Quite The Weather Here...
It never really ceases to amaze me how the weather in Minnesota can be. For that matter, the weather anywhere, but I happen to live in Minnesota so I choose to pick on it.
We've had a really dreary day again today. It's rained off-and-on throughout the day, but been overcast and very windy throughout the day. So that pretty much killed off any thought of doing outside stuff (or even wanting to be outside). Which is fine by me, but there's still stuff to do (like mow the lawn and whatnot) that is only going to get worse. It was so windy tonight that it just recently (around 10:45PM) actually blew over the grill outside. I've never seen wind do that to the grill.
It's supposed to rain heavier tomorrow, at least for us through the midday. I just hope that whatever rain we get comes in moderation and isn't a complete flood like the last time. This stuff always has to come just as the basement is finally drying out. I will be glad when I get the sump basin business installed, because at least that should relieve the hydraulic pressure underneath the floor (the entire reason we have water come up through the basement floor). I can deal with periodic seepage through the walls in a few select spots when we get a good rain -- but the business through the floor I have no control over...hopefully until this sump project is done.
Anyway, since it was raining out today, I decided to try helping my basement issue a bit by diverting as much rainwater as possible. I did this by temporarily rigging up some stuff to extend the downspouts of the gutters. I intend to do this in a better-looking and more permanent way in the future, but it seemed to work quite well today. I didn't see much evidence of water seeping in (the basement walls) on a few normal spots where it generally would when we get a rain like this.
So I spent part of my day today backing up and removing some of the old captured video I had on my video hard drive. I created two data DVD's of material, and removed at least two DVD's worth (size wise) of material that I no longer needed. I did this so that I could work on transferring some camcorder video to the computer and edit it to be burned on DVD for archival. I still need to make a data DVD backup of some of my other items on the computer (but that's a different day project), but I did actually get all of the camcorder video I wanted transferred to my computer. So now I'll have to edit it and get it on DVD for use later. Should be neat. And I get to play around with making video DVD's again.
In other somewhat random news, I received an email from my German family today (well, it was actually from my German mother). I'd not heard from [her] in some time -- probably several months (it's been within the last year, though)...or sometime around Christmas if I recall. Anyway, she'd finally looked through all of Kirstin's pictures and decided that she was indeed my daughter. Now, she's never met Beth personally, but she obviously thinks that based upon the pictures Kirstin bears more resemblance to me. Fair enough.
I noticed that she had a new email address in this last email. So, being the curious one I am, I checked out the website of the email domain. She has apparently started her own Japanese-style massage practice out of her home. I'm not as off-hand fluent in German as I once was (as far as reading goes), so as I've not yet taken the time to fully translate everything, this info is based upon what I quickly gleaned from the website.
One thing that was very obvious, though -- what used to be their living room has changed significantly (that's where the table and workspace is set up). She has two pictures available, and it has most definitely changed from the time when I was there (more or less eight years ago right now). So that's cool to see, and based upon their home's layout I can understand why she would have transformed the living room space into her practice office.
So anyway, it's now midnight and I'm heading for bed. Until next time...
--MZ