Mick’s Miscellaneous Meanderings

Got the rest of the fascia boards up on the house on Sunday. All I’ve got to do is paint them if it ever gets above 50 degrees without raining. Not 30 minutes after I put the last board up I heard this scrambling and scratching that sounded like it was coming from upstairs. Went up and didn’t see anything. Went outside and looked up. There was a freaking squirrel CHEWING on the fascia boards I just put up. GRRRRR!!!! Where’s a 22 when you need one? Now I gotta put flashing up over the fascia board to keep that son-of-a-gun from chewing up the wood.

*sigh*

Ran a trail race this past weekend. Similar to the Ugly Mudder I ran last year. But on different trails and without the sheet of ice. Funnily enough, there were times during this race – during the really rocky sections – I was almost wishing for that ice again.

Caught a ride to the Chilly Cheeks race with Erin (member of the running group) and a friend of hers (Katie) since my car is acting funky. This would be the longest Katie had ever run and the first time on a trail. What a way to initiate her.

When we were pulling in to the parking area of the race we saw this old(er) guy running down the hill, stiff-legged and with his head leaning to his right. Erin made the comment, “Well if he can run this race, I certainly can do it.” We all agreed.

At the start of the race I got behind a guy I recognized from last year. I ran behind him for a little while in the Mt. Penn Mudfest. How did I recognize him from behind? Let’s just say he had a unique running gait. When I saw him last year, it was at the end of the 9-mile race so I figured he was just tired. Not so. I was behind him at the beginning of this race and he ran exactly the same way….legs flailing every which way, no control over where he placed his feet, ankles turning. Holy cow…this guy was going to hurt himself! I passed him as soon as possible before he did a face plant.

The race was a real hoot. Most of the trail was lightly snow covered. Some was just leaf covered. There were two sections of the trail that were so steep we had to crawl up on all fours. And then there was Mt. Whadafug. That’s as in Whadafug was I thinking when I signed up for this race! Part of the time during the run I was imagining Ron Horn (race director) sitting at the bar with a few beers in him, talking with his cronies, saying, “Hey man, let’s create a race that people have to be really stupid or on a lot of drugs to run. Remember that bank that Joe tried to sled down and broke both his legs? Let’s have them run up that. Oh yeah, and you know that three quarters of a mile long area with the rock slides? That’ll be great at about mile 6 when they’re really tired. Yeah. And let’s have the race go uphill the entire time. Ya think anyone will be dumb enough to run it?”

Apparently, there were. 400 of us. I had a comedian following me for a little while. Heading up Mt. Whadafug, he said something about the Sherpas that were supposed to have stashed some oxygen at the top for us. Later he asked us if we saw the “March of the Penquins” and then reminded us that half the penguins die in the movie.

At about mile 6 the old stiff-legged guy with his head leaning to one side passed me. So much for appearances. But I managed to pass him before the end on a rocky downhill section.

So there were rocks, steep hills, a mountain, snow, tree roots, tripping, falling, sliding, etc., but the biggest obstacle was the cold. It was 16 degrees out with a realfeel temp of 1. The cold itself wasn’t bad. It was the effects of the cold, namely a nose running faster than I was. If I was in danger of dehydration it was from the all the snot and the watering eyes, not from the sweating underneath the 3 layers of clothes. Thankfully I had absorbent gloves on. Gross, I know. But what were we to do? Politely step off the trail, dig out a tissue, blow our nose, and then get back in line? Not. And taking your eyes of the ground for even a second to fish out a tissue while running meant filling your gloves with grit and and getting bloody knees.

So, we finished the race with only slight trail rash on our butts and knees, gobbled down some eggs, pancakes, and bagels at the finisher’s breakfast, and headed back to Annville. We compared snot stories in the car and then sang to the radio the rest of the way home.

I mentioned in a previous post how I’m renovating my house bopping to my favorite groups. One of the groups is GLAD. I was turned on to them in high school (17 years ago – Eek!) by a friend who gave me one of their cassettes as a thank you gift for allowing him to use my car for his driving test. I didn’t understand all they sang about back then. I just really dug their vocal harmonies. I’ve since become one of their biggest fans. I own every one of their albums, including the ones that are now out of print. I attended several of their concerts every year until the group went part time a couple years ago. I still occasionally catch a concert if it’s in the state. I did their website for them. The one thing I’ve always wished for was to be able to sit in on a recording or practice session and see how they get all those parts together. There’s only 4 or 5 guys singing but many of the songs have 8 or more parts. I’ll never get to see that because I don’t think they’ll be doing any more albums but I did get to see this video on YouTube where they’re singing one of my “most favoritist” song – “You Put This Love in My Heart” – which shows them in the recording studio and on the road. Check out sound samples of there clips here – www.glad-pro.com – they’re the tightest group you’ll ever hear.

Had an appointment with a chimney sweep yesterday to come clean the chimney. Here’s the junk he cleaned out of it. At least there was nothing dead and decaying up in there!!!

Haven’t had much time to do stuff in the house for the past week and won’t have much time for the next week. I’m swamped in the shop and need to get my head above water before I continue with the house.

The saga continues…

In the last post I mentioned that replacing the linoleum in the bathroom snowballed into replacing the vanity and sink too. Well, it was because of that squirrel I found decaying in the corner. As I pulled the floor tiles out from under the vanity, I found a bunch of dog food that’s been disappearing from the dog bowls while I’m at work during the day. A mouse was squirreling it away under the vanity. Great. That meant he was getting in from behind the vanity. So, I unhooked the sink so I could pull the vanity away from the wall and look for anything fishy. Found a big hole chewed through the drywall. Grrr! When I pulled the vanity out, it literally started falling apart. The glue was dried out. Threw that puppy out on the burn pile and headed into Lowe’s for a replacement.

So, I figured the mouse mystery was solved. I’d found the hole, patched it, and that was the end of it.

Wrong.

Let’s back up a month or so ago when some friends were helping me with the house. They decided to throw something in the oven to warm it up quick. I wasn’t there but heard about it later. Apparently, there was a pretty bad smell coming from the oven. They turned it off and adamantly refused to clean the slightly crusty inside of the oven. No problem. I’d get to it later.

Later came last weekend. I tackled the oven which wasn’t all that bad. Looked like the former owner made a bunch of pizzas and let the cheese drip down. Nothing major. Cleaned the oven out and was all set to bake some bread and cookies over the weekend. Preheated the oven for the cookies. A couple minutes later a putrid stench filled the house. Ugh!!! Turned it off quickly. That smell was more than just the oven cleaner burning off! It smelled like dog-pee stained carpet being roasted.

Irene came down on Saturday afternoon to give me a hand with the oven. She cleaned the inside out again with soapy water this time. We slid it front and she cleaned behind it and noticed a hole chewed through the drywall. At this point, I knew what was coming but wasn’t sure how bad it would be. I patched up the hole and we continued with the stove. It was all clean so we turned it on. A few minutes later, the smell started and we noticed smoke rising from the back of the stove. Turned the stove off, unplugged it and unscrewed the back. Low and behold, there were 4 little feet sticking up in the air in the bottom of the back of the stove. Ugh. I stood there staring at it. Then I looked at Irene. Then back it. This was no tiny mouse. This was a rat! I don’t know what was going through Irene’s mind but I was thinking about how I was going to get that mostly-decayed-stuck-to-the-metal-been-there-for-a-long-time rat out of there without gagging and making a fool of myself in front of Irene. At that point, Irene nonchalantly turned around, pulled a couple of paper towels off the roll and bent down and pried the rat up. Then she proceeded to scrape the rest of him up with a putty knife and then cleaned off the metal back of the stove. All while I was standing there trying not to gag.

Then I noticed the little hole near the top on the back of the oven where you could see some of the insulation sticking out. It had a nice round hole in the insulation. Lovely. We lifted up the oven top and looked down in the sides. Sure enough this rat had been throughout the insulation. There were droppings (large, not little!) clearly visible. And it smelled like pee. That would account for the pee-stained carpet smell.

So I’ve been oven shopping in the classifieds, on Ebay, and on Craigslist. Looks like I found a brand new convection oven for a great price on Craigslist. I’ve been emailing back and forth with the guy this evening. I’ll hopefully have a stink-free oven come Saturday.

*sigh*

Hopefully, I’ve found all the dead animals that have decayed in the place over the past years. I don’t ever want to find another rodent – dead or alive – so I replaced the screens on all the windows into the crawl space and sealed up a couple little holes on Sunday.

Thank you Irene for (as the runners put it this morning) doing what only a mother could do and cleaning up the mess!

Got the linoleum down in the bathroom…which snowballed into also putting in a new vanity and sink. Don’t ask. And the water filter was installed on Friday. Funnily enough, the pressure release valve on the water heater went out about 10pm Thursday night. Scared the crap out of me!!! Had to fix that so I could turn the water back on before the water guy got there at 9am Friday morning. Thankfully Lowe’s opens EARLY!

Got 3 trees dropped 2 Fridays ago. Two were overhanging my nice, new roof and the third one was on its way out. I just had them drop the one and take the other two down to the trunk with a bucket truck. Dropped the other two trunks and cut up most of the trunks and major limbs two weekends ago. Waiting for the weather to break on a day off so I can finish cutting and split the wood. That’ll be next year’s heat.

Got two loads of shingles finally hauled to the dump last Monday. Just made the 1pm closing time thanks to Kris and Irene’s help in loading and unloading the trailer. What a muddy mess.

Also picked up the flooring for the living room. Was reluctantly going to do carpet because it was cheapest until Bonnie (running buddy) told me about the heart pine they put down in their house. I love the look of wood floors (plus it’s a lot easier to clean with two dogs inevitably tracking mud in the house) but figured it was out of my league. I looked up the prices and found some great deals at Lumber Liquidators – about the same price as mid grade carpet. Went with Kris (sister) and picked up the lot last weekend.

Tore down the spiral staircase so I can get the walls finished behind it and get furniture moved upstairs. I disassembled part of it and Dad, Brian (Kris’ boyfriend) and friends of Kris and Brian (who unknowingly showed up at just the right time!) moved the main piece into the kitchen where it will stay until it is sold or put back up. Anyone want to buy a spiral staircase?

That’s it for now. Gotta run…big night tonight…cleaning out the oven so I can start cooking out there.

I just wanted to make it clear that….

No steroids or performance-enhancing drugs were used to complete any of the building projects on the house.

Although they probably would have helped!

So I joined this running group back in April 2007 called H.A.R.D. – Harrisburg-Annville Running Dementia. My entire family thought I was completely crazy…not because it’s running (heck I’ve been running on and off since college) but because the group meets at 5 o’clock in the morning. Not being a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, they (and I) never thought it would last beyond a couple of days. But the group sucked me in. From day one they welcomed me and made me feel a part of the family. I even started to look forward to getting up at 4:30…Spencer just has that affect on people!

When I bought my house members of the group showed up with gloves and shovels to do things to this place that I wouldn’t ask my best friend to do. They were there to help me tear shingles off the roof, to pull up the pee stained carpets, to clean out the mouse dropping and lady bug infested shed contents. And they were there on the morning runs ready with moral support and asking how this week’s work on the house went.

After getting overwhelmed the past month, running fell by the wayside…getting up for a 5 am run just took too much effort. I still kept up with the latest news and fun – like Pippy Longstocking sightings (Marc’s newest running costume) – through the H.A.R.D. forum but it’s not the same as being there. I missed them and looked forward to returning to the regular morning runs. And I vowed to do so as soon as I put the last shingle on the roof. That happened this afternoon.

I finished the roof just in time to get cleaned up and make a quick chili dip to take to the annual H.A.R.D. Christmas party. This was my first H.A.R.D. Christmas party so I didn’t know what all went on. It seems H.A.R.D. has created quite a history in its 10 years (I’m still learning it in bits and pieces) and also a tradition. I found out the tradition the H.A.R.D. way!

Since I am the self-appointed photographer for the group, I always take my camera to the get-togethers. When Wendy stood up and got the group’s attention to make an announcement, I dove for my camera to capture the moment. Bonnie all but tackled me, saying she’d take the picture and that I shouldn’t worry about it. I insisted on it and pried her off me. I sat back on the couch with my camera and waited for Wendy to start her spiel. She explained that instead of exchanging names and gifts every year they pool their money and just get one gift and give that to one person in the group. And this year they were giving it to me. Huh???

She handed me a card. I sat back down wondering whether to open it or not and whether something would jump out of the card if I did. Shawn told me to open it so I did. I was floored. There was a Lowe’s gift card with a picture of me working on the roof of my house. And it was for $300!!! This confirmed it. These people really were nuts!!! I was speechless.

These guys are really something. I never saw it coming. I know I’ve been a little out of the loop with not having run much in the past month but sheesh… I’m going to have to keep a closer eye on these guys!

So, to all the H.A.R.D. members:

Thank you so very much for this gift. It really means a lot to me that you guys did this. I’ll hang a piece of window trim in each of your names.

I had a really good time hanging with you all tonight. It was the best evening I’ve had in a long, long time. I wish you knew how serious I am when I say that you guys will never know how much being a part of the group has done for me. It’s brought healing and helped restore trust I’d lost in mankind. Thank you so much!!!!

And to Kathy…does this sound familiar to you – Beep?

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

FINISHED THE ROOF TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whew! Took long enough with all the weather delays. And other than a few bloody knuckles from scraping them on the asphalt shingles and a minor goose egg on the forehead when the crowbar got away from me, there were no injuries. All appendages are still attached and in good working order.

Also got all the windows in and insulated. What a difference it made in the propane. Wee doggie! Before the windows were in, it was taking 4-5 gallons of propane per day to keep the temp at a blistering 55-60 degrees inside. With all the new windows in and insulated and the doors sealed up, propane consumption has dropped to 1-2 gallons per day with outside temperatures a little lower and inside temps 65-70. Can’t wait to get a fireplace insert in so I can really crank the heat up in the evenings without paying a fortune.

Still have to put all the trim up inside and lay rug and linoleum. I’m looking forward to doing the trim. When I worked for the carpenter during college I watched a lot of trim go up. Now I get to try my hand at making the cuts.

Furniture is already in. Had to do things a little backwards. Had to get the furniture in when the help was available. There was no way I was going to be able to move the sofa and chair myself.

Martin Water is coming out on Wednesday to install a water filter system to take the sulfur smell and iron out of the water. Woo hoo. Then I can start actually living and cooking out there. Going to pick up some flour. The first thing I’m going to make is some home made bread!

It was a cold and windy morning in Lebanon, PA. Nevertheless, there were still people wearing shorts to run the inaugural YMCA 5K/10K. Crazy nuts! And members of the HARD Runners group were among those nuts. There were 14 of us from the group that ran it. Most ran the 10K, a few the 5K. Among the highlights were Mike’s Elf/Turkey costume:

and getting to meet Noah (Marc’s son) who Marc pushed in the stroller for the entire 10K and still came in with an impressive time.

Out of the 14 members of the group that ran, 9 of them placed in the top three in their age groups. Quite a haul this race! Here are some more pics of the event:

Well, we found the start. Let’s hope we see the finish.

All lined up with a 5K or 10K to go.

Mike completes his 5K

I’m coming into the home stretch.

Mother/son duo AJ and Kathy ran the 5K

Cindy on the left and Shawn, looking a little chilly, in the middle, AJ on the right. Emma and Jen in the background on the left.

Marc (the wuss!) hides in his car during the awards ceremony. He said it was to keep Noah warm. Uh huh. Sure!

Hanging out during the awards – Steve, Nicole, Mike, Me