Sunday, March 30, 2008

Gettin' Older...

My oldest son can talk your ear off. Sometimes I think he talks just to hear himself talk. However, because he talks so much, he has a tendency to say things that are just hilarious, but usually not intentionally. A week or so ago, he spouted one of his gems of wisdom, and my wife and I both laughed ans said, "That needs to be a blog!"

It still does. I didn't write anything down, and now I can't remember what he said. I know it was funny, but for the life of me, I can't remember and neither can my wife. I guess we grow old together.

Take care. Take ginkgo (I think that's how you spell that :o)). Stick.

First sign of Spring...

Now I know that even though it is snowing this morning as I write this, Spring is truly on the way. I saw the first signs just the other day. They said, "Left Lane Ends" and "Road Construction Ahead."

Take care, and have a great day. Stick.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Let your light so shine...

I crawled into the attic Friday to install a light in our living room ceiling. When I say "crawled", I mean I literally crawled, and in some cases, I even slithered to get back to where I needed to go. I had to hammer nails at arms length without even being able to see the nails themselves. Then, I had to turn myself around, and squeeze back through the attic to get out, by which time I was hot, sweaty, covered with insulation and dust, and my nose was running like crazy. I couldn't bring myself to go back into the attic again that day, so it wasn't until Saturday morning that I went back up to finish the wiring, but we finally have a light where there was none before.

Having finished this project, I moved to the basement where we want to install a light in our shower. I had already begun this project by chipping away the ceiling tile in the shower stall. I started to cut out the sheetrock, only to find that my selected spot included a stud right through the middle of the opening. This too shall be overcome, but it seems like every project brings on one more challenge. I can't wait until we put in the door to the garage.

Take care. Stick.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Deep Purple Daydream--Let there be light

When we moved into our current home, we had one bedroom that was not quite finished--it was missing a ceiling. So, with a little sheet rock and some moderate labor, we closed it up, textured it and painted it. My second daughter, "R", has claimed this room as her own, and wanted to choose a paint color for the walls, which we allowed. She chose a color called "Harebell", which looked on the sample to be a light lavender color. However, once it was on the walls, it doesn't look quite so light anymore. She is now sleeping in the "purple pit". She says she likes it, but if we ever decide to sell this house, I know we will have to re-paint, including a primer coat to cover those walls.

In addition to painting, we have been doing other fix ups around this home--small things. We do not have a light fixture in the ceiling in our living room. The only lights present are plugged into a switched outlet, so we wanted to add a light. We found a really nice fixture on sale, and purchased it along with the accoutrement's needed to install it. We had planned to run a wire to one of the existing switches and tie this light in to them. Yesterday, I crawled (literally) into our attic to start the process. The rafters are so low that it is impossible to stand up, or even 'duck walk' in the attic. After working my way halfway through--to where I thought the wire I had pushed up through the junction box should be, I found that the builders of this home had sealed the top of the walls, and I could not fish the wire through. Now I have a hole in the middle of my living room ceiling, and I don't know how I'm going to get any power to my light. Maybe I'll just have to run an extension cord from an outlet up through the attic (just kidding). We'll figure it out. Until then, maybe we'll put a nice plant there to cover the hole. No one will notice a rhododendron sprouting from the ceiling.

Hoping for light. Take care. Stick.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

That four letter "S" word

The last week or so, the weather has been hinting that spring might be coming. We have had a beautiful week, with temperatures into the 40's, and one day almost 60. It didn't last. The clouds rolled in, and that white stuff is falling from the sky again. It had been so nice that I was even putting together the basketball standard that we got the kids for Christmas, and my driveway was almost clear of ice. Oh well, this too shall pass.

On a side note, and talking about small towns again. Now I know that our town is not the smallest town around, and not even the smallest we have lived in, but I need to tell one more story. We go ocasionally to a Chinese Restaurant here in town (I know Inside Stories is saying, "See, how can you say you live in a small town when you HAVE a Chinese Restaurant."). When you walk in, they ask what you want to drink--normally. When we walk in now, they immediately say, "Diet, right?", and last time in, as we paid our bill, they said, "See you next week, okay."

Nice to be known. Nicer if there was no S_ _ _! Take care. Stick. :o)