The Manic Mechanic

For someone who has problems getting around and has to work on anything that involves standing or exertion on a 15 minute on/15 minute off work cycle, I seem to have quite a few irons in the fire. The door project spawned several concurrent sub-projects, which was actually planned for the most part. What wasn't necessarily planned was how many sub-projects ended up being spawned from this main one. The good news is I am finally putting to use a lot of the supplies I had gotten in the past. The only thing I could say that is bad about it is slows down the individual pieces of the puzzle as a whole. I don't mind this in the least, because the concurrent bits are taking less time by far than if they were done piecemeal. I brainstorm along the way, and discover ways to make things work better and build-in paths for future upgrades and easier maintenance. For example, I've had an alarm system for the house I bought all the way back around 1995. I'm finally installing it. I hid the sensor for the door in the frame, and ran the cabling for it since I had the wall apart. Yesterday I hid a conduit in the closet so I had an easy way to run wiring from the basement (where all the brains are) into the attic. So today I was able to connect the little dome camera above the door into the switches in the basement in record time. I should've done this years ago. I gave it a test run tonight, and I am beyond pleased. I have full-HD, 3-megapixel, bulbous video:



The camera does not have "night vision" using infrared LEDs as an invisible floodlight. But the automation system will turn on the light above the door as someone approaches, and if things are set to do so, a pic can be taken and sent to wherever I am, and this also starts a video recording. If it's someone I know, and they need to get into the house, I can unlock the door from across the country (or planet, for that matter, wherever I can get interwebs) and lock it when they leave. It has been a lot of fun messing with this stuff. I do the noisy work during the day, and when Jeff hits the sack early in order to get up a 0dark30, I can quietly fiddle with the electronic end of it. While everything does tie together in one way or another, if the automation were to go on the fritz, everything can work manually, and life is the same as it usually is. Having had unfortunate delays for years that kept me from doing these things earlier meant that technology has improved immensely, and not only is this sort of stuff mure capable and reliable, it's much easier to install and integrate.

Things weren't all peaches and cream, though. I hopped into the MINI to run a couple errands and I noticed the passenger's seat was wet. I then noticed the window was slightly open. Okay, no biggie, it's been raining like crazy lately, close the window. All it did was squeak and move a a fraction of an inch. I tried to lower it, and it went maybe an inch at best. Then it wouldn't go back up. Even wrestling with the glass didn't help much. So, now I have an unexpected little project. Strange that it's the passenger's side, which doesn't get used nearly as much. This also makes i the first real problem I've had with that car in over 11 years. I did have some minor problems when I first got the car that were taken care of under warranty, and last year I replaced the speakers because the ones in front failed. So today I have been drying out the car and will look into it during the weekend. Most likely it's the window lift mechanism. I would have simply parked the car on the carport where it normally sits off season to keep the rain out until I can fix it later, but the trailer is parked in the way. I'd rather fix it and be done with it.

The one thing that really took the wind out of my sails happened the other day. Since I needed to get into the entryway closet to not only install the conduit, but also do some serious cleaning and prep for the new floor. Inside the closet was a few of Mom's coats, most of which ones that I had yet to find a good home for. One of them was one I was keeping, it was a mink-trimmed coat she had gotten around 1970. She was very proud of this coat, since we were not well-to-do in my earlier years, she had scrimped and saved to buy this one thing to make her feel a bit more elegant. When I pulled the coat out, I noticed a hole. My first thought was that moths had gotten in and chewed on it. Upon further inspection I found the right sleeve has been totally destroyed by a mouse, who nested in it and chewed away the better part of the sleeve and even some of the fur trim. I completely lost it. I wanted to just throw everything away at that point. After a while I regained a bit of composure, but my will was shot and my enthusiasm for the projects was dashed. There is absolutely no hope for the old coat now, so I will cut off the remaining fur trimmings and toss the rest. I've had a fair share of "physical memories" like this ruined over the years, mostly from outside forces. And it reopens old wounds, puts me mentally is a dark, cold place, and my willingness to be outgoing and to do things becomes impossible. I eventually recover, but momentum is slow to build once again.

I am hoping that progress and my limited mobility keep improving, or at least maintain their current state. We have a lot of plans and trips for the very near future, and Jeff needs a huge break too. My work is giving me pleasure for the most part, and we could use some downtime fun.

In the spirit of my 2.8mm wiiide-angle view, it seems ol' Homestarrunner and gang are back for the first time since 2008 with a new cartoon.

Happy weekend, everyone!

I've been scarce around these parts. I've been preoccupied with a lot of different things lately. When I last left LJ-land, I had posted how I had finally brought my new front door home after weeks of waiting for it to be built and shipped. I was anxious to start the installation, but rather than putting on my tool belt and kicking butt, instead we took some time off for much needed rest and headed out to the Eastern Shore of MD and did some camping at Elk Neck State Park, along with some friends we had made this year in PTown. We got two adjoining campsites so we could be neighbors. While they had camped at the site before (and recommended it to us), we hadn't, and were very pleasantly surprised at the calm beauty of the area, despite there being a lot of families camping that weekend. The sites had lots of space between, and the area was wonderfully wooded with tall trees, with the whole shebang nestled along the Chesapeake Bay. Camping in this sort of setting takes me back to my early childhood, and I feel a warm comfort in that environment. Couple that with our friends and some of the most perfect weather and you have the recipe for pure relaxation. The pooches loved it, and they too had their own four-legged friends to socialize with, as our camping buds brought along their two Italian Greyhounds. We went for a little excursion to the adjoining little town of North East on Saturday, where we found delightful little artsy shops, antique stores and quirky eateries (I know, how gay) among the friendly locals and visitors. Jeff and I decided to put our newly discovered campgrounds on the short list of ideal getaway places. At about 80 miles from home, it's far enough to feel like we had traveled a good bit, yet not so far that too much of the event is taken up by driving. We will be be doing a bit more "vacationing locally" as a means of getting to know the more immediate areas and what they had to offer, with the added bonus of being a cheap means to have fun.

The week that followed I had gone out for the rest of the supplies needed to install the door, and I also ordered more of the pieces to build the home automation system. I began removing trim and other parts to take out the old door and frame, then with the help of our local friend, Wednesday when Jeff came home I tore out the old door and the three of us maneuvered the old one out and muscled the (much heavier) new assembly in. I temporarily affixed it in place to keep the weather out and the dogs in, we enjoyed some dinner later in the evening. The following days I positioned, shimmed and adjusted the door to close and seal properly, trimmed the door out on the exterior, sealed and caulked and installed the keyless lockset. That weekend we went to PA for our monthly visit to Jeff's parents. This week I began the electric work, installing a new inside lighting fixture in the style of the new door glass, and installing the devices for the automation and control. Part of this involved tearing apart a portion of a wall next to the door and reworking some of the electrical wiring inside. That wall hid something that had been bothering me for 25 years. When the electricians that initially wired the house before the drywallers closed everything up, they had forgotten a short run of cable between to electric boxes. This resulted in the forward part of the living room having no power to the outlets. To fix this, they had popped holes in the two adjoining boxes and fished a cable between them. I never knew how they had fixed the issue until several years later when I had taken out a light switch to install a dimmer and found a huge chunk of the plastic electric box missing and a cable spliced inside. While I had the wall open I replaced the boxes, the hacked-in wiring and added space for three controls. Two of them directly control the light outside the door and the inside light in the entryway. The third space in the box will have a "scene controller" that will operate several outside lights located all around the house from one location. Pressing a single button begins a programmed process that can, say, turn all the outside lights on at full brightness, useful if we have company or we are doing work outside at night. Other buttons can turn on and off various combinations of inside and outside lights before leaving the house or returning, or turning all the outside lights off and setting the one outside the front door to a very dim setting before going to bed. All of this is part of a Z-Wave remote control protocol that integrates with the home automation system. It's already programmed to turn on a few inside lights at a low setting early in the morning when Jeff is getting ready and leaves for work, whereupon it shuts them all off until the next weekday. Now the outside lights can come on as well, since he leaves when it's still dark. The system can control existing remotely operated lights and appliances here, along with the Nest thermostats, the home theater receivers, alarm system, and lots of future items I have planned. Best of all, I can control it all remotely via the internet either with a PC or smartphone from anywhere. I can make sure the door is locked, open it if a friend needs to be let in while we are away, turn lights on and off, you name it. The system can grow as I need it to. It's a very practical system, and all the devices and appliances can work manually as if there was no profound technology behind it all. It's also a fun way to seriously get my geek on.

In coming days I will close the wall back up, spackle and finish the drywall, then install the interior trim around the door. I also want to take out the 25+ year old vinyl floor and put in some nice ceramic or marble tile. After that is done, I will move onto the living room, finally creating the light shafts for the skylights I installed in the roof four years ago, then begin the somewhat major reworking of the living room and dining room areas. I want to split the living room into two separate areas rather than the oddly shaped, somewhat amorphous "great room" it is currently. New carpeting and flooring will go in at this point. Then onto the sunroom, where I can finally finish the relatively small amount of work left over from where I started on that room about ten years ago. All of this will be a good winter/indoor project as the seasons change.

Those that know me well are quite aware of the wildcard in all of this, and that's my overall health and my back and nerve issues I am constantly dealing with. While I have been busting all manner of ass lately, it has been far slower than I am usually able to do such work. I can get maybe a half hour of good working time before I have to stop, sit down, and take the load off my lower back and recover. If I go for longer than that amount of time, or I have to do much in the way of twisting, or standing in one spot, the pain begins to appear then fogs my concentration. I get angry, the quality begins to suffer, and I will go totally aggro if things are not coming together as I want them to. Tools get tossed about, cursing begins, dogs hide under beds, and progress becomes more halting and drawn out. So far I've managed to keep up pace, but I have to force myself to quit while I'm ahead, as it were, before things start to crumble. So far, I've been lucky that I haven't had any major setbacks (yet) and I've learned to stop work despite the urge to keep going when things are going well. That last part is a doozy for me.



This is what the entryway looks like currently. If I manage to get all the other work done I described above without (much) incident, and some other, more pressing things get done, I want to take out the aluminum vertical siding that is currently there and replace it with some form of brick, slate or stone. but for now, I am happy, hell, giddy that I got this far. It's taking more time and much more effort than I am used to, but it's still me doing all the work and doing what I love to do. Now, if my increasingly old body can keep from falling apart at the same increasing pace, I will be a rather happy dude.

Good news! I found my wallet. Bad news, I lost my beard. Well, a good bit of it, at least.

By tomorrow evening the yard will have more tents in it than if Cirque du Soleil were performing here.

The front door here at La Casa Mayhem is a rusty, ugly disaster. I had hoped to replace it before the big day, but I had to postpone that project a multitude of times due mostly to physical health issues. When I finally decided I was in good enough shape to tackle the project, when I tried to order it up, the lead time was too long. So, I bagged that project. Instead, I did a quick and dirty paint job to the door itself, the frame and sidelight. It took about half the day, since the paint was peeling furiously and it needed a lot of sanding and other prep work, but for a door assembly I plan on ripping out in a couple months, it looks damn good, better than I expected. I had to *try* not to obsess over the details like I am prone to do, just slap the paint on and be done. Now I won't have to be ashamed, and the rest of the outside entryway which I fixed up a couple years ago doesn't look shamed by the last remaining part that was to be replaced. It was embarrassing to see that pitiful entry to the house we've been working so hard on lately.

Right before I had found my wallet the other day, we were running errands (one of which was getting a replacement driver's license). We stopped at the dry cleaners to pick up Jeff's work duds and I walked over to the suspiciously quiet area which is our favorite local restaurant. It's a little Chinese place called Hunan House, it has been there for close to 30 years. I've eaten countless meals from there, everything from a lunch grabbed to eat while building the house here to sit-down meals with friends. Never had a bad meal in all that time. The staff got to know us by name, knew our favorites, always asked about how we were doing and what was going on in our lives, etc. To my utter dismay a sheet of paper was taped to the glass saying they were regretfully closing after all these years and thanked everyone for their years of patronage. I drove home sobbing. In fact, though finding my wallet did cheer me up somewhat (it was more like a big relief), losing our favorite haunt was like a kick in the groin.

Our friends that are joining us for our wedding begin to arrive tomorrow from out of state. We still have a lot of work to do, but it is now mostly the setting up and getting ready variety. Tomorrow morning I will put the final touches on the cleanup before putting away the pressure washers. A bit if the walks up front need to be cleaned, as do the two long asphalt drives. The carport is spotless; this is where the caterer will be set up. The Garage of Mayhem is looking beauteous, and the big concrete area in front is clean enough to eat off of. The trailer is in its rightful parking spot as well. I have to cram all the big equipment into the building tomorrow when I'm done, that should be a chore just by itself.

My back has been mostly holding up, but I have been trying my best not to overdo the exertion and whatnot, and sometimes failing that I get a not-so-gentle reminder that I am still a feeble old man. All I am hoping for is it holds up for our big day and for our PTown trip next month. After all that, I can truly take it easy. We need this vacation badly, and more than ever, it seems.

I can see light at the end of the tunnel, and this time it's not a speeding freight train.

I'm currently sitting in the bowels of Ice Station Mayhem watching the temperature outside drop with every glance at the thermometer. It's currently 4 degrees F, and still steadily dropping. The house is toasty warm, with the woodstove working at near blast furnace levels thanks to the howling winds outside causing the flue to draw like crazy and fanning the fire. I have the electric heater on in the basement workshop where I was prior, and here in the infrastructure bunker the computers alone have the otherwise unheated room at a balmy 84. I don't envy Jeff having to head out in the crackling cold at 5am, the temperature being predicted into the negatives possibly by then, and a high of a steamy 17 for our Tuesday. Brrr! My Russian heritage normally has me tolerating even rather extreme cold, but ever since my first back surgery, it's taken a while for me to regain that tolerance while recovering. Add in creeping old age, and I prefer warmth more than ever. I have another round of PT tomorrow afternoon, so I can shake my cane at Old Man Winter if necessary.

( Warning, extreme geekery ahead! Danger! Introspection! )

Today is Jeff's 49th birthday! Like I have, he begins his last year in his 40s. We celebrated by going out to dinner, I took him to a newish Japanese place called Sake House in nearby Laurel. He had learned about this place on one of those local television station "things to do around town" sort of programs. While running errands some days ago, I found the place, so I knew where we were off to. I made reservations for seats at the hibachi (of course), and we enjoyed a terrific, if rather pricey (but he's worth it, and more) dinner. We thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the chef's theatrics. We opened with traditional soup and a salad with an unusual dressing, then some amazing sushi and our main courses. Jeff had a combo of shrimp, chicken and beef off the grill, I had lobster and beef which was very good. We then staggered out of the joint rather stuffed to the gills and came home and took it easy. The weather today was in the mid-90s, and it sapped most of our energy once the afternoon rolled around.

On our way out the door to the restaurant, Jeff walks out ahead of me as I am gathering up my keys, glasses, phone and such. I then hear "HONEY?! HONEY?! HONEY?! HONEY?!" from the front walkway. My response? "Okay, where's the snake?" and sure enough he points right at our front step, where the tail of a black snake is, well, snaking its way from the brick step then under the dwarf Alberta spruce planted next to the front door. Walking around the tree to fetch the snake, I see it sliding underneath the concrete stoop. Ah hah! I now know the source and entry point of the truly bizarre hanging death snakes in the basement (of Mayhem). Jeff will of course be treading warily around that area until I wrangle that wreptile and carry it off somewhere.

Speaking of Mutual of Mayhem's wild kingdom, we had finally gotten into the veggie garden and cleaned up, tilled and planted. This morning Jeff unearthed a nest of rabbits. We kept them secret from Kodi and covered them back up, as much as I know they will probably wreak wrabbit havoc on the veggies, neither of us had the heart to do anything else with the critters. The wildlife far outnumber us here (one time while having a cookout with friends, a total of 19 deer trotted through the yard after being spooked from a nearby field by some sort of very loud motorized vehicles), and my nature is to, well, live with nature. When pruning bushes by the garage that had gotten way overgrown, I discovered a bird nest in one of the branches I was removing. I was hoping it was empty, but when I looked in, there was a clutch of three aqua-blue eggs. I set the branch aside until I could finish up, and noticed a grey wren or mockingbird hanging around. I put the cut branch back in place and secured it, later on in the day I see the bird flying in and out of the nest. The leaves are all wilted on that branch now, and once there is no more nest-y activity, I will remove it.

This weekend was very productive, busy, but still fun. We have our pride of accomplishment, and, most importantly, Jeff had three days away from work. He came home, switched off his PC and cell phone, and enjoyed his much needed time off. I enjoyed my much needed time with him. Old man that he is.

Happy birthday, Jeff!

I'm exhausted. Yesterday Jeff had tix for the Indiana U-Penn State game played here at FedEx Field, that was the major event of the day. We enjoyed ourselves, Penn State won handily. The thing that got to me was the walking. The exercise was welcome, but couple that with crawling in the attic the day before. This morning, I was a sore, tired old man. I had wanted to finish up the rough framing for the skylights after the game, but my heart wasn't in it.

Today totally kicked my ass though. The crew showed up to do the roof, I installed the skylights and spent most of the day clambering under and on the roof getting things installed. Both the house and the garage have completely new roofs on them, in a single day! Jeff the Chef kept the guys on site by putting out one hell of a spread for lunch, which made for very appreciative workers. The only sidetrack ended up being the dump truck that was used to haul away the old roofing, trash and junk left from the work. The house was done first, then the dump truck was moved down the second driveway to the garage. Well, the weight of the old, heavy roofing from a 2500 sq ft house and a 900 sq ft garage proved a bit too much for the dump truck, which could not make it back up the steep driveway from the garage. I dropped what I was doing to haul the dump truck out with the Silverado after disconnecting the trailer and reconnecting it afterward. The only remaining tasks involving the hired crew is replacement of all the guttering and downspouts. The gutters have long been in need of replacement, and since this guy has a means to make continuous length guttering, I jumped at the chance to have the entire thing done and not have to worry about roofs, leaks and failed guttering for a couple more decades. I completed the sun tunnel as well, and will build the light shafts for the living room skylights after T-Day.

I have finally taken care of this project which started before Mom got sick, and was delayed again and again due to my own health issues. This time was do or die, and I had only a small window of opportunity to complete this before the weather got bad. I might be paying for my effort with some soreness for a couple days, but I think I managed to find the right time to do it all. This is a major accomplishment for me, and the satisfaction I feel for getting it done pales in comparison to the lifting of the burdens, direct and indirect, physical and mental, that have been on my mind for all these years. I can sleep peacefully now, especially if it is raining.

It's time for me to haul my spent body into bed. It's gonna be a busy week.

G'nite!

The cursed tree is no more. Jeff and I dispatched it this morning in a couple hours time. And I'm not even the worse for wear to boot. So, it's not just one glaring reminder of events from the past that has been eliminated, but a hopeful sign that I am going to return to my old self once more.

I have still a lot of cleaning up to do in the area where the tree fell. It broke up or damaged several bushes and small trees when it came down, plus there is a lot of weeds and brush that came up around the neglected area all spring and summer. There is also the huge root and base that will have to be dealt with in the future. I can handle that later by renting a stump grinder. I have to cut down some other damaged or dead trees as well, so I will do that before dealing with the stumps.

I'm looking forward to the me that I used to be. :)

I've been rather quiet on the ol' LJ lately, it mostly mirrors how I've been feeling lately.

On Sunday I went to the memorial service for my best friend's mother. I dont know why I am so apprehensive of these things. Yeah, all the churchy stuff and sadness, but in most cases they are all about resolution, comfort and, well, love. It also became a mini-reunion of our high school group of friends, some I havent seen in 29 (!!! It's been that long?!) years, other for more than ten. Funny thing is, they are exactly as I would have imagined them to look with the added years. We talked about our current situations, reminisced of the past, complained about getting old, and renewed our connections. I took a cell-phone shot of most of us, but I misplaced the confounded adapter for the MicroSD card and I am not reconnecting the monster PC with the native reader tonight. I'll post the shot of me and my inseparable cohorts soon enough.

As is typical when I need to keep my mind off of depressing thoughts, I tinker. The weather threw me a curve these past few days with promises of rain and nastiness which did not really materialize. I knew that as soon as I set up the sawbucks and the big miter saw setup outside to do more trim work on the garage, I'd have a downpour to contend with. So instead I have been doing myriad little projects and such that have been on back burners for years. Some minor rewiring of circuits in the basement woodshop/workshop, as well as changing lighting circuits that slowly became overloaded as I added lights. Since I have four more quad fixtures to install and wore and the original circuit shares the lighting with the kitchen and bathrooms, I am installing a separate branch just for the shop lights. I replaced the emergency lighting fixture tonight as well, replaced the temporary lighting setup in a storage area with a pair of two bulb fluorescents and got rid of all the janky extension cords and such. Rewired some of the shop machinery as well, the machine lights I added to the band saw and big drill press got wired into the machine wiring itself instead of having their own separate cords, cutting down on clutter and the need for so many outlets. When the weather is more conducive to such things, I will make several more hauls to the landfill/recycling center to get rid of lots of cruft clogging the basement.

I have an area next to the Lab Of Mayhem currently used for storage. I want to finish it off and make it into an office. I'm tired of having paperwork strewn on the dining room table and want to finally have a dedicated office setup. That will go a long way in making the upstairs more livable and easier to keep neat. It has the advantage of being separated from the house by ten inches of solid concrete, making it ideal for storage of important paperwork and such in case the unthinkable should happen. When completed I will fit the room with a fire-rated steel door and a decent lock as well.

I need this short week coming up. So much in my head that I've been tending to. A nice helping of reality should do the trick, but not all at once.