10:55 – Barbara is down in Winston today for a dental appointment. Colin will be wandering around the house, whining and barking, until she gets back this afternoon.
Barbara originally called the unfinished area in the basement just that. As we piled more and more stuff in there, she started calling it my “natural area”, implying that there were things growing wild in there. Which, in all fairness, there might have been. But now that it’s pretty well organized and de-cluttered, she’s started calling it my lab area. Eventually, we need to do something about the lighting and the sink. Right now, there are four incandescent fixtures to cover the whole area. That’s 400W of incandescent right now, which is sufficient for what people normally use a basement for, but not for using it as a work area. Also, the sink is small and pathetic. It’s a cheap enameled metal cabinet with a small, shallow sink and a cheap faucet with little clearance.
I’d originally thought about installing four four-foot double fluorescent fixtures, but LED lighting has gotten cheap enough that I may install the equivalent LED fixtures instead. Those long tubes are a PITA to store, install, and dispose of, while I should never have to touch the LED fixtures again once they’re installed.
As to the sink, I’m still thinking about it. I may get a carpenter in to build a sturdy workbench at a good working height for me with half or so its length being a drop in shallow sink with a high-clearance faucet and storage shelves below.
Colin had some excitement yesterday. We heard a woman shouting out in our yard. She was chasing one of those little chee-hooah-hooah dogs around. They may be small, but they’re fast. Barbara took Colin out on leash, and of course the little dog immediately approached him. Fortunately, Colin is a very gentle dog. The chee-hooah-hooah stood up with its front paws braced on Colin’s face. Colin not only didn’t kill and eat it, he didn’t even growl.