Whilst walking Amos the other day, we were attacked by a dog. Again. It was a ginormous black dog. One moment I was watching Amos do his bob and weave on the leash and the next I looked up to see this dog running toward us. I screamed. Amos leaped up my body. And we both stood trembling, me on the sidewalk, Amos on my shoulders.
I was trying to keep him from falling off and trying to keep the leaping dog off of me. His nails were raking my abdomen and back. I was screaming. And the owner stayed across the street laughing at me. I was screaming for help and no one came. Again.
The owner was standing there, leash folded up in his hand, casually calling his dog off me as he laughed. When I managed to say that his dog needed to be on a leash, he turned ugly. The whole experience was terrifying and despairing.
I frantically called Becky, once the dog was gone, to help me get home. With my whole being, I wanted someone to come pick me up and take me home. But I don't have anyone to call. SIGH.
I never want to leave the house again.
For real.
I started walking Amos November 2. Since then, I have lost count of the number of times I've seen dogs off leash, especially with their owners next to them. Four times. Four wretched times Amos and I have been attacked. This was the worst of those. And it took me right back to the pit bull attack.
So, of course, since I haven't been sleeping, awash in fear, and I am still trying to recover from the birthday celebration, the most logical step is to tackle washing the three porches. Right? SIGH.
The sad part is that I totally and utterly messed up on the airing porch. I had bad information and failed to wait a year to seal the boards. I waited several months, but I squeezed the job in before winter set in that year. And then there was this weird white bubbles on it. So, I wanted to get the airing porch power washed. But Firewood Man didn't get around to it. The porch got black speckles on it. Firewood Man said it was just dirt and he'd get around to it. But there wasn't time. So, now, really, the porch is just awful.
Which is criminal.
It was new just a bit ago.
A true homeowner fail.
It's already wet because it started raining. But, you know, when you have upsettedness to manage, a bit of rain cannot get in the way of your power washing job.
From afar, it looks sort of okay, but all that darkness is, I believe mold. I was hoping the cleaner would make a difference when I started Round Two.
I definitely made more progress, but it really needs to be sanded down.
I mean, what happens when you seal over mold? Plus, you can see there is just so much unevenness where the original seal took (and where it didn't).
Only I just don't think that I have it in me to sand it. So, I'm pretty discouraged.
This is the back porch. It has two years of pollen on it, along with a whole lot of dirt. It is embarrassing to me. And a frustration.
Not anymore! Just lovely! Now, I'd like to seal it again, but I would have to move the grill and the third of a rack of firewood leftover from my last load. I am trying to decide what to do about doing so. One thought I had was to start having fires out in my haven and work down the wood that way. Another thought was to seal the portion that is reachable and then seal the rest later since I have nice planks to make the dividing lines.
The front porch also had two years of dirt and pollen. And a lot of foot traffic worn through the layers of dirt on over to the bench and the fountain. Another embarrassment.
Here it is after the first washing. You can see that one whitish spot over by the back of the first rocking chair and there is water damage still over by the fountain (from the old basin). I had high hopes for Round Two with the cleaner, even though it didn't do what I wanted up on the airing porch.
The cleaner cleaned!
See! Look at the difference it made!
I worked long and hard on the water spot. I'm hoping that it is enough to just maybe just seal over it now. I'd like to not have to sand it at all. You know, create dust. Need to wash it a third time. Plus, sanding would probably mean a much, much lighter spot compared to the rest of the porch rather than just a sort of lighter spot. Still, I am well pleased with the state of the front porch now. It is definitely ready to seal ... if you discount that one little area.
Sadly, though, even with two days of a couple of hours of hard work (for me), I am not really sleeping. I keep flashing back to the pit bull attack. I've never really left that time. SIGH.
I don't know if I shall seal tomorrow or not. I haven't yet decided. If the weather forecast holds, it would be a good time to squeeze that work in before a whole lot of days of storms and humidity and don't-even-think-about-sealing-your-porch-weather.
I shall say that, before I worked on Round Two of power washing, I chowed down on leftovers from the best night of my birthday celebration that I still haven't written about (mostly because I need to get the recipes up on my recipe rememberer blog). I thought I would tempt myself with listing some of the tastiness: chicken tikka masala, chicken shawarma, labneh, toum, and naan. Those were my leftovers. The birthday celebration night, we also had lemon basil hummus and baba ganoush. AWESOME meal. Best. Cooking. Time. Ever.
I wish I could think about that instead of dog terror.
SIGH.
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