January BP

 

Kitchen Crunch Time

 We had a little snow overnight. Only about three inches but enough to break out the snow blower.

Susan worked on the stenciling project and got a second color up on the south wall. She's concentrating on that wall first so we can move the TV back into position.

I'm preparing for more soffit destruction for tomorrow in the kitchen. We are getting to crunch time on this thing and we are getting to the point where we will be without a cooktop, oven or sink. That's the scary part.

We hope it will only be a short time without, maybe a couple of weeks. We shall see.

Ski Day #6

 I held off going skiing until today because it looked like today (Thursday) would be the best day of the week. 

I drove into fog as I crested the top of the mountain. But as I was getting my boots on, the sky cleared and it was actually sunny.

Mt. Spokane got a good 5 to 6 inches of snow overnight so that was kind of exciting. It was heavy snow and once it got skied out it was pretty chunky.

My first few runs were pretty good but the fog crept back in and while it was clear on top, it was foggy near the bottom and hard for me to see the terrain. That really wears you out.

I skied 7 runs and was off the mountain by noon.

Ski Day #5

 I should have skied yesterday! It was mostly clear and sunny. Today was mostly fog and snowy. There was a light skiff of snow here at the house when I left for the mountain this morning.

I compiled some good stats from the day. With gasoline at $3.34 a gallon, it costs me about $13.00 to go skiing. It is 30.5 miles to the parking lot and it takes about an hour.

I was able to capture this picture of me coming down the bottom of the Hourglass on my fifth run. I'm not kidding. That really is me. 

It was snowing most of the day but the problem came on my last two runs. The fog enveloped the whole mountain and the skiing was just sucky. I called it a day on my seventh run. 

Stuff To Do

 I should be skiing today!

I hope it’s that nice tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have stuff to do. 

I’m rebuilding one of our EdenPure space heaters and I received the two quartz bulbs I ordered from them yesterday. I went out to the various hardware outlets to purchase ceramic wire nuts. They are for high heat applications. It’s too specified an item apparently because they are not to be found. 

It’s a good thing I have the InterWebs. I should have them in a week. So, that project is on hold.

I had another gas guy in the house this morning to give me an estimate on the gas line. He said he’ll e-mail me a number later today. We’re getting close to getting going on the kitchen remodel.

I’m heading out today to look at a side draft fan for the cooktop. That is one item we have yet to purchase.

My weight loss program is going well but very incrementally. I weighed 228.6 this morning. We’ll, I gained it incrementally too.

Heavy Humidity

It’s been a rainy Sunday. Really rainy. So much rain. I’m betting on close to half an inch. That means we were pretty much stuck inside. Susan is working on stenciling. She’s just figuring out the logistics at this point.

Here she is working on a proto stencil to make sure it is going to work.

I puttered around in the Carriage House but didn’t really accomplish anything in there.

Today is the first day of my new diet. I’m starting out at 229.8. I’m going with N.S.N.G. No Sugar, No Grain. As usual, not drinking beer is the toughest part of this deal.

We’re having Cauliflower Cheese soup for dinner. I’m going to limit myself to 1 glass of wine for the evening.

So, here we go!

Carriage Cleaning

 I have been out in the Carriage House cleaning up. I did something today that I haven’t done in many years. I vacuumed the floor. It was badly needed. And I didn’t do a very good job. But it’s a start! 

In the course of all my cleaning, I finally hit on a goal I want to accomplish. I have a really nice drafting table out there. It is dismantled in pieces. I want to create a space for that table and reassemble it. 

It’s going to require a major purging of stuff. One item in there that I need to get rid of is an old M5 Hammond Organ. It’s sort of playable. It was given to me several years ago by a guy who wanted it to go to a good home. Well, sorry Kenny. This home wasn’t the one. 

I can’t bring myself to just haul it to the dump but I need to be rid of it.

I guess that is something for me to start working on.

Traeger Trauma

I tried to use the Traeger today and found it to still be malfunctioning. The glow stick was not getting any glow. It's going to require another dismatalation to find the problem.

In the meantime, I still managed some cleaning in the Carriage House as I continue to make it more useable.

Ski Day #4

Rob, Natalie and I had a fine day on the mountain. The clouds managed to stay above the peak and the snow was pretty good. I got in 7 runs.

We got up late because I had a Doctor's appointment with my Eye guy. Through a series of tests, we discovered I have a slight blindness in the upper left quadrant of both eyes, probably caused by a small stroke. 

I have no idea when the stroke may have occurred and I was not aware of the vision problem. I presume to be hearing from my other doctors soon.

In any event, the stroke victim got in nine more runs. A good day despite the stroke news.  

Today's Consideration

We have been busy putting Christmas away. The tree is down and the living room is mostly Christmas free. MantleVille is still up and I'm not sure when Susan will put that away. It seems to me that MantleVille hangs around for a couple more weeks.

I'm heading out to the Carriage House to see what I can do there today. I only need to concentrate on one item. Whether it gets moved or tossed is the only consideration I need to make. 

Throwing stuff away is really hard for me. I have to be tough.

11:07 PM: I'm not really satisfied with my efforts today. I cleaned up some lengths of rope and twine and nylon cord and I moved some bags of Traeger Wood Pellets. Not major progress, but it's a little cleaner in there.    

Day Two of the Initiative

Another productive day in the New Year.

I got in a 1 mile walk around the neighborhood this morning. I should have done two miles but it’s still a little slickery out there. It’s not quite ready for me out there to be walking in the environment. I need a controlled situation like the mall.

After a nice wholesome breakfast, I took down the Christmas lights from the front of the house. That all went smoothly. 

In keeping with my Initiative, I had Mark help me move the Traeger Grill out of the Carriage House and on to the back deck. That frees up a little more space in the Carriage House. Plus, I’m looking forward to cooking some meat on the Traeger.

Now, it’s time for a video of the train set.

Ahh! Isn’t that festive-ish!?

Captain Cliché

I am starting Twenty Twenty-Three out in classical cliché style with a declaration that I must lose weight.

Today I weighed in at 232.6 pounds. I have shirts that I cannot button, dress slacks that are really hard to button, and at least one pair of cargo pants that I really like that I cannot fasten as of three weeks ago.

I am going to go through my closet and purge and I need to take another one of those fat pictures to post here for the purpose of shame.

I'm also going to continue my project of cleaning up and organizing the Carriage House. It is the perfect place for me to work on projects but it is so full of crap and so disorganized that it is essentially useless. 

It was only a week ago that I needed to find my roof heat cable that came off the roof  a year and a half ago. I have come across it several times, even going so far as to wrap it around an extension cord sling, only to be completely clueless as to where it may be now.

I've been this way for 65 years it I think it should end.

I have three chores I want to complete today.

Number one is to get the vacuum into the basement and clean up the area near the boiler chimney flue. I also need to get the flue door duct taped into place.

The second item is to shred a bunch of paperwork I have here in this designated office space in the back bedroom upstairs. However, I am unable to shred until I empty the shred chamber. 

Before I can do that, I need to clean out the fireplace, which is my third item. I will throw all the shredded paper I have in there in order to facilitate the making of fire as well as the total disposal of all this shredded material.

4:23 PM: I think I did pretty good. I managed to burn up the shredded material by just feeding it into the fireplace. There was still some burnable debris in the firebox. So I threw in a bunch of newspaper, kindling and then shred.

The shred does not go up in flames like you might think.

I finally finished fixing the Flue Flap.

I'm happy with what I've done. How permanent and durable it is remains to be seen.

I have started a cleaning initiative for the Carriage House. That's how serious I am about it. It's an Initiative! 

I call it "One Item a Day". I shall pledge to make a strong effort to endeavor to make a significant change to one item in the Carriage House.

That means finding a better place for it or throwing it away.

Today I moved our camping tent and a big Dutch oven into a good spot upstairs and threw away an old cordless phone set. That gives me some much needed storage space under the work table.

I've also gotten a good start on Blogging for the year.