Tag Archives: thunderstorm

August Begins

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Well, here it is, August!

August came in with a big thunderstorm and downpour this afternoon.  It was most welcome, and I could almost hear the sighs of relief from the flora and fauna.  The rain started just as Attila arrived home from work, finding me in the garage listening to the rain on the new metal roof, enjoying the dryness of it all.

July was a month where the humidex reached from 30C to 35C almost every day. It looks like August will be more of the same. It isn’t my favourite kind of weather. The humidity is so cloying.

Tonight’s dinner was a quick and easy Instant Pot Tuna Noodle Casserole.  This recipe has grated cheese stirred in after cooking, it was very nice.  Attila loved it.  There isn’t much I love since I am eating such a low sodium diet, nice is as good as it gets.

When I was shopping earlier in the week, I bought a bag of beautiful looking grapefruit.  We have been eating them in the evenings as a snack.  I love grapefruit, and for years I could not have it because it was contraindicated by my medication.  The medication changed and now I can eat grapefruit again.  A small, but welcome, mercy.

Attila’s cell phone is pay as you go, and needed to be topped up.  Since he uses his cell phone a lot more than I use mine, mostly to call me here at home, his minutes disappear a lot more quickly.  Therefore the cheapest 100 minute prepaid plan seemed a viable solution, with a monthly fee which annually adds up to about the same price as the current pay per use.

I felt sorry for the people I dealt with today, sorting out the cell phone account. I asked a few simple questions, but because the call center people are not from Canada, the nuances of our culture are not familiar to them.  The simple questions ended up taking almost three hours to work through, and the unfortunate last fellow I spoke with, I spoke to three different people, was downright discouraged by the end of the call.  He was polite to the end though. We got the job done, in the end, the cell phone works and in a few months I will go back into the account and set up automatic updates.

Cell phones are getting increasingly expensive to operate, the options are narrowing, masked as improvements, which they aren’t.  My cell phone service provider recently sent me a text message informing me that my pay per use plan was no longer available, and that I would be automatically transferred to a much more expensive plan.  I spent an entire morning on the telephone with them as well, and I can’t say they enjoyed my company.  We got the job done.

Where we once spent $200 annually on cell phones, we now spend $300 to $400 annually.  At our income level this is a significant incursion on available funds.

Worldly Distractions

Weather

26°C
Date: 6:00 PM EDT Wednesday 1 August 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.2 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 25.8°C
Dew point: 22.1°C
Humidity: 80%
Wind: SW 16 km/h
Humidex: 35
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”
Henry Van Dyke
1852 – 1933

Yay!

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The garage roof is on! All the metal sheets are installed, Attila did it all last night.

When Attila came home from work yesterday we had a little chat. I relayed to him how important it was to me to get the last metal panels on the roof, for my peace of mind. I’ve made only comments of encouragement up until this point, but I realized that if installing those last panels was not made a priority, I would not be a happy camper. Better to say something, I reckoned.

As a result of our not altogether relaxed conversation, Attila tackled the last panels last night, after he ate his dinner. He feels a lot of pressure when I insist on something being done the way I think it should be done, when he is doing the labour, in this case I was insisting that, before anything else, the last metal panels had to go onto the roof. He enjoys a project less when he has to accommodate another viewpoint, but he did agree with the logic of it, and proceeded accordingly.

Attila finished installing the last panels before darkness fell last night. There are still tasks involved to finish the metal panel installation, but the panels are where they need to be, ready to do the job they need to do.

This morning I arose at 5:00 a.m. I could hear distant thunder. Sitting with my morning coffee, I watched the lightning and marvelled at the rain. For half an hour you could find me stationed at the dining room window, gazing out at the metal roof, watching the rain run down and away in little rivers. Later you could find me standing dry and comfortable, in the garage itself, listening to rain pounding on the metal roof. I felt vindicated in pushing for finishing off the metal roof panel installation last night!

It had been my plan to work on cleaning the garage in the early morning, before the heat of the day set in. The humidity was so high, that I decided that bending down to the floor to vacuum, while reaching over to the shop vac to hold fast the hose where it attaches, was overly ambitious. A new shop vac hose was in order, I decided. By the time the store opened, Canadian Tire, and the new shop vac hose was home and tested, the heat in the garage was stifling. I missed my window of opportunity for cleaning today, but early tomorrow morning I’ll be ready to get back to it for a few hours!

I did though, manage to wash a load of laundry, and hang it out to dry under the back porch. In this humidity, it didn’t dry very fast, but eventually it did dry.

Today Attila was working on the area of the roof that abuts the garden shed. This small section is complicated, as he must custom fit the roofing materials for this small area. After completing the lower section there, he moved to the front of the garage, where the wall above the doors needs to be rebuilt. Attila’s peace of mind will begin when this has been completed, since it is visible to the street. When the wall has been rebuilt and painted, then, Attila says, he will take a morning off, and we will go for a walk.

The Instant Pot is going to cook dinner on the back porch this evening, Sweet & Sour Meatballs With Rice and Mixed Vegetables. The Instant Pot won’t have to work very hard to be hot enough to cook dinner, on the porch in the heat of the early evening.

Worldly Distractions

Weather

Heat Warning
29°C
Date: 2:00 PM EDT Saturday 30 June 2018
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.5 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 29.0°C
Dew point: 23.2°C
Humidity: 71%
Wind: WSW 18 km/h
Humidex: 39
Visibility: 19 km

Quote

“We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.”
Albert Einstein
1879 – 1955

Garage Floor or Bathtub?

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Yesterday half of the garage roof was off, and the rotten wood from the back walls of the garage had been removed. That left everything in the back half of the garage completely exposed to the sky and to the yard. We worried a bit that someone might decide to sneak in during the night and steal our stuff. But really, what kind of a thief would take anything that smelled as bad as the interior of our garage! This morning revealed that no one was interested in touching our smelly belongings, in the smelly garage.

The first order of the day day today on the garage project, was to replace the wall studs, on 16 inch centres. The original sill plate was in excellent condition, and securely attached to the concrete foundation, so it was kept. It took all day to repair the wall, which means the roof was gone and there was a gaping hole above the back half of the garage, and what remained of the roof sloped into the cavity.

Of course a huge thunderstorm rolled right in this afternoon, and a deluge of rain fell into the back of the garage, from the sky and running off from the front half of the roof. There is about an inch of standing water on the floor of the garage right now. It is much like a bathtub. But since no more rain is forecast until next weekend, it will probably evaporate in a few days time.

Attila decided to soldier through tonight, to finish rebuilding the walls. Two sheets of plywood have been installed, and two more must be custom cut to cover the remaining wall studs. After the roof is on, Attila will return to finish this wall with ship lap pine, and paint it the same colour as the house. But first the roof.

Because Attila is using the only outdoor electrical outlet to power his tools, the outdoor kitchen was closed today. Every meal consisted of leftovers. We both love leftovers, so this worked out very well.

Tomorrow Attila will begin to install the roof joists, and perhaps even get the sheeting nailed onto the back part of the roof. Also, first thing in the morning, the metal roofing will be delivered, and will need to be carried to the back yard. Another busy day coming up.

I’ve run into a weird problem with one of my domains, which I discovered when updating name servers with a different company. The other company made a real mess of several of my account, when they “improved” their billing system, which had been moved from France to the US. I am thinking of pulling all of my accounts out of there, to one of the companies I deal with that make the technical stuff look easy, no small feat. A project for another day.

The baked potatoes, prepared a few days ago, are all gone. Time to bake a few more in the Instant Pot tonight!

With the garage wall gone overnight, I did not sleep well. I think my ears were listening in the night for strange sounds. The new walls are installed, so tonight I hope to sleep soundly!

Worldly Distractions

Weather

24°C
Date: 9:00 PM EDT Monday 18 June 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 100.7 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 23.5°C
Dew point: 21.4°C
Humidity: 88%
Wind: W 16 gust 28 km/h
Humidex: 32
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?”
Charles M. Schulz
1922 – 2000