feste_sylvain

Thag not like ice dams. Water should go down roof, not back up and under shingles and be too heavy for roof to hold and make Thag house fall down.

But roof does roof job. Now Thag do Thag job.

First, Thag shovel ice off front step. Thag smart. Thag not put ladder on ice.

After first, Thag get ladder out of garage. Ladder behind tropical drink bar and old Thag-child bicycle. Thag not know why we have bicycle.

Thag get dutch oven by Le Creuset full of water and boiling. Then Thag set ladder up, climb ladder, and pull away snow from top of ice dam. Then slowly, slowly, Thag carry dutch oven full of boiling hot water up ladder and put on top of ice dam.

Thag watch water run down icicle that goes from roof to ground. Thag happy, so Thag get second dutch oven to put on ice dam on other side of front door. So much water come out this side, Thag gets bucket to catch drips and prevent stalagmite formation. Then Thag take down first dutch oven, bring back inside, and boil its water again.

Thag do this six or seven times. Cold dutch ovens melt very little.

By end of daylight, first dutch oven has melted down to shingles. Yay.

Thag-wife take two old stocking hose and fill with round white pebble salt. Thag lay these along ice dams but sticking into pot-holes to drain off roof.

That night, rain rains, but water drains off roof thru pot-holes.

Next day is above freezing, and ice melts a lot. And no water in house.

Thag have girl-child what can't sleep in hot. Thag nods, because Thag can't sleep in hot too.

But windows in girl-child-room are like windows in Thag house. Thag house windows do not go up and down. They go from side to side. No Ay See machine thinks that windows go that way.

Thag-wife smarter than Thag. Thag-wife got stick and pink window stuff. Pink window stuff is flat, squeaky, and too big for window.

First, Thag take Ay See machine out of box. Lots of bags all over the place. Bags with foam, bags with screws, bags with power cord, bags with long metal bits with foam. Thag sees four holes in long metal bits with foam, four screws, and no screwdriver.

Thag-girl-child find screwdriver with X tip. Huzzah. Now Thag put long metal bits with foam on top of Ay See machine, so Ay See machine can hold onto window that slide down on it. But window not work that way.

Thag put Ay See machine in window, and flappy things on Ay See machine not fit half of window. Only half of window slides out of way. But Thag took off one flappy thing from one side of Ay See machine, and then Ay See machine fit. Kind of. Great big gaps below machine.

Thag find gray towel that nobody likes, and uses tape measure to make scribbles on stick. Then Thag take stick to basement, where saw is. Thag saw stick. Stick will go where Ay See metal bit grabs window where window isn't. It will slide into window frame. Now all Thag must do is make pink stuff block huge hole where window isn't.

Thag looks.

Nope. Thag is going to have to put pink stuff up from outside. On roof.

Now Thag-wife get home from work, all hot and sweaty from kitchen even hotter than Thag-girl-child room. Thag goes up ladder, up on roof with pink stuff and old knife. Thag shred lots of pink stuff off, then not fit pink stuff in window space, so shave more pink stuff off, and almost fit pink stuff in window space. Thag-wife shove Ay See machine in place on old gray towel, and Thag make pink stuff squeak but get machine almost in place. Thag-wife cut more pink stuff off with knife. Now it all fit. Thag tape pink stuff in place with duct tape.

Sometime in all that, Thag cut back of thumb on Ay See machine. Thag not sure when.

But Thag and Thag-wife beat stupid window!

And Thag-girl-child have Ay See machine in room, make cold.

Saturday: don't rightly remember. I got a ways into "To Say Nothing of the Dog", which has been on my reading list for quite a while and I've finally gotten to it. Connie Willis tells a superb Victorian humor ("humour"?) story, but it's true to period in that it's dense in the verbiage department. Slows my already-slow reading speed. Oh, and the Red Sox won, just like they did on Friday.

Sunday: pool/barbecue party at a friends' place. Met people I know I've met before, but now have names and pointers to. (Hi,

coebird!) Had good relaxing time. Later, started Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight", which goes right along-side "Reviving Ophelia" in terms of watching adolescent girls make bad choices.

alyveritya has already read all four of the books in that Meyer series.

Monday: Officially "Labor Day", which is a holiday I've never understood. Celebrate work by not doing it? Anyway, Thag sawed off some dead branches from our remaining peach tree, and then sawed out the old flat boards that

goddessfarmer said would not work as roosts in the chicken coop, and nailed in the fruitwood branches that should work much better. Thag also put wood filler into the gap in the front door-jamb, but that does not appear to be working. Thag may have to chisel that out (which will be easy if it crumbles) and then get a very small block of wood to affix in its place. But this will happen before the cold weather sets in. *nod*

Today:

alyveritya's first day of school. The younger starts tomorrow morning. Getting out of the house on time could have gone smoother.

Thag replace showerhead.

Wow, that was easy.

Thag not like GFI that kept shutting off fridge. So Thag go get normal outlet to put up instead of stupid GFI.

But Thag snart! Thag read rating on outlet. Outlet says 15 amps. Circuit breaker for outlet and fridge says 20 amps.

Thag not like mismatch. Thag already lost toaster oven. That why Thag put in GFI in the first place.

But Thag call friend with Clue. Friend with Clue says 15 amps only a problem if all 20 amps go thru outlet. No, lots of amps go thru fridge. So this outlet will be okay.

Thag flips circuit breaker, then takes out stupid GFI. Then Thag-dad call to talk about upcoming trip while Thag is unscrewing heavy copper wires. Thag talk to Thag-dad and take old stupid GFI apart. Thag write down trip info, thank Thag-dad, then hang up and swap in new outlet.

Fridge back on! Happy! But lamb chops in fridge go bad. Sad! But that not happen again! Happy!

Thag-wife has to move cold things on hot day, so Thag-wife tell Thag to nail wood to more wood to make chicken coop floor. Thag like eggs, so Thag agree.

Thag and Thag-child move old boards and doors into back yard where chickens will live. Then Thag line up some boards and hit nails with hammer. Now big blocks of stryofloam will stay put, and six pallets will stay put and be coop floor.

frobzwiththingz and klingonlandlady show up with pretty painted flat wood for siding. Hooray. Thag point where they can drive their car-box, and then Thag help unload wood. Will see those two again tomorrow when quiet_elegance and others show up to do this all for real.

frobzwiththingz asks if Thag knows how heavy floor is. Thag not know, and say so. But floor need more boards so it all one piece. But Thag not put on any more until one piece is moved to where it need to go.

Thag dripping with sweat. Thag-shirt soaked thru. Thag finish hammering for day, and go take shower.

Last week, Thag fixed a socket. But the second socket was not on same line as micro-thingy and first socket, so Thag give up.

This week, Thag and Thag's knees ran up and down stairs, flipping circuit switches to find one that second socket is on. Not on circuit switch called "Kitchen Outlets". That one turn off Thag-coffee-maker. Not on circuit switch next to that one. But other circuit switches only 15 amps, so Thag try only other 20 amp circuit switch in kitchen.

Yup. That the one. The one with this socket and the refrigerator.

So Thag put Thag-kitties behind closed doors and pull apart old socket. Thag take apart bottom set of wires, then go turn circuit switch back on. Yup. Bottom two wires are "load". But refrigerator is still off.

Refrigerator is downstream from socket. Thag smack face with palm of hand.

Thag turn off circuit, take apart top wires ("line"), take apart ground wire, connect line to new GFCI, and turn on circuit again. Test good. Turn off circuit, connect load wires, connect ground wire, shove everything in wall, attach socket, attach face plate, turn on circuit.

Thag-wife want to know why refrigerator still off.

Thag snart! Thag push GFCI reset, and refrigerator come on!

Yes: if GFCI on socket trips, refrigerator go off. But if refrigerator ever short, socket will save house.

Thag do this three times faster than last week.

Yay, Thag!

Last week or so, Thag smell nasty burning plastic smell in kitchen. Thag made dinner in microwubble... micomeeco... small oven. But Thag not make plastic for dinner.

Thag-wife found smell. Electric socket next to micro-thingy got hot. Scorch marks. And the toaster plug was all burned in the socket. Bad toaster! Bye-bye toaster.

But next day, new burning smell from socket when micro-thingy was on. And empty socket was hot to the touch. Feh.

Today, Thag go to hardware store for GFCI sockets for both sockets in kitchen next to micro-thingy which did not have them. Thag bought circuit-tester too.

Thag read instrucshums for GFCI. So Thag go get screwdriver and look for pliers. No pliers.

Thag-child have pliers from jewelry kit. Yay, Thag-child.

Thag go into basement and turn off juice to micro-thingy and burned socket. Thag unscrew old socket from wall, and it comes out in pieces. Burned pieces. Hot wires burned away wrapping, too. Thag take off wires from bottom part, turn back on juice, and use circuit tester to check if bottom wires are "load" or "line". Surprise! Bottom wires are "line".

Thag follow instrucshums, bang Thag-head on kitchen cabinet, cut up back of finger, but force all copper wires for "line" into screws on GFCI socket. Then Thag look at "load" wires. Bad burned off wrapping.

Thag go back to hardware store, buy PVC tape and real pliers.

Thag wrap up naked copper on hot wires. Then Thag force load wires into place in screws on GFCI socket. Thag go downstairs, turn on juice, and test socket. It works! Yay!

Thag go back downstairs, turn off juice, then take apart second socket. But Thag-fingers feel bad tingle. Thag test circuit, and it still has juice. Second socket not on same circuit as first socket and micro-thingy. Thag put second socket back together and give up.

But Thag fix burned socket! Thag-wife use micro-thingy, and no burn smell! Yay!

Happy birthday rikibeth!

This was a long weekend, with two movies ("The Spiderwick Chronicles" and "Jumper"), a party, a send-off, and a minor crisis. Take it away, Thag!

Morning after Hot Foods party, Thag was giving coffee to guest rikibeth, and lounging around in bathrobe. When guest and guest-child had to go, Thag wave bye-bye and go to watch pretty pictures on tube. But then Thag hear nasty buzzing noise. Bad-nasty buzzing noise.

Thag look out window, and watch guest-car stuck on ice on driveway. Thag got rid of a bunch of ice, but not all, because pack-ice was frozen solid to ground. And guest was stuck on some.

So Thag quick-dress, and run out to push guest-car off ice. But guest-car have stupid old ~~bug~~ feature where all power go to one wheel which can't use it. Guest-car wheel was spinning into ice. Thag run to garage and get magic ice grip stuff: kitty litter. Thag throw a bunch of kitty litter into ice groove made by guest-car wheel.

Then Thag push again. This time, guest-car go back to where ground was. Yay! Guest turn to leave, and get stuck almost (but not quite) in same place. One useless wheel do all the spinning. Thag put more kitty litter in new groove, then get in front of guest-car and push again.

Guest-car get freed! Guest-car point in right direction and go! Yay! Guest yelled back, "Buy a bag ghost!" This make no sense to Thag, but lots of things friends say make no sense to Thag, so Thag just wave bye-bye.

With much rain later, Thag-child attack driveway with shovel and get rid of more ice. Thag proud of Thag-child.

Then later, guest sends email to Thag-wife, and email say "Write a Thag post". This makes more sense to Thag than "Buy a bag ghost", so Thag do that instead.

Easy installation, they said.

Thag take thermostat out of clamshell. Thag use knife and not cut himself.

Thermostat comes with CD-ROM instructions. Thag watch CD-ROM. First thing CD-ROM says is "Select Thermostat" and shows Thag five different thermostats. The Thermostat Thag-wife bought is not one of them. So Thag pick one which looks most like the one in hand.

Then CD-ROM say "All you need is a Phillips head screwdriver, two AA batteries, a hammer, a power drill, a level, and a pocket screwdriver". Thag have pocket screwdriver. Thag-child finds two AA batteries. Thag looks in tool-cranny for Phillips head screwdriver. It not there. Thag finds Phillips head screwdriver in battery drawer. Thag has no idea why.

Thag listens to CD-ROM say how to pull five wires out of wall and tie them in place on a pencil. Thag look at wall, and sees two wires.

Thag reads instructions. They say that there can be two-wires for heat, and more wires for air conditioning and fans which Thag does not have. Okay. Thag puts CD-ROM back in clamshell, where it was happy.

Thag cannot find little sticky labels for wires, but that is okay, because Thag has two wires, one red and one white. Thag was going to assume that red wire goes in red wire slot and white wire goes in white wire slot, but Thag has been nailed by that before. So Thag reads instructions. Red wire goes in red wire slot, and white wire goes in white wire slot.

Thag unscrews old stupid 1977 thermostat off of wall. Thag puts back-plate of new thermostat on wall. Thag marks wall where new holes are. Thag pounds Phillips head screwdriver thru wall. Thag puts plaster bracket in hole. Thag hammers plaster bracket with butt-end of screwdriver. Perfect! Thag does it again on the other side. Perfect! Thag screws screws into plaster brackets with offended Phillips head screwdriver. Perfect! Thag forgot to use screwdriver as a level, but back-plate is level anyway. Perfect! Stupid CD-ROM.

Thag gets pocket screwdriver out, removes heating/cooling jumper wire just like instructions for two-wire thermostat tell him to. Then Thag puts red wire in red wire slot and white wire in white wire slot.

Thag puts two AA batteries in thermostat. Thag screws thermostat onto back-plate. Then Thag sets desired temperature and clock. Desired temperature is 64F.

Thermometer on thermostat tells Thag it is 86F in room.

Furnace guy comes tomorrow. Because it is 86F in room. New thermostat not helping.

Thag rake the west side of yard.

Thag rake the south side of yard.

Thag rake the east side of yard.

Thag just sort of touched up the north side of yard, which isn't all that leafy anyway, and has pricker-bushes which hate Thag.

That all take Thag three hours.

Thag shower now.

Current Music: We Care a Lot -- Faith No More

Thag and Thag girl-child stack wood what fell down. We snart: we make two stacks half as high so wood won't fall down again. Then Thag girl-child tie up tarp over wood with twine.

Then Thag rake leaves. Last week, Thag raked west side. Today, Thag raked south side, lots of pine needles, and east side, lots of oak leaves.

Rake, rake, rake.

Thag careful not to rake up moss. Moss good. But ground wet, so hard to rake leaves without raking moss.

But Thag did good work. For two hours, Thag did good work.

Now, to friends' pot-luck!

Thag look at big pile of seasoned wood. Thag gets Thag-daughters, and Thag starts hauling wood.

All of wood fits in shed. Yay!

And the cord of seasoned wood only took an hour and a half to do. Yay!

Thag fall down now.

Day starts with cats dumping all Thag's stuff into garbage. Thag fish out cell phone and car key and book and other bed-side shelf stuff.

Then phone goes off. Wood-man says he is twenty minutes from dumping two cords of wood on Thag-lawn. Thag get up and get dressed.

Wood-man shows up. Wood-man dumps a cord of green wood and a cord of seasoned wood which looks black, but that is because it is wet. Okay. Thag pay Wood-man.

Then Thag get two Thag-daughters to stack green wood in wood-shed, so seasoned wood will go in last and come out first. Thag snart.

Two hours later, Thag figure out that no way are two cords of wood going to fit into wood-shed. Nuh-uh. No how. But Thag-wife is snart. Thag-wife say that we have tarp, so Thag-daughters should stack green wood between two trees in Thag-forest, and we can cover it up and let it season there. Hooray!

So Thag hauls green wood to good spot, and Thag-daughters stack it between two trees. Then Thag and older Thag-daughter cover it with tarp and tie tarp down.

Just a cord of seasoned wood to haul and stack tomorrow. Most will go into wood-shed, but some will not. Thag will worry about that tomorrow.

Then I take my girls to their school's "Fall Festival", where my younger enters the jam tarts she made herself into the Baking Contest. IMHO, she had the best thing there (puff pastry and fig jam), followed closely by "apple brownies" (which had no chocolate; these were more like apple bars, but they were good) and then "pumpkin squares" (some good pumpkin cake). None of those three entries won anything; instead, an orange-swirl cake which obviously came out of a box won first prize, and some bland chocolate chip cookies won second. The judges were obviously brain-dead. Or at least tongue-dead.

My younger got to ride a pony, and she won several bags of candy in the "scarecrow relay", in which a runner runs to a box of scarecrow clothes, and relays them back to their partner who has to put them on. First dressed scarecrow wins.

Both girls painted pumpkins, because nobody trusts children with knives these days.

I'm pretty much knackered, but Thag gets to finish hauling wood tomorrow.

EDIT: I added the "exercize" tag because hey, I hauled a freaking cord of wood over the course of three hours. Worked up a sweat and everything.

Current Music: Buffalo Soldier -- Bob Marley

Test-ran Scooba.

Thag nail up gutter. Again.

Recorded data from Scooba test-run. Test-run again (needs 4 runs; this makes 2 down).

Wrote some bills.

Took daughters to book-store to buy birthday present for friend for tomorrow.

Bought "Fun Home" for me and

tamidon

Bought gasoline

Got more cash.

Paid younger daughter for de-weeding front steps.

Finally got Sirius subscription started; have sat-rad in car now.

Test-ran Scooba (almost done!)

Washed and dried three loads of laundry to remove kitten urine. (They have neutering appointment in October.)

Last Scooba test done!

Loaded dishwasher; it will run when last laundry load and shower are done.

Arranged evening rendez-vous for self and kids.

Next up: shower!

For those of you who were wondering where Thag went, he's possessing Millie.

Thag look out window, and find gutter hanging on by one corner.

Bah. Thag need hammer, Thag need ladder.

No ladder. Last ladder disintegratamated. Stupid wood what rots.

But Thag-wife long ago got side-table for bench for deck. Good cedar wood what rots not.

Thag try to heft up far corner, but middle of gutter crimps.

Thag try to heft up middle of gutter. That worked. Bang long gutter nails back into bad wood with hammer.

Then Thag bangs far corner back into bad wood.

Then Thag bangs other nails into different places, but gutter still slopes down the way it has to.

Thag removes old dead icicle lights, because Thag is there and old lights don't work.

Then Thag goes in to rinse off green powder from trees.

So Thag-wife take Thag-girls to Connect-the-Dots. Then Thag-wife go to Lunacon.

Thag shovel snow. Thag shovel half-a-foot of snow last night, but start of driveway look like Thag did nothing when Thag was done. Thag-wife say Thag look like yeti.

Thag-wife called plow-man last night, so Thag not have to shovel snow at four in morning.

Thag pride hurt. But Thag back hurt more.

Thag shovel more snow today. Thag shovel four-foot drift in front of garage. Thag shovel two-foot drift from front porch and steps.

Plow-man come by, and Thag pay plow-man for plowing.

Thag finish shoveling out Thag-car. Thag shovel out places where plow-man could not get.

Thag eat leftover stew now.

Thag shovel out back deck and hot-tub later.

Current Location: 01460

Thag back. Thag girl-child cold. Thag girl-child cold because Thag girl-child have cold room. Thag girl-child have cold room because windows in cold room are crap.

So Thag shrink-wrap windows. Tape box scream "Sticks too much to plaster!!! Only put on wood or metal!!!" So Thag stick tape to wood. But some tape stick, and some tape not stick. Thag stick tape to metal, but some tape stick and some tape not stick.

Shrink-wrap stick to tape, and shrink-wrap stick to shrink-wrap. Hair dryer shrink shrink-wrap. Shrink-wrap pull tape up from sill. More tape. Kind of stick now.

Snow tomorrow. Will see if Thag girl-child's room still cold.

I was curled up under the blanket, reading a Good Book (tm, not (R)), and drinking mint tea when Thag interrupted me.

Thag cold.

Why, so you're right, Thag. It is both chilly and miserable out. Dank. Dreary, even.

Thag cold.

So you said. What are you going to do about it?

Thag make fire.

Thag make fire.

Fire good.

Current Mood: warm
Current Music: Watcher of the Skies -- Genesis

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feste_sylvain

September 2013

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Entries tagged with thag

Dutch Ovens on the Roof

Ay, See?

Labor Day Weekend

Showerhead

Thag Do It Again

Thag Swing Hammer

GFCI: the Sequel

GFCI

Partial Weekend Update

Thag Play With Wires

Once More, with Thag

Thag Rake Leaves

Ugh Sunday

Ugh Saturday

Errand Saturday

Out-of-Body

Thag Fix Gutter

8 Tons Down, 4 to Go

Thag Shrink-Wrap Windows

Thag Back