Against the Wind

One of the jobs I have to finish before my surgery is to make reusable hurricane protection for the windows on our house. So for the past few days I have been measuring, cutting plywood and installing threaded inserts. I’m through now with everything but caulking and painting window trim and siding that I replaced as part of the process. The goal is to allow Penny to put everything up by herself under my direction, if a storm pops up while I’m still incapacitated. If need be I can literally lend her a hand during the next 6 weeks. The next 6 weeks is the normal peak of our hurricane season.
Now each window can be covered, using no tools, by placing the plywood on the window and tightening 8 threaded fasteners by hand. Even at 5 minutes a window it still will take 1 ½ hours to put up the plywood. Add setup and it will be at least 2 hours to get ready for a storm.

Our neighbor asked me if I knew something she didn’t when she saw me covering our windows. I assured her I was just making preparations.

I’ve been giving my arms a good workout with this task and my right shoulder lets me know it at about 2:30 AM. It aches like a toothache until I put a cold pack on it. The left shoulder, the one that’s been fixed, aches each night but gets better overnight. I’m hoping that in 4-6 months I’ll once again be able to sleep through the night without my shoulders waking me up. I did finish 2 books during this project. One was a thriller about homeland security and a plot by Saudi Arabia to decapitate our government- Firefly. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312203772/sr=1-20/qid=1155642657/ref=sr_1_20/002-2224652-6919217?ie=UTF8&s=books The other is a historical non-fiction account of 1776 - 1776. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743226720/sr=1-1/qid=1155642753/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-2224652-6919217?ie=UTF8&s=books