Hello World 1 Aug 2024
Wednesday started with the luxury of lying in bed past 7 AM, because the roadwork is DONE!
I still need to move my car out of our single-width driveway every weekday so that contractors can potentially park there instead, but I no longer have to scramble to do it before the street fills with backhoes, skid-steers, dump trucks, trenching equipment, or other heavy machinery. Very happy, me.
(Technically I don’t have to move the car at all, street parking is no longer prohibited, but I’d rather let them have closer parking. They’re doing all the hard work, after all.)
Fancify-Floor 2 progress is…progressing. Slow but steady. The tilesetters arrived yesterday, set the shower floor, and discovered that the rest of the bathroom will require a lot of extra leveling to bring it up to spec for tiling. So today they installed the cement backerboards for the shower wall and tub surround, then proceeded to do a buncha extra leveling work involving materials that need to dry.
A truckload of wood also arrived. Doors, doorframes, wood moldings and other trim are all stacked and waiting for installation, and I confess I am excited. IT’S ALL SO PRETTY.
proof of progress
Getting up early does have its benefits, especially when the weather’s as hot as it has been. Today was anoher 90+ day, but I had all the outdoor puttering done before 8 AM.
“Puttering” as in I watered all my potted plants, yanked up the day’s allotment of purslane, harvested a tomato and two cucumbers, and admired the pumpkin blossoms.
True confession, I grow pumpkins because I love the huge flowers and the way they cover vast amounts of ground in three short months. Most years, I don’t get any actual pumpkins off them, because they are finicky about pollinazation and I neglect them. But! This year it appears I’ll have at least one chonker of a pumpkin, assuming the squirrels don’t eat it up before it ripens.
The rest of the day I hid indoors and did a lot more Olympics watching. First the live coverage of the Men’s All-Around Gymnastics finals (available in the wonderful four-camera zero-commentary mode!) and then 3 of the 4 individual equipment replays from the Women’s Team Gymnastics Finals — which were, to my delight, ALSO STILL COMMENTARY-FREE! So I’ve seen all the team floor routines, and balance beam. I'll work my way through the vault and uneven bars tomorrow.
Yes, this means I’m watching the routines I already saw live, but I was honestly focusing on individuals then, and rewatching means I ca see all the finalists’ routines. And that’s wonderful.
Thursday is looking soggy as well as hot (currently 80 degrees, 80% humidity, which leaves bare skin feeling slimy in seconds) The day’s chores are done, including a call to the optometrist to schedule for nest week’s refitting, the women’s all-around finals are on the multiview, my tea is iced & waiting, and a story I’ve been tinkering with for ages is loaded up.
Things are feeling good. Until later!