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I don't know why they built the barn on about the lowest part of the property. If they'd built it more to the north it would have been on higher ground. It keeps threatening to rain today but hasn't rained yet. But I know in this sort of weather-- all cloudy- my friend's vision is bad so he wouldn't be able to see much if he came out today. It gives me more time to focus on cleaning up anyway. I'm going to make an effort to get more stuff done. Also need to call my dentist because more of my tooth chipped off. Need to get that fixed asap.

I'm still feeling sleepy & have a slightly sore throat-- post-nasal drip I think.
 
I put a fresh coat of paint on my lamppost. Man, taping off glass is a pain. But it looks great now that it's done.

Also picked up a couple of rain barrels. I guess one of my next projects will be getting them installed on the corners of my house...
 
Double masked and went to Samsclub to restock on water. Also took my friend to Harbor Freight to get some tools. They had a screwdriver set with his surname on them.
I've got a cold so I'm feeling pretty crappy, but not as bad as I could be feeling.
Friend's ex's father died suddenly either yesterday or this morning. I feel sorry for the grandson bc the grandfather was the only person who actually liked that brat. Now the ex doesn't have a babysitter for him. She also lost her job because she no longer has someone to drive her to work (she's in her 30s but never bothered to learn how to drive or get a license).
My friend's daughter didn't seem terribly upset by her grandfather's death, but they were never very close. He very much favored his grandson & kinda treated her like garbage. She was hit a lot harder by her paternal grandfather's death because she spent a lot of time with him. He was more devoted to her than to his own kids.
 
I bought a new weedeater at Harbor Freight. It's a 40v. I really like it, it's super light weight. I had a small Craftsman corded weed eater but it was only 36ish" and was killing my back and knee using it.
They didnt have the 80v/40v battery in stock in my area so I went ahead about bought the 40v. However, I think I will take it back... or maybe keep as back up, and buy the 80v when it is in stock again, or I have time to drive an hour or so away to purchase there.

These are the before and after pics of my 15 minute adventure this morning. I'll finish it later this evening once its cooler and the battery has charged. 20210522_131442.jpg20210522_132928.jpg
 
I would keep the spare battery. I would also monitor how long it takes to charge. I had a Black and Decker that took 8 hours to charge and lasted about 12 minutes, so I returned it to Lowe's, and the lady said people bring those back constantly.

I have a brand new corded Worx I will probably sell because my Makita 18V won't quit, and I use the batteries for my drivers and my portable vacuum and other tools. They also charge in 30-45 minutes.

As far as the weeding, that looks like the satisfaction I get every time I do that.
 
I'm still waiting for my Cub Cadet Zero Turn Electric Mower, got the bagging system a month ago. There isn't 2 functional brain cells at Home Depot corporate, who say the mower was delivered yesterday. What they didn't say is that it was delivered to an assembler, who will put it together and then deliver it. Ummm yeah, how about telling me that / giving me the option to do it myself etc...

No idea where this shop this is at, whether they have any employees because of not only Covid but because the gubment pays them more to stay home, whether I have to hire somebody this next month, whether THAT is even possible (Those people actually work)...

5 giant thumbs up again for Home Depot, who screw up something bigly if it's something bigger than a light bulb. I have seen myself go buy a light bulb there. That's about the extent of their reliability.

The problem is, Lowes' brands like Kobalt are INFERIOR to Home Depot's Husky, so I begrudgingly have to deal with HD sometimes. If you want to know what I'm talking about, go check out a big rolling Kobalt tool chest, then go to HD to see their Husky. It's night and day.

Oh boy, I could keep talking about the Mensa candidates at HD, but there's only so much time in a day.
 
I need an industrial strength weedeater for those damn blackberry bushes growing up all around my house. Had a Worx one but can't find the battery or charger.

Still have a cold. Been hacking up mucus. I took some generic brand nyquil last night so I could breathe well enough to sleep last night. Still feeling tired and blech. I've been a lot worse though. I haven't had much of an appetite but have been trying to eat ramen noodles with some extra water so its like a soup. I need to buy more chicken noodle soup.

Waited all day yesterday for Fedex to come. They didn't come until after dark and then just set the ripped up package on the porch without ringing the doorbell. I really need a new porch light and need to replace the switches for the lights since nothing is working in the front half of the house there. Not sure if it's a bad circuit or what. Going to have to get my friend to check it out at some point to see if he can diagnose what's wrong.

Mom surprised me and bought me a pneumatic staple gun with 15k staples & a little carrying case. Now I need to actually do stuff with the tools. I need to make myself do productive things but my brain keeps feeling like I'm in a fog.

Woke up to cats having a knock-down-drag-out fight that they took outside and under the house before I could get to them. I went outside to see what the problem was and one of my cats decided he had to climb on my shoulder to be carried back inside.

I need to grab more stuff from the store but I'm not feeling up to it. Yesterday I made a quick trip to buy diapers for my friend's baby. He was out & he ran out of $ paying bills & is waiting on his paycheck to land. His pay doesn't consistently come in when it's supposed to. Not sure if it's his employer or his bank though. His bank absolutely blows. It's the one that will give routing & account numbers out if someone pretends to be the account holder over the phone. No security checks or anything.
 
Spicoli43 said:
go check out a big rolling Kobalt tool chest, then go to HD to see their Husky. It's night and day.
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Speaking of..... I finally bought something nice to put my tools in. I had to preorder it and the waiting is killing me (it's been 26 whole hours 🤣🤣🤣) I have a janky one I bought from walmart, I'm going to give it to my son if he wants it for his house he is buying..... he has no desire to do the things I like to do, so it will work well for him. 20210521_133234.jpg

Spicoli43 the battery lasts about 20 minutes on high. And I kept it cranked on high while doing this. It is a little inconvenient, however, it forces me to come in and cool off while charging instead of overdoing it and ending up sick.

@zannej
I recently bought an air compressor, finishing nailer and brad nailer. You'll have to share projects if you do any.

I'm heading back out to plant some Nasturtiums (ie... sprinkling along fence line) and finishing that area since this post reminded me to look at the battery... lol I work tomorrow, 12 hours, so i am hoping that between walking around that long and whatever i get into project wise on Monday really ticks my knee off and make it more swollen and painful for when i go to the Orthopedist on Tuesday
 
Shan, looks like a solid chest. I can't buy anything from Harbor Freight like that or power tools because they don't have a warranty, just a 90 day return policy. If you say the thing is still great in 5 years, I might change my mind.

Ask your Ortho about using DMSO for your knee. I'm walking because of it. A twisting, munching, tearing or hyperextension of either knee is now a few hours of an inconvenience. I don't use braces. They snap like a Mother in Law, but unlike that, they work great.
 
@Spicoli43: Your neighborhood Home Depot sounds like my nearby Lowes. I went there once for a light bulb. They were out of the one I needed but there were pallets of inventory way up on the top shelf, with a scissor lift right there under it, and I asked about 4 employees (all children) to come operate the lift to check and see if my bulb was up there, they all said they'd send someone. After a half hour of me pacing up and down that aisle, nobody came. Ghost town. Several times I thought about just figuring out how to use the lift myself, worst case scenario they kick me out which I didn't care about because I eventually walked out, told them I'm taking my business somewhere else, and I will never return to that store.

Today my wife took the kids for 4 hours so I could drive across town and spend the afternoon with a friend. We played heavy loud rock music, him on drums, me on guitar (he was the drummer in that picture I shared earlier in this thread). Neither of us have played basically at all since I had my most recent kid and he had his first last summer, but I thought we sounded good. My skills have backslid a lot less than I was afraid they would, and I think his complaint was really just about him being out of shape; drums are a very physical instrument. One day soon it'll be easier for both of us to have those jam sessions more often. I can't wait.
 
Sitting here listening to a Lanie Gardner cover of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, I love the beat. It takes me back to when I first heard it. A cover by a band playing the Alaska State Fair at the Matanuska Valley fairgrounds. They had a harmonica wailing it took me years to find the song as I was not a Fleetwood Mac fan and that was pre-internet.
 
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Flyover said:
@Spicoli43: Your neighborhood Home Depot sounds like my nearby Lowes. I went there once for a light bulb. They were out of the one I needed but there were pallets of inventory way up on the top shelf, with a scissor lift right there under it, and I asked about 4 employees (all children) to come operate the lift to check and see if my bulb was up there, they all said they'd send someone. After a half hour of me pacing up and down that aisle, nobody came. Ghost town. Several times I thought about just figuring out how to use the lift myself, worst case scenario they kick me out which I didn't care about because I eventually walked out, told them I'm taking my business somewhere else, and I will never return to that store.
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I think that's Lowe's corporate policy. Instead of harassing people that won't buy right now, they give them 40 days to figure out what they want, then approach them for the quick sale. Earlier this year, I was standing about 10 feet from an employee in cabinets looking at the samples while she was having a personal conversation with a non employee. She wasn't helping her, they were talking like they were besties. I just walked out after 10 minutes.

I can walk through their flooring and appliances sections without a word also, and they coordinate so everybody is off for lunch at the same time.

The closer it gets to all the little mom and pops disappearing, the worse the customer service gets. They don't need anybody's business, everybody else has to go there. Nobody is going to crash and burn like Sears / Kmart because nobody has an Idiot CEO like they did.
 
My Lowes is the opposite. I often spend some some time procrastinating and almost always an associate offers to help. The most recent occurrence was in lighting. I couldn't recall the diameter of my FL tubes, the lady asked me what year I installed the fixtures then told me they were probably F12s. It may be the part of the country one lives in as the associates are locals.
 
Eddie_T said:
My Lowes is the opposite. I often spend some some time procrastinating and almost always an associate offers to help. The most recent occurrence was in lighting. I couldn't recall the diameter of my FL tubes, the lady asked me what year I installed the fixtures then told me they were probably F12s. It may be the part of the country one lives in as the associates are locals.
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No, I'm only talking about the specialty departments where I probably have to order something instead of taking it that day. In the electrical / lighting / hardware departments, they will talk to me all day if I want.
 
oldognewtrick said:
My biggest frustration with Lowes is there will be 10 people waiting to checkout and one lane open, 6 blue vests wandering around the front of the store with their fingers...well, never mind...
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That's Lowes and HD for me. Only the self checkouts and the Pro / Lumber checkout are open in the morning. Maybe they have one more lane open at Noon or so, but they don't ever call for backup cashiers because they don't load those cash registers. They never think about that.

At the little grocery store, they always have an extra lane with a loaded cash register for backup, and I don't remember a time I didn't hear "backup cashier please".
 
Weeks ago I bought a box of those climbing wall holds or whatever you call'em.

After I finished a few small DIY projects from the honey-do list today, I installed the holds going up the trunk of the biggest maple tree in my yard; its diameter is easily 24" or more. Now I could climb the 10 feet or so to the first big outbranching, and it's a cool place to chill, "you can see everything from up there", etc., and if you want to climb higher the branching makes it easy. Basically a really exciting project and I was proud of it.

But I immediately realized I'd created a huge liability, what with all the neighborhood kids. So then I went on a big diplomatic trip, practically door to door, telling every kid and parent I could find that the kids are welcome to play in my yard (all the kids play in everyone's yards) but the tree is off-limits unless an adult is present.

Not every kid got the memo, though, and later when I was inside with the baby I saw one boy, maybe 11 or 12 years old, start climbing it and I had to rush out holding the baby and "yell" at him. (More like in an authoritative but non-threatening voice tell him the same thing I'd told everyone else.)

So now it's got me paranoid, and I'm kind of regretting putting the holds on the tree. I'm thinking about big ugly gate-like contraptions I can affix over the lower holds that I can lock and unlock and swing aside (sort of like these things that are used to control access to ladders), and none of that is very appealing.

What's funny is there's a ton of tree-houses in this neighborhood, and I never see any of the kids playing in them!

Anyway, I might eventually take the holds out and at least reinstall them on the side of the tree I can see from the living room. I had avoided that side before because that's the same side where the swing is and I didn't want a scenario where one kid is swinging and one kid is climbing and the swinging kid kicks or bumps into the climbing kid...but I guess that would be better than worrying all the time about who's climbing up the far side of the tree.
 
HomeDepot isn't good with things smaller than lightbulbs. I ordered some small plinth blocks. Took a couple months for it to say they were delivered to the store and ready for pickup. Went to the store, send a message via their app to let them know I was on the way and then when I got there. Waited at curbside pickup for an hour. Went inside & waited in line. Finally got up to the counter & the clerk answered the phone and spent several minutes talking to someone while ignoring me. Finally got to me and then disappeared behind the shelves for awhile, came back several minutes later and was asking employees to look for my item. Apparently, it either did not get delivered or they lost it. I had to cancel and re-order the items (at a higher price). Mind you, if I had known I could have called customer service on the phone & they would have given me a discount on the re-order, I would have done that. Their phone support from corporate is much better than local dealings.

Lowes is also a clusterf*** at the local level. There is no self-checkout so you have to wait in a line and they only have 1 lane open. Not enough cashiers. Keep in mind that just because you see employees milling about, it doesn't mean they are trained or even cleared to be cashiers.

Spicoli, I'm open to suggestions for clearing the lungs. This mucus is not cooperating with my digestive system at all & it sucks.

I stayed in bed most of yesterday because I'm still sick & moving around doesn't help my guts. My brother went to go watch a movie with some friends (at the friend's house on Netflix or something). Before he left I got him to take the overflowing trash bag out in the kitchen. He didn't bother to put a new bag in though. My anti-inflammatory/pain medicine disappeared. I think the cats knocked it down somewhere & I can't seem to locate it. Will have to get more since I'm do for a refill. So my shoulder/arm has not been cooperating. I have trouble reaching above my head and behind my back or extending my arm out too far. I put the new trash bag in and filled it up while cleaning the kitchen. Still have a lot more to do but I got light-headed and the bag was full.

The non-drip waterers for the kittens turned out to be dripping majorly. Can't figure out how to stop them from dripping so I caved and gave them a big water bowl. The male, Namir, is pretty dumb. He couldn't figure out that the bowl is large enough for him to share with his sister, Temjin. Her head wasn't even in his way but he couldn't figure out that he could drink from it too so he was waiting for her to finish & getting agitated.

If the medicine I took earlier works to counteract the mucus, I will have to change their litterbox and clean up the bottom of their cage again (where the water dripped). Also need to finish cleaning the kitchen.

Shan, I'll try to share & post pics when I get some projects done. I have so much to do but so little energy and motivation. I keep procrastinating.

Flyover, I would have been all over that tree as a kid. LOL. I loved climbing. I think I aggravated some of the people in my neighborhood because I would climb their trees all the time. If they told me not to, I would stop and leave those trees alone though.
 
I never got into climbing trees until I was 20 and rented a room in a house that had a beautiful tulip tree in the yard. I could just jump up, grab a branch, and do a pullup to get myself into the tree. Then I'd hang out there for an hour or two at a time. Since then I was hooked, but because I'm an adult I have to be slightly careful about not making people think I'm insane. And my wife of course makes the Michael Jackson comparisons, which I think are very unfair because I'm pretty sure he probably had an elevator installed or something.

Anyway, yeah the climbing holds now make an unclimbable tree climbable. It's a ton of fun, I'm excited to finish up work and get out there and climb. I'm not going to take pictures because if I need to suddenly uninstall the holds at some point for legal reasons, I want to minimize evidence that they were ever there!
 
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