I promise that I will post something soon. Lately I've felt like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe. I need it to get warm outside.

I have been so uninspired lately that I couldn't even bring myself to post anything. I am writing a piece for print media and I have an April 1 deadline and feel that I'm not getting anywhere with it so that is one reason I haven't felt I could justify writing online. The sad thing is, I haven't written much of anything. Blahhhhhhhhhhhhh....

She's buying the stairway to nowhere

When I was walking the dogs last weekend, I got way off the beaten path and found the stairway to nowhere. Basically, it leads to a mud bank that, should you step into it, the Earth would probably swallow you. It is interesting that there is no evidence that a structure was ever anywhere near this thing. I'm not even sure I could find it again - definitely not in summer because it's to thick here to walk in that's why I've never ventured into this place before.

Speaking of being swallowed by the Earth, less than a mile from the stairway to nowhere I found an old car growing out of the riverbank. One day before things start getting grown up, I want to come back here and see if I can make a guess at what year and model of car this is.

OH YEAH!!!!

Our living room, just before kickoff:

Finally, the yard furniture is finished!

I have been away from my computer for a while because I've been either tired, fighting some kind of flu bug, reading books, working on projects in the wood shop, or playing music.

Books - After reading two very clinical, not-so-fun books, one about preventing adolescent suicide and another about PTSD and the US military, I really needed something fun. So, about 4 weeks ago I picked up the first Harry Potter book intending to read them again and am currently about one third of the way through book 7. This is approximately the 3rd read of the entire series and I discover something new each time.

Music - An old friend called the first weekend in January and asked if I'd play on his new CD. "Of course," I said. The Wednesday following that call I was in the studio listening to the same track over and over until I could feel the changes then I picked up my bass and 3 or 4 takes later, it was in the can. It was more of a jazzy tune so I'm excited to hear it after the mixing is done. The second song was a slow, mournful tune with pedal steel. I listened to it twice and recorded it in one take. Big fun! - we drank lots of coffee and made some music.

Wooden stuff - Below are pictures of my latest projects: 

Above is the basic framework of an Adirondack Chair. The shelves on the wall in the background were made by my father in 1935.

Below is the framework of an Adirondack Settee. The piece of this set that hasn't been started is the table. The first time I post a picture of the table, it will be with the entire set - constructed and finished.

this is a picture of the future & you'll notice that there's a lot of blank space because people haven't made up their minds about it & the future doesn't have a lot of time for that kind of indecisiveness   -- Story People

Wow, this may be one of the funniest things I've ever seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUL0KCIc48&feature=related

American Idle

The writer's strike has me reading a lot more, I think I've read 6 or 7 books since it started.

Reruns of M*A*S*H are about the only thing I've been watching; occasionally I'll watch the news but it's easy to get 'news overload' these days.

Has the strike affected anyone else's entertainment choices?

Election year. I don't know who I like yet, maybe no one?

I do know that a lot of damage has to be undone, the formula is below.

W + 8 = CTRL-Z

Insulation

It has come to my attention that there was some concern about the blown-in insulation and possible safety issues with having the insulation around light fixtures. All of the light fixtures pictured are loaded up with energy saving fluorescent bulbs and really don't throw that much heat. I have to admit, the contractor is a cheapskate and used the cheapest, easiest method to insulate the attic that he could. I shudder to think what the walls are insulated with, but I have to assume that the contractor used the same stuff there. What I probably should do is drill into one of the walls at some random place and see whether fiberglass roll insulation gets caught in my drill bit or if the blown-in crap does. I tried observing the situation by looking into the area around an outlet but couldn't draw any conclusions from that. I know there is rolled fiberglass around the fireplace and some upstairs around the vaulted ceilings because it’s a vertical surface; the remainder is unknown although there are some very cold walls here and there. Insulating after the fact seems like a pretty overwhelming undertaking. I would almost think one would have to tear out the drywall, insulate and redo the drywall? I am good at a lot of things, drywall is not one of those things.

Anyhoo, I would like to hear any recommendations you might have.

The dogs and I walked yesterday afternoon and it was quite a workout; we walked and ran approximately two leagues on the nearby mountain bike trails. Yes, "leagues," I just thought I'd throw in an ancient length measure just to be a smartass, but yeah, it was about two leagues; almost missed the tip-off of the KU-Ohio game.

It was in the 20s and snowing like crazy but it was quite beautiful. 

We found this miniature snowman sitting on a log along the bike trail. He has a leaf for a hat.

Late afternoon and shooting straight at the sun during the snowstorm

Small stream leading to the Kansas River

We are not listed on the flood plain for North Lawrence and I've often wondered why because it doesn't seem that far to the river from our house. In fact, there is a lot space between us and the surface of the river.

I am standing a bit southeast from my house and about 50 feet from the river's edge facing north. From the center of the photo, toward the right you can see the outline of the levee against the trees that is the top of the levee. The levee was built by the Army Corps of Engineers following the flood of '51. I don't know what the elevation is but I think a hell of a lot of water would have to come down the river before we would be in danger of being flooded. I was talking to one of the geezers from the area one afternoon a few years ago and he told me that during the flood of 1951, people were grazing cattle where my house is currently sitting. That is comforting.

A fun weekend it was not. This weekend-from-hell all began as I was driving home on Friday and noticed that all of the snow was melted off the back part of the house. I found this peculiar because the melted part is on the north side of the house and should be the last thing that melts. What happened next is explained in my previous post; this post is about the rest of the story.

The arrow above points to the ceiling of the dining room, I am sitting over the kitchen, notice the lack of snowy white insulation. Also of note is that there is no insulation in the space on the left-hand side of the photo, nor is there much insulation directly in front of me, the contractor is a dork.

Naturally, I could not fit through the small hole leading out to the dining room ceiling so I was forced to buy four bales of blow-in insulation then rent a machine to blow the insulation in. Since my weekend already sucked, as explained in my previous post, it probably won't surprise anyone that the insulation blowing device only blows insulation 2 to 3 feet so the entire area still isn't properly insulated. The important thing is, the insulation is in 3 or 4 large piles inside the space so I began thinking about how I might spread it around. Then it hit me. I can improvise a tool using the plastic part of a leaf rake and the 12-foot telescopic painting pole I have which will enable me to push the insulation around from a distance. One does not have to be a rocket surgeon to know that this chore is also going to suck.

On the upside, I was able to distribute enough insulation that the house is noticably warmer! I would really be pissed if I went through all this and realized no positive result and I am so happy that the effort was not in vain.

Now, there is an ice storm raging outside. I'm thrilled, as you can imagine. I will have to walk the dogs tomorrow so right now, I'm going to get out my planner and in the space for Tuesday, I'm going to write, "fall and break my ass" because that will surely happen. At least if it's in my planner, I won't be surprised.