Ancient Egyptian Stone Moving

Now that we have removed the wheelchair ramp from around the deck, I have several footings in the yard that I want to dig up and remove. I started with the most obvious and dangerous one. It had a bent up post mounting that was easy to trip on.

So, one day some time back, I started digging away the dirt that surrounded this big block of cement. I ended up digging about two feet down around this thing before it even started to wiggle loose.
Once I had it uncovered and moving, I couldn't figure out how to get it out of the hole. It is one large Mofo piece of cement. I have no idea how much it weighs but I'll guess it's more than I'm able to lift by about 273 pounds. As such, it has sat out there in its hole for a couple of months.

I finally got tired of it sitting there and went to work on the project today. I decided to employ a complicated method of pulley and fulcrum use...but without the pulleys.

So I took this beat up old piece of 2x4 and used it as a leaver. I lifted one side of the cement block and tossed a block of wood under it. Then I lifted the other side and threw a block under there.
By going back and forth with the leaver and adding more and more blocks of wood under it, I was slowly lifting it up out of the hole until I was able to just roll it away from the hole.

I was pretty pleased with me for figuring out how to return to the ancient ways and move my Block O'SeeMent. I think I would have been a good Egyptian Slave. Perhaps I was in another life.

More Raking

I have very little to report concerning the progress on the bathroom. With Halloween approaching, work has been directed to and around the house.

I spent about an hour last night with my Leaf Shredder 2000 cleaning up the front yard. I figure that if I go out every couple of days and get all the leaves that have fallen, I will keep ahead of the game and not end up spending an entire dreary Sunday raking my arms off.

We have completed the tombstones. They look pretty good. Here is picture of them set up in the living room. There are a total of ten. They feature cleverly ghoulish names like Rigg R. Mortis, Manny Wurmfude and Frank N. Stein.

During my raking last night, I took a short break to look for some garbage bags. I went up into the upstairs portion of the Carriage House and turned on my CB Radio that I have up there. In Spokane, Channel One is where all the activity is. I have found that there is pretty much the same group of people on there every day. There is one guy in particular whose handle is "Pipe Layer". I get the impression that he is an Electrician. On the CB, he is nothing but a Bully. He is constantly telling people that he will kick their ass and is always trying to goad someone into a fight. Last night, Pipe Layer and another guy who goes by the handle of Laser Beam, were picking on a guy named Bob. They refuse to give anyone the respect of calling them by their handle. Once they find out your name, that's all they use.

I don't even know why they were pissed at Bob. But they just kept on calling him a dumbass and a Mama's boy and many other colorful names. I don't think it matters what the consternation is over. They just want to fight. That is a mentality that I have no understanding of. I don't think I have been in a fight since grade school. I think it is safe to say that if Mr. Pipe Layer and I ever met, he would kick my ass.

Anyway, I was sitting there listening to this for about ten minutes and I was starting to get pissed off. It was from the accumulation of listening to Mr. Pipe. I wanted to join in to the conversation and tell theses guys what losers they are.

Then I got to thinking if this was a field I wanted to play on. I mean, I have nothing in common with this collection of Spokane's Finest White Trash. Why should I engage them?! And so I turned it off and went back to leaf shredding. I think my time was better spent.

Weekend Get Away

Since we had our third wedding anniversary last week, Susan and I decided to get out of town for a night to celebrate. We didn't want to drive for a long time so we headed East and North into Bonners Ferry, Idaho. We stayed at a nice little motel called the Log Inn. As you might imagine, it was made of logs.

We didn't do anything special other than get out of town. It was a great weekend and now I'm ready to face another week.

Like a I had a choice.

Construction@Work

I can't seem to get away from remodeling construction.

We started a big re-model job on the Art Department (my Department) at work. We have been slowly moving away from creating film in our own darkroom, a technology that now seems so 1950's.

So, we are opening up the Dark Room and using the space for our Production Area. This means we will operate the many varieties of graphic equipment in that area. That will free up a bunch of space in the main office, which will better allow for the creative flow and ideas, designs and creative flow.
The problem with this construction is that is being done by MY contractor, Phil. So while he is working on this, he is not working on my bathroom. I need to be doing some stuff on my own on this bathroom project so it's probably for the best.

Bathroom Progress

Well, we are cruising along in the bathroom but slowly. The latest development is that I installed all the light fixtures. That will probably end up being a mistake since we still have painting and sanding and stuff to do in there. But what the Hell...it looks fabulous!

So those are the before and after pictures of the lights in the area of the vanity. A medicine cabinet of some type will adorn the wall between the two lights.
And here is the B&A pictures of the main light. You will also note the fan cleanly mounted in the wall, where it harmlessly vents into the open attic. In 100 years, the rot from the moisture up there will cause the roof to collapse.

Productive Sunday

Wow! What a day as far as the weather goes! It was very nice out today. It was probably in the 70's which is very unseasonable. I'm not complaining. I got some yard work done and Susan painted some tombstones.

That last comment probably needs some clarification. Susan has been making tombstones out of blocks of styrofoam for a couple of weeks now. Today she painted them. Pictures below. The purpose of the tombstones is of course to adorn the yard for Halloween.

I was out with my Leaf Vacuum. It's the Tecumsah 5 1/2 H.P. Leaf Shredder 2000. I bought it a couple of years ago at a yard sale. It works great but only under certain conditions. Wet leaves are a lost cause with this thing. It just won't suck um up. And it jams pretty easily if you take on too many leaves.

It worked perfectly today. You can see the swath of leaves I sucked up already. I think it is easier than raking...although I may have to get out and do it more.

The one weak link with this machine is when it comes to unloading the leaves. I finally figured out that the best way to empty the bag was to roll the thing up on a tarp and then scoop out all the debris onto the tarp. Then I take up the tarp and dump it into a garbage bag. It's a bit of a pain but it's still better than raking!

We also attending a Home Ideas Show which didn't really give us any ideas. Besides, we are still dealing with the ideas we already have.

Heat! finally

I'm not sure that I wrote about the following subject before. At the time that it all occurred, I wasn't very pleased with myself concerning this whole affair. That is most likely the reason I left it out.

I have a ceramic wall heater in the bathroom. That is the main source of heat since I removed the radiator. I wanted to connect the heater to a programmable digital thermostat. In that way, I could have the heat come on in the morning automatically and have the room nice and toasty when we go in for a shower.

So I went to "The Depot" and bought the heater and the thermostat. I followed the instructions and got it all wired up. I hit the breaker to turn on the power and went upstairs. I immediately noticed this burning smell before I even entered the bathroom. I knelt down to the heater and couldn't see any problems there. I stood up and caught a glimpse of smoke streaming from the thermostat.

I tore down to the basement as fast as I could to shut off the breaker but by then, the damage was done. The thermostat was FRIED!

What bothers me most about this incident is that I should have figured it out before I ruined a $50.00 thermostat. I knew in the back of my head that I was putting too much voltage through it. That information never managed to make it to the front of my head.

Anyway, yesterday I returned to "The Depot" and scrutinized the collection of thermostats they had on hand. I finally found one that would take the 120 volts. I found it, bought it, wired it, and with trepidation, powered it up.

Fortunately for my checkbook, it worked. So another hurdle has been crossed as we continue toward the far off finish line of completing the upstairs bathroom.

Just as a reminder, we started the bathroom remodel on July 10th. Today is October 10th. That's three months...or a month and a half longer than I was hoping. But of course, I am not surprised.

A Floor, Part One

Phil started tiling the bathroom floor while we were gone for the weekend. We returned to this stunning sight. We hope to get this done quickly so we can re-install the toilet and end the long long nightmare of midnight dalliances down the stairs to Evacuation Town.

California Dreamin'

Along with our friend Mark, Susan and I have spent the last three days in San Francisquin, Cauli-Fornia. We flew down to attend the 35th Annual San Francisco Blues Festival. I took over 150 pictures while there and so I have decided to limit myself to only one here for the blog.

And this is it! It's not a great picture but if I had to produce one to portray our weekend, this would be it.

We took it while Sailing on Friday. We stayed with my childhood buddy, Arnie. He conveniently lives in San Fran with his wife Hayley and his daughter, the Princess Rebecca.

Arnie is one of four or five partners in a 30 foot Newport. He was gracious enough to take us out on the Bay for about five hours. We took some lunch and sailed in a big circle around the bay. It was great!

We also ate at several fabulous dining establishments, drank at some seedy Watering Holes, and partied like it's September.

On Saturday and Sunday, we attended the Blues Fest at Fort Mason Park and heard band after band of great Bluemanship. We also drank, ate, and came home with an incredible contact high from all the Marijuana going up in smoke during the event.

I have a bunch a good pictures of just bizarre San Francisco people. We could have had more if we had time to attend the Folsom Street Leather Fair. Many of those pictures would have had a Triple X Rating attached to them.

We are home now and back to reality. that means that it is time to turn on the gas and fire up the boiler. So...for those of you who had October First in the betting...you win. Hey, I had October First. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Ha Suckas!

Well, to apease your hearts and soothe your troubled minds, I have provided this warming photograph of the boiler just after it was fired up today. Enjoy!