More photos.

For some reason, I couldn't add these to the previous post, so here they are. Just showing off the beautiful blue painter's tape!

Just to add to this. It is one day later.
I haven't had time to take pictures, but this morning, the friends came over and finished what they started. They did the trim and ceiling in the kitchen, and also finished the basement stairway walls. I have one piece of the ceiling to finish and then I can move outside. While they were working, I took the one child with me and went to pick up more paint. I decided to paint the garage floor after all.
The job looks good enough for me to put the house up for sale. I also spoke with a friend tonight to get advice on how to cool off the porch. It turns out that I won't be able to do that cheaply enough or on my own, so I will leave that alone for now.
And, don't tell anyone, but I am thinking about taking a drive...a long drive... a really long drive....maybe to Vegas. But, don't tell anyone. I don't gamble, but that part of the country is soooo beautiful.

Exercise is over-rated!

Above: Basement walls
Garage floor
Kitchen looking at the back door.
Garage floor, looking at porch door.

I finally broke my pattern of inactivity, and I wrote about it already. Let me add some pictures to the mix.
I like the feeling of being able to do a workout while getting something done too.
Yesterday, I cut the grass in the hottest part of the day.
Today, I painted part of the basement stairway walls, and helped scrub the garage floor as well as cleaned the garage out completely and filled it back up when it was finished.
It was really hot out there and I could feel it, but it didn't slow me down like it did when I was fat. I sweated because I was working, not because I was fat.
I stayed hydrated too.
The house was full. I had 3 of the school bus family over to help finish painting, and two young neighbors helping me in the garage.
I did the painting myself before they all came over.
Imagine the garage floor covered with oil, dried kitty litter, and fluid stains since 1992 and before. That's what I cleaned off over the past week.
Imagine cleaning out tons of stuff off the garage floor from large items to small ones. Then, sweeping the dust and dirt, then rinsing the floor, and adding a bit of dish detergent (dawn gets grease out of your way) and scrubbing with two long handled brushes. Then, rinsing it all off, and doing it again. Then, rinsing it all off, and using brooms to move the excess water off the floor. Then running a fan to help dry it, while organizing the stuff to bring it back into the garage when the floor dried.
Tomorrow, the school bus family will come over in the morning and finish the kitchen. You can see from the pictures that there is lots of blue tape, and areas that need to be finished, such as the ceiling.
The original paint was so worn, that I couldn't begin to tell you what color it was. The new paint is "cabin" white, but in the pictures the sun shining in the window makes it look yellow. It isn't.
I will probably paint the garage floor gray since it looks good to me, but not really as clean as I would like. The fancy acrylic floor paint is too expensive, and gray will be just fine.
The basement walls were tough to do because of all the strange angles. It is also the tallest ceiling in the house and very hard for me to reach straight up and still get paint on the walls. I will work on it again but not tomorrow. I need to take a break.

I found a place that still has Nautilus equipment and I want to check it out. I loved using that years ago because it worked so well. Once I learned how to use it, I made amazing progress. I read a book about the inventor of the equipment, and trained with an expert. This was back in the late 70's I think when they first came out with it. My back was hurting from too many hours of driving city bus, and the machines firmed up the muscles to take the pain away. Of course, it didn't hurt that they had a real whilrpool and sauna that my wife and I spent lots of time in.

I think I am finally on my way to recovery. Let's hope so.

Time is what's happening as music is played.

There is a business site that I visit from time to time. He sends out emails too with new products and updates. In his subject line, he write strange statements. Some of them are political. I can see that they might be taken the wrong way by the opposing party and cut down on his business, but so far, he doesn't seem to be having problems. The statements seem to be set up as attention getters, rather than as actual statements of his political leanings.
I personally think it's a good idea. I am tired of reading the same old subject lines.

There were teachers over the years that made profound statements in an effort to make us think, such as the one in the title here. Personally, they made me think that the teacher wanted us to think they were really smart.
I've found over the years that using big words does make you sound as if you are smart. I use them sometimes, and then I stand outside myself and wonder why I used them. I don't usually use big words, but they just seem to show up on their own.
I've also found that I am much more forgetful than I used to be. I don't seem to remember things from the past the same way too. That is disturbing to me. I would like to think my memory is accurate if not exact.

This is one of the reasons we write things down. Because, our memories aren't perfect. Somewhere in the house (remember, I've been packing, re-packing, and cleaning) is a box with all of my bariatric paperwork. I was given lots of things from the clinic, as well as my blood test results from the past 4 or 5 times. Right now, the location of that box alludes me (gee, a big word!). But, I will find the box, and I will compare test results to see the differences up or down. That is, if I remember to do so.

Now, all winter long, I was waiting for this wonderful warm weather. The thing I didn't remember back when I was freezing was: With warm weather comes humidity. That makes the warm or hot weather uncomfortable when living inside. If I am outside, I can stand direct sunlight for quite sometime, but prefer the shade. And, I really like the breeze that comes along every once in awhile.

I enjoy the rain storms much more now than I did. The clouds seem to be much more interesting when a "severe" thunderstorm moves through. We have had an active year as far as high winds, small tornadoes, and lots of rain. For the year, this area is up about 10 inches over a "normal" year, so I don't get nasty stares when I go out and "play" with the garden hose. I used to wash my sidewalk in the city almost every night. Not because it was dirty, but because it was relaxing. Now, the birds gather round when I play with the water. They are probably looking for worms and a chance to get a drink.
I watered my brick wall last night. The direct sunlight hits it about 5pm, and heats it up like crazy. Then, when the sun goes down, the bricks transmit that heat into the house. The temperatures in the house can hit 85, even thought the outside temperature is 75. When I wash it off, this cools the bricks making it a little more bearable.

I had some help the past few days, which filled the house with kids, and life again. This was just what I needed to get back on track. My kitchen will be finished by this afternoon. I will do the work myself, although the majority of the work was already done by the visitors. I will pull the refrigerator out and paint behind it, and then will do the ceiling. What would take a "normal" person an hour, will take me all afternoon. That's OK. I have all the time in the world. I do want to get it out of the way and move onto the last few projects.

Yesterday, I started out feeling like I had been awake for days. I was weak, and light headed. I decided to plow through the feeling as long as I could. The job I was doing was one that I could walk away from if I couldn't finish. I could come back to it whenever I regained my energy. I tried to listen to my body and discovered that I needed some food, and lots of liquid. So, I got a beer and some pretzels, and that did the trick (a protein bar, followed by a quart of crystal lite lemonade). I pushed through the feeling after that and started to wake up.
My job consisted of covering the garage floor with de-greaser, scrubbing the area with a long handled plastic brush, and rinsing. Then, I had to repeat it 3 times because there was a lot of grease and gunk. This made the floor of the garage look much better. I still should do the rest of the floor, but for now, I only did half. I also should buy some floor paint to finish the job (The fancy acrylic stuff is too expensive for now. If I stay in the house, I will do that instead).
The scrubbing was tough and I worked up quite a sweat. I also had to make sure the water got rinsed out fully. That took about an hour to make sure the acid was diluted enough when it hit the lawn. I had to sweep the garage floor a lot to get all of the stuff out. My arms are very tight this morning which will make the painting a lot harder than it should be.
I listed several items for sale on Craigslist, and sold them in between cleaning and painting. I still have a few items left, but I can live with them for now. If I move, some of them will stay here for the next owner to deal with.

So, it's been a good weekend. I started the clean up marathon on Friday, and will finish sometime this week.
I have some real work to do in the bathroom in order to get it ready for paint.

• There are several holes which need to be filled and sanded. I have a magnifying mirror with large holes in the wall barely hanging on.
• I have a new toilet seat which is easy, yet unpleasant to install.
  
• I have adhesive strips to go into the tub to replace the old ones. I will also do an extra good scrub down of the tub. Nothing will restore the finish, but at least I know it is clean.
• I have to move some stuff out of the bathroom that have been there for a long time.
  

This is a good time for me to re-think where I want to go with things. I will just be refreshing things, rather than spending money on replacement. If I stay, I will work towards doing a remodeling next year. Same thing for the kitchen.

I had an estimate to start on the landscaping of the house. If you recall, I stripped the entire yard of the large trees, and the area around the house of the huge bushes that were blocking the windows. The first phase will be the area in front of the house along the eastern wall. 8 bushes will be installed, and the area leveled and shaped. The bushes are slow growing and won't cover the windows. The company doing the work will come back every year for each new phase until the entire yard is finished. This alone makes me want to stay in the house long enough to see it through.

To live here all these years only to be forced to move out just when things are getting finished is a tragedy. I worked so hard over the years to make sure things were done so the family could live comfortably. Now, the family is gone. This is what makes it the toughest for me.

My health is a living thing. It gets better and worse depending on things I can do to fix it, and things I have no control over.

The house has been a work in progress since 1992 for me, and before that for my Father in law. It now seems that neither of us will ever see it finished.

If the economy gets better and jobs become more plentiful, an old guy like me will be able to make a decent, honest living, and will be able to afford to stay here and finish what I started. If not, who knows?
Evening edit: It seems I am a bit more tired than I thought I was. I'm taking it easy tonight. No painting unless I force myself. On a side note: I wonder how long it takes to get over the death of someone? How long will it be before I stop grieving, and start using it as an excuse?