What else could it be? This is Crash, my golden retriever. He weighs 115lb (not overweight, either, he’s just that big!), he will beat you to death with his excited tail, and is generally a furball of happy.
You may have noticed the last four posts resemble an old adage.. It wasn’t intentional, at least, it wasn’t when I posted the first one. Something new, something old, something moo, something gold. Cheesy, yes. I just hope that someone enjoyed it!
Do you hear about one-day projects? 24 hour turnarounds? Things to do in a weekend?
Have you ever looked at the instructions, and the expenses and decided that it is way too expensive, or that there is no way you could ever finish the job in the time suggested?
I know I have, on many occasions. So many things I could have accomplished if I had twice the time allotted. Or twice the money suggested.
This project is slightly misleading, because the most expensive part was actually the cheapest. On Saturday we took two trips to Harrisonburg, firstly for a wedding and the second for dinner. On the way out the second time, I noticed sitting in a driveway a large piece of furniture with a sign saying “Free You Haul!” This was to be the cornerstone of our Sunday activities.
We’ve been meaning to clean up “the green room” for a while, it is where a lot of our stuff is stored, it is also where my desktop is, and was a work room before we realized there was nowhere near enough space. We’ve also been looking for more storage options, because while bookshelves are good, they aren’t the be-all and end-all of our problem. This item, which turned out to be a buffet, seemed ideal.
And so that is how my Sunday morning started. We got in the truck and drove the mile or so to the place, were excited to find it still in situ, and loaded it. We drove home, unloaded, and assessed.
The two end doors were off, and needed to be reattached (we pulled them right back off again after we started actually planning..). There was putty or something along the top and the sides, which appears to be filling in a design, but it would have been too time consuming to take it all off and so we elected to sand it smooth and just paint it, like the rest.
This is what we started with. Two drawers, and three doors to a long combined shelf. According to the stencil on the back it is made of Walnut. It was light enough (until we painted it) and in relatively good condition. We presume it to be fairly old, as the center and right-hand doors don’t seem to fit quite right. We may never know!
Anyway, this is what we started with. We began by eating lunch. An excellent way to start, in my opinion! We then headed to Harrisonburg where we visited Walmart (Crash needed food) and then Home Depot where we purchased unto ourselves a quart of red paint ($14), a spray can of chalkboard paint ($5) and a roll of masking tape ($3). Total cost was approx. $24, including tax.
The first job was to sand down. There was a layer of varnish, easily taken care of. We also pushed back the layer of…whatever it was…to about where the fascia was showing through in most places.
Next Kelly painted the doors while I started painting the top surface. Crash hung out and supervised.
With one layer of paint on, we moved inside to start working on cleaning the room.
Two hours go by…
We came out to check how it was going. It was supposed to take around two hours to dry, and parts of it needed a second coat. While Kelly was working on that, I masked off the doors and broke out the chalkboard paint. Kelly wanted blackboard surfaces to write on so she could write lists of what was in the drawers and such, and be able to rub things off and such without having to completely relabel things, or be crossing things off on paper and being messy. She has suggested the same thing for a future kitchen, but the idea of chalk dust and food in the same vicinity makes me a little uneasy. This will, however, give me a chance to see how it works in practice (without the food!) and be able to make a more educated choice.
Now, the chalkboard paint is a spray on. It dries to a point of touch-up after 20 minutes (which we utilized), and after 24 hours is safe to draw on. Something to keep in mind if you are planning it for a child’s room, or similar. Don’t give them the chalk until the next day! For us, we didn’t have any chalk and so Kelly was planning to pick some up while at work, which meant it would be around 22 hours anyway.
Around this time we organized food. Two medium pizza’s from Dominos, please! Good times. I finished mine on Monday.
We touched up the doors and finished clearing a path in the green room to where we wanted to put the thing. The plan was to put it under the window (where we had storage boxes and such).
Crash approved.
Once the chalkboard paint was finished (another 20 minutes later), we reattached the handles and then reattached the doors.
We gave the other paint a few more minutes to dry while we checked clearance for moving it inside.
Now in place in it’s new home, it actually looks pretty good. The plan, for now, is to use it as an art/storage cabinet where it won’t be seen by a lot of people. If it moves to a more public location after we move then we may need to consider at least touching up in places that we rushed.
Looking at the photo time stamps, we took about 3.5 hours from arriving home with the supplies (we picked the thing up at about 11 in the morning, arrived home with paint and such at 2:45. We moved it into the house around 8:10-8:15).
Not bad, really..
One of my facebook friends (someone I went to school with many years ago) apparently was hacked or scammed or something, and sent out messages to me and to all my friends. I will probably take a look at my security settings for that reason later, but I wanted to post a couple of images that came up as a result of it.
In short, I am ‘friends’ with two dogs. The first is Fetch, he is the dog of a couple of friends, Ben and Bethany, and his response was rather amusing. I may be biased (though I didn’t write it), but I found the second response funnier – that of Crash.
Enjoy!
And …
With the dawn of 2011, many people are making resolutions, as they always do. I believe in looking forward, but not forgetting to check behind occasionally, and having just completed an employment-based self review it seemed fitting to perform one on a more personal level. Am I happy with my life? If not, why not, and either way, how can I make it better – or at least not get worse? What significant things have I achieved in the last 365 days? What do I hope to succeed in doing in the next 52 weeks? Anything? Nothing? I tried (albeit briefly) to find a form to follow, but couldn’t find anything suitable, so I’m making it up. Seems to be something I’m not bad at..
Goals I had for 2010:
Goals for 2011:
Comments:
This year has been a good year. A vast improvement over 2009 in terms of finance especially, we have been able to take a much-needed trip over 300 miles away (which we have just returned from) and have no fear regarding the ongoing payment of bills. Additionally, we have a basic plan laid out for paying off several loans in the next 3 to 4 months, to be reviewed and updated on a regular basis.
I am also realizing the impact that working in the evenings, combined with living in Broadway, is having on my social life and thus my overall happiness. I had forgotten how much of a social creature I am, and while introversion may be a part of my personality I am finding it difficult surviving without people. An important feature in any house we look at, for me at least, is that it be in or very close to Harrisonburg. The actual rent may be higher (although I doubt it would be by a whole lot), but being closer (or more central) to an increased number of friends would make up for it. That is certainly not to say that friends in Broadway/Timberville are less important, simply that there are less of you and it has to be factored in.
This coming year holds several challenges that are not listed as goals. To name just a few, there is another USCIS related cost coming up, as my green card expires in July and will require some more forms completed and some more money paid 90 days before that happens. Secondly we have a wedding to attend (one of Kelly’s old school friends, Sarah) is getting married in May, around the same time as our anniversary. This will involve a drive to Mississippi, with a side-trip to New Orleans (since we’ll be so close!).
A high priority on my list is a trip to visit New Zealand. This year will mark 3 years since I left, and a third year of wishing I could visit and see the many friends and family members I left behind to miss me. While the inability to return is entirely related to our financial situation and said financial situation is finally improving, I have minimal hope that the situation will be sufficiently rectified any time soon, unless both Kelly and I have significant pay increases. Chances are also good that to receive the pay increases needed will require us both to find new positions – mine may or may not be within RS, Kelly’s most certainly won’t be with the day care.
I have high hopes for 2011. Expectations are lagging slightly behind, but also high. I believe my goals are reasonable and achievable, while still being challenging. I wish everyone else the best with their goals for the coming year, and a happy new year to all.
WARNING: This blog entry is long and has a high “Boredom Potential.” You begin reading at your own risk.
/ˈhæp lɪs/ [hap-lis] –adjective
unlucky; luckless; unfortunate.
Origin:
1560–70; hap1 + -less
—Related forms
hap·less·ly, adverb
hap·less·ness, noun—Can be confused: hapless, haply, happily.
—Synonyms
miserable, woebegone, wretched, forlorn; pathetic, pitiable.
/ˈhɛlp lɪs/ [help-lis] –adjective
1. unable to help oneself; weak or dependent: a helpless invalid.
2. deprived of strength or power; powerless; incapacitated: They were helpless with laughter.
3. affording no help.Origin:
1125–75; ME; see help, -less
—Related forms
help·less·ly, adverb
help·less·ness, noun
/ˈhoʊp lɪs/ [hohp-lis] –adjective
1. providing no hope; beyond optimism or hope; desperate: a hopeless case of cancer.
2. without hope; despairing: hopeless grief.
3. impossible to accomplish, solve, resolve, etc.: Balancing my budget is hopeless.
4. not able to learn or act, perform, or work as desired; inadequate for the purpose: As a bridge player, you’re hopeless.Origin:
1560–70; hope + -less—Related forms
hope·less·ly, adverb
hope·less·ness, noun
—Synonyms
1. irremediable, remediless, incurable. 2. forlorn, disconsolate, dejected. Hopeless, despairing, despondent, desperate all describe an absence of hope. Hopeless is used of a feeling of futility and passive abandonment of oneself to fate: Hopeless and grim, he still clung to the cliff. Despairing refers to the loss of hope in regard to a particular situation, whether important or trivial; it suggests an intellectual judgment concerning probabilities: despairing of victory; despairing of finding his gloves. Despondent always suggests melancholy and depression; it refers to an emotional state rather than to an intellectual judgment: Despondent over ill health, he killed himself. She became despondent and suspicious. Desperate conveys a suggestion of recklessness resulting from loss of hope: As the time grew shorter, he became desperate. It may also refer to something arising from extreme need or danger: a desperate remedy; a desperate situation. Despairing and despondent may apply only to feelings.
Three distinct feelings that can be felt despite the conditions being the opposite. Sometimes they are sitting in the background, waving politely to remind you they are there, other times they are in your face yelling and screaming and occasionally kicking you in the shin. At this point, despite my emotional feelings of haplessness, helplessness and hopelessness, let me explain how I am well aware that this is not the case.
The start of this problem goes back a long time, to the beginning, even. It is no one persons fault, and blame cannot easily be placed on any individuals or groups, with few exceptions, and for the most part I suspect they may be ourselves. It probably starts with leaving New Zealand for the US, with high hopes and expectations a little beyond reality, and throughout it is plagued by circumstances far beyond our control. The economic problems play a large part, but it is also compounded by the area we live in and what industry is available, as well as the long and boring game of waiting for someone to do something – like USCIS.
When I left NZ I had a well-paying job, and had high hopes of that experience being useful in my hunt for work, here in the US. More than once after arriving I wondered why I left it. That said, with the economic issues being a global problem there is little guarantee I would have still been employed by the same company, although as with so many decisions in life I have no way of knowing what the outcome of staying (with Kelly moving to NZ) might have been.
Part of our problem was the way we dealt with USCIS. We weren’t 100% on the ball – if we’d gotten it right the first time, I would have had a work permit a lot earlier. If we’d gotten it right the second time, work permits would have been arriving not as early, but not as late. By the time I had an employment authorization card it was February of 2009, and very few places were hiring. We had also had to move out of our apartment (end of Nov, beginning of Dec 08) at this point, because Kelly’s college loans had come due for payments, and we couldn’t afford to pay loans as well as rent. See the next paragraph, but even having had a work permit in October or November (2008) probably wouldn’t have helped unless I had taken a job doing retail or something (I did always say I would work at Walmart if I had to). Kelly quit her job as a barista early in 2009, as the work environment was horrible and causing all kinds of emotional problems, and had begun to cause physical problems as a result. Kelly’s mom had offered to help us with the loans in return for cleaning the house.
Anyway, back to my employment (or lack thereof). It took until May of ’09 to get my first interview, and they turned me down. My first job in the USA was working as a camp counselor at a summer camp. Great job, great times, didn’t pay very well. Kelly had been cleaning her parents house (where we had been living), but was offered a summer job as a babysitter for two awesome kids. All this time we were trying to keep a lid on our debt – not necessarily bringing it down, but paying the minimums so that it wouldn’t hurt us too badly. Summer of 2009 was lived very much on a week by week basis.
The end of summer came, and Kelly had found a more permanent job working for the Harrisonburg Rockingham Child Day Care Center, where she still is! I worked for a couple of months for the Boys and Girls Club in Timberville, but they had issues with me, I had issues with them, and we decided the best course of action was for me to resign. Winter of 2009/2010 was bleak, to say the least. Kelly’s job paid the bills, but it was right around December that benefits began, and the impact on the paycheck was greater than we anticipated. Many nights were spent wondering if it would ever get better. Several weeks were spent with one or two dollars in the bank at the end.
The turnaround came in February, and financially it couldn’t have been a better time. Rosetta Stone offered me a temporary position (with a small hope of continuing permanently) in the test lab, as a Software Testing Analyst. From the middle of February 2010 to early June, I worked 40-50+ hours a week to make as much money as I possibly could, and thus began the debt-blitz of early 2010. We had a number of things that had piled up that we needed to get dealt with – Crash had been with us nearly a year and he needed some things attended to, I think the car needed something done, and beyond that the goal was to pay off as much debt as we could. This was primarily successful – we brought our monthly budget down a little, and survived to tell the tale. But sure enough, June came (having had the contract extended twice), and Rosetta Stone said “We don’t need you, but we might soon.” Insert large amounts of hopelessness, and begin looking for work again.
I went back to camp for a couple of weeks over summer, and at the end of August I had a call from Rosetta Stone asking for an interview. If there is one thing I can say for RS it is that their communication skills have some things to be desired, but long story short on August 31, 2010 I started as a permanent, part time employee on the test lab’s second shift (5pm-12am, Monday to Friday, limited to 35 hours a week).
And so here we are – it is the middle of December 2010. We have lived with Kelly’s parents for two years (and about two weeks), and the hope of regaining our independence is slowly, slowly rising again. It isn’t that we haven’t enjoyed living with the rest of the family, I know I have. It isn’t that we don’t appreciate the support provided, I know I do. For the most part we all get along, and we seem happy and comfortable. But we don’t want to abuse the privilege. Already we’ve stayed a lot longer than we had initially hoped or expected – and the way we are set up to a large degree reflects that. Our various boxes of ‘stuff’ were haphazardly packed with little regard for what was going where, and this has resulted in several hours of looking for things that were possibly in a box with something else that we have no idea on the location of.
At this stage, the goal I think is for around May next year, if not before. Realistically, we have several thousand dollars allocated (between now and then) to pay off some of the loans that are really hurting our monthly bank balances and preventing us from moving, and then we can find somewhere to move to. Additionally, May seems like an ideal month to move – aside from a trip to the deep south for a wedding it will be warm, and friends will be more available to help.
We certainly aren’t ‘unlucky’ or entirely ‘unfortunate.’ We are finally at a point where we fail to meet the criteria for ‘unable to help oneself’ or ‘powerless.’ And while it will take time, the task ahead is certainly not ‘impossible to accomplish’
The hard part now is waiting. Every day that goes by I wish I could have done something to help us dig ourselves out faster, but I think I’ve done everything I can. From planning when we pay bills to constantly calculating our budget over a month, over a fortnight and for other special events (like Christmas). Our financial life is about as organized as it could possibly be, and the struggle is remembering why we shouldn’t be mindlessly spending money (a temptation that I constantly fight, and sometimes lose). Keeping our mind on the prize, we must keep our eye on the road, for it is rocky and there are monsters.
And why won’t you go away and let me sleep?
Well, at least it has been a while since I had trouble sleeping. I just hope it isn’t related to the new firmness of the bed.
Good news and potentially bad news! The good news is, I replaced the severely damaged boxspring that was under our bed and built a new one. The still good news is that it cost around $80 and took 3 days (not working 8 or 9 hours a day either, probably could have finished it in 2 had I worked my butt off). The bad news is that now our mattress has a much more solid support and in turn has become more solid. I’m not sure if that is related to my inability to sleep or if I’m just not nearly tired enough, but it’s entirely plausible.
The design of the new frame thing is simple: I bought 6 pieces of 2″x6″(x8′) and 12 pieces of 1″x4″(x8′) and cut to suit. It’s a queen-sized bed, so the dimensions were supposed to be 60″(W)x80″(L). Turns out the mattress is something like 78″ long, but I’m not going to complain endlessly about it.
With some help from Randy and the use of his circular saw, electric drill and sander, I constructed a basic design. It has a 2×6 frame with two paired 2×6’s down the middle for extra support. There are then 12 slats screwed down on top. To compare this to the old boxspring design, it looked like there were 10 1×2 pieces for slats, something smaller than a 2×6 but bigger than a 1×4 (no, it wasn’t a 2×4 or a 1×6) down the middle, and a not-very-rigid frame around the edges. I’d patched several of the slats on one occasion, and two of these had broken again.
Anyway, here are photos:
This was the break at the foot of the bed. I’d repaired it before, but it’s one of the common landing points when Crash jumps up.
This one is looking from the foot towards the head. You can see a couple of the patches I’d made, as well as the big break in the piece down the middle. Again, all the pieces broken resemble the points where Crash typically lands on the bed.
I kept thinking through the process that I should be taking step-by-step photos, but a) they aren’t really necessary for such a simple thing, and b) by the time I actually got around to doing anything about it it was too late to bother, so I waited until it was done (and then nearly forgot).
This is the frame as it was, completed, sitting in the garage waiting to be brought inside and placed on the metal frame that holds it above the floor (came with the bed, I’m not responsible for that part). You can see the 2×6 around the edges and the double 2×6 down the middle.
Carefully note that at this point the ends of both the mattress and the base are pushed against the wall of our room. This is the difference between the 80″ long base and the “80″“ long mattress (ha ha..).
I’d take a wider angle view of the complete bed, but the rest of the room is….camera shy, at this point in time ;-).
In other news, I have some more train photos going up on my Flickr account, and I’ll try to get some new scenery photos up too. I’m hoping to write some kind of ‘newsletter’ or just slightly generalized (with a touch of personal) letters home to New Zealand to family and friends. I’d really like to go home to visit some time, but that (as always) depends on money and our ability to save enough of it. It’s hard to prioritize so often, when there are things we desperately need that cost money, along with things we really want, in conjunction with little things that are really nice (but mount up quickly..). IT WILL HAPPEN. I SHALL HAVE MY SUMMER CHRISTMAS ONCE MORE!
As life goes, I have little, some might argue nothing, to complain about. As Christmas rolls around, Kelly and I have marked off most of our Christmas gift recipients, and the gifts themselves are arriving ready to be wrapped and placed under the tree which was chosen on Sunday and will probably come inside this weekend to be decorated.
Our money management skills aren’t doing too badly – almost all of our bill payments are scheduled and there should be little problem with our trip to Charlotte at the end of the month. So really, there is little for me to complain about that doesn’t just sound like whiny drivel.
Somehow, the bed broke again. It’s hard to justify any suggestions of abuse through the commonly considered manner, because Kelly works from 9:30 to 6, and goes to bed around 12, I start work at 5 and usually finish around 12 or 12:30, and Kelly is usually asleep when I get home around 1-ish. A while back several of the slats (is that the right word?) in the box-spring snapped. I repaired them with a glue-and-screw type brace using some spare 1x3s I had laying around from the model train layout. For a while it worked fine. A couple of weeks ago one of them broke again. Then another one. Last night I came home and sat on the bed and thought “This doesn’t feel right.” I couldn’t pin it. I looked around the outside of the bed, and there was no reason I could see for it to have been leaning the way it was. I took a look under it this morning and realized, in broken horror, why that would be the case. Down the middle, presumably a primary source of support, is what looks like either a 2×6 or a 2×8. And it’s broken in a couple of places (looks kinda like a Z) in the middle, causing the bed to lean somewhat inwards.
And I get paid tomorrow. I think today will involve a planning session, tomorrow will involve buying materials and the weekend will be putting it together. Here’s hoping the broken one lasts that long.
(It’s most likely Crash that is responsible, he enjoys jumping on the bed, and 100lbs of sudden force will do that to a structure after a while..)
I was going through my photo collection (it’s HUGE) yesterday and found some photos and a couple of videos of Crash, our 100lb Golden Retriever, from within a week or so of getting him from the SPCA, aged 3 months.
He was always a big dog, and I’m slightly surprised to think that in the photos he seems so little. It was also amusing seeing some of the photos and videos, looking at characteristics he had then that he still has now, and things he doesn’t really do any more. Mostly just the way he lays down awkwardly twisted..
So I was walking my dog yesterday afternoon, when I ran into a family friend. She asked how the job was going, and she asked if I knew a particular person (as I get from time to time – almost everyone in the county either works for Rosetta Stone or knows someone who does. At best it seems there is something like 3 degrees of separation for any person living in Rockingham County or Harrisonburg and employees of Rosetta Stone). It was a rare case where I remembered enough of the name to look them up on the internal directory, and ran across their blog.
I took a brief look at some of the posts and I’m already intrigued. I may spend some of my spare time (I get a lot of that at work, with reimaging and other things I have to wait for) going back through the archives. If you like computer stuff, take a look, but on the surface at least there seems to be something for just about everyone..
http://blog.aharbick.com/2010/11/build_assuming_a_paying_custom.html
Finished! Well, not quite. The bench-work is mostly finished. It needs to be sanded off at the ends especially, and I still need to finalize how they will attach to each other. I’m thinking maybe a clip on each side to hold it horizontally, and maybe a door lock thing to hold them in alignment? Other than that, I’m mostly happy. I have photos too, I’ll tell the story from when I started (again – the successful attempt ;-))
July 7th
It starts out with Crash looking like a lazy dog. He really is.
This is an overview of where I was up to on July 7th. The outer frame of one section was complete, and the cuts had been made for the second section, with pieces screwed in to line the up, it was ready to glue and screw together.
These are the pieces. Give or take (I measured them to be the same length as each other, not to an exact number of inches) they are 2x 5 foot pieces and 2x 1.2 foot pieces. Screwed and glued into each are two 3/4″ x 3/4″ pieces which are used to easily align each piece with it’s join partner. They are then glued at the corners and clamped together for a couple of hours, then screwed. Below, an end has been glued and clamped.
July 8th
I realized that there wasn’t a great deal of structural support, and that for sections that are likely to be pulled out and put away fairly regularly support is probably a good idea. So I measured and cut two support pieces to fit roughly half-way down each section and then drilled three half-inch holes for wiring to go through, and glued and screwed in the same way as the rest of the base. Here, the first is clamped and waiting for glue to dry.
The support supports are gluing on the second frame, when these are dry some more they will be screwed down into the outer frame and the support will be glued to them and then screwed.
I hung out with Crash for a bit while the glue dried!
The frames were finally finished. One is fairly warped, but I don’t plan on exhibiting this layout and it’ll likely be warped with time and transporting anyway, so I’m not overly worried. With the ply nailed down, it doesn’t seem too terrible. I doubt it will cause any major issues (famous last words?)
July 9th
“I claim this foot in the name of Doglandia Forever Woof Woof!”
I nailed down the tops this morning. Here are both from the bottom…
And one from the top. Basically, because they are 5 ft by 1.5 ft each, I used a 4ft square piece of ply and cut two lengths of 4′ x 1.5′ and then two pieces of 1′ x 1.5′ and had a 1′ square left over.
This is the end of one of the sections – both sections have one end like this (I guess the sides weren’t exactly 5′ long!) and one has sides that are a little like this too. They’ll both get sanded back at some point, probably next week now.
I only had 3 incidents while nailing. Two like this, where I nailed at an angle far enough that it poked through the frame. One on each section, and I was able to push them back out so that with some sanding they probably won’t be noticed. I’m considering some 1×4 to go around this all, partly for strength, partly for keeping most track below top surface level (and thus protected a little more). The third incident was near the end of the first section. I’d been using a pair of vice grips to hold the nails to try and keep them vertical, and I elected to do one with just my fingers. Some of you may have seen my earlier tweet that read “OW! Thumb + hammer = pain” – and that’s precisely what happened. Fortunately it is my left thumb that is afflicted, so while it is still pulsing a little (some two hours after I hit it) it’s not causing me too much problem.