A SATURDAY IN THE LIFE
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MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WHAT IT'S LIKE BEIN' ME
Woke up about quarter to nine. Mrs. West still not home from work/shopping. Got up. Let the dogs out; shoved the big tub of nasty water up next to the gate and tied the leash around the bottom so that Ginger couldn't force her way through and have an escape.
Went online for a little while. Read TOUAMB and some other stuff. Went back upstairs to bed to read for a little while. Reading
Snow Crash -- it's very good, but not my favorite Stephenson thus far. Ate a couple of Pop-Tarts. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or some such. Not my favorite.
Mrs. West got home about 9:30 or so. Helped her unload groceries, plants, charcoal and salt from the trunk of her car. Noticed that it was already very uncomfortable to be outside in the sun. Went to the pool and got the wheelbarrow. Loaded four 40 pound bags of salt into it and wheeled them back up to the pool. Had to stop before I got there for a rest. It's very humid here -- it's been raining, every day and a lot. Over 90. Uncomfortable in the sun.
Put the four bags of salt into pool. Got the mail. Backed the truck up to the front porch where the old refrigerator was waiting to be hauled off. Tipped and shoved it into the back of the truck. Came back in and fiddled around online. Ate an everything bagel from Panera Bread that Mrs. W had brought me. Pretty good. Fiddled around online some more.
About noon now. Hopped into the truck and drove the old fridge to the dump. We had to buy a new fridge last weekend because the door on the old one just would not stay shut. It was leaking and making bad noises. We were pretty sure it was also burning hella electricity. So, despite the fact that we couldn't even close to afford it, we bought a new dang refrigerator. We struggled and sweat and fought it into the kitchen and dammitall it wouldn't fit under the cabinet. So, it's sitting next to where it should be sitting. So that's another project -- rasing/removing the over fridge cabinet. But that's last Saturday.
Listened to
Life, the Universe and Everything on the way to the dump. The dump's about 9 or 10 miles away. I got LTU&E a couple of weeks ago for the family to listen to on our way to St Louis, but nobody did. They slept, I drove. Anyway, it was interesting to listen to because Douglas Adams was reading it himself. He sounded different than I expected. Not a bad reader, just different than I expected. Incidentally, a good audiobook reader is a joy.
Came back from the dump. Loaded 6 cans of garbage into the truck. Had to pour rainwater out of 4 before they could be lifted. Drove back to the dump. Listened to more LTU&E until 1:00 pm when
This American Life came on. I'd heard it before, but it was a good one. Passed my old bosses' secretary's house on the way to the dump. She was in the yard walking her poodle, Tony. I waved. She waved. Drove home. Still listening to TAL, so drove a little bit out of my way to hear the end of it.
Checked on pool. Salt was now dissolved. Turned on saline chlorinator (it ionizes the salt in the water to chlorine). Went and picked wild blackberries from the canes in the fencerow while it warmed up. Got a bunch -- about 3 cups. Several bumblebees took a buzz at me, but I wasn't stung. Went back to check on the pool; chlorinator still showing low salt level. Told you we'd had a lot of rain.
Fiddled around online for a little while. Put pork chops into a ziploc bag to brine. Changed into workout shorts. Drove to the pool/gym. Stopped on the way at Gallrein Farms -- picked up a dozen ears of sweet corn and two eggplant for dinner. They also had home made bannana soft serve. It was delicious.
Made to FAC (pool/gym). Swam my 20 laps. Did ab machine and sit ups. Left. Drove to Lowe's. Got 4 more bags of salt. Got stuff require to hook up ice maker to waterline. Headed home. Still listening to LTU&E.
Green arrow where I usually turn left turned red just as I got there. Didn't feel like waiting, so went straight. Realized I'd be passing my brother's house, decided to stop. He was working in his yard. The storms (told you it'd been raining a lot) had knocked a big branch off one of the Bradford Pears in his front yard. He'd been cutting it up and had already been to the dump once and had another load ready to go. But it was 5:30 now, so the dump was closed until Wednesday. But he started a new job on that day and was frustrated because he didn't know when he be able to get the other load to the dump. Too bad.
Borrowed one of his pressure washers. Surprised to learn that he has 3. Showed me in great detail how to use it. Also borrowed a limb saw on a long pole. Went home the back way. Still listening to LTU&E.
Pulled into the yard and parked by the pool. Got the new bag of charcoal and started a fire. Pulled bag of chops out of the fridge. Made older daughter shuck corn and put it on too cook. Went out and put salt into pool.
Came inside. Peeled and sliced eggplant. Dunked in olive oil and laid on cookie sheet. S&P + some herbs. Put under broiler. Checked on fire. Not quite ready. Drained and rinsed pork chops. Fiddle around online for a minute. Put pork chops on grill. Checked on eggplant. Turned off corn. Mrs. W brings in about 30 gladioli that she'd picked from her garden. Beautiful.
Turned pork chops over. Sprinkled parm on eggplant, put back under broiler. Went back out to grill, chatted with Mrs. W while chops finished. Pulled chops. Pulled eggplant. Knocked eggplant on floor. Salvaged half of eggplant. Enough for me and Mrs. W, which is fine because the girls don't eat it anyhow.
Everything is delicious. The corn is the best we've had this year. Pork chops are flavorful and juicy -- not dry. Eggplant is good. We watch a Jeopardy! rerun.
Get up from couch. Start installing waterline. Drill a hole through floor. Get through floor, hit rock. (Rock???) Drill 3 more holes. Same result. Rock??? Old houses can be weird sometimes. Finally make it through floor. Poke hose through. Go to basement, shine flashlight into crawl space. Cannot find hose. Search and search and search. Cannot find hose.
Go back upstairs. Try drilling more. Drill through another layer of subfloor (
) Poke hose through that. Go back downstairs. Find hose. Use pool pole extended to full length to hook hose, pull through creepy crawl space. Attach saddle valve. Turn off water. Turn on hose to drain water from pipe. Go back downstairs. Pierce pipe with saddle valve. Attach hose to saddle valve.
Go back upstairs. Maneuver large self behind fridge. Pull hose to full length. Mop up water that leaks from hose with towel. Sigh. Struggle to move fridge from sitting position. Struggle more. Finally hook hose to fridge. Go through dining room door behind fridge. Find that other door to dining room is stuck. Call daughter to push it so I can get out.
Go back downstairs. Turn water back on. Go back outside, turn hose off.
Let dogs out into their yard. Shove big tub of water in front of gate, tie bottom with leash.
Go back inside. Remove shirt, items from pockets. Take off shoes and ankle brace. Realize that ankle hurts because I've probably done too much today. Think that ankle still hurting after 10 days is a bad sign -- either means bad sprain or aging body.
Go outside to pool where Mrs. W is waiting. Notice chlorinator is beeping again. Now showing too much salt. Ask Mrs. W what the hell she did to it! Said she may have vacuumed up some salt on the floor of pool. Growl at her. Turn off chlorinator. Get in pool.
Relax. Float. Splash. Throw little water frisbee/skimmer things back and forth with Mrs. W. Float some more. Mrs. W notices that Gus is walking around on the pool deck. Tell him he is a bad dog for sneaking out when I put the other dogs out. Call him over to us. Won't come.
Mrs. W gets out. I make her backwash the filter because she'd blocked it up with the salt and reset the chlorinator. Goes off in search of Gus.
Watch the chlorinator while it warms up. Float. Watch the bat fly overhead. Chlorinator comes on and runs OK for a few minutes. Float some more.
Hear booms. Look up, see fireworks in neighbor's field. Good fireworks. Shells. Relax in pool for next ten minutes while neighbor shoots 20 or so shells. Clap. Think this would be a good time to finally reply to that "What's it like bein' you" thread that I'd been avoiding.
Came inside. Started typing.
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Topic: what's it like bein' you? (Read 13550 times)