Cody’s blog

Yesterday was a bit disjointed, but I got some things done. I cleaned the back room, which included cleaning out the piles of stuff in the inbox tray and the stackable open-front baskets I had in here. I wanted to use the baskets under the sink in the bathroom, since there’s no longer a shelf in there. They fit really well, which is good, because now I don’t have to go out and try to find something else to use in there. I also went through all the stuff I’d pulled out from under the bathroom and kitchen sinks, threw away what I didn’t want and put the rest back under the sinks.

I’d thought about doing a major vacuuming–sweeping–scrubbing floors of the entire house, but decided against it, because I’ve still got a squirrel in here, leaving its little leavings all over the place. I borrowed a live trap from a woman at work and set it up yesterday afternoon, with peanut butter for bait, and am hoping to catch it soon. But I figured I might as well wait until after the squirrel’s out of here before cleaning the floors. I did vacuum in the back room, which sorely needed it. Ahh! It’s nice to have a clean, mostly neat room to hang out in. I get tired of stepping over stacks of books and newspapers. Every time I clean, I vow not to let things pile up so much, and every time, well, they go ahead and do. But I’ll try again.

I ended up with a full garbage can full of junk to throw away. And stacks of cardboard to recycle. And I still feel as though I’ve barely made a dent. Oh well, if I can really keep on working on projects and housework at least one day a week, I’ll eventually get the clutter under control. My problem usually is that after maybe six weeks at most, I run out of steam and stop doing the work and the clutter takes over again. I’ve been doing pretty well lately, though. I’ve kept up my energy for quite a while this go-round. Let’s see, I think it’s been… five weeks? now. And I’m still going strong. So maybe I’ve finally broken through the barrier. I have been feeling more energetic lately. My half-marathon training is going well, and my speed has increased. I must be doing something right!

The other thing that got accomplished yesterday was that I did the service on my generator. I hadn’t planned to do it yesterday, but it’s been running rough lately, and yesterday it was very rough and hard to start, and since I’d gone down early, around 4 pm, to start the pump, I decided to go ahead and change the oil, and replace the air filter and the spark plugs. I would have replaced the oil filter, too, but I didn’t have one on hand. I should get one and do that, too. I also forgot to clean the spark arrestor, but I’ll try to remember to do that sometime this weekend as well. It didn’t take too long, but it would have gone even faster if I’d been able to 1) find the bag with the spare air filter and spark plugs in it sooner, and 2) figure out where the freaking spark plugs were! Sheesh. After I finished, though, it started up with a zoom! and ran really well, so it was long past due for servicing.

After I finished the generator, I went online and found another maintenance kit (includes air filter, two spark plugs with wrench, oil filter, and a few other things I don’t need, like a fuel filter, but it’s still easier and probably cheaper buying the kit than all the bits separately) on eBay for $23.95. Cheapest non-eBay one was closer to $50. So I bought one on eBay, of course! Will be good to have one on hand for the next time.

Now I need to do all the same stuff for Mom’s generator. I’ve changed the oil a couple of times, but haven’t done a full service since I moved it up to her place.

I got an email from Curtis yesterday saying they were still figuring out how to automate my generator, but they would schedule someone to come and finish the work asap. That’s good news. I will be so glad to finally have that done.