Message #33349

[Steve E.]

Hi Pam, me too on the MIA stuff.  Not much has been going on with me lately...besides of course taking out the garbage.  One of the Hallmark channels was running episodes of Fraiser for awhile but seems to have ended that run.  Kathy found some reruns of Red Skelton's show.  Different times and a different style of comedy.  Have been enjoying them all the same.  Back to our regularly scheduled program...

I woke up around 0700 this morning.  That is about the time the sun rises enough to wake me up lately.  Hit the shower and got dressed for the day's activities.  Kathy had already fed Ginger her morning meal, so she was ready for her morning walk.  We headed out for the preserve.  It was a good walk, a bit cool but not cold.  The weather has been interesting lately.  NO rain since March I think.  Fall weather has been interesting too.  Daytime high in the low 80's with overnight temps in the 40's.

Got back home in time to meet our handyman.  He started on replacing our back fence today.  Some 225 feet need to be replaced.  I am helping a bit too.  He is doing the replacement of the the cross pieces, sets the boards, and I finish screwing them tight.  We are using doug fir pressure treated 2 X 4's for the cross pieces.  Hopefully this will help the fence last longer than we will be here.  We are doing the fence in 32 foot sections.  Figure that is about as much as we can do in one day.

Since I am not needed constantly in the construction I was able to get some other stuff done.  Like empty the garbage cans into the gray cart.  The recycle stuff into the blue cart.  The green waste is not yet filled up, later today.  After the garbage collection I headed out to Los Gordos for lunch.  My usual fish taco.  Just good plain food that is very tasty.  After lunch I headed for my local drug store to order refills for my meds.  I have them all on the same time frame so it makes for just one trip.

Back at home it was time for me to start to contribute to the fence construction.  Drill in hand and screws in a belt pouch I began.  Since we are using 1 X 8 X 6' boards they take three screws for each cross piece.  Hopefully that cut down on any cupping of the boards as they dry out.  These first two sections of 16' each were the hardest.  We had to work alongside a storage shed I put up many moons ago.  So the space was tight to work in, which slowed us down a bit.  Tomorrow should be different.  But finished for the day we picked up our tools and our handyman headed for home.

Me, I picked up the leaf blower and started on the front yard.  Yep, while the weather is different this year, the falling leaves need to be picked up.  While I was clearing the yard, Kathy arrived home.  Finally all in one pile I moved the green waste cart close so I could load it.  Kathy came out to help.  She picks up the leaves and dumps them into the cart while I compact them.  I use a medium garbage can of the heavy plastic type.  It is round and fits into the cart.  We fill the cart and still have leaves in the pile.  So I grab the gray cart and we finish picking up leaves for disposal.  All three carts are now in the street for pick up tomorrow morning.

We could have another green waste cart but the city is now charging and extra $4 per month. Just Not Worth it for the 8 months of the year it doesn't get used.  From November thru January I can haul leaves to the city transfer station for free.  Right now the trailer is half full of trashy stuff so it is not available for a leaf run.  Soon as I can get to the transfer station it will be empty.  Then I line it with a cheap blue tarp and load leaves.  Of course they need to be compacted.  After about a month of loading leaves the trailer is ready for a trip to the transfer station.

Time for supper.  An excellent meal of leftover beef stew.  Kathy fixed it the other night and it is very tasty.  Plus leftovers make for an easy meal fix.  No desert for me tonight.  After dishes are rinsed and put in the dishwasher it is time for some TV.  Recorded half hour shows for us tonight.  Re-runs of current comedies.  Kathy heads off to bed.  I sit down to write this missive as I have actually been busy today.

I swear it don't get no better!