Last Load! and other observations

The last 320 lbs went to the transfer station today. With the other measured loads, that brings us to 2815 lbs. There were two more loads months ago. not on “free dump days”, that were probably in the 500-600 lb range so the grand total is about 3315-3415 lbs or over a ton and a half. Crazy!

Afterwards, we did some other recycling and picked up some stuff at Lowe’s, had some lunch and headed back and …

FINALLY PUT UP AN ANTENNA!!!!

Got the 80-10m trap dipole *way* up high across the crowns of two trees, a pecan in the side yard and an oak in the back. Coax comes down to the roof (or will) and will eventually go through a custom pass-through into the radio room. For now, it’s just running through the window opening with a towel to keep out the uninvited.

Had dinner and watched a DVD and didn’t hook up the radio until about 45 minutes ago. Tuned around and realized that this is the weekend of the CQ WW SSB contest. No point in competeing since it’s a 48-hour contest that started Friday night our time, but a good opportunity to test the radio.

First contact? KH7Q in Hawai’i. Second contact? ZL1ALZ in New Zealand. Yes, it’s much higher than antenna at the other place – whoo hoo!!

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General Contractor Jeanette

I really need to get some images up of the work Jeanette has done in the guest bathroom. I have a “before” picture, seen here, but the room is now completely devoid of … well … anything. It’s down to the studs! A new tub and toilet have been ordered. A plumber has been engaged to do the hookup work. A new mirror for the vanity was cut from the original mirrored walls and framed (by Jeanette). Only the vanity itself has yet to be ordered/purchased.

We have a reasonably “hard” finish date of Winter Solstice. Traditionally, we have friends over on this date and this year we plan an open house so given that it’s the guest bathroom, it really needs to be done by then.

The best contractor in Norman is working on it, so I’m sure it will be done by then.

More refuse

First load this morning was 580 lbs and the second was 600. Total, 1180 lbs, or another half-ton. This time, it wasn’t all the previous owners – Jeanette has gutted the guest bathroom. OK, there were several dozen (maybe 100) asphalt shingles that had been used for a makeshift driveway next to the house, but the rest was from bathroom demolition. And the shingles aren’t gone; we’ve still got another load of about the same.

You load 16 tons and what do you get?

OK, so not quite 16 tons. It was “Fall Cleanup” today and you could either call the city and have them haul stuff away from the curb or you could take it to the Transfer Station for free. We chose the latter. Jeanette loaded the truck yesterday and this morning, took it to the transfer station while I snuck off to the radio club monthly meeting. When I got back, she had already mostly loaded it again and we went off to the Transfer again.

When you get there, you drive onto the scale and they weigh you. make sure you are from Norman (a little loose on this) and get the last four digits of your phone number. Then you run up to the transfer station, back in and unload your junk. From there, big front end loaders smoosh all the junk to the back edge of the building, which is actually a trough. Down in the trough are big 18-wheeler trash trucks that then take all your junk to a landfill. If there isn’t a truck there, big steel flappy thingies stop the stuff from falling into the trough. Ugly, but necessary, apparently. When you’re done, you weigh again, they figure the net, and you’re on your way.

This time, I asked the lady what our net weight was: 280 lbs. Back to the house. The next load was remnant of a bathroom remodel. Well, I hear you saying, you got the bathroom done quickly! No, this was from the last remodel.

When we set up the house insurance, the Allstate folks looked up our address in the magical insurance industry claims database. Evidently, there had been two water damage claims (against State Farm) in 2002 (I think) for over $8000 total. When we asked the sellers’ agent about this, the sellers had no idea what we were talking about. Eventually, they “remembered” that the floor of the shower in the master bath had “broken” and caused the damage. Yeah, well, whatever: they didn’t just fix the problem, they redid the whole thing. Scam? Dunno.

So if you are a hick in Oklahoma and you’ve just redone your bathroom at the insurance company’s expense, what do you do with the debris? Well, you throw it into the bushes off the side of your pond, of course! But what if, say, the edge of your pond where you throw the stuff is on your neighbor’s land? Well, what of it? It’s gone ain’t it?

So we cleaned it all up (and the 3 busted up car batteries) and hauled it to the Transfer Station. The net this time: 760 lbs! Not surprising considering it was all tile, cement-board, and concrete chunks (the batteries, along with the other two they left, go to the Household Hazmat cleanup in the Spring).

We figured that the first load in the morning was like the second, so figure another 275 or so, making the grand total of junk left by the previous owners roughly 1315 lbs or nearly 3/4 of a ton.

Of course, we (meaning Jeanette) already took two truckloads to the Transfer Station. Figure another 500 lbs there and we’re damn close to having hauled 1 full ton of trash from the property.

Did I mention that we’ve got at least one more truckload to go? 🙂 At least this time, some of it will be “ours”.