Saturday - feeling better. I brought
some books back to the library, picked up a couple. Finally delivered
some gifts to friends from their daughter in San Francisco. Helped
schlep their boy home from Scouts.
Got home, did some unpacking, discovered more (already overdue) library
books....
Friday 21 January
2011
Friday
- Slept most of the day, feeling a bit feverish.
I did rouse myself in the evening to go to the LPAC with friends...only
to discover the tickets are for two weeks from now. I am sure that I
was told this weekend, I would have bet money on it. The theater, and
the meetings mid-week (which weren't all that important) were the main
reasons I came back (though I am so tired I really wouldn't/couldn't
have done much more up there).
Riley, getting ready for a nap in the sunny bedroom...
Thursday 20 January 2011
Thursday
- back in Lancaster, not feeling very functional. My arms and hands
still hurt, and in particular my joints. A preview of arthritis I
suppose. My mother had it and my paternal grandmother had a quite
literally crippling case of it
as she grew older, it's possible it will affect me as well. Not helped
much by a bad case of insomnia the last few days...
Book #9 was Little
Women,
by Louisa May Alcott. I hadn't read this since I was a child, probably
a pre-teen, so it was all new to me. I certainly didn't remember the
heavy religious sentiments. And Beth dying was a surprise. Yikes.
Book #10 was Good
Wives,
also by Alcott. This is often published in a single volume with Little
Women, but they were written and published originally at different
times, and I'm going to count them that way. So there. Jo marries the
German dude, rather than the boy next store. Which I knew was coming,
having read Sheila
O'Malley bemoaning the fact some time ago (in 2007, weird how the
memory works).
Wednesday 19 January 2011
Wednesday
- Down to Ventura, and had the meeting. It really wasn't much. Then I
had another meeting in the afternoon with my boss, then headed home in
early evening.
I did go by the boat (and took a nap!), and there was, once again,
significant amounts of water in the bilges. It wasn't over the
floorboards, and the bilge pump was
set to automatic, so I guess the switch has, perhaps, lost its
flotation ability? It works if I manually hold the button, and it works
if I lift the float manually. Very annoying.
Because the fuel tank was completely submerged in the first even I have
to wonder if any water got in the diesel? It's old fuel, from 2009,
maybe I should pump it out and give it to somebody and put new fuel in
anyway.
Tuesday 18 January
2011
Tuesday
- back in Lancaster, and absolutely
exhausted.
I did run the weekly reports for the client, and I have to be down in
Ventura early tomorrow, for a meeting with the client, then another
with the boss.
Monday
17
January 2011
Monday
- I had plans to get on the road by 9am or so. But, as usual,
there were so many small chores to do that it was actually 2pm by the
time I got on the road.
For one thing I discovered that I had broken the kitchen drain line in
multiple places. Simply trying to use plumbers tape to make it into a
straight supported fall caused it to break at every single joint. Every
one. Too many to fix, in the end. I put a barrier over the kitchen sink
and a not saying not to use it. I'll fix it next trip - it's not a hard
fix, but it'll take time.
I am surprised that my father didn't use the plumbers tape on the drain
- he did very good plumbing work usually. In the picture from last week
you can see the dryer vent he put in, for example, neatly supported
every three feet. The copper line is properly secured to the back of
the 2x4's, using a copper strip and copper nails.
I suspect that this was some of the last work he did, in the early
90's, after my mother had her first strokes. Mentally and physically it
was probably the best job he could do. A number of unfinished household
improvements also date from that period. And when she was gone he
mostly stopped caring.
I also had to fix the side gate, which completely disintegrated when I
kicked it last week. I was trying to open it when it was swollen shut
by swelling in the rain, and age and bad design did it in. It'll have
to be replaced at some point, but for now it should do.
Kind of a demolition week for me, completely by chance.
So, about fifty hours of work in eight days. I took Tuesday off for the
San Francisco visit, this Monday was partial, and a couple of other
days were cut short by one thing or another.
Still I feel that the house is coming along. We're not on final yet,
but are, perhaps, turning onto base. Yay.
Sunday 16 January 2011
Sunday
- another long day, more blocks, more painting, and more cleaning out
under the house. That is mostly done, but I'm just beat. And I
destroyed another pair of jeans...
Picture of
the Week
Photo
Notes: A
snowfall in Lancaster, Jan 2, 2011.
