Whine and Cheese

One of the bigger projects on my staycation list was going through my 20+ long-boxes of comic books and purging the unwanted. I've been collecting comic books for 40 years at this point and I swear I have some from those days. I found an issue of "The New Teen Titans" that had a chocolate milk stain on the cover that I caused in third grade. Yes, that comic was from 38 years ago.

As I travel for work, I will sometimes seek out the local comic book store and buy issues from the $1 bin. Usually just a handful, something to read while on the road, often copies of things I already have. Then they go into the stacks and get eventually boxed up.

So the project this round was to go through the boxes and pull out the unwanted issues, comics that I bought for a curious read or for a story line that I am no longer interested in keeping; duplicate copies that I bought from traveling or just a poorer conditioned copy; and damaged or tattered copies, comics that I have read to death or may have been in poor shape when I bought it.


I spent most of Saturday going through the boxes and finished up the last boxes earlier this afternoon. The end result was these five paper boxes full of comic books of readable quality. I figure this is equivalent to three long-boxes worth, so that is quite a chunk removed.

At some point this week, I'm going to take these to a used bookstore to see what I can get. Honestly, I'll take whatever they offer just to unload them. I am trying desperately not to think of how much money these five boxes represent versus what I'm likely to get for them, but the house can only hold so much.

I've posted on here before that I was thinking of re-purposing my dining room. I bought my dining room set, a solid wood table with four chairs, back in 1998. In the 20 years I've owned it, I believe I have actually eaten at it five times. If I had a family, it probably would be different, but it seems like a waste of functional space for a single person. So I asked my sister if my nephew, who is job hunting and probably moving into his own place soon, would like to have it. If not, I'd already scoped out a charity to donate it to.

My sister and brother-in-law came to town yesterday to stay overnight and said my nephew wanted the set, so they left with it today. I was not thinking that it would be gone so soon, but I thought now was as good a time as any. I spent over three hours reconfiguring the house after they left. My idea was to take my drafting table from my home office and moving it to the dining room, then moving an adjustable height desk I bought this past week to my office.


Dining Room Before (sans table/chairs)


Home Office Before

As you can see, my drafting table was surrounded by comic book boxes, so it was almost non-functional, and access the comic books beneath it was difficult. After much cursing, fumbling, and bruising, here is the new configuration.


Dining Room After


Home Office After
The plan for the dining room will be to buy some stools to put around it, which can be put beneath it when not in use. There is also extra space for a possible side chair next to the window. And yeah, I need to update the art in the room, I think, but baby steps here. I have some new photos I want to blow up and put there.

As for the home office, it really opened up the room. The comic book boxes are a bit unsightly, but access to them is much better. And the adjustable-height desk was pricey, but it can be wheeled away from the comic boxes and lowered to be used for work. I plan to do a big purge of the comics for duplicates. Having a table that can hold the long box while I flip through it will definitely save my back. I also think I may repaint the room again to something a bit more subtle than the green.

I like the changes, but it's clear that they are works in progress, but things are moving in a better direction than before.

On Wednesday, the painters FINALLY finished with the living room. I was never so relieved. The guys that did the job were great, but I was done with having my house all to pieces. I spent a very good chunk of Wednesday night getting the bigger pieces of my living room back in position. I woke up very sore on Thursday and very tired after the drive to Corbin and back the day before. So I took Friday off.

And I slept the sleep of the dead that night. My body needed rest.

Over the weekend, I squeezed a movie ("Annihilation"), hung curtains, bought curtain sheers, did some purging of clutter. As of earlier this evening, the room is finally done. Here are the transitions.


I meant to take a before photo and I forgot. The photo above is from 2007 when my furniture was new, but you can see the dreaded wallpaper on the walls. The photo below is from last weekend when the walls were ready for color.


The cleared room with primer
The color I picked out is called "Oat Field," which is a neutral brown with tones of green. In natural light, it's the color of coffee with cream. In artificial light, the green really comes out. I had them paint the entry way alcove a green color called "Yogi."

I do like how it turned out. Here's photos from today.

I've lived in my house for over 16 years now. I've fixed things when I could and called for help when I couldn't. One of the things that I've tackled in the past was the toilet. When it continued to run, I replaced the ball and changed the gaskets. I've kept it going for as long as I could, but the flapper that I replaced a few years back stopped ... er... flapping last night. So I decided it was time to upgrade to a new toilet.

The rust stains I couldn't clean and the instances where it had a weak flush were things I coped with but changing a toilet per my Home Depot 1-2-3 book is supposed to be easy. My sister told me it was easy. So after work today, I went and bought a new toilet and all the accessories to put it in.

Well, the Home Depot book said it takes a novice 1.5 hours to install it.

Lies. All lies...

I got the old toilet up without problem and unboxed the new one. However, there are things that you don't know about the toilet set up until you remove the old one. Mine has a recessed flange due to the tile. Luckily, I'd bought an extra-thick wax ring as a precaution. However, when I put it on the new toilet and installed it, it didn't seem mash into place. The toilet was too high with the recessed flange, so I worried the wax ring didn't seal. This naturally sent me into a panic as the easy just became less easy.

I checked some online videos and they suggested doubling up the wax rings, but there's issues with that. So I did some more online searching and found that Home Depot has a new type of seal that would fit. After another jaunt to Home Depot, I went home and put the bowl in place without problem. Then I attached the tank... and could NOT get it level. Kohler has put a freakish set of screws in the thing that are near impossible to tighten and make the tank level.

After much cursing and fretting, I got it level-ish and hooked everything up. Some small leaks happened, but I tightened the screws up more and it stopped. I flushed it successfully.

It took four hours. Geez. I'm hoping that it doesn't leak after successive uses.

I think I may call a plumber next time and just have it professionally done.

But at least this experience is over for now.

I was visiting family down in my hometown over the weekend, checking on my mom, who has been adjusting to life in the nursing home. She's had a few falls, most of which involve her forgetting that she's not supposed to get out of bed or out of her wheelchair without assistance. She seems to be doing okay. So after having lunch with her today, I did the near three-hour trek back home.

The roads were full of the crazy today. I'm not sure what is happening, but the roads seemed to be crowded and people were not paying attention. I had or saw three different encounters on the highway that nearly led to a wreck.

• The first had a black Chevy truck driving in the far left-hand lane that was ending. And it ended while he was driving to the left of me. So he started drifting back toward me and there was a car to the right of me, so I was boxed in. I hit the breaks and the Chevy-driving @$$hole swerved into my lane. Freakin' moron.



• The second had a truck pulling a off-road buggy on a trailer in the middle lane. He swerved into the left lane where there already a car. The trailer slammed into the car and the car moved to the left to get away. There was contact, lots of burning rubber, etc. Both cars kept moving. I was expecting them to pull off to the side of the road, but neither did. I was surprised. Both eventually pulled off into Berea, but at two separate exits.



• The last was after I pulled off the interstate, which was crowding because of construction. I pulled off to take the back road home. A guy was pulling out of a post-office parking lot, turning left when he would need to cross two lanes of traffic to go the other way. It's not so far fetched, as he could pull into the turning median. The truck ahead of me allowed the guy to pull out, but a beige sedan was flying up the turning median to get to a turn lane at the light and plowed right into him. I saw it all and cringed. Both drivers got out and were walking around, so no permanent damage to them, but their night just got horrible.

You'd think that would be the end of it, but then I pulled down my street and found my meth-lab @$$hole neighbor had parked his car IN FRONT OF MY DRIVEWAY! I looked at it incredulously, like it wasn't real. Now my neighbor has pissed me off before, but this was just unbelievable. This wasn't a mistake. So I pulled through my yard to get my car in the drive, then walked out to look at it. My other neighbor was spraying off his driveway and looked over at me. I told him that the guy across the street had blocked my drive. He said he hadn't noticed, so it likely hasn't been there long.

I overhead one of his kids yell in the house, "Mark is yelling that you need to move your car."

After about five minutes of expecting this butthole to move it, I went over and banged on his door. He looked up at me through the door and yelled, "I'm coming!"

"Today would be nice," I replied. I went back inside my house and waited for him to move the car. He took his sweet time. Even when he sauntered to the car and got in it, he spent a moment or two before it started and moved. It was almost like he was prolonging this just a bit more to piss me off.

I should have just called the police and let them deal with him. He better not do this again, inconsiderate jerk.

So yesterday, I was in the middle of my chest and back workout. I had started a load of laundry, which is in the washroom next to my family room where the workouts occur. Between reps, I stepped in there to check on the load and heard the sound of trickling water.

I looked behind the machine to find water pooling. I lifted the lid to the washer and heard the sound of a stream on metal. Honestly, it sounded like my washing machine was taking a whiz. I let the machine finish the rinse cycle then turned off the water to the washing machine.

Back in 1996, I bought the Hotpoint washer and dryer from Best Buy. That was over 20 years ago and this is literally the first problem I've had with either one. While I'm elated at the longevity I've had with these units, I'm irritated that I have a new problem to deal with, especially with having just dealt with the flooding issue in the lower level. I checked on some Kenmore units at Kroger after dinner last night just in case and then posted on FB about my quandry, which pulled mixed responses from the peanut gallery.

Some encouraged me to get the unit fixed because they feel that new washing machines are not as reliable or work as well, while others commented that newer models are more efficient, saving electricity and water, and remarked that 20 years is an impressive amount of work to get out of my machines.

After much consideration, I decided to have it repaired if possible. I hate buying new things in desperation mode, so this will buy me some time. And a trip or two to a coin laundry won't kill me if I can't.

It's taken almost a week to dry out my family room. I tried in vain to get the carpet padding to dry, but it was hopeless. And because the padding is some foam composite, it acted like a sponge and allowed the water to continue to expand to more carpet.

I took off from work early Tuesday and bought some new padding to replace it. After removing the old padding, I noticed that the concrete was still damp. I swept and cleaned the affected concrete then sanitized it with a hot water/bleach solution. With a new giant power fan, I cranked up the airflow and the concrete was dry again the next morning.

When I finally got home today after work, I put the new padding down, which had to be done in sections. I replaced the carpet and vacuumed the junk off it. It looks good, but I'm letting the fan take one more hit on it tonight. I'm not sure if the carpet is damp, or it's just cold.

Needless to say, it has been a royal pain in the butt. I look forward to putting the furniture back and trying to get my house back into a semblance of order. It really has just unnerved me to walk into my cluttered house and knowing I couldn't do anything to speed up this clearing the mess.

My driveway slopes toward my house. At the bottom of the slope is a large drain to keep the rain from coming into the house. In the last 16 years of living here, it's clogged only a handful of times, letting the rain come into the garage, but never into the house. I've always been able to clear the drain before anything awful happened.

Today, I couldn't get it to happen and the rain actually came into the downstairs room. Ugh!

With a five-gallon bucket, I managed to scoop an untold number of buckets of water to out of the garage. My back will not be happy with me tomorrow morning, if the way it feels right now is any indication.

After the water level was down, I started dealing with the downstairs, moving a bookcase, a TV and stand, and a full video-rack out of the way so I could pull up the carpet. I pulled at least 25 gallons of water out of the carpet and padding with my shampooer. Now I'm just waiting for the padding to dry before I can put the carpet back down.

I've called Roto-Rooter to come and check the drain for clearing. It's something I should have done a long time ago. I dread to see the cost, but this sort of headache I can do without.

This week, I'm burning through the rest of my 2016 "use or lose" vacation, as this is the last possible week to use it. I had no specific plan or agenda, but I have been filling up the time as best I can. Today has been an exercise in doing "adulty stuff," the things that truly makes me feel like being old.

• My first stop on the morning adult errand trip was getting my property taxes paid on my car. There was a nice burly daddy bear in line ahead of me, so at least the view was good while I waited in line. The tax amount was less than I had expected so that was a nice surprise.



• This is also the year I had to renew my driver's license. The license renewal had been moved to a different office, so I had to do a trip to get that done. As usual, the DMV camera worked its magic wonders and I looked terrible. I often wonder if they don't have "reverse Photoshop" that makes people look even worse. I'm stuck with this for a few years, barring my losing this thing.



• The last errand of the day (so far, as it's only just after noon) was a visit to the bank. I told myself that I was going to do this in 2017 and it's as good a time as any. I requested a pay off amount for my mortgage. I pulled money out of my bank account and paid it off. On the cusp of being 44, I am now mortgage-free. It's a very odd feeling. I expected something magical, so deep meaning, but it felt like paying off a credit card almost. The bank rep congratulated me as I was leaving and it felt good. It is a good birthday gift to myself.

Napping... that's adulty, isn't it???

I spent most of the day sleeping. I'm not depressed or anything, but after a weekend full of softball, followed by an afternoon in Lexington, KY with my sister, and then another softball evening, I was just beat. I slept in, goofed around online for a couple of hours, went back to sleep for a couple of hours, then got the day started.

After an early dinner, I stopped by Home Depot as I was thinking of buying a pressure washer. I just wanted to look at them to see what they cost. I found a good deal on one, so I went ahead and bought it. My reason for getting it was to clean the exterior of the house, which desperately needs washing. One of the issues of living so close to the woods is that the green pollen, algae, or whatever clings to the house.

I'm sure I will feel incredibly manly blasting the house clean tomorrow. I suspect it will have many other uses, like cleaning the steps, the patio, anything requiring a good water blast. Heh...