Daily - March 2, 2026

Previously…

Today’s recap

We somehow didn’t have any work scheduled for today, so I took full advantage of the nice weather and a day off to get a ton of projects done around the house.

After breakfast I was dressed and ready to work. First, I stared on the windows. Our house faces west and we have two small, square windows that get blasted with sun every morning. My plan with these windows is to put a board over the outside of the window to block the sun so it is not so bright and prevent it from heating up the house in the summer. I learned recently that if you block a window from the inside it can cause it to become stained a reddish color and could even cause the window to crack. The plan for today was to cut the two plywood boards and then paint them white, the same color as the house trim. This way the covers don’t stand out too much and maybe my HOA won’t complain.

Once those were cut and painted I moved onto one of the south facing downstairs window. This window is right next to one of the gorls school desk and they blinded by the sun. It is another window that causes heat to get into the house during the summer. We have an outdoor shade that goes over it, but the wind will destroy the shade. I cut a couple of cross boards that will fix the shade getting wind whipped.

Next up is getting the hose bibs and sprinkler system turned on. The weather isn’t right for the sprinkler system, but I like to have it on early so when we are ready (typically mid-May) I can start it without much other work. The outside hose bibs are connected to sprinkler system, so when I turn off the sprinkler system it also turns off all the outside water. Back when we bought the house I had this genius idea to convert one of the existing hose bibs into the water connection for the sprinkler system. This required me to remove the hose bib, climb under the house, crawl to the location and install a shut off valve and then adapt it to PVC. The PVC goes through the wall, elbows down to a hose bib, and then continues into the ground to the sprinkler system. This means every time I want to winterize the system, or turn it on for the Spring/Summer, I have to crawl under the house and operate the shutoff valve. Some day I’ll fix this so I don’t have to crawl 30 feet through the crawlspace to get there.

Since the hose is on now, I pressure washed the front door patio furniture and got it set up again. I’m jumping the gun since we will have very few nice days between now and May 1. But, got it done anyway.

Now to the main goal of the day. I needed to get up on the roof and spray for pests, plus apply moss control. Here in the Pacific Northwest we get so much rain moss grows pretty much everywhere. If you let moss grow on your roof it will cause all kinds of problems, from leaks to losing shingles. I also wanted to spray some hotspots for paper wasps. In general I don’t mind them, as long as its a reasonable amount. Some years we have a dozen nests around the house. On my way up the ladder I fixed a section of gutter that was sagging.

This was a two ladder job: One to get on the lower roof and then the other to get on the upper. Brought everything up, sprayed the vents and eaves for pests, then applied a power for the moss which will run down the roof the next time it rains. I timed this application for a day like today and it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Win. Once done with the upper section I started on the lower with the moss treatment. Right when I went to apply the wind kicked up and blew it all over me and I inhaled more than a little. The rest of the day my nose has been burning and sinuses aching. Read the label and some other info to make sure I don’t need to go to the hospital and I think I’m okay. Its been waning all evening, so I think I’m fine. 🤷‍♂️

Cleaned up and then went outside with the gorls for an hour or so. Came in, watched WWE Monday Night Raw, and had dinner.

After dinner I started having a panic attack. I never had these until the last two years. They are happening more frequently and I don’t know what to do. My heath is in complete disrepair. For nearly 25 years I’ve been the sole income for our house and I’ve destroyed my body doing it. Now that bill is coming due. But there’s nothing I can do. If I don’t go to work, we don’t get money. There is literally no one that can fill in on that. I know, I can hear people saying you have to do something or your body will do it for you. I know. Its happening. But, I have zero choice. No one else gets paid for their work in this house. My only option is to work through it and let it destroy me. Every month it gets worse. There’s no safety net. No government program. Hell, even if I could go on disability I have to jump through 1,000 hoops for 40% of my normal income and only for a limited time. There’s nothing else. There’s no options. Its just me. Work until I die.

Look at today. I climbed all over the roof and exposed myself to some nasty chemicals. I don’t the money to hire someone and there’s no one else in the house that can do this stuff. I wore sterile gloves and eye protection. My one problem is I decided not to wear a mask and I got punished for it. I know, stupid mistake. I’m normally really good about this kind of stuff. I cut a corner today and got injured. But, I’m the only one that can do this. I also got a message today from my brother that his truck needs to go into the shop, so we have to postpone our job for tomorrow. Awesome. Its great.

And at no point in time do I do anything fun. Anything relaxing. If I don’t get busy every day then none of this stuff will get done. No one can do any of it and it keeps piling up. I need to do the amount of work I did today 8-10 more times before summer. Can’t hand off any of it. In fact, I go around doing this for everyone else in my family.

I’m doing great.

Projects

No projects today.

Daily gratitude

• The boards for the windows will look decent and came out better than I thought.
• Roof and crawlspace look okay, no extra work at the moment in those places.

Tomorrow’s big thing(s)

I have a RealID appointment so I can get it before the ICE sweeps hit our area.

Loose thoughts

Nothin.

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