A peek ahead to next year's Dancing With the Stars.My days have taken on a routine. I get up stoopid early and do one thing or another until Pam gets up. If it's a day she works, like today, she's up about 4:30 or so. I'd been at it for an hour and a half by then, but my sermon was well in hand.
After breakfast I take Jack for his morning exercise, a half-mile down the street and back, as fast as I can walk. It's usually still dark, maybe just beginning to lighten. I carry a small flashlight just in case I need help seeing that which must be picked up and brought back.
I watch enough of the Today Show to get any significant news that happened overnight (the Koreas are on the other side of the world). Then I turn off the TV, change the receiver over to the classical station and read a chapter or two of Ivanhoe. Hey, I had it ALL wrong. But Jenny doesn't want me to spoil the plot line in case she ever gets enough time in her schedule to read the book for herself. (I don't see that happening anytime soon.) So I won't tell you who Ivanhoe really is or the cameo appearance of a character whom you all know (and who wears spandex).
Then I go out to work in the hole in the ground, AKA my personal version of Dante's Inferno. Sixth level.
I thought I was ready to move on to the next step, that I was done pick-axing out a handful of crumbled ground for every five swings of that 5 lb. instrument of torture. But at some point in the middle of the night it dawned on me I'd messed up my design. Bad.
The four walls of this rectangular hole in the ground - approx. 8' wide, 9' long and 28" deep - get lined with cinder blocks. Four courses high, which puts the top half of the top course above grade. Because the blocks should be offset so that the joints on one course don't line up with those of the course below or above, the corners are important. No problem. I just turn the blocks at the outside of the ends of the first course at right angles (think Legos). With the second course I turn the blocks at the outside of the sides...and so forth up the four courses.
Except....I'm not using 8x8x16's. In an effort to save money and space I'm using 6x8x16's. Their width is not half their length. My layout has to be entirely different (never mind the details; I know you've already dozed off). The bottom line: I have to make the hole 6" wider and 6" longer. That's about 10 gazillion more swings of the pick ax and the chisel (I'll explain with pics tomorrow). So, I swing and I pound and I swing and I pound. Then I shovel it all up out of the hole, into the wheelbarrow, and then over to my ever-growing pile of ground.
After breakfast I take Jack for his morning exercise, a half-mile down the street and back, as fast as I can walk. It's usually still dark, maybe just beginning to lighten. I carry a small flashlight just in case I need help seeing that which must be picked up and brought back.
I watch enough of the Today Show to get any significant news that happened overnight (the Koreas are on the other side of the world). Then I turn off the TV, change the receiver over to the classical station and read a chapter or two of Ivanhoe. Hey, I had it ALL wrong. But Jenny doesn't want me to spoil the plot line in case she ever gets enough time in her schedule to read the book for herself. (I don't see that happening anytime soon.) So I won't tell you who Ivanhoe really is or the cameo appearance of a character whom you all know (and who wears spandex).
Then I go out to work in the hole in the ground, AKA my personal version of Dante's Inferno. Sixth level.
I thought I was ready to move on to the next step, that I was done pick-axing out a handful of crumbled ground for every five swings of that 5 lb. instrument of torture. But at some point in the middle of the night it dawned on me I'd messed up my design. Bad.
The four walls of this rectangular hole in the ground - approx. 8' wide, 9' long and 28" deep - get lined with cinder blocks. Four courses high, which puts the top half of the top course above grade. Because the blocks should be offset so that the joints on one course don't line up with those of the course below or above, the corners are important. No problem. I just turn the blocks at the outside of the ends of the first course at right angles (think Legos). With the second course I turn the blocks at the outside of the sides...and so forth up the four courses.
Except....I'm not using 8x8x16's. In an effort to save money and space I'm using 6x8x16's. Their width is not half their length. My layout has to be entirely different (never mind the details; I know you've already dozed off). The bottom line: I have to make the hole 6" wider and 6" longer. That's about 10 gazillion more swings of the pick ax and the chisel (I'll explain with pics tomorrow). So, I swing and I pound and I swing and I pound. Then I shovel it all up out of the hole, into the wheelbarrow, and then over to my ever-growing pile of ground.
I come inside mid-afternoon covered in dust and exhausted. Shower and SIT. Work on Sunday stuff and try unsuccessfully to stay awake during the news.
Back out there tomorrow morning.
Will the fun never end?
"If you find an adjective, kill it." - Mark Twain
Samuel liked the last crash video, so here's another one, little guy.
But it really bothers me they'd do this to a beautiful '59 Chevy.
1 comment:
Another winner for Samuel! He loved it. Yes, this *does* worry me somewhat.
I put Ivanhoe on hold at the library today. However, seeing as how I'm reading THIS over a week after you posted it makes it seem unlikely I'll get to the book. It is almost Christmas break though....
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