It was a perfect plan. Get up at normal time, run vacuum on floors, run vacuum to suck up stink bugs, do laundry, make foods for later, then go to Grammy's house.
The electricity had other ideas. I was just making a cup of tea and setting down to pay a bill when the lights flickered. Living close to the train tracks, loose light bulbs are not an unusual occurrence. Same with crooked pictures on the wall.
Darkness. Power out.
OK, I'll give it a few minutes.
Do dee do. La dee da.
5 minutes later, no power.
10 minutes later, no power.
15 minutes later, no power.
Crap.
Ok change in plans, off to Grammy's house early. As it turns out, it was for the best because the rain showers came earlier than expected. We got the chores done outside just as the rains started.
But then it REALLY started to rain. Walt Kowalski and I were planning to get some boards out of storage for House #1, but rain added to dirt creates mud and storage is all dirt. Or in this case, all mud.
This photo came out amazing clear for how hard it was raining. If it wasn't for the drops on the windows, you would think it was just foggy. (Also, I'll mention these trees in a few minutes.)
No worries, lots to do at the Cat Ranch. When I got home, the power was back on. Woo hoo! From the time on the clocks, the power was out for about 5 hours. Glad I didn't wait.
When the power is out, how dumb do you feel when you walk into a room and flip the light switch that is not functioning and wonder why the light didn't turn on? Very.
The foyer and steps to the basement still have the old green carpet on them. The steps were on the to-do list for this summer. They are on the to-do list for the fall. The green carpet was stinky. It smelled like one of our four-footed furry friends had an accident. More than one four-foot friend joined in the party.
Carpet came up easily. The tack-track and staples weren't too tough to remove. But underneath the carpet on the landing was vinyl flooring. Pap probably used it as a water barrier. The center parts that had been walked on for 50 years chipped right off. The corners not so much.
Originally this was a single piece of vinyl flooring, but over time the white "lines" between the "tiles" deteriorated more and stuck to the wooden floor. They came up with a little encouragement from the screw driver. The corners were miserable. We picked at those for 2 hours.
The wooden floor underneath is a little sticky now. I'm sure in a few days the sticky will be replaced by cat hair. Hey....a new kinda carpet.
So about those trees I mentioned in the rainy picture above. We got a number from a guy who knew a guy that worked with a guy that cuts trees. He came recommended. Not too expensive. Does good work. Walt Kowalski called him.
He never called back.
As luck would have it, Walt Kowalski told this story to a guy he knows through work. This guy said 'you know your friend Moonhead bought a used bucket truck not too long ago.' Walt Kowalski said 'I did not know that.' Now we do. Here's another woo hoo!
So Saturday morning we're going to borrow Moonhead's bucket truck and finally finish cutting the trees on the front hill. We're taking bets on how long before the mayor comes over on his scooter and says 'HEY can I borrow your bucket truck?'
UPDATE:
So I just went back and looked at the photo of the trees. Holy cow re they leaning! I look at them everyday, but in that photo it is amazing they haven't fallen over yet!
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