Mowing the mud, Let there be light, DD
The shitty wet weather continued through Friday, leaving the grounds a sopping mess. I decided to knock out mowing half of the yard after work on Friday, the front half. I mowed around the standing water areas to at least give the grass a much needed haircut where I could.
Saturday morning Cindy came with me to the track to run. My old routine was setting a 6AM alarm so I got out as early as possible. The last couple times I have run I haven’t been setting the alarm. I normally will wake up around 7AM on my own so I have been trying it that way. Saturday was the first time I paid the price for it.
Right around lap 8 the sun completely cleared the horizon. As it did it felt like someone turned on a heat lamp which is what I ran in for the last mile, making an already uncomfortable exercise experience more so. Cindy, who has been running even less than I have, did well for not being out there in a long time. She felt the heat as much as I did.
When we got home the chickens and weeding still needed to get done which we tag teamed. After breakfast we headed to Home Depot where I picked up top soil, 20 pieces of sod, and five 50 pound bags of sand. This was all for the chicken area of course which is the most wet area of all. It unceremoniously started to rain on me again as I spread the dirt and laid down the sod. I believe I cursed out loud at Mother Nature more than once.
Early afternoon I decided I was going to mow the back of the property, despite the rain that dropped only an hour or two prior. It was like a monster truck meet where my Craftsman mower plowed through muddy areas repeatedly. When I was done it looked like someone went nuts with 4 wheelers in the back yard. Even though the standing water has started much later this summer compared to last, I already am beyond fed up with it. I really hope to utilize this sod guy once the property dries out to get the ground level higher in the worst areas.
We had a garden success, something that is very rare in the summer, a decent sized melon. I have tried growing melons a number of times and they have never been fruitful, pun intended. Usually bugs take over before the melons can grow appreciably. For whatever reason this year the plants are being more or less unaffected by insects. I discovered what looked to be a nearly full size seedless melon hiding under the vines with at least another half dozen growing as well. We harvested the melon prematurely however, the inside was mostly white but luckily the chickens still found it to be quite edible.
Mid-afternoon Daniel and Katie came over. Daniel was going to help me with my air handler UV light problem. I bought another bulb but when I plugged it in I got no light. Daniel said the ballast was probably bad. After opening up the air handler what we determined was it was actually the transformer that drives the ballast which was bad, a rarity.
Daniel had a spare in his van that he put in there. Once he did both the new and old bulb lit up. I have another full UV light kit on the way which I plan to install on top of the air handler, where it was before. However Daniel moved the existing bulb inside the air handler, right between the A style coils which is the area most likely to have organic growth. When the other light set shows up I will open it up again and do the work myself since I have a clear picture of what goes where at this point. With the new bulb location it is very easy for us to check for proper UV light operation as we can see it if we pull the filter in the return in our bedroom.
Saturday night we watched The Mule, with Clint Eastwood. It’s hard to believe an 88 year old man is still starring in and directing films but Clint pulls it off. The movie is based on a true story and it’s a strange story indeed. I’d give it a B+.
Sunday morning Cindy was feeling the effect of the run so I decided to take the Nikola to Dunkin Donuts solo, something I actually thought I would have done multiple times during my nine day staycation but it didn’t work out. The Nikola was a beast on the ride, with me rolling at 24-26mph for the majority of the 20+ miles. It really is a great wheel but now I am wondering if I really need the KingSong 18XL as the two wheels fulfill the same need with the Nikola getting an edge on speed and battery size.
Later in the day Sunday I had a prolonged WoW session, the most time I have gotten to spend in the game for quite awhile. I made a lot of virtual progress which almost feels like real progress, hence why the game has appealed to me for almost 15 years.