One year ago today: July 1, 2018, yardbird report.
Five years ago today: July 1, 2014, ancient accusations . . .
Nine years ago today: July 1, 2010, laced with jargon.
Random years ago today: July 1, 2015, comments on real estate.
Leaning into the job, I put in a six hour day. It took me ten hours to do it. Keep reading, but first I have all the good news for now. Seems I need it. Last day I sprayed grass killer in the far corner of the yard. Good move, I found both the kitchen screens. They are in dreadful shape, but either fixable or can serve as templates. This will allow the shady front yard breezes to flow through and out over the stove. The heat index has been over 102°F since I got back. To be factual, the smaller air conditioners in the back room and kitchen just cannot keep up, even with the attic fan on full. This mornings picture is so green, I sent a copy of to Harbor Heights. That’s where these to
This brings up the tool budget. I have not been using it much. I got a couple hand tools in Hermitage for the beer caddy, but that table saw is pending for August. Before then, I’m contemplating a specialty tool, the hand electric planer. I don’t know how to use it, but I’ve been in plenty of situations it would have been handy. From sticky door frames, drawers that won’t slide, and now the warped window screens, I’ll learn.
This blog, while issuing all kinds of warnings, hesitates to project money matters. What you get with budget news is usually after the fact, and even then only if something’s over or under. For once, I’m committing at least $5,000 over the next few months, and as much as $10,000 by the end of the year. I’ll explain shortly why it is time to get this renovation over with. If it means buying specialty or one-time use tools, I need my life back. For the past three years now, I’ve been wading around materials stacked in the hallways and rooms, and unable to have much company.
Moving the desk exposes the remaining bad section of bathroom floor. I have the laminate beam planned to prop it back up, and the planks to scab the joists. I’m going to tackle the plumbing myself, calling in help only if I need it, and from far away. Tomorrow, I’ll zip out to the old Thrift with the babes to find another bed and some carpets if they have any. My choice to leave the floors bare means once I put the furniture in, they might stay that way a long, long time.
As for the nearby Thrift, that new guy is becoming too much of a pest. I had my fill of that at the phone company, people wanting to associate on a friendly level where I just want them to do their job and socialize with their own kind. I do not enter into associations that require constant input and maintenance and I do fine without them. Most people I do not treat badly, but inertly. True, it may not be the openness they are seeking, but I repeat, inert treatment is not bad treatment. It is merely indifferent. He’s seen me chat up pretty gals now and then and he’s become a pest over it.
Example. I buy second-hand movies. The display case it near a storeroom in the back. I comb over the new arrivals, which takes five minutes. Lately, every damn time he sees me over there, the bastard needs something from that storeroom. You see, the way the door swings open, he has to ask me to move, which he seems to get a kick out of. I’ve faked him out twice by pretending to browse and quickly moving away when he tries his stunt. But he’ll soon figure that out.
Western Egypt.
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I got the desk moved out of the back room to the front where the view to the yard is through tis window. Note the swank hummingbird feeder holder. This [move] took nearly three hours. Of all the things that went wrong, the one I’ll always have a hard time forgiving JZ for is breaking his promise to help me renovate this place. He’s still my buddy, we still hang around some of the old places, and I’ll be crashing at his condo in a couple weeks for two or three days. If he had been here to help, that move would have taken twenty minutes, maybe a half-hour tops. We could have lifted it over some things where I had to clear an aisle and wedge the dismantled carcase through in pieces. It still has to be wiggled into position and another hour putting it back together.
As you may know, I then made a five-year plan to buy a place, we started looking at auctions and got to Arcadia, Deland, and such. He forgets that I not only paid for all the trips, the gas, the accomodation, and the food, thought not the entertainment. My theory on that was I could not afford his usual $80 evenings playing pool and chasing women, and he would normally pay his own way there. But it was not unusual for me to spend $250 - $300 per trip for us to check out places in the interior.
By early 2016, I had my full half of the money. You know what happened then. He had nothing saved and I got this place for the cash of what was to have been my share of the down payment. I continued to pay for his visits, plus $100 per day on the times he helped out. You see, he had started talking like we were still partners and asking what his percentage was. It would have been impossible to calculate what part of the value was due to improvements and what part to price gain, so $100 per day was fair. He also forgets about that.
Then, his truck got stolen, but in reality, it was repossessed and everybody knows it. Inside were all his tools. He only came out this way once, to bring my final cargo from the trailer court. And never again. He’s been unable to save up even a few hundred dollars, and refuses to travel without having at least a thousand. It’s always been this way, but he would leave for day trips when I lived in the area because he knew we’d always make it back same day. Now, I’ve 250 miles away. Where I really got stuck was that he was here for the easy part—tearing up the floor and tearing off the walls. Putting it back together was always a two-man job and he let me down.
I’ve gotten a bit of help from Agt. R, but it wasn’t worth it. This is Florida, everybody over 35 seems to have some sort of limp or gimp and needs help with everything except their drinking and such. But helping in return, nope, they have a ton of rehearsed reasons it is never a good time. So I leveled the house, soundproofed the rooms, repaired the sheds, put in the electric, finished and insulated the attic, relocated the water heater, cleaned up the yard, and moved two walls by myself. I even ran underground electric to the shed and would have framed in a porch but for the city changing the law before I could finish.
That took years, not months. All the plumbing tools were in that truck, plus that was his signature part of the operation. He was going to show me how it’s done, although I was not too impressed by how it took him three days to hook up a tiny 15 gallon water heater. Even then, it only got finished when I stepped in, but that’s another tale from the trailer court. He’s promised to get out here for a few weeks on several occasions but hasn’t made it yet. I’ve not said it much, but there is another factor that has grown from nothing. You see, back there, he still likes to play pool and gamble. So he is constantly surrounded by all talk and no action people. By contrast, I’ve done all I said I would do.
So careful what I mean when I suspect he may conclude he’s fallen too far behind to catch up. He’s become keenly aware how badly he missed the boat by not taking my offer to teach him rhythm guitar ten years ago. Worse, I had specifically warned him without music he would find himself in his current situation. The last thing I need is him thinking he’s also missed Nashville. I’m worried some, and every time he sees a photo of the Reb & I, he talks about “getting back with his ex”. That’s the worst thing he could do, but he’s not meeting anybody new on his own, that’s for sure. She’s the one who pawned the guitar I gave him.
ADDENDUM
Soft-in-the-head-ware, that’s what millennials produce. The blithering moron who originally put the delete and rename buttons next to each other had a lot of disciples. One was the jerkwad who moved the close program (I know, close app) button from the left corner to the right corner, so it is right beside the button that closes your window. This causes untold wastes of time because the window button is not always there, and you hit the close app button when you only want to close another item. But, from what I’m reading, all this bad thinking is already causing the headaches they thought would never bite them back.
And what would be a blog entry without music nowadays. I’ve approached the jazz-like tunes less than seriously. It would mean learning a new musical style that I don’t much enjoy. Here’s how I manage. Old jazz and Blues have a common trait, which is indistinct notes on the upright bass. That corny sound isn’t used anywhere else for good reason. The trick I use is piano riffs. As long as I know the key, there are a few plain progressions that will fit. Just not too closely. Similar to those diminished guitar chords that are all the same, I borrow heavily from Mozart. If any guitar player to date has noticed this, he’s not said anything.
The babe video [above] stays. So many people hitting on her. I mean clicking on her.
