Ten Days Away

Ten days, a long time away from this blog. Hmmm, my coffee cup is empty. Also the cat is sitting right in the way. Typing around a seventeen pound cat ain't easy. Been busy.

A 1979 Vaughan Model 99 Professional Rip Hammer. Sweetest balanced hammer I ever used. It's been through the wars, so to speak. It's on the fourth or fifth handle. Any carpenter or anyone who has spent at least a decade whaling away on nails always has a favorite. It gets the status of at least a beloved family pet.

Usually the Model 99 has a 13" handle. I like the reach of the 999's but not what they do to my right elbow, so a 15" handle on a 99 head. The orange hammer is sold by Sears but made by Vaughan. I use it for bashing things other then nails and de-nailing. The floor underneath is pre-finished yellow pine on my upper landing. Somewhat distressed from two years of dragging furniture, house parts, vanities, and fixtures across it.

Need more coffee..... Cat's gotta go somewhere else.


I'd much rather buy bread. But at three bucks and up for bread without HFCS*, it's not worth it. Cheaper to lay in some flour and eggs and what-not. Some rather ugly banana bread. Good though. Also a convenient way to use old bananas.

On to the Back Bath....

Staring at that claustrophobic hole wasn't working. It stayed as ugly as it ever was. The room wouldn't be so bad in layout except some super genius took nine square feet from it and used it for the hall linen closet. The vanity sits in one niche, and on the other side of the linen closet, the toilet is wedged in another niche by the tub. There is about sixteen square feet of open floor space at most. Storage is paltry at best. Note this gem over the toilet.


The inebriated illegal immigrants who originally built the place had a little trouble getting the vanity top to fit. So they cut a slot in the sheet rock. The plumber who re-plumbed the house from the original polybutene wasn't great at patching. So.......


Since I got quite a bit of yellow-board scrap, away the damaged sheet rock went.

Yes, with forty whacks, anything can fit in a box. One cast marble sink-top.


It's just not worth it to leave shut-off valves on the supply lines. I hate mutilating cabinets to get the valves through. Also, the lines are in the wrong place. No matter what side the vanity drawers will be on, a line is there. So, there will be a few 90' elbows added later.


The tile floor, one foot square tiles and the caulk is a mixture of grout and.... caulk? The tiles were laid down on a very thin layer of thin-set which in turn, was right over the subfloor which still had the glue on it from the sheet vinyl. Adhesive properties of such can be rated as non-existent. It came right up. No scraping needed.


Whack! Blam! Crunch!

A little later, I stopped right about here. One fixture left to remove.

The door had acne.

A little later....what door, what molding?

The wallpaper band...ugh.

It's going away soon.


The shower-tub is staying. It's an ugly beige relic from the eighties but it's a sturdy ugly relic. It probably has at least twice the resin and layers of a modern fiberglass unit.


* High Fructose Corn Syrup

NewYear, New Old Stuff

Another Year Starts

And hopefully a better one. The first week is a little slow. Less old back bathroom as it slowly goes away to make room for the new. Going to advertise in the newspaper next week. The Skilled Trades Business Services section in Craigslist is just too full of over-posters and fly-by-nighters. There's one guy who has as many names as I got fingers and toes, if not more.

Some Borrowed Books

Two good reads by Jim Butcher, Storm Front which is about a wizard set in Chicago, ala Sam Spade. This is the first of a series. Solid read, has organized crime, black and white magic , including vampires, which makes for a fascinating mix. In the best pulp detective fiction tradition, our hero does not have a smooth time of it. He's perpetually broke, gets beaten up now and then, and is in trouble up past his neck.

The next is Captain's Fury. Note that this is the fourth of a fantasy series, The Codex Alera. No flat spots but a good run all the way through, somewhat more traditional fantasy with a touch of the Roman Empire even down to Latin names. Being later in Butcher's career and that he is more successful, the author's name is at the top and the title is at the bottom in font half the size. Usually this means that the author is grinding out the same tired plot but with with different names and places. Not in Jim Butcher's case, each book is as good as the last, and the reader gets a fresh plot.

P. T Deutermann, The Firefly. A terrorist/assassin is going to do something really bad. Granted, many a tree and much ink has been used to make many a book with this very old plot. Deutermann refreshes it however, and it is a reasonably paced well written tale. Many twists and turns so it isn't dull. Worth borrowing. I still like his sea story better, The Scorpion in The Sea, and have marked that as an addition to my permanent collection.

Harold Coyle and Barrett Tillman, Harold Coyle's Strategic Solution's inc./Prometheus's Child. First off, the dust jacket shows a picture of the USS Wisconsin firing a broadside. Nowhere in the novel is a mention of any navy ship, let alone a battleship. Also the Wisconsin is now part of a museum and is a permanent exhibit in Norfolk, Virginia. It's definitely retired from active duty.

Harold Coyle has always been a little behind the times. He was writing about the Cold War going hot when the entire East Bloc was collapsing under its own weight. This tale is about a private security agency undertaking training and later an operation in Africa and later on, action on the high seas. Considering how Blackwater and other private security firms made the news last year in a very un-positive light, it's doubtful if this will ever be the case in real life. However it's a good read for a slow day.

The 401 K? What 401K?

It's now an IRA. It's going to be mostly Dodge and Cox Stock Fund with some bonds. However, the "adviser" thinks I'm way too aggressive in investing, being a hundred percent stock. Not really keen on bonds, since the Fed is turning the dollar into toilet paper instead of just letting the subprime mess work itself out on it's own. Ah, we shall see. At least the Time Warner stock will be history. Seven years I had it and it's done better then a loss but not by much.

The Biz.

Someone wanted me to replace a shutoff valve for a toilet. No big thing but the house water shutoff wouldn't. I was certain the valve would break before it would close, causing much flooding that could only be stopped by shutting it off at the street. Yikes. No need to test my liability insurance like that.

The Eye

I can actually read with it. Well, up to a point. Definitely no small print right now. Slight double image but I can focus most of it out. The lens must have been displaced when the iris was damaged. Not going to get that fixed though. Eyes just do not like being messed with. It's bad enough having to watch out for retinal detachment and glaucoma without making it worse.

Finally, Thinning The Herd

Iowa Caucus today. Polls that really count. Opinion polls are useful up to a point, per se, a business deciding if to go with scented spark plugs or pastel brake pads for instance. Politicians deciding to trot out empty promises on cutting taxes or drugs for everybody, another example.

The Presidential Hopeful Candidates herd is way too large, and over the next two months will get some much needed culling. It has been so bad, some were found as far north as Alaska.