Un-tile we meet again

The basement repairs are slated to happen at the end of this month. It will involve digging up the concrete along several stretches of wall, including 2 of the 4 walls in the finished room we'd given over to Ross for his visits. So to save the baseboards and tiles for reuse, I have spent the weekend prying them off. The contractor only wanted a couple of rows removed, but I did 3, to be safe. I hope we can glue them back down.

There is a small, but definite crack in the concrete floor in the closet, so I am hoping that is the source of the leak and not the wall. I will still cut out at least a section at the bottom of the wall to try and make sure. As well as to check the insulation for any mold.

Been starting to work on some of my hobbies lately too. I've sent for a few special postmarks for that collection and just received a postcard from Greece for my world postcard collection. My goal is to get at least one from every country.

I've also been drawing a bit with plans to do more. With the upcoming Sunday Funnies postage stamps has come some inspiration. I'll probably do 5 sets and have already got a couple of subjects complete. For Calvin & Hobbes I have done 5 different drawings. One with Calvin, one with Hobbes, and three with both together. Here's one of the envelopes:

I have been trying to find a bit I wrote some time ago. I came across it recently and decided I wanted to draw it using somebody else's characters. I've gotten the okay to do so, but now can't find the piece!

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Snow Trouble Et Al

Carrie took this photo on our property earlier this week. We got some more snow yesterday, and it is snowing even as I type this. There is a big weather system sitting just off the coast of Maine, spitting at us right now, but we are expecting a couple of feet to land on us tomorrow.

Now that it's cold again, our basement is fine, but just after Ross left, it was leaking. One crack in the walls we knew about. the previous owner said she'd had it fixed. It created a big puddle, but didn't really impact on anything important. The other crack, which we never knew about, is behind the finished walls of what we've made Ross's room. We're glad it didn't occur while Ross was here and the portable electric heater was on the floor.

Carrie has contacted our insurance company and a repair guy. Hopefully it is repairable without too much destruction needed to get to the cracks.
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