Tag Archives: life

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 fillĀ  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…

Ow….

Well…after the booster shot and 3 1/2 hours working on the final wall, I am sore everywhere and have blisters all over my right hand to go along with the thumb pain…and I have just now finished up and it is almost 4 o’clock…this last wall took almost as long as the other three combined and I think I’ve figured out why the others were so easy…there are water stains in the plaster on the two walls thatĀ  were the easiest ones to strip and that must be from before they replaced the roof…or the reason they replaced the roof and there are two spots where they replaced plaster on the ceiling by those two walls so it was leaking pretty good…but not now…and I really may have to take the day off tomorrow since I can’t really use my hands too much right now…but the walls are done! This phase, anyway and I even went over one wall to remove the paper residue and adhesive before I started on the stripping….so, that’s enough for a couple of days and I really do need the rest….this day was a struggle…

Getting my second booster this morning…

Well…on a whim, I thought I’d see if Meijers had any appointments for the covid boosters today and they did….going in at 10:30 to get it out of the way and that is pretty cool…one less thing to think about but it will make me late for working on the wall today…will probably wait for that until after lunch….and take the next hour and a half to just sit and read the news…and that is such a big luxury to me that I don’t know how to act….but, I’ll figure it out…yay booster!

March 30th

Well…it looks like we didn’t get the snow or ice that was in the forecast and that sent me on the grocery run a day early and I’m okay with that…but it is going to rain all day today and I hope that starts to green up the lawn and washes all the crud from winter off the sidewalks…it looks like they are going to replace the crappy patch they put in the road out front of the house finally and there was a crew out here yesterday with a huge diamond cutting machine that was putting straight cuts across the streets on both sides of the patch…I sure hope they clean up after themselves this time after leaving gravel, concrete, and mud all over my lawn when they dug it up last fall…I am still pretty sore from yesterday’s wall work and I am going to abuse myself one more time today to do the last wall in the big bedroom….my right hand looks like I was in a bar fight with every knuckle rubbed raw from scraping it on the wall but today I’m going to tape it up before I get to work and I hope that will protect it enough so there isn’t more damage to it….I do need to get on Meijers website today and try to get my next vaccine scheduled since they were approved yesterday for old farts like me and I really don’t want to take any chances with getting the damn virus…I have a summer to enjoy and don’t want any covid effects to screw that up….not much to do today…just the bike ride and the wall that I should have done by noon or so and then will probably sand the patches in the bathroom so I can paint that next week….more later….

Found something that works…

Well…I am so damn sore after doing the wall today that I feel really old and I can’t figure out why just removing wallpaper takes so much out of me…and I tried the last wall and it is going to be just as tough as this one so I am not looking forward to tomorrow…but, I did finally find something that works and I’m pretty happy about that. After trying to dry scrape the rest of the wallpaper backer and adhesive off the walls, it was looking like it was going to take at least as much time as taking the bulk of the paper off…but today I bought a gallon of Zinsser wallpaper stripper and just gave it a try a few minutes ago and it worked! The leftover paper peeled right off and left an almost smooth surface that I now know I can get smooth enough so I can paint it and won’t have to paper it again….it is still going to take me another 4 days or so to finish the paper removal but it’s not going to be a lot of work once I get the heavy stuff off the last wall tomorrow…then I can get into redoing the skim coat that has fallen out and then sand the walls to make sure they are smooth…then I’ll move on to the trim before I paint the walls…I could have it done before the end of April and I wonder if I should then start my summer off in May? Yeah, you know me…I probably won’t take the entire summer off…but I won’t do any big projects but the doors in here…and they will be big enough….done for the day…

3 down, one to go…

Well…damn, this wall was a hard one…the first two in the big bedroom were quite easy with the wallpaper and paint coming off in big chunks that didn’t put much strain on me…but not today, there was something different about this wall and the paint they used and it stuck to the plaster much better than the other two…it was a struggle for every square inch and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to work on the last wall tomorrow….and there was pink paint in the multiple coats that I hadn’t seen on the other walls but is on the last wall so I expect it is going to be another chore and hurt like crazy just like this one…had to put 4 band aids on my right hand to protect it from scraping the skin off but there is still plenty of damage that was done…I even took an ibuprofen after I finished since my rib cage is in pain too….and it was so much work that I had to rest a bit 3 or 4 times and that better not be from getting old….not sure what I’d do about it but I don’t have to like it…still more later….

March 29th

Well…that was okay I guess…got up at 5:37 this morning but with going to bed at 10:30 or so, that gave me around 6 1/2 hours with taking time to get to sleep and the tossing and turning that is normal…looks like my plans are changing this morning and I need to do the grocery run today with the ice and snow that is coming overnight with a winter storm watch on from 8 or so tonight…and I don’t want to take the car out in that mess…don’t have anything to buy that is only available tomorrow so that works out…so I may only get half of one wall stripped today but we’ll see…I need to stop at depot to get some wallpaper adhesive remover to see if I can salvage the walls for paint so I don’t have to put up wallpaper….just doing the plaster repair is going to take a few days but the more I do it, the better I get at it…it was a little funny that lots of the plaster patches they put in were held in by the wallpaper and paint and they fell out as soon as I removed it….my shoulder and right hand are not faring too well with all of the abuse I’m heaping on them and they hurt like crazy….but that’s pretty normal and I look forward to taking the summer off and getting them healed….haven’t had to take an ibuprofen during the day since I started the wallpaper but today may be different…I struggled a bit with working on the room yesterday and had to stop a few times to rest and if that is from getting old, it sucks and I am not looking forward to more of that….I know I’m getting old but I’ve worked pretty hard to keep my capacities and I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much…biting off the second house rehab in the past two years is a lot of work for anyone especially an old guy…but I am not going to let up at all…won’t give any concessions to my age until my body fails completely…and then I’ll have an excuse…more later….