My
sister called to say the carpet is mostly dry, and she's having fun
painting. I imagine she'll mostly be using it as a studio and piano
room. It'll be nice, though french doors onto a patio in the back would
be a nice addition.
Oddly enough, that is exactly what I did
to my house - indeed, the cat's and I were enjoying the warm fall
sunshine here in Lancaster, late this morning.
I am an uncle again, or, I
suppose, a great-uncle for the first time. Dad's a great-grandfather.
Little Kylie Ann is the new addition to this family, courtesy of my
niece Ashley. Welcome, little tiny girl, to this great big world.
Friday
- I did a bit more work at my sisters, finished up the plumbing wall,
cleaned up a bit. I did her a disservice there - I just piled
everything movable from the family room in the back yard, there wasn't
time or energy for more. So she'll have to triage it, and then keep and
lug what she wants back inside.
The
rug cleaning went well,the carpet looks new again. Remarkable. The
cleaning workman helped me move the upright piano to get under it for
cleaning. It's something the company technically won't let
them do (liability, you know), so I tipped him pretty heavily. The
family room is huge, and with a coat of paint will look even larger. I
was thinking of installing some of those sola-tube skylights, but I suppose it doesn't need it.
After that it was back on the road, down to Lancaster. A lot of traffic.
Thursday 23 October
2008
Thursday
- work on my sisters place continued, drywall, plumbing, cleaning and
some painting. My brother M helped until about 5:00pm, then headed
south - he hadn't left more than a few days food for his cats.
It looks a lot bigger, cleaned and painted white. I have to finish a
small wall tomorrow - there were difficulties getting a copper joint
soldered properly but I finally managed to get a good seal there. Then
some joint compound, an outside corner and some sanding and texturing.
We've arranged for the carpet cleaners to come in, late afternoon on
Friday. So I need to be mostly done by then. Then I'll probably head
south, to where work awaits me :-(
How about those Rays?
Wednesday 22 October 2008
Wednesday
- we started some remodeling on my sisters family room, replacing some
old Masonite with drywall, moving stuff into other rooms - it's been
the "big jungle" for a while, used to store various bric-a-brac. In
addition pets - cats and dogs - have "done their thing" in there.
Nothing too gross, but the carpet needs cleaning.
The plumbing is a mess, a mixture of copper and galvanized. But I'm not
rebuilding it, just cutting back some stubs that stick out of the wall, so that they are hidden behind it.
We may also put a small fence in the back, but time is getting short.
Of course I'd probably set it off myself if I had one, during a late
night fridge raid, and drop something on myself and end up in the
Emergency Room.
Monday 20 October 2008
Monday
- confused about who to vote for this election? My brother has the solution:
Sunday 19 October 2008
Sunday
- not much to say. I am slowly pulling in some dough, thanks
to my fathers' willingness to bet on Bay Area teams. It was sort of a
relief not to have to root for the 49ers', to tell the truth.
I didn't bet against the Raiders, just not having the heart,
and they won. Sometimes you just luck out.
Visited with my sister, down in Niles. Went out to the local Olive
Garden and at way more than I normally do, but still couldn't finish the
'Tour of Italy'.
I saw that Amazon was having a sale on outdoors equipment and decided
to look at their boots, maybe get a pair of Raichle's for hiking. But
their database has a small error in it:
Not exactly 'backcountry'.
There is an interesting web site, gCaptain. It has a truly remarkable
flickr page of sea/ship related photo's well worth looking at, HERE.
A (much reduced) sample:
