In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1007973
PAGE 27 of 116

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
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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Hey Brenda,
Not to be too uncaring but ... have you ever thought you might have seasonal affective disorder? I know I do though mine doesn't kick in till the days get much shorter. But whatever happens at that time gets me down in a way it normally wouldn't. OTOH one of the people I used to work with seemed unusually sensitive and would start to get downright morose at this time of year like clockwork. (And despite the fact that he would go through the same cycle every year, year after year, when he was in that state he it was as if it was all new and never happened before. Because it was all about the ONE PARTICULAR THING he happened to be circling around, and that ONE PARTICULAR THING had never happened before. Sigh. There was just no pointing out to him he'd been 'there' before.) For me anyway, there's some comfort in recognizing that it's not me per se and so it's not a permanent thing; it's just an impersonal process to get through until spring arrives. Anyway, I'm just wondering ...

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So..... what do you do about SAD?

I know for sure I've "got it". Not very cool when I live in a place that is virtually dead 4 months out of the year. Probably not the best thing in the world to also have such a crappy means of heating my home and it's always so cold during the winter here too.



Hey! Brenda!

Just try to focus on that. You're in a new place this winter. No more bitchy, horrible landlady keeping you from heating the place to comfortable anymore.

Fingers crossed that everything is salted right and you don't ever have to worry about slipping while walking outside this year either.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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SAD is triggered by shorter days and lower light intensity. If this is truly SAD, and not just associative depression (ie bad things happen[ed] in the winter months leading to a long-term association of winter with depression) then it should respond to "light therapy" ... that is, finding a lamp with the right intensity and spectral distribution to trick your brain into thinking that it's still summer.

This is from the Mayo Clinic website, a very credible medical organization that researches and treats some of our less-common maladies

Quote:

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Seasonal affective disorder treatment: Choosing a light therapy box

Light therapy boxes can offer an effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder. Features such as light intensity, safety, cost and style are important considerations.

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https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-diso
rder/in-depth/seasonal-affective-disorder-treatment/art-20048298



-----------
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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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
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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I'm in touch by phone or FB with friends from High School. And they either had children out of wedlock, 1 male friend did then broke up with the mother and never really saw his children after that. Made me angry. 1 female friend I have known her daughter since she was born and know her son. Great kids both of them and I love them to the moon and back. But yeah hard to see that.

Another lady I know is all excited to go to Thailand to visit her daughter who will be working there for another year. I couldn't say anything to her about that because I did once to her husband and he just sat and looked at me. Couldn't wrap his brain around why that makes me feel bad.

As I said I wanted the mate, the kids and the career. But not meant to be.

Jack, I have had lots of times that I like being on my own but by my choice. Now I am just lonely at times.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Hey! Brenda!

Just try to focus on that. You're in a new place this winter. No more bitchy, horrible landlady keeping you from heating the place to comfortable anymore.

Fingers crossed that everything is salted right and you don't ever have to worry about slipping while walking outside this year either.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

---

Jack, that is what I am doing. I am thinking about what I can do to fix this place up for Christmas and as the weather cools down I will be able to heat this place if I want or have heat travel up from down below me.

Walking should be pretty good as I am up in the main shopping area and there are a lot of apartment buildings around but so far the weather people aren't calling for snow in my area though I do need to get a new set of winter boots just incase. And I still have my cane for getting to work.

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Any way I am out in the rain. Errands to run.

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Hope it's nice and toasty for you this year, Brenda. :)


Man... even with all this furniture out of the house there's still a lot to move around when you're trying to do a deep clean on a floor you refinished 7 or 8 years ago but haven't cleaned since.

Murphy's oil and Pledge and the like are not good for wood, contrary to popular belief. They're fine if you've got something beat up that you're not going to bother getting refinished, and they can polish them up nice (like the first floor hardwood that I never did and don't intend on refinishing), but on nearly pristine floors like the ones upstairs, all you need is a little dish detergent.

This antique stuff is HEAVY, especially when the drawers are full. I don't think I'm going to move any of it even to its temporary place closer to the walls but far enough away to put the trim up. They've all got pads on the feet, but I'm still worried about scuffing up the floor real good if I don't have a second set of hands for the task.

I did put the bed back together though, and moved the futon into the small room. Just waiting for it all to dry so I can move some more smaller stuff around and get everything clean.

Taking an easy day today though otherwise. Going to help my friend out at his place tomorrow and possibly Sunday. Then I've got a lot of work to do on the porch next week before we put the floor back in.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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It should be Jack. Which will be nice.

I got all my errands run for today even in the rain that we got up here this morning. Dry now that I am back.

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I'm looking forward to hearing about how much nicer this winter is for you Brenda. I felt so bad about what you were going through before and helpless to do anything about it. So happy for you that you were able to finally get into a nice place.



Out to meet my friend and help on his house. Have a good one.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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I wonder BRENDA, how long were you living in that hell-hole? Because living in a dark cold unfriendly place for any length of time would be enough to make anybody sad!

But I'm so happy to think of you now in a place that can be warm and cozy and with enough room for your things so you can be reminded of who you are and can live a full life and enjoy yourself!

I know you play mahjong. Could you host some games yourself? Wouldn't THAT be fun?

I love Christmas! I especially love Xmas lights; not the big fancy overdone 100,000 light bulb display but the string of lights around the livingroom window that tells passersby that you think enough of Xmas, and of them, to put in some effort to spread Xmas cheer. I hope you put up a few lights, for yourself and for everyone else. Some day when this board is a safer place I'll tell you what that meant to me and how important it was.

-----------
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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Another blast of hot weather for a few days. When I got in the car to run some errands yesteray, the thermometer showed 99.

Yeah, IMHO So Cal summer weather sucks. And "summer" lasts from June thru September. When the Epilepsy Foundation used to have a family camp (weekend event) in the third week of September is was reliably hot ... like 90+. We've even had some toasty Halloweens where kids were roasting in their costumes.

Hubby got the stucco patched. So for now that means indoor work for me. Spent a large part of Thursday doing financial and legal planning for our eventual demise. Yesterday was lunch with dear daughter and running errands, so this weekend I plan on finishing that deep cleaning of her bathroom (I'm using a drill with a scrubbing brush to clean the shower. Did I mention that I still HATE grout??) and am going to wash literally everything down.

Also a local lumbermill has a sale going, so I think we're going to head out there to look at and pick out some wood for some of the projects on the list of things to do; at the top is a woodworking bench without which the other projects can't get done!

-----------
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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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'm looking forward to hearing about how much nicer this winter is for you Brenda. I felt so bad about what you were going through before and helpless to do anything about it. So happy for you that you were able to finally get into a nice place.



Out to meet my friend and help on his house. Have a good one.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

---

It should be just fine Jack.

Have a good day with your friend. For me as it is Saturday it is laundry day unless all the machines are in use then I will flip it and do my errands for then my laundry.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I wonder BRENDA, how long were you living in that hell-hole? Because living in a dark cold unfriendly place for any length of time would be enough to make anybody sad!

But I'm so happy to think of you now in a place that can be warm and cozy and with enough room for your things so you can be reminded of who you are and can live a full life and enjoy yourself!

I know you play mahjong. Could you host some games yourself? Wouldn't THAT be fun?

I love Christmas! I especially love Xmas lights; not the big fancy overdone 100,000 light bulb display but the string of lights around the livingroom window that tells passersby that you think enough of Xmas, and of them, to put in some effort to spread Xmas cheer. I hope you put up a few lights, for yourself and for everyone else. Some day when this board is a safer place I'll tell you what that meant to me and how important it was.

-----------
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

---

Sig, it was almost 6years I was living in that place.

Well, I first have to get a Christmas tree and a few decorations. Not a lot as I won't be getting a big tree. I have my Santa Claus nesting dolls, that I will put out.

My kitchen table is currently occupied with some of my writing. *L* I'm tidying up some stuff again. I usually do a little of that over supper.

But maybe in the new year. I want to get a futon for a couch.

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As I said to Jack. Laundry day today as long as there is a machine free. So I am off to see in a minute. Later peeps.

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For myself, I'm plodding along - doing stuff even though not finishing a whole lot. Because to do this I have to do that, but to do that other thing I need to do ... so every task is layers deep, it seems.

Speaking of which - it's time for me to have some motivation in a mug (coffee!) and get going.

Yesterday I picked up a window screen I had repaired / upgraded. My big, motivated cat had torn the existing screen to shreds, and I had it replaced with supposedly cat-and-dog proof screening. So I'm going to be cleaning the widow, window tracks etc and install the screen with the window locked to open only partially, and let my cat test it out at his convenience. If the new screen holds up, it'l be nice to be able to open up the window again in the eves, to help breeze the house out.

If it holds up that'll be 2 cat-proof screen doors installed and 1 cat-proof window-screen-upgrade to help the house be more livable in summer. YAY!!

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I do hope Brenda finds that being in a cozy secure and dry place, with personal amenities around, and without the stressful abusive landlady, makes this upcoming winter an enjoyable one.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I do hope Brenda finds that being in a cozy secure and dry place, with personal amenities around, and without the stressful abusive landlady, makes this upcoming winter an enjoyable one.

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I hope so too Kiki.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
I want to get a futon for a couch.

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I've got two of them now, and they're my only couches. Never going back to a regular couch again. It's SO easy to clean under and around.

If you plan on sleeping on it though, spring some extra cash for a good one. I thought I'd made a horrible mistake throwing out the L-shaped couch along with both of my other couches before giving my first futon a good week of sleep, and I was really hurting in between work shifts. My brother had an excellent one that he'd been trying to get me to take for over a year though and he brought it over and I sleep like a baby on it.


Going to keep the old one too for now though. It's the only thing in my small bedroom and it will be nice to put out in the porch when it's finished.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
For myself, I'm plodding along - doing stuff even though not finishing a whole lot. Because to do this I have to do that, but to do that other thing I need to do ... so every task is layers deep, it seems.

---

I'm telling you Kiki, once you de-clutter and organize that starts becoming a thing of the past.

I'm still not quite there yet, but it's only a matter of time. In the mean time though, I can't stress enough how nice it is to be able to find nearly everything I need and know exactly where it is in my mind without having to look all over for it. Once I get the garage squared away and I have all of my tools organized I'll hopefully never have to get one thing done before I can get to other things again.

Well... of course there's the porch too. Still some big things that need doing like jacking up the front porch overhang and putting gutters up... possibly putting brand new windows on the porch too. But I can't do any of that until the foundation looks good from the outside and the floor is installed. Now that the hoard is gone and the house is clean, I could care less if the city wants to take a peek at things once the porch is buttoned up.

Quote:

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Yesterday I picked up a window screen I had repaired / upgraded. My big, motivated cat had torn the existing screen to shreds, and I had it replaced with supposedly cat-and-dog proof screening. So I'm going to be cleaning the widow, window tracks etc and install the screen with the window locked to open only partially, and let my cat test it out at his convenience. If the new screen holds up, it'l be nice to be able to open up the window again in the eves, to help breeze the house out.

If it holds up that'll be 2 cat-proof screen doors installed and 1 cat-proof window-screen-upgrade to help the house be more livable in summer. YAY!!

---

Hope it works out for you. Must be nice to have problems created by animals that you love. All I've got around here making hell in my life are racoons, moles and an army of ants.



Got a bit of a window conundrum to solve myself. The crap windows on my porch can hardly be called windows. They're basically those old '70's/'80's aluminum tracks and single pane glass that were just screwed into the framing. Now that I'm repairing the huge amount of neglegence damage I allowed to happen over the years to try to get everything water tight, I noticed that one window to the right of my porch door is lower than the other two. To compensate for this, the sill had been built up in an attempt to grade it away from the house by one of the previous owners. That's all fine and dandy... at least until it snows and it builds up in there.

This porch structure has been taking in water from day one after it was built, at least in that spot. I'm sure once I go around the whole thing I'll find other problems too. I'm thinking of just caulking the entire valley behind the sill and grading that out as well. It will seal the window permanently in place, but I can't think of any other way to do this.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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We had an awesome day at my buds house. His son came with us in the morning and later on even his old man was working with us too. It has been at least a decade since I worked with him, and I thought it was really cool to be working with 3 generations of his family together.

We got all of his windows painted on the outside that hadn't been done yet. The terracotta is all finished as well. My friend ended up bailing on a B-day party for another friend of his that I thought was really going to cut our day short and we ended up working till sun down.

And I learned something new that I'm going to be doing to my house, hopefully before the first snowfall. It's WAY cheaper than I thought it would be too. We re-surfaced the blacktop of the driveway. It's only 10 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket, and maybe 10 bucks for the squeegee tool. I could probably do two coats on mine for about 80 bucks after patching a few really bad spots and make the place look awesome from the street. It will be nice not to ever have to be the only asshole on the block who has to weed his driveway anymore too.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Bummer... lots of rain today until early afternoon.

Why whenever they're wrong about it on the weekends this year does it seem that we get hit 10 times harder than they say we were? When I looked on Friday night it said it was incidental that we might have a little bit of rain for about an hour this morning. Now it's thunderstorms until the 1PM hour and at least 25% of rain the rest of the day.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
I want to get a futon for a couch.

---

I've got two of them now, and they're my only couches. Never going back to a regular couch again. It's SO easy to clean under and around.

If you plan on sleeping on it though, spring some extra cash for a good one. I thought I'd made a horrible mistake throwing out the L-shaped couch along with both of my other couches before giving my first futon a good week of sleep, and I was really hurting in between work shifts. My brother had an excellent one that he'd been trying to get me to take for over a year though and he brought it over and I sleep like a baby on it.


Going to keep the old one too for now though. It's the only thing in my small bedroom and it will be nice to put out in the porch when it's finished.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

---

My mom had one years ago and it was good. I had to get rid of it after my mom died.

I want something to sleep or nap on and I can stretch out on and get off my feet and legs completely to relax them. Also something for people who may come to visit me.

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Lazy Sunday here. More rain but I'm not going anywhere so that is okay. Put the tv on for some noise. Too quiet.

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Have to move things away from the heating units in case I have to use them.

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Yeah... I'm not a pro when it comes to what makes a good futon and what doesn't, Brenda, but really do try to do some research and get some reviews before you buy one. All I know is that there can be some huge differences between them, and I susptect that while the Sealy mattress on the good one that my brother gave me has something to do with it, it's also the makeup of the futon as well.

The cheap one I had was something I had picked off of the curb when my neighbors threw it away. It was an entirely metal frame that doesn't seem the most solid thing in the world, and the mattress was pretty thin. Both of these lead to a bit more "sagging" than my back needed and with the intense nightly physical work I did it just wasn't good enough and I would start my next day off with a little bit of tightness and soreness from the night before that I didn't get when I slept on the L-shaped couch.

The good one my brother gave me though has a Sealy mattress that is not only a tad thicker, but it's quite a bit heavier and harder to move. You can tell really easily that it's a much higher caliber of mattress. At the same time, the futon unit itself has no "wobble" to it once it was set up. Though the framing of the unit is metal, there are two sets of wooden slats, one for the "seat" and one for the "backrest" portion.

That does bring up the possible issue of it being a problem for somebody who wants to unfold the whole thing and really spread out though. I never did that with either of mine and only slept on the "seat" part. I can't imagine it being extremely comfortable if an individual used the entire thing as a bead to spread out on, because the cheap one probably would offer even less support at the "seam" while the much higher quality one would probably be really stiff and offer possibly too much support at the same "seam" when unfolded into "bed mode".



I'm not sure if you plan to make this an every-night bed for yourself like I use it for, or if we're just talking the occasional nap or not. The good one I have is probably just fine for an occasional nap, even unfolded, but be sure to really do your research if you're going to sleep on this thing everyday.

I'm probably the cheapest bastard you know, but if my brother hadn't given me one that gives me the sleep experience I need, I would have started to use my actual bed for now until I was able to find the right futon for my back and I know it would have cost a lot more than I was happy about spending.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Have to move things away from the heating units in case I have to use them.

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One of the few things I haven't thrown out...

I've still got 4 electric heaters in here. No doubt more than I need, but one of them did break last year, so maybe having 5 of them in a house that doesn't yet have the most reliable furnace in the world isn't a case of hoarding and is just a smart decision.

I think you might be alright without them though. In all the years and the many different apartments I lived in, there was only one weekend I ever needed to use them. It was back when I lived with my brother on a weekend that my brother's future wife came up to stay with us and the entire heat system in the building had gone out. The new (terrible) management had just taken over the spring prior and did not answer any of the tenant's calls about it until they came back to the office on Monday. People were using electric ovens to heat their places. My brother went out and bought two portable electric heaters.

Here's hoping you don't need to even use them at your new place.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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I just woke up about an hour ago. Damn. 2:00PM. Half my day gone already.

Really got a lot done at my friend's house this weekend, even though he was working with a hurt back from that joist at my house and I was working with a hurt shoulder from moving the furniture with my brother from early the prior week.

That drinking though... I'm not getting any less concerned about it. I made a point to tell him (while working at my house the second night) this week that I was happy to see him not drinking Icehouse, again saying it was the devil's brew that got a hold of me. I wish I hadn't said it. Subconsciously or not, he must not have liked that and he was drinking Icehouse both days this weekend at his house.

Yesterday, about an hour before it was going to get dark and we were about to wrap things up anyhow because it had started drizzling and the clouds were really looking bad, he fell off a ladder right next to me and almost pulled mine down too out of instinct to grab whatever you can get ahold of when you're falling. At least he had the wherewithal to throw out the putty knife and boxcutter he was using to scrape the worst of the windows we've worked on yet as he fell.

He's got a pretty bad limp from it, but having busted my own ankle bad many years ago I'm happy to see that he's not swelling like mine did.

I was pretty tired after a long weekend, but he talked me into taking me out for a bite at that bar we had gone to for burgers the first night we worked together. I'm kind of glad that he did, because I met an ex-girlfriend up there with her boyfriend. It was kind of cool catching up with somebody that I haven't seen in probably 15 years. I'd be lying if I'm not quite enjoying to start meeting up with people that I haven't seen in so many years and really starting to get the feeling that despite all of my bad decisions and horrible lifestyle for so many years, I'm really aging a lot better than everybody else is. If it weren't for my teeth issue, I probably look 10 years younger than most everybody else does these days.

Back on topic though, he had a few more beers at the bar (which I drove to and from his house to get to), and he bought them a shot and one of them bought another round at some point too.


Before we left to work, I believe it was on Saturday, I was bullshitting with his fiancee for about 10 minutes about stuff and I had asked if she saw the pictures of the work we've done on my porch and said my friend was working miracles. Id told her about how when I found out how bad the problem really had been I had also just found out the layoff was coming and I had been freaking out about everything and how part of me just wanted to dump the house for cash for whatever somebody might buy it for and just move away and start life over.

She said the same thing to, although she did say "well I know why I'm staying here" and pointed upstairs to where my friend was. But I can tell that she's not very happy overall with their situation. I don't know how much the drinking has to do with it, but I'm sure it's not helping. They're both at the age where it's kind of do-or-die if you want to have any kids, and they don't have any yet.

I dunno. I wish I could help with the drinking part, but like anything else I don't think you really can do much. My brother and his wife are unhealthily overweight and they both know it but don't do anything about it. Both they and my friend have a hoarding problem but don't do anything about it. Everybody's diets are shit, but they don't do anything about it. I know I wouldn't have taken anyone seriously who was giving me shit about my drinking or eating or hoarding problems either, and I had to just wake up one day and say I've had enough of this shit.

Maybe I'm still here in 2019 so I can start helping other people I care about?

Nah... I d

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Hey Brenda

This is just some advice I got from my really smart sister re "really do try to do some research and get some reviews before you buy one". Check the negative ratings and the reasons why. What she said (and it seems true) is that when things fail or are bad out of the box, they tend to be bad in the same way. For example, I recently bought a percolator. When I was looking at them , there was one brand where the negative reviews said: (several) shoddy construction / (more than one - goes along with shoddy construction) handle broke off after minimal use / (several - goes along with shoddy construction) cheap and thin / (several) not stainless steel as stated ... and so forth. I didn't buy it!

As for the 'star' ratings, I personally have found that the averages don't tell the whole story. Check to make sure the most recent ratings don't show a big decrement from the average. Quality can change over time. And I take the 3 star rating, divide the percentage by two, and add the 2 and 1 star percentages. The half average plus below should total no more than 10% if it's a credible product.

I had a futon way back in the day. As part of my decades-long desire to not use plastics / synthetics, I got one filled with cotton batting. Not only was it not particularly soft - it was downright hard! - it was HEAVY !! What a chore. And that's when I was young and fit and reasonably pain free.

And finally, try to get a fitted sheet or 2 to cover it with even for everyday use, even if only to keep the dust off. The covering you get for the futon - even if removable - will be large and heavy. It's not something you would want to wash to keep it clean, even if it was washable (and furthermore, they don't pre-shrink it so you'd risk shrinking it in the washer, dryer, or both).

Anyway, that's the sum total of my experience. I hope it helps!

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Have to move things away from the heating units in case I have to use them.

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One of the few things I haven't thrown out...

I've still got 4 electric heaters in here. No doubt more than I need, but one of them did break last year, so maybe having 5 of them in a house that doesn't yet have the most reliable furnace in the world isn't a case of hoarding and is just a smart decision.

I think you might be alright without them though. In all the years and the many different apartments I lived in, there was only one weekend I ever needed to use them. It was back when I lived with my brother on a weekend that my brother's future wife came up to stay with us and the entire heat system in the building had gone out. The new (terrible) management had just taken over the spring prior and did not answer any of the tenant's calls about it until they came back to the office on Monday. People were using electric ovens to heat their places. My brother went out and bought two portable electric heaters.

Here's hoping you don't need to even use them at your new place.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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I have 1 portable heater that someone gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. But I meant the heating that comes with the apartment.

I hope I won't need to turn on the heat but I need to have stuff moved away from them if I do.

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Hey Kiki,

The futon that my mom had was a good one. But I would have to get one that is lighter so I can move it around myself. The one my mom had was wooden and I will be looking at something metal and a little smaller.

Just have to get someone to drive me out to IKEA to get one.

As to the other thing, this apartment comes with heat that I can control. I just have a few things in front of the elements and I have to move them in case I have to turn the heat on.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah... I'm not a pro when it comes to what makes a good futon and what doesn't, Brenda, but really do try to do some research and get some reviews before you buy one. All I know is that there can be some huge differences between them, and I susptect that while the Sealy mattress on the good one that my brother gave me has something to do with it, it's also the makeup of the futon as well.

The cheap one I had was something I had picked off of the curb when my neighbors threw it away. It was an entirely metal frame that doesn't seem the most solid thing in the world, and the mattress was pretty thin. Both of these lead to a bit more "sagging" than my back needed and with the intense nightly physical work I did it just wasn't good enough and I would start my next day off with a little bit of tightness and soreness from the night before that I didn't get when I slept on the L-shaped couch.

The good one my brother gave me though has a Sealy mattress that is not only a tad thicker, but it's quite a bit heavier and harder to move. You can tell really easily that it's a much higher caliber of mattress. At the same time, the futon unit itself has no "wobble" to it once it was set up. Though the framing of the unit is metal, there are two sets of wooden slats, one for the "seat" and one for the "backrest" portion.

That does bring up the possible issue of it being a problem for somebody who wants to unfold the whole thing and really spread out though. I never did that with either of mine and only slept on the "seat" part. I can't imagine it being extremely comfortable if an individual used the entire thing as a bead to spread out on, because the cheap one probably would offer even less support at the "seam" while the much higher quality one would probably be really stiff and offer possibly too much support at the same "seam" when unfolded into "bed mode".



I'm not sure if you plan to make this an every-night bed for yourself like I use it for, or if we're just talking the occasional nap or not. The good one I have is probably just fine for an occasional nap, even unfolded, but be sure to really do your research if you're going to sleep on this thing everyday.

I'm probably the cheapest bastard you know, but if my brother hadn't given me one that gives me the sleep experience I need, I would have started to use my actual bed for now until I was able to find the right futon for my back and I know it would have cost a lot more than I was happy about spending.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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I've been doing some research Jack. I have a bed but I want one to watch tv on, so I can put my legs up completely to relax them. And also something to take a nap on if I have a mind too. I've fallen a sleep in front of my computer and that is bad for my neck. My legs are getting better as I bought a garbage can from a Dollar Store up here and have it turned upside down that when I am sitting on a kitchen chair, I can put my feet up on it.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I just woke up about an hour ago. Damn. 2:00PM. Half my day gone already.

Really got a lot done at my friend's house this weekend, even though he was working with a hurt back from that joist at my house and I was working with a hurt shoulder from moving the furniture with my brother from early the prior week.

That drinking though... I'm not getting any less concerned about it. I made a point to tell him (while working at my house the second night) this week that I was happy to see him not drinking Icehouse, again saying it was the devil's brew that got a hold of me. I wish I hadn't said it. Subconsciously or not, he must not have liked that and he was drinking Icehouse both days this weekend at his house.

Yesterday, about an hour before it was going to get dark and we were about to wrap things up anyhow because it had started drizzling and the clouds were really looking bad, he fell off a ladder right next to me and almost pulled mine down too out of instinct to grab whatever you can get ahold of when you're falling. At least he had the wherewithal to throw out the putty knife and boxcutter he was using to scrape the worst of the windows we've worked on yet as he fell.

He's got a pretty bad limp from it, but having busted my own ankle bad many years ago I'm happy to see that he's not swelling like mine did.

I was pretty tired after a long weekend, but he talked me into taking me out for a bite at that bar we had gone to for burgers the first night we worked together. I'm kind of glad that he did, because I met an ex-girlfriend up there with her boyfriend. It was kind of cool catching up with somebody that I haven't seen in probably 15 years. I'd be lying if I'm not quite enjoying to start meeting up with people that I haven't seen in so many years and really starting to get the feeling that despite all of my bad decisions and horrible lifestyle for so many years, I'm really aging a lot better than everybody else is. If it weren't for my teeth issue, I probably look 10 years younger than most everybody else does these days.

Back on topic though, he had a few more beers at the bar (which I drove to and from his house to get to), and he bought them a shot and one of them bought another round at some point too.


Before we left to work, I believe it was on Saturday, I was bullshitting with his fiancee for about 10 minutes about stuff and I had asked if she saw the pictures of the work we've done on my porch and said my friend was working miracles. Id told her about how when I found out how bad the problem really had been I had also just found out the layoff was coming and I had been freaking out about everything and how part of me just wanted to dump the house for cash for whatever somebody might buy it for and just move away and start life over.

She said the same thing to, although she did say "well I know why I'm staying here" and pointed upstairs to where my friend was. But I can tell that she's not very happy overall with their situation. I don't know how much the drinking has to do with it, but I'm sure it's not helping. They're both at the age where it's kind of do-or-die if you want to have any kids, and they don't have any yet.

I dunno. I wish I could help with the drinking part, but like anything else I don't think you really can do much. My brother and his wife are unhealthily overweight and they both know it but don't do anything about it. Both they and my friend have a hoarding problem but don't do anything about it. Everybody's diets are shit, but they don't do anything about it. I know I wouldn't have taken anyone seriously who was giving me shit about my drinking or eating or hoarding problems either, and I had to just wake up one day and say I've had enough of this shit.

Maybe I'm still here in 2019 so I can start hel

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SIX, thinking thru your friend's drinking problem (and your family's problems with overweight and diet ...)

Maybe I'm being overly-generous about people, but I feel most people are doing the best they can with all the diligence and motivation at their disposal. I think a lot of people put a lot of effort into "some" things that they've decided are important to them, but give themselves a "pass" on other things. Perhaps they're limited by things you can't see, like time limitations, pain, or anxiety, or lack of sleep, or ADHD or other factors that are hobbling them.

Your friend: He sounds like he's very hard-working, very positive ... a veritable locomotive pulling himself, his fiancee, you ... others? ... out of jams. But maybe he's in pain. For that, he allows himself drink. Your brother and his wife ... perhaps they're focusing on being good parents, but they're terribly short of sleep. For that, they allow themselves food.

The reason WHY people "reward" themselves with things that aren't good for them is because what they're doing isn't intrinsically rewarding enough. And I think that's the sad thing about life in America today: For most people, diligence, hard work, positive attitude, and responsibility don't create the security, agency, and prosperity that people crave. Nothing will. There is always the nagging anxiety that things will be snatched away, that nobody (especially society and goverment) has your back. Or maybe I'm just projecting too much!

Anyway, I'm trying to balance what "research" shows vesus my own reactions to being nagged: "Reasearch" shows that when dealing with self-destructive habits daily (or frequent) pressure helps. This goes for bulimia and other eating disorders as well as things like smoking (making cigs more expensive encourages people to quit). OTOH, if peopke were constantly nagging me, it would just piss me off.

So maybe it's the "type" of pressure involved ... maybe it's better if it's impersonal ... the presence of good food at the table instead of bad, the expense of bad habits ... a constant good example ...not direct comments from the peanut gallery. I don't know. All of this thread to tell you that talking to your friend about drinking may be counterproductive. that maybe your best influence is helping him out and your example of going to a bar and enjoying yourself without getting wasted. If I have any divine inspiration, I'll let you know! But I am turning it over in my mind.



-----------
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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Meanwhike

BRENDA, Im not sure about the configuration of most futons, but based on my experience with our sofa, it will be hard to find a futon )or any furniture) that will do double-duty as both a "sitting" place (for visitors) and a "sleeping" place. Our sofas for example, they're wonderful to sleep in, but they're so deep (front to back) and may legs are relatively so short that my knees can't reach the front of the couch at the same time that my back rests on the backrest, so either my legs stick out uncomfortably or my back suffers. Plus the sofas are too tall, so my feet can't reach the floor. I usualy solve that problem by lying down on the loveseat. Dear daughter tuck her legs up, only hubby is comfortable sitting. The answer to that is to make sure that the futon is both low enough and narrow enough for comfortable seating, or to get footrests for all potential visitors, as well as for yourself. Or put pillows at the backrest so that people can rest their backs against it and still have their knees able to reach the edge.

KIKI, I know the "many layers deep" problem! It seems that all I have time for is a quick buzz-thru to knock down the most pressing aspects of the most pressing problems, I would LOVE to solve some things "once and for all" ... or at least not to have t look at again for a good long while! ...but things are still coming at me faster than I can manage, at least with my limited energy.

How's the cool-down in your area? Geting any relief?


SIX, it sounds like you're banging things out like a machine. :-) Which leads me to wonder ... what will you do when all of your immediate problems are solved? Decluttering and fixing up your house has been a multi-month effort but in a few month's time all of the urgent urgencies will be resolved. What then? do you have an idea what to do for the winter?

-----------
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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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, thinking thru your friend's drinking problem (and your family's problems with overweight and diet ...)

Maybe I'm being overly-generous about people, but I feel most people are doing the best they can with all the diligence and motivation at their disposal. I think a lot of people put a lot of effort into "some" things that they've decided are important to them, but give themselves a "pass" on other things. Perhaps they're limited by things you can't see, like time limitations, pain, or anxiety, or lack of sleep, or ADHD or other factors that are hobbling them.

---

I know you're right about this. Nobody's relationships are perfect, and anybody who seems to be "perfect" from the outside looking in is just better at wearing masks than most other people.

I'm the last person to judge any of this. I just hate seeing other people doing these things in one form or another now that I'm trying to straighten up my own life.

Quote:

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Your friend: He sounds like he's very hard-working, very positive ... a veritable locomotive pulling himself, his fiancee, you ... others? ... out of jams. But maybe he's in pain. For that, he allows himself drink. Your brother and his wife ... perhaps they're focusing on being good parents, but they're terribly short of sleep. For that, they allow themselves food.

---

He'd give you the shirt off his back. Some guy asked him for a cigarette at a light before we got on the expressway. Before I even had the chance to tell him that he should have told the kid to get a job, he said that guy is always bumming by that gas station and that he'd given him a business card and offered him some work (with transportation and free lunch while on the job). He never got a call. I told him that's because that kid makes two or three times more money in a day than I ever would have busting my ass working overnights. Most people are going to say no when he asks for something, but if it wasn't worth putting yourself through an entire day of rejection, than he wouldn't be doing it.

He bought the ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend which he never even met a shot without even thinking about it. Something else I never would have done with the prices of everything in bars these days...

He's a great guy.

Quote:

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The reason WHY people "reward" themselves with things that aren't good for them is because what they're doing isn't intrinsically rewarding enough. And I think that's the sad thing about life in America today: For most people, diligence, hard work, positive attitude, and responsibility don't create the security, agency, and prosperity that people crave. Nothing will. There is always the nagging anxiety that things will be snatched away, that nobody (especially society and goverment) has your back. Or maybe I'm just projecting too much!

---

No. I think you're right. I'm hoping once my brother and sister in law's massive bills have been paid off they'll be able to relax and enjoy life a bit more. In the mean time, they do treat themselves to nicer vehicles and some semi-yearly vacations and the like. I think they spend way too much and are really extending how long it's going to be to pay everything off, but they feel they need to do it. At least my niece is getting to experience everything my parents would say that we were going to do and never did. Maybe that's what the vacationing thing is about. I just turned 40 and I've never been to Disneyland. To me, at least, Disneyland was a lie just like Santa Claus was.

I can tell they're stressed all the time. I don't mean to sound sexist here, but I think that might be because they are living biologically reversed rolls. My brother babysitting somebody else's kid a ton of hours per week is now virtually raising two kids 7 days a week, while his wife is getting paid a great deal of money to do a jo

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

SIX, it sounds like you're banging things out like a machine. :-) Which leads me to wonder ... what will you do when all of your immediate problems are solved? De0clittering and fixing up your house has been a multi-month effort but in a few month's time all of the urgent urgencies will be resolved. What then? do you have an idea what to do for the winter?

---

There's never a shortage of things to do on the house. There will be a lot of things that I can do inside once the urgent urgencies are remedied. Things that I wasn't going to waste a single dime or hour of my time on before selling if I wasn't able to take care of the big things first.

Trim on the floors and doors on the 2nd floor, closet shelving and doors on the 2nd floor, re-finishing the basement, re-painting the entire first floor, new floor covering in the kitchen, oh... and finishing the porch and possibly installing legitimate windows on it, just to name a few..

I probably won't have a new patio installed, and possibly won't even have gutters up before the first snowfall, so those will also have to be done in the spring if that's the case.

Then I have to decide if I'm going to put a new furnace and A/C in, a new privacy fence around the back yard, as well as a full 2nd bathroom downstairs.

All of these things will greatly add value to the home, although those last three will be quite expensive compared to the other upgrades. At some point I think I will at least talk to a realtor or two and get their opinions on whether or not the big ticket items are worth doing before I try to sell.



And at some point, I'm going to need a job to pay for all of this too. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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I was wondering if your friend might have a stressful effect on your sobriety. And I know it's kind of hard seeing it day to day, which makes you focus on his drinking, but you (also) get OCD about things (like his drinking), which could also be stressful to you, as being a (temporarily) irresolvable problem. Irresistible force meet immovable object.

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It very well might, but what can I do about it?

On a base level, I'm completely obliged to him right now. I've resigned myself to the fact that I've given him about 8 times the amount of my free time than he has, simply because the things he's done for me are things I'm not capable of doing while the things I've done for him are things that would be easy for him to do if he had the free time to do it. My time is cheap right now, and his skills are invaluable to me.

But beyond the base level, he is a friend and I feel like I'm supposed to do something about it here, even if there's nothing I can do but sit back and watch it happen.

I won't go back to drinking, no matter what. I do think it's in my best interests not to go back to a bar with him though. It's just a little hole in the wall "Cheers" type of place, and I was there for the cheap food after a hard day work, but unlike the last time where we just ate and he had a beer or two before he left, I was there for well over an hour and had to be around others socializing and drinking long after I was done eating. It's just not a good place for me to be without a damn good reason (and I can't really imagine a scenario where I would have one).

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Meanwhike

BRENDA, Im not sure about the configuration of most futons, but based on my experience with our sofa, it will be hard to find a futon )or any furniture) that will do double-duty as both a "sitting" place (for visitors) and a "sleeping" place. Our sofas for example, they're wonderful to sleep in, but they're so deep (front to back) and may legs are relatively so short that my knees can't reach the front of the couch at the same time that my back rests on the backrest, so either my legs stick out uncomfortably or my back suffers. Plus the sofas are too tall, so my feet can't reach the floor. I usualy solve that problem by lying down on the loveseat. Dear daughter tuck her legs up, only hubby is comfortable sitting. The answer to that is to make sure that the futon is both low enough and narrow enough for comfortable seating, or to get footrests for all potential visitors, as well as for yourself. Or put pillows at the backrest so that people can rest their backs against it and still have their knees able to reach the edge.

------------------------------------
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

---

SIG, the futon my mom had was great for sleeping and sitting on for me and her. So, I am hoping to replicate that in a lower cost model. I'll keep the trash can for putting my feet up on as I have a coffee table for remotes and such.

I am going to be soggy today.

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Wet, wet and more wet here today.

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Quote:

---

Meanwhike

BRENDA, Im not sure about the configuration of most futons, but based on my experience with our sofa, it will be hard to find a futon )or any furniture) that will do double-duty as both a "sitting" place (for visitors) and a "sleeping" place. Our sofas for example, they're wonderful to sleep in, but they're so deep (front to back) and may legs are relatively so short that my knees can't reach the front of the couch at the same time that my back rests on the backrest, so either my legs stick out uncomfortably or my back suffers. Plus the sofas are too tall, so my feet can't reach the floor. I usualy solve that problem by lying down on the loveseat. Dear daughter tuck her legs up, only hubby is comfortable sitting. The answer to that is to make sure that the futon is both low enough and narrow enough for comfortable seating, or to get footrests for all potential visitors, as well as for yourself. Or put pillows at the backrest so that people can rest their backs against it and still have their knees able to reach the edge.- SIGNY

SIG, the futon my mom had was great for sleeping and sitting on for me and her. So, I am hoping to replicate that in a lower cost model. I'll keep the trash can for putting my feet up on as I have a coffee table for remotes and such.

I am going to be soggy today.

---

Boy, if you can replicate that, that would be great! Does the furniture showroom have assembled models you can try out? (Not sure about IKEA since we don't have any nearby) That way you can test it for for both sitting and sleeping comfort.

-----------
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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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Meanwhike

BRENDA, Im not sure about the configuration of most futons, but based on my experience with our sofa, it will be hard to find a futon )or any furniture) that will do double-duty as both a "sitting" place (for visitors) and a "sleeping" place. Our sofas for example, they're wonderful to sleep in, but they're so deep (front to back) and may legs are relatively so short that my knees can't reach the front of the couch at the same time that my back rests on the backrest, so either my legs stick out uncomfortably or my back suffers. Plus the sofas are too tall, so my feet can't reach the floor. I usualy solve that problem by lying down on the loveseat. Dear daughter tuck her legs up, only hubby is comfortable sitting. The answer to that is to make sure that the futon is both low enough and narrow enough for comfortable seating, or to get footrests for all potential visitors, as well as for yourself. Or put pillows at the backrest so that people can rest their backs against it and still have their knees able to reach the edge.- SIGNY

SIG, the futon my mom had was great for sleeping and sitting on for me and her. So, I am hoping to replicate that in a lower cost model. I'll keep the trash can for putting my feet up on as I have a coffee table for remotes and such.

I am going to be soggy today.

---

Boy, if you can replicate that, that would be great! Does the furniture showroom have assembled models you can try out? (Not sure about IKEA since we don't have any nearby) That way you can test it for for both sitting and sleeping comfort.

-----------
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

---

As I recall from the last time I was in an IKEA store, they do have models up that you can sit on and such.

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Not a bad day today except for the wet. Managed to get a bag of things up to the Thrift store before the rain began AGAIN. Also got a duvet and a couple of pillow cases washed as well. The duvet is off my bed and the pillow cases, I found in my dad's dresser which are fine just needed a wash.

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Another great day of work.

I started by attaching a 2"x4" to the bottom of the of all of the exposed new joists we put up, dead center. Monster job for one person, at least until I stopped being a dumbass and realized that's what my 12 ton jack is for.

With the jack, I was able to ensure that they were all flush as well. This is now a permanent fixture, because I took the time to do everything right. Two 3" screws up through the 2x4 into each joist.

After that, I made 2"x12" cutouts to join the joists together on top of this 2x4, taking time to ensure that I got the "warp" out of them and they are straight with my torpedo level.

Three 16 penny nails into each cutout from the sides of each joist, then another two coming up from the 2x4 into each cutout. All installed at an angle.


Gorram thing is the most solid thing I've ever walked on. I can trapeze down the middle of it and bounce all around and it doesn't move a millimeter or creak at all. :)

Also, it will be extremely easy to tie a 4"x4" post or two along the center now the way that I did it.

It's a piece of art.

It would have drove my friend nuts how long I took to do it. It was about 7 hours of work.



I also picked up another box of 16 penny nails along with two boxes of 1 1/2" stainless steel joist nails and three dozen joist angles (bent solid metal pieces with two holes to tie the joists in to the outside joists).

Total overkill, but it only set me back another $34 bucks and I want this porch to be built so solid it outlasts the house proper when I'm done.


Should be able to get all of them in pretty quick tomorrow. After that, I've really got to tuck-point the outside cinder blocks and start working on finishing the windows and making sure they're water tight.


Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Hoping to take a backgammon game up to the thrift store tomorrow and some shopping.

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Only washing the floor left to finish cleaning bathroom, and then start moving furniture in to dear daughter's bedroom. In the process I hope to be able to separate out items to give away from items to keep.

We need to set up a "punch list" of things left to do ... but I hope to start the move-in process tomorrow.

Also doing yardwork now that the weather is cooperating. I hired someone to put in a weed barrier between our front yard and the neighbor's. and now that I have a prayer of eradicating the Bermuda grass I've been digging it up square foot by square foot, also digging up the annuals (cosmos, CA poppies) along with it because there's no way to keep the annuals and dig up the grass. Also putting weed suppressant (corn gluten) into the soil which is supposed to suppress weed seeds from developing roots when they sprout, and the parts I can't dig up I'm going to spray. I have some low spots so I'm going to hire someone to help me drag dirt over from the neighbor's yard (he's offered free dirt) and then to bring in a truck bed full of mulch. And then I have to decide what to plant! My visualization skills are so poor ... every planting is a surprise howit turns out. Sometimes it's a happy surprise and sometimes not so much! I do best when I don't try to imagine too much and just go by plant characteristics and a utilitarian planting plan (narrow evergreen trees for shade along property lines, spreading trees for shade center of lawn; rocks, bunch grasses and low forbs/groundcover for the rest of the yard)

-----------
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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For me - I'm still whacking through layers of details of layers of details. And I was trying to keep track of all the things that need doing, that I was going past on my way to doing something else, but I ended up with, no joke, lists of lists ... of lists. But it sounds like you're close enough to the end where you could profitably write it down. Do you have a clipboard? Or a pad of paper with a sturdy back? Or a spare whiteboard? It might be helpful to write things down in one place as you see them / think of them.

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Man... I'm in some pain today. Half the day gone and I haven't gotten anything done.

I took a real bad fall yesterday. When my friend left after we got the joists up, he had set up a bunch of board cutouts across them by the screen door to span across to the back door of the house. At one point, I needed a 2x12 that was about 4 feet long and in the middle of those boards, so I had re-arranged things.

I neglected to carefully place it, and by the screen door, the new board I had in the middle wasn't extended to a joist right in front of it, but it was hanging just short of it by about 2".

Gravity decided to team up with my stupidity as I walked on it, it see-sawed on me, and I did my best not to get injured but it was pretty much a lost cause. My left leg fell through, and my body kind of twisted. I hurt my right knee pretty bad and fell hard on my left arm right in between my shoulder and my elbow.

It hurt yesterday, but I was able to power through it and finish the task at hand. I knew I was going to be hurting today. I wasn't wrong.


Oh well. I'm not dying or anything. Hopefully I can get focused and salvage the rest of the day.

I'd really love it if I could get motivated to at least do the tuck-pointing on the outside of the cinder blocks. That trench has been unfilled far longer than I can really justify. I just hate masonry work.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Jack

Oh dear. I hope you feel better soon!

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Hey SIX do you think the damage is limited to bruising, or do you feel like something got twisted along the way? Any big swelling?

Anyway a bag of frozen vegetables can be helpful in keeping the bruising and/or swelling down. I sure hope it's nothing more complicated than bruising tho! Twisted, wrenched joints can take a while to get better!

-----------
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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KIKI I have a whiteboard and a calendar, but the calendar is for scheduling family appointments/events, since I'm a scheduling moron, and the whiteboard is mainly for when family randomly asks me to get or do something and it's so random that I have them write it on the board.

But for my own personal list of things to do I have scrap paper that fits right into my red diary, and that scrap paper catches all those stray thoughts that come to mind. It's a pretty scattered list of long term goals (reorg house) and small tasks (sew on pants button) ... the big items generate their own subtasks as I get to them which I also write down, but when I cross enough of them off I will rewrite the list and scrap the old. I use my diary to plan what I'm doing THAT DAY and to document what I did, who I spoke to, what info I gathered etc

It's complicated but it works for me

-----------
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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I may have twisted my knee. It's hard to tell though because both of them hurt today. I spent a large part of my time yesterday kneeling and crab-walking under the joists, so it might just be that I'm not used to more intense physical labor like that since it's been a while since I was working that job.

I didn't twist or break the arm. It hurts quite a bit, but there's really not even any bruising or swelling to speak of. I've got full mobility though. Maybe I bruised the bone?


Anyway, I stopped using that as an excuse to sit around doing nothing and got to work. Even though I only put in a few hours I did something that was bothering me for weeks and will need some drying time for a few days before I take the next step.

I finally did the outside tuck-pointing, and man, does it look professional.

I had a 5 gallon bucket of water with me and a rag this time. As I packed everything in solid, I went back over it very carefully and wiped the blocks down around the seams. Then I used my finger and ran it along the seems to give it that nice professional look. It's going to look amazing when I put the coat of tar over it.

Didn't get around to putting those joist anchors on everywhere like I wanted to though. I could still do it now, but I'm going to take it easy the rest of the night. Wrapping up this masonry work was a huge step for me, so I feel good about the day.

Whatever I do tomorrow, I'm going to wait on the joist anchors until after business hours. That's a lot of hammering, especially on the wall closest to the street. Right now would be the perfect time of day to do it, but the shop is closed for the day.


Thanks for worrying. I'm going to be fine.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Backgammon game to the thrift store and a bit of grocery shopping done.

Also some books reorganized as well.

Got a set of oven mitts from the Dollar store but they are good. My others all wore out.

So a good day today.

Work tomorrow.

Friday, I need to get a birthday card and a present for a friend in Alberta. Hopefully more stuff to the thrift store as well. Also for Saturday too.

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Someone I know has offered me a love seat which is just fine by me. Hopefully she can find someone to get it to me.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I may have twisted my knee. It's hard to tell though because both of them hurt today. I spent a large part of my time yesterday kneeling and crab-walking under the joists, so it might just be that I'm not used to more intense physical labor like that since it's been a while since I was working that job.

I didn't twist or break the arm. It hurts quite a bit, but there's really not even any bruising or swelling to speak of. I've got full mobility though. Maybe I bruised the bone?


Anyway, I stopped using that as an excuse to sit around doing nothing and got to work. Even though I only put in a few hours I did something that was bothering me for weeks and will need some drying time for a few days before I take the next step.

I finally did the outside tuck-pointing, and man, does it look professional.

I had a 5 gallon bucket of water with me and a rag this time. As I packed everything in solid, I went back over it very carefully and wiped the blocks down around the seams. Then I used my finger and ran it along the seems to give it that nice professional look. It's going to look amazing when I put the coat of tar over it.

Didn't get around to putting those joist anchors on everywhere like I wanted to though. I could still do it now, but I'm going to take it easy the rest of the night. Wrapping up this masonry work was a huge step for me, so I feel good about the day.

Whatever I do tomorrow, I'm going to wait on the joist anchors until after business hours. That's a lot of hammering, especially on the wall closest to the street. Right now would be the perfect time of day to do it, but the shop is closed for the day.


Thanks for worrying. I'm going to be fine.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

---

If you're like me, things hurt worst the third day. I hope you were able to sleep well, the best painkilling OTC combination is tylenol and ibuprofen, but since ibuprofen prevents blood clot formation just make sure that you don't have any giant bruises before you start taking it.

Also, joint rest, elevation, ice, and gentle motion will help squueze the swelling out feom around you joints, if you have any.

Congrats on the tuck-pointing! You've faced your fears and have overcome!

-----------
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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I actually feel quite good today. The arm pain is virtually gone unless I grab my arm and squeeze on it. We'll see of that's the case once I'm doing work again.

I think my knees are still pretty shot, but I'm not convinced that was because of the fall. I didn't hurt both of them when I fell, and I probably only tweaked the right one that was already overworked by that point in the day when I did.

I have to start doing some exercise again. I haven't put on any weight since I got laid off, but I can tell that my endurance has gone down since I'm a smoker and that I'm inflicting minor injuries on myself by doing tasks that wouldn't have been a problem 3 months ago (such as moving furniture and crab walking under the joists). My upper back/left shoulder is still tweaked from moving the big furniture set out of my house with my brother last Monday.


I think I'll start with mowing the lawn today. I noticed that my neighbor is throwing out a broadcast spreader. I'm going to go check it out or even better see him and ask before I do. Mine is better, but it's broken. I might just throw mine out if he is only tossing it because he doesn't use it or he got a better one. His lawn doesn't look like he ever fertilizes it, and I've never once seen him use it, so he might just be dumping it.


Hopefully I can get myself to sand those windows down. I have a power sander I'm hoping I can use on the plastic wood, otherwise that's going to be a real chore. Not sure if I can use it though because of the vibrations on those crap windows. I can get a nice coat of primer on it if I prep the windows today and then I can get the last beads of caulk and hopefully the three back windows on the south side will be watertight after that.

Looked at the 4 windows on the north side and that's going to be a monster of a project. I might just have to replace all of the windows. There's no way I could ever explain how they originally did them since they're entirely unique to me and I've never seen windows done like that on any other house I've ever been at in my entire life.

I'll just say that they were taking water in from day one, when it was installed 40 years ago. Probably fine during the warmer months, but when snow drifts blew up against it and it settled there is no way the entire front of the porch wasn't taking on water whenever it melted.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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No work on the house today. Ended up running with the lawn maintenance after the mowing was done and got a bit carried away. I spent about 90 minutes with my saw-zall and a bore blade, trying to remove a tree stump that is close to the house (long story I'm not going to get into).

There's a lot of stump under there. A lot of roots too. It was the biggest one, but there are 4 others I need to remove. I'm going to have to find a smarter and more productive way to remedy this problem on my own. But I really have better things to be doing with my time right now, so that's going on the to-do list.

It's still somewhat early. I might do something else before I call it a night. Just needed a break though since I was out in the hot sun all day.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Left knee and hip bothering me now that I am home. Was at work and I walked back this early evening. So extra stress aside from going up and down the basement stairs at my boss's house.

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DONE!

Dear dauhter is finally out of the guest bedroom and into her renovated bedroom!

For me, it was a monster day of work, since I started out by walking the dog, then spent 1 1/2 hours on yardwork ...

Did I mention that whoever said that native gardening was less work than a lawn lied their assess off? MY big problem is weeds and Bermuda grass, which I am everlastingly digging and pulling. My hope is that I can get enough of the weeds pulled before they set seed that next year won't be so bad. Also using corn gluten as a pre-emergent weed inhibitor and weed/grass killer for the stuff I can't dig up.

Then making dinner (it's a lengthy recipe for vegie lasagna) and then doing the final prep for DD's move, and finally appealing to hubby and dd to move the bed and dresser since at that point I was at about as far as I could go. But while they were doing to heavy lifting, I was doing a giant kitchen cleanup.

Knees hurt, ankles hurt, feet and hips hurt, which is why I'm up at stupid o'clock posting. I DEFINITELY plan on taking things easy today! We have our Friday lunch out, and maybe running to the recycling center to get rid of some stuff.

The next few days I hope to box things up and take them out of the house for giveaway. And then we're going to start on dear daughter's prized possessions.

-----------
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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BRENDA, I feel your pain! (literally). You mentioned that your legs are getting better since you can now put them up, which implies that you have leg swelling. Is that true?


SIX, I hope you're still feeling better and haven't gone backwards with your recovery. There is such a thing as a stump grinder which can be rented, but it's a beast of a machine, dangerous and probably expensive. Aside from that, no magic solutions that I know of ... unless you want to hitch up a pair of oxen and have them pullit for you!

Sealing windows ... hmmm. We recently had to face that problem since the trim under one of our windows rotted and needed replacement. Normally there is tar paper or Tyvek tucked around the window underneath the stucco or siding. Do you see evidence of sheet waterproofing material around the window? In other words, is the fault with JUST the window, or was the siding put up without underlying waterproofing.


-----------
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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Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

SIX, I hope you're still feeling better and haven't gone backwards with your recovery. There is such a thing as a stump grinder which can be rented, but it's a beast of a machine, dangerous and probably expensive. Aside from that, no magic solutions that I know of ... unless you want to hitch up a pair of oxen and have them pullit for you!

---

Yeah. I'm feeling good. A little achey, but nothing bad.

I'm thinking about getting a spade and digging all around. I'm more worried about the roots than the stumps themselves. These things are very clearly alive under the surface although except for the "suckers" they try growing a few times in spring and summer you wouldn't know it. I'll bet they're harboring a lot of my ant problem. They seem to love it down there.

I'm a bit worried I might have contracted some sort of poison ivy or something yesterday. This will not be good if that's the case. I had it once and it spread all over my body within days. Late last night my right palm was severely itchy before I went to sleep. I woke up this morning and I have spots on it now. They don't seem to have spread anywhere else from my palm yet, and it's been about 25 years since I had a poison ivy reaction, so I'm not sure yet what I'm dealing with here. Hopefully it's nothing.

Quote:

---

Sealing windows ... hmmm. We recently had to face that problem since the trim under one of our windows rotted and needed replacement. Normally there is tar paper or Tyvek tucked around the window underneath the stucco or siding. Do you see evidence of sheet waterproofing material around the window? In other words, is the fault with JUST the window, or was the siding put up without underlying waterproofing.

---

These things can hardly be classified as windows. I don't even really know how to go about explaining the hack job that was originally done without showing you pictures of it. They're aluminum tracks screwed into built out wood blocks that hold those old 70's style single pane glass garbage... yanno, the type you can easily swap out for screens (if you have them).

The front is even worse. Huge slats are put up in front of all 4 windows that look really ugly from the street (either for privacy or to keep the sun out???). So the sills on the front are very, very wide for a window. What's worse, is that they grade away from the house only for the front 80%, come to a peak about 1 1/2" in front of the shitty windows, and then grade into the windows on the back. (Yes... this is how the aluminum covering was designed and installed originally). No wonder I got about 1000 gallons in there when I power washed everything a few years back.

The roof overhangs are at least 18", so unless the rain is falling sideways, the walls and windows seem to keep dry. The problem would be the snow and snow drifts, followed by the melting once it accumulates up there. This thing was designed to take on water from day one.

Right now I need something that is reasonably pretty that keeps the water out 100%. I do think I'm going to replace the windows with something legitimate, maybe next year, but I need to have the floor installed before I even consider it. I'm sure the city is going to get in my business if I replace the windows since it's so obvious from the street and probably force me to get a permit. Annoying as that will be, it won't be a huge deal other than the cost of a stupid permit once the floor is solid and covered with something.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, I feel your pain! (literally). You mentioned that your legs are getting better since you can now put them up, which implies that you have leg swelling. Is that true?


------------------
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 had more feet swelling over the last couple of years then leg and knee pain. Had a case of varicose viens treated when I was in my late 30s through early 40s. Saline treatments.

Things have improved since I've moved as I am walking in a much flatter area now. But too much walking and I still get the pain. When I watch tv, I have an upside down trash can that I put my feet up on, which has helped a lot. I wasn't really able to put my feet up in that other place and with the hills. Not a good combo.

There was a lot of hurt on my legs and knee joints in the last two years that I was living there and so time will ease these aches and pains.

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Was going to take some stuff up to the thrift store but not going to today. Had to overdo it a bit at work yesterday, so that maybe a chore for tomorrow.

Anyways got to get out and get a birthday present and card for a friend in Alberta. His birthday is around Turkey Day up here and I usually hit his birthday or miss it. I am hoping this year to be early.

So later peeps.

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Centre that I go to his having a giant birthday party for everyone whos birthday is in September. Not sure if I am going to it or not.

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I've dug out a few large stumps in my time and it's arduous but doable. The trick I found is to either have a hand saw you don't mind trashing, or a sawzall blade you don't mind trashing, along with a spade and a large crow bar. Also, with my soil (clay) it helped to water the dirt a day or two ahead of time to be neither hard brick nor sticky goo.

Dig in the softened dirt some distance from the stump till you hit a root, and dig around it a bit so you get some clearance. Take out your saw and saw the root. Scraping through all the dirt is what damages the blade, which why you'll never again use it for anything else but removing stumps. Repeat till you have all the roots sawn off.

A large stump with dirt attached is very, very heavy, which is why you'll need a crow bar and maybe a friend to get it out of the hole.


I removed 2 large tree stumps and about 40' of boxwood stumps that way, but it was very arduous, and took multiple days per tree stump. (The jacaranda stump was the most problematic, since its roots didn't fan out near the surface in a regular pattern. They dove straight down, re-emerged twisted into its other roots etc. But the pine tree stump was relatively straightforward and uncomplicated.) So for the last (ash tree) stump I called in a company that did stump grinding.

A recent episode of Ask This Old House also recommends that procedure.

ETA: but I just checked and here anyway you can now rent a stump grinder and do it yourself.

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I've got everything but the spade. I broke a bore blade yesterday, but the other one lasted a lot longer when I just let the tool do the work instead of forcing stuff. They're really heavy duty and I have either 4 or 6 more (i can't remember if there were 2 or 3 in a pack).


Home Depot has a stump grinder for rent at nearly $200 for a day. Plus I'd need to pay for delivery and pickup. That's not an option for me.

So the roots will die if the stump is gone?


I'm not getting anything done today. Sat in the porch for about an hour just spinning the wheels. I have no idea what I'm going to do about the windows. My friend called and pissed me off too. Gave me shit that my brother still hasn't picked up the flooring, then when I said there was still a lot to do before the floor goes in he tells me what I need to do on the windows even though he has no idea how ghetto they are. I really need him to come and work with me on these things. I don't want to throw a ton of money at them for a temporary solution in the case that I end up ripping it all out and putting legit stuff in down the road, but I also want to make sure that they are water tight before the floor goes in, even if that means sealing them all in and making them unusable.

I'm glad he didn't ask me if I was coming to work for him this weekend, because I probably would have yelled at him. I'm obviously in a shitty mood today, but I'm really starting to feel like I'm being taken advantage of here.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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"So the roots will die if the stump is gone?"

It depends on the tree species! Crape myrtle* is notorious for resprouting as are willows*! legume trees (mimosa* and acacia* are vigorous, jacaranda isn't as persistent etc), populus trees (poplar*, cottonwood, aspen, etc), along with privet* (the 'lucidum' species can grow up to 30' tall and look like a multi-trunked tree), and ash* are ones I've either seen or had experience with. The ones with * can be god awful to get rid of.

But if you've had the stumps for a while, and nothing has resprouted either around the stump, off of the stump, or from a root further away. I think it should be OK.

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Time to come clean, I suppose, for Science.

They're maples. Planted very close to my house. By me.

I'd say that the neighbor that got foreclosed on two doors down behind me was trolling me when she told me they were "Rose of Sharon", but she had them planted all along her nice fence in the back yard. She also gave me most of the hastas in front of my house.

She was an idiot. I was an idiot.

So yeah, I willingly planted 5 maple trees right up along side my house, and another in the front of the porch. They were tiny and looked nice for about two years, then they (obviously) grew out of control and I cut them all down.

I'm constantly cutting away new growth around them. They've been stumps for at least 5 years now. Yesterday, I had cut down as much as I could of one of the three remaning ones through the fence of the same house that new neighbors are living there. I'd never met the guy before but later when I heard him mowing the lawn I flagged him down and let him know that he's got trees growing there and they're going to destroy his fence and his garage if he doesn't cut them down.


Somehow yesterday, I really screwed up again too. I'm probably going to have to go to the clinic. I got poison something-or-other. It was just on my right palm last night and into this morning. By mid afternoon I had a few bumps on the outside of my left hand. now I've got one on my neck and another on my bellybutton. The last time this happened I was still in my teens and I looked like I had measels. The first batch of steroids the doctor gave me did nothing and I ended up having to take horse tablets to get rid of it. It lasted two to three weeks.

I think I'm fucked. :(

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Oh crap about the medical stuff. Please let us know how you're doing. I certainly can't help from here, but if it cheers you up at all I can root for you from the sidelines!

Here's how to get rid of maple resprouts: (hint - it's chemical warfare)

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/kill-maple-sprouts-29896.html

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Yeah. It's just poison oak or poison ivy. This time, just like the last time, I got it when I was scratched by something. The bumps first sprouted up around the cut on my back when I was a kid, and about a week later my entire body was a blochy mess. It ruined the last month of summer break for me.

I got some fairly superficial scratches on my palm while working yesterday and by night time I could feel the itching and slight bumps. Now they're blisters that are going to pop eventually. There's not a lot on my body yet, but if it gets me like it did last time it won't be long now.


Thanks for the stump info. Going to take care of that when time allows. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Well went to the September birthday party at the centre and was bored for 2hours. Not doing that again.

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What is that?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Oh SIX, so sorry to hear about your poison ivy/oak reaction. I had a neighbor wgo fell into some while biking, it only touched his forearm but wound up blistering most of his arm. I never knew it could spread like that!

I've had very good experience with 5% lidocaine ointment. Unfortunately it's Rx not OTC I guess thye worry about people using too much and it being absorbed thru the skin, apparently it has pretty consequential effect on cardiac output, but maybe the clinic will Rx you some. They also make lidocaine cream, same 5% but not as effective (IMHO) but you can buy it from a drugstore. Dear daughter swears by benadryl gel.

I hope you don't go too crazy. Steroids can kinda pep you up and make you feel pretty good until you wean offa them. Let us know how you're doing day-to-day.

-----------
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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SIX, does your friend have a smart phone? Do you?

I've found it very useful for those "You just have to see it" questions to take pictures and send them. Or maybe camera and email?

Another thing you could try is just going to youtube and checking out "window flashing" or "window waterproofing" or even window installation. I learned a lot from them, and even if your situation doesn't match entirely you might get some useful tips. The best tips that I got were from people who did stucco repair ... I know that might sound stupid but they had info on how to preserve whatever waterproofing envelope was there before and mate your repair to the old stuff.

or heck, just post photo links here, closeups, so we can't ID your house. I'd do my very best to come up with a good solution to your problem. But I believe that you can figure it out knowing that they're so ghetto to begin with and that you might be replacing them anyway, the only thing you need to worry about is coming up with something that works because they'll never be up to "code" anyway.

-----------
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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Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh SIX, so sorry to hear about your poison ivy/oak reaction. I had a neighbor wgo fell into some while biking, it only touched his forearm but wound up blistering most of his arm. I never knew it could spread like that!

I've had very good experience with 5% lidocaine ointment. Unfortunately it's Rx not OTC I guess thye worry about people using too much and it being absorbed thru the skin, apparently it has pretty consequential effect on cardiac output, but maybe the clinic will Rx you some. They also make lidocaine cream, same 5% but not as effective (IMHO) but you can buy it from a drugstore. Dear daughter swears by benadryl gel.

I hope you don't go too crazy. Steroids can kinda pep you up and make you feel pretty good until you wean offa them. Let us know how you're doing day-to-day.

-----------
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

---

Well... reading online, they say it won't spread. That is, the rash and broken blisters are not contagious (wish I knew that when I self quarantined the last month of summer because I thought anybody I touched would get it).

However, I have read that having the oil under your fingernails will easily spread the oil. After I read that, I quickly clipped my nails real good and did another thorough wash of my hands last night (I was, after all, doing this yard work without gloves and did a lot of digging around that stump with my bare hands. Woke up this morning and so far so good (no more new bumps).


Now I did read on one website that if you get the oil in your bloodstream that your blood will work against you and carry it all over your body. I don't know how much credence to give that though because why don't all the websites say that?

But when I was a kid, I really couldn't tell you what happened. I was at a forest party and it was the third time I drank. Between having no actual recollection of that night other than the lie I told my parents about scratching my back while taking a tumble off the path in the forest preserve while rollerblading, I honestly couldn't tell you how I got a deep gouge on my back where the blisters originated before I got them literally everywhere. Maybe I was making out with a poisonous oak tree or something.



The welts I have right now are seriously bad itchy, but nothing I can't deal with if this is all I have to look forward to. I was really worried about it spreading to my face yesterday. When I was 16 or 17 it all healed nicely. Seems if I pop a zit these days I get a scar. I really didn't want to find out what the aftermath of a facefull of poison ivy was going to do to my good looks. :)


Fingers crossed. It's been over 12 hours since I noticed anything new pop up.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
What is that?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

---

Who you talking to SIX?

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OH, btw Brenda. I don't know if you're a people-person. I'm not. I think if I as at that party - which I imagine as a get-together of mostly strangers trying to relate to each other - it would have been boring at best, but probably excruciating. I hope there were no speeches.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 1KIKI:
OH, btw Brenda. I don't know if you're a people-person. I'm not. I think if I as at that party - which I imagine as a get-together of mostly strangers trying to relate to each other - it would have been boring at best, but probably excruciating. I hope there were no speeches.

---

No, I'm not a people-person. I went because I wanted something different to do. There was one table full of people who knew each other and few others who knew other people there. Me, I think I ran into 1 person I knew but she didn't speak to me all evening. The music was nothing interesting and there was just a bit of speechifying and I couldn't win any of the prizes being given away.

So, a complete waste of 2hours. Coulda stayed home and watched repeats of M*A*S*H.

Like I said not doing it again.

And on the subject of not people, I have a hard time dealing sometimes with the people I play mah jong with.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
What is that?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

---

Who you talking to SIX?

---

I was talking to you. :)

But I see it was a music festival. Sorry you didn't have a good time. :(

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, does your friend have a smart phone? Do you?

I've found it very useful for those "You just have to see it" questions to take pictures and send them. Or maybe camera and email?

---

I don't. But I have a tablet. He does.

Funny you should mention it. Not only did I use it today, but I took down the entire wall of fake windows and the paneling. There was another layer of plywood underneath it that I have yet to take off to expose the studs underneath and see if they have maintained their integrity.

My friend was shocked to see what I was talking about. They built the damned windows inside the room, and these shitty slats/louvers that keep the sunlight out are where windows should be framed out.

Now there's no guesswork. There's no fake windows. I'm going to seal that up with heavy plastic and make it watertight until it's time to frame out legit windows and have them installed. I can probably put real windows including a new screen door in for around $1,200 to $1,400 bucks and instantly raise the value of my home by $5,000 on curb appeal alone.

Quote:

---

Another thing you could try is just going to youtube and checking out "window flashing" or "window waterproofing" or even window installation. I learned a lot from them, and even if your situation doesn't match entirely you might get some useful tips. The best tips that I got were from people who did stucco repair ... I know that might sound stupid but they had info on how to preserve whatever waterproofing envelope was there before and mate your repair to the old stuff.

---

There is no situation in the world that matches mine here lol. This porch was built by idiots for idiots. It becomes more and more obvious that somebody did some major "repair" work to all of it at some point and they just made the situation even worse.

I'm going to rip all the shit out at some point and it's going to be built right and watertight. I'm done dicking around and wasting time thinking. I know what I'm going to do now.

Quote:

---

or heck, just post photo links here, closeups, so we can't ID your house. I'd do my very best to come up with a good solution to your problem. But I believe that you can figure it out knowing that they're so ghetto to begin with and that you might be replacing them anyway, the only thing you need to worry about is coming up with something that works because they'll never be up to "code" anyway.

---

I think I might try to start getting pictures up somewhere that I can't be doxxed tomorrow. It's supposed to thunderstorm all day long, so other than removing that plywood inside to reveal the wall framing under the louvers, all I'm really going to be doing is monitoring the work I've done for any leaks while the storms are going on.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
What is that?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

---

Who you talking to SIX?

---

I was talking to you. :)

But I see it was a music festival. Sorry you didn't have a good time. :(

Do Right, Be Right. :)

---

I thought maybe you were. :) Well, I'm not really a people person and especially when there was no one really there that I knew.

They always have entertainment at these things but usually there is some rock music being played. That might have helped some.

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Quote:

---

My friend was shocked to see what I was talking about. They built the damned windows inside the room, and these shitty slats/louvers that keep the sunlight out are where windows should be framed out.

---

Oh .... dear.

I think I see what you mean. If it is what I picture then you're right: There's no fixing that. The only thing I can imagine is doing what you plan to do: stretch heavy-duty plastic across the opening - maybe make a light wood frame - and attach it to the wall.




-----------
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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Quote:

---

My friend was shocked to see what I was talking about. They built the damned windows inside the room, and these shitty slats/louvers that keep the sunlight out are where windows should be framed out.

---

Oh .... dear.

I think I see what you mean. If it is what I picture then you're right: There's no fixing that. The only thing I can imagine is doing what you plan to do: stretch heavy-duty plastic across the opening - maybe make a light wood frame - and attach it to the wall.

Not sure about where you live but out here windows are EXPENSIVE. Try pricing them out first, I hope you don't get a big shock like I 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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Hey BRENDA, I know what you mean. Nothing is more dispriting than spending time with a bunch of random people trying to have fun. I'm not much of a people person either ... when occasions come up like retiree lunch, I'm always happy to have an excuse to stay home. ("I'm sorry I just had sinus surgery two weeks ago" or "I have to take dd to the doctor" or something.)

-----------
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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Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

---

My friend was shocked to see what I was talking about. They built the damned windows inside the room, and these shitty slats/louvers that keep the sunlight out are where windows should be framed out.

---

Oh .... dear.

I think I see what you mean. If it is what I picture then you're right: There's no fixing that. The only thing I can imagine is doing what you plan to do: stretch heavy-duty plastic across the opening - maybe make a light wood frame - and attach it to the wall.

---

Oh... the plastic is only a temporary solution until I get the floor in. Making that front water-tight, just temporary is going to be much easier now that I don't have fake leaky windows on the inside with a sill that grades back into them.

The louvers will be removed, but only after everything else is sealed up. The floor will be rock solid when it is put in. I just want to make sure that everything else is done and sealed and hidden before the windows are done. It will be obvious to anybody from the street that major work is being done once I take the louvers out, so if the city comes poking around I want everything else to look good and be solid. I'll probably do the back windows first and have that back wall perfect before I attempt the front.

I haven't yet removed the aluminum around a center casing, but I imagine there is quite a bit in the middle holding the wall up underneath the headers. Other than that, once the louvers are removed, there will be two very large openings in the front of the porch that are something like 88" wide by 55" tall. They're wider than I imagined they were when I finally measured them late last night.

At Menards, I found these windows:



They come in 60" wide by 48" tall for $184 when they're not on sale. So one of these new windows would replace two of the existing ones.

I'm going to shop around and see if I can find a better fit, but even if I built it out and put aluminum flashing around them it will look much better than those louvers and it will be water tight. I'd have to remove and frame out the fake louvers in front of the shed on the end too, and then put up plywood and Tyvek before re-siding that end of the house (Don't know why the hell they extended them all the way to the end when there is no window in the shed).

So between the lumber, aluminum and extra vinyl siding I'll have to buy, I imagine I could get the front looking great from the street for around $600.

The back side could also use one of them on one side of the new screen door, and the other side of the screen door would take one conventional up/down window. That side will be a bit more expensive because I need a new screen door, but I won't have to do any additional vinyl work there.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Yeah, SIG that is about the size of it. I just went for something to do that evening.

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Something happened on the roof of a local mall last night. I saw at least 3 cop cars up there and someone with a flashlight walking around. Wonder what happened?

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Teens messing around mistaken for an attempted break-in though a skylight?

It's one of those everyday mysteries.

A few months ago I heard what sounded like 2 shotgun blasts around 3AM. Next thing I knew there were red and blue flashing lights shining in through my window. The police were at the neighbor's house across the street and 2 down. They had arrived quietly, and left quietly without taking anyone in custody about 20 minutes later. I still casually wonder what that was all about. And it sure made my neighbors a mystery!

Decades ago and across the country I was strolling through my rather rough and scruffy neighborhood with my then boyfriend, early on a quiet spring Sunday. We passed a quonset hut that housed a small business and I heard (my hearing used to be phenomenal) a really, REALLY high-pitched continuous tone. My bf identified it as an ultrasonic security system. I don't remember now the reason why I hit the side of the hut with my hand, but within a couple of minutes a cop car came sliding around the street corner at some speed. (My hit must have triggered a silent alarm.) By then we'd walked a short block. They asked us if we saw anything suspicious and we said no, and they continued on I guess to check the perimeter, where they'd find nothing, of course. WE were they mystery at that point!

In my life I've only once been the mystery that I know of, but run across those everyday mysteries many times! They help make life interesting!

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KIKI, could be. They find needles and used condoms up on that roof. So security could have found something and called the cops to double check it. I'll watch the news and see if anything is mentioned on it.

I was terrible last night while that was going on. My head partially on the tv and what I was watching and looking out the window to see if I could get a handle on what was happening.

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I think the most disturbed I ever was by one of those daily mysteries ... I was watching TV and thought I heard something. So I muted the TV and thought what I heard was coming from outside. (It was winter, everything was closed up.) So I went to the door and opened it and heard the tail end of what was being broadcast by a police copter circling overhead with the spotlight on "... armed and dangerous. Stay inside and lock your windows and doors. Do not let anyone in your house."

Boy did that have me jumpy for a while!

And then ... they went away as they always do. Did they get the person? Was the person still around but hiding? Was it a false alarm? One never finds out.

Except the time when the police were circling over a neighbor's house one block down the hill on the corner. I saw them take a resident of the home into custody, but what for, and why the helicopter, I never found out ... And THOSE people became a mystery!

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Nothing on the news but if I find a little community newspaper there might be something in it. I'll keep an eye out.

I remember police helicopters going over when my family and I were visiting some family in California. We were out in their pool and the helicopter started going over. We asked if that was normal and of course the cousins started making jokes.

This was something we never noticed at that time up here if any of the police had copters up here. This was in the late 70s.

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Speaking of being jumpy, I was up around 4:45 AM and went to the kitchen for something. When I hear a car come by and I'm by the window I always look out for some reason. I see the public works truck rolling by my house and slowing down past my driveway and out of my line of sight. I got my clothes on and went outside. By that time, I saw them driving around my old neighbor's house that had been foreclosed on, and possibly turning around. I went into the garage service door, then kind of peeked out and saw them drive the other way past my house a minute or so later.

I had been working all day out there the previous day though while my neighbors had a party. My neighbors are totally cool, but who knows who was at that party. Talk about paranoid. Geesh... I couldn't sleep for about 4 hours after that. There's little chance they were scoping my work out. More likely, they were looking at something with the ditch, or possibly just seeing if the power was on in the foreclosed house since it would flood again if the sump pump wasn't on.

Just really found it strange somebody was driving around one of the city trucks before 5AM on a Sunday morning...



So... I didn't do anything but sleep all day, and I felt terribly guilty about it, even though it was wonderful. Perfect rainy weather and temperature to just sleep and sleep.

But then I realized I squandered an opportunity to truly see what was behind the scenes on the wall with the louvers, and if I truly was taking in any water. There was still a layer of plywood to remove under that cedar paneling.

So... I finally did it. I'm truly naked on all 4 walls on the inside of the porch now. It was bone dry and the stuff looks completely healthy. :)

This says to me that the only reason I took on water in the front was because of how it graded back to the shitty fake aluminum windows (as I suspected) and the water was all pouring in between the back of the cedar wall and the plywood directly on top of the framing.


One step closer... :)

Got to finish the back windows this week, painting and caulking and making them water tight, even if they're only going to be there temporarily. I've got some minor framing issues to fix around the rotten porch door. I'm also going to do some work buttressing up the 4 joists that are beneath the two sheets of plywood closest to the house that I have not and will not be ripping out, both in the center like I did with the new stuff, and I'm also going to make box-type supports by doubling up on the outside joists, sills and inside joists underneath the walls. I want that to be just as strong as I've made the rest of the floor. It will be dark and dirty and a pain in the ass, but well worth the money and work.

After that, I'm ready to put the floor in as soon as my brother can pick it all up.

Then I have to get my friend to help me with jacking up the front porch overhang, making that all level looking fancy. At that point, I'll have to decide if I want to tackle new windows and the gutters before winter or next spring.

I'm about $550 into the work now. Nothing so far is breaking me, financially. New gutters, windows, porch door and all of the framing and vinyl that will be needed are likely to run me around $2,200 or more though, and I've got the $3,600 or so for dentures coming up soon as well as my 2nd installment on the property taxes. I'll still be okay, but going to have to get some decent income before this stuff starts getting out of hand. If I do all of that before getting a new job, the work I've done on the house and getting my mouth fixed are going to be basically all the money I saved while working at the last job.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Found myself falling a sleep in front of my computer this afternoon and I didn't get up until 11am.

Last time I did do that I gave myself a sore neck. Very annoying as I don't sleep properly at night because of it.

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lol... wow Brenda. We must be on the same bad sleep schedule.

I've been cleaning up around the house. Finally vaccumed all the crap out of the basement that I had to stop doing before I fixed the shop vac. Doing things I can do inside that don't make much noise since it's too late to be doing any work on the porch that needs to be done.

I have no clue how I'm going to get any sleep after I slept about 24 out of 28 hours before finally getting my ass out of bed... And I know what you mean about the aches too. Didn't sleep sitting up, but my back never feels good after sleeping that long, even on a good bed.

Oh well... going to try to get at least 4 hours of sleep at some point tonight and force myself out of bed by around 8. Got a lot to do this week. Probably going to have to bail on going down to visit my brother again until next month.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Nah, Jack. It was just another Sunday up here and I don't normally do much on a Sunday. And it was raining again. Soggy end to September.

Out in a bit. Got some errands to run. Birthday card to mail then head over to where I play mah jong.

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Think I'm done for the day. Had a good one though.

Got my rebate forms out in the mail, picked up some more things I needed from Menards.

Put the tar over my tuck pointing. It looks professional. Did the stuff with dirt close last to keep as much clean as possible till the end. Requires spirits to clean the brush so I just used a dollar store brush and pitched it when I was done.

Washed the back 3 windows down and gave them 2 healthy coats of primer. If the weather holds, I'll probably paint them along with the two columns in front that I primered a few months ago all in one go. I like painting as much as I possibly can at once to avoid waste from cleanup.

Also drilled holes into the 5 tree stumps and put the poison granuals in there. Hopefully that kills them and keeps anything more from growing until I get around to digging them all out.


If I wake up early enough to have the painting done by around noon, I hope to do all of the structural support work that I plan on doing underneath the two boards of plywood that aren't coming out tomorrow.


Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Was out in the rain all day today. But card into the post and other things done. So a good day.

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Just watched some stuff on YouTube. Couple of Jeff Foxworthy videos and his buddy Bill Envgall. These dudes are funny.

My Blair never could understand my love of southern comics.

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I liked Ron White.


Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Oh god... I'm in pain.....

First half of the day went very smoothly. I got the first coat of the white finish paint on my columns in front and the windows in the back of the porch. They look fantastic. Used just about half of what I have, so should have plenty for a second coat when it's time. Instead of rushing both coats today, I saw the 4 hour required drying time between them necessary and decided that I'm going to do more caulking on those windows before putting on the final coat. Weather permitting, sometime by the weekend it should all be done.



But then, the under-floor work. I knew that the front area under the plywood wasn't great. My friend said it would be fine, but I was not convinced. I was shimming some joists on the compromised sill and the damn thing broke on me. Shit.

I kind of freaked out since I had never done this stuff without my friend around.

I thought it out, did quite a bit of prep work and then I jacked the front of the porch up on the 12 ton jack, making sure everything was jacking straight up and that I wouldn't have a malfunction since I only had the 1 jack this time.

Cut out 29" of bad sill and replaced it with good stuff, then I put in a few pieces for support to at least get me overnight without needing the jack up all night when I'm not there to monitor it.

Jack is down and the walls are still up.

It's even more solid than it was before.

Aside from the caulking on the windows, working under the remaining flooring will be my only focus tomorrow. I might have to buy some more lumber and materials. Hopefully that will all be done tomorrow and I can finally say that the structure is solid.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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