whooooooooooo woooooooooooooooo

[darkoshi]

Sitting here with the windows open, listening to the wind blow. Crickets chirp. Neighbor's attic twirlyfan squeaking.

Some hours ago the local news channel showed a segment on "High winds reach Florence". The town of Florence, SC. I'd been waiting for someone to make note that Hurricane Florence will be passing through the town of Florence, ooh, aah! The news caster for that segment appeared female, but in a gender-non-conforming way. Like short haircut, man style, no make-up, and baseball cap. That's unusual for a news caster around here, even for someone dressed for a tropical storm.

I made a batch of gluten-free cornbread from a box-mix. It tastes good but makes the inside of my mouth feel puckery, dry, unpleasant. And gave me a blister on my tongue. The same thing happened a while back with some vegan corn dogs, which have a cornmeal batter on the outside. But I haven't noticed that with other cornmeal products, or even store-bought ready-made vegan cornbread from Whole Foods. So I wonder what triggers it. Maybe it happens when the oil used in the batter is too old.

The wind is only about 20mph, based on the weather page. Intermittent, based on my hearing.
The rain hasn't started yet.

I used mortar for the first time yesterday. Now I have an enhanced respect for bricklayers. I added 2 rows of bricks to the short brick walls around 2 of my crawlspace vents which are at a below-ground level. 4 bricks per row; 16 bricks total. First, I bought a 10 lb bag of mortar mix, thinking that was the perfect size for my small little job. But it was barely enough for half of my bricks. Q went to buy me another bag, but the store didn't have any more 10 lb bags, and he bought me a 60 lb bag. Damn heavy. I think my work turned out pretty well, considering it was my first time. The first batch I mixed up was too dry and didn't stick well (so much for following the amounts listed in the instructions). So I made the 2nd batch extra wet to make up for it, and squeezed it in the cracks over the too dry stuff. A mess, but it looks like it is hardening ok.

Comments

[randomdreams]

I have never mortared bricks and am impressed that you just went out and did it! My experience with mortar-like materials is that you want them almost too dry to spread, like very crunchy peanut butter, for hardness later, but I've found that very hard to work with if I need to get it to adhere to things. (I was packing it into forms.)

[darkoshi]

I got the idea of doing it while taking a shower in the morning. 3 years ago when we had a prolonged rain event, water leaked through the vents into my crawlspace. That's not nearly the worst that can happen (and I had some attic leaks too), but I like my crawlspace to stay dry.

I scooped my leftover wet mortar into 2 small aluminum pans, to make some stone blocks. I got that idea from a YouTube video where they were using mortar to make decorative paving blocks.

[marahmarie]

I was once friends with a guy who described his job as "slinging mud". All he did all day long was mix and spread mortar. At the time (I was just 30) I was all like, "Oh, that sounds easy" only to get a retort something to the effect of if I ever wanted a really hard day's work, just try doing what he does.

But I believed him.

[darkoshi]

Yep, it looks a lot easier than it is.