NFTL RDate 94.13

In reviewing my blog notes the other day I realized I hadn't done a "Notes from the Lab" post in 18 months. Sheesh. What the heck have I been doing? Oh Yeah. I've been mentally submerged in a blogging deprivation tank of multiple-post stories. Deep dives into weighty matters like family holidays, crossing America, and battling the forces of nature. Well, I'm back in my cozy lab now, wearing my house slippers and old cardigans, and communing appreciatively with my many toys and hobbies.

I've even been spending time with my Scandalli. That would be my 60+ years old Italian 120 bass piano accordion. The best gift my parents ever gave me. Here is a pic of me in my glory years, playing accompaniment for my church junior choir director Frannie K. She was also a professional vocalist, who occasionally entertained at garden parties at some of the ritzier homes in Bay City. Ergo the hack with the squeeze box.

Note the stylish outfit. It was my band uniform. No, not school band. The M&M Marching Accordion Band. But that is definitely a story that merits its own post someday.

Suffice it to say that I hadn't played this ancient treasure much since my teen years. I will also admit that for the last 50 years or so whenever I was back in the presence of my mother I was asked, "Have you played your accordion lately?" And until the last few weeks, I've almost always had to either fib (oh like that's gonna work with a mother) or fess up. Ah but now during our nightly video chats with Mom I sit grinning just waiting for the question. And it almost always comes.

Oddly, it took a national disaster for me to finally have that extra 30-45 minutes a day it takes to set up my instrument and music stand and fill the lab with live music. I'm a long way from concert hall level these days (believe or not I was there once) but I'm almost ready to serenade Mom over the wires. And in the future, who knows. Could be some jam sessions at Wiser Times.

As I was working out the chord structure for "Lady of Spain" the other day, it occurred to me that the rebirth of my music career hasn't been the only impact the social distancing phenomenon has had on me. Though my Bride and I feel fairly secure here in our well-appointed bunker, there have been changes. And that's where I'd like to go in this edition of NFTL.

Emerging from the Cocoon (7/17/12, Last Updated 7/24/16) - In my very first post I alerted the blogosphere that I had escaped from the work world and was heading into a new universe - retirement. I pledged to check in regularly and to avoid those most controversial of subjects - politics, religion and intra-state rivalries. I recently published my 100th post (this one is actually my 103rd). And I would say I have honored my commitments fairly well.

My 100th post occurred in my 92nd month of retirement. That's slightly more than a post per month. I admit that I seem to go in waves. I've had periods where I published several posts in the span of a couple of months. Other times it has been months between posts. I owe that to the vagaries of life. And fluctuating effort. I think that pattern is likely to continue.

Regarding sensitive topics, I'm proud that I have stuck to my pledge. Despite the current political climate, rife with opportunities for satire and more pointed criticism. I know that going anywhere near that area would bring out the crazies - from all sides - and I could lose my intended air of civility and humor. So, how 'bout them Wings?

Through my first 100 posts I have learned a couple of things about blogging other than to avoid dicey topics. One is that it takes effort. And time. And restraint. One is lucky if others are interested in anything one has to say. So I try to keep it brief (well, at least "Chuck-brief") and suggestive rather than definitive. I write about my own angle of perception, and paint it as such.

Another thing I've learned is to only write when it's fun. In my case that usually means that I've seen or thought about something with a grain of humor that others might enjoy. If writing begins to feel like work, leave it for awhile. It'll come back on its own when you're ready.

My only regret so far is that I haven't spent enough time on family history. The primary purpose of this blog has always been to provide my kids with some insight about who their dad is and how he thinks. I think that part is coming along fine.

The secondary goal was to document our family history in pictures. That has been slow in the offing. But owing to our extended home stays due to the virus lock down, I am now hip deep in a couple of photo digitizing projects. They should provide plenty of source material for the "Memory Lane" component of this blog. Keep an eye out for that (if you have an interest in what my family has been doing for the last 40 years).

Chores (7/19/12, Last Updated 10/23/18) - One of the first changes Nancy and I encountered with the governor's stay-at-home order was the loss of our cleaning service. We have had them for a couple of years now, and we love the arrangement. For a few dollars every other week Nancy and I have each reclaimed an hour or two a day that had been dedicated to house cleaning. More time to spend on the important things in life without descending into sloth.

Now, however, sloth is a real threat (at least in the areas I frequent within our pandemic bubble). So last week, after failing to receive a response from the governor to my emails asking that she reclassify professional home cleaning as an essential service, I accepted my fate. I unearthed my old rags and cleaning fluids, cracked a roll of paper towels, and resumed my duties as chief duster. It was grim.

In the old days I would trudge through the job in three to four hours, once every other week. My pace is more tempered these days. I take longer to set up (trying to remember where I store my tools), longer to perform the work (creaky joints and a poor attitude), and longer to wrap up (trying to remember where to store my tools). The only upside is that with my one good eye (still no post-vitrectomy new glasses) I see less dust. So in the words of Carl Spackler (the groundskeeper in Caddyshack), "I got that goin' for me."

The net result of all these factors is that I cover less ground during each session than I used to. A lot less. Like one room a day. So in one way I am replicating the work of the cleaning service - everything in the house gets dusted once every two weeks. What?

Music Night (8/6/12, Last Updated 10/23/18) - If you've visited this blog before you know all about the music group I and a bunch of my closest friends have been running for the last 30 years. We get together four or five times a year to share music and catch up with each other. The hook is that we share music around a theme and end up with a collection of the music played as a souvenir of the evening. The music is lotsa fun, but the real purpose of the gatherings is to enjoy those long-standing friendships.

Well, as you may have guessed, we can't do that anymore. At least not until the miracle happens and we all feel safe in large groups again. So like many activities these days we're trying to adapt. A few of us who sort of keep the wheels greased on this party wagon have cobbled together a virtual Music Night. That would be a fancy term for a ten to twelve venue video chat. The plan is to facilitate the social side of the group while preserving what we can of the music component.

In my humble opinion the group has survived all these years not only because of the interesting nature of the members, but also because we have striven to impose the minimum level of structure on the event. Most people abhor rules in a social setting. But if you've ever spent time on a multiple-site video chat, you know that some structure is necessary just so everyone doesn't try to talk at once and so everyone does get some air time.

It's uncertain how successful our virtual Music Night experiment will go, but we're launching in a couple of weeks. I hope it works, as it may be our only option for awhile. And I miss those people. Of course, we've video chatted with a few of them directly in virtual happy hours or smaller group discussions, as much of the country is doing these days. But the vibe generated by a larger group of friends, especially old friends, is different. And I really miss that.

Up North (8/15/12, Last Updated 5/15/14) - As I have described in recent posts, a lot has happened the last couple of years at Wiser Times. We have our little piece of "Up North" mostly spiffed up, restocked and ready for a summer of company. But thanks to America getting beat to a pulp by a more organized enemy (tiny and hard to see as it is), that's unlikely to happen. Rather, the cottage has become a very comfortable and appealing place to hunker down away from the madness. And for awhile, it was our hideout as fugitives.

Remember when the governor clarified her stay-at-home order to mean that travel between a primary residence and a vacation home was also prohibited? When she made that announcement Nancy and I were just cruising into downtown Oscoda on our way to the cottage for a long weekend. So what should we do? The reasons the governor gave for her decision were that upstate authorities were concerned about down-staters bringing the curse with them and about the comparatively thin medical facilities in the northern counties being overwhelmed. Okay. We got it. We weren't welcome.

After a moment of panic, we decided to slowly lurk up the remaining six or seven miles of US23 - you know, like a local - and hole up in the cottage. The garage was full of wintering deck and lawn furniture at that point so we couldn't hide the car in it. We thought about covering the car up with fallen oak leaves and pine tree trimmings, but didn't quite have enough to do the job. Besides, by morning it would have become a chipmunk condo complex. So we risked leaving it in plain sight.

Once inside we kept the blinds down and the lights low. We had brought all the food with us that we would need, so we just might get away with not seeing anyone or being spotted by a local smokey prowling the area for cottage illegals. It was tense. After a few nights we felt it might be safe to work our way back to Grosse Pointe if we didn't stop anywhere and took the back roads. So we packed up and nonchalantly pulled out of our drive and onto southbound US23.

The plan was working fine until I got to the junction of M-13 and I-75, just north of Bay City. I was supposed to take a left, slip down the west side of town and out onto the two-lane highways that meander southeast across mid-Michigan. It's a pretty and lightly populated part of the state. We thought it was our best chance to avoid doing time on a vacation-home rap.

But when I saw that inviting red, white and blue I-75 sign I lost it. Instead of making the left I stepped on the gas, merged onto the freeway and made a run for it. I locked the cruise control in at 75 to make sure we would be the slowest moving thing if we encountered a sneaky patrol car poised for pursuit. We came up with a cover story if we were stopped. We'd say we were on our way to CVS on Mack Avenue for our meds and got lost. That we'd been on the road for hours and could they give us something to eat.

Well, we got lucky. Turns out nobody really cared who or where we were or how fast we were going. We made it home safely and avoided any gubernatorial entanglements. A couple of weeks later, the vacation home travel restriction was lifted and we were back in business. So we're looking forward to seeing and chatting with our close friends in the coming months from the cottage, via Zoom or Google Hangouts. It will be a different summer.

The Art of the Dawdle (11/7/12, First Update) - I really can't close this post without at least a passing reference to dawdling. As I noted in the original post, the Free On-line Dictionary defines dawdling as "to spend time idly, to move lackadaisically, or to take more time than necessary". You betcha. Talk about a concept whose time has come. What better skill to have honed over the years, in anticipation of being told to stay home for an extended period.

It is true that many "lock-ins" are having a tough time. Trying to work from home, care for little ones who otherwise would be in daycare or school, all the while sweating out each required contact with the outside world. Stress from all angles. Enter the dawdle. It's not just for old retirees with time on their hands. It's for everyone.

In my original post I talk about the challenges of dawdling, and the benefits. While the challenges may be heightened for those feeling compressed by additional responsibilities and limited options, all the more important for them to try and carve out some time for themselves. If you are bearing a heavy load, it's because important others are depending on you. And you need to stay in fighting form.

Time spent in your private dawdling "space", however short or not-so-private, will help keep your batteries charged. I understand that not everyone has a well-equipped hobby lab to sneak off to. But a set of earbuds, a quiet window to stare out of and a user-friendly beverage can take you about anywhere you want to go. Maybe just back to a time when your vital signs were normal.
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I think that'll do it for this version of "Notes from the Lab". Keep safe, and stare out the window as often as you can.

Grosse Pointe Charles

The Joys of Home Ownership Part 4 - Restoration

When last we talked, I reported that the structural repairs to our family cottage Wiser Times were complete and that we were heading to the last phase of this marathon - building the deck. I wasn't totally correct about that. What I should have said was that repairs were nearly complete, and that we were close to getting a deck built. And that most of our issues had been resolved.

I forgot for a moment that most things in life that involve tools and contractors and improvement are never really done. They just get further down the path of nearly and close and most. And only stop when it's time to move on to the next thing. So it was with this 3x project (with x being our original cost estimate). Accordingly, this post will bring us to when we stopped on our deck project.

While I covered events in previous posts mostly in time-sequence order, I won't try to do that here. As multi-faceted projects near completion, I've found that the various components (in this case deck reconstruction, wall repair, floor repair, new window installation, etc.) tend to get attention simultaneously. This is because they all touch and affect each other in some way. Accordingly, our builder Dave sort of spread his efforts around during this final phase of the work.

He performed outside work on good weather days. Inside work on rainy days. Tasks like drywall taping and painting were integrated with wall restoration and carpeting, to allow for needed settling and drying times. You get the idea. So I've organized this post by geography, starting with our old friend the sun porch bedroom.

To refresh your memory, here is a shot of the sun porch bedroom after structural work but before restoration.

Here we have the wall restored and the windows trimmed.

The carpet being measured and prepped.

And fully installed. Note the inspector patrolling in the second shot.

And finally, the furniture returned. And in some areas upgraded. Note the new zebra blinds over the bed.

The fully restored luggage and storage area.

And the deck walkout with lake view. Very popular with our regular guests.

The sun porch bedroom back in operation, let's move on to the bay window. Again, here are a couple of shots after reconstruction before restoration. Yes, there's another inspector shown in the second shot. It seems they are everywhere. Even from out of town.

Here are the more attractive shots with the window trim and painting complete and the new laminate installed in the window seat.

From here we move to the exterior of our little piece of paradise. Starting with the eave and roof repair. First a little history about our roof.

About 10 years ago there was a tremendous wind and hail storm in the Greenbush area. It caused damage to a lot of shingle roofs including ours. But, because of a fast-talking and enterprising roofing company, we were able to get our roof replaced with no out-of-pocket expenses.

In retrospect, we unwittingly may have been co-conspirators in an insurance scam (this was before we had discovered our builder Dave). The insurance inspector did verify the roof contractor's assessment of our damage. I noticed then that the contractor and the inspector sort of had a family resemblance. Cousins maybe. But before my suspicions had a chance to mature the contractor offered to forego our deductible. We jumped on the deal.

Shockingly, we've had roof issues since. The most concerning one was a leak that seemed to be coming through the eave above the area of our large doorwall to the deck. So we had the original roofer send out a team to try to fix it. They dutifully removed the shingles from that part of the roof, found some bad wood (water damaged), replaced it, and replaced the shingles.

Unfortunately, we subsequently learned that the repair attempted by the old roofing company didn't quite do the trick. On hard rain days we've detected a bit of dripping just above the doorwall. So we have another adventure upcoming on that front. Watch for it sometime this summer.

Possible roof issues notwithstanding, we moved forward with the exterior restoration. As a tune up Dave completed most of the siding for the south wall.

 

His tool box warmed up, Dave was finally able to give form to the new deck. If you recall from the last post, the foundation of this new fun space was several large beams set in concrete footings.

Then came the joists. Many. As well as a few posts that would eventually morph into bench and railing supports.

Then the deck floor. We opted for cedar for the exposed portions of the deck, treated lumber for the infrastructure.

From here it went fairly smoothly and quickly. Dave finished the siding, the eaves, some electrical work (new outlets and spotlights), front steps and built-in benches at both ends. Here's a shot of me adding the final touch - our treasured cottage sign crafted for us by one of our Tennessee relations.

And the finished product, decked out with - well - deck furnishings. Here's the shutter table area with it's new bench and railing

The north end bench, known as the "wet suit" area.

The new glass table and chairs, and Grandma LeRoy's refurbed glider (an "heirloom" imported from the former family cottage in Ontario, and re-birthed one more time for a new job).

And put it all together. Note the two levels, each end of the deck now matching the level of its respective entrance from the house. A major safety improvement from the old deck which had a step down to navigate at the family room entrance, a frequent hazard during extended happy hours.

Well there you have it. Only took four posts to get this baby built (and 3x's if you recall my earlier reference). But it was all worth it. Looking forward to sharing this comfortable new space with family and friends for many years to come (we'll see how that goes, I mutter from my virus bunker).

Hope everyone is keeping safe. We retirees especially - we need to live to loaf another day.

Grosse Pointe Charles

The Joys of Home Ownership Part 3 - Reconstruction

When I left off on the yarn of pain recounted in my previous post Issues, our builder Dave was setting up for major carpentry. Let me reset the situation. My Bride and I had decided to build a new deck. The old deck, not happy with our plan, decided to resist. Inanimate objects can do that you know. They conspire all the time.

I've written about this before. Remember those pesky deck and gazebo lights that plotted against me a few summers ago? They were taking turns conveniently burning out in hard to reach places, baiting me to risk life and limb hanging off a dilapidated ladder to switch the little devils out (see the Chores headers under previous posts NFTL RDate 48.42 and NFTL RDate 76.23). Well, it was happening again.

This time the old deck, not going quietly into that dark night, got together with the sand and wind and rain and a few forest creatures and tried to take the cottage down with it. As I revealed in my last post, it wasn't pretty.

Fortunately Sheriff Dave rode into town and rousted the villains out. Their treachery was laid bare thanks to a blazing circular saw, a couple of crow bars, and a big honkin' hammer. After a session of what I would call builder tough-love, we accepted our fate and turned things over to Dave. That's where we resume.

The order of recovering from this shameless assault and reconstructing our little piece of paradise was important. Couldn't build the new deck until the front of the cottage was repaired, including new siding on at least the area behind the new deck. And we couldn't repair the front of the cottage until the bay window and its supports as well as the sun porch bedroom floor were repaired.

Also the front of the cottage couldn't be finished until the portion of the roof that had a small leak and a damaged eave were replaced. Finally, couldn't finish off the inside of the bay window area, restore the interior walls of the sun porch bedroom or replace the sun porch carpet until the outside of the house including the new door wall and windows were installed and trimmed. Sheesh.

If you followed all that, the first step was repairing the sun porch bedroom floor. So Dave went to work laying a new support structure. As the floor had to be raised a couple of inches, he had to first remove the majority of the knotty pine wall panels. In these shots you can see the disassembled walls and a portion of the new joists. Note the "former" window we discovered as the walls came down. It had been stuffed with small pieces of Styrofoam.

Once the subfloor was complete, Dave installed a header for the new door wall. Yes, that's right. The old door wall had been installed without a header. As a result it was bent beyond repair.

This looks a lot better.

With the inside of the sun porch bedroom back in good shape structurally, Dave moved to the outside to install the new door wall.

Phase 1 done, Dave moved on to the sagging bay window in the family room. Employing what I will refer to as our builder spy cam (the web cam we installed on our gazebo to monitor lake activity) we were able to follow this portion of the work from afar. This next photo captures the problem. Note the tired frame.

Within the lower wooden facade the bay window was actually being supported by a couple of steel stanchions resting on small wood squares, the whole assembly slowly sinking into the ground.

After pouring cement footings and constructing proper supports for the bay windows, it looked a lot better.

Add the new windows and some moisture barrier, and Voila!

And from the inside, just as nice though only roughed in at this point.

The new front of the cottage was finally taking shape, everything level and properly supported. Here's a shot with the windows, new sun porch bedroom door wall and moisture barrier all complete. Our larger family room door wall - at the left in this picture - survived this crisis as it had been replaced the previous November with the rebuild of the family room floor (see The Joys of Home Ownership Part 1).

With the internal structural problems addressed, it was time to shift gears to the outside. This started with installation of the two remaining windows needed on the north wall of the sun porch bedroom. Followed by trimming out the windows and completing the siding on that wall (Dave convinced us that the old siding was too flimsy to hold back the weather, and likely couldn't be matched anyway; so we agreed to replace it all with super-baked-on-paint-50 year warranty stuff - double sheesh).

Then it was on to installing siding on the front wall high enough to cover the portion that would eventually be behind the new deck.

At this point, Dave was actually able to start building the deck, as the floor of the deck would serve as a platform for the rest of the outside work. Here's how that went.

This is a shot of his deck floor plan. Roughly the same shape of the old deck but two feet wider and with an elevated section outside of the family room (to accommodate the two different levels of the door walls). The shape of the deck is driven by the weird property line which is angled to the shore line. But that's another story.

First Dave laid out the beams according to the drawing.

Then his helper mixed up some cement and they set the beams into place using u-shaped beam supports that anchored down into the cement. Battleship.

All was going swimmingly, but then something very scary happened. This truck pulled up on the US Highway 23 shoulder across from our driveway.

It was the remaining lumber for the deck. At first I wondered how the driver was going to unload all that material from across the street. I had some spooky flashbacks as I in my youth had worked at a lumber yard loading and unloading (much smaller) trucks. The memories were not pleasant. Sore back, pinched fingers, slivers - you get the idea.

But I quickly snapped back to the moment as this happened.

And this.

And finally this.

Yes. You're seeing this clearly. The truck driver had uncoupled his tractor unit, converted it to a fork lift, and deftly maneuvered the load across the highway, and down my drive between my car and Dave the builder's tool van. And laid it gently onto my slab. I helped, making sure the slab didn't move.

 And presto! The deck was delivered! Sort of. In pieces.

"Well", you say, "That wasn't so scary." Right. Here's what I left out. The driver backed his tractor out over the median to the other side of the highway, turned at a right angle to back the forks under the load, slowly lifted the lumber off the truck bed, then worked his rig back and forth in the middle of the highway until he had made a 180 degree turn. And finally backed the load down the driveway. All the while, US 23 was in full operation.

That means that while this delicate vehicular dance was in process, there were at least a dozen cars and trucks that zoomed past doing 60 mph plus (the usual speed for this little stretch of "The Great Lakes Circle Tour"). Many of these wheeled missiles had to swerve wide left or wide right to avoid disaster. And as we live just south of a big curve, builder Dave posted himself about 50 yards up the road so he could wave off the southbound traffic in time.

The reason I don't have any pictures of this is that I was in a panic during the suicidal portion of the process and unable to operate my equipment. I have this memory of my head jerking back and forth looking first north and then south and then north - and so on - assuring myself that nothing bad was going to happen.

For a belt and suspenders risk-averse guy like me, it was scary. All Dave said when it was over was, "that was interesting". The driver, cool and calm in his baggy shorts seemed to be oblivious to it all. Just another day at the office. I guess I haven't fully adapted to up north life yet.

So. Now with the structural repairs done and the deck lumber delivered, our builder was back to where he thought he was several weeks ago. Before the "issues" were discovered. Ready to finish the job. But that will take another post. See you soon for The Joys of Home Ownership Part 4 -Restoration.

Grosse Pointe Charles