Last Monday I went to the doctors office for a preliminary blood test since I had a normal doctors visit scheduled for Wednesday. This way,he will have the results by then. Now I've been going to the same doctor for most of the last 20 years and he understands that we are sailors that have special needs. He gives me prescriptions for 400 pills at one time so I don't have to worry about my meds as I travel. I'm pleased to report that my blood work came back "perfect"! No problems but as you can see from the picture, I still get to take lots of meds primarily for my blood pressure. My mother was nice enough to share that part of her DNA with me and I've been on numerous pills for the past 30 years or so. The problem with high blood pressure is you don't really know that you have it and I've never been able to tell physically if the pills actually do any good. You never feel better and you never feel worse until you have a stroke or heart attack. I take them everyday and so far all seems fine.
We got the timeline for repairing the wood floors in the house. They say they can't start till the end of August! The Forman for the company stopped by last Tuesday to see the project and told us two weeks. That would have been perfect since the roof repair men are due about September 1st for that job. I called the company and told them that the end of August just won't work but haven't heard back. Maybe Monday. It's hard to fined construction workers or any kind of workers here in the Denver area and that why everything seems to be taking longer I think. No people to do the jobs people need.
Our work continues here with more grass cutting and weed spraying. A few days ago, I worked on our cedar fence that covers our east side of the property. When we moved in, the fence around the neighborhood was vertical slats with a separate board covering the space between the boards. When I built ours, I made it with the same look. Over the years, those one nice boards have split, warped and cracked making the fence look pretty bad. I'm amazed the HOA put up with it. A few days ago, I headed out with a power screw driver and undid the hundred or so boards that covered the slots in the fence. Now the fence on the east side look much better and better matches to look of the new fence(third HOA fence since we've been here). Since the trashmen won't take boards that long(6 feet)I brought out one of the electrics saws I have and laid the thin boards out in small bundles and cut them in half and then tied with rope into nice neat bigger bundles. As of a few weeks ago, there was a big fire ban over most of Colorado but we've had so much rain over the last few weeks, it might have been lifted. I'll be checking on that as we have a portable fire pit in the back yard and lots of branches from our pruning that would make a nice fire.
Tracy is still hard at work gutting what she can from inside the house. Boxes, TVs and VCRs plus lots of other things. We've sent our son some of his momentoes so he can decide what he wants to keep and what to throw. More is going out to him in a few days.. Lots of drawings he did in school that we kept along with other goodies. Tracy's sister will also be getting a box load of pictures we ended up with when Tracy's mother died back in 2007.
The "data destruction" people showed up Wednesday morning and the 19 boxes of documents is now gone clearing up a space in the garage. We had another huge pile for the trash man and the recycle truck last week and will have lots more this next Tuesday. I think he's getting used to it after the last month or so. The recycle trash man only shows up every two weeks so the old boxes we've stowed under the house for years have to sit beside the house once the can is full.
Our neighbors brought us some green chili stew! Aaron make some of the best I've ever had. He and DeeDee came over with two containers, one hot for me and one mild for Tracy. It's so good!
Today, weather permitting, I'll be tearing off the boards at the base of the posts on our front porch. Over the years, all the rain and snow has finally rotted out the wood so I'm putting in a composite material that won't rot and fall apart. I put in the same stuff back in 2010 around all the windows on the house as what the builder had put in had absorbed water over the years and failed. I'll be digging out my table saw deepen in the basement to cut the boards.
We finally got the last gutter cleared of blockages. One on the back of the house looked clear but was blocked farther down the downspot than I could see and the gutter overflowed during storms. I had to take a hose and bent metal coat hanger up with me and dug and flushed out the clog. Now it's running just fine. We've been having massive rain and thunderstorms for the last week and there's a 60% chance we will have more today. It's really helping to green up the yard. The eastern sections of Colorado are getting hit with numerous tornados. We had one about ten years ago pass a few miles from our house and I don't want to see another one that close. The hail from that storm trashed our last roof and demolished lots of cars in the neighborhood.
We just keep moving along but Tylenol has become one of my best friends.