So This Happened

What else can you do when you need to carry a load of stuff from the hardware store to your house, and your primary load-bearing vehicle is feeling a bit under the weather?

You improvise.

The Grand Am is not generally considered to be a heavy-lift vehicle. It is more suited to demonstrations of overactive accelerator pedal activity than to the mundane task of carrying a load of lumber from the store to the garage.

But in a pinch, due to the open passage between the trunk and the passenger space which appears when the back seats are lowered, it actually does a fair job of carrying a number of lengthy (but not too lengthy) objects.

The passenger seat looks a bit FULL.

And the passenger section looks a bit FULL, too!

And the TRUNK is FULL, too!!

Looking up towards the front from the trunk...

Here's the list of things which were able to be carried on this trip:

3 - 4x4x8 treated posts. Kinda heavy.
3 - cement post supports, supposedly 50 pounds each.
9 - cement pavers, square, 12"x12"
9 - 2x3x8 studs
9 - 2x2x8 furring strips

I was impressed.

And worried.

And wondering how before the very-rusted frame suddenly snapped, leaving the car lying in two pieces in the middle of the road.

(Due to my most recent experience, I'm a little leery of cars right now...)

But it survived! We made it home! With our project parts!

Project 1: Under-deck Beautification

• 2x3 studs to form the support framing for the lattice work.
• 4x4s to support the framing structure.
• Cement post supports for the 4x4s.

Project 2: Front Porch Winter Moisture Protection

• 2x2x8 furring strips

Project 3: Outdoor Fireplace Ground Support

• Cement pavers, square

Total weight - somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pounds. I think. 

I'll have some pictures up later to show what we end up doing with all that stuff!

And Then This Happened

We're preparing for winter. I needed to obtain a storage container for a few things which have been gathering dust in my garage. A large container. Which will be placed under the deck outside where it will neither get in my way whilst working in my shop, nor offend the neighborhood aesthetic (provided I complete the lattice-work screen around the base of the deck).

One of the local hardware stores had a reasonably-sized product available, so thither to the store I went. I found, I bought, I conquered -- and then proceeded to ferry my precious cargo home in the back of my little green Subaru to begin the construction process.

I was particularly pleased that my car, my sweet little green Subaru, was running like a peach -- and it should, after all the time I'd been putting into it over the past few months, fixing brakes, replacing struts, repairing vacuum lines. The engine was purring, the suspension was responsive, the brakes felt great.

And then this happened.

Driver Side

Passenger View

About a half-mile from the house, just past the last light at the beginning of a little hill, suddenly there was a loud BANG! and the front view disappeared behind some kind of huge mass and there was only a little bit of light showing just above the dash --

-- and I suddenly realized that the hood of the car had flown up and struck the windshield.

Without thinking, in a reflex action, I tilted my head so that I could see through the little space between the curve of the blocking hood and the top of the dash, pulled over into the turn lane (ever thankful that there was one!) and brought the car to a stop. It was late in the evening and there was no traffic. A car or two whizzed past me, and then the road was empty.

I got out of the car and surveyed the damage. Two sets of cracks in the windshield, one for the driver and one for the passenger. Dents in the hood. Remarkably, no damage to the frame of the car above the windshield. I tried to shut the hood. It resisted. I pushed harder. It still wouldn't click.

So I drove home. Slowly. Down the street to the neighborhood entrance. Around the curve. With pesky cars on my tail.  Where did they come from?? Naturally, they show up in a hurry when I have to drive slowly.

And then they disappeared right before I turned onto our street.

After parking the car, I had one more take at the hood and finally got it to click in place. Not too bad. Other than the windshield, it's still driveable.

But definitely not with that windshield.

Oh, well. Been there, done that. Time to call the auto glass place, have 'em come out and replace it. While waiting, I'll fix up the hood as best I can.

And figure out why that hood latch suddenly and catastrophically failed.

---

But I'm running out of time to get all these things ready for winter. We have two Subarus that don't even run, with serious rust issues, along with the two that are running with serious rust issues. And all the house maintenance work to finish before winter. We're getting a bit frustrated here. To the point that we had a discussion tonight about getting rid of all the not-working cars and just starting over with something else. Craigslist always has deals going.

And I admit I'm really not sure what to do. I do love working on cars, and generally manage to get things fixed up in a reasonable amount of time to keep them running (except for the one that's been my hanger queen for five years now!).

But with my recent research into the rust issues, it's getting very difficult to see how to keep up with the rate of decay on these things. Summer was supposed to be my time to take care of all those things so the cars would be ready for another harsh winter. But winter is almost here, and the cars have generally gotten worse than they were at the start of summer.

Two steps forward, ten steps back.

---

These plastic storage bins are nice, in the sense that they are affordable, easy to put together, and relatively light so they can be carried around and set up just about anywhere. But they have a recurring flaw: they don't tolerate rough handling while in the store. And since they are packaged in relatively thin cardboard, it is generally accepted that at least one part of the package will need to be replaced.

This isn't our first storage unit from this particular vendor. We bought a deck storage unit a year or two ago which we've been very happy with, even though we found damage when we unpacked it; but all it took was a visit to their website and we were able to order a replacement part which arrived within a couple days. So we did the same thing again. Unfortunately, this particular part is back-ordered (probably because everybody else had the same issue), so we'll have to wait a bit longer. But that'll give me the time necessary to clear out the space under the deck and put together some kind of platform to set it on.

The plan is to take all the spare car parts which are just taking up space in the garage (and unlikely to be used since they came off the old engine we got rid of last year) and wrap 'em up in some grease-paper or something and plunk 'em into the new storage shed where they'll be out of the way. Last year, we did something similar to all the scrap wood that had been taking up room in the loft and piled it under the deck (on a raised platform) and covered it with a tarp, and it survived the winter very well.

Now that we're thinking of getting all those old car parts out-of-sight, out-of-mind, it does bring to mind the joy that comes from getting rid of stuff. There are places around here that'll come right to your house and take all your junk cars off your hands and give you cash for your trouble.

Mighty tempting.

Absence

Now that school has started and the youngest member of the family has gone off to college-land, there is an overwhelming feeling of absence about the home; not the absence of love and affection or peace and tranquility or joy and happiness but the absence of people who, though often quiet to the point of wondering if they still existed, left their mark upon the spiritual atmosphere of the household.

Erin Prowls

School started before Labor Day, which was weird; but it was nice that the kids were able to come together again at the house over the long weekend before their now-nearly-adult lives reconvened and we were left again in the mostly-empty house, wondering if this is going to be the way life is from now on. Quietly (mostly) empty.

I have a few dreams about that, not so much visions in my head but idle thoughts that sometimes impinge upon my brain, thinking that perhaps it would be fun to jettison the piles of useless flotsam infusing our lives and return to a lifestyle of simplicity and non-materialism (not that we are in the least materialistic, but there is a daunting amount of material in our house) which goes largely un-utilized. Wouldn't it be wonderful to reduce our cosmic footprint to a bare minimum and thereby afford ourselves the opportunity to experience the world in the way God intended - in a flower-festooned Hippie van, rolling down the highway from town to town, singing along with the radio to the old tunes of yesterday and making friends along the way?

Now you're giving me the same look as my wife when I mention the advantages of selling the house and hitting the road. As though a huge leak has sprung from my brain and all common sense has spewed out. Which it has.

But every once in a while (typically once a week) a wanderlust strikes me, and I ponder the joys of getting behind the wheel and driving off into the sunset, just she and I, in our little portable house, seeing the sights and visiting all the relatives I haven't seen in oh so many years.

If it weren't for the fact that we aren't quite to that point yet, it'd be a serious consideration. But we do have kids in school close by, a kid in Germany who is getting close to his wedding day, and another kid for whom the future is a rather fuzzy question mark. And there are so many things in this house that need to be fixed before it is even close to being ready for market.

Mary Reads a Book for College

But lately I've been coming home from work so tired that I have no energy left for those things, and after a quiet dinner, we watch something from Netflix and then sit quietly and listen to classical music while perusing the web or reading (and sometimes I just close my eyes and cat-nap on the couch while Cheryl crochets). And then suddenly it's bedtime and the end of another day.

So when the kids come by, we try to get as noisy as possible. Because we know it won't be long before they're gone again, and silence will reign. Again.

Adam and Deb Browse and Eat Skittles