Taking Care of Business

   I believe I've found out about the three ships I wrote of on 7-17-11 (What The Hell ?).  I stopped at a nearby boat yard and asked one of the workmen about the three giant tents on the barge.  He told me that they are used to shelter yachts while being worked on.  The barge is just used as a movable floating dock, and the white framed tents are just stored there until needed.      Mundane and sort of boring.  Definitely a sight best left for the imagination to conjure on. 
   And the two ships with the large radar domes?  Here I'm guessing (the Swan Island ship yard doesn't let people wander around asking questions) but the ships are probably connected with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is establishing it's NW home port in Newport.  Portland is the nearest place to work on large ships.  Again sort of boring.  Much more interesting to imagine a CIA / NSA operation with men and women in fedoras, raincoats and dark glasses scurrying about.  Easier to imagine a few years ago.  The scene only needs Cheney sneering in the background -- panting at the thought of more waterboarding. 

    Recently Drew commented on the 5-5-11 blog  (Profligate Blue Jay).  He pointed out that Guam uses more Spam (nearly three times as much per person) than Hawaii.  He also mentioned a special Spam that Hormel developed particularly for Guam.    A Tabasco Spam -- So now I have to look around for Tabasco Spam.  It sounds -- great isn't the right word -- interesting.

   Completely irrelevant:  The Jackson Hole Daily (9-23) carried an article about an endangered 10 foot American crocodile (most American "crocodiles" are alligators) discovered in a Florida gated community.  At the end of the story the article said that Lindsey Hord -- Florida crocodile response coordinator -- urged people not to feed or touch alligators or crocodiles and to keep pets away from them.
   "Oh, Look Ma!!  There's a ten foot gator over there.  Man he sure has a lot of teeth.  I know!!  Let's go pet it!"  "That's a great idea Pa!  And I'll bring Fifi.  Maybe they'll play together!"   I'm not sure the Lindsey Hord type of warnings should be given -- Such warnings only help those type of people survive and breed. 

  
 

Lastly, the house paint job is mostly finished.   The storm windows need to be re-installed and some details on the balcony and patio need to be taken care of.  None of is critical.  Installing the storm windows will be a quick job, and the bits of painting that are left can wait until next spring if necessary.  I am so glad to be done with the job.  But dw and I are really pleased with the result.  Except for the gable ends the colors are similar to the old scheme but are a bit brighter so the effect (we feel) is much more pleasing.  In the end dw did about 25% of the painting and I did nearly all of the rest.  The other help  mentioned largely concentrated on prep work --  That's actually a pretty big deal help-wise.  Picture on the left:  The Last Square Foot.  Above:  The Finished Product. 

I have been reading, and will get back to books read in my next entry.  And so it goes.  DA

Exploding Eyeballs And Other Fearful Things

   I'm happy to announce two milestones in the Great Painting The House Project.  First, I'm finished painting around the power line.  I've messed around the line on several occasions, and have developed a system that insulates me from the electricity (more than just the usual insulation on the wires) but it still is an uncomfortable place to be.  With 220 volts and 100 amps the lines carry enough juice to make your eyeballs shoot from your head and splatter against the house -- damaging what is quite a nice paint job.  (And what is it with vitreous humor? It's not so funny if it's your eyeballs that are splattering all over the wall.)   And the second milestone is the end of standing 25 feet up on a ladder -- holding on with one hand and painting with the other.  A great sigh of relief.  The weather has moderated, nearly 20 degrees cooler, and I've been able to paint as much in the last couple of days as I did in a week of high temperatures.
    I was on the ladder because I thought the grandchildren were a bit too cavalier about the height, and son Sean operates with only one and a half hands (on a good day).  So I was on the top of the ladder, making mini-movements, carefully keeping in balance and slowly getting the paint on.  All of the rest is close to the ground -- easy-peasy. 

   For the last two days we had house guests:  One of dw's cousins -- Cindy Z, and her SO Ken G.  They were easy guests, largely entertaining themselves.  We had some pleasant conversation, and Saturday night dw's local family branch (brother John and Jan W.,  Aunt Dee and cousin Craig)  came over for dinner and wine.  We had a very nice time.  A lot of laughing and light on the politics -- which can be contentious.

   Books: "Unnatural Selection"  (Aaron Elkins) A murder mystery that's an easy and entertaining read.  Although I was troubled to read that Elkins transferred Land's End and the Isles of Scilly from the SW of Cornwall to the SE of England.  To me that was a bit of reckless adventuring with geography.  I perused "The 20TH Century Art Book"  -- a compendium of artists A to Z with about one page each -- a color plate and short blurb apiece.  A bunch of the artists I've never heard of, which says more about me than the artists.  And I'm nearly finished with "Pulse" (Julian Barnes)  -- it's a collection of short stories.  I haven't enjoyed it as much as I did "Nothing To Be Frightened Of".  The short stories strike me as being dry and uninvolving.  He's certainly a skilled writer but this collection hasn't grabbed me. 

   P.S.  dw and I don't watch much television, and what we do watch is largely on Public Broadcasting (in no small part because of our aversion to commercials).  This week has been PBS fund drive with all of the dismal programs they insist on showing.  It seems to me that if the station is attracting viewers with Nature or other similar programs, they shouldn't expect to get donations by showing Celtic Thunder -- Which makes me think of a bunch of Irishmen who drank too much Guiness and are now really gassy.  A Celtic mass chorus of "Le Petomane".  And I must say I don't care for Celtic music either.  It's all jigga-jigga, tootle-toot / jigga-jigga, tootle-toot quick time,  and then jigga-jigga, tootle-toot / jigga-jigga, tootle-toot even faster.  And every tune is exactly the same.  They need to give it a rest. 
P.P.S. -- I contribute to PBS, and I haven't visited Ireland or Scotland but I hope to sometime.  DA

Home Maintenance

   I haven't written anything recently because we're in the process of painting the house and I've put in ten hour days for the last week.  Oldest son Sean has been rebuilding the storm windows and grandsons Shane and Josh have been helping with the actual paint job.  (Youngest son Dan works swing shift and his hours aren't compatible with the rest of us).  So far our time has been largely spent pressure-washing, scraping and sanding with the occasional foray into Git-Rot and Bondo.  Thankfully all of that is nearly done and we've actually started painting.
   The front gable is the most inaccessible part of the building and after I set up the scaffold (it's more secure than it looks) dw wanted to give it a try.  -- dw wants to put it on record that a sit-harness adds a good 15 pounds to a person's appearance (for me that ship has sailed) --  So dw spent a couple of hours getting some climbing exposure.  -- I was up there yesterday afternoon --  We both use a safety rope and a Gibbs ascender that I dug out of my pile of long-unused climbing stuff --
   I took the day off and  ran some errands:  Renewed my driver's license (including a new photo -- surprisingly,  it's not awful)  And since my car wouldn't start this morning, I jump-started it and drove to a battery place.  Of course it needed a new battery.  After the running around I spent the day reading. 

   When she's not on a scaffold, dw is a skilled health-care professional.  A few days ago in the course of a discussion (between the two of us) regarding health-care costs, she mentioned a place where she once worked that, as a matter of course, gave 100% oxygen to post-operation patients.  She thinks the procedure was a waste of time and money with no real health benefit.  I, however, think that the practice is a definitive explanation for the problem of SHC.  -- Spontaneous Human Combustion -- A mysterious malady where people burst into flames and keep combusting until they're charcoal.  But if someone inhales pure oxygen and then tries to light a fart:  Presto!  Bubba Brulee.

Books:  Other than the newspaper I've been too busy to read much, but I have started "Lost Discoveries" (Dick Teresi).  Blurb:  The ancient roots of modern science -- from the Babylonians to the Maya --- Which  summarizes the book.  It's interesting but the author spends way too much time erecting straw men to knock over.  (OMG, India or somebody invented the zero way before the prideful Europeans thought of it!)  It's good enough to pass the time.  DA