Mud and Tape

I hate sheet rock. The reason most of my house is covered in wood paneling was to avoid mudding and taping sheet rock. Well actually all the walls and ceiling are sheet rocked and mudded and taped under the paneling but not sanded and finished. I hate sanding and finishing the mud and tape on sheet rock. That's the stage I am at in my remodel. This could take me weeks. I like the design and framing part. The painting and finishing parts are ok, because you can see the finished product emerging. But I hate the dry wall part. I manage about an hour of work each night before I begin to curse and throw things.

The Plan

In Progress

Here are the promised pictures of my living room remodel in progress. Once I've finished the sheet-rock I'll move everything out, cleanup the rest of the walls, primer, paint and trim. Then level the floor and install the laminate.

"Now, that's a knife!"

2/8/08 - Friday evening I was using my folding Gerber hunting knife to dig dried wood putty out screw holes in my spiral staircase. Yes, it was the wrong tool for the job. Yes, I know I could slip and stab myself. Fortunately I missed the major nerves, ligaments and all but one artery in the my left little finger. The doctor at the urgent care was able to stitch it back together and stop the arterial spurting with 7 fine stitches. I'll have a scar across the fingerprint of that finger when the stiches come out on the 22nd.
The next day, while sporting a large bandage on the injured finger, I dismantled the spiral stair and built a new stair case. Pictures to come this weekend.
The weather has warmed up. It's currently at or above freezing. We had some snow and wind the last few days with more predicted for the next few days. It's a nice break from the -23 degree temps of 2 weeks ago.
Happy Valentines Day. Roses and dinner out with Kate.

Of_ln

That's what my digital weather station shows in the Outside temperature box when the temperature gets to -23 degrees. It's displayed that message the last three nights. Since at 12:30 in the afternoon it's -8 degrees in Wasilla I suspect it will be Of_ln again tonight. Could be worse, my friends in Willow had -35 degrees Saturday night.
But my living room is under construction! I re-sheetrocked, mud and taped the formerly paneled wall. I'll be doing the first sanding of that wall tonight. I'm building the new stairs this week. I post pictures after the new stairs are roughed in.

I'm Trying not to...

I'm trying not to write about the weather. So I'll not mention the +40 degree temperatures last week nor the -8 degree temperatures earlier this week. However this mornings commute was, I believe, noteworthy. The temperature is a moderate +12 and it snowed 8 to 10 inches last night. Leaving my unplowed driveway, the snow came over the nose of the Subaru, coating the windshield and blocking the headlights. I had to stop and clear the front of the car when I got to the plowed street. So traffic was a nightware. Slick snow packed roads and 30,000 commuters bumper to bumper and an average speed of 30 mph. We come in early, leaving Wasilla at 5:30 am. Consequently, we are ahead of the heaviest traffic. Usual commute, in the winter is 45 minutes. This morning 1 hour and 25 minutes. Several early ditch divers. I'm still trying to get the tension out of my shoulders.

Turn Indicators

I couldn't find anything wrong with the turn indicators. The emergency flasher button was sticky,

Turn Indicators

I couldn't find anything wrong with the turn indicators. The emergency flasher button was sticky but I couldn't figure out how to get into the dash to clean it without taking the whole dashboard off. So I just sprayed some WD40 into it and let that soften up the caked on remains of splashed coffee. The roads and weather have been so bad that I decided to take the Subaru to a Wasilla shop this coming Friday instead of juggling cars to and from Anchorage. So I drove the Subaru to and from work yesterday, carefully planning my route to include actual turn lanes whenever possible so that my fellow drivers would know I planned on turning in spite of my lack of signalling ability. I negotiated to work in the morning and all the way back to my girlfriend/carpool partner Kate's house without incident. At the last left hand turn into her driveway my hand automaticly flipped the turn indicator lever down. The indicator came on. Surprised, after I pulled into the driveway I flipped back and forth form right to left, everything worked. Since all I actually did was pull and install perfectly good fuses and spray some WD40 I didn't figure out until this morning that it was the WD40 that did the trick. It was just a sticky coffee encrusted button.
Weather update ...+13 with wind. Chill factor -3.

More Weather...Groan!

I don't intend to have this a blog about Alaska weather. However it was -18 degrees when I got up this morning. It is +5 here in downtown Anchorage at noon. Hopefully the forecast holds since it's supposed to warm up starting tonight.

Weather

-8 degrees again this Saturday morning. This follows five work days of Hellish commuting. It snowed everyday this week. Not a lot, 8" total in Anchorage, half of that in Wasilla. But the roads were "slicker than greased ape shit," as my adolescent friends and I would say when I was an adolescent. That lead to ten, 50 mile commutes at an average speed of 25 mpg this week. I heard on the radio that in Anchorage, by Thursday morning, there had been over a hundred fender benders and cars sliding off the road for the week. My 12 year old Subaru, with 235, 000 miles is showing it's age. Last weekend I lost a headlight, the one I didn't break on the moose ass the winter before last. This weekend I have to try to fix my turn indicators. They quit working Thursday morning. I've checked the fuses, they're good. This morning I'll try to wedge my considerable self under the dashboard and try to find the flasher. If it's not the flasher it's a trip to the Subaru clinic next week. If I hadn't bought a motorhome and hearing aids lately I might be car shopping. Just as well, my plan is to drive this Subaru until I retire, in 4 years and 10 months, but who's counting.

The Osmonds

This morning Donny Osmond was on the FoxNews morning show. He said that for the first time in 30 years all of the Osmonds are getting back together for a show. According to Donny, no one is more excited than Tito and Jermaine!

Hunting Picture Time

Just because I have nothing new to add, it's back into the way back machine...

This is the largest caribou I have shot. It was Fall, 1998. Kate and I were just slowly driving, through the freezing rain, along a trail above the Susitna River about 2 miles from camp when I spotted him. He was moving through the brush less than a hundred yards away. As soon as he trotted behind a small hill I jumped off the Honda and sprinted to the top of the hill, (I could still sprint in 1998.) We had him packed up and hung in camp before breakfast.