Grump Central Archive: Week of 24 February 2019
Saturday, 2 March 2019
Yesterday was sort of the three-year anniversary of ground-breaking—I say "sort of" because it took place on 29 February 2016, so I can only celebrate it legitimately every four years. It's a bittersweet experience reflecting on how much I'd accomplished in just a few short months since that time, only to have everything come to a crashing halt less than a year later. Now I'm clawing my way back, and unfortunately it hasn't gotten any easier. Also, I'm still recovering from my fall a few days ago, so I'm not getting anything done for the time being.
Friday, 1 March 2019
My helpers have begun digging a trench between the house and the well in anticipation of being able to hook it up in the near future, at which point I'll be on the threshold of having running water. It's exciting and depressing all at once, since it's going on three years since the well was drilled, and nearly six since I bought the property.
Thursday, 28 February 2019
Falling on hard times—literally: took a tumble down the (concrete) stairs in the house yesterday, landing smack on my bad knee. I'll be using a cane for a while, and doubling up on aspirin. Otherwise, I'm OK, I guess.
Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Although we're headed back to the freezer, the ground still hasn't frozen since we've not had more than
two consecutive daytime highs below freezing so far this winter. This is fortunate because it means I can put my slave helper to work digging a
trench from the well to the house by hand, saving me well over a grand. Hey, he genuinely likes digging ditches—go figure. Bonus for me.
In other news, I've had an accident with my nice new car. Nothing the slightest bit dangerous... I simply collided with my garage door. My car is significantly shorter than the door opening, so I'd often anticipate things and start pulling out before it was fully open. Yesterday I jumped the gun, and ran smack into the door. Scratched the crap out of the hatchback spoiler and, far worse, bent the living sh!t out of the bottom of the garage door, completely ripping off the weather seal in the process. I'd considered ordering a replacement panel, but 1) I don't have the money, and 2) I desperately need to keep a vivid visual reminder for myself to not be such a fracking moron!
On the flipside, I've just been approved for Social Security benefits (yes, I'm that old), which will go a looong way to help keep me solvent while I attempt to secure additional funds for the house—which will include a massive sell-off of model train stuff. Overall, despite the car crash, Tuesday was a win.
Tuesday, 26 February 2019
Monday was a rather short day, considering I spent over ten hours waiting for my power to be restored. But it didn't adversely affect work on the house since I'm not doing much of any work on the house, considering my current budget of zero. As an aside, I'm quite grateful that the storm resulted in no tree damage—not even any big branches down. Go figure.
Monday, 25 February 2019
I hope I didn't worry anyone. I've endured a power outage that started at 4:30 this morning, and wasn't fixed until 2 PM. The wind storm caused a great deal of havoc in this area, although my street seems to have taken the brunt of the damage, as the surrounding neighborhoods had power restored by 7 AM. Just my luck, right?
Sunday, 24 February 2019
Managed to get some gutter up yesterday, just in time for the rain, but little else. Still feeling very down. And bracing for a potentially destructive wind storm that's on the way.