Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Closet mold II

There's no mold outside the drywall.

I pulled down all of the drywall inside the closet, and there isn't any sign of moisture anywhere. This is a good thing, but confusing. It means that all of the moisture inside the closet, and there is evidence of a substantial amount, came from inside the closet. A closer look at the ceiling area reveals a large, insulation free, gap right in the front corner of the attic. Apparently, moisture has been evaporating from the coats, wafting upwards on drafts of warm air, coming in contact with really cold drywall, and condensing on the surface. This also is a good thing, because it is easy to fix: proper redistribution of the insulation above the closet=problem solved. While I'm at it, I will take the time to insulate the walls as well, which will improve the overall comfort level inside the house.

Now the hard part: actually doing the work.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Closet Mold

I have to rip out all the drywall in the coat closet in my front hall.

I guess there's been some moisture coming in, or building up at the front corner of the house. Inside our coat closet, the old drywall is black with mold in places. I'm going to have to rip out all of the old drywall. Then I'm going to have to spray every surface with a 5:1 water/bleach solution twice a day for at least a week to try and get rid of all the mold. Then I'm going to have to figure out where the moisture is coming from, or it'll all just come back.

Today, I pulled all of our coats out of the closet. My god! There's only three of us. I had to make four trips up to the back bedroom with an armfull of coats each time. They all smell musty, too. I also made several trips with arms full of shoes. Then I had to pull down all of the games we never play. Let's see... Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, Scruples, Balderdash, Scrabble, Mastermind, Passout (had that one for a long time). Also, three or four jigsaw puzzles that have never been opened. Two bicycle helmets (nobody in this house rides a bike, even Matthew). Then I tented the entry hall in plastic to keep the dust enclosed. Tomorrow I get to start breaking drywall.

Sunday, July 11, 2004

Tennis Elbow.

I have tennis elbow.

Yes, the dreaded Lateral Epicondylitis. "But Paul," I hear you say. "You don't even play tennis." You speak the truth. And even if i did play tennis, I've got it in my left elbow, and I'm right handed. After careful consultation with my doctor and physiotherapist, I have concluded that curling is the culprit. "Curling?" you expostulate amazedly, "but it's July." And once again you are correct. I haven't been curling for three months. Nevertheless.

Treatment of lateral epicondylitis is as follows:

1) Rest. Discontinue the activity that causes the pain. -Done

2) Ice. Reduce inflammation in the affected area, thereby facilitating healing. -Done

3) Physiotherapy. Treatments include ultrasound, interferential current, friction massage, and accupuncture. -I'm tryin' 'em all.

Apparently, this condition can take anywhere from two months to two years to heal fully. Two years? Two years! I want to be golfing by August. And I definitely, definitely want to be ready to curl again in October.

A funny thing happened...

During my first physiotherapy appointment, the therapist introduced me to interferential current therapy. She placed four electrodes, in wet felt envelopes, on my arm. She then turned up the current flow until I experienced a mild discomfort, and a low level involuntary contraction of my arm muscles. She then indicated the dial used to turn the current level up and down and suggested that if I became used to the current level, I could turn it up by myself, and she left. Well! I started looking around for the cameras. As far as I'm concerned, attaching electrodes to someone's body and giving them unsupervised control of the current flow through them is not physiotherapy. It's a university psychology experiment. I studiously ignored the dial until the treatment was over.

Pissed off!

I just spent the last half an hour composing an entry to this here journal thingy, complete with all the requesite links, and pictures, only to have my connection time out. When I clicked on submit, I got a message saying that only the journal owner (duh, me) was allowed to perform that operation. When I clicked "back" the form had completely reset. I've lost the whole thing.

Blogging lesson #1: Always save your entry to a text file, or at least copy it to the clipboard, prior to trying to submit.

Grrrr!

Monday, July 5, 2004

Playing tourist downtown

   On Friday I went downtown with my family to play tourist for the day. We started out at the St. Lawrence Market, considered to be among the best farmer's markets world wide. We spent a couple of hours browsing the market, stopping at stalls like Rube's Rice, where we bought some aged basmati rice, and some wild Canadian rice; and Lively Life Fine Foods, where we bought some whole wheat pastas, and some pesto pastas. We also bought our weekly supply of fruits and veggies, and meat. Prices and quality are excellent. On two steaks, I saved ten dollars over what I would have paid at one of the major grocery chains. Of course, it's an hour drive for us to get there from home, so we can't make a habit of it, but if I lived in the downtown Toronto area, it's where I'd be doing all of my shopping.

   After we finished at the market, we headed over to
the distillery district. The site of the 170 year old Gooderham and Worts distillery has recently been completely renovated and turned into a vibrant arts community featuring galleries, working artist studios, pubs and restaurants, and shops. While we were there, I visited The Mill Street Brewery, a small craft brewery where unique beer styles are brewed in small batches for local consumption. I picked up a mixed sixpack of three of their beers. After I have tried them, you will be able to read what I thought of them at The Man Room.

   Later, we took a drive down to
Cherry Beach, at the foot of Cherry St. They've done an impressive clean up job of that area, and apparently, the water is even safe for swimming now. Although the sign said the water temperature was 13C. We chose to stay on the beach.

   On the way home from downtown I was reminded how great Toronto is from the point of view of greenery. This picture is a view from the passenger seat of the car driving north on the Don Valley Parkway in the heart of downtown Toronto.

   Cool hey?

Adding comments and how to contact me.

   It has been brought to my attention that the add comments link brings up an AOL sign-in screen for non-AOL users. Does this mean that only AOL users can leave comments? No. It does mean that you need an AOL screen name and password in order to do so. If you have a Compuserve, Netscape, or AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) account, you already have an AOL screen name and password. If you do have one, but want to post a comment anonymously, I was probably going to delete your comment, and ban your ass anyway, so don't lose any sleep over it. If you don't have an AOL screen name, and have no intention of ever getting one (can't say as I blame you) you can simply send me mail to: PLittle(at)aol(dot)com.