| |
|
WEEK 52 2021
Last Week- Sun- Mon- Tue- Wed- Thur- Fri- Sat- Next Week
Friday 31 December 2021
Friday - New Years Eve!!
Cold and windy, some sun in patches.
So ends my 19+ year of doing this blog. I'm not sure I'll continue much longer, perhaps until March of next year, which will be 20 years.
Mid afternoon I pulled the pellet stove insert out, oiled the exhaust fan bearings, cleared the ash trap and put everything back. When I ran it later in the evening the horrible rattle was still there, so the good news is that it isn't the newish exhaust blower. The bad news is that the replacement convection blower (the likely culprit) hasn't arrived and it's supposed to be in the 20's at night for the rest of the week.
It's still working, and putting some foil around the door latch keeps most of the noise and vibration down for now. Hopefully it will last a bit longer.
Not too much else going on, just a little reading and cleaning. Started cleaning up the garage, again. An endless task.
Budd was on the warpath out there, must be a mouse somewhere, not eager to come in. I did replace his heat lamp 40w bulb with a 65w bulb, just because it's been cold in there but it's a big load off of Suzy's mind when he's not stalking her in the house proper.
Did a bit of work on the app, reading mostly. My Apple "Magic Keyboard" doesn't seem to be working any more. Looking around on the internet it seems like there may be a problem with the latest versions of OSX, wherein the keyboards can't wake up the system unless they are of the newest variant. Mine is an A1243 from 2007...
New keyboards start at about $100 and go up.
Tired and sleepy, went to bed a bit after 9pm.
Someone was shooting off multiple M-80s at 9pm, apparently unaware that the new year isn't until 12pm here. There was a little bit of noise at midnight, but not much. Or maybe my insulation is doing its job.
Book #73 was Leviathan Falls (Expanse #9), by James A. Corey. This is the last in the Expanse series, and wraps things up pretty well.
That's a fair amount of reading, but a number of them were series; Alex Verus, Dan Lenson, St. Mary's, Campbell. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Thursday - Cool and windy.
Working away on various things during the day, had the urge to go into down and do some shopping, but there's no real reason to do it in bad weather.
Started on Leviathan Falls, last book of the Expanse series.
Season 3 of the Kimetsu no Yaiba anime just kind of stops at episode #7. Covid delay? Weird. It's a decent series, not too much japanese weirdness.
Wednesday - Overcast weather.
Did some cleaning up in the garage.
I have been re-watching Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) in the evening on Crunchyroll, since Season 3 should be wrapping up. This years anime was generally pretty bad TBH, considering dropping CR for a couple of years until there is some decent new content.
Tuesday 28 December 2021
Tuesday - Cool and cloudy with sprinkles.
Working away on various things during the day, did a little last minute shopping.
I got a call from my neighbor's, they were at Olive Garden enjoying the gift card I'd given them. They also said that they are buying the property adjacent to them to the west, this is the one that I was going to buy at $17.5k in 2017, but the other guy bought it first and put a very nice block wall around it...then only used it for storage. My neighbor is paying a lot more, but the walls and gate are nice and it gives him a lot of room to expand now.
Finished Tiamat's Wrath.
Monday - Still raining.
I was supposed to have a dental visit, but the dentist was exposed to COVID and canceled, they're trying to set up an appointment in January.
The vet, Smith's, also canceled Suzy's shot for Friday, so there's two things I don't need to do this week.
Sunday - Raining pretty hard.
No leaks, except for the usual spot under the swamp cooler supports. Some day I'll have to fix that.
Cleaning up a bit after the Xmas festivities.
Parceled out all the left over ham into meal-sized portions, put into freezer bags and into the freezer. There is a bit of veggies left, so I had that for dinner with some of the left over potatoes and ham.
Started on Tiamat's Wrath (Expanse #8), by James A. Corey. I read this recently, so I'm not adding it to this years books, but I had forgotten enough that it seemed like a good idea.
Saturday 25 December 2021
Saturday - Christmas!!
Cloudy and threatening rain, but it didn't actually start pouring until about 10pm.
Dinner went well. I had an electric roaster and put the ham in there for a couple of hours, along with a dish of potatoes au gratin, and everything came out tasty.
S stopped by briefly, with some delicious biscuits, and we lingered over the table with a nice bottle of wine for an hour or two.
M&K had bought a couple of pies, so we had some nice home made apple pie, a la mode.
Since the weather was getting ugly they left a bit before 9pm, and by 10pm there was a deluge of rain going on.
Friday - Christmas Eve!!
Not too much going on, just mopping and vacuuming and trying to make things a little less dingy and dirty.
Did a bit of reading in the evening, too tired to do much else.
Thursday - Decent weather.
Working away on various things during the day, did a little last minute shopping.
Wednesday - Overcast weather.
Did some Xmas cards, and sent them out, very late. Not in a big Xmas mood this year, but I feel better when I get something done.
I went to the Optometrist at Kaiser. That went well. My cataracts are, they said, minimal, but my prescription was vastly out of date! For about $300 out the door I have two new sets of glasses on order (one set is reading glasses). But there was a "freckle" on one retina that they want me to go to the ophthalmologist to look at, in January. Bah.
Book #72 was Persepolis
Rising (Expanse #7), by James A. Corey. This is from a while
back, and I apparently didn't read or just skimmed it in 2017. Since
the last book is out now it seemed like a good chance to catch up.
Tuesday - Decent weather.
I finally took my jigsaw and cut the dining room table down to 30" from it's bar height of 40". I was planning on a real table, but just left buying one too late. It looks OK, and I'll throw a tablecloth on it.
I also brought in some regular height chairs from storage. They are actually in a bit rougher condition than I realized, but I'll clean them and maybe wipe them down with some Murphy's, and lets face it: no one I know really cares.
Bob said he didn't want to chance the "ice bomb" weather they are
predicting for Xmas. I don't blame him and Ginny, it looks to be horrible
horrible weather to drive in. So just me, Mike, and Kathleen
this year.
Monday - Decent weather. Cold.
Cleaning around the house - windows, dusting, trying to come up with a complement of matching plates and silverware.
I went out for an hour or so and started laying out the patio area. There is substantially more drop than I realized to the ground, and it will require a fair amount of sand and compaction, even at a 1 degree slope away from the house. Bah. Next year.
Sunday - Decent, cold in the morning, but up to 54F in the mid afternoon.
Took a pic of the full moon setting in the NW to match last night's picture of it rising in the NE.
Went shopping with S, picked up various things. My problem with the PIN is solved. Paid her back for last week, then we went down to Palmdale and picked up a used futon from someone for my spare bedroom, should anyone actually come from far away.
G said she couldn't come, just doesn't have the leave, and the weather predictions are dire once again, just like Thanksgiving.
Not much else going on. Did a bunch of wash, and the usual household chores, in the afternoon. Put up some Xmas lights up outside - not many TBH, cold, windy, and wet makes me stay off ladders.
Started fixing stuff in the house for Xmas.
