Well…as you know, I have been abusing my hands for the past few weeks as I work on my kitchen and they are covered with cuts and bruises along with the damage to my right thumb that hurts constantly now…but, I took the day off working on the house yesterday and purposely tried to do the littlest amount I could do with my hands…and, other than my guilt from not working, it appears that it was a good idea…the nasty cut on my right index finger that has felt like a supercharged paper cut is starting to heal and it doesn’t hurt much to do this when it was so damn painful Friday that I almost stopped doing these…and the overall stiffness has improved, too, and I can move them much easier today and I hope taking today off will continue to help them improve….I have to remember that I’m not young anymore and I can’t just keep abusing my body like I could when I was younger…and I really don’t have a schedule like I had when I was younger, either…back then I had to juggle work, school, and home maintenance but now I just have this place to work on and I can look forward to taking a couple of weeks off after I finish the kitchen in a few weeks….that doesn’t help with the guilt of taking time off but I’m working on that….
Tag Archives: life
January 30th
Well…it was a 5:44 morning this morning and I just laid in bed enjoying that comfortable place between being asleep and awake until around 6:30 and that was cool….slept quite well last night and feel pretty good this morning but the lock on my garage door was frozen when I went out to get the paper…luckily, a little shot of wd thawed it and I didn’t have to get my propane torch out to melt it like I did a few weeks ago….I probably should do the car locks, too since I haven’t done them yet this winter and they are feeling a little stiff…and I should do all the door hinges, too, since they seem stiff and squeaked a little today…I did get a new set of Michelin wiper blades last week but the ones on the car are still okay and I may just wait til spring to put them on…I did take the day off working on the house yesterday to rest my hands and it seems to have helped some but I still feel guilty about doing it with Sunday being my normal day off…it is cool to know I’m not getting on the bike today and can just ease into the day with lots of coffee and the 24 hours of Daytona on in the background….I do need to write about 700 bucks in bills today and that stings a little but that’s part of owning a house and I’ve got the cash so no big deal….I think I’m going to order the blinds and range hood for the kitchen today so I will have them here when I get all the painting done…and I really do want to get the newspaper off the window so I can see out of the one over the sink….not much to do today…just going to clean up the dining room some and get my tools organized for the final push in the kitchen…hoping to have that done in the next two weeks but I think the Olympics are going to interfere with that a little….more later…
A new record…
Well…as you can see, I have been writing a bunch more than has been normal over the years and this month I’ve made a new record for the number of posts in a month with this one being number 115 and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to 100 before….but, I do feel a lot of it is cheating with so many posts on progress with the house that I started this month…and I wonder if not having cocktails all month has something to do with it? I do seem to have the desire to write more when I’m feeling better and my brain seems to work better, too…I do need to do more of these on politics and other relevant topics and I may even do that today….that would make 5 for the day and that is just so unusual when my normal daily output used to be two a day…but I am going to write when I feel like it..it feels good to not have to force it and to have something to choose from when I come here…and there are two more days in the month so I could get to 120 for before it’s done….and that is just too weird….in a good way…
Taking the day off…
Well…with how my hands are feeling, I know the only way I’m going to get relief is to rest them…so that’s what I’m going to do today…I did get the detail work on the cabinets done and gave myself a haircut and that really made me realize how bad my hands, shoulders, and back are and that they do need some repair time…so, it looks like I’ll be taking the weekend off with my normal off day Sunday and I can really use it…and the racing season starts today with the Daytona 24hours starting this afternoon so I’ll have something to listen to in the background that isn’t related to gold in any way…and Tom will get that one….still one more later….
January 29th
Well…darn…another 3:40 night but I didn’t get out of bed until after 6 so I guess that fits on the normal scale…but I feel like I had cocktails last night but didn’t…I wonder if it’s the release of stress from getting the cupboards done yesterday? Even though I bitched about how the white paint looked, as it cured it started to look better and better and now it looks pretty good and I can easily live with it…I still really like the paint I chose and you can’t beat it for under 20 bucks a gallon…and while was waiting for the paint to be colored at depot, I found some black switch and plug plates that I put up yesterday and they look cool…and I adjusted the electrical outlets so they are straight instead of skewed so now they are level…and the plates are 3/8th of an inch bigger and cover all of the bad plaster around them…and I took the time to remove the old telephone landline that was there for a wall phone in the kitchen since I’ll never have a landline again and it needed to go before I get to painting the walls in the kitchen….I really do feel pretty beat up today and I may use the 24hours of Daytona for the excuse to take it easy today after I do the bike ride…or I may just do the touch up of the grey and call it good…I have to get at cleaning up the dining room since it has been my work room since I started on the kitchen and it is dusty and has tools and materials everywhere…and I need to do a haircut today, too since it is getting shaggy and I don’t like it looking messy…not much to do today….can I just take one day easy and screw around a bit instead of getting right on the doors? I need a day off since it still hurts to do this and my hands won’t heal unless I rest them….more later….
Done….
Well….finally, I’m done with the cupboards…or only the actual cupboards and not the 11 doors that I still need to fill, sand, paint, and drill new holes for the pulls…and my hands seem like they won’t take any more abuse for a while so I may have to take the weekend off and let them rest..I guess they look okay with what I had to work with and I do really like both the grey and white paint…but, I pulled off a couple of small parts of the grey paint on the interiors today with the painters tape I put on to keep the white off the grey…and I think that was just because they hadn’t had time to cure yet and I can fix those couple of spots in about a minute so no big deal…but, that reminds me that I do have to wait a week or so before I start putting the stuff back in the cupboards so the paint will be fully cured and won’t stick to my dishes….I am going to have to take a day to clean up my tools after all of the dust that the sander spread all over everything and get my work box ready for the rest of the work in the kitchen…but not now…have been on the run since 7 this morning and it is 4 now so that is 9 hours and that is enough for one day…still thinking about that cocktail…
Not satisfied with how the cupboards came out…
Well…after painting the first coat of white on the exterior of the cupboards, I am a little disappointed in how they came out…there are still so many flaws in them that I missed that they are little better than they were…okay, more than that but after 3 weeks of sanding, filling and working on them, I really expected they would look better than they do…I know they are 82 years old but damn, they should look better after the abuse I put myself through working on them….lots of the flaws just didn’t show up until I painted them and I blame myself for that…should have kept working on them and worked harder…oh, well….still have the second coat to put on later and I am hoping that will hide some of the flaws…darn…almost makes me want to have a cocktail or seven tonight….
Janaury 28th
Well…that was a little strange…slept all the way through the night with just some tossing and turning but not waking up at all…so for the first time in a long time, I got a full 7 1/2 hours of sleep and I’m not sure how that happened….but, I’ll take it and I hope it means I’ll have a lot of energy today since I’ll need it with getting to painting the exterior of the kitchen cabinets today and I am going to try to finish them…so that will take a few hours but the milestone of having them done and being able to use them while I work on the doors over the weekend….that means I need to go out and get more grey paint this morning and I am going to stop at Aldi’s, too, to get the fruit that I forgot Wed…it looks like it’s going to take about 3 gallons of paint to do everything grey in the kitchen but that’s not bad at 18 bucks a gallon….hope to have the doors finished and mounted by Wed of next week and the I can get started on the baseboards and door frames…may have to get a gallon of white paint to finish that stuff up but the white seems to go farther than the grey….it is nice to finally see progress but there is still quite a bit to do in the kitchen…I do have to remember that I have time and don’t need to rush but would like to have the kitchen finished in the next couple of weeks…I may have to rest my hands Sunday since the cuts, bruises, and strains are getting to the point that it hurts just to do this and the cuts are taking a long time to heal with continuously banging them on the cabinets I’m working on….not much to do today…okay, that phrase needs to be retired until I get the house done since I always have lots to do but it’s been a habit since I started this and a tradition that is turning into parody….more later….
The interiors are done…
Well…finally, I got the interiors of the upper cabinet done today with two coats of paint and that is a relief…I probably could have done a better job of prepping it but I just ran out of patience and got damn tired of all the dust…and I’m still feeling the effects of breathing in the dust even with wearing a dust mask all the time and I was just done with it…but, it looks a lot better than the dirty, stained white that was in there…and getting that done today gets me to working on the white exterior of the cabinets tomorrow…I may go out and get another gallon of the grey paint tomorrow morning so I’ll have it on hand if I want to get started on the doors over the weekend…and I forgot to get oranges at aldi’s and I tried some provalone cheese slices for 1.49 for half a pound that are really good so I think I may get more of those, too…I did get out and get more sanding pads and tape at HF this morning and I did get the seasoned beef steak roast for 1.79 a pound and I am thawing it in the fridge for a few days before I can use it for beef/broccoli stir fry over the weekend…so, one more errand tomorrow…man, I’m spending a lot of cash this month…
january 27th
Well…I like my new coffee mornings when I get up and smell the new pot brewing and knowing I’m going to have good tasting, fresh coffee…it’s enough to make a good start of the day and set me up for getting some work done…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed until 6:20 and now I’m running a little late for getting on the bike by 7:15…I guess I can get on it by 7:30 since I have to run an errand this morning to HF to get some sanding pads and painter’s tape and then across the street to DD to get a 5 pound seasoned beef roast for 9 bucks and a 1 pound breakfast sausage roll for 1.49 since I have two eggs left from last week and I can make a sausage and egg breakfast for a meal in the next day or so…yeah, I know that stuff is bad for you but I haven’t had anything like it in years so I guess I can have it once in a while…bought lots of protein this week since I got tired of chicken leg quarters and they had big ribs on sale…and I got boneless skinless chicken breasts to use in a lot of recipes…and most of them will end up in the freezer but that’s okay….I did get the insides of the cupboards painted yesterday and the second coat looks a lot better than just one….a nice smooth surface that I can live with even though the repairs weren’t perfect….and I do need to get on the upper cabinet today and use up the rest of the paint for the first coat….will need to hit depot for another gallon tomorrow to do the second coat and the doors that I’ll get started on this weekend…nope, need to do the white on the cabinets first but that should only take a day or so to do both coats…not much to do today…need to get on the bike soon but DD doesn’t open til 9 so I have time to finish my first cup of coffee before I get started….more later…