Rain, gutters, kitchen, bathrooms, blood
I don't think I'll ever have lived in California long enough not to be surprised and delighted by how everything gleams and sparkles after the first good rain of the year. Betty was briefly taken aback by water falling out of the sky making her face wet, but also excited because plants suddenly burst into life and amplify their scents. (The nativist contingent did manage to wipe out many of the eucalypts in the East Bay. I'm agnostic about that: yes they're oily but so are plenty of native trees, and I suspect the eradication attempts may have involved more anxiety and do-something-ism than science. In any case, some do remain and they smell magnificent. Walking back from the eye doctor on Thursday under a grove of them in a light drizzle, I was grateful for them.)
One of the first projects we took on right after moving in here in July 2020 was to sand all of our rusted-out metal roof gutters and line them with epoxy-saturated cloth tape. We'd intended to paint them afterwards to protect the epoxy from UV damage. We didn't get around to it, and we'd been worried that maybe the patches might have deteriorated. But no! The gutters are doing their job, diverting rain into proper channels and barrels.
The maple kitchen countertops are here. As I type this, Jon is figuring out how to install them. I can hear him talking to himself. It is likely that we'll have to disconnect the dishwasher.
About the bathrooms: there's a load of plumbing and other fittings coming at 8:30 on Monday morning. We still need half a case of warm grey grout from the Art Tile warehouse, and the wall cabinets will have to be installed later. But everything else is here, and this very morning (even though it's Saturday) Marco's guys came over to demolish bathroom #1 of 2. The hallway bathroom is first, then once that's done we'll move on to the one adjacent to the bedroom.
Years ago, Jon and I had each independently watched the first five seasons of Engrenages. In the last ten days or so, we finished seasons 6 and 7 and are now four episodes into 8. It's our first ever mutual bout of television. Both of us were surprised at how quickly we spun up an attachment to the characters. I may have mentioned this the first time around, some years ago, but I have a grey zip cardigan just like Laure's. That's purely coincidental, I had the cardigan first. But to maximize the resemblance I tried putting my hair into a side braid like Laure's. Turns out it isn't quite long enough.
Did I mention that we drove up to see Marti? She's responding really well to treatment: fun and lively, in no way looking or acting like a sick person.
Betty is eight months old this week. She's left spots of blood on her bedding over the last few days, so she's coming into heat. She had a brief bout of indigestion yesterday (apparently that can happen), but today not only is she doing fine, she's also been admirably calm and well-behaved. I texted Tammy to check whether it was all right to bring her to puppy class anyway, and I'm so glad the answer was yes. Betty loves other dogs, and behaves exquisitely around them, to the point that Tammy uses her as the demo dog for greeting practice.
Most of the day was quiet overhead but more rain is coming after dark. To use the prevalent melodramatic meteorological jargon, we're about to get an ATMOSPHERIC RIVER plus, mysteriously and terrifyingly, a BOMB CYCLONE. Crossposted from https://loosestrife.dreamwidth.org/200766.html. If you have comments, please either post them there or send email.
One of the first projects we took on right after moving in here in July 2020 was to sand all of our rusted-out metal roof gutters and line them with epoxy-saturated cloth tape. We'd intended to paint them afterwards to protect the epoxy from UV damage. We didn't get around to it, and we'd been worried that maybe the patches might have deteriorated. But no! The gutters are doing their job, diverting rain into proper channels and barrels.
The maple kitchen countertops are here. As I type this, Jon is figuring out how to install them. I can hear him talking to himself. It is likely that we'll have to disconnect the dishwasher.
About the bathrooms: there's a load of plumbing and other fittings coming at 8:30 on Monday morning. We still need half a case of warm grey grout from the Art Tile warehouse, and the wall cabinets will have to be installed later. But everything else is here, and this very morning (even though it's Saturday) Marco's guys came over to demolish bathroom #1 of 2. The hallway bathroom is first, then once that's done we'll move on to the one adjacent to the bedroom.
Years ago, Jon and I had each independently watched the first five seasons of Engrenages. In the last ten days or so, we finished seasons 6 and 7 and are now four episodes into 8. It's our first ever mutual bout of television. Both of us were surprised at how quickly we spun up an attachment to the characters. I may have mentioned this the first time around, some years ago, but I have a grey zip cardigan just like Laure's. That's purely coincidental, I had the cardigan first. But to maximize the resemblance I tried putting my hair into a side braid like Laure's. Turns out it isn't quite long enough.
Did I mention that we drove up to see Marti? She's responding really well to treatment: fun and lively, in no way looking or acting like a sick person.
Betty is eight months old this week. She's left spots of blood on her bedding over the last few days, so she's coming into heat. She had a brief bout of indigestion yesterday (apparently that can happen), but today not only is she doing fine, she's also been admirably calm and well-behaved. I texted Tammy to check whether it was all right to bring her to puppy class anyway, and I'm so glad the answer was yes. Betty loves other dogs, and behaves exquisitely around them, to the point that Tammy uses her as the demo dog for greeting practice.
Most of the day was quiet overhead but more rain is coming after dark. To use the prevalent melodramatic meteorological jargon, we're about to get an ATMOSPHERIC RIVER plus, mysteriously and terrifyingly, a BOMB CYCLONE. Crossposted from https://loosestrife.dreamwidth.org/200766.html. If you have comments, please either post them there or send email.