(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-07-17 Thursday
Weather calm, warm, as if nothing is about to happen. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I usually keep notes of my activities so that when I get around to posting my wood working diaries well after the fact, which has happened often lately, I can get the facts straight. Well, in moving things around for the hurricane, my notes disappeared. All I did the past few weekends was go yard sailing. I THOUGHT about wood working but never got closer than that to actually making sawdust or wood chips. This storm is reducing the chances of doing anything, for a while.
At work we closed up the office after half a day of work, putting things in bags, and draping plastic over desks and such in case things got bad. The men went to jobs and shrink wrapped stuff or placed stuff in a safe location.
We knew the storm was coming by Tuesday, so we made plans. I was to stay with my parents during the storm. It will be best for them and for me, so I closed up the condo, bringing plants inside on Thursday. I had to fight with a window who’s crank is stripped. After an hour of playing, I got it closed up tight. Luckily, the wind will only come into the building, and not out, unless a window is broken by some object, and then a bad crank is not going to be something to worry about. I grabbed my two Colman Stoves and two gallons of white gas, am emergency bin containing Sterno, candles, matches, coffee pot, folding stoves, and other needed items for a storm. I also grabbed some batteries and crank lights that I keep in the freezer. Batteries go bad a whole lot slower if they are kept in the freezer, and crank lights do have a small battery in them.
Year 17, Week 35, Day Two (week 921)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-08-17 Friday
Hurricane Irma approaches. Sky cloudy, winds have picked up, Humidity rising.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
My company decided to be closed Friday to give us a chance to get ready for the storm. Mom and I started moving stuff out of the back yard. We got permission to put some stuff in the neighbor’s house, in exchange we had to put up the shutters And watch over the property.
My brother and his son came up and helped put up the shutters on the neighbor’s house, close the awnings on mom’s house and take down the panels over the work area.
Along with the Sterno and Colman stoves, and we also had a gas BBQ grill with most of a tank, and a small charcoal grill. I figured we had no problems about cooking food if things went bad. I let my brother take one of the stoves and a can of gas. He has one somewhere but no gas for it.
We put the machinery in Mom’s garage and found that she had very little room to get to the garage door. She would have to be like a sneak thief to fit through there. We were both tired and called it a day.
Year 17, Week 35, Day Three (week 921)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-09-17 Saturday
The eye of the storm is going to miss us, but we will still get hurricane force winds. 80% humidity, some squall lines coming through, but mostly a light drizzle. A good brisk wind of about 40 mph. This storm completely covers the whole state of florida and into Georgia, and the eye is still at Cuba!!!
I decided that the other garage, which was full of stuff for a remodel, had a whole lot more room than Mom had, so I brought the wood working equipment down one drive way, across the sidewalk and up the other driveway to the garage. Things that went into Mom’s garage last went in first. Even with the stuff in there, there was a lot of room left.
My lathe is on a set of wheels. They are welded to blocks that have a bar running through them. At one end of the bar, there is another block that has a lever attached. When the lever is pointing up, the lathe is sitting on some 3"x3" blocks on the base of the stand. This is so, when working with something really out of round, the lathe won’t roll around. Push the lever down causes the wheels to come to the ground and then lift the lathe up off the blocks. There is a two by two bolted to the base that acts as locks to hold the lever down so the lathe will roll around.
While pushing the lathe, we got near the neighbor’s garage, the lathe dropped to the stand’s block. I have a lot of stuff on the lathe to make it vibrate less when somewhat off center items are spinning around. Along with good wood I want to keep track of, the base of the lathe is really weighted down with weight lifter weights and bricks. I had to put my whole weight into the lever to push it down and get the wheels back into place for the lock to swing into place.
We had it almost into the garage, the lever slipped and the lathe clunked onto the ground again. When I tried to lift it back onto the wheels the lever broke. I will have to check later to see if the metal gave or the weld gave. Mom took a hand cart and lifted that end and I pulled the lathe into place.
Some other time, when the time is right, I will unload the lathe entirely, removing all the wood, weights, racks, the head stock, the tail stock, the tool rest, flip it upside down. I can then remove the wheels and get the lever fixed. Not now though.
The past few weeks, I had been fighting an infected sore on my foot. At the time, I did not know it was infected. I had peeled some skin a while back, accidentally, and forgot about it. When it started hurting, I started treating it at home.
I had to go to the hospital Wednesday Night when the pain would not go away. They gave me medicine and instructions for caring for it. It was also why I was not doing much the past few weeks.
I thought I was in shape, but “being round has no point.” lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying all sorts of things is taking a toll on my body. We got a whole lot done mainly because mom is running around like a fifty year old.
On the radio, someone said that waiting for a hurricane is like waiting for your dad to come home after Mom said “wait till your dad gets home.”
I also heard TEXAS SAYS “I’ve been through the worst hurricane in history.”
FLORIDA SAYS “Hold my beer, and watch this.”
My camera disappeared yesterday. I found the pouch on my hip was wide open. I looked at some of the obvious places but could not find it. Today, mom found it beside the chair where I sit when talking to them or watching TV. That was nice. My alternative would have been to use my tablet. I don’t like it near as much.
I took pictures of the neighborhood so I could have before and after pictures.
The house on the end of the street is vacant because a power line blew out the wiring of the building quite a few months ago. I went around the house and picked up stuff and put them some place safe. I had wanted to do more but that was all I had the endurance to do do. Someone had put down the awnings but there weren’t enough screws for all of them to be locked down. I don’t have those screws either. At least there would be little damage to the place.
The two biggest problems of storms is boredom and anticipation. Anticipation leads to worry and fear.
All work we intended to do to get the property ready is done. It is now a waiting game.
Year 17, Week 35, Day Four (week 921)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-10-17 Sunday
We have steady winds of about 40, with gusts above 80. 75 mph are hurricane force winds.
The winds are coming due East. Our neighborhood is on an East-West road so each house blocks the wind for the one after it.
Today would have been my dad’s 100th birthday., He passed when he was 89. All his injuries over the years added up. He lead me into wood working and other crafts and hobbies.
I went outside to take storm pictures and videos. I used the houses to block the winds. I also went out to check for early damage in case there was something I could do to make it less. Other than mom’s potted plans falling over, we are doing well so far. (
The past few months, I have been making PAN GLOVES which are little socks that fit over the handles of the pans (especially cast iron or stainless steel pans) to protect your fingers from hot handles. These are crocheted in cotton and I use a metal hook that is tiny to get a tight stitch.
Today, I did not feel like working on the one I was working on, so I grabbed some variegated blue and white yarn and started on a long scarf. I did the chain and two rows before I stopped. I was doing a skip or block stitch where you do a couple stitches, then you chain and then go in skipping a couple stitches. What you end up with blocks and holes through the whole piece. I made a mistake at the beginning on the stitch count for the first block so I have to frog it out to the beginning of that row and start over, doing it right. It looks best if the blocks of stitches and the holes are the same as the height of the stitch. I was doing double crochet, but the spaces and blocks were three stitches long. It does not have the right look.
Year 17, Week 35, Day Five (week 921)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-11-17 Monday
Clearing, a nice breeze, warm and humid.
We never lost power in our house. The power company has worked a long time to replace wood poles with concrete poles and to trim trees. I also still had my phone service which gave me internet access.
Later in the afternoon, after I figured some of the roads were cleared, I went to work, to see what to expect when I open up in the morning. Lots of branches down but no real damage, and then to check on my Condo where I found the screen is trashed at the condo. I put the screen in myself and that stupid idiot did it all wrong.
Traffic lights were out all over the place. One is to handle a dead traffic light like a four way stop. Floridians do not understand the concept of a four way stop, let alone stopping at all.
Trees were down everywhere. From what I understand, nearly all our damage was caused by trees or branches falling.
Did you know that they make trees, branches, power lines all out of feathers? People were talking about all these things being down.........
Because the eye did not pass over us, we faired well considering.
Later in the week and especially next weekend, I will see what things really look like.
2011
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