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slimy and covered with mushrooms
Sunday, September 23 2018
I undertook a fair number of chores today while Gretchen and Neville were at the bookstore. The first of these was to drive out to the Brewster Street house to look at the porch situation. The railings along the sides of the steps have always been loose due to rot at the bottom. At some point in the last year or so, I drove some stout four-foot-long rods into the ground near the base of each of the bottom rail posts and then attached these to the posts with screws. But, according to the tenant, they'd come loose again. When I was there today, the poles didn't actually seem all that loose, though they did go up and down when one stepped on the bottom step, moving that stout metal stake along with it. It was looking like the only fix would be to replace the rail posts. But where does one go to get fancy lathed pieces like these?
First I went to Herzog's, but they don't have stuff like that, at least not visible. And it wasn't like I wanted to try to buy something from the back lumber yard sight-unseen (you have to have bought something to even go back there). Home Depot wasn't any more helpful, though while I was there I bought a fairly inexpensive ($60) 18 volt Ryobi reciprocating saw that is compatible with the batteries I already have for my Ryobi impact driver.
At Lowes, they actually did have almost exact replacements for the rail posts in unfinished treated wood. The wood was a bit too rough to paint (the grain stood out as an array of swirling ridges), so when I got home I sanded them using a power sander. Later I filled in some cracks and other flaws with epoxy and sanded that smooth too.
Then I turned my attention to splitting up and removing the last two big chunks of wood in front of the garage. The weather was cool and overcast, perfect conditions for doing such work. It was great to swing that maul a few times and not immediately be drenched in sweat. With that wood all processed, I chopped up some from the neglected pile of rough chunks nearer the woodshed, a pile that had been there being rained on for something like three years. Some of the pieces of white ash were slimy and covered with mushrooms, slugs, and pillbugs, but inside they still contained good firewood.
This evening, I made chili for the first time in many months (since at least the spring, perhaps even winter). I think the last time I'd made it, I made it with pasta (because, at the time, I was going through that phase). This time I made it with lots of mushrooms and soy curls, and for a carbohydrate on the side, I made basmati rice. For that, I used our InstaPot, which, in our kitchen, replaced both our pressure cooker and our rice cooker at some point this past spring. I put in two cups of rice, some salt, and four cups of water (exactly what I would've done with the rice cooker), hit the "rice" button, and forgot about it. The rice it produced was perfect, suggesting that I'd done the right thing. The only other time I'd tried to make rice with that thing, I'd gone down a rabbit hole with its instructions and the rice had ended up dried and browned on the bottom: edible, but not ideal.
Not being able to find any whole wheat tortillas, I made eight or nine stand & stuff tacos instead, stuffing them with just the chili, shredded cabbage, and a few drops of fairly hot hot sauce. They were amazing! I'd forgotten that Gretchen would be visiting Susan after work to deliver soup. (Susan is recovering from breast-reduction surgery.) So I ended up eating alone. Butot all was lost; Gretchen came home later and when she did she was hungry. When she heard about all the chores I'd done today, she declared that I was "the best husband ever." I routinely declare Ramona to be "the best dog ever," even though she repeatedly tries to prove me wrong. Gretchen's declaration should be viewed in that context.
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