The Bar 2014 Edition

[Ratty]

YGMIR, You are a brave and loyal Warrior. (I don't even want to clean the gutters).

Admiring you.....

[unjonharley]

The kids decided that I no longer can have a ladder.. Seeing I fall in the middle of the living room..

[magicmarty]

Know the feeling, Unjohn. But the Nordic Pagan is undaunted in his eternal pursuit of the Holy Grail ..... of achieving the impossible .... and most often succeeding, (usually with a scrape or two.)

Would love to be a fly on the wall with MDF & Delle. Gotta be great fun!!!

Have a great day, kiddies

(((LF)))

[Elliot]

Oooo.... Ladders! Gutters! Reminds me!.... Years ago I was cleaning the gutters on my house in Sacramento. I had a large garbage can below, intending to put the gunk therein. Reached too far, rode the ladder down -- head first into the garbage can (I deduced later - I had no recollection, since concussions are somewhat retroactive). Unconsciousness, "sleep walking" three houses down the street, ambulance ride -- the works. The concussion stayed with me a couple months. Now I'm a tad more careful!

[FIGJAM]

OK, new rule of thumb!

For every step up a ladder a burner takes, you take one step AWAY from said ladder!!!

[Ratty]

Elliott, You tell a great tale. I sleepwalk. No injury necessary. Ever wake up with half an ice cream sandwich smashed into your face and hair? How about waking up in the middle of the street wearing just a short jacket. My Dr. said, "And what was your address again?"

[Elliot]

No. I don't normally sleep walk, but I sure did that time when I was unconscious. A neighbor's child saw me walking down the sidewalk, dirty and bleeding, turning into a friend's house where I eventually "woke up" sitting on the living room couch. That neighbor was a Registered Nurse. So somehow I knew where I needed to go for help.

I'm sure somebody here can explain about different levels of consciousness, and about gaps in memory. As I understand it, memories are created immediately, but are not placed in the file cabinet for a while. If we get knocked out while the memory is still sitting on the file clerk's desk, it gets blown out the window. That's why I don't remember falling and entering the garbage can. The last that had been filed was my reaching, and a faint image of the ladder just barely beginning to move. The rest of the fall, up to impact with the bottom of the garbage can, blew out of the file clerk's hand. And after impact, the memory recording system was completely off line until I was sitting on that couch.

Great fun to analyze now, but I sure don't want to do it again!

On a happier note.... Major score today! The local junior college campus held a surplus sale yesterday. When I walked thru campus as usual today, I noticed leftovers, including file cabinets. File cabinets are great for organizing bicycle parts and such. So I stopped by the office and asked. Sure enough, the more I would haul off without charging them anything, the happier they would be. 8 full size file cabinets, 3 small ones, and a stout steel desk of the institutional cold-war nuke-proof kind which will make a good workbench once I lengthen the legs.

Also found a hub cap for my pickup on that walk. So today's scores somewhat compensate for all the frustrating work I need to do with my e-mail addresses.

Drinks all around, on me!
*dozing ePlayans leap from tables all over the Bar*

[burner von braun]

~boing~

hmmm.. an old indestructable metal desk as a workbench eh? ..I like it! Maybe even heavy duty caster wheels on the leg extensions if one was so inclined. While not free, the University of Blue near here has surplus auctions where they can be purchased for a mere pittance. Thanks Elliot! Sometimes the simple things are best.

On another note, I read where Google is building some kind of secret construct on a barge out in the Bay. What gives?!

*sets Kraken and ibuprofen over by the IBBOD*

[Elliot]

~boing~

hmmm.. an old indestructable metal desk as a workbench eh? ..I like it! Maybe even heavy duty caster wheels on the leg extensions if one was so inclined. While not free, the University of Blue near here has surplus auctions where they can be purchased for a mere pittance. Thanks Elliot! Sometimes the simple things are best.

On another note, I read where Google is building some kind of secret construct on a barge out in the Bay. What gives?!

*sets Kraken and ibuprofen over by the IBBOD*

This desk has a linoleum/formica type surface, but I have an other bench for "destructive" work.
Oh yes, everything should have casters -- except that one bench with the big vice, which should be bolted to the building.

I live 100 miles from the Bay, but I read it may be a traveling showroom/exhibit.

[Box Burner]

~boing~

hmmm.. an old indestructable metal desk as a workbench eh? ..I like it! Maybe even heavy duty caster wheels on the leg extensions if one was so inclined. While not free, the University of Blue near here has surplus auctions where they can be purchased for a mere pittance. Thanks Elliot! Sometimes the simple things are best.

On another note, I read where Google is building some kind of secret construct on a barge out in the Bay. What gives?!

*sets Kraken and ibuprofen over by the IBBOD*

This desk has a linoleum/formica type surface, but I have an other bench for "destructive" work.
Oh yes, everything should have casters -- except that one bench with the big vice, which should be bolted to the building.

I live 100 miles from the Bay, but I read it may be a traveling showroom/exhibit.

Have had a few of those desks. Available in ugly grey or ugly brown, They are nearly indestructible. Lost the last two in the fire. Seems to be two variants. One has trays that slide out to extend the available desk space, and the other does not. Both types are good but the sliding trays do come in handy.

[FIGJAM]

I have three!

They come up on craigs list for free and are the best ready made work benches.

[theCryptofishist]

On another note, I read where Google is building some kind of secret construct on a barge out in the Bay. What gives?!

Speculation around here is that it's the first step in making an ocean-going, stateless workforce.

[Elliot]

Mine has the slide-out trays. And it's been painted baby blue! But all that is trivial -- it's a Good Useful Piece.

Some of us have had trouble with Topic Reply Notifications -- not receiving any. Trilo found a ton of Delivery Failures for Ygmir and me. So I have now changed ePlaya from my AT&T mail to my Microsoft Outlook mail, and notifications are arriving again.

[ygmir]

*wanders in, sees BVB's presents and indulges*

dang, hi gang!!!

I posted one pic, and a link, on "work in progress".......really the whole chimney story can't be told without the 41 photo Looneytunes took, while alternately laughing and running away.

here's one:


giggle as you must

[magicmarty]

Got dizzy just looking at the pics! Bravo, YG!

[Patsh]

Very cool, Yggy!
Going through the pictures fast, it's like a short film... you climbing up and teetering at the top, getting the pipe in place, 'resting', taking it off, going back down, then back up again, 'resting', back down, back up, and so on... that was FUN! (there went a good half hour of the evening, laughing aloud...)
So, I'm hoping this will solve the back-smoking problem... best way to find out for sure will be to see it in action for real!

Thanks, Looneytunes, for the pics!!

[trilobyte]

Good seeing you BvB... I like the idea of workbenches too.

The Google barges (there's a second one being built in Maine) are intended as floating showroom/expo centers. The plan is that they'll be dolled up and fitted out with whatever google-tech that they want to feature and showcase, and then sailed around to various ports. The ridiculous glasses, the driver-less car, and other cutting edge stuff. I don't think we'll see them make any official debut until 2014, I've heard there's tons more work to do...but who knows.

In other news, today's been a big nerdy day. I'd been making notes and prepping since the weekend, and today 'launched the missiles' and did a complete wipe and clean install on my primary computer. It's a good idea for anyone to do that every so often (the flotsam and jetsam of uninstalled programs and apps that aren't really used any more adds up and drags down performance), and with a lot of the projects I've been involved in it becomes something that needs to get done after every big development cycle. It's the digital equivalent of rebuilding the engine of a car, I think. It's progressing nicely, far less downtime than I used to experience in the past.

[AntiM]

Wow. Impressive pipe. Yggy, I swear, you and MyLarry are related on some level. He free climbs the big trees in the neighborhood to drop dead branches, scares me to pieces.

[Simon of the Playa]

*wanders in, sees BVB's presents and indulges*

dang, hi gang!!!

I posted one pic, and a link, on "work in progress".......really the whole chimney story can't be told without the 41 photo Looneytunes took, while alternately laughing and running away.

here's one:


giggle as you must

ok, now who is going to make this into a GIF and then set it to the Benny Hill Theme...

[ygmir]

*shuffles in, makes CCC*

haha Patsh, you're right! I didn't even think of the "stop action"........and Simon, perfect!! Benny Hill may well be my British doppelganger!

I tell ya, I've got sore stuff I've not felt in years!! funny for such a short period, maybe an hour start to finish, how I cold have strained my entire diminutive frame! Feels sorta good though.

Yeah, AntiM, YourLarry and I have much in common, I'm sure! though, I may have more of the genes from the "water buffalo" side of the family. I've prolly got 60 lbs on him. haha.

Trilo: I wish I knew how, and had the nerve, to do the "wipe clean" thing.......I'm good with a hammer and chainsaw, not so good with buttons and "fuzzy logic".......

[AntiM]

You should have seen him at 139. Persian Gulf deployment, I'd send him snacks and the guys would buy them from him. He'd share, but they insisted on cash "donations". I had no idea until he came home with jewelry from Bahrain for me.

Tree man:

tree.jpg

[ygmir]

*cheering for MyLarry*..

[delle]

Got postpartum BAD today, as MyDearFriend & HerDearHusband have left for their next leg of their trip. The house is empty again and LarryTheCat is looking at me accusingly wondering what I'd done to make all his fun go away.

Meanwhile, early morning reports are that Justin has already washed up with the big wave activity we have going on and sits forlornly on the shore. I can't yet discern if he is praying for me to pick him up or for someone else, perhaps kinder, to quickly do so. He must know in his heart that I feel nothing but remorse for his current situation.

That said, I have decided that he cannot re-enter our home as his GI-Joe captor-become-mentor-and-friend has discovered a lovely Barbie to appease his loneliness and the re-integration of Justin at this point would be just messy. Given this turn of events, I decided that the only thing I could do with Justin were he to return here would be to bury him up to his head in the yard and put bird seed in his hair... so he's probably better off waiting for someone else to pick him up.

...Although at this point, I miss MDF and HDH (who I've adopted as my identical -albeit slightly hairier- twin) so much, I would probably latch onto Justin so tightly as "all I've got left", that a whole new level of questionably crazy would be attained.... as I'd probably need to create a doll-sized snuggly that could accommodate the cement block to keep him close always.

So that's stuff to think about this morning....

[Aurelia]

Yggy, That pipe is so high that it may require lights so planes don't accidently swoop too low while trying to check out the action.

Yes the barges are a source of conjecture..supposed to have glass in them also...

heading across the bridge now
xoA.

[unjonharley]

Hope you smoke some good shit in that pipe

[theCryptofishist]

Beetle on a pin, beetle on a pin...

[trilobyte]

The glass they're talking about in the barge is a product google's developing. Google Glass are $1500 glasses that are sort of also a smart phone. I'll skip my long rambly rant on the subject and just say I don't care much for the idea. Don't get me wrong, I love me some high tech stuff and I'm all for wearable technology where it makes sense, I just think they're really barking up the wrong tree with that one.

I used to be pretty good with a chainsaw when I was a kid, Ygmir, but it's been years decades quite a while since I've used one As for the techy stuff, if you work with stuff long enough, eventually it starts to sink in - I've learned a lot through osmosis

[Elliot]

I just read that a motorist wearing Google Glass was cited for having a TV screen in his forward line of sight, which has long been prohibited for the obvious reason.

[^Rhino!]

I have three!

They come up on craigs list for free and are the best ready made work benches.

Living in a college town has its advantages, like when the kids leave school after graduation for home.

Last year, I picked up a Broyhill dining room table and two Queen Anne-style chairs from the curb at one house and took them home. The table I stripped to bare wood, sanded it smooth, sealed it, sanded it again, sealed it again, sanded it smooth a second time, and then stained it walnut brown. I followed that with 6 coats of polyurethane and new brass foot pads. It now proudly sits as MY restored dining room table. The chairs, also Broyhills, offended my sense of ethos. They had plastic inserts to simulate carved backs. YECCCH! So, I removed the inserts and put in new vertical slats for the chair back. Sanded and polyurethaned. THEN, I went to Joann Fabrics, got 2 yards of satin striped upholstery fabric and holofil stuffing for the seats, reupholstered the chairs, and now I've been offered $800 for the set.

Nope. I got too much cheap enjoyment out of the restoration process.

Then, I found a walnut drum table that needed a whole lot of love. I disassembled it, hand sanding every piece, and then reassembled and polyurethaned it. Inside, it didn't have a shelf. With two scrap 1 by 8's, I made a shelf for it with steel reinforcement straps that make it strong enough to hold books. It's now the nightstand in by bedroom, and looks near-new.

I just got gifted TWO antique tables that can be restored. The first one is a Game table, with drawers that hold cards or poker chips. I'm putting a 36" black leather surface on it, with the leather held in place by brass studs. Walnut stain again, with a polish of beeswax and turpentine rubbed in the wood like the old guys used to do. It's about half done so far, but it will be SWEET when it's done.

The other table is a hall table with birdseye maple and walnut. THAT one is going to be a toughie, but I think I can handle it.

Furniture refinishing by Rhino - for fun and not for profit.

[magicmarty]

Hey Rhino, at least there are no ladders to fall off! Sounds like some fun work.