What did you do today? - 2020 version

[Ronstar]

This requires you to post a photo of whatever the drainage solution contraption will look like!

And photos of what the 10' gutter sections look like in the Hyundai

 

[O2Bfree]

Took mom to the assisted living place she's moving back into to look at the apartment and put a deposit down. I'm wondering how she's gonna fit the stuff she has in her 2 BR place, plus the extra storage room, into the 1 BR place. The management at her current residence said they'd let her break her lease without penalty, so that should get her out of an extra months' rent. I've asked her doctor for a letter anyways, just to cover the bases.

The smoke here is a little worse today, 306, which is the highest it's been. The air is dead-calm, we're not even getting the afternoon north breeze that we usually get in the summer.

 

[sengsational]

Turned the A/C set point down and put a chair in front of the electric meter. Lucky for me, it ticked to the next kWh digit in about one minute. Flipped all breakers off except for the sauna, which I turned on.

All that was done just after DW left the house for an errand, so as not to have to explain my whacky actions.

If you haven't guessed, I wanted to find out how many kWh the sauna used. Over the next 100 minutes, 3 kWh were consumed. 2 in the first 30 minutes, and I waited and waited for that last tick. It really doesn't come on top much once it heats up. I entered and exited every 10 or 15 minutes to simulate actually using the sauna.

Yeah, so $0.30 to take a sauna. Blowing through some dough!

 

[kgtest]

Turned the A/C set point down and put a chair in front of the electric meter. Lucky for me, it ticked to the next kWh digit in about one minute. Flipped all breakers off except for the sauna, which I turned on.

All that was done just after DW left the house for an errand, so as not to have to explain my whacky actions.

If you haven't guessed, I wanted to find out how many kWh the sauna used. Over the next 100 minutes, 3 kWh were consumed. 2 in the first 30 minutes, and I waited and waited for that last tick. It really doesn't come on top much once it heats up. I entered and exited every 10 or 15 minutes to simulate actually using the sauna.

Yeah, so $0.30 to take a sauna. Blowing through some dough!

Nice! Our next home will have a sauna... doesn't need to be huge, big enough for 2 or 3. Along with a jaccuzzi hot tub + tv combo and outdoor shower.

 

[Walt34]

W2R, y'all be careful now, hear?

After stalling until a bit after 10:00 AM I spent most of the day outside with the jackhammer and the tiller breaking up what passes for "soil" around here. I suppose someplace in the country it is worse than here, but honestly I've never seen soil this hard and with so many rocks in it. I'm really surprised that plants grow around here as well as they do. But I spent most of my life in the Washington, D.C. area so I've had limited exposure. The weather is perfect for this, at least for me. High overcast most of the day, a light breeze constantly blowing, and the high temperature of around 78° F.

I'm done with most of it except for some much smaller bare spots here and there so I'll take on those as time and energy permit.

 

[calmloki]

Got in touch with a known competent person at a title company and then the agent who came up with a buyer for our oldest apartments. Allegedly the buyer will complete his property sale this week and we will all sign for his 1031 exchange into owning our apartments on Friday. We'll carry the contract for the next 10 years. Gonna be real strange not interacting with the shiny faced students who went to college a couple blocks from the apartments, but those old buildings were wanting more and more work. City Hall has a picture up from the 1800's showing tracks for the train that ran between Monmouth and Independence going right by one of our buildings. Nine of our remaining 36 units soon gone. We are going to sell 8 more units to a young guy we transferred 7 units to several years ago; and a real estate agent I've known since he was a kid with a bug and I was a VW mech is hot to get our tri-plex. That will leave the newest (relative term) 16 unit complex as our last remaining rentals. They are boring cookie cutter apartments, won't hurt when they go away.

A certain amount of sadness involved; plunking money into CDs and bank accounts doesn't have the same feel. Maybe we can do something weird like buy new view property that is freshly cleared/charred. Air Quality numbers here are in the 100 range - 12 miles closer to the fires in Salem it is around 435. Up near the trailer court we sold in Gates more like 500. Might be a buying opportunity. Yuck.

 

[Gumby]

An early morning run to Lowes, followed by hard work out in the yard all day. I put in a metal edging strip next to our pavered driveway to keep the mulch from around the azaleas from washing into the driveway after a hard rain. Put down some garden soil and grass seed in a spot where I'm trying to improve the grass; the soil there is mostly ground rock and has insufficient organic matter, so I'm hoping the garden soil helps Then I fertilized the entire lawn, fertilized the rhododendrons and watered everything. I also moved one of the rosemary bushes so it will properly fit under my winter greenhouse contraption.

After lunch, I spent several hours working to clear a pile of brush, leaves, dirt, old bricks, and pieces of pavement that my neighbor had piled under my pine trees in the back yard. I cleared and bagged (or used for mulch) everything to the property line and stacked the bricks on his side. I'm hoping he gets the message.

 

[Chuckanut]

Installed motion activated solar lights near my rear deck. Now when large or small critters scamper across the decks at 2:00 AM, the lights will go on. It will be interesting to see how often that happens.

 

[ckelly78z]

I've been working the last few (cooler days in the 70*s) on stacking my firewood supply for the season. This wood has been cut up, and drying all Summer, and will further dry under my barn awning in the wind.

I need to help my SIL secure his supply also by taking the log splitter down to their place.

 

[pacergal]

staying inside for the past week due to fire and air quality. AQI 375 right now.
You would think the house would be spotless! But, no.
Even with doors and windows shut tight, smokey smell still permeates some days. Cough, runny nose and watery eyes.

To those of you in the Hurricane Sally area, stay safe.
Wish you could send some rain this way.

 

[O2Bfree]

staying inside for the past week due to fire and air quality. AQI 375 right now.
You would think the house would be spotless! But, no.
Even with doors and windows shut tight, smokey smell still permeates some days. Cough, runny nose and watery eyes.

To those of you in the Hurricane Sally area, stay safe.
Wish you could send some rain this way.

Not sure if you have any air filtration built into your home. We don't, and I started feeling those symptoms yesterday so I'm trying to do some filtering with an 18" x 20" furnace filter duct-taped to a box fan. It does seem to be helping some. Couldn't hurt, and the filter was just $8.88 at Walmart.

 

[pacergal]

O2Bfree--
Yes, thank you. We have a higher MERV filter on our furnace and I am running the fan. Just changed the filter 3 weeks ago and again today.

 

[tmm99]

O2Bfree--
Just changed the filter 3 weeks ago and again today.

What did the 3-week-old filter look like? (Just curious.)

 

[homestead]

staying inside for the past week due to fire and air quality. AQI 375 right now.
You would think the house would be spotless! But, no.
Even with doors and windows shut tight, smokey smell still permeates some days. Cough, runny nose and watery eyes.

To those of you in the Hurricane Sally area, stay safe.
Wish you could send some rain this way.

One trick I learned years ago is you can use a regular portable fan to clean the air in a room. Just point the fan away from you at a wall. The impurities in the air will stick to the wall. We are getting by with just fans now as we loaned our air cleaner to our dd family.

 

[Walt34]

AM Dr. appointment, routine follow up, all's well except my sodium is high. Last time it was low. Gee, I can't win. Okay, drink more water. And to top it off they were out of flu shots so I'll have to back or get it elsewhere. No biggie yet, it's still early in the season but that sounds like a warning not to dawdle getting it.

More yard work, finished up with the largest areas that I had planned on jackhammering and tilling/seeding this year. I'll do some smaller areas but not to the same depth and see what happens.

 

[W2R]

What we did today

It looks like Hurricane Sally isn't going to affect us. Our hurricane warning, flood warning, tornado warning, are gone and the only warning left is a storm surge warning so we are pretty much "home free" now. Well, our massive flood gates are still closed, but that will probably last until Sally dissipates.

2020 is beginning to wear on us, as it might be doing to some others here perhaps. Old folks like Frank and me remember the good old days and it's hard not to lose hope for the future. "What's next?" we think.

Today we went on a 30+ minute pleasure drive throughout nearby suburbs, trying to lessen the 2020 angst. While driving we talked about happiness and what we can do to be more happy, within the constraints/rules we have when living in 2020. Life goes on! And we might as well enjoy retirement as much as we safely can.

 

[Gumby]

The young wife and I were discussing this at dinner last night. This is not exactly the retirement we contemplated. But I'd still rather go through this year as a retired person than as a working person. It has been relatively easy for us to cope with the restrictions and life is still good.

 

[RobbieB]

I'm glad I'm retired for sure!

If I was working I'd be worried about losing my job as well as getting the covid. Since my job was supporting field sales and in house customer support I can just see myself trying to do wiring / soldering / crimping to spec drawings with a friggin' mask on.

 

[W2R]

The young wife and I were discussing this at dinner last night. This is not exactly the retirement we contemplated. But I'd still rather go through this year as a retired person than as a working person. It has been relatively easy for us to cope with the restrictions and life is still good.

I'd rather live under a bridge and eat worms to survive, than to go back to work. I can't honestly go as far as you, though, and claim that it has been easy to cope with the restrictions. We do what we must do, but often it's hard. Well, harder at some times than at other times, I suppose. Oddly, what seems hard for one of us to bear is not hard for the other, and vice versa. And also, extraneous stresses (like the hurricane) seem to make everything worse.

I think the key to happiness for us in 2020 is to pay attention to what new activities might make us happier, yet still safe. We tend to rely upon the same old hobbies and activities and that can get boring.

 

[Souschef]

It looks like Hurricane Sally isn't going to affect us. Our hurricane warning, flood warning, tornado warning, are gone and the only warning left is a storm surge warning so we are pretty much "home free" now. Well, our massive flood gates are still closed, but that will probably last until Sally dissipates.

2020 is beginning to wear on us, as it might be doing to some others here perhaps. Old folks like Frank and me remember the good old days and it's hard not to lose hope for the future. "What's next?" we think.

Today we went on a 30+ minute pleasure drive throughout nearby suburbs, trying to lessen the 2020 angst. While driving we talked about happiness and what we can do to be more happy, within the constraints/rules we have when living in 2020. Life goes on! And we might as well enjoy retirement as much as we safely can.

I am so glad you were not affected by Sally. DW and I did almost the same thing as you. We packed a lunch and went to our secret place on the ocean, Listened to Pandora, ate lunch, fed the ground squirrels, and just enjoyed being outside.

 

[W2R]

I am so glad you were not affected by Sally. DW and I did almost the same thing as you. We packed a lunch and went to our secret place on the ocean, Listened to Pandora, ate lunch, fed the ground squirrels, and just enjoyed being outside.

Thank you.

That sounds lovely, and peaceful! What a great idea. We thought of going to the park, but like the boat launch area where we do our birdwatching, the park was closed.

 

[Gumby]

Picked our first Moon and Stars watermelon from the garden this morning. 16.5 lbs. It looks good. We'll see how it tastes tonight. I am particularly happy, as it was a volunteer. We may ditch the old Black Diamond variety that we have been growing.

 

[MichaelB]

Picked our first Moon and Stars watermelon from the garden this morning. 16.5 lbs. It looks good. We'll see how it tastes tonight. I am particularly happy, as it was a volunteer. We may ditch the old Black Diamond variety that we have been growing.

Looks nice. Perfect end of summer fruit.

 

[jollystomper]

Participated in a charity golf match yesterday. Normally I volunteer and help with participant registration and various merchandise sales/contests/giveaways before tee-off, and I get to play in the tournament. This year due to the pandemic, the pre and post tournament activities were greatly curtailed so no need for my volunteering. However the organizers were still kind enough to invite the group of us who had volunteered for those activities in the past to play in the tournament.

The covid rules made things a little different. instead of serving lunch in the restaurant before the tournament, they had a cookout where they cooked and bagged your meal. You could eat it anywhere outside, so of course there were lots of space to spread out. 2 to a cart, but the group I was in we have played together over the summer and stayed safe, so we felt comfortable around each other, just masking up when we actually rode in the cart. Instead of the post round dinner and prize raffle, dinner was brought to us on the course, and raffles were set up at various holes.

The weather was excellent, the course is on a river bank so we had spectacular views. All in all a great way to spend a day.

 

[O2Bfree]

Went to the gym for the first time since April. They've limited capacity to 25%, which is plenty for morning - noon attendance. In the weight training areas, a few people wore masks all the time and the rest either had them on but pulled down or didn't have one. Saw a couple people doing cardio with masks on. The gym provides a spray bottle of disinfectant and asks that you wipe down equipment before and after using it. Racquetball and basketball courts, pool, and sauna, and showers are closed, and group fitness classes are canceled. The management has made good use of the racquetball courts by putting one spin bike in each court. Didn't see any of my gym buddies, but talked with both of the long-time custodians. They were out of work April-August, but pulled through ok thanks to stimulus money.

Edit to add: Air quality is still "unhealthy" today at 166. Rain and breezes are supposed to move in, but didn't come through last night as forecasted.