Wednesday, September 27, 2017

How did I not know about this

 


It usually takes the better part of two hours to water our postage stamp sized city lawn.  Moving the sprinkler every 20 minutes.  I tried daisy chaining a couple of sprinkers and that sort of worked.  But then I remembered something and check Uncle Google and Aunt Amazon and found this:

Andrews 100-Foot 2 Tube Sprinkler Hose 10-12349

Andrews 2 Tube Sprinkler Hose



Product Description

Double tube construction with holes pierced on one side

Amazon.com

Made of durable yet flexible vinyl, the two-tube sprinkler is easy to contour around garden beds and varied terrain. The end clip can be removed and reset, allowing you to adjust the hose length either permanently or temporarily. And, because the hose lies flat, you can point the holes up for a gentle spray or down for a slow soak. Guaranteed for five years.

I ordered a 30 footer and found that it worked well for the side of the house, where I usually get lazy because I don't want to keep my neighbor's sidewalk flooded.  Then I went back and ordered a 50 and 100 ft  hose.  I use the 100 ft out front and the 50 and 30 along the lengths of the South and North fences, respectively.  There is still some hose switching but it cuts my time down in half if I'm being efficient. 




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How a 5 minute difference cascades into an avalanche

Like many Wednesdays, Nightingale had to get to work early so I volunteered to take the kids to school.  I also opted to WFH because I have the next two day off work. 

Just as we were about to leave for school, Natasha had an accident and we had to change her close.  This delayed us by 5 long, excruciating minutes.  After dropping the kids at daycare I opted to forgo my before work run and take the minivan to the car wash that is 1.9 miles from the daycare.  When I finally arrived I was the only car at the place at the moment.  Score.

They always do a thorough job and I got out of there at exactly 8am.  However, because it is Cleaning Lady Day, and because I was too lazy to walk two extra blocks to the ATM last night (nevermind Nightingale forgot to hit the ATM in her building) I had to add this to my morning tasks.

Since I foolishly left the house without eating, I was making all the bad decisions because of low sugar.  Instead of just coming home, grabbing some food and then going out for a coffee and hitting the ATM, i tried to do it on the way home.  in more traffic.  while hungry.

So I get home and my mom is putting the house in order for Agna the Cleaning Lady.  She leaves exactly 10 minutes before my 10am call so i don't get to work on anything. 

Then during the call cleaning lady comes an hour early!  Because of course.  And the guy I hired through Angie's List, who canceled twice shows up to aerate my lawn.

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Friday, September 22, 2017

First day of Autumn 2017

In the coming weeks I am really hoping to do some major purging at home.  The in-laws will be in town for Moose and Squirrel's 3rd birthday party.  They are going to take a crap ton of baby stuff for SIL who is pregnant.  That should clear up some space in the attic to create a play area that the kids can hang out in (supervised) for a few hours on cold winter days).

I also found somebody who is interested in the bookcase and my old queen bed.  The only catch is I have to deliver and ordinarily I'd be like M'mmm nope.  But she lives 2 miles from us and is a cancer survivor so I can cut her some slack.
Some creative rearranging

I've had that bed for 20 years and some odd months.  I got it as a Christmas present to myself because previously I had a full size which just wasn't good for a single guy.  The only reason I had the full was the bedroom in my first apartment had a radiator against the South wall which prevented me from having a bigger bed.  There was no way to orient a bed any other way either because there was a closet and bathroom door against the West wall and the entrance door against North Wall.

Once these items are out of the house, I get my home office back.  The advantage of that is that I can work from home a bit more and also our living room will have more room for the kid's toys and crap.  Not that I cannot WFH now but it would be nice to have a separate room away from everything, especially when my mom lingers before going home for a few hours or the weekend.

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Monday, September 11, 2017

Lucky Girl

I wasn't going to write a September 11th related post because many bloggers write posts like that to drive traffic to their site and I already did that.  But while looking through old files, I came across a quote that I cut and pasted into my archives.  I suspect I wanted to write something as profound or maybe it just struck me as prolific. 

Time passes. Life goes on. We move forward, and it’s so easy to forget. It’s important to remember, not only what we lost, but what we discovered. The goodness in our hearts. The generosity, selflessness, kindness, love, and unity we are capable of.

Why is the nation debating the right of a mosque to stand near Ground Zero? Many innocent Muslims died that day, as did innocent Jews, Christians, and people of all denominations. A debate such as that is the antithesis to the lessons which should be culled from remembrance. Such a debate is host to the same kind of hatred behind those attacks. I hope, in remembering, that we can be the people that everyone’s god, spirit, guide, or humanity meant for us to be.
-Lucky Girl

I'm not 100 percent certain, but I believe it was written by Staci on a site called  How Very Lucky to be a Girl which no longer exists but I was able to find some remnants on Internet Archive Wayback Machine 

In retrospect it is very possible it was someone else who wrote the text above.   Her old Facebook Page seems to be gone and her twitter is dormant to say the least.

Time passes.  Life goes on.  We connect with someone on social media and then we lose touch.

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Thursday, September 7, 2017

Next Year's Possible Projects

Today FB reminded me that last year I had the driveway gate and basement wizard of oz doors painted.  I also had a new backdoor and two screen doors installed.  There's a long story about that if I haven't told by now, just don't want to relive.  Maybe someday.

So last year was doors.  This year was electrical.  IF we are still in the house next year, it will be windows.  Specifically the north-most kitchen window.  The Casement currently expands over the deck railing.  Whomever installed the deck realized this and made the railing smaller than the others, which I'm sure is a code violation.  The entire deck is a code violation but I can address that after I fix the window and raise the power-line.

I will see if I can change out the window for one that expands vertically or just an ordinary window.  There are a couple other windows that could do with updating/replacing.  But if I do nothing else, I am replacing the heavy wooden monstrosity that are the blinds in the kitchen. 


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Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Post Labor Day Weekend Report

Ll
So Jesus installed our new electrical panel last week.  It took him over 10 hours to get it done because of the complexity.  Which is a nice way of saying a previous owner used cheaters to configure the old panel in a complicated cumbersome fashion.  Because he worked so late, he didn't install the LED
lights in the laundry room that night. But he did come back Friday to finish those so now the small cramped space has much better light.  I think with some rearranging of things, I could design a very functional laundry room without sacrificing storage.  Something to do on a rainy, cool autumn WFH day.

Next up will be the garage.  I've decided to just use plug in lights and extension cords instead of pay anyone to hard wire them.  There are two light switches that enable/disable corresponding outlets so it's effectively the same thing and I save labor costs.  Between the panel, the outdoor outlet, replacing a 3-way switch in the kitchen and the new lights, I've spent almost $2k on electrical projects this year.  Money well spent I will add because it will improve things while we are here.   [I'm going to light up our front porch for Xmas like no one's business.]



I've been going to the Taste of Polonia, more or less, for the last three decades.  In my 20s it was pretty boring for a Polish-American who didn't speak a lick of Polish.  There wasn't much to do and the food was essentially what my grandma made or I could buy at any polish deli.  It was basically geared for FOTB Poles.  Luckily enough members of the board died and younger people took over and made the event more young people, non-pole friendly. 

I try to go every year now just to support the event and this year was no exception. We usually buy a 2-day pass but only used one day this year for Reasons.  Our kids are still too young to enjoy or even understand it but I like to check it out. 

We did go to the fest on Sunday and met up with a couple of friends, one with a 1 year old, the other who is 14 weeks pregnant. We hung out for a little while, then got some food and came back to our place to drink for free (those that could).  We are super excited that she is pregnant with a girl because now we have a place to send some of Natasha's stuff that she will outgrow.

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