Tuesday, Oct. 15

Up at 6 a.m. to get dressed and ready for the guy to come around 8:30 to work on the stairwell and upstairs bathroom. Mother opted to stay home today, since it was a really rainy day.The guy arrived at 9 a.m. and began work right away.

Around 10:30, I decided to make a recipe of chicken noodle soup, and a batch of brownies, for lunch, and I invited the painter to stay since it was such a nasty day. He agreed.

When the soup was ready, Hubbie took a bowl of it and a brownie to Mother for her lunch. I served the soup with a choice of cheeses, or peanut butter, and crackers. The painter ate two bowls of it, as well as two brownies, so I guess he liked it.

In asking the guy about his family, I learned his wife has some sort of autoimmune disorder that requires her to be in a wheelchair much of the time. She has an appointment in the capital city on Friday, so the painter will not be here that day.

He was very chatty at lunch, though, regaling us with stories of his grandfather, who apparently was a real scrapper.

After lunch, he left for a little while to meet with a woman who wants him to do some work at her house, but he returned around 2:30 and finished what he was going to do today.

Unfortunately, while working in the bathroom, he discovered that the leak that was repaired had damaged the floor under the sinks and cabinets. He discovered it because the floor in front of the cabinets is warped, indicating that the particle board was wet. After further exploration with a special instrument, he found that the plywood is wet and beginning to mold.

This means we will need to have the cabinet and two-sink marble top removed so the floor can be fixed. So we are looking at buying a new cabinet/sink unit, as well as new vinyl floor covering. Also, the toilet will need to be replaced (it was leaking the other day).

When we started this project, I didn't dream we'd run into all this! All I wanted to do was replace the wallpaper with paint.

After lunch, around 2 p.m., Hubbie and I went to the Extension Services office, where the Master Gardeners were holding a short training program on how to submit individual reports to the state. Naturally, since Hubbie is not as adept at computers as I  am (not that I'm all that great), it was necessary that I take the training. In about thirty minutes, I was able to record and submit about six months of information, and now I know how to do it from home.

Back home, I later heated leftovers for supper and took a plate of them to Mother. The painter left around 5:30, and then Hubbie and I sat down to eat.

At 7:30, we went to the college to attend a lecture by an opinion columnist from the state newspaper. The columnist is Democrat leaning, and made no bones about it, so his talk inspired some interesting questions from the audience.

He also spoke about the future of newspapers. He's convinced some, like our state paper, will not only survive, but will thrive. He doesn't believe that the digital age means the demise of print, and students who attended the lecture agreed. They said they prefer print textbooks and newspapers over computers.

I like both mediums, and I move between the two depending on my mood. I think there is a place for both. Print will survive just as movies and radio survived after predictions they would die in the face of television.

Back home afterward, we finished the evening watching a couple of episodes of "One Tree Hill."