Category: decline and fall

I just hope this cool spell continues. It was a light misty drizzle for part of the day, and it stayed cool with a cool breeze throughout the overcast day. The drizzle stopped early too. Just enough to get the grass too wet to mow. I want a couple more days like this.

I got a bunch of brick removed. I’m down to the last couple of feet of chimney, and the firebox. All the indoor brick is still up. It’s progress.

Today I’ll keep at it, weather permitting. I’m trying to drink more electrolyte drink but keep forgetting. The sun is still there as I have a little pink even through the t shirt. And it’s filthy work. Fortunately there’s a lake right here and the water is bath water warm.

Work on something every day. And stack.

nick

But at least the temps have been held down by the overcast and rain. It drizzled on and off all day but I was able to work in between and it ended up a beautiful night. 76F when I went to bed. More like that would be nice.

Spent the day trying to do stuff and accomplished my goal for the day. Got more chimney down. I’ve got a pretty big pile of debris and I’ll have a lot more before I’m done. Hopefully someone will want some free brick rubble. Someone usually does.

Today I’ll keep at it. I don’t think I’ll try for an early start. My hands are starting to feel the strain, I’m not used to picking up brick, or holding and swinging a 5 pound sledge hammer. Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

But I’m making progress and getting work done. And stacking in between.

nick

If the weather continues to be something I can work with, I’ll keep working. It was 76F when I went to bed. Really nice. And it never got crazy hot except while the sun was shining. If we get more mixed clouds and overcast, with a breeze, it will be perfect for working on the chimney.

Speaking of which, I made good progress, tearing it down to the roof flashing. I will switch to working on a scaffold today which is shakier than working from the roof. I will continue to use my fall protection. I also got the mower running again, changed the oil, but didn’t have a filter. I dumped the dirty oil and reinstalled the filter, and will replace it when the correct filter comes in. I also ordered the gasket I need to replace on the old carb, so I’ll have a spare after that comes in. Three trailers of brick debris got hauled to my “piles of stuff” area. Then I even got to float on the water for a while at dusk.

Dinner was canned peas and a pork chop from 2023. Still delicious.

Today I’ll continue on the chimney if it’s not raining. I burned a tiny bit through my t shirt yesterday, so I’ll be more careful today. If it’s raining, there is a long list I can work on inside. There’s always more to do.

W is doing a bunch of household maintenance for her folks. The kids are sleeping. Teens.

Always be working to improve your situation, and stack what you might need.

nick

Hot and humid, some sun, and hotter when it’s shining. We did get some very light showers yesterday and they were VERY localized. Like it was a blue sky but somehow we were still getting wet, but 1000 ft later it was gone, localized. Just another day in the Bayou City.

I did my pickups, and shopping yesterday, but it definitely was a grind. Lowes is almost useless for real stuff. They had 20 ft of battery powered LED lighting. 20 ft of china plastic crap LED lighting, but not a single metal spotlight or flood fixture to replace the old incan floods on my dock. 20 ft of low voltage landscape lighting too. It’s all crap, cheap plastic crap.

Amazon isn’t much better. I had two choices for spot lights and two choices for flood light, and they were different brightnesses, so really only one choice each (120v LED fixture, to replace the existing and mount on existing boxes. Used to be you could easily do that with lampholders and R40 bulbs.) But they will be here today, hopefully before I leave.

Everywhere in the store the choices were either very restricted, the item was missing, or only cheap china crap was available. But they had aisles full of household stuff like shelves, blinds, decor, cleaners, and storage bins.

Today is my (supposed to be fun) hobby meeting in our new space. Then we’ll have a board meeting about why stuff isn’t getting done. MY STUFF is done. My ‘gimme’ tchotchke came in yesterday, all 225 of them. I even spent far too long doing half @ssed edits to a flyer that one of the other guys did using AI. Looks good but the dates are wrong, the QR code was wrong, and the location of the event is missing… and there isn’t an easy way to edit the result.

Then I’ve got an hour round trip to do an auction pickup. It was worth it, but the timing is unfortunate. Follow that up with taking the family to the airport, coming home to swap trucks, loading the pickup with the rest of the stuff for the BOL, and then heading back out of town past the airport…

It’s gonna be a busy day. Expect comments from me to be few and far between.

Use the time to work on improving something, or stacking!

nick

Hot and humid is the uniform of the day. Dress it up any way you want but Houston in Summer is pretty much the same. Rain, or no rain, it’s still hot and humid. We did get a smattering of drops yesterday while I was out but I think they were very localized. Some black sky threatened from the south, but nothing ever happened.

I did my pickups. Took longer than I hoped so I didn’t get to the Habitat reStore. I’ll go there today. Came home and did auction stuff for a couple hours. Didn’t cook any dinner. I’ll have some stuff to take with me to the BOL next week.

Today I’ll see if the reStore has any windows that will work for my project at the BOL. If not, it will change how much I want to get done, and might change my priorities up there. If yes, it will commit me to this next big project until we’re weathertight again. Oh well, nothing I’m not already familiar with. Go big or go home.

I’ve been stacking, now I guess I’ll be working…

nick

Hot and wet. Not the good kind. The Houston kind. Got to 100F yesterday, and the air was saturated. Then it rained. And then it got hot again. And then it rained. We did get some blue sky so that was nice. More of the same today is my guess.

Did some things in the morning. Then did some things in the afternoon. Not enough things. Not super productive things. Just things.

Now today I have structure. I have a couple of pickups to do so I have to meet another person’s schedule. I’m not winning. And I really should be making a list of stuff to take up with me for my projects at the BOL… so I can buy that stuff and raid the stacks for the other stuff…

But I am not motivated.

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming…

And stack, if you feel like it.
n

Hot again, certainly as hot as Houston, although it takes a while longer to get there, and really only in the sun. In the sun it was over 105F yesterday, but real temp was probably high 90sF. Today is supposed to be similar.

Slept late but did eventually get to work. Spent hours mowing and edging and then blowing the debris. By then I was pretty done with being in the heat. I used a duster brush thing to get the spider webs off of the outside of the house, the eves and the fascia and then I called it quits. Family arrived while I was laying on the floor cooling down.

Had dinner and played a game, then suddenly it was midnight.

Today I’ll do more cleanup and I’ve got a bunch of red white and blue decorations to put on the dock. Our local fireworks show is right over the lake in front of our lot so we have people join us on the dock to watch. I might have to do some minor repairs to deck boards as well as the decorating…

W will want to get the boat in the water, I’m sure. It will be a full day.

I’m calling it a prep, as we are deepening our ties to the community, and making good memories for the kids. If things go crazy that will help them.

Stacking is easy, joining an existing group is hard. Do both.

nick