Sunday, August 3
Aug. 4th, 2025 02:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Sweet kitties, who pile up with me as I sleep.
Well, rather than burn my whole world to the ground in an attempt to escape, I tried to do something, anything that might move something forward again.
Today was rainy, so I suggested that my husband try to work on the electrical outlets in the kitchen, so that he can FINISH THEM.
Back in December, when we first started working on the kitchen, he took all the cover plates off the outlets because we were filling and sanding cracks in the walls, then painting.
Well, he didn't want to put the old covers back on, because he wanted to change the outlets to new ones, because the old electric plug ins and the light switch were very old and needed to be updated for safety.
I agreed, but so, here we are, about eight months later, with all the outlets and light switches bare and exposed. Both ugly and slightly hazardous, and every single time I see them or use the light switch it is an ugly thing to use and look at.
We had painted the walls, the cracks are fixed, we got the cupboard installed over the sink, so the room is otherwise bright and clean and updated, but with ugly gaping holes at every electrical outlet and the light switch.
I asked him over the months when we could do it, and he always replied "well, it's not a five minute job. I'd have to find all the new outlets and boxes, and blah blah...I'd have to go downstairs and turn off the power to them...blah blah...I know I already have all the stuff to do it, it's just not a priority...etc.".
Well, I know it's not a five minute job. Nothing is. I understand that it's going to take finding everything, but THAT'S HOW YOU FINISH SOMETHING. He more or less helped me get the kitchen to a certain point, then good enough. We can use it. Like he does over and over again, he just moved on to something else and left it like that.
So, though I was gentle and nice about it, he did finally do it today, because it was raining.
Before he got too far into that, I got him to come out to the barn with me to fix something he "did".
We need to put the square bales up on pallets to keep them from rotting on the bottom, so one of the jobs he did with the nephew was to make a platform against one wall, but they did it in such a way that it will impede our other hay guy, who brings in round bales.
It's hard to explain, but trust me.
So we spent some time rearranging the platform, which was frustrating for me, because it's re-doing work that was supposed to be finished.
I also noticed that he had lumber stacked against the wall. Stacked where we will be putting hay bales. I asked him what the lumber was, and he said "those are rails for the fence if one breaks. These are spares."
I said "so you are stacking them in a place where they will soon be behind one hundred square hay bales, and we will be totally unable to access them if we need them".
Yes.
So, we moved those too.
Another "not a five minute job" that has also been ongoing for a few years now, is that instead of having a proper power source out to the septic tank (because the pump needs power), we've had an extension cord.
An extension cord RIGHT ACROSS OUR MAIN WALKWAY. It's also very long, and I have to coil it up and hang part of it from a shrub, and some of it just pools all over the grass. I have a hard time mowing there because of the cord, and I worry about tripping over it, and in the winter I have to be careful about it when I shovel snow.
What needs to happen, is there IS power out to the septic tank, but the outdoor outlet shorted, needs replacing, and the cord below the dirt surface needs to be partly dug up to be able to do that.
It's not a huge job, and my husband is capable of it, but because we "made it work" with the extension cord, he doesn't HAVE to fix to outdoor outlet, right?
Well, today I asked him what was required to begin, and that's when I realized that it wasn't that big a deal, just not "sexy" I guess. It basically just needs someone to dig out that cord a bit. Not even that much.
So, I just did it myself. He told me where it was, and I dug. Maybe an hour. There it is. Now he says he needs to buy a new outlet, and bring it all up from the ground a bit (ground subsidence means it sunk too low, which is why it shorted out).
It literally didn't matter to him that we've had an extension cord draped all across where we walk and I have to mow for the last...four years? He doesn't see it any more. I have to avoid tripping over it twenty times a day, and pull it and hang it to mow around it all summer.
Every day I struggle to remain civil.
I love my husband. He actually works very hard. He works a tough job for often long hours. He works hard on the house in fits and bursts. He does dishes often and cooks often, and cares about the animals and about things I love to do like art and is involved in the barn activities.
He has a great sense of humor and we share a lot of common values.
He's a good person.
We did go see River (we stopped in yesterday too, just to check his eye).
River managed to ditch his fly mask, and it had been raining so maybe it was really irritating. We found it, and brought it into the barn to dry, and R said she can put it on him again tomorrow.
His eye is puffy, but doesn't look infected. Just irritated still, because flies.
He didn't seem lame today, but overall I was very easy on him. I'm going to REALLY not do much for a while, and keep checking to make sure he's feeling better.
We did see the "Sunday" rider and chatted with her.
We came home and watched the first half of "The Brutalist", which is very interesting but weird that this is not based on a real figure, just a pastiche of different people, but fiction. It feels like it was meant to be a biography, but it's not.
Reviews say the second half just sucks, and I wonder if we should spoil the first half by watching it.
Sweet kitties, who pile up with me as I sleep.
Well, rather than burn my whole world to the ground in an attempt to escape, I tried to do something, anything that might move something forward again.
Today was rainy, so I suggested that my husband try to work on the electrical outlets in the kitchen, so that he can FINISH THEM.
Back in December, when we first started working on the kitchen, he took all the cover plates off the outlets because we were filling and sanding cracks in the walls, then painting.
Well, he didn't want to put the old covers back on, because he wanted to change the outlets to new ones, because the old electric plug ins and the light switch were very old and needed to be updated for safety.
I agreed, but so, here we are, about eight months later, with all the outlets and light switches bare and exposed. Both ugly and slightly hazardous, and every single time I see them or use the light switch it is an ugly thing to use and look at.
We had painted the walls, the cracks are fixed, we got the cupboard installed over the sink, so the room is otherwise bright and clean and updated, but with ugly gaping holes at every electrical outlet and the light switch.
I asked him over the months when we could do it, and he always replied "well, it's not a five minute job. I'd have to find all the new outlets and boxes, and blah blah...I'd have to go downstairs and turn off the power to them...blah blah...I know I already have all the stuff to do it, it's just not a priority...etc.".
Well, I know it's not a five minute job. Nothing is. I understand that it's going to take finding everything, but THAT'S HOW YOU FINISH SOMETHING. He more or less helped me get the kitchen to a certain point, then good enough. We can use it. Like he does over and over again, he just moved on to something else and left it like that.
So, though I was gentle and nice about it, he did finally do it today, because it was raining.
Before he got too far into that, I got him to come out to the barn with me to fix something he "did".
We need to put the square bales up on pallets to keep them from rotting on the bottom, so one of the jobs he did with the nephew was to make a platform against one wall, but they did it in such a way that it will impede our other hay guy, who brings in round bales.
It's hard to explain, but trust me.
So we spent some time rearranging the platform, which was frustrating for me, because it's re-doing work that was supposed to be finished.
I also noticed that he had lumber stacked against the wall. Stacked where we will be putting hay bales. I asked him what the lumber was, and he said "those are rails for the fence if one breaks. These are spares."
I said "so you are stacking them in a place where they will soon be behind one hundred square hay bales, and we will be totally unable to access them if we need them".
Yes.
So, we moved those too.
Another "not a five minute job" that has also been ongoing for a few years now, is that instead of having a proper power source out to the septic tank (because the pump needs power), we've had an extension cord.
An extension cord RIGHT ACROSS OUR MAIN WALKWAY. It's also very long, and I have to coil it up and hang part of it from a shrub, and some of it just pools all over the grass. I have a hard time mowing there because of the cord, and I worry about tripping over it, and in the winter I have to be careful about it when I shovel snow.
What needs to happen, is there IS power out to the septic tank, but the outdoor outlet shorted, needs replacing, and the cord below the dirt surface needs to be partly dug up to be able to do that.
It's not a huge job, and my husband is capable of it, but because we "made it work" with the extension cord, he doesn't HAVE to fix to outdoor outlet, right?
Well, today I asked him what was required to begin, and that's when I realized that it wasn't that big a deal, just not "sexy" I guess. It basically just needs someone to dig out that cord a bit. Not even that much.
So, I just did it myself. He told me where it was, and I dug. Maybe an hour. There it is. Now he says he needs to buy a new outlet, and bring it all up from the ground a bit (ground subsidence means it sunk too low, which is why it shorted out).
It literally didn't matter to him that we've had an extension cord draped all across where we walk and I have to mow for the last...four years? He doesn't see it any more. I have to avoid tripping over it twenty times a day, and pull it and hang it to mow around it all summer.
Every day I struggle to remain civil.
I love my husband. He actually works very hard. He works a tough job for often long hours. He works hard on the house in fits and bursts. He does dishes often and cooks often, and cares about the animals and about things I love to do like art and is involved in the barn activities.
He has a great sense of humor and we share a lot of common values.
He's a good person.
We did go see River (we stopped in yesterday too, just to check his eye).
River managed to ditch his fly mask, and it had been raining so maybe it was really irritating. We found it, and brought it into the barn to dry, and R said she can put it on him again tomorrow.
His eye is puffy, but doesn't look infected. Just irritated still, because flies.
He didn't seem lame today, but overall I was very easy on him. I'm going to REALLY not do much for a while, and keep checking to make sure he's feeling better.
We did see the "Sunday" rider and chatted with her.
We came home and watched the first half of "The Brutalist", which is very interesting but weird that this is not based on a real figure, just a pastiche of different people, but fiction. It feels like it was meant to be a biography, but it's not.
Reviews say the second half just sucks, and I wonder if we should spoil the first half by watching it.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-05 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-05 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-06 07:13 am (UTC)I don't want to leave the project 95% finished, though. It's like playing Tetris; the longer you leave something, the more other things pile up and wreck everything.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-06 08:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-07 03:52 am (UTC)It is the only original baseboard in the room, and it's a shame. If it were possible, I'd have someone create completely new oak casings and baseboards. But that makes me think of the extended family member who bought a ton of red oak years ago for door and window casings, and never used it.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-07 04:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-07 05:07 am (UTC)