Year 21, Week 20, Day One (week 1114)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-12-21 Saturday
77 as the early morning low, 88 as the high, clear early morning, partly cloudy near noon, showers after two It was humid but we had a nice wind. One moment, some clouds built up but they were gone quickly. It was otherwise pretty sunny all day long. I totally forgot to check the weather at all today. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I planned on stopping at Walmart on the way to Mom’s house. I stopped at five yard sales this morning and ended up not having to go to Walmart. I considered of buying some shorts and some belts.
I have some shorts that mom got me when I was in the hospital from my first car accident. They are really big and needed belts. My last yard sale was one I visited the last time I did yard sailing and had bought a hat for a friend. They had some shorts that looked like I could wear them and would not need a belt. They also had a few shirts that look like they fit. These were brand name clothes, but I would have to check again which brand. They had sold most of their stuff from the last yard sale already.
My first yard sale had some craft stuff. I picked up some craft stuff, there is a baggy of pom-poms, a baggy of hair bands which is exactly what I have needed for a year or two. There is a back scrubber, and some patterns for children’s shirts. It measures how big to cut the head hole and has colored markers for on the fabric. I also got a bag of cotton face masks. Everything was a dollar, but the face mask bag was five bucks. I was thinking it was something else and bought them, without examining them. The thought crossed my mind that a woman could add some strings and you have a bikini bottom.....
My second yard sale had some interesting stuff, including Manolta cameras. I had used Manolta film cameras for a lot of years. Many years ago, I lost my digital camera and was getting ready to go back to film cameras. I nearly had my equipment set up for the way I used to do close up photography, which is what I enjoyed most. Mom then gave me a new digital camera and that killed the urge to use the film cameras. There is a big difference of buying a roll of film, shooting 36 pictures to a roll, then paying for processing, and shooting a couple hundred shots with a digital camera and then putting them on the computer (which I already have) so you can print them or put them on the web. Once you have a computer, digital cameras operate almost free. I passed up the cameras, and left there without buying anything.
My third yard sale was an estate sale in one of the million dollar homes. This was not the best home I had been in. Outside, these homes look like they are three stories tall. When you enter, the living room is what is three stories tall. All that space to the ceiling adds a wow factor to the place. Then the other part of the house is just two stories, usually bedrooms on the second floor. With these estate sales, just about everything is for sale. Kitchen ware, furniture, sometimes even stoves, air conditioning units, and other utilities. Many times, they are emptying the house of everything because they are going to level it and build a custom home for the new owners. This sale had been going on for a while. They had TVs that were three feet tall. People were buying decorations and other stuff. I ended up buying three hand saws. Over time, they disappear from our tools out back.
I also stopped at a yard sale that was selling plants and got mom a plant. It is a prayer plant where the leaves are supposed to close up like praying hands at night. Mom loves to get plants.
Mom’s been moving stuff in the back corner. Mom had me I dig out and examine the pile of stuff mom had at the back corner. I learned that mom had stored some wood for me back there. I did not know that wood existed. Much of the wood was really bad off and I dropped them off at the street in front of mom’s neighbor’s house for Tuesday pickup. I took two loads in the hand cart one after another, then had to rest while, did another load, rested a while then did another load. When I finally did the fifth load I decided that was enough for the day. I think the walking was harder on me than anything. I do have to be careful as I don’t move as sure or as fast as I used to. I also had to pile the wood onto the cart and they did not want to stack nicely so I had to watch them as I traveled.
There were some good wood back there. I saw a couple really big pieces I need to get out but was tired enough to let it be for now. I will get them tomorrow. One small piece of wood, I split in a couple pieces just to see how the bugs worked on it. None.
My thought is most of the big pieces will be cut into smaller pieces for projects. A couple would not fit on my lathe unless I really cut them down. I see I don’t have to buy or pick up project wood now that I know this wood is there. Several pieces would have been great to use for some immediate projects, ended up having to be tossed out.
Year 21, Week 20, Day One (week 1114)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
06-13-21 Sunday
76 as the early morning low, 88 as the high. fair until noon, then scattered clouds, heavy showers at five. We got some misting during certain parts of the day today. We a torrential downpour hit at about five and it was super heavy and lasted a bit. The storm was not very big on the radar before it arrived but it stretched out it passed. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.
I found out that most of the shorts I got yesterday were about a size or two too small. I will pass them on to someone who they will fit. I got a couple that fits, though, so it was worth it.
I dug into what was left of the wood pile. We had two big garbage bins full of wood I also sorted. I kept the wood that was in good condition, which tended to be really dense and hard wood. I have some wedges of sea grape I never knew I had. Got to do something with them. Over a decade ago, a sea grape tree with good diameter (In the wild, they are usually more like vines than a tree) was cut in a neighbor’s yard. I got a bunch of pieces of it and have used them for projects over the years. I found that fresh sea grape wood tends to crack in the middle during drying, while the outside looks nice. This tree stood for a long time, having removed the branches, before it was finally removed which allowed the tree to dry out quite a bit. The wood is solid and finishes up to be pretty.
Then there was the fun of putting the wood back where they are accessible but out of the way. Two of the pieces were almost too heavy for me to lift. I used a garbage bin for the smaller pieces of wood. While dealing with some of the buggy wood, I swept the bugs into a plastic bag and closed it off, setting them also on the junk pile.
The worst piece of wood I threw out was like wet cardboard. Just flaky wood lightly bonded together.
This makes me feel ashamed of not making use of the wood, but I did not know it was there. Even then, it was well buried. Only when mom moved a bunch of stuff was it even visible.
Will have to see what I do next week.
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