Good Morning Monday!

Another Monday here and there. Hopefully I will finish the driveway this week. All I have to do is put the mesh down (a big job because of cutting it) and call the concrete truck.
I’ve been slack on the photos lately. WordPress makes it easy to upload photos, I just haven’t been taking any good ones.
I DO have pics of all the phases of my driveway project that I am sure you will find fascinating. But I am saving them for when the job is done.
Have a good Monday and a good week.

The Movie Ted and, Glad it’s Friday!!!

I almost didn’t make it this morning. I couldn’t get out of bed without coffee. I couldn’t get coffee without getting out of bed. Last thing I remember is thinking: “This is it, no way out of this one. Checkmate. I’m a dead man.” Then I somehow made it out to the kitchen and now I have a cup of coffee in front of me.

The Wife and I were planning on seeing the movie TED tonight. But we found out that last night was the last night Ted was showing.

So at the last minute last night we went to the last showing. On a scale of 1 – 3, I’d give Ted a 2. It was cute and funny, but if you saw the trailer, you saw 9/10ths of the good parts. My recommendation: Rent it, don’t go to the theater.

Tonight the new Batman movie starts. I’ve never seen a good Batman movie. Usually the scene is so dark the screen looks completely black. Although Danny Devito was a good Penguin, and the Jokers acting was excellent. My recommendation: skip it, don’t rent it, don’t go to the theater.

TGIF! Have a good weekend.

What a day yesterday!

Yesterday, The Wife and I went for a walk, a Powah Walk. When we came home there was no power. Our Power Walk must have drained all the Powah. Something blew up at the power station and the electricity was off island wide till after lunch. I whipped out the generator and ran the fridge. Went to town, came home and the generator was out of fuel and the power was still off. City Power came back on as soon as I refueled and restarted the Generator.

We used the gas grill to make coffee and eggs for breakfast. It was fun. I said I thought we could get the power turned off for a week and take a camping vacation at home. The wife said no.

Still working on the driveway. Gonna have 6 inches of concrete. at least. Generally speaking, the new part will be 9 inches thick, but one corner is 16 inches. I’m just leveling her up with the gravel. I used 3 cubic yards of gravel and have two more coming tomorrow.

It was a lot of work, moving all this and spreading it all out. I did have some help.

I was hoping to pour the concrete this week but hopefully next week for sure.

Anyway, since there was no power yesterday, I couldn’t post. That’s why.

Dr. Sally Ride Passes Away

I remember Sally Ride going into space. I thought “What a cool name for an astronaut!” I’m sad she died of cancer at such a young age. It seems like to great people are dying faster than new great people can take their places.

These are just some pics I found of her on the internet.

In Heaven, you can travel through space faster than the speed of  light, no space ship needed.

R.I.P. Dr. Sally Ride

Driveway Update

I’m making progress on the driveway extension. I’ve got it shored up and today I’m going to try and get some gravel delivered to fill it to 6 inches from the top. Then the rebar and then the concrete.
I had a friend who is a retired concrete man come over and he said everything looks good.
I do want someone to come and help smooth it when I get it poured though.

Trembling Dogs

I think I may have accidently found a solution for dogs that are terrified of thunder and lightning.
Last night there was a pretty good t-storm and our dog Ditto hates them. He trembles, pants loudly and paces restlessly through the house. He stands in your way wherever you go and he’s very annoying. I feel bad being annoyed because he’s so terrified but his behavior is ceaseless.
At bedtime last night, it was still thundery and we were in bed with Ditto panting around the house like a little choo choo train. He’d come up bedside and pant in our faces. That dog panting recirculates so much air he makes the whole house smell like dogbreath. It is irritating when he’s standing next to you, blowing on your leg, but when he’s standing next to the bed blowing a 40 knot wind in your face it is too much.
I did what I did last night for the second time and it worked.
I put his leash on him and tied the other end to a living room doorknob next to his bed.
As soon as I left the room – quiet. After a few minutes, I went back to check on him and he was laying in his bed, calm, quiet and normal looking. As soon as he saw me, he jumped up and started panting and acting all freaky again.
In the morning, he was fine. I unleashed him and he’s normal. It works.
The first time, when I let him go, he headed straight for the water and was very thirsty. (I imagine panting dehydrates a dog pretty well). Last night, I moved the water next to him.
We’ve tried everything in the past. Thundershirts, all the pills and drops you can buy that are supposed to calm dogs down, everything. Nothing seemed to have any effect, not one iota.
Tying him up calmed him down immediately both times, so long as we weren’t in the room with him. We can spy and see he’s calm and relaxed. As soon as he sees us he jumps up and acts all scared again.
I don’t know the psychology. I guess he’s trying to warn us of danger or ask us to turn the thunder and lightning off. I dunno. But he’s calm and relaxed when he’s tied up alone. It may sound cruel but I don’t think it is.
If your dog has this problem,  try it. Let me know.

Stinky Flower

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Our tall cactus that  I got from Cayman Brac is making flowers. For some reason, a lot of our cacti are flowering this year.

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On the downside, These flowers stink. BAD. Like a combination of rotten cabbage and puke.
But they’re so purdy…

Today will be busy. I have to go check a transmitter problem, possibly an audio processing problem, and get wire and lumber for the driveway job.
And the car needs a new battery.

Seems like Monday…

3 Gig Limit and a new driveway

I just noticed this as I was getting ready to upload an image. I have a 3 gig limit on my blog size. I am using 14%. I guess that’s not bad after over 7 years of blogging. So lets say 15 years is 30%, then I should be running out of space in about 50 years. Oh dammit! One more thing to worry about.

I need to extend our driveway by 26 and a half feet. It’s 11 feet wide and 10 inches thick. I’m going to do the wood and the rebar myself and then call a concrete truck. I have some questions:

How close to the edge of the concrete does the rebar have to be?

What about grass and weeds on the dirt where I pour the concrete?I assume the concrete will kill any vegetation, but will it be detrimental to the concrete?

Someone said 10 inches thick is a lot of concrete, and I could fill it in a few inches so I’m only pouring about 4 inches instead or 10. If I do that, what will happen when I take the wood away? Will my fill be able to come out from under the concrete?

More questions and pictures to follow.

Today is a holiday here. There is an election. I can’t wait till I can vote.