Good morning. Hello. How are you? #993
Life insurance exam fail, structural engineer consultation, finger splints, chores chores chores, finger splints, no meeting week
Good morning! Hello! How was your weekend? Are you in LA? Are you safe? I was talking to my friend Jess last night because checking in on the storm didn’t seem too too bad but maybe everything flooded while I was asleep let’s go check. Okay, well, doesn’t seem too too bad. I do hope everyone is safe.
Right-o. Weekend chores check. Let’s see.
Friday morning I got my exam for my life insurance application and I almost certainly completely buffed it, because out of the blue last week my blood pressure shot up just insane amounts. Like 40 points higher than normal. Somewhat shocking. Actually let’s check it now. Well it’s not down to normal but it’s down 20 points. What the hell. The only major health changes I’ve had in the last six months are almost completely stopping drinking, and exercising more. This is bullshit. Anyway, I am probably not gonna get the insurance. Fantastic. I have already messaged my doctor. Guess I’ll see if I need to adjust my meds. Wooo being old is awesome.
Relatedly, I saw this ad in a newsletter and… this is a first for me.
Violence.
Then the structural engineer came by, along with his Padawan. I thought it would be a thing where they could just glance at the attic and say “yeah, this is fine, do this, do that” but nope. Turns out they have to make an incredibly detailed plan of the entire roof and floor structure, enter it into a computer and do a bunch of math. Which is actually very cool and very reassuring. There was one part of the floor that they couldn’t see that they needed to be sure about which way the floor joists were going, so on Sunday I had to tear up a part of that part of the floor and check. That was fun, but also it really did drive home how much work it’s going to be to tear up that entire floor. But I am ready. Anyway, I will hear from them in about two weeks, but they did say that they thought it would be possible to get rid of the two ridiculous pillars in the middle of the room, which is good. They thought I might have to keep a wall I want to get rid of, though, and that makes me sad, but I can potentially work with it. We shall see, we shall see. They were very professional, though, and I liked that. They reassured me I could probably get a piano up there which is good because every studio needs a piano.
Because of the insurance exam and the structural engineer, I didn’t get to Walmart until after lunch, and the place was crawling with people and I wore my mask and I accidentally shattered a bottle of Pace Picante all over the concrete floor and had to stand there and wait for an employee to come and bring some equipment to clean it up and of course I offered to clean it up and of course they said no, probably for insurance purposes, because they probably already knew about my blood pressure issue.
Walmart did not have any organic fertilizer for flowers. My rose bush is hungry. Nor did they have any Topo Chico. It’s been weeks.
I did a bunch of gardening this weekend, trellising the fall cucumbers, harvesting a bunch of tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, basil, Thai long beans, and carrots. Delicious. Been eating the carrots at lunch thy are so good. I finally trimmed and peeled and prepped all my garlic — something like 50 bulbs. What am I going to do with 50 bulbs of garlic. I have no idea. Maybe just plant it all and get even more garlic until I have enough garlic to donate to the food bank.
My doctor on Thursday told me to wear splints on two of my fingers on my left hand so I am doing that now. It is good, they hurt less. Though they weirdly hurt more when I am not wearing them, like in the shower or pool. She also referred me for an X-Ray, which I’m gonna go get today. These fingers. They suck. She said the hand doctor to which she referred me might also look at my tennis elbow on the other arm. They only do up to the elbow, those hand doctors, so sometimes they do tennis elbow and sometimes they don’t. This arbitrary delineation is, I suspect, the actual source of tennis elbow in America.
Other chore roundup: researched where to buy paint for the garage in the new house so I can paint over all the conduit the electrician put in. Was actually a giant pain and turns out I have to get it from a Sherwin Williams retail outlet did you know these things existed I did not. But also I have to get it from the one in Chapel Hill because the Pittsboro and Carrboro ones are out of the base. But you can order it like a meal and go pick it up later, which is nice, because I do not want to wait at a paint counter with a bunch of Karens. There were so many Karens at the paint counter last time I was at the hardware store. Karens love painting bedrooms in the summer.
I added an enhancement to my existential-dread massage bed in order to better pad my arms in a certain dead-man, face-down position. I am excited to try it. Bring on the existential dread.
I mailed someone wedding matches who took me up on my offer in Thursday’s GMHHAY. Mailed out a European 4K Blue Ray of Henry and June I told on Ebay. Set up a smart plug on a light. Updated the guest guide at the new house to include a section on tools. I made waffles, ordered groceries, cleaned the stove and kitchen every day (stove plan still working great seriously let’s all clean our stove every day).
I did a bunch of work to match the floor of the living room in the new house and it’s a total mystery. I found some spare wood up in the attic and it exactly matches the living room floor, except a) it is unlabeled with a manufacturer even though it’s clearly engineered bamboo, and b) the wood is obviously too thick compared to what’s in the living room, even though in every other way it is excactly the same. I do not know what’s going on. I find it incredibly unlikely the builder ripped down every piece of engineered floor just to make the seams in the floor more realistic. I’m at a bit of a crossroads on how to match this stuff. I will have to go to a flooring store, I guess. Find some expert. I had decided I would just match the floor in the one room on the main floor I am redoing because it would be easier, even though I don’t love the floor color on the main floor. But it is growing on me, it’s fine, and my ambition to someday replace the floors on the main floor is fading fast. But this is turning out to be a pain. Is it weird to have a single room with a different hardwood floor color?
Sunday, after expending an extraordinarily long time researching scaffolding, I decided to throw in the chore towel and go to the pool. This was also secretly doing chores because my partner from the pool company would be there and apparently he has a bunch of free wood I can have, and also I am sort of thinking about doing the ceiling in the attic in reclaimed pallets, because we have so many of them, and I wanted to get an idea on his pallet consumption. So that aside, I spent a lot of time flowing in the pool and eating tiny key lime pie slices and plumbs and celery which sounds weird when you put it like that.
Jane is getting very good in the pool, more and more confident, goes under water, learning her kicks. She only has one more swim lesson before school starts but we’ll still have the pool probably for another month or so. Hopefully she doesn’t forget it all over the winter.
I got two nights in a row off from Jane bedtime this weekend, owing to Emma wanting to Friday off, and pool and showers and whatnot. That was lovely. I watched a lot of Youtube. Lotta home recording studio tours to give me ideas as I move forward on this project.
BUT! Jane got up both mornings by herself, and she went potty and got dressed and came down and found me. Both mornings I was still in bed, and she crawled into bed and we snuggled for a while, and then we brushed our teeth together with no complaints, so that was awesome. Very excited about that.
I should start moving her wake up time earlier this week. She came to my bed at 7:11 on Saturday and 8:15 on Sunday and she needs to be up at 7AM next week, so it might be a bit of an adjustment. But she was up late last night, so I will start this tomorrow.
It’s my first official “no meetings” week at work. I’ve decided I’ll do one quarterly, so I can actually think about work and the big picture. That’s a thing CEOs do, right? Well, I guess what they usually do is disappear to the Himalayas or something and don’t check their email and go “off grid” but that is not me at all. I will still think about and do work.
Just… more pensively.
Justa mix for you today. New and old. Have this “pretty girls” song stuck in my head for a day or two. And I like the new Kevin Drew mutely. Very into this Bas Jan band I don’t know anything about them. Thank you Aug for the Jenny Mae rec. And some oldies from this months usual suspect of heavy rotation: Yo La Tengo, Neubauten, Breathe, Iggy. Enjoy.
Until tomorrow, friend.