As I?m sure I?ve mentioned before, the planet that I?m originally from has slightly longer (28 hours) days then we do Earth, so if left unchecked, my sleep schedule with revert. Well, since there was nothing to reign me in last week, I?m now about 10 hours off what I should be. Yes, that?s right, I woke up at 6pm yesterday and have being going ever since. I do like the morning though, nice and quiet. Too bad I?m not one to get up at the ass crack of dawn.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that yes I was actually really happy with my frozen pizza and junk food dinner. It wasn?t even the food and chips as much as it was the fact that there was absolutely nothing else I should have been doing at that point and it felt great. I was in a manic state pretty much all day. My parents thought I was all depressed when it was exactly the opposite. I had just spent the previous two days doing absolutely nothing but maintain the fire that I was sleeping in front of. I tell you, if I could do that for another week, maybe I?d be ready to grab the world by the balls again. I mean, after 4 days I spent the following 3 working like a dog on the house and it felt great.

Speaking of which, I?ll give you the textual update of what I did:
3rd floor north wall: 80% insulated
3rd floor west walls: 60% insulated
3rd floor south wall: 90% insulated
3rd floor east wall: we don?t talk about that one
3rd floor turret: 30% insulated; plastic?d off
3rd floor ceiling: 95% insulated (and still above the floor)
2nd floor: who knows
1st floor: hah, you?re funny
Basement: Still has 4 foot thick walls.

So what does this all mean? Besides that this amounts to about 1,400 cu ft of insulation, it means that it is slowly getting warmer on the 3rd floor. Gone are the 53 degree mornings. When I left at 3:30am, it was 59.5 degrees in the common area with little difference in my room (the set point on the 1st floor is 60 +/- 2 degrees). I don?t think it has reached steady state though since I didn?t do a lot of bulk sealing until about 2am.

I know this sounds sad, but I really can?t wait to eat my frozen pizza (it?s in the oven now). I ran across the street to the gas station (nearly tumbling ass over tea kettle down the steps) and bought some . . . well . . . junk food. I?m taking the night off to spend some time getting fat again.

Let?s see, we got about 3? of snow last night, and it is still on the ground. Oh yeah, and anyone living in the house that reads this ? the microwave exploded the other night. The melted plastic smell and the fact that it shows no signs of life would seem to indicate that we?re going to need a new one. That and the fact it was shooting flames at my soup. So, coordinate this, and someone steal your parents microwave and haul it on up here. My life is so empty without microwave popcorn.

Before I start this rant, allow me two statements. First, Happy Thanksgiving. If you want to stay happy, don?t read this until Monday, when you probably feel the same. Second, now this isn?t some drunken ramble or anything. I just want to share what is going on (good, bador somewhere inbetween). Plus, my sleep schedule has actually been vampirized so I stay up during the night, and sleep during the day. Strange, I know. So don’t call before 3(pm).

So, I?m a fatalist by nature. If I thought I had any real control over anything, that would probably just drive me insane. So usually sit, blissfully unconcerned, comfortable in the fact that sure my soul may not be saved or anything, but chances are I?m not going to ruin anyone?s life with the mistakes I make. And as the snow falls gently out side, that is usually enough.

And then you get ?The Calls?. You know the type. The ones you wished you wouldn?t have gotten but know you needed to. Today?s Call was from my mom, reminding me that I?m behind on a checkup. What would I need a checkup on you ask? No wait, don?t ask. Well, you see, about two years ago I was having dinner with a friend of mine when I got another one of these calls. It was the dermatologist I?d seen at the Mayo Clinic a week earlier. Well, she wanted to see me again, NOW, and not for dinner either. So one week later, on the premise of skin cancer, I receive a nice 9 inch, 23-toothed zipper across my back. I?m sure some of you have seen it; I usually say I was hit in the back with an ax (so now you know for sure). And so it happened then, I experienced that other 10% of the time when fatalism just doesn?t cut it. I mean if my parents (love you guys) hadn?t forced me in there the first time, what then?

Anyway, so I go through much the same cycle every time. I?m scheduled to go in again near the end of January for the usual blood draw (don?t like needles too much), chest x-ray (my microwave shot enough flames at me yesterday thank you), plus an examination (is this good touch, or bad touch?). Usually not a good day. Certainly wasn?t last time; ended up with another war wound. But the uncertainty as pictures are examined and pages are inspected and decisions perhaps rendered all without my knowing while I nervously sip overpriced hot chocolate in the waiting room, reading year old irrelevant magazines is just too much irony to take in stride.

So if I seem a bit distracted or distant for the next few weeks perhaps you?ll cut me some slack; it is not every day that mortality comes knocking upon your door. I?m one of those invincible (not quite teenager, but close) people that aren?t supposed to be able to be hurt. Or, as recent events have reminded me again, maybe I?m not. For whatever momentum you may think you have in life, remember that it may not be as permanent as you?d like it to be. So, as the sign on Brad?s door said ?Get to work. You?re not being paid to believe in the power of your dreams?.

Thanks Nate for the pic:

Victory ? the poll is now fixed and it shouldn?t be able to break again. I moved a bunch of data around on the website to fix it, so some other things may have broken. Let me know if you come across something.

Actually, what I?m going is sitting here have some liquid courage so I can go down to the basement and finish wiring in two new outlets (one in the pool room, the other in the bar room). There are far too many extension cords running around the northeast corner of the first floor but no more. I fed my friends in the basement some more Cypermethrin. Now I?m just waiting for them to finish dying. Other then that, I stuffed about a half-acre of blown in insulation on the third floor. I?m actually in danger of running out of the stuff. As expected though, it really isn?t that photogenic; just imagine a lot of gray crap floating around in the air.

On the work front, I managed to more or less complete a scale that can measure loads up to 66.4 kg with a resolution of +/- ~30 mg. Yay, work can now continue ? assuming the fishing line I used on the scale doesn?t break.

After a nice long day of stuffing insulation in various cavities (made some excellent progress) I decided to sit down and play with my camera a bit. It came with some software called ?Photo Stitch?. So I made some composite images of a couple of things. Although they?re not perfect, they open the door for many more pictures where I can actually show what is going on. So here we go:

The first is a 6 shot composite of the dining room. Click for a bit larger image.

The second is a 3 shot composite of the 2nd floor bathroom. That tile looks great don?t you think? Sure, there is still some painter’s tape that is outside the reach of us 5′8″ mortals, but beyond that, it is done.

Anyway, I?m going to try and fix some of the website issues now, so beware if things look a little funny.

To clear up any rumors of me heading back to Minnesota this up coming week I decided on Thursday not to head back to Home II. I really didn?t want to leave here until this coming Wednesday and to drive 1100 miles round trip to run around home and have some turkey just didn?t seem worth it. Christmas is right around the corner anyway. Besides, for 5 days next week, I get my house to myself. That doesn?t happen really often. I?m totally going to crank up the heat and do housework naked.

I supposed plan A could change at any moment if I get really pissed or stuck on something or just keep driving straight instead of hanging a left into Wal-Mart, but that?s not too likely to happen. Speaking of Wal-Mart, I need to go and buy a new splitting mal since I keep using the current one whose handle is pretty much broken. That?d be a crappy day to have the head of that come crashing down on my universe (would probably bleed longer then getting nailed in the head with a hammer did).

Sure doesn’t feel like it though. The only thing I’m looking forward to today is the fact that in about 20 hours, I get to go to bed again. Nice . . . warm . . . bed. Sitting in my office eating Easy Mac and drinking a vat of coffee certainly doesn’t hold a candle to that.

I have to admit, yesterday I pretty much got away with murder. Sort of. As pretty much everyone in the universe knows, my classes are pretty much the lowest priority on my “who’s holding a gun to my head” list. Well, yesterday I had a Controls Engineering exam and due to research testing and just other crap in general, I’ve really neglected that class. If Controls had a social worker, I’d be screwed. Anyway, I’m astonished though that I was able to cram half of a semester’s worth of material in my brain in under two hours. Despite the distint smell of hair burning and a slight headache, I think I pulled it off. For a long time I was always concerned that there was going to be some sort of “correction” to this nasty habbit of mine, but as my classroom acedemic career draws to a conclusion in the next 6 months, I’m sure nothing is going to change. Case in point, I have another exam in two hours so I have to get cranking on that one now.

It was 7:56 pm and I?m standing on the roof talking to two members of the Hancock fire department and as I look out across US-41, now plugged with an ambulance, two fire trucks, a cluster of police and the usual slew of volunteer fire fighter 4×4 trucks I wonder what just happened in the last 30 minutes to cause this event to pass. Well, apparently, some responsible citizen saw what they perceived to be a chimney fire underway in the main chimney of the house. They called 911 brought the cavalry to bear down upon this tinder box. I didn?t hear them arrive, in fact, no one did. Until someone came dashing in front door yelling to see if anyone was home the drama had gone unnoticed to the 10 people inside of the focal point. It was business as usual. I was upstairs enjoying my day off by rotting in front of the TV when Jess came up and told me that there was a chimney fire and everyone needed to get out. That seemed unlikely, but it was really not the time to debate.

So I go down stairs, everyone else is filing out and I walk over the people looking at the fire (in the fireplace). I escort 3 firefighters around the house, they inspect the chimney (which hadn?t even warmed up yet since the fire was just lit). We get the third floor and three of us go up. Once up there, they basically tell me that there is no problem and that wood burning fireplaces do this stuff. By stuff they meant shoot sparks out of the chimney and with the draft that you get from a 60 foot tall chimney, it can easily look like a fire. Then they lamented about how it was nice up on the roof, but it would be nicer if I had beer. Just blew the keg last night. They said that cell phones are responsible for lots of things like this. People get nervous and call strange looking things in. That?s cool though, I?m glad that someone was watching and was concerned enough to call (even in there wasn?t a problem).

Anyway, they told me to have it cleaned for good measure and to not run a fire in there until then. Me on the other hand came to some slightly different conclusions. Yes, it needs to be cleaned (little doubt about that), but I think I didn?t recreate the firebox exactly as I should have. I think it is getting a little bit too big of a draft which could cause sparks to be carried out while still glowing. So tomorrow, I?ll schedule a cleaning/inspection as well as add a few more firebricks in the opening to restrict airflow a bit more. On top of that, I?m also going to put a cap on the top of the chimney which will serve to reduce flow a bit more, prevent water from getting in (not that it actually ever makes it) and if sparks are flying out, they won?t go quite so high so it won?t look like the place is on fire. However, since Zak and Jason were sitting in the room with the fireplace, they assured me that there was no chimney fire. The draft that would have been created would have sucked all the furniture out of the room until it got to the pool table and then smothered itself out.

Luckily though, the paparazzi was there so I have a picture (well, actually Jason took it). I had to adjust the brightness on it a lot, but the house is on the left side and US-41 is on the right.

Busy day . . . today we spent the day working on the 3rd floor. Cleaned up, installed some lights, ceiling fan and framed in a bathroom. Its late and I need a beer. I’m so lazy that I’m not even going to make thumbnails (heh heh heh). So it is sort of a serve yourself style today: 3rd Floor Pics

Busy day . . . today we spent the day working on the 3rd floor. Cleaned up, installed some lights, ceiling fan and framed in a bathroom. Its late and I need a beer. I’m so lazy that I’m not even going to make thumbnails (heh heh heh). So it is sort of a serve yourself style today: 3rd Floor Pics