John's Blog

Here’s what’s what.

Willow and I sat outside in the back yard while the derecho arrived. It moved in fast. I stayed out there until the wind and rain got to be too much then went inside to the peace and quiet and coolness.
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Our lights flickered a bit, nothing more. Kyle called about ten minutes after it hit saying his power went out. They stayed there for the night. 8,000 or so without power in Davenport.
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The next day I drove to coffee, a few trees down here and there. The retired architect lost his AC chiller so he was at home dealing with that. I stopped to buy motor oil and filter for the car and a few groceries, then headed home.
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I got home to find no fewer than six doggos on site. Kyle had brought them over and he was crashed in a quiet bedroom, he had a lousy night’s sleep. The power company said they had to send crews west to Des Moines and elsewhere to get their power back on then they would work their way east. Davenport should have power back by Wed PM.
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After lunch I hustled a table saw out of the basement and set it up beside the garage next to the trailer. I cut wood into pieces big enough to fit into our garbage bin. I also staked one of the sunflower plants in the garden because it was bent over wicked bad. I was sweatin’ buckets out there.
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In the late afternoon we started making arrangements for the kids to stay at our place overnight. But their power came back on at 7:30 so Kyle left for home with his three.
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Today I got dogs to Vander Veer. There was 10 or so piles of branches and stuff stacked here and there. A few real large branches had been julienned where they had fallen, the doggos had fun sniffing around those things.
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I began dropping leads about three quarters of the way around the park. Time to go home. I spent the afternoon cutting scrap wood into small enough pieces to fit into the bin. Basement cleanup.
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Kim is multi-tasking down in the craft room. She sets a small piece of painted scrap wood (leftover from making boxes) into one of the laser printers… ‘cutting out Christmas shit’, she said. There’s a good size pile of gingerbread type deals as well as some Christmas tree outlines and snowflakes. While the laser does its thing she beads. She said she ran out of yellow.
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Tomorrow is coffee, then I gotta find a 24 mm socket so I can change the oil filter. No getting around using such a tool. If I can’t find one after checking a few second-hand store I’ll have to buy one retail where I’ll probably have to pay a buck a mm for the damn thing. I gotta be home in time for Kim and Kyle to go to a couple appointments around lunch time.
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If its not too miserable outside I’ll change the oil, all eight quarts of it in an engine that’s slightly less than two quarts displacement. Almost unbelievable. Cheers.