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• Finished texturing the ceiling around the new pendant light I installed in our dining room ceiling. (Matching ceiling textures, what fun—not!) Think I got it right, or close enough to be unnoticeable to all but professionals (they won't be allowed to see it). Applied primer (what confidence!) and awaiting the morning sun to render its verdict.

• Played the banjo for two hours. (My motto: "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't let good taste hold you back.")

• Saw a photo of Mr. Trump emerging from a church with a bible in his hand, and marveled that even a materialistic, authoritarian real-estate developer could suddenly find humility and redemption. ;?)

• Played "chase the nummy" with our formerly feral housecat, who has decided to keep up his predatory skills even though his food will now magically appear for the rest of his life.

• Took the wife out for beer 'n' burgers at the new brewery-café that had the misfortune of opening here in our small town in March, then bravely stuck around till it was allowed to open again a couple of weeks ago. Enjoyed the novelty of mysterious masked servers.

• Thought of all the wonderful peeps like you, doing all kinds of long-delayed home projects now that we have all this spare time, and figured the volume of questions had probably increased quite a bit here.
 
Shan, the yard still looks better than mine. LOL.
Zepper, sounds like you were productive.

I just found out my best friend has been exposed to Covid by his crackhead mother (who may also have exposed me the other day) after she knowingly exposed herself at a church that has been shut down for a Covid outbreak. She asked for a ride & touched stuff in my truck that I also touched, coughed around me & her son, & never thought to warn us that she'd been exposed. She told my friend after he gave her a lift yesterday & he was LIVID. She knows my family has at-risk members. I've had a cough the past few days but it's a wet cough so I hope it's from the weather/allergies. Been having headaches too which usually means sinus related. I'm not worried about myself getting it, but I don't want to risk spreading it to anyone. If my cough persists I'll talk to my doctor on Monday.

My friend is quarantining himself until he gets the test results back. Until the results are in he was told by his boss not to come in to work. It also means he won't be able to help me with some stuff if he's quarantining.

I was supposed to go pick something up from HomeDepot today but I don't want to expose anyone. I'll have to send my mother in to get it.
 
Friend tested negative but he said they just about shoved the q-tip thing into his brain. Said it felt like they were scrubbing with a wire brush. Sounds like they are using the older less efficient testing kits & methods.
He has to be tested next week and again a week after that. Insurance doesn't cover it so he has to pay $150 each time. I could have sworn the head of the CDC said tests would be free.
I picked up some plumbing supplies for mom's bathroom. Drain for the shower, P-trap, couplings, sanitary tee, wye. Forgot to get a 2" cleanout piece, but I can get one later since the shower won't arrive for awhile.
 
Testing is supposed to be free, you do basically scrub the brain (it feels like it), all test kits have a bristle, you have to insert to the right depth, leave it for 30 seconds to a minute dependent on test and then on the way out, twist in circles.... not an enjoyable experience at all. Hopefully you'll be ok and not get sick.
 
Shan, the only place that would do the testing was an emergency clinic that charges up front for visits ($150 is standard for a visit regardless of whether or not they actually treat people or run tests) & the nurse was angry that my friend was getting the test. She said it was too soon, but his employer made him get the test (thus I think his employer should have to reimburse him). She was pissed off and was deliberately rougher than necessary. My friend said his face still hurts from it.
I've heard they have newer tests that don't require the nasal scrub to be so aggressive, but I'm guessing they won't be available here for a long time (if ever).
 
zannej said:
his employer made him get the test (thus I think his employer should have to reimburse him)
Click to expand...
It might vary by state, but usually by law the employer must reimburse employees if the employer makes employees get tests that cost money. I know this is true for drug tests, no reason it wouldn't be true for others.
 
Flyover, they *should* reimburse him but we'll see whether or not they do. He's only getting 1/5th of the unemployment he was getting before despite getting less than 20hrs a week. His paycheck landed late & he only had $30 left after paying his bills.
We were suppose to go to U-Pullit to look for parts for his car but he wasn't awake when I was & I didn't know if he had $ to get anything. Plus my orders for Lowes & HD were delayed so they weren't ready for pickup & I didn't have much of a reason to go up there. I fell asleep before he got up & didn't wake up until it was too hot to go.
I did manage to get my brother to help me haul trash out. He's supposed to empty the trash cans & take the bags to the burn pile but most of the time if he even empties the cans (I usually have to do it) he leaves the bags in the front room. I'm guilty of piling them in the front room too because I have a hard time lifting and carrying things. Plus sometimes it was raining. He'd let them pile up for over 6 months. I managed to take one out the other day but it was so hot I nearly keeled over. My brother works in a kitchen so he's used to heat.
He took some of the bags outside to take to the burn pile while I grabbed more to bring to the door. But that wasn't good enough for him. He wanted me to take them all the way to the pile so he would have less work to do. It's his job to do it so I didn't feel the least bit guilty. Plus it was way too hot for me out there. He told me I should toughen up and that I "need to push through the discomfort". Says the fata$$ who weighs over 300lbs from sitting on his butt doing nothing but stuff his face & play on his computer since March. I didn't want him to stop helping so I didn't remind him that he gets all of his bills paid for in exchange for taking out the trash. It's his one chore & he agreed to do it once or twice a week but wouldn't even do it once a month. Since March he has only taken trash out of the kitchen twice (but he piled it in the front room).
There were also boxes from amazon deliveries. Many of the older trash bags had ripped, spilled, mice were nesting in them etc. I filled 3 contractor bags with the stuff that had spilled (along with HVAC filters that were used).
After the last bag was out, he declared he was done but I pointed out the boxes needed to go too. He told me I could do it myself. I told him my back was about to give up on me (it was twinging pretty badly at that point). So he went & got gloves & came and helped with some of the boxes. One box had a mouse nest in it. Picked it up and stuff spilled out, mouse ran away & my brother dropped the bag he was holding open for me and said he was done. I stopped myself from saying "You need to push through the discomfort" as he chickenfooted away.
I finished cleaning up the rest of the mess. All that remains now is a box with his laundry/bedding in it from when he slept in that room because he'd junked up his own room so badly he couldn't reach his bed. He then junked up the front room so badly I had to pay a couple friends to help me clean it up before my sister came to visit. He promised me he'd clean it but the day before she was arriving he still hadn't touched it so I called in reinforcements & we rushed to get it done (I'd been busy cleaning the kitchen and bathroom).
Friend also cleaned his room for him (only time my brother's room has been cleaned is when a friend came over and did it). Although, I shouldn't complain about cleaning bedrooms. I have boxes I haven't unpacked since we moved back. LOL. But I don't have garbage all over my floor at least. I do have some laundry though. I need him to clear his garbage out of the hallway so I can get to the laundry room with larger loads. Got some bedding to wash.
At least I accomplished *something*

Edit: Ugh, just pulled fire ants off my chin. They were on some of the boxes I had to haul out & they climbed on me. Chewed my leg up, got my arm a bit and now my chin. There aren't enough expletives in the world to describe my feelings about fire ants.
 
Well, a shady employer is a shady employer I guess. They're sort of breaking the law by not reimbursing him. From the way you describe his financial situation he could probably qualify for the free legal help that's often offered by law schools and sometimes by large churches and other organizations like that; they might be able to get him his money.

As for unemployment, I'm not sure how it's calculated. I'm certain that info is online somewhere. I know it has to do with how much you paid into the system while you were employed, which makes sense. In my state at least, they tell you how much total $$ you have available in unemployment benefits, and then you get it in weekly disbursements calculated to be some percentage (like half, or a third or something) of what you were making when fully employed. It's been a real lifesaver for me this year, that's for sure.
 
Turns out my brother didn't take the trash out of the bathroom. Ugh. He's also refusing to haul the rest of the bags (which are now on the porch) out to the burn pile. Claims he'll do it "in the morning". I doubt it. He said he was going to put some food up the other day- never did & it went bad. I just had to dump it out.
Got a migraine and toothache going & naproxyn isn't kicking in yet.

Employees are not supposed to pay in to unemployment. That's on the employer. If the employee is being made to pay in, it's illegal. My friend was getting a lot more unemployment before the told him he had to go back to work.

This is a very litigious state. Tons of lawyers but none of them do work for free. They charged his fiance $ to fill out a form to see if she qualified for a court appointed attorney to represent her (she qualified but still had to pay the fee). Church groups around here don't help people. They just harass people, treat waitstaff & store clerks like garbage, and spread Covid. There are 100 churches in my town & not a single one was willing to help my friend when his house burned. The church directly next to where he lives now has actually caused him problems by vandalizing his property & filing false complaints with the city against him.

My friend really should be getting some sort of disability added to his pay because his injuries from the car wreck limit his ability to work long hours & he has trouble waking up on time (partially due to the damage from the brain injury). But it seems only people who aren't actually disabled can get it here.

I changed the HVAC filters & am researching windows to replace the ones in the bathroom and laundry room with. Thus far only one window at Lowes matches the criteria. https://www.lowes.com/pd/ReliaBilt-...in-x-36-in-Actual-23-5-in-x-35-75-in/50278391
 
So.... I knocked this out in about 30 minutes. I have to go buy more wood tomorrow because I change it up some. I have a 5.25" veggie and garden trellis to attach to it for my tomato plants to grow up. I'll have to go get 8 to 10 more and a couple of 2×4s for bracing.... its solid from front to back..... but side to side is another story. Should I attatch some 2x4 on the bottom inside the front and back? Or will attaching them at the bottom of the three legs be better?
Also, ignore the junk in the background 😳🙄🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️
And, had I been smart i would have attatched the long cross braces with it laying on the ground , but I changed what I was doing mid build.20200610_175925.jpg
 
A storm was coming through last night and I was worried that it would get blown over.... so o had my oldest come outside and we were going to lay it down and prop up one side with something so that it didnt get destroyed..... but then we decided to take one screw out of the side brace and found that it neatly folds into itself. Looks like I planned it that way but I didnt. 20200610_203850.jpg
 
So..... it took me longer than I care to admit, but my back hates me today. I sort off took it partially apart. I dug 6 holes to put each vertical post in the ground. Finished the second section, added garden netting and temporary bamboo poles. i forgot to put the weed barrier down🤦🏼‍♀️😳. Now I need to use this hand tiller tool to loosen up the dirt and add this garden soil to each bamboo pole and the add these tomatoes. I'm gonna try to talk myself into doing it in a few minutes so that I can just relax tomorrow. I am pooped, and I work Saturday through Tuesday.
I've decided to try to do stuff even though it hurts, because I have been waiting for 3 weeks for an appt for an MRI and I had to do physical therapy for 9 weeks and fail it before he would order it.... might be counter productive in the end. But I cant just sit here.20200611_204015.jpg20200611_203904.jpg
 
That looks great, Shan! Love that it folds in, even if it wasn't intended. Is that treated lumber or will you be coating it with something? I hope your garden will grow well.

The weeds in my yard are a nightmare. I need to hire someone who has the proper tools to come mow them down and remove that damn tree growing at the back of the house that we've cut down multiple times & it keeps growing back. Trying to remember what my brother-in-law said to put on the stumps to stop the growth.

Some ups & downs this week. Bad things: Best friend's keyboard & mouse broke (his fiance's nephew came over & used his computer- pounded on the keyboard & slammed the mouse). The nephew also charged $30-$40 worth of game stuff for Fortnite to my friend's account w/o his knowledge or permission & when my friend said he was going to have to do chores to pay him back, the parents decided it was time to leave (they had been crashing at my friend's house for a couple weeks). He's still having car trouble & his fiance can't take her bipolar meds so she had a total meltdown, injured him (nothing major or requiring medical attention), & broke a bunch of stuff including the accordion door. The kittens of 1 of the outside cats all got eye infections. I've been going over to clean their eyes & I got some medicine for them. 1 of them seems to be doing better already.

The ups: Friend showed me how to take apart the vacuum cleaner to fix it (wasn't getting any suction) & we used the vacuum hose cleaner brushes to clear out the clog & he got the string from carpet fraying cut off of the beater. He vacuumed & helped us assemble the 3 tier kitty condo for the kittens we adopted (from one of his cats). They had been staying in a rabbit run & were restless. The new condo is much larger, has 2 beds, a hammock, and 2 ramps. Bottom tier is the litterbox & cat tree level- it's also where the toys keep falling. 2nd tier is food & water. Top tier is where they like to sleep, but sometimes they sleep in the hammock. Condo is set up next to the sliding glass door so the other cats have been watching the kittens like spectators at a zoo. The dog likes the kittens (wagged her tail & touched noses with them through the bars).

We also found a hound puppy in a ditch overheating. He has a flea collar but nothing to indicate who owns him & he was dehyrdrated. Gave him water & food & cooled him off in the truck. He's been sleeping on a dog bed outside (doesn't like being in the house). Not much of an appetite, but he does drink. Taking him to the vet tomorrow to see if anyone recognizes him & hopefully get them to hand him over to animal shelter or foster family.

I've been getting out-of-breath much more easily with this heat & it's only going to get hotter. Need to lose the weight I put on. Have some orders from HomeDepot trickling in over the next few weeks- all ordered at the same time but apparently different shipping times from mfr. Still waiting for Kohler to ship my shower to Lowes. Order status has been stuck at "order processed" after the initial ETA of June 11 was nixed in an e-mail from Lowes. Said it was delayed but no ETA since then. It shows as being in stock.

Misplaced the repair flange for the toilet. Thought it was still in the truck but can't find it. Checked all the places I can think of that I would have put it for safekeeping but it's not there. Will have to check the truck again when it's not as hot out. Maybe it slipped under a seat.

Fippy (mom's chiweenie) unintentionally locked himself in my room with me. Door shut on him after he came through so he's stuck until I let him out. He's sitting next to me sitting upright with his front legs in the air & back legs stretched out in front of him.
 
Shan that looks great! I need to do that also. Zannej The heat used to really make me sick also, but since I've been taken off most of my medicine it doesn't bother me much any more. Got the hallway all re-tiled, painted and wainscoating put up. Installed a new door for the grandsons room. I picked it up at a yard sale for $10.00 stripped it down (was painted white) and stained it(think it's oak) and used one of the sliding barn door kits. Also have been doing a lot of yard work.
 
Thanks guys! I enjoyed doing it. I'm still waiting to put the tomatoes in the ground 🙄. I tried digging up holes to put them in and my back just wouldnt let me. SOOOOOO, I ordered a refurbished tiller/cultivator (electric), it should be here tomorrow. I did report the tomatoes into bigger containers and the still look good and I have had several suckers start and pinched those off. I hope it comes early enough for me to be able to use it and put the maters in the ground because I work Saturday through Tuesday, 2 12 hour shifts and 2 evening shifts. Then, finally Wednesday morning, I get to have my MRI.... although it's for my low back, and that's not where the pain comes from. I do have low back pain, just not where this problem is and I have waited for months, so it's at least a start.
I'm hoping summer isn't horribly hot, but that's silly to think it won't be I suppose.

You guys are getting lots of stuff done. Keep up the good work.
 
Tuffy, I think my meds are part of the problem but I still need to take them. Sounds like you got a lot done!

Shan, I hear you on the back pain. I wish I had taken the notes out of my late friend's greenhouse after he died. He had a notepad with notes on when he planted seedlings that he later transferred to the larger garden. I think August was when he had some of his tomatoes planted.

I really miss the old man. The last friend of his (who was also a mutual friend of my family) recently passed away. I just saw a flyer on FB about the closing of his store. It ran for 60 years. For many years it was just him & his wife (who passed away from cancer a few years ago). Last few years he's been there by himself- no employees. But he's right next to the fire station so the firemen sometimes helped him load stuff. Not sure what will happen to the building/space. I think the family plans to sell it or rent it out.

One of my HomeDepot orders says "ready for pickup" on the status, but I never received an e-mail saying it's ready. I'm going to call in awhile and see if they have it. I also need to see about helping my friend with putting the pulls on his cabinet doors & drawers. I found the repair flange- just need to find the screws. My friend has to go back to work tomorrow so I might see if he can help me put the new toilet in sometime today.

The puppy disappeared before I could take it to the vet. No idea where it went. It wasn't eating so I'm worried about it. Looked all over but couldn't find it & it doesn't come when called.

Kittens are doing well in their kitty condo. Biscuits (one of the older cats) was looking in from the sliding glass door & little Temjin ran down the ramps and was smacking at him through the glass to play. She's a little ball of energy. Namir is more mellow- I suspect he is going to be a very fat cat when he gets older.
 
Found the puppy again when the vet was closed. Gave him some water but he still wouldn't eat. Got up early the next morning to take him to the vet & found he hadn't made it through the night. Buried him near some flowering plants in the yard. I suspect it was Parvo. Poor little thing.

Still waiting on notice from HomeDepot. About 3 or 4 of my items now say they have arrived at the store but have not been prepped for pickup. One says it will be ready the 24th. Another said it should have been ready on the 18th but no texts or e-mails & website says it's not ready for pickup yet. Yet another item still hasn't shipped & date got pushed back again. Original date was June 7, then 11, then 20-- now it's at June 29.

Got the new ADA height toilet in & put a new seat on it. It's softer than plastic but still harder than the old seat-- but looks a LOT better since the old one stained and no amount of bleach or hydrogen peroxide could get it white again. The iron sediment from the water soaked in to it. That particular seat was discontinued because it was impossible to clean. Used the toiletmaster lift jack to remove the old one, set it down, and get the new one in place. It was so much easier than trying to lift a toilet by hand. Put a repair flange on and used a waxless seal. Toilet rocked (I later found out that it's the type of seal & that you're supposed to sit on the toilet for a few minutes to get it to compress before tightening the toilet down) but the floor wasn't level so the front of the toilet had too much wiggle. Used some toilet shims under it-- my friend was shocked because he didn't know toilet shims existed. LOL.

He's getting screwed by unemployment again- they discontinued his benefits because he worked one week & was quarantined for the next two weeks.

My brother found out in an e-mail from his medical insurance company that he may have been laid off. Last he heard from his employer was he still had a job & as furloughed. Just got the e-mail telling him to talk to HR or log on to his employee page to handle is severance benefits. He tried logging in but was locked out so it seems they kicked him from the system. He has to go talk to HR tomorrow to find out what's going on. He will still qualify for Unemployment since he wasn't fired for cause. I've heard of some people who got laid off due to the pandemic & their companies fought the Unemployment pay requests & lied saying they were fired for cause. Others were furloughed & sought temporary unemployment pay but their employers fought it.

Kittens are still doing well. The dog, Princess, insists on going in the room and looking at them a few times a day. She stares & them, wags her tail, and wants to touch noses with them. I've been telling her they are her kittens to protect and love. I need to get Fippy to acclimate to them next. He's a territorial jerk so I expect some resistance.
 
I'm sorry the puppy didnt make it, I was afraid it was Parvo also. You've been super busy! My electric tiller arrived and I put it together, if the ground isnt wet in the morning, I'm going to till the two sides so that i can put these stinking tomato plants in the ground before i have to leave for work at 2 tomorrow. So wish me luck!
 
Parvo is awful & the vet here isn't very good at treating it. We took a puppy we rescued to the vet when she got a little sick with it & went to pick her up only to find out she'd died over the weekend. No one came in to the office to check on her on Sunday so she dehydrated. I was pretty pissed off about it. The vet now has staff to check on the animals on Sundays. My friend's puppy got sick & we suspected Parvo. Took him in & the vet said we caught it just in time. Said if we'd waited longer the puppy wouldn't have pulled through.

Good luck on your tomatoes! My sister planted tomatoes but only the ones in the shade survived. Might ask my uncle for advice on the gardening since he's a master gardener.

E-mail arrived from Lowes & HomeDepot the same day that said my orders had arrived. Tub walls at HD & shower walls & base at Lowes. I called & spent 15 minutes on the phone (first 10 trying to get someone to pick up) to find out if Lowes could actually find my shower before I went out. Spoke with a nice lady named Mary who explained their communication system was garbage & people in the loading bay can't hear walkie-talkies over the noise. She sounded older & tired & didn't want to walk all the way to the back & I understood. I then heard her speaking with a lady named Allison who was the one who found out that they were able to locate the shower. Got to the store (went to Lowes first) & Allison was still there but Mary was on break. Grabbed a few items in the store & my friend helped load the 3 boxes up (back wall, side walls, and base were separate) & tie them down. Then we went to HD where I used the app to tell them I was there for curbside pickup. They brought out a single box (all 3 walls were in it) & we re-arranged stuff & did the tie downs.

Drove straight home & I re-arranged stuff in the workshop while my friend unloaded the boxes from the back of the truck & then we moved them all in, opened them to check for damage (everything was fine) & went back out. My cow had come out to see us & wanted to play. So she did her little head swinging, charging, and hopping thing. I stepped between her & my friend and got him to get in the truck. She ran circles around the truck & acted like a clown for a bit while I drove back up to the house. Ran in to grab some expanding foam in a can that I'd had sitting in the kitchen that my friend needed to seal up some gaps to try to keep bugs out. Wasps have been coming in. His fiance has never been stung by a wasp or bee & he's certain she will have a panic attack if she gets stung.

Stopped for food & dropped my friend off. We briefly discussed what it will take to remove the old shower. He said it should be easy- just pluck it out and carry it through the door. I said "It's a 30-inch one piece shower and the door is 24"-- they built the room around the shower". He had some choice words about that, but honestly, I won't be sad to take a sledgehammer to that fugly green thing.
 
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