You can see Darla and I bought ourselves a little work this weekend. The pressed concrete was flaking and in dire need of a face lift. I found some Sand colored stain on closeout at Ace hardware for $11.00 a gallon. Mind you the stain that I had used in the past was $69 a gallon and took two gallons to cover the surface. This product is manufactured by Thompson's Water Seal and has the water sealer built into it. I used a gallon of the Quikrete cement solvent which when mixed with a gallon of water and used with a stiff brush completely cleans up all stains, grease, dirt and loose stain. I had to trim back the ground cover that was growing onto the walkway over the long winter and Darla and I set to work. She taped off the house and shed and I tried to use a tank sprayer to apply the product. it was much too thick and clogged up the sprayer although the directions said to apply with a garden type sprayer. I switched to a brush and it took twice as long to apply. In the past it took about ninety minutes to apply the stain and another half hour to put down a second coat. The problem I had with the tank application is that the stain would pool in the crevices of the stamped concrete and dry with a spongy feel to it. The brush method took three and a half hours to apply and another hour and a half for the second coat, but the adhesion to the concrete seems so much better and especially in the cracks and indentations of the stamping process. We now have a white sand beach outside of our pool. I like the look and Darla said it will grow on her. When I pressed her, she said, "Well, when we make changes to the house I like to be involved in the decision." Wow, at least she was honest. I bought the stain when she was on her "working vacation" in Hawaii. it was a perfect weekend to work as the temperature yesterday was 72 degrees and today topped out at 76 degrees.
Darryl mentioned that he loves Denver because it feels like 80 degrees when it is 60 degrees. i love Northern California because it feels 76 degrees when it is 76 degrees, which is often in early Spring. I see Denver had a high of 33 degrees with an overnight low of 22 and snow flurries. how warm does it feel when it's 30 degrees and snowing? I'm sporting a bit of a sunburn today after two days of golf and work on the deck.
I did play golf yesterday and it was one of those surreal rounds of golf. I shot 41+41=82 at Cherry Island, one of the local championship muni courses in the area. I played with Boyd, Darren and Mel. We play a 6-6-6 game where you have a different partner every six holes and I picked my partner by throwing a tee=. Mel shot 51+41=92 and I had him as my partner on the first six holes. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and we lost the first four holes right out of the gate and I was down $5. We also play team "junk". 50 cents for birdies, greenies, sandies and polies (a putt equal to or longer than the flag pole for par or better is worth an extra dot. My second partner was Darren , who shot a smooth 34 for the six holes that we were partners. We were actually tied with Mel and Boyd going into the sixth hole and he and I had a stroke against Mel's stroke and Boyd was playing straight up. I had a par, Mel parred it to tie me, Boyd had a 4 and I needed Darren to have a 5 to tie Boyd. he had a double bogey six. finally, I had Boyd on the last six holes and he shot one over and I shot two over for the six holes and we lost to Darren and Mel who both decided to play golf. in all, I lost $15 on the team game and another $12 on junk. $27 lost and I shot 1 under par with my handicap. Mel shot 92, Darren 78 and Boyd 86 and I paid $27! It's just not right. I stayed and enjoyed the pitcher of beer the guys bought and an order of garlic fries before driving home to start work on the deck.
I talked to Jennifer Friday on the drive home and she is doing well. She was laughing and playing with Samantha. She sent us a text picture of Samantha with her hair up in small spikes on Saturday morning. You can view the message until Saturday at www.viewmymessage.com/en/legacy/login.jsp. The Msg Id is h0zsgpc1c and the password is kegs94knit. Very cute. Things seem to be settling down a little bit with Jennifer and John and then it all blows up again. They have to change day cares because their day care is going to a shorter schedule of 5 AM to 7 PM. They were 24 hours. The new day care will be at the MGM Grand on the strip. Jennifer was able to have a civil conversation with John on Friday regarding the day care and she was happy that they could talk about Samantha without any animosity between them. And then CPS showed up at Jennifer's house on Saturday. John is really losing it and desperately needs some grief counseling.
I really am enjoying Spring. I just stopped to put the chicken on the barbecue and it is still light at 7 PM and about 71 degrees out still. Darla and I took a walk about 5:30 out to the local shopping center where she put in some checks into the bank for her jewelry business and then we walked back through the park across the street and watched a soccer game going on as we walked. Good stuff.
I have my company President and CEO coming out in a week from Tuesday. We will view a few new buildings as we will be moving and then meet with the staff. My branch is doing very well this year and we are ahead of budget through three months on the bottom line. We are short of budget on the top line, but it just shows that we have tightened our belts and are doing a good job. The office made a $55,000 profit in March. There are a lot of branch managers in the company who wouldn't welcome a visit from the CEO, but I look forward to seeing him.
Well, that's it. Easter week is upon us. I have a Masters golf tournament next Saturday at the club and ten we will be in paradise with Darla's folks on Easter. I hope you are all well and looking forward to the celebration of the biggest gift you will ever receive: Christ's death on the cross to absolve you of your sins. Ciao.
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