TheCapeBlog

We attended this “annual community-building event promoting police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie”. Free food and an opportunity to touch base with a number of local non-profits. We brought home salads for lunch today along with fresh corn.

Perfect evening weather-wise, too.

We did a Home Depot run for bedroom doors to replace the uglies with six-panels like we had in Mashpee.

I made a nice bruschetta to consume vegetables before yesterday’s CSA pickup. Ron made an apple bread pudding to use up old white bread and apples.

Town Building Inspector signed off on the “office” project.

I discovered that Ron had cut off the end of a soaker hose. He fixed it today.

A PayPal customer service person responded immediately to my request for an explanation of what happened to my Sears refund. It was credited to other transactions.

All I can say for myself is “Duh”.

Electrician and carpenters are here today. Drywall is in place in the living room.

Talked on the phone with a landscaper who also does carpentry about giving us a quote on trimming the forsythia and installing gable vents.

Cancelled Corolla checkup in Bennington, booked it for North Adams.

Transfer station and a couple of errands, otherwise did nothing today.

We agreed that it was time for a visit to the Apple Barn for donuts and I decided to try a different route in lieu of the highway.

We thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the snacks at Tammy’s Candy Kettle in Hoosick, NY. Ron bought three pretty cut glass vases.

Back home, Ron installed hangers so we could put up the big stained glass piece. He washed all of the deck chairs, too.

Today I started washing windows. The building inspector is coming over tomorrow to check out the tempered glass in the first floor bathroom, so I made it a priority to clean that one.

Did a few more windows plus the sunroom door, then remembered I’d promised to vacuum the deck after Ron’s hard work yesterday. After I put away the shop vac and sat in a chair to relax, it started to rain.

Deck looks much better, though.

Ron vacuumed the two bedrooms before doing a grocery run.

I finished a letter to a bio cousin and mailed it at the post office.

We tripped a breaker this afternoon, a circuit on the west side of the house; not sure how.

Yesterday was a hot one but by afternoon the humidity had gone way down, so I tried to mow the front of the yard. I ran over a mouse with the lawnmower and had to euthanize the poor little thing.

Mowing takes more upper body strength than I have. The property slopes in two directions, East/West and North/South, so you’re fighting gravity with every push.

Ron did great, though, finished both front and back.

I staked some plants that might be Goldenrod. Took down the curtains in the kitchen. Did some grilling: cabbage with chopped onion, carrots and chickpeas for a kale salad, veg burgers.

We ate on the deck and DEET’d up, enjoyed being outside, unmolested.

It’s so muggy this afternoon that even our outdoor-loving neighbors are inside.

I did a transfer station and two compost runs because I’m absent-minded. Picked up a couple of staples at Stop & Shop as well. Changed the sheets. After buying a new drill bit at rk, Ron fixed the kitchen drawer! He is fretting about the “killer storm” predicted to arrive shortly but honestly from the weather map, looks like it’s going to miss us.

This is a banner day for the house: framing is done, inspection passed, praise for James and Jake from the Town building inspectors.

To celebrate, I picked up three sandwiches and a small meal at Poppa Charlie’s Deli. Excellent!

After mulling it over for a while, I’m staying put this afternoon because it all of a sudden got unbearably muggy. Good thing: at 2:20, it was raining like cats and dogs and now at 3:05 it’s like a sauna outside.

Spoke briefly to Robert to wish him a happy birthday.

Yesterday I finally learned how to add channels to my Sirius car radio and had a chat with my primary about glucose readings. Today I set up the most recent Greylock loan for automatic payments.

The electrician squared everything away on his side.

Yesterday I met with and got a quote from an arborist for tree and branch removal.

The carpenters got the architect’s approval to replace a beam with a larger one. They were here today for about five hours.

Ron and I planted some of the new plants in the garden in the center of the yard, thus adding more color to the area.

We were doing pretty well until we encountered a gigantic rock. Ron dug around it and was able to move it. I’m not sure how we are going to get it out of the ground and out of the way, though.

I did a transfer station run to dispose of an old chaise cushion and a bunch of yard clippings. Also dropped off compost materials and picked up our lunches at the senior center.

I was up at 2 am. Not tired.

Paid a couple of bills. Continuing to get caught up with emails. Wrote to James.

Ron did his usual great job of cleaning up before going to sleep.

Ron’s been annoying me with his lengthy monologues to strangers. I think he could use some new companions, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that easily. He really didn’t socialize much in Mashpee, either, even though there was an active men’s club and a crafts group at the senior center.

I tried networking myself but it’s a losing proposition and not that important to me so gave up.

I slept for a couple of hours and was in the shower when James came and went. Waiting for advice from the architect.

Meanwhile, Peter spent several hours here hunting down fault problems. It was complicated and apparently due to bad junction boxes ineptly installed by the former owner. He went up to the attic several times and got a lot done.

Gave Ben his birthday gift, a yoyo, a day early.

We brought home eight more plants from Elhannon – orange and white coneflowers, asters, a balloon flower and a brown eyed susan – and started prepping the circular garden, which is full of weeds and has no color besides green.

We dug out two deep-rooted plants, a suspected hickory tree and a random something else, and a bunch of rocks. We planted the two flowers that Ron had picked out, a balloon flower and a brown eyed susan.

We did a lot of weeding and saved some small flowers like forget me nots for replanting.

Meanwhile, the carpenters installed an LVL in the spot that was the most difficult. They are waiting for advice from the architect before putting the last one in place.

It was arduous because they needed to work from the first floor up. Contrary to what I was told in the beginning, this was a good deal harder than working from the second floor down.

We had a nice afternoon at the MassMOCA courtyard with beer and good music from the F.A.R. Trio.

Afterwards we drove to the Western Summit, where Ron had conversations with some motorcyclists out for a weekend ride.

Yesterday the carpenters installed all but the last set of LVLs. They updated me on plans to demo part of the living room ceiling.

I pruned one of the hollies; surprised at the amount of dead wood.

I installed a paint can opener as a temporary eye to hold the deck door in place.

We drove to Walmart for Ron’s meds.

Cleaned the downstairs bathroom floor and accessories.

Today we did laundry and drained the air conditioner in the bedroom – again. The machine has a capacity of about four cups and we drained close to that much. So, it seems to be working okay, just that it’s been exceptionally humid.

After lunch, we went to the Bennington cineplex, I thought for “Sound of Freedom” which we’d been discussing at breakfast, but turns out Ron thought we’d bought tickets for “Oppenheimer”.

He skipped out of “Sound of Freedom” and watched about two hours of “Oppenheimer”. Meanwhile, “Barbie” played to a full, cheerful, pink-outfitted house.

The carpenters had a banner day yesterday, installed 14 (over half) the LVLs. In lieu of scaffolding or tearing the ceiling apart, they hoisted them through a window. It was a good system, and it worked beautifully.

A handyman replaced the siding around the front door the other day. The entryway looks a lot better but the caulking is not so great.

We did two transfer station runs yesterday, including a couple of barrels of weeds. Disposed of trash, two non-working window fans, styrofoam packing materials from the air conditioners and recyclables.

I finally cleaned the deck with the shop vac. Just as well, it’s raining now and expected to continue all day.