Have You Missed Me?

Mmmm, that's what I thought.

Oh well.

I've been busy. Most of the stuff I've been enjoying. There has been other stuff, too. Like tiling the backsplash in my mom's kitchen. It's almost done with just the grouting to do. Not today. Probably not tomorrow, either. While I was using a rented wet saw on Tuesday, to cut all the partial tiles that were needed, this flew over.Nearly a couple dozen times. Looked military. I haven't heard anything explaining it and, as I predicted, nothing was written up in the local paper about it. I think they were just practicing right turns (that's all they did until they left). Hahaha!I like the clouds better in this picture.

I had a set of keys come in to the shop. The customer wanted something very yellow to match the discolored keys that the customer had become used to seeing. I called in a special order, they sent the wrong thing. I called and explained, returned the wrong ones and waited for the correct shipment. It arrived. It wasn't correct. It was the same as the previous wrong item. Bleck, called the supplier again and got told I was wrong...even though I had a supplier sample sitting right in front of me and it was different than what they sent. I gave up. I worked it out with my customer.

Our neighbor is finally getting a new fence. This is the same neighbor that got a 'new' drive put in last year. The drive that is slowly washing away and growing weeds in it. Anyway, this is a good thing because their fence has been falling apart, piece by piece, on to our property...or leaning so far over I've had to be careful backing out of my parking area.

'A' and I have been doing a lot of walking. The weather has been a bit uncooperative with high temps and humidity, but we've managed at least an hour each day. Sometimes two.Here's some determined squash growing over shrubbery on Pleasant Street.And an evening beach view from the end of the walk alongside the Toad Hall Bookstore.

So that's what I can tell you about what I've been up to.

And if you didn't miss me...I'll admit, I...

On and On and On

Work, play, work. I've been busy.

Mom's kitchen project (better known as a project for Deb) is progressing nicely. The top cabinet fronts and doors have been refinished. The bottom cabinet fronts are done and I'm working on the doors and drawers. The granite guys came a day early and the counter tops and new, undermount sink look great. Once the rest of the doors are finished I'll just have some veneering to do on the visible ends of the cabinets. The current end panels are too nicked and poorly touched-up to try to refinish. Veneer is the best route. Then there is a little shelf section to build. The old one was ugly. This summer I'll take some time to tile the walls between counter and upper cabinets.

I've still been getting a moderate amount of piano work. Hooray! Tunings aren't as numerous but key work is steady.

In between real work and Mom's work, I've had chance to go out to dinner with friends - just once. A very interesting couple. He's a retired graphics designer/business owner and cartoonist. She's a consultant for mental health and suicide prevention programs within educational systems.

And I've been doing some more painting. Even bigger this time. 18 X 24 is pretty much my larger limit. I think it'll be titled either, "Maggie's Blue Door" or "Nestled Near the Forest". I'm leaning toward the latter. Any thoughts? Anything better? Some of the colors aren't exactly correct as shown here. Among other things the sky has more blue in the painting. It's a bit washed out in this photo. The gardens are more vivid looking drenched in sunlight. You get the idea though. When I get the time, I'll add it to the sidebar slide show.

Time? Time?

I've been silent for awhile...again, huh? It just seems like so much is happening, although nothing earth-shattering. First off is that work has continued on in a moderate mode. This I like, generally speaking, as it should mean that all jobs get finished up with no scheduling panics.

However.

Since I had an abundance of work through the holidays, I had saved aside almost enough funds to pay for a huge amount of dental work. Not so much fun. Mix in to that getting all the tax forms filled out for all three of us. Then there's been the increase in tuning and in-home repairs. And this Thursday is the time for submitting artwork to the art association's contributing members show and I had some final touches to make to a painting and a frame to buy.

Now add to the mix that my mom decided to start a kitchen remodel.

Yep, I'm cramming!

Refinishing kitchen cabinets, demolishing the old laminate countertops, reinforcing some counter framing for the new granite she has picked out. Then I've got some ugly sliced brick to remove from the walls over the counter with the inevitable plaster to skim-coat repair. Thursday the granite guys are coming to take measurements and make a template. My mom had to have a new sink and faucet purchased before the granite guys arrive so that they can take them to mount to the counter pre-installation. Total, so far, three trips to the granite company, one prior trip to another company, two trips to the big box DIY stores, with the last trip successful in purchasing a sink at one store and faucet at another after three hours of debate! After the guys make the measurements, it will be approximately two weeks until installation and we've (I've) got to have everything ready.

So, what's the next week look like? Monday: ship some keys, pay some bills, dentist, another box of keys should arrive, more cabinet sanding. Tuesday: key work, movie with 'A' (Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp!), work on removing ugly brick. Wednesday: coffee with a friend, key work. Thursday: granite guys, art association with painting and photograph, work on kitchen, ship box of keys. Friday: clean house, grocery shop, plaster in kitchen. Saturday: who knows?

Bunches of Stuff

I wish that I had the time to write entries when I really felt the desire! The past few days I have contemplated a few topics, but life has not given me the time to put the ideas to keyboard. Then I end up writing short blurbs about all of the things - one fell swoop. I don't particularly care for writing that way.

Here goes.

The best laid plans and such...A set of keys arrived from CA just as we were heading out the door to drive north for the afternoon. Oh well, I thought, I've plenty of time. I'll get them prepped and glued in the evening upon our return (didn't happen, too tired). No worries. I'll get that part done first thing in the morning, machine them in the afternoon, ship them on Saturday. It'll still be within the 3 - 4 day turnaround time. Company arrived at noon Friday, called first, they have a summer home in ME and were leaving on Saturday for their winter home in IL. Ate out, visited, ate out again, no keys worked on. Saturday was very busy and I managed to ship the keys out at 1 p.m., just before the 2 p.m. closing at the shippers. Then while my mom was out to lunch with friends, I got working on mowing the lawn and weed-wacking. I also replaced a bulb in one of my mom's walk lights, only to find out that the reason it doesn't light is NOT the bulb. Cooked myself a nice hot meal of roast chicken with onions, whole green beans, and a baked potato. Struggled with an aching body to pick 'A' up from work. An Aleve meant a good night's sleep free from the day's aches!

Sunday, a day of rest...hah. It's nice having Sunday free from 'outside' (meaning retail) work. After a quick clothing sort (summer away, winter on hangers) first thing was church. My mom drove 'A' to work. I got home and had a delicious lunch of tuna, lettuce, and Marini Farms tomato. The tomatoes they grow are so yummy I could just slice one up in a bowl, salt it, and be satisfied. With only an hour left before retrieving 'A' from work, I just poked about a bit re-nailing a bit of siding on the house and shed. My mom reminded me of my promise to recaulk a couple windows and I got that done after the retrieval. (oh yeah, Friday the electrical engineer visitor and I fixed my mom's doorbell). None of these things being on THE LIST so I don't get to cross anything off. Then it was off to the library. 'A' didn't find anything of interest and I picked up one book. Which brings up the 'Recent Reads'.

The monthly music book group is meeting again. September's book was "Beethoven's Hair". I had only four days to read it (not knowing if I would have THAT Sunday off, I hadn't bothered to sign the book out until late). While it was a fascinating subject of the journey and subsequent analysis of a lock of Beethoven's hair that was snipped from his head soon after his death, the writing style was overly textbook-ish for my taste. On the other hand, the October book is "The Soloist". Read that one in two days. A probable total of 4 hours. Some of you may have seen the movie about the life of a homeless man on the streets of LA, made even more poignant by his past musical success, schooling at Julliard, and the comfort that playing an instrument gave him.
That finished, I started in on "House of Sand and Fog". An Oprah Book Club book. It is nothing I could truly recommend. Interesting. Way too depressing. I broke down and bought Dan Brown's new novel, "The Lost Symbol". I know, I know. I have succumbed to all the hype. I haven't read either "The DaVinci Code" or "Angels and Demons", so why this new book? Well, evidently it's heavily in to Freemasonry. This intrigues me. My grandfather was a Mason and I have some of his stuff. I tune for a Masonic Temple and the Temple Room is breathtaking, even in a modestly outward appearing building. So, for those reasons alone I have bought the book. One copy out of 5 million in this publishing! I am five chapters in to the book and have been interrupted by another that I picked up today. "Losing Mum and Pup", by Christopher Buckley is a memoir of life with and without his parents (William F. Buckley, Jr. and Patricia Taylor Buckley). An only child who is orphaned at the age of 55 when both of his parents die within one year. I read the first two chapters while waiting for 'A' at the library and since it's a loaner from the library, I'll continue with it and restart Dan Brown's later.

At last I'm almost caught up! Here that is, on the blog, never with real life. I've been spending some time thinking about a post I read elsewhere. About being alone and listing activities that you enjoy doing alone. The goal is to come up with seven things. I've only thought of four. I can think of far more things that I do alone that I wish were shared. (sigh) I'll keep thinking and post later.

What Excuse...

for not getting all the things done I want to...not keeping up with correspondence, reading, blogging, reading blogs, writing (yeah the article still isn't finished - not even the rough draft)? The problem is the things I need to do take over the things I want to do. So, mom's flooring is finished including getting all the baseboards, and such, back in. On to the next item on the list, the flashing repair thingy. Yesterday, I got the BIG step ladder up from the cellar and carried it 3/4 of the way around the house to find out that it is one step too short for me to hoist myself up from it on to the roof to do the repair. Carried it back down to the cellar and moved that item to the 'hire someone someday' list. I've thrown it together with getting a person to clean out the second story gutters and while up there hammering in two protruding nails. So, in all fairness and with consideration of severe budget constraints, I moved one of the 'hire someone' jobs over to MY list. That item was to repair/replace my leaking kitchen sink drain basket. Being the drain, it was not urgent, but I was tired of having a bucket underneath to catch the drips. How hard can it be to remove and replace the metal basket, the part of the sink that is the 'hole' and connects to the actual drain? Well, let me tell you, it was a pain.

But before that, since the flashing job didn't materialize, my mom didn't want a beautiful day to go to waste and strongly suggested that I tackle the window glazing on the shed window. Now, I hate glazing windows. I hate it even more when the window is a sort of permanent part of the shed. No removing it to a workshop bench. Glazing has a sag factor and is annoying to try to make work (read adhere) while working a vertical surface. Nevertheless, it got done. All sixteen panes are now reglazed. I think my mom can take care of the painting of the window once the glazing has set.

This afternoon it was time. Start painting 'A's room (yes, after six years she finally decided upon a color!) and fix the kitchen sink. About ten minutes or so before 'A' was due to leave for work, I disconnected the slip nut connecting the drain to the drain basket. I rigged a large screwdriver with a 'cheater' handle to insert in a slot in the drain basket from above to keep in from spinning while I tried to loosen the lock ring underneath. This was the cause of the leak, the lock ring was not tightened up (it wouldn't go any tighter?) and the entire drain basket could slip and spin around in the hole of the sink. Why this happened after six years is beyond my understanding, and a first in over 30 years of home ownership. I thought maybe something had gone wrong with the gasket or the plumbing putty, or both. So, simple, take it apart and replace it.

Wrong. 'A' held on with all her might from above and I tried to turn the lock ring from below. It wouldn't budge. We gave up and I took her to work. On my way home I stopped at Ace Hardware. I bought a new drain basket (in case of corrosion or whatever on the old one, I wanted no excuses for a second leak) and plumber's putty and I asked HOW to loosen that darn lock ring. Whacking one of the nubs on the ring with a screwdriver and hammer to free it wasn't an option, the whole works spun beyond anybody's ability to hold against the impact. I was presented with THE tool at a cost of $12.49. Still loads cheaper than a plumber! Went home and before I attacked the sink, I got a coat of primer on one wall of 'A's room so that it would be drying while I did the sink. 'A's got so much stuff and furniture that we can't actually empty the room to paint. There's no place else to put the stuff. A couple small pieces are in the hallway, but the rest just has to shift from side to side, end to end, while painting one wall at a time. While the primer was drying I got the new tool out and started in, again, on the sink... to find that the tool didn't work. It was too small. I grabbed the packaging and taped it all back together, pocketed the receipt, and headed back to the store to return the tool. After getting my money back, I asked this different salesperson about an appropriate tool and he found it. $9.99 later...the tool fit...but I couldn't manage both ends of the job. I couldn't hold the screwdriver with cheater while twisting the tool under the sink! I went back to painting while waiting for my mom to get home from a mall trip.

One wall, one coat of primer followed by one coat of paint later, and my mom arrived. It took more effort than imagined to loosen that lock ring, but we got it apart! And, as expected, a simple job to put in the new sink basket. Fingers crossed that it doesn't leak. Seems fine so far.
Now I've got THE tool if anyone needs to borrow it!

Oh yeah, now my mom wants me to fix her leaky kitchen faucet. Drat.

Things Aren't What They Should Be

A twist on a favorite song - "Things Ain't What They Used to Be"

That's true, too. (Or as Dorothy Donegan said, "Sure ain't.")

So, my darling, fellow clerk on Sundays has decided that she doesn't want to work the job anymore. Now, it doesn't seem to matter that thousands of people would love to have ANY job and can't find one. Nor does it matter that she gave her word that she would work through the Labor Day holiday. "Seems, according to them, that I signed a contract or something," she said to me. "I tried to quit, but they said I can't." I tried to nicely remind her that, contract or not, she had given her word, people were counting on her. That trust is one of the more important things. Yeah, life's real tough with just 6 days left to finish out her obligation (she works two days/week). She has come up with a solution, though. A solution bound to alienate many people. I'm first in line, another clerk second, and I'm sure many customers will walk away with bad vibes. She comes to work. Ten minutes late each time. Sunday, she stretched her 30 minute dinner break in to 45 minutes, throwing off everyone else having their break afterward. She blatantly text messaged in front of me (and customers). And she did almost NOTHING. Yep, a BIG fat nothing. Oh, she waited on some customers, but never lifted a finger to fill any candy or clean. Nope nothing. Just a sullen body getting paid the same as the rest of us that are forced to pick up the slack. No worries, she thinks. Next summer she plans to tour Europe with her boyfriend. Uh huh. I've only got three more shifts with her and I've got some plans of my own (sly grin). Did I mention she's 16? Lots of growing up for that girl.

****************************

Seems there are a lot of folks that you just can't trust. It's hard to know if you can even hold polite conversation. When a ten minute chat is later conveyed as 'spent the evening with', when a son changes to a 'friend'. When visiting a local college this week changes to setting up a visit sometime. A business client has sort of creeped me out. Spookier yet is that he stayed around the immediate area and I hadn't a clue. Don't know much about him. He has an in-state out of area cell number, out of state license plates, lots of 'professions' and stories. The more I hear, well, creepy.

****************************

A few weeks back I made a terrible mistake.

"Mom, if you want to, we should check to see if the Pergo that you have in the rest of the house is still available. We could continue it in to your bedroom."

Wasn't long before I was hauling 7 extremely heavy boxes of flooring from the back of her vehicle up the stairs to stack in her parlor - waiting for installation - by me.

Last Saturday, on a beautifully hot and humid day, with no air conditioning, I cut up and hauled out wall-to-wall carpeting and padding. I removed all the tack strips and all the baseboards. Tomorrow, all achy from work irritated arthritis, I'll begin installing her flooring. Oh yeah, another scorcher tomorrow!

But that's not what I really want to tell you. We had one extra box of the Pergo from when I floored her den and hallway nearly two years ago (wow, where did that time go?). It was stored down in the cellar on top of my weight bench (no comments on that please). On top of the box of flooring was stored a rolled up all-weather mat for the inside of Mom's front doorway. She uses it in the winter, usually, but didn't this past winter. When I moved the mat I noticed a puddle on the box of flooring. I confirmed that there was no plumbing overhead. I went to check the mat, which I had stood on end, out of the way. The concrete floor was very wet beneath the mat.

Huh.

I got my mom to take the mat outside and hang it over the deck railing to dry. Lots of water dripped out of it making a narrow river of moisture along one decking board. The narrow river looked a little dirty and I had just spent 5 hours scrubbing and cleaning the deck last weekend so my mom took the hose to it to wash it down well. By the end of the day the deck had dried. The mat was still oozing so it had been moved to a better spot, off deck, to dry. The next morning the little river was back! By day's end it had dried up... only to return the next morning.Here's a picture I took before it dried up today. And although it's just a short bit in the picture, each morning the entire wet stripe is about 8 feet long. I have figured out why the mat was wet. Can you? But what's up with the deck? Can't wait until morning to check it out again.

Tired of A Lot

It's been a long few days. Today was only marginally better in that the weather was nice and I got to do some work outside.I stained the back of our house. At least all that I could reach with a 12 foot step ladder and a 16 foot roller extension rod. How on earth am I going to finish the top part? I may have to put the ladder out in the PRIVATE Way and climb it with the 16 foot roller extension. I reached the areas next to the window by using just the extension...no ladder. Hmmm. That'll just leave the front to do which will be a bit more complicated around more windows and shutters, too.

One phone call for work. A tech will be sending a set of keys on June 1st. This little work is not a good thing and there's nothing I can do about it. From 4 - 6 sets a week to 1 - 2 sets per month.

I really and seriously don't know what to do. I've never been so work starved before.

The down side of working outside today is that the pollen count is HIGH. Way up there. So not only do I ache from arthritis, from carting a big ladder and painting for a few hours, from staring up while pushing a roller around way over my head, I am suffering from the excess pollen.

A Benadryl and I'll sleep well tonight. (Sneeze)

Productivity

What a fantastic week! Monday began with removing the 'guts' of the reed organ that got flooded at the doctor's office. It went smoothly. Even to the UPS delivery guy's timing and getting doors opened while balancing the top unit of the organ on a two-wheeled truck. Since the loading up part went so smoothly, the unloading just had to be a challenge. Sheer ice on our garden path to the bulkhead door and the cellar. Unbelievable that it went without a slip. I've spent part of this week disassembling and readying for repairs. Monday ended with shipping out a set of keys.

Tuesday was a tuning day and trying to make a 45" Steinway upright sound better. Not just the tuning, which was no big deal, but the fact that the soundboard is shot. Really and truly had it - no crown, necessary for good sound quality and sustain. Huge cracks and the 'dealer' had screwed it all back together rather poorly. I'm afraid the owner is having some difficulty understanding that there is not much more that can be done aside from completely rebuilding the thing. Honestly, even with it's pedigree, I'd be hard-pressed to say it would be worth the cost. Some things just get too butchered.

I've been working on getting the baseboards (skirting to you UKers) finished in our upstairs hallway. In between other things, I've got it about half finished. I still have some staining to do and then some wee bits of detail work. It felt good to be doing hand sawing and hammering. Well, that is until the aches and pains of arthritis set in that evening! And in between working on the woodwork, I've been doing the ivory jewelry. I think the inventory on necklaces is up to somewhere near 36 finished and maybe another 6 ready to paint. I've made 3 pins and have 1 more blank, and my fave...a pair of earrings with purple pansies. I just created another 11 earring (pairs) ready to paint.

The best thing is that the phone has been ringing. Oh, for that to last! Tomorrow morning I'll be looking over a Vose & Sons upright and giving the owner my advice on repairs. Today brought two calls for key recovering. One, a repeat customer from California, and the other a longtime customer who is sending three sets of keys. Yep, three sets at once! Seems a school's music department was vandalized.

I finally heard from the DTA. I hadn't had chance to call and then an envelope came in the mail...Monday, I think. They are processing my application and required additional paperwork like income verification, birth certificate, current bills. The list was about 20 items long. They have to have the documentation by the 16th or my application will be null and void. I went to the post office and mailed it all on Wednesday. It should be no more than two day delivery time.

I started on our income tax forms. Mine progressed quite quickly and I have only one more form to fill out. Then it's on to simpler ones for 'A' and my mom.

And......I finished reading Piano Lessons by Noah Adams. Or should I say rereading after a many year lapse. It's the featured book for the next Music Book Group on February 22nd. Then I read a fiction book that my mom recommended called Summer's Child by LuAnne Rice. Mildly interesting. Enough to read some more of hers...until they become more than predictable. Now I'm reading the new Anita Shreve novel, Testimony. The deb jury is still out.

Busy week and it feels soooooo fine.
Scary that it's all happening between a full moon and Friday the 13th!

Poor Plumbing(er)

I am soooo #%#!!&%# irritated at the plumber that did our addition. If I were a violent person, well..........thankfully we'll never find out.

About a year ago our bathroom sink started draining slowly. Amanda has the bad habit of brushing her long hair over it, doing her makeup over it, and that adds up. No problem, I thought. I'll just pull the trap and clean it out.

Until....

I discovered what our plumber had done. The primary reason for a trap is that it traps water thereby preventing sewer gases from entering the house. The secondary purpose is to trap the stuff and gunk that you eventually need to clean out. For that reason traps are simple to remove. Loosen two large "nuts" that hold it in place and voila'.

So why would our plumber "hard plumb" one end of the trap? Yep, glued the joint. No nut. I resorted to chemicals down the drain.

Today I decided it was about time to find out why our shower merely drizzles water. It's possible that the shower head is somewhat obstructed with sediment and needs cleaning. Or maybe we just need a different type. This is a simple job for a homeowner. They sell shower heads of all varieties at home improvement stores. Just unscrew the old head, peel off the used teflon tape on the threads, put on new tape, install new shower head (or cleaned old one).

Unless you've had the plumber from hell.

The idiot screwed the shower head on sooooo far and sooooo tightly that I can't get it to budge. The entire angled pipe coming from the wall wants to unscrew first. I've used every possible tool and clamping device for the pipe that I can come up with. The shower head will NOT unscrew.

Now while it is possible that I may be able to safely unscrew the entire pipe and replace the lot, I was not going to try that a half hour before our local hardware store closed for the day!

This is not supposed to be this difficult! I replaced both shower heads at our house in Florida. One of those had been there since 1949 and even it unscrewed with no problem.

Idiot plumber.

Ability and Lacking

A day or two ago, while my Mom was out working in her front garden, a lady from a ways down the street stopped to say hello and ask how we all were doing. My Mom proceeded to fill her in on our activities including my recent "job" of installing Pergo flooring in her den and hallway. The neighbor looked at my Mom incredulously and rhetorically questioned, "Is there anything that Deb *can't* do?"

Well, there obviously is a lot that I can't do. Especially little things like...

Oh....

Flying a jet, walking in space, underwater welding, climbing Everest, bronco riding, and bull fighting come to mind.

Yeah, weird list.

So, here are some pictures of the Pergo job at my Mom's house. At the end of the hallway there is a door that joins to my house. And here is a view looking towards the deck where Squirt visits. He still comes a few days each week and several times those days to get peanuts. One more shot of the back wall of the den, next to the hallway and opposite the deck side.

Comments like the one the neighbor, Mrs. F., made and comments from Mary have prompted me to sit down and write my Ten Can't List. Aside from the biggies and the outlandish here are some things I just can't do or having to do keeps me awake at night and sickish.

Public speaking
Playing the piano for an audience (of one or more)
Highway driving in extreme weather conditions or in anticipation thereof
Driving into or through Boston (guess that could be any major city...Tampa doesn't bother me, though)
Heights (I'm good for about one story, then it's iffy. But I love ferris wheels)
Taking tests

and

Copper plumbing (my soldering would need loads of practice)
Major electrical (I can do minor things like new plugs and lamp wiring)
Automotive work (add to that lawn mowers, they're yucky and greasy and gasoline can go boom)
Operating a chainsaw

No need to remind me of the multitude of other can'ts.

Some of these things I really wish I could do. All right, most I wish I could do. I have decided that I shall not learn or unnecessarily force any of the above upon myself.

I'll add that in order to do the Pergo job for my Mom, I had to use a table saw. This is one of my least favorite power tools but I can make myself use one.

P.S. See that little oak bench used as a coffee table in front of the sofa? I made that, too! My Mom asked for one for Christmas a few years ago.

********************************
Just had to include this for the fun of it. Credit to D. Fandrich for the photo.

Nothing Fancy :-(

Just felt the need to "report in". Been busy. Really busy. Work, work, work. On keys (two sets shipped out yesterday), on the reed organ (working on some veneer repairs), and yep folks, working for my Mom (volunteer work).

Would someone please buy me a roll of duct tape for my mouth?

That way I would quit volunteering to do stuff.

On and off over the past week I've ripped up the wall-to-wall carpeting and the padding and the tack strips in her den and hallway. I had to remove all the baseboards to do this. I'm installing the Pergo flooring. It's now mostly done with only one last intricate corner board that also spans three doorways! Oh yeah, she wants the linen closet floor done, too, but that will be a cinch.

Today we hauled all the carpet and stuff to the dump and had to buy a $5 coupon at the DPW office to get rid of the debris.

My workshop looks like it snowed beige dust from all the sawing! What a mess to clean up.

I ache. My back, my wrists, my ankles, my legs, even the palms of my hands. My right elbow is the worst. I've had a lot of tunings mixed in between hammering and prying and driving "snap" joints together.

The floor is looking good, though!

I'll take pics when I have the energy.

More blogging to come later this week...even a Lanesville post!

Off, Running, and I Must Be Nuts

Is it still Wednesday? Yikes. Well, today was supposed to be sort of a day off. Amanda didn't work, of course Mom is retired, and that leaves me. I'll work any day. I like to work. this morning, shocker of shockers, Amanda decided to walk with me down to the Whistlestop Mall for the newspaper. After that I went to work frantically on a set of keys, to get them to a drying time so that I didn't feel so bad about taking the rest of the day off. Once I reached that point, I got changed and got the gang headed for the car.

Our first stop was at the "big" Home Depot. My Mom has decided to remove all the wall-to-wall carpeting in the den and the hallway and replace it with Pergo flooring to match the rest of the house. The "little" Home Depot near the mall didn't have any in stock (we had checked on the weekend). "Big" HD had it but we had to wait for the forklift guy to get back from lunch to get a new pallet-full down from the top rack. We needed 17 cases. And underlayment. My time off just created more work for me. Installing flooring for my Mom. This stuff is heavy by the case. Fortunately, my Mom's van has an automatic load weight compensator! Really! I loaded 13 cases in the back of the van and another 4 at Amanda's feet, mid van. On my way back from returning the big, flat cart, I took a look at the van. Sorta low in the back and we had a pile more miles and errands to do. I started up the engine to leave and heard the compensator purring away.

An easy couple of miles down Rte. 114 and we made our next stop. Lowes. A Home Depot competitor. Mom had purchased an area rug for the den a couple days ago. She really liked it. It did look nice. Only problem was it was too big. So back it went to exchange it for a smaller size. She had bought a 5 X 8 and needed something along the size of 4 X 6.

They don't make it that size.

Looked once again at the van as we headed out of the store. Gotta love that compensator. Didn't look like there was anything weighty at all in the van. On to the next stop.

Target. For Amanda. As I was looking down to put the keys in my purse, I noticed a dark spot on my gray shirt. Hmmm, not too noticeable. I mentioned it to Amanda and then she said, "You've got a lot more down near the bottom in the middle." I looked. Oh crap. Grease marks all over my shirt. Must of come off of the handle of the big, flat cart. While Amanda was looking at CD's I went and bought a new shirt. A reasonable purchase at $7.99! I headed for the restroom to change. Off to the next stop, skipping the store I needed to go to, sort of, maybe. And that's why we didn't make the stop.

On Saturday I had gone to Sears and ordered a new bench sander. 2 X 42 belt and 8 inch disk combo. The one that I use for keytop work still runs fine, but this is the only machine that I do not have at least one duplicate of. Since keytop work is the major income generating part of my business, I like to be prepared and equipped with a secondary machine if the primary should fail for any reason. Anyway, the new sander was supposed to be in today. They would call and let me know. We left the house around 11:30 and I had not heard anything, so I decided not to waste time waiting in line only to find out that it was not there yet.

So we hauled our lightweight selves with our packed heavy van up the highway from Danvers to the Newburyport exit and then hit the back roads to Merrimac and Skip's for a late lunch. I kidded my Mom about going across the Rock's Village bridge with such a heavy load. It's a steel, swing bridge but the "pavement" is wood covered with macadam. Every here and there the macadam is missing and you get to bump down on to the wood planking.

It truly is safe. I think.

The cheeseburger specials were as good as always, but the news was disappointing at Skip's. They are closing for the season on September 30th. Two weeks earlier than usual. Drat. I was planning on taking a friend there when he visits in October. Maybe we'll have to just do a drive-by. I am NOT happy they are closing early. NOT. Screws up my plans.

Well, headed home the non-highway way. I'll be doing enough highway driving again this Saturday. Got home and had the not so pleasant chore of carrying the 17 cases of Pergo up the front walk, up the front steps, and making three piles of them in the house. Amanda helped with the hauling which was great.

Tired as I was, I still had to go work on the keys. Got the new tops glued on and quit for the evening at 7 p.m. Returned a couple phone calls to customers and crashed in front of the TV. Oh yeah, there was a message waiting form Sears. The sander is in! The phone rang three more times and the people left messages but they'll wait until morning. All job stuff. Even one from a lady in Montana wanting to know if I could refer her to someone to rebuild their reed organ!

Back to Sears tomorrow.

Now I just have to survive Saturday's excursion.

Back to Intervale!

For the day!

To play household mover.

Remember A's house had sold? Well, the new folks said that if he didn't want to bother moving his stuff out, that he could leave it. NO WAY. There are things that he shouldn't just give to them. To strangers. Family paintings and such. They were (are) all artists. Anyway, A isn't feeling well and can't get up there so we volunteered to haul as much of his stuff as we can fit in the van back to Rockport for him. The paintings, some small furniture, linens and clothing, some dishes, and few odds and ends.

3 hours driving there, pack the van, quick lunch, pack some more, leave by 4 p.m. or so, 3 hours driving back and home before dark.

I'll take the camera!

If I'm not nuts now, I'll be crazy by Saturday night.


And one final update. Ronnie's mascot finally fell. I got the word a few days ago.

Morning, Noon and Night

When I woke up this morning I really felt as if I was coming down with something serious. I felt lousy. As tired as when I went to bed last night, headache-y, run down, yucky, cold sweat, shaky, you name it. BLAH. I kept it to myself. What's the worst that could have happened? I could have felt even worse, in which case I'd have had to 'fess-up and gone to take a nap, or I'd eventually feel better.

Ate my usual two slices of toast, but without the apple jelly. I was saving my sweet intake for later. Downed a cup of coffee, black. Squirt showed up for walnuts so I fed him. He takes the half shells up on to a lounger to eat. Squirt is not nearly as pushy as Squeaky. He just looks in the window pleadingly. Yah, I know.

I walked to Rite-Aid (formerly Brooks - formerly Sandy Bay Apothecary, anybody else remember those days?) and bought the morning paper. A waste of 50 cents.

Got home and took the recyclables to the dump. Amanda went with me for the ride. We checked out the Swap Shop but there weren't any good finds. Rummaging in the scrap metal pile is no longer allowed. NOT FAIR. What if I see something that I can use? Ran into a former newspaper customer of Amanda's and he asked "how's my sweetheart?" I think he and his wife would adopt her! Where were they 10 years ago when that would have sounded ideal?

After the dump Amanda had to tackle a massive bedroom cleanup. It's amazing how she can accumulate so much crud. Oh sorry, I guess the stuff is valuable to her. I went downstairs to the workshop to pick up and clean there. I was interrupted only three times by my Mom who wanted to stain the front of the house. She has "her" projects but they require the assistance of others, namely me. So got the ladder up for her, found the gallon of stain she bought, trimmed the shrub that was in the way of the ladder (it has died and needs to be dug out....another day.....sigh).

The workshop is looking really good. I should get around to posting some pictures of it!

Oh yeah, while I was hauling stuff up the bulkhead stairs for my Mom, I decided I might as well get some other heavy work done, just to make myself feel really rotten. I carried up the pump unit to the Smith American reed organ and got it installed. Phew.

By then it was lunchtime. Amanda had decided to sit out on the deck in the sun. The end of summer comes around and she panics about looking too pale. I made a peanut butter sandwich and grabbed a handful of potato chips (crisps far east) and joined her on the deck. I sat under the umbrella. Sunshine and peanut butter aren't a favorite combo. After finishing lunch, it sounded soothing to have the hot sun on my aching back and shoulders so I sprawled on the lounger for about 15 minutes. Break time was over too soon. Back to work.

I was hoping to get Amanda's room primed and painted before putting up all the stained trimwork. No such luck. I've been storing all the finished trimwork down in the workshop and worrying that extended storage in the work area would result in it getting damaged. I made a goal of each time that I went upstairs, I would measure for at least one section of trim in Amanda's room. This afternoon I made a huge dent in the job and have cut and installed about half the trim. When it comes to time to prime and paint I'll have to mask all the woodwork, but, oh well.

So there I was at 3 p.m. feeling much better. I don't know why. Maybe it was the peanut butter LOL. It's a good thing I felt better as I had made a big promise to my Mom and Amanda about what I'd cook for dinner.

When I was growing up, my Dad always called them English Pancakes. Now that they are popular, most of the world refers to them as Crepes. Sometimes my Dad called them Crepes Suzettes, but I think he was just trying to be fancy. When I was a kid, all my friends wanted to have dinner at our house if my Dad was making English Pancakes. What kid wouldn't want paper-thin pancakes rolled up with butter and sugar inside for dinner??

This was Dad's specialty and he had learned to make them from his mother. He said that they never rolled them up when he was a kid. His mother would layer them on a plate, with butter and sugar, and keep the stack warm in the oven until she had made enough. Then she would cut the stack into servings like you would a cake. Anyway, my Mom NEVER tried to make them. It was only my Dad at the skillet.

But I watched. And every once in a while I'd ask a question. My Dad asked if I wanted him to teach me how to do it. I declined his offer. As an adult, the only time my Dad would make them is if I asked. And later, as he got older and less patient, he'd only make them for my birthday.

Little did he know.....

I had learned.

About 10 years ago I started trying to make them. There is a definite knack to it. It took me a few tries before I had a method down. First the batter has to be just right. It has to flow through fork tines at the correct rate and with the correct look. Then there's the skillet temperature - fairly hot. And finally the quick swirl of the batter in the skillet and the "pour-off" to achieve the perfect round shape and the exact thinness.

So, tonight, after a 5 year lapse in practice, I made English Pancakes. Yummy.

But after 3 or 4 you feel like you've swallowed a cannonball.

Bird's Egg and Week-at-a-Glance

Well, well. dickiebo has done it once again. He went a put a photo on his blog of his grandmother. And guess what? She's wearing my bird's egg brooch.

Not really.

At least I highly doubt it.

I hope...or that would be just too spooky. Here's mine.
This pin originated in England. It belonged to the mother of my former mother-in-law. DC sent an old, leather covered jewelry box filled with her mother's "costume" jewelry to my daughter. Amanda kept a couple pieces but didn't want the rest and gave me the box with all the other jewelry. I've worn quite a bit of it. Some of the pins, in particular, are quite exquisite. I also like and wear a few sets of earrings.

Now....dickiebo says that his gran's brooch disappeared. Hmmmmm. (just kidding)

*************************************************

I was to have a rather relaxing week after the long holiday weekend. I decided to redo the bath. I've been very displeased with the paint that I purchased locally and it is time to do something about it. So, prime the walls time once again. This meant removing the new wallpaper border. So much for palm trees there. Go here to see how it looked. I picked up paint samples today and have chosen a similar green, perhaps a shade lighter. This time a different paint company!

I won't get to start painting until late Friday or maybe over the weekend. I've got the player piano "guts" to work on, and a set of keys. Noontime, today, a music teacher from the local school called. They needed the Yamaha G1 on the stage tuned for a performance tonight. Talk about short notice. Tomorrow, Wednesday, I've got a Chickering grand to tune at a church in Gloucester. They have a wedding party that wants it tuned for the ceremony this weekend. Thursday I scheduled another "emergency" tuning for a piano teacher customer in Hamilton. She's got a student recital Thursday night and decided she wanted the piano tuned. After that I tune for another established customer here in Rockport.

I haven't mentioned mowing the lawn. Did that today. Yuck. I have allergies and the oak pollen has been horrendously high. The self-propelled mower with the ignition starter and the bagger wouldn't start. I hate this mower. It was purchased by my mom and dad for my mom to use. High hopes. She says it's too hard for her to maneuver. I rarely can get it to start. Supposed to be foolproof. Guess I'm the fool. Wouldn't start. Mom tried to supervise. Really wouldn't start! Mom still wanted the lawn mowed so I had to resort to the little electric mower. No self propel, no bagger, a royal pain in the you-know-where to keep avoiding the electric cord. Took twice as long and stirred up ALL THE POLLEN. Finished and took some Benadryl. I'm still sneezing and snuffling four hours later.

So.

I officially quit as a lawn caretaker. I told my folks "no more". They are going to hire the job done. Yay! (sniff)

BTW, there are more boats in the harbor. Still waiting for the bigger sailboats to fill it in. The "Appledore" has arrived for the season of taking tourists out for a sail on a schooner. You can see the schooner tied up to Tuna Wharf, just to the right of Motif No. 1 in the second photo of the Sandy Bay webcam. Just click on the small image to enlarge it.

Multitasking

Sorry about the title to this post. Either creativity escapes me or there was just too much to include in one title.

So.....

For Dad.
Thursday afternoon I headed to the local Ace Hardware and Smith Lumber. I bought 3 - Pressure Treated (PT) 2X4X8s, 2 - PT 1X6X8s, 1 - PT 4X8X three quarter ply, and 3 - joist hangers. I was home and had everything unloaded by about 3 p.m. Work began on another ramp. This one is (semi) permanent and will allow my dad to get out to the car without having to deal with the stairs. Right now he can manage the ramp with his walker. Later he'll use a wheel chair. I finished the ramp construction that same afternoon and was amazed that my body would move the next morning. 3/4 pressure treated plywood is HEAVY! Here's a picture of dad's ramp.
The section of fencing at the deck end is actually a gate that swings inward. Since this picture was taken, I have also cleaned up the street end of the ramp and gotten rid of the pile of dirt. The ramp is level with the edge of the decking, although in the photo it has the illusion of being "off" a bit.

------------------------------------

A Friday treat.
Friday afternoon I had an appointment to look at a large Estey organ. The owner was not interested in having it restored. She wanted it to be removed to a good home. Off I trekked to find the Norton Farm. What a surprise of a place. I drove to Bayview and per my instructions turned on to Brierwood Road, just before the Bayview Fire Station. The road wound up between some new, some old, homes and joined Revere Street where I turned left. Revere Street soon became very sparsely settled and then turned to a one car width, gravel lane. Hmmmm...winding among forest and not a clue where I was yet no way to turn around even if I wanted to. The narrow dirt lane led between two wooden posts. One had a sign saying something about an alarm and the Norton Farm. WOW! The forest opened up to a sunlit acreage that was stunning. A large saltbox style home was to the left of a circular drive and a sturdy barn to the right. As a drove around to park in front of the house, I noticed the granite chapel "addition". Complete with floor to ceiling paned windows on the northeast exposure and tall, narrow stained glass windows on the southeast side.

The Estey was in the chapel, of course! Not really a chapel, just styled as such. Down narrow granite stairs into one large room, complete with massive fireplace, cathedral ceilings, and of course the organ. The room was used for entertaining during the spring and fall only as it is too hot in the summer, and no heat for the winter. The organ would need a lot of work and will have to be taken apart to get it out of the room. I'm looking for a prospective home for it. But what a lovely place hidden in the woods of Dogtown.

-----------------------------------

A surprise for me!

When I got home from church on Sunday, I heard my neighbor call to me. Barbara, the wife of our retired police chief (coincidence, dickiebo) was heading across her lawn in my direction. She had been out garage/yard sale shopping the day before and found.........................


A chubby Statue of Liberty for me.
I'm always amazed that there are so many different versions. This one reminds me of Friar Tuck as Lady Liberty!

My Two Cents Worth

Well, first off, the title. I found a whopping two pennies today. My former dad-in-law once said that he was working towards an hourly salary that would exceed the value of the time spent picking up "found" change.

Hmmmmmm.....so I figured it out. It took me 2 seconds to pick up one of the pennies. Your actual time may vary. So, at my rate, I would earn 30 cents/minute. This translates to $18 per hour. Why did I pick them up?

----------------------------------

Amanda has been sick this week. Her patience is soooooo low. It makes her a whining pain in the rear. (I'm trying to be nice in my description)

----------------------------------

As you may recall, I had caught up on a lot of work and decided to work on some house stuff. Every time that happens and I just get started on "non-work" stuff, well.....work comes in. Four sets of keys this week! I'm still working on the melodeon in between, and then some great to look forward to news........

----------------------------------

FP called on Wednesday and asked, "Are you ready for that player piano?" YIPPEEEEEE! Our "jointly owned" 1910, 64/88 note, upright Baldwin player piano was loaded up for the trip north on Wednesday afternoon. It will make some transit stops before it arrives. I'm soooo excited. Thank you FP for letting me take care of it once again (and finish the work I started on it). Now while this is great news, it too created yet more work. Remember the new deck I wrote about and about creating "roll in" access for pianos and reed organs?

--------------------------------

Thursday I took some measurements and headed for our local Ace Hardware and Smith Lumber. 3 - 2X4X8's, 2 - 1X6X8's, 1 - 4X8 19/32 exterior sheathing cut to 2 - 2X8's, and one box of 2" drywall screws (I had some 2.5s), for building the removable "bridge" from the right of way to the deck. I finished building it this morning. I've gone outside and prepared the fence section along the right of way for removal. Tomorrow, I'll buy 4 galvanized angle brackets. They will be installed on the fence posts and the rails will be drilled so that the section can be held in place by the insertion of four "pins". The entire section will be made removable. Then I'll be removing the larger section of decorative fence that is part of the deck. Later, when the new deck is built, there will be a gate in the deck section. Sometime in the next few days I'll haul the "bridge" up from the workshop and do a test fit, just in case any modifications are needed. So, when needed I'll have access by bridge, at all other times it will look exactly as it does now, fence intact, no bridge, a section of deck-fence that will swing like a gate.

Did I mention how excited I am? Thanks a million times over FP.

PS With this post I'm going use and try to remember to use in the future the "labels" feature offered with Blogspot.

So Foolish

We all have our moments, don't we? A soundly based decision just at a really stupid time. You see, I needed to get more crushed rock delivered for my parking spot/drive. I've known this for about a year and just kept putting it off. Well, a few days ago, we had a bit of rain and above freezing weather. Here and there the drive became muddy and I got fed up with it. I decided as long as the keywork was caught up and it didn't snow outside I was going to order more stone on Monday. Once I decide on something like that, especially when it's something that has been put off for so long, well........it gets done.

Yesterday I went to Wolf Hill and ordered 1.5 yards of mixed crushed rock. I told them to deliver it this afternoon.

They did.

This is the foolish part.....it's about 6 degrees F with wind gusts to 35 mph. The wind chill is -15F. And what am I doing? I'm out shoveling and spreading crushed rock. I did it in four shifts of about 15 minutes each. It's mostly done with just a little evening to do on a warmer day! Also, I'm sure that when the ground thaws there will be a bit of settling that I will have to deal with, so I left a pile of extra where it isn't in the way of pulling in my truck. There is also a rather large "boulder" of crushed rock all frozen together!

Yes, stupid me, I knew it was going to be this cold today. Should of waited but, ya know?!

UPDATE: A correction. I just watched the weather. Evidently we are having wind gusts over 35 mph. Plum Island (coast just north of here) recorded gusts at 55 mph. Brrrrrrrr.