I wish I had more to say. One day drips into another.
Oh, the kitchen faucet came out. Well, there is a bit of a story there. There is a main nut that holds the faucet to the sink. The nut is, of course, underneath and hard to get at. But I have the tool for that, and I was able to get it off. But there is a strange nit there and the water connection bits are too big to fit through the nut. The fittings were soldered on. So I think either a pro or a bad amateur put them on. Why would you not want to get the faucet off?
My dream was to take the faucet apart and clean it up. The main nut had a tendency to loosen and that made the faucet a real pain to use. You couldn't tell from the temperature control lever's position if it was set to full hot or medium temperature. The hot water is hot here -- yes, I know we are destroying the earth, but hot water is a wonderful thing.
When it was clear it was not going to come out, we did what Barb has been interested in doing for awhile, and that was to get a new one. The old one is 25 years old and the water causes a lot of mineral buildup, so it was probably time.
That made it easy to get the old out out, just saw off the water pipes and pull it out and toss it into the garden.
We went off to the store to get a new one. Barb was freaking about walking past anyone, but we found one that looked ok and wasn't too expensive. Installation required the water to be turned off. There are valves at the pipes under the sink. The valves were very tight and as I turned off the old one, a drip of black gunk came out. They did shut off and the rest of the installation was pretty easy.
When the water was turned back on both valves have a drip. I'm going to give them a day to stop dripping. If not then that will be the next project. Ball valves are a better way to go and hopefully the old ones will come off the pipe and not break and create a nice leak into the wall. But, tomorrow is another day.
Otherwise, the weather is still crap -- gray, damp, cool to cold. I'm ready for the stay at home stuff to be over and the Winter to get out of the way. Though if the weather was great the stay at home stuff would be more bothersome.
We are going to cook some Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches tonight. Our large chunk of frozen chuck came out a lot like ground beef but with more texture. It's in little bits, but should make a nice sandwich.
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Thursday and I had to check my Watch
Yes, the days are running together. Back in the day, I have pickleball and golf to keep me somewhat mentally aligned with the true day of the week.
I don't have a lot of news to pass on. The wash machine is still leaking - a job for another day. We did manage to get the laundry done, so there is no real hurry there. I was going to hit some golf balls at the school, but got there and was rained out. Didn't want to soak my shoes and freeze me feet. The stock market is up again. And the news, what I see of it, seems to be mixed.
The federal response to Corona was unprecedented in my life time. When the smoke clears and assuming we have no vaccine what will we do next year? The head task force guy (not really sure about his title and I'm too lazy to look it up) is talking about seasonal uprising as the flu does. (Life Pro Tip - there is empirical evidence that this rise is due to the lack of Vitamin D! So get out in the sun and or take your supplements!) So will we shut down the country every year for 3 months? Kind of expensive especially if Congress votes themselves $39,000 salary increases each time.
There is a guy who looked at the numbers. His take is that while the death rate from Corona is higher than the flu, the infection rate is about 160 times lower. The flu is the bad actor based on that. Basically, if those numbers are true, we should do nothing. If we find a drug that heals or a vaccine, that's inexpensive and easily doable, so, yes, do that. But shutting down the economy and have a million new folks on unemployment compensation is too much. Others are interested in the new roles that government might decide to take on... They rarely contract.
Still cold here in Northern California. Rained some. We're still cooking. We did tilapia again tonight. Quite nice, pan fried, with a complex tossed salad. We will try to tackle some of the beef tomorrow.
I don't have a lot of news to pass on. The wash machine is still leaking - a job for another day. We did manage to get the laundry done, so there is no real hurry there. I was going to hit some golf balls at the school, but got there and was rained out. Didn't want to soak my shoes and freeze me feet. The stock market is up again. And the news, what I see of it, seems to be mixed.
The federal response to Corona was unprecedented in my life time. When the smoke clears and assuming we have no vaccine what will we do next year? The head task force guy (not really sure about his title and I'm too lazy to look it up) is talking about seasonal uprising as the flu does. (Life Pro Tip - there is empirical evidence that this rise is due to the lack of Vitamin D! So get out in the sun and or take your supplements!) So will we shut down the country every year for 3 months? Kind of expensive especially if Congress votes themselves $39,000 salary increases each time.
There is a guy who looked at the numbers. His take is that while the death rate from Corona is higher than the flu, the infection rate is about 160 times lower. The flu is the bad actor based on that. Basically, if those numbers are true, we should do nothing. If we find a drug that heals or a vaccine, that's inexpensive and easily doable, so, yes, do that. But shutting down the economy and have a million new folks on unemployment compensation is too much. Others are interested in the new roles that government might decide to take on... They rarely contract.
Still cold here in Northern California. Rained some. We're still cooking. We did tilapia again tonight. Quite nice, pan fried, with a complex tossed salad. We will try to tackle some of the beef tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Wednesday
It's about 10 am and we've completed the Census and found the washmachine leak.
The leak is in the drain pipe going into the wall. Looks like it's plastic and maybe just needs to be tightened. Or it's been cracked and due for replacement. A wrench should tell the story.
Still cloudy and cool.
Later that day...
It took some work to get the washing machine fixed. We'll return to that in a moment. I wander off to Lowe's, a home goods store, and prowl the empty aisles looking for the plumbing section and then for washing machine parts and then for a clerk. He was on the phone but pointed me back where I was. I wander aisles 42 and 43 and still no luck. But one of the plumbing guys comes by and helps me out. Of course they don't have the specific part, but I've a new nut -- the old one split -- and new washers that didn't have the same shape, but might (a bit of foreshadowing there) fit.
I take a stab at the Trader Joe's as I have a little list in my pocket. There are the usual items, plus words of caution, e.g., "WASH YOUR HANDS" and "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING" and "DON'T GET NEAR ANYONE!" Barb is a bit nervous about the whole thing. There is a line of four, so I get a cart and get in line and then two gals decide independently to cut in front of me. Am I turning into chopped liver or something? This seems to be a regular thing at TJ's. I need to cough more or something.
I find everything and get it back in the car and home again. "Wash your hands," I'm told. Ok, ok.
Then I start on the pipe for the washer. The water here is pretty bad in re corrosion and mineral build up. It doesn't always smell real good and has been known to kill fish. I have to clean the parts I'm going to reuse and that takes some time with scrapers and metal brushes and probes and such. I've got it pretty clean and wander back to the utility room to assemble it all. Now the new nut is made of plastic and section I'm got to bolt to is made of metal. How do you spell cross thread? In all cases, the fit is not great, so I take it apart and just try to dry ft the nut. That seems to be a problem. I go and fetch my brushes and files to clean up the threads on the pipe. File and fit, file and fit. I finally got it to go on. I pull it off, reassemble the pipe to the washer and the new nut and then it's again a struggle to get the washer to compress and the threads to align.
I manage to get it together and it all looks ok. Hand tight and let's test! I run a small load with no clothes in it and we have a leak. It's pretty small, maybe two table spoons. The old leak was measured in multiple cups. I put down a bowl, grab a big wrench and tighten it a bit more. Well, it doesn't tighten much. We are going to give it a go and if it's still leaking I'll try some Teflon tape and maybe some liquid gasket. The surfaces of all the parts are not in great shape, but there is not a lot of pressure, so maybe I'll get lucky.
We found a restaurant supply company and bought some beef strips. A quarter of an inch or so, in a large five pound block. We tossed it into the freezer, I think it was frozen when we got it. We were going to do stir fry with beef and broccoli, but there was no way we were going to whack a chunk off of it. So into the fridge to thaw and we'll cook all of it and freeze cooked parts later.
So back the freezer to find something smaller and we grabbed a cooked chicken breast and thawed that and stir fried some broccolli and it came out pretty good.
It was strange to be out. Not much happening, nice light traffic. The stores have taped marks on the floor to keep people away from each other in lines, but as you wander the store you can crash your cart into others or have near misses -- all good. Some folks were in masks.
Will this become seen as just another flu? I'm guessing yes. I think the death rate is going to be pretty low and maybe the anti-malarial drugs will be effective. But it's early. Last I heard there were two cases in Pleasanton.
The leak is in the drain pipe going into the wall. Looks like it's plastic and maybe just needs to be tightened. Or it's been cracked and due for replacement. A wrench should tell the story.
Still cloudy and cool.
Later that day...
It took some work to get the washing machine fixed. We'll return to that in a moment. I wander off to Lowe's, a home goods store, and prowl the empty aisles looking for the plumbing section and then for washing machine parts and then for a clerk. He was on the phone but pointed me back where I was. I wander aisles 42 and 43 and still no luck. But one of the plumbing guys comes by and helps me out. Of course they don't have the specific part, but I've a new nut -- the old one split -- and new washers that didn't have the same shape, but might (a bit of foreshadowing there) fit.
I take a stab at the Trader Joe's as I have a little list in my pocket. There are the usual items, plus words of caution, e.g., "WASH YOUR HANDS" and "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING" and "DON'T GET NEAR ANYONE!" Barb is a bit nervous about the whole thing. There is a line of four, so I get a cart and get in line and then two gals decide independently to cut in front of me. Am I turning into chopped liver or something? This seems to be a regular thing at TJ's. I need to cough more or something.
I find everything and get it back in the car and home again. "Wash your hands," I'm told. Ok, ok.
Then I start on the pipe for the washer. The water here is pretty bad in re corrosion and mineral build up. It doesn't always smell real good and has been known to kill fish. I have to clean the parts I'm going to reuse and that takes some time with scrapers and metal brushes and probes and such. I've got it pretty clean and wander back to the utility room to assemble it all. Now the new nut is made of plastic and section I'm got to bolt to is made of metal. How do you spell cross thread? In all cases, the fit is not great, so I take it apart and just try to dry ft the nut. That seems to be a problem. I go and fetch my brushes and files to clean up the threads on the pipe. File and fit, file and fit. I finally got it to go on. I pull it off, reassemble the pipe to the washer and the new nut and then it's again a struggle to get the washer to compress and the threads to align.
I manage to get it together and it all looks ok. Hand tight and let's test! I run a small load with no clothes in it and we have a leak. It's pretty small, maybe two table spoons. The old leak was measured in multiple cups. I put down a bowl, grab a big wrench and tighten it a bit more. Well, it doesn't tighten much. We are going to give it a go and if it's still leaking I'll try some Teflon tape and maybe some liquid gasket. The surfaces of all the parts are not in great shape, but there is not a lot of pressure, so maybe I'll get lucky.
We found a restaurant supply company and bought some beef strips. A quarter of an inch or so, in a large five pound block. We tossed it into the freezer, I think it was frozen when we got it. We were going to do stir fry with beef and broccoli, but there was no way we were going to whack a chunk off of it. So into the fridge to thaw and we'll cook all of it and freeze cooked parts later.
So back the freezer to find something smaller and we grabbed a cooked chicken breast and thawed that and stir fried some broccolli and it came out pretty good.
It was strange to be out. Not much happening, nice light traffic. The stores have taped marks on the floor to keep people away from each other in lines, but as you wander the store you can crash your cart into others or have near misses -- all good. Some folks were in masks.
Will this become seen as just another flu? I'm guessing yes. I think the death rate is going to be pretty low and maybe the anti-malarial drugs will be effective. But it's early. Last I heard there were two cases in Pleasanton.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Tuesday
Some good new from the President and the market rallied. As it should. Probably shouldn't have fallen actually, but every taking time off for work probably will make for distressing quarterly news.
Word of the day: bourse, which is a stock market usually European in origin.
Dinner was left overs, still quite gourmet. A melange without perhaps no focus, but it tasted good. Pulled pork, some hamburger, boiled cabbage, Mexican guacamole sauce, some olives and red wine. Hmm, not a sentence, but I think it's fairly clear.
We've been watching The Chef Show on Netflix, which is, as cooking shows go, is quite well done. Enthusiastic, bright guys doing their thing. Finding new skills and flavors and actually showing enough technique to be interesting on that side.
A very quiet day. I went out the metal detector for half an hour and a quarter and some iron bit. Nothing too exciting. It's still cold and it started to rain so I didn't spend much time outside. Spent time reading for the most part, finished the wood part I mentioned yesterday. It's been passed on to Barb for evaluation before it goes to Barb II.
Otherwise I have no news to pass along. I did see a cute 5 second video of a guy who decided to care for 5 kittens while he was at home. They were pretty cute. I do miss the cat days, but it's nice not to worry about them too. Ah, life, what an act of balance you are.
Word of the day: bourse, which is a stock market usually European in origin.
Dinner was left overs, still quite gourmet. A melange without perhaps no focus, but it tasted good. Pulled pork, some hamburger, boiled cabbage, Mexican guacamole sauce, some olives and red wine. Hmm, not a sentence, but I think it's fairly clear.
We've been watching The Chef Show on Netflix, which is, as cooking shows go, is quite well done. Enthusiastic, bright guys doing their thing. Finding new skills and flavors and actually showing enough technique to be interesting on that side.
A very quiet day. I went out the metal detector for half an hour and a quarter and some iron bit. Nothing too exciting. It's still cold and it started to rain so I didn't spend much time outside. Spent time reading for the most part, finished the wood part I mentioned yesterday. It's been passed on to Barb for evaluation before it goes to Barb II.
Otherwise I have no news to pass along. I did see a cute 5 second video of a guy who decided to care for 5 kittens while he was at home. They were pretty cute. I do miss the cat days, but it's nice not to worry about them too. Ah, life, what an act of balance you are.
Monday, March 23, 2020
Monday, or Something Like That
I've been thinking all day that it was Thursday or something. With my usual activities put on hold, I'm lost and confused.
I did a little wood work today. Barb's friend, Barb II, wanted a wooden presser foot for quilting seam work. I cut a chunk from a local tree trimming project from across the street and turned it down. I'm applying a number of coats of sealant and then I'll polish and wax it. Nothing special, but might be useful. Always good to make tools.
We had another nice dinner. We had some cooked pulled pork and heated that up with some sauted onion, tossed in the mushrooms from yesterday and did some Mexican style eats. We had a sliced avocado and some salsa and cheese. It came together quite well.
I opened another bottle of wine. I seem to be going through them quickly. A French Merlot also from 2009. I didn't think it was very smooth, but Barb liked it. It was certainly drinkable!
Cool today and I really didn't get outside other than to bring in the trash bins. It's still cool and windy. The rain came last night, so the forecast wasn't totally incorrect. Not sure when we will see sun again.
That's all I have to contribute. There is an attempt to pass some economic aid for the country, but Pelosi thought it needed some progressive clauses and special projects, so it hasn't passed. It would be nice if She and others would not see every emergency as an opportunity to push their pet projects and be a bit more supportive of legislation that is neutral in flavor. What the hell, there are a lot of folks out of work at this point and $1000 might be very useful to them. Color me naive and idealist I guess.
I did a little wood work today. Barb's friend, Barb II, wanted a wooden presser foot for quilting seam work. I cut a chunk from a local tree trimming project from across the street and turned it down. I'm applying a number of coats of sealant and then I'll polish and wax it. Nothing special, but might be useful. Always good to make tools.
We had another nice dinner. We had some cooked pulled pork and heated that up with some sauted onion, tossed in the mushrooms from yesterday and did some Mexican style eats. We had a sliced avocado and some salsa and cheese. It came together quite well.
I opened another bottle of wine. I seem to be going through them quickly. A French Merlot also from 2009. I didn't think it was very smooth, but Barb liked it. It was certainly drinkable!
Cool today and I really didn't get outside other than to bring in the trash bins. It's still cool and windy. The rain came last night, so the forecast wasn't totally incorrect. Not sure when we will see sun again.
That's all I have to contribute. There is an attempt to pass some economic aid for the country, but Pelosi thought it needed some progressive clauses and special projects, so it hasn't passed. It would be nice if She and others would not see every emergency as an opportunity to push their pet projects and be a bit more supportive of legislation that is neutral in flavor. What the hell, there are a lot of folks out of work at this point and $1000 might be very useful to them. Color me naive and idealist I guess.
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Sunday, day 7, I Think
Not a bad day at the house. Did some trimming outside. The weather was nice. I would have liked more sun. It's still cool for this time of the year.
The garage was getting full again, so we pitched some cardboard boxes and did some organizing and now there is room for the bikes and walking again.
We had pork chops again with some stir fried asparagus pieces and sauted mushrooms. We used a vegetable spice mix on the mushrooms and that was very nice. Enough salt to really make the flavors shine. Barb had added some lemon, but it didn't register with me. All in all the food we're eating is a real step up from the usual.
I read a post about how the virus might not be any big deal and I ran with that. It got stomped down, not sure on fully technical grounds, but enough to have it pulled from Reason.com. I suggested to my pickleball people that I would come out and play if there was interest. That didn't go over very well either.
We both went for a bike ride today before dinner and before the rains came. It's been three hours and the rains are still not here. What's up with that?
So we are still in place and have not gone shopping for awhile. We have pounds of food still to cook. I'd like to pick up a few things, but no real necessities. Tuesday is seniors' day at the market, so we might try that then.
Reading, various Hallmark Mysteries on the tube, the odd jaunt out in the yard has been the order of the day. I broke out the metal detector and found 5 coins in the yard. So I'm 51 cents up on the day!
The garage was getting full again, so we pitched some cardboard boxes and did some organizing and now there is room for the bikes and walking again.
We had pork chops again with some stir fried asparagus pieces and sauted mushrooms. We used a vegetable spice mix on the mushrooms and that was very nice. Enough salt to really make the flavors shine. Barb had added some lemon, but it didn't register with me. All in all the food we're eating is a real step up from the usual.
I read a post about how the virus might not be any big deal and I ran with that. It got stomped down, not sure on fully technical grounds, but enough to have it pulled from Reason.com. I suggested to my pickleball people that I would come out and play if there was interest. That didn't go over very well either.
We both went for a bike ride today before dinner and before the rains came. It's been three hours and the rains are still not here. What's up with that?
So we are still in place and have not gone shopping for awhile. We have pounds of food still to cook. I'd like to pick up a few things, but no real necessities. Tuesday is seniors' day at the market, so we might try that then.
Reading, various Hallmark Mysteries on the tube, the odd jaunt out in the yard has been the order of the day. I broke out the metal detector and found 5 coins in the yard. So I'm 51 cents up on the day!
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Saturday Breaks...
It breaks nice and cloudy!
But a few things have been attended to: the bike tires are pumped up -- exercise to come, I took apart the wash machine and if there is a leak, it's small and not obvious. We will run a load and see what we can see. We installed printer apps for our phones. All before 11!
I also read the article: https://medium.com/six-four-six-nine/evidence-over-hysteria-covid-19-1b767def5894
Which suggests that: you can't get infected easily, the panic is just that, hoarding and such are anticipations of what government might do and not what the virus could cause, and closing businesses and schools is going to cost a fortune and it is not the way to go... It's a good read if you have any angst. I'm just hoping our political masters will relax a bit.
I've put out an appeal for players on the pickleball list, so I'm hoping to play some next week.
OK, on the menu for today: we're going to make some guacamole (Wow, I spelled it correctly!), then some bone in pork chops for dinner. The 'fridge is loaded with food. Choices abound and deciding what to eat is more of a problem than anything.
I'd still like to wander to Trader Joe's, I officially out of roasted and salted nuts and dried Italian sausage. It's amazing what one can eat if all you restrict are carbs!
That's the morning news! Hang in there all of you.
But a few things have been attended to: the bike tires are pumped up -- exercise to come, I took apart the wash machine and if there is a leak, it's small and not obvious. We will run a load and see what we can see. We installed printer apps for our phones. All before 11!
I also read the article: https://medium.com/six-four-six-nine/evidence-over-hysteria-covid-19-1b767def5894
Which suggests that: you can't get infected easily, the panic is just that, hoarding and such are anticipations of what government might do and not what the virus could cause, and closing businesses and schools is going to cost a fortune and it is not the way to go... It's a good read if you have any angst. I'm just hoping our political masters will relax a bit.
I've put out an appeal for players on the pickleball list, so I'm hoping to play some next week.
OK, on the menu for today: we're going to make some guacamole (Wow, I spelled it correctly!), then some bone in pork chops for dinner. The 'fridge is loaded with food. Choices abound and deciding what to eat is more of a problem than anything.
I'd still like to wander to Trader Joe's, I officially out of roasted and salted nuts and dried Italian sausage. It's amazing what one can eat if all you restrict are carbs!
That's the morning news! Hang in there all of you.
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