Digging Out

 

Eighteen  more inches of snow over three days last week. Once again, it left the solar panels buried and useless. I only had time to liberate four of them this weekend because of indoor projects.

With the tax credits from the plug-in hybrid & the wood burning stove, we invested in carpet for much of the house. Before it comes, it seemed like a good idea to paint some of said rooms that still bear the dingy grey "unlight" that the Hated Previous Owners (HPOs) bequeathed to us. 

Painting is a dreadful chore in the best of times. However, this was not the best of times. On Friday night, I noticed that the big box hardware store that we use had a "pick up in store" option. To avoid the early Saturday morning standing around waiting for the person at the paint counter to mix up the color we needed, I thought, seeing that "most orders are ready in two hours" that I might give this a shot.

Terrible mistake. 

While there was a great deal of "preparing the surface" to do, including applying two coats of primer, my mood became increasingly foul as the hours dragged past. Finally, about 24 hours after I'd placed the order, I got text that it was ready to pick up. By this time it was evening, so I decided to wait until morning.

Drove up and collected the order, only to realize when I got home that the paint tint we'd requested had not been provided. Instead, we had two buckets of pure white paint. Kiki saved the life of an incompetent when she kindly took the paint back to the store and got them to add the tint. I am told that a lot of apologizing took place. It is of little comfort.

Lesson learned: always just pick up the things you need yourself. Do not put your trust in chowder heads.

Also, it is a lesson about desire. Any time you want something, you open yourself up to having to deal with others. Others are almost always incompetent, which results in discontent.

Speaking of desire: I've manifested a new one. I need a Pakcanoe. Ideally, the 165T. My lovely Kevlar canoe, Kevlarina, is currently hanging in my garage, stranded. It turns out that the Kia Niro EX Plug-in Hybrid, while a brilliant city car with it's compact shape and state of the art aerodynamics is a little deceptive. It is shaped vaguely like a crossover utility vehicle. It has roof rails. Unfortunately, the roof rails are too short to support car topping a canoe safely. Because the car drops toward the back, the canoe would also catch air in the front. This could probably be overcome, but there is not a single piece of anything solid in the front of the vehicle other than fragile plastic to tie a rope to. The car can't car top a canoe safely.

Enter the Pakcanoe. You can fold it up into a 35" x 17" x 15" bag and toss it in the back of your vehicle. I've always hated driving with a canoe on top of the car. This will solve the problem. At 54 lbs., it will be about 12 lbs. heavier than Kevlarina, which I'm sure will be a little bit unpleasant. But other than that, it solves all of the wilderness canoe tripping problems. I must have one.