Crown molding work, ‘Russian Ark’, ‘Andy Goldsworthy: Rivers and Tides’, ‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus’, Lawn vandal 2, ‘Tibet- Cry of the Snow Lion’, ‘Control Room’; ‘Judgement Day…’(posted from home)
(this post covers 6 – 13 November, 2007)
-------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 13 November-
Today I helped Labashi with the crown molding for a few hours and then rode the Concours in to Starbucks. What a wonderfully warm day. It’s the second week of November and I’m riding very comfortably without electrics (my electrically-heated liner jacket). I zoomed over to Rudy Park and walked for an hour (in short sleeves!) before heading home. I walked the mile up to the garage (to pick up the van) in a spectacular sunset. The golden-hour feeling only lasted a half-hour or so but it was terrific and I could feel the relaxation seeping through me as I walked along.
That evening we watched ‘Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial’ on PBS. This excellent documentary exposed the attempt of some members of the Dover, PA school board to inject creationism into the science curriculum at Dover High. Very well done, indeed.
-------------------------------------------------
Monday, 12 November-
Today I worked on the web for a bit then took Mocha Joe in for a new windshield. The current one isn’t yet a year old. The original one was cracked by a flying stone kicked up by a double-long tractor-trailer rig in Saskatchewan last summer (summer 2006, that is)— barely an hour after we entered Canada. I had it replaced on November 14th of last year in preparation for annual inspection. This past summer (2007) that one was hit by flying stones three different times in Ontario and Manitoba. At one point we were in Thompson, Manitoba and trying to decide whether we should take the gravel road to the aboriginal community of Nelson House. Someone warned us against it, saying windshields often get cracked by trucks kicking up gravel on that road. But it didn’t matter now; we already had a cracked windshield so on to Nelson House we went. We weren’t yet halfway there when we were overtaken by some yuppie SUV and his spraying gravel put a spawl right in my vision line. Yes, Virginia, there ARE turkeys in Manitoba.
After the $280 windshield replacement I drove to Rudy Park and walked for an hour. I see they are hard at work on the new off-leash dog area. That will be fun. I’m glad to see the York County Parks folks doing things like this for us—that’s classy.
Back home I dropped off the van for tomorrow’s inspection and walked the mile home in a light drizzle.
That evening we watched ‘Control Room’, a documentary about the Al-Jezeera network. The film was very well done and shows us some of the conflicted feelings these folks have about seeing an Arab country occupied by the U.S. Very well done.
--------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 11 November-
We spent the morning working with the protractor and making sample cuts with the borrowed miter saw to figure out how to resolve our crown molding challenges. With the newly-borrowed saw we can make the cuts and angles we need but we’re not happy with how the joints are coming out (yet!). The Home Depot carpentry expert tells us installation of crown molding ranks about 8 out of 10 on the carpentry difficulty scale and we’re starting to see why. Even a tiny mis-match in an angle or in the length of a piece can make a big difference in the quality of the joint. Now add in the fact that walls or walls and ceilings seldom meet in an exact 90-degree angle and it starts getting interesting. Today the trick is to come up with a means to make acceptable joints and to make the process repeatable. We’re playing with two methods of making the cuts--- the ‘leaning’ method and the ‘flat’ method. The leaning method is supposed to be easier (according to the all-knowing Internet). For this one, we lean the upside-down crown molding against the saw’s cutting fence, leave the blade straight up, and make a miter cut of approximately 45 degrees. I say ‘approximately’ because you set the miter angle according to measurements using the protractor and a table which tells you how to translate the measurements into the correct miter setting. Essentially you adjust the miter a half-degree for every degree out of square. The flat method allows you to simply lay the molding on its back on the saw table but the complexity comes in setting the saw perfectly each time for both miter and blade-lean. As we were working with this method we noticed our borrowed saw has detents and special markings at these points. After a few test cuts and fittings of the samples on our walls we decided we’ll go with the flat method and put up a few pieces.
That evening we watched ‘Tibet- Cry of the Snow Lion’, a documentary about the Chinese takeover of Tibet. This one is much like a good PBS documentary and does a very thorough job of explaining the history of Tibet prior to the takeover, the events of the takeover, and the reasons the Chinese want to subdue Tibet. RT says 88 per cent. Yep.
--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 10 November-
Well, well, well. We had a problem with our lawn vandal again last night. This time I had gotten up to get some water after being awakened by faint music at about 0230. Labashi was awake too and we wondered briefly whether it was one of our neighbors; that would be out of character for them but it’s the weekend, who knows? When I walked into our kitchen the music had stopped but I saw car lights on the side street through our dining room windows. At that instant (and I think because he saw me) the driver revved the engine a couple of times and I saw the lights bounce as the car drove one wheel up over the curb and into the new lawn before roaring off to the intersection, then down the main street. This one was a small, older car with square headlights and a buzzy-muffler problem; perhaps an obstructed exhaust, perhaps a leaky muffler. I dialed 911 as soon as the lights indicated the car was up over the curb but of course he was long gone before the police car arrived a few minutes later. In the morning I saw the damage wasn’t as bad as before and I also noticed a second place in our front yard where a spinning tire had gone through, apparently as he roared off. What a coward.
That evening we watched ‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus’, one of the most interesting films I’ve seen in a while. It purports to follow alternative-country singer Jim White as he drives around the Deep South in his beat-up old Chevy, encountering people strange and wild. Some reviewers panned it as ‘choked with White trash Dixie stereotypes’ and ‘According to this there are only three types of people in the South: the sinners on the road to hell, the religious fanatics praying for them, and the people who sing about both’ but I loved it. The best part is the music. But this music can be dark: here are the opening lyrics from a brooding piece by the Handsome Family:
“It’s gonna rain champagne and the hills are gonna dance.
There will be power in the blood when that helicopter comes.
The sky will swim in lightning fire and the trees will shake and scream.
There will be power in the blood when that helicopter comes…”
Fantastic!
After the movie we watched the commentary and loved it. Then I got on iTunes and downloaded music from the soundtrack. I particularly like ‘When That Helicopter Comes’ and ‘Stalled’ by The Handsome Family, ‘Christmas Day’ by Jim White, ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ by David Eugene Edwards, and ‘Little Maggie’ and ‘Rye Whiskey’ by Lee Sexton.
--------------------------------------------------
Friday, 9 November-
While Labashi continues with the crown-molding project I headed for town to do some errands (in other words she kicked me out so she could create in peace!). I did my standard Starbucks thing and hit Lowes, Home Depot, Giant, and checked out the new Cold Stone Creamery in East York. The latter just opened Friday and I’d say it’s still having some growing pains. I bought a ‘Love-it’ portion (there’s Like-It, Love-It, and Gotta-Have-It sizes which I’d call ‘Ridiculously-small’, ‘OK-that’s-about-right’ and ‘Ooh-that’s-too-much) but the guy gave me a Ridiculously-small portion in an OK-that’s-about-right cup—for $4.85! Well good, that will help me stay away, won’t it?
That evening we watched the documentary DVD ‘Andy Goldsworthy: Rivers and Tides’. Very cool. Andy does amazing sculptures in nature. This one is a 99 per center on RT. I don’t know that I’d go quite that high but that’s getting picky. Good movie about art and the artist. I see YouTube has some samples of this but they aren’t the good parts of the movie.
--------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 8 November-
During my physical last week my doctor and I decided I should get a stress test (mostly because of family medical history) and today was the day. I couldn’t eat anything all day and wondered why the heck I didn’t take one of the early appointments rather than my late-afternoon appointment but I really wasn’t all that hungry through the day. Things didn’t start off well. I arrived early for my appointment and was told to have a seat, they’d be right with me. A half-hour later (and 15 minutes after my ‘please arrive 15 minutes early’ time) I asked the receptionist if she had forgotten me—and she did! It seems the older I get the more I disappear. But once things got underway the test went fine.
Back home that evening we watched Survivor-China and then a ‘Nip/Tuck’ episode. I’m starting to wonder about Nip/Tuck though. I’m feeling a little more manipulated than I like—too much gratuitous shock-value stuff. Plotlines appear and then fade out quickly once the shocking scene or idea is revealed. ‘Desperate Housewives’ does this too but it’s classier.
--------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 7 November-
That evening we watched ‘Russian Ark’, an interesting and amazingly ambitious experimental film. The ‘experimental’ part is that the movie is done in a single, 87-minute take. The movie uses a cast of 867 actors and hundreds of extras to portray (or, more accurately, ‘reference’) 300 years of Russian history as the Steadicam operator carries our all-seeing eyes (and ears) through rooms, corridors, and stairways of the Hermitage Museum, each hosting a scene from Russian history or transitioning us to the next scene. I wish I knew more Russian history in order to appreciate it in a deeper sense but it’s nevertheless an incredible undertaking. This movie is another one which grows on you after viewing the extras. I’d even go so far as to suggest you first watch the ‘Making of’ feature before watching the movie itself. RT gives this one an 88 on the critics’ tomatometer (I say TOH-ma-TOM-e-ter, you say TOMATO-meter) and I agree.
--------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 6 November-
I spent the morning blogging. In the afternoon Labashi and I worked on the crown molding project for the living/dining room and were still having problems. My old radial-arm saw can cut left-miter angles with no problem but on right-miter angles the tall crown molding (5 -1/4”) conflicts with the saw motor. I believe I’d have enough clearance if I replaced the 10-inch blade with a 12-inch blade but I’d have to remove the saw’s safety shield. Late in the day I drove the hour to my brother’s house to borrow his fancy compound miter saw to enable us to cut the molding from either side.
======= end of 13 November post ==========
(this post covers 6 – 13 November, 2007)
-------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 13 November-
Today I helped Labashi with the crown molding for a few hours and then rode the Concours in to Starbucks. What a wonderfully warm day. It’s the second week of November and I’m riding very comfortably without electrics (my electrically-heated liner jacket). I zoomed over to Rudy Park and walked for an hour (in short sleeves!) before heading home. I walked the mile up to the garage (to pick up the van) in a spectacular sunset. The golden-hour feeling only lasted a half-hour or so but it was terrific and I could feel the relaxation seeping through me as I walked along.
That evening we watched ‘Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial’ on PBS. This excellent documentary exposed the attempt of some members of the Dover, PA school board to inject creationism into the science curriculum at Dover High. Very well done, indeed.
-------------------------------------------------
Monday, 12 November-
Today I worked on the web for a bit then took Mocha Joe in for a new windshield. The current one isn’t yet a year old. The original one was cracked by a flying stone kicked up by a double-long tractor-trailer rig in Saskatchewan last summer (summer 2006, that is)— barely an hour after we entered Canada. I had it replaced on November 14th of last year in preparation for annual inspection. This past summer (2007) that one was hit by flying stones three different times in Ontario and Manitoba. At one point we were in Thompson, Manitoba and trying to decide whether we should take the gravel road to the aboriginal community of Nelson House. Someone warned us against it, saying windshields often get cracked by trucks kicking up gravel on that road. But it didn’t matter now; we already had a cracked windshield so on to Nelson House we went. We weren’t yet halfway there when we were overtaken by some yuppie SUV and his spraying gravel put a spawl right in my vision line. Yes, Virginia, there ARE turkeys in Manitoba.
After the $280 windshield replacement I drove to Rudy Park and walked for an hour. I see they are hard at work on the new off-leash dog area. That will be fun. I’m glad to see the York County Parks folks doing things like this for us—that’s classy.
Back home I dropped off the van for tomorrow’s inspection and walked the mile home in a light drizzle.
That evening we watched ‘Control Room’, a documentary about the Al-Jezeera network. The film was very well done and shows us some of the conflicted feelings these folks have about seeing an Arab country occupied by the U.S. Very well done.
--------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 11 November-
We spent the morning working with the protractor and making sample cuts with the borrowed miter saw to figure out how to resolve our crown molding challenges. With the newly-borrowed saw we can make the cuts and angles we need but we’re not happy with how the joints are coming out (yet!). The Home Depot carpentry expert tells us installation of crown molding ranks about 8 out of 10 on the carpentry difficulty scale and we’re starting to see why. Even a tiny mis-match in an angle or in the length of a piece can make a big difference in the quality of the joint. Now add in the fact that walls or walls and ceilings seldom meet in an exact 90-degree angle and it starts getting interesting. Today the trick is to come up with a means to make acceptable joints and to make the process repeatable. We’re playing with two methods of making the cuts--- the ‘leaning’ method and the ‘flat’ method. The leaning method is supposed to be easier (according to the all-knowing Internet). For this one, we lean the upside-down crown molding against the saw’s cutting fence, leave the blade straight up, and make a miter cut of approximately 45 degrees. I say ‘approximately’ because you set the miter angle according to measurements using the protractor and a table which tells you how to translate the measurements into the correct miter setting. Essentially you adjust the miter a half-degree for every degree out of square. The flat method allows you to simply lay the molding on its back on the saw table but the complexity comes in setting the saw perfectly each time for both miter and blade-lean. As we were working with this method we noticed our borrowed saw has detents and special markings at these points. After a few test cuts and fittings of the samples on our walls we decided we’ll go with the flat method and put up a few pieces.
That evening we watched ‘Tibet- Cry of the Snow Lion’, a documentary about the Chinese takeover of Tibet. This one is much like a good PBS documentary and does a very thorough job of explaining the history of Tibet prior to the takeover, the events of the takeover, and the reasons the Chinese want to subdue Tibet. RT says 88 per cent. Yep.
--------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 10 November-
Well, well, well. We had a problem with our lawn vandal again last night. This time I had gotten up to get some water after being awakened by faint music at about 0230. Labashi was awake too and we wondered briefly whether it was one of our neighbors; that would be out of character for them but it’s the weekend, who knows? When I walked into our kitchen the music had stopped but I saw car lights on the side street through our dining room windows. At that instant (and I think because he saw me) the driver revved the engine a couple of times and I saw the lights bounce as the car drove one wheel up over the curb and into the new lawn before roaring off to the intersection, then down the main street. This one was a small, older car with square headlights and a buzzy-muffler problem; perhaps an obstructed exhaust, perhaps a leaky muffler. I dialed 911 as soon as the lights indicated the car was up over the curb but of course he was long gone before the police car arrived a few minutes later. In the morning I saw the damage wasn’t as bad as before and I also noticed a second place in our front yard where a spinning tire had gone through, apparently as he roared off. What a coward.
That evening we watched ‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus’, one of the most interesting films I’ve seen in a while. It purports to follow alternative-country singer Jim White as he drives around the Deep South in his beat-up old Chevy, encountering people strange and wild. Some reviewers panned it as ‘choked with White trash Dixie stereotypes’ and ‘According to this there are only three types of people in the South: the sinners on the road to hell, the religious fanatics praying for them, and the people who sing about both’ but I loved it. The best part is the music. But this music can be dark: here are the opening lyrics from a brooding piece by the Handsome Family:
“It’s gonna rain champagne and the hills are gonna dance.
There will be power in the blood when that helicopter comes.
The sky will swim in lightning fire and the trees will shake and scream.
There will be power in the blood when that helicopter comes…”
Fantastic!
After the movie we watched the commentary and loved it. Then I got on iTunes and downloaded music from the soundtrack. I particularly like ‘When That Helicopter Comes’ and ‘Stalled’ by The Handsome Family, ‘Christmas Day’ by Jim White, ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ by David Eugene Edwards, and ‘Little Maggie’ and ‘Rye Whiskey’ by Lee Sexton.
--------------------------------------------------
Friday, 9 November-
While Labashi continues with the crown-molding project I headed for town to do some errands (in other words she kicked me out so she could create in peace!). I did my standard Starbucks thing and hit Lowes, Home Depot, Giant, and checked out the new Cold Stone Creamery in East York. The latter just opened Friday and I’d say it’s still having some growing pains. I bought a ‘Love-it’ portion (there’s Like-It, Love-It, and Gotta-Have-It sizes which I’d call ‘Ridiculously-small’, ‘OK-that’s-about-right’ and ‘Ooh-that’s-too-much) but the guy gave me a Ridiculously-small portion in an OK-that’s-about-right cup—for $4.85! Well good, that will help me stay away, won’t it?
That evening we watched the documentary DVD ‘Andy Goldsworthy: Rivers and Tides’. Very cool. Andy does amazing sculptures in nature. This one is a 99 per center on RT. I don’t know that I’d go quite that high but that’s getting picky. Good movie about art and the artist. I see YouTube has some samples of this but they aren’t the good parts of the movie.
--------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 8 November-
During my physical last week my doctor and I decided I should get a stress test (mostly because of family medical history) and today was the day. I couldn’t eat anything all day and wondered why the heck I didn’t take one of the early appointments rather than my late-afternoon appointment but I really wasn’t all that hungry through the day. Things didn’t start off well. I arrived early for my appointment and was told to have a seat, they’d be right with me. A half-hour later (and 15 minutes after my ‘please arrive 15 minutes early’ time) I asked the receptionist if she had forgotten me—and she did! It seems the older I get the more I disappear. But once things got underway the test went fine.
Back home that evening we watched Survivor-China and then a ‘Nip/Tuck’ episode. I’m starting to wonder about Nip/Tuck though. I’m feeling a little more manipulated than I like—too much gratuitous shock-value stuff. Plotlines appear and then fade out quickly once the shocking scene or idea is revealed. ‘Desperate Housewives’ does this too but it’s classier.
--------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 7 November-
That evening we watched ‘Russian Ark’, an interesting and amazingly ambitious experimental film. The ‘experimental’ part is that the movie is done in a single, 87-minute take. The movie uses a cast of 867 actors and hundreds of extras to portray (or, more accurately, ‘reference’) 300 years of Russian history as the Steadicam operator carries our all-seeing eyes (and ears) through rooms, corridors, and stairways of the Hermitage Museum, each hosting a scene from Russian history or transitioning us to the next scene. I wish I knew more Russian history in order to appreciate it in a deeper sense but it’s nevertheless an incredible undertaking. This movie is another one which grows on you after viewing the extras. I’d even go so far as to suggest you first watch the ‘Making of’ feature before watching the movie itself. RT gives this one an 88 on the critics’ tomatometer (I say TOH-ma-TOM-e-ter, you say TOMATO-meter) and I agree.
--------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 6 November-
I spent the morning blogging. In the afternoon Labashi and I worked on the crown molding project for the living/dining room and were still having problems. My old radial-arm saw can cut left-miter angles with no problem but on right-miter angles the tall crown molding (5 -1/4”) conflicts with the saw motor. I believe I’d have enough clearance if I replaced the 10-inch blade with a 12-inch blade but I’d have to remove the saw’s safety shield. Late in the day I drove the hour to my brother’s house to borrow his fancy compound miter saw to enable us to cut the molding from either side.
======= end of 13 November post ==========
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home