Well…along with my other disorders, eating and sleeping…I now think I have a work disorder, too…you know that I normally take Sundays off to let my body heal and to just live for a bit every week but today I just couldn’t….so I got to work on the bedroom and got all of the plastering done that took about 3 hours…it looks okay but I think I do need to smooth it and maybe even fill a bit more later in the week after I give it a week or so to dry….I am still having problems getting the consistency of the plaster right and only having about 5 minutes from mixing to it setting up is a pain in the butt….so I had to make up 5 batches to fill the 10 places I needed to cover…but I am going to try to not be anal about it not being perfect…after figuring out that perfection is not what I’m after anymore…just clean and better than before is good enough…and that is really hard for me right now….and I can’t use my right hand much other than to do this…so I guess I do need to pay attention to that and maybe cut back a little on the work…but not much…
Category Archives: My Life
Going to start thinking differently…
Well….after I had a brainstorm yesterday, I think I’m going to start thinking differently about this house and what is acceptable as I clean it up and repair the big faults in the walls and everywhere else…I think I’m going to start thinking of this place as an old French chateau or an Italian villa instead of the pristine American house where it is necessary for everything to be perfect…when you look at some of those old European houses, they seem to embrace the age and flaws in brick work, walls and floors instead of covering them up and trying to make them perfect….and that is part of the character of those old houses…now, this one is not 150 years old or sitting on a hill in Provance but I can treat it as it is and take my mantra of letting the next owner make it perfect to it’s logical conclusion….is this a rationalization for not wanting to spend the time or money to make this place perfect? Yes, it is….but it also serves the purpose of quieting the guilt for running out of steam as I get older and as I stare at the huge missing pieces of the plaster skim coat in the big bedroom that I know will still be visible when I’m done with them….and I do need a way to accept how they come out no matter how good or bad…so, I’ll give that a try and see how it works….may change it tomorrow…who knows?
April 3rd
Well…man, I feel lousy this morning and I hurt even more than normal and that is getting pretty tiring….and I’m getting tired of my eyes being full of crap and blurry in the mornings and I think I’m edging toward changing up my allergy meds to try to fix that…or I may even have to see an eye doctor to see what is going on…it was a little nicer going out for the paper today but it’s supposed to start raining and snowing again after the 3 inches of snow we got out here yesterday…luckily it all melted overnight but it is still damn depressing that it is still snowing in April…and it’s not supposed to get warm,other than Tuesday, until next week but then it goes right back into the 40’s again and that will last until almost the end of April and that really, really sucks….I need to get started on the border for the garden here soon and get the veggies planted downstairs…or I may just wait til I can get them already started this year….and I need to get the seeds for the perennials I want to plant around the house and get them planted in the next couple of weeks so I’ll have flowers when it gets warmer…and I need to repair the fence and rake up the leaves since the yard waste pick up starts this week….so I really do need to get my butt in gear on the bedroom this week but I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done in there….the door alone is going to take 3 days or so…and I’m tired…not much to do today…I do need a day off but I may have to skip them starting next week…I guess I could do the plaster today but I really don’t feel like it right now…maybe after more coffee….more later…
I hate dust….
Well…I hate dust….and after eating it all morning, I hate it even more but it had to be done to make progress on the bedroom…had all of the plaster patches that were just slapped into place that needed smoothing but the sander wouldn’t dent them so I took my grinder with a 60 grit flap disc on it and that worked…but I had to run the box fan on high pointing out the window to be able to see anything in there and it looked like the house was on fire with how much dust was blowing out of the room….and I had to hit another 5 places where there were ugly patches so I was pretty white with dust by the time I was done….and then I had to sand all of the paint that was left on the walls to smooth it out for painting…still will be able to see some of it since I’m not going to to sand it all off…and it took me almost a half hour to clean up all that dust….and had to clean the filter on my shop vac 4 times as I cleaned to keep the suction working….did I mention I hate dust? But now I’m done for the day other than some light cleaning in a bit…I do need to take something for the pain in my hand that always comes after I use the sander, even though I used my left hand a lot today…just hurt too damn much….maybe more later…
April 2nd
Well…that was early…out of bed at 5:34 this morning but I feel okay so I can live with it….and my eyes are better today but the allergies continue to get worse as the days go on and I’m not sure if the little red allergy meds are going to do it any more….darn….and I have another long day of work on the bedroom today where I have to go over all of the walls with a sanding block to make sure I have all of the residue off the walls and can start working on the repairs…I am damn tired of dust…every day I work around here, I put another coat of dust everywhere no matter how much I do to try to contain it…and I am looking forward to the summer and not working on anything that will make dust…I have let this place go and haven’t done any of the normal cleaning that I should be doing so it looks like I won’t have my Sunday off like I have been doing to heal up after working all week….but I will stay off the bike at least…I am still really sore after the work this week and I wonder if I should just power through the bedroom and get it done…but, the door needs to come off and the door frame is going to take a good day or two to repair it since it has dripping paint glopped all over it…I do have to remember that I have until the end of May to finish both the bathroom and the bedroom and will need to get paint for both this week…so I’m going to spend around 60 bucks on paint this week with needing two greys and another gallon of white…ugh….not much to do today….hope to be done with what I want to do by noon or so today and I may clean the stove up after cooking for lunch since it has dust all over it from peeling the wallpaper off the bedroom….how that happens with the door closed and a fan blowing out the window, I don’t know…more later….
Progress…
Well…after waking up and feeling sore as I have in a while, I really never entertained taking the day off to heal…so, after a good bike ride, I get started on removing the leftover wallpaper backing and adhesive in the big bedroom…and 3 1/2 hours and 3/4ths of a gallon of wallpaper stripper later, that part of the job is done and making progress made me notice the pain a little less…not completely, but a little less but I do have to pay attention to how my body is reacting to all of the work…as you know, I’m not young anymore and just powering through a full day’s work on this place just isn’t in the cards…it is nice to have a clear path to finishing the room and that starts with hitting the sloppy patches with my grinder Monday to see what has to be done to smooth them and make them less noticeable…I may start with my sander first just to see if I can smooth them without spreading dust everywhere….I may start on filling the divots tomorrow since that takes little work and I can even sit on a stool while I do the low ones…but, I’m done for the day…I do have to remember that I’m not trying for perfection on the wall surfaces…just clean and better than it looked before…again, the next owners are the ones who can shoot for perfection….or they can live with my work…I’ll be dead so I won’t care….
April 1st
Well…it appears that the two day pain rule is in effect today and I hurt everywhere from scraping the last wall Wednesday with how hard it was…but I am going to be back at it today to try to get the remaining paper and adhesive off the last three walls…and then I’ll have to wash it to get the stripper off the walls before I start the repairs of all of the divots and missing plaster….I am a little depressed that my allergies are really bad today and my eyes are affected and filled with crap that is making my vision blurry…just used eye drops to try to fix that and it seems to have helped a bit but the small print on my tablet is still a bit of a chore to read…when is the damn snow going to stop out here? We got another couple of inches overnight and the ground is covered again and that is a bunch of crap for it being April 1st….and, with just one nice day day next week, we are going to be two weeks into this month before I’ll be back out on the bike outside….I am tired of it being in the 40’s…but I have to remember that I shouldn’t waste my energy thinking about it or I’ll just got more depressed….not much to do today….just the walls in the bedroom, the bike ride, and cleaning the bottom of the fridge to get the blood out of it from the pork chops I thawed the other day when the bag leaked…what a pain in the butt…but I am going to get to have a marinated pork chop for lunch and that almost makes up for it….not quite, but almost….more later…
Done for the day….
Well…it has been a long frickin day with not being good last night…and yes, I am still hating myself for it…but all I can do is go forward and get back to taking care of myself…after all, only two nights of cocktails in 3 months is not bad when you think about it….I did do my penance and got on the bike just after lunch…and it showed me just how bad I retain water when I have cocktails…rode 5.7 miles before I started to drip sweat and yesterday I set the record of 4.8 miles on a normal day…and that was from just one night of 3 cocktails…so, no more of that…I did go back out to get my long sleeved t-shirts for 4 bucks each at ollies and was going to get more regular ones, too, but all of the xls were gone so I guess I’ll have to live with 7 new ones….and I bought the only 3 long sleeved xls they had but that is okay…don’t use them much in summer if it ever comes this year…so, from the day going to be a lost one to getting a few things done with how crappy I still feel does make me feel a little better…but I am still so sore from doing the wall yesterday that it is going to be light work for a few days until I heal up some…I did find that I can get a bi-fold door for the closet in my new bedroom with all of the hardware for about 60 bucks….it looks like there was never a door on it since there are no hinge pockets or mounting holes for any door but there is a wooden dowel there that I’m sure they had curtains on…but right now, I’m done for the day…I’m tired….
14 bucks for 7 t-shirts?
Well…this is a little too weird to wrap my head around this early in the day…just got back from running errands and I am still shaking my head…just bought 7 100% cotton t-shirts for only 14 bucks…I know they are seconds with some flaws in them but, for that price, I can wear them once and throw them away…I did have to dig through a huge bin to find the colors and size that I wanted but 15 minutes of my time is worth it to replenish my t-shirt drawer….I did have to buy 3 larges when I normally buy x-larges to allow for shrinkage but for 1.99 I can live with those…going to go back and get some long sleeve ones they have for 3.99 each and that is about half what I can get them on sale for at Target…and the ones I have are falling apart so that needs to happen next week…I did get the heat gun returned, too, so a successful morning and the heat gun return paid for the t-shirts….might even go back there tomorrow and get a few more shirts and then I won’t have to think about t-shirts for another year or so….more later….
March 31st
Well..damn, I am so disappointed with myself that I’ll probably be depressed for weeks…fell off the wagon last night and had cocktails and feel like crap today…not sure why I did it but part of it was all of the work I’ve been doing and….nope, that’s just a damn excuse and throwing months of healthy living out the window for nothing is just another failure that I am gong to have to live with…along with all of my many other failures….crap, crap, crap….and I had some chicken I was thawing leak all over the bottom of the fridge so I’ll have to tear that apart to clean it….and I’m going to skip the bike ride today so that will add to the depression that is going to blanket me all day…and the pain from overdoing the work yesterday is making it hard to move…okay, enough wallowing in my failures…when this crap happens, I need to just get moving and start doing better…and that starts now…I do need to go out for an errand this morning to Ollies outlet since they have t-shirts on sale for 1.99 and it is next to HF where I need to return the heat gun since it really doesn’t work to remove paint that I bought it for….I’m sure they won’t have the shirts but it is only a couple of miles from here so no big deal but I could use some new painting shirts since my old ones are falling apart…I am going to make a burger for lunch since I bought 5 pounds at Aldi’s Tuesday to fill the freezer…and I’m going to make lasagna this weekend….the rest of the day is going to be a waste and I am going to try to not get more depressed about that…but how I’m feeling now, that isn’t going to happen….more later…