Dress Rehearsal

Tonight, the middle school kids put on their dress rehearsal production of "Beauty and the Beast, Jr.". It was a remarkable improvement from Monday night's rehearsal.

Monday night was full of forgotten blocking, dropped lines, bad acting, technical mishaps, and entirely too much conversation in the wings.

Come to think of it, so was Tuesday night.

Monday, we got all the way through Act One, and it only took two and a half hours.

Tuesday, we got all the way through Act Two, and it only took three hours.

Together, that makes for a five and a half hour play. It's supposed to be an hour and ten minutes, tops. Throw in an intermission, and you've got roughly an hour and a half. Where did all the extra time come from?

Missing props. New stage direction. Wireless mikes that needed adjusting. Figuring out the timing for the costume changes. Repeating scenes that just didn't work.

Tonight was a non-stop run-through. Absolutely no repeats. Deal with the mishaps and mistakes, just keep going. Got it down to about two hours. Not bad.

Tomorrow morning is another "dress rehearsal", except that it will be taking place in front of all the elementary school kids, who are being bussed in to watch the performance. Mr. Hudson said there would be 650 of 'em. Really? That's going to be one loud auditorium! And very unruly, to boot. Can't wait to see how that works out.

I've got to be there at the end of the production so I can grab the tea cart and make a few minor adjustments to it. Still need to paint the wheels. And add some floral patterns. So that by the time we open "for real" tomorrow night, it'll be all prettified and elegant, like a tea cart is supposed to be.

I find myself looking forward to any excuse to go out and work in my shop now that it's all closed off and insulated and cozy. And it's so relaxing! Especially when there's time to do things right, and not be in a rush.

I'm so looking forward to Christmas vacation. There are many ideas floating in my head which involve wood in some way.

Oh Christmas Tree

We pulled the tree out of the attic. Cheryl set it up. The girls, with the help of their friend, Sarah, strung up the lights.


Then we turned it on.


So, are you ready for Christmas yet?

Tea Cart

You wouldn't think to look at it, that it would take so long to complete. But there are always complications. Especially something that is supposed to be as flexible as this.

There are only a few things that the tea cart has to do.

One, it has to roll across the stage. So, it has wheels. Actually, it has real wheels underneath and "fake" wheels on the side. The fake wheels are supposed to look like old-fashioned spoke wheels, the kind you'd find on a piece of furniture back in the 1700s in France which wasn't supposed to carry an incredible amount of weight on it. The "real" wheels are supposed to carry about 100 pounds of weight (depending on the size of the occupant), so there's a furniture dolly underneath to do the real work.



Two, it has to have room inside for an actor, somewhere between seventy and one hundred pounds - depending on who is playing the part of Chip, the tea cup. The actor sits on the little seat, facing forward, with his/her head sticking out of the top. (No, I haven't cut out the hole for the actor's head yet.) The actor's feet must fit in the space between the seat and the front of the tea cart. The top of the cart must allow the actor to get in, and must allow the actor's head to come through it.



I thought about creating a split lid which would fold together with a center cutout, but that seems a bit difficult to support along the seam, so instead it'll probably just be a single cutout for the head, with a tablecloth to hide the hole. The most important thing is that it can't be obvious that there is a person's body stuffed inside the tea cart. The plan is to use mirrors to make it look like there isn't someone inside the cart. I'm still working on that part.

Post-Thanksgiving GiG

It's Friday, and there are a million things to do today. The most important, obviously, is to get my GiG (Garage-in-Garage) ready for winter, because the weather is going to start turning cold very, very soon.

As you may recall, the doors to the GiG were started a few days ago, but there hasn't been an opportunity (until today) to get the door handles on them. And they really need door handles. Currently, they don't close very easily, which is part of the design. Tighter doors make for tighter seals against the cold, you know. But that means that the doors can't be shut by simply closing one side and then the other. The doors have to be brought together carefully and set to just the right angle and then pulled sharply together so that they mesh. But that's very difficult to accomplish when there is no door handles.

So, first order of business is to make the door handles. Starting with the main entry doors which go from the two-bay garage (where the cars are parked) to the GiG.


Next, the doors which lead out of the GiG into the "shed" which was created by the extra space between the GiG and the 3rd bay garage door. This will allow access from the GiG to the shed where all the snow removal (and grass removal) equipment is kept, as well as the recycling and trash bins which must go out every week. The intent of putting doors here is to seal off the GiG from the exterior cold which creeps in when we're shoveling snow or putting out the garbage every week.


Now that the GiG work is done, it's time to work on the tea cart for the school play ("Beauty and the Beast").

The Tea Cart is supposed to look like a real tea cart, only it has a person inside who will be playing the role of Chip, the tea cup. The actor has his/her head made up to look like a tea cup, and the actor's body is hidden inside the tea cart.


I can't wait to see how (if) this works!

James is an Old Man!!

Once upon a time, there was a boy named James who suddenly, inexplicably, was attacked by the EEE-vil forces of the "Axis of Geriatric Enemies" (A.G.E.) who wanted him to become an Old Man with gray hair and arthritis and creaky bones and aching joints. But James was, after all, only sixteen years and didn't deserve such a horrible fate.

The EEE-vil forces of A.G.E. sent in a huge Army of Penguins to destroy whatever semblance of good health he might be enjoying by infusing him with massive doses of sugar.


He did his best to defeat the Army of Penguins, one at a time, using only his teeth.


Remarkably, his strategy worked and he was mildly successful. Except for a huge sugar rush which threatened to send him into a diabetic coma. Even though he's not diabetic. Yet.


Oddly enough, once his huge sugar rush had dissipated, he was given a weapon to use against the forces of EEE-vil which consisted of very sweet, very sugary bag of Chocolate Kisses from a not-so-secret admirer! (Face not shown so as to protect her identity.) Some suspect that this was actually some kind of Secret Code.


In addition to the encouragement he received from his not-so-secret admirer, he was also encouraged in his struggle against the forces of A.G.E. by many loving friends and relatives who sent him cards and notes and gifts.


Young James read them.


All of them.


And he was filled with joy upon receiving them. Especially the maroon ones.


So now we all know what color 'maroon' is.


And we know what 'chocolate' is.


And we know what Starbucks Gift Cards are.


Yes, young James was very pleased and content with his cards and gifts, a shower of love and affection from his friends and family.


And, like most of the Meyer family celebrations, it wouldn't be any fun at all if there wasn't a book involved!


So James was strengthened and heartened by the wonderful attentions from his friends, family and admirers, and was able to successfully defeat the EEE-vil forces of A.G.E.

At least for another year...

A Door for the Garage

The Garage-Within-a-Garage (GWiG) is coming along nicely. I have completed the first set of doors! (Well, almost...)

As you can see, these doors form an entryway into the little gap between the GWiG and the actual garage doors which lead to the front driveway. The theory is that we'll be able to use these doors to take care of the snow removal during the winter and the gardening during the spring and summer. The gap actually is like a little shed inside the garage. I used the outer wall of the GWiG to hang the tools on, and the shed has just enough room to enclose the lawn mower, the show blower, the garbage bin, and the recycling bins.

In this view, you can see through the GWiG doorway all the way out into the driveway, and you can even see the garbage bin beyond.


Here you can see that the garbage bin has been brought into the little shed area between the outer garage door and the inner garage (GWiG) door.


Now I've lowered the outer garage door so that you can see that the gap between the inner and outer doors forms a little shed space.


Finally, when the GWiG doors are closed, the GWiG is isolated from the outer garage. And, hopefully, warmer, too! After all, the whole purpose of this project is to provide a warm place to work on projects for the winter.


Notice that the doors are currently held by clamps. Tomorrow, I need to get the hinges so they'll be "real" doors!

Saturday Raking

This is how much leaf-raking the kids did today.

Doesn't that look like fun!??!

A Roman Temple

James has completed his Roman temple!


Can you see where the half-round dowels are used?

This Roman temple even has a Roman god of some kind inside. Who is that?

James says it's Fortunas, the god of gates and keys.

Latin Class and Golden Temples

So you're probably wondering to yourself, Why on earth would anyone need to cut dowels in half length-wise? (Unless you work in the Interior Decorating, or Carpentry business, in which case the answer is obvious.)

The answer is, of course, for trimming things.

James is taking Latin this year (yes, we're "stunned and amazed", too!), following in the footsteps of his elder brother (but don't tell him that, because he don't follow in nobody's footsteps!); and one of the projects that the Latin students take part in, is the annual Build-an-example-of-Roman-Architecture project. Where they build an example of Roman architecture. Or did you already guess that part?

Adam built a very nice model of a Roman villa a few years back. James decided to build a Roman temple instead. In this case, a temple dedicated to the god of keys and locks. Can't remember his/her name. But the temple is definitely worthy of a Roman diety! All gold-colored, with fancy columns and high ceilings, and even a statue of the diety itself.

The columns are, of course, fake. The ones which grace the exterior of the flat walls are not fully round, they are only half-rounds which are glued onto the wall so as to look fully round.

Which is where the dowel-cutting comes in.

Roman architecture demands strict adherance to symmetry and form, so the columns must look nice. And had we tried to cut the dowels in half (length-wise) without the use of a jig, they would've looked awful.

And we can't have that, now, can we?

Log-Splittin'; or, The Jig is Up!

Problem:
How do you cut a 6-inch dowel in half length-wise?

Solution:
Make a jig!


Here is the jig that Dad built. 1-inch block base with two 2x2 blocks attached to it, spaced one saw-blade apart. The bottom facing edge of each of the 2x2 blocks is angle-cut to provide room for a dowel to fit between the blocks. Each 2x2 block is secured to the base with screws. An additional screw on each 2x2 block is angled down toward the facing edge to hold the dowel in place.


Here is the dowel being inserted into the jig in the space between the blocks.


Here is the dowel being secured into the jig with the screws.


Here is the dowel being sawn length-wise.


Here is the dowel being pushed out of the jig with the other dowel.


And here are the two halves of neatly-divided dowel, ready for use!

Tomorrow, I'll explain what all this was for.

$575 Later...

The Subaru is fixed. My wallet is broke.

The diagnosis was exactly what I suspected: the drive shafts needed replacing. The CV boots have probably been cracked for quite a while, letting all kinds of dust and gravel and dirt and debris into the gear mechanism. Once it started making that grinding noise, it's too late to try and salvage it. Just a question of how much it's going to cost.

And it cost plenty. Parts were around $350, labor was around $180. Taxes and miscellaneous items brought it up to something near $575. Yeah, I probably could've gotten a better deal somewhere else, but frankly, I just didn't feel like trying yet another car shop. I still haven't found one I like (non-dealership, I mean). And the dealership is very close to work.

So I brought it in early and sat in their very nice waiting room and took advantage of their free WiFi to work remotely so I didn't miss out on anything, drank my Coke Zero and waited patiently. It only took an hour and a half. They had all the parts right there in the shop.

So an hour and a half later, still somewhat early in the morning, I drove out of the dealership parking lot and went to the office. There were no noises coming from underneath the front end anymore. When I got home from work, I put the car up on the ramps so I could take pictures of the new drive axles and CV boots.



Ain't they pretty??

Grease Monkey

It was fun, crawling under the car and stuffing big gobs of grease into the outer CV joint of the left front wheel on the Subaru, hoping that the car will make it to the shop in the morning without locking up the bearings. Yes, it's a strange kind of fun, but oddly satisfying.

It's nice to have just a little satisfaction in an otherwise exhausting day.

We went to a joyous wedding yesterday, a wedding which brought together a lovely young lady who not only teaches and guides young children at a day care, but also at church; and a nice young man who has much experience in leading the older youth. Such marriages are rare but wonderful. One can only imagine the possibilities of such a team!

Since the lovely young lady was not going to be around to teach the children this morning, owing to some bizarre custom called a "honey-moon", it fell on me (actually, I leaped at the opportunity) to take over her Sunday morning class. This is the same class where I normally provide assistance, so it wasn't a great leap to take over the primary duties, but, as usual, I went way overboard in doing things my way.

The class is held in a small gymnasium, and normally the kids run around for the first fifteen minutes or so while we're waiting for all the kids to show up. (Some parents are notoriously late in dropping off their kids.) Which, at times, becomes dangerous, owing to the large difference in mass between kid A, who is 10, and kid B, who is 5, especially when kid A is travelling at 5 miles per hour and kid B is wandering aimlessly into the path of kid A. And the fact that the floor is linoleum-covered concrete doesn't help. The kids only bounce so much before serious injury is incurred.

So the number one rule for Today was: No Running! And in order to enforce this rule, I sub-divided the gymnasium using various rolling carts and bookshelves and toy shelves, covering them with various tablecloths and curtains and whatever else I could find. So we had cordoned-off sections for Reading, Singing, Art, Games, Worship, and Lesson. And there wasn't any clear space longer than twenty feet, which was not nearly enough for any of the older boys to build up sufficient speed to knock down any of the little kids.

It took me an hour - or was it two? - on Saturday night (after the wedding dinner) to get all this arranged, since first all the Day Care toys (which are normally left in the gym) have to be stuffed into an unused classroom; then all the items needed for the class on Sunday had to be scavenged from various parts of the building. Which then meant that it would take as much time (if not more) to clean it all up and put things away on Sunday afternoon.

As luck or fate or whatever would have it, my brain started really pounding Sunday afternoon so I took a 3-hour nap instead of going back to the church to clean up, and then by the time I got there - dropping the boys off for their Senior High Youth Group at the same time - the gym had already been cleaned up.

Sorta.

Seems the college student who was in charge of games for the evening decided to use the gym to play some really cool games (centipede dodge ball, which, if you've never played, you've simply got to try it!), and he went down there at some point in the afternoon and put away all the things I'd pulled out. Here, the term "put away" is interpreted as "pushed up against the wall so as to leave a clear space in the middle of the room." This was unsatisfactory to me, so in the half-hour or so that the Youth Group was gathering - before they came down to the gym to play games - I hurriedly put away all the things that were still in there. So by the time they came down to play their game, the gym was really empty.

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but the hitch is that I still had to put back all the Day Care toys so that everything is in place on Monday morning, which meant that I had to wait until the games were done before then pulling all the Day Care toys from the "storage" room.

It was an exhausting evening.

And it wasn't done yet.

Because after the boys and I got home from Youth Group, it was time to have our Family Meeting (to go over the week's activities and plans and schedules) and then I had to go out to the garage and pack the CV joint with grease.

And then look over my work email to see what's coming up for tomorrow.

Thanks to Cheryl and her penchant for baking goodies, there were some yummy chocolate treats to provide me with a much-needed energy boost - just enough to finish up the car, say good-night to the kids, check my work email, and head to bed.

Sisters

First Snowfall of Winter

It's official.


Winter is here!

Do You Think I'm Getting Old?

Perhaps it is just old age settling in, but I was really, really happy that Cheryl volunteered the both of us to babysit on Sunday night even though we had already purchased tickets to the big Christian music concert. And it was fun to give someone else our tickets so they could go in our place.

{The Called to Love Tour.}

But seriously. This was a major event. Four wonderfully talented Christian musical groups, all playing under the same roof. For three solid hours. For an extremely reasonable price. What could be better than that?

Um ... babysitting?

This is the kind of thing that makes me believe old age is creeping up on me. Just the thought of sitting (or standing) in an auditorium (actually a gymnasium/auditorium) for three hours listening to ever-so-slightly-louder-than-I-can-stand music - even though the message and the melodies are wonderful - makes me hesitate for a moment and consider if I really want to go through the hassle.

And I know if the opportunity to babysit had not come up, we would've gone to the concert and had a wonderful time (although I would've brought along some cotton to stuff in my ear canal just in case they started hurting) and bought the albums and shaken hands with the artists (if Security allowed) and considered ourselves blessed and lucky.

But ...

Instead, we dropped off the kids at the church building and let them have the marvelous time with the wonderful music and the talented artists while we went back to the house. And we stayed at our house and took care of two wonderful little toddlers. And pulled out all the old toddler toys. And watched scenes from "Milo and Otis". And "The Little Mermaid". And had apple slices and water for snacks. And read Sandra Boynton stories on the couch. And put them to bed at 8:30 p.m.

And then the toddler's parents came and picked up their children, and then we went to the church building and picked up our children, and both of us - parents and children - agreed that we had spent a wonderful evening of fulfilment and joy, each in our own separate ways.

My Inner Garage

I'm getting pretty good at making these wall units. Maybe I'll go into business just making walls. It's a lot easier than all that project management stuff at the office. A few 2x4s, a few drywall screws, a few cuts here and there, and there's a wall.

Of course, when I get bored with walls, there's always shelves. Those are fun, too, and the only difference is in the direction of the inner support beams. For walls, they go up and down, since the weight is being distributed vertically. For the shelves, they go across, between the long runs, because they support from underneath.


Maybe I'll get this "inner garage" thing done before winter really kicks in.



I've still got a few little details to finish up, like the drop-down stairwell and the doors. It would be nice if winter held off just a little while longer so those can be finished up. But I'm rapidly running out of free time. It's November already!

There's lots of things to do in November. Adam has college applications and scholarship applications to fill out. And a driving test to pass. James has a birthday, and Part 2 of his Driver Education class. And several Jazz Band concerts. Thanksgiving is coming up, and we haven't figured out our plans for that yet. Christmas is just around the corner. Like everyone else getting ready to send children off to college, we're strapped for cash and wondering just how that's going to work out. We'd really like to get our Christmas cards written up and sent out this year, but 'procrastination' is our middle name.

Oh, and there's that 'work' thing down at the office. I'm supposed to be doing something there, but I can never remember what it is. I always forget about work the minute I'm out the door.

Frankly, building walls is a lot more fun.

Where Have All the Children Gone?

Three of the children are gone from the house tonight, spending their time either at church retreats (Adam & James) or a friend's house (Deb). Only Mary remains, and she went to bed early since she's dealing with an ear infection.

The house is so quiet.

The boys will be gone until Sunday afternoon, and Deb might be back tomorrow or she might be back Sunday afternoon. It all depends on how long she and her best friend can put up with each other.

So Cheryl and I are sitting here with the cats, each typing on our respective laptops while listening to jazz music on the radio. I'm working on a novel, or short story, or some meaningless string of words all thrown together in an interesting (?) way. She's perusing the political websites to see what's going on in the world. Occasionally she'll point out to me something she's found on some website somewhere. And occasionally I'll yawn, because it's getting late and my brain is about fried.

My friend, Paul Ellis, is trying yet again to write a novel as part of the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) contest or event or whatever you want to call it. I thought about doing something like that, having wanted to write stories for many, many years, but never having the time available to really devote myself. Plus I'm very lazy. And a professional procrastinator. But I thought I'd support the idea by trying to write a little each night on my various storylines and see how many words I can write each time.

Most novels are fifty thousand words or more, so if I was able to write each day for thirty days, that means I'd have to write [50,000 / 30 = ] 1667 words per day. Unfortunately, they can't be the mindless gibberish I put on my blog; it actually has to contain characters and plot and stuff like that. And it would have to make sense.

On the other hand, I wouldn't have to write much more than what I've already written. If I copy what I've written so far and count up the words, I've got ...

About 363 words. So I need to write enough for roughly six blog entries per night. That shouldn't be hard. If I go look at my current story-in-work, "All Quiet on the Midwestern Front", I've got it up to 2,716 words. And I've been working on it now for about two weeks.

Must be all those family interruptions. Or was it work? Either way, it's hard work to be a novelist. Think I'd better stick with engineering.

Oooh, now my head really hurts.

Garage Storage Update

If there's one thing I want to avoid this winter, it's having a garage which is too cold to work in. Which has been the case ever since we moved to Michigan.

The core issue with the garage lies in the overall lack of proper insulation. Apparently, in Michigan, they don't believe in insulating the garages. I'm not sure why, since winter seems to last about a million years around here. But when we bought this house - brand new - there wasn't any insulation in, on or around the garage. The garage doors weren't even insulated. Or sealed. In fact, if you look at the doors from the side, there's nearly a half-inch gap all around the edges, between the door and the door frame. Sure, they put a rubber trim flap around it, but that doesn't help. The winter winds blow right past that, and fill the garage with sub-zero air.

I don't like sub-zero air. Not when I'm trying to work with my tools. My metal tools. Which get very, very cold when exposed to those sub-zero temperatures.

During the spring and summer, I built a wall between the two parts of the garage (the 2-car portion and the 3rd bay). There was already a partial wall there; I merely extended it so that it goes all the way across the garage, making the third bay a separate room.

The plan was to completely seal off the 3rd bay so that it can be used for a winter workshop. But I really can't make the 3rd bay into a separate room until I figure out a way to seal off that 3rd bay garage door so that the cold air doesn't get in every time we open it.

The only problem remaining is the garage door opener.

See, the ceiling of the garage is twelve feet up, but the garage door opener track is only eight feet off the floor. Which leaves me with four feet of 'dead' space above the door opener track which can't be used. For anything.

I want to remove the entire garage-door opener apparatus, but frankly, that didn't make it past the Project Planner. There is the fear that it might not ever go back the way it was. (And that is a likely scenario.)

So ... what to do?

Well, to start out, at the very least, I want some extra storage space up there. So I took the two 4x4 platforms I'd built at the beginning of the summer and put them up like giant shelves. That will give me 32 square feet of additional storage.

(You can see them above the power tools in the picture.)

Of course, I can't use the entire 32 square feet if the garage door is allowed to slide up the rails because it will hit anything that's being stored up there. So until I come up with another idea, I have to leave a narrow lane open for the garage door to go through.


So it's not perfect. But it's a start.

Pumpkin Retrieval

James had worked very hard on his pumpkin, so it was no surprise that he wanted to retrieve it from the place he'd left it ... before it got thrown out into someone's garden for compost.

On Halloween, he and Bayli sat outside her house and handed out candy while scaring the children with their very-scary zombie costumes. And they were neatly book-ended by the pumpkins they'd carved. Now, two days later, James realized that his pumpkin was still sitting over at her house. So after his Marching Band concert tonight, we went over there and picked it up and brought it back home so that everyone in the family could see it.

Then James put a candle in it and we put it out on the back porch to light the deck.

It wasn't a very bright light.


So we had to turn off the deck light in order to get the full effect.


Can you tell that it's an angel?

Too Lovely to Work

It was sixty-five degrees today. That's practically seventy!!

Is this really November in Michigan?!?!

Well, in any case, it was far too lovely of a day to spend cooped up inside an office, so I didn't. Besides, there was work to be done at home. Important work.

Oven work.

This is an igniter, specifically a broiler igniter. It's used in those fancy gas stoves that some people out in the Midwest use, where electricity is too expensive. These igniters are kinda like spark plugs; they heat up and 'spark' in order to ignite the gas flame that heats up the top of the oven. Since the oven tries to maintain a specific temperature, the flame goes on and off continually, heating things up for a while, then kicking off when the temperature reaches the right point, then kicking back on when the oven cools down a bit, and so on. So the igniter has to 'spark' many, many times over the course of a single cooking session. Which puts the poor thing through a lot of stress, leading to a kind of breakdown every few years.

Last time we replaced one - it was the main oven igniter - the part and the service call and the labor cost us nearly two hundred dollars. This time, the part alone was a hundred dollars - and the only difference I noticed in the part was in the metal bracket that mounts it. Other than that, they looked identical. Can you say 'scam'?

Well, there's no way I was gonna get ripped off like that again - I mean having someone come out to the house and charge a ridiculous amount of money to put a part in what I could do myself - so Cheryl ordered the part and it showed up the other day, so today - such a gorgeous day! - I went home at lunchtime and put the new part in. And then stayed home and enjoyed the beautiful day. Opened up all the windows and let the fresh, warm air run through the house. Put the plants out by the sliding glass door so they could enjoy it, too. Propped up the tomato plants with a couple sticks to hold on to, since they have grown up so tall and the wind was trying to rip them right out by the roots. Sat at the kitchen table and did work on my laptop (because we geek types love to work remotely from our laptops in order to avoid being interrupted like happens all the time when we're at the office).

It's November. Days like this in November are rare and special, and it's a crime to spend them indoors in a cube farm where there's no fresh, warm breeze and no sunlight. There'll be plenty of that come December. And January. And February. It'll be cold days and even colder nights.

And I still don't have the house all buttoned-up and ready yet. Perhaps another day off would help...

Halloween

The Zombie Couple at Home


The Zombie Couple Entertaining Friends