From the dumpster outside our building this morning. There’s probably about 100 of them in there. Unfortunately, they’re all UltraSCSI.
Looks like someone boosted my tunes
Last night I finished grinding a dash cover plate down enough to fit a DIN-9 sleeve for my spare Kenwood radio. I stole out into the garage at 10:30 and pulled the Wal-Mart special, marked off the relevant wires, and test-fitted the Kenwood. Unfortunately, there was no juice. I think part of the problem is that the new deck needs constant power and switched power from the key; I’ve got switched power but noplace to draw constant power from the battery. So next I have to figure out how to make that happen.
In other news, I ordered two replacement J-hooks from SSS yesterday in preparation for my gas tank swap. Now that the weather is calming down, I need to set aside a day to make that happen.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
This evening I’m headed up to MICA to start another round of open figure drawing classes. I only have pencils with me tonight, but I think I’m going to bring some brushes and black ink next time to try and mix things up after I get warmed up. It’ll be good to make some non-computer-based art again.
Yes, another post where I complain about how tired/sore/achy I am. I’ll go through the highlights:
- Bought, installed and cleaned up all of the beadboard, baseboard, trim, and chair rail in the bathroom.
- Reinstalled the toilet for the final time.
- Mowed the entire lawn, trimmed it, fixed the trimmer. Broke the wheel on the mower.
- Trimmed the hedges up front. Trimmed the holly tree.
- Cut 3/4 of the dead cherry tree in the backyard down, using nothing but a hand saw. Smushed my foot under one of the larger branches. Hauled the debris to the driveway.
- Hosted friends for some hot dogs and baked beans in the backyard.
- Took my bride out for an anniversary dinner.
It really doesn’t sound like much, but my body is telling a different story. The bathroom is very, very close; there’s a lot of finish sanding to do, and then a final coat of gloss white paint on the trimwork will finish off the carpentry. The sink can go back in when that’s done, and we have paint candidates picked out for the walls. The den needs carpentry around the chimney and toe molding around the kickplates, but I’ve been having problems sourcing the toe molding this year. Then I think I’m going to move all the crap from my side of the front office into the den and re-apply polyurethane to the floor on that side in order to match up the old and new sides.
After the den is finished, I’m moving outside to tackle a bunch of exterior projects, the first of which will be the windows on the south and west sides of the house. The putty holding the panes is falling out in chunks and the planking needs desperately to be scraped and painted. So it’ll be lots of ladderwork for me this summer.
Looking through these images, I’m alternately heartbroken by the devastation in Mississippi and inspired by the ingenuity, resolve, and spirit these people have shown: Residents build homemade dams to save houses.
Eraser wheel at work
I took a little time out last night to try out a tool I’ve had sitting on the workbench since March. Given the fact that it’s been raining constantly this week, I pulled the instrument panel cover off the truck and put the eraser wheel to it in order to remove adhesive residue from a factory-installed sticker. When I say eraser wheel, I really mean eraser wheel; it left eraser shavings behind that could have come from a drawing class.
Finished product
It did make short work of the adhesive, though, which then prompted me to try the Dremel tool I’d bought around the same time. The goal is to install a DIN-9 sleeve and a Kenwood head unit I’ve had laying around since we sold the Jeep: it has an iPod input, a CD player, a removable face, and most importantly, digital tuning. The Wal-Mart special works fine but stations fade in and out in the space of a quarter-mile, which means it’s useless without an iPod. I got about 2/3 of it cut before I ran out of cutting wheels (I ground them down to nubs) and I’ll have to widen it out some more, but it’s looking much better than the hack job I inherited.
Opening opened
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
This shot was taken a year and two days ago. It’s amazing how much Finn has grown since then. I can’t put her in a backpack anymore, and she’s getting heavy to ride on my shoulders for more than a half an hour.
Today she’s home sick with a fever, nestled on the couch with Mama, after a restless night of sleep and an early wake-up for Daddy. She’s getting more and more opinionated and strong-willed every day, which makes me proud and afraid at the same time; it’s definitely a challenge to get her to do things these days when just six months ago she was much more agreeable.
Padding quietly downstairs this morning at 6, I laid her on the couch, tucked her sweaty head under my chin, and dozed quietly with her for an hour. It reminded me of her first months, when I’d swaddle her up like a mummy and lay next to her on the couch, watching her sleep, in awe of her being.