One year ago today: July 31, 2015, on robots, beaches, Tennessee.
Five years ago today: July 31, 2011, on bass solos.
Nine years ago today: July 31, 2007, CCTV vs Internet cams, which will win?
Random years ago today: July 31, 2013, because they will not STFU.
It was another travel day, so you get another travelogue. There is no more Ig Nobel Prize feature, which is their fault, not mine. Maybe they ran out of stupid people to give the awards to? You see, to give an award, you are supposed to know more about the subject matter than the people receiving the prize, or you are not qualified to judge who the winner is. However, when you look at the other Nobel Prize committee, you realize that this is rarely the case. I mean, they gave a prize to Al Gore, is what I’m saying.
Top picture of the day, bad as it is, shows the best photo I have of the newly notched joists. The three worst shaped specimens have now begun to relax, even so some of the curvatures shown here are the distortion from the iCool design-by-retards. Each of these cutouts is customized and there was up to 1-3/4 inches of deformation. The average over all seven joists was around 7/8ths of an inch.
I made these cuts myself and took my sweet time to do it right. There was pressure to make the cuts identical, then return and trim any errors. None of these joists was that badly termite damaged, which was a relief. Soon as it is evident the joists are again resting on the girder plate, I will bolt in a reinforcing 2x4 down the length of each board, along with some diagonal bracing.
[Author's note: what I'm saying above is that I realized the joists would not necessarily return to original shape after so long. If you peek, you can see that the joists are not yet resting right down on the girder plate. That is why I refused to try to trim the joists from the top. Trimming the next one could throw off the first one. Instead, I relied on very accurate chalk lines snapped between points of equal height at the walls. The joists show here have a few days to come to rest. At that point, they will be sistered up. I may lack construction experience, but I know how to think.]
7:35AM I’m the only one awake, so I made coffee instead of tea. And listened to some Gospel radio, where they had a preacher full of bunk making wild claims. One example was his statement that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time. Guess he’s never heard of Harry Potter. Having compressor experience from once owning vending machines, I correctly surmised the repaired fridge would take 24 hours to really get cold. JZ finds this amazing, that I would use a fridge thermometer.
The good news is, the fridge works perfectly. I set it to 37°F, achieving perfection without forming ice crystals. And indeed, it is an very nice appliance that will last for years. That’s another $1,000 savings for me. Yeah, JZ, when it hit 96°F out there this afternoon, I didn’t hear any complaints about how cold the root beer was.
8:35AM I consider what we accomplished y’day, the leveling of the bedroom floor, to be sufficient to justify the whole weekend and trip, but JZ wants to stay the day. He’s learned to like the area, I told ya. So I planned the major trip of the day to get supplies and materials so I can work myself when he’s not around. That worked out to be a good plan. We got enough plywood to completely cover over all open spots on the floor. These plywood sheets are not yet fixed in place. Think ahead.
9:35AM JZ is up and about so we drove to Burger King for breakfast. That’s two breakfasts for him and one for me. The man likes his food, but are French Toast sticks in corn syrup real food? I had the waffles and one of those horrid patties that BK calls sausage. They could improve their appeal awesomely if they switched to real sausage links.
This was also a mini-celebration of that floor job. I emphasize to the reader that this floor was the result of a small series of early successes. Thus, it is not an indicator of what I will find when I get under the remainder of the building.
10:35AM Instead of right back to work, I convinced JZ we should take a Sunday drive through the area. Take a look around. This found us on the old Eagle Lake Road on the way to Auburndale. We passed the “metropolis” of Gordonville. It’s your trailer park estates. No stores, no gas stations, but many acres of older mobile homes on their private little acreages. Yes, I would have bought something in there had I not stumbled across 509, the gold mine.
11:35AM We got snagged for a toll. Somehow we got onto a road that was not marked toll and it channeled us to the pay booth with no option to turn around. You know how the toll roads usually have a small lane you can go back? Not the scumbag who designed this one. I hate tolls and will drive miles to avoid them, JZ just plan detests them. So they got me for 75 cents and took a picture of the license plate, which is part of what I really hate about tolls. They don’t photo the bad guys, the photo everybody. Whether or not you consider that legal is a good determinant of how kind you are to your fellow man.
12:35PM It was in north Lakeland that we discovered the Amtrak and took the photos you saw last Friday. For the first time, we got through the town, which for reasons unknown JZ finds confusing, and we zeroed in on the Goodwill out on the Mulberry connector. JZ went hog wild buying new clothes, I picked up some reading material. And it was all we could do to not gawk at the gorgeous women. What is it with the particular Goodwill? I was looking for suspenders because I don’t like wearing belts when I’m working construction, but other than that, we spent an entire hour in the store just looking.
1:35PM The Home Depot is just a few miles further, so we stopped there and bought $108.56 worth of lumber. This is enough for me to finish the flooring myself and frame in the new A/C ports. Right how the A/C units are mounted in the windows, which I consider very tacky. And in this instance, they also block the view of my shady yard. It’s not like these windows face the apartment next door type of thing.
I spent quite some time in the pit, raking out leaves and debris, until I found the tiny leak that is central to most termite infestations. It was merely a patch of damp sand, but that’s enough. This is where the damage seems to be the worst and the section that gives JZ nightmares.
However, I looked closely under the beams and there is nothing especially difficult to repair. The bath tub has to be lifted the now-usual 1/8th of an inch and I can repair the joists and flooring from a convenient sitting position. The challenge will be the plumbing, but I have the advantage of being able to rough in and practically finish the new piping before cutting over. Once again, the power of superior planning ahead makes its mark. This is nothing new, I’ve been lecturing the world on this for half a century.
3:35PM JZ finally got inspired and got into the pit, clearing out the foundation area of the new bathroom of two bags of leaves and dried bush twigs that had blown under there. He still cannot visualize how I am going to construct a header that shores up the existing structure before I make the wall cut-out for the new sink. And I want a double sink, and yes, I realize that is not necessary. At least not to men who have only been shacked up. I was married. And I will have a double his and hers separate sinks in the bathroom. To me it is as necessary as oxygen. Gosh, do I have to teach you everything?
You can also see “the pit”, but what you look at here is the nice clean and raked pit, not the foot deep detritus that required major effort to haul out by hand. In this heat. But, it is all done now. This view of the bathroom floor joists is now covered over until I get to that part of the repair. You can use the bathroom, but please, no gymnastics. What? Gymnastics in a bathroom? What’s that all about? Oh, never mind, just remember I was once married to an actress.
4:35PM The floor panels are down, the house is now secure again. The bedroom joists are settling fine under the new weight. One more easy cut there, and I’m happy. Gee, why did I leave one cut when I could have finished the job. Because, junior, I needed on place in the room to prop all the tools while in the pit and that required one joist left until I got the rest of the subflooring in place.
Security is more important to JZ, I don’t sit up worried about break-ins. Not in that neighborhood. But yes, any time since what, 11 days ago, anybody could have crawled under the house and stood up inside. Now, the floorboards are loosely in place, held down by furniture. Look at the termite damage in the bathroom again, the area that will receive the most reinforcement and anti-bug treatment.
5:35PM Satisfied with the progress and listening to Gospel, we shut everything down and locked up the sheds. No sense tempting fate. No doubt the whole street has already noticed the mass amount of building materials being hauled into the house. I’m planning a week here on my own, and planning to move permanently once the old place sells. Folks, you no longer want to live in or visit southeast Florida. Any resemblance of that place to a desirable holiday destination is a hoax.
Other than the coast enclaves of condos and gated communities full of northern retirees suckered here by big promises, this is the last generation of productive, tax-paying citizens that will inhabit the area. What? There are lots of white people left there. Yes, but I said productive and tax-paying. You better open your eyes. The majority of the south Florida economy has always been under the table.
6:35PM to 9:35PM On the road, the standard route back around Okeechobee. We stopped twice for cold drinks, otherwise the trip was uneventful. Light rain south of the Lake, we drove up to my old vacant hut, too tired to even stop for a cold one. You know, I’ve got all those forgotten little muscle aches you get from limbering up after a period of inactivity. I’m hardly inactive, but I don’t usually do construction work, either.
The work was aerobic. For all the misconceptions about what that is, the easy way to think of it is when you do enough work or exercise than your body can product calories from digested food. You go aerobic at that point because the body needs more energy and the only place to get it is from stored body fat. Don’t quote me and I’m too tired to look it up, but I think it is around ten calories per minute. If your activity requires eleven calories, one comes from stored fat. Something like that.
Last Laugh
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
