At a Loss ...

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Politics, I despise politics.

Everything in the news is politicized, or so it seems.

A horrible tragedy Wednesday night, a small commercial airliner collides with an Army helicopter, at night, both aircraft are destroyed. It appears that all the souls on board both aircraft are lost. Dead in the night in a fiery crash which ends in the cold waters of the Potomac.

Then the idiots (on both sides) start baying as to how this is some politician's fault.

Someone made a mistake, yes. But was it the air traffic controllers on the ground? Was it the people operating the two aircraft? I don't know, hopefully the NTSB will be able to determine that and at some point in the future institute some safeguard to prevent this particular scenario from happening again.

But you can't completely prevent mishaps. You just can't.

No matter how sophisticated the equipment, no matter how sophisticated the software controlling that equipment, and no matter how well-trained the aircrew, sometimes it just boils down to this ...

"Shit happens."

And when it does, people die, as in this case. Was this mishap preventable? Maybe, but as long as humans are in the equation things like this will occur.

People have lapses in judgement, people get distracted, people get tired, people miss  small details, there are a thousand things which can go wrong. That we don't have more accidents like this is something to think about.

Better equipment? Better software? Better procedures? Sure, those might help. Remember though, people put all that together. People.

Folks, we're the common denominator, there is no "they."

Pray for those who were lost. Pray for those families who will be in mourning. Pray for the sanity and the well-being of the first responders. Pray that it doesn't happen again.

But for God's sake leave politics out of it.

I cannot believe this crap.

/rant ...

Being Lazy

OAFS Photo

It's something I'm good at, being lazy that is. Been doing it for a while now and have perfected my technique to almost the level of an art form.

Which is another way of saying that while down here in Maryland, on what is, in effect, a vacation, I am having serious motivational issues.

All I want to do is eat, sleep, and play with my grandsons. They seem to appreciate it.

I have a very long list of things I want to do when I get back to Little Rhody. Most of which involve board gaming. I have a crap ton of new games which I purchased while still gainfully employed. I call it my retirement project. This one (below) will require the most work:

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It is one of the many expansion modules of Commands & Colors: Napoleonics from GMT Games. I bought the original set probably more than five years ago. I haven't had the time nor the opportunity to start it. Now I do. As I also bought all, repeat all, of the expansion kits, I have my work cut out for me.

For each of the pieces you see on the map above is a wooden block, upon which one must place two stickers (one front, one back) which denotes the unit type (infantry, artillery, cavalry). I need to do that. With something like six of those kits (each with a large number of blocks), that's a lot of work.

Perhaps I'll affix stickers while listening to an audio book, which John Blackshoe recommends for long drives. I figure that would work here as well.

Another project is this:

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I have the French, the British, and the Prussian starter army kits, plus quite a few supplementary kits (Highlanders, 95th Rifles, Imperial Guard, plus extra cavalry). Those are all mini-figures which need to be separated from their sprues and attached to their bases. Ideally I would paint them as well. I still might do that.

So things to do, I have them.

First and foremost though is squaring away the computer room. The Missus Herself has set a very high priority on that one.

For once, I agree.

Besides which, I need the space.

For gaming.

Until then, I shall lead the life of a grandpa. It's a good gig if you can get it!

Adventures in Life

OAFS Photo

When The Missus Herself and Your Humble Scribe stay at The Nuke's we have our own little hideaway in the basement. What is normally their movie watching room (even has a popcorn machine) becomes our bedroom. We even have our own bathroom just outside the room. It's very nice.

However it has one amenity that I have yet to use. Well, use intentionally that is.

'Tis a bidet.

This is not the traditional French standalone bidet but is of the "convert your toilet to a combo toilet/bidet" set up. It's very nice, the thing I like about it is the heated seat, very nice in the dead of winter it is.

However ...

So Monday night, The Missus Herself taps me on the shoulder, awakening me from "almost asleep" to something approaching consciousness.

"Umph, er, whazzup?"

"I think I left the rice cooker on."

Checking my watch, I see that it is past midnight.

"And you want me to do what at this hour?"

"Um, just thought you wanted to know."

Well honestly, I did not.

Now normally the rice cooker is pretty much on all of the time. I mean it's used to cook the rice, then maintain the rice in an edible condition for a few days. (Before marrying The Missus Herself I had no idea these things existed, having grown up on Minute Rice and Uncle Ben's - the rice cooker version of rice is, in my opinion, far superior.)

So to my half asleep mind, this did not seem like such a bad thing, I mean we're only gone for a week, right?

Then, as I tried in desperation to return to sleep, many horrid scenarios began to play out in my tired head. Ranging from the house burning down, to the kitchen smelling like burned rice for eternity, to the optimum scenario of nothing happening at all.

Needless to say, my sleep was fitful for the remainder of the night.

Around 0530 local I awakened to answer the call of Nature. Upon taking a seat (my aim ain't what it used to be) my brain said, "Hhmm, why isn't the seat warm?"

Reaching down for the controller (bear in mind, I'm half-asleep and not wearing my spectacles) I press something, hear a noise coming from beneath me, then the next thing I know ...

My butt is being "entertained" by a stream of warm water. Not an unpleasant sensation by any means, however it was rather, shall we say "unexpected."

Now I had no idea that the controller could be detached from its wall-mounted position. The one I was used to had a remote control thingie that sat in its own holder on the wall. The new one appears to be permanently affixed to the wall.

At some point in the process, my brain awakened. Though still distracted by the continuing stream of warm water against my nether regions, as it were, I eventually worked out, logically, that as the controls could not be seen or understood from the wall mount, it must somehow be detachable.

Carefully, not wanting to damage Tuttle's fine work in installing the new bidet seat, I gently pulled on the unit, which separated cleanly from the wall. Now that I could actually see the controls I managed to stop the water and turn the seat heat back on.

After that I returned to bed, to remember the original reason for me not sleeping. So I sent my next door neighbor a text asking if she would be so kind as to proceed to my dwelling and ascertain whether or not the rice cooker was indeed on. If it was, would she be so kind as to simply unplug it? Though there are clear instructions on the unit telling one how to switch it off, the aforementioned instructions are in Korean.

My neighbor doesn't speak Korean.

Later I heard back, the rice cooker had indeed been on, and was now unplugged. Not in an MTV sort of way but in a disconnected from a power source sort of way.

I lost sleep but on the upside, I now know how the bidet works.

Kinda cool.

Editor's Note: I do have a new vignette in mind but it involves war and I'm feeling rather peaceful these days. Not ready to write about war and death at this point in time. I'm sure I'll get back to it. Just not today.

Enjoying Life

OAFS Photo

As I sit and look out the window of The Nuke's dining room I can't help but feel rather content. It's a sunny day, we're finally out of the deep freeze for a few days, and I'm getting to spend time with people I care about.

What more could one ask for?

The world continues to be insane (nothing has changed since Cain slew Abel, only the scale really) but the pockets of sanity far outnumber the pockets of insanity. But the pockets of sanity don't make the news, do they?

On the drive down to Maryland last Friday we saw snow on the ground the entire way. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Seven states in 420 miles.

Uh Sarge, I though you said the distance from where you live to where The Nuke and her tribe live is 400 miles, give or take.

And yes, it is, usually.

But if you take the path that does not pass through the Bronx, i.e. travel up and over the Tappan Zee, then it's around 420 miles.

Was it worth the extra 20 miles? Why yes, yes it was.

I use Google Maps as my navigator (used to use Waze but Google bought that so there isn't much to choose between the two any more) and on Friday she (female voice, so she) directed me off I-95 and over to I-287. Ah ha! She wants me to take the Tappan Zee¹ route.

After getting off I-95 we drive a couple of miles and the navigator now wants me to get off this road and follow another. This, not being my first rodeo, was not done. It was just a different path to get to the George Washington Bridge. Now if I wanted to go that route I would have stayed on I-95. Sure, that part of the route can be slow. But am I in a hurry? No, I'm not.

An extra 20 miles but well worth it, the scenery going over that bridge is very nice. First time I've seen the surrounding hills with snow on them. Very picturesque, very lovely.

Even with all that, we still made really good time. (Though it should be noted, the folks who maintain the Garden State Parkway really, really need to repaint the lines. Couldn't tell in some spots if there were three lanes or five!)

We celebrated Finnegan's birthday on Saturday in fine style. Watched some football on Sunday, the games turning out the way I expected but not the way I wanted. One thing, with today's technology, why is the NFL still allowing the officials to determine the outcome of games. The Chiefs/Bills game was an effing embarrassment to the league, at least in my not-so-humble-opinion. It was a well played close game, decided (at least in my estimation) but a couple of really bad calls by the officiating crew.

Anyhoo.

Now we're just chilling while everyone else goes back to school/work. Finnegan though, has opted to skip daycare and do "grandma-care" this week. I mean can you blame him?

He's only two but he's a blast to hang out with. He and his big brother Roberto are big Star Wars fans, though they haven't really watched more than snippets of those movies. They both have toy light sabers and when Finnegan deploys his, he even does his version of this -

Mostly the "da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da-DAAA" part and he really gets into it. He pitches his wee voice a little lower and even takes up a fighting stance with his light saber. Kid is a cutie, with a combative streak a mile wide. Gotta love it.

So we're chillin' and livin' large. Life is good.

I was going to go back through the first part of the Prequel/Prelude story while down in Maryland, only to discover that it's on my other computer. Sure, I could recreate it from blog posts and I still might ...

But that sounds far too much like work.

And I avoid that like the plague these days. 😎

I wonder why?

Be seeing you.

¹ The Tappan Zee is a broad expanse of the Hudson River, looks a lot like a big lake. I don't use the new name for the bridge.

Busy, Busy, Busy

 What a week!!!  Haven't been that cold since I went skinny dipping in Korea in January after cutting a hole in the ice!

Ok, that latter might be a  bit of an exaggeration. Well, at least the skinny dipping part was.  Most of the thermometer temps here were in the 20's and the "feels like" temps were in the single digits.  That had several big effects on us.

First, the fixing up of the front porch at our old house, now being transformed to a B&B that'll sleep eight, came to a complete halt.  Hammering fence nails, cutting cattle panels and sawing wood framing with numb hands didn't seem like a very safe idea.  

Mrs J, being the ever vigilant and talented project planner, shuffled the plan schedule and reprioritized the "Indoor Plan" to the # 1 priority and moved the outdoor plan to "Later" status.  It's still pretty cool outside, but tolerable.  However, the probability of percipitation this week is well above 50% every day.  That's the weather guessers prognosis and could change.  At which point, we'll reprioritize.

Again!

However, there is actually a lot of progress being made.  I can now see the top of my desk and now remember that it is made of wood and not envelopes, paper and notepads.  Who knew?  Cleaned out the closet in there.  OK, to be precise, I moved all the stuff that was in there into the office itself. 

 

 Found out that we have quite a bit more wine in that closet than I thought we did. Was a bit concerned that some of the older bottles (inherited from my Father's collection when he passed) might be a bit past their prime.

So, with Mrs J's permission, we tried one of the oldest ones with our Barbecued Hamburger, Corn on the Cobb and Home Fries.

Yes, Tuna, that's me exhibiting my Gourmand skills!

Oh, Man!  Was that 24 year old Pinot Noir good! Nay, Excellent!

Another treasure uncovered in the closet stirred quite a few memories,  There were several cardboard mover's boxes in the closet also.  They were full of pictures.  Some were fairly recent, pictures of our grandkids for example.

 

 

Others, well,  not so recent.  Pictures of my parents and grandparents dated from when my parents were about the age of my current grandchildren.  

Now that's a treasure!!

Reminder of a time when things weren't quite so pleasant!

Unfortunately, since Mrs J's standing order is to declutter and depersonalize the house (under the direction of our realtor), I've got to move those boxes out of sight in the attic for the time being.  The plan is to purchase a Skylight picture frame, and load the pictures into it.

Folks, those things are cool.  You, or anyone you add to the permission list, load pictures on it and they rotate through automatically.  We've had one for a few years and it's great.  We're going to get a second one as the pictures in the boxes are very numerous and the Skylight is limited to 8GB of storage.  The oldest picture gets deleted to make room for the newest.  So, we're going to start from scratch and monitor upload file size and see how we do since these photos are priceless.

Going to have to figure out how to balance, the "decluttering" the house with the scanning and uploading pictures.  Probably will need a new box for storing uploaded pics and only bring down a manageable number to handle that process without cluttering.  

Oh well, it'll keep me off the streets at night.

So, as I said, making progress.  Weather is supposed to be nice this week, so maybe the porch will be finished.  To do list for today is to call the Realtor and get his recommendations for a handiman to fix the back door on our current house and replace the shower stall in the old house (covered in hard water residue).  

I don't know if we'll be ready to post the "For Sale" sign in March like we/he wanted, but soon.

Hope you all weathered the weather last week safely.  

Oh and, one more, just for the embarassment factor.

Someone's first Christmas!

 

 

 Little J, back when he was "Little".

Peace out, y'all!

 

Homeward Bound

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Jan Kołodziej groaned and gripped his belly as the train hit another rough section of track. He had been hit, tended to by a Sani then hauled back to an aid station in very short order. He had no idea how lucky he was. His lower intestine had been perforated by metal fragments from his equipment, driven into his body by a Soviet rifle bullet. Had he not been carrying the spare barrel for his squad's MG-34, he would probably have bled out on the battlefield.

The bullet, fired from very close range, had been deflected by the spare barrel, but it had driven metal fragments into his body. The surgeons at the field hospital had patched him up and sent him back to the Reich. The medical staff had given him no more than a 75% chance of surviving.

Infection had been their biggest worry, but so far, Kołodziej's body was successfully fighting to stay alive. But the surgery had required the surgeons to cut into his abdominal muscles and Kołodziej had had no idea how much a man used those muscles.

Just sitting up required assistance. Sleep was nearly impossible as the German military was in the midst of a shortage of medicines. Pain killers were in short supply, morphine was used only on those in such pain as they would scream all night.

Though Kołodziej wanted to scream, he forced himself to bear the pain. One of the orderlies had asked him why.

"If I scream, the army might leave me out here to die. By bearing the pain, I show them I'm a fighter, worth saving."

But the real reason was a letter he'd received, dated August of 1941, it had been from his Elżbieta. The woman he loved more than anything in this world.

The last time he had seen her was in Warsaw, he had been wearing the uniform of the hated Germans. She had recognized him and turned away in shame.

Now, she had written, since that day she had learned much. Poles were survivors, pretend to bend a knee to the conquerors but use the time to prepare to rise up and throw them out. Her own brother had been conscripted into the German Army. Upon that occasion her father had talked long into the night with her.

Elżbieta Chlebek's father had fought in the Austrian Army in the Great War, when their portion of Poland was ruled by the Hapsburgs. As he had put it, "Better to wear an Austrian uniform and fight the Russians, your Jan is doing the same. He is fighting the Russians as well. It's all we can do for now."

Kołodziej had been told that he was being sent back to a hospital in Poland. The Army hadn't decided which one, he was hoping for Warsaw, that's where his Elżbieta was working. She was a nurse there. If only ...

Oskar Olson stepped ashore. He wasn't familiar with this part of Norway, it was much farther north than his home. But the smell of the mountains, the hiss of waves on the shore of the fjord, and the very air itself spoke to him of home.

He had left the country a disoriented conscript. Swept up in the defeat of the Norwegian Army, trapped behind enemy lines with a hodgepodge of British, French, and Norwegian stragglers, he had made it to England where he'd joined the Commandos. Now he was home.

According to the briefing, there was only a small garrison of Germans in the region. They were not frontline troops, but reservists, sent to Norway to free up the more fit troops for the cauldron of the Eastern Front. Perhaps forty men, a platoon, but the Commandos had brought far fewer than that.

Their mission was terror, pure and simple. Slip ashore, kill as many Germans as they could, then leave the way they had arrived, small boats. Head back out to sea and meet up with the Royal Navy destroyer that had launched them.

Olson was an explosives expert now. His job was to booby trap anything which the Germans used. The goal was to have German soldiers dying long after the Commandos had left.

"We might be killing Norwegians as well, Oskar. Do you have a problem with that?"

The Scottish officer had taken him aside to ask that question, he was young, but a good man, he cared about his men.

"Leftenant, I'd rather not kill my own people, but if the Germans hold the country, many more Norwegians might die. We've heard stories of hostages being taken, and killed, for every misfortune the Germans suffer. It's hard to kill one's own, but if we kill more Germans, I can live with myself."

Lieutenant Seamus MacDonald nodded and clapped Olson on the back, "Keep that in your heart all the time laddie, the mission is to make the Germans uncomfortable. Maybe even draw more of them in. If they're occupying Norway, they can't be fighting in Russia or North Africa, might also draw down the forces they have occupying France and Italy. Places we might have a mind to take back one of these days."

Olson nodded as the Lieutenant had directed the men to start loading the boats. They'd be on Norwegian soil within the hour.

Olson watched as the rest of the men came ashore then hid the boats. The night was quiet and bitter cold. Sound would carry a long ways and he had no doubts that the Germans would be indoors next to their fires. Though there might be a sentry or two, they would probably be more concerned with staying warm than watching for attackers.

The first sentry had died under Olson's knife less than 15 minutes later.

Olson had spotted him, pacing back and forth along the town's single, small pier. The man had stopped to piss into the harbor, then moved back to the shelter of the small shed at the foot of the pier. Where he had fallen to Olson's knife.

Lieutenant MacDonald joined the small group shortly thereafter, "Sarn't Magnussen, put out a perimeter, Ollie, get those explosives planted. I want the pier to go up about four hours from now, everything else is a booby trap, someone touches it, they die. Along with everyone around them. Go."

They rendezvoused with their destroyer just before sunrise. In the distance they heard the explosives go off which would destroy the pier. That was meant to draw the Germans to the harbor where they would trip the booby traps Olson had left behind.

The Norwegians were back in the fight.

Arrived

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Roughly seven and a half hours from Little Rhody to Annapolis. Right into the glare of the winter sun. Had to hose down the optical sensors a couple of times, they dry out a lot in the sun. But thanks to modern medicine, they are okay.

Traffic was moderate, there were, aber natürlich, a few idiots on the road, but fewer than I expected.

Thank the Lord for small favors.

Anyhoo, we're in place for Finnegan's birthday celebration, none the worse for wear.

However, Roberto has been beating on me like a rented mule.

He enjoys it and I'll heal.

Love those lads.

More later, maybe.

After all ...

I am retired.

Maryland Bound

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Time to visit The Nuke again. It's Finnegan's 2nd birthday.

And hey, I'm retired, I've got the time.

Read the folks on the sidebar.

Play nice with each other. At least try.

Keep an eye on the pilots and aviators, they tend to get into the liquor cabinet and "forget" to replenish it. Though I'm sure they'll get around to it someday.

Be back soon, but I gotta pack, then I gotta drive.

Hopefully, the weather cooperates!

Talk quietly among yourselves.

Ciao!

Cool Stuff

LUSH and Your Humble Scribe
OAFS Photo

Looking back over the years since I retired from the Air Force it struck me, I got to do a lot of cool stuff in those years.

The photo above was snapped in January of 2016 aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). LUSH and I, along with quite a few other family members, were there for the baptism of my then youngest grandchild (three others have joined the tribe since then) aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Belle Belle, as we call her, is LUSH's youngest child, she remembers nothing of her baptism as she was, to be fair, only four months old. But I remember the day very well.

The carrier was undergoing repairs at the pier so she was pretty deserted. I'm not saying we had the whole ship to ourselves, but damned near.

At the time I had no inkling that someday I would be staying at that hotel across the water (the two tallest buildings in the right background are the Manchester Grand Hyatt. I stayed a few times in the rightmost building. Why was I staying in a hotel in Sandy Eggo?

Why, to support waterfront testing of the combat systems aboard this ship -

USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001)
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Which was cool and awesome until they sent more gubmint people to "help" with the testing. Yup, that ruined it for me. (Four trips in total - three good, one "meh.") But still, it was really cool to exercise the actual systems aboard the ship and interact with the crew.

Good times.

Another odd thing was that a few short years after the baptism, Belle Belle's Dad, Big Time, would be a member of the TR's airwing and have to spend quite a few weeks stuck in Guam aboard TR during the opening days of the Covid-thing.

Because of my kids' being in the Navy I've had the opportunity to also ride two carriers at sea. Once when The Nuke was assigned to USS Dwight D. Eisenhower's (CVN 69) reactor department out of Norfolk and then again when LUSH was assigned to USS Ronald Reagan's (CVN 76) airwing out of Sandy Eggo. (Of course you might know this town as San Diego, Sandy Eggo is what I call a Lexism.)

Also got to tour the White House, which was also awesome.

OAFS Photo

Dang. I need to smile more. But anyhoo.

Cool stuff.

I get to do it.

Can't wait to do more.

Can I Get That With Extra Freedom?

OAFS Photos

On the left is "Work Sarge," on the right is "Retired Sarge." While they are both old photos, not taken on the same day or even in the same place (though I am wearing the same shirt in both ...), both represent certain aspects of my personality.

Sort of ...

Though I could get intense at work (just ask Liz, though she might say that "intense" is just a different spelling of "asshole" - and she wouldn't be wrong) I am, underneath it all, a cuddly old teddy bear. (In the photo on the left, in the background over my left shoulder, is a panda. I've had him since I was nobbut a sprout, a very long time indeed!) The photo on the right, that's closest to my "real" personality. For whatever that's worth.

I've been having trouble forcing myself to sit down and write. Couldn't figure it out at first, then I realized what it was.

I was free.

Free to do whatever I want. (Within reason, of course.)

But I can write, or not write, I'm on my schedule now.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing and I'll be getting back to it soon.

But I've been out of harness for a few weeks now, the first few, well, that was just an extended Christmas vacation. Now I'm just free, free as the wind.

That will take some getting used to.

But I'm getting there.

Believe me, that picture on the right, well, that's how I'm feeling these days.

Happy and ready for whatever lies ahead.

Can't believe I waited this long.

Man, I Really Am Lazy ...

OAFS Photo

Had snow Sunday night, three to four inches was my estimate. (Don't look at the deck railings, the wind normally cuts that down by an inch or so.) It was warm, then it got cold, it was raining, then it was snowing.

Luckily enough, our house has a southern exposure so I didn't need to shovel the driveway, the good Lord cleaned that out for me with the rays of the sun. It stayed in the 20s all day but the sun plus the underlying blacktop in the driveway was enough to clean that out.

All I had to do was shovel the deck off (mostly to make a path for the oilman) and clean the cars off. The sun had done a lot of work on the cars but the north-facing portions still had a good four inches in place.

The snow came off fairly easily, only the bit closest to the skin of the vehicles was icy. But once the outer layer was brushed away, the sun helped melt that.

As I was traipsing about cleaning off the vehicles, I noticed that my right foot felt cold. Which seemed odd, until I looked down and saw that the outer layer (a plastic/rubber mix) had cracked and about two square inches of material was gone. The liner was still intact, but the snow directly on that made my foot notice.

That sucked. I've had those boots for 12 years or more, so one might think I got some good use out of them. Considering that I've only worn them maybe five or six times though, I didn't really. Oh well, time to get new ones. (One of the things I dislike about synthetic materials is that they seem to deteriorate over time. Maybe I'll get some old school boots this time.)

Watched professional playoff games Saturday and Sunday, two of the games were played in snowy weather (Philadelphia mostly, some in Buffalo) which I enjoy. After all, football should be played out in the elements. I've played in mud, snow, and rain. Sometimes a mixture of all three. Sigh, I get domed stadiums, people like to be comfortable. But it leads to weakness. At least I think so.

College playoff game Monday night, I have no dog in that hunt but as I've always had to work the next day, I've never watched one. That changes this year.

Do I miss working?

Seriously?

Not a bit.

See you soon.

Baby, it's Cold outside!

 

Yeah, I know. it's an oldie.  But, for a large portion of the country, it's a fact of life right now.  Had a bit of an "aww Feces!" moment, yesterday when we woke up and the water wasn't running.  Fortunately, the temperature got above that magic number before noon.  I spent a bit of time adjusting and adding insulation to the well.  Thank you, Lord!

Last week was pretty busy and this week doesn't seem that it's going to be any different.  Mrs J's OPlan phase 1 is to fix up the old house.  Phase 1, part 1 is to refurbish the front porch.  25 years in the Texas Sun did some destruction on a lot of the wood.  

Phase 1, part 1, action 1 was to remove the warped deck boards, remove the railings around the porch and steps.

 

That phase has been successfully completed.  A lot of pent up aggression was released during that phase.  

  

While I was taking out my desire to destroy stuff, Mrs J's Phase 1, part 2, action 1 was to "Do" the kitchen.  Again, 25 years of use, took it's toll.  It's much cleaner now, but there's a bit of carpentry needed that's above my skill level. So we're going to be hiring a carpenter shortly.  

Having come to a stopping point outside, I checked with the Boss Lady about what to do next.  She advised me that the two bedrooms needed attention.

 

Meanwhile, Mrs J's Phase 1, part 2, action 2 was to clean the bathrooms.  My brother thankfully stepped forward and took care of that action.  25 years of hard water residue took all day to somewhat remove.  However, not quite up to management expectations.  Our carpenter friend will be tasked with replacing the Shower Insert.  This was not unexpected, so within the budget.

Phase 2 will begin, (we hope), on Wednesday when the temperature returns to somewhat normal (50ish).  I estimate the porch will take 2 days max. (Gee, I pray I didn't jinx that).  Cattle panels with frames will be the upright "walls".  Replacing a couple of deck boards shouldn't be a big deal, but...

Which will bring us to Phase 3,  Exterminate the rapidly reproducing stored junk. 

Main Problem Area

 Phase 3, Part 1, Action 1 Delivery of the refuse bin should occur the morning we start this phase.  An 8' x 6' x 30' bin should be sufficient for the main problem area although it will likely be full.  A second one will then be delivered to the rear of the house to facilitate de-junkifying the back patio.  

Completion of these three phases should bring us closer to being ready to put the property on the market.

It will also bring us very close to a bit of a vacation.  Mrs J has spent the last year or so, planning and scheduling a family trip and cruise in Australia and New Zealand.  The end of February, she and I, and MBD and family will be flying out of Austin, to Honolulu (a time zone rest and recovery stop) then on to Sydney.  Little J, LJW and Miss B will head East out of England enroute to the former colonies and join us.  

Looking forward to all that, because when we get back, it's our house that needs prepping.  (I actually started on my "office".  I managed to get down through the stuff and can now place things on the desktop.  (I was very excited, Mrs J, not so much.) 

The house overall is mostly "stuff" removal, although there are a few things the carpenter will have to take care of.  We'll get through this campaign, one way or another.

Then, with a little luck, some one will stop by, "Love it" and that will be that.  Or, at least, that's what we're hoping happens.  We'll see.

Stay warm! and....Peace out y'all!