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Morning Run
Crazy week here at the house, with construction out front as the county scrambles to build sidewalks before school starts, and our own driveway paving job starting shortly as well. Should be nice when everything is all finished and re-landscaped, although who knows how long that will take. I woke up to a more humid…
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Big Dig, brewing update, etc
Today was the Big Dig at our house, where we had our old, leaky water line replaced with a brand, shiny new one. The new line is polyethylene. It has the advantage of being lots cheaper than copper, and it’s a single, continuous run of approximately 250′ from the house to the meter. We got…
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O.C.
Here we are in lovely Ocean City, MD for Thanksgiving. You know you’re getting older when it becomes more appealing to go to O.C. this time of year than in the summer. It’s nice and laid-back here, although not surprisingly, a lot of the seasonal places are closed. Can’t wait to see what Avon, N.C.…
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Time to brew!
It’s been a long time since we’ve brewed a beer. Going by my financial software (which is going to be indispensable when I write my memoirs), the last time I bought homebrew ingredients was June 21, 2000, and according to Oracle Calendar, we brewed an Amber Ale on the following Saturday, the 24th. That’s practically…
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Not a bad year for the pool
We had a pretty good 2007 swimming season. We opened up on Memorial Day weekend and were swimming soon thereafter. And we set a new record for latest day in the pool — October 9. As a matter of fact, the pool got pretty regular use in late September and the first week of October…
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End-of-season outdoor work drones on
I’m still having no end of fun working on the usual mid-November chores of leaf removal, and winterization of the pool and lawn equipment. Saturday, I finished up with the pool, following my own instructions, and it went smoothly. I did forget to backwash the filter before shutting it down, but it wasn’t too dirty…
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Leaf Blower/Vacs: Echo vs. Toro
Here we have it: a head-to-head comparison between the Toro Super Blower/Vac and the Echo ES-210 Shred ‘n Vac. I’ve used the Toro for 3 or 4 years now, and recently bought the Echo. First things first: I’ve always liked the Toro. But, it’s electric, and the cord has always driven me nuts. One of…
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Out-of-control Azaleas
It’s azalea-pruning time of year again. I’ve got a multi-year project going to tame the two huge azaleas outside our living room window. They were neglected for a long time and have gotten very leggy, woody and overgrown. One of them is actually two azalea bushes that have grown together. The big ones are way…
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A bit of everything today
I skipped work today so I could ferry the clan around on various errands, and seized the opportunity to knock a few odd things off the to-do list. First off, I paid my first visit to Namco, my favorite place to get pool supplies. The prices have gone up this year, which comes as absolutely…
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Post-setting indoctrination
I set a 4×4 post today, complete with concrete footing. While this may not seem like much, it was a big deal for me as I’d never done it before. My parting impression: it’s a lot of work. Between digging the hole and handling the concrete, it’s quite the back breaker. To dig the hole,…