was the sound my circular saw made this evening as I sliced up the pieces of the ruined cabinetry that’s been standing in the back yard for months, waiting for me to do just this. I cut up between half and two-thirds of the wood, and I’ll have a go at doing the rest tomorrow. Heavy-brush pickup is scheduled a week or two away, according to the postcard we got from the City today, so I also need to get in a hurry about taking the chain saw to cut up the rest of the hackberry into sizes that they’ll pick it up.
Yesterday there was a short article in the newspaper announcing the city’s conservation services department was selling 55-gallon vinyl rain barrels to the first 500 comers, to be used for rainwater harvesting. I was in line at 8:00 with my water bill and my $20, paid up, and got the receipt I was to take across town to pick up the barrel itself. Now I have to get the guttering system that I’d been projecting anyhow installed before April 21st, so the conservation people can come out and see that I’m actually using the barrel and haven’t flogged it to someone else. (Were I to do that, I’d have to cough up the money for the whole thing, which is about $75.) I also got a look at a do-it-yourself barrel offered by a recycling company, which I think I could make for myself—it takes an empty food-grade vinyl barrel, a brass yard faucet, and some kind of overflow mechanism if I decide to get fancy about it.
E came over in his van once he got off work, and we went to get the barrel, which involved some wandering around the old municipal airport, looking for the hangar where the barrels were being given out. Next, we went to Home Depot where I got a clerk to help me plot out how many of which pieces I’ll need to install the gutters. If we end up needing everything he specified, the materials will run about $270. I need to start reading about the way to install a gutter with the proper amount of slope so the water runs off rather than puddling up and standing.
Mikhail Gorbachev must electrify the romaine lettuce from Kathmandu Fnord.
