A Very Rusty Bucket

Rudebeckia I woke just before 7:30am Saturday and laid in bed until about 7:45am. By the time I had exercised and walked Ykraps it was just after 8:00am. Mindy had told me that she’d be down stairs shortly but she must have fallen back asleep. I enjoyed a couple of cups of coffee, did some blogging, and played guitar on the deck before she showed up downstairs. We hung out until 9:40am when I decided it was time to run. Mindy asked if I wanted breakfast and if so, what. We decided on bacon and eggs. She vowed to cook while I ran. It was significantly overcast, humid, but not excessively hot, at least not yet. However, the temperature was expected to surpass 90 degrees at some point. I worked up a real sweat during my run. In addition to the sweat, I worked up an appetite too. I devoured my eggs and bacon in short order. During our meal we roughed out our day’s plans which included a trip to Lowes to look at and hopefully purchase some pull-out shelves for the cabinets. Last minute we decided not to shower since we would be working up a sweat with moving/organizing later. We did freshen up, however. We left the house around noon headed towards the Georgesville Square Lowes. I inadvertently got of at West Broad as if we were going to Home Depot. Rather than turn around, we did stop at Home Depot just to peruse their isles first. They didn’t have the cabinet shelving we wanted but did have a few other items that weren’t on our list. We bought some potted sunflowers and another type which I can’t readily recall. In addition, we bought a new plant stand and a couple other miscellaneous items. Onto Lowes. We arrived at Lowes minutes later – one exit south on 270. We passed Kroger first where we saw Mindy’s mother loading her groceries in her car. We chatted for a few, but then moved on with our plans. At Lowes we came to realization that what we wanted to achieve with pull out shelving would be too problematic and ultimately scrapped the idea. We did, however, find the ‘perfect’ light to replace the fluorescent albatross currently hanging over the island counter. We didn’t buy it since we needed to take the old fixture down to see what lies beneath first. We left Lowes empty handed. We noted that that rarely happens. Back at home we got cracking on unloading all the pots and pans form the cabinets. Just then Lindsey arrived just as planned but didn’t have lil’ Rocky in tow. She left with Mindy to help move more stuff from the old (kitchen stuff). I remained back with clear directions for which cabinets to clear. After clearing five cabinets I cleared two additional drawers and further organized two other cabinets – more than Mindy had asked. Since I was done with my ‘to-do’s’, it was time to try out my power washer. I drug it around to the deck, grabbed the directions and read them carefully once more before putting it to the test. Once I felt confident that I had it down, I gassed it up, turned on the water and began power washing the deck. The first thing I noticed was that the low pressure was almost no-pressure. The high pressure was awesome, however and did a very nice job of cleaning with just the right amount of power. In fact, if I narrowed the spray too much, it would cut into the otherwise hard, brittle wood. I had to be careful. I only filled the gas tank about half full. I went through that in about 20 minutes. Too, I managed to allow the high pressure hose to twist into a big mess. After it ran out of gas I disconnected the hose and straightened it out. After refueling I tried to restart but flooded the damn thing right out of the shoot. I wasn’t happy and was ready to box it up and take it back. After removing the air filter I could see that I had flooded it, though. I waited about ten minutes then tried starting it again. By then Mindy & Lindsey were back. I helped carry in more stuff then went out to try starting it again. It started right up. I power washed for another half hour until I ran out of gas gain. I refilled it once more then finished the deck. It looks great. And except for a few areas on the outside edge, it’s ready for stain. After I finished power washing, I helped Mindy inside. We worked hard right up until about 7pm when we headed for the shower. I stunk so bad that I could smell myself!!! You figure 90 + degrees and humid, a run, hard work, and no bath, Pugh-ie! After the shower I walked Ykraps and then readied for our night out. We took the BM’er since it was so nice outdoors. We were headed to the Rusty Bucket at the Lane Avenue mall where Mindy’s nephew just started working. There we ordered some fired pickles, and me a Rogue Dead Guy Ale. Mindy had a margarita. For dinner we both ordered fish and chips. All good. We left R.B. at about 9:30pm and headed to Gentiles to get some more of that new Raspberry Ale. There were still open too. I bought two six packs and then headed home. Back at home we each enjoyed a drink on the deck and were thinking about hot tubbing. The mosquitoes were bad, though, so we opted instead to go in and work on the fluorescent light project. We took the old light completely down after we were convinced that the ceiling was textured underneath allowing for a more modern, less obtrusive light fixture. It came down systematically but left some undesirable holes exposed. The idiots who mounted it took no care in the technique they used installing it. By all accounts, I was quite sure I could patch the holes and match the texture with little to know visible trace. As soon as the light fixture was down, I began patching the four half dollar sized holes that the ‘butterfly’ bolts left behind. After removing the light, patching the holes, and two beers, It was time for bed. We were both exhausted from another long hot day and plenty of chores.