tue dec 1
remember the plywood and 1x’s I primed yesterday? Today I painted them green and then did a little framing next door.
I tried to debug c3pr’s latest sns logic, and it has trouble switching between threads. Getting tired of this.
wed dec 2
No sooner had I finished peeing this morning when Mary pointed out the puddle on the floor, where the valve (not me!) was drip-drip-dripping onto the cork. It definitely needs attention. So I went to town for parts and replaced the valve. Problem solved.
Spaghetti with smoked trout puttanesca for lunch.
I headed next door and put in switch boxes and 14-3 upstairs. It’s a rainy day, and I’ve got the whole place to myself.
thu dec 3
I feel like shit. My throat is scratchy and I’m coming down with something bad.
It’s drizzling out and the Crew worked all day on the roof next door. I gotta hand it to them for wanting to get it done.
I spent the morning in the shop and soaked not quite half of my beads in tung oil and spread them out to dry.
Then I re-furbished the little vise I picked up at an auction last year and I set up the mill to drill small holes in small square nails and then trial-fitted a small diamond into the hole. The hole is a little too deep and a little too wide, but as a pipe cleaner, it was a success.
Turkey salad sandwich with sriracha butter for lunch and then I headed next door.
Wiring up the downstairs is a little different from upstairs, what with the large living room and the ban on wires in the dining room ceiling. I worked till dark, though, and ran out of 12-2 and 14-3.
I came home and decided to go back to the simpler ‘background thread’ method for displaying Mat’s. This time, though, I’m going to make sure to use a pthread_mutex for synchronizing. If this doesn’t work, I’ll be out of ideas. Again.
Delicious stuffed poblanos for dinner and ice cream with fresh chocolate sauce and granola for dessert, followed by a stern admonition to gargle and take it easy, lest I catch my death and ruin the holidays for everyone.
Soaking a batch of butternut beads. A 3:1 dilution seemed to work best.
The rust makes it really hard to drill it exactly where you want it.
“Only the biggest of the small nails are big enough to hold the smallest diamonds.”
fri dec 4
So I gargled and took it easy today and I still felt like shit. Can’t win.
Mary had hand surgery today and it went well. I hope she still feels good in the morning.
I read a lot of Stephen King today. Can’t take it much easier than that!
I soaked another flat full of butternuts. Up to now, it’s been pure, wild speculation regarding how many butternut beads I’ve got, and today I made an educated guess. I’m guessing 1 square inch per nut when they’re laid out to dry. So that’s about 800 nuts per tray x 2.5 trays … That’s about 2000 nuts. I’d been guessing maybe 4-5k, but I guess it is what it is. I’ll just have to be careful about doling them out.
sun dec 5-6
I’m starting to snap out of it, and Mary credits the Zi-cam, which is a homeopathic zinc spray you coat your mouth with, and the taste of your mouth makes the cold virus want to be far, far away. I have to admit, it was the shortest cold I’ve ever had.
By saturday, I felt good enough to put in a few hours next door, pulling 14-3 for the dining room. Ugh.
Mary’s birthday is sunday, and I am fucked. No card. No clue. So since Mary was in town while I was wiring next door, I decided to go to the store to pick up a card and $64 worth of wine and then sneak back home on dark dirt roads, hoping we wouldn’t pass each other on the road, and I’d get back before she did. (Hey, I can always claim I needed more wire!) So I went. But when I left the grocery store after lingering too long in the wine aisle, trying to make 3 bottles add up to $64, I saw that her car was in the parking lot! I’d say there’s even odds that she saw me in the store and decided to shut up about it and make me squirm. And if she did, then I deserve it. Mary cooked up a good pork chop dinner, and when the topic of her birthday came up, it turned out it’s not until Monday! I’m saved! (To be clear, I know her birth date. It’s today’s date that I was confused about.) Then, over salad, she started singing the “when I’m 64” song, which I’d planned to quote in her card. So now I’ve got to come up with a whole ‘nother witty inscription. Sigh.
Then, on Sunday, we went to Charon & Marshall’s for dinner, and they put on a clinic for how to do a decent birthday dinner.
We picked and cut a Christmas tree at Paine’s and it’s hung up bare in the living room, and Mary’s wreaths are hung out on the garage.
I’ve got the holiday humbugs, and I can’t wait for January.
From a distance, most christmas trees look pretty good.
Hitching a ride back to to the car after finding a good one.
The birthday queen.
Don’t think of it as 64: think of it as x40 in hexadecimal
tue dec 7-8
I need to do errands. I need to work next door. I need to do too much stuff, and there’s not time for it all. So this morning, I had to decide which errand NOT to do, and I decided I really needed to order my diamonds. It is crazy that I cannot seem to buy small loose diamonds online. The smallest you can get is about .2c, and I need .08’s. When I bought 2 at Kayes, they took 2 weeks to get, and I don’t have that kind of time. So I went to Zales, and they said they’d have them in the store ‘tomorrow,’ so I’ll see them soon.
Because my mind was still blank, and because chocolate is a tried and true problem solver, I bought 64 pieces of chocolate.
I went next door and ripped out and put in wires in the basement, and skinned my knuckles pretty good doing it.
Mary had planned the menu, bought the food and the wine, and I made salad. It was all good.
I went to the bead store, looking for colored beads to go with the butternuts. The lady was extremely mellow, and they had all the hooks and rings I needed for the earrings. Less luck, though, with the beads. Most beads are drilled for a thin wire, and my string won’t fit. That narrows it way down.
I went next door and vacuumed the walls. Even with gloves, I was scraped up bad again.
We decorated the tree, and Mary made dynamite shrimp and grits.
wed dec 9
For weeks now, I’ve struggled with one thing or another in c3pr – unpredictable core dumps, for example – but last night, everything seemed to work. The gui, the cameras, the grabber, opencv, multi-threading, the program logic, … everything seemed to do exactly what it’s supposed to do. And even after a couple of overnight trials, it hasn’t core-dumped since I put in the mutexes. And I sat back and I thought to myself: ‘wow.’ That’s a big deal. Nice job. Keep up the good work, and you’ll go far.
I headed for burlington first thing. University Mall makes me want to take a shower, but that’s where my diamonds were, so that’s where I went. I peppered the guy with all kinds of questions about how the diamond business works, and he was pretty good about sharing.
I ran a bunch of errands on the way home, and picked up a new electrical panel and 3 boxes of band aids because at the rate I’m going, I’m going to need them.
We had hamburgers and watched Bernie Sanders on Jimmy Fallon.
thu dec 10
This morning, I made enchilada sauce. Red and green. Chicken and pork.
I couldn’t decide: should I make red chicken, or red pork? And then it hit me: what’s more holiday-spirited than green eggs and ham? So I made the green sauce with the chicken.
Tomatillos and broth are the only ingredients that are in both batches. For the first time ever, I made the Green with no powders at all, because all my powders are red, and I wanted it to stay green. I used up the whole bucket of tomatillos that’s been freezing and thawing on the porch since september, and they were mostly perfectly good. I was running quite the operation, with several burners going, and a lot of chopping happening. I was using red juice to pick up the leavings from browning the pork, when Brian drove up, so I shut off both burners and went outside to talk. By the time I got back, the house had filled up with smoke because apparently, ‘both’ burners was 1 short of all of them. The red juice and leavings had burned to crispy black crud that stopped up the sink. None of it ruined the red sauce, but if it turns out the green sauce is better than the red sauce, just remember that the red sauce could have been even better if it hadn’t been for Brian.
I went next door and mounted the new panel in the basement, and then vacuumed more wall in the living room. It’s getting pretty close to where I should be able to clean up once and for all, and I’m looking forward to it.
I came home and cleaned up, and we went to a mushroom growing seminar at MOCO, which was pretty interesting even though I didn’t catch most of it. Mary liked it a lot and bought a bucket of mushroom media, and she’s going to put it in her shower and watch them grow. I think it’s cool, but I just don’t have time to do anything but watch.
When you die, do the worms eat you first, or the mushrooms?
Roasted green chiles
Roasted and peeled. I am not good at peeling.
My first-ever batch of green chile sauce made with no chile powder whatsoever.
A whole pan of savory drippings, down the drain.
Or not.
fri dec 11
Mary stayed home today, the better to do chores and errands before her party. Apparently, she had a pretty good time at the bottle recycling place.
It was a beautiful day. Like about 60 degrees and sunny. And I spent it in the cellar next door. I should have been on my motorcycle!
I transferred power-from-the-pole to the new panel, and I was real careful about doing it, because there were no breakers to turn off, and the only path to ground was me. Then I powered up the old panel with a loose wire from the new one, so everything that used to work, still works.
I swapped out the string of lights on the porch for Mary and had a big bowl of soup and then I went back next door and finished vacuuming the 1st floor walls and part of the basement. What a fucking job.
I went downtown to spend $15 on a secret santa gift. As I wandered around, it was either going to be 30 rolls of paper towels, a wall clock, hand tools, or a surge protector. I should have gotten the paper towels.
The old panel
The new panel.
sun dec 12-13
It’s party day. I vacuumed the house and cleaned the toilet and we assembled the enchiladas. Out of all that work, we got 26 enchiladas. They came out good and everyone liked them, but everyone had already had too many munchies. It seemed to be a rather subdued affair, and Dave did most of the talking.
I drilled the rest of the holes for the diamonds, and it takes a pretty close tolerance to get the hole deep enough for the stone, yet not so deep that it pokes thru the back side. The stones range from .101″ to .114″ diameter and each hole was drilled custom. It basically went well.
I can’t say the same for my plan to braze a loop to the other end of the nail. I couldn’t control the heat, and if the nail didn’t melt, then the braze blobbed or the ring shattered, and I decided that heat is not the right way to do this after all. This is where “gift cards for all” starts looking pretty good.
I went next door and vacuumed the rest of the rest of the joists in the basement. I took out the old pump and holding tank for the original well and I removed the fill and vent pipes on the leaky fuel tank. I took dozens of half-full quart and gallon cans out of the basement and dumped them in the shed. I took out a lot of the stray wires that crisscross the house and generally got rid of a lot of the large junk. All this just about did me in, and when I finally sat down, I watched part of a football game I didn’t care about.
Nachos and Madam Secretary.
I ruined a lot of nails by drilling a tiny bit too deep and poking thru the back.
It looks like this couple replaced the old foundation
mon dec 14
Nobody showed up next door.
I spent the morning drilling tiny holes in rusty nails. With a .051 drill thru the thin end of the nail, you really need a center drill to mark the center, because a tiny bit of offset is really noticeable. I only ruined 1 earring, and I must be getting the hang of it, because I did a whole new one in about 10 minutes. Grinding turned out to be pretty easy.
I ate an old hamburger and went next door and broomed the big chunks off the floor and moved the furniture away from the walls. I took out floor vents and copper pipe and scraped the cellar floor clean. I went downtown and bought 90 pieces of propervent, and I know damned well that I’m going to be down there tomorrow buying a stapler, because mine barely works. I keep thinking wd-40 is going to fix it, but I’m a fool.
You cannot drill the dangly end of the nails without a center drill
wed dec 15-16
I’m a fool. I thought a little wd-40 would keep my staple gun working, but it was misfiring every other staple, and when you’re talking 1500 staples, you’re talking a lot of misfires. So I bought a new stapler and it works good, but one of those electric units would have been even better.
Out of the blue, Bitflow volunteered to solve their ’20 second capture’ problem if I would just send them my camera, so I packaged it up with a nice letter, and it’s in the mail.
Next door, I’ve got the panel started, a few items off the blocking checklist, and 2/3 of the propervent up.
I squoze the diamonds into the nails, deforming the heads until the stones were wedged in tight. Some of them came out perfect and some of them came out crooked, but they all look really nice unless you look really close. I just hope none of them come out!
I trimmed the terra cotta rim to thickness. It was messy, but it worked. And I did the whole thing without thinking to take a single photo. Sorry!
fri dec 17-18
Sometimes, I skip a day, and I can’t for the life of me remember what I did yesterday.
I worked next door, of course, but the drumbeat of dirty little tasks I do over there has turned into a blur. It’s a race against time to get enough done that we can foam the walls.
ohmygod, christmas is right around the corner! I better get busy with the rest of my christmas presents! I drilled the terra cotta and epoxied the screws into the back. I printed the photos, bought a round piece of glass, and it looks like everything is going to go together ok.
I decided to make nutsabers after all and, after 3 1/2 hours of lathe work, I’ve got most of the pieces made. This is a leap of faith, thinking I can finish it on time, but it’s nothing compared to the silver bullets. For me, Christmas gift ideas seem to be like apple trees: they only bear fruit every other year. Next year, it’s going to be gift cards for all.
cheap diamond hole drills wear out almost immediately when you use them dry.
Setting the screw anchors in place.
sat dec 19
I woke up late and, as I usually do, started the coffee and fed the cat in my underwear and then headed to the bathroom. Right about then, Brian came pounding on the door and while I obliviously went on brushing my teeth, Mary frantically found a robe and answered the door. He didn’t really want anything so much as to let us know he’s back on the job, but Mary kind of garbled the message, and I took my coffee next door to find out the real story. Everything is cool.
Just as we settled back into our chairs, the door knocked again, and this time it was some fucking religious peddler. Thanks but no thanks. Slam.
I epoxied the hilts into the nutsabers’ handles and then headed next door, where I closed off the gaping hole in the wall between the LR and the office, and then put up plastic over the windows so they won’t get sprayed with foam.
It’s 6 days till Christmas, and we both needed to buy a $40 Secret Santa gift. So we went to Burlington, scored a free parking spot, and bought cheap shit for the kids. Somehow, I don’t think this is what Christmas is supposed to be all about.
Mary had discount coupons for a new pizza place, and I had my first-ever brussel sprout pizza. It was really good, but more because of the crust than the sprouts.
Driving back, we ran into a snowing white-out in Stowe and we crept slowly, safely home.
This section of wall has been remodelled many times.
sun dec 20
We were up ‘early’ and Mary went to Stowe to pick up the kids. I headed down to the cellar to get something done before hurricane Suri made landfall. I was drilling the plug holes in the nutsaber end caps when she showed up and, when I kept right on doing it, she watched me. I set it up to grind the hilts, and we formed a production line: She handed me the pieces, and I ground them down and handed them back. They’re beautiful.
Mary made bacon and eggs, and I ate more than my share, and then I headed into town for 5 more 1/8″ rods, and I took Suri with me. We clipped her up with the microphone, belted her in, and went to Aubuchons. Yesterday, they had half a dozen rods. Today, they had one. We headed for Tractor Supply, and they had none. Johnson Farm & Garden is closed on Sunday, so we headed for the HW store in Jeffersonville, but I hit the brakes when it turned out JFG was open, but they had none either. This is ridiculous! So we went to Jeffersonville after all, and they had 3, so now I’m up to 4 rods and still 1 short of what I need. I know when I’m licked, so we headed back and, to make it fun, I drove an extra loop in all the rotaries.
I made 8 coat racks for Mary out of stair treads I took out of the Green House, but I think I blew it on the fundamentals: The treads are 36″x 12″, and I made 4 racks from each piece, and they came out to 17″x6″. That 17″ is just barely big enough to span the 16″ between studs, so mounting is going to be a problem. Some day, I’m going to make something simple without screwing it up. But apparently not this year.
Maggie showed up and we had beat up chicken. As soon as they left, Mary nodded off on the couch.
mon dec 21
This morning, I did the math, and I decided I had more stuff to get done By, Christmas than I have stuff to do next door by After Christmas. So for the second straight day, I didn’t go next door. And I can’t say I miss it.
I made the mat and the plywood backing for the terra cotta picture and I made the jewelry boxes, start to finish. Everything is a lot more work than you’d think, and it took all day and part of the night.
We finished off the last of the enchiladas and beans. Burp.
wed dec 22-23
The heat wave continues, and it is tee shirt weather for christmas.
I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my christmas projects, and today I managed to get everything fully finished, boxed and wrapped. There were some last-minute glitches, but everything came together just in time. It’s safe to say I over-did it this year, but in a good way.
Brian’s crew worked in the rain, putting up metal roofing on the north side of the house, and they are getting close. With the pressure off for christmas, I went next door and stapled down the propervent at the eaves. There’s a manageable amount of work to do and time to do it in before foaming next week.
grinding and polishing the nutsaber hilts
Affixing the tassels to the hilts
Very cool packaging for earrings
Nutsabers!
Now all I need is half a dozen Jedi knights
sat dec 24-26
So Christmas came and went. The girls came and went. Piles and piles of food came and went, and right now, if I were in the mood for a midnight snack, I’d have a choice of pecan pie, yule log, brownies, 9 kinds of holiday cookies, candied pecans, granola, or chocolate sauce (all home-made), plus ice cream, a 16 oz snickers bar, a 1.3 sq ft piece of rice crispies / marshmallow treats, 2 kinds of organic chocolate, and some japanese potato candy. Is this what Christmas is about? Really? It’s not that I don’t enjoy the windfall, and I’m happy to eat it all, but … Really? I look at all the presents that got given and, except for mine, every single one of them was store bought and most of them were … gifted because ‘ya gotta give a gift.’ I guess in this family, cooking is the moral equivalent of my own ‘hand-crafted’ mindset. C & M came for dinner, and it was pretty lively, but it was followed by a doozy of a 4-way disagreement and some interesting comments all around. Everyone is fucked up.
Today, I went next door to finish up wiring and to vacuum the walls again, and I worked there right past dark and, just as I was walking home, the girls were backing out to go to Burlington and are ‘playing it by ear,’ whereabouts wise.
Half a half a dozen semi-Jedi’s
“Luke, I’m your father!”
Good looking ears!
One of many crowded meals
mon dec 27-28
I worked again next door, fixing wiring, stapling, plastic on windows, taping boxes, vacuuming. Whatever wasn’t done. It was cold yesterday, and it was 15 degrees today.
Adam’s Cousin Christmas took place and it was a lively affair with 24 attendees and really good gravy. I won the secret santa box of chocolate, and Mary took home the Mobile Organizer. Again.
The girls were back with us tonite and came with pizza. It was a subdued affair.
wed dec 30
They didn’t spray last night, and they didn’t spray today, and they’re taking the holiday off, so it’s safe to say they won’t spray until some time next week. And next week is 2016, so that means I have failed to meet my goal of getting the place insulated by the end of the year. Close, but no cigar.
Last night, I had a rare fist-pump moment with c3pr when I finally figured out how to get the camera to give vibrant colors under low light. The magic knob turned out to be: exposure time. Duh. This is turning out to be a lot different than taking pictures with a camera. There’s a whole different vocabulary: Brightness, contrast and ISO vs gain, gamma, and offset. It was really good to finally get it right.
So I took the day off: I didn’t go next door at all. I put my packages in the mail and cleaned up the shop and spent a couple hours on c3pr updates. And it felt like a good day.
thu dec 31
The last day of the year, and I celebrated with scrambled eggs and a couple hours of work on c3pr. I installed 2 bathroom fans next door.
The last meal of 2015 was filet and broccoli. The new package of goat cheese had a hole in it, but it looked ok and I used it anyway. Two hours later, I shit my brains out.
All in all, 2015 wasn’t a good year or a bad year, but it was a hard year.
I gotta learn to take it easy.
About a year ago.
Say what you want, but it’s a big improvement.
And a work in progress.