Happy 30th to me!

Today was celebrated by the following broke/fixed list:

Fixed: Put a supporting 2×4 under the old crawlspace access opening, so that the stove doesn’t sag down into the floor when we put it there.

Fixed: Put about half of the new subfloor in. Marie got it primed, so we should be able to slap tile onto it tomorrow.

Fixed: Marie staked the tomatoes and peppers upright incase that storm really does blow in. It would suck really make me unhappy to lose all the tomatoes just before the big harvest.

Broke: The box frame (and thusly much of the surrounding floor support) for the other crawlspace access. Needed to get a new joist in there, and there was just no other way to do it. Most-used prior birthday present: Dewalt recipro-saw.

Broke: The tub and sink drains (again). In the process of jimmying the new joist into place, I nudged the drainpipe, which promply fell apart somewhere in the PVC-Copper-Iron-PVC junk(tion). Back to the recipro-saw.

Fixed: The shower drain. Barely. It’s holding very precariously. Which is fine, since we’re tearing it back out tomorrow and replacing the 1 1/2″ PVC with 2″. Notice the sink is not included in this list.

I think it was two years ago that I spent my birthday putting down Pergo flooring. This house is… generating a lot of memories. I’ll be so sad when we sell it… NOT.
Whew. Finally off to dinner. It’s now occurring to me that we missed lunch somewhere along the way.

Soul music

I’ve been on a musical mission the last couple days. (Yes, I’m sure it was divinely-inspired.) Specifically, I’ve been trying to figure out the roots of the “Blues Brothers”-style music… soul-shout with heavy, kickin’ horns. Much as I dislike some of the business practices of Amazon, their “Amazon Recommends” and “Other people who viewed this album, also viewed” features proved to be incredibly useful.
So I started with the knowns: “Sam and Dave”, “Wilson Pickett”, and “Otis Redding”. These led to “Booker T and the MG’s”, “Junior Walker and the All Stars”, and “Sam Cooke”. Things started going several different directions from there: “Chick Webb”, “Temptations”, “Four Tops”, “Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes”, “Marvin Gaye”, “Maynard Ferguson”, “Gladys Knight and the Pips”, “Martha and the Vandellas”, and “Sly and the Family Stone”. And these are just the ones that made it onto my wishlist. I made the cut at the disco line, which unfortunately meant losing folks like “Earth, Wind, and Fire”. I also didn’t include 70’s era soul/r&b that was more easy listening/orchestral.
My primary discovery was that “Soulsville, USA” and “Hitsville, USA” were two entirely different entities. Soulsville was Chicago/southern soul and blues with one or two powerful leading vocalists per group and a house band of the best blues horn musicians around. Hitsville aka. Motown was the harmony vocals, more popish, backed by the driving bass, sweet guitar, get-off-your-butt-and-dance drums, and omnipresent tambourine furnished primarily by The Funk Brothers.
Finally, I landed on the motherlode of that 60-70’s soul sound: Stax Records. Ahh… good stuff.
And while I’m on a musical kick, I jotted down the address of a band from a flyer that Marie and I found while walking after a Mongolian dinner last night: Back Forty. “Down-home funkgrass”, as they describe it. Appropriate. Definitely going to have to check these guys out… the mp3s on their site are great!

one step forward…

Not sure how to feel about today. Let me summarize:

Fixed: Powerbook laptop. Turned out it was the display cable. After too many opens and closes, one of the wires broke. Getting the screen pryed apart was a bugger, and I’m a bit surprised that I managed it without actually scratching or breaking the lcd display. Last night I was about ready to do the Apple Discus out the front door. Glad I didn’t because when I woke up this morning, disassembled and the reassembled it and realigned the cables, it actually worked.

Broke: The drain and vent for the washer. Probably should have done those two waiting loads of laundry first.

Broke: The drain trap for the shower. When I tried to join the drain line of the washer to the drain line for the shower, the shower trap simply fell out. It looks as though it was never actually screwed onto the tub floor drain, but was only held on by a thin dabbing of epoxy. Now I know why that wook block was wedged under it.

Broke: The toilet. Bugger started leaking like a seive due to the fact that the filler column inside the tank was making like a water fountain. If I were a curious person, I’d wonder how old that toilet is. If I were a more motivated person, I’d look on the bowl at the date stamp and find out. If I were a less apathetic person (what’s the negative of apathy?), I’d care.

Fixed: The washer drain and vent. Replaced with new PVC, and connected the new vent line to the old vent stack.

Fixed: The shower drain. After a couple of mismeasurements, do-overs, and episodes of repeated cuttings not making the pipes any longer, I succeeded is replacing the old copper shower drain S-trap with new PVC, joining it to the upgraded washer drain, and removing the old junk that was getting in my way in the crawlspace. Fernco fittings make me happy… well… at least they make me curse less.

Fixed: Toilet. That POS shutoff valve on the supply line broke off in my hand, and those POS gate valves that serve as my main water shutoffs… don’t. So time was of the essence. (Ever wonder… the essence of what?) Halfway through changing the fill valve, I started hearing some monsterous sounds from my water heater… similar to the sounds that one might hear when metal and glass are being contorted in strange ways. This was apparently due to having a negative pressure in the water heater, coupled with a very low amount of water in the tank that was being heated somewhat higher than it should have been. Haven’t got this one figured out yet, but it was resolved by turning the main water back on, shutting off the heater, turning on the hot water taps and running the hot water out of the system, *then* shutting off the main supply. After that, the toilet bowl germs and I did the Slip-N-Slide dance around the very cramped bathroom floor as I wrangled the new fill valve into place.

Now, I’ve done a load of laundry, used the toilet, showered, eaten (not related, but necessary), and typed out this short story. Now, I’m going to crack open a well-deserved beer and do some well-deserved vegging. This is also not related, but very necessary.

Paintball!

Yesterday, I finally got a chance to use my paintball equipment that I bought three years ago. Several HVA-folk got together for a few hours and tromped around in the woods, mud, and poison ivy while chasing and shooting each other. Good times. I wonder if the paintball manufacturers could mix a little Deep Woods into each ball? A little something for the mosquitos…