2008-01-07 More new house ramblings

People have been comparing the storms which came in to seventy years ago, so it's not terribly surprising that after losing power on early Friday morning, Lagunitas is still out of power today. I'm sitting in the kitchen in the new house as the floor guys finish up.

  On Saturday we had what we thought was a slight break between the rains, so we loaded the removed carpet and paneling on to the car and drove to the dump. Got there, only having to stop once when I went too fast and lost some of the paneling and we had to stop and go back and pick it up, only to discover that they only took cash or check. So we drove out to the closest C-store we could find, got a bunch of cash, and headed back to the dump, the carpets absorbing water and adding to our potential dump fees all the way. But somehow that only worked out to $15.

However, we then went over to the recycling part of the dump, were looking at doors to replace our exterior doors and trying to find some dual-pane windows of just the right size, when the heavens opened. I didn't see any hail accumulating, but the rain was damned cold and stung like hell and the wind was scary as I tried to maneuver the door we got on to the roof racks. Charlene retreated to the car while I ran over to the window section, looked through and didn't find anything, then went to pay for the door. $10, we'll have to refinish it and take a router down one edge, but it's a beautiful solid wood exterior door that we hope to finish up with spar varnish. Now we'll have to take off that black security door on the outside, because this door is too nice to be obscured.

However, in the process I ended up getting back to the car without the receipt. So I had to run back across the lot, in the freezing rain and high winds.

  Then Eric McC., who's been staying at our house since his car broke down in our driveway and the storms hit, keeping any chance of getting it towed out difficult until at least today, called to say that the bike shed had blown over. So we drove back to Lagunitas. John offered the use of his truck, so I disassembled the shed, moved the bikes to under a tarp on the back deck, and we moved the shed up here to Petaluma, where we discovered that the shed won't fit under the awning in the back. So we'll have to do some re-engineering, because we really don't want to add more construction to the back yard, and a tandem will just barely fit upright under the awnings.

But power was still out in Lagunitas this morning, the contents of the freezer are now melted, and I'm hunkered down in Petaluma on borrowed wifi.

However, the flooring guys just finished the final coat on the floors, and they look beautiful.

Category: Dan Lyke life Category: 10 Mission