Good Morning! 33F @ 7:45 AM. Partly cloudy with afternoon showers or thunderstorms. High near 75F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Yesterday was a big push to finish all the little jobs the place still needed. Started by finishing scrubbing a rust stain on the garage floor that I'd left soaking in CLR, moved onto the back porch to replace a light fixture, then hid an ancient water stain on the first floor subfloor that was visible from the basement with a big wad of fiberglass insulation, and calked an outside electrical outlet. Then I ran into a big snag: One of the garage door openers wouldn't close the door. Finally narrowed it down to one of the safety beams not working and started tracing wires. Apparently they were all hidden in the walls when the place was built, so I had to go up into the attic to see what was going on. At first glance everything looked OK, but after following and tugging on one lead it came up out of the hole in the header, the ends broken off and darkened with years of oxidation. Another round of neglect by the old man. I rerouted the wire, poked another hole in the ceiling, and connected up one side of the sensor pair. Still no joy, but at least the LED was blinking. That meant that there was no link to the sensor on the other side of the door, so remembering some speaker wire in a box in the basement, I ran a new lead up and over the door. That did the trick and it was on to the next job, a mere three hours later. Hooked up a garden hose to blast off the mess that had dripped out of the water heater we'd removed, gave a couple of rust spots in the washing machine tub a quick coat of white Rustoleum, finished filling the big crack between the driveway apron and the garage floor, then called the neighbor for one last big job. Somehow an old floor safe had ended up here, and as it belonged to my grandfather it had a bit of sentimental value. The neighbor brought down a trailer on the back of his quad, and between the two of us we muscled the thing from the back porch into it. There was a small berm in the front yard, so I backed the truck up from the low side and he backed the trailer from the high one and we were only off by an inch or two. Another couple of heaves and it was a done deal.
Then it was off to dinner, which turned out to be at a Japanese steak house, and our chef was quite a juggler with his big knife, spatula, and fork. Really put on a show with his flaming pyre as well, though at one point I was in fear for my eyebrows:laughing: The food was good to. Then it was off to a newish winery that had opened up just down the street from the house. Now I wasn't expecting much, it being Ohio and all, but what was interesting is that the owner was sourcing his grape juice all the way from Italy, and was making the classic Italian Chianti, Sangiovese, Valpolicella, to name just a few. They were flavorful in a fruity way that I like, but lacked body and were quite expensive, no surprise considering all the mileage on the juice! We enjoyed it none the less though, finishing off the evening with a toast to the old man and the end of an era for both he and I.
Today I'll get the truck packed and ready to leave at first light tomorrow. Everything is staged in the great room and it looks like it'll all fit with no problems, so you can breathe easy, Kyle. :laughing: It's gonna take a little work though, as the dinette table needs to come apart, and that means moving the stuff that I've been storing on it to the kitchen counter, then bringing up a stool to sit on while I'm using the laptop.
We'll have thunder showers this afternoon, but the weather headed west is looking OK until the Rockies. Then snow showers might make for some slower driving, but it doesn't look like it'll be any worse than on the way out. I'll take the northerly I80 route again, but will head north through Iowa and avoid the toll roads in Kansas City this time.
Hope everyone, religious or not, takes a moment or two to reflect on the spirit of this Easter Sunday. It's not about brightly colored eggs and Peeps.