So it was statistics and hanging around today. A good way to spend the fist Saturday of the year. Sandy and I took a two mile walk in the afternoon south of Pipeline, I make my steps for every day this year! Both of them. Dinner was the teriyaki pork chops with baked potatoes and corn. I also got the framing and roofing nail guns along with assorted other tools from Harbor Freight, I could have bought the pieces one at a time for 25% off with coupon but I want to get this underway. So they have a bit more of my money but I have my tools:)

Tis the season for Christmas cookies and our household has them aplenty. Here Sandy is messing up the kitchen.

Even in this day and age you can still miss the passing of an old friend. I found out my old roommate Bill Adams passed a couple of years ago. Brain cancer of all things. It makes one stop and think. The older I get the more I’m stunned by the revelation that life is finite, it will end one way or the other. And given my age the ride is well over half way done. I really don’t like to think of it but it’s the looming iceberg ahead and there’s no way to change course, no way to avert.

So I married a girl with an artistic streak, talk about opposites attracting. I’m completely left brained seeing beauty in logic and science, my career in and addiction to computers is convincing evidence. Sandy is solidly right brained, social worker, loves beach sunsets, likes art and can paint. I can draw a pretty convincing stick figure… In any case I thought I’d showcase some of the art I see laying around the house, enjoy!

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a morning person. But for whatever reason every now and again God sees fit to have me be awake to witness dawn breaking over this beautiful creation. It reminds me to try to make the most of the new day and that if there wasn’t darkness, you wouldn’t get to see this.

I got a helper with the pavers today, knocked out another 100 today and have the build/stage area at 300 sq/ft. Tomorrow I’ll put everything together to get the permit for building the shed. Slowly but surely we’re getting there.

Just wanted to introduce my furry roommates, this is Sammy and Rocky. A brother and sister from the same litter so family. Endless hours of fun and purrs from these two, super happy they’re part of my life.

So I had to replace the garage door spring on one of the bays of the garage. Fortunately it’s a single door so just one torsion spring to deal with, and lucky for me both doors are wound the same way so I have one to replicate.

The first problem was finding a spring, I’m looking for a 0.207 in. Wire x 2 in. D x 25 in. L Torsion Spring in Yellow Left Wound for Sectional Garage Doors by Dura-lift. Evidently these are hard to find or very expensive. I went to home depot because they had it on their site but (sigh) it was an internet only order. So I thought screw HD, Amazon here I come. Bottom line it was $55 at Amazon (everywhere pretty much) and $35.93 at HD. They won. It was ship to the store, they didn’t let me know it arrived and couldn’t find it at first but I finally got it.

Installation was super simple, the one thing I wasn’t sure of is how many times to pre-wind the torsion spring to be able to properly list the door. It turns out it’s one full revolution for every foot of door. My door was 7 feet so it was 28 quarter turns of pre-wind. I’ve always been told to stay away from torsion springs, call a pro because they’re dangerous, I’m happy to say it’s completely doable if you take your time and look at what you’re doing.

There’s definitely been a chill in the air here for the past couple of days. Hitting the freeze point at night so bring the plants in. But with the sun out it was a beautiful day and I took advantage to clean up all the limbs twigs and leaves that I’ve been meaning to for months. Great time to break out the burn barrel and get rid of it.