Mar 13th - Rain

Not much exciting happening. It has been raining, lightly since early morning.

We pretty much took the day off Sunday. Drew and I went "across the bridge" to a Lowe's in San Francisco. He bought lumber and screen wire for a chicken coop. He plans on getting 2 or 3 chickens, to go along with the bees. Don't know if I mentioned bees. He has all the hardware ready to go for a beehive (I think they call it an aviary). In a month of so he plans on buying a queen bee to get things going. Tonight he is going to a bee keepers meeting after work.

After Lowe's we stopped at a Burger place in San Francisco. It had maybe four small tables and seating at a counter. It probably qualified for the label of a "greasy spoon", although it did appear to be reasonably clean. It was an old, non-fancy, place, probably used to be a gas station. The burgers and fries were great.  I got double cheeseburger and he ordered a single plus a corn dog. We shared a large order of fries. I left the last couple of bites of my double and we left a few fries, just to much to eat. Price wasn't bad for California. I think the bill was $18. The double cheeseburger was $5.50 and the larger order of fries was $3.00. We were the only white people in the neighborhood. The place was run by Hispanics and the other customers were either black or Hispanic. Service was good.

Monday we got off to a slow start in the morning. We drove down to ALCO Iron & Metals in San Leandro. The drive is about 12 miles and takes about 20 minutes. We picked up a piece of aluminum angle for Drew. He wanted 1/2"x1/2" aluminum angle for a project but the smallest they had was 3/4x3/4, so we got it. Pricing for the aluminum angle was interesting. A 12' piece of the 3/4x3/4x1/8 aluminum angle was $33. The guy wanted to give me a better deal on a more common angle. Could have bought a 25' piece of 1x1/1/8 aluminum angle for $47, but the legs of that angle were to larger than Drew wanted.

ALCO is a huge facility. The have large buildings on both sides of the road. They actually let you wander around in the building I was in, to look at scrap pieces as well as other things they have in stock.

On the way down to ALCO we stopped of and had lunch at an In and Out Burger place. We also stopped at Walmart and picked up oil so that I can change the oil in our generator once I find an oil filter.

In the afternoon Kathy cleaned all the "basement" windows, painted the frames on the inside, painted the security inserts (3/4" pieces of plywood that fit inside the window frames and that are held in place by steel bars), and washed the windows inside and out. I think she also did several loads of laundry.

I installed a piece of trim that I had cut to fit the gap between some original trim and a piece that we had previously replaced. I also was up in the attic several times getting things ready for the permanent post we plan to install near the center of the attic. We aren't making much progress getting the sag out of the roof. I think that maybe when the front of the hip roof was torn off for the addition, many years ago, the roof sagged. Instead of correcting it I think they just ignored the sag and installed the new rafters.  Hopefully over time, and with constant pressure on the jacks we have installed, at least some of the sag might come out. It isn't a real problem. The roof doesn't leak. You can't even see it unless you purposely get in a position to see that part of the roof.

I also finished the second coat on the green trim around the top inside of the porch. With as many times as I have mentioned painting you must wonder at our seeming lack of progress. The main house is orange, the main trim is green and then there are also red and blue sections of trim. Everything it getting at least two coats, the main house got two coats of primer and then two coats of finish. Nothing has been done to the side that is basically on the lot line, and where you have to go into the neighbors fenced yard, with their 4 pit bulls, for access. These are the neighbors who have the brisk 24 hour drive up buisness. So far, other than the BOOMING bass from the cars that drive up and sit out front while making purchases, they appear to be relatively good neighbors.

It is raining today, and rain is in the forecast every day for the next five days. We probably won't be doing much, if any, exterior painting before we leave (tentatively scheduled for the 20th). There is still a lot of interior painting to do. Based on an early morning message from Drew he must have worked late into the night doing some wall repair, and wall washing, to get some areas ready for interior paint.

Kathy is down at the local storefront church helping with today's food distribution. She has been working down there from about 11:30 - 2:30 the two days a week that they have the free food.

I'm in the RV and thinking that a nap might be in order. I got a good nights sleep last night but Sunday night I stayed up until 4AM so that I could read three of Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter novels. I might even pay to go see the movie before it comes out on DVD.

I've also been listening to Ayn Rand's book Fountainhead, I have an audio copy on my phone. As I've said before I am amazed at her insights into the future. She wrote books in the 1940's and what she wrote about, government stamping out creativity by subsidizing cronies, is certainly currently coming to pass. My guess is that I won't like her ending because I suspect that the "hero" will lose and society as we have known it will be no more. At best future generations will live under government control similar to China or Russia. Anyone who thinks that isn't happening in the United States, no matter whether Democrats or Republicans are in office, is not paying attention. Politicians and bureaucrats, and those in business who give them bribes (campaign contributions) will live the high life at the expense of the common man. Enough of that, it makes me angry.

Good day to all and may God bless you and yours.