Ramping up

This is a short one to demonstrate the latest project. Georgia's mom fell and broke her pelvis a week or so ago and is being released today, but she can't live alone. That of course is a big disappointment to her. For now, so she will be near her doctors, etc., she will live with Georgia's sister, Nan. To make this work, we needed to make some adjustments to Nan's house. Installing some bars in the bathroom hopefully won't be too bad (today). The last 2 days were spent designing and constructing a ramp to the front door. The second day, Josh Worden arrived. I was glad to have his help, both physically as well as with his experience at building decks, etc. Although we still need to attach "skid strips", here are some pictures of the "completed projects". Oh, yes, this project did push my hand (recent carpal tunnel release surgery) a bit too far. Will have to "lay off" a bit for a few days. I think I brought most every movable tool I own and used about half of them. Even with "the right tool", the hands still have to do the walking. (Yes, a lame take-off from an old "Yellow Pages" slogan.)

A project complete

This week, amidst the trials and confusions of the family, Blaine and I finally got a couple of days of "project building" in. The first project took us only about 6 hours in which Blaine "sweated" 68 copper joints. The first lesson, however was mine. I have been going along through life blythly, picking up pennies now and then, but once in a while deciding that it wasn't worth the effort to bend over. I had been operating on the "a penny saved is a penny earned, but a penny found is better than work" philosophy. However after reaching this ripe age, I had decided that it may not be worth the effort.... So I went to buy the copper for the project and found that copper prices had zoomed up while I wasn't looking. (Yes, I realize that pennies contain considerable zinc to save on copper.... but that's been going on for years.) Once we got the blade changed in the miter saw, we were off and running. We reduced 70 feet of 3/4 and 1/2 inch rigid copper tubing to 1.5 and 2 foot sections, smoothed the burrs and Blaine commenced to sweating joints as I was his "flux man", nursing my recently repaired right hand (carpal tunnel release surgery). After approximately 6 hours of work, including 4 trips to the hardware for more parts and 2 reconfigurations of the geometry of the project, we ended up with this work of art to hold up the wisteria over our back door. Here are some close up views of his joints. The first is of some of the first joints and the second is of one of the later ones. Problem here is that I didn't realize that the camera was focusing on the house rather than the joint until too late, but you get the picture of the improvement. The really great thing is that most people use this method to join copper pipe for water supply in the homes and businesses. On his first day, not only did he demonstrate considerable improvement in the appearance of his joints, but pretty well passed a "plumber's test. Before we set it up, we laid it on it's side and ran water through it, plugging end holes until we were assured that water filled the entire structure. We found only 3 small drips coming from those 68 joints. I'll bet most apprentice plumbers don't beat those odds.

So that was the first day of our "project session". The second day was devoted to a wood project. I had seen this little table with a drawer in Newport Oregon at an oceanside B & B we stayed in and took pictures for future reference. We modified the legs but hopefully it will be "better" than the original. Having designed the size of the project in our heads, we put together a "shopping list" the nite before. We went to breakfast, then to Lowes to sort through piles of "Top Choice" lumber. The problem is, I had left our shopping list in the other car, so we picked out lumber by memory (plus a bit more cause we didn't have time to go back for more on this day.. besides, you can always use a board or 2 in the garage for "just in case". We took it all home and started making sawdust fly. We cut and shaped and edged, the started assembly. Here is a pic of the parts of the first table (minus the top). Since we only had part of a day, this is as far as we could go as we had to wait for glue to dry before proceeding to the next step. We'll have to cut the profile on the top and finish assembling it on the next session.

One thing I learned long ago was to make 2 sets of parts so that after you assembled the first version of a new project, you had patterns for the next. Because of time, we didn't cut the profile on the legs for the second set of parts, but here it is ready to make patterns for more should he or I decide to make more of these tables. I have little groups of boards like this all over my "shop" just in case I decide to make another of something. If not, I guess the grandkids will have patterns to go with the pictures of things I have made (found in my "projects done" folder). After working on finding time for a "building session" such as this, we finally accomplished one. Probably not the most opportune time due to my recent hand surgery, Grandma Bea's injury, and the loss of the mother of our nephew (by marriage), but at least we got a start. And I must say that at this point we are proud of the fruit of our labor. Sure hope these table parts fit together when we try to assemble it?????

Another Mystery Solved... aarrgghh!!!

We arrived home from Oregon in April amidst a very wet spring. The sump pump was running almost continuously, to the point it was drowning flowers around our deck. After a week or so, I realized that it wasn't going to stop soon, so rigged an extension on the sump drain so I could deposit the water further from the house into the yard which would better drain into the lake. The problem is that by the time I decided to make a move the standing water had killed much of the thyme that I had laborously nurtured between the flagstone in the little sitting area by the pondless fountain I had built. See "before" and "after". Now I have to figure out how I want to tackle reseeding the thyme.
As time went on (after the thyme went away), I was amazed that the water kept flowing after I thought the rain had slacked off enough that it should have stopped. (unravel that sentence if you like).. I also was amazed at how clear the water was. I would move the hose from the sump around to different places so I wouldn't drown other flower patches or make it too "soupy" to mow. I must say that at this point our back yard is the greenest it has ever been. I commented to Georgia and several neighbors that I was worried that there might be a leak because this water flow was really strange. I looked around the house and found no evidence of a leak.
Chapter 2:
It was SATURDAY, August 9, 2008. Georgia was away on errands and had asked me to take some stuff to the basement. (It had set there a couple of days waiting for me to have another reason to go to the basement, so I wouldn't waste a trip)...Hey, at my age, you don't waste trips up and down stairs. Well, I decided to be a good dooby and take the stuff down. I opened the door to the "Christmas room" (where we keep the unused decor items in the "off season") and heard a funny sound. I went back to where the water softener is and saw that water had run down the wall from a crawl space which was covered by a piece of 1 inch styrofoam. The only thing in that crawl space is a bunch of boxes I was saving (in case we needed to send stuff back) (Been there since 1998) and the water meter. I took down the styrofoam to be sprayed in the face by water that was spewing out of the "pipe" just before the first valve at the water meter... Notice I said BEFORE the first valve. I looked all over for a shutoff... inside and out. Found none. So I then unwrapped all of the water soaked fiber and cellophane that had been put there to protect the pipes from freezing, grabbed a roll of duct tape and started wrapping, while dodging spraying water.. I wrapped and wrapped. The only thing I accomplished was to cover the pipe with a really large wad of duct tape. I don't think I slowed down the water one bit. In the meantime, all the boxes were soaked, a bunch of dirt had washed away in the crawl space, and I was soaked and muddy. Oh! I was supposed to meet Georgia in town, but when she called, I said, "I'm not going anywhere." She got home and we started on the telephone. It took 3 sessions with automated answering machings to reach the guy to come and shut off the water at the street. It took 4 sessions to reach a plumber who was available. When we finally got to talk with people, they were really nice, reasonable guys. In fact the plumber showed up wearing an STL cap... (Now is a good time for you to check out the score of the Cardinals/Cubs game on August 9.... They knocked Zambrano's ears off http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-10-cubs-cardinals-chicagoaug10,0,352160.story Oh, you probably already know.... I'm not watching today cause I know that revenge is hell. Back to the issue. When I wrote the really large check (remember, it is a Saturday emegency). . he saw the DVM and started another conversation. As it turns out, he used to participate in calf roping with Charlie Hartman, who I had known from the vet school and who married Ruth, a family friend. Small world again.
Let's consider that really large check. There was a time when I would have kept wrapping duct tape til it was gone or I had felt I had slowed it down somewhat, then either dived into it myself or waited til Monday. In this instance, that probably would have been a stupid move because the increase in leaking had to have increased significantly over the past couple of days. After the fact, Georgia remembers that during the night, she had noticed a strange sound in the kitchen, but decided it was just the sump pump. Now she realized it was the leak. Another issue is that I work Monday and get my second carpal tunnel surgery Tuesday. Hardly a time to mess with getting this fixed.
So, what was the problem? A connection just before the water meter was the site of the leak. Apparently there was a "burr" on the threads, which over the 12 years or so, allowed enough water to escape to enlarge a hole which sometime this spring was large enough to keep our sump pump running essentially every 3-5 minutes. The leaking water ran along the foundation and found it's way to the foundation drain, to the sump pit. Fortunately, before we left for Oregon, we had a super duper sump installed. Some time in the last few days the hole enlarged to the point that it was spraying water against the styrofoam "wall" I had put up to block off the crawl space, as well as make enough noise that we could hear it. Although the problem was most likely caused by faulty installation, it didn't surface til this year. I don't see how any warrantees would apply. (as long as you own the house) which is the typical "lifetime" warrantee doesn't even apply since we are the second owners... So what are we left with? First the bill. Secondly, the dead thyme (not to be confused with the dead time we spent waiting for people to return our calls). Number 3, today, we have to deal with all of the wet boxes, etc in the crowded Christmas room. I noticed that even the plywood boxes I had built for storing the Christmas reindeer were wet and warped, so who knows what the deer are like. Oh, and Number 4.... The Cardinals creamed the Cubs!!! Today is another day. (and another game)...

Something old -Something new

As I wind up my last day of locum at Purdue, there is more reminiscing to do. During this week, I found my way through the newer portions of the Purdue University Veterinary School to the original anatomy lab where we spent hours pouring over formaldehyde impregnated corpses to learn all of the little parts of the wonderful mammalian body. I also found the lecture room that we called "sleepy hollow" and the theatre style ground floor classroom where we listened to the instructor read "Guyton" to us and we struggled with classification of all of the known medications of the time. My first week here as I asked students assigned to imaging where they were from, I found that one of them had worked for 2 of my classmates who practice in the Indy area. He had told her that the only drug we had at that time was penicillin. Maybe close compared with today, but not quite true. As an aside at this point, there was a group of veterinary technician students assigned to imaging and I found that one of them grew up in my home town of Silver Lake. Back to the track. In my last post, I mentioned the different route I had to take. I modified it a few times and ended with a pretty nice entrance and exit from the vet school to the country. This route took me past a place called the "Frozen Custard Igloo". It seemed familiar to me, so the next evening I stopped and looked at the menu. Among many tempting treats, I found Pineapple Sherbet. That struck another memory, so I bought it. Bam! So to speak. I was back to somewhere between 1963 and 1968. To tie this together, I have to take you back to our trip to Gas City via Lafayette. As you may remember, we took 26 out of Lafayette. That took us past Home Hospital, the birthplace of our first-born. Here is a pic of him and his grandpa Kneller at Purdue "married student housing". For an update, go to Briarcliff Connection and sort through the pics on the "what's a pickup truck" post looking for the "I'm Local" T-shirt. As we passed the hospital, Georgia said, "there is that park we used to go to and we went to that great ice cream place." (Pointing across the street from the hospital.) The park was (and is) called Columbian Park and includes a zoo. http://www.lafayette.in.gov/zoo/ Adjacent to the park was the original Frozen Custard where we used to get those great treats (and I got their pineapple sherbet). Talk about a flavor re-awakening. Wow. (Since then, I stopped by each evening for a pineapple sherbet cone that lasted me almost to Frankfort. Here is a post describing the original Frozen Custard that we used to frequent. http://www.originalfrozencustard.com/ Lots of history here. Now there are several Igloo Frozen Custards and Snowbear Frozen Custard in Lafayette/West Lafayette. That was the something old. Now for the something new.

One of the Purdue radiologists took a couple of us to lunch last week to a place that was unfamiliar to me. Another Irish pub similar to Claddagh where we ate in Michigan. This one, however is not a chain. It is a family run business called "Nine Irish Brothers". http://www.nineirishbrothers.com/ Fantastic. If you are ever down by the levee that separates West Lafayette from Lafayette near the lunch hour, be sure to stop in. I can attest that the Guinness Stew and the Fish and Chips are really great. If you want something with a little more spunk, you can go a couple of blocks south to a nest of restaurants at the base of the relatively new State Street Towers and venture into the Bombay Indian Restaurant. That's tasty too! So that's the something new!