Well…even at my advanced age, there are still opportunities to learn something new every day…and this morning, one of those opportunities presented itself and made me smile a bit….as I have been watching the birds around here, for some reason I thought the black, speckled birds that travel in flocks were grackles but I was curious enough to check the internet to make sure since one of them ended up on my window sill and others have been feeding under my feeder window in huge groups…so, I found out I was wrong…they are not grackles but common starlings that I understand now are a despised invasive species by bird people in Michigan since they attack songbirds nests and drive out the native species with their aggressiveness….and these bird people are adamant that you don’t feed them or assist them in their spread in any way…but, how the heck do you do that? I’m not going to take my feeder down since the Juncoes and other birds come here to feed and I like watching them….hmmm….so, I guess I’ll have to think about that a bit…oh, I did see some sparrows out here when I was able to ride outside last week but they were a couple of miles to the west toward Lake Michigan…still don’t understand why none of them are around here when they are that close….something to think about….
Category Archives: My Life
March 27th
Well…damn, 23 degrees and it’s almost April? The lock into my garage was even frozen and I had to hold the key in my palm to heat it up so I could get it in to unlock…I did sleep okay last night and didn’t wake up til 5:21 and stayed in bed til 6:20 so that was okay…and I feel okay this morning with knowing it is my day off of everything…I keep talking about that, don’t I? Oh, well…it is nice to take one day a week off and just enjoy my life…but, I’m not sure it that will last today with needing to get the old wallpaper off the walls in the big bedroom….started on the second one a bit yesterday and I’m still not sure if I’ll ever get the walls paintable again…we’ll see….I am still pretty amazed I have a house that is mine that I can afford and it hit me yesterday how much stress that has taken off me no matter how much work I have to do around here….I read the stories on Kos about people my age who are struggling to keep a place to live and to pay their medical bills and I really feel for them…and that makes my situation even more of a relief as I think about it…but I have noticed a change in my thoughts recently where I am realizing that I’m coming up on the end of my life and have been thinking about what has been and what I think about how my life has gone….and that may make for some uncomfortable posts here in the near future so I’ll warn you when those start to come so you can skip them if you want…not much to do today….I’m still not that good at doing nothing but I am going to try to just fool around some today…I do need to order the blinds for the bathroom some time and will probably do a few of these, too, if I get motivated…hey, that is one thing I just noticed after not drinking any more…I don’t have to work to get motivated to work around here….I don’t think I’ve mentioned that in a while…and that is pretty cool….more later….
Done for the day….
Well…man, have been working all morning but now I’m done for the day….got the rest of the wall peeled and that only took and hour or so but that is the start of the work to make the wall paintable again…still need to go over it to remove the brown paper residue that was left behind after scraping and I think I’ll spend the 12 bucks and buy a 4 inch wide wallpaper scraper that they have at depot since I don’t want to go over the whole thing again with the one inch chisel…after that, I’ll have to go back and fix the divots where I dug into the plaster… and fix the big holes in the skim coat…will probably do a test patch of paint after that to see if I have to remove the adhesive, too….I did get the laundry done and a little touch up on the bathroom window where the blue paint was showing through even two coats of white….I think that is enough for the day…I do need to let my right hand rest since my thumb is really hurting and it will help taking tomorrow off for my normal Sunday….I will be back here for another one after I read the news but I am going to take my time with that….more later…
March 26th
Well…damn, I hope this isn’t the start of another wake up time recession where I get up an hour earlier every day….that’s two in a row and I don’t want three…I am a little surprised that my right side is not howling in pain this morning after peeling the wallpaper off 2/3rds of one wall in the big bedroom yesterday and how much it hurt last night…but I do have some pain on the top of my forearm so we’ll see how it goes when I get back at it this morning…it is a little weird to have stripped that much of an 8 by 12 wall with just a 1 inch wood chisel….I am looking forward to taking the day off tomorrow after all the work yesterday and today…and the window in the bathroom came out good and has a nice smooth finish on it now…I do need to order the new blinds for in there today and they should be here next week…I did get my refill of the generic flonase yesterday and I hope it continues to work since I am pretty stuffed up today…didn’t have a mask on doing the wallpaper yesterday and it does make some dust removing it so I’ll have to remember to use one today…the goal is to get the wall completely stripped by the time F1 qualifying comes on at 11 but that means I need to get my butt in gear and get on the bike since it is already 7…not much to do today…I do need to do laundry after I get off the bike but I may wait til I get the wall done so I can wash those clothes, too…and I need to cook some more chicken legs for lunch…damn, I need to get going….more later…
Have never seen this before…
Well…darn, after I finished up the window in the bathroom and it was only about 10:30, the guilts got to me again so I thought I’d start to think about what to do with the walls in the big bedroom and how damn ugly they were…and just on a whim, I took my new 1 inch wood chisel in there and started to scrape at the walls with it….and, to my amazed surprise, it started to peel the 5 coats of paint, wallpaper, and plaster off easily…leaving a pretty nice finish that I may be able to salvage and just repair and paint…at the very least, I can put new wallpaper in there if the plaster won’t take paint…and I’ve never seen where someone plastered over wallpaper with an eighth inch skim coat….especially when the surface under it is so smooth and in such good shape….so, I worked on that for an hour and change and have gotten almost half of the worst wall peeled off…but, I can already feel the pain in my thumb and right shoulder so this may be slow going…and to save 3-4 grand not having to have wallboard put in there is pretty darn cool and I can suffer through it…I may even learn how to use my left hand better when I do the other three walls…I think my estimate of it taking to the end of May is pretty accurate right now especially with still having the walls to prep and paint in the bathroom…it is cool to make progress and have discovered a method that I can use for it…I guess that will mean I’ll have to do the same thing for the small bedroom and take the ugly dropped ceiling out and trash it…but that is a next winter project if I make it to next winter….I need some rest….
March 25th
Well…darn…up at 5:14 and out of bed by 5:40 but I don’t feel too tired so I guess I’ll live through it…and getting up this early will put me on the bike by 6:30 so I can watch F1 practice at 7:25…and will be painting the window by 9…should be done with two coats by noon or before and then I’m taking the afternoon off….nope, can’t do that…there is so much going on in politics that I’ll have to do a couple of those this afternoon….I did cook some of the chicken legs I got from Aldis yesterday and went back to some barbecue sauce I used a long time ago that I just saw won a taste test on “Cook’s Country” and it was so good I wonder why I even went to Sweet Baby Ray’s…and it is only 1.69 a bottle…making more of those today…oh, the sauce is Bullseye and I used it long ago when they sponsored a car in nascar for a driver I liked…weird, huh? Damn, it snowed like crazy out here yesterday and it covered all the grass with a couple of inches and that was quite depressing…it appears that spring is never going to come when I look out a couple of weeks and the highs are going to be in the 20’s to 40’s and that is about 10 degrees below normal…..but that gives me time to really get moving on the spare bedroom so I can get that done before the end of May….not much to do today…just the bike ride and the window but I should order the new blinds for the bathroom window so I can put them up next week…not too much of a rush since the window in there is frosted…and my new allergy meds are coming today and I really need them after all of the dust from yesterday….more later….
Got my check!
Well…just checked my mail and the 400 buck check from my car insurance company came today! At least there is one good thing to living in Michigan…now I guess the only question is what do I do with it? I have been thinking about buying a kayak since I live near so much water now and it would be cool to get some upper body exercise as I enjoy it…but, with it almost impossible for me to spend money except for necessities, it will probably end up in the bank as I save it to pay for my car insurance that is due in August…at least now I can afford all of the blocks I need to buy to finish off the border around the garden and fill in the space on the east side of the house for a landing pad for my garden hose…maybe I’ll buy a hose reel to set on the pad…I really would love to just blow it and buy a couple of porterhouse steaks and a grill to cook them on….but, I don’t need the calories or cholesterol…and I know I’d feel guilty if I did…oh, well….
Ready to paint…
Well…you know me….again, when I have work to do and it is just sitting there staring at me, I can’t let it sit when it’s only 1:00 even though I sanded and filled the widow in the bathroom this morning…so, the filler turned from pink to white meaning that it is dry and ready for sanding so I did…and now the window is ready for painting tomorrow morning and that will give me a weekend off since I don’t want to start on prepping the walls in there until Monday and that will probably only take a couple of days…but I can’t paint for three more weeks so that will mean starting on the big bedroom…and I just noticed that they wallpapered across the corners and, as the paper shrank, it pulled away from them so I’ll have to chop that out and fill the corners so it doesn’t look so ugly when I paint it….as I said earlier, it will be nice working in a room where I don’t have to contort myself to get to the things I have to work on…and unlike the bathroom, I don’t really need the big bedroom right now so I can leave my tools out when I’m working on it….so maybe I’ll have that done by May or so and that will give me the entire summer off….yeah, going to take the whole summer off…as I get older, I don’t want to work full time on this place…and the yard will give me enough work all summer with all I want to do out there…I’m tired…again…
March 24th
Well…that was better…slept okay and only got up once at 4:14 and then out of bed at 6:13 and had some dreams that were quite realistic about driving up highway 1 in California in the dense fog and ended up in Big Sur where the sun burned it off and it was a beautiful day…and I still had the idea that I was at Lake Michigan and it was too cold to swim but then took a dive into the ocean in my clothes when I saw everyone else swimming and surfing….weird but cool…once the coffee gets working, I think I’ll feel okay this morning but right now I’m moving a little slow and feeling my age but I can’t let that get to me….have a lot to get done and only have about 12 minutes to get started on the bike….not sure why I have to be on the bike by 7…I guess I’m back to abusing myself since it feels so good when I’m done….should still be able to get to the window by 9 and will probably be done by noon or so….and I did buy some chicken legs yesterday that I need to cook for lunch…damn, no…I thawed some split breasts that need to be cooked first…so I’ll do the legs later…going to slather them in barbecue sauce for something different along with some roasted potatoes but I’m not sure if I’ll do those for lunch or dinner…decisions, decisions….not much to do today…looks like I’m going to hunker down here for a couple of weeks as the weather goes to hell and gets really cold, I mean 20’s for the high on Sunday? Oh,well…that will help me do the final push to finish the bathroom and get started on the bedroom I need to finish before summer…it will be nice to get to work on a room that is big enough to move around in and that I can seal off to contain the dust….more later….
Bad, bad window…
Well…after thinking about taking the day off to heal, like a moron I decided to get to work on the bathroom window so I pulled the shade down and got to work removing all of the other brackets that were on it…and the weird thing was that there were nails pounded into the frame all over it….and no reason whatever for them to be there…so it took me a good 45 minutes to get them all out…if I did…and then got started scraping the extra paint off that looked like it had been poured on the frame and finally got that done after another hour and a half…will have to spend the day tomorrow with the sander and I’m not sure if my hand will take it…I hope it does so I can get the filling done and get ready to do the final sanding Friday and maybe even paint Saturday….still have some touch up to do on the quarter round moulding but that will have to wait til I’m done with spreading dust all over….and then I can get on the prep for the walls but won’t be able to paint them for a couple of weeks as I let the white paint cure this time before putting painter’s tape on them to make a nice edge…more work…and more work….