Last Night of Summer

Yesterday ended up being pretty busy. After hanging out with the pets, I drove out to Home Depot and got myself a new sheet of plywood for Hatchdoo2.0

I got lucky and they cut it for me in the store, from 8FT down to 6.5FT. And then I secured it to the roof rack with bungee cords and drove it back home.

After that I was on the phone with Colleen for a while, because BMO had sent HER a letter, asking for documentation proving she owns the house???

So, we figured out that, on the Transfer Upon Death Instrument, both she and I are listed as grantees.

And the language is a little vague about whether Dad's granting the house to both of us, or just the first person.

We originally assumed that the document granted the house to me, and that Colleen was only on there as a second option in case I died before Dad or something.

At any rate, that's where BMO got her address, because she had to put it on the TODI.

However, the vague language doesn't matter, because the, Notice of Death & Acceptance Affidavit... which is what makes the TODI binding... only has my signature on it.

In other words, even if TODI does grant the house to both Colleen and I... I'm the only one who accepted.

Now, is there another document?.. like a, rejection affidavit, that Colleen needs to fill out? We don't know. I'll have to ask my lawyer about that.

--<>--

We talked for a good long while, and by the time we hung up, it was dark, and I'd had a few beers.

But I did still have to clear off the porch to make room for the plywood, so I set about to doing that, making three TikToks about it, over the couple hours it took to find new spots to stash all the stuff that was out there.

What didn't get thrown away went into either the basement, the shed, or the music room.

Then I gave the floor a good sweep, set up my two sawhorses, and brought in the plywood.

By then it was late, and I considered recording crickets, but... being Saturday night, there was too much partying in the neighborhood, including a wedding reception with a live band right behind us.

So I called Tim and we talked for a while. Then I went to bed.

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Today I ordered a gallon of Woodlife Copper Coat... a copper infused wood preservative, as well as some epoxy wood putty, for the plywood.

I just grabbed the top sheet of plywood and didn't notice until I got it home that it's full of knots!.. meaning, cracks where water can get in.

So the plan is to soak the whole damn thing, with a few coats of the preservative... including those knots. And then fill in all the cracks and imperfections with the epoxy.

After that I'll pre-drill the holes for my two eye bolts, and treat the insides of those holes with preservative.

Then, when it's had a good long time to dry and cure, I'll hit it with some waterproof stain, and, lastly, boat deck sealant.

As for the eye bolts, I'm hoping to find big fender washers, and round rubber gaskets to put under their shoulders, on the top side.

Underneath, I'll have a piece of sheet metal spanning between the two of them, beneath which will be the nylock nuts.

So, the door's gonna have two waterproof lifting points, with that sheet metal to further spread the load between them.

I'm not worried about the hinges or handles, because they didnt' cause any issues with the first door.

But, I'm guessing this won't be all done and replaced until early October.

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After Amazon, I did a grocery order on Instacart.

And when that stuff came I put it all away, then took out the garbage, aluminum, and cardboard... then swept the floors in the kitchen and back room.

My guitar strings and pics also came today, so... I may bring the guitars up from the basement, restring them, and put them on their new stands.

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7:50PM

At 5PM, Yvette and I went out for a long walk out into the neighborhood that lasted a good 35 minutes.

Back at home I got the ball rolling on a PayPal account, which is necessary before publishing stuff on Bandcamp.com.

I'll wait for PP to do it's micro-deposits and confirm them tomorrow.

Meanwhile, all the materials for the four albums are ready for upload, but only, Coffeehouse Boyfriend is actually up there... in draft mode.

After that, I put all the old pics and notebooks back into storage down in the basement, and also brought down a box of furnace filters that arrived last week.

Then I unboxed the guitar stands and set them up... and brought up the guitar and bass from the basement.




The two guitars on their new stands, and my new stage mike on a very old boom stand I've had and used since the late 1980s.

The black Gibson bass has been my tride and true electric bass since 1996!

That crazy little guitar was originally Tim's, Hollywood Z, from around 1988.

Brian later adopted it, sawed off the points of the Z... which wouldve been top right, and bottom left on the body, coming to points. And then, in true Bri fashion, drew that black design on the bottom, with permanent marker!

I ended up inheriting the guitar from Brian, around 2002, after he'd bought himself a much nicer new one.

But those are still the old strings on the guitars.



Left to right; plug ends and wire for the rotary phone mike, a 3-pack of electric guitar strings, a bag full of Dunlop fishfin guitar pics, Earnie Ball bass guitar strings, my bong from Fiesta Food Mard, and the tin where I keep my weed.

I did finally smoke a little weed over my July 4th break.

But if there's any room to keep the, now legal weed, it's this old bedroom where I used to smoke it while doing my earliest recordings.



The interface box, for using the microphone and guitars with the computer.



The studio as it sits tonight.

Back at the end of May, when I made the snap decision to go part time for the summer, this was just, Dad's room, and my musician days were FAR in my past.

But it was the sudden abundance of free time that lead me, first to digging up old tape journals to digitize them... the, Analog Nights project.

That lead to the discovery of some old song drafts, such as, Closer To You, that I suddenly wished I could record.

That lead to a summer of studio building, test recording, and most recently, refurbishing the four old album presentations on SoundCloud, and soon, BandCamp.

And THAT... lead me to where we are tonight, with the old guitars back out of their cases on stands, and so forth!

--<>--

So, if a teacher hypothetically asked me what I did over my summer vacation...

I could say that on the one hand, I accomplished what I expected, which was to repair a large lawn, using a dump truck's worth of topsoil, and a crazy, automated irrigation system made of hoses, timers, and different sprinklers.

And on the other hand, I did something unexpected, and built a recording studio in a spare bedroom!

And now that studio, and HatchDoor2.0, are gonna be the long term projects of my fall!

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9:44PM

Okay!.. I've showered and shaved, and my clothes are in the laundry.

It's getting real now.

Other things I did with my summer vacation... erm...

• Discovered the looming threat of the HELOC balloon and hired a lawyer to help me deal with BMO.
  
  
• Replaced the mailbox & address plate, and pulled all the knot weed out of the front brick walks.
  
  
• Surge protected everything in the house.
  
  
• Resolved the security camera issue.
  
  And that last one's gonna give me a lot more peace of mind while I'm at work every night.
  
  I'm always afraid the house is gonna catch on fire, so if I can reliably view the cameras live... and there ever WAS a fire... I could call 911 and send them over... then immediately head home.
  
  Hopefully that never happens [knocks wood] but it's good to know that the issues with the WIFI repeater have been resolved... and that the cameras are protected from power bumps.
  
  --<>--
  
  Okay... time to put the laundry in the dryer.
  
  I'm gonna wind up this entry here and head on into my evening.
  
  °¦}