Small Projects
We've been working a lot lately on small projects around the house. When my wife lost her job, several people from the church were nice enough to give us some cash as a going away gift and we decided to use that money to fix up a few things around the house that had been needing it for quite some time. We did the lights, a new faucet, painted the door, painted the garage, and next up is refinishing the table. It needs a new coat of paint in favor of getting
spun polyester tablecloths to cover up the surface.
Then the last thing will be replacing the posts on the front porch. That needs to happen soon as they are load bearing and very rotted!
Winter Again?
I'm still not ready for winter despite the fact that we have already had our first snow and we will probably spend most of this weekend decorating for Christmas. I'm still thinking that I didn't really get all the fall that I wanted.
I know that the gardening is done and I'm not trying to plant the
excellent floyd rose at guitar center in my yard. Even I can gather that that wouldn't work. I just really feel like there should be a few more warm days before we settle in.
The fact that it gets dark at 6pm is quashing my fantasy though. Winter is back I suppose.
Stupid Pump
So my power steering is out on my car, sort of. It works but is wonky and makes funny noises. Somehow this happened when I had my car towed into the shop to fix a blown radiator.
So not a good couple of weeks for my car, all told.
Hopefully we will get it back and working soon and be able to recover quickly from this lovely hit to our finances.
Wood Winds
Music is a skill that despite a marginally successful stint as a trumpet player in grade school, has eluded me. I don't really like to listen to music all that much and I have less than zero interest in playing it. My brain just isn't wired to enjoy that sort of thing. Plus I have enough respect for the amount of work and talent it takes to do it well that I can't pretend that it is something I will ever be even passable at.
For instance, I have no idea what an
audio technica m50 is but I know some of you do. But on the other hand you probably have no idea what most of the woodworking tools in my shop are called or how to use them. We all contribute in different ways.
Shutdown in a blaze of stupidity
I've been really surprised by the government shutdown this week. These are the
kinds of things I don't really figure will ever happen. As it is, I have a hard time seeing this end in the near future. My guess is it will get worked out at about 11:58pm on Oct. 16th, just before the government defaults on its debts.
Of course I said the same thing about the shutdown too so I could be wrong. I can't see how the Republicans can possibly win this one. Sooner or later they will cave to the political pressure. Their position is untenable as far as I can see.
Having said that, I don't really understand the purpose of a debt ceiling if we just raise it every time we hit it. I'm guessing the original idea was to have a demarkation line that told the government that it was time to focus more on cutting costs and balancing the budget. Right now it's not really serving that purpose, but no one wants to hurt the economy in order to fix the problems. It's a product of the economic model we have. Continuous growth is not a long term strategy. You can't just keep growing forever. What happens when the growth finally stops? I guess we'll find out someday.
Trent Curse?
Since the day that Trent Richardson was traded by the Browns, no Cleveland team has lost a game. (The Indians lost that night but not since)
So was Trent a curse? I don't think so, have you seen the Colts record lately?
In the end I'm sure that Hoyer will fall back to Earth and we'll draft another bust next year in the draft. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I kinda doubt it.
Home
I'm really hoping that we never need a
home from www.leveinteam.com. That's not an indictment on them, so don't get me wrong. I just have no desire to move ever again.
I really hope that we can just stay here an pay off our house quickly. We dropped down to a 15 year mortgage about a year and a half ago so I really hope that over time we will be in really good shape financially.
Money can be frustrating but I have to try to be patient and just do the best I can.
Frustrated
I really have been enjoying the woodworking that I have been doing lately but it can also be really frustrating. Lately I keep getting stuck by either not having the right tool or not the right wood or both.
I need a planer bad but I can't really afford one right now. I'm trying to be patient and save up my money for one but I keep buying little things and messing it up.
I really hope that I can find a good deal on craigslist at some point and I just need to try really hard not to get ahead of myself.
Stairway To Heaven
Stairs are an interesting animal. How many people consider them when buying a house? Sure some people don't want two story houses but how many actually consider being retired at a house when they look at it? Do you consider how easy it might be to get around it once you are old and feeble?
Most people don't which is why we have
stairway lifts available. (Think to that scene in "Up" where the old man is coming down the steps in his house and has to beat on the banged up old lift to keep it running long enough to get him to the bottom)
Honestly, I haven't seen very many of these and the one I can think of was in a church. When you think about it that makes sense, since they are only really useful in two story buildings because anything bigger than that would have an elevator. Plus they can only accommodate one person at a time, which makes much more sense for an elderly person living alone.
We have stairs here but there isn't anything critical in the basement that we would need to worry about so I think we could get by with staying on the main floor if we had to. Hopefully I will be able to stay in shape enough to not have to worry about it but that isn't always something that you can control.
Plane Old Planer
I desperately need a thickness planer in my wood shop. I've been doing all I can to work around it but it's pretty obvious that I need to get one. Problem is, they are really expensive, even when sold used.
I just keep hoping for a good deal and trying to be patient. Easier said than done.
