Then I'll write about something else. (let me know if you can see the pics now)

Went for my annual physical last Friday. As usual, it was a ho hum affair. Fortunately, because of covid (I think) there was no rectal prostate exam. And since I'm still active for a guy "my age", the fact that I'm not on any medications, my blood pressure and HR are optimal, and my cholesterol and other heart disease indicators are excellent, he didn't have much to say.

Until the blood test results came back. The last couple of years my blood sugar numbers have been slowly rising. This time I finally hit the threshold for diabetes. Yes, I am a diabetic. At the low end still, but solidly in there. He didn't prescribe any medication or say I have to monitor my sugar levels every day (although Mrs. Dave thinks that might be a good idea), but the days of pretty much ignoring what I eat are behind me now. I have another couple of tests to do to set baseline numbers for the future. Consult with an ophthalmologist to make sure the extra sugar in my system isn't going to give me glaucoma or make me blind. Check for kidney disease because excess sugar is hard on the kidneys.

How did this happen? No clue. Doc has no clue. Waiting on some more results to indicate if my cells are resisting insulin or if my pancreas isn't putting enough out there to do the job.

The Achilles is feeling better after a week off, but I can't call it 100%. Anyway, I'm going to wait until I get the floor finished before I take time to run again (more on that in a minute). Maybe the time off will be good anyway. Don't think I was over training with the piddly mileage I was doing. Sure hate missing the best spring weather. Not happy at all with the new shoes I got when my Rincon's mileaged out at 600 miles, the most I've gotten on a pair of shoes in a long time. I went back to my old standby Cumulus. But they felt stiff and hard and heavy. After just 60 miles, at the end of another of those crappy 4-milers I'd been doing, the Achilles just said, "Nope." Another reason besides the floor I'm not running right now.

Drove into Detroit on Tuesday for my first Pfizer vaccine. Arm hurt yesterday.

To be honest, almost everything hurt yesterday. I've been thinking about the floor for the last two weeks and worrying that I'm screwing it up and will find out when they come to install the new one and it's going to cost me thousands of dollars and another month to get it finished. Woke up Tuesday and Wednesday morning unable to go back to sleep so I got up and worked on the floor before work. Then we got on the plane and the seats were less than comfortable. By the time we arrived in Idaho Falls, I was in some serious pain and tired from being up for 20 hours, 3 of it cutting and screwing plywood, and 8-1/2 hours in airports and airplanes. I'd have slept in this morning except I'm working from here and the 2 hours time difference meant I had to get up at 4:30 am to synch up with my meetings in the east. Nap today? Hope so.

Enough whining about that.

Let's talk floor. After two weeks, I'm nearing completion of my commitment to have the floors ready for the vinyl plank installers. They actually wanted to come this weekend, but we're in Idaho, so... Two and even three layers of subfloor (depending on the room), three to five layers of linoleum sheets and/or tile squares, toilet and vanity - all gone. There's a big nasty pile of refuse on my back patio I have to figure out how to get rid of soon. Moved the washer and dryer twice - once for removal and again to install the first layer of plywood. Did I mention that the final layer I had to take out was 3/4" plywood fastened with 12D nails every 4-6 inches? I ruined my shingle scraper and had to borrow another one from a friend. Also borrowed a couple of large prybars. Even with all the leveraging tools, I still had to cut the sheets into smaller pieces on the floor and then crank with all my might to get them up. The kitchen cabinets from the previous owners' remodeling were placed directly on top of the first subfloor and tile. That tile was then overlaid with some 1/4" plywood attached with 1" staples every 2-4 inches. Literally hundreds of staples that tore through the thin wood when it was pulled up. And since we aren't remodeling the kitchen this year (or ever), I had to trim the plywood (and 2 layers of tile) up to the edge of the cabinets. That called for a new multi-tool from Home Depot. At least they had one that used the same batteries as my drill. It was slow work, so I borrowed a grinding tool from my friend with the prybars and bought a framing blade. That at least made short work of the trimming.

Underneath those final two layers of tile and 3/4" plywood was, of course, the original floor decking on top of the floor joists. Fifty year old, not very good quality, 1/2" plywood. There were a few spots that were spongey and a couple that showed a clear view of the basement.

Let me pause here to mention another disaster we can blame on covid-19. Anyone check the price of 3/4" plywood (actually, any type of wood product) in the last year?  Before covid shut down construction and everyone and their dog started doing at home projects, 3/4" plywood was $15-20 for a 4 x 8 sheet. It's $45-50 today. Since I had committed to have the floor install ready, I was on the hook for 400+ square feet of 3/4" plywood. You can do the math or just believe me that it's $650-700.

Instead of closing my eyes and just throwing my wallet at Home Depot, I found a guy who sold recycled plywood. He gets it from shipping companies that use it once to separate freight once, then toss them. They were not full sheets and only 1/2" thick, but with all the corners I would have to cut around doors, closets and whatever, that didn't matter much. $180 to replace the worst of the base layer and cover the rest of the floor. Then I found regular 1/4" underlayment for another $150, making my new base the 3/4" I needed to get my floor up to the level of the cabinets.

Had a little mishap when the refrigerator fell over when we were moving it from the kitchen into the family room. One of the hinges bent a little, but I was able to bent it back and nothing inside was broken. Thank goodness for tempered glass.

I'm about a third of the way finished with the final layer and the new floor is scheduled for next Friday. They wanted to come this weekend, but since I'm out of town (and not ready anyway), that works out perfectly.

How about some pics? First, the top layer that we've lived with since 1998.

There some of the layers underneath and a sample of what the very first floor looked like.

Look at those nails!

Finally got it all up.

We never liked this half wall between the kitchen and family room. Gone!

I wasn't lying when I said we could see into the basement. There were some scary moments at this point, feeling like we might fall through if we stepped in the wrong place. I added some cross bracing in a couple of spots between the joists.

First new layer down.

I'll post some more when I finish the second layer and then when we have a new floor.