Well…just got back from the house where I wasn’t going to go today…I was supposed to just hit Harbor Freight to buy a cheap sawzall, a 100 foot extension cord, and some hacksaw blades to fit it…but, you know me, when there are new toys to use, I have to use them so I went over to try to cut the posts off the top of the retaining wall. To my utter surprise, the 20 buck saw did a good job and I got all of the posts down except one since it started to pour and the outlet in the garage is not GFI and I didn’t want to get electrocuted…and it only took 3 blades to take down 8 of them which was pretty cool. I had to measure the rooms to do the calculations for necessary ventilation and it looks like I only have to do 4 windows to meet the reqs so that is cool…but doing the roof and the windows is going to cost almost 15K and that is a little shocking…I do have another roofer and two more window guys coming tomorrow for estimates but I guess the days of 3K roofs is long gone….I did have a thought on the way home that I think I’m going to try to use the sawzall to cut out the stumps along the fenceline instead of spending 40 bucks on renting a chainsaw…will try that later this week but I need to get wood cutting blades first so another run to HF is in order. Still making progress….oh, I did find out that my son has a power washer that he will let me borrow as soon as I get the water turned back on next week and that will make getting rid of some of the loose paint a lot easier…
Category Archives: Misc
House 2…
Well…took the weekend off working on the house since the inspector is coming tomorrow to clarify what I need to do to get the water turned back on and I needed some rest with being a little sore from heavy manual labor….the last of the heavy work will happen this week with getting the back yard ready for the new fence install by taking out a couple of stumps, leftover fence, and getting the weeds cleared around the retaining wall. I am going to buy a cheap sawzall at Harbor Freight to cut off some steel fence posts that are cemented into the top of the wall and I hope I can cut those off without too much trouble…have to buy some hacksaw blades for it and for 20 bucks, if I can get the 8 posts cut off I can throw it in the trash after that….then I need the rental chainsaw to get the stumps out and do the rest of the cleanup…after that it will just be painting and cleaning up the yard but that won’t be too taxing…but, tomorrow it’s just meeting with the inspector, another fence guy, and a window guy for more estimates…will probably have to have a roof put on the house, too but that is about 7 grand and I would prefer to not spend that right now…still hoping to get out for under 10 grand…
House Chronicles…part 1
Well….as you’ve seen over the past two weeks, I have a new project that I am working on for my son…I am re-habbing his grand parents house over on the west side of GR so he and his fiance can move back here to GR from NYC in a couple of years…the whole thing started when the friend of his who was living in and taking care of the house just ghosted on him and the city got involved and condemned the house since the grass hadn’t been mowed this year and there was paint flaking and brush growing all over the small lot. Since the back yard is raised, and the fence that surrounded it is gone, that was another part of the problems on the lot that have to be repaired along with two windows, some tuck pointing of brick in the front of the house, and maybe some lead paint removal but the paint they are bitching about is not lead…the peeling paint is on the porch that I painted twice with latex so I need to make sure the inspector knows that when I meet with him Monday. I have a quote for a new fence that came in at 1900 bucks that is about 600 dollars less than I expected and I have another company coming Monday morning for a second quote along with a window company to quote the two windows….I may have to have the roof replaced too, but I hope I can let that go until spring since getting on a schedule for a roofing company is almost 90 days out and I need to have the house done before November 1st when my lease is up here. The big bitch is that the assholes in GR shut the water off until everything is done and that makes it hard to do anything without a bathroom or water to start to fix the lawn or clean my tools etc. I am going to bring that up Monday and just see if I can get the inspector to get it turned back on since I have made progress already and it would make it easier to get it done. So, this is going to be an ongoing series where I chronicle the journey of the house back to the best one on the block. Stay tuned…
Saw Barnstorm on tv…
Well….was flicking through the tv channels the other day and came across the 2017 Colorado Music Hall of fame celebration concert and to my surprise, one of the groups being honored was Barnstorm, Joe Walsh’s second group after the Jame Gang. Over the years since the early 70′s, I had never seen them play and they are one of my favorite groups from that era…I still listen to their music almost every day on the bike ride and it was so cool to see the three original members up on stage…with Joe, Joe Vitale, and Kenny Passerelli…and they did three songs off the first album that I have never seen played live before even with seeing Joe Walsh play almost a dozen times…I was a little curious what the music press thought of them at the time since I still think Barnstorm was a niche band that only my friends and I knew about but there were reviews in Rolling Stone and other magazines that called the album a “masterpiece”…who knew? All I know is the music still makes me smile after more than 40 years…
RIP Peter Tork
Well….almost forgot to do this one after the death of Peter Tork at 77 earlier in the week…yeah, I know, he’s not a household name but he was to we who grew up in the 60′s and watched the Monkees on tv….now, I’m not one of those people who are going to denigrate their music since I liked it back then…and some of their music was written by great songwriters like Carlole King and Boyce and Hart, and many others who toiled in obscurity…and, back then, it really didn’t matter that they were a tv creation…I mean, who can hear “Last Train to Clarksville” and not smile a little bit? So, RIP Peter….
Hey Tim Cook, I’ve got your answer…
Well…going to get off politics for a minute and comment on the wailing and gnashing of teeth going on in the tech industry right now with the sales of Apple’s Iphones tanking and year over year growth in negative territory. All of the articles I have read make it appear that the pundits and Apple are confused on why this would be…why is their money printing machine starting to stall? Damn, Tim Cook…the answer is so damn simple that I have it…do you really think any phone is worth a thousand dollars or more? That is the price point that the new Iphones meet…let’s say that again…a thousand dollars for a frickin phone? What does it do better than my 139 dollar used Samsung Galaxy S-7? Does it send texts directly to your brain? Does it take holographic pictures that you can play like R2D2 did in Star Wars? Does it cook dinner for you? Nope to all of those…so why is a stupid phone priced more than two laptops? I think the hubris of the people at Apple has finally blinded them to the economic reality of the world….I mean you can buy a phone, a laptop, a tablet, an Instant Pot and a new set of tires for what Apple is charging for their latest phone…and people are starting to realize that the premium Apple has been able to charge until now is no longer worth it…and that’s your problem, Tim….
Another two for the B-3 count…
Well…after talking to T the other day and her question if I remembered the song “dragging the line” by Tommy James, I got sucked into youtube again looking at videos of music that I have in my playlists that I use on the bike every day…one of those is “Dark eyed Cajun woman” by the Doobie Brothers and I had never seen that they used a Hammond B-3 organ before so I am going to add them to the B-3 count. I also saw a commercial on tv with Elton John in it that covered his career from the start until now and, though I thought he just played piano, there is one shot of him playing a B-3 so I’ll add that to the B-3 count, too….
RIP Stan Lee…
Well…it was sad to hear this afternoon that Stan Lee died at the age of 95…if you are a comic book fan, you know who Stan was….if not, Stan was one of the founders of the modern Marvel comic universe and, with Jack Kirby and others, was responsible for the creation of many of the iconic comic book characters that I loved when I was growing up in the 60′s. Thor, Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man were my favorites and I had boxes of them when our house burned down in 1963….I can still remember the excitement and joy when a new issue come out and I could hole up and read the entire thing from front to back…so, thanks Stan…RIP
RIP Burt Reynolds…
Well…this bit of sad news just came across the interweb…Burt Reynolds died today at the age of 82. Now, I know that Burt was not everyone’s cup of tea but damn, did he make me laugh in Smoky and the Bandit and Cannonball Run…I don’t remember a bad movie that he did and they always were entertaining…and he even showed real acting chops in Deliverance…but he will always be known for the inside joke snicker that he brought to his roles and the genuine sense of fun that permeated his movies…he will be missed…RIP Burt…
A few bitches…
Well…no pool today with the bar being closed for Labor Day so I thought I’d just come here for a few bitches…so here goes….you know, I waited over 15 years to be able to get health insurance again…that I could afford…and I thought I’d paid my entire working life for Medicare and didn’t expect the expenses that still come even after paying in for forty years…I mean the basic cost is 134 bucks a month but that is without a supplement policy that would cost me another 100 dollars a month that I can’t afford, or if I had to take part D for prescriptions that would be another 100 a month…so how do people who need this stuff afford the 334 dollars a month on a fixed income? And that doesn’t even cover the co pays which will be 184 dollars for my checkup tomorrow….and that is not even addressing the 20% of any hospital bill that I will have to pay for if I ever end up there…which could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for my end of it….folks, this is why we need to vote for the dems this fall…at least they have promised to increase the coverage so we should be protected from going broke in retirement…can you say that about the repubs? Nope….