Now this time I can't complain. Friday rolled around and the sun and temps had driven most in the office to use vacation. By the afternoon it seemed like I was 10% of the staff on hand. I cashed in a few built-up hours and got out around 1. Stopped by the apt for sundries, then the parents for a turntable and all the LPs I could lay my hands on, plus a card table, CD's and whatever else was on my list. By this time it was after 4 and I headed for Fareway; busy place. As much as I like shopping HyVee for their variety, Fareway seems even friendlier without making a show of it. Simple aislesand markers. Low ceilings. Everyone in uniform. And very reasonable prices. The checkouts are a bit odd, however, and it's always a little awkward when they wheel your cart out to your car….of course if they did that at Menards….hmmm..
Friday night was a blast, though. I rushed out to the lodge, now after 5:30, and set to getting the refrig running, groceries put away, blazer unloaded, kitchen/dining area tidied and upstairs, getting the turntable set up with the amp (and getting the cart aligned) and trying things out. Back downstairs, I threw together a yellow cake and quickly changed before Cara and Cam showed. Dinner at The Goat- the cuban was excellent and the potato a winner but it seems we always get stuck in the same booth- not that the sports-bar side is much better. However if you like heavy coughing, we were in the right spot.
Jason and Holly joined us for cards, drinks and quad with Ben making an appearance and we made a rather late (for us, anyway) night of it. For a long day I was still humming along but I didn't complain at the prospect of a good night's sleep.
Saturday I putzed away at my weekend list, getting in deeper and deeper sorting out what's where. In between outside jobs (painting the flag pole smoke gray), I got things organized under the main work bench, sorted and boxed up electrical misc- plates, devices, Despard items, EMT related items, and so forth. Then went for the plumbing. Came up short on a few things so got a list going to tackle the odd jobs and by this time I had a decent pile of unused things to return (stuff like roof flashing and PVC fittings). By the time Cara returned from shopping I was back at the copper washing machine supply lines. Got things pretty well done while catching some bad TV downstairs. Did some reading out on the deck as the sun set.
The next day I tried my hand at french toast stuffed with cheddar cheese with a side of maple sausage and OJ. Not too bad but I need to pick up a skillet proper. I finished up the copper hot water supply and with Cara's help we transported it into position along the back wall. From there, some torching and the critical parts were in. With a makeshift washer hose I got things pressurized and checked for leaks. Found one connection that would seep just a touch- drained the works, blew out the line and re-flowed; all okay. Caught "A Day in October" while I worked.
With sun shining we headed out for returns and to complete the short list. First to the parents for some materials downstairs, then to Jo-Ann where Cara picked up some "on sale" yarn while I continued leafing through a shoebox of recent receipts pulling out anything HomeDepot. We stopped at Menards with a cart full of miscellaneous dating back to '07. With the "you find it" terminal (not it's actual name) we came up with receipts for quite a bit and kept the friendly girl at the return register busy. Even with monopolizing her for half an hour it was still smiles and small talk. Got what we needed in the store, spotted Ben and his copper pipe, and got out for Home Depot.
You'd think coming in with defacto receipts for roof flashing would be all that's necessary for a refund. Roof flashing from this summer even. Not so. In fact, all you can get after 90 days is store credit. Receipt or no. Served up with attitude, of course. We looked at tool chests (good luck finding anyone to point us in the right direction) and were pretty much appalled at the variety (your choice of 2!) and the steep prices. Now after dark we headed back to the Lodge. I got the Westinghouse running with a load of bleach to clean things out and then got busy getting a dryer operational. Next was installing towel hooks in the bathroom through the holes I drilled earlier in the day through the tile. This meant grinding the concealed screw heads down to virtually nothing so they'd fit the ill-conceived IKEA "hook" design. Also, melting the plastic anchor flanges pressed into the tiles so the hooks would sit flush, which they now do.
Completion of Sunday night? Pizza, Twin-Fin, and some light electrical work yielding an interior island light. About time I put that electricity to good use!
No comments:
Post a Comment