Category: Personal

My apologies for the lack of posting this weekend, but I’m getting tired having my office torn apart, and all my furniture scattered all over the rest of the house. I have decided to get to work and finish this. It’s one of those things that didn’t seem like it would be much, but like most things with home improvement, it always more work than you thought initially. I mostly wanted some fresh paint and carpet, because when I first moved in, it looked like this:

It looked like Rainbow Brite had a few too many tequila shooters and threw up on the walls. Without giving it any thought, and before the ink was dry on the settlement papers, I went and bought plain white paint, and covered over that crap before I moved any of my stuff in. Once my initial revulsion passed, I kind of regretted not taking time to pick out a decent color, and so started the current project.

Of course, it’s more than just a paint job. You can see the baseboard is in sorry, sorry shape. It hadn’t gotten any better with age. Has to get replaced. It turns out there was a 3 inch drain around the perimeter of the basement. They put wood in there to act as a bridge for the carpet around the edges. It’s not something you’d notice unless you pulled up the carpet. Surprisingly the carpet and padding was dry, unmolded, and in good shape. It doesn’t get much water in there, but it is moist. The support legs for their little wood bridge were in sorry shape. I replaced all that with a PVC wood-like product that won’t rot. There some paneling in the stairwells that looks like it was put in by someone who wore bellbottoms. Has to go. Turns out the paneling was put in before the stairs, and it extended all the way down. I had to cut out all the paneling at the stair level with a razor blade knife. The paneling was composite, and did not cut well. Pain in the ass.

For some of the finish woodwork, I had to borrow a circular saw from my dad, then get a new blade because I think my dad bought all the saw blades he’s ever owned in the 70s, and has never replaced any of them. Next up is to cut the drywall. I hate drywall. I can think of dozens of materials I’d rather work with than drywall. After that, on to the finish carpentry, which I don’t find as tedious. This house was a built-by-owner job, and he sucked at finish carpentry. I’m no expert, but I can do a lot better than he could. I’ve replaced a lot of his crap work already, but not in my office yet. After I’m done that, then Bitter can get started on the painting (painting is girl work). After the painting is done, I can put up the new baseboard radiators, then carpet. I don’t do carpet. I bring in contractors for that. I’m hoping to be back down in my office by spring. When I started this in the fall, my goal was to be done by the new year. Yeah, missed that deadline. I will say that the pneumatic nail gun is perhaps the greatest invention of all time.

Something we’re getting into is buying up old cast iron cookware, and restoring it. We’re starting with my late grandmother’s old #8 skillet, which was in horrible shape when I got it. I only made it worse by using it to hold hot coals for my smoker, which stripped a lot of the seasoning off and opened it up for more rust. I also bought, for six dollars at a thrift shop, an antique #8 skillet from the turn of the century (the last century), which has a few rust spots on it, but otherwise looks to be in quite good shape. Over the holidays, Bitter’s mom gave us an old #10 skillet that needs to be restored.

As a kid growing up, my mother always had well-seasoned cast iron cookware, which I learned to cook on. After my mom died, and we all moved out of the old house (my dad remarried, and my sister got married), either my sister or my dad got my mom’s cast iron. None of the modern pans I’ve used since have been their equivalent, so I’m looking to make some of my own, and ditch the modern non-stick el-cheapo crap. I’ve been making more pan cooked dishes lately, and miss the old cast iron. If this all works, I might look at trying to score a cast iron wok.

Posting was light because we had our quarterly whole-company meeting, along with a Yankee Swap and holiday dinner at the Iron Hill. I discovered my coworkers are ruthless thieves of liquor gifts. I tried to score a bottle of single malt Islay Scotch, and that didn’t last long. Nontheless, I did manage to come home with some hooch and a large amount of sweets (which I shouldn’t eat). I thought my RC helicopter would be more popular, but it was opened too late in the process.

Thirdpower notes that folks say it’s the “preppers” that are crazy, with a picture that says 1000 words. I tend to think of prepping as a lifestyle choice not unlike carrying a gun, in the sense that both are preparation for a low probability event, and both guns and prepping can probably also be properly considered a hobby or interest. While I enjoy shooting, I am not much of a prepper, as I’ve never been one to want to spend a lot of time and energy being ready for low-probability events. While I do carry, I carry because I shoot. I don’t shoot because I carry. I think being prepared for common, and even some uncommon disasters is a good idea. We do have a “bugout bag,” and generally keep several gallons of bottled water on hand at all times, as well as a healthy supply of batteries. But I do think prepping, like anything, it can be taken to extremes.

For instance, someone advised I needed a minimum of 20 gallons of gas on hand at all times, and when a storm was coming, that needed to be 40. I agree for some individual circumstances, that’s probably wise. But I live 6 miles from a major city, and have a postage stamp sized lot with a very small shed. I’m not sure where I’d put four 5 gallon gas cans, let alone eight of them. I’ve also gone through several major storms without losing power. About 14 hours was the most I’ve been without power during a major blizzard a few years back, and I got through that by wiring an inverter to my heating system so it could light and circulate the hot water. For me, 24 hours of gas for the generator is enough insurance. I don’t prep for the Zombie apocalypse, or even 500 year events like these, and I’m fully aware of the consequences if I lose the bet.

I don’t have any issue with prepping, and think it’s a fine thing to do, but much like the guys that suggest you need to carry two pistols and at least 2 reloads for each, you can take it to extremes, and become unyielding when it comes to assessing individual circumstances and tolerance for risk.

Since we picked up a generator earlier in the summer and have made home improvements that have drastically cut down on the amount of water that comes into the house during storms, we’re not in panic mode about the snor’eastercane as we were with Irene. It also helps that the basement has already been emptied of just about everything because of our improvements down there. (I’m still a little freaked out about the winds though.)

However, we are apparently missing out on foodie “storm cuisine.”

Don’t get me wrong, we have water and I’m planning to get even more non-perishable foods and snacks this weekend just to minimize the need to access the fridge in the event of a power outage. But outright serious foodie cuisine?

Emergency Essentials, a two-decade-old company based in Orem, Utah, that sells supplies for survival situations, now offers a line of freeze-dried meals with such gourmet and ethnic options as chicken and white-bean chili, New Orleans-style rice with shrimp and ham and, yes, beef stroganoff (replete with “a rich, sour cream sauce”). But if a hurricane survivor feels like going the do-it-yourself route, they can also consult such cuisine-in-the-rough cookbooks as Stephen Weston’s “In the Wild Chef” and Daphne Nikolopoulos’s “The Storm Gourmet.” The latter book, released in 2005 and now going on its fifth printing, includes recipes for everything from savory ham with Dijon cream sauce to tiramisu — all made without the benefit of electricity.

We can cook because we do have a camp stove. We also have a smoker and a grill that don’t require electricity. However, I can’t really imagine I’d be focused on making a Dijon cream sauce or tiramisu after a storm like Sandy or Irene. Regardless, to those who make it through the storm troubles in style, good job. I think we’ll probably keep it pretty simple.

According to Ian Argent: “more fun than a barrel of monkeys on nitrous oxide.” I agree. This summer, I ended up replacing a lot of dirt around a corner of the house where soil was mysteriously subsiding. I was wondering where this dirt could have gotten off to. Recently we decided to renovate my office, which is in the finished basement. I ripped out the baseboard heating units today, and part of the drywall. I ended up discovering a trench drain several inches wide along the perimeter, which was filled with dirt. Under the dirt, I found a weep pipe through the foundation wall that went into the drain. The mystery of the dirt had been solved. Kill me now.

With a hand trowel, some water, and a shop vac, I carefully removed all the dirt to get back down to concrete. It was several trips with a bucket to get it all back outside. The weep pipe is now completely uncovered. The question now is whether it was part of a previous failed basement waterproofing attempt that I have since corrected, or whether it is something I have not yet discovered. Best case scenario this weep pipe no longer weeps. Problem solved! Worst case scenario, it still carries water and dirt, which was cut off to the sump by previous owners who finished the basement and blocked the trench drain with extreme prejudice. The fix for that is non-trivial, and may require a jackhammer, so I am sincerely hoping this weep pipe is extinct, or will at least remain dormant until such time as I can sell the house to the next sucker owner.

UPDATE: I should note that it was disclosed to me at the time of the sale the basement had water intrusion issues, and so I will be required disclose such to the next owner unless I spend the big money to fix the problem permanently, which is not out of the question. But for now, I want to get on with cleaning out and redoing my office, so this can is getting kicked down the road for now.

I have been elected tonight to another two year term as my as Club Secretary. I would savor this victory, if I had actually had someone running against me. Of course, if someone really wanted the job, I’d probably have stepped down and let them run unopposed. I make a poor politician. If only we could get people into political office who viewed public service as a burden rather than a prize, we could probably fix a lot of what’s wrong with this country. I sometimes wonder if we treated service in Congress and State Legislatures much the same way we treat jury duty, if it wouldn’t have better results. I suspect it probably wouldn’t be better, but I’m not convinced it would be worse.

There’s a lot not to like about Richard Wagner the man. The fact that he was a jew-hating believer in the “Master Race” and a big inspiration to Adolph Hitler is plenty reason for the performance of his music in Israel to be a source of great controversy. But aside from the man’s personal failings, his music is quite often a marvel of the Romantic Era.

I’m always struck my how I either think Wager’s works are genius, or completely uninspiring. There’s not much in between for me. In the uninspiring realm, I recently got a hold of modern recordings of his Symphony in C Major and uncompleted Symphony in E Major. I suppose I should not be surprised by this, as Wagner wrote his only completed symphony at age 19 before the Romantic Era had firmly taken root. The classical influence to it can probably be attributed to the times, and the lack of real direction attributed to youth. I think it’s safe to say that most of us were not composing symphonies at the age of 19. But Wagner definitely found his compositional voice later in life, to become one of the great Romantic Era composers. I think it’s safe to say if we had just known him for his symphony, we would not have known Richard Wagner at all.