We held off moving the small wood box off the porch on account of how cold it was at the start of the month, but moved it yesterday. As this weekend is the "ceremonial" start of summer (which runs more or less from Memorial Day to Labor Day), we could now use the whole front porch for relaxing and bird watching.

( Chairs and Birds )

It got just barely cold enough last night for the rain to turn into a little bit of snow.

( Still )

Temperatures are now staying above freezing for longer. Yesterday evening we had some cold rain, but that just accelerated the snow melting from the roof of the house and garage. This made quite a racket for a while, but by today, the rooftop snow was gone.

( The Retreating Snow )

It's certainly no big deal compared to people who get serious snowfall, but we finally got a snowfall that wasn't just a few minutes of pebbly ice.

( Hint of Things to Come? )

When I got home from Chengdu, Lisa had a surprise for me.

( Fresh Paint )

As I mentioned earlier, Fernley's 4th of July parade forms up in front of our house on Front Street. I was up early enough to pop down to the Wigwam to get a take-out breakfast. The first of the floats had arrived as I got back home, but my hands were full, so I didn't get a picture of Sparky the Lion from the Sparks Lions Club, and as I was going ( Read more... )

As I mentioned yesterday, we went and bought new deck chairs to replace the one that failed. The other one of the brown plastic chairs is still in one piece, but is now relegated to secondary duty on the back patio along with an even older chair that is the only one of four surviving chairs from the Slan Shack in San Jose.

( Deluxe Deck Chairs )

This evening after dinner, as we often do when the weather permits, Lisa and I went out onto the porch to sit and watch birds and such. When Lisa sat in one of our plastic deck chairs, there was a loud crack.

( Chair Failure )

The last time we painted the porch was three years ago. Yesterday, Lisa started the process of removing old loose paint in preparation for the planned repaint.

( Runaway Sander )

The front porch needs repainting again. The sun and snow has worn it out. Sherwin-Williams was running a 30% off sale on paint (15% of supplies like brushes), so this afternoon, Lisa and I went to the store in south Reno where we've bought paint from them in the past. We bought three gallons of "fireweed red," the color that is the closest match to ( Read more... )