Monday, Rainy/Sunny Monday....
Well, it started out cloudy with expected rain/thunderstorms. By lunch time it was sunny. When I left work there was a big storm cell to the northeast and a smaller one to the west. It rained about 5:30 at my house and at 7 pm the sun came out again. 
As of 8 pm, we're having a thunderstorm and lots of rain. I didn't think it was possible, but the weather in TN is even more erratic than the weather in IL!
Drippy drippy
I discovered last night that the leak around the plumbing vent pipe flashing above my bathroom is still there. The drip rate during heavy rain is about 1 drip every 5 seconds. But it has to be raining really hard for it to drip at all. This is a big improvement over the previous condition when it was dripping every 2 seconds. I climbed up there tonight to examine the situation. I can see a small hole on the south side of the opening. It'll be easy enough to fix once the weather dries out again. As a stopgap measure, I've put down one of those big trays you put under a washing machine to catch water. Not a perfect solution, but at least the water isn't hitting the drywall now and won't cause more damage there. There's a spot on the ceiling that's about to fall in already. It really doesn't need much encouragement. I'll get up on the roof this weekend and re-caulk the flashing.
House of Mouse
While I was up in the attic, I looked for the bait pack I left almost a month ago as a test for current mouse activity. I had to dig a bit for it as the cable guy buried it under some insulation when getting the cable splitter turned on. It's been eaten. So that answers my question about whether or not there are critters up there now. I'll get some more bait later this week and keep baiting. I want to go through up there and rake the insulation over a bit and disrupt the tunnels. The bait pack under the kitchen sink hasn't been touched, so that's a good sign.
Chillin'
As long as I'm in the attic messing with the mice, I will also need to look over the HVAC ducts and make sure there aren't holes in them. The spot I thought had a hole in it the last time I was up there was already taped and not actually leaking cold air (conveniently the A/C had kicked on when I was checking). I also need to change the furnace filter, now that I think of it.
Mary Mary Quite Contrary....
The garden is about done growing. The vegetable garden, that is. The cherry tomato plant still has fruit ripening, but it's at the tail end of production. The regular tomatoes still have green fruit on them and hopefully I'll remember to check the plants more often so I can harvest edible fruit instead of the stuff that's already started to rot. Tonight for dinner I had a huge plate full of fried green tomatoes.
I'm planning how to change beds along the front of the house. I've got some really ambitious ideas. We'll see what I actually get accomplished. For starters, I need to fix that drainage issue, so the moat doesn't develop every time it rains. I think I can do that by re-grading things away from the sidewalk. I don't think I'll need to put in a gravelled area to handle the water, but that's a possibility depending upon how fast the water moves through the bed. Of course, the second motivation for planting flowerbeds is to reduce the area of lawn which needs mowing. I still think flower beds are less work than grass once the beds are established. I'd rather weed than mow. Riding around in circles gets boring. Perhaps that's why the Lawn Ranger precision mowing drill team was created--Guys got bored while mowing. You know, thinking about it, if Dave Barry could be made a member of the Lawn Rangers, it would only be fitting for Red Green to be a member too. It seems like it would be right up his alley.
Back to the workday grind:
Still no luck getting access to the data I'm supposed to be analyzing. I wouldn't care about not having work to do, but I'm running out of other things to do to fill up my time. And I'm starting to worry about the fact that the data are being reported DAILY, which means the backlog gets to be rather sizeable in rather short order.
Today I got to start investigating a possible new case of a reportable communicable disease. This entails making lots of phone calls. Of course, nobody we needed to talk to was available, including the patient's physician who is out of the country on vacation. Fortunately the patient was willing to answer questions and will come in and have a second blood sample drawn in a couple of weeks for a 2nd test to check for changes in antibody titer. Based on questions about disease exposure, I'm not sure we're dealing with an acute infection. The initial, slightly positive antibody test could be antibodies from a prior exposure. Time, and a second sample, will tell.
Where is my brain?
Today's *DOH!* moment: The training I'm doing in Nashville this week is on Wednesday and Thursday, not Thursday and Friday. That means we leave TOMORROW after lunch. Fortunately I figured this out in time to change my hotel reservation. I had it all written down on my calendar correctly. I just had it in my head that it was Thursday and Friday. Maybe because the last day of the month is Thursday. Maybe I just needed more caffeine to get started on a Monday. Maybe I left my brain in my other cranium. I really don't know.
As of 8 pm, we're having a thunderstorm and lots of rain. I didn't think it was possible, but the weather in TN is even more erratic than the weather in IL!Drippy drippy
I discovered last night that the leak around the plumbing vent pipe flashing above my bathroom is still there. The drip rate during heavy rain is about 1 drip every 5 seconds. But it has to be raining really hard for it to drip at all. This is a big improvement over the previous condition when it was dripping every 2 seconds. I climbed up there tonight to examine the situation. I can see a small hole on the south side of the opening. It'll be easy enough to fix once the weather dries out again. As a stopgap measure, I've put down one of those big trays you put under a washing machine to catch water. Not a perfect solution, but at least the water isn't hitting the drywall now and won't cause more damage there. There's a spot on the ceiling that's about to fall in already. It really doesn't need much encouragement. I'll get up on the roof this weekend and re-caulk the flashing.
House of Mouse
While I was up in the attic, I looked for the bait pack I left almost a month ago as a test for current mouse activity. I had to dig a bit for it as the cable guy buried it under some insulation when getting the cable splitter turned on. It's been eaten. So that answers my question about whether or not there are critters up there now. I'll get some more bait later this week and keep baiting. I want to go through up there and rake the insulation over a bit and disrupt the tunnels. The bait pack under the kitchen sink hasn't been touched, so that's a good sign.
Chillin'
As long as I'm in the attic messing with the mice, I will also need to look over the HVAC ducts and make sure there aren't holes in them. The spot I thought had a hole in it the last time I was up there was already taped and not actually leaking cold air (conveniently the A/C had kicked on when I was checking). I also need to change the furnace filter, now that I think of it.
Mary Mary Quite Contrary....
The garden is about done growing. The vegetable garden, that is. The cherry tomato plant still has fruit ripening, but it's at the tail end of production. The regular tomatoes still have green fruit on them and hopefully I'll remember to check the plants more often so I can harvest edible fruit instead of the stuff that's already started to rot. Tonight for dinner I had a huge plate full of fried green tomatoes.
I'm planning how to change beds along the front of the house. I've got some really ambitious ideas. We'll see what I actually get accomplished. For starters, I need to fix that drainage issue, so the moat doesn't develop every time it rains. I think I can do that by re-grading things away from the sidewalk. I don't think I'll need to put in a gravelled area to handle the water, but that's a possibility depending upon how fast the water moves through the bed. Of course, the second motivation for planting flowerbeds is to reduce the area of lawn which needs mowing. I still think flower beds are less work than grass once the beds are established. I'd rather weed than mow. Riding around in circles gets boring. Perhaps that's why the Lawn Ranger precision mowing drill team was created--Guys got bored while mowing. You know, thinking about it, if Dave Barry could be made a member of the Lawn Rangers, it would only be fitting for Red Green to be a member too. It seems like it would be right up his alley.
Back to the workday grind:
Still no luck getting access to the data I'm supposed to be analyzing. I wouldn't care about not having work to do, but I'm running out of other things to do to fill up my time. And I'm starting to worry about the fact that the data are being reported DAILY, which means the backlog gets to be rather sizeable in rather short order.
Today I got to start investigating a possible new case of a reportable communicable disease. This entails making lots of phone calls. Of course, nobody we needed to talk to was available, including the patient's physician who is out of the country on vacation. Fortunately the patient was willing to answer questions and will come in and have a second blood sample drawn in a couple of weeks for a 2nd test to check for changes in antibody titer. Based on questions about disease exposure, I'm not sure we're dealing with an acute infection. The initial, slightly positive antibody test could be antibodies from a prior exposure. Time, and a second sample, will tell.
Where is my brain?
Today's *DOH!* moment: The training I'm doing in Nashville this week is on Wednesday and Thursday, not Thursday and Friday. That means we leave TOMORROW after lunch. Fortunately I figured this out in time to change my hotel reservation. I had it all written down on my calendar correctly. I just had it in my head that it was Thursday and Friday. Maybe because the last day of the month is Thursday. Maybe I just needed more caffeine to get started on a Monday. Maybe I left my brain in my other cranium. I really don't know.
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