Tag: home owner

Tropical Storm Remnant

It’s been raining all day. I went to the cellar an hour ago to check on the water status. Lake Asshole is confined to the storage area, which is where I think the water is coming in though I can’t tell exactly where, and it was not out in the cellar proper. It’s there, but the water level is low enough to downgrade Lake Asshole to Pond Asshole.

I emptied the dehumidifier (in the tub upstairs. I can do that with the little dehumidifier, but not with the huge-ish wetvac) and started vacuuming up some of the pond. I stopped when the wetvac reached full. I was in the middle of the work day so I let the dehumidifier run and figured I’d dump the wetvac outside during lunch.

That’s when the tropical storm remnant that drown the state of North Carolina hit for real. It is pouring like the end of the world out there. I’m positive the dehumidifier won’t be able to keep up, and I am going to get drenched when I empty the vacuum because irony is clearly dead.

The upside here is that I don’t go to my parents until tomorrow night, so I can keep up with this after work and all day tomorrow. I’m optimistic that it won’t get too bad. I’m also convinced that this whole water in the basement thing is just the universe kicking me when I’m down and trying to bring me to new “heights” of massive depression.

Fuck you, rain.

Stop Raining!

Last night when I got home from work I checked the cellar. There was a little water, but the amount was small enough that I was feeling optimistic. Then as we were getting ready to go to bed it started to pour like the world was ending.

This morning there was definitely more water down there then last night. I cleaned it up. I’ve checked on it a couple of times and things were looking okay. Then about five minutes ago it started to pour like the world was ending.

Are you fucking kidding me?

I give up. I can’t take this anymore. I’m just going to steal a row boat and row out to the middle of the harbor and live there from now on. If I am going to be swimming in my home I might as well do it in the ocean.

To hell with this bullshit.

Smoke Alarm

I went to sleep at 11:00. At 1:00 the smoke alarm in the hall outside of our room went off. It blared about three times and then it stopped. I spent 10 minutes wandering the house trying to see if there was anything going on and then it went off again. 3-4 beeps and then it stopped. I took it down, blew some air into it to try and dislodge any dust or whatever, and sat up until 2:00 to see if it would go off again. It didn’t. It’s 8:24 and it still hasn’t.

What’s up, smoke alarm? You just messing with us?

Litter box changed
Trash taken out to the street
Lake Asshole in the cellar vacuumed up
The dehumidifier in the cellar emptied
The wet vac that cleared up Lake Asshole emptied
The first of probably two loads of laundry started

30 minutes until I punch in to work. It’s a nana sitting night so I need to get all my shit together before the work day ends. I’m still super sweaty from the Lake Asshole experience. I should have taken a vacation day today. Then again, I kinda wish I could take a vacation day everyday but what can you do, right?

8:51 AM

I’m up and ready to punch into work. I filled the cat’s food and water bowls. I changed the battery in the door lock. I took out the trash, twice. I woke Harry up to tell him his blood sugar was low (his glucose monitor alarm wasn’t loud enough to wake him). I vacuumed up the latest water in the cellar. I emptied and restarted the dehumidifier. I started a load of laundry. I showered.

Now that it’s time to start work I think I need a nap. Still have to make the bed before my 10:00 meeting.

Happy Thursday, folks.

My Hands are Killing Me

Let’s review the task list for today…

Cut the front grass, including plugging a hole in the gas tank and running the weed wacker.
Cleaned up the current cellar water crap.
Put away six megatons of groceries.
Did two loads of laundry.
Started a new character in World of Warcraft and made it to level six and died a lot.
Broke the shit out of a fingernail while taking my guitar out of its case.
Started a new song, put rhythm guitars onto it and one other song, then put leads onto three songs.
Surprised myself by how tired and sore my hands got after playing the guitar for about an hour.
Finished the binge watch of Community (well, it will be done in three and a half minutes).
Started thinking about cooking dinner.
Stood up from my desk to walk into the kitchen to start making dinner.

I am pretty sure I’m forgetting something. I don’t mean that I am forgetting to put the lawn mower away, I know it’s still sitting outside waiting for me to put it back under the tarp, I just haven’t gotten to it yet. I mean I am forgetting to list something that I actually did today. Shit.

Oh well, I took the obligatory I’m-done-playing-guitar-so-here’s-a-pic pics.

Here you go.

Have I mentioned I hate wordpress.com’s block editor? I think I have. If I haven’t, I hate wordpress.com’s block editor.

Frustrating Home Owner Morning

You’ve seen the problem with the lawn mower. I saw a mouse hanging out under the tarp with the mower when I brought it out today. I’m going to assume it’s the cause of the hole in the gas tank.

That’s actually the second problem. The first is the wet vac. I think it’s going to need replacing soon. The filter is completely falling apart. It looks like it’s rotting off. Lovely.

The third problem just revealed itself. I have one spot in the front yard that the lawn mower can’t get to. It is a little rock garden spot. I use the weed-wacker to clear it. I got about 95% of the way through today when I ran out of thread. Gee, I hope I can find a new spool. Sonofabitch.

At least I got the entire front yard (minus the 5% of the rock garden) clear before the rain comes. Oh yeah, rain. The water in the cellar is still trickling in, but it’s not as bad as it was a couple of days ago. Two days of rain this weekend should bring it right back to where it was at its worst. Sonofabitch.

Damn You, Rodents!

I’m covering a day shift at my mother’s house today as I slowly get back into the swing of that thing. Today is trash day, so I put the barrels out on the street last night so that I wouldn’t have to worry about them this morning.

The squirrels get into my trash barrels all the time, but they have never staged an attack while they were on the street. Until today that is.

The damage wasn’t bad, but one barrel was open and there was a small amount of trash scattered across the front yard. When I went outside to fix things I found two squirrels, three chipmunks and a handful of various birds checking out the wreckage.

Oh good, now the squirrels are cluing the rest of the wild kingdom into the buffet that is the crap we throw away. It’s like some perverse Disney cartoon.

Damn you, rodents. Fuck you, squirrels. We have foxes, bobcats, hawks, owls, and on one occasion a coyote living in the woods behind our house. None of those super predators eat squirrels? Come on, assholes. Control our rodent infestation!

Saturday Recap

What did I accomplish today?

I mowed the front yard, the side yard, and about 20% of the back yard. I had dinner and a movie with Harry and Jen which included Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I swapped out the five gallon Poland Springs cooler bottle. I successfully did not forget to put the patio furniture away (I almost did but then I didn’t). I carried a gigantic desk into the office. I cleaned up a surprising amount of cat vomit.

It doesn’t look like much on paper but my back is killing me which makes it feel like a lot. I’m going to sneak some laundry in before bed too which is kinda like icing on the Saturday cake.

Cool. Bring on Sunday.

Stuff Going On

We made an appointment with an air conditioning maintenance company a few months ago as part of the still unshared cellar disaster story. They had to cancel the first appointment and today is the day they rescheduled too. They didn’t give us a window of time until early this morning. At 6:30 I was still in bed and Jen let me know the window was opening at 7:00. Yikes! It’s 7:30 and they aren’t here yet. Now I am just hoping that they don’t ring the doorbell while both Jen and I are in meetings. That would suck. Also, there’s an AC built into the bedroom wall. I am going to get kicked out of my bedroom/office for a while. That hasn’t happened in about a year.

I have a few short meetings today and it’s possible one might line up with the visit. I was thinking, I have mentioned things at work a couple of times recently and I think I am going to stop doing that. Like the cellar shit show, work should be exempt from the oversharing. Good.

There’s a new Loki today. Episode one was kind of a clip show but it did a great job of setting up the story. It was excellent. I am really interested to see where it goes. We need to figure out how we’re going to get everyone into the same room to watch it. There’s also the season finale of The Handmaids Tale. This show is so good it’s hard to explain. I haven’t a clue how they are going to wrap it up without having our hero just take a machine gun and go all Mikey Corleone on all of her enemies. We’ll see.

It’s 7:45. Still no sign of the AC folks. I’ve got my mask at the ready for whenever they get here.