24 March 2020 Tuesday Morning

Alcohol kills corona virus. So I’m killing billions of the little critters.

As I sit here drinking coffee, I am reading the news. Rush isn’t on today so I’m having to read the news for myself. I will say that the news is, at best, depressing. I was supposed to take Miss Suzy in for her Spring grooming appointment but the groomer has closed her store. This was damned inconsiderate since I had to get up early to take the dog in for the grooming session. She could have called and let me know so that I wouldn’t have gone out and have driven 10 miles into town. So far about 17,000 people have died worldwide. Out of 7.8 BILLION people that is .000218 of 1%. If 5 times that many die it is still only 1/10 of 1% or in other words about the same as any flu virus yet known. This is a level of panic for which I can find no obvious reason or cause. More people die in car accidents on a daily basis than COVID-19. Still we persist in driving our cars. 151,600 (approx.) people die every day from all causes and yet the news media has caused a pandemic of panic where no medical pandemic exists. For those of you who are hiding under your bed, try looking up Herd Immunity. It is our only hope of saving our country and civilization.

For the past three days, I have been to town to buy some few groceries, some lumber, working on the house and contemplating my navel. We are in the ‘fits and starts’ of break up. It rains, it snows, the sun shines brilliantly, the clouds hang low, the fog enshrouds the bay and the temp fluctuates from 24 and 40 each day. If you dress for the 24 and you get outside to work you are almost immediately too hot. You dress for the 40 and you are way too cold. This time of year is a damned nuisance. The only bright spot is that snow is melting pretty rapidly and will be gone soon. The roads are mostly clear of ice and the borough (county) has been opening up the ditches to keep the water off the roads and on its’ merry way down to the bay.

I’ve gotten the new electric in the new stairwell wall. You can now turn on a light in the stairwell from the second floor or the first floor. No more going up or down in the dark. Also, got the sheetrock on the wall inside the stairwell and partially on the outside in the living room. Will finish that today. and then install sheetrock on the other wall inside the stairwell. For reasons that are beyond human comprehension, the previous owners ripped out sheetrock all over the house including the wall in the stairwell. Not only did they rip out the sheetrock in the stairwell they took out all of the 2×4 studs. I cannot imagine what they must have been thinking.

The entire front of the house is now level. It was a job for Stupidman and I fit the description. There is some leveling to do on the back side of the house. This leveling I will be doing as soon as I finish the sheetrock projects. Under the house is a mud pit and I have procrastinated by finding other repairs to do. This, however, cannot continue. I have to be like a big ol’ fat boar hog and go rooting through and wallowing in the mud soon. Summer wants the kitchen finished. The kitchen people have the solid surface countertops done and they want them out of their shop and to install the cabinets ASAP. So much pressure. I think I might be cracking under the load. NOT!

I’m down to my last two sheets of sheetrock. That means that I’ll probably be going to Ghost Town Homer tomorrow. The Yard Manager at the local building supply told me that he has a large number of slightly damaged sheets that he will sell to me at a very deep discount. According to him most just have corners broken or some damage on the edges. That kind of stuff will work in a house where the studs range from 17-26 inches apart. Unbelievably, there are a few of the 2×6 studs that are actually on 24 inch centers. I suspect that they had some kind of measuring error for some of the studs to be exactly where they are suppose to be. Anyway, I’m risking the COVID-19 scourge (big whoop) to go pick up, maybe, 10 sheets and some 2x6s.

I told Summer yesterday that had I known how much work this house was going to be, I might not have bought it. On other hand, we are gradually turning this sow’s ear into a silk purse. I’m just hoping to live long enough to enjoy it after it is done. Summer and I had been planning a tour through America for next August. We would have liked to have seen Mt. Rushmore, the largest ball of twine and any other Americana like Car Hinge that pops up down the highways and byways of America. We, also, wanted to visit family and friends back in Florida. It would probably take us a month or six weeks to do this properly. Now it looks like we just have too many responsibilities here in Fritz Creek.

Well, the sheetrock won’t hang itself so I’m off my butt and onto work.