Saturday, January 7, 2012

I woke up thinking about baked beans and had brain farts all afternoon.


I spent a couple of hours out in the garage working on the trailer. The guy who put together these plans has you cutting, sanding, staining and finishing all the pieces and then assembling the whole thing. I'm really, really tired of cutting, sanding, staining and finishing... and I have more to do. This afternoon I cut the bulkheads, countertops and shelves. But I did something wrong because I think I was supposed to have enough 3/4" plywood to make one more shelf than I got out of that sheet. I'll have to get some clear pine boards and edge glue them to make the 46.5" x 12" shelf.
I keep telling myself how quickly this will take shape when I do get to the assembly stage with all the pieces already done.

Before working on the trailer I did my chores inside. Pam now has to work every other Sunday and for some reason knowing she'll be at the hospital again tomorrow motivated me to attack. Floors are all vacuumed and mopped, baseboards wiped down, three loads of laundry done and put away and one bathroom cleaned.
The guy at the hardware store said the best way to get stains off the inside of a toilet was to shut off the valve and flush out the water, then spray the sides with oven cleaner. The porcelain of the toilet in the master bath is etched at the waterline and stained black. I've tried scrubbing, pure bleach, and now oven cleaner. Nope.
I'd replace the whole toilet except all these Sun City houses have wall-mounted toilets and they ain't cheap!

Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the shootings in Tucson that wounded Rep. Giffords and several others, and killed six (I think). That event has been a continuing story here and all the media outlets have talked even more about it in the run-up to tomorrow's observances.
From almost the very beginning the take-away of the shootings has been the need to restore civil discourse to the political arena. Here in AZ there have been special symposiums on the topic, essay contests, and all manner of programs on getting respect and courtesy back into political exchanges, all based on the Tucson shootings.
We certainly need civility back, in politics as elsewhere. It's brutal out there and politicians are often the worst of the lot. But what we know about Jared Loughner, what we know just a few days after his brutal attack, is that he's mentally ill. He didn't have any political agenda; he's crazy. Certified. He's on strong meds and is still too disconnected from reality to stand trial. They had hoped to begin his trial sometime in 2012 but now say that won't happen. He'll stay institutionalized.
I would have thought they'd use this to advocate for adequate care for the mentally ill. Or keeping firearms out of their hands.
Like I said, no question we need to talk about civility. But there's really no connection between the extreme partisanship we see and the Tucson shootings.

The holidays were brutal for the Pathway pastor. Nobody is from here. OK, Jeff & Brandie are both AZ natives but they're the only people in the church who are. And because we're mostly young families a lot of them were gone for one or both of the last two weekends visiting family back where it's (supposed to be) cold. School starts Monday so I think everybody will be back tomorrow. The preacher's gonna feel a whole lot better looking out and seeing live bodies. It doesn't make a bit of difference that he can go through in his head where everybody is, figuring out nobody just "stayed home." It's still a downer to have half of them somewhere else.

6 comments:

Sue said...

Have you tried scrubbing that stain with a pumice stone? That's what the professionals do.

Brandie said...

I was going to say PUMICE STONE too. :)

Craig MacDonald said...

The etching has created a definite groove. I'll try the pumice stone, but now, oh mavens of bathroom cleaning, is there a way to repair the porcelain? If not the groove wil get gunky again. (I should do some web research, huh?)

Anonymous said...

When we gutted and remodeled the Hopper House, we had the toilets removed (making it easier) but we used "Soft Scrub with Bleach" and let it sit on the hard-water stain ring for a while then tooka gren mesh scruffy pad to it. worked like a charm. Regular cleaning with Soft Scrub along the water line has prevented it reappearing. Might work for you...

Anonymous said...

It sure would be nice on our ears for our politicians to adhere to Robert's Rules of Order. However, when you hear politicians at any level advocating civility in our political discourse, it usually means they would much rather not discuss/explain anything and simply be reelected in perpetuity. Debate, even rancorous debate, is healthy in a representative democracy. The alternatives are civil war or suppression. Certainly it was not "incivility" that led to our American Civil War, but rather a perception among the Southern States that they would not have their say.
Mike H.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, a strong solution of muriatic acid (say mixed at 20%) should remove the black stains in the etched water line of your toilet. I would try that after I used a very stiff brush and some Ajax/Comet applied in a thick paste.
Mike.