More for the Floor (Again)

This weekend's project. The fuzz had never gotten around to finishing The Young Daughter's bathroom. We had actually held off on the floor 'till she had finished painting the walls. But now there were no more excuses, and The Fuzz had to get to work.
The walls are not exactly perfect in this trailer, so The Fuzz used this 4ft level for a straight edge to keep the first course lined up.
Things seemed to be working out OK at this stage. But complications were ahead. When things are all straight lines, and whole tiles, it goes pretty fast.But life's not like that. The Fuzz had elected to fit the new tiles around the commode rather than to pull it up and have to fool with the pluming.
However, this would require some complicated fitting. Fortunately, he had saved his templates from when he had done a similar job on the other bathroom. Normally, things like this get thrown out about a week before he needs them. They were a bit crumpled, but still serviceable.
It took a couple tries, but he finally got it right, sort of.
He kept plugging away, bringing the tiles to the door. The rest of the cuts were pretty much straight stuff so it went OK. At the door he fitted a 1x4 at the edge. That did get a little complicated since He had taken the table saw back to the house in town. After trying a few things, he finally was able to wedge the board into a gap between the decking on the porch, and used the circular saw to make the appropriate cuts. We regret that there are no pix of this little trick, At this point he was pretty much involved in what he was doing, and kinda forgot about the camera. But we do have one of the finished floor.At last it was time for a well earned Cold One.

Movie Night

We've been enjoying some of the "Trailer Park Boys" shows from Netflix.But, The Fuzz would not recommend this to anyone who might have problems with that infamous "F"-word, as it is used occasionally. We're not even sure how this stuff got onto our queue, but sometimes you just get lucky.

The Work Continues

You may remember The Fuzz started this project a while back.
Well, it's has been a slow go with the hot weather and all. And there seem to be other things happening here and there.

The next step was to get these piers mortared together. While The Fuzz never has done this professionally, he has had to dabble with it at times. Particularly at the old place in regards to the "Condition". But that is another story.
So he made a trip into town for some mortar mix. Of course mortar mix must be mixed as can be seen here. He borrowed the garden hoe for this.
Which puts me in mind of a story an old lady used to tell on herself. She was 104 at the time, and The Fuzz's Sweetie was sitting with her. It seems that when she was a bit younger, she was working in the fields hoeing with a couple of young'uns. They were really impressed with her skills and told her "You must be the best hoe-er in North Carolina". She thought it was great.
But back to The Fuzz. He's not really much of a hoe-er himself, but he is getting this done, a little bit at a time. And that's OK.

Cool Salt Rock Lamp

Not having any other cool pix for this post, The Fuzz brought up this old one. Here is our Cool Salt Rock Lamp.
This thing is supposed to do all kinds of good things for us.

I quote-
" * These salt lamps are made of natural Himalayan crystal salt mined from underground salt mines in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains...

* This crystal salt is hundreds of millions of years old and, as a result, has special properties and high mineral content

* Heat from the bulb (in our salt lamps) or flame (in our candle holders) causes the salt to emit negative ions

* These negative ions bond with the pollutants in the air (positive ions) and neutralize them

* Also, the newly bonded ions become heavier and fall to the ground removing them from the air circulation

* In addition, these negative ions combat electro-smog caused by electronic devices operating in the home

* Symptoms from asthma, allergies, and other illnesses can also subside from the effects of these products"

So there you have it! Here's a closer look at this marvel.Pretty spiffy, yes?

We never did make it down to the river. At least not yet. It's just been more of the same old same old, as they say. But, school starts back tomorrow, and the Young Daughter will be in the High School. Maybe she's not so young any more. But she is still The Baby. Now she'll have to get up in the morning too. Ha Ha. The Fuzz is looking forward to waking her with his Souvenir of the Tropical Paradise, Conch Shell! That is always fun, at least for him.
So as can be seen, life goes on.

Postponement

Looks like a postponement here.
Tomorrow might be a bit better day for a river picnic.

Roof Rack

While we were at the Beach this summer, The Fuzz's Family surprised him with this cool Kayak. He had enjoyed borrowing one in the past. It was a complete surprise to him at the time, and they had a lot of fun with that part.
This is more of a river type than one of those ocean going things. That is good because while we don't have an ocean around here, we do have a river.
Of course, we still need a way to get it to the river. We did take it with us a while back, when we went over there for a picnic and swim. But, we had to use the trailer, which seemed a bit much.
So The Fuzz finally broke down and purchased this Spiffy High Dollar Roof Rack for our Luxury Vehicle. Note all the complicated adjustments needed to make it fit. We used to have an old Cavalier station wagon. It had those roof gutters, and it was easy to strap on our old carriers, tighten up the straps, and go. But these new finagled vehicles are harder to work with.
If the weather is good, we may have another River Day tomorrow.

Chillin'

Well, here they are, just being lazy.

The Old Fuzz stayed home today. His old back has been bothering him a bit. He doesn't have a young back these days. So here is a pix of 2 of these doggies and their feline friend. That little white one and the kitty are pretty good buddies. They spend much of their time playing together. I guess they just got tired out.

Not Quite So Gloomy

Here's a look at the home place in the morning, while The Fuzz was getting ready for the ride into work- just liked the pix.

The good news is that The Fuzz found a good bit of his "project" still there, on that Little Mac. And, there are still some extensive notes and rough drafts in a notebook he was carrying at work with him But there was still much lost.
In the future, he vows to have extensive back up.

Gloom

It has been mentioned here in the past, as a lame excuse for the sporadic posts, that The Fuzz was working on another project. Well, said project was pretty much finished at around 20 chapters. He was cleaning things up a bit and looking forward to the finished story. Alas, it is no more. All was located on a small flash drive which has now, some how, died. This was about 6 months work. Shit.

Bath Time

Sometimes a dogy's grooming habits leave something to be desired.

That's when a friend like this comes in handy.
But these two are buddies and Kitty is glad to help out.How 'bout a little sugar!

Doggone Troubles

It can be good to have a few doggies around. But they can be a pain in the you know what.
When that little one was chained (for her own good) near The Fuzz's trailer, this was the result.
We need the trailer. And we need the lights to work on it.
So, one more time, The Fuzz had to get out the old tool box.
Really, the damage wasn't all that bad. But it was one more thing, in that never ending progression, that had to be taken care of.
Back in the days, he would have simply twisted the chewed up wire together and wrapped some tape around it.But now of course, we have these cool little crimpy things. But, we still use the tape.There, I fixed it!

And Another Mystery Pix

The Story Behind It

Is kaput.
That thing there on the trash pile is our ceiling fan from the living room here. It is kaput. And this is a bad time for that sort of thing. But The Fuzz is a resourceful sort of fella. Back at the old place, we had a pretty nice one, and of course it was not being used any more.
So when he got off work Monday, he slipped over to the old place and removed it. Since he was traveling by motorcycle, he had thought to leave the disassembled thing there for a later pick up. But then, he got to thinking about it. It seemed that the motor part might just fit into the saddlebag if the shaft was left sicking out. And it did! It was then a simple to fasten the paddles on with those always useful bungee cords. He was just ready to head for home when the rain started. Well, a little rain this time of year is a blessing, so he sat on the porch and waited it out. When it quit, he headed for home.
But it was a trick. The rain was only waiting to get him out in the open. And then it cut loose again. He did make it home, but he had already had his shower.
The next day he did get it installed. And he only shocked himself once. And here it is, in action! And that, people, is the story behind our Mystery Pixes

Mystery Pix B (Phase 2)

Next comes the story

Granny Clampett Was Right

It seems that over in the UK they have discovered that Granny was on the right track with her "Rumitiz Medicine"

"Drinking alcohol can not only ease the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis it appears to reduce disease severity too..."

and,

"...patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently experienced less joint pain and swelling..."

and,

"We found that patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently had symptoms that were less severe than those who had never drunk alcohol or only drunk it infrequently."

I wonder if we could get this covered under this new Heath Care Legislation.

Mystery Pix A

Tomorrow comes phase 2

Hot Times

Well, the 11th annual Real to Reel Film Festival is history. We went every night, and to the matinee on Saturday. We are pretty much flicked out at this point. But it was good. We did see some interesting stuff this year.
In a way, it was a good time to be sitting in an air conditioned theater. To the left, you will notice our spiffy Royal Crown Cola Thermometer. The Fuzz actually picked this up at work a few years ago. That was before the "automation" that pretty much results in a lot of cool stuff ending up in the landfill.
But the point is, that it has been HOT here as of late. Below is a closer look The Fuzz took just a bit ago.
As you will notice, the "Mercury" is a bit high. We did get a few things done this morning before this pix was made. The Fuzz is happy to announce, that we now have a Table Saw Free Living Room. Since that fine piece of precision equipment was no longer needed here in the woods, it was returned to the old place until a suitable home has been prepared for it out here.

Real to Reel International Film Festival

Tomorrow night starts the annual Real to Reel International Film Festival.
So, The Fuzz might be a bit busy and not be around here much.
But he wanted to leave this little pix of one of his favorite flowers from the beach.
So, enjoy.

At the Trade Lot & And the Future of Fat

The Fuzz's Sweetie has been working on this for a while now. This weekend we finally went to the trade lot to try out a Henna Booth. Actually there was no "booth" as such, only a card table and some chairs. But there were actually some takers. Here is an example of what we're talking about.
These are actually the feet of a volunteer used for demonstration purposes.
I am happy to say, that while there was not a large profit, Things did at least break even. And it was a positive experience, even for The Fuzz.

And now a note from the news.

"Feds to Monitor Obesity"

It seems that part of our Heath Care Reform involves sending you Fatness Quotient to the government.

We quote,

"[T]he Obama administration sets its sights on overweight Americans, demanding obesity ratings for all citizens by 2014..."

And,

"... under the stimulus law, health care providers must establish "meaningful use" of electronic health records to qualify for federal subsidies or risk seeing their Medicare and Medicaid payments slashed. The electronic health records must include Americans' body mass index, or BMI, height and weight."

And lastly,

"... a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that $147 billion is spent annually on obesity-related costs, or 10 percent of medical costs."

It's all about money.

Turtles & Ice Cream

Backtracking a bit.

You may remember that while we were at the beach, The Fuzz, His Sweetie and that Young Daughter payed a visit to the Aquarium.
Outside there was this pond full of Turtles.

It wasn't easy to get good pix of them with the glare from the sunlight. But The Fuzz tried.
Here are a couple Turtles hanging out with one of the Fishes.This next one is just a bunch of them hanging out together.
I suppose they are "Happy Together", but that will probably date the Old Fuzz.

In other news,
They are working on the highway near here. The way this was discovered is as follows.

The other day, The Fuzz's Sweetie made us a mess of Delicious Peach Cobbler. As we were enjoying it, the subject of Whipped Cream, or even Vanilla Ice Cream came up. With only the 3 of us, we still had half of it left, "for tomorrow". With this in mind, The Fuzz decided to grab some on the way home from work. It is about 10 miles from the store to our home in the woods, and The Fuzz was traveling by motorcycle in this 94° heat. But he did have a plan. He carefully wrapped his Delicious Vanilla Ice Cream up in his unneeded vest + a shirt, and hurriedly packed all away in the saddlebag. (right above the exhaust)
He also planned his route. Usually, on his ride home he takes a less traveled, more laid-back route. But this time in the interest of speed, he opted for the main road. You can imagine his dismay when half way home he came upon the road crew. It is one of those repaving deals, with the long wait for the "Pilot Truck" to guide all the unhappy victims along. Bummer.
The good news is, that with all the extra wrapping and all, that Ice Cream did, in fact, survive the trip and was safely stashed in the freezer.
And it was just the thing for our Delicious Peach Cobbler.

Beach Art, 2010

On our recent Beach Trip that creative New Daddy decided to take up Sand Sculpture.

Here is a look at his handiwork.
He drew quite a crowd.
Pretty nice.

Mystery Pix

Another Exciting Mystery Pix
for your enjoyment.

Water Woes

This weekend we were just going about our business. The Fuzz and His Sweetie had been to town for some quick gardening at the old place.
When they got back to their home in the woods, she began working on several loads of clothes for the washer. After about 3 loads, the trouble started.
His Sweetie had just started the 4th load, and was ready for a shower, when suddenly, there was no water! The Fuzz was a bit surprised. He had thought there was plenty of water in spite of the dry weather. So, he went out to the well to check things out. After a short wait, he cut the power back on, and was relieved to see water come from the spigot at the well. At this point, he assumed it was simply a matter of waiting for the well to fill back up. His Sweetie would have to get dressed and postpone her shower. So, they waited. And waited. Then that evening as it was growing dark, it was discovered that the toilet tank was not refilling. Now it seemed like there must be a different sort of problem. Leaping into action, The Fuzz donned his Trusty "head light" (A gift from His Sweetie) and headed out for some further investigation. It seems there was, in fact, a malfunction.
If you study the Pix above, you will notice at A, the contact points being screwed up. They should look like those at B.
By now it was too late to do anything about it, so the Fuzz's Sweetie (and that Fuzz himself) was forced to go to bed without that nice hot shower*.
This morning, The Fuzz called his boss man and explained that he wouldn't be coming in until He and His Sweetie had water again. No doubt he made it to the "Bad Boy List" for this, but it was necessary.
Well, he rode into town, and picked up a replacement pressure switch. He got it installed before the gully washer hit. And as can be seen here, there is running water once again.

And one last thing-
Here is a close up of our little friend who lives on our wonderful well.


*It should be pointed out that The Fuzz's Sweetie did resort to the old "Spit Bath" routine before retiring for the night.

Mountainous Motorcycling

We didn't have any "Big and Evil Plans" for the weekend. So when His Sweetie mentioned that it might be a good time for a motorcycle trip to the mountains, The Fuzz agreed.This is a look at Table Rock from the Blue Ridge Parkway. It has been hot and dry around here but up there it was rather pleasant.
He started out on some of the local country roads rather then heading straight for the main one. He was hoping to avoid that first, relatively boring section. He had some local maps since he was unfamiliar with this area, and had a route planned out. While he was looking for one of his turns, he passed up this old house and decided to turn back for some pix. Then, as he was getting ready to pull off, he noticed the name of that gravel road he was next to. It turned out it had been the road he was looking for. Although he lives on a dirt road, he is not fond of riding his street bike on loose gravel. But this was where he needed to go, so he carefully set off. He made it to the highway with out mishap, and headed off for the highlands.
I am happy to relate, that he had an excellent ride . There was lots of variety. Some twisties to keep him on his toes, and the fairly mellow Parkway. And he made it home safe and sound, and with a rather sore butt.

Fort Fisher

Since we were already there to see the aquarium, we decided to visit Fort Fisher. This is one of the remaining batteries at the historic site. A good bit of what was once the seaward fortifications have been eroded away. There is a museum there that has an impressive display that takes you through the battle step by step with a cool light show.
The fort guarded the port of Wilmington, NC which was the last port open to Confederate blockade runners.

Here is a link to a Wikipedia entry on Fort Fisher.

Something Fishy

We had been talking about going to the aquarium for a couple years now. This year was the year. So we took a day to head off to the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.
Here's a look at some of the people looking at the fishes. There were a lot of fishes there. And some other stuff.
Like Luna, the Albino Alligator.










The Fuzz couldn't resist this Photo Opportunity, so here she is!
Yup, that's Luna, alright.
We went on though the place looking at all kinds of fishes. Some of them can get pretty weird looking. And some are just beautiful.
But The Fuzz regrets that it is a little difficult getting good pix in a place like that.
But he did get a shot of this little feller. He kinda reminded us of an insurance salesman.
But you can make up your own mind about that.
We did enjoy seeing all the fishes. Afterwards, we hit the gift shop for a couple post cards.
On the way out Young Daughter and The Fuzz's Sweetie talked him into stopping for some "Mocha Cappuccino Chiller". But that wasn't difficult.

4th of July

In honor of the 4th, (or what's left of it) Here's Old Glory, back there at the beach.
Yes, we did make it back to our home in the woods.
And, The Fuzz will try to get some pix up soon.
But not now, It's, like, midnight, and he is thinking about how good that bed would feel about now.
But there will be lots of exciting stuff.
Like the Aquarium.
And Fort Fisher itself, or what's left of it.
But since it is the 4th of July still, here's a bit of pyrotechnics for you.