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Old 07-24-2020, 09:27 PM   #1361
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I can sympathize. When my condo was built, the idiot developers put eucalyptus trees behind each garage in about a 3 by 3 fort area. If they grew they would tear up the driveways. We turned them all into firewood.
Also the idiots planted sycamore tree around the pools, and every fall it was a disaster because of falling leaves.

Their final act of stupidity was to plant olive trees, so we had to spray them every year so they would not set fruit.Otherwise, all the olives would fall and stain the walkways.
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Old 07-25-2020, 04:14 PM   #1362
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Early morning (7:30) grocery run for some filet mignon, potatoes, salad stuff and fixin's. Put all that stuff away, then take a nap. Woke up, mowed the rest of the "back forty" that I didn't finish yesterday because it got dark. Took another nap. Starting to see a pattern here.
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Old 07-25-2020, 05:03 PM   #1363
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The jackhammer is an excellent suggestion. I wasn't expecting the job to be as hard as it was, and once I get started I'm pretty stubborn. But great idea! SWMBO was talking about putting a few smaller (4') crape myrtles down the side yard, and I'm sure there are more ideas where those came from. An electric jackhammer would make me a much more effective manual laborer. Thanks.
It just occurred to me that perhaps a post hole digger would work for the ground in that location? And if you don't want to buy one I'd guess that most rental places would have something similar.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sportsma...-301687344-_-N
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Old 07-25-2020, 09:59 PM   #1364
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It just occurred to me that perhaps a post hole digger would work for the ground in that location? And if you don't want to buy one I'd guess that most rental places would have something similar.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sportsma...-301687344-_-N
I don't know.... That does not augur well...
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Old 07-25-2020, 10:03 PM   #1365
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I had actually thought about that, but my hole was 44" across.

I did finish the dig today. Then we mixed up the planting mix and fertilizer with the clay soil and put it back in the hole. Added water, then waited for it to absorb before we planted the tree. And waited, and waited, and waited...

I ended up having to use a hose to drain the hole enough that we wouldn't drown the tree when we planted it. It's a darn good thing the community is on a sewer system. This land wouldn't perk for anything. Amazing soil.
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Old 07-26-2020, 07:35 AM   #1366
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Watched part of the ISS spacewalk this morning.
Just wanted to tell my ISS story that happened many years ago.
I took my the 12 or 13 years old son out to watch the ISS. We were watching for it to come over the horizon, when it did it was confusing because there were two items very close to each other moving in tandem. We watched as they moved across the sky. When they disappeared, I rushed home to google and find out what just happened. It turns out the Space shutttle had just disengaged from the ISS and it was trailing away. It landed at 9am the next morning.
So, we got to see the space shuttle and the ISS!
Heavens-Above is a great sight to get times of visible satellites and their brightness, (lower numbers mean brighter), and much more.

https://heavens-above.com/
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Old 07-26-2020, 02:12 PM   #1367
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After online church I caught up on the interwebs. We had a nice shower from Hanna so I let the rain barrel fill up the fish pond as we're expecting another shower later this afternoon. Also chopped back a leggy sage bush in the herb garden. Sewed a custom pillowcase for DH - first time I've used my sewing machine in several years so I had to pull out the manual to reset the stitch pattern (a friend who actually knows how to sew borrowed it a while back). Replaced a part on DH's mobility scooter - it's brand new but the battery gauge stopped working right away, so the company sent a new console to install. No directions, but pretty obvious what to do fortunately. Remove 6 screws, disconnect two cables, reverse with new part. It works now!

Wrote postcards for a get-out-the-vote campaign for the fall election (they won't get mailed until September). Going to do a little genealogy before fixing Italian(ish) beef and veggie stew for dinner with some of the leftover tri-tip from Friday.
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Old 07-26-2020, 04:30 PM   #1368
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It has been raining hard here due to remnants of Hurricane Hanna. It didn't hit us, but an outer band did and we got a lot of rain. It is still raining hard.

And today, Frank was over at my house and water started dripping on his head, in the laundry room. He thought it was due to the air conditioner, but the AC guy came over, went into the attic, and said it's not the AC but the roof.

I wasn't really surprised because I had a slight leak inside my kitchen pantry during a heavy rainstorm a couple of weeks ago.

So... we don't know a good roofer. But our handyman is excellent, and also a childhood friend of Frank's. I called him and he's going to find a good roofer who has some time available, and get back to me on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I am hoping that since the leaks were about 30' from each other, the roofer will want to replace the whole roof instead of patching it. Then I'll be done with it and will have no more roof issues ever again. I am 72 years old so a new roof might last longer than I do. I know new roofs aren't cheap. Can we say, "Blow That Dough"?

Once the roof is fixed, maybe I can get our plumber over here to replace the hot water heater, which I think might be getting old (?) and also replace the fixtures in one bathroom.

If my annual spending is high this year as a result of all this work, I'll just blame it on the pandemic. I can afford it so might as well get it done.
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Old 07-26-2020, 05:32 PM   #1369
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Finally got some hot-ish (lower 80s) sunny weather. DH and I took the kayaks out on Lake Union, then had a picnic lunch at our "secret spot" beach. Lots of people were out today, and the little beach was pretty busy with young folks launching mostly paddle boards. People usually go to the bigger park just down the road, so the little beach and nearby parking is usually wide open. But since the big park closed, our secret spot and its parking area have been pretty crowded. Though the big park was busy today too, people are just parking on the surrounding streets and walking in. I don't want to think where all those people are going to the bathroom, since the park's bathrooms are closed. We have our bucket and snap on seat in the van, so we're covered for that.

Made a big batch of pad thai on Friday, and we'll finish that for supper along with a couple fish bowls (big frosty mugs of beer with a big green olive dropped in).
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Old 07-26-2020, 07:00 PM   #1370
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I've been giving some thought to my charitable giving lately and decided to focus more on local organizations. After talking to a guy in the know on these issues, I found a local group that intervenes with youth traveling down the wrong road to drugs, gangs, etc. So, I made a small donation, and instructed smile.amazon.com to send them the 1/2% from eligible purchases instead of sending it to the Big Name national charity.



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Shop at smile.amazon.com and we’ll donate to your favorite charitable organization, at no cost to you.
Get started Same products, same prices, same service.
Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases.
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Old 07-26-2020, 08:00 PM   #1371
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I've been giving some thought to my charitable giving lately and decided to focus more on local organizations. After talking to a guy in the know on these issues, I found a local group that intervenes with youth traveling down the wrong road to drugs, gangs, etc. So, I made a small donation, and instructed smile.amazon.com to send them the 1/2% from eligible purchases instead of sending it to the Big Name national charity.
I think that is a great decision to keep it in the community. We donate to a local food bank, and I volunteer at a local hospice repairing their walkers and wheelchairs. I also donate to a local organization helping our local homeless population.
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Old 07-26-2020, 11:15 PM   #1372
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We've been putting the finishing touches on setting up the solar fairy lights in our backyard and sat out there tonight after dark enjoying our handiwork. If we have to sit home more because of COVID we're trying to make it as festive looking as possible. I've always liked fairy lights and now with a credit card, a lot of free time on my hands and an Amazon account, the possibilities are endless, and with solar lights there's no electric bill.
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Old 07-27-2020, 08:39 PM   #1373
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We went out to our garden at about 6:30 am, before it got hot. Picked some cucumbers and greens beans. I canned six pints of beans when we got home and put a bunch of Principe Borghese tomatoes in the food dehydrator. They should be done tomorrow morning, when I will pack them in olive oil.

I also spent a very long time working to create a crossword puzzle for the NYT. Not done yet. I'll work on it again tomorrow.
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Old 07-27-2020, 09:03 PM   #1374
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Old fogey's hour at Costco. Did 3 small Grocery lists including ours. Dropped one off on the way home. DW delivered the other this afternoon.

Wasted two plus hours trying to debug my full systems scan. After reboot, reinstall and a lot of swearing at the digital universe it self corrected??

heh heh heh - I will take credit for?
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Old 07-28-2020, 05:04 AM   #1375
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I've been giving some thought to my charitable giving lately and decided to focus more on local organizations. After talking to a guy in the know on these issues, I found a local group that intervenes with youth traveling down the wrong road to drugs, gangs, etc. So, I made a small donation, and instructed smile.amazon.com to send them the 1/2% from eligible purchases instead of sending it to the Big Name national charity.
Amazon Smile is great. I've been using it for years to help my county library. If you shop at a Kroger supermarket, they have a similar program.
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Old 07-28-2020, 05:50 AM   #1376
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Amazon Smile is mostly free advertising for Bezos.
[mod edit]
but we've been focused on supporting local charities right now.
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Old 07-28-2020, 01:00 PM   #1377
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Busy day today:

7:00 am - walk dog.

7:30 am - Meet ROMEO group at Burger King

900 am - Take DW to a quick breakfast at IHop

10:00 am - Costco for gas and groceries

11:00 am - Walmart to pick up DW's prescriptions.

11:30 am on - Relax

Later - Walk dog, watch ball game.

Tough day!
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Old 07-28-2020, 01:52 PM   #1378
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Drove over to Livermore to get the 20 lb CO2 tank refilled. Stopped at the hardware for some sheet aluminum and picked up a couple of Ramens at Ramen 101
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Old 07-28-2020, 02:29 PM   #1379
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Went to the drugstore to pick up some prescriptions, then stopped in at Home Depot to get some dowel rods (no particular reason for those but they're handy to have around from time to time and I was running low) and several bags of top soil for some remediation projects in the fall.

Now of course my back hurts from moving bags of top soil.

I found the fertilizer and grass seed I want are cheaper at Amazon so I'll order those online and of course I won't have to move them around so much. The UPS guy can have the sore back.
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Old 07-28-2020, 03:18 PM   #1380
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Amazon Smile is mostly free advertising for Bezos.
[mod edit]
but we've been focused on supporting local charities right now.
Interesting. I've used it to donate over $1600 to the Chicago Chamber Choir over the last couple of years without ever seeing Bezos' name or thinking about him. Pretty crappy advertising technique.
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