dinged up now once I've gone through the linens and dishtowels in it, I can still use for storage space. Of course my trunk which was my grandad's has family photos back in it and I still have 1 of my grandmother's cookbooks(my dad's mom). My grandmother's music books. I've got my dad's hammer and his old nail can if I find anything else I want to hang up.

Still taking little bits that I can carry over to the local thrift shop but they aren't anything important. Got some small dead electronics that I can take down to a store that takes that stuff in to be recycled. I'll do that a little bit at a time.

Still have some papers to sort through but I am almost finished with stuff from my mom and dad. Their important stuff is in an old metal box that my dad kept for such stuff, so I can lay my hands on it easily if I need it.

So, for now I think Jack, I am in pretty good shape.

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Thursday, September 12, 2019 5:09 AM (P)

Sounds good, Brenda. It also sounds like you might be getting to the end of your own de-cluttering, am I right?



Today turned out to be pretty productive afterall. Still pretty miserably hot around these parts, and I didn't really get my ass in gear until nearly 3PM, but I spent about an hour picking up all of the sticks and debris from the last few storms before mowing everything. What a workout that was. I really need to get another physical job when I start working again. Office work isn't going to cut it. The lawn looks phenomenal though. The work so far this summer on curb appeal has paid dividends so far. I bet my neighbors are thrilled.

I'm hoping I can keep it up for a few more hours tonight and clean the floors and stage all of the furniture where I want it to go. I'm not going to put anything right up against the walls though. Might as well not do that until I buy all the trim I need for the bedrooms and finally put it up after my 6 year DIY hiatus.

The master bedroom is huge though, so even though it might look a little odd in the mean time, there will still be enough room to have a small dance floor with only a full size bed in there.


My buddy had to go to the chiropractor yesterday after he hurt his back hoisting the joist all by himself. I'm hoping he has a speedy recovery. My shoulder issue is already fine after a few days of taking it easy.

So the lawn is out of the way, with one more hot day to go. If my friend is feeling better, tomorrow night was the last night he said he'd be available to work on my house this week. Fingers crossed. I'll be helping out at his rental at least one day this weekend. Hopefully I get crackin' again around here in the mean time and do the outside tuck pointing so I can finally put that tar on the foundation and fill in the trench. I've really got to finish all the windows too so I can make sure everything is water tight before putting a new floor down.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, September 12, 2019 6:50 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Sounds good, Brenda. It also sounds like you might be getting to the end of your own de-cluttering, am I right?




Do Right, Be Right. :)



I think I am. Feels good to get through all that stuff that was in boxes for years.

Sounds like you are doing good too.

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Thursday, September 12, 2019 6:50 AM (P)

Flip side, I do not like September right now.

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Friday, September 13, 2019 10:03 AM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
I think I am. Feels good to get through all that stuff that was in boxes for years.



Great to hear. Tell me about it.

Quote:

Sounds like you are doing good too.



Yup. Just when I thought I was going to have another lazy day because of the weather, my friend came out of nowhere late in the day and we kicked so much ass.

The structural work on the back porch is done! We finished all the sills, outside joists and inside joists that needed to be replaced. These babies are solid!

More homework for me. I still have to tuck point the outside of the cinder blocks and finish the windows and make sure nothing leaks in before I even think of putting the new flooring in. Now I have to also use remaining lumber and possibly buy some more if I run out to tie all the joists to each other. None of this rinky-dink metal cris-cross straps they used last time. This thing is going to be built like a tank. I have some old Green 4"x4"s that I'm also considering making pylons out of by using a post hole digger, filling with concrete and using the 4x4's to further support the floor in the middle of the room.

I'm also going to see if my brother would mind picking up the plywood using his truck-like vehicle. My bud says there's no way that his car would support the weight. If my bro can't do it I'll have to rent a truck from Mendards to get all of that.




But for the bad news.... :(

The 11% rebate thing is over right now. I just thought it was all the time and you needed a new slip every week. When I bought 50 bucks worth of stuff today though there was no rebate receipt. It looks like I missed out for the rest of the stuff. No way I'm buying any more stuff now until that new credit card comes in so I can at least get the 20% off plus the rewards points.



Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Flip side, I do not like September right now.



No? How come?

Not sure why for you, but I haven't been enjoying it much this week either. Way too hot for this time of year.

Three miserably hot days in a row and to add insult to injury even though the high isn't much above 80 tomorrow, the low tonight isn't much cooler so I can't even really cool off the house until tomorrow night when the low is 59 degrees. :(

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, September 13, 2019 10:07 AM (P)

Oh... I will eventually have before and after pics of all of this stuff. I just need to do some research and figure out the best way to do it. I'm not going to share my google albums, which would be the easiest way by far to do it, because of the hostility around these parts these days. I've shared them with family and friends who have made comments and I'm not looking to needlessly doxx myself or anyone else for that matter.

TinyPic used to be a great way to share images virtually anonymously without needing to sign up for an account, but they just shut down. I'll have to see if there are any other free image hosting services that don't require an account, or figure out which one that requires an account that I want to use for this purpose before posting.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, September 13, 2019 12:27 PM (P)

Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
I think I am. Feels good to get through all that stuff that was in boxes for years.



Great to hear. Tell me about it.

Quote:

Sounds like you are doing good too.



Yup. Just when I thought I was going to have another lazy day because of the weather, my friend came out of nowhere late in the day and we kicked so much ass.

The structural work on the back porch is done! We finished all the sills, outside joists and inside joists that needed to be replaced. These babies are solid!

More homework for me. I still have to tuck point the outside of the cinder blocks and finish the windows and make sure nothing leaks in before I even think of putting the new flooring in. Now I have to also use remaining lumber and possibly buy some more if I run out to tie all the joists to each other. None of this rinky-dink metal cris-cross straps they used last time. This thing is going to be built like a tank. I have some old Green 4"x4"s that I'm also considering making pylons out of by using a post hole digger, filling with concrete and using the 4x4's to further support the floor in the middle of the room.

I'm also going to see if my brother would mind picking up the plywood using his truck-like vehicle. My bud says there's no way that his car would support the weight. If my bro can't do it I'll have to rent a truck from Mendards to get all of that.




But for the bad news.... :(

The 11% rebate thing is over right now. I just thought it was all the time and you needed a new slip every week. When I bought 50 bucks worth of stuff today though there was no rebate receipt. It looks like I missed out for the rest of the stuff. No way I'm buying any more stuff now until that new credit card comes in so I can at least get the 20% off plus the rewards points.



Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Flip side, I do not like September right now.



No? How come?

Not sure why for you, but I haven't been enjoying it much this week either. Way too hot for this time of year.

Three miserably hot days in a row and to add insult to injury even though the high isn't much above 80 tomorrow, the low tonight isn't much cooler so I can't even really cool off the house until tomorrow night when the low is 59 degrees. :(

Do Right, Be Right. :)



Sorry about the rebates Jack. That's always a drag when those things are timed.

My reasons not liking September for they are plural are all emotional.

As I said I just marked the 8th anniversary of my Blair's death on Sunday.
He went three weeks before my birthday which is fast approaching.

And there is a good chance that I will be spending the day alone.

People have family and by that I mean grown children and grandchildren that they talk about and all of that is pretty hard for me to listen too.

I always wanted children but a "normal" life wasn't meant for me. And as I get a little older its a bitter pill to try and swallow.

So, yeah. I just feel in small ways that people don't always want me around. My boss and her husband have their son and daughter -in-law staying with them and so they don't invite me to stay for supper when I'm done working.

I also feel that people who have children don't appreciate that fact.

Don't mind me. I can get a little maudlin at this time of the year. Weather is changing, summer is making room for fall.

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Friday, September 13, 2019 1:09 PM (P)

No worries, Brenda.

I can empathize. :(

My mom is pretty excited that I've rekindled the friendship I have, but there's one friend in particular that she's known since we were both in Kindergarten that she hopes I will get back with.

I told her that it's hard. Most of my friends are married with a few kids and he's one of them. The last time we all partied together was a New Years eve maybe 6 or so years ago. Most depressing night of my life. All the married couples and soon to be married couples, even some of the kids there. I was the only single one there. Awkward as hell. They made me feel welcome for sure, but I'd never been so self conscious around people who were my friends in my entire life. I've spent every New Years Eve alone since then.


I love being single 99% of the time, but that 1% of the time really sucks.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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