It's Been a Long Time

Sometimes that's the case. For whatever reason, I don't feel like blogging anything. Some days I felt lethargic, some days I didn't have any time to sit down and write, and others I didn't feel I had anything to say. Some days I did have something to report, but it was insignificant enough that I didn't feel strongly about it I guess. I had some spare time last weekend but instead spent it trying out Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista on another drive in my computer--Kind of a test of sorts. I can recall at least once when I was going to blog and was just about to start when something came up and I had to switch gears.

Okay, enough with the excuses.

Suzie got wedding invitations sent out way back about the time of my last blog post. She spent a lot of time and effort working on them to make them appear like some sort of medieval parchment. Everybody loved them! She is having so much fun with this wedding. I probably should stop calling it a wedding--It's sometimes seems like it's more like a party--But no, it's first and foremost our wedding.

My granddaughter Emma had her 4th birthday this last week. I wish I could have been there, but alas, it's a bit far away to be popping in for birthdays. This coming Friday is her brother Ethan's first birthday! I'm sure that will be a special event--The first ones usually are pretty fun because the kids have no idea why there is so much sensory overload going on in the form of people, colors, sounds, and tastes. They just know it's fun and exciting, whatever it is!

Sarah started tennis again this last week. As usual, it's a crap shoot as to whether or no they will ever hold their match until the last minute because of our weather patterns. Out of 4 days they tried to play this last week, they succeeded in actually playing on one day. That was good actually, because I had a lot going on this last week.

One of the things I had going this week was buying some steel for shelving in Sue's (no wait--our) garage to replace her existing rickety wall shelving with solid, welded steel & plywood shelving. After getting quotes from a few of our suppliers at work, I commenced to fret and worry about how I was going to transport them. Although they would probably all cut steel to any length I wanted, I was pretty sure they would charge extra for it, and I was trying to keep the costs down in this project. The reason I was worrying about transporting was because steel is sold in 20-foot sections. To put it in perspective, my pickup truck is 17 feet long, bumper to bumper. So how was I going to pull that off? As usual, my mind went into overdrive and made a mountain out of a molehill. I spent a week searching for lumber racks, ladder racks, or anything else you call those big racks that bolt to the sides of your truck bed and extend over the cab. Having no luck, I then started investigating creative ways to mount a bundle of 1.5" steel angle (only 8 pieces, but they weighed 200 lbs.) along the side of my truck. I racked my brain. With input from several people, my own ideas, and tips from the web, I gave up. I decided I needed to stop farting around and just order the damn steel. I needed to get this thing going. I went ahead a placed the order on Wednesday, deciding that I would just arm myself with some new hacksaw blades and cut it myself on the spot. Friday I picked up the steel. It was a great deal at only $14 per 20-foot section of 1.5" x 1.5" angle! (Yeah, yeah--I love to tout my good deals...) Because the supplier was near my work, I took my truck to work, equipped with everything I would need. Sue met me nearby to help me with it. When I drove up to pick the stuff up, I asked the guy in the office if I could just drag it outside out of their way and cut it for transport. He says, "We can cut if for you, no problem." All that worrying for nothing! We drove the truck into the building and stopped. It's a huge, huge place. It has all kinds of overhead cranes to move everything around, and it's designed with drive-through loading big enough for side-by-side semi trucks, two deep if they wanted. That was a good thing too, because while we inside waiting for the guy to cut them, the rain and wind let loose once again. We would have been soaked to the skin I'm sure.

Yesterday was an interesting day. While Sue and I were still in our robes and drinking coffee here at my house, my mom stopped by and told us about a garage sale in town. Apparently, the woman holding the sale had a small production company that put on plays at our local acting theater here in town and she was selling all her costumes and outfits. My mom said my dad had even outfitted himself with some sort of costume that he is going to wear to our wedding, complete with hat! Sue and I were practically floored--My dad is taking part in the festivities and even looking forward to it! Like I told her, even adults like to play dress-up--We just need an excuse to do it, right?

Anyway, the lady at the sale had a ton of cool stuff, although not a lot of it was the right size or period. Sue bought a couple of small things that I don't remember, and I bought a really cool wooden instrument for $5. It's apparently a mandolin, based on what Suzie and I have seen on the web. It looks like a lute, but it doesn't have the "folded back" tuning board that they show in internet pictures. It's pretty beat and has no strings on it, but it's still a very cool prop or decoration. I could carry it at the Renaissance Faire this summer and be like a wandering minstrel or something. Here's a couple of pictures that Suzie took for me:



From there we went to Sue's house where I spent much of the afternoon cutting the steel with my metal chop saw and deburring it. I ended cutting the lengths into about 60 pieces, then cut the end of each one to 45° for safety reasons. (They would be the protruding edge of the shelf that you would have a tendency to boink into with head or hand.) That was tedious and noisy, but it went well. I had my hearing protection on and had a nice working platform set up so I didn't have to bend over. Beer too of course (duh). It was a pleasant day, weather-wise. I also got a bunch of light tubes changed in her ceiling fixtures so we could actually see in there. They have been out or flickering for as long as I've known her. I was actually getting used to not being able to see anything in there unless the door was open... We finished the day with a pleasant evening at Denny's house up the street, followed by a nice, relaxing soak in the hot tub staring at the stars.

It was a good day for sure.