i woke up at 9am to get started on coating my french door. if i finished the 2nd coat by 10am, i could start the 3rd coat at 2pm (waiting 4 hours for the spar urethane to dry) and be done by 6pm. it wasn't hard to get up because i heard the beep-beep sound of a construction truck as early as 8am. turns out my opposite door neighbors were redigging their driveway, but then later i realized they were actually planting a new tree to replace the one they chopped down back in may.

it took me half an hour to sand the door with 220 grit sandpaper, then another 50 minutes to coat the door. i wasn't done until 10:30am, which meant i would start the 3rd coat at 2:30pm.

i checked my records: the last time i coated the french door was 13 years ago, at the end of november. it was cold enough that frost were forming on morning plants. i didn't say much about what i used or if i even sanded, but i did set up a tarp to protect the door from the sun (?) and the rain. i waited 2 days before i did the 2nd coat, with temperature hovering between 45-60°F. so the 70's temperature we had today? couldn't have asked for nicer weather. the forecast did say there might be spotted showers early in the morning, which was a surprise to me because i thought it was going to be dry the rest of the week. but hopefully the door will be long dried by then and a few sprinkles won't damage the finish.

i started fermenting some vegetables. i fished out the half sour pickles from my 1/2 gallon jar and added a fresh batch of tiny cucumbers i bought from haymarket last friday. i never done this before, reuse half sour pickle brine on fresh cucumbers. i left the jar on the countertop so it can properly ferment, since it wouldn't ferment as much in the fridge. i also boiled 9 cups of water with 3 ounces of salt to make brine for the long beans. i didn't have anymore 1/2 gallon jars, so instead i used jars on hand. i had a large pasta sauce jar (probably 32 oz.) and i had a bunch of wide mouth 32 oz. jars so i used one of those as well. into the 2 jars i crammed in the long beans. my trick is to actually fill up the jar with water because the beans are more pliable when they're submerged. after filling the two jars, i poured out the water (to let the beans dry) and waited for the brine to cool down to room temperature.

for lunch i had some calamari salad along with a glass of mango kefir. i didn't even have time for my ritual morning poop today, so i went in the afternoon, then took a shower afterwards. i removed the bandaid on my pinky toe, it's been the 2nd dressing where there was no blood, i think the biopsy wound has healed by now, nearly a week since my dermatology appointment. funny that they haven't contacted me yet about the results. so later i went online to the patient portal. they had the report since wednesday. the pathologist said it was an angioma, and not digital fibrokeratoma (DF). that doesn't make sense because i've seen photos of DF and it looks exactly like what i have. regardless, both are benign and nothing to worry about not that i had the growth removed.

at 2:30pm i went back to work. the 2nd coat of spar urethane was dried by then, i started off with another round of sanding. after wiping off the dust with a wet towel, it was time for the 3rd and final coat. i didn't finish until 4pm, which meant i had to keep the door slightly open until 8pm. i actually got a few mosquito bites this time, which didn't happen before. another weird thing is even though i had the door opened for the whole day, no bugs (including mosquitoes) came inside the house. my personal theory is they don't like the smell of spar urethane, which keeps them away, like an invisible barrier.

the brine was finally cooled. into each long bean jar i added a few bay leaves, some thai hot chili peppers, a few rock sugar, a teaspoon of sichuan peppercorn, and a dash of chinese baijiu. each jar only needed 2-1/2 cups of brine, so i made more than i needed.

in the evening i had another salad for dinner. this time i poured out all the croutons. i ate while alternating between the NLDS game (dodgers beat the braves, series stand at 2-3) and the thursday night football game between the browns and broncos (cleveland won 17-14). i had a plum for dessert.