The Big Pause - Day 34 - April 14 - Final Install of the Hoop

It was the first day back to work after the long weekend and Kerry's turn to go into the school. I had yet another work from home day which is in some ways good and some ways not so good. I get about the same amount of work done but it seems to take longer. Luckily there is no commute so I end up with the same amount of time after work. There is also one other benefit. At work I would typically get up periodically and go into the kitchen or the copy room so that I'm not sitting all day. Now I can get up and go do something useful around the house like watering. Sometimes even during conference calls as long as I'm on mute.

We had poured the concrete last Friday but had to wait for it to cure before we installed the post and hoop. We had everything pre-assembled and just had to put in a few more bolts. Getting the pole up was a one person job but they recommend four capable adults for installing the backboard. Two to lift it and two to install the bolts. We did not have access to four adults so we had to improvise. Luckily I had some scaffolding that I could use. We set up one level and made it tall enough to rest the backboard on. Once we lifted it up in a few steps it was simple to just align the arms and install the bolts. Carter has spent hours on it so far. The only drawback was that it faces West so it is a bit tough to play in the evening without sunglasses.

The Big Pause - Day 33 - April 13 - The Goose Egg

It's Easter Monday on a four day weekend and we didn't have much planned today. Not surprisingly, Kerry managed to find something to keep her busy. Our corner cabinet in the kitchen had gotten out of hand and I came into the kitchen to find she had pulled everything out. When we had the kitchen renovated we were suckered into the luxury lazy Susan or something like that but in hindsight it was a waste of money. As soon as something falls off it doesn't turn and we didn't really store anything that we needed frequent access to. It made sense to take the opportunity to remove the lazy Susan and just use it as a cupboard for deep storage. Now that it's out we have a lot more room. We also put the less frequent items on the lower shelf to minimize how often we need to get things from there. Kerry also took apart the napkin and disposable kitchen supply shelf. We had a lot of plastic cutlery that came with different dinner orders. She'll take it all to school once things start up again.

We executed the next step of the basketball hoop. Concrete is still setting but it was safe to install the pole as long as we didn't shake it. The pole went up easy but the hard part is going to be installing the backboard. It recommends 4 capable adults which we are short on but luckily I have some scaffolding to help us out. It's tall enough that we'll be able to rest the backboard on it while we attach the arms. Tomorrow we will finish things off by installing the backboard, hoop, net and peripherals. Carter is very excited.

Speaking of Carter, he had a bit of a mishap. He's been playing basketball indoors and at one point was playing with the ball and the dog and somehow hit his head on the exercise bike. He's almost as tall as Kerry and we need to get this basketball hoop set up so he has room to do this sort of thing outdoors. I think it looks worse that it is. He hit a very sharp point so it was more of a focused goose egg then anything that might cause a concussion. Good thing, because it's not a fun time to try to go to the hospital.

The Big Pause - Day 32 - April 12 - Easter Sunday

It's Easter Sunday and for the first time in  many years we were not in Oliver for Easter. Somehow the Easter Bunny knew we weren't there and managed to hide eggs for the kids. She put the order in to Purdy's chocolate just in time for Easter. Surprisingly, Purdy's is not providing any sort of break on shipping. Most companies are shipping for free above a certain amount but I guess they are already well established on the delivery side of things.

Even though we weren't having family over for dinner we till planned on having a big family dinner. Kerry made the Turkey, stuffing. potatoes, carrots and gravy and Callie made buns and a cheesecake for desert. We had dinner early around 4:30 because our plan was to deliver COVID Easter packages to all the people who are in quarantine alone. Kerry was careful in packaging the food and we delivered it all in paper bags and dropped it off on peoples doorsteps via no contact delivery with the 'Schuber Eats' delivery service. The package included food, chocolate and of course a roll of toilet paper. Although this wasn't exactly following the strict 'stay at home' rule we felt it was important to make sure everyone got a turkey dinner and to be honest, it's unlikely we're going to solve COVID completely anytime soon. We're going to have to sort out ways of interacting with people in a low risk, low contact way. We might be doing this for the next 12 to 18 months.

In the evening I finished up putting the mantle back together and getting it painted. It's always been white and I just had to add a 2 inch riser on it so it was a pretty easy job. I went with spray paint for painting which allowed me to touch up some old nicks and scratches and paint the riser. My shop is not exactly a good place to do spray painting but if I blow all the dust to one side of the shop and cover things in the immediate area and then have the air filter running I'm able to get an okay finish. It's much easier to spray something like this rather than paint all the nooks and crannies.

The Big Pause - Day 31 - April 11 - Assembling the Hoop

It's day two of the four day weekend. We have to wait at least 72 hours before we can finish installing the basketball hoop however there were several steps we could do to get prepared. The first started with a step that I'm sure had the neighbors wondering what the hell I was up to. The post for the hoop comes in two sections but rather than just bolting two sections together the bottom section is crimped at the top and the top section slides over it very tightly. The instructions called the next step 'slamming' and it involved putting the two sections together and then lifting up both sections and slamming them on the ground. The top section had to move about 3 inches and only dropped down about 1/8 of an inch each time. There was a very large metal slamming sound with each step. After the 'slamming' we assembled the arms that hold the backboard and set it aside. We will probably install the pole on Monday and then attach the backboard on Tuesday.

In the afternoon I worked on getting ready to finish up our new fire place install. Delays in the gas hookup and fire place install meant my part got pushed back past the point of me being interested in it so it's a bit delayed now. The existing mantle is still in excellent shape but we had to remove it for the install and I have to raise it 3 inches so that the combustible parts are far enough away from the heat. We also had to remove the hearth which was ugly pink tile. When we replace our floor we'll avoid having a hearth at all but for now I built a white hearth that covers the existing hole.

The Big Pause - Day 30 - April 10 - Donating Blood

It's the first day of  a four day weekend today. Every day is starting to feel like Groundhog Day now. I hadn't been down tot he farm to do any gardening yet this year so I headed down first thing in the morning. I don't think I'll spend much time with the other volunteers this year since they are all over 70. I was happy to see some people had been out already and most of the beds were in pretty good shape. There was still a few areas for me to work on and the weather was perfect for gardening. 15 degrees and sunny.

On my way home I stopped at Rona to pick up concrete. It was a contact free shopping experience as I went to the back and picked up the concrete myself with no one near me and then paid without getting out of the car. I needed 14 bags of concrete for the hole. I was glad I had purchased a small mixer last year. Made the whole job a lot easier. I got a bit better with my finishing. I managed to keep the mix less wet and had enough time in the day to let it dry a bit before tooling it. I was quite happy with the finished product.

Before the final finish on the concrete I went and donated blood. I was met at the door by a nurse in full PPE who asked me COVID19 questions and had me sanitize my hands. There was tape everywhere keeping people six feet apart, bottled water instead of cups and everywhere you touched a nurse would follow behind and sanitize. They were busy which was good to see.

I completely wasted my evening by renting Cats. I knew it was bad and I though I wanted to watch it because it was bad but unfortunately it was so bad it went past the bad that you would want to ever watch. Don't watch it. 

The Big Pause - Day 29 - April 9 - Digging a Big Hole

Carter finished digging his hole. I admittedly helped him a bit. I used the shovel to trim the edges and loosen up the soil and then he had to get the dirt out which really is the hard part. He's lucky I like digging holes. We're now ready to pour concrete tomorrow.

I went for a bike ride after work and I biked by the Kilden residence to see if there was anyone in the back yard. I was lucky to see Uncle Corey and Uncle Ryan starting to get the yard ready for summer. I chatted with both of them for a bit over the fence. Uncle Ryan seemed quite excited to see me. I imagine he's getting quite bored without any school or visits. Apparently his teaching assistant is still providing some one on one service remotely though I imagine it's tough to do anything too significant.

The Big Pause - Day 28 - April 8 - Baby Grass

Kerry was working from home today and we had several items planned for Carter. He was baking a cake in the afternoon with Kerry and he started work on digging the hole for his new basketball hoop. It's much easier to motivate kids when they get something out of it in the end. The hole is a two foot by two foot square on the top and then a 16 inch hole that goes down three feet. I marked out the hole and got his tool set of shovels ready and then sent him free. He needs to work on his technique because he only got down about 10 inches  on this first day. His cake turned out amazing. A red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Perfection.

My grass has started to come in. I had to reseed a large area due to the raccoon damage and I started the grass as soon as the last apparent frost had taken place. I wasn't sure if I had done it too early but grass is funny. It spends the first couple weeks growing down and then suddenly starts shooting up. Very satisfying to see it coming in everywhere.

I went for a bike ride after work and went through Bear Creek park. There were quite a few pairs of people working out. It think they might have been trainers and trainees. Not good physical distancing.