Well, I did go eight days, dammit.
Not good enough, though.
I put my patches on yesterday morning like a good boy... but I couldn't get the idea of smoking out of my head. It grew and grew until it simply consumed me.
The first cigarette was good, and the second one was too. Not the third, though, or any subsequent one. Just got worse and worse. Tomorrow (Saturday) I will start all over again.
I don't know what I'll do different, though... I don't know how I lasted those eight days.
22:53...
And then my ...thing... broke. The thing that you put on the spackling compound with. I want to say spatula, but that's not right. Anyway, it was a cheap plastic one, and I almost bought a good one tonight when Karen and I were out at Lowes, but I didn't, thinking that I will never touch one of the damned things after this.
Now, any handyman worth his salt with have at least two of ... these things. I personally have four. One of which is broken and three of which I can't find.
Putty knife. No, no, that's not it. I'll find out tomorrow when I buy another one at the hardware store.
OK, skipping back earlier in the day...
I moved the furniture and started working about noon. Tyler got up about 15:00 and acted like he wanted to help, so I had him get the vacuum out... and then the damned vacuum wouldn't work. Turns out the wires near the plug were broken internally... got that fixed. Got the taping done and ran out of tape just at the end, but I still needed more tape for the part over the bar... I use the fenestrated self-adhesive type, costs a lot more but still cheap if you don't know what you're doing.
Karen got home just as we finished and she wanted to go to K-mart and get some stuff, and I wanted to go with her, but I wanted to get the carpet cleaner out and go over the carpet by the wall while the furniture was out... the cat Cowboy had marked his territory well in that area, and I really wanted to be rid of the smell... so Tyler and I got that done, and in the meantime Karen had told me that Matt was going to take the Monster.
Karen had finally prevailed. Sam stays, the Monster is gone.
So we were on our way. Matt met us outside the apartment, for he had moved and Karen didn't know which one he lived in now... and the Monster was afraid to come out of the carrier. Once he was forced out, he looked furtively around for the nearest place to hide and skulked behind the stereo cabinet... not too much for exploring right then... he was sure, I think, that he was going to be neutered again.
He will be happy there, being the only cat. However, he will miss Sam, 'cause Sam was a good target for a bully. A bully all by himself is kinda lost... Monster will be lost for the rest of his life.
And he will no longer be the Monster, or even Trouble. He will be dOOd... or maybe HeyMan.
Anyway, we went from Matt's out to Kmart, and from there to Lowes, then back to Matt's to deposit some cat litter and a litter box. dOOd was acting a little more comfortable with his surroundings by then, actually sitting out in the open...
Back home, I talked to JD... he'd gotten his grades, 4 As and one B... pretty good! He will be up early next week, since he's got stuff to do down there...
Suddenly very tired... more tomorrow....
Well, I was somewhat productive today. I finished putting up the trim sheetrock around the windows, and taped and started (shudder) spackling, or mudding.
Wasting no time at all, we gathered the necessary stuff up... his favorite toys, a cat perch, some food... and the carrier. And the monster, sensing that something was up, disappeared. When found, he ran. Karen finally cornered him in the basement and put him in the carrier.