Happy Friday! Last night the wife and I had a very nice dinner at the Ritz held by her workplace, the National Gallery. In appreciation for work done by all during the covid pandemic.
Le menu, the other side was almost the same, except vegan.
Like I said, it was very nice. I’m just starting to learn the names of all my wife’s co-workers, but alas, she’s moving on soon to greener pastures soon.
Glad it’s Friday. I went to bed late last night, hence it was hard to wake up this morning, ergo I anticipate a longish, draggy day.
Below is a picture of two or our many cats, Catnip (AKA Knip with a hard “K”) and Goldie thee Famous.
Knip can eat more catfood than any other cat on the planet. He’s a munchkin!
Started resurfacing the back porch, which is the roof of the apartment that leaked. It hasn’t.leaked since I filled in the cracks that I found, even when I pressure washed. Above is the thin coat. This weekend comes the thick coat. It should be very pretty when done. Then all the furniture gets moved to the “new side”, and we do the other half.
My neighbor is a construction dude and he’s pretty much doing it and I’m helping. Hopefully I’ll be experienced and confident enough to resurface my roof by myself when this is all done.
This week at work is going slow. Bring the weekend.
I’m running late this morning. No reason that I’m aware of. One factor is that the coffee jar was empty this morning. I know the wife has a bag of some ultra fine Costa Rican coffee around here, but I couldn’t find it easily. Thank Gawd for my stash of Cafe’ Bustelo.
I have a four pack (had, now it’s three bricks) of the bricks stashed in a secure location.
It saved me.
This is not my first post mentioning Cafe’ Bustelo. It’s good coffee and it’s inexpensive.
But, I’m runing late today, so I gotsta get goin’. Have a wonderful day!
The new apartment leaked in the rain and I’m finding cracks in the concrete. I can only assume it’s from the earthquake we had in January. I filled some exterior cracks this weekend and last week, and I’m recoating the top exterior surfaces this week, (weather permitting). I’ll make sure it’s not leaking any more before I fill the interior cracks and re-plaster and paint.
It’s heartbreaking for me, my cute clean mini apartment all getting dirty and chipping the brand new paint and plaster off the ceiling and wall.
It was a nice weekend though, I try not to let unsolved problems ruin my here and now. The wife had to work Saturday, and I took her breakfast and it was fun.
We had some guests over for burgers last night and they brought their dog, Dizzy.
picture by the wifepicture by the wife
It was a real playdate for our Dizzy and Daisy and Lenny.
And now it’s a rainy Monday, and I’m ready to git ‘er goin’. I want to put the next week or two behind me asap. Get the apartment fixed and livable once and for all.
It’s been an active season so far. Right now we’re getting the rain from TS Nana, and it looks like the systems are lined up, as they have been for awhile.
My personal opinion is that Nana isn’t going to give us as much rain as everyone around me seems to think, and I predict today will include a lunch hour at the beach.
Sunday, when I was mowing the yard, my gas can ran out off gas, so I threw it in the back of my vehicle, and yesterday morning, filled them both (van and can). After that, I could smell gasoline, and I didn’t think too much of it. I had a can of gas in the back, and the gas pumper guy set the can in a little gaspuddle when he was filling it it, and I figured that was the cause of the smell.
Lunchtime I went to the beach. The gasloline smell was quite strong. I looked in the back and there was gas all over the floor in the back. I squeezed the side if the (plastic) can, and saw a little jet of gas come shooting out of an invisible, teeny hole.
Holy crap.
I turned the can over, so the side with the mini hole was up and went out on the sand. The whole time, I’m waiting for my van to spontaneously explode. I decided I was going to go buy a new can.
I drove to the auto parts store, constantly planning how to pull over and jump out when the gas caught on fire, wondering if I’d survive. Also thinking it was good I didn’t smoke cigars anymore.
I got a new can just like the picture above, and poured the contents of the old can into the new one. I threw the ole one away and wipedup all the gas I could with paper towels. The rest evaporated and the smell was gone in a short period of time.
It was a good, got-a-lot-done weekend. I mowed the yard, and did more than the minimum job. I pulled weeds and sprayed week killer. The big project started is repairing the cracks in the driveway and porch.
See the fine crack in the exact center? It’s a typical crack.
Last Thursday, after days of rain, water mysteriously leaked into the new apartment.Pretty bad.
water balloon burst.
There were some other cracks, worse, made when I had some rain gutters put up, but they were just in the corner, and I didn’t think they could leak inside. But probably now, in hindsight, and after more than one second opinion, water did leak through several feet of concrete.
So, I’m trying to fix it. I started on the driveway cracks as practice, then did the porch, now, I’m going to do all the cracks in the driveway. Then re-paint.
Funny, a few months ago, I bought a grinder to cut some tile, since then, I’ve needed that grinder several times. Maybe if I didn’t buy the grinder, I wouldn’t have had the leaks, and never needed it. I almost rented an extension ladder, but ended up just buying one, now I’m looking at how much better I can trim our trees than with just my stepladders…
For me, it’s more true to say “I never need a tool until I buy it” than ” I never buy a tool until I need it.”
Saturday the sife and I went to an event at her old place of work, Guy Harvey Gallery. She was a volunteer bartender and I was a volunteer hanger-outer. And I bought a new pair of shoes. It was really really really nice to hang out with the old team again.
Last weekend, I got a sunburn and now it’s peeling. It’s quite itchy and annoying. At first, it felt like my face was numb, like I had a mask stuck to it. I have to go to work today with face dandruff.
The worst is over now.
I’m glad it’s Friday, and the weather looks like it will be nice too. More sunburn!
