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

Hello and here we are at it once again. And it was also another rainy Sunday and a beautiful Saturday so I wore myself out yesterday and then did nothing much today. I ended up mowing the lawn yesterday and I swear that it was up to my knees and it was so tall that I ended up mowing it and then mowing it again with a bag to pick up all of the grass. And I don't know what was the deal but my outsprouter kept getting clogged so I'd end up having to shut it off every ten minutes and to clean it out. I also might have mentioned that my self propeller feature stopped working a couple of weeks ago and that makes it even worse to push and I took it apart last weekend and the belt and everything is working but it something that is outside of my realm. So I ended up taking my mower in to a repair shop after I got done with it and through it in the back of the jeep and dropped it off for repair. They say that it should be ready in about a week but I might need to mow the lawn before then so I might end up having to ask one of my neighbors to borrow theirs. And it sounds like with the general service check up on top of the repair to the gears that it should come back good as new which will be nice for the rest of the season.

I also might have mentioned that I had an issue in the backyard with a mole tunnelling all over the place, I had originally thought that it might have been my water leak but the guy that came to fix it confirmed that it was definitely a mole. So while I was off I ended up getting this Mole Stop stuff that hooks up to a house and you just spray it all over the place and it seems to have worked as all of the tunnels that I packed down are still that way. So at least I think that he must have moved on to another neighbor which is just fine by me. I also ended up having to drive back home Tuesday morning to meet the County Inspector guy so that he could give the ok on the water pipe before the guys could come back and fill in my holes. And that passed inspection so then the crew was back here when I got home Tuesday evening and they were just about done putting everything back together and I am hopefully good to go. I then called the Water Company on Wednesday and they were suppose to come back and make sure that nothing was leaking and then they also said that they would issue me a new bill for the first quarter so I'm hoping that they give me a nice break. I don't know what they base it on but hopefully they will give me full credit for everything that leaked away.

I also got my bikini bra for my Jeep and installed that during the week, one night I had to drill holes for the front bar and then another night I ended up putting the thing on. I was going to drive it to work on Friday but ended up not doing so as there was a 50% chance of rain although it never did end up raining. I thought that it was going to flap a lot more than it actually does and I really like it much better than the soft top which is a pain in the butt putting on and taking back off. This thing will do a pretty good job of keeping me dry if I do get stuck in a downpour, plus it will keep my head from any additional sun exposure.

I also went to Dulles airport today and had to complete the rest of my biometric measurements for my Clear card that has been sitting here for a month - but with the card you have a separate security check point and the line moves right through. And the measurement thing was pretty cool as now I check in with my thumb print and if that doesn't work I use the iris in my right eye and guess that it's getting pretty technical these days. The problem is that it can take up to three weeks for it to arrive so I'm not sure if I'll get it in time for my next flight ....... but I'm sure that I'll get my use out of it in the future.

And I am counting the days until I am off to Mexico for another week and looking forward to it as it's still pretty crappy weather here most days but I'm sure that it is much improved once I get there. And I think that is about it for another week so I hope that all is well with you and I will speak with you on another day. Have a great week and take care!

posted by Scott @ 9:02 PM

Good evening and here we are again on a rainy and wet Sunday evening. I ended up taking the last week off for vacation and just stayed around the house and I am happy to report that I got just about everything on my list completed. My main project that I wanted to accomplish was to paint my porch and somehow that was the last thing that I ended up doing - I ended up finally painting it at 5pm Friday evening. I had a little complication though as one of the bottoms of the railing was all rotted out so I ended up having to replace that first, then I pressure washed the entire front of the house and then painted the railings before I got to the floor. I also ended up putting the second coat on the floor yesterday and then it's rained all day today so when I went out to take a picture of it it's all covered with leaves and crap so you can't really tell what it looks like. I tried to use the same color as the old paint but let me tell you, if you take a picture of it on your digital camera and take the camera to Home Depot to show them what you are looking for the will laugh at you. So I ended up getting their color sample brochure and then brought that home and went and got paint on another day. So I think that was Tuesday's project to start and Friday's deal to end it. Here is a before and after but you can't really tell what it looks like -

I also ended up calling Loundoun County to come and check my water meter after the deal that I mentioned with my $600 water bill and they showed up first thing Tuesday morning. And about all they did was to look at it and confirm that even with all of the water turned off in the house I was still using a gallon of water a minute and that yup, I must have a leak. But then I didn't realize that it was all on my dime from the meter to the house and asked him what I should do about it - and he told me to Google a water repair company and then see what they could do for me. So I ended up finding a plumbing company and they showed up Tuesday night to give me an estimate and after that several thousand dollar decision they ended up scheduling the job hopefully for Friday. I ended up going to a work meeting with our DC properties Friday morning and got home around 11am to find my yard all torn up and five guys hard at work. So they were here for the day on Friday and left about 3:30pm and left me with this pleasure to look at all weekend - one is the front by the water meter and the other is on the side of the house where they entered the crawl space.

posted by Scott @ 9:02 PM

Evening to you and I hope that all is well - here it is another Sunday night and not too much new with me. Yesterday was a fairly decent day around here and was in the high 70's but then today it was cloudy and cold and probably didn't make it out of the 50's ...... very strange weather for sure. I did get the lawn mowed yesterday but that was about it and the next couple of days are suppose to be cold still and then going back up into the 70's by the end of the week.

I have been looking at Jeep's lately and have been shopping on Craig's list and went and looked at a 1989 beast twice last week and came inches away from making an offer on it. But I was kind of worried that the thing would fall apart as soon as I wrote the check and the guy that was selling it wouldn't give any window to return it if something did go wrong right away ...... heck I was only asking for 10 days and if it was still running after that than it was a done deal. But he said nope you are buying as is so I said no can do, thanks but I'll keep looking. It was a nice looking Jeep and here's a picture - not too bad looking for being almost 20 years old. But today I think that I found my perfect toy and had a guy stop over this afternoon and I got to test drive it and it was like night and day from the other one. And it's a 1989 model so it's much newer and drives like it, and he supposedly just bought a new soft top for it so I need to see that before I go any further. Here is a picture of what I'm looking at ..... I think that I even like the color -

You can click the thumbnail and that should open up a bigger picture, and if it all goes well I hope to have it in a couple of days. And in looking at Jeep's lately there is a whole fan club out there and clubs to join - plus you can find any part and accessory available that you could ever think of. If all goes well with it I might even look into getting a hard top for it but we'll see how the summer goes first.

Oh, and another thing that I have to figure out in the immediate future is that I must have a major water leak somewhere and I'm not sure if it's in my sprinkler system or just my main water line but I got my bill yesterday and it was for 128,000 gallons of usage! That's for 90 days and on average I would have had to use nearly 1,500 gallons of water a day in order to use that - and I read that the average person uses about 100 gallons a day normally. The strange thing that I can't figure out is that the bill was for Jan - March so my sprinkler system wasn't even turned on so I'm not sure if it's that or not, I don't know what the heck is happening but I am looking into first thing in the morning.

Other than that I'm just counting the days until Mexico is here and is only like three weeks away at this point and I am looking forward to it. Not too much else going on here though so I guess that I'll end this now and wish you all the best for your new week. Talk with you soon.

posted by Scott @ 9:10 PM

Well at least yesterday was a very nice day and the sun was shining but then today it was cloudy and cold and raining all day. Yesterday I did end up getting outside and got the lawn mowed and I must say I might actually have a lawn this year if things keep going - at least it's nice and green but there are still plenty of holes left to fill in. I've also been looking at LCD tv's and home theater systems and went to Best Buy Friday night but didn't find anything that I liked. But then I was researching the DVDs players and found on that had a decent rating and was pretty cheap so I ended up going to Circuit City Saturday afternoon and picked it up. I kind of like the "buy it on line and it'll be waiting for you in 24 minutes or less" and then all you have to do is back up to the door and they load it up! I ended up getting a Panasonic SC-PT750 and while it's kind of like what I had this one has a five disk DVD changer plus a dock for my IPOD and wireless rear speakers. I watched a movie on it last night but I'm still trying to get the sound all set up but I'm sure that will come in time.

I also just broke down and joined NetFlix's on the 2 movies at a time deal with unlimited rentals which runs about $13 a month - so I figure that as long as I watch four movies a month I should make out ahead. I still liked my other company (DVD Overnight) better where you just rented what you want and they charged like $4.00 a rental but unfortunately they went out of business a while back and guess that they couldn't keep up with the big boys. I do think that I'm going to hold off on buying a big screen tv though as the one that I've got is big but it should meet my needs for another few years yet. I do like the wall mounted flat screen deals and would love to have one mounted over my fireplace giving me a free wall but I still think that it might be too high but I'm sure that they could work something out.

I also went for a 12 mile bike ride yesterday on the railroad, I went the other way for the first six miles and headed east towards DC but only made it to Herndon before I turned around. The bad thing about going that way is that there is many more cross streets so you end up stopping to cross and going six three miles in the other direction towards Leesburg there is only one road that you end up having to cross. It was a busy day out there and guess that's what good weather does for you - and one of these days I might have to break down and buy a helmet but it's not like I'm going to get hit by a car out there.

I ended up planning to take the week after this one off for a vacation (before the vacation) to get out and work on the yard and around the house. I checked the weather last week and the 10 day didn't look real sunny for the upcoming week so I decided to wait until next week - and I'm hoping that the weather is better than too. I need to plant some bushes and maybe even paint my porch and some of the house could use a good power washing too. I had wanted to wash my car today but the weather didn't cooperate so I'll try and accomplish that next week as well. Then I think that I work another two weeks and then my other vacation begins!

That's about it for this fine day - I hope that spring is getting close and the trees are blooming, I've got a nice white tree on the side of my house that keeps blowing on my car. Talk with you soon - and take care until then!

Labels: 04/06/08, Sunday

posted by Scott @ 9:14 PM