Day 43: The sidewalk is now smooth

What I'm watching today

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Netflix streaming) - This is the first of the two good Indiana Jones films. It's fun, it's funny, and it has great action scenes. The special effects do not age well, and some of the fight choreography is downright ridiculous, but this movie is still great. While I was watching it I was also chatting with a friend who pointed out that Indiana Jones is completely inconsequential to the resolution of the movie--it would have ended the way it ended with or without Indy. It's also fair to point out that Indy gets double-crossed and played by nearly everyone he does business with: South American jungle guides, archaeologist colleagues, monkeys, the US government. It doesn't matter though. In the end, Indy found the Ark of the Covenant, and some Nazis' faces melted off, and that's pretty amazing.

What I'm doing today

Sanding - The other day my neighbor and I installed a new mailbox using expanding foam that was more like exploding foam. It left a trail of crispy green bubbles all over the mailbox post and sidewalk and was...unsightly. I wasn't sure how to take care of the mess, because the foam packaging exploded before I could read about cleanup. However I found a pretty quick and easy solution using a palm sander and some coarse grit sandpaper. Sure I looked ridiculous sanding the sidewalk, and the neighbors were quick to confirm this for me, but at least the sidewalk no longer looks like it's covered in green ooze.

Carpentering - The problem with cheaply made furniture from the seventies is that it usually is constructed using two basic materials: particle board (which is mostly glue) and more glue. After about 40 years, that glue starts to disintegrate, which causes that furniture to disintegrate. We've already patched up two of the drawers in the 5yo's dresser, and today was finally time for drawer el numero tres. Previously I had the tools to do this, but my ancient tablesaw had smoke coming out of the motor that last time I used it. I was able to borrow one from my neighbor for the afternoon and replaced that rotting garbage particle board with solid, light pine. And now the 5yo can put her pants away again.

Day 91: Cleanliness

73. ✅ Clear out the flower bed in the front yard Two words: scorched earth. Garden hoe: loosen the dirt. (Broke that hoe.) Shovel: remove the dirt. Sieve: Filter out all the crap in the dirt. What was left was a smooth patch of barren soil. I'm sure there are undesirables lurking beneath the surface, so I'll let it lie for a few days before I do anything else with it. 51. ✅ Deal with the shred pile This took days. I've been accumulating junk mail, old bills, and literally anything with my name, a family member's name, or our address on it for several months resulting in a two-foot tall stack of papers. It couldn't be done all at once, because (A) the shredder kept overheating, and (B) I kept running out of places to store the shreds. (They take up considerably more room than the unshredded sheets of paper.) 75 ✅ Clean off the workbench Getting rid of the shred pile was the main roadblock in completing this task, but it's done. And now there's a bike up ...

Lazy Productivity

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