WEEK 51 2013
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Saturday 21 December
2013
Saturday - Again, not much to say. Winding down for the holidays I guess.
I've not much of a holiday spirit this year, I admit it.
Bought some eggnog, to go with the rum left over from last year.
Book #49 was Admiral's Revenge (Spineward Sector #5), by Luke Sky Wachter. Just another space opera pot boiler, which is what I wanted.
Friday
- Running around, doing various Xmas errands. Over to friends place in
the evening, for pizza and a movie. They are down to San Diego
tomorrow. I was invited down, but declined. I'll hang around
Lancaster, honestly I'm tired of being on the road.
I do have a kind invitation to a Christmas Eve dinner, which I accepted.
Thursday 19 December 2013
Thursday
- I pestered Kirk to come over. He was pretty tired, from this and his
other job, but he deserved to help finish it off.
The hardest part of the job was done, and it was time for him to enjoy
the last part - setting the pavers. This type of job is a lot like
painting - there is a lot of hard and tedious prep work, upon which the
success of the job will ride, and then the final visible part, painting
or paver setting, which is the easiest and most fun part.
I went by Home Depot, and got the workers to load the pavers for us -
my hands were already stiff from the days of work.
Then Kirk arrived. I put him to work laying the pavers, and just acted
as his assistant, fetching pavers from the trailer. It didn't take
long, and looked pretty darn good when done. I even got some praise
from my neighbor, who looked over the fence at it.
Wednesday 18 December
2013
Wednesday
- We added a bit more base, then another 1000# of sand, and the screed
rails. Kirk helped with the screeding, but then had to go off to a job.
I started on the pavers, checking dimensions and the fit with the
pattern I wanted to use. I almost chickened out and used a simple
running bond, but I already had a bunch of square pavers to go with the
rectangular, so went with the more attractive "I pattern". I put enough
pavers down to realize that there was going to be a quantity problem
with the pavers.
This was surprising, until I retraced my train of thought. I'd bought
enough pavers, earlier, to cover a different 100SF area in the back yard - if
it had a cutout for a 5x8 tomato planter in the middle!! Heh. And the
more complicated pattern used more rectangular pavers, 75% as opposed
to 60%.
Not a big deal, I just went over to Home Depot and made sure they had
some, since I needed about another 100. They had five.
Yikes. I talked to their garden foreman, and he was able to locate a
pallet of the correct type and promised to have them ready the next
morning.
Tuesday
- I needed base material, so I went and got my trailer from a friends yard, then went
and picked up 1000# from Home Depot. It's about half price, compared to
individual bags. I also got some help, Kirk, who volunteered to help in
between his other part time jobs. Between the shoveling and the
required tamping of each lift I knew my hands wouldn't last, so it was
great to have some help. It actually took another of
the big bags, for a total of 18CF, to bring things up to where they
should be.
Monday
- Still working in the yard. It's been cool, which is nice. I've driven
in stakes to hold the end caps in place, and re-treated the ends of the
wood with preservative solution. The drain pipe is in place, and held
down with pavers for now, so that the base material behind it doesn't
migrate under and raise it up (the sad voice of experience there).
Sunday
- Cold, but not enough to freeze the bird feeder. I did various chores
around the house.
I've been continuing to work on the side yard. There was a bit more
digging to get done, and placing the yard drain down near the fence, so
that the east side of the yard can still drain in a heavy rain or
flood. I thought of putting a down drain in the paved area, but that's
not really needed, it's only 10x10 and slopes away from the house. If I
pave further, to the south along the house, I'll add one in.
In the evening, as I was working on the app, I got the USB warning again
and the laptop shut off the ports. I was so angry that I was tempted to
throw the computer across the room. This was using the brand new powered USB hub,
so there shouldn't be any significant draw on the laptop. Worthless
Apple hardware.
I just shut it down and walked away, before I did something I'd
probably regret...
