One year ago today: June 22, 2015, New York’s Great Escape.
Five years ago today: June 22, 2011, interesting bass lecture.
Nine years ago today: June 22, 2007, customary, but rarely necessary.
Random years ago today: June 22,2009, I investigate MP3+G.
MORNING
Alaine called from down south, there is a horrendous heat-wave. It is not much cooler up in the interior, except at night in the summers. On Monday, I drove around the west side of the lake, which has its own effect on the weather. Now that I’m north, the main influence is the Gulf of Mexico. I chose this photo to demonstrate that you cannot see the lake from the roadways except in a few designated areas and when crossing some canal overpasses. There are no scenic drives around Lake Okeechobee no matter what the tourist brochures say. They are all liars.
This morning I took off the drywall of the south bedroom wall. Even got the window working, but it turns out it is an ordinary old-style single-hung. To the layman, that means only the bottom sash slides up to open the window, the top half is fixed. If one window is single-hung, they probably all are. This one has around four layers of sloppy paint, but the pulleys and ropes are intact.
Inspection of the studs show termite damage, but I caught it well in time. By sheer coincidence, the first panel I knocked out was the same one chosen some years ago by someone else with the same idea. The lumber is solid, as are all the floor joists I could see under the building from the east side. The major area of concern is the bathroom, where I took up some tiles to see what there was for flooring. It appears to be some old-fashioned tongue-and-groove floorboards painted over.
Ben Hur a.k.a. “Bend Her”
NOON
This photo shows an interesting concrete pier system. These stack up in sections without the need for cement and the bass is wide enough to rest steady without gravel. It is one of many types I investigated in my search for an economical means to level my new floor. Alas, these are not available in Florida, but you can find them in New Jersey.
Much as I like that oak flooring, it is coming up. I don’t know if it is worth anything, though I will test it. Maybe run it though a planer. First the bedroom to see what I’m up against, then the living room once I’ve got some experience. I carefully measured all the door frames to determine where the warping was worst. Again, it points to the centerline of the joists. The common feature is they have cylinder blocks that don’t appear to have settled as much as the outer rim.
I tried to get more work done in the yard but the insane heat drove me back. It is possible to work indoors with the A/C on full blast, but the inadequate circulation in the house (no ceiling fans) means I have to keep floor and desk fans in every room. The maximum rated insulation I can fit between the 24” on-center studs is R-13, which hardly seems adequate. Not many people are aware the R means the difference the insulation will maintain between two temperatures. So if it is 95°F out there today, the interior will only stay at 82°F by itself.
I’m shopping around for a better product, but if that’s all there is, it is better than nothing. I priced out a lift at $850. That’s a cheap upgrade. I prefer to work with batts that have a kraft-paper vapor barrier. You could always do a California and line the walls with tinfoil before you replace the drywall. It is actually bulbblewrap with tinfoil on both sides meant for lining saunas and showers. But it’s electromagnetic and infrared properties are reportedly superb.
Francis M. Fesmire: Medicine, 2006. I am not going to tell you how Francis cures hiccups. Read the link yourself.
NIGHT
After trying to get more work done in the cooler afternoon and evening, I gave up and rode my bicycle downtown for coffee and a nice cold salad. The library is ten minutes away by bicycle and downtown around eight minutes. Somehow, I’ve managed to remove the saddlebags and misplace them, so I don’t even have a carrier on the handlebars. I got up to the lumberyard for some nails and to price out materials. Everything so far is fairly close to budget.
{Photo delayed]
I’ve really been inspecting the new place and I see now the radiant heat from the walls is the problem in the hot summer days. Merely insulating will vastly improve the comfort and have an immediate effect on retail value since I will have lots of pictures to justify the price tag. I still don’t know if seeing daylight through the siding is a problem, though it probably is. It is a direct path into the walls for water and weather. When I was a kid, they put a layer of tarpaper.
Having nicely covered myself with building dust, termite turd, paint flecks, and drywall chips, I said to heck with it at 9:00PM and went for a cold brew. Present was a guitar player, who just set up at the bar and strummed. He’s on beat but as par usual, knows all the lengthy ballads. “Bye Bye Miss American Pie”, my oath how that song drags on. He’s 60-ish so that is not going to change, but he does play at the Legion and likes the country classics. He was surprised as hell to hear me sing after I’d mentioned that I play bass.
However, it’s clear he cannot stand on his own, he’s got poor stage technique and appears to be just too self-conscious about making mistakes. It’s how you handle mistakes that forms the point where experience takes over. Myself, I make at least one mistake in every song I play on stage. If the guy is still around next week, I might join in.
ADDENDUM
You are overdue for some well-researched trivia. According to more than one source, trailer parks in America operate at an average of 50% profit margin. ( Now, tell me again that these people aren’t in cahoots.) The Amazon supplies a fifth of the oxygen you breathe. There are no active volcanoes in Australia. Victoria Woodhull ran for US president in 1872. If you straighten out a coat-hanger, you get 44 inches of wire.
The average American eats 35,000 cookies in his life. It takes most people seven minutes to fall asleep. Napoleon was the first world leader to make his country’s laws apply equally to all citizens. (The US & Canada are still working on that.) Another ship, the Slavonia, was first to send the SOS signal, three years before the Titanic.
Last Laugh
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