George Lincoln’s Birthday

By | | ,
Comments Off on George Lincoln’s Birthday

Or something like that.

I neglected to check in last night – I actually stayed off the computer all day yesterday. I checked email on the phone a couple of times, for reasons about to become apparent, but that was all. Woodshop work, and Top Gear UK rounded out my Sunday.

Saturday was a big system upgrade project. We’d been preparing for the event for the better part of a year: endless cycles of build, test, and document. Towards the end I was losing sleep thinking about it each night. Finally the day came, and all of the prep work paid off. There was precious little that didn’t go according to plan, but I did spend about 12 hours welded to the laptop, working remotely. Whew! I was really looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

Around 0100 on Sunday morning, truck and siren blaring by in the road. Sigh, someone’s had a fall, or a stroke, or a heart attack. Then, more trucks and sirens, and still more. Looking out a back window, I saw flames much taller than the house they were consuming,  about a quarter mile away from our place. While the sirens stopped, the engines at full rev running the pumps made the next couple of hours sleepless, too.

I drove past yesterday – the house is gutted, it’s going to be a scrape-off. Good news, though – everyone made it out of the house okay! All the stuff can be replaced, with time and money.

*      *      *

Wonder of wonders, still no new casualties announced in the last week. Glad of that.

Clear and Cold

By | | ,
Comments Off on Clear and Cold

Thankfully, we didn’t take the winter storm hit that nailed the North East – one of the “advantages”of being mid-Atlantic, I guess. It was quite windy, especially over Friday night into Saturday morning, that much did swing south, but other than a bit of rain on Friday, there was no precipitation for us. All it takes is half an inch of snow to grind this place nearly to a halt.

I will take note that my 328i really does do well in the snow and ice. Earlier in the week, I was joking that I’d have a chance to see how much of a big, fat liar the marketing folks are, showing me commercials with BMWs slewing around on snow-covered areas appearing to be in fairly decent control… We did have some frozen stuff on the ground for the morning commute, in the early part of the week, and the traction control systems on the car are simply excellent.

*      *      *

I made progress on the shelving, mostly, over the weekend. I also picked up a piece of poplar, ensuring it was straight and true. With that, I fabricated a sled to use for truing up rough-sawn stock, like the cherry 4/4 lumber I’m going to use for the surface of my “desk” table in the new office:

Ripping sled for rough lumber

Ripping sled for rough lumber

At least one edge of most of the 4/4 lumber I have is raw edge, that is, the part of the tree from which bark is removed. The two main surfaces are nicely surfaced, and one edge is sort of straight. I screw through the two uprights on the sled (or with narrow stock, using a buffer scrap) to hold the piece stable. I run the sled through once, yielding a straight edge. I can then unmount the board from the sled, turn it over, and make the second side straight and parallel to the first edge. Now the board is ready for the jointer. Seven or eight of those, and I’ve got a desktop!

*      *      *

Another week with no casualties announced by DoD! It doesn’t mean that we don’t have folks in harm’s way … but I’m grateful that we haven’t had any losses announced since 23 Jan! Thank you to every warrior out there – you do us all honor in the execution of your duty!

There’s a game on? Also, a Red Letter day!

By | | ,
Comments Off on There’s a game on? Also, a Red Letter day!

Ah, but you see, the Ravens ensured that I wouldn’t have to watch football this year. But this morning I did get rolling on the first shelving install (the new five-foot wide unit), following shopping…

Old shelving setup... w/dog

Old shelving setup… w/dog

Lexi always has to “help”, but actually through most of this process today she was a good girl, and slept on a chair in the library. I unloaded all of those shelves into stacks in the guest bedroom, then hauled the shelves downstairs. I’m going to make use of the white one in my storage room, for paints and such. The brown one is a bit crufty, and likely to sport a “free” sign on it, by the roadside, come the next sunny weekend day. Then I hauled the new shelves up stairs, and did final assembly in my office:

Final assembly of the new shelving

Final assembly

The shiny dark teal backers really look good! I got the deeper bottom unit together, then stood it up and down a few times while I adjusted the feet to match the floor: and the unit is level side to side, and canted just a bit back. Then I brought up the upper section, assembled it, and put it up top. It’s screwed to the lower section with countersunk stainless screws.

Shelving in place

Shelving in place

Now all that was left was to haul all the books back in, migrate my paperbacks over from their triple-deep stacks on the other side of the room (behind the camera in most of these shots), and load it all in:

New shelves loaded

New shelves loaded

Some of the media there is likely to move across the room to the four-foot wide shelves I’m going to build next, to leave room for more books here and there. But it’s big, stable, and I really do like it. It isn’t perfect, but I built it, and I’m happy about that.

*      *      *

I’m chuffed to bits – DoD reported no casualties in the last week. I don’t think there’s been none since I started this ritual to ensure that I gave attention to the cost our troops pay for our foreign policies. Huzzah!

 

 

 

 

Another weekend gone

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Another weekend gone

Also this weekend, I baked cookies, and made an army’s worth of chili. I used the last of the summer’s freezer-reserve tomato sauce, a couple of pounds each of ground turkey and ground spicy italian sausage, and mixed red kidney and black beans. Heat and chili powder added. Yum! Sadly, the cookies are almost gone…

I got the second coat of white on the shelving today. A small roller with a smooth-coat cover, and a gallon-size rolling grid solved the problems I was having with painting. I still have to decide what to do next: Poly or no poly. I’m thinking yes, because it’ll make the finish much more robust. And I shouldn’t be lazy about it.

*      *      *

Our condolences to the family, friends, and unit of Sgt. Schoonhoven:

  • Sgt. Mark H. Schoonhoven, 38, of Plainwell, Michigan, died Jan. 20, at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device on Dec. 15, 2012 in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Finishing in Stages

By | |
Comments Off on Finishing in Stages

The woodshop isn’t big enough to build everything, then finish everything, then put everything in place up here in my office. SO … I’ve assembled the first set of shelves (which was done by the end of last weekend). Since then, I’ve been applying finishes. Four days of finish, just for the shelving backs. A coat of the dark teal, knock down the grain, and recoat with the teal. Coat once with satin finish oil-modified water-based polyurethane, sand with 320 grit, and recoat with the poly. The backs are stunning, but not photographable as standalone objects. You’ll see what I’m on about when they’re installed.

Last night, I started painting out the shelves in the selected off-white:

Painting the shelves

Painting the shelves

I didn’t finish that step last night – I was paged by work at about 80% completion. Since I had to put the brush in water, I ended up calling it a night. The painting is, frankly, a bit fiddly – I see why spray booths are so popular. But I don’t have space for one of those, either. I am going to go shopping tomorrow for applicators that are more suited to the work I’m doing…

I finished up the first coat of white today. I’ll work it tomorrow and recoat … by the weekend of 2 February these should be pictured in my office. Then I can start building the next set!

Have you been by Marcia’s Makings lately?

Two Thirds Gone

By | |
Comments Off on Two Thirds Gone

The weekend, that is. Woodworking, Tops Gear, and Skyrim, again. This not-in-school thing is pretty fun! I’ll try to post some pix of furniture progress tomorrow-ish.

*      *      *

Our condolences to the family and friends of Sergeant Chambers:

  • Sgt. David J. Chambers, 25, of Hampton, Va., died Jan. 16, in Panjwai District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he encountered an enemy improvised explosive device while on dismounted patrol.

UK weather

By | |
Comments Off on UK weather

If I’d been driving around a local equivalent of the Tops Gear (UK) track this weekend, all my laps would have been on the board as either D(amp) or W(et). Fog, drizzle, rain, drizzle, fog – and that was just today. And today was still a busy day.

I was at work by 0715, to do a bit of patching (which could be done remotely), and some BIOS configuration on one of the machines I was patching (which couldn’t). That, on top of 6 hours at work yesterday: racking up the comp time, eh?

I was back home by ten minutes of nine, having finished what I wanted to do there today. Then, off to the shopping while Marcia went to church. Once back, I cleaned up the basement shop a bit, roasted some coffee, and cut my hair. The next step, had it been a nicer day, was to wash the car. But that didn’t happen because plans changed.

Marcia got home, changed out of her Sunday best, and hopped in her car to head out to Annapolis for some kind of quilting thing … and her car just make a single click. Dash lights flashing, computer reset, and … nothing. I got the multi-meter on the terminals and had her try to start it again. The voltage dropped like a stone. Bad battery, of course, which I had confirmed at the Sears Auto Center in Bowie (quick, friendly, efficient folks had that tested and me out the door with a new battery for her in about 7 minutes). Got that installed in Marcia’s Solara, too late for her to head out to Annapolis.

Down in the woodshop, I found that I was out of the dimensional hard maple that I’m using for face frames. So, no work down there today. The balance of the day went to Top Gear and Skyrim. Oh, yeah, and I made a gallon or so of turkey chili with tomato sauce reserved from the summer. Huzzah!

*      *      *

Our condolences to the family, friends, and unit of Sergeant Wittman.

  • Sgt. Aaron X. Wittman, 28, of Chester, Virginia, died Jan. 10, in Khogyani District, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by small arms fire while on mounted patrol.

Memory and Less

By | |
Comments Off on Memory and Less

This weekend: A bit of woodworking, a bit of Top Gear UK, but mostly Skyrim. I utterly forgot about an event on Saturday afternoon that I’d like to have attended, but something in my brain has decided that since I’m done with school, I don’t have to remember shit for a while. Sigh.

*      *      *

OMFSM. For the first time in years, possibly since I’ve started taking note, there are no reported US casualties on the DoD site since I last posted. Surely not the end of such things, but I’m very grateful to be able to NOT offer condolences, at least for this one week. To be clear, had I not been a day late last weekend, it would have been one and one for the last two weeks.