Wrapping Up

Monday: (01/19) I was up early and off to San Jose. I stopped at U-save Rockery for some concrete mix then on to the San Jose house. The usual breakfast burrito at La Victoria. As I walked through the campus it was rather different because of the MLK holiday. Just a little activity at the construction projects, no students. When I went outside this morning I was rather shocked to see it had rained and was drippy. San Jose was the same. My start time and intended projects to do today needed to change. No pouring of concrete today, maybe a little trenching if it dries out some later. I walked downtown to the Valley Transit Service Center and upgraded my Clipper Card, the regional transit fare card, to a Senior Card to take advantage of the lower fares. Otherwise it would be happy to deduct the full fares. I also stopped by the Grocery Outlet Market to get a few things. When I got home I had a salad and fried up some sausage I had bought. About 1230 I headed outside to get to work. It had dried out enough. I move th fence sections to make a bypass for the sidewalk so that when I trench and pour the concrete, people can still get by without going into the street by walking on the lawn. I then got to work with the jackhammer breaking out part of the concrete for the trench. I'll break the rest out later before replacing the entire squares of walkway. The digging was fun, only nine feet of trench to the back of the curb but lots of huge cedar roots to be chipped out. It was getting dark as I was backfilling and tamping the trench which I filled to the top so I could open the sidewalk again. Tomorrow the RV should be ready for pickup in the late morning so i wont be able to pour the sidewalk. So Wednesday I'll break out the rest of the sidewalk and replace the concrete. It's just a temporary patch since I want to replace the whole South side of the sidewalk later to level it. It's quite tilted due to the old cedar tree that was there. Leftover corned beef hash for dinner. I made a corned beef hash and cheese sandwich. It was Mystery Night on the PBS TV station tonight.


The trench across the sidewalk.


Work area (open Trench) on left and all backfilled and ready for the night on the right.

Tuesday: (01/20) Granola for breakfast.


I finished routing the future water line to the meter box and backfilled the remaining trench. I then broke out the rest of the concrete for the two 3'x3' sections I need to replace and added some baserock underneath. I setup the mixer and poured the replacement sidewalk. I used commercial grade 5000 psi concrete mix. I usually just use the ordinary concrete mix from Home Depot. One problem was that I could only get the concrete in 80# bags, not my usual 60# bags so a little extra effort was needed today. Plus, my mixer barely takes two 60# bags so I could only mix 1.5 80# bags at a time. All went well then I spent the rest of the day finishing and cleaning up and defending the concrete. I didn't do the final finishing until after midnight. A hotdog sandwich for lunch. I walked over to La Victoria and got some chili rellenos for dinner.

Wednesday: (01/21) When i checked the sidewalk this morning I found one small graffiti marking, about 4"x6"/ It was done late after I did the brush finish after midnight. I worked it out and it seems to be OK now. I was off first thing to Home Depot to get some dobbies (Small pieces of concrete that support the rebar) and also get some plastic to mask the nicely painted house for splatter protection. Next I stopped at La Victoria for my breakfast burrito.


Then I did some final prep and started mixing and pouring concrete. I poured the area around the mouth of the sump basin. It's interesting because it has some of everything to make it more difficult. It has a slope on one side to meet the driveway, a fence post anchor, and it needed a lip  around the sump opening to allow for an inset lid. I never found a good lid for the sump so I'm making it and the opening for it. Lou and Dawn met me for lunch as I finished the pour just before noon and brought a burrito from Super Taqueria. I opened the front sidewalk to pedestrians. I also reinstalled most of the fencing that i removed for the pedestrian detour and work access. I did other cleanup as I was waiting and finishing the concrete. About 1530 i got a call for Leale's RV saying the motorhome was ready. I headed over and picked it up and returned to the worksite. I had to hookup the Jeep and the shop then disconnect it when I got back to the worksite. It wont fit in the length between driveways. I can't get away until later to deliver it to Palo Alto. I had dinner from KFC and waited and finished the concrete until 2000 then hooked up the Jeep and headed up to Palo Alto. I unhooked the Jeep and unloaded the load of concrete debris and excess dirt, then parked the RV in the driveway. I was then off returning to San Jose. My two hour absence evidently wasn't long enough. The concrete is quite slow drying in the cool air so I'll be up late again.

Thursday: (01/23) A trip to Home Depot to get some more bags of concrete and some downspout materials. On the way home i stopped at Jack In The Box for a Loaded Breakfast Sandwich. I finished pouring a section of the new walkway before noon. A hot dog and cheese English muffin for lunch.  I installed the three downspouts I had bought material for. All went well so now I'll get the material for the other eight I need to do.  Next week I'll install those downspouts, pour another section of the walkway, Install and test the sump pump, and possibly replace the main water valve which is leaking. I only want to finish things up, not get bogged down into a lengthy bunch of work that can wait. During my wait time I cleaned up the area and put thinks away. Unfortunately, the concrete dries very slowly due to the temperatures so i couldn't do the final finishing until 0200 then I headed up to Palo Alto for the rest of the night. Dinner from a new place Burittozilla.