the doldrums...

My life these days consists of my boring commute back and forth to work, anxiety and grief while at work, getting up at four in the morning to lay some paint on the pieces of the shelf brackets I've been working on, painting pieces of the shelf brackets after I get home from work, drinking various forms of alcohol, dropping pain killers, passing out, getting up at four in the morning and doing it all over again. I'm taking a four day weekend so I can build a jig for assembling the shelf brackets, play with the drill press for hours, pre-drilling the holes and counter sinks for the mounting screws and the screw buttons, then assembling the seventy five pieces into twenty five brackets. Then I get to mount them to the walls, cut, paint and mount the ledger strips to support the back edge of the shelves. Then rip the plywood for the shelves, paint it, add the edging strips and put them up. And then, after that, we can stock the shelves with the hundreds of books we have stored all over the house. And the hundreds of CDs and some of our more treasured vinyl. Then it's on to the built in book case over the mantle, then the mantle, then, because I can't find a door that I like that we can afford, I'll probably make an Arts and Crafts style door, stain and hang it. Then paint and install about three hundred and sixty feet of cove molding to seal the gap between the sheetrock I put between the exposed beams in the ceiling and the beams. And replace the existing ceiling fan with an Arts and Crafts style version. Then I get to finish re-roofing the front porch roof, rip the old porch ceiling out, re-run the electric for the new porch light, add a drop for an outside outlet and put the new tongue and groove bead board ceiling up. Then replace the wood on the outside of the nine windows on the front of the house. And restore the transom over the front door so it works again. And make the wood shutters for the inside of the three double hung windows in the living room. And wire in the radiant heating system in the living room floor, which means I have to gut the closet under the center staircase. Then build a new wine rack for the closet. And then I get to start the dining room, for the second time. New Arts and Crafts style paneled walls, new flooring, all new trim, a corbel ceiling, a new door for the closet under the stairs and the built in china closet and book cases and window seats across the front wall. And a new dining room mantle. And shutters for the inside of the windows, to match those in the living room. And then, the new kitchen cabinets and counter tops. And new flooring and radiant heating system. And new windows in the reading nook off the kitchen. And a new Dutch back door and wooden storm door. And on, and on and on...



go ahead, make your day...

what would a real President do..?


So, Ahmmadinnerjacket is supposedly re-elected in Iran... and we do nothing. If we had a real President, a real friend of Israel and a true supporter of freedom in Iran, he might take advantage of the situation and have our CIA and black force OPS in Iran in the thick of things, stirring up as much trouble as possible. Not only just for the fun, but to keep the Ahmmadinnerjacket regime off balance for a little while, just long enough for, say, Mossad to slip in and get off a few quick head shots, or perhaps open a window of opportunity for the Israeli Air Force to lob a few 20K bunker busters down the pipes of the nuke plants, with some air support from out own Air Force... Ah, remember the good old days when we had Presidents who put the safety of our own country and our allies countries first? I guess those days are over, at least for now. You know the Kenyan Wetback Squatter in the White House wouldn't dream of doing anything like that, I mean, the United States of Apologies doesn't interfere in the workings of other countries governments, not even those who spew overt threats against us and our supposed allies... I guess he doesn't want to offend our future Muslim overlords. Maybe they'll behead him last...




go ahead, make your day...

remodeling mayhem...


another home remodeling post over in Tilling by Moonlight...
other than that, nothing of note. it's raining. i'm soaking wet from having to unclog the gutters on the front porch. i've only one beer and one cigarette left and i'm not going out into the night in this weather for any more, so that's that.



go ahead, make your day...

obama sucks...


just thought i'd throw that out there while i finish my beer and then go start sanding the pieces for the living room book shelf brackets... i lead such an astounding life.

jeebus... it's a good thing i took a break and re-read this post. i did not mean "living book shelf brackets", but "living room book shelf brackets", although like every other project around Stately Sad Old Goth Manor, they, too, seem to have a life of their own. nothing is easy around this grim old pile. not even blogging, apparently. geesh...




go ahead, make your day...

everything old...


is new again. back to basic black, no frills, no gadgets, except for the scrolling links in the sidebar, i'm a bit fond of that...
if you have any comments about the font or the size or the color, just let me know... i aim to please.


go ahead, make your day...

New post...
over in Tilling By Moonlight... I'm moving all the This Old Lair posts over there from now on, so if you want to keep up with the remodeling project on Albatross Hall and other home owner mayhem, head over there.

Touch me...

you're welcome, Europe...




I'm happy to see it wasn't all for naught...
(for the uninitiated, that's known as sarcasm...).

And to my late Uncle Bill, my late friend Harry, my Dad and all the others who participated on this day so long ago and especially to those who didn't come back to be Uncles, friends and Dads, thanks.

Touch me...

why New Jersey is...
and will forever be, a political cesspool...

I live in District 13 in New Jersey. The township I live in was voted the most desirable place to live in the United States several years in a row. There is a lot of implied wealth around here and some real wealth. We lost a fair number of citizens on 9/11. You can't navigate from one side of town to the other on a Saturday or Sunday in the Spring and Summer because of all the soccer moms in their SUV's. The car of choice around here these days is the Bentley. And the Hummer. Town hall is packed every meeting with citizens, voicing their displeasure, wants and needs. We have lots of churches, lots of synagogues and a few mosques. There's lots of ethnic diversity and, for the most part, everyone gets along. Where we live, on the wrong side of the tracks, literally, is the old town. A mile long strip of homes built in the late 18th century, 19th century and a few 20th century homes, horribly out of place. Everyone keeps to themselves, there's usually no trouble around here, it is, in spite of my constant bitching about the rampant building of McMansions and strip malls, not a bad place to have put down permanent roots. But as far as caring about the New Jersey Gubernatorial Race, you can cut the apathy with a really dull knife...
I usually leave for work at six in the morning, which is when the local poling place opened. It's in the middle school about a mile away. I left a few minutes early and was there at six. We share the poling palace with NJ District 1, so there was another voter there as well. I was the first primary election voter in District 13 at the stroke of 6. After I voted, I went to work. I got home about six thirty tonight and asked Mrs. SOG about voting, she said she went after school got out, she was at the poling place a few minutes before 4 PM. When she signed in she asked the volunteer how many people voted during the day. The old lady shook her head and said,
"Dear, you're number ten...".
In the time that elapsed between my voting and my wife voting, a total of eight other citizens bothered to exercise their most treasured privilege, voting in a free election.
So that about sums it up, doesn't it? There's not much more I can say. Opportunity squandered is opportunity lost...

Touch me...