Da Blog.
It's been awhile, twelve days. A lot has been happening. The business is finally underway, and some work is flowing in. No advertising as of yet. I thought this blog could be a vehicle for advertising the biz but no. It may describe what I do, or something the rest of the world can learn from whilst I drip blood upon the ground from a new and wrong way of getting something done.
So today, the blog gets cleaned up a little. Too many commas or too much whining, that gets snipped. The italicizing isn't doing very well, so the font for that has to get changed. The pictures are staying for the most part but they do hog a bit of bandwidth, so some of the big monsters are going away.
The Eye
.....is doing much better. I'm up to a month between appointments now. The doctor seems happy at the progress, and for my part, it's actually useful most days.
The Biz
....had it's first job and first pay and first receipt. It was a townhouse, a sibling of mine. It's better now. It's a little tighter, the doors work a little better, some paint, quite a bit of caulk. Adding electrical coverage to my insurance but that's so I can screw in light bulbs and clean out vent fans. Please use licensed electricians for messing with electrical systems. Not me.
My Townhouse
The back bath is finally getting back into gear. The waterlines are capped off. It's too much trouble to cut holes for valves in the floor of the cabinet and then have to patch it up after getting it in. I actually preserved the entire hookup for the kitchen sink, and wound up having to redo it all anyway.
Much easier to drill two 3/4" holes. Besides, the old valves were meant for compression fitting on copper lines and I have plastic. The cast marble sink met destiny with a two pound mini sledge. That was a good feeling. Forty Whacks, a la Lizzie Borden. Pictures, I promise.
The walls needed some spackle and paint after two years of general use including banging furniture against, migrating white-boards and nomadic fire extinguishers. Much better now.
The Great Presidential Horse Race
Finally, the polls that do count. It was getting old having herds of politicians wandering the countryside making promises and pestering the populace.
The Democratic race is pretty much defined, Clinton, Obama and Edwards in that order. Biden, Lieberman, and the others add some color to it but my money is on the front three to win, place , or show.
The Republicans have no clear leaders in front like the Democrats, so the primaries will actually help by thinning that herd out a bit. Still my impression is that Guilani and Romney are about even, McCain trailing. But no money on any of these guys yet, the field is just too crowded.
It will be nice as state by state, the people do their thing and weed out the no-hoper's, and we get to see who to make fun of for the next four years.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sloth and Indolence
Da Blog
Setting yet a new record for sloth and indolence, blog wise. I'm not planning on doing any Soviet Encyclopedia additions or deletions today. Still sitting on the fence about advertising. I despise it since most of it is un-targeted and strewn into the public space like litter along a roadside.
The End of the Attic House Project
The attic-house is done. Spent the last day in....the crawl space. Still, it is the attic house. R and R#2 did a really nice job in the crawl space. The foundation is painted with Dry-Lok, insulated, sealed and clean. B is a good guy. He tends to be craftsman like now and then as am I. This can be bad when time is of the essence.
It had more then the usual issues of a North Carolina tract house. The insulation was so poor as to be non-existent, the wiring was beyond strange and drove the poor electrician nuts. The windows are single pane and the owner wanted to keep them so the boss did the best he could. He had to re-glaze and reset them. The interesting thing is, that the builder many years ago did not even bother to nail them in. I looked into the air return duct and saw the exhaust duct going through it. Wild.
Setting yet a new record for sloth and indolence, blog wise. I'm not planning on doing any Soviet Encyclopedia additions or deletions today. Still sitting on the fence about advertising. I despise it since most of it is un-targeted and strewn into the public space like litter along a roadside.
The End of the Attic House Project
The attic-house is done. Spent the last day in....the crawl space. Still, it is the attic house. R and R#2 did a really nice job in the crawl space. The foundation is painted with Dry-Lok, insulated, sealed and clean. B is a good guy. He tends to be craftsman like now and then as am I. This can be bad when time is of the essence.
It had more then the usual issues of a North Carolina tract house. The insulation was so poor as to be non-existent, the wiring was beyond strange and drove the poor electrician nuts. The windows are single pane and the owner wanted to keep them so the boss did the best he could. He had to re-glaze and reset them. The interesting thing is, that the builder many years ago did not even bother to nail them in. I looked into the air return duct and saw the exhaust duct going through it. Wild.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The I-95 Grand Folly
The I-95 Grand Folly
I make a monthly pilgrimage up to Northern Virginia. Mostly on I-95. This takes me past Roanoke Rapids. I saw this building being built in the middle of nowhere. The Randy Parton Theatre, a modern adaption of antebellum plantation crossed with a touch of Wally World. Roanoke Rapids thought they could emulate Branson, Missouri and build a theme park as far as I can gather, around a relative of a mainline country music entertainer. Randy Parton is the brother of Dolly Parton. Only problem, why travel a hundred or so miles to get entertained when one can hang out in major cities like Raleigh, Virginia Beach, and so on, complete with existing places to go?
Yep, they are losing their shirt. The theater's namesake is gone, it's under new management, and I'll bet they will have the name changed on that building in less then a year. I really hope they spell "theater" right. North Carolinian retail property owners tend to put "e" on the end of nouns, coming up with "pointe", "olde" and "shoppe". Then there's my pet peeve...."centre". This is America, spell like an American! Center! Point!, Shop! Old!
The Attic House
My last day on it since I got to finish up a punch list somewhere else tomorrow. Basically, last minute tweaks in the attic and then, blown in insulation. My life will be not good today. There are nasty jobs out there, and blowing insulation in a cramped attic is right up there. I'll stick B with returning the machine.
Deferred Maintenance
I'm eyeing the 401K. It's not a good thing to nuke it but the car, computer, cat, me, and the house have been on deferred maintenance and the left eye is getting more then a fair share of money, as it's still under care. The business started off well, and it may be a good way to earn money, do some good, and have fun doing it. Deferred maintenance is sometimes necessary but never good in the long run. Just look at what happened to the railroads, trains kept falling off the tracks before they came to their senses and fixed them.
I make a monthly pilgrimage up to Northern Virginia. Mostly on I-95. This takes me past Roanoke Rapids. I saw this building being built in the middle of nowhere. The Randy Parton Theatre, a modern adaption of antebellum plantation crossed with a touch of Wally World. Roanoke Rapids thought they could emulate Branson, Missouri and build a theme park as far as I can gather, around a relative of a mainline country music entertainer. Randy Parton is the brother of Dolly Parton. Only problem, why travel a hundred or so miles to get entertained when one can hang out in major cities like Raleigh, Virginia Beach, and so on, complete with existing places to go?
Yep, they are losing their shirt. The theater's namesake is gone, it's under new management, and I'll bet they will have the name changed on that building in less then a year. I really hope they spell "theater" right. North Carolinian retail property owners tend to put "e" on the end of nouns, coming up with "pointe", "olde" and "shoppe". Then there's my pet peeve...."centre". This is America, spell like an American! Center! Point!, Shop! Old!
The Attic House
My last day on it since I got to finish up a punch list somewhere else tomorrow. Basically, last minute tweaks in the attic and then, blown in insulation. My life will be not good today. There are nasty jobs out there, and blowing insulation in a cramped attic is right up there. I'll stick B with returning the machine.
Deferred Maintenance
I'm eyeing the 401K. It's not a good thing to nuke it but the car, computer, cat, me, and the house have been on deferred maintenance and the left eye is getting more then a fair share of money, as it's still under care. The business started off well, and it may be a good way to earn money, do some good, and have fun doing it. Deferred maintenance is sometimes necessary but never good in the long run. Just look at what happened to the railroads, trains kept falling off the tracks before they came to their senses and fixed them.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Job Not Hunting, Crappy Economy
Whatever happened to Monster.com? It's not friendly. The apply here buttons are gone. Searching for jobs isn't easy either. The list opens up in weird windows. I can't pick multiple categories anymore. No wonder people are drifting away from it. Could be not compatible with Firefox.
Careerbuilder at least, is still usable.
Craigslist is the best in terms of ease of use.
The jobs are paltry right now. Still, my business starts tomorrow as in working for a customer, so see what happens. There's a high level of general scam out there too for job hunters. Must be our wonderful economy. Self employment may be the only option.
It's not going to be a good year, or years. The dollar is turning into toilet paper as the Fed lowers the interest rates. The real estate market keeps on not trucking. Fuel keeps on going way up. Our clueless gummint keeps on putting band-aids over major wounds. Duck and cover, duck and cover......
Careerbuilder at least, is still usable.
Craigslist is the best in terms of ease of use.
The jobs are paltry right now. Still, my business starts tomorrow as in working for a customer, so see what happens. There's a high level of general scam out there too for job hunters. Must be our wonderful economy. Self employment may be the only option.
It's not going to be a good year, or years. The dollar is turning into toilet paper as the Fed lowers the interest rates. The real estate market keeps on not trucking. Fuel keeps on going way up. Our clueless gummint keeps on putting band-aids over major wounds. Duck and cover, duck and cover......
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Busy Week
The Attic House
It's been a busy week. I'm helping out my old boss on the "Attic-House". The names of places don't mean that's the central feature of the house, it means that's the focus of where I spend my time. The "Garage House" since it was the garage, and the "Green House" because it was an entire house being built in a very green way.
The goal is to improve the ventilation so summer won't overtax the AC, some storage for the owner, get the house a little tighter, and last but not least, bump up the insulation. The attic is pretty small actually. Swinging a cat up there would result in feline unhappiness.
The house is in that ninty-five percent finished stage where the last five percent is the toughest. The interesting thing about the house is the framing. The two by fours are just over an inch and a half thick and look like they were milled locally. Not very well built but then most tract and developer housing in this area are not known for quality.
The Eye
The eye is doing well. It gets a little stirred up but never enough to be totally useless. Since my main focus will be room repair and painting after helping my boss, it will settle down and keep cleaning itself out. The eye clinic now has me on a three week interval so it means that they think it's going to be stable.
Likenesses
I looked at a picture of our defense secretary. He is a Gates which is a huge family of sorts. He's like an umpteenth cousin or something. He's also the spitting image of my mother's father. Interesting how the same faces pop up. My father's look-alike is my second cousin. He could be an identical twin except he's two generations ahead. It's not just the likeness either, it's also the general look on the face and the way he talks and moves. I wonder if we ....recycle?
It's been a busy week. I'm helping out my old boss on the "Attic-House". The names of places don't mean that's the central feature of the house, it means that's the focus of where I spend my time. The "Garage House" since it was the garage, and the "Green House" because it was an entire house being built in a very green way.
The goal is to improve the ventilation so summer won't overtax the AC, some storage for the owner, get the house a little tighter, and last but not least, bump up the insulation. The attic is pretty small actually. Swinging a cat up there would result in feline unhappiness.
The house is in that ninty-five percent finished stage where the last five percent is the toughest. The interesting thing about the house is the framing. The two by fours are just over an inch and a half thick and look like they were milled locally. Not very well built but then most tract and developer housing in this area are not known for quality.
The Eye
The eye is doing well. It gets a little stirred up but never enough to be totally useless. Since my main focus will be room repair and painting after helping my boss, it will settle down and keep cleaning itself out. The eye clinic now has me on a three week interval so it means that they think it's going to be stable.
Likenesses
I looked at a picture of our defense secretary. He is a Gates which is a huge family of sorts. He's like an umpteenth cousin or something. He's also the spitting image of my mother's father. Interesting how the same faces pop up. My father's look-alike is my second cousin. He could be an identical twin except he's two generations ahead. It's not just the likeness either, it's also the general look on the face and the way he talks and moves. I wonder if we ....recycle?
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Duh.....can we shoot now?
I watched quite a bit of Stargate over the last month or so while healing up. It has the usual sci-fi television cliches. Noise in space, artificial gravity, and the big one, faster then light travel, which Einstein sez, "Forget it, not happening." No need to mention that everyone including the aliens speak English and that the entire universe looks like British Columbia.
Still, not a bad way to put a brain into idle. In one episode our ship comes upon a hostile satellite and our intrepid heroes stare at each other while deciding to shoot at it or not. Long story short, they stared at each other way too long and got blown out of orbit.
What happened to shoot first and worry about questions later? Also, if their indecision did lead to the loss of a ship and part of the crew, why did nothing happen to them? There was a submarine skipper who found an uncharted underwater mountain with the USS San Francisco. He was relieved of command.
George Lucas introduced the twirl in his fight scene in the first Star Wars movie where the hero spins in a circle while fencing. The problem is, is that the hero turns his back on his opponent. But being a movie, The villian just stands there and lets him get away with it. Worse, this was later adopted by other directors and has showed up in other movies and television series.
But hey, sometimes it helps to relax with an idle brain.
Still, not a bad way to put a brain into idle. In one episode our ship comes upon a hostile satellite and our intrepid heroes stare at each other while deciding to shoot at it or not. Long story short, they stared at each other way too long and got blown out of orbit.
What happened to shoot first and worry about questions later? Also, if their indecision did lead to the loss of a ship and part of the crew, why did nothing happen to them? There was a submarine skipper who found an uncharted underwater mountain with the USS San Francisco. He was relieved of command.
George Lucas introduced the twirl in his fight scene in the first Star Wars movie where the hero spins in a circle while fencing. The problem is, is that the hero turns his back on his opponent. But being a movie, The villian just stands there and lets him get away with it. Worse, this was later adopted by other directors and has showed up in other movies and television series.
But hey, sometimes it helps to relax with an idle brain.
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