"I Still Remember My First Time"

No!  Not that first time!  Get your mind out of the gutter.  Although I do remember that first time as well...

What I'm talking about is the first time I rode my bike over any distance at 30 kms/hr.  It was about 23 years ago, and yet I clearly remember the feeling of pride.  I was riding my Steve Bauer, Canadian Tire, 14 speed, with clip on aero bars.  Interestingly enough, that ride ended just down the road from here, even though we didn't live here at the time.

Since them I have rode faster lots of times, once even averaging 35 kms/hr over 40 kms. That was at least 15 years ago, and I never duplicated the feat again.

So what's my point?

Well besides the fact that my "riding" first time, was a lot more gratifying than that "other" first time, the point is that if I can still ride at the speed I did 23 years ago, I need to feel pretty good about it.  Yes, today I rode 50 kms at 30.1 kms/hr.  Oh and perhaps more importantly, I averaged 150 watts.  I'm real happy abut that.

I'm gonna try to get a little more serious about my riding in the hopes that I helps me deal with my grief over not being able to run.  While I still haven't come to terms with that apparent reality, eventually I'm gonna have to.

In 4 weeks they hold what's called the Three Port Tour in the nearby town of Aylmer, and I think I'm gonna sign up for that.  You have the option of including 1,2, or 3 Ports in your ride and I think you can even choose on the day.  The distances are 50, 100, 160 kms.  I've done it once before, I believe in my last non-ironman year.  While I'm certainly not fit enough to do the long one yet, I think maybe I could be by then.  We shall see...

My shed should be all finished this week with the exception probably of the lighting, but I can putter away at that over the rest of the summer.  As well, Roo and I are gonna leave next weekend with the motorhome for a week.  I don't know where we're going, but it will be good to just get away.  I was just planning on taking my mountain bike, but now I'm rethinking that.  Maybe it's a 2 bike trip, and I'll alternate between the roads and the trails.  Again, we shall see...

"If I can bicycle, I bicycle."---David Attenborough

Love
Peter

"Tunes"

I was working to the music today.  That's cause I got power!!

Yup, I'm pretty proud of that!  I had to splice the large underground cable and that involved a bit of learning, and a lot of digging.  The wire had of course been fried by the fire and so I had to go deep enough to get to a clean point, and then also gain enough to be able to splice and heat shrink each separate conductor.  Of course I had to connect it to my new panel, as well as reconnect it at the other end.  They are really fat wires and hard to work with.  You can see the size of it...the black one that comes in at the top.

And while the panel is new, the radio has a spot for a CD and a cassette tape!!!  Holy cow!!

Today I also properly and permanently shimmed the man doors, and got the hardware on one of them.  The hardware thing was a bit of a surprise as the jambs were not predrilled and mortised as they usually are.  It's a bit tricky to get that just right without the right tools but the one I did worked out quite well.  When you don't have the tools you need to use your brain, and that seemed to be working okay today.   Actually more than brains, it takes patience....a skill I'm still developing....

The big news of the day however is that I sat down and did an accounting.  I have everything paid for or included, except for the interior lighting and outlets.  The grand total to date is $38,282.33!!  That gives me about $1700 to finish up and still stay within my self imposed budget of $40 K.

As a reference, the two quotes that the insurance company gave me were both over $60K, and we took a payout from them of $54 K.  I'm pretty damn happy with that!!

The way I look at it, I earned 20K through my project management and my personal labour.  Woohoo!

And lastly for today I leave you with this somber reminder.  I'm gradually exorcising the demons associated with this picture, but it's still good for me to look back.

It's actually a great shot because of course you see the shed, but also the skeletons of the motorhome and the pool fence, and most strikingly, the catastrophe that nearly happened to our home!!

I'm counting my blessings today!

"Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible."---Edward Teller

...until one experiences a fire one can't understand just how fast something can go wrong...

...and this one made me think....

The notion that one will not survive a particular catastrophe is, in general terms, a comfort since it is equivalent to abolishing the catastrophe."---Iris Murdoch

Love
Peter

"Pressure's Off"

For a couple of reasons.  First off, the building inspector came by yesterday to check the work that Jon and I did, and he found only one little mistake that I fixed in 10 minutes.  Actually it was more of an oversight than a mistake, and besides, I'm blaming Jon for it :)  Regardless, it was a relief to know that we had followed all the rules correctly, and that we wouldn't have to take anything apart and redo it

Of course the other important confirmation that I got was that the motorhome fits inside.  It's 2 feet longer, and almost a foot taller than our old one, and although I had carefully done the necessary measuring before we started, it was a relief to know that I hadn't screwed that up either.

Of course that was without the doors on, and sure enough it would no longer fit after my friend Pete installed the doors.  That's okay though.  I knew that as well. I just have to make some minor modifications to the back wall to accommodate the ladder which sticks out about 8 inches.  I can't however make those changes until after the building inspector comes back one more time, because what I need to do will definitely break the rules....don't tell anyone...

It's all really coming together well though, and while it's not perfect, I'm overall very happy.  It's still gonna take a week to finish the siding/soffit/fascia/eavestrough, but sometime next week we should be able to call it done.  My priority over that time frame will be doing the electrical.  Not to worry.  I generally know what I'm doing and if I get stuck I simply call brother John, and he makes up an answer for me.

And specking of brothers that know everything (this one really does), a special shout out to Larry today.  Sorry bro that I've been so preoccupied with my own business that I haven't checked on you.  Larry is recovering from cancer surgery, and while I don't know it for a fact, I trust he's doing well or else the Rooyakkers grapevine would have told me otherwise.  Peace Larry. In my world, you are a man amongst men!  Love you to the moon and up!

"I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see. I sought my God, but my God eluded me. I sought my brother and I found all three."---Anon

Love

Peter

The Day in Pictures.

9:00 am

11:00 am

1:00 pm

3:00 pm

5:00 pm

It's fun watching others work.  Although I never sat on my ass either.  Because the siding guy decided to come 2 days early (that never happens), I had to hurry up and get my doors and windows properly secured.

I also put 3 coats of paint on the garage door jams (2 primer, 1 colour) and of course I have one more top coat to do tomorrow.  I need that done and dried before the siding guy gets to that point, and before the garage door guy comes on wednesday.  I think you can see my mess in this pic.  

Building inspector comes tomorrow so we'll see what he has to say.  I'm just a wee bit nervous about one thing and I'll tell you about it later, whatever he says....

Love

Peter

"Et la Porte"

Or more correctly "les portes"

Gotta have two doors you know, in case of fire...........

They still need to need to be painted and the hardware installed.  That's another day.

I also framed in the garage doors, and made some very nice trim mouldings for them.  You can kinda see that in the first pic. The stuff you normally buy for that (called brick mould) is ridiculously expensive, and you can only buy it in 8' lengths.  I like mine much better, although they also still need painting.

The roofer confirmed that weather permitting he will be here on Monday.

Life is still good!

And a couple of smiles for you.

"I wonder: when a Jehovah's Witness dies and goes to Heaven, does God hide behind the door and pretend He's not home?"---Brian Celio

"People who live in a glass house have to answer the door."  Karl Pilkington

Love

Peter

"I'm Calling it Done!

Or our part at least.  We may still throw the man doors in tomorrow, but the rest of the project is for the experts.  I am very, very proud of our efforts.  From the ground up, Jon and I built this in 15 days, without the use of any special equipment.

You can see the shingles are already piled on the roof so that's a good sign that the roofers are coming on Monday.  The garage door's will go in on wed/thurs, and the siding guy should be starting at about the same time.

I can't tell you enough how important doing this has been for me.  I still suffer some trauma from the day of the fire, and doing this work to replace the building has been cathartic.

Life is good!

"Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential."---Winston Churchill

Put the uncommon effort into the common task... make it large by doing it in a great way."---Orison Sweet Marden

Love
Peter

"Close But No Cee-gar"

We had cooperation from the weather today, and got a lot done.  We finished the entire roof with the exception of the small section you can see in this picture.

Tomorrow will finish everything for sure....well, okay..... based on good weather.

Meanwhile, here's a few pics of King Jon!

And the little vid I promised you yesterday is here.

Love
Peter

"A Roof Over Your Head & a Place to Plant Potatoes"

While I admit that I have never taken advantage of the potatoes part, I have always been grateful for the shelter I have been fortunate enough to have available.

Yesterday and today went quite well, and with any cooperation from the weather we will be done in a couple of days.  We developed an excellent process for getting the plywood on the roof, and if Roo can get the vid posted I will share it with you tomorrow.  Meanwhile here's a few pics of out "roof".

Life is good!

Love
Peter

"My beautiful windows!"

Or at least beautiful holes for windows.

We put this entire gable end up, plywood and all, with my home made crane.  It was very exciting as it took the rig to it's limit.  It went smoothly however.

I see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.  Fascia tomorrow, and then all  we have left is the roof!!  Fifty eight sheets of plywood!!

Love

Peter

"Day Ten"

I figured out how to assess the time it may take for specific elements of the job..  Simply do an in depth analysis until you're confident in your output....and then double it!

We worked so hard today and although I'm no longer surprised that we didn't quite get done what we hoped for, I'm still happy with our progress.  As you can see from the shadows it was getting late when we packed it in.  Starting to look like a building though eh?

And as a special treat for you today I give you a little video.  Enjoy!

Love

Peter

"It's a Good Tired"

But still tired.

Yesterday was kind of a frustrating day, capped off by a near disaster.  We had a major thunderstorm in the evening that sent whole sheets of plywood flying through the air, with enough enough wind to actually start peeling the plywood off the building.  Scary!

Today was a better day, but I'm bagged.

Here's a few pics so you can see where we're at after 9 days.  Not bad really.

More tomorrow I hope.

Love
Peter

"What?! No Windows?"

Yes off course.  It's just easier to sheet right over them, and then cut them out afterwards.  Actually we will have 5 beautiful windows that are the same style and size as the ones on the house.  They're gonna look great!

And overall it was another successful day.  We accomplished most of what I hoped for, and indeed tomorrow we should be starting on the trusses.  I think we have some good plans on how to simplify the high work.

This is us working just so you know that we don't have a professional crew coming in here doing it while we drink beer!

But we do have a supervisor, and this is me conferring with him.

And that's the end of day seven.  We have 17 days total til Jon has to go back to work, and I am at about a 50% confidence rate as to completion.  The weather may still become a factor.  They're saying thunderstorms in the morning.  We shall see.  

....and while I'm not a strong as I used to be, it seems like I can still do this work day after day without  any lasting effects.   For this I ma very grateful....

"Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure."---George Sand

Love

Peter

'I love This Shit"

When I work on stuff like this, especially with Jon, I lose complete track of time.  Don't tell Roo but I never even had lunch today.

We did a lot of laborious hidden stuff, but we did manage to get the main girder truss up.

It's actually two separate layers that get fastened together once they're up.  This truss supports one end of the main trusses that span the high section of the building.

We used my special home made crane to get them up there, a device I'll show you when we put the others trusses up.

We also put a dent in the sheeting of the walls as you can see.  Mind you only the easy part.  It gets a whole lot harder once you have to start climbing ladders with a 4' by 8' sheet of plywood held between your teeth!

Tomorrow we hope to finish the sheeting with the exception of the gable ends (look it up if you care), and then maybe friday (weather permitting), starting on the trusses.

All goes well...touch wood :)

And while Jon and I slave away we are both content in the knowledge that Roo is getting her Izaiah time.  I don't know what she does, but the child already has a big love on for her.  Actually I take that back.  I know exactly what she does.  She just loves him really, really hard!

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” ---Anon

Love
Peter

Finally it begins.....

It was a year ago today that we nearly lost our home.  I still have flashbacks that haunt me, and I hope that getting the building back will be the end of them.

With some encouragement from son Michael I decided to chronicle the rebuild of the shed, at least in pictures.  The first step was replacement of the concrete pad, and I'm sad to say that I got very badly burned.  The floor is a disaster, and unfortunately I paid him before I had a chance to inspect the work.  I've known him for 10 years, and I trusted in his skill and his integrity.  I guess the fault is mine, because both of those things were sadly lacking.  I also think he has an addiction problem, so my heart is still soft for him.  Hopefully he can get his life together.  

No worries with that for the next portion as the fella in charge I have known for 35 years, and this guy i trust and love.  

What you see is 5 days work, and I'm very happy with the progress.  Jon will only do the framing this time as we will subcontract the siding and the roofing.  I'd happily have him do it all, but alas, he has a life too.

The major bonus of all this is getting  to work with Jonathan again.  We share the love of things technical, and while we battle occasionally, for the most part we communicate very well.  Any disagreements usually stem from my control problems.  I'm working on that, trying to give my children their due.

The major, major bonus is that Jon brought his family with him, and they will spend 17 days here, or until the job is done.  I promise a pic of my beautiful grandson within the next few days, and Alisha as well if I can get her in front of the camera,

Stay tuned, and I promise continued pics until the job is done.

"Do I want to be a hero to my son? No. I would like to be a very real human being. That's hard enough."--- Robert Downey Jr

Love
Peter