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.

Been Awhile

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.

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.

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.

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......

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?

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.

Greenbuilding

My boss is a green builder. He has a website. It's worth looking at.

What you get, if you have him build a house, is something that will last a long time, efficient, and remarkably comfortable. It doesn't cost all that much more either, and in the long run, will cost less, as they tend to be rather sturdy.

The green part....think much less waste, efficient in energy, renewable materials, and at the end of a long service life, the materials can be recycled into other houses.

He's also old school in his building. It's built right. No short cuts. The only person I know who ever built like him was my great uncle.

What Lurks in that food.... Only the Shadow knows....

The cupboard is safer.

I still itch a little, don't ache as much, guess the high fructose corn syrup is finally wearing off. Going through my larder was interesting. Sneaky people put milk and corn in just about everything. The instant bouillon had corn syrup solids.. The instant mashed potatoes......powdered milk. The cake mix that I bought by accident last year, high fructose corn syrup. Same for the store brand tomato soup and the whole wheat bread. A lot of my food got trashed.

Now milk and corn won't kill me, but it sure doesn't make me feel nice. I got fresh veggies, ground beef and potatoes. Think I can make something for tonight.

Apropos of Nothing

Days like this, a sunset would be nice on a beach.

I know someone who needs one.

Maybe next year.

Itchy Hair

My eyes ache. My hair itches. My skin itches. I did take a shower and scrubbed as usual. It's not the meds. It's that pork & beans along with all the other stuff that went in the can.....like high fructose corn syrup. Gah. I got to read labels now? Corn syrup gets put in almost everything.

It will go away soon. How can corn byproducts, not to mention corn,just be so nasty? I like salsa, but it just isn't the same on a potato chip.

Bah Humbug

Santa Go Home

It's the holidays. I despise this time of year. The weather sucks. Christmas music, and that strange thing that this place has, fake snow. Red and green which really clash. All sorts of gift suggestions which involve spending money.

I'm canceling Christmas. Maybe next year. Just not in the mood.

More Borrowed Reads

I read another Stephen Hunter book, Hot Springs. Just like the last one, goes right along, and not only that, very well written and researched. The town in the title was a mecca of gambling and other fun in Arkansas. Any more and I'd ruin it.

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. Fantasy if one tries to pigeonhole it, but much more than that. It was well written and an engrossing tale of two thieves who while taking what was not theirs, try to do some good. Worth borrowing.

The Eye

Another day to be spent at the eye clinic. I really think at this point, all my left eye needs, is time. Hopefully they can cut me down to a month or more for visits. The eye-drops can go too.

The Back Bath

I chucked two plate glass mirrors at the landfill. The wallpaper tool is AWOL. I think it got loaned, or it's in the depths of a closet.

The demolition can start. The tile floor is not a keeper. The door needs to be sanded and repainted. The trim is almost as bad as what was in the front bath but at least not flesh toned. Habitat will benefit of course, two towel racks and a small cabinet. Pictures soon....promise.

Borrowed Book Reviews

The 47th Samurai by Stephen Hunter was a most enjoyable read. Fiction of course. Very well written and no dull spots. It's like a printed version of Kill Bill 1 & 2. Worth borrowing.

I finally found a copy of The Path Between The Seas by David McCullough. It's been on my list of great reads and I wanted to revisit it. Someday, hopefully, The Power Broker by Robert Caro. Just doesn't seem to be at the library recently.

Alternate history used to be interesting but I just couldn't get into 1634: The Bavarian Crisis by Eric Flint and someone else. Back it went, barely opened.

Healing My Way.....

One frustrated eye doctor. The eye is better . It's just not cooperating with him. I get to go back weekly. Bit painful for the wallet.

Four Dollar Paint....A Winner!

It had to be done. Much deletion, much editing, not much rewriting. Call it, blog-maintenance. The left eye is much better. Follow-up tomorrow and then hopefully that's it for a long time. I want to cut back on the eye drops too. Nasty aftertaste.

The four dollar paint for the back master bath looks like a winner. I daubed some by the door jamb and on different spots on the walls. I'll boost the lighting a little or add more trim for contrast. First is the wallpaper removal and getting the fixtures out. No rush, got plenty of finished bathrooms.... If money permits, a new toilet. Those new American Standards really do flush better then even my old rebuilt Plebe. I guess the EPA did get something right.

Other things to do, need some wire to prop up the insulation in the crawl space, caulk along the rest of the mud sills, and start insulating above the fireplace since the chimney chase is as dry as a bone inside. The attic could probably stand more insulation as well.

Sloth and Indolence

Sloth and indolence today. Usually it's speed and industry. I really thought that wasn't a lot of cheese, but it was enough. I'm still hurting a little.

Look deep into my eyes.......

What a day. Over four hours, four eye doctors, four different opinions on if I had a retinal tear or not. It finally went to "Can't see one, come back next week". Can I mention the five dollars for parking?

I sure hope they have the same result next week. Just in less time.

Thwack!

What can I say? Really bad timing? I was all set to charge out into the world of self employment, complete with business license, insurance and a customer. Then on the 19th of October, a bungee cord into my left eye. Things kinda went downhill from there.

I still got the eye. It's a lot better. A lot of work went into it to make it that way.

Bungee cords are now forbidden. They seem to be doing a lot of damage these days.

Water Everywhere But Here

Back at the Garage-House

The boss is doing well. He has a new job, a repair and greening of a small ranch for a few weeks. He's doing it to help someone out, as he does have a steady supply of work ahead of him anyway. It's not in good shape. The owner let it go, so the siding is questionable, the windows are in sad shape, and especially around the deck, the water damage was pretty bad. We were looking at places where the mud-sills were absent without leave.

The first phase is probably stabilization, leaks, rot repair, and just getting rid of the daylight. That deck has to go or something. My crappy deck is a masterpiece of structural engineering compared to that deck. Two by sixes for the joists. It was a bit springy.

The Garage House is mostly done. Siding and brick veneer is all that's left. The space came out nice, high board ceiling, bamboo flooring, and it's tighter then the rest of the house. Quite a bit of light too, considering the only place for the windows was in the old garage door opening.

Rain, rain, what rain?

Lake Jordan was pretty low. Some of the old underwater slopes have been dry for so long, there's grass there now. The modern version of the old rain dance. ..... is to wash the hundred most expensive cars in Raleigh, complete with buffing, waxing, whole nine yards. Another is for everyone to leave their sunroofs open a little bit overnight. If that doesn't get the rain gods going, I don't know what will.

Computer Blues

The old beast is still plugging along. I found a motherboard, socket A, for it. It's a bit pricey for being old technology, and it's a no-name. Also, the other parts are getting long in the tooth too. I'll just keep it going until the time comes that it won't start anymore, and then just gut it and put in new innards. I'll get a standalone copy of XP too, since more and more stuff refuses to work with my W2000pro.

The Biz

First day of the new business in operation. Just a walk through for a punch list. My ducks are all in a row. Business license, insurance, business plan and last but not least, business cards. The truly successful work over the table, not under. Still need a website and an appointment book that is not an old steno pad.

Somewhat later.....

It is raining, or drizzling, to be more accurate. The inside of the chimney chase is as dry as a bone. See how it goes for the rest of the day. A good pouring rain will be the final test before final repairs. I'm still pretty pleased at the dryness so far.

I'm running out for a new set of chisels. My old ones can still do the job but for fixing someone else's doors, kinda like a fresh new edge. Went through my documents today and shredded a good chunk of useless history. Not to worry, still got all the legal stuff.