The Porch is Done, the Porch is Done

It was done last weekend, but we just put the furniture back today. Actually, it's not done. I still have to do the railings by the front steps, but the painting is done and that's good. The railings will have to wait for another month as I have other things to do in the meantime. I just wanted to report that the painting was done, lest some reader conclude that I was slacking in my responsibilities.

I Am Tired Tonight

I decided that today was the day to get busy scraping and sanding the porch, so I got busy doing it. I opted not to rent a commercial sander. I had done so the last time we painted the porch and was not all that pleased with the results. Also, the paint on a good portion of the floor was solid and in good condition. I got on my knees, with knee pads, of course, and proceeded to scrape away loose paint then to sweep up the debris. I then sanded as best I could and again swept up the debris. I divided the porch into five sections, I think (remember I'm tired) and did the same for each. By the time I was half way through the third section, the nice, cushy knee pads were feeling mighty thin and my arms and back were feeling like they had done some work. It was also getting embarrassingly difficult to get back up each time I got down. But, in the end I did it and feel quite good about the accomplishment. The next step is painting, which will be a piece of cake compared to today. I will use a roller on a pole so that I can stand the whole time. With the painting, the most work is putting masking tape on everything that's not supposed to get floor paint, something I wish prior owners had thought to do. It is particularly difficult to get paint off brick and they were not especially careful when they painted resulting in a lot of extra work for the current occupants. Again, this is one of those jobs that people may not notice has been done. With tables and chairs on the porch, the floor will be less noticeable. After all, when we invite people over and use the porch, we aren't expecting for them to stand around marveling at the floor. If they did, I would think that our entertainment or food service skills were somewhat lacking. It would be okay though if someone said, "Oh, doesn't the floor look nice. Did you have it painted recently?"

Another Busy Day

Today I actually got started painting our porch columns and soffits. I had filled in gaps with wood putty and sanded and scraped until I didn't care anymore and now the painting has started. Anne did the outside soffits while I did the inside and columns. Two more columns to go and more soffits tomorrow. Then it's on to the porch floor. The floor needs to be sanded and I'm not quite sure how to do that this time. The last time I painted it, I rented a commercial sander (the vibrating kind, not a drum sander) and I wasn't really happy with the results. I'm afraid that a drum sander would be too aggressive and could cause more damage that I care to deal with, so I will have to figure something else out. I have a powerful pressure washer, but that didn't do so great either. The most powerful nozzle started scoring the wood and the next most powerful didn't seem to do much. I may be on my hands and knees for this one. The painted columns look great. If you get close, you can see the imperfections, but from a distance they sparkling white and bright. I said to Anne that this is one job that people won't notice that we did, but would notice if we didn't.

I am a little less than a third of the way through reading Under the Dome by Stephen King. Other than the fact that an impenetrable dome plops itself down over a town, the story seems like a plot for a B movie. Mr. King has, so far, not provided his usual harem, scare'um, out of nowhere effects. But, they may be coming. Kids are starting to see weird things in their minds. He has some time left, like 700 more pages, so I'm hoping he comes up with something. He does have a way of making you want to keep reading though. There is a list of important characters in the front of the book, but so many of them had been killed off by page 100, I wasn't sure how he was going to make it to page 1074. I'll have to keep on reading.

I noticed that when I published this post (this is an edit), I got an ad for NJ Hardwood Flooring. How do they do that?

A Busy Day

It was a busy day. I got up early to get a routine blood test, had breakfast, mowed the front lawn, had lunch, went to the dentist for my next to the last appointment for my new cap, worked on scraping, filling and sanding two more porch columns and watched the aftermath of a bad accident around the corner from our house. I saw the fire company extricate a man from an on fire, turned over car. According to neighbors, he was traveling at a high rate of speed south on the north bound side of Route 34. The car left the road and traveled along a couple of empty lots and then turned over and caught fire. Apparently there were no other cars involved. One of our FBI neighbors said he saw no skid marks anywhere. I don't know what happened to the man, but I saw them put him in the ambulance and then the ambulance just stayed there for quite some time. Paramedics arrived, but they didn't even get out of their rig. From my years on the first aid squad, that to me, means one of two things. He was not injured and was sitting in there chatting with the first aid people, or he was lying in there having had his last chat. I sincerely hope it was the former.

Every job seems to take longer than I think it will. I had allocated about an hour or so to dealing with the two columns, but it took most of the afternoon. Of course, I stopped to go see the accident, but I didn't stay there that long. I shouldn't complain because I have every day to get this stuff done, but at some point I would like to get it done so I can move on to the next project. I suppose I could approach there little tasks as a model ship builder who I once heard say, "It doesn't matter how long it takes to finish one model, because when I finish with this one, I'll be starting another one." I guess, but I'm not building model ships here. I do get satisfaction and have pride in what I have done when these jobs are completed, so I should stop complaining and go do something constructive.

The Twins and Seven Presidents

The twins are staying with us for two nights so that their parents can get a little away time and have adult conversations. Yesterday we went to Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park in Long Branch where there is a nice playground and, of course, the ocean. It was very warm at our house, but freezing at the beach with a strong breeze blowing off the ocean. The kids loved the playground and the beach. We hunkered down near some dunes to shelter us from the brunt of the wind, but Timmy and Bridget ran back and forth to the water to bring water to make sand things with the beach toys that we brought. By bedtime, two people were very, very tired and it wasn't the twins.

Today was not as nice as predicted, but while Anne was at the oral surgeon, the twins and I set up a racing car set in the cellar. Two days ago I had lugged the thing up to the attic figuring I wouldn't be needing it for a while. Timmy spotted it up there and kept pestering me to get it working, so I did. After lunch we went to Holmdel Park to take a walk around the lake and to use the new playground at the top of the hill where there is a big climbing dome. We also stopped in to the interpretive center at Longstreet Farm where the kids remembered seeing a cat. The lady there let them see the cat who was in another room resting. Riley (the cat) looked like a larger version of Bootsie (our deceased cat). There were a few sprinkles while we were at the park, but not enough to stop the fun. In the parking lot, a woman was returning to her car with a large collie and Bridget said, "Oh, I love that kind of dog" and called "Hi, doggie" to it. The woman brought it around for the children to pet. She said it loved children, which was obviously true and the kids loved the dog as well.

Books, Spas and Automobiles

I have finished reading the books in Six Gothic Tales. They were Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, Mission to Malaspiga by Evelyn Anthony, Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt, The High Valley by Jessica North, Thunder Heights by Phyllis A. Whitney and Tregaron's Daughter by Madeleine Brent. They were all written by women and the chief character in each was a young woman who in one form or another manages to get herself tangled in a web of mystery and danger and they were all very enjoyable. I have also just finished reading Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer a tale about the attempts in 1922 and 1924 of George Mallory to conquer Mount Everest. We learn at the very beginning of the book that his body was found in 1999 about 600 feet from the summit and the question is whether he made it or not. This is a novel, but a compelling tale and you start to feel the agony of the climbers around 27,000 feet, 2,002 feet from the summit. This was another good book. Thank you, Christine, for recommending it. I have been doing all of this reading because I want to start on Under the Dome by Stephen King, which was a birthday gift from daughter Christine and family. There is not a word on the dust jacket of the book except the title, author and publisher, so what the heck is this story about? I guess I'm about to find out.

We were sitting in the spa the other evening and I was looking at the planes passing overhead. I wondered where all of the people were going to or coming from. Some planes were very far up and others were much closer to the ground. Not that close that I could see the pilot waving from the cockpit, but closer than the ones higher up. Anyway, pilots don't wave from the cockpits anymore, not like they did back in 1954. I thought that each passenger in each plane has a story, a family and a life, 99.9% of whom I will never encounter. I thought the same thing watching cars and trucks passing in front of our house earlier in the day. It reminds me of The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant in which civilization is described in terms of a river flowing past the banks. I never read that, but maybe I should. I have time now, when I'm not sitting in hot water looking up at airplanes.

Water, Water, Everywhere

We have spent the last two days blotting the water out of our cellar. We had about an inch over the entire floor, a first for us since we have been in this house. Sometimes, after a heavy rain, we get a little water in one corner, but never over the whole floor. So, we used a pool cover pump and a wet vac, both of which worked well. Our neighbor, Phil, came over and did Yeoman service. He worked harder than both other methods despite the fact that he had water in his own basement which is equipped with wall to wall carpeting. Some of my model train stuff got wet. A lot was stored in cardboard boxes under the train set, where it had never even been approached by water. I went to the Depot of the Home and bought a number of plastic boxes so that I don't have to worry about this again. Our cellar seems to have several low spots, so a sump pump would not have helped; maybe several would do the trick. Fortunately, we didn't have anything of great value on the floor. Most things subject to water damage were up on wood pieces or something to protect against water. It was a lovely day today, but I was beneath the earth's surface attending to my problem. Tomorrow, Good Friday, will hopefully, be good, at least better in the water department than today.

A new picture has been posted over to the right. It is me and five out of seven of our delightful grandchildren. That was the only one of several where everyone was recognizable and in good humor.