Ugh, Sheetrock

Boss managed to build more efficient house then anybody. Big media event tomorrow. This would be the "Green" house. It's 60 percent efficient...regular Energy Star only has to be 15 percent. Hopefully this will catch on. If nothing else, it's nice that people will know they can get a better house.

I'm very beat and tired....just don't want to do this full tilt anymore. Ah well, one more cuppa joe and into the showers. A and I are getting an early start today to take care of the heat. Doors came yesterday. More birch veneer. Warned A about their fragility....one nasty look and they scratch.

105 bucks for my energy bill. Would be more if my incandescents and halogens were still around. The culprit is some (lots) missing insulation. Wish I had the time to fix but not, so I'm paying for it. Later perhaps. I only run the AC when it hits 85 degrees up here.

Water bill up too, a toilet decided to keep on running but that was taken care of. New valve body and flapper. Note to people who live in chlorinated water systems, sometimes the chlorine tablet does more harm then good. It tends to dissolves important bits like the overflow tube and the float arm.

Tough week so far and less then half way.

Job hunting on hold. Edge of the world has two bars of reception at best and in the middle of the day....none. Toying with idea of spending next week with an insurance agent and the town to knock out the rest of the paperwork, then going up to my other sister and bro-in-law to help them open up a new showroom.

It's Mauve?

Friday was yet another hot day. It melted the glue on the tip of one of A's shoes. It didn't stop us from nailing up most of the finish ceiling. The ceiling is covered with random width stained yellow pine boards. Came out well. Young R has been gluing foam board to the stem walls. My glasses are at the job site, that sucks.

Saturday rolled around and though not a hundred degrees, was within touching distance. Working outside on my townhouse was not a happening thing. There are two cheap bathrooms that need attention though in air conditioning......so first a trip to Lowe's to get yet more goodies. This time I spent just under thirty bucks for underlayment, bag o' paint rollers, and a twenty dollar can of "Ultra Premium Valspar" for three bucks. The paint was three dollars for a reason. Those little dots of paint on the lid can be deceptive. It's mauve, not just any shade of mauve, but mauve on steroids. I'm very tempted for sheer cussedness to use it since it cost three whole dollars.....but it's very strong. Each test spot on the wall was THERE.

My staging area for the front bath under the back bath sink. Various stuff including salvaged toilet parts.


The old toilet from the half bath donated it's relatively new valve body and flapper to the cause. Then became a fifth seat for the Baja.

What, again?

It's 0356 hours in the morning and the Cary Fire Department is out front. The cat is hiding. 16 pounds of unhappy camper. Not been told to get out yet, so I'm having coffee and locating the cat carrier. Fire department is departing. So much for the morning.

Four o'clock interview this afternoon and I supposedly start on Monday. I'm gonna be real fresh....not.

"Green" house porch ring bolts are in. I had to move the holes three inches in. At least that was done before the porch ceiling got drilled. Porch swings have short chains, or the porch ceiling is just too high up.

Man, I don't want to work today.........

Man, I don't want to work today.........

Still, I got to do that touch up in the master bath at the "green" house, and the shelves with the boss, then the garage shelf with young R. Think I'll nail in the porch swing cleats on Wednesday.

Interesting talk on the declining dollar until the lecturer started going into fiat currency, conspiracy theory, and Haliburton. Gimme a break here, ain't no mystery, no mysterious cabal. We, as a country, and some private citizens, have spent beyond our means. Uncle Sammy particularly, with eight trillion in the red. We also import more then we export. No wonder the dollar is turning into softer currency. Rocket science this isn't. My own way of dealing with it, is to not owe money, spend less, get a side gig going that's actually fun, and just hunker down.

Lunch tomorrow with my sister, then an afternoon at the Art Museum. All phones will be turned off or unplugged until 0700, 07/25/2007.

Looked for four good folding wooden chairs for my dining room. Thought I found them at Target until I saw the "Made in China" label. Damn. Now thinking four stools made out of the lumber from the sawhorses that K gave me a few months ago. A little sanding but the weathered wood and nail holes and paint drips will be urethane-ed over for art's sake (general laziness too).

Bumper for the work truck is going to show up at my bosses at the end of the month. Method, they are shipping it strapped to the back of a large snail. Just F***ing great. Last week for me and I mean it. Not going to ever do construction again, house, addition, or otherwise. Handyman at most.

Wood unfortunately grows on trees......

I found this two by ten, twelve feet long, at Lowe's in the top of the pile. In fact it was the first piece. I was deeply suspicious, treated Loblolly Pine at any big box store is not what you could call great. I dug around in the top layer for a few minutes, and came to the conclusion that (1), it was a very nice piece of wood (2), the other place would sell me something like it, not near as nice, for at least twice as much (3), and the best of the entire lot. It's pretty unusual to find wood like this anymore, most treated wood is cut from farmed fast growing Loblolly. Really big growth rings in farmed wood, sometimes up to half an inch. The wood industry would like us to believe that is fine, but really, the tighter the grain, the better it is. This was really tight, a sixteenth of an inch or less. It took a very long to grow this plank, at least sixty years. This did not come out of a tree farm. It really is a beautiful piece, only five small knots, worthy of it's fate, a drink shelf on the back porch at the "green" house.

Lousy shot, but it shows the difference between normal treated wood and this blast from the past. It only took six years for the piece on the left.

Another nice find at Lowe's, an one by six cedar trim board for a neighbor. Baja's aren't great on length, so I do this if it's too much trouble to strap it on top. Besides, my roof rack is still under repair. Got the pieces, just not the time.

The same trim board, all painted up and ready for it's big day next weekend. One coat of Kilz primer, one coat of semi-gloss Olympic white exterior, and the bottom painted gray just like in the HOA specs. It's also back painted, since the carpenter bees love this stuff.

More time at the "green" house for me. Monday will be my last day for the builder. I still got to mount the porch swings. I have some really nice close grained Doug Fir, so I'll use that for mounting blocks. Might as well carry on the theme of good wood that one can't get anymore.........

Yowza.....four days!

Yowza.....four days! I'm pooped, have been all week. The "Green" house is close to done, or so we think. I'm doing the right side of the closet door trim gap today. I was all fat n' happy until I discovered the right side of the door trim was 3/32" wider then the left. I had to rip and stain another piece. It didn't go in yesterday cuz I was chopping trim for the rear porch and then Young R and I were carrying on after the boss had to go down to the energy people for a little while. Young R makes a good cut man. I walked him through the first piece, long, short, and angles. After that, we got rolling.

He's still got to learn to clean brushes better, gave him some flack about it. My pet brush for the "Brown" house is over there now, and brushes are like towels. If I got a favorite, I keep it, even with wear and tear. The thing was as stiff as a board with paint.

My metabolism just burns too fast. Literally. It's a northern European adaption, instead of just turning food into energy, it also produces heat. I can go shirt sleeves into the 50s F quite happily, but summers are murder. I used to be able to throw a big bowl or two of ice cream at it at the end of the day to keep it happy, but since my lactose intolerance got near-total, it's been interesting looking for other sources of fuel. Pecan pie is pretty close to meeting fuel needs but expensive. Going to experiment tonight with fatty beef and potatoes. I'm not worried about cholesterol, it hasn't been above 130 ever. Yet another gift from a distant ancestor. 180 lbs, I'm in good shape, below 170, it means that it's time for refueling, below 160 (been there, ain't fun, no heft and no energy), its time to slow way down and eat and eat and eat. I envy people who can keep weight on.

After this week, it's just me, myself and anything in my fridge....... Next next week, it's me, myself, and Giovanni's Pizza, R J's Deli, Mama's Italian Restaurant (Actually Egyptian with some good stuff), The Persian place at the clock tower in Herndon, The White Palace, Pen's Kitchen, and quite a few others up in Northern Virginia, including, IHOP. North Carolina is still a bit of a wash for me, haven't really found anything that I could call interesting yet.

If the cat slept any harder, she'd wear herself out. 16 pounds, so better.

I can get the bumper and mounting kit for the work truck overnight....cheap. Neat. Think I'll order it tomorrow morning. I pretzel-ed the old one on a tree.

Two and half hours of my life I'll never get back.

I was feeling like I needed a break, so my bro-in-law and I went to see a movie. Transformers, it was. The preview was the best part. The movie itself reeked. That's two and half hours of my life I'll never get back. Product placement like crazy. General Motors especially. Also Nokia and Panasonic. Ford as well. Do Not Waste your lifespan on this movie.

I did two door jamb/casing repairs. People really should open doors with something else then their feet. Both came out well, though one door jamb needed a dutchman (Replacing damaged wood with new, so called because the Dutch were well known for their frugality, aka cheapness.). Trim on a porch next. It's sitting downstairs already primed and painted. This is my weekend for free repairs (except the materials of course). What you too? Sorry, too late. I'm booked out. Next week I start costing money.

"Green" house next project is screens. There are the porch swings to do as well, that's my chore for next weekend. Lag bolts just don't hack it. The ones that are big enough are too big for the ceiling joists. Also, the thread on the lags seems kinda deficient. Nice warning labels about not hanging humans from them. Hmmmm. Best solution would be a solid bolted mounting. I also have more touch up to do.

Gotta clean house and go to the library.

Bent the bumper on the work truck, which was the low point of last Friday.

I was going to go up north next week, but will just take it off from everybody. Vacation para mi.

Follow up on the traffic fatality on I-440, is that someone rolled an SUV (Stupid User Vehicle) right over a party of inmates on work release who were picking up litter. One dead, injured as well. Explains the debris and the large presence of law enforcement working the accident.

The nice "No " letter

So close and no cigar. Oh well, so be it. I was hoping, but the 2nd interview was as far as I got. Nice "no" letter, which will find it's way into my shredder. Applied to six more. I don't need a lot of money, but it's kinda necessary to keep my fat cat fed and happy, and a steady supply of coffee for myself as well.

Now three trim jobs, one an emergency for after work today. Hopefully I won't have to take young R back to his "hood". That was a long trek and of course, someone managed to wreck their vehicle on I-40 eastbound . I finally gave up at Miami Blvd and got out there. I got home at about 1830 hours, less five minutes at a Kroger to get some lemon juice. Still better then where I came from. If someone dies in an accident in Northern Virginia, they close the road for the day, never mind that half the populace may live on the other end of it. Injuries aren't as bad, just a few hours, but it's almost always during rush hour.

My last week at the "green" house will be the next. It's one of only three houses I have ever seen built that well in the last 28 years. Probably the best of them all. It's built right, which sadly makes it one of the few in the area. The boss gave his all and then some. The old saying, build forever and like you gonna die tomorrow is still true and valid.

Well, gotta get ready for today. Someone else needs to run young R back today, too much to get ready for the weekend.

Just another interesting day....or two.

Another of a couple of days at the "green" house. Today I adjusted the porch railing height in front and replaced two pickets. I'm to set the rail caps tomorrow. I'll use my squangle to set the stair rail caps. Neat tool, can adust for any angle and translate them to the chop saw.
Also have to wipe down the the garage door casings with alcohol and paint them with primer. Some flashing for the roof. Another water mystery. That and the kitchen racks are up. Pretty neat, even a place for that most necessary of kitchenware....coffee cups.

Think I bombed the second interview, we will see. It's only Wednesday and it was Monday. Hate waiting, just shoot me, darn it.

I was on my way back Tuesday with the only steamed vertical grain bamboo transition strip in all of Raleigh. The traffic got really slow. No good place to bail out. I noticed quite a bit of debris along the shoulder.

This had to be the cause. Didn't see any other vehicles. Quite a scene, at least five cruisers, a borrowed prisoner van, and all sorts of people with equipment working the accident. looked like they removed people already when I went by. Heard later on the radio that there was a fatality. Same thought as always, "There but for the grace of God go I.".

Safely arrived back at the "Green" house, and then went in the work truck to get the treated wood for the other rail caps. Work truck decided not start for the trip back. Hiked a mile back to the house thinking, "Driver Returned On Foot, Found On Road Dead." Another words....F.O.R.D. Drove my Baja back to the lumberyard, and jumped the truck. The people there were nice enough to follow me to the house that time and gave me a ride back to my car.

I also have to figure out how to take care of the pre-finish on the bamboo flooring. Test piece. Thinking a good wax might be it. Will try that first.

Plumbing, Painting, and who went where when?

Yesterday and Friday evening, I was at my neighbors. I helped tear out an old sink base and then we installed a new sink base looked recycled, then I ran errands while the counter top guys were there. Real cowboys, they were free sawing counter tops with a Skilsaw. Still, they got it all in and it wasn't half bad, until after I hooked all the plumbing back up, we found that the dishwasher wouldn't go back under. No spacer blocks. Had to unscrew it, then I chopped up some 1/2" blocks and we glued em' in place and the dishwasher fitted somewhat snugly in it's hole. We could have gone 3/4" but we didn't want to chop up more old tile. Screwed the whole mess down.

Today I fixed a leak. Next couple of days, I'll patch the back where we had to cutout for the drains. Problem with our places, is that when the plumbers replaced all the polybutene plumbing, they ran the new stuff up through the floor. Pain in the neck having to maneuver a cabinet up, down, in, and out. It is caulked, so at least it will last a little bit longer then the old one.

My own place got a touch up, semi-gloss white for the trim. Not quite the same but close enough. I was going to replace the front walk rail but the rot was small. Yes, the magic of caulk and paint. I did carve the rot all out though.

Interview tomorrow and the porch swing installation is on again at the "Green" house. But earlier when I heard it was canceled, I got an appointment in the same time slot for the Baja. Oh well, it really needs it. Being the first new car I ever owned, it does not get touched by me. Only by certified techs. New battery tomorrow, the old one is four years old. Still works but I'm not taking chances. If I get hired, it's going to get a complete belts and hoses and fluids as well. Then the cat and I get our irregular regular checkups too. Really looking forward to an eight to fiver.

What, they want me to come BACK?

It's 0527 on Friday, the 6th of July. The AC and my ceiling fan are both on. The cat is somewhere, comatose as usual, the original four-legged energy saving device.

I thought for sure that the job interview was blown high wide and handsome. That and I have yet to meet a form that I couldn't screw up. This job application form had tiny boxes to write in. Made a complete dog's breakfast out of it and then had the interview. Told my bro-in-law that I screwed up and then to salve my angst, went and replaced the fascia out back. It was full of holes anyway. 16 bucks for a piece of No. 2 cedar, and I had to pick through the pile. Knots over 3" just won't do. Lowe's does nice service, and for a big box store, is pretty good, but the wood is questionable. Not their fault, our forests are just too "overgrazed".

Imagine my surprise when the recruiter emailed me back for a second interview. Still, not betting money on a successful outcome just yet, still too mindful of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as I have been good at. I am glad that the new pair of shoes weren't a complete waste of money.

The "green" house is in one of those weird stages where it's going from construction site to a home. The owners are in, but we still have a bunch of touch-up to do inside, rail caps on the porch and back-back deck, and the screens on the back porch. Working around owners on an unfinished house is something new. I'm very careful and try to knock out the interior stuff soonest but being a perfectionist at heart doesn't help. Some things like plastering and caulk have to stop at"good enough" and then you come back to it later to make it "better". A perfectionist just keeps on going and turns "good enough" into "worse". So far I haven't done that yet, but only by force of will. My kitchen wall by the stove is an example of a perfectionist run a-muck. It's been sanded and mudded and painted innumerable times and is now flat and smooth as glass. It stands out in a dwelling where the rest of the walls look like a topographical relief map of the moon complete with craters.

Our days are numbered at the "green" house anyway.....so close to done. The boss will move onto something else, I'll go into cube farming (Dilbert reference), and the owners will have their part of the American Dream, a well built house.

The Fourth of July, more "Brown" housework.

The carpenter bees riddled the gable fascia over my utility room so that's now underway on this fine July the Fourth. The old fascia has been pulled off and now I'm updating a blog with a large cat in my way as the Kilz primer dries. The utility room itself is built right on the deck.

Chop saw and coffee nearby. One of the perks of working at home for once. I can make coffee just as badly as Starbucks and do it a lot cheaper. The tool next to the cup is called a Squangle. It can be adjusted to match any angle and takes a lot of unnecessary science out of a project.

No, the new fascia isn't up yet. I like to paint anything that's going to be out in the open, even if it will be sitting behind the gable. Carpenter bees are amazing. They can eat their way into almost anything. I saw one that had burrowed into treated wood at the "Green" house. So, paint it all......

The siding is caulked and primed up near the roof. Another 19 minutes to go. The color of siding is called Sheffield Grey by Olympic. Soon as the primer is dry, that happens next. More pics later.

I'm baaaack. So is the cat. Typing around this furry monster can be interesting. Neighbor went up my ladder to my roof and cleaned out gutters on both mine and his. Good thing too, plenty rain here when it does. Cat now rumbling. Must be happy. When she's really happy she drools.

The new fascia in place. Back primed and the cut surfaces are painted as well. 8d hot dipped galvanized finish nails holding them in place. It's an 1" by 8" by 10', ripped to 6". Note the hammer waiting on the top of the ladder for the next victim. I cut a 45' angle for the joint and and had to add a leftover 1" by 6" to finish, since I misplaced my board-stretcher.

One coat of Kilz primer later. Finish coat this coming weekend, probably a decent exterior white semi-gloss.

The End is Nigh, and so on.

Everyone is chilling out at the "Green" house today. I'm scheduled to start work at 1300 hours (1330, boss called), the boss and young R are doing a dump run (They did two) in the morning, and the owners are in. One guy bit the dust the beginning of this week, went out to lunch and never came back. C had to go do other things but not before using all the really good baseboard in the master bedroom, which did not have a good effect on the boss either. That and someone tried the old switcheroo again with lower grade carpet and padding. No go, no deal, so we don't step on on the tack strip while we work. G will be finishing up the hardware in the master bath.

The owners are in early, and it's nice having some eyes on site instead of having to lock everything up, walk around and discover more **** to lock up and/or hide. That and the boss and I both have had a lot on our minds so we did forget to lock up stuff now and then. We were incredibly lucky. Now it's two guys have to be at the tool trailer for the locking up and verify. Kinda like turning two launch keys when it comes time to end the civilized world as we know it.

Need more caffeine, back soon........
That hit the spot, black and nasty and thick, only way to get a heart beating.

I have to come up with some good references for my interview and really prepare, prepare. New shoes too, the "Green" house did a number on my two New Balance pairs.

Coffee, more coffee, just more coffee. Decaf....just put food colouring in hot water....geez. Big threads about someone recently on a consumer blog about not getting a Raspberry Soy Mocha Venta Decaf whatever. Decaf mixed with sugar and fake cream and flavouring....not coffee. What levels of depravity have we as a coffee drinking society have sunk to? I keep looking for a guy in a toga with matches, gasoline and a violin.

Getting to 0800, so cleanup and house and banking, et al.

Safety in my Townhouse.....

I have the safest townhouse in a row of five. The wiring and plumbing was gone through at great cost after I got the place by licensed electricians and plumbers and corrected as needed. Then I added a few things.

The half bath has this big mirror/cabinet over the sink. This is now my first aid center. The mineral oil is for the cat who has these large dirt trapping ears. The focus of the first aid is stopping unwanted blood flow which occurs a lot in construction.

Two Kidde carbon monoxide detectors. Not really necessary for me but I wanted em' anyway. I will have no gas appliances or utilities in the house, but the next owner might. One upstairs and one downstairs. If my place was bigger, one in each bedroom too. For some strange reason, they only come in battery powered models.

I have four smoke detectors, ten year battery backups, on their own dedicated electrical circuit. If wanted, I can hook up a third wire in them and network em' together. Neat, eh? The previous owner had four too, but three were battery only and of dubious utility and vintage.

GFCI outlets. When I moved in, there was one old one in one bathroom. Now they are anywhere there's water, all baths and kitchen. If I really wanted to be kosher, the one outside outlet should be one as well. I got the ones with a glowing green indicator just for neatness and coolness.


Last but not least, two big honking RED fire extinguishers out where everyone can see them. These are the next step up from household models which are sleek silver jobs. I wanted something that can be seen and grabbed if need be, hang the aesthetics. One in the kitchen, one in the upstairs landing.

Closing in on the Green house.

The "Green" house is supposed to be occupied today but the inspector never showed up. The floors are in, the bamboo that is. Interesting stuff. Steamed bamboo comes in a variety of colors. Only whacked one finger putting it in the office but it was the driver opinion finger...... Owners want to get in soonest so the heat is on as the song goes.

Boss is fighting the fight. Lights that stayed dark. White plate on beige switch. The carpet guys showed up with the wrong carpet and the wrong padding. Another day for that. The AC kept working, even when it was turned off. The latter might be because the house is so tight. The air exchange is pretty necessary. The Energy Star test went well. It's about four times as efficient as the minimum standard for an Energy Star house.

I'm looking forward to the end. Everyone has been doing long hours and days. I had to slow down and chill out for a little while after leaving some type O-positive on the floor. Back to cruising speed but more careful.

Interview this Monday afternoon, hope it works out. Construction is an occupation for the young.

What I want to do is write something more then just a blog. Need time for that. Work is to allow me to do that, not be an agenda in of itself.

Almost there.......

Well, one response back from the job hunting. I'm getting out of construction, it's a occupation for the young. Out of the five of us at one time, three of us had blown shoulders, four of us just ached, and only one guy didn't hurt because he was the only youngster. I was pretty lucky and figure that it shouldn't be pressed any further.

The "green" house is one day away from occupancy. Things that need to be done, power, rest of floor in the office, power to the panel, baseboards, and get our crap out of the house. The owners will be moving in as we are "moving" out. Two weeks and it's over.

Started work officially late yesterday though I did open it up for R. Bought money at my bank and then did an express overnight letter via the USPS to the North Carolina Department of Revenue. Apparently they do this to all newcomers to the state, try to go after taxes from the year previous to the move.

Odds and Ends

There it was, one big clunky futon frame. Everything is moving upstairs until the lower floor gets done. That monster was not going up the stairwell, not in one piece. My furniture has to do one thing well, be readily foldable and storable as I have one great move ahead of me in a year or two. If it doesn't fit in the back of my Suby, it's not a keeper. This didn't do any of that. So it was sawzall time. Two futon mattresses so one of those is going as well for geological recycling. Cat had her epileptic fit on one with a full bladder so it's toast anyway.

I got my return salvo ready for the NCDOR and am firing that today by registered mail. First though, I'll open up the "green" house and get it ready for work. Then off to the post office. I've been spending it seems, most waking moments at work, so looking forward to some time by myself. Another two weeks at most. The townhouse needs quite a bit of work too. That and I'm still recovering from the dentist bill and the quarterly tax payments. Not helping matters that the car will need servicing in three hundred miles, but as it is a very reliable Suby, it needs to stay that way. Then there's the real estate tax payment...... It's not a painless month.

Job hunting is still in slow swing. Two nice ones, one as a facilities administrator. I can do that rather well. See what happens. Online job applications are kept in active status for a week, then moved to the two week file. Anything older then two weeks goes in the near-dead file, and anything over a month gets deleted.

Wake County is going to do the same thing as Loudoun County in a few years....spend much bucks on the schools. As a resident in Loudoun I saw my taxes jumping by twenty percent or more per year. It didn't help matters that every time there was a bond issue, they voted yes. If I learned anything, it's don't hang around while the local school board is spending money like no tomorrow.

Going to have to go through the blog and do my Soviet Encyclopedia thing. Can't scare the customers too much. And done. Politics is so boring anyway as old news.

It passed!

The "green" house passed. Second inspector was much friendlier and more personable then the first guy. He did check everything though. At least the mud is drying out. Two more weeks to finish everything.

Got a back a response that said "Oh so you want to be an associate?", in job hunting. Ah, no. An "associate" is the modern day equivalent of "slave". Deleted. With prejudice.

It'a blur but we are getting there.

Too much work, not enough time. Also left ankle and foot hurt like hell. Managed to be a target again. Ouch.

The "green" house is days away from a certificate of occupancy and every one is going like mad. Had to spend the day with the grader. Every time I got near my gallon of paint and my brush, I'd have to go outside again. At least the electrical is done.

Got Monday off to go fire my return volley at the NCDOR. This will consist of a registered mail envelope stuffed full of notarized copies of my Virginia tax form from that year, 1040, townhouse settlement and license. Also planning to do some quick repair to my chimney chase top. Just fix that leak at the top. Best to fix it right from the ground up and not have to worry about water getting in the way. .

I decided to job hunt again. Being so tied up at the "green" house in it's final stage precludes any interviews and such but it helps to be active.

Got to go to work

The Art-fier

The art-fier hummed and chugged and processed and turned a perfectly good digital colour picture of the "green" house into this. One can almost imagine a wagon and horses waiting in front of the house as a stocky photographer sets up his tripod and daguerreotype.


Someone else with a slab of limestone, mallet and chisels produced a bas-relief.


A wandering Impressionist set his easel up in the driveway. Name of Money or Monet? Really thick glasses too.....



Wild-eyed artist somehow managed to park a DC-8 out in the street. Threw paint at his canvas and some managed to stop there. The jet blast is not a precision instrument.

The Jawbone is connected to the .........

A late start at the "Green" house today. Depends when Wachovia gets done taking in more money. My things today, will be reinstalling the lights. Garage door installer said, yep, lights in the way. Sigh. Down they came and back up they go....somewhere else.

I spent 1500 dollars plus on taxes and the dentist. Turns out my teeth are not the problem, it's damaged cartilage in my jaw joints. My wisdom teeth probably helped it along since with them there is more chewing surface then the normal human has without, and that much more pressure on the joints. Also found out they have curved roots so it's a good thing they came in normally. The pain was when I paid the dentist $765.00 for finding out I'm getting older. Heck, I just look in the mirror. Still, I got a mouthpiece out of the deal and it will help me sleep at night. Have to put money back in the bank and just behave myself for awhile. I have a cash cushion instead of a credit card, so it can be built back up without paying some Delaware thieves such things as interest and fees. At least there is enough materials at my "Brown" house to get some work done. Just need time.

Another picture from the Green house coming soon. It's going through the art-ifier. Thinking stained glass or oil painting this time. The sepia tint may be an option too, with added scratches and cracks like an old daguerreotype.