That Was The Week That Was

I finished busting my butt and staining the deck on Sunday (September 27) and then retired with my bourbon and pro football. The stain calls for 24-48 hours of curing before walking on the surface. It also says to not apply if there's rain expected within 24 hours. I got through the entire week with no rain and pretty low humidity. In fact, it didn't rain until late Monday night...more than 36 hours after I finished staining. I must say that the deck looks good.

The only part I didn't stain was the top surface of the top rail. I had hit that with a different stain about a month ago and it really would need sanding before it gets stained. That will have to wait until spring. Why? Well, it has rained every day since Monday. (We had 1.95 inches of rain in the gauge on Wednesday morning, October 1.) In addition, the temperature hasn't climbed above 45 degrees these last three days and it may not get much higher for a good long time.

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I began to wonder what was up when Adam didn't show up on Monday or Tuesday. (He was supposed to return from Peru late Sunday.) Terry had a meeting with her church ladies on Tuesday and hear the sad news. Adam's dad, Don, died on Friday. He had been battling lung disease that had been destroying his ability to function. While Adam had told us he was showing some improvement, Don passed quietly at home. Don was 66 years old.

Don was the contractor whom we hired to build the Aerie back in 2006. He, Adam and I were the only three on the job from start to finish. He and his wife, Deb, allowed me to stay with them during the building process from April through November. I got to know them and their family quite well.

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Terry and I sat down on Sunday afternoon to activate our new iPhones. We had no difficulty setting hers up but when I tried to set mine up, the phone said there was no sim card inside. There was, however, so I had to wait until Monday to head for the Verizon store to find out if the problem was the phone or the card. The very helpful young lady at the store took the sim card out of my old phone and installed it into my new phone. At that point the new phone saw the sim card and I was in business. She then started the set up process and sent me home where my wifi is faster than theirs to finish retrieving stuff from the Cloud. I left the old phone with them as part of their rebate/recycle program. Didn't get as much for it as I was originally promised, but, hey, it had a faulty sim card.

To sum it up, both our phones are iPhone 6ses and both are now activated. Life is good.

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I've been watching the progress of Hurricane Joaquin this week. Initially predicted to impact the Atlantic coast somewhere between the Chesapeake and Long Island, it has slowly been shifted further and further off shore. This is due to the presence of a stationary front just off the coast that is steering the storm.

Friday, Oct 2: Stationary front runs from Florida to Nova Scotia

As of 5 PM this evening, the storm will stay well out to sea.

 

Predicted storm track at 5 PM Saturday.

Even so, the storm is throwing lots and lots of moisture on shore and it has been raining hard from Georgia to Boston for several days. And that will continue for a couple of more days before the storm moves far enough north. I saw a prediction that Columbia, South Carolina may end up with as much as 18 inches of rain before it's all over.

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The Mets...*sigh*...gotta love 'em. After clinching the NL East title and a place in the playoffs, they have been...well, horrible. They've dropped three to the Phillies on the road and one to the Nationals at home. (A second game will be played tonight and the final will be on Sunday afternoon, weather permitting.) A few players have been dinged up, some of the young pitchers are being sat down and "saved" for the playoffs and, frankly, they have been playing like they've got hangovers from the celebration or something. Snap out of it guys!

Doing Some House Work

So....

Adam finished staining the house on Thursday last, and then took off for a week in Peru. I looked around and decided I'd start work on the deck. First I started cleaning all the old bird seed from between the boards using a spackling knife then the air compressor. (This after Adam had hit it pretty good with the pressure washer!) That took much of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (Okay, not much much of Saturday or Sunday because....FOOTBALL!)

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I hauled out the extension ladder and started on the outside of the deck staining the stiles and rails. There are a boatload of them! More than 100 stiles with top and bottom rails. Each 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" x 22" stile presents three surfaces to be stained when viewed from the outside. And, since the stiles are screwed on the outside that leaves a small--about 4" wide--pocket between each. And that needs to be stained, too. Very time consuming. Lots of up-and-down on the ladder, too. Good exercise for the knees and thighs!

Thursday and Friday I finished up those stiles I couldn't get because the ladder was in the way and started on the inside where I only had those two rails (top and bottom) and the one surface of the stiles to do. Still, there are well over 100 of them on the 10' x 36' deck and the 8' x 16' covered porch. While I had very limited need for the use of a ladder (just three posts on the covered porch), everything was below the waist so there was a lot of bending over and/or squating. Good exercise for the back and thighs!

Thursday afternoon I was working on the east end of the deck. The sun was shining directly into my eyes and its reflection off the house windows was getting me from the other side. I had to ask Terry to come out and be my portable shade umbrella just so I could see where I was supposed to be putting the stain. I haven't looked closely, but I think I got it where I wanted it.

Any way, I finished all the hard stuff this afternoon around 2 PM. Tomorrow, I'll get to work on the deck itself. I also used up 1-1/4 gallons of stain, so I went and got two more gallons this afternoon just to be safe. If I have extra, it does call for two coats--or there's the front of the shed.

When Adam does return, he won't have too much to do! (Except stain the front door porch, fix the electrical outlets on the deck (they have never worked properly) and touch up a half dozen log ends he missed because they are hiding behind a downspout.)

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I mentioned that Terry and I purchased new iPhone 6ses last week. They arrived today. One delivered via UPS and the other via FedEx. From different directions.

Now we have to figure out how to transfer our data/settings from our iPhone 5s to the new phones. I've backed up to the Cloud several times and so has Terry. Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to doing the transfers.