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…
The party of racists…
Well…do you hear that deafening silence? Yep, that’s the entire repub party not saying a damn thing about the idiot trump’s unhinged, racist attacks over the past two days on AOC, Ilhan Ohmar and the other women of color in the US House who have dared to call trump what he is…a frickin racist asshole that deserves to be impeached. Not one repub has said that telling them to go back to their shithole countries was maybe a little bit of a bad thing to say…no, they have finally given up any pretense that they are not just the same racist assholes that trump is and have made the decision that they are only going to play to their racist asshole base since there are few independents that are just fine with racist assholes and most of them feel that locking children up in cages is not what the US stands for…so the strategy now looks like trying to turn out the dying white racist morons while ignoring everyone else…how’d that work out for you in 2018 repubs? Yeah…not so well, huh? Impeach…
July 16th
Well…that sucked, up at 4:24 and barely got back to sleep this morning so I am worn out today and not feeling too motivated to get out on the bike…slept pretty crappy, too, so that doesn’t help either…I did have a little fun last night getting out to have a burger with my youngest son and his wife for my birthday and it was the first time eating red meat in quite a while and it will be interesting to see how my body reacts to that…spent most of the day over at the house and now know what needs to be done…and there is three months of hard work ahead….my damn allergies are acting up again and I am coughing and sneezing and my head is plugged up which is making me miserable right now…I want to go back to bed but I have a few things to do this morning to get prepped for work tomorrow….and I do need to get some things done around here, too but not right now…need more coffee and to take something for the allergies or I won’t be able to function….more later….
July 15th
Well…5:46 isn’t bad compared to how sleep has been going lately but I still feel pretty worn out today…I did sleep okay last night, for me, but I stayed up late again just from boredom and I’m not sure if I’ll keep that up or not….didn’t get a lot done yesterday…I took the weekend off working on the house to let the soreness subside some and even cut back on riding to 15 miles since I made my goal of 2,500 miles before my birthday and didn’t feel the need to do more than that…and I was so damn exhausted on the bike from not eating enough that I just couldn’t go the second time…took in an additional 400 cals yesterday to try to fix that and it may have worked some and I think I need to do that again today…but I have to go over to the house for a couple of hours today and then I’m meeting up with one of my sons for HH later for my birthday…so there will be no big deal feat of strength for this one…just don’t feel compelled to do anything after doing the hundred a couple of years ago and I really don’t have anything left to prove…more later….
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…
What a racist ass…
Well…are you surprised that every damn day the idiot trump reveals himself more and more as the racist asshole he is? In a bunch of deranged tweets this morning, he attacked the 4 new, young progressive women who were elected in the 2018 wave election…telling them to go back to where they came from to fix their “worst countries in the world” before they open their mouths to criticize his racist, illegal concentration camps at our southern border…geez what an asshole…first, three of the four women he bleated about were born here in the US, and the other is a Somali refugee who came here with her parents when she was 10…and, you know what else they have in common? They are all women of color…and everyone knows how much trump hates women and anyone who is not white…and a sick thing is that the racist network fox laughed about the comments and tried to explain them away as being “just a joke” and lying that idiot boy never said what his tweets spelled out clearly. Do you hear that silence? Yep, that’s the repub party’s comments that racist attacks on anyone are not acceptable…all of them are silent and complicit in this racism and have tied themselves tightly to trump the anchor…and it is going to take them down next year…they all need to go….impeach…
July 14th
Well…up way too early this morning and I even went to be late to try to be more tired and that didn’t help…slept okay, though, but I’m just damn exhausted and I figured out part of it…did you know that chicken legs only have 100 calories in them? So, having two for lunch wasn’t anywhere near enough with doing two rides yesterday and I worked to try to get to 1500 cals for the day…don’t think I got there so I’ll have to try again today but have lost my appetite for everything so it will be a struggle…I did get started on cleaning the bathroom yesterday and will finish that up today along with some kitchen cleaning but that will come after the F1 race….and that means that I need to get out by 7 or so but need much, much more coffee before that…will get to 2500 miles today before my birthday for the first time ever so I’m not sure if I’ll do two rides today…only need about 9 miles to get there so maybe I’ll take it easy and only do one….more later…
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…
July 13th
Well…when anyone tells you that it is “good” pain after doing a bunch of hard labor is full of crap…it is just pain and it hurts like crazy…dug up about 60 paving blocks to clear the path for the new fence at the house and I hurt everywhere…it won’t keep me off the bike today but I’m not going to do anything else….need some off time after busting my butt for the past week….slept okay last night but I should have and it felt good to not get up until after 6….still pretty worn out and I forgot to turn the coffee maker on last night so the coffee ended up in the microwave…doesn’t make any difference since I usually microwave it anyway but I hate forgetting little things like that….have been neglecting things around here so I think I need to clean the bathroom today if I can get motivated to do it…and I need to cook today…have some chicken legs that need to be cooked but I forgot to marinate them overnight so I may have to have them later today and find something else for lunch…man, I’m tired…think I’ll stop here and have some more coffee…need to get on the bike in a few minute and this is going to be a hard one….more later…
It gets lower…
Well….you know, I knew that trump and his cronies are the most low class people who have ever infested the WH and more and more evidence continues to pile up about just how bad they are. Yesterday, trump held his social media “summit” at the WH and the trash who attended were the dregs of the right wing swamp who are so bad they have been thrown off most social media for being the racist assholes they are…and that showed through yesterday when the Rose Garden almost erupted into fist fights when Gorka verbally attacked a reporter as the rest of this sleazy group stood there and cheered…high class all the way. I really never thought anyone could go lower than what we have already seen from the sex assaulter in chief but I was wrong….every damn day it gets worse….very presidential….I wonder who was in fistfights when Obama was president? Impeach….