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WEEK 33 2014

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Oxnard Weather Underground

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Saturday 16 August 2014

Saturday - I cleaned up some more in the garage, putting things back in the rafter and (for now) outside. I need a work area to do the staining and stuff. I took down the brackets attached to the wall and did a little detail sawing, rounding the edges, then sanded everything, 60 grit in a few spots, then 150 grit, then finally 220 grit. It ain't fine carpentry, but no sense in doing a sloppy job. I should also staple up some plastic to make a paint booth - Lancaster is a dusty dirty place when you are trying to paint and/or varnish.

I am also thinking of painting the wall there white - it's been thirty years and it was a dingy 'Navaho White' to start with. I have several cans of a very white paint that someone gifted to me a few years back. Now would be the time I guess, junk is already moved away from the wall.

Lunch was with friends at Famous Dave's down in Palmdale. It was supposed to be somewhere else, but that place was closed...

Friday 15 August 2014

Friday - I went by Home Depot and Walmart, and both had exactly the same selection of Polyshade (probably the manufacturer's recommended selection), which didn't include the shade I wanted. So I gave up and ordered it online, for half price. I could have made another trip to Lowes, but I had things to do. I did pick up and couple of small hardware items that I needed.

While at Walmart I had my eye prescription updated - it's been a few years.

I deposited the check with US Bank, and I can billpay with some of it right away, so that's good. I hope to be shed of the property soon, and that will be even better...

It was opening night at the fair, and free for the first hour, so that's where we were in the evening. We wandered around, looked at old engines and visited the chickens that look like Phyllis Diller, and had some corn dogs.

Thursday 14 August 2014

Thursday - Because of one thing and another I didn't get much done on the shelving and garage. Ah well, I need to go get the stain and stuff anyway.

I did cancel the Wells Fargo account, and will put the money into the US Bank account.

I did make progress on the app, so now I can make things "snap" to where I want after ending a drag or pan. So that's a step forward.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Wednesday - Hot again. I did a little in the garage, cutting one remaining plank and then mostly just cleaning up the debris from all the sawing and drilling, so that I can disassemble things and then sand and varnish the bits.

The varnish tint is set, Minwax Polyshades #490 Natural Cherry, because two shelves were made from old lumber already stained with it, that I had up in the eaves. How old you ask? This old:

Yeah, 1998. I bought it to stain the bookshelves that I lined the upstairs study with. Surprisingly Home Depot still carries it (according to Google) so I'll scoot over tomorrow or the next day and get some. This can is actually hard and caked solid. You are also supposed to use a 'pre-stain' goop for soft woods like pine. I hate to spend extra money, the idea was to built this out of scrap and I've already bought a 1x12 and a couple of 1x4's, but I might as well do it right.

This August is the 20th anniversary of my buying and moving into this place. Hard to believe, but time flies.

Worked on the app most of the day. I'm getting the drag and drop stuff down, the "Pan Gesture" in Apple's nomenclature. The dragging works, but the event at the end of the drag, when the user lifts their finger, isn't being sensed. Ah well, I'll get it eventually. Probably some niggling little setting somewhere.

I screwed up dinner. I had some brown rice, so I stuck it on, and then a pot of vegetables. Then, after ten minutes I took the vegetables off to let cool and ... I guess you can see where it's going. I turned off the wrong burner. Cold hard rice and broccoli turned to mush was the result. So dinner was actually a can of Chef-Boy-R-Dee. Gah.

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Tuesday - Horribly hot and humid.

The DMV appointment went pretty well. There was a small line, even at the appointments window, but not bad. The clerk was a little flummoxed by the whole situation, but she and a supervisor were able to sort it out. So the Probe is now on Non-Op status, I have a stamped Affidavit of Non Use, and I got about $30 back.

I'll contact the insurance company and get the money for the Probe's insurance back too.

They closed the Palmdale DMV, so the small dank and dark 1960's era Lancaster office is the only one in the valley. There was a huge crowd of people waiting, and no place to sit. Most of the clientele looked like poor, down on their luck, types. I'd forgotten how depressing it was there.

Sadly I have to go back soon, I need to get my driver's license renewed.

Wells Fargo stabbed me in the back, again. I went on to pay some bills, and found a little notice that "Online bill pay is no longer supported for this type of account.". So the mortgage for the Granada Hills rental wasn't done.

You can, of course, pay with a check at any CitiBank office, so I googled one, and went there. Except that it wasn't a Citi branch any more. Every Citi branch in the Antelope Valley has been closed. You can go to Santa Clarita or Bakersfield, but there's nothing local. Wow. So I just did bill pay from Chase, which I didn't want to do (because I like to keep the home account and the rental account separate). Needs must when the devil drives, and all that I guess.

In the afternoon I went over and opened an account at US Bank. Because I'm already with them for a business account it was a slam dunk, and they waived all the wait periods before any use. They laughed at the Wells Fargo story, and said I wasn't the first jumping ship to USB from them...

I'll go get my money out of Wells Fargo tomorrow, and cancel the account there. It's been a truly awful experience since the start, I'd recommend anyone to stay well away from them.

Here's the shelving, in roughly the final configuration. I'm going to change a few things,
then I'll probably just stain and/or varnish them. I was going to paint, but I like the wood look.

Monday 11 August 2014

Monday - Mixed clouds, still humid.

I spent most of the day assembling the garage shelves, cutting and fitting. No plan survives contact with the enemy, but it's about 90% done now.

I finally made an appointment with the DMV about the Probe's Non-Op status last week, so I'll be over there with the unwashed multitudes tomorrow morning. Yay.

S called from the 99 cent store in the morning and asked if I needed anything. Yogurt and soda, mainly. In the evening I went over and collected it, and got myself shorn in the process.

Sunday 10 August 2014

Sunday - Humid and overcast again. Worked a bit on the app, did some dishes and laundry, Sunday chores sort of stuff.

After fiddling about I did some work on the garage shelves, cutting stuff to length and so on. I was just over thinking it, trying to make a multi-depth unit and so on, but really it's just storage space in a garage, not finish carpentry...

Not much else going on.

Picture of the Week

Photo Notes: Cayucos Pier, late June, 2014.

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