Mending Wall
Sep. 28th, 2003 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsSo, yesterday, Omaha and I rose early and made our plans to feed and water the multitudes we had invited over to help us destroy and rebuild our western retaining wall. 
The debris pile. It was a massive job, made all the more massive by the logisitics. I went out and got water, gatorade, beer, and pop, while Omaha called up the contract supplier who had the stone we wanted. She got a great deal-- usually those blocks go for nine bucks a pop, but we found a contractor who had bought them for a project that he eventually pulled out of, and he really wanted to be rid of those stones, so we got them for three bucks each. Even with the cost of the rental truck, it was half what we would have paid for them retail. There's a great website, King County Sustainable Building Exchange, where people who've bought massive construction material in bulk will let smaller contractors pick up project remainders for a steal.
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j5nn5r, kendaer and I headed out in Jenner's SUV to pick up the rental truck from Home Despot. They'd rented all their trucks out already. Then we tried U-Haul, Budget, and Penske: 
Jenner being, um, Jenner. all sold out. We went to Lowe's. They had a truck. We hurtled down across Maple Valley and over the hills to the contractor's site-- which turned out to be his house-- and the three of us moved THREE TONS of stone, 75 pounds at a time, onto the rental truck, the contractor's truck, and the contractor's trailer. He was very happy to be rid of it. We drove it back to the house.
When we got there, we found that Omaha andfallenpegasus weren't there; they'd headed out to Home Despot again to get some backfill gravel and landscape retaining cloth. lisakit, jenkitty, technoshaman, Desirae, slutdiary, talek and of course Kouryou-chan 
Kouryou-chan had managed to tear down the wall completely, dig out fifteen inches of the hillside, dig down eight inches of trench, and generally get the whole site completely ready. We unloaded the trucks in very rapid order, then proceeded with the building of the wall. We moved blocks across the yard, put in the drainage, leveled the first row. We were really racing the twilight towards the end and we didn't get all of it done, but enough. All 
FallenPegasus shows his muscles. that's left is building the wall up, the hard work of digging out and leveling is done.
JenKitty and Kendaer kept Kouryou-chan occupied during the heavy
Exhausted Kittybear lifting, an important job all on its own. I've played too many rounds of Candyland in my time; I'm glad they were able to fill in the task.
The first row of stones. tabbifli came over, a little distressed but nonetheless wonderful, with a cooler full of food, which she used to feed the troops. It was amazingly good, although Kouryou-chan insisted on having her lentil stew instead.
After the thank-you's were said (and really, guys, thank you so much.
Desirae mugs the camera Lisa, after all the work you did, I'd gladly come shingle your roof any day.), we headed over to Jenner's for some hottubbing and generally hanging around, then drove back home and went straight to bed.
You must try this silliness: Cat Bowling. No cats were harmed during the making of this Flash game. They were, um, spared.
Sometimes I read a news story and I'm not sure how to respond to it. Ana Maria is twelve years old, of ancient royal blood, heartbreakingly beautiful, and being forced into an arranged marriage. In the accompanying slide show, her groom looks dorky and her father disturbingly ebulliant, but that photo tells me to break out the SWAT team and get that girl out of there.
On the other hand, reading Concerned Women For America's shrill new press release, Homosexuals Pose New Threat to U.S. Border Security, by "concerned woman" James Kimball, one must understand clearly why political satire is dead.
And finally, North Carolina continues its campaign against the Gay/Straight Alliance clubs in high school. Their new trick is "parental notification". Parents must now give their students active permission to attend sex education and "sexually oriented" after-school activities-- including the GSA. No surprises.
The debris pile.
j5nn5r, kendaer and I headed out in Jenner's SUV to pick up the rental truck from Home Despot. They'd rented all their trucks out already. Then we tried U-Haul, Budget, and Penske: Jenner being, um, Jenner.
When we got there, we found that Omaha and
fallenpegasus weren't there; they'd headed out to Home Despot again to get some backfill gravel and landscape retaining cloth. lisakit, jenkitty, technoshaman, Desirae, slutdiary, talek and of course Kouryou-chan Kouryou-chan
FallenPegasus shows his muscles.
JenKitty and Kendaer kept Kouryou-chan occupied during the heavy
Exhausted Kittybear
The first row of stones.
tabbifli came over, a little distressed but nonetheless wonderful, with a cooler full of food, which she used to feed the troops. It was amazingly good, although Kouryou-chan insisted on having her lentil stew instead.After the thank-you's were said (and really, guys, thank you so much.
Desirae mugs the camera
You must try this silliness: Cat Bowling. No cats were harmed during the making of this Flash game. They were, um, spared.
Sometimes I read a news story and I'm not sure how to respond to it. Ana Maria is twelve years old, of ancient royal blood, heartbreakingly beautiful, and being forced into an arranged marriage. In the accompanying slide show, her groom looks dorky and her father disturbingly ebulliant, but that photo tells me to break out the SWAT team and get that girl out of there.
On the other hand, reading Concerned Women For America's shrill new press release, Homosexuals Pose New Threat to U.S. Border Security, by "concerned woman" James Kimball, one must understand clearly why political satire is dead.
And finally, North Carolina continues its campaign against the Gay/Straight Alliance clubs in high school. Their new trick is "parental notification". Parents must now give their students active permission to attend sex education and "sexually oriented" after-school activities-- including the GSA. No surprises.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-28 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 12:26 am (UTC)Feeling it today, I am, but it's a good ache.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 03:40 am (UTC)I'm pretty sore today too. Gonna take a few days to recover. Feeling quite accomplished though. Amazing what you can get done when you
bribeask a few friends. A couple of the guys even finished a third row of blocks while waiting for dinner!no subject
Date: 2003-09-28 11:21 pm (UTC)Hardened heart.. Having a hard time remembering to be indignant at the arranged marriage of the Romanian Princess. Certainly a difficult thing, but I was old enough at 12 and bet that so is she. The arranged part is difficult, but does anyone really think she will be abused or treated abusively in her high profile and well monitored wedded bliss? I guess I just look at the now legal 18 year olds I know who are independently "doing whatever it is they want to do" and their high rates of dissatisfaction and high risk sexual, reproductive behavior and then to the other extreme of the Nigerian woman who will not now be stoned to death. I wish this beautiful girl well.
in other news.. Cat bowling! Whee! a 107. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-10-06 04:13 am (UTC)http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gypsy03.html
Roma princess?
Date: 2003-09-29 01:16 am (UTC)Kiwi