Slow Tuesday
Tuesday, September 5th, 2023 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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88F this morning and sunny, but with a good breeze. I was outside with Yvette, Snoop & Prowly by 11:20AM, which isn't too bad, after a three day weekend. And I watered Natalie, because the rain they were forecasting is nowhere to be seen.
However, the week of 90sF they were forecasting has also been revised. Now we're looking at only 82F tomorrow, followed by 70s as far as the eye can see, and lows in the 50s.
So... apparently it only had to stay hot and threaten rain until I was done with the hatch door, and now we're being returned to our regularly scheduled fall weather.
When I was out there at 7PM last night, taking photos and making a TikTok, I noticed that the LED lights no longer turn on soon enough.
That timer's still set to 7:30, but now it's dark enough by 7PM, and I should probably bump it back to 6PM.
Completing that hatch door was the first step of the fall adventure... happening one year after the defining event of last fall's adventure... the falling down of the mulberry tree in the back yard.
Thank God I don't have to relive that misadventure!.. slaving away at that tree with my chainsaw through September, October, and November.
And no sooner did I come to a stopping point for the winter, than Dad broke his hip!
It's all kinda coming full circle right now.
Right after I started with GeoStaff, I applied for the PNC visa to buy a longer bar for my chainsaw... and a month later, I appled for the AmEx through Amazon to get a discount on four more pulleys and a rope... to stabilize the vertical limb of that tree.
It would be PNC who eventually funded getting rid of that damn tree, and now that AmEx is critical to paying my bills on time.
Meanwhile, those extra pulleys are now part of the HD2.0 rigging!
I still can't believe I was not working yet, this time last September, but the journal says my orientation truly was on September 15th... becasue of the insane delay imposed by that onboarding glitch!
And here I am a year later, waiting for that anniversary to get here, so I can deal with a scary balloon payment looming over the house.
But at any rate, fall 2023 goes on, and it's time to put my focus on the storm windows.
I guess I'm going to Home Depot this Saturday to get the lumber.
And just as of this morning, I'm thinking maybe I'll construct them out on the porch?
I mean, it did function as a good work space for the hatch door, and these windows are fairly large.
Working on the porch also has the advantage of keeping me closer to Yvette.
And I do like that gliding rocker out there!
So if it's gonna cool off, maybe I should just work out there.
I'll have to cut everything down in the basement, of course.
One of the things that made the hatch door project so exhausting was having to run up and down the steep ladder-like steps going to the cellar from the inside.
But now that the hatch works again, it's much easier to go in and out that way, and walk around the front of the house to the porch.
I can bring the 8FT boards down in through that hatch... cut them down there... then walk them back up around to the porch.
I guess, though, to do this right I need some kind of a work table?..
Hmmm... I'll have to think about it today at work.
Well, happily there were no kids at school today. It was somekind of a teacher day.
So all I had to do was garbage, which was light, and some touch ups to the bathrooms.
That was a welcome respit, after one of the sweatiest, least fun, three-day weekends ever!
I didn't make much headway on a work table for the storm project. Everything on Amazon is expensive as hell.
Something with a 5X3 foot top would be ideal.
A sheet of OSB (Oriented Stranded Board) plywood is $24.00 for 3/4 inch thick... and I could cut it... but I'd still need legs... unless I just put it on the saw horses.
Hrmmm...
I need to measure some stuff.
If it'll fit, then when I'm done with it, I can just lay it on top of the plastic folding table I'm using down in the cellar as a work table. That could use a sturdier surface on top of it.
Might be worth it... cuz then if I ever need a table again on the porch I just use that same sheet on saw horses again.
You might be saying, "Just bring that folding table up from the basement!"
But I need something I can clamp a vise to... and that basement is also so full of stuff now that I can't spare the table.
In other news, I did find the solution for my low voltage yard lighting... but it'll take some work.
Both GE and Honeywell make an astronomic timer switch... meaning all you have to do is put in your region, and the date and time, and it will know all the sunrise and sunset times for the whole year.
No WiFi... which is good, because I only have a 5G WiFi signal down there... which is too fancy for all the smart plugs... which are designed for 2G.
No photosensor outside... which is good, because it would be difficult to mount one out there, and run a wire back inside the basement.
But it wires in like a normal light switch... which means I'd have to set up a junction box with that switch, and a switched outlet... and that means an hour down there with the power off and a headlamp, as I tie it in.
The only other drawback is that it's a sensitive little computer chip, so a power bump could fry it.
But it does feel like a worthy project, because it'll make sure all those lights, which go along the north and west sides of the house, would automatically be dawn to dusk year round.
The good news about the wood for the storms is it's all cheep.
8FT 1X3 boards are under five bucks.
The 1X2 boards are under three bucks.
The 1/2in square dowel is under three bucks... for three foot sections.
I've got plenty enough paint left for the storms too... and even left over preservative.
There's also screws, pegs, special glue to buy... but really the most expensive thing will probably be the plexiglass.
Let me check that...
Hrmmm... best they have are 2 foot by 4 foot sheets for $35 bucks each.
The problem is... four feet is two inches too short!
I'm gonna have to look into this, because I think they'll cut me a peice out of a larger sheet and not charge for that whole sheet. I feel like they did that for me in the past.
I need two panes of 50X23.5 roughly.
Hrmmm....
You know... it's worth whatever I have to pay to get those custom panes.
Even if I have to buy two bigger sheets for $75.00 a pop and have them cut, it's still worth it because these are critical for the house.
And the storm design I have is too perfect!
Even with the pricier acrylic sheets, I'm still looking at something under $150 per storm, when it's all said and done.
That's still way less than new windows, or custom storms.
All right.
It's late.
I gotta order some groceries for the morning.
°¦}
