Late summer makes for colorful commutes. I could imagine the wreck on I-40 tonight was caused by drivers marveling at the wildly beautiful skies, but in reality someone was probably chatting on a cell phone or texting — too involved to notice the beauty or traffic around them.

The effect I used on the lead photo is called “Modern Antique” which seemed apropos for this stack of computers we are sending of to be recycled. One of the computers in the stack dates back to 1999 — that makes it at least 1024 years old in computer years. Truly the tech equivalent of a medieval device. I loaded up my car with old computers and monitors for recycling tonight, and I have as many dead flat screen monitors sitting on my desk as the are computers in the photo to be recycled.

There was an interesting mixture of overcast skies with the sun peaking through here and there this morning to give the sunflower and morning glory nice light with a gray sky background. The last photo is Puck and Rosencrantz lounging around in the sunroom after a hard day of lounging around outside.

I finally got the bathtub and surround installed. When I went out to look for a tool in the shed this morning, I saw the momma coon running away, and the all of a sudden, five little baby coons come running out of the bamboo, head straight for me and start climbing my pants legs. I shake them off, they scatter squealing at the top of their little lungs. One climbs up in the grill, two go to the shed, one went back into the bamboo while the last one climbed into a butterfly bush.  Eventually they all calmed down and left, except for the one in the last photo. It was so traumatized that it just stayed in a tight spot in the shed all day. I finally put on gloves and extracted the little critter, put it in the bamboo, but it ran straight back to me and started to climb my leg again. I finally convinced it to run into the elm grove across from the bamboo. I’m sure the momma coon was quoting a coon’s form of Beatrix Potter’s “What a thing it is to have an unruly family!”

 

Old toilet that served us well for the past 30 years — RIP. After having to make more modifications to the plumbing and running into more issues with the floor, I finally managed to get the floor covering down and the new toilet installed, but I didn’t get the new bathtub installed. After three days of prep-work, it only took me 30 minutes to replace the backboard behind the toilet and get the new toilet installed. The tub and surround should go in quickly once I have all the prep done. The last photo is Puck in a standoff with Osric.

 

 

 

There are art prints — there are cat prints — and then there are cat prints that are kind of artsy.  The kitties made the most noticeable changes in the remodel today by walking around in the spackling that took all night and most of the day to harden up enough for me to put a second coat on the areas where it had shrunk — so I worked on preparing the bathtub and reconfiguring the drain all afternoon. Once I got the bathtub in place, I discovered some of the plumbing I thought would clear didn’t. So I either had to do a major reworking of the drain and move the vent pipe, or do minor reworking of the drain and raise the bathtub six inches. I decided I would cause myself the least amount of pain by raising the tub, since I’m much better with wood than plumbing. The drain pipes are now reconfigured, so I should be able to put the floor down in the morning, install the new toilet and then the tub.  We also took a break this afternoon to go to the neighbor’s for a barbecue.

When I went out at 3:00 this morning to turn in the irrigation, the full moon was so bright, I could see color. The photo below captured the tree, sunflowers and stars pretty close to how I saw them. This is also a view that was not available before the demolition.

 

I have the bathroom stripped down to where only the toilet remains after day one of the bathroom remodel. I had to do a lot of figuring for the bathtub plumbing, replace sections of the  floor that had water damage from various leaks over the years and then spackle the repairs. I’m letting the spackling dry overnight, but Rosencrantz wasted no time walking in it. He was guilty by the white on his paws.  I only had to make two trips to Lowe’s today, and on my way home from the second trip, the low sun looked really great on a wall with a wheel in it.

We finally un-boxed our new mattress we ordered from Costco. A queen-sized mattress came in a 24X24X40 in box, which really surprised us. The mattress had been vacuum packed and shrink wrapped. When I unsealed the vacuum wrap the mattress inflated to a full-sized, beautiful 12″ thick queen mattress — simply amazing!

 

 

 

While there is a Wine Festival going on in Bernalillo this weekend, there will be a “Whine Fest”, with associated grumbling, cursing, cuts and bruises, happening at our house while I remodel the bathroom (if there’s a Hell plumbing is part of it).  We settled on a floor covering, after discovering the one we really liked was discontinued,  and I bought a new toilet, tub and surround — so first thing tomorrow morning the demolition of the bathroom begins.  As you can see from the photos, we had barely set the 66 inch tall box for the tub surround down before Stretch hopped up on it, taking ownership of the box. I’m sure he’ll still be there when I’m ready to install the surround.

 

A dahlia’s stem broke, so Laurie put it in a vase by my computer, giving my point of view a nice touch of purple.

 

If anyone wants to use my special coffee cup they have to deal with my guard spider. I bought this cup from Pier One Imports when we were first married. We couldn’t afford to get a set at that time so we bought just one. By the time we could afford to buy more cups, they were no longer available. I’ve used this cup pretty much daily for the past 30 years.

I put together a video of the final demolition of the casita. You can view it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUHdxDQTUKo

 

I find interesting people on the street corners when I’m on my way home. The low sun and varying levels of dust and debris on the car’s windows add some nice effects.