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Here is proof that we had a wet winter. From my perspective, snow is ok, as long as it falls between the hours of 1 am and 4 am, and it doesn't stick. I stayed home sick January 22nd and the 23rd. That is unusual for me, but it just seemed like the thing to do. (Proof that I was sick is that I made an 8" X 8" pan of brownies containing chopped pecans and topped with cream cheese frosting, and I ate about three bites in three days). I wasn't feeling particularly well the previous Thursday or Friday, and then Saturday, I took down the wall between what was AJ's room, and the TV room. I guess the dust and stress from doing that small task was sufficient to push me over the edge into illness. Actually, every time I venture into the attic I get this lung congestion thing. I just about went to work Monday, but when I opened the door to leave, there was 6 inches of snow on my car, and I just couldn't bring myself to deal with it. If I had gone, I would have probably come home early anyway. Sun Life has a sick incentive program (actually an incentive to not use sick leave) where, in any two contiguous pay periods that you did not take sick leave, they give you an extra four hours of pay. So, staying home cost me about $80. Oh well, a man's got to do what a man's got to do.

After I got the walls down, I learned that Barbara also wanted the cooling ductwork cut off even with the west wall. That is a difficult task, because it needs to be completed in one day (otherwise cold air from the attic will be pouring into the house during the night). Further, the room has a ten-foot ceiling, making it difficult to reach with tools designed for a standard 8-foot room.

Saturday the 27, I took out the ductwork that extended about four feet into those rooms. Lacking a circular saw (mine was completely non-functional), or even a pair of tin snips (I wonder if AJ had anything to do with their disappearance?), I went to Home Depot and bought some tools. Remembering Fred Zumwalt's tools from the time we hung drywall at Daddy's home in Provo, I bought a cordless drill and circular saw. The saw takes a 5.5-inch blade with a drive mandrel of 10 mm (relatively small) and when I searched for a metal cutting blade to fit it, I learned they are not yet available (but will be "soon"). Alan Miller (husband to Stella Miller, a ward member) who works at Home Depot, recommended taking a plywood blade and putting it in the saw backwards, so the teeth don't cut, but "grind." I had heard of cutting metal that way, and went for it. But on the way home, I considered the matter a little more at length, and decided that was just wrong. So, (after turning around) I stopped in Catalina and bought a cheap ($45) circular saw (for which I already had a metal cutting blade). Cutting ductwork that is already in place is an art form that I have yet to master. It wasn't pretty (I pitted [and ruined] my glasses by getting too close to the metal sparks coming off the blade, the shirt I was wearing now has perhaps five hundred tiny burn holes, and compared to my cuts, a dog's hind leg looks straight) but I got it down. The tool I really needed is called a nibbler (a tool that takes "bites" out of sheet metal without deforming it) and Home Depot had one for only $159, which I thought was a bit too pricey. But, given the fact that I wasted $70 on the cordless saw, I was already halfway there. Still, I suspect that the number of sheet metal jobs lurking in my future approaches zero (at least I hope that is the case).

I was dreading this part, but when I actually did it, it went quite well. I moved the electrical switch, adding a piece of wire to make it reach. I also moved the electrical box that started out life in the (now missing) wall by the closet. The wire was exactly the right length (a miracle), and I installed two gang boxes (each having four places to connect an electrical appliance). In the past I have found retrofitting electrical wiring to be "challenging," but this time it went fairly well. I located the wall studs against which the box was to sit, drew an outline using the box as a guide, and (after punching a slot using a screwdriver) cut the hole in the sheetrock using a hacksaw blade (my sheet rock saw has found a new home). The fit was good on all three boxes, and I came away with the thought that I had discovered a superior method for installing electrical boxes, even in new construction. The boxes for the electrical outlets (that I purchased at Chris's True Value Hardware in San Manuel) were of a design I don't recall seeing previously. They had two screws (at opposite corners) that when turned after inserting the box into the hole in the wall, caused a flange to flip out and (with continued turning of the screw) clamp itself to the sheet rock of the wall. That, along with two screws through the side of the plastic box into the wall stud, made the boxes very secure. All in all, I was pleased with how that small portion of the job turned out.

Barbara bought the sheetrock, and because she thought that green was a restful color, that is what she brought home. Once it has been transported from Tucson to Oracle, it is definitely cheaper to use greenboard (slightly more expensive and specially designed to be used in bathrooms and other places where water [along with its vapor] is abundant) than to replace it with standard sheetrock. Projects like this sure take a lot longer than they used to. For some reason, the ceiling inside the closet was 2 inches lower than those of the adjacent rooms. While that doesn't make sense, it did make the job harder, as it increased the amount of sheetrock that had to come out. Tearing things down is usually the easy part of a job. The challenging part isn't just replacing things, it is replacing things such that they don't look like the work was done by a drunken sheepherder. I have enough of Grandma Bates in me that I don't ever recall being satisfied with taping and texturing sheetrock that I have done. That is soooo much fun. Don't you wish you were here to help? I also replaced the sheetrock missing around the light switch to the closet, and replayed the game with the electrical box that I described earlier. It worked pretty well again. The cooler vent was a problem. I wanted a louver that was the full size of the vent (8 X 20 inches) and they were not available at Home Depot. The louvers I had taken down were smaller (8 X 15) and I could have used one of them, but I figured that large of a room will need all the cooling I can bring into it. I finally found one at Naughtons, and they only wanted $40.42 for it. What a deal! At any rate, all the pieces are now in place, and the next step is taping and mudding.

It's official!

I've gone completely out of my mind!!!! After thinking and looking on the internet for several months, I purchased a recumbent bicycle. It is a long wheelbase model, with the handlebars located under the seat. Looking at the picture, it appears that the rear tire may be going flat.

The main advantage of a recumbent bicycle (or a "bent" as they are affectionately called by many of their owners) is that they have a seat rather than a saddle, such that a fat old man can sit on them in relative comfort for multiple hours. When I was young, a bicycle saddle was my idea of the perfect perch, but 35 years and 45 pounds have altered my perception slightly. The main problem with this bicycle type, (other than the price [I can't believe I actually spent $600 on a bicycle!!!]) is that they sit lower to the ground, such that they are less stable. To this point I have only ridden around Cody Loop, and I'm sure I will improve with practice, but I had trouble keeping the bicycle at the edge of the road. All bicycles are more stable at higher speeds, and going down hill at 20+ mph I can keep my 10 speed tire on the white line about 90% of the time. I doubt I can keep this bike in a four foot swatch with the same consistency. And peddling slowly up a hill is much worse.

A second problem (that I might be able to correct) is that the distance between the seat and the crank is too short, such that my legs don't fully extend. There is an adjustment, but moving the seat back to the point that I can fully extend my legs causes a support bracket to interfere with the rear brake cable. Time for some "retro-engineering." Of course this bicycle is used (new ones sell for $1500), and a previous owner (who worked in a bicycle shop) installed a third gear on the crank, making it (with the seven gears in the rear) officially a "21 speed." This third driving sprocket is so small that calling it a "granny gear" would not be correct. "Great-granny" would be more appropriate.

Barbara chose to give the machine a try, and pronounced it both "fun" and "scary."

Fun when she kept the rubber side down, and scary when she didn't! Contrary to its appearance, this fall (other than a bruise the size of a lemon) was not particularly serious.

Today in priesthood meeting, the lesson told of President Kimball recuperating from a series of heart attacks by spending time with some Navajo friends on the reservation in New Mexico. What it didn’t say was that the Navajo was named Ruth Polanca, and she and her family were baptized by Grandpa Allen during one of his missions to the Indians. An article from the Church News, as well as Grandpa Allen telling about Ruth and her family, are in the stories Aunt Joan gave me to post on grandmasweb. Take a look at it.

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