Out and about, improvisational shed relocation, missed wrong game

Friday night I went out with my buddy from work.  We hit a place called The Keg and The Pub.  The Keg is a steak house with a bar.  I expected it to be quite full on a Friday night. Surprisingly it was pretty dead.  After that we swung over to the latest and newest hot spot in Naples, Mercado. 

The Pub is a british style pub with lots of dark beer, english style food and a lot of drunks.  One of the first things we were treated to when walking in the door was some douchebag in a costume with a large red strap on penis.  He was encouraging patrons to try to throw plastic rings onto his plastic phallus. 

We didn’t stay very long, just long enough to do some people watching.  There were lots of women there dressed to impress, looking to snag that lonely millionaire.  I kept my drinking under control all evening as I was the driver.  In total I may have had 5 light beers, a far cry from the triple tavern towers I consumed a couple weeks prior.  Going out and seeing the nightlife typically makes me thankful that I don’t have to deal with it on a regular basis.  This time was no different. 

I got home around 11.  Mom was glad to see I got home in one piece.  She was also glad that my arrival meant she could once again have her bed to herself.  She was sharing it with the dogs prior to my arrival.

After going to the grocery store with mom Saturday morning, I was quite busy with work around the house.  With no Ali to help share the load I was on the go for the majority of the day.  The longest time consumer was mowing and weed whacking everything by myself.  Mom washed her car while I mowed.  After I was done mowing I waxed the top surfaces of her car and cleaned out the interior. Throw in weeding, palm trimming and several other small chores onto the “done” list.  I was pretty damn tired by the end of the day.

One of the nice things about having mom there was she likes to cook.  She made stuffed shells on Saturday night and London Broil last night.  Mom also did all of our dirty laundry and was on dishwasher duty too.  Mom likes to have something to do so I don’t try too hard to discourage her.

Late Saturday I found out that the guy that was going to help me move the shed would be available on Sunday afternoon.  So I called up the shed owner and made sure she was ok with the shed getting moved Sunday which she was.  The bad thing was doing it Sunday afternoon meant I would completely miss the Eagles game.  I wasn’t happy about that but I wanted to get the shed moved more so I bit the bullet.

Sunday morning I went over early to do the basic disassembly before my help arrived.  I disconnected the hurricane straps and the electric that was feeding into the shed.  I also loaded up the storage shelves the owner was donating to me and brought them back to the house awhile.  I was done in about an hour.  Then it was just waiting for my help to arrive.

Ok so this was the outline of how the shed transport was going to go.  My guy has a big trailer and a big tractor with a front bucket and a grading box blade.  The plan was to use the tractor to lift the the shed into a position where we could get it on the trailer.  after successfully loading the shed on the trailer he would use the tractor to smooth out a clear path to trailer the shed to the 12 foot gate in the back of our fence line.  Once inside the fence we would drive the shed into position and once again use the tractor to help us remove the shed from the trailer.  Well besides the fact that the shed is now sitting on our property, none of the in between steps went as planned.

The first problem we had was the back of the shed was flush up against a deck.  The deck prevented the tractor from being used behind the shed to lift and push.  Instead we utilized a come along attached to the front of the trailer to slowly and I mean SLOWLY winch the shed towards the trailer.  Early on during the process one of the woman’s neighbors showed up.  He was one of those types that likes to be involved in shit and loves to offer up opinions on how to do them.  Immediately he started throwing up ideas on how to accomplish our objective and immediately I did my best to demonstrate that we weren’t interested in them. Luckily when he went back over to his house to get some “tools” to help us, the shed owner called him and told him to  stay put, we didn’t want/need his help.

Bill brought two come alongs with him.  He managed to bend the first one, it wasn’t a very heavy duty variety.  Luckily I had my come along with as well which was a bit stronger.  Winching the shed up onto the trailer was extremely tedious.  We used pipes, dock pilings, cinder blocks and various other items along the way to slowly inch the shed into position.

The weather was not cooperating either.  Even though it was November 1st,  it was blazing hot with temps approaching 90 degrees.  Bill and I were drenched in sweat.  The shed also had a perimeter of fire ants which I was introduced to  multiple times as I crawled around in the sand.  It was in a word, miserable.

The job of loading the shed was considerably more challenging than Bill anticipated.  The shed was heavier than he expected and the inability to use the tractor to assist made the job a 100% manpower variety.  In total we spent around two and a half hours just getting the shed onto the trailer.

So we carted it back to our house and Bill did a survey of the route he would need to traverse.  Again, it was more difficult than he envisioned.  He didn’t realize that our rear gate was at the far rear corner.  To get to it he would need to smooth out a very long path that crossed several deep ditches he would need to fill.  He was also concerned that if he stripped to much of the grassy overgrowth the truck and trailer could easily become stuck in the soft sugar sand underneath.  Well he would give it a try.

So Bill got to work with the tractor and started the clearing process.  As I walked along the path he was clearing I had severe doubts about the viability of this plan.  Knowing how heavy the shed was and seeing the undulating terrain the truck, trailer and shed would have to navigate I had very little confidence in the success of the effort.  Bill came back towards the front of the property unexpectedly, pointing to his front tire.  He had a flat… wtf else can be go wrong? 

So Bill parked the tractor and we talked about our options.  He said he could try to trailer it back there with what he had cleared although he shared my dire outlook on the success of that option.  While he was trying to clear the path I was examining the fence.  I was considering just cutting the fence, pulling a fence post and driving through it.  Of course the idea of disturbing my beautiful intact fence line was not an ideal situation as it would require me to repair that section after the shed is driven through it.  However it seemed to me to be the lesser of two evils.  If the truck and trailer get stuck halfway back we were totally screwed.  I brought up the fence cutting plan to Bill and he was all for it.

I got some fence staples and hammered more in on the posts before and after the cut to try to maintain as much tension on the existing fence line as possible.  We cut the fence, removed the post and we instantly had a nice 20 foot wide entrance to enter the property.  We drove the truck and trailer on to the property and positioned it as close as possible to where I wanted it.  Then we begun the de-trailering process.

With the tractor sidelined with a flat tire we once again were forced to unload the shed by hand.  I drove my truck around and we used it as the stationary object to attach the come along to.  We had some hairy moments as the shed was being unloaded.  It wound up coming off at an angle that was rather precarious at times.  Once again we used various objects to stabilize the shed as it came off including a floor jack, landscape blocks, wood and the dock pilings.  I had visions of the shed falling off the trailer and breaking into pieces.  Luckily the shed is built very solidly and was able to withstand the abuse we were subjecting it to. 

Finally we got the shed off the trailer and after some more manipulation with the floor jack got it resting on it’s original cinder block pads. I caught my first break of the day when I put the level on the shed floor and saw that it was level without any additional manipulation.  Originally I had hopes of getting the shed reconnected to the hurricane straps but that was a battle I would fight another day.  I was beat.  I paid Bill for his time and worked right up until the fade of daylight putting all of the tools  away.

I was beat up.  Working in the hot sun all afternoon doing back breaking labor isn’t an ideal way to spend the weekend.  I was happy to hear the Eagles kicked the Giants ass in what may have been the best game of the year for the Birds so far.  I was sorry I missed it.  I wish instead I could have missed the Phillies game.

After losing on Saturday night the Phillies really needed to stop the bleeding and take game four.  Instead they once again collapsed down the stretch and are now down 3-1 in the series.  It seems like the Phillies have several problems in the series.  Certain key players are just not producing,  most notably Ryan Howard who has struck out an embarrassing amount of times.  He is one the verge of surpassing Willie Wilson as the biggest failure in World Series history.   When he is hot he is awesome, but when he is cold he is DREADFUL.  The World Series is a bad time for him to revert to NOT HOT status.

Jimmy Rollins also has done very little from the lead off spot, not nearly what the Phils need him to do.  The Phillies have hit a TON of homeruns during the series, however I think every single shot was with the bases empty.  When they have runners on base they have being going down quietly.  The Phillies relievers basically suck.  They simply do not get the job done.  Brad Lidge is the biggest surprise of all in the bullpen.  Last year he was Mr Automatic, not blowing a single save opportunity.  This season he has blown a ton of leads and once again last night  he fell apart, giving up 3 runs, giving the Yankees the win in the process.

The Phillies just seem to be missing that magic combination they had last year of clutch play with a sprinkle of good luck.  If they manage to dig themselves out of this hole it will be a comeback of monumental proportions.  Hey the Red Sox did it to the Yankees once before, maybe the Phils can wake up and do it once again.