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…
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 that 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…
Yeah, Russia did aid trump….
Well…not matter how many damn times the idiot trump lies about Russia’s help he got in the both 2016 and 2020 elections, that whole thing was exploded on Russian state TV yesterday when they clearly said that they want “regime change” in the US and want to help trump get elected…again…Yep, again…they admitted on state tv what trump and his idiot minions have been lying about for 6 years now…that Russian involvement in our election and getting trump elected was a hoax when the help was true and continues to this day…and just yesterday, idiot boy asked Putin on tv to release “dirt” on Joe Biden and his family…now, in my day, asking a murderous thug who is right now killing thousands in Ukraine to help him get elected…again, should be disqualifying but on the right these days, it is a badge of honor if the prime enemy of the US, Putin, supports your election and spends millions if not billions to make that happen…and the morons on the right just eat it up while they spout that it’s patriotism to work with our enemies to get trump elected…what the hell happened to these people? I really do thing this country is on the cusp of turning into a thug run hell hole and it is all because of the repubs and their lack of morals and patriotism…and that is all of them from trump and mcconnell all the way down to the qanon morons who are just this side of clinically crazy…geez…
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….
Finally…the Jan 6th committee has had enough…
Well…after all of the time and evidence that the Jan 6th committee has provided to the justice department about the crimes of every damn one of trump’s cronies and Merrick Garland not doing a damn thing about, the committee members have had enough and have started to ask the same questions that everyone who cares about this country has been asking for over a year now…but Adam Schiff has put it nicer than I ever would…saying that he needs the justice department to do their job so the committee can do theirs…and that means that everyone who has been referred to the justice department for charges need to be indicted…and right now…how the hell could it take a year to look at the evidence that even the public knows and not do anything about it? If Garland won’t uphold the rule of law then we need someone who will…especially with a judge who has seen the evidence against Eastman and the idiot trump and has publicly stated that trump has committed multiple felonies trying to overthrow the government…what the hell else do you need to indict? Just today it was revealed that for almost 8 hours on January 6th, the call logs for the White House are blank when we know that many, many people talked to trump that day…now, this is obstruction of justice plain and clear and it is another felony that trump has committed…so where are you Garland? You have this evidence and yet you sit doing nothing…either get off your ass or get out of the way and let a real AG do the job of upholding the law…geez…
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….