Back to normal programming for this post

I have more to say about the pandemic response from both the media and the authorities, the loss of life, and the wobbly economy.  That will be a longer and more thoughtful post, and it will have to wait for a bit.

Meanwhile, I had a few days off work, and needed to take care of a couple of projects.

First off, we had a clutter issue that I had to address.  This house doesn't have much built-in cabinetry.  To deal with the lack of storage, I assembled several stand-up cabinets along the wall in the garage.   Eventually those were not enough, and stuff piled up on the floor and on a folding table in the garage.

Earlier this year we saw several kitchen cabinet lower units on clearance in Home Depot, and I bought four of them.  The plan was to build a frame under them, and put them on casters, so that they could be moved around as needed inside the garage.

As with most of my projects, this took longer than I anticipated - in part because I wasn't all that keen on doing the work :)  However it turned out well.  I built the frame underneath the cabinets with 2x4 studs, installed casters, and added the door pull hardware.  They really were cheap cabinets, to not come with hardware.

For the counter-top,  I cut a large piece of melamine, and added half-round edging to hide the particle board edges.  It's not beautiful cabinetry, but it eliminates the clutter.

Below:  Clutter.  A bit embarrassing actually.

Below:  Same pile of stuff, different angle

Below: I mounted the cabinets back-to-back, so there is storage on each side.  The shelves are not yet installed.

Not my finest work.  I suppose I could fill and paint it, but I kinda don't care.

Way less clutter, almost finished.

This has become our sanitizing station for groceries before we bring them into the house.  Below is the video that explains how and why.  Our dirty side is the left, clean side is on the right.

Some other useful information I learned and want to pass along is this:

The recommended Isopropyl (Rubbing) Alcohol concentration for killing coronavirus is the 70% concentration.  If you use 50% concentration, it may not kill the virus.  If you use more than 70%, it may evaporate too quickly to kill the virus.
So use 70%, let it wet the surface for 30 sec, then wipe off.  We have a spray bottle of 70% alcohol.

You can also make your own hand sanitizer.  This is nice, because all that stuff is sold out.  Make the sanitizer from Aloe Vera Gel and 90% rubbing alcohol.  2/3 cup alcohol and 1/3 cup Aloe Vera.  Add a couple drops of cologne so it doesn't smell quite so bad.

Another thing I had to take care of was the dog pen.  A 2ft fence was perfectly fine for a gimpy dachshund and our new small husky puppy. 

The husky has grown quite a bit though, and it was getting to the point where we thought she might go over it.  She is too young to have a chip yet, so we had to improve the fence.  Also, half my neighbors would probably think she was a wolf and shoot her.  We also enlarged the play area.

Unfortunately, she immediately escaped, going right through the openings, so we had to line the inside of the new fence with the older, tighter wound fence.  I hope that once she grows a little bit more, we will be able to remove the small fence again.