In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 221 of 1154
Funny you mention that. I was talking to my mom today and she's always had a problem with the re-org and removal type stuff. I spent months with her getting rid of a lot of stuff from our old big house when they moved into a smaller house in AZ. Now they've only got a condo in Florida. She's all stressed out and my step-dad isn't making it easy for her either. She won't let him throw anything out without looking at it first, but she's very easily distracted by all the other things and it's really hard to get her to sit and focus on one thing.
She told me today that she's going through a bunch of paperwork and old emails. I told her unless she's looking for something in particular that needs immediate attention, she needs to box that crap up for now and get to that later. BIG things are what she needs to be focusing on now. What's the stuff she can get to right now that will make the most visible impact to both of them?
I told her she could be working on that paperwork for 2 whole weeks straight and even though she's making great progress and it is important, my stepdad's just going to say that she's not doing anything because meanwhile boxes are everywhere and nothing looks like it got done.
I think she got the point. Guess I'll find out later if he came back home and was complaining or not. I do get where both sides are coming from.
He told her that he was always stressed out back at home because everything was always a mess. He's done with that. Like me now, he wants nothing but the basics and he wants the house clean and doesn't want piles of paperwork and mail all over the place anymore. But she doesn't want to just throw everything out right away in case there's important stuff in there.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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I have to say, now that I'm retired, I feel that I have the time (unless death comes knocking unexpectedly, of course!). And even tho my derailment means I get limited areas done at any time, it's nice to look at it and know it's, finally, DONE!. Also, fortunately, I've never been a 'saver'. So what I derail on is usually something that's not working on a day-to-day basis. Once I get it done, life is that much more doable.
When I look back, I've made significant progress in the last few months, more than I made in the last maybe 10 years I was working put together.
Even though I get impatient with my pace, it's gratifying to look around and see progress. But I do want to pick up the pace. So ... speaking of which ... I'm going to boogie and take care of a few things.
Ciao!
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Weather broke early. :)
Going to time the events here.
At 6:25PM it was 86 in my house on the 2nd floor. Both bedroom doors were closed all day and notably hotter. Without being able to take any measurements, I would guess they were both at least 88 degrees if not hotter. It just now got down to 78 degrees outside with a heat index of 83.
6:28PM: 86 degrees on the 2nd floor. Windows opened, fan turned on.
6:35PM: 85 degrees on 2nd floor (1 degree cooler). Noticeably cooler in the attic, except for the two rooms not in the direct path of the airflow.
At this point it had cooled off enough in the attic already to re-visit some of the tape job around the window that had unsealed sometime while it was on last night and I fixed the seal and made it a bit better. Will continue to monitor and figure out a better solution if this doesn't hold up this time.
7:00PM: 84 degrees on the 2nd floor. 77 degrees outside. Heat index of 77.
7:30PM: No change. Inside or out. :(
Maybe I'm just being impatient here... It's obvious that there is a change in different areas of the house already. Especially the attic.
Unfortunately, this process isn't very scientific since the only thermometer I have is right in the center of the house at the top of the stairs on the 2nd floor.
It does take quite a bit of time for those two rooms on the side of the attic to cool down, and I did have both of the bedroom doors on the second floor closed all day long so they were quite a bit hotter than the 86 degrees that it was at the top of the stairs and the bathroom. They now seem to match the temperature of the hallway, so I'd expect the temperature to drop again shortly.
8:00PM: Still no change. Inside still 84 on 2nd floor. Outside 77 (feels like 77).
Two things occur to me.
1. The sun is still up. Ideally, I'd only be starting this after the sun had already gone down, but it was already so hot in the house and the temperature wend down earlier than expected so it made no sense to sit in heat anymore when I could do something about it. This probably has something to do with the temp not dropping as quickly as I'd like to see.
2. I didn't open many windows, or open them very wide either. My thought was that without a lot of windows open I'd be directing airflow better. Though you could certainly feel this in front of a window when it was one of a few open, it probably was starving the blower for air.
At around 8:05 I opened about twice as many windows, and opened them a lot wider than I had. Though there is not nearly as much force coming in any of the windows when standing in front of it, you can really tell a difference in the entrance to the attic. It's even more noticeable right behind the blower itself. Much more force coming behind you as you walk up there.
8:15PM: 83 degrees on 2nd floor. No change outside.
Well... that seems to have done the trick. It probably would have gone down on its own shortly without opening more windows, but the increased airflow likely sped up the process
9:30PM: 83 degrees on 2nd floor. 76 outside for the next 4 hours. Down to 72 by 4:00AM.
Maybe not...
At this point, I'm going to stop keeping track so often and just let it work for the night. I've got no doubt that by the time I wake up it's going to be a very comfortable temperature inside. We're dealing with a gross amount of humidity tonight that's going to cap off at around 96% and that's probably not helping things much. It will remain humid through tomorrow night even though the temps will have fallen drastically by then, but then it will level out in the 60's/70's after that.
I will be leaving the windows open tomorrow after I turn off the fan. No reason not to with a high of 77 since the air in here will be so humid already.
My hope is to have the temp inside at 78 degrees by sun up tomorrow. Shouldn't rise much if at all during the day si
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Still up, so I checked it again.
82 degrees as of 10:35PM.
So about 1 degree of cooling per hour for the first four hours. That's one or two degrees more cooling than I used to get all night leaving the windows open, depending on if there was any breeze or not.
Temperature outside actually increased 2 degrees to 78 now. What a strange weather pattern. :(
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Summer is in full swing here in SoCal.
At my place the high for the day was 86F, which is nicely cool compared to the previous AND upcoming hot spells. In the house is roughly 84F. The previous hot spell, the highs never got below 95F, and lows never got below 75F, with ~66% humidity. Then we got a nice 4 day break, today being the last day, with highs ~85F. The predicted high tomorrow is 93F, the 5 days after that are 95F and up, then 2 days at 94F, and then 92F.
Below 90F is OK, 90ish is bearable even though I slow down a lot, but over 95F completely halts me. From 85F to 90F goes from livable to manageable, from 90F to 95F goes from manageable to merely endurable. What a difference those measly 5F steps make!
In tune with the weather, my progress has been slower than I'd like, but I'm still getting things done day by day. My pattern is to start something, run into a problem that's been dogging me for years that I didn't have the time (and energy) to get to - derail myself and finally FIX the darn thing! - and then continue on where I left off. Aside from the weather, that's another thing that keeping me from making huge amounts of progress in a short amount of time.
But I'm also hiring people to get things done, like kill the darn gopher and install a screen/ security door in the side door. So that's a boost of progress, too.
Kiki, I wish summer would stay here. Warmer tomorrow here and then we are to get with rain on Wednesday.
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I feel for anyone who has to put up with heat AND humidity! Or, just plain heat, if it's hot enough! I'm glad for you SIX that you got your cooldown! Our temps are ramping up again. Ugh.
Quote:Wow, is this ... OUR house??? Somehow between the two of us we get things done but it's not a comfortable process for either one of us!
I told her she could be working on that paperwork for 2 whole weeks straight and even though she's making great progress and it is important, my stepdad's just going to say that she's not doing anything because meanwhile boxes are everywhere and nothing looks like it got done.
I think she got the point. Guess I'll find out later if he came back home and was complaining or not. I do get where both sides are coming from.
He told her that he was always stressed out back at home because everything was always a mess. He's done with that. Like me now, he wants nothing but the basics and he wants the house clean and doesn't want piles of paperwork and mail all over the place anymore. But she doesn't want to just throw everything out right away in case there's important stuff in there.
Just as an aside, I've had TWO people come up to me in the past two days and compliment me on the front yard which (IMHO) still looks like a mess. Both of them were Oriental. One man, a guest of our next-door neighbor, told me (in Korean, translated) that he liked my yard, he thought it looked nice. He gestured to the plants and said "this is Korean style" and then to the lawn next door and (I swear to God with a little sneer in his voice) said "This is American style".
I was hose-watering some spots that the sprinklers don't reach very well, and as I was watering I had two hummingbirds flit through the spray. There were the usual two or three butterflies enjoying the flowers. Mourning doves were pecking at the CA poppy seeds, and I bumped into a ginormous grasshopper eating some weed leaves. (It's OK, they can have them!) The yard was full of life, it was just so peaceful at that moment, I wish you could have been there. And (almost) worth all of the effort that the yard requires.
Did someone say that native landscapes take less work??? HA!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Being a bachelor for life, having to do stuff like that with two people involved is a process I can't even imagine. It's hard enough for one, especially when you're not fully committed. With two people, you both have to be fully on board (or you have to have one person who both doesn't care and is willing to let everything go, but is also patient with the person who does care and is sorting through all of it).
There's probably some positives to be said about it, but it can't be easy. Two people, particularly of the opposite sex, are likely to have pretty different ideas about what is and what is not important. They're also likely to have disagreements about how much storage space should actually be used as storage space. Putting a bunch of stuff in your storage space(s) over the years so that it becomes cluttered and unmanageable is how the problem begins and how junk ends up piling up in living areas. Have you ever had the problem of the innocuous "junk drawer" multiplying like Gremlins and taking over your kitchen?
I know I did. 
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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I went to bed around midnight last night. By 11:30PM, it had gotten down to 81 degrees on the 2nd floor.
Woke up this morning at 8:30 and turned off the fan. It was 78 degrees in my house. (My stated target. Yay!)
79 degrees out now for the next few hours, and that's as hot as it's going to get. Low of 69 tonight. I'll be able to leave the windows open for the next few days.
Plenty comfortable enough inside and out to get back to work.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Another bright sunny day here and I am taking it easy today. Just sorting through some papers.
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