I Delcare This Bathroom Open!

 Yet another long gap between posts. As usual, I think about writing all the time, but never do it. But today seems a good day to mark time.

Our upstairs bathroom renovation is, at long last, finished. It only took five months (literally). The project was started on 23 September 2022 and went through delay after delay, including replacing two (out of three) damaged surround panels, which meant contacting the company not once, but twice, to send replacement panels. Then waiting for the contractor to come back and install them. 

Then we waited for a contractor to put in the flooring. 

Finally we waited for a contractor to drywall around the new shower. First, he was finishing a larger project (which took more than a month), then he was delayed for a month due to illness.

Wait. Wait. Wait.

Finally this weekend I put the finishing touches on the project on my own, including caulking, recutting floorboards that no longer fit, and cutting and fitting quarter round molding around the vanity (first time using a miter box and it actually looks nice). 

New flooring replaced crappy linoleum.

Partial picture of the surround. Only one panel was undamaged when we opened the original box.

My very first attempt at cutting a 45 degree angle using a miter box. The molding was $17 so there was a little pressure to get it right the first time.

After the new tub went in, waiting for undamaged panels. We looked at this for two months. You can see the old linoleum floor in the lower part of the picture. 

I also completed our taxes today. So, it's been a productive weekend. On top of that, I took a major fall in my driveway today--slipped on the ice. Luckily my bones are pretty strong, but my hip, elbow and wrist are going to be black and blue for a while. How dumb. 

Speaking of breaking shit, our garage door broke last week as well (it has been exciting around here). The spring above the garage door broke in two which meant there was not way on God's green earth I was fixing anything (oh, and it was 20 degrees below zero). It also happened on the day the drywall guy was finishing our bathroom. It was like we were being challenged to the very end.

I've been listening to the band Bowling For Soup lately. My own band has learned their hit "1985" and I just couldn't get the song out of my head (this happens frequently to me), so the way I exorcise that demon is by listening to the culprit song really loudly wearing headphones. 

Once I listened to "1985" a couple times, I started exploring their catalogue (they've been together since 1994 so I'm a little late to the party), and they've got a bunch of fun, tongue-in-cheek, power punk songs. Nothing complicated, nothing earth-shattering. Just fun party music. I needed to find a new band to dig and I have.

I'm currently reading The First Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch and I'm loving it. Last year I read The Lincoln Conspiracy by the same authors and it was excellent. Both are well researched non-fiction history, but they read like a suspense novels. Not an easy task.

These days I am spending my free time (when I have it) watching college basketball and, on occasion, hockey. I'm a football guy to the core, so I just take a passing interest in sports during these winter months. Obviously I am looking forward to the Super Bowl next week. Then the long offseason.... maybe I should write more since I'm not distracted by football every weekend?

Snow is Here

 Winter has finally come for its annual visit. And so it will overstay its welcome for the next five months. 

Flurries and snow showers have been falling for days now, nonstop. The season has gradually snuck up on us and now we've gotten several inches of accumulating snow. I blew out the driveway Tuesday and it'll need to be done again in the very near future. Even as I write this, flurries continue to fall. It doesn't seem so bad while sipping a mug of hot apple cider.

Ava's fall play, "Father of the Bride" opens Friday (tomorrow). She's stressed about that, putting in very long hours over the past week. She was promoted to stage manager for the theater department this year (she was assistant stage manager last year); it's something she really wanted to do and this is a big test to see whether it was a good idea. She's doing well with it to be honest, and it is certainly a learning experience. I know she takes pride in what she's doing after texting me a picture of the set last night:

"Father of the Bride" BHS Theater Dept, 17 Nov 2022 

Since last posting, our upstairs shower is complete. Now we are waiting for someone to sheetrock around the surround and another to install the bathroom flooring. This is all being coordinated by our plumber and the pace is... well, there is no pace. We've come to another standstill. It has been a very frustrating experience. We are now two solid months without a second shower.

I saw my doctor this morning for a check-up. Not surprisingly, he added a new blood pressure medication. In a month he wants me to do bloodwork to make sure my liver and kidneys aren't being pickled. To think, this could all be avoided (probably) if I could get motivated to lose weight like I did in 2012. Actually, I'm not as heavy as I thought I was going to be. I weighed in at 251 pounds today, which is about 14 or 15 pounds less than what I was at my heaviest some ten years ago.

I started reading a book by Jon Meacham called And There Was Light. It is a biography on Abraham Lincoln; I've read multiple biographies/studies on Lincoln and I always find something new and interesting about him. He's one of my favorite historical figures. I read American Lion by Meacham a couple of years ago, a biography on Andrew Jackson. So far, his new book is proving to be just as good as that one.

I suppose that's it for now. Looking forward to absolute darkness at 5:00 PM. Not. My wife and I have come to an agreement that we have to do something in the evenings to keep us occupied. We cannot go to bed at 7:00 PM (even though it feels tempting). Maybe we'll hold a winter-long gin or rummy tournament? Anything is better than staring at the t.v.

Windy Day

 Not really sure what to write this Sunday morning. I lead a most boring life. 

This past Monday was the first Halloween evening shift I worked in 15 or 16 years. I've always had Halloween evening off so I could take the kids trick-or-treating. But that is now part of history. It went by so fast and it sure was fun. Instead of trick or treating, my daughter and a couple of her friends went door to door collecting canned goods for the school's food shelf (part of the high school's Interact Club, I believe), but my son wasn't interested in getting dressed up.

So I worked Halloween night. 

I reviewed my health insurance benefits this morning and submitted that (the annual "benefits review"). I'm not even sure if I am going to be employed at this place in another six months, but obviously my family can't be without health insurance. I hate this feeling of the unknown. Some people fly by the seat of their pants every day. That's not me. 

In other news, we are still waiting for the panel for our upstairs shower, so we are still functioning on a single shower. We're going on two months now. Nice.

Deer hunting opener was yesterday. I woke to the sound of gunfire this morning. There is a slough just to the west of our house and it is a prime hunting location (deer, duck, etc.). It is only about a mile away and for 21 years I've been waiting for a bullet to come flying through my house. Hasn't happened yet, but it always enters my mind this time of year.

The clocks fell back last night. The sun now officially sets at 5:00 PM, and it is only going to get earlier. I absolutely hate this time of year; I can't stand these 13, 14, 15 hour nights. I need one of those happy lights that make you think the sun is still up. 

Several forecasts are suggesting snow on Thursday/Friday. Weather Underground is forecasting 4" of snow, Accuweather is calling for a wintry mix, Apple Weather says an inch or so. The common denominator is a near certainty that it will snow later this coming week. I am on call Thursday, naturally. 

A very windy day today, so something must be brewing...