Off Lable Uses
- A friend keeps having her rainbow flags stolen and her fence which is also painted with “acceptance colors” gets vandalized as soon as she paints it back. If that weren’t enough she finally got the ‘rona after all this time being careful. Of course, it was just as she was going out of state to a trade show where she sells bath bombs. Between the illness and assaults on her property, she had to give up and stay home. So in a supportive mood, I bought a box full of the stuff. Imagine my surprise when I figured out those bath potions turn into magic when you sprinkle them on something before you clean with a steam cleaner.
- Oh yes, 5 weeks in we are still fighting the smell at the rental. Hubbin has had to dismantle the stairwell. We’re still slathering special Kilz everywhere to seal things up. I painted the thresholds on the front and back doors too. Now you cannot smell it from the street. There’s still a discouraging musty something between the kitchen and the basement landing. Hubbin is no light touch so there has been additional damage to ancient tiles and irreplaceable wood work as he tries to root out the sources.
- I still have the kitchen and living room to scrub before I can start to spackle and paint.
- I and still trying to get Wu to paint outside. His help is better than none but it takes half the morning to get him to town. Then he’ll need a bathroom break and/or to go get food before the first dip of a brush. By the time he’s done 2 windows he claims he’s tired or dizzy. Right now I have 4 windows primed but 4 more to go before we can start actually applying the trim paint. Fall is here, it can’t wait too much longer.
- My legs are now equally wobbly which I guess is progress after doing my contortionist act on the front step yesterday just to paint a 36-inch doorstep. Meanwhile, Hubbin, just as foggy as me, runs the lawnmower over the front door mat I’d moved. Well, it stunk too so good riddance but how could he not see that? We ended up taking a nap in the basement. He said he was overheated. I was freezing. We actually had to rest up to go home.
- I ordered another $800 in flooring. It was really difficult to get Hubbin to understand that you can’t wait on this stuff or the price goes up. He’s not a dumb guy but very narrow-focused. If I don’t catch a sale that’s another $220 we don’t have to spend on say a new toilet or paint for a couple of rooms. He wants to just run to the local home improvement for everything as he needs it. That’s not how you do this stuff. You spend too much for marginal stuff or you still have to wait because things are not in stock. The time he spends running around could be spent getting work done or doing something fun. My latest frustration with that has been the local hardware store didn’t have the porch and floor paint base for the color we need. They could order it they said. Well, I can order it too, and oh shucks in the color I need, no fiddle farting around while somebody tells me “Handy Andy” will be clocking in 10-15 minutes from now and THEN getting around to figuring out he doesn’t have what I need anyway. The real annoyance is we used to OWN part of that store so they don’t realize their exceptional dumbness may go right back to the owners if I get fed up. Mostly I don’t want to pull rank on anybody because it feels like a very asshat thing to do. Once you pull that genie out of the bottle you don’t get to tamp it back where it came from. I prefer anonymity. Sometimes you learn very interesting things when people think you are nobody.
- Meanwhile, Hubbin scheduled a sewer job on Pup’s place that’s another $9000 and somehow I didn’t swallow my tongue. People think landlords are sitting on piles of cash because they own something. Yes the house across the street just sold for $350,00 and the one three doors down sold for $325,000 but you don’t have that kind of money if you mean to keep the place. Nobody will pay you that for a pothead’s catbox. I am so sad about that. Not the money but the insult to the property.
- Started a roast I have no interest in eating. Had to go shop for groceries. My brain is so scrambled it’s like a major fool’s errand and this rural shopping effort happens in a place where people block the aisles to hug or argue about window cleaner, or can’t decide which candy bar the kids want and I wait silently because I feel so minimally in control of myself right now that I will do NOTHING to start a kerfluffle. No no no because if you say anything about other people’s self-absorbed behaviors it’s YOU who is the problem. The highlight of that long effort was a family getting bottled water. Yes, there are people around here without the benefit of running water so their kids behave as if they’ve discovered something really miraculous (I think it actually is miraculous but I’ve hauled water a time or two myself) so each bottle the parents start to fill is met with a small child screaming at the top of his lungs “FIRE IN THE HOLE!” There’s a nerve-jangling quality to that only a kid can produce but also it’s pretty damn funny even though I have to get out of sight of the parents before I give in to my amusements. When you have to haul water it’s not that funny. I know how unfunny. The kids don’t know the difference (yet) but parents do. Being appropriate really makes me tired but it’s my strongest instinct. If you are a kid you get a pass for not knowing better. If you’re old you get a pass for being beyond hope. We mid-lifers need to keep it together. I often wonder how many perfectly normal folks around me are one twist of the rubber band away from full snap. I’m not afraid of criminals or druggies or the farcical nonsense about “foreigners” invading our lands. It’s the “normal” people I worry about.
We share many of the same irritations. I don’t get why others can’t be considerate of my time and space, the way I try to be with theirs.
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You might try renting an ozone generator to get rid of any smells. I used one in my last condo and it worked great. You can also purchase them. I use one my son-in-law owns.
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I also worry about the “normal” people. And my gosh you have a LOT on your plate! I hope you get everything done before Thanksgiving.
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