Rock Salt Restock

Momoko checked the rock salt in our carport shed. It had just about been depleted. She got help from my brother to move bags of it from our back yard big shed to the easily accessible carport shed. She only mentioned this to me in passing.

I asked her how many bags were left in the big shed. We need to keep stocked up. She thought there were five. I had her double check. There were only two. When it snows heavy like it did a week ago, all the rock salt in the region sells out.

While driving past a hardware store, we saw a sign that they had restocked winter supplies. I doubted  they had any rock salt available. If anything, they would have one or two overpriced small bags of ice melt. I checked online. Our local Lowes was sold out of everything - rock salt, ice melt, etc.

I decided to check around online. A store a couple cities north of us said they had everything. I also doubted it. But I swung by. There was nothing in front of the store. There was a box of overpriced ice melt in a front aisle. Another guy and I quizzed a store employee. He told us a couple places where rock salt might be.

I grabbed a heavy duty dolly. The other guy went to the outdoor area. I went to aisle 28. Bingo. There were two sections of rock salt. I asked the employee if there was a limit to how much I could buy. He had no clue. I decided to load up 10 bags at under $12 each. The checkout girl did not care how much I had.

Put four bags in the carport shed (it had already been drained down to half a bag in there). Moved my brother's SUV out of the way. Then I backed my SUV into the corner of our driveway. I carried six bags of 50 pound rock salt into our big shed. It was tricky as the snow was high and the ramp up the shed had packed slippery snow on it.

Momoko said the true snow-mageddon is coming this upcoming weekend. Could be as much as 14 inches at a time. Multiple snowfalls are expected. At least we are prepared in the rock salr department,

Let It Snow

Momoko had a whopping two weeks of Christmas and New Year's vacation. But she felt like it was not enough. Especially because I had those two weeks, and got another week for training. Momoko wished it would snow and give her a few more days off.

Ask and you shall receive. Snowmageddon came. Her school closed Monday. Decision was made Sunday afternoon. My brother parked his 4-wheel drive SUV at the end of the driveway so he would not have to shovel his way out on the way to work.

Little Kat and I parked our cars on the old broke part of our driveway that is hard to shovel snow off of. Our plans was to dig out Little Kat's car and my car when the snowfall stopped. We dug out in front of Little Kat's car. He drifted to the street where he cleaned off his car. I cleared my brother's space so Little Kat could part in it.

Our plan was to then dig out my car, roll it to the street, and clean it off. We were too tired from the earlier shoveling. It is still snowing. We plan to regroup when my brother comes home and dig out my car. It is scheduled to snow again this afternoon and tonight. We may have to repeat this tomorrow.

Sagging Couch Repair

Momoko complained about our living room couch. We were going to go shopping to find a replacement. I recalled the last time we bought one. It was rough taking out the old couch and bringing in the new one. So I asked Momoko what the specific issue was. She said the seat area was too low. She was sinking in.

We took off the gerbil couch cover. Then we removed the seat cushions. The seat area had minimal support. I cut a 2x4 piece of lumber. Tried to brace it across the couch for support. Had a rough time getting in in past the arm rests.

After that, we had a single 2x4 lumber diagonally on the seat area. I got smaller length 2x4 lumber to brace the other areas. Momoko said there was support, but she felt like the seat was leaning her forward. I added a 1x4 board across on the front of the couch. For now the thing is working.

Eventually we will need a new couch. Maybe then I can pay somebody to deliver and remove the old one.

Fence Replacement

When the back yard fence was crumbling, I temporarily replaced it with some extra fencing I had from when we expanded the driveway. Good think I kept it. Then a tree branch fell on the other side of the yard, destroying a section of fence. I moved the extra fencing to replace the destroyed section. Now I needed to replace the original crumbled fence.

As I extracted the extra fencing from the one side of the yard, the 4x4 post snapped. I installed a replacement post. Had to dig down 35 inches. Put some gravel at the bottom of the hole. Then it took 2 bags of concrete to set the post.

When I removed a 4 foot section of some extra fence, I found I needed to install one more post. Seemed easy enough. About 12 inches down, I encountered a huge rock. It took 3 hours spanning 2 days to dig the darn thing out. This was a boulder. Now I should be set. My bro drove his truck to help me pick up 6x8 foot sections of picket fencing. I just need to set this last post to install a section.

An Expensive Oil Change

Momoko needed an oil change. So Sunday night, Little Kat, Momoko, and I dropped her car off in our mechanic's parking lot. The next day I went to turn in the keys. But the car was gone. Apparently they tow vehicles that do not have a parking pass.

I tracked down the tow company. Then I picked up Momoko from work. We went to the tow company. Momoko had to pay them $175 to get her car back. They buzzed me through the security gate. I started her car and waited for them to open the lot fence to get out. I ran over some car undercarriage as I exited.

We ended up dropping off Momoko's car at the mechanic right after that. In addition to an oil change, he fixed the outside weather temperature gauge in her car. He said needed to take the bumper off to fix the wire that runs the gauge. While picking up her car, I dropped my car off for an oil change myself.

College Basketball Game

My buddy from college wanted to see our alma mater's new sports center. We decided to see a college women's basketball game. For once, ticket seemed reasonable at $5 to $15. I asked my buddy to get them. He had trouble downloading them to his phone. So he went on campus to get paper tickets.

I drove us on game day. There was a huge accident on the highway. So, we had to take the back roads to the college. My buddy had spied out the area a week before. He took me down a new road that led to a parking garage right by the sports center. Parking was free for women's basketball.

We walked half way around the place, only to find that our section was near where we entered. I asked a security guard why none of the concession stands were open. She told us they were only open on the lower level. I went and picked up a sausage roll. Next time I will opt for nachos.

Even though many ticket had been sold, more than half the people did not seem to show up. We were at a section with a lot of old people. There were a lot of cheerleaders plus a big band. Our team blew out the opposition. Little girls played a short game on court during half time.

New Lawn Mower Fail

It is leaf season. My old trusty Honda mower died with a poof. It had been on its last legs for a month. I had to gather leaves with a rake and bag them by hand. Very painful given the leaf volume in the yard.

I tried finding the same model on Amazon. No luck. I had previously purchased the last one at Home Depot. I searched for a gas self propelled mower. Wanted at least a 21" deck. Then I sorted by how fast the mower could get to me.

One could come the next day. That was a lie. Took a couple days. I thought I was buying new. The one that arrived was a return. The RMA was still in the box. The package was missing a crucial bolt that connects the handle to the base. I made due with some wire.

Eventually I called the company. They had trouble identifying the missing part. I had to get Momoko to help me email them pictures of the part and where it goes. This lawn mower is just not good. The collection bag is tiny. The pull string falls out of the loop. The wire clips do not do a good job. The back flap broke up.

At least the thing is self propelled. And it pulls up everything into the bag. It just fills up too quick due to the very small size. This ran me $400+. Felt like a total rip off.