Zombie

Not a whole lot of painting happened today unfortunately. But since the bosses son was there I put him to work helping me get the greenhouse complete. Was quite a bit of sweeping, leaf blowing, shelf cleaning, putting plastic flats away and just general tidying up, but we got it done with time to spare: We got some outdoor work finished too, and still had some time to staple some cut-up flower boxes as flats for carrying arrangements. It was a big help in keeping ahead of the game, that's for sure. There's still minor cleanup which needs to be done yet of course. But now I can focus on painting and whatever other maintenance projects crop up. There's always something! - Zombie

Today was very nice out again. I had some other projects I'm currently working on though: greenhouse and cleaning up the small garage. There was a lull in the action in the afternoon so I was able to fill in some more rough spots in the pavement along the greenhouse. You should be able to see the new areas as they are shinier than the other patches: I wouldn't say this area is complete yet as there are a couple areas under the plastic flap that could use filling too. Dunno if I want to tackle that this year anymore, I guess I could if it's really quiet, but come on, that never happens this time of the year. There are a couple other areas I have my eye on that I might do yet, we shall see. Anyhow, I was able to tamp down all my patches again today. Here's what the ones look like by the alley: I think that was quite beneficial actually. Maybe not so much here, but along the greenhouse the patch wasn't super compacted and that extra tamping certainly helped. And the patches blend in color to the rest of the pavement better. Maybe next year I'll seal coat the blacktop in the driveway and along the greenhouse again. Last time I did that was ages ago, so it's time. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty nice again, I'll see what I can get done while the weather is cooperating. - Zombie

Battlecruiser Part 1 This time we're on an airport map. We deploy as usual but don't spot anything until the aliens first turn. Two Rars show up just west of the transport. MTR will shoot at one of them to start us off: His first bullet hits a very weak spot for an unbelievable 146 damage which kills it: Unreal, that's more than the mortar can do sometimes! Nobody can really get a good shot on the second Rar, so CG will stand up from his hiding spot to shoot at it: His first bullet does 39 while his second does 49 which kills it: When we peek out of the hedge that faces the hangar to the northeast Nook spots another Rar which he'll shoot at: His first bullet is a weak spot kill doing 112 damage: Nothing much happens during the alien's turn, but when it's ours again a cannon on the roof of the UFO must've spotted CG somehow when he moved and shot at him doing no damage. Thought he was far enough away to be safe, but that's a big no. Since the cannon is visible, TV will mortar it: The first blast only did 80, so he fired another one. This one did even less damage at 59, but it was enough to destroy it: During the alien's next turn, another Rar shows up where the last two were before. Loonie is ready for it and immediately starts shooting at it with the first bullet hitting for 51 with the second on the way: That hits for 43 which kills it: Quite impressive. When it's our turn, CG takes a peek around the corner to spot a Rider standing next to a light pole. He books it back into hiding to let MTR toss a grenade next to it: Why not directly on it? Well, I want to keep as much of that hedge intact as I can for cover. Anyhow, the blast does 45 damage which kills the thing and makes a one-square hole in the hedge: When Sorby peeks out of the hedge he spots two more aliens. The first is a Rar by the corner of the hangar. He'll toss an incendiary grenade at it to start things off: It only does 13 damage so he tossed a sludge grenade next which did 52 but didn't kill it: That's rather unfortunate. But now you can see that the other alien is a Rider by the other corner of the hangar. Well, Mouse gets into position to throw a cryo grenade at this tough Rar: It only does 33 damage, but that's enough to take it out: As for that Rider, it's going to have to wait as nobody is in a good position to toss a grenade on it. Sure, TV could have mortared it, but why waste a bomb on a weakling Rider? NKF is itching to shoot at it but can't either: On our next turn, Loonie spots a Rar between the hangar and the UFO which he'll shoot at: His first bullet hits for 89 and kills it: When he fires, he had to turn a bit and spotted a Rider to his left. Well, he may as well shoot at it too: The first bullet does 33 damage which kills it: This was kinda a mistake on my part as he couldn't get back into full cover anymore. During the alien's turn, a Rider shows up by CG: NKF reaction fires at it hitting with the first bullet which does 28 damage and kills it: He's a monster who cannot be stopped. This allowed Loonie to get back into cover again the next round. On our next round, TV will mortar the control tower since we just spotted it: It damages a hidden Rider (try to figure this one out) but for only 22. Again, try to figure that out. 22 damage for a mortar against a weakling Rider. Unbelievable: At least it's visible now and there's nothing in the way of Mouse shooting at it: The first bullet does 33 and kills it: So join me for part two when we deal with the rest of the alien cannons and a whole raft of Riders. Should be able to get that in one part because after that will be a lot of Geoscape stuff too. That'll be a post on it's own as there's a lot to cover. Edit: Right now I'm sitting at 11,324 UFOs shot down with 4 days left in the month. Which means I need to shoot down at least 14 UFOs each day till the end of the year to get to #1. Obviously, I'm going to keep up my pace while the going is good. I'm aiming for getting to 12237 (#1) by the end of November which will give me the whole month of December to pad the stats a little bit. If I have the time, the goal for December is 1000 more. - Zombie

Awww, thanks for the kind words Mr T. Much appreciated! Pats on the back happen after the job is done, so we'll wait on that one. The other day I actually had a little time in the afternoon to put a first coat on the primer spots on the east side of the building. Just kept going until I got it done. Used up the last drops in the pail on putting a light coat on some areas where the primer was still peeking through: Looks better obviously, but more needs to be done yet. There's some peeling paint above the door on the right as well as some areas below the fire escape on the far left. I have about 1/2 gallon of the old paint color left so after I get those spots primed and caulked, it should be enough to cover over it. If not, I have plenty of the new Loxon stuff left. My plan is to paint the wall next year with the new color as what I have on there now should protect it through the winter and spring. I guess the big $64,000 question is: which one do I like better? They are pretty similar actually. The Loxon stuff is quite a bit thicker which requires more latex paint conditioner to get the proper consistency so brushing is easier. It seems to cover good as is evident on the area I painted by the big garage door (it was one medium coat, thinned with a little conditioner, that's it). With that said, if I had to pick one, it would still be the Diamond Vogel as that's what I'm used to using. My pick could be swayed if the Loxon stuff didn't bleach out in the sun as fast (though, 12 years for a paint to remain the same color is asking a lot). I should really paint that big gray eyesore of a gas meter too, but I need to touch up the fire escape first and I don't think I'd have enough to finish that too. Now that I think of it, it's probably better to wait as I'd need to get the new color matched in an oil paint so that it looks the same. Didn't have any time to do painting or patch tamping today, so no update there. I spent most of the day getting the inside of the greenhouse cleaned up and putting stuff away for winter. Not a very glamorous or interesting job, so I didn't bother taking pics of that. Certainly was a nice day in terms of weather and you have to take full advantage when it's good. - Zombie

So there was some pretty significant peeling paint going on to the east of the big garage door on the alley. Spent a while scraping all the old stuff off, priming and caulking it: Not going to bother putting on a first coat with the old paint color, I hit it with the new Loxon stuff from Sherwin Williams: Yup, schlupped some paint on the brown, but I have to touch that up anyway so no big deal. Should probably do above the door and the west side too, but that's going to wait till I have time. Took some time today to tamp down the new patch in the middle of the driveway and also did another tamp on another one too: Don't think that was necessary per se, but it made the patch lighter so it blended in better. I have a small straw whisk broom which I was using on the patches to sweep out the pothole first, but ended up breaking off the cheap plastic handle the other day. Not good. I thought that maybe I could jam an old broom handle in there to see if that would fit. Yup, perfectly in fact. Cut a length off, drilled a hole in one end for hanging it, then hot glued the handle into the end. Finally, put a coat of polyurethane on it. All fixed: Even better than before as the handle is longer and much more sturdy. If the hot melt glue doesn't hold, then I might switch to Gorilla Glue. Anyhow, was putting away some metal racks against the side of the small garage on the parking lot and noticed some crumbling mortar in a few of the joints. Got out the hammer and screwdriver to knock out the old stuff, then mixed up a batch of mortar and filled in the joints: Step cracks are the worst thing in the world. Very annoying to fix because they keep coming back. Mixed up a little too much mortar so I used the rest on some cracks in the cement in the greenhouse: Much better. Not sure if it'll hold, but it's better than nothing. Probably will not have too much time tomorrow but I'm hoping to get back on the painting project. - Zombie

Had a little time today so I messed around with filling in more potholes. The big one in the middle of the driveway was priority #1 obviously. Forgot to take a pic of it filled, but did take a pic of it with two boards over it (with newspaper underneath to prevent sticking): I did a lot of hammering on it and I think it turned out good. One more tamping is needed yet when it fully sets. After this, I went to work on some smaller potholes by the big back garage door: There were a lot of divots from the wheels of the garbage dumpster that used to sit here. It's a little annoying when you are using a hand cart to move glassware into the back as these bumps make it difficult to get a head of steam going. There is a fairly high lip between the blacktop and the concrete floor so I might tamp a little more into the crack to make a little ramp like I did to the other garage doors. I have about a half a pail left of the patch so I may have to ration it a bit as I don't want to pick up another bag if I don't have to. - Zombie

I'll post a part one on that next battlecruiser mission tomorrow. Just wanted to mention I now have 11005 UFOs shot down and it's only the 19th. The goal is to try to crank out some more tomorrow and hopefully get 232 more by the end of the month. That would be ideal. I need to shoot down 1232 more UFOs by the end of the year to be #1. That's only ~17/day which is a cakewalk. - Zombie

Can't be any worse than them landing directly on the plastic itself. Actually, what I'm thinking of doing for a little bit of extra protection from winter storms/snowfall is to toss an old piece of greenhouse plastic over the bad areas and secure that down. Probably would be beneficial anyway. And possibly a door too! Yeah, I was looking at that earlier this year. I know one previous window opening is on the wall going down the steps to the basement (we keep our floral spray paint there). It looks like most would be under the current steps going up above. Not sure why they were there or why they were bricked off, but it would be interesting if they were still there. - Zombie

The weather was cooperating today so while it was warm I patched up a few holes in the plastic on the greenhouse from the stupid seagulls again: Dunno why I wanted to do this today as it was really windy which made getting the tape through the holes nearly impossible. I didn't swear this time though. Hopefully it'll hold over the winter as it did last year. Actually I heard about a method to prevent bird damage to greenhouse plastic - put a very fine mesh over it. Not convinced that would solve it completely, but it perhaps it's worth a shot if it isn't too expensive (we had one of these mesh covers but it got thrown out a couple years ago by accident). Oh well. So do I fill a pothole or paint? Had some time so let's paint! Painted the area above the door and to the right of it too: Actually, I spent about a half hour going through all my cans of paint before I started. I thought I was out of the "Taffy Apple" base color paint, but forgot I bought a few cans back in 2019 in anticipation of painting the east side of the building. That never happened due the pandemic and being busy. I used up one can last year and found the other one today. Splashed a little latex paint conditioner in there to aid in brushing and it worked great. Best of all, it completely matches so no worries about seeing where you left off - it blends in perfectly. Still had time after this quickie job so I got a start on the east side: It's a little bit darker than the paint that's still on it because of the sun bleaching it out for the last 12 years, but hey, it's not bad at all. I'm sure that once it's dry it will be closer in color. Hopefully we have another couple warmer days so I can finish covering the primed spots. Only used up 1/4 gallon of paint so far too so I should be able to get this side buttoned down before the snow starts flying. And then maybe next year I'll put on the final coat of the new paint color (similar but a little lighter, actually you might be able to see the new color is a couple courses of brick above the fire escape). I was admiring my tuck pointing job on this side today too as it's hardly noticeable with a coat of paint over it. - Zombie

Spent a little time cleaning up between the greenhouse and store today as the weather was finally decent. Cleaned the two windows, swept up the leaves and dust and chunks of blacktop, put away the hose reel, used the leaf blower to remove the rest of the stuff. Took a pic of the final state: Looks great now. That white thing on the one patch is a bird feather - the patch may be a little sticky yet. Some of the loose blacktop on the bottom of the pic... well, I might just put down some roofing patch and "glue" the loose pieces back into place for the winter. If it doesn't hold, no big deal, at least I tried. I'm getting rid of a bunch of old pallets too, so that we only have 3 stacks total. Anyway, as for the crap at the far end of the pic, I'll clean that up soon. Still need to fill in that last pothole in the driveway and a couple rough spots by the greenhouse patches. And I need to start painting the areas I primed too, before the weather gets too cold and humid. - Zombie

So here is the End of Mission Report: We recovered a lot of good alien weapons and have 3 promotions. Kinda no surprise who as they were all main players in the mission. Let's do Loonie first: Basic strategy, put 3 points in Strength to max that out at a nice even 100 and the last 2 went in shooting to max that out at 99. Pretty incredible so far and we haven't even touched the other stats much. Next up is DragonHawk: Same basic strategy: max out strength at 100 with 2 points, max out shooting at 100 with 2 points and the last point went in throwing to get him to 83. I think his max potential for that stat will be right around 99 or 100 depending on how the game handles that last point. And last, let's do the new Nook: Exactly the same as DragonHawk: 2 point went in strength to max it out at 101, 1 in shooting to max that out at 101 and the last 3 into throwing to get him to 82. What beasts! Really glad I spent the time hiring them and bringing them up the ranks. Back at base, it's time to check out our Positronic stockpile of weapons: We now have 25 Positronic Beamers and 19 clips. Still not enough to start equipping them on a regular basis, but if we know a mission might be tough, we can supplement our normal rifles. Oh, almost forgot about the Positronic Grenades: Yeah, only 5 isn't going to cut it. Luckily the aliens haven't been using them on us which I think is because I set the sight range for the aliens the same as us. If they can't see us until we can see them, there's really no point in tossing a grenade for them. Back on the Geoscape and our manufacturing bases have completed the first round of Positronic Cannons for our interceptors: That's some great news. I'm going to put these on the upgraded "golden" Thunderstorms first because then I know at a glance what interceptors can handle tougher fights. I'll show you one in North America: This couldn't have come at a better time as we've been seeing a lot of Battlecruisers and Massive Patrol Vessels lately. Needless to say, I started manufacturing a second batch. One day later and our research into the Hardened Bonesetter completed: Ah, ha! A new fighter shield! That comes at a great time, though it means we'll have to balance what to produce. Anyhow, time to check out the Hardened Bonesetter description: This kinda mirrors my experiences with them so far: mechanical is iffy, fire and freeze do decent and chem is the weakest link. Just for comparison purposes, let's look at the normal bonesetter again: The picture is that of a commander, not the normal grunts, but the stats are from the usual ones. And yeah, the normal ones seem like pushovers when compared to the hardened variety. Time for researching, I think everyone is going on the the new fighter shield: A couple days later and we spot another Battlecruiser near South America. I send out my interceptors to get spotted and then withdraw them so my base can help take it out: I sent out some other incerceptors from Antarctica and Europe but soon realized they wouldn't arrive in time to help. Well, since I had the birds in the air already, I had them go there just in case another UFO shows up around the area. The fight actually didn't take too long (probably because one of the interceptors had a new cannon on it) but one unupgraded thunderstorm took some damage. Huge explosion ensues: It's going to take a while for the crash site to be in daylight so we have to wait a little before leaving. So join me next time when we tackle yet another Battlecruiser crash site. - Zombie

Really, all the traffic we get through there is feet. Well, I go through there with my big wooden cart which would probably be fine too depending on what's on it. Although I will mention that I normally straddle those potholes with the cart so that the load remains stable. Honestly, it's been leaking from the same areas for years. So I know where to look. I also take measurements from below and then use a "landmark" of such, to measure off on the roof to pinpoint the problem area. If I can't find a crack I expand the search. The underlayment for the roof is boards with small spaces between them and that's where leaks show up (I'll take a pic of this sometime). This year the leaks were big enough where I could see light coming through (especially helpful in a dark garage). In the past where I didn't see light, I pounded a long nail up through the roof from below so that when I got up there I could find the spot. Ok, going to change gears again on another project I've been working on for a while. Last year I noticed that the wall above the door where I poured a new threshold was peeling paint and needed some help. I spent a while scraping, wire brushing and caulking to get the prep finished (10/5/2023): I also adjusted the cable above the door so that it went straight across instead of drooping like it was before. That big crack of missing mortar above the gutter was not touched as I was out of mortar mix (or so I thought). The weather got cold for a while but we had a warm snap at the beginning of December so I was able to start painting. Wanted to use up the old paint as the bucket was starting to get a rusty rim so I started with the long wall (12/8/2023): You can see the areas where I didn't paint (no cracks or peeling so I left them alone). This whole area will get a fresh coat of paint eventually - not this year anymore though. And here's what the area looked like above the door after paint: To the right of the door near the ground there were some bricks that had some chunks coming off. I "glued" them back on with some caulking and painted over it. That didn't hold up over winter so I needed to fix that somehow. I was in the small garage a couple months ago putting stuff away when I noticed I had a half-used bag of mortar mix in there yet. I had plastic over it, but I think the bottom may have got wet as it was hard. The stuff above that was still powdery so I decided to fix that crack above the door and the missing chunks of brick (9/11/2024): This area went fine - got it to stick and was able to smooth it out without the mortar sagging. The area above the door was a different issue. I couldn't get my mini-homemade mortar "hawk" (a flat board with a handle screwed on it) close enough to push the mortar into the crack because of the conduit which was in the way. As a last ditch effort I used my hands to fill it as best as I could. Wasn't pretty though and a lot of swear words were muttered: I figured the rest I can fill with caulk. After the stuff that was smeared on the bricks dried, I came back and scraped it off. I had to let it sit like that for about a month to fully cure. (Probably didn't have to wait this long as the areas were small and not very deep but I was busy too). Anyhow, the other day I caulked and primed both areas(10/11/2024): Caulked a crack in the mortar again but didn't bother priming that. Hopefully one of these days I can paint the spots. As an aside, I did a lot of this same work on the east side of the building too. Started that late last year (didn't take a pic from that) and it's continuing on to this day (took pics this time). So expect to see that soon. - Zombie

Interesting. I like the slogan: "In Beer We Trust"! - Zombie

Well, I finished fixing the potholes alongside the greenhouse today. I tamped the one I did a couple days ago and it seems pretty good now. Still a little sticky in spots but once it dries it'll be ready to walk over. The big pothole took nearly half a bag of patch to fill which surprised me. Didn't bother even dumping the stuff into the bucket first because I knew I'd need quite a bit - I dumped it directly into the pothole. There were some spots where I needed to add some more so I used the stuff out of the pail as it's easier to proportion the amount. Took a lot of tamping to get it to a decent point but I think it turned out: It's definitely going to need another tamping session - maybe I'll do that tomorrow or Saturday. It just depends how soft it is yet. I took another pic at a different angle so you can see the spots better: I'm probably going to need to address the rough spot between the small pothole by the 5mph cone and the big pothole in back of it. When I was tamping the big pothole the rough area sounded hollow underneath. Not sure if I want to excavate that out, I think maybe I'll just fill it in and see how it holds up over the winter. There should be enough patch left to fix that pothole in the middle of our driveway and possibly some spots by the big garage door in the alleyway. Hopefully can get to that tomorrow. I'm going to switch gears here a little bit. Instead of potholes, how about a foray into fixing leaks on a bad roof? Yup, I do everything. Our small garage has a terrible roof on it. I've been patching that for over a decade now, hoping and praying that bossman will get a new membrane put on it since it's virtually flat. Hasn't happened yet, but the ball is rolling at least. Here's a pic I took of the roof three years ago (10/8/2021) after I patched it yet again: This patch normally lasts through the winter and sometimes into summer if you are lucky. On a roof this bad, 6 months is about tops. Then I'm back up there patching before the snow starts flying. You smear this fibrous asphalt over the leak, slap down some black fiberglass tape and embed that into the gunk, then smear another coat over the whole thing. Anyhow, the area where the roofing goes up the wall is all cracking. Can't really get fiberglass tape to stick on that rough flashing so I keep filling it. Here's what it looked like last year after another patching session (12/8/2023): And a different pic of the area above the garage door facing the driveway: Just keep smearing the stuff on, coat after coat, year after year. And I don't care how it looks, at least it stopped the leaking. This year looked to be more of the same as it was leaking again. I was running low on my supply of the asphalt stuff so I went to the hardware store to pick up another gallon. I wasn't convinced that the stuff I've been using is ideal so while I was there I looked at other options. Found a rubberized cement which had a 15 year warranty too. It was pretty expensive but I'm at my wits end doing this so often so I got it (Red=new, Green=old): This rubberized stuff is so much better, nice and thick, just the way I like it. Did a lot of patching on the roof again with the new stuff: Seems like the way to go. Don't skimp on quality folks, it's not worth it, especially for paint and roofing compound. Lesson learned unless it starts leaking again that is. I have another area I need to patch on the roof above the showroom, I'll take you along for that to see what I'm up against. - Zombie

Battlecruiser Part 3 After that Rar encounter, I reloaded from an earlier save and went at it again. FA opened the door and took an auto shot at a Hardened Bonesetter with heavy ammo in his photon beamer. First blast was absorbed. The Bonesetter shot back at him but it's damage was absorbed too. FA's second blast did 13 while his last missed. The Bonesetter should be relatively safe as it's low on APs so Knan will shoot at it at close range: He took two auto shots: the first did 29 total damage while the first bullet of his second did an identical 29 which killed it: On our next turn, Knan comes out of hiding to spot that pesky Rar. He doesn't have a lot of APs to spare so he'll throw an incendiary grenade at it (it's not in his hand anymore as he just threw it - you can probably see the fire has started): It only did 12 fire damage. So that seals it, he must shoot at it now: His first two bullets do 67 & 50 damage which kills it: Four turns later and we just spotted one of the alien cannons on top of the UFO so TV will mortar it: The blast does a very healthy 155 damage which takes it out: A couple turns later we spot the other cannon on the closest side to us. Same deal as before, TV will mortar it: This blast did a decent 138 damage which destroys it: Four turns later and we spot part of the cannon on the far side of the UFO so TV will mortar that too: The blast hits for a very healthy 153 damage which destroys it: On the next turn we spot the last cannon. TV to the rescue again: This time the blast did 127 damage but that was enough to take it out: Now we can relax a little bit as there aren't any cannons left to impede our progress searching the rest of the map. Thirteen turns go by and we've mostly searched out some of the last areas of darkness. Nothing has been found except for this Hardened Bonesetter where that last cannon was. TV will mortar it: This blast does 147 damage which kills it: Impressive damage rolls make the mission go fast. Wow. Silencer goes up a lift in the building to the right of the UFO only to spot a Hardened Bonesetter at the far side of the room - so he'll shoot at it: His first bullet hits for 73 which kills it: Surgical guys. On the next turn, the team on the west side of the map finds a Hardened Bonesetter which must have come out of the UFO door. Loonie is in some great cover so he'll throw an incendiary grenade on it: It only did 7 fire damage. Ok, let's see how it handles a chem grenade then: That did 57 damage which takes it out: During the alien's turn another Hardened Bonesetter comes out of the UFO only to end up standing in the gas/fire cloud. It takes 41 damage from the chem but absorbs the fire: DragonHawk will toss a cryo grenade on it now: It does 43 freeze damage which kills it: During the alien's turn, another Hardened Bonesetter comes out of the UFO and ends up in that soup too: This one absorbed both the chem and fire. In a very rare instance, The Veteran will drop his mortar in order to toss an incendiary grenade on it: It did 25 fire damage which wasn't bad. Loonie tossed a normal grenade on it, but the damage was absorbed. So now Loonie will toss a cryo grenade on it: That did enough damage to kill it and end the mission. Join me next time as we allocate points for some soldiers who were promoted. Then I show what our stores look like in terms of the new positronic tech. We deal with some manufacturing and researching too and end it all off by shooting down another battlecruiser UFO. Update on shooting UFOs down: Right now I'm at 10,623 so I'm way ahead for the month. My hope is to get to 10,800 this weekend. I had a UFO I wasn't able to shoot down the other day and it created a terror site in the Indian Ocean. I didn't bother running that mission but it's just surprising the game programmed this in. Granted, it seems like a rare occurrence, but they still happen every once and a while. Swarms have been few and far between happening maybe every 3rd month or so. But I'd get a couple mini swarms sometimes with tons (like 5-6) of small UFOs popping up just after we start shooting down a biggie. If these little ones are near a base, I've been leaving them go as our defenses are more than capable of shooing them down on their own. Of course, I bombard the crash site to keep the "states" happy with me. - Zombie