REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Friday, October 10, 2025 13:32
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PAGE 122 of 122

Sunday, October 5, 2025 10:07 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Wow...

I was just looking for some old pics of the back of the house and that slab so I could show my Dad some really good before/after pics. I took some before/after pics two summers ago when I cut out all the grass on the house and garage foundation in prep for this landscaping.

The difference is remarkable...

Since I can't post pics of the outside of my house for obvious reasons, I made a few before/after mock ups.



Grass right up to the foundation. Towards the center that's supposed to be the slab before I added nearly 6" at the foundation and just under 2" in the front. You can see how all the surrounding grass went down into it, and the brown in the back is all the dirt that was always washed up at the foundation since that was the lowest point on the entire back wall.

The red squiggle is the foundation crack under the bathroom window where all the water came in back in 2020. My mock up doesn't do it justice. Though the back of the slab is several feet from the window and about 1 foot further from the crack, the back wall is just shy of 50 feet, so it's really close.



KEY:

Blue = river rock.
Grey = Edger blocks.

Now I was able to really raise everything up, and once I finish what I'm working on tomorrow,the blue and grey to the right of the slab will also be to the left of it as well.




Oh... and I colored the foundation black in the 2nd pic to show the tar that I put there after cleaning up all the old crap that just looked awful.

I didn't show the crack on the 2nd pic because I Really don't think it's a problem anymore as long as there is no standing water up against the foundation, since like the other 2 cracks I know about and already patched up they're only slightly worse than hairline cracks. I assume there is also a matching crack I can't get to easily in between the porch and kitchen as well, but that's right by the sump well so I'm not really worried about it. I patched all the cracks up above grade and at least 1 foot down by chiseling out and using a wire brush on my drill to clean out the crack and then I used a $7.00 tube of watertite that was on there just as good as the day I put it in 4 or so years ago. So I cleaned that up along with the rest of the wall before it got tarred and you don't even see it anymore.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Sunday, October 5, 2025 11:54 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Scrolling thru ...

SIX, glad you found that file! Our grandma (babcia) was the matriarch who knew where everyone was and what their birthdays were. For some unknown reason nobody wrote down all that knowledge. I went to a family reunion on that side of the family a number of years ago, was shocked to find my grandpa had two brothers and that I had relatives all over the USA. But, in my usual fashion, I lost all that contact info.

Wanna come over and organize my cumputer files? I've let that go so long, right now it's kinda intimidating.

Ah, sleep problems! I've learned that if I don't fall back to sleep in a few minutes I should get up for an hour or so b4 going back to bed. I used to be terribly sleep deprived but that's bc I had chronic sinus infections and terrible sleep apnea. SIX, you definitely have some kind of issue. Have you ever thought there's some physical discomfort keeping you awake?
BRENDA, I used to sleep through too but now I wake up every few hours. I'm happy if I can clock in four continuous hours.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger



I hear SIG. Sometimes for me it is getting up in the night to go to the washroom and other times it's I just can't get to sleep for nothing. Then I get to sleep around 4am or later and that is a pain.

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Monday, October 6, 2025 12:06 AM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Nope, never seen "The Stand". Heard about it though and the Rob Lowe thing but that was all I know.



It's hard for me to tell somebody who doesn't have nostalgia for it that it's worth a watch. At probably over 6 hours long without commercials, it's not a small commitment, whether you come back to it again and again or you binge watch the whole thing. It was really good in like 1994 or whenever it came out, and it did have a lot of pretty decent actors and actresses in it. I think it was the first time I saw Gary Senise. But in an age where there's a billion TV shows to stream, there's got to be something else to watch. I think it is my favorite Stephen King miniseries, but that's really subjective, and going back and watching any of those today and you really smell the cheese factor radiating from them.

Quote:

I've seen numerous Godzilla movies from the Japanese ones to the ones made in the US. Some are okay and then others are laughable.


Never really got into Godzilla myself. I know I saw a few of them with my old man when I was a kid, but they never did it for me. I always wanted to like them because the idea was right up my alley, but the costume and models were just lame to me and all that terribly dubbed dialogue...

I was just saying that the group The Blue Oyster Cult did a song called "Godzilla", and it's the only other song I know from them other than "Don't Fear the Reaper", which I always liked since I first heard it on The Stand.

Quote:

I'm sure too. Oh, I've seen a couple of things over the years that have made me wonder. But a vengeful spirit no. Would think if there had been one like you said it would have gone after the actual people who did whatever, not actors.


My one "ghost" story happened so long ago that it would be easy enough to just chalk it up as a bad dream I had when I was a kid... if it weren't for the next-door-neighbor of the summer cottage my mom had started freaking out a bit when my step-dad told him about what I saw. He told me to come right on over to his place and tell him what I saw the next time I was up there with them. He had a very similar story to tell me about the forest behind us. Dude and his wife were in their 70's and had lived there for almost 50 years. He could have been pulling my leg, but he seemed really serious about it.

Quote:

I will. Like I said I don't know a whole lot about the movie.


Sweet. I hope you enjoy it and that I didn't pump it up too much.

Quote:

It seems like the whole concrete thing worked out good. I think I've seen metal files but nothing like I am imagining that belonged to your grandad.


Yeah. Got the landscaping from the new slab to the main pit done today and it's awesome how high I was able to put everything at the foundation. I think it would have to be one hell of a flood we were having for me to have water in my basement again because of the foundation.

Quote:

Oh, 80s now where I am would be nice. All we'll get next week is the 70s.
Never knew concrete had to cure. I know it has to set. Uh. Learn something new all the time.



Only one more day in the 80's. :(

Quote:

Sounds like you have everything all planned out. That's the hard bit. Getting into the physical stuff should be a breeze.



Still a work in progress. Kind of mulling over a few ideas how I want to cap that end off tomorrow. I don't know if I'm going to be able to finish it tomorrow since I only did about 2/5ths of the digging I need to do for fences and the edger blocks will be pretty elaborate compared to most other places I've worked so far.

I think I can finish the foundation work and put a fence down on the end to keep the mole out while I'm working on the back corner area I was talking about. At least I won't be getting any mud up on the tar if I can get that done. Even if I don't though, I'm going to put a tarp or two down when I finish tomorrow night.


Putting tomorrow as my due date was just arbitrary. Sad that the 80's are gone and there's only 1 or 2 more days in the 70's too, but we've got at least another month, possibly two where it would still be comfortable to work outside without having to layer up so much it gets in the way of working.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.



I know "The Stand" was a long one. Never know. I might dip my toe into it. I don't stream anything.

Never been hard core Godzilla but sometimes they can be interesting.

Forests are often said to be haunted. I've seen numerous ghosts or spirits over the years. Funny thing is about is that I don't totally believe in all of that.

I am going to start watching it tonight.

Cool and I hope your basement stays water free.

Oh that temp right now would be lovely. We are into the 70s but there is a chill in the air now. Especially in the morning. Winter is coming and I have been wearing my winter coat for the last few days.

Nothing wrong with a work in progress or a deadline. I've used deadlines when I was retyping my book onto this computer. It helped me.

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Monday, October 6, 2025 12:07 AM

BRENDA


Off to work tomorrow. Anything I won't be able to do will have to wait until Tuesday.

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Monday, October 6, 2025 2:21 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Thanks ever so much for the diagram, SIX. Now I know what you've been doin and I can see how necessary it is.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Monday, October 6, 2025 11:01 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Thanks ever so much for the diagram, SIX. Now I know what you've been doin and I can see how necessary it is.



NP.

But you do something like that without looking at pictures and then go back to the pictures and you realize how right they are when they say that Eye Witness testimony is extremely flawed. (And why the Mandela Effect is BS).

I mean, obviously I made those windows way to big on a 50 foot wall, but the slab is basically no more than 1.5 feet from the crack. I said last night the slab was a few feet away from that window and the crack was another foot or so away from that. Wrong. The right side of the slab basically meets up with the left side of the window, so the crack was only about 1 foot away from the low point against the foundation.

Don't mind me. I've only been the foreman and only laborer on this project for 5 weeks now.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Monday, October 6, 2025 6:34 PM

BRENDA


Got back a while ago and tired, tired. As for her just the usual of getting me confused with what she wanted made. 3 different things on the go at once and each needing different things in them. Then baking as well. Husband's doing something on the back porch. She asked me if I saw and I said yes, what is it. Her response, I don't know. I think he is redoing something.

Acckk!!

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Monday, October 6, 2025 6:54 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Got back a while ago and tired, tired. As for her just the usual of getting me confused with what she wanted made. 3 different things on the go at once and each needing different things in them. Then baking as well. Husband's doing something on the back porch. She asked me if I saw and I said yes, what is it. Her response, I don't know. I think he is redoing something.

Acckk!!



I just realized that I've never asked what you do at your job, Brenda. And this might be the most I've ever heard you talk about your job, and I still don't know what you do.




I got rained out today a few hours early. Instead of thunderstorms tomorrow, the rain came early today and we'll have thunderstorms tonight. Tomorrow's only 65 degrees though, and if we get a ton of rain tonight I won't be resuming where I left off for a day or two until things dry out a bit.

I was able to finish all the trenching and mole fencing that I needed to do in that back corner I was talking about yesterday, but none of it is tamped down or graded yet, so I'm still not ready for pavers. I do think that if I get a good 6-8 hour day just focusing on that when I get back to it that I can finally say I'm done with the house landscaping.




I won't be able to finish the garage this year unless I want to actually buy more stuff for it. I ended up using quite a bit more of the fencing than I thought I would in that back corner, and I will also be using much more river rock too. The amount of extra pavers I'll be using is incidental, but I could also end up being a few short on those as well.

My guess... I'll have to buy an entire roll of fencing just do do one 25 foot section (leaving enough to do at least 2 more 25 feet sections), I'll need another roll of weed fabric, I'll need 6 or 7 more bags of river rock, and at least a couple of pavers. Not saying I'm not going to do it this year, but it will run me another $120 or so if I do, and I won't be getting half off on the river rock bags at this time of year either.

I'm thinking about holding off on it for now. That side of the garage is not a flood concern since there is a notable hill off the side of it. It's more an annoyance than anything since weeds took up root where I trenched it all out 2 years ago and instead of mowing grass right up to the vinyl siding, I'm now mowing weeds. It can wait for next year.

What I would really like to get done out there before it gets too cold is to paint the back of the garage. The vinyl siding was put up over the old siding long before I moved in. I cannibalized the siding on the back of the garage a few years ago to redo all the siding on the house when we rehabbed the porch and put the new windows in. Vinyl siding has been stupid expensive since Joe Biden* was in office and even on sale it's not a great deal. Besides that, I can't seem to find a color match for the siding I have up already either. It's probably a 90's color that was discontinued... Either that, or the sun has baked it over the years and none of the new siding matches the sunbleached color it is now.

I think what I'm going to do is take off the rest of the siding up top that I was just going to leave there for when I re-sided it, and then I'll clean it up and get the loose paint chips off of it before hitting it with a coat of primer so I can see what needs to be patched up. The siding looks fine, although I kept the bottom piece on too and I'm afraid of what the bottom piece of siding along the back looks like. If that is damaged, this idea is toast because I'm never going to find a match for that siding for sure.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Monday, October 6, 2025 7:37 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Since you liked the last ones Sigs, I did two more.

This is my "Stupid Corner". It is a big POA every time I mow the lawn. I aim to make those problems all go away now.


Stupid Corner Before:



Stupid full length rigid gutter that I used as an extension to get it as far away from my house as possible need to be taken down and put back up every time I mow. Then I've got 2 corners to deal with that are really just a bitch to mow. The slab wasn't too far away either, so just a bundle of joy keeping that corner up.

Oh... right. That short length of fence where I put "X"'s on the top is a chain link fence. The winding blue you see behind it is the decorative windy pavers for the hoasta beds on the side of the house. The brown is my neighbor's fence.

Stupid Corner After:


I was only planning on coming out about as far as I did on the back of the house, but then I decided to more than double that amount from the fence to 50". Now the rigid gutter only hangs into the grass by about 1 foot. I'm either going to replace that entire bottom with the corrugated flex pipe I used for drainage on the garage and porch years back, or I'm going to cut away a few feet of the full rigid gutter and just "sleeve" some of that flex pipe on the end of it and just pull it back up on the rocks when I mow. It really doesn't matter now if I leave a hard gutter there since I won't be moving it anymore and my mower won't come close to it. The most I'll be doing back there now is spraying for weeds.

With this distance in and away from both fence corners, the amount of dancing I need to do with my lawnmower should be minimized.

Oh... right. It wasn't the slab that annoyed me right behind all of this. It was my gas meter. Have fun maintaining that when it was done right on grass/weeds and up against the house. No problems anymore since it's all in the edger border and surrounded by river rock now.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Monday, October 6, 2025 11:56 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Got back a while ago and tired, tired. As for her just the usual of getting me confused with what she wanted made. 3 different things on the go at once and each needing different things in them. Then baking as well. Husband's doing something on the back porch. She asked me if I saw and I said yes, what is it. Her response, I don't know. I think he is redoing something.

Acckk!!



I just realized that I've never asked what you do at your job, Brenda. And this might be the most I've ever heard you talk about your job, and I still don't know what you do.




I got rained out today a few hours early. Instead of thunderstorms tomorrow, the rain came early today and we'll have thunderstorms tonight. Tomorrow's only 65 degrees though, and if we get a ton of rain tonight I won't be resuming where I left off for a day or two until things dry out a bit.

I was able to finish all the trenching and mole fencing that I needed to do in that back corner I was talking about yesterday, but none of it is tamped down or graded yet, so I'm still not ready for pavers. I do think that if I get a good 6-8 hour day just focusing on that when I get back to it that I can finally say I'm done with the house landscaping.




I won't be able to finish the garage this year unless I want to actually buy more stuff for it. I ended up using quite a bit more of the fencing than I thought I would in that back corner, and I will also be using much more river rock too. The amount of extra pavers I'll be using is incidental, but I could also end up being a few short on those as well.

My guess... I'll have to buy an entire roll of fencing just do do one 25 foot section (leaving enough to do at least 2 more 25 feet sections), I'll need another roll of weed fabric, I'll need 6 or 7 more bags of river rock, and at least a couple of pavers. Not saying I'm not going to do it this year, but it will run me another $120 or so if I do, and I won't be getting half off on the river rock bags at this time of year either.

I'm thinking about holding off on it for now. That side of the garage is not a flood concern since there is a notable hill off the side of it. It's more an annoyance than anything since weeds took up root where I trenched it all out 2 years ago and instead of mowing grass right up to the vinyl siding, I'm now mowing weeds. It can wait for next year.

What I would really like to get done out there before it gets too cold is to paint the back of the garage. The vinyl siding was put up over the old siding long before I moved in. I cannibalized the siding on the back of the garage a few years ago to redo all the siding on the house when we rehabbed the porch and put the new windows in. Vinyl siding has been stupid expensive since Joe Biden* was in office and even on sale it's not a great deal. Besides that, I can't seem to find a color match for the siding I have up already either. It's probably a 90's color that was discontinued... Either that, or the sun has baked it over the years and none of the new siding matches the sunbleached color it is now.

I think what I'm going to do is take off the rest of the siding up top that I was just going to leave there for when I re-sided it, and then I'll clean it up and get the loose paint chips off of it before hitting it with a coat of primer so I can see what needs to be patched up. The siding looks fine, although I kept the bottom piece on too and I'm afraid of what the bottom piece of siding along the back looks like. If that is damaged, this idea is toast because I'm never going to find a match for that siding for sure.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.



No worries.

I started when she was still a working doctor and back then it was making meals for the week a head and baking. Along with some light house cleaning. Now it is just some cooking for whenever or if they are having people over. The baking is just for them or sometimes to take to their church.
Of course she keeps a bunch of ingredients down in the basement where it is cooler. So a couple of times at least today, I was up and down the basement stairs. They are getting nasty as I get older and I do love that house. But I don't think they know what they are doing half the time.

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Monday, October 6, 2025 11:57 PM

BRENDA


I can see from your pic SIX why you call that the stupid corner. It does looks stupid.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 12:03 AM

BRENDA


Another thing today. I do not understand why she is so surprised when I can identify pieces of music. She had a CD on that at least the first three songs on it I could identify just from hearing a couple of bars. No lyrics just the openings. One was "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and then theme from "Bridge over the river Kwai." "Colonel Bogey's theme."

A few months ago she put on another CD which had "Scotland the Brave" on it and I easily identified it from the opening bars. I've heard that blessed piece of music most of my life. And I am sure she has heard it to but I got, "I didn't know what that was." I'm thinking you've lived in Canada most of your life and have never been able to identify that.

People, people. It's no wonder they aren't my favourite animals.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 7:52 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Just woke up to heavy rain outside. The street is half flooded because the neighbors across the street have a clogged sewer. They'll be getting up soon to get the kids to school, so I'm sure they'll clear that out soon.

I will not be working outside today for sure.

I could use a day off.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 7:59 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Another thing today. I do not understand why she is so surprised when I can identify pieces of music. She had a CD on that at least the first three songs on it I could identify just from hearing a couple of bars. No lyrics just the openings. One was "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and then theme from "Bridge over the river Kwai." "Colonel Bogey's theme."

A few months ago she put on another CD which had "Scotland the Brave" on it and I easily identified it from the opening bars. I've heard that blessed piece of music most of my life. And I am sure she has heard it to but I got, "I didn't know what that was." I'm thinking you've lived in Canada most of your life and have never been able to identify that.

People, people. It's no wonder they aren't my favourite animals.



That's a gift you've got... even if it's not a super beneficial one in the scheme of things. I've got it too. I'm pretty sure that Jaynez does as well.

It's easy to think that something you can do well is something that everybody else can do well too.

If she was a little bitchy when she said that to you, it's probably because she was jealous of your ability to ID songs just from the first couple of notes. I don't think it was a personal dig so much as it was a way for her to feel better about herself and what she feels is a shortcoming of hers when compared to your ability.



I was over at my buddy's mom's place about a month ago with his mom and her caregiver after her back surgery and we were all eating pizza my friend had bought when the radio started playing a song and my buddy says "$5 to anybody who can name who sings this song", to which I replied "Operator by Jim Croche" before he started singing. "I forgot Jack was here", he said as he threw $5 down on the table.



I told him keep it and thanks for the pizza.


Quote:

I can see from your pic SIX why you call that the stupid corner. It does looks stupid.


Yes. It is very stupid. But it's just how it is when the house had to be built on an angle. It's one of the many stupid things about this house because of the way it was built. You should see the rock pit that I called the Bermuda Triangle when it was all sand... especially before I put the gutters up. 3 whole roofs dumping all of that water right in the center of the triangle, which is surrounded by high points before wicking away from the property, and no way to lift the foundations any higher. You'd just see the water pooling up in the middle of the sand and know why you were going to hear your sump well going off every 5 minutes for the next 2 days.

The gutters mitigated a lot of that problem with proper extensions, but it was still a cause for flooding with stuff not being graded properly.

Most of those problems should be taken care of now. Even without those rocks down on the Stupid Corner, everything is now properly graded because of the 10 bags of concrete I put on top of that old, horribly designed slab.


Three more things to do and I think I could actually go away for a few weeks at a time without any worry at all about flooding, any time of year. 1. Dig a 2nd sump well on its own electric circuit that ejects the water directly outside the foundation that can be directed with my corrugated drain pipe. 2. Install a battery backup Basement Watchdog sump pump that will still operate for 24-48 hours in a power outage. 3. Install my generator plug so I can power things in my house easily without having to drag extension cords through windows.


My buddy is going to come by soon and we're going to do the generator plug. I'm hoping I can get him to come by to help with the 2nd sump well in the spring too. He's just been super busy with taking care of his mom and dehoarding her house after his Dad died. I'm going to spend some time over there this winter with him helping him make those decisions because he's pretty bad about letting things go.

Quote:

No worries.

I started when she was still a working doctor and back then it was making meals for the week a head and baking. Along with some light house cleaning. Now it is just some cooking for whenever or if they are having people over. The baking is just for them or sometimes to take to their church.

Of course she keeps a bunch of ingredients down in the basement where it is cooler. So a couple of times at least today, I was up and down the basement stairs. They are getting nasty as I get older and I do love that house. But I don't think they know what they are doing half the time.



Oh... I thought they owned a small business and you were helping them with that.

That seems like a nice gig... at least when they're not nagging. They must like you, Brenda.

One day you're going to have to let them know about the stairs though. Are they so old that they can't go up and down the stairs themselves? They have to know that you have some mobility issues, but maybe that's just a blind spot for them. I mean... you are being paid to do a job so they're going to expect certain things from you, but sending you up and down several times in a day given the situation is something they should go out of their way to avoid. Maybe they could come up with a short list of things they need from the basement when you're there and you can get them all at once instead of making repeat trips?

I'd feel that way when I was helping my friend's dad on one of his jobs. He could be pretty absent minded too, and he'd send me out to his truck to get something and then 5 minutes later send me back out for something else. No big deal when it was a small, regular suburban house and it was a 30 second trek, but there would be days where we were at one of these huge McMansion properties with the truck parked in the street and we'd have to walk all the way around the back of the house to the back door because the owners wouldn't let us walk in their rich people entry way in front. 95 degrees outside and I'm lugging heavy crap like air-compressors across 4 Football fields, and then sent right back outside for a pencil or a screwdriver when I got back with it.

As angry (no... not angry... frustrated) as that would get me when it happened, I'd always look back on it that night and laugh because I know if I owned my own company in the trades and I had helpers, I'm absent minded enough myself that I'd probably be pissing everybody else off by making them do the same thing. His time was much more valuable than mine, so if he needed a screwdriver and I didn't have one on hand, I'd better get my ass to the truck and get him a screwdriver.



I understand with your mobility issues it's a different story. I think in my case, at least in the heat of the moment, it's just a silly pride issue. I've never put myself into a position of authority anywhere, and on several occasions over the years, in very different fields, I'd been offered these types of jobs but I always turned them down. Too much responsibility. Too much balancing plates and not actually getting any work done myself. But going into your 30s and 40s as a man who is still running errands for other men like he did when he first started working at 16 years old is the price you have to pay for not wanting to take on a bunch of responsibility.




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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 8:34 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Damn....

Just poked my head out of my bathroom window to look down at the work I did yesterday and I'm seeing what looks like mole activity that came down in from the top.

I'm actually surprised it took this long for the mole to do that in between starting an area and completing it. I'm glad it never did it when I was doing one of the large areas because that would be quite a bit of fixing and cleaning up I'd need to do before putting in the pavers and rocks. I'm thinking it did it now because this was the main area leading from the front to the back of the house, and the back of the house was its favorite tunnel.

I could be wrong though and I'm hoping that's the case. I never tamped down any of that dirt to remove old mole tunnels and to compact dirt I've displaced for things like tarring the foundation or installing the mole fences, so it's possible what I'm seeing is just the old mole tunnel caving in at one part due to my dirt displacement there for the last few days on top of a heavy rain.

If he did get in there last night, he probably figured out pretty quickly that he can't get back out unless he digs himself up and over the fence. I don't imagine that moles are anywhere near as smart as raccoons are, but maybe he learned a lesson last night.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 8:54 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Oh, right...

I just remembered now that I had an idea late last night after making those new pictures of the Stupid Corner...

My house is stupidly close to the neighbor's house at that one corner despite how huge the property is. And yesterday I basically fenced the mole halfway-to-entirely out of the back yard from that point of entry by fencing in the new work in the back from the old hoasta beds that the moles frequently tunnel under. Since I'm eventually going to have to buy that new roll of fencing to do the side of the garage and driveway anyhow, I might as well buy it now.

I've got to ask my neighbors permission first, but I could open the rest of that earth up all the way to their house and finish that fence off. I've already fenced him out from getting into my back yard and rocks from in between my house and the garage too. He's still got other ways into our backyards unfortunately, but cutting that off would be like permanently closing up the Panama Canal.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 1:55 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Another thing today. I do not understand why she is so surprised when I can identify pieces of music. She had a CD on that at least the first three songs on it I could identify just from hearing a couple of bars. No lyrics just the openings. One was "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and then theme from "Bridge over the river Kwai." "Colonel Bogey's theme."

A few months ago she put on another CD which had "Scotland the Brave" on it and I easily identified it from the opening bars. I've heard that blessed piece of music most of my life. And I am sure she has heard it to but I got, "I didn't know what that was." I'm thinking you've lived in Canada most of your life and have never been able to identify that.

People, people. It's no wonder they aren't my favourite animals.



That's a gift you've got... even if it's not a super beneficial one in the scheme of things. I've got it too. I'm pretty sure that Jaynez does as well.

It's easy to think that something you can do well is something that everybody else can do well too.

If she was a little bitchy when she said that to you, it's probably because she was jealous of your ability to ID songs just from the first couple of notes. I don't think it was a personal dig so much as it was a way for her to feel better about herself and what she feels is a shortcoming of hers when compared to your ability.



I was over at my buddy's mom's place about a month ago with his mom and her caregiver after her back surgery and we were all eating pizza my friend had bought when the radio started playing a song and my buddy says "$5 to anybody who can name who sings this song", to which I replied "Operator by Jim Croche" before he started singing. "I forgot Jack was here", he said as he threw $5 down on the table.



I told him keep it and thanks for the pizza.


Quote:

I can see from your pic SIX why you call that the stupid corner. It does looks stupid.


Yes. It is very stupid. But it's just how it is when the house had to be built on an angle. It's one of the many stupid things about this house because of the way it was built. You should see the rock pit that I called the Bermuda Triangle when it was all sand... especially before I put the gutters up. 3 whole roofs dumping all of that water right in the center of the triangle, which is surrounded by high points before wicking away from the property, and no way to lift the foundations any higher. You'd just see the water pooling up in the middle of the sand and know why you were going to hear your sump well going off every 5 minutes for the next 2 days.

The gutters mitigated a lot of that problem with proper extensions, but it was still a cause for flooding with stuff not being graded properly.

Most of those problems should be taken care of now. Even without those rocks down on the Stupid Corner, everything is now properly graded because of the 10 bags of concrete I put on top of that old, horribly designed slab.


Three more things to do and I think I could actually go away for a few weeks at a time without any worry at all about flooding, any time of year. 1. Dig a 2nd sump well on its own electric circuit that ejects the water directly outside the foundation that can be directed with my corrugated drain pipe. 2. Install a battery backup Basement Watchdog sump pump that will still operate for 24-48 hours in a power outage. 3. Install my generator plug so I can power things in my house easily without having to drag extension cords through windows.


My buddy is going to come by soon and we're going to do the generator plug. I'm hoping I can get him to come by to help with the 2nd sump well in the spring too. He's just been super busy with taking care of his mom and dehoarding her house after his Dad died. I'm going to spend some time over there this winter with him helping him make those decisions because he's pretty bad about letting things go.

Quote:

No worries.

I started when she was still a working doctor and back then it was making meals for the week a head and baking. Along with some light house cleaning. Now it is just some cooking for whenever or if they are having people over. The baking is just for them or sometimes to take to their church.

Of course she keeps a bunch of ingredients down in the basement where it is cooler. So a couple of times at least today, I was up and down the basement stairs. They are getting nasty as I get older and I do love that house. But I don't think they know what they are doing half the time.



Oh... I thought they owned a small business and you were helping them with that.

That seems like a nice gig... at least when they're not nagging. They must like you, Brenda.

One day you're going to have to let them know about the stairs though. Are they so old that they can't go up and down the stairs themselves? They have to know that you have some mobility issues, but maybe that's just a blind spot for them. I mean... you are being paid to do a job so they're going to expect certain things from you, but sending you up and down several times in a day given the situation is something they should go out of their way to avoid. Maybe they could come up with a short list of things they need from the basement when you're there and you can get them all at once instead of making repeat trips?

I'd feel that way when I was helping my friend's dad on one of his jobs. He could be pretty absent minded too, and he'd send me out to his truck to get something and then 5 minutes later send me back out for something else. No big deal when it was a small, regular suburban house and it was a 30 second trek, but there would be days where we were at one of these huge McMansion properties with the truck parked in the street and we'd have to walk all the way around the back of the house to the back door because the owners wouldn't let us walk in their rich people entry way in front. 95 degrees outside and I'm lugging heavy crap like air-compressors across 4 Football fields, and then sent right back outside for a pencil or a screwdriver when I got back with it.

As angry (no... not angry... frustrated) as that would get me when it happened, I'd always look back on it that night and laugh because I know if I owned my own company in the trades and I had helpers, I'm absent minded enough myself that I'd probably be pissing everybody else off by making them do the same thing. His time was much more valuable than mine, so if he needed a screwdriver and I didn't have one on hand, I'd better get my ass to the truck and get him a screwdriver.



I understand with your mobility issues it's a different story. I think in my case, at least in the heat of the moment, it's just a silly pride issue. I've never put myself into a position of authority anywhere, and on several occasions over the years, in very different fields, I'd been offered these types of jobs but I always turned them down. Too much responsibility. Too much balancing plates and not actually getting any work done myself. But going into your 30s and 40s as a man who is still running errands for other men like he did when he first started working at 16 years old is the price you have to pay for not wanting to take on a bunch of responsibility.




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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.



I'm sure a lot of people can do it and it is a nice gift to have.
Yeah, I don't think she can do that unless it is a hymn. There was a hymn on that CD and I couldn't identify it but she did. All I could say is that I'm not good on identifying hymns, which is the truth. She figures herself a musician but she's not good.

Hey, nothing like free pizza. I know what you mean. Some people I also think just don't pay enough attention to music too.

Well, rain can make for a nice break and sometimes stupid things do have a reason.

Nope, just house stuff. It has gotten less over the years and since she's been retired it's been about once a month. I've known them since I was small like around 2 or 3 years old.

Oh, they know about the basement stairs. She has almost face planted on them coming back up. She goes barreling up and down them too fast, a she is at least 10years older than me. I saw her take a fall in the basement a few months ago. Broke a glass jar with spice in it. Moving too fast and not watching where she was going.

Not really the other way down to the basement is out the back door and through the garage. It's a longer route.

Heavier the job the harder it is for sure. Even someone your age has to be careful.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 1:56 PM

BRENDA


And SIX if your house is close to your neighbour's sounds like they had to build the stupid corner.

Also not fond of Poltergeist. Going back to the library today.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 1:57 PM

BRENDA


Out and about on a day that can't make up it's mind.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 6:23 PM

BRENDA


In for the rest of the day now. Weather couldn't make up its mind but so far still dry.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 5:00 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Thanks ever so much for the diagram, SIX. Now I know what you've been doin and I can see how necessary it is.



NP.

But you do something like that without looking at pictures and then go back to the pictures and you realize how right they are when they say that Eye Witness testimony is extremely flawed. (And why the Mandela Effect is BS).

I mean, obviously I made those windows way to big on a 50 foot wall, but the slab is basically no more than 1.5 feet from the crack. I said last night the slab was a few feet away from that window and the crack was another foot or so away from that. Wrong. The right side of the slab basically meets up with the left side of the window, so the crack was only about 1 foot away from the low point against the foundation.

Don't mind me. I've only been the foreman and only laborer on this project for 5 weeks now.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

Hahaha!
I think your diagram gets the point across quite well! Lotta work needed doing!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 12:27 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Thanks ever so much for the diagram, SIX. Now I know what you've been doin and I can see how necessary it is.



NP.

But you do something like that without looking at pictures and then go back to the pictures and you realize how right they are when they say that Eye Witness testimony is extremely flawed. (And why the Mandela Effect is BS).

I mean, obviously I made those windows way to big on a 50 foot wall, but the slab is basically no more than 1.5 feet from the crack. I said last night the slab was a few feet away from that window and the crack was another foot or so away from that. Wrong. The right side of the slab basically meets up with the left side of the window, so the crack was only about 1 foot away from the low point against the foundation.

Don't mind me. I've only been the foreman and only laborer on this project for 5 weeks now.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

Hahaha!
I think your diagram gets the point across quite well! Lotta work needed doing!



Luckily that's all it was meant to do. I'd be using something like a pirated version of AutoCAD if it were important.

My second set was quite a bit more accurate, but had its flaws too. I totally forgot to put the gas meter/pipes in there to the left of the slab to illustrate just how crowded the Stupid Corner was, and I did make that corner look worse than it actually does in real life by not doing a proper perspective on the house angle. It's not actually THAT tight since the back of the house is quite a bit wider of an angle than the pictures show. If anything, the XXX chain link fence should have been shorter to illustrate just how close those two angles are to each other (fence/fence and fence/back corner of house).

My chain link and the neighbor's fence are essentially a 90 degree angle. If I were to guess, the right side of my XXX chain link fence and the back corner of the house are something like 120 to 135 degrees.

It's just terribly shitty to mow back there with grass and weeds right up against both fences, along with having to remove the gutter and dance around the gas meter too.

I won't have to do any of that anymore.



A mole got in that area that I fenced off in the corner the night after I did the work, but it got in from the top. Looks like it figured out pretty quick it couldn't get back out without going back out the top. I counted 3 mole holes. 2 were very close to each other and very small, while the 3rd one was probably where it busted out and was much larger.

Oh well... I hadn't tamped any of that down or graded it yet. That was going to need to be done before I started putting the pavers in anyhow. And now because the ground got a thourhough soaking I should be able to see exactly what the mole did below ground and if it did breach the fence anywhere before I do.

It's still way too wet out there to work today. Maybe tomorrow. The sun is out full blast today, but the high is only 62 degrees, so we'll see how that goes.

In the meantime I took down the door to my attic and to my 2nd floor bathroom and I'm almost finished sanding both of them down. I'm going to have to decide how much I want to sand the jambs and the trim for paint before I put anything back up. Sanding really makes a mess of the house even with the dust collectors installed on both of my sanders. I've been sanding the doors in the basement, which has lead to a fine coat of dust on a good deal of the 1st floor already. If I use those sanders on the jambs and trim upstairs I'm going to have dust everywhere. I'm not painting anything beyond the threshold for the attic door, but there's already door/window trim up in the bathroom that I'm not going to be taking down and replacing like I did with the rest of the house so far because my door/window trim is way too thick in there. The "standard" sized door trim they've got up in there now just barely clears the shower on the right side and the vanity on the left. And the window trim on the left side just barely clears the shower too. The only trim I will be replacing in the bathroom is the baseboard to match the rest of the house.

I figure at this point, even if I don't want to redo the bathroom floor yet, I can pretty much do everything else in there that needs doing except for the floor, toilet and new baseboard. I've already got tile for the job since my buddy gave me tons of beautiful tile from his dad's garage. But I am going to have to tear out a pretty big piece of the flooring and replace it before installing it and putting in a new toilet. It's going to be a pretty huge job for one guy. I'm not going to mess with that until I get a few of the other projects finished first.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 12:36 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


You didn't like Poltergeist, Brenda?

I don't even know how that's possible.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 1:24 PM

BRENDA


Nope, I didn't. Just didn't find anything appealing about it. Will have to see about the second one on YouTube.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 1:25 PM

BRENDA


Out soon. Things to do and no afternoon mah jong for me.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 2:52 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Nope, I didn't. Just didn't find anything appealing about it. Will have to see about the second one on YouTube.



I think it's pretty safe to say now that we don't have much overlap on what we like to watch. You didn't like Poltergeist or Late Night With the Devil but you liked the last two or three seasons of Dr. Who.

It appears our viewing tastes are just very much different from each others if it's not British comedy.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 6:09 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Nope, I didn't. Just didn't find anything appealing about it. Will have to see about the second one on YouTube.



I think it's pretty safe to say now that we don't have much overlap on what we like to watch. You didn't like Poltergeist or Late Night With the Devil but you liked the last two or three seasons of Dr. Who.

It appears our viewing tastes are just very much different from each others if it's not British comedy.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.



Guess not and I've only seen the first season with this last Doctor.

That's okay. It would be a pretty boring world if all liked the same things.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 6:10 PM

BRENDA


All done for today. Even a bit of tidying up, which is good. At least it hasn't rained. Thought it was going to a few times.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 7:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Nope, I didn't. Just didn't find anything appealing about it. Will have to see about the second one on YouTube.



I think it's pretty safe to say now that we don't have much overlap on what we like to watch. You didn't like Poltergeist or Late Night With the Devil but you liked the last two or three seasons of Dr. Who.

It appears our viewing tastes are just very much different from each others if it's not British comedy.




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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.



Guess not and I've only seen the first season with this last Doctor.

That's okay. It would be a pretty boring world if all liked the same things.



Not that I go around asking everyone if they like Poltergeist or anything, but you are the first person I've ever known that didn't like it. I thought for sure I couldn't go wrong suggesting that one strongly. Maybe you would like the 2nd one better... it is a very different movie. Trust me on the 3rd one though. There is zero chance you would enjoy that one .




Finished sanding all the doors/jambs, trim and put on two thin coats of primer. I didn't go all crazy sanding them down to bare wood like I did when I finished those other doors. You really don't need to do that unless you're planning on staining something, and those hollow core doors are hard to sand evenly anyhow. I didn't go crazy with the front or kitchen solid doors a few years back just because I couldn't take them down and sand them somwhere that it wouldn't make a huge mess, and they look as good as the day I finished painting them without any peeling. You really just need to get as much of the "shiny" off of them as possible before giving them a good coat of primer.

I should have the attic door re-hung by tomorrow night, which is good because even though this is the best time of year to have that space wide open into my house from the elements, it is getting quite cold at night around here right now and I noticed how much colder my house was this morning than it wouldn't have been if that attic hadn't been wide open to the rest of the house last night. (Last week though, it would have allowed all that heat and humidity into the rest of my house when it was hitting 90 degrees).

I figure I'll put one good coat of paint on each face and the sides/top/bottom, and then I'll hang it. I can do a 2nd coat of paint on both faces when the door is hung later.

I'm only painting the sides/top/bottom and the outside face of the bathroom door for now, so I'll put both coats on the outside of the door while I'm at it tomorrow. I don't want to put a bunch of high gloss paint on the inside of the door until I attach my towel rods, which haven't even been sanded yet. I'm going to need to bust out a few of my clamps and I'm going to be putting down a generous amount of wood glue to help keep it up there along with the screws. That will stick to primer, but it won't stick to high-gloss paint in the long run.

It will be nice to finally finish all the doors and to use up the oil rubbed bronze doorknobs and hinges that I bought maybe 6 years ago tomorrow if things go well.




What I may do tonight if I get the desire to keep working is to put down a drop cloth by my sofa and just hand sand those towel rods while I'm watching TV or YouTube. They're really not anything that I can use a power sander on except for the face of the larger one, and if I'm doing the rest of it by hand there's no reason to make more of a mess with power tools.

It's almost a shame to do that with these towel rods because they're really nice Oak and I'm putting them up on a hollow core trash interior door. The larger towel rod probably cost almost as much as the door itself does. But it's going to look and work real nice when it's done. Huge upgrade from the beat up door and the crappy hang-over-the-door chrome towel rod I bought at Aldi a decade ago, and it will be something else I've done that you don't ever see.

I've only need for one more towel rod in the bathroom, and I have a really nice one that is going to go right under the over-the-toilet cabinet I'm going to restore. Ideally, I would have liked to swap those, but the one that I'll be hanging on the wall over the toilet is BEEFY and I'm afraid that no amount of wood glue would keep that affixed to the door for the long haul. That's going to need to be drilled into studs.

My old man is coming by some time next week, and ideally I'd like to have a bathroom door that he can close when he comes here. We're men though, so no big deal if that doesn't work out.



Sometime in between I'm going to have to make my way back outside and finish that landscaping too. I want that done before my Dad comes over. He's been out of town for a while and he hasn't seen my outside work since before I finished the 2nd half of the sand pit, and he couldn't even see the landscaping on the back of the garage because I had 60 bags of river rock stacked on top of it the last time he was here.


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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 8:27 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


It's still early and I'm feeling bored and/or restless...

I think I might actually put my first coat of paint up tonight. Primer is surely dry already. If I wait until tomorrow, I have to give at least 4 to 5 hours before I can turn the attic door over and paint the other side, and I really should wait at least that long in between coats on the jambs/trim as well.

If I do this first coat tonight I could be hanging that attic door up by midday tomorrow and I could have all the trim painted, as well as the 2nd coat done on the outside of the bathroom door. By then I could actually put up the 2nd coat on both sides of the attic door while it's hung and much easier to paint.

Sounds like a stupid idea not to do this tonight now that I'm reading what I wrote.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 10:15 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Got 1 coat of paint on everything except for 1 face of each door, and 2 coats on the other face of each door. At this point I think I'm going to try to get most of it done tonight. Taking a little break now and got my paint/brush/roller all covered up so nothing dries out, but I should be able to paint one of the door jamb/trim and by that time I can move the doors to a standing position in the other room where I have a table set up and paint the other face of the attic door and at least get the periphery and the bottom 2/3rds of of the other side of the bathroom door where I won't be installing any towel racks. Then I can go back and do the more intricate jamb/trim in the bathroom and when that's finished I can put the 2nd coat on the 2nd attic face and wrap it up for the night.

If I don't ding anything up when bringing it back upstairs and hanging it, I might not even have to do any touch-ups and the attic door will just be done after hanging tomorrow and I'll only have had to wash my tools once. It's the one thing I hate about using the roller is that even when I get as much paint out of that roller as I possibly can with a 5-in-1 tool, there is just so much wasted paint every time you wrap it up.

I thought about painting with a brush, but that makes the job 2 or 3 times as long just to save a little bit of paint. I used to think that the only way to show the wood grain was by painting with a brush, but if you lay the paint on thin with a thin roller sleeve, you can still get he same effect and not get the "orange peel" effect from a thicker nap and a more liberal application of paint.


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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 11:46 PM

BRENDA


I'll look up the second one on YouTube SIX. My local library doesn't have a copy of it.

I am sure your dad will love what you have done with the bathroom and drop cloths are good especially for sanding. I doubt you want to be vacuuming up wood dust.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 11:47 PM

BRENDA


Off to mah jong tomorrow then a doc's appointment. Nothing serious just need my meds reupped before the end of the year then a bit of groceries before I get in.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 11:59 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
I'll look up the second one on YouTube SIX. My local library doesn't have a copy of it.



I just looked it up. Don't know if there's a difference internationally between the US and Canada on copyright laws for it, but I could watch it on YouTube right now "free with ads".

Quote:

I am sure your dad will love what you have done with the bathroom and drop cloths are good especially for sanding. I doubt you want to be vacuuming up wood dust.



Yeah. There won't be too much done in the bathroom by the time he gets here, but I'll for sure have that door hung with the towel racks firmly attached, and everything including the door trim will be all painted up. Kinda wish I did the window trim and window sill while I was at it now, but that was kind of too much to think about when my main priority was getting that attic door hung tomorrow. Plus, I'm going to have to caulk the hell out of that and possibly do some restoration work before it gets anywhere near a finish coat of paint.

That being said, I'm taking my last break in between painting right now because I want to give the 2nd face of those 2 doors just a little more drying time before I put the 2nd (hopefully final) coat on them.

Just got to get those towel racks sanded down so I can get them in that door. If I weren't concerned with the rest of that landscaping, I'd probably be done with that by Saturday. But I'm probably hanging out with one of my friends on Saturday anyhow, so it should all be done by Monday/Tuesday and I'll have to think about what my next project is.

I'm back, baby!

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For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Thursday, October 9, 2025 1:42 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Stayed up very late and sanded the two towel rods down by hand, then I got two coats of primer on them before calling it a night before the sun came up.

I just put on the first coat of paint on the towel bars now. I think they'll end up with 3 coats for good measure, since they will be in use.

Ready to hang the attic door now, and it probably won't be long now until the bathroom door is rehung too since I got so much done yesterday.


I don't know if I feel bad or good now using those towel bars the way I'm using them on a hollow core door (because I always feel kind of bad when covering up high quality wood with paint). I noticed last night on the back there is a signature on both of them. These weren't DIY store specials. Somebody made these in their shop. I don't even remember specifically where I got them, but I'm assuming that they probably predated things like Etsy by quite a while since they came out of a bathroom remodel. These were most likely picked up at a local craft fair, although it could have been a neighbor of the homeowner who did them. I found out my neighbor across the street who helped me fabricate the missing drawer face for my kitchen used to do things like that in the neighborhood years ago.

I took a few pictures of the signatures and I'm going to see if I can find out who did them. Probably not.

They are really nice though, and they probably would have ended up in a dump if I wasn't reusing them like this.




I'm going to have to get creative with my clamps when I glue them to the door later today. I don't have any clamps that would reach that far into the door, but I'm sure with some scrap wood lengths I have out in the garage I can come up with something. I'll just have to make sure I'm protecting the paint job and not scratching it all to hell with the clamps and wood.



Tomorrow is 67 and sunny, so hopefully I'll be done with these doors today and I can wrap up the rest of the house landscaping tomorrow without thinking about the doors. I probably won't be hanging the bathroom door for a few more days while things are drying and the final paint is being applied, but at least the attic door will be finished and I'll only be a few steps away from finishing the bathroom door.



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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Thursday, October 9, 2025 3:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Attic door installed.

Looks great, works great. Had to do some adjustments to make it operate smoothly, but on a level from 1 to 10 on the nightmare door hanging scale, this was only about a 2. I've had much, much worse before. No touch ups or additional coats will be necessary.


On to paint those towel racks a 2nd time now, and then I'll have to go out to the garage and figure out how I'm going to clamp them down to the door with my wood glue once they dry.





The high was only 65 here today, but I was just outside and it's really sunny and quite pleasant... But it was only 58 degrees a few hours ago. It would have been a good day for working outside, although I suspect the ground is still a bit wet. Tomorrow is 67 and sunny though, and the weather looks rain-free until next Friday with every day warmer than today, so I should have a good week minus one day hanging out with my friend this weekend to get whatever else I want to get done out there before it starts getting colder and I have to think about what I want to start doing inside next.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Thursday, October 9, 2025 6:50 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
I'll look up the second one on YouTube SIX. My local library doesn't have a copy of it.



I just looked it up. Don't know if there's a difference internationally between the US and Canada on copyright laws for it, but I could watch it on YouTube right now "free with ads".

Quote:

I am sure your dad will love what you have done with the bathroom and drop cloths are good especially for sanding. I doubt you want to be vacuuming up wood dust.



Yeah. There won't be too much done in the bathroom by the time he gets here, but I'll for sure have that door hung with the towel racks firmly attached, and everything including the door trim will be all painted up. Kinda wish I did the window trim and window sill while I was at it now, but that was kind of too much to think about when my main priority was getting that attic door hung tomorrow. Plus, I'm going to have to caulk the hell out of that and possibly do some restoration work before it gets anywhere near a finish coat of paint.

That being said, I'm taking my last break in between painting right now because I want to give the 2nd face of those 2 doors just a little more drying time before I put the 2nd (hopefully final) coat on them.

Just got to get those towel racks sanded down so I can get them in that door. If I weren't concerned with the rest of that landscaping, I'd probably be done with that by Saturday. But I'm probably hanging out with one of my friends on Saturday anyhow, so it should all be done by Monday/Tuesday and I'll have to think about what my next project is.

I'm back, baby!

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.



I can usually find lots of American shows on YouTube. So finding it shouldn't be a problem.

Leave the small things that you can do anytime. If you have bigger things that need doing then concentrate on them.

Hanging with friends is good. Have fun.


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Thursday, October 9, 2025 6:51 PM

BRENDA


Finished for today. Med reupped for the end of the year. Still have to find supper for the weekend.

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Thursday, October 9, 2025 6:58 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Got the towel racks installed and glued. Even managed to get another coat of paint on the door where I Hadn't painted yet and around the new towel racks.

I suppose I could hang it now, but I'm going to wait until after I get a second coat of paint where I just painted since it's easier to do on horses than it is when it's hung.

There's no real huge hurry since I would wait at least a week before using that to hang towels and my Dad isn't coming by until some time probably later next week, but I'm itching to get the last door hung.

Technically, I still have 2 more, but those are closet doors that I still have to build, and another on my long list of projects yet to do. I've got a bunch of bifold doors that are 2" too wide, and I think I can separate the ends and rip them down to the right size while putting the ends back in if I'm really careful. If not, I only have one closet door that is the right size, and I'll have to keep looking for a sale. After Joe Biden*'s inflation, those stupid things are almost $100 each brand new.

I think I want to watch a movie tonight myself, Brenda. I'll have to see what's available and figure what I want to watch that isn't something I'd rather watch with my Dad.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Thursday, October 9, 2025 10:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Hung the bathroom door up tonight. It's so much brighter in there now just from painting the door and the trim.



Think I'm going to take the work back outside tomorrow for a while.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Thursday, October 9, 2025 11:47 PM

BRENDA


Movie with your dad sounds like a good idea SIX. Hope you find something you both like to watch.

At my library the other day, I found a copy of "Steel Magnolias". Good movie but I suppose it would be classified as a "chick flick".

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Friday, October 10, 2025 4:33 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Finished for today. Med reupped for the end of the year. Still have to find supper for the weekend.



Good for you! And I hope you find something tasty.


Quote:

SIX:

I'm back, baby!


Yes, you are! Just try to get enuf sleep, m'okay? A few rare ppl can get by on a few hours, but for the rest of us, sleep is an important as air, water, and food.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Friday, October 10, 2025 11:37 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


It's COLD this morning...

I'm really glad I got that attic door up or it would be 8 degrees colder in my house than it already is. I'm not ready to be turning on the heat just yet.


I've got a few touchups to do on the door because I did a stupid and rushed hanging it. When I did the final paint on it, I brushed it on, and it was a little thicker than it would have been with a roller coat, particularly around the edges of my towel racks. Didn't notice it when it was down on the horses, but it became pretty immediately apparent after I'd hung the door that I was getting some drips. But by then it was too late to try to brush that in and I have 2 spots I need to lightly sand down and touch up.

No big deal... I have to prep and paint that windowsill and window trim at some point too, and I've got to caulk the door/window trim too, so I'm going to have plenty of opportunity to be finishing that door while I'm doing that other stuff down the road if I don't get to it right away.

I don't really even want to go outside for another hour or so. It's still in the 50's right now. I'm hoping I leave myself with enough time to finish that work and have the rock put down before the end of the day. If I don't, that mole will surely get back in under the work I'm trying to finish.

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

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.

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Friday, October 10, 2025 1:31 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Finished for today. Med reupped for the end of the year. Still have to find supper for the weekend.



Good for you! And I hope you find something tasty.


Quote:

SIX:

I'm back, baby!


Yes, you are! Just try to get enuf sleep, m'okay? A few rare ppl can get by on a few hours, but for the rest of us, sleep is an important as air, water, and food.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger



Yeah, that had to be done. Nothing left for the Keppra or my thyroid. One left on the second seizure med but wasn't sure if I had enough to get to December for the neurologist appointment.

I hope so too on the supper front. Nothing yesterday but maybe at another store near the pharmacy I go too. Also have to start thinking about Turkey day on Monday.

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Friday, October 10, 2025 1:32 PM

BRENDA


Out on what looks to be a soggy Friday. Things to do.

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