Today was supposed to be the final step for renovating two rooms. That meant that this weekend, which is three-day weekend, we could move furniture back in.
There’s not enough baseboard. So the one room isn’t finished. And both rooms have damaged paint from the floor installer, who has already said he will fix it.
I want to be back in my normal bedroom.
Oh, and the glue for the baseboard stinks. And the weather this weekend is perfect for spending the weekend inside.
Another engineer pissed off at that asshole. I love my career and trust me, no one would be better off if I chose to stay home and cook.
I’m having a difficult week due to a bunch of reasons I don’t want to detail. I feel like I’ve been running like mad and can’t catch up or catch a break on anything. Just every little thing is harder to do right now and I’m so tired. Part of this is also that someone had to cancel plans with my son (for very valid reasons) and I know he’s disappointed and I’m heartbroken for him. He’s being very mature and understanding but he was so excited. Fortunately another person has stepped up to offer another activity and he’s happy about that, but I’m feeling so sad for him. There will be other similar opportunities at least.
I need the weekend to come but tomorrow is shaping up to be another stressful nightmare. At least it’s a long weekend and we have plans that I’m very much looking forward to. I’m hoping things don’t go sideways!
Our 100+ year old bigleaf maple tree on the southwest corner of our house is dead. Second year it hasn’t leafed out. Other maples are doing fine.
This tree was the main “air conditioning” for our house, as it blocked most of the sunlight most of the day.
Can’t drop it myself, too many branches. The main trunk is about 36" through, though where the first limbs start coming off at about 4 feet off the ground it’s about 60" through. Nearby powerlines and proximity to the house make it a bitch of a felling operation.
Losing this tree is bad enough, but we’re looking at spending $3,000+ to have it removed.
As a lot of you know, i live in Houston. Last night the scariest storm short of a hurricane or tornado came through. They said 100 mph winds, and I believe it! A portion of our old fence came down, shit was flying everywhere, broken pots all over the patio, and… the power went out. So no wifi. Still have 5G. We have an antenna TV in the garage.
They say it might be 3 days before it gets restored. Right now it’s overcast and not too hot, but tomorrow will be 90 and sunny. Not too fond of being without AC!
We have a couple of small generators, but the big one isn’t working. Mr Rebo has been kicking himself for not inspecting and tuning it up for hurricane season. We’ve got a small chest freezer plugged in. We saved the ice cream! I have perishables in two coolers, and frozen stuff in the little freezer.
I am able to cook on the gas stove, and we have a gas water heater, so counting my blessings on that front. I made toast on the grill this morning!
So send good vibes that we get power soon! We might end up going to a hotel if necessary.
Having grown up in SW Louisiana (Lake Charles) and Corpus Christi, TX, I feel your pain! Fingers crossed for you!
I’m glad you made it through all that! But the inconveniences suck.
Something crawled under our house (manufactured home) and before we could get it out of there, it died.
Now the terrible smell is coming through our vents.
I feel bad that this creature got stuck under there somehow (I’m afraid it might have been a cat. I heard some meowing one night and then silence the next day, so I thought the cat made it out, or that the sound was coming from outside. It’s not uncommon to hear cats around here. But the scratching beneath our vents + later meowing + bad smell is making me think the worst.)
Now we have to hire someone to remove the dead thing, whatever it is.
Meanwhile to get my son enrolled for daycare this summer we have to get alllll the ADA paperwork filled out and approved by a doctor all over again.
I’m just tired of adult things. The shitty thing about being an adult is you never get a break. Even when you’re ostensibly on vacation you still have to do adult shit.
And yes I still have all three of those grants to write.
The lights came on! Whoop!
MS Word has done it again. No matter how often I change the default template to remove widow / orphan control, something updates in the background and it’s back on. None of my usual tricks for changing it are working today. WHY do they (and I) care about this so much? Many, many things are better for having widow / orphan control, but the kind of things I do are not. Why even have the option if I can’t avail myself of it?
There it is!
Has anybody ever successfully torn open a plastic Amazon envelope along the nearly invisible dotted line?
Once again, Victoria Day has snuck up on me. It’s on Monday, so this is an unexpected long weekend and everything will be closed Monday. Why do I care? Here’s why.
Victoria Day is one of two holidays that are celebrated with fireworks, Canada Day being the other. And this particular neighbourhood for some reason is inhabited by more hooligans than I’ve seen anywhere else who just love setting off fireworks. They love it so much that the explosions already started Friday night, and will undoubtedly continue through the weekend and I’m sure well into next week as long as the supply of exploding objects holds out. Makes me nuts. I’m almost tempted to get in the car and get myself a nice peaceful hotel room somewhere for the duration.
And then of course the whole process repeats itself centered around July 1. Not content with that, last year these explosive-loving fuckwits even set some off on New Year’s Eve. Though I assure everyone that, being a nice friendly pup, I am definitely not hoping that some of these fuckwits blow themselves up, though for some reason the imagery keeps running through my mind.
When I was a kid, Victoria Day was the only day for fireworks. Dominion Day, er, Canada Day, was for flying the flag (the only day of the year you did so), grilling burgers and steaks, and drinking beer. I blame Canada’s Wonderland and Ontario Place for fireworks on the first of July.
My advice? Get a nice peaceful hotel room, take two or three Bloody Caesars, and call me in the morning. 
(Although the one I got earlier this week seemed to have thickened seams; I had to snip one side of the perforation to get the tear started.)
The dead animal stench inside my house is horrible. Eyes and nose wateringly bad. I nearly threw up trying to take my medication at breakfast. We are running both air purifiers, I closed all the vents, I told my husband to open some windows, hopefully it works. Fortunately it’s perfect weather outside so opening windows won’t make it too hot or too cold.
Supposedly someone is coming on Monday to get rid of it but I’m worried it’s actually in the heating duct or something. When it was alive there was a loud scratching in the master bathroom vent, but it was hard to tell if the creature was in the vent or the sound was just carrying through. I get weird sounds through my vents sometimes including the neighbors talking. Hopefully it’s an easy removal. I don’t even want to be in my house right now. (I happen to not be, at the moment, and I have afternoon plans too… Just got to keep it outdoorsy, I guess.)
At least you’re confined to two holidays. Vancouver also does fireworks for Halloween.
I’m wondering if I may have to deal with dead animal stench, or something. Thursday morning my cat was making noises (which is not unusual for him) and when I went to see if I could figure out what his problem was he was scratching at the floor at the base of the couch as if there was something under it that he was trying to get at. Unfortunately the couch is too heavy for me to tilt up to look under it, so I have no idea what’s going on there. Later in the day when I was sitting on the couch and raised the footrest he ducked under it for a second (which he usually doesn’t do). I asked him if there was something under the couch, but as usual he didn’t answer me.
I ended up pursuing more or less this strategy, although I stayed home. As it happened I got up very early this morning (I guess that would now be “yesterday morning”). In the afternoon I indulged in many Caesars, supplemented by vodka martinis. By the time dusk rolled around I was wiped, so I closed the window just as the fuckwits were starting to set off their fucking fireworks, and had a nice long nap, thus sleeping through almost all of it.
I’m sure there’s more to come on Sunday, and probably on Monday, too. In the meantime I have ahead of me a night of blissful silence which I propose to spend reading and watching movies. I doubt that Queen Victoria would have approved of all this racket on her behalf. If anyone had set off fireworks in her neighbourhood she’d probably have had them beheaded.
My wife has what is literally a tiny fucking scratch. Something that anyone who goes outside for more than five minutes a day would laugh off. But she wants a bandage. Do I have one? Yes, but not for something so small. My bandages are for, well, you know, real fucking injuries that need some protection while they heal. Your scratch is gonna be just fine in five minutes tops. Hey, get a grip, you don’t need a bandage for that.
You know, I can go out mountain biking, have a great ride, and come home with a few cuts and scrapes that I have no idea where they came from. I’m bleeding? I’m not surprised. That blows her mind. Likewise, her POV blows mine. Any blood requires immediate attention.
Well the good news is we don’t have a rotting animal under our house. The professional critter guy came out and gave everything a thorough investigation.
We have a skunk living under there.
He is being evicted. We were recommended to mix soil with cayenne pepper and fill in all the holes he’s dug.
I had no idea that skunks had so many different, terrible smells.
I’ve smelled skunk, and I’ve smelled dead animals, but I wouldn’t have connected the two either! Skunks like to wander in the middle of the roads around here during mating season, and it’s not unusual to encounter a freshly squished one compete with aerosolized…gland fluid. Even when fresh, it’s somehow worse than regular skunk spray.