Not a Great Day…

I woke up to the alarm on Wednesday, but shut it off and went back to sleep. I woke up 45 minutes later! So, I had to hustle a bit.

I walked in the bedroom, just after my shower, to get dressed. Caley was standing on the bed. She looked at me, then turned her head and barfed a big, wet hairball!! So, instead of getting dressed, I mopped up the mess and then took the bedding down to the laundry room. Sigh…

I made it to work with five minutes to spare. That’s still early, I suppose, but late for me!

The highlight of my day was going to Time Out for lunch. I had a pulled pork sandwich (first time I’ve ever seen it offered) that was fantastic!

The afternoon at work had even more frustrating things happening. For example, I was composing an email and tried to type the word “Paul.” But, when I hit the shift key and then the “P” it typed “1.” I thought I’d fat-fingered it, until I realized that the two keys aren’t even close on a the keyboard. I kept trying for “P” and kept getting “1.” So,  tried the shift lock and got “p” WTF!?!

I had to shut down the program and start it back up before it finally began to work again. Thanks, Office 365!

One good thing was that my boss returned from a lunch meeting with vendors and brought back five boxes of “Jimmy Lunches” (a box with a Jimmy Johns sandwich, a pickle, a bag of chips and a cookie). Of course, we had all eaten already, but I grabbed one for dinner tonight.

Finally, it was 5:00 p.m. and I was banging that drum! After treating the cats and changing clothes, I started the Wednesday night wash (this time two loads). I went out back to check the rain gauge and found another 1/2 inch of rainwater. So, I got a respectable 3/4-inch of rain on Tuesday.

I set up the sawhorses outside again and finished the rough sanding on the bench sides. The, I used clamps to hold each of them while I cut them down to size with the circular saw.

Next, I tried my idea for using the wire brush attachment on the drill to gouge the wood a bit. It worked great! Roughs up the wood, but looks quite natural.

Then the fun stuff! I got the propane torch, finally got it to stay lit and then started burning selected boards. Safety Note: I had a bucket of water and a wet rag close at hand. As my Brother Carl pointed out in his previous comment this, too, is a popular method to “age” wood. Plus, it’s freakin’ fun!

I noticed this showed the effect of the wire brush off, so I took a photo for you. It was too subtle to show up on the raw wood.

Wire Brush Effect

Some of the Burnt Wood

I finally quit at 7:50 p.m. and put everything away. I made sure I wiped all the burnt wood with the wet rag before going in (I don’t want any late-night surprise visits from the Fire Department!

I had my Jimmy Lunch for dinner. I took the “Vito” (their version of an Italian sub). I would normally take the “Turkey Tom” but didn’t feel safe eating a sandwich with mayo that had set out all afternoon. It was pretty good! And the chocolate chunk cookie made for a great dessert!

Dinner

I finished folding the laundry, making the bed, etc., and watched some taped TV. But, I was beat and went to bed at 10:00 PM.