my plan this morning was to ride out to the saugus lowes and pick up a pint of minwax helmsman spar urethane in clear satin finish ($18.98) before coming back home and put at least a coat on my french door. before i did that though, i walked down to the dollar tree to pick up some foam brushes. they didn't carry any, but i got some synthetic brushes instead.
i didn't leave for saugus until 11am, a little later than i planned. it was my second day traversing the somerville hills, and i didn't seem to learn my lesson from yesterday, as once again i was detoured by road construction.
i stopped at the malden super 88 since it was along the way. i picked up some sesame paste and tea egg spices for the cafe. my mother also wanted deer brand pickled mustard but they didn't have any and she wasn't willing to get substitutes.
i continued onwards toward saugus, arriving at lowes by noontime. i've been to this lowes a few times, to get things that the nearby home depots don't carry (like australian timber oil). along with the minwax spar urethane, i also got some foam brushes just in case i needed them. i also checked out their garden department. one thing i noticed was how many customers didn't wear masks. all the employees had them, but most customers opted not to wear them, which is different in cambridge and somerville, where there's a city mask mandate.
i left lowes by 12:30pm. i took a slight detour to try and get onto the fellsway but ended up going a bit farther than i liked because i couldn't make a left turn. arriving in cambridge, i cut through porter square again (like yesterday), making a brief stop at speedway to fuel up, before going to the cafe to drop off the supplies. my father had already moved one of the wire shelving in the basement, i helped him load it up with drinks. i left there by 1:30pm, finally returning home.
like yesterday, i didn't have time for lunch. as soon as i got back, i was working on the door. i first sanded all surface of the door using fine 220 grit sandpaper. originally i was just going to treat the bare wood areas, but it's easier just to sand everything and apply sealant to the whole surface. i then wiped everything down with a damp towel. just the sanding took 40 minutes. applying the first coat of spar urethane took another hour. in the can it looked black, but it's actually clear with a slight amber color. i used one of the synthetic dollar store brushes, the medium size one. i was finally done by 3:30pm. the directions said the surface needs 4 hours to dry. i closed the door to a crack and left it there while i cleaned up.
it was nice working on something again that i have some control over, compared to my bathroom situation which seems like an ongoing issue with no near solution. painting, that's a thing i can do!
i poured some paint thinner (steve's basement supply) into a glass jar and rinsed the brush. afterwards i wrapped the brush in a paper towel and put it inside a plastic bag. i made the mistake of throwing out some polyurethane-stained power towels into the kitchen trash. that stuck up the house pretty fast but by the time i noticed it was too late to do anything about it. once i finish sealing the door, i'll simply throw out the trash.
around 4pm i walked down to the UPS store to drop off the fridge gasket and 3 bags of unwanted coffee pods. since i was just a few blocks away from market basket, i went there to get a few grocery items. i bought a pan of spicy california roll for a late lunch.
when i got back i checked on the door: the polyurethane was mostly dried, but still a little soft to the touch. granted, it'd only been a hour. when i finally closed the door at 7:30pm (it was already dark by then), the polyurethane was not only dry but hard as well. i'm hoping to get 2 coats done tomorrow: once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. a total of 3 coats should be enough protection.
game 5 of the ALDS started at 5pm today. it was a 1-0 astros lead until the 6th inning, when they scored 5 runs. red sox only scored once, in the 7th inning. after a 9-5, 12-3 offensive performance in games 2 and 3, the red sox bats have gone silent in games 4 and 5. now the series return to houston, where the astros are hoping to win a game and advance.
it was also the celtics season opener, against the knicks of all teams. new york recently signed former celtics evan fournier and kemba walker, it was tough seeing them play in a different uniform. the game went into double overtime, with fournier hitting the final shot to give the knicks a win. i had a salad for dinner while watching the end of the basketball game. it was a simple romaine mix, i added some sweet peppers and croutons for flavor and texture, with northern italian dressing. i didn't have any anchovies though.