And it’s not even my birthday.

Woke up this morning to a little present my cat had brought me.  Awwww, how sweet, a dead bird on the dining room floor.  Truth is, instinctually it was meant to show me respect.  Although I’ve told her many times before, she just can’t seem to understand that I don’t eat sparrow.

And then I found this in the morning comics and just had to share it.

 

More time lapse photography

So I got done with ripping the roof off the porch, soaked in a hot bath, cleaned up and decided to go out taking pictures.  I’m really liking this time lapse thing.

I started off trying to get anther nice set of pictures of the sun setting, but the clouds were too thick on the horizon and it didn’t look like things were going to turn out too spectacular.  That and my camera seemed to be possessed at that spot.  When doing time lapse I use my wireless remote to click the pictures.  That keeps me from moving the camera and doesn’t jiggle the camera blurring the picture when it’s dark out.  I’m counting every 15 seconds and hitting the button when the camera starts taking random shots.  Sometimes 2 or 3 in a row, sometimes 6 seconds apart.  Then it would go a minute or two without taking any extraneous pictures, just to start up all over again.   This lasted for about 15 minutes, and then all of a sudden stopped.

But I noticed that the clouds on the south east end of the valley were a lot more interesting than the sunset, so I switched my attention down there.  Here’s the compilation of the time lapse segments:

And here are a few singles of the shots I took:

View Full Album

I’m going to try some other stuff with time lapse, so expect to see more here.

Help, I need somebody, Help, not just anybody,

There is nothing more gratifying than tearing up a project you thought you had done right, but hadn’t.  (Where’s that sarcastic font?)

I spent a few hours today and yesterday ripping up the roof over my back porch.  It’s not that it wasn’t well built – a herd of elephants could have walked across it and it would have survived.  So, why rip it up you might ask.

Well, for three of the wettest springs in the history of Utah, I’ve been fighting leaks.  Bad leaks.  And I closed in the thing just so I could sit out there on my futon and listen to the rain.  And so I could unlock the back door without getting drenched, along with whatever I may be carrying. 

The whole thing started so that I would have secure access to the swamp cooler and the attic.  I built the first part as a deck, at roof level, so that if I happened to fall while working on the swamp cooler, I wouldn’t land 11 feet down on concrete.  Every time I worked on it, even simple things like winter/summerizing, I’d have one of my brothers come and keep me company, so that I’d have someone to dial 911 after I fell and broke both my arms.  The second part has two levels, to transition from the height of the original part to something low enough that it fits below the attic access.  That makes for a lot of corners that love to collect water.

So here’s the problem.  The roof needs to remain relatively level, I need to be able to walk on it and keep tools and supplies on it while I’m working.  It needs to be made so that walking on it does not deteriorate it.  The hardest part is the connection between the house and the porch, this was where I was getting the majority of the leaks.  The sides of the house are old stucco, the kind that is seriously bumpy and uneven.  It is impossible to get flashing to fit flush against the wall.

So, if you have any ideas I’d like to hear them.  The more input, the more different ideas, the better.

Strange things are afoot…

As I’m sweeping up the lot the other day, I noticed these pink lines drawn on the parking lot and the grass.  Later I was talking to the manager, who also happens to be the owner’s son-in-law, and he told me about plans Westminster College had for the area.

It seems that the college is growing out of it’s britches – no more room on campus for dorms and (affordable) local housing at capacity they were losing students who didn’t want to commute from out in Sandy. So they decided they needed a dorm close by.  They bought the building right next to the Chevron for the 4 storey dorm building, and got the Homestead Inn to sell them the east most part of their parking lot for a multi-level parking structure.  Their big problem was that Chevron owns the 50’ strip of land separating the two pieces of property they just bought.

It’s going to work out good for the store, we get rid of a big chunk of property that is essentially useless to the business, and trade it for the same sized piece that will allow us to widen the area in front of the store, where customers will use it.

They were supposed to start breaking ground on the project back in the middle of May, but Westminster started negotiating as if they had the advantage.  Their original offer had Chevron giving up more land that they would be getting, and the owner had to explain to them that, although it will be nice once the front is widened, we are already functioning fine the way things are and Westminster can’t do their project without that little slice of property.  So Westminster came back with a better offer, Chevron said the swap had to be foot-for-foot, Westminster came back with a little bit better offer, Chevron said the swap had to be foot-for-foot, and it’s been going back and forth that way for a month now.

So the latest projection is that groundbreaking will be in August.  Early August I hope, because I want to be out of school when they demolish the building.  And if I’m there when it happens, you’ll see it here.

Classic 1969 LTD Test Drive

Kindred Spirits

I got a call from Paperback Writer the other day.  Her next-door neighbor has a 2 1/2 year old that is already into cars (kind of like me yelling “like daddy’s car” when I was 3).  She asked if it would be Ok for him to come over and see my collection of old LTDs, which I said was ok, of course.  I love any chance to show off my collection, one of the reasons I have them all insured so I can take them to shows.  

So yesterday Writer, mini-me and his mom came over to check out the LTDs.  If you want the story of the whole time, I’ll let you read Writer’s version of it, but let me say I haven’t laughed that hard or that much in a long time.  And his mom loved my house, which I like to show off every bit as much as my cars.

Light years past “enough”

Energy Drinks.  It’s not enough that you can now get over 30 types of regular energy drinks (enlarge the photo and count, you’ll see).

Then they had to go to the supercharged version.  Little bottles (@ $3.29 ea) of 5 Hour Energy Shots, in at least 7 different flavors (including decaffeinated.)  Yeah, decaf.  No problem, I’m going to pump my body full of all sorts of chemicals and so called vitamins, but I’ll be damned if I’m drinking caffeine!

Well, that wasn’t enough.  In the last year they came out with Energy gum.  Yup, Rockstar Energy Gum.  And, of course, it’s sugar free, because 4 out of 5 dentists surveyed said that if you’re going to (bleep) up your system with overdoses of caffeine and other chemicals, no sense getting cavities while you do it.

But this takes the cake.  I was cleaning the class on the ice cream display when I noticed an ad for, yes, you guessed it. A freakin’ energy ice pop.  WTF?  What’s next? Little energy candies that melt in your mouth and not in your hand? (Shhhhhhhh, let’s not give them any ideas.)

Now, I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that I don’t drink energy drinks.  On Friday nights at the Chevron, after a long day at school, one of those 5 hour shots helps me stay awake for the night.  And I’ve even tried the Rockstar gum (it worked ok, but lost any semblance of good taste in just over 3.5 nanoseconds).  But seriously, energy ice cream?  Is there no common decency in corporate America anymore? (I know, I know, a total “DUH” moment).

Any way, I am dying to see what they come up with next.