In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Monday, September 7, 2026 11:50
VIEWED: 338648
PAGE 789 of 834
Oh, jeez! about the monitor! Do you still have that glucose meter and strips? It wiuld be nice to know how low you've gone.
Oh not at all sure it's maple, but I had some of the same problem with birch. If you're prepared for maple it can only get better from there.
I hope you revisit the topic again some day. I think you're working from disinformation.
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I hadn't really planned on it, but I took the grungy kitchen mat and a rug I'm going to give away, and dragged out dish detergent, the hose, and my old floor scrubber and scrubbed and rinsed them. The kitchen mat was horrific! I scrubbed and rinsed 3x and the water still ran off a little dirty.
While I was at it, I hosed off the vehicles and vacuumed the front carpets and mats. Not a great job but much MUCH better than before!
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Now that I got the bookshelf ready for paint I've got before and after pics. It doesn't look nearly as impressive as the sand job on the box, despite even using up all the rest of my stripping agent that was shockingly still good from when I did the kitchen cabinets. But it doesn't need to. I've removed more than enough for primer to hold, and it's all getting painted white anyhow.
It is some nice looking wood though. If it wasn't so gouged up and/or I really had time to put into it, this could look a lot nicer than a paint job. I'd have to replace the back too. It's just not worth it to me. It will be something I'll never get to if I start overthinking it.
My ceiling vents, and I'm really angry in retrospect that I didn't take a before picture of the backs of these things, because as bad as some of these look in the front, about 90% of the prep work was rust removal from the back of 1 in particular, but 3 in total that had a fair amount of it on the backs.
I sanded out as much rust as I possibly could by hand, using the stack of gummed up velcro sandpaper pads for my orbial sander. That's what I've been using to sand all the corners of the box and bookshelf too. They make for GREAT hand-held sandpaper with that thick padding in between from the soft side of the hook-and-loop.
And believe it or not, I didn't slice one of my fingers while doing it. I was quite sure that was going to happen, but I was careful.
All of this spray paint except for the $10 can of oil rubbed bronze that I've been using was free. I got about 12 cans of spray paint and primer free after rebate years back that I've slowly been burning through. I finished off the white primer today, unfortunately. But I have a can of grey primer, so it's not the end of the world. I should have been using that instead of white for the oil rubbed bronze. Duh.
Speaking of oil rubbed bronze...
While I was waiting for paint to dry, I spotted this ceiling lamp that I moved to the work bench to-do pile, so I got to work on it too. I haven't cleaned the paint off that glass yet, but I got it cleaned up and put one coat of the oil rubbed bronze on it. Didn't feel the need for primer on this one. 
I still think it was the right call not spray painting one of the other vanity fixtures oil rubbed bronze, but that didn't turn out nearly as tacky looking as I thought it would with that much surface area.
Not sure when that's going to get put up in the basement bedroom to replace the ceiling fan that doubled as a tall-person decapitator. 
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh, jeez! about the monitor! Do you still have that glucose meter and strips? It wiuld be nice to know how low you've gone.
I wouldn't be able to tell how low after the fact. Would have had to catch it in the moment. It was bad enough to feel lousy and start sweating, but unlike the other day I made haste to get some sugar in me before it got bad. I did feel a little lousy twice today, but it was only for about 2 to 5 minutes each time. The other day when this first happened to me, I let it get pretty bad before doing something about it. I didn't start losing my vision, but I told you how I just sat in the shower for 3 minutes before I found the will to stand up.
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Oh not at all sure it's maple, but I had some of the same problem with birch. If you're prepared for maple it can only get better from there.
Gotcha. That's how I treat my electricity by doing everything to Cook County code.
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I hope you revisit the topic again some day. I think you're working from disinformation.
That may be true, Sigs. Unfortunately, if I'm right, revisiting the past isn't going to matter. War is coming. And I don't mean all these faggy wars we've been watching on TV for all my life.
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I hadn't really planned on it, but I took the grungy kitchen mat and a rug I'm going to give away, and dragged out dish detergent, the hose, and my old floor scrubber and scrubbed and rinsed them. The kitchen mat was horrific! I scrubbed and rinsed 3x and the water still ran off a little dirty.
You're probably talking about one of those beefy expensive boys, aren't you? I have my parents old dog mat for the back door. Thick rubber bottom on it, and these almost woven "pods" kind of sticking up with the valleys between them and a nice thick border all around it on the outskirts.
That thing was DISGUSTING when I took it.
But I knew what it was. That wasn't getting thrown out when they moved.
Every other mat I have in my house was from Dollar Tree. I'm pretty sure this single mat cost more than every mat I've ever bought or intend to buy in my entire life.
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While I was at it, I hosed off the vehicles and vacuumed the front carpets and mats. Not a great job but much MUCH better than before!
Good for you. Getting stuff done is nice.
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Interesting...
I've decided, at least for the moment, I wanted to see what would happen if I just left this sensor in. I may be high right now, but I know I'm not low or on the verge of that anymore, so what would happen? Will it just be wrong forever now, or is this a temporary thing?
So in between the time I finished working for the night and now, it appears that it did go up to 400 for about 30 minutes (400 is the max), and then just about 20 minutes ago it started practically free-falling. It's in the 330's now, with the double arrow pointing down which usually means that you're probably in deep shit if your number was normal and you took too much insulin while eating or waited too long to eat after taking it.
I want to see where it's going to fall to now. Will it get back to my actual number?
If so, what is it about me being outside and working and sweating that would make this happen twice on two different sensors from the same batch? Or is that just a coincidence?
I can't be afraid of not being plugged in all the time. I've often wondered if doing that was a mistake that has led to complacency.
It would be a huge blow if I ever lost my insurance, but I always adapt to what I need to eventually. And it probably wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to be a lot more responsible with my diabetes than I am now.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I get mad at you, SIX, but I don't stay mad!
I think you're incredibly ignorant about some things and people, but you're not innately malicious like some (AHEM!) people around here!
Yeah... I can be pretty mean though. I know that. And I like you and I know you don't deserve that. But this one issue is always going to end with that result any time we revisit it.Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That cabinet or whatever will look good once you do what you are going to do to it. But don't take this the wrong way but it sorta looks like an old coffin.
No worries, Brenda. When I was carrying it in the house today over my shoulder, I thought the same thing. I had the scene from Terminator 3 when he was carrying Sarah Conner's coffin on his shoulder with a gat in the other hand shooting people.
It won't look anything like a coffin when it's done.Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh SIX, I thought I should warn you about staining maple. Because the grain runs in different directions, it comes out BLOTCHY. REALLY blotchy.
I discovered that when I had to stain some maple legs to match the chest they were going to be added to. For me, in the end it didn't matter bc the wood I was staining wouldn't darken enough if I used the stain as a stain (i.e. wipe off) so I had to leave it on and use it as a glaze.
But it might come out BLOTCHY.
I also tried staining a scrap of birch plywood to see if I could color match a mahogany chest of drawers, and while the blotchiness wasn't as extreme, it was still there.
There are all kinds of tips and tricks to eliminate the blotchiness. The one that came out best, for me, was pre-finishing the wood with tung oil, but it still wasn't good. If I had used a solvent-based stain and mixed it with tung oil to make a finishing stain, it might have come out better. But I didn't have a lot of time to experiment so I never really solved the problem.
Anyway, do your research on staining maple, which is apparently the most difficult wood to stain evenly. Maybe see if you can find some scrap maple to practice on. I know you had a lot of practice staining your floors, so if you can find a good technique for staining maple, tell me about it! In detail!
Are we sure it's maple? Did you figure that out or ask your husband to verify?
Any testing I'll do on the bottom. That makes the decision to just start with the bottom easy.
I don't have much hardwood floor experience. I only ever did it the one time in my house, and it was one of the first things I did after gutting the basement and getting the awful smell out of the house. I just did it so well that it looks like I have a lot of experience.
Yeah.. the only staining I've ever done in my life was those floors and the shelves and poles I did for my closets.
I'll make sure to wipe it all down with a wet rag before I start too. That helps open up the grain a bit, and even though I used my horse hair brush to dust it off, I know there's still residue on there that needs to come off before I start anyhow.
Hopefully it goes well. I've already burned the better part of 2 days on this and it's not work that's getting my house finished.
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You're right, BRENDA. Come to think of it, it DOES kinda look like a coffin!
When SIX said he had a chest, I imagined, yanno, maybe something half that length. I was surprised how BIG it is. That's a serious amount of storage space!
How about a hint about next weekend, hmmmm?
My Grams called them "Hope Chests". She had 2 of them. The one I'm going to restore for myself one day is much nicer and probably quite a bit older too, but I&
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Hmmm...
Yes, getting stuff done is definitely nice!
The mat is almost like car carpeting. I was trying to find a picture online, and the rubber on the back I've noticed is beginning to crack. But its super old, and I've had to cut the rubber edging off bc it was kind of tearing off in pieces. So not as beefy as you're prolly thinking but not cheap either. About $75 new, I think.
Ooooh, a mystery wood bookcase! Looking at the wood after you stripped it, I see the grain is coarser than the chest, and there are distinct bands of coarser grain and finer grain. I'm thinking maybe .... oak?
Huh. I see that some vents are definitely rustier (is that a word?) than others.
And not gonna drag political discussions in here after this, but... war is already here, SIX. And we started it. A lot of ill will has been building up for decades. Fingers crossed we don't get what we deserve.
OK, shutting up now!
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Yes, getting stuff done is definitely nice!
The mat is almost like car carpeting. I was trying to find a picture online, and the rubber on the back I've noticed is beginning to crack. But its super old, and I've had to cut the rubber edging off bc it was kind of tearing off in pieces. So not as beefy as you're prolly thinking but not cheap either. About $75 new, I think.
Wow. $75 and it's falling apart? This thing must have cost a lot more than that (at least with inflation). They had this thing at least since they got their dog that passed away over 10 years ago now. It was beat to hell under the feet of an 80lb English Bull Terrier for 15 years and all the human foot traffic out that door and made the trip to my house where it got the cleaning of a lifetime and has still held together ever since they moved. That mat was probably $50 over 25 years ago.
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Ooooh, a mystery wood bookcase! Looking at the wood after you stripped it, I see the grain is coarser than the chest, and there are distinct bands of coarser grain and finer grain. I'm thinking maybe .... oak?
It could be. I dunno. The only reason I'm thinking no was because the outside of it that I could reach before I stripped the inside sanded down quite a bit easier than the box did. That could be due to the different chemicals that were applied to it though.
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Huh. I see that some vents are definitely rustier (is that a word?) than others.
My spellcheck isn't freaking out over it. Probably is a real word, since it freaks out about a lot of real words I've used and I always have to add words to its dictionary after verifying I was right.
Yeah... I think it's that bottom right one that took up about 50% of my entire sanding time. One of them was about 30% covered with rust on the back. While on the opposite side, there was one that was in such nice shape I almost didn't paint it until I realized that the color would have been a slight mismatch.
Really, this wasn't a HUGE money saver, but why buy new stuff when the old stuff is fine with a little bit of work. Looks like I could buy new "diffusers" at the hardware store for about $12 each. I'll bet they're quite a bit more fragile and crappy than the ones I have though. The paint was free, and so was my time.
I couldn't find the screws yet. I'm sure they're in the garage. But I think I'm just going to buy a box of new ones because I know that they all have paint and quite a lot of rust on them. Aluminum screws, if they've got 'em. It looks like you just need 2" self-tapping screws meant to be screwed into ducts. I'm not even going to paint them until they're up there, because there's a great chance I'd just scratch the paint off trying to do that. I know that the circular "octopus" duct endings are just laying right on the ceiling and I can move them all around without the diffusers clamping them into place on the ceiling drywall. I've screwed one or two of them back in over the years and it's not easy. Just get them up there and I'll just get some white paint and one of my artist brushes and paint the tips. I'll never be taking them down again for any reason that I could ever imagine, so why not.
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And not gonna drag political discussions in here after this, but... war is already here, SIX. And we started it. A lot of ill will has been building up for decades. Fingers crossed we don't get what we deserve.
OK, shutting up now!
We don't deserve to be enslaved by Muslims.
There are only two outcomes to this problem. We are enslaved by them, or we aren't enslaved by them because we remove all of them.
Period.
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Sunday, Sunday and I know there are little things I should be doing around here now but I don't feel like it.
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Originally posted by Brenda:
Sunday, Sunday and I know there are little things I should be doing around here now but I don't feel like it.
Heh. You and me both, Brenda.
I think it's time we took a day off. Enjoy your day.
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I don't feel like painting or staining today. Maybe I'll work on seeing if I can get that old Atari 5200 up and running on my TV. Get a few more things taken downstairs and staged in the small bedroom for dehoarding too, after removing the old piece of tech from my current TV setup to make room for the BEAST.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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