Time to Deliver

I finished the nightstand yesterday. Here are a couple of pictures.

I made it in the same style as the crib, changing table and bed. The bed and nightstand are packed on the trailer and ready for delivery.

Now I have to catch up on all the things I let go while building the furniture.

Kitty Update--3 or 4 cats have been around consistently, day and night, since I drove Mr Nasty Grey Cat away. He hasn't shown his face around here so far. We will see if he decides to come back later.

Busy Friday

I didn’t sleep well last night so I turned off my 5:30 alarm, didn’t get up to do my exercises and slept in until almost 7:15.

The first thing I did was to look outside to see if I caught anything in the live animal trap. I’ll leave you in suspense for the moment while I explain why the trap was set.

We have had a nasty grey cat terrorizing the backyard. It’s made the cats so wary that they stay on the roof most of the time. Last night the raccoon was back and when I stepped out and chased him away I noticed the grey cat was also lurking in the shadows waiting for one of the cats to come down off the roof. I haven’t tried to catch the raccoon yet because he has been polite. He eats, doesn’t bother the cats and leaves food for the cats. If he starts getting greedy or bringing friends I’ll try to catch him. The question is what to do about the grey cat? About a month ago I found a working live animal trap on the side of the road. I couldn’t believe someone would throw that out but there it was. So last night I set it up with a full can of wet cat food in it. I put it in an area where our cats don’t usually go. I figured I might get the grey or the raccoon and if one of our cats got caught at least I could release it and it might stay out of it the next time.

So this morning I looked out the window and could see the trap was sprung but couldn’t see what was in there. I went outside and looked. There was a grey cat in the trap. At first I thought it was Meredith but it soon became clear that I had caught the nasty grey! We were going to Target so I moved the cat inside the cage to the deck outside the shop. I knew it would be shady there and I could handle him later. My plan was to let him know he was not welcome here so letting him stew a while in the cage was a good way to start.

We did Target and then stopped by Lenscrafters and picked up our new glasses. We shopped at Publix and headed home.

It was now time for nasty cat indoctrination. I didn’t want to bring the cat to the pound unless I had no other choice. I don’t know cat psychology but I figured if I annoyed and scarred him sufficiently he might not come back. If he were coming around for breeding purposes I’m pretty sure no amount of indoctrination would keep him away but this was a territorial thing and I tried to show him whose yard this was. I did not waterboard him but I did use water. Penny said they hate water so I got her water spray bottle and proceeded to squirt him every time he made a sound. He didn’t like that but I had to make the message stronger. I got out the leaf blower and dried him off a little. He really didn’t like that. I went through 3 cycles of wetting and drying, growling at him in between. After the “humane” indoctrination I opened the cage and let him fly. He didn’t look back. Now we will see if he comes back.

The next Friday task was to get the mattress for Sophie’s bed. The mattress place is across the street from Chick-fil-et so we also did lunch. Now I can say the bed is completely finished. Penny then needed to go to Joanne’s and get some stuff.

I didn’t get to work on the nightstand until about 3 o’clock and got a couple hours in. I cut the legs to size and also all the trim. I glued some trim on the front. Tomorrow the legs and trim go on and then I need to make the drawer and the top.

It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t do a lot on the project today. My thumbs are quite sore from the full day yesterday.

I relaxed for the rest of the evening—soaked my thumbs and blogged.

All Day on Project

Today I got an early start working on the nightstand and spent the whole day on it. I got the basic box structure cut, painted the inside panels and right now the box is squared and glued. I also routed all the moldings. The legs are also cut and glued.

We do some running around tomorrow so I don’t know if I will get to the nightstand but the next step is to continue assembling all the pieces. Penny figures I’m 1/3 of the way through with it.

Since I’ve been going full-time on projects I haven’t had much worth blogging about. I am still listening to music instead of books and I’ve been listening to old friends—Billy Joel, John Denver, Paul Simon and a bunch of mixed music CDs.

Yesterday’s woot-off was not very interesting. It only ran 1 day and didn’t offer a bag-o-crap. Maybe it’s the economy. I hope woot gets back to what they used to be.

I got a handful of small tomatoes from the garden yesterday. That was a surprise because the heat has killed all the plants. The only other plant trying to produce is the Japanese eggplant. It’s growing a couple of fruit stimulated I guess by me picking the ripe ones.

Kitty Update—Until last night all 4 cats have been around. Something happened out there yesterday and only Meredith and Velcro were here and they were very wary. I had to finish feeding them by placing the food up on the roof (their safe place). This morning we were also vis

Ready for Paint

Well the term “making a bed” has taken on new meaning for me. Sophie’s new bed is finished. I have a little bit of fine sanding to do and then it is ready to be painted.

I’m happy with the way this project went. The new tools and experience I’ve gained in the 2 years since I built the crib made things go much smoother. The extra workspace provided by the deck is fantastic and I do all my cutting and sanding outside so the shop isn’t covered with sawdust now.

I think I’m going to take a break tomorrow and let my thumbs calm down a little before I start the next piece. I’ve got some catching up to do on the house and yard, too.

Here’s what the naked bed looks like. I hope Sophie likes it.

Slats

I did the most labor-intensive part of the bed today, sanding and then painting the slats. I haven’t cut the slats to size yet so I’ve got 6, 8-foot slats that I did final sanding on and 1 coat of paint. It gave my thumbs a good workout. I’ve got to glue the caps (the top piece) on the head and footboard and let that set before I cut the slats to size and put them in. So it’s iffy that I will get that all done tomorrow.

We did our normal Target run today—they haven’t had any good deals for more than a month now. It’s taking the fun out of our visits. I don’t know if it is the economy or just the normal dry period for Target bargains.

The netbook we got for Christy arrived today and appears to be in good working order. We still try to balance our spending on the “kids”. Karen is getting furniture Christy is getting the computer and probably a little more.

Tomorrow is Waffle House.

July 16 Again

As a member of the Government-Industry team that helped launch Apollo 11 40-years ago today I can’t help but write something about that day and the mission.

I was fortunate enough to be there, 3 ½ miles away from the Saturn 5 rocket, to witness the launch of the first men to walk on the moon. Why 3 ½ miles you may ask? For safety reasons NASA cordoned off a blast zone based upon the explosive energy in the launch vehicle. The calculations showed that an explosion of the rocket on the pad could throw 100 lb pieces of shrapnel 3 miles. The VIP stands were set at 3 ½ miles away.

One remarkable thing about that launch was that it went off perfectly, on time and with no glitches. Usually there are some minor things that go wrong but this launch left everyone waiting for that other shoe to drop.

The Apollo computers were considered very powerful at the time yet they had less processing power than today’s cell phones.

I take it for granted that people know the details of the moon mission simply because I do but then I remember it happened 40 years ago and most people around today don’t. So here is a little technical rundown of the Apollo 11 mission.

The launch itself was exciting and scary at the same time. The Saturn 5 Launch Vehicles engines are fired and the rocket is held in place for 3 seconds while full thrust develops. . The 5 engines are actually fired 0.3 seconds apart to lessen the acoustic vibration experienced by the astronauts and the vehicle. It takes the rocket a full 11 seconds to clear the launch tower. Engine failure during this phase would likely result in loss of the crew.

There were 3 ways the astronauts could escape potential disaster. If they were faced with a potential explosion before lift-off they could exit the Apollo capsule, run along the swing arm and either jump into an escape slide that brought them to a bunker under the launch pad or they could use the slide wire that delivered them to a protected bunker beside the launch pad. After lift-off the Apollo capsule had an escape rocket on it to lift the capsule up and away so it could parachute to safety.

After reaching orbit the next big event is translunar injection. The 3rd stage of the rocket provides the energy to send the vehicle away from earth orbit in such a manner that the Apollo capsule will encounter the moon with the proper orbital plane alignment for the Lander to reach the landing site. The astronauts are now traveling at 24,000 mph.

The translunar coast takes 3 days to cover the 240,000 miles to the moon. During this period the Command and Service Module ( CSM ) separates from the 3rd stage, rotates, and couples with the Lunar Module (LM) and backs away from the 3rd stage . Rendezvous and docking techniques were first demonstrated by the earlier Gemini Program to prepare for the moon mission.

When the capsule reaches the moon it must fire it’s rockets the enter a lunar orbit. Interestingly this burn occurs when the astronauts are out of communication with the earth. For 45 minutes on each lunar orbit there is no signal from the craft. This provides for a period of high anxiety at mission control in that grey area where the signal should appear again and great rejoicing when all is well.

Then comes the big event. The LM with 2 guys in it separates from the CSM and begins its final descent to the landing site. We learned later that the LM was sounding 2 program alarms starting about 7 miles above the moon. The astronauts were assured it was OK although the cause wasn’t learned until much later. The problem occurred because they had the unneeded rendezvous radar operating during descent and it was overloading the computer.

Then at about 300 ft Neil Armstrong noted the lander was heading for an enormous crater surrounded by boulders. He very nearly exhausted the fuel supply maneuvering to a smoother area to land. It was later determined that the cabin of the orbiter wasn’t fully depressurized when the LM separated from it and the effect (sort of like popping a cork on champagne) caused the LM to land 4 miles away from the desired landing site.

Everyone’s familiar with the landing and moon walks but you may not know that Neil landed so softly that the landing struts didn’t depress. His one small step was really pretty big. He had to jump 3 ½ feet from the ladder to the surface. I almost forgot. Once landed the astronauts were supposed to stay inside and take a nap—right. Do you think you could nap when you were the first ones on the moon? Theey did stay inside--I don't know if they slept.

Some other interesting facts: planting the flag proved more difficult than expected. The surface of the moon was a lot harder than they thought. The flag (made by Sears) was just barely planted. Buzz had to make sure he left the LM door unlocked when he came out. There is no outer handle on the door and AAA doesn’t cover lockouts on the moon. We don’t have Neil’s boots from the first moonwalk. Weight considerations and fears of dust contamination resulted in them leaving their boots behind.

After about 22 hours on the moon it was time to go. During this time astronaut Collins was orbiting the moon alone and experiencing those 45 minute blackout periods when he was out of touch with all of mankind. Could you be any more alone? The top part of the LM ascends by firing its rocket motor leaving the base and legs on the moon (along with the boots).

Back in lunar orbit the crucial rendezvous and docking is executed flawlessly. Before leaving lunar orbit the LM is ejected and left in lunar orbit. The CSM then fires its engine for trans-earth injection and the long ride home.

Before entering Earth’s atmosphere the Service Module is separated leaving only the Apollo Command Module to return to earth. These were the days of splashdown in the water and pickup by an aircraft carrier. Reentry angle must be controlled within a tenth of a degree for success. By this time we were getting pretty good precision in our landings and the capsules were usually spotted while they were still in the air with their parachutes. In the early days it was rare to see one with parachutes.

The astronauts were put in isolation after returning to assure they didn’t bring back any unknown dangerous moonbugs.

Whew! That’s enough for this year.

Back on earth today I did get the bed headboard and footboard assembled. We also got a paint color tab from Lowe’s to make sure Bistro White is the correct color. I matched it to the bed rails I made 2 years ago and it is the correct color. The bed should be finished this weekend.

New Gasses On – Old Gasses Off

That’s how Sophie would say it. Penny and I had our eyes examined today and we both are getting new frames. We got good service and the experience was enjoyable. For a good portion of the time we had the whole place to ourselves.

After the eye appointment we went to Logan’s and both had their 6 oz sirloin special for lunch.

I wore out my random orbit sander yesterday working on the bed. It just started going slower and slower until it stopped. I took it apart and didn’t see anything to fix so one stop on our very efficient venture into town today was to get a new one at Lowes.

Next we hit Sam’s to get the stuff we periodically get at Sams and Finally CVS to get a replacement Epi-Pen shot kit for Penny to replace the one stolen in SF.

It may have been an efficient trip from a planning standpoint but it wasn’t an inexpensive one. Gasses are expensive!

I’m ready to begin assembly of the head and footboards for the bed tomorrow. Then I cut the slats to size and put them in and finally put the head caps on each and I’m done with assembly. Then it’s final sanding and painting and going on to the other pieces of furniture.

Random Weekend Thoughts

We had a normal Saturday. Waffle House in the morning, Church in the evening, working on the bed in between. Sunday has been all working on the bed. All the pieces are cut now and today I’m routing out molding and rounding edges. That means I’ll do finishing sanding and begin (and maybe finish) assembly this coming week. The plan is to have at least the bed finished by Sophie’s birthday. Once the bed is finished I’ll start on the other projects for the room.

I’m listening to podcasts I saved up from last month – Fresh Air, Science Friday, Stuff You Should Know, Stuff You Missed in History, 60 Minutes and off course Car Talk. The shows give me thinking material, information and entertainment. They also provide some needed exposure to the liberal views that most of these shows portray as well as insight into the current entertainment arts and literature world.

I enjoyed hearing that scientists have unearthed evidence of the domestication of cats from 9,500 years ago. They found a cat buried “in the same orientation” as the body of a woman. It goes to show that even early humans loved their critters as much as we do now.

It is also likely that you can say goodbye to the banana as we know it within about 5 years. The same fungus that wiped out the Cavendish banana that my grandparents ate has now infected the current banana species and there is no replacement. We may be eating red bananas in 2015.

On a brighter note scientists think they have a fountain of youth pill on the way based on Resveratrol (from red wine), maybe within 5 years. No bananas but longer life.

Another way to live longer is to exist on a very low calorie diet. It makes your survival genes kick in.

One story discussed the effects of concrete on global warming. It’s quite interesting—its manufacture has a large carbon footprint but concrete can also absorb CO2 over its entire lifetime.

Did you know that the only charge that stuck against Joan D’Arc and what they burned her for was cross-dressing and that her body was burned 3 times?

Kitty Update—The cat feeder is still feeding without being refilled for a month. That is partially due to the fact that on most days only 1 or 2 are out there. We also have a less-greedy raccoon showing up. He doesn’t eat everything and Penny thinks he’s more interested in wet food.

The reason for low attendance is likely a bushy tailed gray cat that is staging ambushes on our cats and keeping them too scared to hang around. I had to feed Velcro on the roof for 2 nights because he is too wary of leaving that apparently safe ground. I’m going to have to try to catch Mr Grey. I’ve got to figure out how to do that without catching our 4 .
If I catch him I guess I bring him in to PAWS. That may be my subject in a future kitty update.

The garden is about done. I picked and ate 1 big tomato yesterday and there are a couple more potential ones out there.

Last Day in SF

We started our last day in SF by going back to Pier 39 to see the Aquarium there. It was another admission we had on the City Pass. We got down to the Fisherman’s Wharf area before most places opened up. We headed up towards Ghirardelli Square. Penny wanted something hot to drink (it was chilly, foggy and breezy) and we ended up getting a hot chocolate and chocolate croissant in a Ghirardelli chocolate shop. We watched the activity outside while we ate and drank.

We spent enough time now that things were opening up. We walked back to Pier 39 along the waterfront and found there actually was a fair sized beach there. Some people were swimming laps in the frigid water.

The aquarium itself was disappointing. It provided information about ecology and scolded us for what we were doing to the oceans more than it did identification of what was in the tanks we were looking at. Penny and I like to spend time at each tank and see what we discover with a longer look. Seaworld has some neat tanks for this. Here in SF the displays were relatively less interesting—especially with the dearth of information about what we were seeing.

The aquarium has a lower level that is an underwater acrylic tunnel through indigenous sea life from the bay. T was better than the upstairs and here they did have identification signs. The best part was probably the tank of jellyfish at the entrance to the tunnel. Penny got a great picture of that.








We quickly walked through the rest of Pier 39. I took some pictures of the sea lions and seals on the docks to replace the ones we lost to our car thief.




We hadn’t been to the artsy fartsy rich town of Sausalito so we headed across the Golden Gate Bridge for lunch in Sausalito. Christian had mentioned a restaurant that sat out over the water with a great view of SF but we knew nothing of the area. We parked in the first public lot we saw and set out on foot to explore the area. Fog was cresting the hillside ahead of us and then dissipating.



We passed a couple of restaurants that didn’t fit the description and then came to a huge marina. A lady passed walking her dog “Wyatt”. Penny and Wyatt hit it off nicely. I asked the lady if there was another restaurant here (from where we stood it didn’t look like anything else was beyond the marina). She directed us to the “Spinnaker” a big restaurant built on stilts out over the water with a fantastic view of the foggy SF skyline in the distance.

We got the 2nd to last empty table. It had a great view. The food was wonderful. On our walk back we passed a "priceless" sail boat that a guy was working on. I took a picture of it

I also found this article on-line about the boat: http://www.universalrule.com/page1/body.html

and the sign in front of it. We thought Christian would be interested.

We headed back to the hotel to get our luggage and then go to the airport. I had hoped that the fog might lift and I could get a few nice pictures of the bridge but it was not to be.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We hung around the hotel and went to the airport. Reporting the damage to the car went smoothly. I had all the proper paperwork and information ready. The biggest problem they had was finding a working copy machine.

We had a red eye flight back east through Miami and Penny and I slept most of the way.

Thus ended our trip to SF

I’ve joked that we visited New Orleans just 2 weeks before Katrina hit so SF must be due for an earthquake now that we just visited. On the news today I heard a report that scientists have detected some deep rumbles in the San Andreas fault. H-m-m-m.

Blue Angels Break

I was about to head out and work on the bed this morning when Penny remembered that the Blue Angels had a practice session at Pensacola Beach today. Instead of working on the bed we went into town and looked at mattresses for the bed. Then I drove to p cola.

I haven’t gone to one of their shows primarily because Pensacola Beach becomes a real zoo. The parking and traffic weren’t worth it. Now, however, the road through the National Seashore from Navarre to Pensacola Beach is open after years of closure due to hurricane damage. So it is a backdoor way in to the show.

I was both amazed and saddened by the drive to P cola. Virtually all the sand dunes are gone from Navarre to P cola Beach—miles and miles of shoreline that is the same level as the road all the way to the water. It’s no wonder it took years to recover sufficiently to open the road again. First they had to rebuild it.

I drove all the way along P cola Beach and decided parking near the pier was not a good idea. It was an hour before the show and it was already parked in. I backtracked to the first road to the beach east of the pier that was not a commercial development. That was maybe ½ mile up the beach from the show center and I thought that was good enough. I parked at the end of the street nearest the road out and walked to the beach to claim my spot.

I read for the 45 minutes I had before the show. (Karen’s book by Terri Gross that she loaned me ). The show begins with the Angel’s C-130 buzzing around flying low and climbing high.

The weather was great and my location happened to be perfect for individual planes turning over the beach right over me with all the thrilling roar and rush of an F-18 flying (within 500 ft easily) in full afterburner. Wow! It gave me chills. I also was grinning from ear to ear.

I picked up my stuff and left when the show was ending. I got in my car and away before most others got on the road. Many were there for a day at the beach so it wasn’t as hughe an exodus as it might have been. I had no traffic problems, just the sad and amazing ride back across the level shoreline.

Exploratorium Day

My last informative e-mail from San Francisco came after our day at Yosemite. I sent the e-mails to just about everyone I know that reads this blog so I’ll let those e-mails suffice to cover those days of the trip.

On Tuesday the 24th we went to the Exploratorium, an experimental science museum.It’s a hands-on museum designed to spark curiosity—regardless of your age or familiarity with science. We went there because part of the City Pass we bought was admission to the museum. This is also the place where we dropped our guard and lost some good stuff to a car break-in.

The Exploratorium (http://www.exploratorium.edu/) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratorium) itself is in a huge building on the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts. The palace was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (http://www.exploratorium.edu/palace/index.html), which had as its centerpiece a huge dome supported by Corinthian pillars.


The hands-on exhibits were fun and interesting. My favorite exhibit was the huge convex mirror they had on loan from NASA. It used to be part of a simulator and the visual effects you had just by walking towards and away from it were fascinating. Besides focusing light it also amplified your voice when you stood right in the focus point. The mirror was so precise that when you looked at it you saw your image upside down in apparent 3-D there in front of you.





One feature I liked was the fact that they made the tile in front of the restroom in such a manner that it presented an optical illusion. The black and white tile with grey grout makes the straight lines look curved. It only works with grey grout!


After the museum and discovering the broken window on the car we headed to lunch at Rocco’s, a restaurant we saw on the TV show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. We had a delicious Italian meal, talked with the owner, Don Rocco and even had our picture taken with him.

m.

Bed Update

I’m making good progress on Sophie’s bed. My new saw, having the deck to work on and having built this design before all work together to make this job go more smoothly.

I’ve got all 4 bedposts made—they need only rounding of their edges and final sanding.


I’ve also reached the “got clamps” stage of assembly making the curved headboard cap.


This piece is made of 3, ¼ inch slats laminated together into a ¾-inch thick curved piece. Cutting the ¼ inch pieces gave me fits 2 years ago when I made the crib because I didn’t have a saw big enough or precise enough to do the job easily. This time around I had no issues. The saw cut the pieces properly and they were ready for gluing after only a light sanding. 2 years ago I spent hours planing and sanding the pieces because the saw didn’t cut items squarely.

The next step is cutting out the plywood sections for the head and footboards.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9

For those of you who enjoy such non-event events such as an odometer turning from 99999 to 100000 here is a heads-up for an event that occurs tomorrow:

Shortly after noon on July 8, comes the moment that can be called 12:34:56 7/8/9.

In a couple of years we will have 11:11:11 11/11/11.

Now, isn't that fascinating?

Failure Code F-24

Today was another rainy day and Monday. I had a morning haircut so I didn’t go out to the shed to work on the bed. Instead I blogged and did some cleanup.

After lunch and the haircut I decided to start this week’s laundry before heading out to the shed. The washing machine had other ideas. After I loaded it and put in detergent when I hit the start button it hesitated, beeped and displayed “ERR F-24”.Proving that I was crazy I repeated the process a number of times hoping for a different outcome. I unplugged the machine, spun the wash drum, checked that the door closed properly all to no avail. It was time to hit the internet.

After a little searching I ended up getting good information at a site that was usefull in the past for repair work, FIXYA.COM. I found that the code meant that the temperature sensor was the cause of my problem. It could be open or dirty or the problem could be a more serious control module issue. That was good information but I had to find out what the sensor looked like and where it was located. The Sears site was no help but a little more searching was rewarded with this description: “The temperature sensor is located at the back lower section of the tub with 2 small black wires.”

I had to remove the rear panel of the machine (12 machine screws) to look for the sensor. Fortunately the platform I made to support the washer and dryer provided good access to the back –a little cramped but OK. I shined the flashlight in and just as described there were 2 little black wires going to a connector . I touched the connector and found that it was just hanging loosely in the socket. It came away in my hand. I snapped it back in and that was all it needed. The machine is now doing a load of laundry.

I do believe the internet saved me an expensive repaiman's visit.

In between learning what needed to be fixed and doing the job I did get out to the shed and glue all 4 laminated bedposts for Sophie’s bed.

Mysteries

We found out today that one of Karen’s friends, expecting a baby late this year, has had their baby diagnosed with a fatal heart disease. The baby may die before birth and will not live long (minutes, hours?) . Her friend is hoping for a live birth so she can at least hold and comfort her son in his brief visit to this world.

It is a sad situation and although she and her husband seem to be handling it well I’m sure praying for them and their baby is in order.

I’m sure Karen, in the late stages of a normal pregnancy, understands what her friend is feeling from a poignant personal perspective.

They say “God works in mysterious ways” and “some good will come from this” but at the point in time when one of these mysterious actions is occurring there is much grief, pain and questioning. I find it quite mysterious that many who don’t wish to be pregnant seem to get that way easily. Is irresponsibility a strong indication of fertility? I also see all the children being born to starving people or AIDs victims in Africa with little hope of surviving.

Then I see the opposite situation that Karen’s friend, someone who would provide a loving, safe and nourishing environment, is experiencing. All of us know people like this who also have difficulty conceiving a baby. God’s standards are obviously different and we can’t understand why.

Can a baby with Original Sin, unbaptised, go to heaven? The Catholic Church and Christian religion as a whole had to do a lot of scrambling to provide answers to this dilemma.

My mother and relatives never seemed to have a problem having children. Growing up I thought that the problem was rare. I have since learned differently. We all are reminded how tenuous life is and that we have beaten odds bigger than those against us for winning the lottery by just achieving life. We know we should cherish every second, every breath as a miracle yet we somehow take much of living for granted. We waste precious time that billions upon billions of other potential candidates simply did not have the opportunity to experience. We get wrapped up in pettiness instead of appreciating what we have. Maybe God made us this way because if we actually could fathom the evanescence of life we would all go crazy—or maybe we have done just that.

It always brings me back to the “appreciate what you have” mind frame. We don’t know what tomorrow holds. It also reinforces how unique and precious and yes, even miraculous each person is. (including those we may dislike).

So cherish the people you love. I know that Sophie and baby#2, already precious to Karen, are seen as even more precious and also tenuous.

I am deeply saddened for Karen’s friend. I can’t imagine how she feels or where she gets her strength. We are proof that miracles happen. I pray for her and her family and maybe in His mysterious way God will decide another miracle is in order. Maybe he will let that baby win the lottery of life and at least have a few precious minutes to feel the warmth of his mothers arms and sense her deep love for him before passing on to the next place.

4th of July

Kitty and Malcolm invited us over to their house on the bay to watch fireworks again this year. I looked back at what wrote last year about this –“Her house is on Choctawhatchee Bay and has a panoramic view across the water from Sandestin to Ft Walton Beach. We got to see the fireworks at a Baytown Wharf East of Destin, Destin Pass and Fort Walton. It was a very pleasant evening.”- and except for Baytown Wharf we had a similar experience.

This year the experience was enhanced by an almost-full moon sitting high and reflecting off the water and a refreshing breeze coming off the bay. With the uncomfortably hot weather we are experiencing this was pleasant relief. Before and after the fireworks there was conversation with Kitty’s family and the relaxing sound of the small waves breaking on the shore. A chorus of cicadas added to the calming atmosphere.

This being Saturday we began the day at Waffle House and went to Sunday vigil mass at 5. I spent most of the time in between working on the bed. Today I cut the bedposts to size and notched them where the headboard and footboard will join them.

I’m doing my best now to not breath too much sawdust. Other than having a little congestion each morning after I did woodwork, a normal occurrence as the lungs cleared out yesterday’s sawdust, I’ve had no serious issues. I didn’t think sawdust was more than a nuisance until I read about woodworkers who suddenly develop wood allergies. Apparently the problem part of sawdust is not the visible part but rather the invisible. It acts exactly like a gas filling all the available space. That means in an enclosed shop, unless there is a super HEPA-level collection system, any cutting just increases the density of the sawdust “gas”. The suggestions for woodworkers are to wear a respirator at all times in the shop and even outside when cutting wood.

I’m hoping to prevent another health issue for me stemming from my hobby so this is what I look like when I’m working outside-and this is without my face shield to protect from flying debris.



It makes life interesting. I can’t scratch an itchy nose, lick my finger to turn a page, or blow sawdust out of the way. Even with all this precaution I can’t avoid every bit of the dust. I still wake up each morning after a woodworking day with some congestion. It’s nothing like the pre-respirator days and hopefully I won’t see any issues bigger than having to clear my throat periodically.

Kitty Update—After having all 4 cats finally in attendance for mealtime on Friday night only Velcro, that one that was missing the longest, showed last night. The others must be spending the holiday weekend at their vacation house.

The First Cut is the Hardest

I finally began actual cutting of the wood for Sophie’s bed. I’ve done a lot of planning but I had to push a little to get out there and physically cut wood.

I rolled my saw out onto the deck and did all my cutting out there. I cut the pieces for the bed posts and headboard and footboard caps.

The deck worked out nicely. It was hot out there but all the sawdust stays out of the shop and cleanup is done with a leaf blower rather than a broom. After today’s cutting was done I blew the sawdust off the saw and rolled it back into the neat and clean shop. The deck provides needed extra working space. I’ll be able to work without stepping over or moving something every time I move on to a new operation.

Kitty # 3 Meredith showed up today at 11:30 AM. I fed her along with Buzz and Marmalade and she stayed around for most of the afternoon. Now only Velcro is missing.

Karen sent 2 wonderful videos of Sophie in her blog.today. I smiled and laughed out loud watching them. The videos are precious and I’m so happy that Karen has been sharing Sophie with everyone. We also talked with Karen and Sophie today and I noted that the use of “Pepaw” is fading and now I am “Gampa”.

We rarely do anything special on a holiday weekend and this one is no different. We will do our normal weekend stuff and probably just stay out of the way of the tourist-crowded places.

Eat Those Tomatoes

The tomato crop is in and we are having tomatoes as often as we can. They don’t have a great shelf life. Our best solution has been BLTs each day. That along with a nice meal of pasta cruda has gone a long way to using the tomatoes. I also have a little bowl full of bush tomatoes that can be snaked on any time one passes the bowl.

We still lose a tomato or 2 each day just because they go bad.

Kitty Update: Sunday night after we returned no cats showed up. With the dry weather the annual arrival of ants feeding on the cat food was also going on. The ants were thick enough to make it uncomfortable to stand because they crawl up your leg. When I’m here I manage the ants so that was one of my first tasks.

On Mon night Buzz showed up. Tuesday found only Marmalade. Wednesday there were no kitties. Tonight Buzz and Marmalade showed. Meredith and Velcro are still no-shows.

The Hungry Hunter

Two weeks ago we flew to San Francisco arriving around 11 AM local time. It took about an hour to get the rental car and then drive to the hotel. I asked the hotel clerk about restaurants in the area and she steered us to one we could walk to, The Hungry Hunter. It happened to be their barbeque specials day. We found the menu had tri-tip on it, a cut of beef we found particularly good in our last trip to Tucson.

Both Penny and I got the tri-tip and it was great. The meal made for a comfortable beginning to our vacation. The staff at the restaurant was friendly and talkative.

After the meal we walked back to the hotel in a brisk wind. I had a post-flight headache and Penny was just plain worn out so we spent the rest of the day in the room. I relaxed and planned for Thursday.