Holy Crap I

That's a roman numeral if you're wondering. I've been wanting to use that title for a while. I'll probably use it again, hence the roman numeral one. Anyway...

Started the day with fixing the dryer. Apparently a month ago when the guy came to fix the control unit of the dryer he pulled it away from the exhaust vent and didn't put it back - correctly.

The dryer's been blowing humidity and dryer lint behind the dryer for a month now. I suppose it's partly my fault that I didn't check while he was here, but you'd think that would be a routine thing for a dryer guy. It's probably better he didn't find it and fix it. It took me nearly three hours to get it right (sort of) again.

Next on the project list was my leaf fence. Last year after spending weeks cleaning up all my own leaves, my neighbors Oak tree dropped its leaves and blew into my yard. It annoyed the hell out of me. Mostly because it was after all the other leaves and grass cutting was done. I had to make special occasion out of cleaning up these leaves. Luckily I had this lattice just waiting to be cut up into something. Two swift cuts, a sledge, some rebar, zip ties and it was done. Hopefully it works and doesn't piss off the other neighbors. You can see the tree down near the fence.

It's only 16" high and 24' long. Jen's worried it's not tall enough. I'm worried it's not wide enough. I had to leave some room for my other neighbor to get his tractor around a tree to the right that you can't see in the picture. I imagine if he doesn't like it or there's not enough room, he'll just run it over. Not that I've ever actually experienced that kind of maliciousness from him, but I get the impression I could. We'll see.

So that job was a quicky. The big job of the day was finishing the cat box. Yeah it took three months to get back to and finish, but it's done. Check it out here. You know - if you're into that sort of thing.

Sort of mid-stream I decided to start another project. Some of the siding on our house is pulling away from the house. Our siding is wood. Over time it buckles and warps. We're not exactly ready for new siding, so I had to do a quick fix. I'll build a page just for this job, but not tonight. Here's a peak.

I ran out of caulk. Add this to the list of unfinished projects.

Jen and her Mom spent the day weeding again. While doing so they ran into this guy (or girl).

They're growing up nicely, though I don't see as many as I did when they were babies. This one appears to be about 2/3s its full size. I tried getting it on my hand for perspective, but I freaked out when it actually landed on my hand and shook it off. Yeah Ima dumbass. Oh well. I'll just have to try/make up for it when they're bigger.

Looks like Jen's Mom enjoys her visits so much, she's sharing the experience with her mother (Jen's Grandmother) next month. Should be cool having them all running around and relaxing here for a weekend. Really doesn't bother me at all. Just wish I could get more done to make it more pleasant for everyone.

Currently Jen is counting our beans -seeing how much I've spent lately and how much I can spend on the other side of the world. I've contacted a firm that charters Treks in the Himalayas. Have to figure out how much cash I get before I get serious booking anything with them. So far doesn't look like I'll have time for much, but could be able to lay the ground work for future trips. An example I'm toying with now is flying (domestic flight) to Leh and staying in a guesthouse for a weekend. In the future, I would do that, then head out for a week long Trek over some snowy mountain pass at 6,000 meters. We'll see. We've got some big house expenses coming up, so city hopping through India might be a stretch this time around.

- b