Second Blog?

I'm considering a second blog on which I will post about my life in my new apartment in Boulder.  I'll keep this blog, removing the "Day-to-Day" bit, and continue to blog about my visits here.  

I think I last blogged about my neighbors taking a load of cast-off furniture from another cabin to the apartment on Friday.  I've inherited a highboy, a computer desk and a television.  I'm now waiting for a bed from another Eldora resident who is replacing a double with a queen and I'm reassured it's very clean.  In the meantime, I continue to load my car, dividing what I would normally consider a load, putting most of the weight on my uninjured left arm, and taking items down to the apartment.  Head and eye are greatly improved.

I made one unintended trip on Saturday when Dixie, the three-legged resident dog whose owner allows her and her running mate Jimmy to run free, appeared on my doorstep.  After having two conversations with the owner's boyfriend that bordered on threatening because he resented having to pick up Dixie from my cabin in the evening, I had met with the owner and told her I didn't want him providing dog pick-up in the future.   After initially acting conciliatory,  she called a few days later telling me not to allow Dixie into my cabin.  I called Boulder County Animal Control the next day, explained I was getting tired of being put on the defensive because these dogs' owner was allowing them to run free and asked them to give her a warning.  On Saturday, my car was full, so even though Dixie wanted to come along when I left to go to the library and on to the spring to get water, I had no room for her.  Although I was annoyed at myself for allowing the situation to control my actions, I drove on to Boulder and unloaded the car in the hope Dixie would be gone when I returned and she was.  Since then, Jimmy was here yesterday and Dixie has been here twice today and is still here even though it has been almost 80F degrees and I have little shade on my lot.  I've put out water for her, had to chain her up when the fox just came to eat and have called Animal Control and left a message to determine if the warning has been issued, in which case the dog owner is simply ignoring it.  I hate to have Animal Control pick up Dixie, but may have to resort to that tactic if this continues.


Over the weekend and today, when I wasn't using gasoline, which I can ill afford, to make trips up and down the canyon to the apartment, I took advantage of the intermittent good weather to do some furniture priming and painting. 


I had purchased this little wall-mounted storage unit not too long after I started living here in the cabin in late summer 2010.  It was originally pale wood with red painted trim and looked as if it had been hand made for a child's room.  I painted it my favorite Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze...

I decided, since I won't be able to stream music once I move my computer to the apartment, I'd leave this here since it houses dozens of tapes (as well as some DVDs that I play on a personal DVD player my niece gave me) that can be played on this old clock radio....

Radio reception here is nil.  I had one of these that I used nightly in Phoenix, put it up behind the car seat with a favorite tape in it when I moved, the tape warped in the heat driving from Phoenix to Missouri and ruined the tape deck.  My friend Evelyn in Phoenix gave me this replacement when I visited her winter before last.


While I was priming and painting the small storage shelf, I was also working on this writer's lap desk I'd had for about the same length of time...

The top was so badly damaged, sanding wasn't doing the trick, so I decided I needed some sort of filler.  When I was in Boulder on Saturday I stopped at Home Depot and found this product...

...it's about the consistency of Spackle and I found it much easier to work with than regular wood repair products.

While I was working on these two things, I got started on the bottom of the secretary...

...pulled the drawers out and removed the hardware and sprayed them with this wonderful primer I also found at Home Depot...

I had done battle last week trying to prime the top of the secretary using Odor Free spray Kilz.  Whatever you do, don't bother with this Kilz product.  I drove back to Nederland to Ace and returned the first can because no matter how much I shook it, it came out literally like that fun string...

The second can was barely an improvement.  I finally used both thumbs and all my strength to press down on the nozzle and emptied the can, but the finish is so rough I'm going to have to sand everything down before I paint.

On the other hand, this Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover Primer is wonderful.  Shakes up and sprays easily and goes on smoothly.  I had read about this paint on a craft blog and am so glad I sought it out and tried it.  I got two cans and that was enough to do the entire bottom part of the secretary, including the drawers, the interior and both sides of the drop-down desk, from which I removed the hardware so I wouldn't have to tape it off...

...It was really too windy today to finish this up, but I wanted to get it off my plate, and I ended up with some mottling, but I don't think this will be apparent once I paint it which is going to have to wait until next week.


Yesterday I also washed the cabin windows on the outside and put up the screens so I can get some air in here during the day when it gets hot...

...not sure I want this big open space available to the bear at night so will just have to hope it continues to get down into the 40F degrees at night!   Teddee

Steam Punk Table

The "steam punk" table (different than a punk steam table) I spied and purchased at the Salvation Army store in Boulder on Saturday did find its way up the canyon yesterday, thanks to Tenille and her father Bill.   Here are some photos of the underpinnings of the table.  (Yes, I discovered last evening that once I downloaded some new software Kodak had been trying to get me to download, I could, once again, take the photos off my camera.  Still can't print and efforts to communicate with Kodak techs via phone yesterday were not successful).  Note the magnificent hinged legs (on the table, not the Kodak techs), extra heavy-duty springs, and hinged leaves that remain down even when you flip the table over as I found out when I was taking these photos.  I did some on-line research and find that today's versions are called adjustable, convertible, hi-low, flip- or lift-top tables and they come in rectangular and pie shapes, offer storage and are raised and lowered with all sorts of mechanisms including gas pistons.  They also seem to range in price from $159.98 to $2,195, with $300-$400 being about average.  So, I'm still happy with my $17 outlay.

I'm not going to show you the top of this table until I decide what to do with it, but you can see the underside of one of the leaves.  The dark Formica-like veneer reminds me of some furniture I had back in the late sixties.  But I do like the sort of Frank Lloyd Wrightish detail on the legs and the brass touches and casters.  Not sure if that's real brass, but will take some Brasso to it and see what happens. 

Arrival of the table was a little later than expected because Tenille and pere had spent the morning at Home Depot buying things they needed in order to get her A-frame in Rollinsville ready to put on the market.  She'd been renting it out, but had become disillusioned when her last tenant disappeared into the night, leaving the door open to the elements, a situation about which she only became aware several days later when an electrician whose services she uses noted it blowing in the wind and called her.

I had spent some time yesterday morning digging my path through the drifted snow wide enough so she and I could walk side-by-side, thinking we would carry one end of the table and her Dad the other, but they had the table out of the truck and halfway to the house before I even got outside to find out if they wanted me to move my car. 

I noticed her father opted to walk backward, which automatically merited my Nice Guy Award if he hadn't already allowed himself to be recruited to pick up the table, haul it up the canyon and about five miles out of his way, then unload it and bring it into the cabin of a total stranger.  (Yes, I had offered on Saturday to pay them something for their efforts, but Tenille wouldn't hear of it).

When I think back on it, every man with whom I've ever had a long-term relationship always made me walk backward when we were carrying something, unless I made an issue about it.  Perhaps this should be a test when determining if you want to be in a serious relationship with someone! 

If you're a woman, does your man make you walk backward?  If you're a man, does this ever even cross your mind?  Will it in the future? 

Tomorrow's blog will offer more about the Sears auto debacle and the e-mail I received this morning from Paul Bernardy at Sedgwick.