The Swing Set: Day 4

Cape Girardeau, Missouri

FINISHED! I’m done with the swing set! Finally! Whew. The garage is clean, both cars are back in, and my butt really hurts because I went down the slide without stopping myself. I thoroughly tested everything. The rock walls work, the handles to climb up are sturdy, the slide works, the glider, swing. . . now, I didn’t test Sam’s swing, but, well, I guess we sort of did since Sam swung in it. I just didn’t do it myself.
But alas, despite being done (that’s a full two weeks of work between that and the garage) I can’t help but feel like I have much more to do, since I still have to stain it, and we will likely put down some wood chips or pea gravel around it so I don’t have to mow like a mad crazy fool. (Oh, and yes, I have now shaved).
On a completely different note, I can now claim I have written a song. Short and sweet. It was something I used to sing to Erin when she was wee little. For some reason I’ve been messing with the dulcimer and I figured out that it works really well on that instrument. (Not all songs do, you know). It’s short and sweet. Just like Erin.

Swing Set: Day Three

Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Ahhh. What a stinking hot day. By 10 am I was soaked through with sweat, and by 11 am the bill of my hat was dripping. Yet, claim a success for swing set building Day 3. I had to take more breaks than yesterday, and I couldn't get enough water in me. I found out on my lunch break about 1:00 that the heat index was 110°! No wonder! Anyway, I got a lot done, though not finished. I got two swings up and the plastic rock wall, as well as the sliding board. Erin took to it immediately as soon as she got home. She climbed up in the tower and hung out a few minutes, and swung quite a bit. Beaming the whole time. Granted, the slide appeared too frightful (although she did go down it once we went out with her).
So, I should be done tomorrow. I hope I am, since I have committed myself to not shave until it's done. So yes, it has been since Tuesday since I last had contact with a blade. Most of the work tomorrow is minor, with only a small amount of drilling and screws required. I should be able to knock it out before lunch. I would have finished today, but I since I was tired, and ready to storm, I went in.

Swing Set: Day Two

Cape Girardeau, Missouri

The day has progressed much better than yesterday. I'm not sure if it's because it's a little bit cooler, or that I spent most of the day working in the garage (avec fan), or that I'm just getting better at knowing what to do as I go. Overall, I claim the project day a success.
When Erin came home from day care, she went out to the tower. Of course I had to pick her up to put her on, since there isn't any way to get up yet. But hey! We're getting closer!

Swing Set: Day One

Cape Girardeau, Missouri

I am really very much exhausted. I don’t have too much too say, but whoever it was that told me it would “only take ten hours” to put this swing set together has a very sick sense of humor. I worked a solid seven hours today, making it to step 8. Of 40. Yeah. But I suppose that it’ll be worth it. They will play on it, oh yes they will.
And I know it doesn’t look like I spent seven hours on it, but trust me. It doesn’t help that I have no organizational skills and went back to the garage at least once for something I had forgotten or overlooked in the instructions. About every other step, I’d say. But alas. . . It is a good start.

Adventures in the Garage

Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Ah. . . home again. And for the week, too. My last night of work is always the best. It’s like no matter what goes on, or how bad it seems to be, I only have a few hours left. In a way, think of the day before your vacation of a week long relaxation fest. I get that at the end of every work week.
But of course I didn’t come home and go straight to bed. I’m still in my productive mode. I don’t know how or why this productive fits come along, but they do. I finished setting things up in the garage, and for the first time in my life I have an honest to goodness garage workshop. I have cabinets! I have an actual workbench! I have a pegboard! I’ve always wanted a peg board, ever since the days of hanging out in Grandpa Nash’s workshop. He pretty well lined the place with pegboard. So for me, that makes a workshop a workshop. I still need some more tools, but I’ll get there. Apart from a table saw and router, though, I’ve got what I need. (Note that in getting a table saw would require me to build a shed for the tractor, which is not an option right now.) The garage is completed, except for the requirement of Empty Box Removal, which will be completed tomorrow.
I slept for about four hours, then fixed the light switch in the garage. The lights would flicker occasionally, and that coupled with Erin’s perpetual fear of Everything That Isn’t Erin, disallowed Erin’s presence in the garage at any given point. Light could come in through the garage door, but that might permit a locust to fly in (which one did last week). And because of Erin’s job of feeding the dogs- the dog food lives in the garage- the dogs have not been getting any food in any sort of routine manner.
As if that wasn’t enough! (With the whole being productive thing.) I installed the new doorbell tonight. I’m on a bizarre roll. Don’t know the source. My best guess is I have to get all of these things taken care of before I can start on the swing set. And the swing set currently inhabits the location my car normally sleeps. I really want the car to be back where it belongs.
Anyway, I think I will burn a couple of disks for Shannon. We’ve been listening to Chuck Missler’s Bible in 24 Hours series. It’s interesting. He has some good insights, though I can’t agree with him 100% on everything. It is an excellent overview of the bible, though. You can get it free if you catch it right- it’s broadcast continuously online (although I paid for the mp3 download). If you use Winamp, check out the Internet TV (under online media) and it may be found under Berean-TV. Good stuff.

Baby Sam

Erin took this picture of her brother. It's one of the few times he's still enough to get a picture taken without it being blurred.

My Parents

Carbondale, Illinois

Dad woke me up this afternoon (yesterday afternoon, that is) to tell me that Mom's surgery went fine. I had just been awakened, but I was with it enough to know that I had no clue that Mom was supposed to be in surgery. The fact I didn't know was obviously a surprise to him, since when I said, "Why did Mom have surgery?" he just said he assumed that she had told me. But she didn't. Mom has a tendency to do that- not tell me about people and hospitals. For example, "You're Grandma was in the hospital. I didn't get a chance to tell you." Like that isn't important information?
I had to call back to find out why she had surgery later, since I couldn't remember what he said, as I promptly fell back asleep after the first conversation. She had surgery done for her knee, which was admittedly screwed up. (Her kneecap wasn't in the right spot). I remember when we visited her discussing it, but quite honestly I had quite a few other things on my mind at that time. (Namely: "I'm glad we didn't die in the car accident we just had" and "Ow, my shoulder hurts"). (My excuse is pretty good on that one).
We plan to make two trips in- wait. I plan to make two trips in September to Pekin. The family will take our yearly pilgrimage to the Marigold Festival (it'll be Sam's first parade!), and then I’ll be back most likely again late in the month, since I'm planning on picking up my brother for the concert, if he can get off work. I told him to try to be off for the 22nd and 23rd for a concert, but didn't tell him any details other than that. I've taken him to concerts before- we saw Hootie (and yes, I still like Hootie) and the Homegrown festival in St. Louis back in. . . I guess '97? Not really sure. But those will be pale in comparison to this concert. Enough to traverse nearly the entire state of Illinois. And Row E. I still can't get over that.

Rain and Prayer Revisited

Carbondale, Illinois

I got my lawn mowed, which is an enormous achievement, especially for an "on" week. I didn't trim or pull weeds, which is desparately needed, but it's a start. Another day or so and the grass would have been beyond bareable. The weeds already are. I believe I have some corn growing under the deck in the back yard. It would be the aftermath of many birds and much birdseed; I just don't know my agriculture well enough to determine if that's what it really is. I'm going to let it grow and see (though the rest of them things are goin' down as soon as I can get out there).
Now, a couple of days ago, I posed the question regarding prayer, specifically, if my prayer for rain on a day forcast for rain could be considered an answer. In my prayer I asked God for rain, that I knew that many others needed it as well, but I asked specifically that it may rain in Cape Girardeau County. We got over 3 inches at our house (in the middle of town, which is the far southern edge of the county), but again, it was forcast with a 40% chance. I'm descibing this in an explicit manner, because the airport has only recorded 0.94" of rain for the entire month of August. The airport is located in the City of Cape Girardeau, but it is in Scott County, not Cape County. Interesting indeed. Would God listen to someone like me to make it rain? Clearly it would not be any power I had, but did it rain as much as it did because I asked? Maybe a collective of persons in our area asked? Coincidence? I don't know, but I'm inclined to think that my faith had something to do with it.
Oh, and that treadmill thing I mentioned yesterday? It never happened.

Travel Journal? Or Not.

Carbondale, Illinois

This is taking on two forms for the first time. (Actually second, if you count yesterday). Some may be reading this in my journal, which I have kept since July 1, 1993. At the beginning of the thing I wrote virtually every day, but once Shannon came into the picture, I just had better things to do with my time. Add Erin and Sam, and the time just seems to dwindle. Hence, most of my entries have not been hand-written over the past several months, but rather typed on my Pocket-PC and later pasted into my journal. And this month, I have begun blogging. Since it's really just a journal kept online, there's not much difference for me. You'll notice that I always include where I am when I write. I do this mainly because I fancy it to be a travel journal, even though it really isn't, since I don't travel. I write mainly at home (or work if time allows). I do write whenever I go somewhere, but again I rarely go anywhere terribly interesting. I have been to Orlando, Las Vegas, and Ocho Rios, as well as Gatlinburg and my all time favorite: Cripple Creek, Colorado. But those times come few and far between.
Since I've never posted any of my thoughts on the internet before, I'll include some excerpts from my journal from time to time. But really this is just for me personally. I'm not too exciting, but I think everyone has their own story. Maybe I'll get into some history on myself tomorrow, or maybe not.
Today has been less than a stellar day. No, actually that was yesterday. Today has been just fine. Yesterday, I kicked off my day. . . well, it's confusing working the night shift. It was the commute home. I got sick. But that wasn't the kick-off to my day, it was the end. So I got home and slept. Fortunately and unusually I slept effectively, for eight solid hours; something almost unheard of on an "on" week.
I've decided that in order for my weight to do anything but inflate, I must exercise. I enjoy exercising. I feel better, I don't really look any better, but at least think it will make me look better. Get more energy and that sort of thing, you know. I spent most of the spring hiking at Trail of Tears park, but once the heat came to prevail, I stopped. I had planned on getting back into it in July, but my left knee disagreed with that plan. So here I am, mid-August without having exercised in any intentional form for over two months. This morning, I will go do the treadmill thing.
And. . . I guess that's it. I don't want to be too wordy or anything, since I can't spend too much time reading any one particular thing on the computer. (For some reason that doesn't extend to the books I read on my iPAQ- I can do that for hours at a time without being phased). Anyhoo, I'll update more later.

Introductions (and the Swing Set)

Carbondale, Illinois

Sam is cruising. . . sort of. He has every intention of doing it, but tends to fall before he gets to his destination. But he did "walk" the distance from the left side of the recliner to the right side of the recliner. We had to lower his crib mattress because he's standing up in bed! He's only 6 months old! Erin didn't crawl until she was 9 months. Talk about two completely opposite children.
Anyway, the plan last week was to start putting together the swing set. But a slight snag occurred. It was one of those things that start, and then spiral crazily until you aren't really sure how the hell it happened.
I started getting things together to start on the swing set as I said. The box said "Pre-Cut Lumber: No Sawing Required!" It sounds very happy. It doesn't mention that there is no drilling required, which as it turns out the first two steps require approximately 180 holes to be drilled. No exaggeration.
Hence, the decision to buy a drill press. Brilliant idea. I did it, and brought it home. Set it on my work bench. Now understand, my work bench had it's previous life being an un-sturdy shelf. The other half of my work bench held the totes for our recycling. It would not hold the drill press. A) not wide enough, and B) would fall down in a couple of hours. So, the decision was made to purchase a work bench.
Now, we have some extra money from the accident fund. That's after we paid off my Toyota this month. (Oh, what a feeling!) So we decided the best thing to do is to get rid of all the shelves in the garage (except the recycling shelves) and put up cabinets instead.
Granted. Up until this point I have solidly been off every other week since I started this 7-on-7-off thing back in May. Except this week. So between working Thursday and Friday (a nice, cool $1000 of overtime) I put together shelves and swept up dead bugs and threw things away that had no business not being thrown away.
I did this all evening Thursday, all evening Friday, all day Saturday, and darn near all day Sunday. I didn't mow the lawn or weed the flower beds, and with all the crap sitting in the driveway from having been deemed trash, our house looks, well. . . like trash. If the rain subsides, I'll mow it this afternoon before coming back to work, but if not, we'll just have to see.
My question is this. If I pray that it will rain, on a day with rain forecast, and it does, is that really an answer to prayer? I'm inclined to think yes, since for the past two months rain has frequently been forecast with no results. It's just a question I have to ask. But I'm inclined to think the answer is yes.
Today I stood in line for tickets. That was an entirely new experience for me. Again a new question a prayer comes up. Just before I got my tickets, I prayed that I would get into row B. Second row. There were about fifty people ahead of me in line (though some were together). I decided I shouldn't ask for the tickets such as I did, because it was selfish; that is, it wouldn't do anything to glorify God. Only for myself. I apologized for this. I got up to the window, and said I needed two tickets. The woman held up two tickets and said, "I've got two for the front row." How did that happen? (That's rhetorical).
So within about a two week span, I'll be seeing B.B. King (Row E) and Alison Krauss (Row B). Oddly enough two of my favorite musicians. (Odd because the two genres are somewhat dissimilar).
As for the bible study, I'm two weeks into it, and thus far, things have progressed well, though the turnout last week was not that great. But the three of us that were there had some very meaningful conversation, and we all got something out of it, so it certainly wasn't a loss (except perhaps for those who couldn't make it).
I'm sure I have more to discuss, but I can't think of what it may be at the moment, so for now, I must bid you adieu.