Book stuff:
- Without going into too much detail I feel like The Myth of the Wrong Body is just not the right book for our current time, at least not in the US or UK. Wrong battles being fought, apparent projection of the author’s own messy and complicated feelings about his past gender transition onto others, and a case of “the perfect is the enemy of the good” I think. While I prefer to give the author the benefit of the doubt, I also really don’t want to defend this book.
- Dark Water Daughter is an entertaining fantasy with gentleman (and lady) pirates, scumbag pirates, and pirate hunters; women who can control weather by singing (and often are treated as slaves by pirates, navies and merchants alike); at least a couple of other kinds of mages; figureheads inhabited by tree spirits… None of the characters are especially grabbing me, but I’m enjoying the twists and turns of the story.
House stuff:
- Plumbers finally fixed the shower on Thursday (after a week of bucket bathing) but ran out of time to install the new toilet. And we have to hire someone to fix the wall and tile behind it (sigh) but that’s lower priority for now.
- Another plumber from the same company installed the new toilet on Friday, with no drama or issues. So we don’t have a toilet sitting in the living room taking up space anymore. But about the living room…
- We had a vinyl plank that was curling up at the end (due to our annoying little dog’s habit of peeing on it), and it was getting to be a trip hazard. So Friday after the plumber left, I thought I’d peel it up, clean up underneath and slap a new tile down. That turned into its own saga. I had to remove several more planks, and cleanup was not at all easy. Absolutely do not use Nature’s Miracle Urine Destroyer — the enzyme stuff has a short shelf life, and the scent (meant to cover the smell of pet pee) is overpowering, irritating and lingering. We had more luck with a couple of rounds with a hydrogen peroxide/dish soap mix, and covering the whole area in baking soda to absorb remaining liquid — and blowing the cloud out of a window with a box fan despite the day’s heat.
- Right now the floor is still torn up and covered in baking soda — I need to shopvac that and glue down spare planks another time. But we resolved not to mess with it today, because we had to rearrange stuff in the basement, so another carpenter can cut out a section of interior wall to prep for the waterproofing folks.
- Gutter cleaning is finally happening Wednesday.
- We still have to get the deck demolished and new steps & fence.
- We still have to get the bottom of the chimney repaired.
- And now the shower tile thing.