My thermometer tells me it’s 90.3 degrees in the shade here at 4pm - and Poulsbo is a marine microclimate, cooler than most surrounding areas that are further inland or less shady.

I don’t even want to think about how hot my second story, southwest facing bedroom is this afternoon!

Bryan and I have been looking for a portable air conditioner for several days, and everywhere we go, they’re sold out. I don’t want a window air conditioner because then I’d lose my window functionality. I can’t see spending $3500 on whole house A/C when we only need it 10-12 days a year here, and then only in a couple rooms of our house, upstairs facing southwest. The cost per use equation just does not make sense.

On top of the heat issue, my allergies are miserable this summer. Having the windows wide open and all fans on high means I’m constantly sneezing, sniffling and sinusy. My HEPA filter does me absolutely no good.

After some creative research, we finally found this portable room air conditioner in stock at Circuit City. We’re going to grab a salad for dinner tonight and then pick it up

Hopefully we’ll sleep in a cool, allergen free room tonight!

Today was an absolutely beautiful spring day in the Northwest – sunny, warm, slight breeze – heavenly. The thermometer hit 60 mid-afternoon and I put on sunscreen.

Bryan was stuck inside teaching a class today, but Zach and I spent the day on yardwork.

First we went and picked up stone from a local landscape supply place to edge Zach’s pond & waterfall project - his “personal swampland”. We chose about a half ton of mica-spangled slate, plus some additional chunky sandstone for building the waterfall. My back will not be speaking to me again for some time.

Then he mowed, and I worked on getting our in-ground irrigation system ready for the season. I moved a sprinkler head, installed some new higher power sprinklers where the standard ones weren’t reaching well enough, and capped one sprinkler off where we’re getting too much water.

The dogs were fascinated by my digging – if they could figure out how to use a shovel without opposable thumbs, they would! They ate dirt, chased worms, bugs and shadows, and had a great time supervising.

I planted tomatoes and pansies (one of my favorite flowers) in containers – and liberally sprinkled edges and shady areas with Slug-go. We should have beautiful iris and hostas this year if I can keep the slugs out of them. I weeded a couple of garden beds, a never-ending battle.

Then I helped Zach with his pond. I started by making him clean up his jobsite! What is it about teens and projects? They don’t seem to mind working among chaos, and making more as they go. I started setting up his waterfall, building a low retaining wall to back it and aligning the weir with the pond. Our pond liner should arrive Monday and we want to be completely ready to lay it.

At that point, my back went on strike, protesting every time I bent or lifted, so I called it a day. Middle age sucks.

I got a hunk o’ meat ready for the grill along with some fresh asparagus, and we fixed a great barbecue dinner when Bryan got home.

I’m so glad it’s spring!

In a related post, I used my time on Shutdown Day to revamp, update, redecorate, reorganize and build shelves for my home office.

This is my home office – where I telecommute, write, make jewelry, etc. (Although hammering and soldering take place in the garage, which is NOT photo ready!) It’s a worthy home for the new Mac.

Jewelry Workstation	Telecommuting central!
Zach’s workstation	My new closet storage.

I spent the morning today setting up my jeweler’s workbench out in the garage. Up until now I’d been working on projects in my den, but I can’t solder on an expensive Ikea desktop.

First, I had to organize and clear out the existing clutter around our workbench. We have a fairly clean, organized home - not the same story in our garage. Pile management would be a kind term for it. Then I had to come up with an organized way to store and set up my jeweler’s tools - I love the little translucent Rubbermaid three tier drawer units, in small and medium sized, plus the traditional garage pegboard tool storage. And, I had to come up with a heat source for the workspace - our double garage is high ceilinged, uninsulated and unheated. We are in the middle of one of the colder Puget Sound winters in recent history, and the oil radiator space heater I toted down barely made a dent in the chill. Finally, lighting was an issue. Did you know that fluorescent lights don’t work properly in the cold - they flicker badly - and that cold butane (in a soldering torch) doesn’t burn nearly as hot?

The second challenge was getting some of the tools set up properly. We like sturdy steel gorilla shelves, and have them lining the garage and set up as workbenches. Gorilla shelves don’t work well with a bench vise or jeweler’s bench block/pin vise, though, because of the depth and curved z-ledge shape of the steel shelf facing. I finally managed to set up the bench vise with creative wood bracing - but had to give up on the block vise and just C-clamp the bench pin (right) to the top of the workbench.

I set up a soldering workstation, a sawing, drilling and fabrication workstation, and a forming/finishing workstation, plus fairly organized storage of all my metalsmithing stuff. I found a little tiny crockpot for soldering pickle and a safe container for etching acid - and I can make up antiquing solution on an as-needed basis. By the time I got through with all of those machinations, it was pretty late in the afternoon.

I’d still like to get a stool for the workbench, and a better heat source if I find a good buy, but I’m happy with my new workspace. I can’t wait to spend more time working on projects out there!

After all that, in a fit of impatience, I dove right into the first project I had in mind - with no sketching, preparation or model making. Mistake! I should have taken the time. After rough cutting the pieces with a piercing saw, I’m unhappy with the proportions. I’m going to have to redo the larger piece, starting fresh with a new piece of metal. It’s not a lot of wasted metal or rework, only 2″ x 3″, just annoying. Next time I’ll sketch first, make a paper model, and measure and mark carefully before putting saw to metal.

I came home the day after Christmas with a nasty flu/cold bug- that’s a picture of one at right, ick! - with achy body, hacking cough, low fever and just plain wiped out. I’ve been holed up at home with a big box of ultra soft Kleenex, working some and vegging some, ever since.

I’m a big believer in lots of rest, plus taking echinacea, zinc and vit C, to help lessen the severity and duration of colds and flu. I really like Odwalla’s C Monster fruit smoothies, and EmergenC Vit C fizzy drink packets, as mid-day vitamin pick-me-ups. I also drink enough peppermint tea to float a boat.

So, finally, this evening I got out of the house for a few minutes - I needed Robitussin DM, cough drops and more C Monster, so we went to the grocery store. It was pathetic how nice a diversion it was just to have that little outing. Hopefully I didn’t pass the plague along.