“The carpenter guy says he should be able to deal with our busted deck this week.“
This did not happen. Friday as we were going out to dinner, my spouse said “why don’t we look into doing this ourselves” and I said “I was thinking the same thing.” That deck is going to cause serious injury if we let it go any longer, and she’s already had some nightmares about it.
Demolition of a small, not-very-tall deck that’s already half-demolished itself is well within our capabilities. The fence/gate replacement can wait a little bit, since we can just leave the existing side railing and lattice in place for the moment. For the stairs, we found OSHA-certified prefab aluminum stairs, which from the reviews are popular with elderly folks who have mobile homes, for really not much more than what lumber, railings and hardware would have cost to build our own stairs (and I don’t trust my construction skills very much). So those stairs are ordered, and if ship time and weather permit, we can get this done next weekend.
I texted the carpenter to cancel, and he said he’d been in the hospital since Wednesday and apologized for not contacting me to say so. Probably that’s true. But his “I’ll get back to you to schedule that” failed to happen twice previously and it seems like random stuff just keeps happening with contractors and they don’t let their customers know. It’s frustrating.
Also frustrating: contractors who have websites but 100% ignore email and web contact forms. Auto shops that say you need to make an appointment online, but all it does is tell you you’ll get an email within one business day instead of being able to pick a time. (I had that last weekend with tires — instead of waiting for Dobbs to patch a slow leak, I made the longer drive to Plaza Tire and just got it done without an appointment. Unfortunately it was unpatchable, but I got a pretty good discount on four new tires, which was going to have to happen in a couple years or less anyway. And then a couple of hours after I’d finished with that, Dobbs emailed me to say I didn’t need an appointment and could come in at any time. Why doesn’t your website say that, then? :P)
“I’m taking a little bit of time to gather my thoughts on the next album project.“
Things just sort of started to mesh together. I’m blending the sequencer-based fun with the drone/texture beauty, and overall it has the attitude of “guy in a chicken suit in Portland when Kristi Noem was trying to find the alleged violent anarchists.”
Our cat Rico has a vet appointment at the unfortunate time of 7:30 AM Monday. One night last week he was lying there in bed next to me while I was reading, and he suddenly yowled like I’ve never heard him do before, startling the crap out of me. He had a look like he was startled himself, or angry or (more likely) in pain. He has done it a few more times since then… sometimes followed by a quick dive for the litterbox. His poo has been more squishy and stinky than usual lately (since he doesn’t bury it, these things are unfortunately SUPER OBVIOUS) despite no changes in food. Hopefully it’s something that can be easily cured.
Our dog Lady had her own vet visit not too long ago. She had some kind of skin infection (whether mites or something else, we don’t really know) and was scratching herself pretty badly and incessantly, some bare spots in her fur and some bleeding. A combination of anti-itch meds, an anti-fungal and an antibiotic, along with a flea-tick-mosquito shot and a heartworm shot, have helped enormously. But she did have a low number on a thyroid test which needs to be looked at again, because it may or may not have been affected by the infection.