The Prepathon
The entire weekend felt like I was in prep mode. Instead of riding my road bike Friday night I decided to go in the yard to get the weeding done, clearing time to get more stuff done over the rest of the weekend. Somehow on Saturday morning I still got back to the house at a similar time after running errands, despite cutting out the 60 minutes normally consumed by weeding.
After eating lunch I started pressure washing, a task I mentally committed to on Friday. I wanted to pressure wash both sheds and a quick speed wash of the lanai. The timeline got delayed when I recalled I needed to get up on the roof and see what was going on with the gutters. During hard rain I had been seeing water spill out the side of the gutter instead of the spout. When I got up there I was not pleased with what I saw.
The “super gutter” along the pool deck had a log jam at least 20 feet long of oak tree leaves. I have no clue how that many leaves could wind up there as the oak tree is in the front yard. In the past I have used the pressure washer exclusively to clear this type of mess but I decided to use a two stage approach this time, first using the leaf blower to get most of the debris out followed up by using the pressure washer. I walked the entire roof having to clear leaves at several other spots as well. Once I started using the pressure washer things got seriously dangerous. A metal roof becomes ice slippery when wet, when combined with wet leaves scattered around it was crazy. I had to be sure about every footstep using the screw heads for traction. One moment of carelessness could have lead to a very bad outcome. In total I bet a spent close to an hour on the gutters before I got to work on the big shed.
To save time I decided to not blast the roof of the shed. Although it gets dirty the only ones that really see it are the birds. As I was finishing up a nasty storm was blowing in. I pulled all of the equipment over to the other shed but retreated inside once the rain started. Luckily it only rained for maybe a half hour. I decided to give my body a break by mixing things up and doing the weed whacking next. My plan was to do the weed whacking now and then mow later in the week so the property isn’t terrible while I am away. About 3/4 of the way through the task the weed whacker started running like shit. My quick troubleshooting steps couldn’t fix it so I just grabbed the Dewalt electric trimmer to finish up, I was feeling aggravated. It was getting too late and I was getting too tired to finish the pressure washing so I decided to finish that on Sunday.
Saturday night I shot and edited a video regarding the cancellation of my KingSong S22 order, going over the history and why I finally said enough is enough.
Sunday morning I made arrangements to meet Ali and Shugs to go check out their house which is now supposed to be complete in less than a month. I also used it as an opportunity to familiarize Ali with how the Tesla works since she will be using it while house sitting for me next week. She enjoyed the experience. There has been a lot of progress on their house since I saw it a couple weeks ago. The pool is done, the counters are in, the appliances and AC are in place. Things are really coming together. That being said there are still a lot of smaller things that need to be nailed down but they can definitely see the finish line.
When I got home I resumed pressure washing, getting the small shed done which was particularly gross. I then gave the pool deck a quick blasting just so it looked decent for Ali. I was tired of course but later in the evening got motivated to get the windows ready for replacement which I originally planned to do Monday.
I removed any window treatments, making a mental note that I didn’t like some of them so they would not be put up again. I also carefully removed the window sensors for the security system that is ancient and pretty worthless. I regretted taking the time to do so when I realized later it was pointless as the wires would be cut anyway when the window is pulled out. Most rooms it was pretty easy to clear out the areas but the hobby room and the office were particularly labor intensive since there is the most stuff in those two rooms. I think I have given them enough space to get the job done. I plan to try to document the window replacement process for my own curiosity.
My Fourth of July has been unlike any of the last two decades since it hasn’t involved any friends or family. During the morning Elsa and I ran to Tractor Supply, Pinch A Penny and DD. After lunch I shot a video regarding a new helmet I was sent for review. It is the best skater style helmet I have ever seen.
I had my version of a 4th of July meal with a Beyond burger and tater tots. The oddball 4th will conclude with my loading up Elsa in the Tesla, driving somewhere quiet and watching the new season of Umbrella Academy on Netflix in the car. If I said I didn’t feel some twinges of sadness today I would be lying. The difference is allowing myself only to take a brief shower in those feelings instead of a long soaking in a tub of futility.