Musings

The Handiman (aka Handy-man aka Guru aka Genius) has finished staining! Hurrah!

He has now turned his hand to rodent frustration. He’s got some of that expanding foam, and is squirting all possible means of ingress, which means he’s been using a mirror to look up between the sheathing and the foundation, as well as crawling beneath the house (in the duh crawl space) using a light to inspect hither an yon. Kudos to the Handiman!

As to the trim, the frame has its primer and two coats. The screens have primer and one coat (mostly). The windows that open, well, they lag. Several have primer, the rest not even that.

I may just have to let them overwinter without knowing what brown can do for them.

Posted at 5:05 PM | Comments Off on Progress!

I felt that I rounded the bend today on this painting project, finishing the primer on the window framing and getting the first of two coats of the brown on, too. JCB’s nearly finished with the staining, and contemplating other projects. I still have to do the screens (yawn), and the exterior of the doors (not much to cover, but all slow, mostly around glass, stead hand, and all that).

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Productive labors

While we’re extremely happy we’re getting moist weather—although real rain would be highly appreciated instead of this foggy-dewy stuff—it puts a damper (haha) on painting operations. In addition, I discovered that the wood filler I used just rolls right off when you try to sand it and it’s damp. Not good.

So, the Handiman decided to do some other chores, and cleaned pine needles off the roof and inspected the chimney (using the long lens of the camera, without climbing the really steep part of the roof). He reports one dead bat clinging up there somewhere. I worry about the decomposing bricks.

Maybe next year. Our card’s full for this year.

Posted at 10:49 AM | Comments Off on High points

The plumber finally got to us, and zip-zip, the new water heater is online!

It’s effectively a mini normal electric water heater, with a 3.85 gal tank. He installed it so we can completely remove it, dump it, and store it where it won’t freeze. Yippee!

Now, we have to get the electrician over to install its own leetle plug, but for now, we’re using an extension cord and walking with our feet held high.

I won’t get my first hot shower, however, until after I get more painting, etc finished this afternoon. Ah, well!

Posted at 1:35 PM | 5 Comments »

staining in progress

Yesterday, the Handiman (a temporary handle) picked up the 5-gallon bucket of stain we had the hardware store order for us, and today he began the staining operation.

I’ve done only a modest amount of housepainting, but never staining. The stuff is thinner than paint, and goes on differently. It’s difficult to manage due to its runniness.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Staining underway

Yesterday we saw both the water-carrying choppers reported as being used for the Sleeper Lake(s) fire, apparently headed for refueling at the Newberry airport. Winds today are gusty and seem to be shifting directions. It must be hell on the fireline.

Posted at 3:05 PM | 1 Comment »

Our photographic safari to Seney Refuge with KW and GG produced several hundred images from four still cameras—one apiece! Note our New Camera, delivered here courtesy of Amazon right after we arrived. It has more zoom and wide-angle capabilities, and faster shutter cycling (whatever that’s called); generally, a huge pleasure. The only major (if this indeed is major) drawback is that the lens cap needs a tether (no camera store for 90 miles or so). We’ve become habituated to the small cameras with no separate lens cover, and struggle to remember….

As to critter sightings, mostly birds and rodents. Did see Sandhills this time around, but no super photos, just ones where you can see the red eye patch and general shape, but no details. (You see, the new fab camera’s modest-capacity chip had been filled by then.)

Of special note: we enjoyed our first picnic out of the New Prius!

If you didn’t know us, you’d think from this entry (New this, New that…) we are big consumers, when in reality, we spend much of the year not buying much besides groceries and paying utilities and the like.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Photo safari

We thought this was our temporary plate, but, as The Guru pointed out, it looks like it’s good for a whole millennium!

Posted at 6:32 PM | Comments Off on Temp plate

Where have all the cisterns gone?

Am I the only one that has the DoubleClick opt-out cookie, so that less data can be collected about me (or someone using my browser)?

[Here’s the opt-out link, and you can read about it here, or a bit about the company in Wikipedia.]

I comb my cookies regularly, and delete all but essentials. I guess I deceive myself, however, that I’m doing much to defeat the data-collectors.

Posted at 2:58 PM | 1 Comment »

Mini roadtrip

Took the new buggy for a spin. Had to try it out at highway speeds. And get the first Starbucks.

Did pretty well: 146 miles, average gas consumption—51.3 mpg. Whooopeeeeeeee!

Went to Athens. Met up with friends. Brunched at Farm 255. Flawless.

Friend’s iPhone

Yes, I’ve held one. Yes, it’s super cool. And, yes, you have to sign with AT&T for a total cost of something like $2K for your first two years of fun (including phone, activation, and monthly nut).

So far, we’re (broke and) holding off. Maybe the next generation iPhone? When we really need one?

Posted at 7:34 PM | Comments Off on Techno-fun