Raincharm’s Weblog

Today I continued working down my list from yesterday>
What I did not realize was that some of my chores could ONLY be done yesterday.
Simple chores like signing up for another storage facility and getting a hair cut.

I even thought to check the web-sites before leaving on my driving errands.
Open Sunday’s at 9 AM. Both of them.
Until I actually arrived at both places, where they had colorful computer generated signs taped to their doors saying, “Closed for Easter”. I don’t disagree with their decisions to be closed on Easter, I just wish I hadn’t spent the time driving around our fair city. It would have been OK if even one of them had been open. I need to accomplish both of these goals, and neither place is open well into the evening, and my schedule this coming week is fairly packed with early evening (right after work) activities.

On to the next item on the list. [Technically this goes with cleaning out the house.]
Shoes. To be more precise, cleats.

This is going through all of the shoes at the entrance to our house. We do not require, or even ask, that people remove their shoes when entering the house, but we still have a shelving unit full of shoes in that location. They tend to be shoes that may be used, but not daily. Rey & Ashlan & I all have approximately the same size feet. Rey’s are now slightly larger and Ashlan’s slightly smaller than mine. [There was one game when Rey ended up with one of his and one of Ashlan’s cleats. Slightly uncomfortable.] Theoretically, Ashlan could wear any of the shoes. And the cleats she left home with are wearing a bit thin. So we are looking for any that might give her a few more months use. (I was going to take a picture before the shoe review, but I forgot while I was Skyping with Ashlan.)

And finally, March Madness is nearing an end.
We started our family bracket a few weeks ago.

Now we are down to the Final Four.
Ashlan was the first out, when all three of her remaining teams during the Not-So-Sweet round of Sixteen.
Jay had a banner day on the first day of the Elite Eight, moving both Saturday game teams into the Final Four.
Sunday required Jay to share, and she did. With Rey, who unceremoniously booted Carl from the tournament.

The Final Four line-up is

• Wichita State – 9 seed – Jay
• Syracuse – 4 seed – Jay
• Michigan – 4 seed – Rey
• Louisville – 1 seed – Rey

Anybody but Louisville will be my mantra.
If Wichita State or Syracuse wins, I win.
If Michigan wins, I win (Ann Arbor years remain a strong tie)

Our colorful version.

Blue = Jay, Purple = Rey

Some days you just don’t get to check everything off of your list. And maybe it doesn’t matter.

I did get one of the tasks done, OK a few. But none that required me to leave a 25 foot radius of the house (except electronically). And I did add a few other items to the list as the day progressed. [Isn’t it always that way.]

The big job I was going to tackle today was for the house project.
I did start on a work project first, which did not help the limited progress on the house today.

We declared the asbestos gone a few days ago.
The celebration was short lived.

It turns out that to do the kitchen project, the back wall of the kitchen, and the old back door will be essentially taken apart completely and then reassembled. And of course, there is pesky asbestos shingle siding on the exterior wall. (Under the ugly vinyl and over the cedar siding.)

Carl started on this removal project earlier this week, working in the back door/porch area.
He called me at work to let me know he had pulled it all off.

Me: “What did you put the asbestos shingles into”
Carl: “Asbestos?!?”

I guess he wasn’t hanging out with the contractor and I when we were discussing the owner vs. contractor abatement costs.

Back porch siding – on the floor of the porch

The siding being removed consists of lightweight vinyl siding, light styrofoam boards, heavy asbestos shingles, and lots of nails. This removal will cost us the $25 asbestos permit, and now I need to get more asbestos bags and some boxes that are big enough to easily hold the 1 ft by 2 ft shingles. (We have loads of boxes, but none that are 2 feet long.)

My goal today was to start the removal of the siding on the back wall.
I managed to:

Get the ladder out of the garage to the back of the house (before Carl left)
Apply for the asbestos abatement permit
Get the removed vinyl siding into a big trash can
Get the removed styrofoam into a big trash can
Get the asbestos shingles into 3 boxes in the basement (but they are sticking out).
Clean out the back porch.

Back porch – for a few more months

The boxes that will eventually carry the shingles to the dump will need to be relatively small as the shingles are HEAVY.

The back wall is going to have to wait a few more days.

Which is too bad, because tomorrow is supposed to have more of this.

So inviting in the warm sun

I always appreciate starting my day with a laugh.

A bit of family lore.

In 1964 our family visited our relatives in New York City.
I was about 8, my older sister about 10 and younger sister 3-4 years old.
(I don’t know what month it was, so ages are approximate.)

I remember that trip really well.
The Statue of Liberty, going up the staircase in the arm.
Being in an apartment. This was where my grandparents lived, and I had never been in an apartment before.
Playing with a ball on the sidewalk with my cousin, and the ball getting stuck on a fire escape.
No lawn, but a park a block or so away.
Riding the subway (and falling asleep).

And the World’s Fair.
Again, many memories.
I think it was the Kodak pavilion where we were surrounded by screens.
There was one vignette that was all about deciding where to sit people at a dinner party. The host had name tags. She would put one down, while commenting about the person, and a chair would appear. This would continue, but then she would have to change a tag (so and so can’t sit next to this other so and so), and the chair would disappear.
And the Wild Mouse ride, with my cousin Herbie.

And of course, the It’s A Small World ride.
I really do remember going through the ride, and the music.

The joint family memory has more sides than mine.
Jane the younger insists that she was abandoned outside the ride, by herself, for a LONG TIME, listening to that song, over and over and over and over.

I think that maybe she went on the ride with the rest of us, or maybe not.
But if she did not, she was probably with Aunt Anita or a grandparent.
And we all stood around or in line to get tickets or to get on the ride.
(I do remember standing in lines.)

So, imagine my thoughts when I saw the headline, “Man wins $8K after ‘Small World’ ‘torture'”.

Read for yourself . Better yet – click here. This is from the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

I am starting to think of almost everything I do at home in terms of cleaning and packing.

Can I throw this out?

Can I lift it?
If yes, I can probably throw it out.
Except if it is noxious waste.
The asbestos is gone, but there are two mercury thermometers sitting next to my computer.
There is the growing pile in the garage/basement waiting for me to make the call.

Will anybody miss it?

If I am really concerned I ask all potential missers.

Should I try to give it away to somebody?

I have made several give-away runs.
Goodwill, the Big Blue Truck, the Men’s & Women’s Chorus Rummage Sale,
And my favorite – the books and games extravaganza for some of our young friends (followed by the Big Blue Truck).
But I am getting down to the dribs and drabs.
I guess I could just put together a box of whatever I find, and set them out on the curb – or at Goodwill, etc.

Really I am just trying to get areas down to what we should keep.
And I am still probably keeping too much.

Perhaps my decision should be based on how much dust is on the object…

Rey and Mom (mine, not his)

I was going to post a picture of Mom on the beach, but the Marquis beat me to the punch. So I found this one with two of my favorite people. (Don’t worry I have way more than two favorite people.)

Love to you, Mom.
And if you have not seen the “Makers” show on PBS, ask Jane to help you find it on-line. It made me think of you, and your support of women’s rights. [I still remember the advice you gave me as I left for Colorado and my first “real” job. “Don’t let them know you can type!”]

The asbestos is now owned by somebody else!
Yes, I know they have our name and address as a generator, but I am sure of our double, and sometimes quadruple wrapping. Yellow bags, stickers. We are according to Hitler.

Now for a full on garbage patrol assault before the men with a truck show up. (Do you think they wear white coats?)
(more…)

I arrived and left work today at a little past 7:30.

One of those days – with a rate hearing at the end.
Not too bad, and we actually had four customers show up.
Sometimes we have one, sometimes none.
What this really means is that, for our area, the cost of water and sewer is not the focus for most people.
Even those that did show up had reasonable questions.
No pitchforks.

Came home to Carl having lost a fight with a butternut squash.
He was gaining ground with the big knife, but wanted more, and went at it with the smaller version.
He paried, the squash twirled and grabbed the weapon.

Short version, he has a cut on the back of a thumb knuckle. Not too long, but deep enough to keep bleeding through the bandaid and wrap. (I think it has slowed down to a mere trickle.)

Enough for now, it is 9 PM and time for dinner.

March Madness was always a fun event for our family.
We do a random drawing for teams, and then cheer them on – striving to be the winner of the roost.

Prizes used to be treats – for each game your teams won.
Because it is around easter, easter treats were normally the prizes.

The kids are older.
We are not eating sugar (much).
And chocolate may melt in the mail. (This is from experience.)

But bragging rights, and trash talk throughout the tournament can still be fun.

Throughout the years we have our favorites, and our hated rivals. Hence the “Much Sadness” part of the game.

A few tidbits from this year’s drawing.

• Rey got 3 of the 4 number 1 seeds. (The top 3 seeds as well.)
• Jay got Colorado State, an alma mater.
• Jay got Rey’s alma mater, Montana
• Ashlan got Jay’s other alma mater, Michigan State
• Ashlan also got Carl’s almost mater, Illinois
• Michigan State plays Valpariso in their first game. The carpool should be interesting on that day, as Valpo is one of my carpooler’s schools.
• Jay got Duke, who has never been high on her list.
• Rey got  Gonzaga, and everybody always wants Gonzaga.
• Ashlan got LIU Brooklyn – close to her current whereabouts.
• Ashlan plays herself three times in the first round.
• Rey & Jay each play themselves once in the first round.
• Carl has the possibility of moving all 16 of his teams through to the second round. (And also the possibility of losing them all.)
• Rey will try to equally trounce each of his parents 6 times, while only picking on his sister twice.
• Teams with a direction in their title generally don’t go too far.
  • Northwestern State doesn’t even bother to tell you which state.
  • Southern doesn’t bother either
  • Middle Tennessee is just funny.

In their wisdom the NCAA has delayed the tournament until mid-March, and it doesn’t end until April now. Maybe they will have to come up with a new nickname. But perhaps not. The madness is usually most fun in the first couple of rounds. Then it gets downright serious.

It is the madness I enjoy.

Go Liberty, Western Kentucky, Akron, or South Dakota State!
Let’s have some upsets.

You know you are not blogging regularly when you have to go back and see where you were the last time.

So – to continue the travails of the asbestos waste.

For the want of a sticker it is once again piled at the bottom of our driveway.
The stickers, which are apparently required for non-friable asbestos, have been ordered and are hopefully in transit somewhere. It will be too late for a trip this weekend. I really want it cleared out so I can clear out other stuff that is queued up for a truck that takes away your garbage (but not asbestos).

This morning I started cleaning up from the demo project. We still have a few nails to pound down, and then a final sweep, but after that I think the room is ready to be used to stage things that need to be moved – out.

Almost cleared – and the beast remains.

In other news, the Sounders lost the home opener that we attended, but had a thrilling comeback in a game we did not attend. And my new favorite player, Yedlin, scored. (That game was part of the Concacaf tournament, and the tickets don’t come as part of the season ticket package, it was raining, and a work night.) There is a home game today against arch-rival Portland Timbers. But we exchanged our tickets with a friend so we could have four for a game in May when some friends will be in town. [And it will probably be raining tonight, the game is on local (non-cable) TV, and we have plans to Skype with the kids to draw for our NCAA March Madness bracket.]

Spring has sprung. This picture is notable because it was not raining and taken AFTER arriving home from work. (Still light out.)

Spring is springing – before the equinox

And finally, I realize I am getting older when I no longer know the current little kids critters. Carl and Sagan are holding oblongs or something. [I checked, they are Yo Gabba Gabba.]

Carl+Sagan (yes, really)

Just when you think a major project could actually be over, it isn’t.
Over the weekend we completed burrito, double burrito-wrapping our non-friable asbestos.

This was where we learned that the 6-mil clearish plastic we got from Ace Hardware was slipperier than the 6-mil clearish plastic we got from Home Depot. We were one set of plywood+tile flooring with asbestos (non-friable) mastic away from finishing our plastic wrapping when our Home Depot roll ran out. (So close, and yet so far.) I decided to not drive as far and go to the neighborhood Ace Hardware instead. Their version looked exactly like the Home Depot version. But when we cut and were duct taping the first plastic burrito, the duct tape would barely stick. And then it would let loose. After some discussion about whether the plastic had dust from the floor, we decided it was just more slippery than the other roll. Since sealing the plastic with duct tape was central to our abatement strategy it stopped us cold. In the end I went to Home Depot to get more of what we knew worked, and Carl returned the unused plastic to Ace. (To their credit, they gave us full credit even though a few feet was missing.)

And then I just jumped into the friable asbestos removal.

There was only one old duct secured to the wood joists with asbestos laden tape. Lots of water, the half-mask (which was much easier to use than those painter masks), my favorite cats paw like tool, and a large hammer. The large hammer was used to expose 6 little nails that held the metal ductwork in place – after the dangerous tape had liberated the metal duct from the joists. (Elevating a board from its normal place in a hallway floor about one inch.) The cats paw helped to liberate nails from the joists, but mostly to gently scrape tape residue from old wood.

I was so happy to have completed a task in less than one day. And – the asbestos could all leave the house in one day – today! And most of it did technically leave the house.

It got into the car. Except the one piece that does not fit into our car (48-inches square), and the other piece that was sitting next to big Bertha. I figured Carl could dispose of most of it and we would find a larger vehicle for the remaining 2.

So Carl took off for Rabanco. His report was that a line of trucks all around a little Prius. Talking to a lady in a window built to talk to drivers in tall trucks, with a quiet voice that would disappear at the end of a sentence. In the end they would not take our asbestos because it didn’t have a required sticker.

The question now is – which asbestos needs a sticker. When I called to ask they said the friable needed to be in a yellow bag with a pre-printed asbestos symbol. (I have a line on a bag.) But they were not sure about the non-friable. I am going to call again tomorrow and limit my questions to non-friable, and insist on a firm answer. (The stickers are not in stock, and their requirement poses a potential delay – arghhhhh.)

So do we unload the car? Leave it in? Rent a truck to carry it all in one load?

I think I know why some people just turn their back and throw it all in the trash.
They make it difficult to follow the rules. Even when you have read the rules.

We did manage to get a load over to a rummage sale. They are really liking your shoes Ashlan.

And for entertainment we saw the Music Man at the 5th Avenue.  It was quite well done, especially the number in the library. Lots of action with props that were well done.

For those that have made it this far, a little hereditary news.
Both Ashlan & I sleep with our eyes open (a little bit).

Always keep an eye open