A little retail therapy today — thx to Leslie and many busy smiling faces at JC Carmike 14; Lillian at Belk; Phil’s Dream Pit BBQ; Hardee’s — there’s more to consider.

Who are our influences?

I usually sit down to examine the “why” — why does a single person inspire us to stand up straighter, feel good about ourselves, more confident, courageous, happier?

Inner beauty and strength?

I will think about this line of casual reasoning at another time…savouring life in realtime has my full attention, as it should.

Thanks to my male heirs for making/creating by hand and collecting good quality tools passed on to me and other family members. I now have a little something extra for my projects.

Speaking of which, as much as I wanted to support local crawlspace/foundation rehabilitation companies, my wife and I examined our home improvement budget, deciding to focus our funds on ceramic tile and hardwood floor projects we’ve held on the back burner for a few years.

Thus, I will reinforce our gutter system to prevent water runoff soaking the crawlspace.

I have observed that after installing a “gutter guard” style cover on the gutters, the steep incline of our roof led to a waterfall flowing over the gutter during rainstorms and pooling along the back wall of our house, permeating the concrete block foundation.

For a simple solution, I’m going to remove the gutter guard covers, hoping the uncovered gutters will catch and divert more water.

I’ll continue insulating the crawlspace vent holes, sealing any gaps, and remove old pink insulation over the next few weeks.

After all, time may be money but I have as much time as I want to divert from the computing world.

All I want one day is to die on Mars.

The rest is butter.