One year ago today: June 11, 2015, the Red Baron’s plane?
Five years ago today: June 11, 2011, my Darlington.
Nine years ago today: June 11, 2007, 2,800 wigs.
Random years ago today: June 11, 2008, the fireplace effect.
MORNING
This is JZ rapping on the watermelons with a lazy black cat looking on from the rocking chair. I know all the shortcuts to Lakeland now, so it was a leisurely trip up old highway 27. This deck is on the Palmdale Cracker store, which is around half-way and destined to replace the old Lake Placid stop. It is a Texas style roadhouse, where you get what is cooking that day. It was ribs and the third time in history that I’ve seen JZ unable to finish a meal.
My anxiousness to get here was because I know the place shuts down on Sundays. That’s why the priority was to get the air conditioners fired up. Happily, that required only WD-40 and five minutes, upon which I ran them both cranked to full for the rest of the day.
I had already spent several days without the A/C so I was heap glad enough to leave them blast the place. It was duly noted that at the hottest part of the day, I could still detect a warmness along the south-facing walls. I’m not a skinflint with air conditioning (like some people I know) but I cannot afford to cool down all of south Florida. We also took a full truckload of my belongings up to the storage shed, more of which I’ll talk about later.
Galveston, 1900.
NOON
The humidity is higher in the interior and I may invest in a dehumidifier. I have no idea how those even work. I really suspect the new building is not insulated. It predates air conditioning so there would be no real reason to incur that expense. One patch of each room’s exterior wall is coming off to find out first-hand what is under there. There are two sheds on the land.
I could not take the mid-day heat, I zonked out for a siesta. Even so, enough got done that we drove all the way to Plant City (32 miles one way) for a brew before nightfall. I bought a bed kit for the back room, and we slapped together two large shelving units in the shed. So many people move and make the wrong decision about shelves. My advice is put them up first and stop having to dig through piles of boxes for stuff. Next, we measured and examined the foundation, ceilings, and yard. The back of the property is higher than the front.
I’ve further planned to have a professional fell the large dead tree. Research shows the small tree by the garden is a grapefruit, but it has that greening parasite. It’s a bacteria spread by this gnat-like insect that weakens the tree and makes the fruit drop. I have an aversion to eating any fruit that falls on the ground, remember, I spent my teenage years working in orchards.
Donald J. Smith: Engineering, 2004. Back in the winter of “75, Don and his dad patented the comb-over, you know, the type of hair-do that Donald Trump does not have. The Smiths reside in Orlando, way more than an hour’s drive from my place, hopefully more.
NIGHT
This is your mystery photo. It’s something most city kids would not recognize. JZ doesn’t have a limp wrist, dudesters, he is amazed how weightless the object is. But as for its purpose, the weight is a red herring. The only hint you have is that this is not used for cooking. It is an aluminum can with a spiral wire for a handle. Return Monday or later for answer.
Instead, they have taken to retailing brand new beds, but with a different problem. The prices are as high as at the rip-off high-pressure furniture places. One twin is $250. Take note, the bedbug plague was over as fast as it arrived. So I opted for an el cheapo knock-together frame and an expensive mattress. JZ does not follow my logic. He’d go for a fancy frame and cheap mattress.
You figure out who’s logic is better, but I’m not spending a third of my life on a cheap lumpy mattress. And I do not turn off the A/C if I’m just leaving for a half-hour. Come back tomorrow for a photo of my new guest bed. You don’t want, on the other hand, for it to be too fancy or comfortable.
Yes, we went out chasing women but the results were inconclusive. However, having a place to take a babe should the opportunity arise makes a huge difference. Later, JZ went out on his own, since I seem to have injured my elbow putting that bedframe together. I discovered the reason the seller didn’t like it was she had been putting one of the long pieces on upside down, causing the under-bed drawers to bind. So I worked around the repair leaning on my left elbow so I could wield the drill driver. Now I suffer. Return next day to see if this turns serious.
ADDENDUM
Is the shiplap siding on my new place a stock item? Yes and no. It is listed at Home Depot but “not available for pickup” at any location within 100 miles of here. Read up on what’s happening with shiplap these days, it has evolved. I learned there is a secondary market for reclaimed shiplap. The same sources say the siding has to be repainted at least every five years.
I’m trying to price it, but Home Depot won’t say unless the product is available and anyone who has tried to use the Lowe’s webpage will tell you where they can stick their web page. Once more, it is damn hard to get a price of the lumber. The websites tell you the installed cost, as if the lumber cost is some kind of secret.
I finally found some prices at Robinson in Massachusetts, it works out to about 50 cents per lineal foot. Oh, by the way, I found a lighting fixture like the one I thought might have been a bit on an antique. Wrong, the say thing is for sale at around $80. The glass globes are a little thinner, but from ceiling height, you cannot tell any difference. Sigh.
Last Laugh
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