One of the side effects of my first pair of bifocal transition lenses and the general business lockdown is that reading texts has become a significant challenge for me. I've been reading less as I get older in general, but for the last several months it has become quite troublesome. With my current prescription, the distances at which I need to hold reading materials are either far enough away that the type is difficult to make out, or close enough that I don't need my glasses at all (which means a few inches in front of my face), both of which are uncomfortable for any length of time. I believe that things have loosened up sufficiently now that I can schedule an eye exam and work on getting new lenses. I should probably get new frames as well since my current ones have suffered a few traumas and tend to slide off my face if I get at all sweaty (which happens more frequently when wearing a mask).

So I've been missing reading things. I was a voracious reader as a child and kept reading quite a bit through my 20s and 30s. I slowed down a bit in my 40s as my eyes got worse, but still enjoyed a day with a novel. Now, I can't sit and hold a book or e-reader comfortably enough to get through one. I've seen a few folks doing re-reads of various authors during the pandemic restrictions and I have the lovely illustrated volume of Earthsea stories that was released a few years back that I would like to get through. Motivation for getting that eye appointment, I suppose.

I've been doing pretty well under the restrictions implemented due to COVID-19. I'm fairly hermit-y by nature so my day-to-day activities haven't varied a whole lot. No movie theaters, so I've been binging more things at home. Saw Hamilton, am getting caught up on Doctor Who, got through all of Warrior Nun, saw all of HBO's Watchmen. Eating out is heavily curtailed, though there are getting to be more options. Mary and I have started being regular weekly diners at Colossal Cafe just up Como Avenue from us once again. Any time we eat out I make sure to add some extra over and above my normal "20% and round up" tip to help out hourly workers who may be having to choose between risking going to work or risking not paying rent. I'm not sure how restaurants will do when it gets to be too cold for outdoor dining.

I took advantage of the 3-months of free online guitar lessons offered by Fender. They are chunked well for my attention span and have a "streak" reward system that gets me to actually practice by engaging my gamer's completion instinct. Mary says she can hear improvement, so that's encouraging too. I know three whole chords now, so there's no stopping me.

My work is piloting a "return to office" initiative starting the 25th (since that's a Saturday, the first day would be the 27th). I volunteered for it as I don't have any particular need to stay home (no child care, for example, which I'm seeing a lot of my co-workers work through) and my actual work needs are not location specific. They are sending me a "care package" of things to prep for this, including a thermometer with which I am to take my temperature daily before coming in to the office, and masks to wear while there and not at my desk. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. They say I'm free to drop out if I feel uncomfortable with the set-up at any time.

The other thing this staying at home has done is give me a lot more energy to put into the garden/landscape. Things are better than they have been the last few years, partially because of throwing money at having people help with things, but also because I like taking a few minutes out of the day to pop out and weed a chunk. Prior years, I'd be tired out after work and just not get around to even basic maintenance. Getting amongst the plants is relaxing, so the overall landscape benefits from my stress relief. I'm working on throwing money at revamping some of the space to allow for more of my stress relief, a more comfortable means of enjoying the space, and a bit more control over the development of the landscape. I feel pretty good about the plans there.

The first step of sheet composting is putting down a layer of compost. This was supposed to happen last week, but the significant rain we had made the compost too wet to deliver and spread effectively. So things got started today.

This is the big pile of compost that was dumped in my driveway.



And this is what that pile looks like after two very capable young women from the landscaping company spread it over my back yard.



The next steps in sheet composting are delayed until Friday as that is when there will be crew enough available to spread the mulch that is the last step such that it will not be blocking the driveway when Mary returns home from work.

Pretty much every year the city has occasion to send me a letter telling me to do something or another with my prairie. The last couple of years, this has occurred due to some of the plants getting taller than expected/planned and leaning over the sidewalk. This gets to be especially annoying for passers-by if the leaning plants are the cup plants, which collect little cups of water where their leaves grasp the stem. This provides a nice source of water for birds, insects, and small mammals, but also provides a bit of a shower to anyone brushing against them. Not desirable in the best of circumstances and possibly a hazard for some. In addition, partially blocking the sidewalk causes undue difficulty for anyone with a disability. So steps needed to be taken.

So I purchased some garden stakes. First a set of bamboo ones, but when those proved a bit too weak I got some coated steel stakes of various sizes from the garden center. Placing these along the sidewalk, I run some twine between them and create a make-shift fence that keeps things from falling over where they aren't wanted. After the strong storms and rain yesterday, a few other things were starting to get in the way of the walk to the front door, which would inconvenience mail carriers and those making deliveries. Since delivery is more important in these days of sheltering in place, I added more of this barrier design to hold those things out of the way as well.

(One of the things that makes this necessary is that all my plants grow crazily taller than they should. Ohio spiderwort typically grows about two feet tall. Mine is about three. Brown-eyed Susan you typically see one to three feet tall. Mine grows five to six feet tall. These aren't outside the known ranges for the plants, but it is unusual. And it mucks with my planning. When you plan for something to be about three feet tall and it grows to six, the place you planted it may not be wholly appropriate.)

Today also started the process of doing a reset on the backyard landscape. Since we had two large dogs for 12 years, doing any formal landscaping in the back yard was doomed to failure. The best I did was keep the undesirable plants down to a dull roar. So now I'm looking to expand the native plantings on the property into the backyard, but doing so in a way that leads to a more organized aesthetic feel. This starts with sheet composting the entire back yard.

The process of sheet composting involves mowing down anything that currently exists, covering the area with of few inches of compost, soaking that with molasses water, covering it with layers of cardboard, and topping it all off with additional inches of mulch. The idea is that the sugar feeds the microbes in the compost, helping them break down anything else at the bottom of the stack, including anything that tries growing back. The cardboard blocks out any sunlight so new things don't germinate and old things have a harder time growing back. And the top mulch keeps it all moist so the composting does its work and allows anything germinating on top to be removed fairly easily. This all sits and cooks for the rest of the year and then we plant new things in the spring.

We're planning to talk to a landscape architect that specializes in native plants to work out what to plant. We've got the first meeting scheduled for early July, but her actual design schedule is booked until November. Given the overall timing of the plan, that seems like it will work out well.

The first step of the sheet composting (mowing everything down and removing things like fallen tree limbs) was completed today. The layering on of compost, cardboard, and mulch is planned for Friday.

Mary and I are now owners of a 2019 Nissan Leaf EV. Refinancing the mortgage opened up some room in the budget and Mary’s 2013 Hyundai was atarting to hit that stage of “$500 repair every six months or so” that comes with age. We’ve had the car about a week now and are liking it quite a bit. Being last-year’s model we got a significant discount over the new price and this have a top-of-the-line model with all the bells and whistles.

The niftiest thing in my mind is what Nissan calls e-pedal. Acceleration and deceleration are controlled by a single pedal; let up on the “gas” and the regenerative breaking kicks in, slowing you smoothly to a full stop. It takes some getting used to and there is a separate pedal for the mechanical brakes, but it’s surprisingly easy to adjust to. It’s optional and can be turned on or off as one likes, but it feels very cool to get an extra little battery boost by slowing down.

So far, the biggest shift is plugging in the car when home. During our remodel, we had a 220 volt service provisioned to the garage on the theory that we would get an electric car “someday.” We just didn’t realize someday would be now. So we need to get the actual outlet for that installed and in the meantime are using standard 110 to charge the car. This takes a lot longer, so Mary’s commute ends up draining the battery down further than is comfortable over the course of a few days. Fortunately, she works near the dealership we purchased the car from and can stop in to use their DC fast charger to top up if needed.

Here between the campuses of the U of MN, we got 4-6” of snow. Did my neighborly job of running my snowblower the length of the block to clear the west side sidewalk. As I was doing the pass back to my house on the corner, someone else was doing the opposite side of the street. As I finished the hand shoveling, someone was running a snowblower to clear the driveway of the neighbor to the north and starting on that sidewalk. He stopped to come over and ask if I had done “his side” of the sidewalk. Turns out he typically does the east side, so was a mix of pleased and put out that someone else had accomplished the work. I have a pretty nice neighborhood.

As part of the remodeling project, I secured a home equity line of credit from my credit union. One of the complicating factors there is that when Ericka and I bought the house, we created a life estate in the house for her. Which means basically that I've always been sole "owner" of the house, but that as long as she lived I couldn't sell it without her consent. This provided her the security of stable housing even I turned out to be jerk or, in the case of my untimely passing, my inheritors turned out to be jerks.

So the title to the house had Ericka's name attached to it and a search turned up two judgements against Ericka that were attached to the house. Well, not actually to Ericka. To people named Ericka Johnson. One had a different middle name, and one had an address in Brooklyn Park where my Ericka never lived.

So I sent the credit union an official copy of Ericka's death certificate. (In spite of the typical advice to get as more copies of these than you think you'll need, this is the first time I've used one in the five years since Ericka's death.) That cleared the way for the line of credit to get issued, which included the necessity of Mary signing the documents because Minnesota law requires such things to be signed by spouses.

Now that we're well into the project, I've spent out most of the line of credit to pay the contractors. I have the option to lock in the rate for the line of credit for free within the first 30 days, which expires this week. I can do it later as well, but it will cost me $50 to do so. So I figure rates are pretty low, the future is uncertain, saving $50 is saving $50, so let's lock in the rate.

Call the credit union. To get my request recorded and processed, they have to verify my identity. Ask me for my member number (I have it). Ask who direct deposits into my account (my employer, with new name since the merger in June). Ask for the name of other persons on the account. Umm. No one? Wait, Mary signed the line of credit is it her? No, hold on. Ericka was listed on this account, her? Yes, that's who they were looking for. I inform the person of Ericka's passing and that she should be removed. Representative is apologetic, expresses formal condolences, works to get me to the right person.

Get to my loan rep, they draw up the documents and send them to me to sign electronically. I will then have to bring a printed and signed original for their files.

First attempt to access requires a password that I haven't been provided. Quick email and I have the password. Access the document, go to sign and this is where I sigh. Then I send this email:

Hi [representative],

I was able to access the document today, but the signature line has my name and Ericka Johnson’s name. The box next to Ericka’s name is checked to indicate that she’s signing and that is the space that is available to be signed.

As we established when setting up the home equity line of credit, Ericka is dead. (You should have the official death certificate on file.) Thus Ericka will not be signing this document. In fact, her name should not appear on the document as she is not (and due to her deceased condition cannot be) party to the agreement.

So can we get the document corrected and re-issued?

Also, if we can get references to Ericka removed from my account, I’d appreciate not being reminded of her passing every time I interact with [credit union]. Thanks.

The representative was apologetic and re-issued the document, without Ericka's name. We plan to roll the various loans into a refinance of the mortgage once the remodeling is finished and my credit union is actually really easy to work with and has very good rates. I'm hoping we won't have to bring Ericka into that process.

I've been home the last two days. Monday I was too sick to work and Tuesday I worked from home. (Tuesday was partial recovery, partial waiting for an appointment that never arrived.) One of the side benefits of this was I was able to oversee the installation of the sheetrock on the portions of the remodel that had been demolished. Things look like actual rooms now!

Many pics follow ( after the cut showing progress… )Next up for me is moving into the basement. They'll be ready to start refinishing the floors by late next week so everything must go! (I explained to our contractor that after my father retired from the Navy, he built the house we lived in until I graduated high school. It being a sweat equity sort of job meant that once the outside was closed to the weather, we moved into the basement. I lived in the basement of an unfinished house for about a year and half. One month and change won't bother me.) Mary closes on her townhouse sale in November, right before Thanksgiving. Then she'll be moving in and will have to suffer with basement living for about three weeks until we can move back in to a completely fresh first floor.

In addition to the remodeling, we're also integrating Mary's young cat Grady and my elderly cat Domino. They've been sharing the house for a couple of weeks now, initially with Grady segregated to the back bedroom, but now sharing the space not taken over by construction. Domino is about half Grady's weight, but she has about three times the fight. She's been terrorizing the punk who has learned to run from her quickly.

They are kept in 2' x 3' x 4' cages in the bedroom while daily construction activities are going on and I'm at work. Pheromone diffuser has been deployed so there is hope that the hostility will tone down over time. They can at least be in the same room now, as long as Grady doesn't do much more than sleep on a chair far away from Domino. Movement or proximity trigger growling and then he usually slinks under the couch or bed to avoid her.

Started the actual demolition of things today. (Yesterday was "mobilization," which basically amounted to "what are we wrecking, and where does it go after?")

So here are photos of the work in progress. Today was about getting the existing cabinets and appliances out of the kitchen and starting on getting the rest of things down to the studs. (These are all links to larger versions this time.)

First up, the view from the entrance.



Then the view from the hallway (covered by the plastic in the back-left of the prior image.



And finally, a view from where the windows are, just in front of where the cabinets were on that wall.



Cool things to me include the framing on the pocket door that's by the entrance and the amount of metal conduit used to bring the electrical wires in. (These days, the wire would be visible and routed in roughly the same areas instead of enclosed in the metal tubing.)