Ok, this morning I didn’t get my walk in… hey it was Thursday, I generally walk on Monday , Wed and Friday… oh yea forgot? I did get a few little things done around the house, like clean up the cat mess… she has learned how to back up to the edge of her crate and pee out the crate and not get much inside on the towels? When I let her out this morning I gave a pet , as normal, and her tail was wet? ok so I checked the towel in her crate and it didn’t appear to be wet? so I just guessed and moved it and there was a wet spot under and behind? I think she can do magic too? Anyway I cleaned that up and washed the bedding, again… and then started a load of my wash needs. Hey it was cold outside this morning… upper 30’s-low 40’s…
Once all that and a bit of breakfast were down I headed outside… gathered up the tools, tested the placement of the blocks on the concrete foundation I poured the other day and figured that I had the right number of blocks but might have to break,cut or somehow shorten one… but by the time I got all the stuff out, got it all ready it was getting on to 11am so I opted to start the project just after lunch…
Went in to pick up Sherrie, as usual, and we went to Arbys for lunch… the place was full of “West Moore Pom” kids… since I am up there in age, I was not sure if they were all high school or some middle school or what? Not sure what that was about unless they are cheering on the Special Olympics kids as that is the big event on campus this weekend. I had gotten a text earlier that one of my excess items was sold and the guy wanted to pick it up… I told him I would be home at 2pm so he could come by to get it then. I got home way before that and got ready and started mixing up the mortar mix so I could get the cinder blocks in place. Just as I was about ready the a Sherriff’s car pulled in to the yard? Now what? turns out the guy buying the grinder was a deputy but of course Sherrie had seen it on the security cams and sent a test to see what was going on… I got the grinder to him and got the money agreed the he asked about my project, said he had a very similar problem at his house where the water runs in under the end of the foundation… at least mine runs on out away from the house… He also wanted to know more about my antennas and I had to discuss a little about being a Ham operator and he said he had a neighbor that was a ham but was not very active… I agreed there are a lot of inactive hams around, especially here in Payne county… we have maybe 15 to 20 that show up to meetings and get on the repeater and there are maybe 200 in the county? joint activity although I do know several that are active but just not with the club and other stuff… at this point he was off, said he had to get back to work… so did I…
I set out at the point to get those blocks in place and started laying out the grout… placing the first row in went pretty smooth… so did the next row except it came up where it was not a half block to fill so I had to chisel cut a block down to fit… then the top block was a half block… Actually came out decent but I can say , I am no brick layer and will never claim to be one… just lucky it came out as close as it did… but then again it was a pretty small area…
The blocks and stuff are in and the holes filled… joints sealed and need to set now…
Now I also got the screen cut and in place but need to put some screws in to hold it up to the blocks then it will be used to hold up the decorative stone pieces to make it look like the walls of the house here… I will also need to get some changes for the downspout to angle it to the west and get it to dump off at the end of the stairs or ? maybe bury a section to lower in the yard? and away from the house… Then I will have to start digging on the upper section and get some more concrete poured for that and ? maybe some more blocks and probably a bit of screen at the top 6 inches or so to get air flow through and let it dry out under there…
My projects have slowed down some but I am getting at least one a day into the mix… still have to work more on the shop cleaning… and I am finding all kinds of stuff I had forgotten I had… much of it is being hauled off now anyway…
Tonight we made it to the CREC annual meeting… If you show up so they can have a quorum, we get $10 off our bill one month and they give you a $20 dining give card good at several of the local establishments… but in the end I am not sure $30 is worth the pain of hard seats, and listening to the CREC CEO… he always has to give a speech and they always seem to ramble a bit and are really long winded.., His topics could be done in far fewer words and far fewer slides… especially when the seats are damn hard and we have been setting there for over an hour already before he gets up to talk.. They used to have a free meal at these things but now give out the gift cards? that may be better? We did get cake to eat as it was the 75th anniversary last year for the coop so they gave us all cupcakes..
After that we were treated with a beautiful sunset, didn’t get pictures, I was driving… and at home… I am headed to bed after some more arthritis pills are downed… damn seat anyway… or was it the blocks and crawling around on my knees this afternoon?
WD0AJG