Good lord, I'm tired.

As you may or may not know, the family is working on remodeling the sun room. We've had to deal with water damage, mold and cranky building materials not to mention cranky family members. Attaching panels of bead board on the ceiling was a monsterous task even with an air compressor and framing nailer. I had to keep adjusting the pressure so that I didn't keep shooting the nail straight through the material.

My arms and shoulders will never be the same. Those framing nailers are heavy and working one over your head while on a ladder and leaning is no small task. Neither is yelling at your children to hold the broom handle steady while they prop up the ceiling panel. It was a video worth of AFV. The nice thing is that it's all up except for one short strip, which we held off on so that we could have one more rain to see if we really did fix the leak. If we did, then we should be able to finish the ceiling and begin painting this weekend.

Why is this important or blog worth? I dunno. Except to say that patience and perseverance are important attributes to have throughout your life. It's worth teaching your children regardless of how hard a lesson it is to learn.

One of the next major jobs is to move the 75 gallon salt water tank we have in there. Gawd. I need a fork lift. We can't move the tank until we lay the tile in the area we want to put the tank. Engineering and planning. It's everywhere.

Lester Street

Sweet Jesus, I agree with everything that another blogger has said in his post about Lester Street.. He's absolutely right. For a moment, we must forget the messenger and focus on the message. It IS time for this community to come together and develop a solution to this problem. Open an honest and respectful dialog that leaves the tinges of racism out of it and focuses on humanism.

If we don't get a handle on the crime problem then we won't attract new businesses to the area which means no new jobs and that just feeds the sense of helplessness of some members of this community. We must also get a grip on the education system. A new business can't or won't hire an employee that can't read or write. We must move away from the idea that an education is a right. It's not. It's a privilege. Those who really want to learn shouldn't be burdened with those who don't. Get the troublemakers out of the classroom and out of the school building. Develop alternatives which may include some sort of social service and have them fulfill that service and another country. Let them see just how sweet they have it here. Let them see what those in Africa or South America go through to get an education. Let them carry their daily ration of water 5 miles to their hut for a year or more then bring them home. I'd bet we'd see a difference. Give those who want to learn a safe and inviting place to do it.

If we don't get a handle on children having children then we will continue to increase a generation who doesn't know what it's like to be raised by parents who understand what it means to be a parent. This will require comprehensive sex education and access to good birth control. We've learned that not talking about how one gets pregnant does NOT prevent one from getting pregnant nor does teaching one how that happen increase sexual activity. This is no time to be a prude or embarrassed. A 16 year old knows NOTHING about how to raise a child and we see the effects of children having children every day. It must stop.

The solutions will call for strong talk, strong action and some hard work on the part of this community. We must get angry but not at each other. Get angry at the problem and channel that anger into positive action.

We can clean this up but not if we continue to call each other names and finger-point.

There is a quote from a movie that has stuck with me ever since I heard it. "All I know is that the choices we make dictate the lives we live." It's time to take our choices seriously and to hold those responsible who make bad choices. This city MUST come together and push from the same side so that we can turn this Titanic around. We can't do that if we're pushing against each other.

Toldja

I finished the porch and stair railing today. Both boys helped. I stared at 8:30 this morning and finished at 4:30 this afternoon.

It's all about the right tools. Kinda like life. I had to rent a hammer drill which made short order of drilling into the brick. What took so long was the tediousness of finding the right angles for the handrails and the right length and angle for all of the spindles that we put in by hand down each handrail. I couldn't gut them en masse because the heights weren't the same. I'm not sure how that happened because I measured but that's beside the point.

It's done.

Another job tackled and tamed.

And what did my boys learn today? Use the right tool to get the job done correctly. That goes for Math, English, History and Science. It just goes for life which is what I'm trying to teach them. Go out into the world unprepared and you'll get your ass kicked. The oldest got his kicked today. He couldn't hang until the end and had to send the youngest in to cover for him. I can still work circles around them. Life is GOOD.

The sunroom is next if it doesn't leak during this next rain. Keep your fingers crossed.

Now, where's the tylenol?

Home Improvement

OK, so I sold the MG. It now appears that I have replaced one addiction with another. Home improvement. It never ends. It's this insidious evil all encompassing gnome that has somehow taken over. A little over a week ago it was the roof. We're still waiting on it to rain so we can see if we've plugged the leaks. This weekend it's the railings on the front porch.

We go to Lowe's and spend 2 hours picking out the material. I come home and spend an hour just measuring and cutting one post and one rail. Know why?

BECAUSE NOTHING IN MIDTOWN IS SQUARE!!


I'm talking about the angles on my front porch. We can talk about the people later. Anyway, I'm trying to mount the brackets that will hold the railing to the brick pillars and can't get a hole drilled into the brick. I was able to drill into the concrete on the porch but not the bricks. I'm going to have to rent a hammer drill tomorrow. So, not to be thwarted, I decide to dig the holes and set the posts for the end of the stair railings. Dig dig dig 18" into the ground and a 2" root/limb later I have a hole. I put the post in it and fill the effer twice with dirt, tamp, dirt, tamp and still can't get it tight. Tomorrow when I rent that hammer drill I'm going to have to get some concrete.

I went ahead and cut the railing for the other side of the porch. I suppose I could have cut the railings going down the steps but made the mistake of sitting down and drinking a glass of water. And then tried to stand up.

Gawd. I really must stop doing this to myself. My legs were calling me all kinds of names and none of them nice. My back was standing behind my legs going, "Yeah, what they said!"

I won't let this break me though. I'll tilt with this windmill and win only because I'm just stubborn enough. According to my doctor I'm a short fat middle-aged chick who needs to start paying attention to my health. No sugar. No white flour. No potatoes or rice. Notice she didn't mention no physical labor. At no time did she tell me not to do these confounded home improvement projects.

Sadist. Or am I the masochist? I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just in a state of denial about my physical abilities at this stage in my life. Doesn't matter. I'm still going to finish that porch railing tomorrow. I may have to call the paramedics Monday but that's ok. They can come over and admire my new railing as they're hauling my fat tired ass to the ER.

The Carpenters - Rainy Days And Mondays

An angel's voice.

More Banjo

I love this song.

Enjoy

He plays the banjo

You just have to hear the sound. It's amazing.

Bela Fleck

Enjoy