Busy busy busy, world
This weekend I had some work duties related to the driver license systems getting upgraded at a couple of our branches. It required me to be on call as well as going into the offices a couple times over the weekend. However I already had pegged this weekend as “deck building weekend” so it was going to get done come hell or high water.
The deck was for Nicki’s area, a small 8 foot by 8 foot platform would be large enough from our calculations. Like I said previously, I rarely do projects like this in a normal fashion. I didn’t draw anything up, I didn’t write up a materials list, rather I went to Home Depot, grabbed what wood and materials I figured I would need and went for it. Of course this technique leaves much room for error and I had to make an additional trip to HD to pick up some more materials.
The project covered parts of both days. On day 1 we got the frame built, dug the holes and cemented it into place. We cemented it down so it doesn’t blow away if we have another hurricane season like last year. On day 2 we installed all the decking as well as the little ceramic tile piece I made months ago with left over materials from the bathroom tile job. I got creative and spelled out Nicki’s name in tile and then drug her over to it and put her paw into the wet grout to make a paw print to forever mark the area as hers. Yea corny but cool at the same time. You can see a bunch of pics of the project in various stages here.
Some of the boards I got were not exactly straight and required some prying with an iron pipe to straighten them out as we hurriedly drove in screws to keep it in place. It all wrapped up round 5 oclock on Sunday. It looks good, is sturdy and will be nice place to relax and read a book while Nicki runs around untethered. The last part of the project will involve getting a skid or two of sod to create a nice grass area and maybe planting a tree or two. I am pleased at how it is coming together.
The local paper ran several front page stories on Sunday regarding the horrific traffic is in our area everyday. It really put a big glaring spotlight on just how terrible it is and how poor of a job the county has done at managing the growth that causes the gridlock. Ali and I had the opportunity to be in one of those articles but I declined because I didn’t want to cause waves at work. But after reading the way the articles were written, I probably could have done it with little problem. Oh well.
The news in recent months has been nothing short of horrific. The tsunami and it’s aftermath, the war in Iraq with no end in sight, incredible deficits, the BTK killer, global genicide in 3rd world countries, and now the terrible shootings at the courthouse. It all just makes me sad, makes me think what is the point of it all. We are living on a timebomb. We will end ourselves way before someone does it for us.