The GOBEE Plan

Now that I am a 'stay-at-home' wife (which, just 2 days in, I'm lovin' it!), I've got to make sure that I stay busy and productive--at least part of the time.

So I've come up with my GOBEE plan. GOBEE is an acronym for the 'projects' I want to work on during my new-found extra time. Now, keep in mind, that these projects are in addition to the daily 'gotta do' stuff.

I'm going to "GO BEE productive."

So . . . the first letter (G) stands for GARDEN. I want to have a very nice garden this spring. And since I'll be home most of the time I'll be able to take extra care with it. And, believe it or not, it's already about time to start thinking about it.

I'll share the rest of my GOBEE Plan one-by-one over the next several days.

Cat-fishing?

Here are a few of Bigfoot's cats (Ascot, Blanket, and Spot). They are 'fishing' for birds. Below is a picture of the 'bait' at which they are staring. Don't fret--the 'bait' is positioned so that they will not be successful with any capture attempt.

The cats really enjoy sitting in my flower pots, so I'm not sure if I should even attempt any spring flower planting.

Bigfoot has a new toy that he will use at work--but I'll let him tell you about that . . .

My big news--LONG story short . . . for health reasons I resigned my teaching position about a month ago and Friday the 13th was my last day on the job. VERY emotional time--I really didn't want to quit but found it necessary.

So now I'm going to be a 'kept woman' and I'm gonna love it!

I've got a few projects in mind to keep me busy, but more on those later.

LAST OF THE OBAMA US DESTRUCTION YEARS.??

Not a whole lot to report here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.....!!

Working in Dallas now, and the drive is FUN.!! Been salvaging some stuff, but hard to keep good workers on hand for that nowdays. Had Jackie and my nephew Joe hooked up for a few days last week, and even paying them $60 cash per day, buying them lunch daily (friday took them to El Chico's), and giving them a ride in the towncar to and from the job...they aren't too interested to do anything this coming week. (Lazy F-ERs.!!)

(any idea what real wood true louvered interior doors cost today?.....NOT cheap..but these are going to be buried to rot slowly underground...a HUGE WASTE of value --- the Amerikan Korporate Way for the last 50 yrs)

This is only 16 apts of doors.....we have 150 more apts to demo.

It's truly amazing the stuff that comes out of these old 1964 era apts and gets tossed into a roll-off dumpster to go to the landfill. I'm scavanging what I can and still do my job as the superintendent-"helper" project mgr. I did save about 15 Kwikset deadbolts with keys, and a few insulated metal entry door units (with jambs attached), and some bypass slider closet doors with tracks to hang them on....but I "could" get fairly new 1.6 gal/per flush commodes...and wall-hung bath lavs...and stainless steel kitch sinks with faucets.....but no time to pull these out, so they mostly end up going to the landfill....this is horrible..but I don't have the time or manpower to handle it....I'll save what I can.

Spent New Years Eve afternoon at my son's IN-law's house not far from where I live. Went over to "see" how they were coming on a quick weekend deck bldg job. A 14x16 elevated deck, 2' off the ground. Ended up staying and helping for 4 hours. Got it finished up and it was nice to build something again for a change...I like doing that kinda stuff, but haven't done so in awhile.

Caren and I had Sonic hotdogs and milkshakes for our New Years Eve din din...was asleep by 9 with the sound of fireworks in the not to distant background.

Caren went to Oklahoma to the casinos last week with her mom for a day or so....she DID NOT win....and I have not asked how much she lost..keeps things smoother that way.

Here is my son's rock crawler Sammy Suzuki 4cyl. This thing is small but will climb over nearly anything with him behind the wheel. He's leaving this at my place for a few weeks.

My son stopped by today, and we loaded up a Caddy motor that I picked up for him he bought on Craigslist a few weeks ago. We think it's about 650lbs of 1972 Eldorado motor....500cubic inches...back when gas was 20 cents a gallon and High Horsepower and torque was kool. (your avg 1970 full-sized sedan would pull a 5000# trailer easily at 12 mpg). Luckily I still had Caren's mom's JD tractor and it picked it up handily. He's gonna put this one in his white '70 Cad Coupe with air bags that he fixed up at the end of his high school days. I need to add pics of this old Cad soon.

Here's Jack the Ripper.....depressed about another year of Obamanation.

Inconclusive

It seems with even the most advanced technology (MRIs), the powers-that-be still cannot be sure what's wrong with my shoulder. The MRI showed inflammation and possibly something 'torn' but can't tell for sure. So doctor gave me two cortisone shots in the shoulder and told me to set up some appointments with the physical therapist. I said, "Can't you just give me some exercises to do and I'll do them on my own?" He was very skeptical that I would actually do them (which I WOULD HAVE), so I agreed to go to the physical therapist a couple of times to see what he/she would have me do and then get a list of exercises from him/lher.


And if all of that doesn't work he said surgery is the next step. I asked, "What would that entail?" He started talking about things like cutting the tip of my collar bone off and shaving bone off the top of my shoulder, etc. My thought was, "Wow! For not knowing exactly what's wrong, it sure seems like you know exactly what needs to be done in surgery!" I didn't say that out loud, but probably should have. I suspect that what he described is some cookie-cutter, assembly-line type surgery that he does to "cure" all shoulder problems. I'll definitely get a second opinion before anything that drastic occurs. Buyer Beware!


I shopped a bit yesterday for my boys' Christmas presents (both adults, but still my little boys). Will probably spend the day in 'laid-back' mode. Wrapping the few gifts and puttering around.


Bigfoot is going to get some of our propane jugs refilled today and that's about all he's got on his schedule.

Underfoot (our pug) will be his usual self and be 'under foot' all day.

Season's Greetings and Happy Holidays to everyone out there in the big ol' blogosphere---From Bigfoot, Littlefoot, and Underfoot.

22 December 2011

I'm sitting here nursing the beginnings of a cold. What nice timing . . .

On Monday I had an MRI done on my injured shoulder. I'll go tomorrow morning and find out the results. At the moment, my neck is hurting me way more than my shoulder. It's hell getting old!

I have NOT done my Christmas shopping. Thank goodness there's not that much to do. Our families are not into the out-of-control consumerism that seems to be the key inGREEDient of the holiday season. I look forward to December 21st each year more than I look forward to the 25th because I know that after that, the days are now getting longer . . . Yea!!!

Bill and I went to a Lyle Lovett concert at Bass Hall on Tuesday night. That was our gift to each other (and our annual date!). We had a great time, but it made for a late night for us homebodies.

No specific plans for the day . . .I feel kinda guilty sending Bigfoot off to work while I stay home on my break.

Obviously, not much going on here . . .

Sunday, December 11

Littlefoot here!

I'm here putting off grading papers and doing next week's lesson plans. But it's inevitable that some time today that's what I'll be up to. . . .

Our cats are maturing and reproducing and still mostly wild. We gradually tame one at a time and become semi-attached to him/her. Then that particular cat disappears. We've come to believe that we're signing the death warrant of whatever cat is next in line to be tamed. So far the order of taming and disappearance is as follows: Geddy, Tillie, Shybo, and Remmie. Next in line for disappearance is either Michelle (a solid black cat named after our First Lady) or Sox..

But ya gotta feed 'em, right? Ya can't just let 'em freeze and die. And now Bigfoot has a propane heater out in the shack that he turns on for them at night so they don't freeze (He's the 'cat man.' They're his children). We figure they're out there gestating a whole new generation. Yippee!!

I injured my shoulder on the Sunday that we were returning from the cabin during our last trip down at Thanksgiving. We were in Alpine and Bill was in Subway getting us some sandwiches. I was sitting in the passenger's seat and attempted to lift a very heavy book bag (damn heavy chemistry textbook, etc) over my shoulder between the seats into the back seat. About half-way through that manuever a loud POP! came from my shoulder---and that was that . . .

I went to the doctor the next day and we decided to take a 'wait and see' approach. I've been wearing a sling for two weeks to school (hoping things would get better). Some days it seems better--other days not. Certain motions are fine, others painful. Tomorrow afternoon I will visit the orthopedic specialist and go from there.

It's been a real pain in the ass because it's my left shoulder and I'm left-handed.

We miss being at the cabin. It sucks!

Later . . . .I've been trying to post this blog all day and Blogger won't let me. Sheesh!

Got my lesson plans done . . .Yea! As for grading papers--why do today what I can put off for another day? It's not like my students really care about their grades (until the last week of the grading period, of course--Then it's panic time).

whittlin'...drillin'...cuttin'...sittin'...etc

I have this nice comfy leather arm chair I picked up at a Salvation Army used furniture shop a few years ago. And what with all the sittin' around I've been doing the last couple of years, with no job and such, it's always seemed a tad too low for my 6'5" frame. It's nice and wide for my "wide load" girthitude....but I always have to put a thick pillow in it or I feel like I'm squatting on my haunches...and my tender little knee-bones don't like that too much. Hard to get up easily from sitting on the ground.

So today, after putting it off for weeks...I finally, instead of watching the Cowboys (and they were winning at halftime my Dad called to tell me)....I made some old fart highchair blocks for the bottom of my chair.

Using some 4"x6" Wolmanized timbers that were given to us by http://benntexas.blogspot.com/, a blogger we check daily who lives south of DFW, I fashioned some elevator blocks.

The round wooden peg feet from the bottom of the chair were a tad bigger than my biggest 1-1/2" paddle bit so instead of driving the 12 mile round trip to the nearest place to buy one (Ace Hdw)...I simply whittled the pegs to be a little skinnier and wollared out the holes with the paddle bit. The pegs were white oak and took some doing, and by the last peg shaving, my knife was getting a bit dullish, but I got-'r done. (pics are sideways..but you get the idea)

A little brown spray paint to make the wife happy with the final appearance and VIOLA...'tis done and is a thang of beauty.!...and the chair is nice and tall..!!

Just tapped them onto the shrunked pegs with a 2# sledge and it's done.
Now, I have't told y'all this, but I finally landed a JOB!!...and won't be able to sit around in this chair all day like I have been....damnit. Gotta git up and and out early....driving 50 miles each way through traffic (yeehaa..not) to the jobsite in Irving...not too far from the old (now gone) Cowboy Stadium.

I'm the superintendant over a project to take 168 old apartment units built in 1964, and give them a complete make-over. Lotta asbestos abatement to be done first....stripping interiors down to the bare studs, moving a few interior walls, adding some scab-on bathrooms here and there (new slab), all new plbg,wiring, HVAC. Putting gable truss roofs onto the existing flat roofs, all new elevations, new windows, removing all sidewalks, adding area drains, new landscaping, and building a ground-up leasing office/club with pool. About a 12 month job.

I was a "senior project manager" for the last 10 years....and haven't been a "super" since 1997, but what the hell...it's a paycheck, and alot less stress than being a PM. I'm happy with it. I'll get some pics of the progress as it goes along. Not officially starting until mid-Dec for actual const work, it won't close with HUD until then.

I hope to nab some good dumpster items from this job, and will add to my collection of wonderful used const junk....(I love const junk.!!...always have) Gotta get the F250 diesel towed to the shop for a head gasket job (+/- $2000 job)....but cheaper than another truck...then I can haul some goodies home for safekeeping.

Here's an old cowhead I need to tie onto the front of the Towncar for the next Terlingua Trip....but it'll probably lure cops and I don't need that Gestapo hassle...so maybe not. Does look kinda like what a plane-flying, goat-herding, terrorist might drive...huh?

Here's a couple of pics of a project I did north of Dallas in McKinney, back in '05. An older folks retirement apt project...240 units I think, hell I can't recall. This was the back side. REAL Austin Limestone...that's what the owner/client wanted and he paid for it.

That is all......CHOW, babeee.!