Monday, October 24, 2011

A Long Busy Weekend

This weekend started early, but I'm really glad to go back to work today.

Thursday and Friday were no-school days due to conferences. Thursday was spent sleeping a lot. I didn't wake up for anything until almost 1pm. I think its funny how my dogs are every bit as lazy as I feel like being. In bed all morning long? No problem, we'll support you in that endeavor, hehe.

Friday I was confused, thinking it should be Saturday. We got notification that even though we'd checked, we missed a statute somewhere. Even though the housing people don't mind there being a camper in the second driveway with people sleeping in it, the county does. It counts as camping, which can only be done in designated camping areas. I really wanted a tent to pop up next door so I could throw that back in their faces. No camping out kids, county says no! The neighbors really must have called everyone they could think of to make a nuisance of themselves. I hope they are religious and believe in that do-unto-your-neighbor junk. And that they then end up in a situation where they depend on friends for assistance. And then I want some jerk neighbors of those to do everything in their power to F it all up. I believe this would be a much better alternative than some that entered my mind.

Why do people have to be so nosy, and then offended when what they find is not to their liking? I don't go around telling everyone to paint everything green because that happens to be MY favorite color. I appreciate that other people have their own favorite colors. (The world would be very boring in all green anyway, I think.)

We tried to go to Home Depot that night to get supplies. Jamie priced things out and realized we had enough to do the project right then, which is a good thing. We were notified of the possible $750 fine, but only given a as-soon-as-possible deadline to fix the situation. That's sort of an ambiguous uncomfortable feeling of $750 doom, you know? The store was closed, however. The website lied about their hours, and at 8:30pm the employees all turn into pumpkins. I saw them all outside.

So Saturday morning we were up at 6am purchasing wood and insulation. We got home and Jamie made us girls french toast for breakfast. Tig left the house with yummy breakfast, and I had a happy full tummy to tackle the project with.

I don't have photos, but the wall-building actually went fairly trouble-free. We had trouble getting the door in just the perfect spot to clear both the outside light (this room used to be a car port) and concrete step. But finally we got it. The insulation was a little fun. It didn't look to me like enough, but it was squished really well. We had about 10 feet extra. It was 6 inch insulation and we were using 2x4s, so the last piece, which had time to expand, was trying to escape as the plywood was being screwed in over it. Kind of funny. The door is an extra one our friends had. They replaced the door to little Marty's room with an exterior one, so they could cut out the decorative panels on top and screen them, making it nice and open for sound to travel through, but still keep cats out if need be. We get the original door for the new wall.

Eventually I think the camper will be removed, but both Tig and I want it to stay as the eyesore that irritates the neighbor in the first place. We can comply with county rules and not really change anything in that regard. I'm evil, I guess. If the trailer gets moved I may park my bike out in front of our new exit door. There is a tiny space between the room and the fence- just right for a bike and not much else.

There was trouble with this particular room leaking. I think we fixed that, because yesterday I spent 2 hours up on the roof throwing junk off it. Jamie helped clean out the gutter with a hose and I had latex gloves on while I jammed my fingers in the alleys of the corrugated metal to scoop out the black and earthy-smelling stuff that I bet would make excellent potting soil by now. Today the backs of my hands are slightly bruised from doing the scooping, but at the time nothing was uncomfortable in the slightest. I fed the hose in from various spots and little by little I washed the stuff that I couldn't scoop out carefully down to the gutter exit. After we got the gutter completely clear I spent the second hour clearing the higher side so it didn't get washed down and undo all that clearing work. The gutter has only one downspout so it wouldn't take much to block things up again. We're pretty certain that the leaks should be fixed, now.

I also got to wear my new helmet today! On Friday I was given a field trip to take a football team from one school to the other local school. Easy. Turns out, it was an accidental double trip due to a time change. The players were already loaded on the bus that had been sitting there for hours, so I got to drive right back down the road to the bus shop and park. I took advantage of the great timing of a text message  to go the rest of the way to Walmart and get the helmet set they had just notified me was available for pickup.

I got the Kryptonics 4-in-1 ladies set which includes a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, wrist pads, an extra thicker front pad to help get a better fit on the helmet, and a flower sticker. They all come in a pretty light blue color, although if there was pink, I'd have gotten pink.
The color is actually lighter than in this picture from the Kryptonics website, and my buckles and such are a matching gray instead of black, with the exception of the little rubber ring which keeps extra strap length from flapping around. This is the helmet though, and I like it a lot. It's really just a plastic shell with styrofoam inside. but its awesome for its simplicity. I figured with less vents, this helmet would be more appropriate for winter, but it actually has very good airflow inside. My forehead was always hot in my Airius helmet, and this one has air going straight there instead. Even though it was 36F outside this morning (didn't feel nearly as cold as I thought it was) the air was refreshing. When it gets too cold to enjoy the breeze, though, I can fit a winter hat under here. The first time I put the new helmet on, though, I pinched a blood blister into my neck, so I'll have to be more careful. Also, there is a gap in the inner pads they call a ponytail channel so hair won't get caught on anything, but there really isn't any room for a ponytail. I'd have to scoop out some of the styrofoam, which I'm not about to do. I really don't mind this part, because with my other helmet, hair had to be either down, or in a braided ponytail anyway. Not having to thread hair through the cinching back plastic strap is fine with me.

I fail at keeping these short.

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