Mom's Ramp

Our weather, starting yesterday and going through the weekend to Monday, is going to be very nice with temperatures in the 70's ºF, and that's real good for us in October.  Because of that, it's an ideal weekend to get all the yard work done that we can before winter.  I'll still have leaves to deal with and then cleaning the gutters, but pots, plants, gardens, the water hose and compost all were tended to today before the snow and freeze comes to stay and temperatures make outside work more a bit more miserable.  I planned ahead this week and took Friday off work to take advantage of the weather and to see my wonderful and only sister.  I'd been planning to go down to my Mom's new place again this weekend but my sister was going to be there Thursday, overnight until about midday Friday, so a good excuse to go down to Mom's a day early to see her and still have two days to do everything stated above and a whole lot more here at our place.  My delivery had to be ready to go.

It took a couple hours of work in the garage every day starting early last weekend and after work every day this week (at my pace, I enjoy the process), but the ramp for my Mom's step down into the garage finally got finished on Thursday evening and loaded into the car for the next morning's road trip.  I think it turned out well, or as well as it could with this wooden design of mine.  The rails are good for helping balance, but I stressed they are not monkey bars.  I told her if for any reason she  decides she doesn't like it then I'll get her the one I found on Amazin made out of aluminum, but I think she knows I like these kinds of projects and it's more personal if I made it.  But this is really just me and my worrying, I know it will work very well for normal use and she seemed very pleased with it.

It was very nice to see my sister and meet her new boyfriend.  I say new because this was the first time I met him but they've been seeing each other for over a year now and things seem to be getting pretty serious.  He's a very nice fellow and I liked him a lot, so I hope it works out for her - and them.  I especially appreciated how nice and helpful he is with our mother, and I don't say that lightly.  Anyway, between us all we got Mom's list of chores knocked out pretty easily and we were able to go out to lunch before a few last touches, then we all went on our way and left Mom to maybe have a nap or enjoy regular tv again finally after the move, or whatever the hell she wants to do.  As I left I noticed her neighbor, who seemed to be cleaning out his very full garage, was closely watching our activity.  I'll have to ask Mom if there was a conversation after we left.  Or maybe I'm just being protective and nosy.  But I may still ask!

It's also a much easier drive now for me now, though a bit longer for my sister who is coming from Illinois.  The worst part of my drive is the Beltline right here in Madison, especially on weekdays, since we live on the opposite side of town than where I have to leave town.  I might have to figure out some different way to get out of town without going on that crowded, dangerous highway, but it will be back roads and take longer, for sure.  In my older age and now working from home for quite some time, I just hate too much driving and traffic, and now, especially, driving in traffic.  (Cue the old Mr. Magoo intro,..) "Traffic" in this contexts means busy, crowded, bumper to bumper sometimes, across 2 to 4 lanes of hell.  All depending on your tolerance, of course.

If you're interested, pictures of the whole build process are after the break.  Commentary added in the  captions for context and explanations.  For much of the build the garage door is shut because of the cold, though it was always daylight when I worked on it.  I have a small heater in the garage that helped some, but I'm glad it wasn't colder or later in the year.  Also thank you to my lovely wife who helped me with all this whenever I needed her without complaint.

First Snow 2022, Ramp Talk

We got our first snow of the season this morning, and some more about mid-day, I think.  I snuck out and got this picture, but I was too busy with work to notice if it got whiter out.  It was all gone this afternoon, of course.  The next couple days are going to be cold with freezing possible, but the weekend is supposed to be really nice for October, so I will be busy working outside or down at my Mom's all weekend.

The ramp project is going well, pretty much according to plan but plans evolve.  Getting the angle at the bottom is tough, but I don't want it to be a trip hazard.  And the posts for the rail are higher up the ramp because they need something to bolt to so I'm thinking of looking for some kind of bracket for a third post.  You'll see what I mean soon.

Last Tiger Lily, Ramp Project

I did this last year, too, but I'd been watching the last tiger lily to see if it would open, and happily it did.  There are plenty of fall-blooming flowers but tiger lilies aren't really one of them.  Still, this last, little lily was able to complete its lifespan before the inevitable.  

Today is cool, windy and it rained a little this afternoon, thus all the leaves that have freshly fallen.  Cool and wet enough after work that I took my half-hour after-work walk on the treadmill for the first time.  I started at 1.6 mph, quickly going up to 1.8 and by the time I was done, 2 mph.  Still a little awkward, but I think that will get better the more I do it.

I talked to neighbor Jane, and she says she was told they probably won't remove the stump until this time next year, so she found it odd they marked the utilities already.  But it is municipal work, meaning they keep their crews busy.  Whether it's leaf pickup, yard waste pickup, tree trimming, plowing snow or whatever else they have to do, if there's not one task to keep them busy enough then they move on to the next, and weather decides a lot.  It doesn't really matter to me how long it takes, I'm just watching the process.

My Mom moved closer recently, back to the town we lived in for my formative years.  A smaller place, one level, and less than half the drive I had before to see her in Iowa.  It sounds like she's been reconnecting with many old friends, relatives and acquaintances, so she's had lots of company already and moving day was just last week.  I was down there to see the place and help her with a few things last weekend, and there is still more to do.

I mentioned her new place is one level, and is pretty much zero entry but for a step down into the garage.  She's 75 so doesn't move around quite as she used to and asked me if I could build her a ramp.  I agreed, of course, so took a few measurements and I've been planning the build.  This week I'll have to get a few pieces of wood and some hardware, otherwise I have most of the wood and tools ready to go.  A miserable afternoon and my counterpart has been out so far this week so work has me a bit frazzled and so I haven't gotten everything I need yet, but surely before Friday so I can get started building that day or Saturday.  Best case scenario, I get it fully built on Saturday and delivered Sunday morning, but we'll see how it goes.  It's only 6 1/2 inches, but a ramp - with handrails - will make it so much easier and safer for her.  She'd asked me to do projects for her when I was much younger and I'd normally avoid it if I didn't know how to do it.  Now, I'm older, wiser, have a bitchin' set of tools and the internet.  I'm looking forward to building this for her and, of course, I'm sure I'll share it here.

Early October This-And-Thats

It's jacket weather today, light jacket.  The air becomes crisp though the sun shines.  There's a bit of a breeze, but that's supposed to drop off in a couple hours.  I'm counting on it as I'm planning on a fire and having a friend over.

• Markings showed up around the tree stump in front of neighbor Jane's.  I'm not sure exactly what the colors mean, but interesting how they're so close to the stump.  I hope the stump-grinding crew is careful.
• The artificial intelligence that creates 'art' from your input had made the news a couple weeks ago.  I finally played around with it last night, and it's pretty neat but I want to play around with it more and get more creative with my input.  You have to create an account, but you can use your google account.  Check it out here.  If I get it to create something really cool or unusual I'll share it here sometime.
• I'd kept forgetting to mention it, but the blog emails finally stopped going out around the beginning of August.  I know many who read via the emails may not make the effort to come to the site to read, but I hope they do.  I never found a similar service for free, but TinyLetter is an interesting option.  It's more like a newsletter you sign up for, so I'd have to create that.  Maybe paste the blog into it or, more likely, send one out once a month or so with links to my posts.  Everything and nothing is on the table still, it depends on the effort I want to put forth.
• 
  I found poop in the back yard again today, and I don't have the trail cam back there.  I had it back there for a few weeks and all it caught was a whole lot of squirrel activity, no pooper.  Right now, it's on neighbor Jane's fence across from the back door, close to the ground.  My thought was to see what could be coming into the back yard down the driveway side, plus security for the garage and back door.  I've not checked those images and video yet.
• We had rain on 8 weekends in a row until last weekend.  Not washouts, but at some point every weekend.  And the porch roof started to leak a bit onto one of the new ceiling tiles.  I do have extra tiles but a little white spray paint will probably fix it fine, I did that to some of the old tiles more than once.  Several years ago I got up there and sprayed some of that flex seal stuff where the porch roof meets the house.  The porch is not the house, certainly not built to code, and will get replaced someday so we don't want to spend much, if any, money fixing it up.  So I crawled up the ladder a few days ago and gave it another good coat of flex seal.  Hopefully that will last a few more years now.
• The Green Bay Packers play in London on Sunday morning, 8:30 a.m. our time so I think 2:30 p.m. there?  The last NFL team to play a game internationally because they are one of the smallest markets so didn't give up a home game before and no other team would give up their home game against the Packers because their fans could fill any stadium ($).  Being one of the most popular teams, Packer fans travel well and are located all over the place, here and the world.  My wife is planning a fancy breakfast for us for the game and I'm really looking forward to it.  There's a lot I should get done later that Sunday, but I'm just going to enjoy the unusual morning game and we'll just have to see what happens.

I've been thinking lately that I want to post less more often.  Less words and topics in one post, maybe.  It's a thought, anyway.  Have a good weekend, everyone.

Hasn't that wind died down yet?