Ramblings From My Week

I just want to take a minute to write a little about the week that was. I honestly don’t know if you’ll be interested in my ramblings, but feel free to comment on any of it.

Reading

I seem to have gotten back into the swing of reading on my commute. I finished Bill Bryson’s The Body. The Body: A Guide for Occupants I like Bryson’s writing. He can write some incredible facts about the body and explain it well, and then suddenly make me laugh out loud on the bus. It was a long read, but I learned a lot and laughed quite a bit. I also started a Bosch Novel. Dark Sacred Night (Renée Ballard Book 2) I have enjoyed this quite a bit. Bosch’s mantra that “everyone matters or no one matters is a fitting one for the world we now find ourselves in.

The Commute

The bus continues to be an interesting place to do character studies. This week saw fewer drinkers, but still lots of people who reeked of pot. Now that it is legal, can’t we make it smell better? How hard could that be? That improvement alone could triple profits.

Tools

I bought a sit-up bench and assembled it today in rather quick time. The things that made me laugh is that I had to use 5 different sized wrenches to put it together. It’s always awesome when you get to use all your tools. It is also good that they made the bolt heads and the nuts a different size. I don’t have duplicates of my wrenches and hate using an adjustable wrench.

I am pretty sure I am going to buy a saw this week. What I wanted has come on sale. Yes, it is part of the whole “Black Friday Hoopla” that seems to be in the air. I doubt any Canadian Store is now in profit, but whatever. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade.

I finally got some stamps…oh, never mind, I should save that for my stamp blog.

Around the House

I raked up a lot of my leaves. Hopefully I won’t miss yard waste pick-up day. I usually forget to put the bags out and they have to live in my garage until spring. I really don’t want that to be the case this year. Tuesday morning is scheduled pickup.

Christmas has started early this year. The displays are out and I have heard a few Christmas songs. I have been reading about people complaining about it, but maybe this year we can start celebrating and wishing for peace on earth a little early. I don’t think it would hurt anything.

I had waffles for breakfast. Delicious.

I got to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs two days in a row. The results weren’t perfect, but the games were entertaining enough.

The End

I could ramble, but I could also go to sleep. I think it prudent I choose the latter. Feel free to comment about your week or anything I have written.

Scenes from the Past Few Days (part one)

So this morning, I painted my ceiling pink.

Did that catch your attention? It probably shouldn’t have. It really isn’t shocking in 2020. Also, I should add that I thought I was painting my ceiling purple–at least that is what it said on the can. More specifically, it said “mauve” but why open up that can of worms.

One of my current projects is sprucing up my guest room. When I moved in many years ago, the previous occupant had been a young child who visited his grandmother on occasion–my neighbour filled me in on all the details. The walls had been adorned with rather crude castles, stars, and several versions of the planet Saturn. This might have been dramatic if the pictures had been done well. Instead they were done with paint that didn’t wash off. It also was hard to cover over despite going to “the good paint store” with the “good name” and buying their primer.

Last week I went to Home Hardware (not Home Depot) and bought some of their primer. It covered it up in one solid coat. Fantastic. Wish I had done it sooner. I was told the “good paint store” was better, but now I don’t think so. When I figure out what colour I want the walls to be, that is where I am going to buy it.

As for the ceiling, they have this paint that goes on pink (despite saying purple on the lable–and since I went to Western, I know what the colour purple is) but quickly turns white after it is applied. Pretty cool. Of course online reviews mentioned this pink purple fiasco because one customer was colour blind to pink but not purple–you can imagine the hostile language used.

While I wouldn’t call painting fun, the idea of getting something done that has hung over me for a while was fantastic. Definitely a Perfect Moment. Once I get the room done, I will turn it back into a guest room and house my stamp collection and stamp desk there. That should free up some real estate in both the master bedroom, the basement and the home office. I am not sure what I will do with the space, but I am sure it will come in handy.

Thanks to the Covid weight gain, a turbo trainer would be ideal if I could find one.

Are there any projects waiting to be done in your space? I would love to hear what they are and what is keeping you from getting them done.

Conversations about Hardware and Price Gougers

I should tell you a little something about myself that is not necessarily obvious. It is true that I am a teacher and need to be very outgoing in that profession. It is also true that writing a public blog that potentially anyone in the world could read (and it is unclear why they don’t) seems to lend itself to the definition of outgoing. However, I sometimes shy away from conversations with strangers or store clerks. Keep this in mind as you read Today’s Perfect Moment.

I recently changed the light bulb in my oven. This is not a particularly difficult feat, but it did necessitate the removal of the light bulb cover. On my girlfriend’s oven, this required a special grippy cloth to accomplish. Mine didn’t need that, but it did require care because the cover is cracked completely in two. I have lived with it this far, but I thought it might be prudent to get a replacement. I figured that a hard glass piece like that was worth about five dollars. When they quoted me a price of over 80, I was almost speechless. I checked online and could only find one for about 65 dollars.

My next thought was to glue it back together. Realizing that it would be in the oven, I wondered if conventional glue would just burn off or poison my cooking. There must be a glue for this application.

I went to Canadian Tire because it is pretty much my go to store. I prefer Home Hardware, but I didn’t think that glue for glass and heat were really up their alley. At the store, I lined up a few alternatives and was really at a loss for what to do and which one to buy. Not surprisingly, none of them had “good for oven light bulb covers” written on the packaging.

So, I decided to ask someone at the store. I didn’t ask the young kid who looked like he would rather be skateboarding. Instead, I talked to someone a bit more mature who was working at the paint counter (which also held the adhesives). We talked about the products and in the end he talked me out of buying anything. I am not sure that is store policy, but I felt good getting his honest review of the choices.

You might wonder how not solving my problem and not buying anything can be Today’s Perfect Moment. What I should remind you of is that I generally don’t like talking to store clerks (so much so that I would rather wander around the store myself that ask one for help most times) and that I figured they might sell me something that wasn’t going to work. Keeping all that in mind, it is obvious that getting good advice from someone I probably wasn’t going to approach is Today’s Perfect Moment.

I should also note that when I told him the price of the replacement, he just shook his head and muttered some bad words about price gouging and terrible people.

If you know what kind of glue I can use on glass bulb covers in an oven which can be set as high as 500 degrees, please let me know.

What I Haven’t Done

While we all have been staying at home, many of us have found time to do things we did not have the time to do before–though I suspect we had the time, we probably wanted to use in on something else.  One of my co-workers is learning how to juggle.  Another is reorganizing his whole house.  Some are even learning to play guitar.

I haven’t done anything amazing like the above, but as I have already written about, I have managed to knock a number of things off the “to do” list and found time to investigate more future hobbies. (see my hobby blog for that).  The funny thing is not what I have done, but what I haven’t done.

Today, I noticed that the Saturday crossword in the comics pages of the woefully small newspaper.  It’s Sunday and there isn’t a mark on it.  It used to be that it was a priority for me.  Reading was also a priority.  I’ve still got the book I brought back from Colombia unfinished.  That is really unlike me.  I also haven’t watched a lot of TV or movies.

Then it hit me.  I chose to prioritize many of those things because they didn’t require a lot of physical energy.  The commute to and from work used to really wear me out.  I was up early and getting home late.  I needed to save my energy for bike rides when warm and snow shoveling in winter.  Now, I seem to have much more energy to tackle home projects and consider tackling even bigger ones.

Maybe I need to work from home forever……

Man vs. Squirrel

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

A few weeks ago, I came face to face with the thing all homeowners don’t want to encounter. I saw a squirrel climbing though a gap in my siding.  I managed to scare him off, but I was worried.  It was a combination of horror at the damage and worry about how much money it was going to cost me.

I investigated and noticed that the critter had pulled my siding away from the house to make a home for winter. I dealt with it quickly and secured the siding, and reduced the gap.

Well, not long after that, I noticed that the little bastard had chewed through the wooden upper part of the window to gain access to his little hole again.

I am sure I screamed loud enough for the entire neighbourhood to hear.

Now the battle was on. Obviously the little bastard was not going to give up his home without a fight.

I solicited help at work and got a myriad of stories from chilli peppers to other noxious substances. I was given a mild lecture on predators and the food chain.  I was even told interesting stories of people who ate squirrels.  I was informed that poisoning was not condoned, but that trapping and releasing would require a substantial drive.  I was also told to take care of the problem as soon as possible.

Round one had been a failure. Round two involved wire mesh across the entire window frame.  I will probably look less ugly when I have a chance to paint it.  It also involved filling the gap with expanding foam.  So far, the squirrel has made repeated attempts to get in, but has failed.  My window screen has taken quite a bit of abuse and the foam that escaped from the holes across the wire mesh has been completely shredded, but he has not gotten in.

Of course, I forgot to wear gloves for this procedure and still have some of the foam stuck to my hands. Not pleasant, but that’s what I get for not reading the instructions.***

When the weather warms up, I am going to have to find a better solution, but hopefully the squirrel will find somewhere else to hibernate for winter.  Obviously, this is not a Perfect Moment, but dealing with a house and all the problems that arise rarely is.

Have you had any determined animal problems?  How did you solve them?

***I was watching Seth’s Mountain Bike Hacks on YouTube and he recommended using sea salt as an abrasive.  It worked quite well and my hands, while not completely free of the gunk that’s on them, are much better.