Wednesday. Hot and sunny.
Much has happened already.
The lawn guy was here at the crack o’breakfast. Rookie the Cookie has been to see his vet for his annual exam, and a three-year rabies shot. I have, with only a moderate expenditure of swear words, managed to install the two “safety hook and eyes” I purchased yesterday at the hardware store. Nails…
Nails are unexpectedly difficult. I shall need to take advice.
After Installation, I had a cup of tea and a cookie and just now as I was cleaning up the tea station, I dropped and broke the tiny ceramic saucer that acted as a used tea bag holder, because of course I did. Argh.
I still need to make some tuna salad, so it can be part of the luncheon salad, and I need to tidy up a bit, because the home health nurse is arriving “this afternoon” to make sure that I still know how to draw a clock face.
Rookie is pronounced by his vet to be perfectly gorgeous and in good health. He has apparently decided to hold at 13.2 pounds for the moment, though we all agree that his paws — Labrador paws, says the vet — might still predict a growth spurt. He is only two years old, and Maine coons aren’t officially Grown Up until they’re five.
I went to PT yesterday about my balance. Not that I’m falling, but I’m catching myself catching myself, if that makes any kind of sense. The evaluation was … fascinating. Indeed, I do have an imbalance. When I close my eyes with my feet together and try to Just. Stand. There? I sway to the right. Also, my hips and ankles could stand to be stronger. I have exercises, of course, and a promise that I will be taught to fall. This will be a great boon, because, historically, my reactions have been too fast (which was also proven yesterday), and my objective is always to not fall. Which usually results in more damage than if I had just let gravity have its way with me.
I am, so I’m told, in really good shape for an Old. My walk is brisk and firm, my overall balance, as long as I don’t have to close my eyes, is really good, and, absent the need for work in hips and ankles, reasonably strong. I’m not sure what to make of all this excitement about my general “good” shape. Steve and I used to walk for hours, miles and miles; and I walked All Over Baltimore City. I’m nowhere near in that state of lean meanness. OTOH, I suppose one must account 26 against 73.
I’m expecting I won’t be doing much, if any writing today, what with the uncertainty regarding the arrival of the nurse.
So! I’d better be about making some tuna salad.
What’s for lunch at your place?
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And! The visiting nurse arrived while I was just finishing the tuna, so that’s done, and now I can move on to lunch and maybe getting with planning my course.
Regarding nails: not sure what kind of nails you are working with, but about 45 years ago a carpenter gave me a trick to use when working with finishing nails. You can put a finishing nail into a drill, in place of a drill bit, and use it to drill a nail-sized hole. This helps to avoid splitting wood trim; not sure if it helps with your project.
The problem with nails is that there are dozens (more like hundreds) of varieties, each optimized for a specific purpose. When asking the question: “What kind of nail should I get?”, it’s easier to start with a statement of what you need to fasten with the nail.
That being said, there are some common varieties that are useful to have on hand:
Nails are traditionally sized in “pennies”, sometimes written as 6d, which would be a 6-penny nail.
The common size for holding houses together is the 16-penny nail. This is a large nail that takes a fair amount of effort to drive. You need a heavier hammer (16 to 20oz recommended) and the skill to be able to take big swings and hit the nail squarely each time. Other common sizes are 6d and 8d for those occasions when the 16d is too long.
For applications where you don’t want to be staring at a big nail head when done, there’s a variety known as “finish nails.” They have smaller heads that can be recessed into the surface using a tool called a “nail set”. If you have a doorframe or a baseboard that’s coming loose, this is the nail of choice.
For hanging pictures, I like what’s known as a “wire nail.” Very thin shaft, comes in 3/4″ and 1″ lengths and leaves a very small hole in the wall if you decide to pull it later.
For a selection of nails for having around the house, I’d get small packages of 16d framing nails, 8d framing nails, 8d and 4d finish nails and a couple of different sizes of wire nails for hanging pictures and the like. Framing nails come in “coated” or “cc” and “bright”. Not a big difference between them for your purposes, bright nails have slightly thicker shafts, take more force to drive, but don’t bend as easily.
Nails are slightly useless without a hammer, and if you don’t already have a hammer, picking a hammer is almost as bad as trying to buy nails! That’s the subject of another treatise.