The dog and I seem to have settled into a kind of winter routine: get up early, check wood inventory, check food supplies (beer, cigarettes), chain smoke. So the first order of the day's business is to make sure there's enough fuel for the morning, afternoon, evening and over night. (Recall there's no central heat.)
Demolition has slowed if not stopped; still picking away at the floor boards upstairs. But not really.
The-one-that-got-away left a message the other afternoon; at the risk of royally pissing off tia, I do miss her. I take comfort in the fact that she would totally (her word) hate it up here.
I had forgotten the difference between an axe and a maul. (Sp?) The hedge apple in Mr. Hill's northeast swale sent me almost immediately to Home Depot.
I'll end this not surprisingly boring post with the notion, again, that my days seem more meaningful than they have been in 20 years.
Oh, Moonpie killed something I can't identify, it's way cold here, more snow, Terry Gross is the best interviewer working today, pulling for Auburn monday night, tractor needs a new battery, missing mom and dad, will probably return t-o-t-g-a's call though I shouldn't, and watch a lot of PBS sunday.
Reading a lot, but mostly stuff I've read already.
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Damn links....
Without seeing your floor I'm shooting in the dark, but t&g flooring is pretty east to pull once you get the baseboard moulding off. The flooring piece closest to the wall is the hardest, but once that's been yanked it's just a matter of tapping the edge sideways to pull the tongues from the grooves. Unless some putz decided to toe-nail every board, then you do this.
TOTGA? Don't they usually not call any more? Whoops...sorry...not my place to suggest that there may be some confusion about who's gotten away from whom, so just forget I even mentioned it.
Where was I? Oh yeah...Re-reading old stuff? I'd suggest Zombie Spaceship Wasteland
Cam Newton is the real deal. Luck's staying in school so it looks like Cam will go #1 in the draft.
By the way, it's time you figured out that YOU are the one who got away. Duh.
Michael, this place has been totally putzified. More nails than either of us would care to count. I'm trying to decide if I want to bother trying to save the toungue boards at all. Cam's a good kid. I'm not sure it's going to be a good game. I might have to squeeze some amazon.com into to my 2011 budget; for movies and the one Berry novel I don't own.
rundeep, I'd like to believe that, but I don't dare. Meant to tell you that there was going to be a great This American Life episode. I was right; it was all about the Federal Reserve. Really scary stuff.
I finally read The Big Short. Can I tell you, it's so scary because it's all true, and remains true. People in the financial business, more than any other, fall in love with their own ideas and just absolutely refuse to see anything else. If the idea succeeds for a while, they become convinced they don't need to follow any rules, because it's so clear to them that their instincts are always right and they will turn every lemon into lemonade. So many smart people, so much delusion. Bleck. (Heard the promo for that bit. Can't wait to hear the whole thing.) And please, really, you are totga. And you are the luckiest for that. (Note how I worked in a Ben Folds' song title there? Love that man.)
Ugh, I hate putzes with too many nails in the pouch. There's a tool you can buy, or you can cobble one together yourself with a socket set. The idea is to put the hollow of the "socket" over the nail & whack it with a hammer. It opens a little semi-circular divot in the tongue, and leaves the rest. Nail puller after that. Also, there's the other way, which is to take a nail-set and pound the nail all the way through the tongue, and bury it in the underlayment of the floor. Either way saves the tongue. Please don't tell me putzo pounded nails into the squeaky spots including directly thru the top of the board.
putz nailed it directly through top of board into joist. i think i've resigned myself to salvaging the board itself and not worrying about the tounge. or the groove. you know, just use it as panneling. on the the wall.
saw 3 huge bucks this afternoon, and 2 coyotes, i think. moonpie wanted a piece of the coyotes, but 2 against 1? al said not to let her out; they'll draw her out and kill her. she's been growling for the last 3 hours.
rundeep, it's the planet money team. it's funny. well done. and, yeah, scary. i listened to it while thinking about the savings i'm relying on thinking my savings doesn't really exist.
i've been reduced on saturdays by wyso yellow springs to listening to opera from the met. i suppose i could do worse, but i miss marketplace.
pulling for vick and the eagles, unless they play matt ryan and the falcons. also trying really hard not to call her back. in atlanta.
Unless some putz decided to toe-nail every board
Um, ya see, uh, yeah...
It's what they advise you know, although I admit that 150 staples (even more fun to pull) per board might have been a little excessive. I totally aimed for the joist, too. And I put in about 40 bazillion screws to hold down the previous floor. I didn't want it to squeak, you know? (Much as I pity the poor bastard who tries to pull things up after me, I am at least happy I didn't to a worse job than the last guy.)
I'm still conflicted about Vick, though it does seem that he's actually a changed man. Certainly can't fault his play. I suspect just on principle Vick will be brilliant versus Atlanta, and the team will step up to support him. If they beat Green Bay tomorrow (big if,) they'll take care of the Falcons. Sorry. (PS Nature abhors a doormat. You are on the way to restoring your soul and your dignity. When you feel you are in control of that, call whenever you wish. If you wish.)
Too many nails can actually cause the floor to squeak as the weather changes Keifus. Them tongues are supposed to move back and forth inside those grooves, gently rubbing back and forth with just a tiny bit of friction until the grooves can't stand it any more and beg for...wait...uh, yeah floors. 100 year old Oak (or Maple) are well worth saving if possible.
keifus, you putz bastard, i've waited long enough, you deserve
Sex on a beach
We don't mind sand in out stilettos
We freak, in my jeep
Snoop Doggy Dogg is on the stereo
you asked for it. just finished "salt, a world history".
rundeep, funny you should mention dignity, because i haven't had this much self respect in 13 years. it's not much, but it's a start.
smutty, my favorite part of demolition has been lumber rescue. seriously, this stuff is beautiful. you must know the look of those old 2x4s. actually two by four, literally.
You bet I know how nice that old wood is Swit. Besides being actual size with no mill waste, those 2x4s are as hard as rocks too. Run one of those bad boys across a table saw and smell that old wood smell. Also, speaking of ripping boards on the table saw, you can rip those tongues off and just surface nail the boards again (like putzo already did.) Saw a customer's floor that was done with old barn planking. Knotty pine. Chunks missing. Really weathered looking. And yet, as a floor, it looked awesome. Like an old barroom floor. I'd love it if you could save that old floor. Then again, nice paneling if that's the plan.
Hey, I didn't surface nail any but the ones on the edge. I did screw the old floor the hell into the joists though. Oak. I'm not the biggest fan.
Now, obviously I'm a dilletante, and I hesitate to talk to a master, but I do likes the old wood. The floor you describe is like the farmhouse my brother used to rent. Place like that has always been a fantasy of mine, 14" planks stained dark with a century's worth of woodsmoke and feet. Gigantic beams fastened together with dowels and some fucked-up emergency nailing. Big brick fireplace, black pots, hanging from an ancient blackened hobnail. It's got a little something for me. On top of that, my old man has a minor habit of trying to work in some salvage wood into his instruments here and there. I'm not an aficionado, but I like it.
Even in this dump, I uncover some ancient (about as old as me, actually) 2x4's, and in addition to the strange bit about being a little closer to two and four inches (has stud shrinkage been continuous over the years?), it's pretty awesome how they tend to not torque themselve up anymore.
Now, I'll go back to sippin' my gin and juice if y'all don't mind.
It's a great look. Rough, and weathered. The floor I mentioned had ...shit 1/2" spaces between some boards. He had it sanded for splinters, and it was nice and level, it just looked old and heavily used. Sweet. It's not that the studs are shrinking K, it's that the lumber mills used to eat the sawdust. Now, the person who buys a 2x4 is paying for that pile. And look at the graining on the old shit! Lines that are thisclose together. Slow growth.
I've pissed and moaned about wine barrels (speaking of oak, etc.). You look at Europe, and it's pretty heavily and historically deforested, and yet where do you still find the high-grade close-grained old groves? Not here, despite our merely recent abuse of the place. So much I loathe about the old world mindset, and yet they have had a mind toward some preservation, the rich fucks anyway.
And on a different note...aw fuck, I still love Adam Vinatieri.
This apt is 100 yrs old. Original oak floor, and it looks it. Squeaks in spots. No big deal. I love old wood.
And what a great couple of games.Vinateri hit the net from 50, and then Folk hits from a funny angle to top it. Oh the lonely life of a place kicker.
great, the auburn game's on espn. surely i can find the station i used to listen to the games on the radio on the internets. crap.
ESPN radio works fine for me. I've grown so used to not having cable that I almost never think about it (Blackhawks withdrawal but I cope)
I think iTunes is offering a feed, but I'd have to investigate this "iTunes" operation before I can vouch. I think it's some sort of music/video streaming service, but don't quote me on that.
Thank You.
Thank you for mentioning the 9 yr old girl.
I don't understand how it's possible to be so addicted to rabid polemics that one is completely disconnected from any healthy sense of tragedy: do people rail at one another in this way because they can't feel? Do they even know that they can't feel or don't they care that they don't care? A child murdered. How very sad.
Thanks again ... I hope you don't mind my thanking you here. Yours was the only redeeming moment in an orgy of shame.
Chi Trib BCS live updates
Just in case you haven't found another source. It's not on any radio station here.
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