Suck Out the Featherhead

I was up near 6am and promptly engaged in calisthenics. It was cloudy and expected to remain that way for much of the day. The high wasn’t expected to get any warmer than the mid 50’s, and then not much different come Friday. Jacob shared that his throat was sore and that he was sick. Mindy and I weren’t too surprised as he said as much the night before too. Looked as if he wasn’t going to school. Mindy said she would most likely come home from school at noon and take him to the doctor.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to work from home or the office. However, none of my peers would be in the office so there wasn’t much incentive to drive in and do what I can do just as easily and effectively from home. Still, it wasn’t until I dug into work while enjoying coffee and internet that I made my decision. I figured to work all day from home. Heck, I was fully engaged in work related matters starting at 7am.

As such, I didn’t meditate, stretch, and walk the pug until Mindy was gone. And then it was after 830am before I got out for a run. Work had my undivided attention until then. I ran the full 4.1 miles. By all accounts, an easy run.

Stayed busy all morning. Come 1030am or so, I headed out to do a little flower bed prep. I spent roughly half an hour digging the composted mulch away from the edge of the sidewalks leading up to the stoop so once new mulch is laid it won’t spill over onto the walk when it rains. I liken it to building natural gutters. Works well, too. Once back at my desk, I ordered mulch online from Ohio Mulch, choosing a next-day, Friday delivery. Frankly, was a little surprised that the day was still available. I ordered 70 bags of Absolute Black and then 4 cubic yards of playground mulch for the treehouse and behind the shed, both quantities more than last year. We need more bagged mulch this year since we have to fill in where the Ivy died back, which all totaled is a fairly significant area.

I’ve never paid for delivery before, but they were having a special $49 delivery rate through next week, and that would save me from going after dad’s trailer and then making 6 or 7 trips to their closest location, which is only about 2 miles up the road. Simply the convenience seemed like a heck of a deal.

Within the hour, I got a call from Ohio Mulch. A young woman told me that while Friday delivery showed available online, that wasn’t really the case. Said they were totally booked. She said she could make the delivery the following Friday. No, that wouldn’t work for me. I quickly asked for early Saturday but before she could answer we got disconnected. Not wanting the issue left up in the air, I quickly called back. Anita answered and apologized for the disconnection. I wasn’t sure she heard my Saturday ask. But she quickly shared that Saturday delivery was booked already too. She asked if Monday would work. No. It would sit all week. After a brief pause, I asked if today (Thursday) would work. Nope. She soon acquiesced, sharing that she would just force in the delivery for Saturday. She went on to share that the driver would likely be angry with her but he’d just have to suck it up.  I thanked her for the flexibility.

Getting mulch down this coming weekend would get us where I wanted to be schedule-wise for our annual outdoor beautification project.

Despite me working from home, Mindy came home from school early to be with Jacob arriving just after noon. She brought him fast food. Man is he spoiled! She delivered it to his room. Around 2 or 3pm she took him to Craig’s office to have him tested for strep.

I spent the afternoon working from my desk. Mindy & Jacob were gone for about an hour. He didn't have strep but did have some virus. Told him to stay home from school again Friday. Bella was home before they got back. Can’t recall what we did for dinner. Mindy took Bella to gymnastics and I agreed to do the pick-up. However, those plans changed when Mindy reminded me that the dryer vent needs cleaning as evidenced by moisture dripping down the front and by how long it’s taking for a load to dry. I’ve seen evidence of water dripping from the vent pipe in the basement recently too. It’s a job that needs done every year or so, and I am pretty certain that it’s been over a year since the last cleaning.

I offered that I would address the dryer vent project if she would agree to go after the peanut. She reluctantly agreed. I figured this a great time to clean under and behind bot the washer and dryer and then also replace the aging washer hoses with the new metal mesh hoses I bought a few weeks back.

Our laundry is small (tight). Not a lot of room for even one person once the machines are pulled away from the wall. I cleaned under the dryer first and then used the shopvac to suck all the bulk lint from the upper portion of the vent pipe and then the dryer itself. I cleaned under the dryer maybe 6 months ago, but not the washer. Believe me, I could tell it, too. Very dirty, sticky – dryer lint and detergent. Once the mess was cleaned up I removed the 20 year old washer hoses. Cleaned up the faucet housing before installing new hoses. Mindy was home just as I was them up. Before moving the washer back into place I gave it a test run. Good thing I did because the anti-flooding hoses were in ‘block’ mode, and I suspect because I turned the water supply back on too quick. The only way to reset the water flow was to remove the hoses from the supply end. That did the trick.

Once the washer and dryer were back in position, I headed to the basement to clean the vent pipes from the floor out. Mindy took care of the final clean-up upstairs as well as cleaning the laundry caddy. I use the shopvac and a telescoping feather duster to clean out the vent ducting. Having done this a time or two, this is the best solution I’ve come up with before. This time however, the feather duster head came off the telescoping handle leaving it out near the exterior vent. Great. I hollered for Mindy’s assistance. She held the shopvac while I put the extensions on the hose and sucked the feather head out. Crisis avoided.

Seemed to get most of the lint but worried that there might be a clog right at the exterior vent which is not readily accessible from the outside since building the deck some 20 years ago. Lastly, I took the vent duct apart just after the floor elbow and cleaned up and then towards the exterior. Satisfied that I had it as clean as I could get it, Mindy headed back upstairs while I reattached and taped the joints. I’d have to check the exterior vent from under the deck on some dry afternoon. We finished up near 9pm.

Not much else. Off to bed before 10pm.