One year ago today: February 11, 2016, on “outdoors” women.
Five years ago today: February 11, 2012, I was 13 at the time.
Nine years ago today: February 11, 2008, Florida blocked intersection.
(Blocking not made illegal until 2012.)
Random years ago today: February 11, 2014, the AT&T “associate” scam.
MORNING
Today’s offering reveals this old blog’s ancestry as a daily journal. I was up early, planning the materials list for the weekend and by sunup, decided to play some music. I grabbed the old Danelectro, now some 18 years old. You know, the strings have never been changed. Well, they were, but when I heard the springy “guitar” sound, I put the old ones back and that is that. Then, I clicked up the Hippie’s old set list and ran through the few that were not too slow, or were not on my no-play list. Yes, it was his list from 2001, but with that guy such things make no difference.
Listen, though. I’ve got to cut you short. I checked my spare money bucket just now and there is $53 in there. That’s a good start for the day. I’m gone till noon at least. Meanwhile, here’s a picture of what hauling lumber on a motorcycle looks like. This looks flimsy to some, but they have a misconception of how sturdy and rugged the motorcycle is. There is no danger with this arrangement, I can pull the whole vehicle around by gripping any one piece of that wood.
The 2x6” pieces are the primary pieces for raising the floor. They are destined to be cut to 16” lengths to match the concrete blocks. The ground has settled unevenly, so each pylon has to be custom raised to level. Not visible here is a piece of 1x6” to fine tune the work. Anything smaller, I have lots of plywood scraps to do the job.
Eight rainbows.
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NOON
Here is your first close-up of the operation. Raising this floor is going to overshadow my writing until I get ahead of it. It turns out this is a difficult procedure to photograph, for a moment there I actually blamed myself. It is tricky to see the horizontal string in this picture, but the angled piece is easy to spot. My fingers indicate the distance more the plate has to rise. This is from work done y’day, so that is just a scrap of old lumber to test out the idea. To be specific, this was the arbitrary corner I first used the bottle jack, and the same corner that measured right on level.
For example, you can see the slight difference in color on the far end of the siding. See how it gets darker toward that far corner? It’s my understanding there was once a doorway there. You can see the cylinder block foundation, this is actually a superior job compared to many other houses in the district. Now, try to imagine you saw that bottom plate at eye level. That’s the one that appeared straight after I inserted the above piece of wood. If you have really sharp eyes, you can see the string, which exposes a gradual slope along the full length.
For fun, I cut some of the batter board stakes and spread them around estimated positions around the cooler north side of the building. The days are warming up again so the late afternoons are already my preferred work period. The radio is saying something about another massive blizzard. Good. It’s important those tax collectors also know what God thinks of them. There was also some maintenance work to do, none of which counts on my hour chart. A close look at the glue-up of the window screen frames is cause to reconsider if robot glue is the best for that job.
Robot glue. Yeah, any kind of glue that “grabs” and holds well during assembly. It still has to be clamped per the instructions, but that ability to hold itself while you reach for the tool or position it on the vice is important. Not so with the window frames. The grab is not so important as the initial setup time and robot glue can take forever to dry. This delay has more than once caused my glue to fail as any moisture acts as a solvent until you get a solid dry. That includes morning dew. I’ll inform you when I solve this problem. A simple wood glue that grabs and dries well in a damp environment.
“My ex was so good even the neighbors had a cigarette.”
NIGHT
Okay, I’m exhausted, but no more so than any chump working for a living. I drove to the nearest club, now that I know where it is, and sat around for a while. If Taylor had strolled in, I would have been all over her like a herd of turtles. Barring that, I produced pen and paper, to draft out what I need to do with the floor. Maybe not exciting, but I may have been the only hombre that left there tonight with anything that got done. I was at a country music spot, so I had a front row seat to the circus of 55 year old men picking up 35 year old women. I hope their dreams come true. May they both get what they deserve.
Myself, I accept that Taylor was busy, what with these award ceremonies and depositing all those checks. She’s got all the leeway she needs with me. She’s way smart enough to know time’s a-wasting. Face it, she’s too intelligent to find anyone her own age. Just like I’ve got zilch in common with my group. If I had any brains, I’d invite her to Brooksville next week, you’d think. How do you think she’d feel about helping me paint the house this April. Or is that as ridiculous as my chances?
*even those regularly occurring horrid, ghastly, vile songs about New York. The music that fat middle-agers who missed the boat pretend they like so much. You know, the ones who buy Disney movie scores for their kids at Xmas.
Last Laugh
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