Sunday, May 17, 2020

Screen test

Hey, what's up, dogs?  One of the side effects of stay-at-home orders is that you start to notice little...er...imperfections around the house that need fixing. 

Case in point:  these holes in our window screen.  My human tells me that there was a dog among the previous residents of this house, and I'd guess he/she put his/her paw through the screen, resulting in this damage.  Some canines are so excitable...

So today, we're going to patch the screen.  My human ventured out to the hardware store (carefully, wearing a face mask) and brought home a couple of packages of self-adhesive window screen patch.  We've never done this before, so we'll start with the smaller hole first, for practice. 

First, we need to square up the edges of the hole so the patch looks neater.  Out with the scissors.  Snip snip…
Then we cut a rectangular patch that's somewhat larger than the hole, hold it in place, and hit it with a hair dryer for about 30 seconds.  This melts the adhesive on the patch and sticks it to the existing screen.  

Voila!  Hole patched. 


The patch is definitely noticeable, but we're not too worried about its appearance.  At long as it keeps the bugs out, we'll be happy.  

Right...on to the big hole.  Same steps.




 Wow, this hole is big.  I can still put my paw through to the other side.  Looks like it'll take another patch.

Some lessons we learned...

1)  The small hole was much easier to patch than the large one. 

2)  For the large hole, it would have helped to have somebody on the other side of the window, pushing back against the screen while we used the hair dryer.  It would have minimized "screen floppiness." 

Fast forward fifteen minutes, and we're done.  This is what it looks like from the outside.

There you have it...our first window screen repair, courtesy of ScreenMend (TM).  Hope it lasts!  See you next time...


Thursday, May 14, 2020

Sandy's postcard novel

Hey, what's up, dogs?  We got a whole STACK of postcards from Sandy in the mail recently...He explained that he's decluttering and trying to use up his stash.  Good idea!  He's given us quite a selection here...
He writes, "How are things going down in TX?  We have read that you guys are starting to reopen things."  --Yes, this is true.  We are slowly and cautiously starting to open up again, although most people are still social distancing and wearing masks in public.  

Sandy also mentions that "My humans have gone to a...gasp...plant-based diet!" and he wants to know if I have an opinion on that.  Well, I personally would not be able to follow a meatless meal plan, but everyone's gotta do what's best for them.  

Speaking of which...I hope the rumored shortages of meat remain just that--rumors!  Otherwise I will be one panicky pooch...

Anyway, thanks for the postcards Sandy!  Always good to get mail from my blog friends, especially when we're shut inside...