One year ago today: January 23, 2017, the bottle jack steeplechase.
Five years ago today: January 23, 2013, red scooter hits 9,500 mile mark.
Nine years ago today: January 23, 2009, getting things exactly backwards.
Random years ago today: January 23, 2004, What! No butler?
One more time, the 30-ton stubby bottle jack and some elbow grease to the rescue. (See link above for one-year ago history of this jack.) This is probably a rare scene for most people. You can see the 2-1/8th inch gap where I raised the corner of the building. This is not the finished work, it is an intermediate stage I learned the hard way. The two boards supporting the sill plate are at right angles. That’s because it is the wall to the left being leveled. If you have a really good eye, you may be able to see how the gap on the other sill is not even, but squeezes down slightly. The jack is being moved to the right, under the other wall, which will straighten that gap, and the wood piece will then rotate into place. See, I’m learning.
I talked to the lumber yard guy, and he had his house done in 1/2” plumbing for $2,600 with no problems. His neighbor used the recommended 3/4” and spent $4,200. I’m never surprised because I do excellent cost projections but something says to watch this whole plumbing project extra closely. I am definitely going for the 3/4” for the water distribution, and I may go overkill on the hot water tank. The recommended size is 30 gallon, but for a minor price difference, I just may go for the 50 gallon. For blocking between the new joists, I had to buy new lumber and cut it up.
Cowboy Rowdy has a new station, or actually a re-broadcasting site in Winter Haven. But I can’t find it on the dial. So I was listening to the business channel, who are all glowing about the economy picking up but are still anti-Trump. Duh, guys. The pundits are saying this is the year to start a business, that it will be the 1980s all over again. Yeah, including the crash in ’89 where I lost $88,000 over a crooked broker? Anyway, I was on that station all the time I was under the house and it’s kind of nice to hear these experts ladling out advice that you can find in this blog fifteen years ago.
[Author’s note: I don’t mean only money advice, because several of the billionaires are [finally] daring to say what I have all along. Get rid of the turkeys in your life. Hang around with people who know how to make money. Dump any friends who are holding you back. When they call you a snob, you know you’re on the right track so pooh-pooh on their petty jealousies. Think in terms of revenue and expenses instead of focusing on income. Change how you think about money and people.
Yep, it took those guys long enough to take the advice that has always been in this blog. Yes, you do change after you have money, because that's when you realize there are some total ass-clowns you will never need again even in a pinch.]
Wellington, New Zealand.
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The “Chain of Lakes” presentation at the downtown library was tonight. Vainly hoping it might contain some scientific or at least mildly cerebral aspects, I drove there to arrive late and leave early. Other than the single sentence that the lakes were fed by the aquifer and not springs, the entire history was the legal and political background, concerning items like mill rates on properties bordering the waterfront. Little old lady after little old lady asking when the city is going to build a dock on their property, so they can launch their private boat at public expense.
This is a segment of the map as presented on October 10, 1912. Winter Haven is the grid pattern just left of center, and it is the lakes that surround it on three sides that constitute the Chain of Lakes. They are all shallow, averaging maybe 15 feet. But they are not the same level, so a series of weirs and sluice pipes are needed to keep the water levels stable. The canals that connect most of the lakes have hand-operated locks, something like 26 of them. Sounds like fun. There are no commercial boat rides available, but there are dozens of public boat ramps.
The large lake in the upper right is not part of the system. And in 1912, there were probably no airplanes in the district, since the shapes of the lakes is largely left to the imagination. Not all the lakes shown here are part of the chain. The navigable length of shoreline is reputed to be fifty miles. The original name was Chain of 100 Lakes, but some annoying citizen attended every town meeting for years protesting there were only something like 89 lakes, depending on your definition of a lake.
I was out of there by 9:30 and drove down to Hwy 60 to get home. It’s faster than taking the direct route through Lakeland. The city was incorporated in 1884 or so, and the road system is the pits. It has taken up to 45 minutes to drive the nine miles north to south through the town. It averages 28 minutes by skirting the city. I stopped at the only known okay coffee shop in Winter Haven, also known as the Burger King. That’s why you got some choppy posts on this blog. Windows 10 is not a friendly environment except to the truly stupid. You have to register to use the Paint program, right clicking on most items gives a ridiculously abbreviated menu, and a lot of the traditional workarounds have been disabled.
Just short of home, I stopped at the Tuesday Karaoke for a few. Some slightly hefty lady, who said she was 54, approached me in the wrong way. Like, so what if I’m “working” because I’m jotting notes in a scribbler. I usually tell them I'm designing a chicken coop, you know. It’s possible she thought I was down there to meet 54-year-old women, I regularly meet ones who think like that. You don’t ask me such questions with the attitude that I must not know how to have a good time. Like maybe I should stop what I’m doing and chat her up. Yeah, that’d be okay with her, no doubt.
Possibly, I’ve found my Karaoke platform and it involves either not singing, or singing only songs that involve the audience. Seriously, my version of “Tequila” beats most of the itinerants and at least gets half the crowd engaged. But not one lady in the place worth your time, however. No, I’m not too fussy at all. Two fat ones at the self-serve might once have been okay, but guys, when women start investing in “BBW” fashions, they’ve given up any hope of trimming the pounds.
For the record, it varies on a daily basis, but I have lost 11% of my body weight in 55 days. It’s a good start, but only a start. For my BMI to be a healthy 25 again, I must lose 33%. A salad with no meat, just the base, and a coffee at BK costs $5.50. And they wonder why the kids opt for a burger and fries.
ADDENDUM
Let me tell you, that was in-the-dirt work under the house this morning. That water level is worth the problems of using it. This is not something you can rush. It is really a two-man operation, as I’ve said, but add that the men must be in line of sight or hearing or be talking by phone. It can be done by one man, but that makes for a lot of back and forth. I have to walk through the house and around the outside to check each reading. I made that trip close to thirty-five times today.
This is one process you cannot trust the eyeball. I had used string levels on the east wing and now, applying the water level, well, I may have to go back and re-do the whole wing. Not much, but still a lot of work. I used a bubble level there and may regret that. Shown in this photo, you can see the orange water in the tubing. This level varies every time you move the stake. I may refine the design by putting a small drain valve for when the water is too high. Right now, I must uproot the stake and turn the entire remote end (as shown here) sideways to drain and excess water. Then walk back to the fixed end and dribble it back to level, which often takes just a few tablespoons.
But with patience, the results are absolutely perfect. Now I’m afraid what I’ll find when I take readings on the old bathroom floor. The one that got hit worst by the termites. Um, and the leveling process does cause some warping of the exterior walls if you really look close. It is strange to raise one corner by sometimes a mere 1/2-inch and hear a section thirty feet away groan back into place. Or a door that used to stick now gently closes by itself and all you hear is a “click”. Ghosts? Cats? Doppelgangers? Penguins?
