Drywall, plumbing, and storage-cabinet work, ‘Promises’, ‘Tony Takitani’ (posted from home)
(this post covers 14-21 July)
Friday, 21 July-
Today we installed the last three overhead storage cabinets to finish off the north wall hanging cabinets and assembled a new Black and Decker standing utility cabinet for the south wall. Late in the day we went to town and bought five more standing utility cabinets for the south wall. If this doesn’t give us enough storage, I don’t know what will. Actually, these will allow us to bring some things in from our storage barn which really shouldn’t be out there—things like insecticides and other liquids which should not be allowed to freeze. This will also allow me to re-use the old storage drawers from that wall for my camping, fishing, and kayaking gear.
I also picked up both Cherry Larry and the Miata today. Cherry Larry’s shifter problem turned out to be the shifter mechanism under the dash. That one cost $50 to find and fix with a couple of new screws. The body work on the Miata turned out very well. The local shop did a completely professional job of bondo-ing the blisters and matching the paint. And they even gave me a bonus. When I dropped off the car for the agreed-upon fix, I asked if they could also ‘see what they could do’ about the chipped paint on the Miata’s plastic hubcaps. They did a good job of matching the hub covers to the rest of the wheels and didn’t charge me anything for it. I’ve got to give these guys some more work.
Thursday, 20 July-
After all the searching yesterday afternoon for storage cabinets we finally bought them today. We bought five each 30-inches-wide by 24-inches-high by 15-inches-deep wall cabinets and managed to install two of them by day’s end. They are going to line the upper portion of the north wall of the mud-room above our existing storage cabinets.
That evening we watched the bonus disk for Deadwood Season Two. We were disappointed by the featurette on historical Deadwood but it was very interesting to watch David Milch at work.
Wednesday, 19 July-
We had a problem yesterday with our ‘beater’ van (the one we call Cherry Larry). The automatic transmission shifter suddenly lost the Park position while we were in town. Something must have slipped in the shifting mechanism. I can still start it in Neutral but the interesting challenge is to find Neutral since the indicator is no longer pointing correctly. Park is now Reverse and Reverse is now Neutral (sometimes!). Anyway I dropped it off at the local garage for them to have a look when they can get to it.
We finished drywalling the east and north walls today. Then we went shopping for storage cabinets. No movie tonight. (Boo, Netflix shipping delays!)
Tuesday, 18 July-
Today we dry-walled the end of the mud-room and started the north wall. Netflix seems to have lost my last movie return so we don’t have a movie to watch. But we need the time to plan our upcoming Canada trip anyway so that’s not a problem.
Monday, 17 July-
Today we had a plumber in to install a laundry tub. This required not only new drain pipe and new copper connections for hot and cold water but also required our well-pump pressure tank to be relocated to make room for the pipe runs so we thought it best to call in a pro. The plumber finished up by 1330 so we went to town and bought some more drywall. I also dropped off the Miata at a local body shop to have two small rust blisters repaired in the lower quarter panels. I had stopped in at a Mazda dealer last week for a quote and the estimate came back at $825. That was ridiculous for what I wanted done so I went to a local shop and the quote was a much more reasonable $150.
Sunday, 16 July-
Today I helped Labashi hang more drywall in the laundry/mud-room section of the basement. I also had some plumbing adventures today. I replaced an old copper turnoff valve that has been troublesome over the years with a new ball valve and in doing so noticed that a nearby elbow was very slowly seeping. After removing the old elbow, cleaning everything up, and re-assembling, I completely blew my initial attempt at sweating the joints on the new elbow by using too little flux and overheating the joint. What a disaster. But it didn’t really take all that long to clean everything up and try again and this time it went fine. Later in the day I went jogging at Rocky Ridge, the end-to-end jog that takes me an hour and a half. I struggled with this one—it was very hot and I felt lucky to pass a box turtle I came upon going my direction in the single-track. Good thing he wasn’t bigger (or faster); I might not have had enough left to pass.
Saturday, 15 July-
Today we turned our attention to working on the basement again. I helped Labashi drywall some of the south wall of the laundry/mud-room. She only needed my help to hoist the panels; she did all the planning and made all the cuts and fastening. I ‘sawzalled’ out a partial door frame that had been left over from our work last fall so we can drywall that area too. That afternoon I went jogging and Labashi finished off dry-walling that south wall.
That evening we watched ‘Tony Takitani’, a very interesting Japanese film based on a short story. IMDb.com aptly summarizes the plot as follows:
“This film, minimalist in the best possible sense, is a lyrical study of isolation and loss. Tony Takitani (Issei Ogata) grows up the loner kid of a jazz-playing, loner father. Like his father, Tony masters an art, drawing, and eventually becomes very successful. Early in his adulthood Tony has a few failed romances but never considers marriage until, in middle age, he meets a woman fifteen years his junior, the sight of whom for the first time adds an unshakable pain to his profound solitude.
…And then Tony's story itself begins, and if you are going to fall for this film, you do it then. From start to finish, really, the film is an episodic accumulation of small, deeply-touching scenes tied together by very simple yet evocative piano music and the enchanting voice of a narrator (Hidetoshi Nishijima) whose warm, thoughtful delivery makes one think of some poet of a bygone era.”
I loved this film for its visuals and its music. I was also very interested afterwards to read the original short story and found it on the web. I loved seeing how the screenwriter chose to modify the original for the screen. Very highly recommended.
Friday, 14 July-
Today I blogged for much of the morning, then Labashi and I went shopping for lighting fixture parts. She is in the process of modernizing the lights in our bathroom. After much shopping and searching the web, she has decided the best route is to replace the glass globes with new, well-shaped glass shades and new bulbs. Unfortunately, the new shades require shade holders which are an inch smaller in diameter and those aren’t easy to find (as we learned this afternoon). Looks like we’ll have to order from the internet. Along the way we had lunch at a new restaurant for us—‘Al Dente’ Italian restaurant in York. Though we at first thought the restaurant was going to be more expensive than we wanted, we split a meal and that worked out well. We’ve got to try this one for dinner sometime. It ‘feels’ right.
That evening we watched ‘Promises’, a 2002 nominee for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. It tells the stories of seven Israeli and Palestinian children, both individually and as they are given the opportunity to meet each other. Two years later, a followup visit helps us understand how complex the Mideast issues are for both Palistinians and Israelis. Highly recommended, particularly so in light of recent news.
(this post covers 14-21 July)
Friday, 21 July-
Today we installed the last three overhead storage cabinets to finish off the north wall hanging cabinets and assembled a new Black and Decker standing utility cabinet for the south wall. Late in the day we went to town and bought five more standing utility cabinets for the south wall. If this doesn’t give us enough storage, I don’t know what will. Actually, these will allow us to bring some things in from our storage barn which really shouldn’t be out there—things like insecticides and other liquids which should not be allowed to freeze. This will also allow me to re-use the old storage drawers from that wall for my camping, fishing, and kayaking gear.
I also picked up both Cherry Larry and the Miata today. Cherry Larry’s shifter problem turned out to be the shifter mechanism under the dash. That one cost $50 to find and fix with a couple of new screws. The body work on the Miata turned out very well. The local shop did a completely professional job of bondo-ing the blisters and matching the paint. And they even gave me a bonus. When I dropped off the car for the agreed-upon fix, I asked if they could also ‘see what they could do’ about the chipped paint on the Miata’s plastic hubcaps. They did a good job of matching the hub covers to the rest of the wheels and didn’t charge me anything for it. I’ve got to give these guys some more work.
Thursday, 20 July-
After all the searching yesterday afternoon for storage cabinets we finally bought them today. We bought five each 30-inches-wide by 24-inches-high by 15-inches-deep wall cabinets and managed to install two of them by day’s end. They are going to line the upper portion of the north wall of the mud-room above our existing storage cabinets.
That evening we watched the bonus disk for Deadwood Season Two. We were disappointed by the featurette on historical Deadwood but it was very interesting to watch David Milch at work.
Wednesday, 19 July-
We had a problem yesterday with our ‘beater’ van (the one we call Cherry Larry). The automatic transmission shifter suddenly lost the Park position while we were in town. Something must have slipped in the shifting mechanism. I can still start it in Neutral but the interesting challenge is to find Neutral since the indicator is no longer pointing correctly. Park is now Reverse and Reverse is now Neutral (sometimes!). Anyway I dropped it off at the local garage for them to have a look when they can get to it.
We finished drywalling the east and north walls today. Then we went shopping for storage cabinets. No movie tonight. (Boo, Netflix shipping delays!)
Tuesday, 18 July-
Today we dry-walled the end of the mud-room and started the north wall. Netflix seems to have lost my last movie return so we don’t have a movie to watch. But we need the time to plan our upcoming Canada trip anyway so that’s not a problem.
Monday, 17 July-
Today we had a plumber in to install a laundry tub. This required not only new drain pipe and new copper connections for hot and cold water but also required our well-pump pressure tank to be relocated to make room for the pipe runs so we thought it best to call in a pro. The plumber finished up by 1330 so we went to town and bought some more drywall. I also dropped off the Miata at a local body shop to have two small rust blisters repaired in the lower quarter panels. I had stopped in at a Mazda dealer last week for a quote and the estimate came back at $825. That was ridiculous for what I wanted done so I went to a local shop and the quote was a much more reasonable $150.
Sunday, 16 July-
Today I helped Labashi hang more drywall in the laundry/mud-room section of the basement. I also had some plumbing adventures today. I replaced an old copper turnoff valve that has been troublesome over the years with a new ball valve and in doing so noticed that a nearby elbow was very slowly seeping. After removing the old elbow, cleaning everything up, and re-assembling, I completely blew my initial attempt at sweating the joints on the new elbow by using too little flux and overheating the joint. What a disaster. But it didn’t really take all that long to clean everything up and try again and this time it went fine. Later in the day I went jogging at Rocky Ridge, the end-to-end jog that takes me an hour and a half. I struggled with this one—it was very hot and I felt lucky to pass a box turtle I came upon going my direction in the single-track. Good thing he wasn’t bigger (or faster); I might not have had enough left to pass.
Saturday, 15 July-
Today we turned our attention to working on the basement again. I helped Labashi drywall some of the south wall of the laundry/mud-room. She only needed my help to hoist the panels; she did all the planning and made all the cuts and fastening. I ‘sawzalled’ out a partial door frame that had been left over from our work last fall so we can drywall that area too. That afternoon I went jogging and Labashi finished off dry-walling that south wall.
That evening we watched ‘Tony Takitani’, a very interesting Japanese film based on a short story. IMDb.com aptly summarizes the plot as follows:
“This film, minimalist in the best possible sense, is a lyrical study of isolation and loss. Tony Takitani (Issei Ogata) grows up the loner kid of a jazz-playing, loner father. Like his father, Tony masters an art, drawing, and eventually becomes very successful. Early in his adulthood Tony has a few failed romances but never considers marriage until, in middle age, he meets a woman fifteen years his junior, the sight of whom for the first time adds an unshakable pain to his profound solitude.
…And then Tony's story itself begins, and if you are going to fall for this film, you do it then. From start to finish, really, the film is an episodic accumulation of small, deeply-touching scenes tied together by very simple yet evocative piano music and the enchanting voice of a narrator (Hidetoshi Nishijima) whose warm, thoughtful delivery makes one think of some poet of a bygone era.”
I loved this film for its visuals and its music. I was also very interested afterwards to read the original short story and found it on the web. I loved seeing how the screenwriter chose to modify the original for the screen. Very highly recommended.
Friday, 14 July-
Today I blogged for much of the morning, then Labashi and I went shopping for lighting fixture parts. She is in the process of modernizing the lights in our bathroom. After much shopping and searching the web, she has decided the best route is to replace the glass globes with new, well-shaped glass shades and new bulbs. Unfortunately, the new shades require shade holders which are an inch smaller in diameter and those aren’t easy to find (as we learned this afternoon). Looks like we’ll have to order from the internet. Along the way we had lunch at a new restaurant for us—‘Al Dente’ Italian restaurant in York. Though we at first thought the restaurant was going to be more expensive than we wanted, we split a meal and that worked out well. We’ve got to try this one for dinner sometime. It ‘feels’ right.
That evening we watched ‘Promises’, a 2002 nominee for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. It tells the stories of seven Israeli and Palestinian children, both individually and as they are given the opportunity to meet each other. Two years later, a followup visit helps us understand how complex the Mideast issues are for both Palistinians and Israelis. Highly recommended, particularly so in light of recent news.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 18:17
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home