Had a couple of beers at my favorite brewpub. Good way to see in the new year. They aren't open late so now I'm watching brain candy on TV with my wife.
Saddle up, boys... We're burning daylight. https://www.google.com/search?clien...#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:30d44abe,vid:MhO85yWpBJI There is no retirement in the Kingdom of God, and no looking back...
Wednesday I went to choir practice and rejoined the choir after being off for several years. I was the only male there so they really need me. Not the first time I've been in that position. It helps that I can sing both bass and tenor. Tomorrow will be the real test. Can I get up in time to get to the first service. 7:15 is awfully early. Though I will admit I will like the traditional service better than the blended service.
I've been carefully taking down some drywall panels. It was really tedious, using a magnet to find the nails so I can then dig out the nails. What it means is that I can lift a drywall panel down from the wall without having broken it into a thousand pieces. That in turn means I can rest it back in place, which means the cat can't go through the gap into the parts of the house I don't want him accessing. What I want to do is take down some stud wall framing so I can get at the ceiling laths, pull down some more ceiling, then add fresh insulation and sound proofing. It will make for another horrendous mess but at least the shop vac is on hand to clean it up. It took a while to get to this point, not least because there were several options for what we could do with some adjacent spaces and it took us a long time to decide exactly what we wanted to do. But now we have a decision so I can get on with making it happen. The time it takes to remove one single column of nails is about the same as it would take to remove the entire section of drywall with a hammer and prybar, but then I'd have no way of containing the cat. This project would be so much easier if I didn't have to consider the cat.
Overslept Sunday. Woke up with barely enough time to scramble to church in time for warmup and rehearse. Luckily I live very close to the church.
Yesterday I did something I don't remember doing since I moved to Florida. I got up to go to church in time for choir warm-up and had to scrape frost off my window. I couldn't even find my scraper.
Fetched 1 ton of nice fir firewood Monday. If I ever get it unloaded I'll get another ton. Goes quickly this season
A little more tinkering around with the house. I'm trying to figure how much it's sensible to pull down and how much is best left well alone. I'm starting to lean towards leaving a few things alone to avoid having entire door frames kicking around spare, but there are some areas where laths on one wall go behind another wall and it's hard to see how to get the laths out without taking down the latter wall. I have an oscillating tool that in theory will cut laths off without leaving stubs, it's just that the blades for that thing go dull fast enough for it to be all but useless. Maybe I can find a wood-cutting blade for my angle grinder and do a bit of freehand cutting with it, leaving only the very top and bottom of the wall to cut with something slower. With any luck it won't be long before I have both the clear space and the mental energy to start fitting the vinyl I ordered to the walls and ceiling. Given the price of lumber is returning to something at least marginally more sensible I may even be able to get the room I stripped back to bare concrete blocks restudded without needing a second mortgage. That would be nice.
A is for arson. B is for be an arsonist. C is for commit arson. D is for do arson. E is for everyone should be an arsonist. ... I'll stop there.
Frequently. But this is the house we hope can be our forever home and arson kinda messes with that idea.
Interesting day yesterday. I was accused of being a racist on the job site by one my fellow employees. I won't bother with all the details. It was partially because I completely misread a situation that made it worse than it had to be (I am definitely culpable of a making a couple mistakes). But we sat down with the relevant people and explained ourselves and ended very amicably with forgiveness and handshakes. So that was good. It was still an awful feeling.