Changing the subject... this afternoon I put up 200 feet of Christmas lights on the front porch. Many of the students in the neighborhood are putting up strings of lights this year and I decided to join them. They are burning right now. I've got 100 feet left over. Will add some tomorrow.
This is all I got so far. All done from inside, so only a step ladder is needed. Sliding door makes it difficult to do the center from inside. I don't like it without lights in the center. May add some lights there from the outside next week. This is a screened porch, but an extension cord can go through the cat door.
12/13/2020 - Sunday Christmas lights puzzle:. or, I learned something that everyone else probably knew already First, I was all wrong about the lights. In the above picture there are 6 sets of 200 bulbs each. Just over 360 feet. But that's beside the point. On the second night, one part (50 bulbs) of one string of lights went out. This never happened before. These lights have 3 wires, so I thought when one bulb went out, the others were not supposed to. While stapling these up, I ran across two bulbs with only 2 wires between, and another time, a bulb with 3 wires coming out instead of 2. At the time I pretended to ignore these things, because I was too busy just trying not to staple through the wires to think about them. But when the segment went out, and changing out a few bulbs didn't help, they had to be reckoned with. Only one wiring diagram on the whole world wide web seems close to reality. Took the flashlight out after dark to double check it against mine. The lights were all working! I know they will go out again if I just pretend this never happened, and if I figure out how to fix it, it won't happen again. Since the lights are working now, I will only think about this theoretically, and better to leave well enough alone and not add any more lights. Conclusion:. It seems one still must check all 50 bulbs in a bad segment. Better than 200, I guess. Btw, this episode wasted most of the evening and I'm only back to square one. . .
"The frog is that one thing you have on your to-do list that you have absolutely no motivation to do and that you’re most likely to procrastinate on. Eating the frog means to just do it ....". -reference I wish I could make use of this (one) post to force myself to eat several frogs throughout the day today. Play by play coverage, so to speak. The first frog is to take all the things, that gradually crept upstairs, back down to the basement. I will do that right now. As soon as I put on my shoes. And get another cup of coffee. ...
Just remembered something else because of the 1950's thread. A snowstorm in NE Ohio that was so bad my father had to dig a trench from our basement door in the morning possibly to get our dog out of his doghouse. It had to be the week of Thanksgiving, 1950, and I found out it even had a name, the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950. So I was 4 years old. I know, it was nothing compared to snows in the Northwest, but it was a big deal to me, because the trench was over my head. Something like this.
12/16/2020 Wednesday I got some stuff put away and carried to the basement, but more importantly, a lot of it turned out to be empty boxes. Although this sounds good, I tend to hoard boxes. Empty boxes take up so much space. They need to be torn up into small enough pieces to fit in the recycling cart. The table saw works well, but it's emotionally painful. Tomorrow.
Oh, good... another box hoarder!! I don't know why, but I have a closet full of boxes "just in case." I need to get in there and get rid of that mess. Of course as soon as I do, I'll need a box.
I started keeping boxes from Amazon and Walmart orders if they were big enough to use for roller and spray painting. I'd break the tape and fold them flat so they wouldn't take up so much space and stuff them behind or in between stands in the basement.
The "Big Snow" of 1950. Here I am with my Sister Kate. I was 7, Kate was 2. We were living in Pittsburgh.