Tag: home owner

The Goings On

I am procrastinating. The Apple Activity App has a challenge for National Women’s Day to do a 20 minute work out. I want to do it but I don’t want to do it. So I’m sitting here procrastinating.

We still don’t know what we’re doing with the kitchen. We have an estimate for like four different upgrading scenarios. All or grossly expensive, but only a couple are beyond us. We have more people coming in for estimates, which is terrifying on the Covid front. We have someone coming tomorrow to look into pulling down the panelling and the wallpaper border and repainting. No promises, but when we moved in 11 years ago it was the #1 change we wanted to make. Still waiting. We’ll see how that goes.

I have my next appointment at the weight loss clinic on Thursday. It’s the psyche check in. My first. I am not sure where it’s going to go but I expect a nervous breakdown, or at the very least tears. We’ll see how that goes.

I haven’t done any music today. If I end up doing an album in a day thing then it will probably start around dinner time. There’s just too much else going on.

Okay. Enough procrastinating. Let’s do that 20 minute workout. Wish me luck.

Kitchens

We had a meeting with a kitchen guy at Home Depot tonight. 20 minutes into the meeting we all realized he wasn’t the guy we needed to be talking to.

Jen has been itching for a new kitchen for over a year now. We really can’t afford it, and every time we looking into doing one thing it pulls in five other things and the cost estimate balloons and we back off. We’re going to try again though. This time we’re thinking more of an upgrade or a face lift and less of a remodel. The guy we thought we were talking to tonight is going to come over for a look see tomorrow. Another guy will come on Wednesday for a look see to see about getting rid of the awful paneling and wall paper border in the kitchen and the dining room.

We’re not agreeing to anything yet but hopefully we’ll be able to make it work. I want this to happen because I want my love to be pleased. We’ll see.

The main issue in all of this is that Covid is hardly over. I am not nervous the way I was a year ago, but I am still less than comfortable with it all. I can’t complain though, as I am going to the office regularly and I am going to the weight loss clinic and I am even thinking about getting the band together. I fear I am being selfish by being concerned. I’m not though. I am concerned about everything, I just can’t do much about any of it anymore.

In other news, the album in a day idea might be back on, but it won’t start until morning. I haven’t decided yet. We’ll see. Also, I have an afternoon appointment at the weight loss clinic on Thursday. The weight loss clinic is on the way to Guitar Center in Nashua. I wonder if I might go early and bring my Strat. Also maybe bring my Bassbreaker 18/30. Also, I think we have a Guitar Center credit card. Maybe I’ll bring that too. No promises. I would say I am about on third in favor of going and two thirds against. We’ll see how I feel on Thursday.

Okay, going to watch the Bruins. They are tied with the LA Kings, one a piece after one period.

Almost Free

I am 11 minutes away from two days off. The Bruins pummeled the best team in hockey today. It was glorious. Boston 5, Colorado 1. I want to do some more guitar playing tonight but I also want to spend some time trying to figure out which circuit breakers power the kitchen and the dining room. I also want to find out if either of those breakers also control the living room because the living room has the router and if they are on separate breakers I can have my doctors appointment tomorrow (if it’s tomorrow and not Wednesday) and Jen can work without disruption. Fingers crossed on that puppy.

Eight minutes left now. I’m ready. Come to papa, vacation days.

Lights Out

We had a black out tonight. The lights flickered once and then went out. It only lasted about a minute and then everything came back on.

I don’t know if it was just our house or the whole neighborhood. I wonder what happened? Do you think we will find the crispy remains of a squirrel on the street? A squirrel that had a low IQ and gnawed on the wrong power line?

Maybe.

Storm’s a Comin’

Is everyone ready? New England is going to get meteorologically bitch slapped tomorrow. Well, starting sometime tonight, I think. The National Weather Service is saying my area is going to get 18-24″ of snow. WCVB TV (our local ABC affiliate) says we’re in for 24″+. I don’t like the sound of either of those. Also, the words “bomb cyclone” have been written. I don’t know what that means, but it doesn’t sound good, right?

It’s supposed to start overnight tonight and carry through until Sunday morning. Here’s hoping we can book a plow to come and at least slice off the snow bank at the end of the driveway. Now I know I have been working out for four whole days and should be able to easily move a mountain of snow (#sarcasm) but I just don’t want to. Fingers crossed on the plow. We won’t be able to book anything until tomorrow, but we’re hoping to get one for Sunday morning sometime.

In New England it is common for citizens to make a run on the grocery stores in the day prior to a forecast storm. Unfortunately for us, today is the day that we would be getting groceries even without the storm, so we’re likely going to get shut out. We’re still in Covid mode as far as shopping is concerned and we’ve been using instacart, but they aren’t guaranteeing delivery times for today. Oh well. We’ll survive.

The planned rewiring of the dining room light switches might be paused until the driveway is clear. Just in case, you know? The Paramedics are going to have enough trouble hauling my electrocuted ass out that we shouldn’t make it worse for them by asking them to carry me through snow too.

Duck and cover, boys and girls. The Bomb Cyclone is a comin’.

Something Going On

Today is trash day. I brought the barrels out to the street before 7:00am. They came in the early afternoon. They picked up my stuff, then moved down the street. I happened to look out the window and saw them 2-3 houses away. They appeared to run the compactor but a couple of things fell out. I figured they would pick them up and put them back. The last I saw, the guy who rides on the back of the truck called the driver out to take a look. Weird, but oh well.

At some later point, I have no idea how much time went by, I was in a meeting at work and something outside caught my eye. It was another truck, covered in emergency lights driving up the street.

This guy, to be precise:

Or maybe not precise. The original truck was facing the other way. This guy, to me, looked like a tow truck. The truck in the picture, however, is not a tow truck so maybe there were three trucks? I was busy with work so may have missed some events.

Anyway, I figured the first truck, the one with my garbage in the back, broke down and needed to get towed away. Why then were there two guys putting sand all over the road? They looked almost like a haz-mat team cleaning up a chemical spill, except that there were no haz-mat suits. What the hell?

They spread sand on the road (you can see where in the picture) and then shoveled it all up. The second truck then backed up against the first truck, furthering my suspicion that the second truck was a tow truck. Then work got interesting and I took the one eye I had out the window back to my monitor. When my meeting was over, all that was left was what you see in the picture. After another few minutes, this guy drove away.

So… what the hell was going on?

I Guess I’m a Plumber Now

The drain in our bathroom sink clogged. I put some drain-o in yesterday and it helped a little, but it was still really slow. Jen ordered a drain snake. It was just a little plastic thing you stick into the drain from the top and it’s supposed to help you yank out clogs.

The only experience I had with snaking a drain was at my parents house in Tewksbury where we had to go into the bathroom tub drain from below. It was this crazy long wire with a snag at the end of it. I don’t think I am exaggerating by saying it was the nastiest, grossest experience of my life.

I tried the thing Jen bought today. I don’t think it was long enough to reach the bend in the pipe where you would expect the real nastiness to live. I put it into the drain, twisted it around, and brought it out. There was definitely some gunk stuck on it. That was nice. No hair though. Nothing that looked like an obvious clog source. I didn’t think there would be. I didn’t feel anything blocking the line. I tried a second time. I put it in past the drain stopper and immediately some gunk popped out.

Wait a tic… I ran the thing around the drain stopper itself, pulled it back out, lots of gunk. Was the clog stuck to the stopper itself? I ran some water into the sink. It drained out perfectly.

Hot damn! Look at me being all plumber and shit! I tried it in the other bathroom too…

Nope… that puppy is still good and clogged.

Oh well.

Kinda Bummed Out

I wasn’t going to talk about this until it happened but now it’s not happening so I guess I’m in the clear.

Over the last few months we had been saving money to get our cellar re-finished. We need new floor tiles, new wall board, new dropped ceiling frame and tiles, new ceiling lights, and some electrical upgrades. There was also hopes of walling off the laundry nook and adding a new closet.

We had a dollar figure in mind and we started talking to a contractor about an estimate. The guy was super psyched and his attitude was a little infectious. I was getting a good feeling about the whole thing.

He sent his estimate tonight. It was our dollar figure times three. That hissing sound you hear is the air escaping my balloon.

Shit.

40 Hours and Counting

I took the trash out to the street this morning. It hasn’t been picked up yet. Last week I took it to the street on Tuesday morning and it didn’t get picked up until Thursday. I’m curious to find out when they will come for it this time, but that’s not the point of this message.

When I took the trash to the street I took a minute to inspect the new shed-like-thingie that I put together on Sunday. At the time I set the over under for the squirrels gnawing their way into it at 12 hours. How is it holding up?

Well, kids, I hope you all picked the over because we’re into the second day and it is still completely free of holes! Wow! Now I have to admit that I only inspected the inside and the roof. There may be places on the side where invasion work has started but the rodents just haven’t made it through yet. That’s a possibility. Still, the furry little pricks have yet to make it inside. Give a tip of the hat to the Tupperware-like structure for holding up against the assault! Good on ya, bro!