Posted: under Health and Fitness, Life Experience, Money Matters, Musings, Work.
Tomorrow is the third day prior to the official 2009 Project Lawn Overhaul. I get to go to the store and purchase rain gutters. Now why would a fellow go to a lumber yard and purchase raingutters in preparation for a lawn makeover? In truth, this whole makeover is because I did not see the need to install rain gutters on the house. Because I did not see the need for rain gutters,,,, my lawn, in the makeover section, slowly root rotted itself into oblivion right before my eyes. Also I would like to enter into submission in the justification of this entire project that with out the rain gutters I surely will experience this same threat to my lawn even after it is established because the lawn will erode in the same way with the same results if I do not solve my erosion problem caused by lack of raingutters. That… and it is another day with out doing any type of hard work. Something that I fear is much to easy to justifiy at this stage of the makeover.
You would think that it would be pretty straight foward to install a raingutter system. If you have read any of my posts you must know by now that I am extemely subject to fatigue(often called laziness) so any day that I can do something without becoming fatigued(not having to work) is a good day. Which brings to mind the complications of installing a rain gutter. Now I need more materials. You know the usual sort of thing. Measuring the area. Counting the end caps. Stainless steel screws for the hangers. Levels, stringline, markers, downspouts….why this could be a monumental day of work( I mean laziness). With all these items I need to do research online to give me ideas of cost ( even though I am going to the local hardware shop where I have a “Tim the Toolman Taylor” relationship with the staff).
I have it all worked out. I have the little giant ladder system for my working platform when intalling the gutter. I will get some scrap plywood and 2×4′s from a work site down the road and make a nice platform to spread between the little giant ladders. Then there is hammers and screws but I really would like to use my new air compressor that I purchased six months ago. Then l would like to use my air drill and nail gun to aid in the installation. Gosh the logistics are becoming intense. I will have to coordinate with the general foreman to make sure that all the tradesman are willing to pull together to get this show on the road. Gosh, it is nice to have the responsibility of the Sub-million penny project but with that responsibility comes the undenialable fact that the general foreman does not always get along with the designer and engineer of this project. Both think that they other does not know what they are doing. Does gemini seem appropriate at this juncture? Yes, I AM!!
Dec 29 2008
Posted: under Health and Fitness, Life Experience, Money Matters, Musings, Work.
The lawn around my house is not in the best of conditions because of a lot of factors. i guess that I can kind of relate to the lawn in many ways. We are both a little run down. Nothing that a little time and proper care will not take care of. At some angles we both appear on the whole to be normal. Although I feel as weak as the lawn looks thin. Yet with some planning, a few tools, a lot of help from my wife, and some new big guy toys I am planning a yard make over.
I worked in construction for quite a few years during my stay in Alaska. I always marveled at the way they planned the work to be done. I never understood the entire formula that evolves when making the estimates for the bid letting of these jobs. Since I feel that I am strong enough to do some physical work each day I have had a plan in my mind that will allow me to design, estimate, and coordinate all stages of a complete renovation of the lawn appearance. This involves financing, materials, governmental agencies for permits, logistics, project labor agreements, engineering, and actual application of all planned elements. Huh!! It sounds awfully complicated ….does it not? All for a green lawn.
It may have already crossed my reader’s mind that I am making this job awfully convoluted but such is the way of this author when comfronted with his laziness. As I told my doctor…”I am undertaking a project that requires very little planning and very little work with few or limited materials and making it the most complicated endeavor of my construction career. That is what happens when a lazy man tries to justify that he is getting better. The funny thing is three years ago I would have planned, constructed, and completed this project in a weekend. If I had a red-faced smilie icon to finish this entry I would place it ….HERE!!
Dec 28 2008
Posted: under Life Experience, Musings.
Yesterday morning as I was traveling down the street to get some “do nots” or doughnuts to most people. Do nots are a rather humourous euphenism that my wife and I use when going to, coming from, or eating doughnuts obtained from a bakery. Well, yesterday morning as I was driving to the store I noticed an individual of the younger generation ambling down the street doing nothing but minding his own business. What called himself to my attention was the fact that he looked just like a penguin from the Antarctic.
Honest to gosh… he was dressed in a black coat and black trousers. He had a clean white shirt under the jacket with a black billed baseball hat that had a white front where the logo usually goes. Honestly it was not the attire that drew my attention. It was his gate. As he ambled down the lane he had this waddling way of walking. This was intensifiied because of where his pants were in correlation to his waist. Mine is somewhere around my belly button. His was below the crack of his ass. Consequently, when he walks, he must keep his legs in a position that is wider than a normal walking gate of most humans to maintain this lowered position of his pants. Most humans wear pants positioned around their waste. In my area there seems to be a glut of these new penguin people waddling aimlessly to many of the malls in the area.
I know that I am getting old. The younger generation has wierded me out. I cannot for the life of me understand how a guy can go waddling down the street with his ass showing out the back and only covered by a boxer short or two. Haven’ they heard about ” UNMENTIONABLES” ? In my day one would be embarrassed if anyone saw your zipper open. Now they walk with their pants below their butts and spend a great deal of time hitching their pants up with a free hand. It is not so much that they are hitching up their pants that bothers me but where they grab the pants to maintain this position. They usually grab the crotch of their pants and just hold it in place giving the appearance that they are holding their own testicles as they walk down the street in this penguin waddle of a gate.
Now I come from a farm family. A pretty no nonsense kind of family to give me a good solid base when I went out into the world of the hippie’s, free love, bell bottoms, LSD, communes, flower power, anti-war, and marijuana. I am kind of like a former president that said he smoked marijuana but never inhaled it. I am still holding my breathe from the last toke in 1992 when they started the drug testing policy. Ya, I smoked marijuana but I never exhaled. So I made it through all those things without once having to grab my nuts to maintain the position of my pants.
Everytime I see a young man waking down the street in this manner I cannot stifle the huge laugh that always erupts as I see these proud young men walking down the street. I wonder what these kids will think when there kids are doing something that makes them laugh as I do when I see them?
Dec 27 2008
