Garbage & Breakthrough Idea
Tuesday, February 28th, 2023 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioToday is the third, warm, sunny day in a row. I slept upstairs last night, but Yvette didn't seem to have been bothered by it, as she was still waking up when I got downstairs this morning to walk her.
As is the new routine, we went into the back yard, and were joined by both Snoop & Prowly. Yvette sat down in the sun, and the cats stalked around the yard.
The songs of spring birds were everywhere this morning, as well as a few woodpeckers pecking here and there.
I'm always so happy to see that the outside lights are off in the morning. I know I say it a lot, but it really wasn't that long ago that Dad was the guy turning them on and off every day.
I'd take him to the ER after a fall, and then return to a house in darkness. I'd turn them all on and then forget to turn them off the next day.
And even through this winter, the front porch light stayed on 24/7.
The mail would sit in the box for two days in a row, while newspapers piled up on the front parking.
That kinda stuff just adds to the chaos, while signaling to the world that something's wrong... The ship has no captain.
But today... all lights off at dawn, including the indoor lamps downstairs. And no newspapers out front. And, after Yvette and I came back inside... I got the mail.
--<>--
Unfortunately, the garbage men still worry about what's going on in here, because for them it's been extra work at this address for two months and counting.
And today was no different. I went back to Supermercado El Paso Grande, where they now recognize me on sight, and no doubt know me as, "garbage sticker guy." I bought twelve more, then stopped at Fiesta Food Mart on the way back, for smokes.
The guy there asked if my Brother was leaving soon. I told him he'd gone back to Las Vegas yesterday. He asked what Tim thought of Aurora. I told him we both grew up here.
Fiesta was one place Dad never went. He always got his smokes at either Walgreens, or Foremore Liquors. So it was a neat little thing to share the experience of FFM with Tim, who walked there whenever it was warm enough.
--<>--
Back at home, I took care of the garbage.
Unlocked the padlock for the gate to the dog yard, where the bins are kept, and rolled them to the parking. Both the recycle, and garbage bins were packed to capacity, and heavy as hell.
Then, with the side porch door propped open, I carried out NINE more bags, one last roll of carpet, and the styrofoam box that the Oberweis guy used to deliver the ice cream, cottage cheese, and chocolate milk into.
Eleven stickers used. It's always eleven!
But the massive dump period of this transition should be slowing down now... maybe to a reasonable three stickers a week?
--<>--
I made my first cup of coffe upstairs as usual, but today was the first day I made the second, down here, now with an identical coffeemaker, and a second canister of coffee mate for the downstairs.
And I'm writing from the back room computer, of course.
Yesterday was the first night alone at home. This is the first morning.
I'll be off to work in another hour.
I'll update this entry tonight.
------------{=0=}------------
10:30PM
It was a little hard leaving for work today, because it was the first day I'd left the house unattended... with the cats free to go in and out. I was nervous for the dog too.
I was all worried the house would catch fire, and kept checking the cameras at work. I tried to see if Alexa had turned on the garden lights, and it said the device was unresponsive, so I got all paranoid.
But everything was fine.
The garden lights were on, the house was in tact. Both cats were inside when I got back, and Yvette was a bit anxious, but we went out for a walk right away.
Both cats joined us in the back yard, so it was the first ever, noctournal, four party, three species walk!
--<>--
Back inside, I texted for a while with the siblings on our group chat, and showed them pics of the cameras, the rugs, and other stuff.
Tim, weirdly has not been in touch since he left.
I know he's back home, but... I suppose he's just getting back into the swing of his normal life, after seven weeks away.
------------{=0=}------------
I ordered some smart bulbs on Amazon tonight, for the sconce lamps in the kitchen.
I had tried putting dawn to dusk bulbs in them... there are two fixtures, each with two bulbs... but the DtoD bulbs get kinda confused during the day. They can't decide whether to stay on or off... when they should just be off.
I can have Alexa control the smart bulbs.
--<>--
I had a thought today about a problem on the south side of the house, where the back room meets the kitchen.
The eve of the back room roof, on that side, does not extend all the way back to meet the kitchen, presumably because if it did, it would block an upper portion of the west facing kitchen window.
There's always been this spot where the back room roof does not overhang the outside wall, and so the rain has, for many decades, just washed down the side... which has caused a lot of water damage.
A little closet window in that spot is all rotted away, and the foundation in that corner has been compromised.
Somebody told me about rain chains, a few years ago. They draw rain water down from problem spots because the surface tension of the water holds to the chain and follows it down... into a barrel or whatever.
But this spot is too wide for a chain, and difficult to put a gutter on, because there's no eve.
--<>--
But earlier today, in the back yard, I saw Snoop scale the chain link fence in the back yard. And I've seen Prowly scale the dog yard fence too!
It struck me, while at work, that a length of chainlink fence... going down from the roof to the ground, at that spot where the back room meets the kitchen on the south side... would not only act like a rain chain, and guide the water down... but ALSO serve as a ladder for the cats to get up on the roof from the ground!
I really think it could work!
Just dig down and fill that corner area with gravel, covered by bigger rocks on top... then have the chainlink stretch from under the shingles, down to the ground... staked in place so it doesn't move... and it should mitigate the water problem, and allow the cats to scale up to the roof!
Plant some kind of vine there... to grow on the chainlink!
It could be quite a coup!
------------{=0=}------------
So... that's my first whole day alone here.
The last whole day of February.
Everything was fine... and I had a breakthrough idea about a problem I've been puzzling over for a few years now.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
As is the new routine, we went into the back yard, and were joined by both Snoop & Prowly. Yvette sat down in the sun, and the cats stalked around the yard.
The songs of spring birds were everywhere this morning, as well as a few woodpeckers pecking here and there.
I'm always so happy to see that the outside lights are off in the morning. I know I say it a lot, but it really wasn't that long ago that Dad was the guy turning them on and off every day.
I'd take him to the ER after a fall, and then return to a house in darkness. I'd turn them all on and then forget to turn them off the next day.
And even through this winter, the front porch light stayed on 24/7.
The mail would sit in the box for two days in a row, while newspapers piled up on the front parking.
That kinda stuff just adds to the chaos, while signaling to the world that something's wrong... The ship has no captain.
But today... all lights off at dawn, including the indoor lamps downstairs. And no newspapers out front. And, after Yvette and I came back inside... I got the mail.
Unfortunately, the garbage men still worry about what's going on in here, because for them it's been extra work at this address for two months and counting.
And today was no different. I went back to Supermercado El Paso Grande, where they now recognize me on sight, and no doubt know me as, "garbage sticker guy." I bought twelve more, then stopped at Fiesta Food Mart on the way back, for smokes.
The guy there asked if my Brother was leaving soon. I told him he'd gone back to Las Vegas yesterday. He asked what Tim thought of Aurora. I told him we both grew up here.
Fiesta was one place Dad never went. He always got his smokes at either Walgreens, or Foremore Liquors. So it was a neat little thing to share the experience of FFM with Tim, who walked there whenever it was warm enough.
Back at home, I took care of the garbage.
Unlocked the padlock for the gate to the dog yard, where the bins are kept, and rolled them to the parking. Both the recycle, and garbage bins were packed to capacity, and heavy as hell.
Then, with the side porch door propped open, I carried out NINE more bags, one last roll of carpet, and the styrofoam box that the Oberweis guy used to deliver the ice cream, cottage cheese, and chocolate milk into.
Eleven stickers used. It's always eleven!
But the massive dump period of this transition should be slowing down now... maybe to a reasonable three stickers a week?
I made my first cup of coffe upstairs as usual, but today was the first day I made the second, down here, now with an identical coffeemaker, and a second canister of coffee mate for the downstairs.
And I'm writing from the back room computer, of course.
Yesterday was the first night alone at home. This is the first morning.
I'll be off to work in another hour.
I'll update this entry tonight.
It was a little hard leaving for work today, because it was the first day I'd left the house unattended... with the cats free to go in and out. I was nervous for the dog too.
I was all worried the house would catch fire, and kept checking the cameras at work. I tried to see if Alexa had turned on the garden lights, and it said the device was unresponsive, so I got all paranoid.
But everything was fine.
The garden lights were on, the house was in tact. Both cats were inside when I got back, and Yvette was a bit anxious, but we went out for a walk right away.
Both cats joined us in the back yard, so it was the first ever, noctournal, four party, three species walk!
Back inside, I texted for a while with the siblings on our group chat, and showed them pics of the cameras, the rugs, and other stuff.
Tim, weirdly has not been in touch since he left.
I know he's back home, but... I suppose he's just getting back into the swing of his normal life, after seven weeks away.
I ordered some smart bulbs on Amazon tonight, for the sconce lamps in the kitchen.
I had tried putting dawn to dusk bulbs in them... there are two fixtures, each with two bulbs... but the DtoD bulbs get kinda confused during the day. They can't decide whether to stay on or off... when they should just be off.
I can have Alexa control the smart bulbs.
I had a thought today about a problem on the south side of the house, where the back room meets the kitchen.
The eve of the back room roof, on that side, does not extend all the way back to meet the kitchen, presumably because if it did, it would block an upper portion of the west facing kitchen window.
There's always been this spot where the back room roof does not overhang the outside wall, and so the rain has, for many decades, just washed down the side... which has caused a lot of water damage.
A little closet window in that spot is all rotted away, and the foundation in that corner has been compromised.
Somebody told me about rain chains, a few years ago. They draw rain water down from problem spots because the surface tension of the water holds to the chain and follows it down... into a barrel or whatever.
But this spot is too wide for a chain, and difficult to put a gutter on, because there's no eve.
But earlier today, in the back yard, I saw Snoop scale the chain link fence in the back yard. And I've seen Prowly scale the dog yard fence too!
It struck me, while at work, that a length of chainlink fence... going down from the roof to the ground, at that spot where the back room meets the kitchen on the south side... would not only act like a rain chain, and guide the water down... but ALSO serve as a ladder for the cats to get up on the roof from the ground!
I really think it could work!
Just dig down and fill that corner area with gravel, covered by bigger rocks on top... then have the chainlink stretch from under the shingles, down to the ground... staked in place so it doesn't move... and it should mitigate the water problem, and allow the cats to scale up to the roof!
Plant some kind of vine there... to grow on the chainlink!
It could be quite a coup!
So... that's my first whole day alone here.
The last whole day of February.
Everything was fine... and I had a breakthrough idea about a problem I've been puzzling over for a few years now.
°¦}
