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nothing about the way those lane work
Tuesday, November 1 2016
This morning I had to drive out to the Wall Street house to fix the garage door, and there was enough frost on the window of the Subaru that I had to scrape it. Temperatures had fallen into the low 20s over night, bringing a conclusive end to the growing season. I'd left a spider plant and a Thunbergia alata ("black-eyed susan") out overnight, though they'd only been a little burned by the cold. I immediately brought both plants into the house so they wouldn't have to have another night like last night.
It had been a bit worse for the habañero peppers in the "garlic patch," and while the plants were now mostly dead, the peppers themselves all seemed to be intact. It had been worse of all for a large pokeberry (Phytolacca americana) I'd let grow in the closest garden patch. It was now hunched over and its lush green leaves had taken on a sickly dark color indicating the ice-caused rupture of cell walls. Evidently pokeberries have little antifreeze in their cellular fluids.
My original plan at the Wall Street House had been to replace a piece of trim on one side of the garage door and attach the sagging door to the new wood. But when I examined the situation more closely today, I realized that wood rot wasn't really the problem. There had been rot around individual screw holes, causing the screws to pull out and hinges to detach. But the rot in such cases was very limited and could be overcome with larger screws or bolts. With this in mind, I drove to Herzogs to get some 2.5 by quarter inch carriage bolts with washers and nuts, as well as some tools I'd neglected to bring: a wrecking bar, a hammer, a collapsible step-stool, and a 9/32 inch drill bit. Using this equipment, I was easily able to do a satisfying job of rehanging the sagging door. It hung so well now that I had to move the latching hardware to make it match-up with the other door (which also sags). I would've rehung the other door as well, but the bolts I'd brought were not quite long enough to get through the door on that side.
Since I was driving around, I made a detour out to the Tibetan Center gift store. On the way, I almost collided with someone who crossed in front of me from the inner lane of Kingston Traffic Circle. I don't think he had right-of-way in that case, but perhaps he did. Nothing about the way those lane work are obvious, and it's a wonder there aren't accidents there all the time. The only things worth buying at the thrift store was an old extension cord and an antique smooth-jawed pipe wrench, which finally gives me the ability to turn large hexagonal nuts without chewing them up.
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