A Day (or Two) in the Life of Scott Hanno

Welcome back to my life and happy Sunday night to ya! And I survived my first week back after my vacation although it was mighty tough waking up at 5:15am after getting to sleep in the entire week before ..... but I think that it was even tougher on Montie as there were a few morning where I'd have to poke and prod him to get his butt out of bed. And I ended up having to buy a new battery alarm clock as that's the one that actually wakes me up (my regular one is more for a early warning system and snooze purposes) and my old one died after about five years of duty. I bought a new one at Radio Shack and it's ok, it gives me the time and the date and even the temperature of the room on the display - but doesn't show the time that the alarm is set for and to see that you have to take the back off and slide the switch - but for an alarm clock I find it to be a rather annoying feature. Oh well, maybe the next time I'll find one that actually tells you what time the alarm is set for.

And it was another gorgeous weekend around here, I ended up doing sod again although I called two Home Depots and Lowes and they were all out of the stuff but then at the last minute I called Walmart and they had some so I went and got 20 more chucks and planted all of that and think that I should be done with that as all of my spots are covered and now I just need to wait for it to fill in. I also mowed the front yard but the back didn't need it so I blew that off which was a good thing as I probably wouldn't have had time for it any ways. I also still need to put another coat of semi-stain on my patio as it's not quite covered yet, I went to Home Depot again last night as was going to pick up some of the stone gray color to see if I liked that any better but then the guy didn't think that it would cover my blue so I think that I'll just have to live with what I've got now. So if I am keeping it I need to add a second coat as it's not quite covered yet, and you can still see some of the brown that is underneath.

I also decided to have my lawn "core aerated" where they take this machine and pull up plugs to loosen up the ground, my weed guy talked me into it and it's been probably four years since the last time that I had it done so we'll see how that goes. They dropped off some flags the other day so I had to go around and place them where all of the sprinkler heads are located - and that was some fun trying to find a few of those as well. I've also got a dentist appointment this week for my six month check up and I hope that goes well, I bought a new head for my sonicare a couple of weeks ago and that was killing my gums for a while cuz it was so stiff but I think that it did me a lot of good too ...... you know, no pain no gain or something like that! I'll let you know how it goes though, it's going on four years since I've last had to have anything done and still owe it to my trusty Sonicare toothbrush!

Oh, and the other day I was checking my Visa statement on line and find this charge from a internet software company that I didn't recognize so I call them up and they tell me the name and address of some guy in Texas that used my card to buy a gift certificate on line - and even had my pin code thingy that's on the back of my card that he used when he placed the order. Well, at least they rebated the $20 charge back to me but it did freak me out a little so I called and cancelled my card and there hasn't been any activity since ...... I still think that my credit card company messed up and billed me for something he ordered as why would he only spend $20 if he was going to steal my card ..... but then how did he know my pin number too? Things that make you go hmmmm, but I guess that it goes to show that it does help to check your bill frequently.

My nephew is still planning on making the trip and he should be here next Sunday night so if I don't get around to writing than I'm probably doing something with him. Other than that I'm thinking that it should be a fairly normal week - and only four more weeks (I think) and I'll be sucking cocktails down on the beaches of Mexico and can't wait! So I hope you have a great week and I'll be talking with you again sometime down the road ...... stay kewl till then :)

posted by Scott @ 9:51 PM

Dang if this past week didn't just fly right by, I was unofficially on vacation but hung around the house all week and think that I ended up doing too much work as it didn't really seem any different than if I was working. But at least I got everything on my to-do list done and that's the important thing and I'm still pretty well caught up so at least it should make for a smooth day back to work in the morning. I ended up doing all of the things that I never have time to do on just a weekend but stuff that I wanted to do, I trimmed one of my trees out back that had a bunch of broken limbs still hanging on it from last year's storms. I also fixed a couple of my sprinklers and mulched a few planters, trimmed some bushes and de-thatched my lawn ....... four big ole bags of dead grass and leaves later and things are starting to look much better around here too.

I took a picture of my ditch on the side of my house today and I must say that it is finally coming along nicely - and is some different from what I had just one year ago. You can click the pic to get a bigger shot, but sorry if it's still kind of small but I think you can see what I mean ......

The weather was great for just about the entire week, Monday started out a little cloudy and it rained on Tuesday but ever since then it's been perfect - middle 70's and sunshine every day ..... I absolutely love this time of year before it gets so nasty hot and humid that it sucks to even walk outside. One of the afternoons that I was out back breaking up branches I ended up just taking a nap on the lawn soaking up some rays, and it felt pretty good to have nothing better than that to do too.

I also went and got a massage one day which was long overdue as the knots in my neck are getting pretty big and had the deep tissue thing done which is funny, cuz it starts out feeling so great but then she starts abusing me and then it gets downright painful - but all in all I think that I'm better off because of it but need to find the time to go more often as I think that it would make me feel a lot better.

Oh, and one other project that I was working on was to stain my patio concrete, I etched it with this acid stuff and then stained it with this "desert flagstone" colored stuff which was a light brown, but then I didn't like that color so I went back and picked out a "blue boulder" color and that's the color it is now, it still needs a second coat but I'm not sure I like that color any better as it's too blue and might go back and try another color - I think that I'd rather have it look more of a natural color. It does look better though no matter what color it is - well, just cleaning it off looked better than it did before as it was getting to be pretty nasty. I was also thinking of buying a patio table and chairs and looked at Walmart and Home Depot for a set but didn't find anything that I liked so I might just have to keep looking ...... but my old one sure is looking pretty nasty. But then I don't sit out there very often but would like something that looks half way decent so I dunno, we'll see.

Montie loved his vacation too but I think that he's pretty darn worn out from being outside all those days but it's probably better for him than to be sleeping his days away. I guess that's probably about it for another week, it should be back to normal for a few weeks and guess that my nephew is still planning on making the trip in a few, and then we head off to Mexico a couple more weeks after that. So, I guess that I'll end this here and talk with you again on another day. Have a great week!

And I almost forgot ..... but click this to see why you should hate mirrors!

posted by Scott @ 9:43 PM

Sorry, it's a little later tonight in writing and probably a little shorter as well but it's just about bedtime around these parts. It's Sunday night around 10:30 and I didn't write earlier, was returning a couple of e-mails and doing some work and the time just got away from me! But it was a beautiful weekend around these parts, close to 80' both yesterday and today and I was DEF enjoying the weather outside.

I ended up canceling my sod order from my well guy, it seems that the rain has delayed things again and he couldn't tell me when I might get it so I just ended up going to Home Depot on Friday night and picked up another 25 squares of the stuff and I really didn't need a whole pallet of the stuff any way. I ended up laying that all out on Saturday and then mowed the front lawn, plus I fertilized it even though I probably shouldn't have as that's my lawn guys job but I was thinking that it could use an extra boost - I guess that only time will tell but it's all ready looking greener today ...... as long as it doesn't die I'll be ok. I might need to get a little bit more sod to fill in a few of the bare spots but otherwise I think that the front will grow in around what I've got going - plus the entire backyard is looking great.

Not much else to report though other than my brother finally booked his flight to Mexico for next month so I guess that we are both all set and I'm really looking forward to it and guess that it's only a few weeks away and can't wait to just kick back on the beach! My cousin was here last week (Bob from Rochester) and we went out for dinner one night which was great - I just wonder if they cut out one day early due to the rain that we had on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm also still waiting to hear if my nephew is going to actually make it down next month for a weeks vacation - he says yes but need to confirm it again with him to see if anything has changed.

Other than that all is well with me and hope that it is the same with you, feel free to drop me a line or give me a call if you ever have a chance. And until the next time I'll talk with you again sometime real soon I'm sure. Ta-ta till later!

posted by Scott @ 11:44 PM

Thanks for checking in and here it is all ready the 3rd of April ...... let the Daylight Savings Time begin! That will be great to have it light for another hour longer and tonight it was still light out at 7:30pm. But it'll also suck getting up again in the dark of the night and was just getting used to having it light out when I first let the pup out. Oh well, sooner or later it'll be light another hour early and another hour late so I guess that it's all good on both ends!

And it was a beautiful spring weekend around here, a tad bit chilly at night and only near 70' during the day and breezy - but I'll take it after the monsooning rains that we had again on Thursday and Friday last week. At least everything has dried up but I guess that there was quite a bit of flooding around here, and that definitely wouldn't surprise me as some places got close to foot of rain. And bummer on the Pope huh - and he seems like the only one that I remember as well although I'm sure that there have been others in my life ..... I guess that I never really followed it all that much. And the Terry S. thing - I still have my opinions on that whole issue as well.

But enough of the current events, I worked on pulling up dead crabgrass on the front yard for most of yesterday and now have some lovely looking bare spots to live with. I'm now thinking that I'm going to regret it but I ordered a pallet of St Augustine grass last week and was hoping to have it here by the weekend so that I could spend my time laying it all out but it was raining too bad and they couldn't cut it - so now with my luck it'll be here on Monday and I'll have to work on it after work each night next week. I also don't think that I'll need anywhere near what I ordered and didn't realize it until later that there are 500 of those things on a pallet but for the price that I paid (delivered!) I could have gotten one fifth of that for the price that I paid at Home Depot so it was definitely a good deal. It's just to bad that it wasn't here for the weekend when I had the time to do something with it though.

And this town is PACKED with spring breakers this week, I thought that they all went home all ready but every time I tried to go anywhere the traffic was terrible, I went to Hungry Howies for a sub last night and what normally would have taken my 10 minutes turned out to be more like an hour, that sucked and I also got stuck in it again today just going to the Post Office ...... I just need to stay on my side of town until they all go home, that's for sure.

And oh, I don't know what the heck this place is coming to, but we had a PCB police officer shot and killed last Sunday night during a traffic stop on Front Beach Road right by the Edgewater Resort by some gang banger, and then they found this headless corpse in the bay like two days later - and guess that the girls husband was trying to make sure his wife went to where he was going to ...... it was a very strange week. And I have relatives coming to town tomorrow for four days so I'll probably hook up with them for at least dinner one evening - it's my cousin from Rochester that I haven't seen in probably three or four years. I did get a room for them at Bay Point - I just hope that that goes ok but I have my doubts.

And I guess that's about it - all's well here and is about the same ole, but time for another week to begin but think that it'll be fairly normal but busy just the same. At least all of my hotels are finally doing well this month (so far), it always seems like if one is doing well than another one is sucking wind but it looks like all of them might be off to a pretty good start. Sorry again for the rambling, have a great month of April and I'll talk with you again someday. Night!

posted by Scott @ 9:51 PM