Be Careful What You Ask For

We had a weather advisory this morning, for a few inches of blowing/drifting snow. Would have made the morning drive a bit, er, problematic.

We had eight inches as of 0630, which made the drive downright dramatic. No big deal driving in 8" of dry snow: it's powdery, and swirls, drifts, and floats. Give it a few seconds, and it all falls to earth again. Take your time, and all will be well.

But we didn't get eight inches of powder; now, as of 1407, there are some 13" on the ground, and it's supposed to snow for another couple of hours.

It's I-can't-see-where-I'm-going weather. The knowledge that I'll have to park on the street when we get home, and walk up the hill to get the snowblower, isn't helping. The private contractors with whom our town contracts the residential plowing will have closed both ends of our C-shaped driveway. It typically takes 15 to 20 minutes of work just to open the entrance.

Grumblegrumblegrumblegrumblegrumblegrumble ...

Oh, well ... I wanted a big house in the mountains. The 270' foot driveway is a bonus, right?  :)

About Those Blinds

 We took possession of the house in May, 2016. Long before that day, this was the living room window:

No curtains, no screen except the trees in the front yard (and there were many, until last year). Everything we did in that room was open to view, so to speak.

We finally had enough of the sun in our eyes on summer mornings, and all the neighbors' various and sundry yard lights, security lights, and spotlights from sundry directions, at all hours of the evening and night.

Last year's replacement of the septic system, and resultant relocation of the leach field, took away the woods from in front of the house. Now, we and the neighbors across the street could see (distantly) into each other's living rooms. 

SWMBO averred that some sort of vision- and light-blocking treatment would be both appropriate and appreciated. My mother may have raised an ugly son, but not a stupid one.

So this is what I did, yesterday afternoon:

Pay no heed to sleeping cats. Don't disturb them, either.

Taken in dim lighting, but you get the idea. They fit - and work - remarkably well. 

Well, Drat ...

We bought our wonderful home four years tomorrow. Overall, it has been a remarkable easy thing to take care of.

Sure, there was all the damage from the 7.1 'quake in Nov. '18, but I digress.

Each level of our three-story structure is its own heating zone. We noticed yesterday that the heat was increasing on the second floor, the main living level with kitchen, breakfast nook, laundry room, living room, entry foyer, half-bath ... but I digress.

The heat wouldn't shut off. It's not been long since I replaced batteries in the digital thermostats on each level, but I put new ones in this morning. Just to be sure.

It's an old downeasterner's adage: start by replacing the least expensive component first. My dad's family was from Vermont, and I learned it from him. "No point in replacing the starter, only to find that the problem is the relay," he taught. Good advice.

But batteries didn't solve the problem.

Shutting off the hot water valve for the appropriate floor would be next, but seems I neglected to determine which valve is which. It didn't take long to figure it out, of course. Only four valves (the kitchen has its own), and trial-and-error is easy with so few choices.

So a visit from Our Favorite Plumber is in order - it's probably a relay ... heh - but they're closed on weekends except for emergencies.

Meanwhile, the weather has finally transitioned into Spring, with a forecast high today of 65 or so. So we opened the windows, and will get by until said plumber can pay us a call.

Like Roseanne Rosannadanna used to opine, "It's always something."

One of Those Days ...

You know how some days are just the wrong days to try certain things?

To wit:

I couldn't find our air filters at Wally World and had to go to Auto Zone instead (meaning more $$ spent than planned).

Yesterday we bought new cover plates for light switches and receptacles in the living room, which included one unfinished wood blank for the old cable jack in the decorative wood accent wall behind the TV. So I decided to stain the blank before I started on the cover plates upstairs.

I got out the can of stain which has been sitting on my workbench for two years. Lo and behold, it's "sun-kissed walnut". Not "honey oak" at all. Not sure how we missed that, although I do recall we were a bit overwhelmed by all the choices at the store when we bought it.

Then, while stirring it in hopes that it might be "sun-kissed" enough to work, it sloshed over on the newspaper and garage floor. I cleaned that up as best I could; it's not like a bit o' tint on the concrete will matter. But regarding the wood tint: alas, the stain is much too brown, even applied lightly. We'll have to get a different shade and try again.

So I cleaned the brush and stirrer, and headed up to the living room. Of course I had three cats standing on top of, in front of, and/or sniffing everything I wanted to touch/move/pick up/adjust. I spent more time moving cats than getting anything done.

So in the last hour, I've spent more money than I planned, spilled and cleaned up wood tint, and replaced exactly two (count 'em, two) cover plates.

Update: once the cats got used to me bustling around the room, and decided to take a nap, I finished the remainder in about 20 minutes.

At least the cats are enjoying me being home.

Murphy's Law is in Full Force Today...

I had one job for today: Swap doorknobs from master bathroom (on-suite) to Older Daughter's bedroom so that she can have a locking knob. Previous owners had placed a closet knob on that door, which of course doesn't lock.

Procedure:

a. Remove our knob and go down the hall to her room.
b. Remove her doorknob and install ours in its place.
c. Go back to our room. Reinstall her doorknob on our bathroom door, only to discover that - somewhere in the process - a piece had disappeared. The loss of said piece, the collar which grips the square shaft, prevents the inside knob from turning the latch, thereby neatly trapping the occupant (either me or my wife, usually me) in the bathroom.
d. Grab a flashlight and turn the master bathroom, hallway and her room upside down. The missing piece apparently fell into a black hole, nevermore to be seen again. Or perhaps it was a temporal rift, from whence the little piece of stamped metal will reappear a few years from now.
e. Go to WalMart and buy a replacement knob ($12).
f. Bring it home and begin replacement. Discover that the new knob is different from our existing hardware, and would require inletting on the solid wood bathroom door. I wasn't in the mood for it today, so ...
g. Go to different store, farther away, and buy another knob ($16).
h. Bring home & install.

Should have been a simple & easy 10-minute job. Four screws, easy-peasy, right?

Actual elapsed time to swab two doorknobs: 2 hours.

Post #6,701: It's a Pain

Due to the presence of a professional chef (Younger Daughter) in the household, we have a professional faucet on the kitchen sink. She's fussy about things like that.  :)

I installed it, with the help of my lovely, thoughtful wife, at the end of March. Unfortunately, the internal "nut" (e.g, a long, threaded brass sleeve) which extends downward through the hole on the back of the sink wasn't tight enough. Turning the faucet arm back and forth in daily use managed to loosen it over time.

As a result, the whole assembly wobbled, and rotated a bit. Not good, that.

So today I finally had the time to crawl under the sink. Removing the very large brass nut and three-side "anti-rotation" collar is necessary to re-tighten the sleeve. 

Problem is, there's virtually no room for me under said sink. I have to slide in between the P-traps on the two sinks, under the cross-connection which permits the discharge from the garbage disposal to flow down the main drain under the shallow sink.

Between that, the water lines (shown above) dangling on my right temple, power cords, and couple of other dangly bits, I can just get both hands to the bottom of the faucet. 

Then reverse the process. The large brass nut which hold the whole assembly together (also shown above) is larger than all but my largest monkey wrench. There's only about 4.5" from side to side, and only a vertical tool can reach the nut. After achieving "finger tight", it can be turned by the monkey wrench about 1/3 revolution per effort.

This, while my wife holds the assembly from above, to keep it from turning during the tightening process. It's not hard, but it's difficult, if you know what I mean.

But the deed is done, and we're going to sit and start watching Fringe again. 

Where Have You Been, Rev. Paul?

Long time, no write. Not very much, anyway.

Let's see:

a) Getting used to working three midnight shifts/week. I know I need the exercise after spending most of the last 15 years on desk duty, but ...

b) Sleeping (see a above)

c) Had to get the studded winter tires off of my truck as soon as we returned from Hawaii, because the deadline was May 1st. (Note: I'm the last person in the family to switch to studless tires, since I got them after buying the truck 4 years ago. Everyone else has a newer vehicle, purchased more recently.)

d) Dealing with a burst water pipe in the lower level understair closet. The frost-free spigot appears to have worn a hole in the side of the pipe. The water only spews when the spigot is turned on, outside ... which is how we found out about it. That, and the small river which came flowing out from beneath the closet door. Fortunately that closet contained mostly totes, which stayed more-or-less dry.

e) Did I mention sleeping? Naps have become a new hobby, it seems.

f) And now that the snow is gone, picking up literally hundreds of branches in the yard. That's going to take awhile.

Chores at Three Degrees

After a hearty breakfast, I headed out to a local hardware store - and then another - looking for a cabinet door pull in antique or oiled bronze.

The door to the small crawlspace under our stairs on the lower level is half-height, but had no latch or knob. It's a friction fit, but that made it more difficult to open. So a drill and a collection of #6 machine screws in varying lengths later, the pull is installed.

Then I mounted a new thermometer on the deck, as the old one seems to have lost its flexibility. No matter how cold the night, it never read below 10°. So that's done, although I have to admit that the new one is harder to read. It can't possibly be my eyes or bifocals, so it must be the thermometer's fault, right?

Then I made the kitchen more quiet. Seriously, the three-lobed cam on the bottom of the self-closing 'fridge door had cracked (a common problem) and produced a loud pop every time the door was opened or closed.

But Amazon came through yet again, and after emptying all the shelves in the door, I took it off. Turns out the cam I ordered was too long, but the right diameter. So about 30 seconds' work with a hacksaw remedied that, the new cam was tapped into place, and the door reattached.

So not a bad way to start the day, doing minor chores, and making me feel productive. It's not exactly a remodeling project, but minor maintenance can make a good home feel even better.

Now I need to re-visit some promises I made about continuing the Team Frostbite/MHI fan fiction I started oh-so-long ago. We'll see how far I get before anything else gets added to the "honey do" list.

Y'all stay safe and warm out there, friends; thanks for stopping by.

Black Friday ... Whatever ...

Black Friday as a "Reavers Go Shopping" day is something of a bust, this year. The crowds are WAY down at all but the lowest-common-denominator stores, as it appears that a majority of shoppers are doing it the modern way: on-line.

We've already seen news segments with reporters standing in large malls, while two or three shoppers stroll casually behind them. Gone are the days of shoulder-to-shoulder shoppers with multiple bags rushing from Store A to Shop B.

Good.

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm perfectly okay with a shopping day where no one is trampled or shot while grabbing the last big-screen TV.

* * * * *

We had cold temps and blue skies yesterday, despite AccuHunch monologing about how we've entered a new pattern of successive snowy storm fronts. Clouds did move in around dinnertime, and although Wunderground continues to insist that "snow will end around 9:30 am", we've yet to see a single flake.

But it's a frosty, 12-degree morning. We'll do a bit of cleaning this morning, mostly touch-ups, as we're expecting guests this afternoon.

One of those guests will be a Samsung repairman, here to perform the recall service on our washer. It seems we have one of the models that tends to explode on the "bedding" setting. We've used that setting once or twice, but it was so aggressive that it shook the entire building in our last place, so we stopped using "bedding" altogether. Regular wash is just fine, thankyouverymuch. But Samsung insists we must have a remedial repair performed, along with re-labeling the control panel.

So naturally, said repairman is supposed to be here at the same time as our invited guests. Of course.

* * * * *

The girls decorated the main level of the house yesterday afternoon, and it looks all Christmas-y. Nice. New house, new tree, new decorations.

I'm okay with that. :)

Back At It

The five days off were a blessing, and a welcome relief. But we're back at work today, with varying degrees of regret.

There was a small mountain of mail awaiting my return, after only two days off, but it was duly opened, read, entered, processed, forwarded, et cetera, by 0800.

It's nice to have the experience to be able to solve problems, resolve issues, and generally make things happen. But there are more and more days wherein I'd rather not have to be the one who has to care about it. It's not that I don't care, mind; it's just that I've apparently passed That Certain Age where things which were once important, if not critical, just go by the wayside. And that bothers me.
A little bit.

But even that concern is slowly fading.

There are friends and acquaintances here who are roughly the same age, and they've all noticed it. So many things which were once of dire importance just don't seem to be all that substantial, anymore.

And there are so many things I still want to do, around the house. And my writing has been neglected for months, as we focused on the purchase of that house, plus all the projects, improvements, and so forth.

Just as an example, my bride and I were watching TV last night. That's not surprising, although I couldn't say whether either of us was paying much attention. But when the coil spring on garage door #1 decided to break in two and unwind explosively, directly underneath her recliner, it got our attention.

It's a sound I've heard before, and therefore knew exactly what it was.

So this morning we contact the home warranty company, once again being thankful that our realtor impressed upon us the importance thereof. Garage door springs are covered, you see, with only a $100 deductible.

Thank you, Cindy. :)

Busy Weekend

We did a lot of running, yesterday. Today will be a combination of household chores and rest.

I need to assemble a set of bookshelves, and repair a drawer runner which fell off of the rear interior cabinet wall.  My wife will bake all the meats which she trimmed, spiced and/or marinated yesterday.

None of the tasks should take much time, however, other than the "waiting on the meat to cook / is it done yet?" intervals.

But, for those who are among the chosen, remember to keep the Lord first and foremost today, and never forget what He did for us. :)

Thanks for stopping by, friends.

White Stuff

We thought there'd been a light snowfall overnight, until it got a little brighter outside. Just a heavy frost. Weather Underground continues to insist that we'll have light snow tonight.

Bring it.

* * * * *

Wife and Older Daughter are headed out for an invitation-only shopping event at a store downtown. I'll grind coffee and do some other light chores around the ol' homestead.

* * * * *

Speaking of Older Daughter, she sighted in her Garand yesterday, and put five holes into an 1 1/2" group in the bulls-eye at 100 yards on the second try. I think it's sighted in, now. :)

* * * * *

That's about all for now. Thanks for stopping by, friends.

A Couple More Things

Primus: all the various photos, pictures, and assorted artwork is now hung, and my wife has pronounced it good.  And as you married fellas can attest, that means she's at peace. Which means I am, too. :)

Secundus: my Navy buddy Petro, inventor of the Wolverine Tree Seats which I featured here many moons ago, just found out that they're going to be featured on Season To Season Outdoors. It's a program on KMOS-TV Channel 6.1.

Petro said, "He wants to feature my seat on his live show this Sunday and use my seat on a filmed turkey hunt next week."

Is that cool, or what?

Hooray, One Step Closer

Our new living room furniture was delivered today. After work, my wife & I arranged it more-or-less where we think it should go. (You folks know how that goes, I'm sure.)

But for now, no more lawn chairs ... and no more numb bums!

Chores Are Done

As per usual, my wife & I woke around 05:00 and shared a pot of coffee.  After an early breakfast, we did the weekly shopping (Costco, Wally World, Safeway and GNC), cleaned the house, I changed the oil in her car.  In the midst of all that, we also stepped out for a bite of lunch at one of our favorite places:

O'Brady's Pub

We also swung past the post office, gas station and the bank.

Now, it's 14:00 (2 pm to you landlubbers), and the chores are complete. She's in the kitchen preparing ingredients for Mexi-Cali chili from a recipe we were given by friends from Chico, CA. That will round out the pile o' healthy snacks for the big game tomorrow.

Who are we rooting for, you ask? Denver ... and therein lies a tale. (And didn't you just know there would?)

It seems the Seahawks have a HUGE following up here, for no better reason than that they're the closest NFL team to Alaska. Apparently, 1,350 miles constitutes "close".

But those of you who have been reading this little corner of the 'net know that I react badly to having something crammed down my throat. So I'm rooting for Denver because they ain't Seattle.

Heh.

Thursday Things, Crime Report - UPDATED

The Daily News reports that the overall crime rate in Anchorage went up by 8 percent in 2009, primarily due to burglaries & theft. Still think you don't need a sidearm?

The good news is that crimes against persons - measured per 100,000 people - went down to its lowest level since 1987.

Click on the link to RTWT.

* * * * *

It's 37 degrees, cloudy and foggy, with a chance of scattered showers this morning. Mr. AccuHunch is predicting we'll have clear skies and "summer weather" this weekend, which means mostly warmer temps. That would be nice.

It rained for a good while yesterday evening, surprising many - including the weather honcho, who was predicting only scattered showers. It rained as hard as it ever does, meaning just enough to be audible. Our "usual" showers are what Lower 48 folks would call sprinkles.

But it knocked the dust and early pollen down; I imagine there are countless sufferers waking up with clearer sinuses this a.m.

* * * * *

My daughters have announced their intention to take me to see Iron Man 2 this Saturday, but I'm torn. We have many a weekend chore to be done, which have been awaiting warm weather. As impatient as they may be, I suspect we'll wait until one evening next week for the film. I need to work in the garage for awhile, rearrange my tool chest to include all the new ones (some 204 pcs.) & pull out any duplicates, clean the BBQ grill, get a new gas bottle for said grill, and countless other things my wife may have planned. We also want to go to the park, check out a new (to us) restaurant, and a few other summer-y things we've been putting off.

There's little of Outside interest in our local news, so I'll spare you. Otherwise, life goes on. Living here & watching the national news is still much akin to being in a bubble, seeing things elsewhere with a growing sense of horror. Seems like something's gotta give, eventually, but that's a topic for a longer & more thoughtful post. Maybe later.

Thanks for stopping by.