apparently the "emerging trend of female pastors" is not something that the good ole boys of the southern baptist convention want to try on.

if you haven't heard already this magazine was pulled from shelves across the country in the LIFEWAY christian bookstores (which are ran by the southern baptist convention) because the mag featured female pastors. however, you can request the mag from the christian bookstore clerk and that clerk will pull it out from under the counter. just like any other dirty porn magazine that the public shouldn't see.

now here is the thing. lifeway is owned the the SBC. and if the SBC don't believe in something like women pastors they have the right to pull the magazine from their shelves.

i grew up southern baptist if you can't tell. i went to church every time the doors where open until i left for college when i was 20. so when i rant about the christian's i feel i can speak from experience. i've experience the hypocrisy within the church, i have also experienced the holy spirit at work in the church. so it's not the individuals that i have a problem with it's the dogma. preaching the word of god while at the same time not treating all souls as equal.
the sbc and all the other denominations who refuse and don't believe in women being pastor's or reverend's or holy guide's i feel hide their oppression behind their so called interpretation of their scripture. to them there is no way in heaven that a woman could even be close to being called to preach.

so are women not worthy enough to preach the word of god? do women lack the wisdom and knowledge to bring souls to christ? is the weight of eve to great to overcome? it would seem to me that eve may have offered the apple to adam, but adam wasn't strong enough to refuse it. so who is the weak one here? both are to blame in their fall from grace.

i believe that god doesn't care about whether a person is a woman or a man when it comes to showing the way to salvation. and i don't believe jesus cares either. both work in mysterious ways, and if it is god's will that a women should lead then it would seem that refusing a women to lead would go against his will.

of course i really don't have a dog in this fight. i am just writing my opinion. i figured out a long time ago that my god doesn't roll that way. all facets of god loves all faces.

well folks, it just another boring day at work. sometimes it gets so boring that i often contemplate getting a new job so i can be busy. i like to be busy at work. it makes the day go by faster and coming home that much sweeter. but on days like this i can't find enough to do. i do have filing to do but deep down in my heart i know that the task will only last a few minutes and not worth the trouble. i'm going to save it for a really busy day. i've even talked with other people today just to pass the time but most of them got lucky to sit through a boring presentation for a couple of hours. in the dark. in a very cool room. i don't think i could make it. i wouldn't be able to keep my eyes open.

so lets see what is going on in the real world.

mccain tagged sarah palin to be his vice president. whatever. i believe that the only reason he picked her was because hilary was getting a lot of the democratic votes and mccain and his minions thought it would be a great idea to jump on that band wagon. and the sad part is he might be right. i am sure that there are women out there who want a female president or in this matter as vice president so bad that they would vote for this aging prisoner of war just so the femi-nazis of this country can say that a women finally made it to the white house. and again whatever. i wont be voting for him just to see a tina fey look alike make it to the white house. i don't feel that she is qualified. she just has a vagina.

today is 9/11/08. a day to remember all the people who died because of some fundamentalist muslims who felt the need to prove a point and hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings.
and 7 years later where has it gotten us? think about it. just more deaths.
it's also my friend dollie's birthday. that's gotta suck. but happy birthday anyway. just be glad that your alive and well.

just a little something

check out where the hell is matt if you haven't seen it already.

the language of dance is universal.

customer service means servicing the customer

can you hear me now? good. can you hear me now? good.
yes i know that verizon can have some annoying commercials-my favorite being the 2 little ghosts boys in the hallway- but i am a big fan of verizon for so many reasons.

in my job of a/p gypsy and now a/r gypsy as a result of a mass lay off, i am in charge of dealing with all the cell phones for the company. luckily by the time i inherited the cell phone albatros we were down to 2 cell phone companies. verizon and sprint, which was nextel which was...oh who the hell knows. anyhoo, i have to occasionally call these companies for different issues. adding a phone, cancelling a phone, suspending a phone. with verizon i have a rep that can handle some of the questions like “i need a global blackberry and a global sim card by tomorrow” my rep says no problem.

if i have to call verizion, which is more than i call sprint “thank goddess”, after a few prompts i am answered quickly by a customer service person who is able to handle every issue i have. they are always nice and courteous and always act happy that i called. they act like your friend. go figure. a customer service person who actually wants to do their job and offer you service.

when i call sprint, after a few prompts, i always have to wait and wait and wait for a human to pick up the phone. all the while listening to ear piercing on hold music. and after the “i don’t want to be here” customer service person picks up they always talk way to fast and can’t ever seem to do the job that i need done. so back into call pergatory i go to wait and wait and wait for someone else to pick up to complete the issue. and they are just as unfriendly as the last person.

i am pulling this story from my experience today. i had to call sprint (which i had been dreading) to disconnect 3 numbers that would no longer be needed. so the first "i'm so happy to be here" guy picked up the call and of course couldn’t help me. even though i had all the pin#s correct and my blood sample matched. no #1 i'm so happy to be here boy couldn’t disconnect the phones so he sent me to #2 i'm so happy to be here girl. #2 girl really just didn’t want to be there. she acted like she would rather be sand papering her eyeballs than answer the freaking phone.
after saying no a thousand times to “would you like to consider only suspended this phone or instead changing this phone over to a broadband card” or whatever people call those things that hook into a laptop so it can get internet. i said “NO NO NO i don’t want to prolong the service in any kind of way on those #’s...please. i also wanted them disconnected on friday.”
#2 girl, “i can’t do that, your cycle ending 2 days ago and it wont be prorated”
“i don’t care. they need to not have service after friday”
“well i will be able to stop all incoming and outgoing calls, is that what you want?” #2 girl said with disdain
“no i just wanted to call you and be on hold for 10 minutes and have you talk to me like i was the hired help” no not really. i really said “yes that’s what i would like to happen but not until friday night”.
“ok i have that set to stop all incoming call and outgoing calls as of tonight” dumbass chirped
“NNNOOOOO, it needs to happen on friday night” sweet little me
so after i finally felt that me and “happy to be here in hell” girl were on the same page she of course has to do the ending dialogue of her speech.
“have i answered all you questions and met what you needed?”
“yes” i said in my nicest voice
and then the best question of all that i love to answer. it’s that last question, that if you have in someway not catered to me being that your job is customer service, that i will be truthful about.
“and one last question-on a scale of 1 to 10 please rate your experience with us today”
she was shocked when i said “6 and most of that is for being on hold for too long” cause i thought 6 was being generous but i refrained from being completely blunt. i need those numbers to stay connected until friday.

cable internet part deux

well i've been having connection problem since i switched over to internet cable. my computer was dropping the signal and the address's (or what ever you call them) were disappearing. so thursday night i called comcast again. got another woman. which rocks and from her side she was thinking that it was the connection and not the modem. if it was the modem that would suck considering that i bought my modem and am in the process of getting the money back from the rebate. anyhoo, after setting me up with someone coming to my house on saturday, which is today, we hung up. and as soon as i hung up the connection came back. the woman called me back and said "hey, it's connecting again", "i know" i said, "well i think it's the connection" she said, "let's hope", i said. and ended the call.

on friday i came home from work and sat down to see what might be up with the connection. nope not there. however, i had the insight early on to write down all the numbers to all the lines (ips, subnet, dns server blah blah blah) when it was working properly and entered them manually. and i was up and going

now for anyone out there who has ever dwelt with comcast you really never know if they will show up on time or what kind of person you will get. will they be nice or just pissed off to be there, so i decided to let go of the stress and let what happens happen. i was scheduled to have someone out between 10 and 12. but at 9.45 dwayne called up and said he was on his way. he showed up at 10 and checked the connection at the poll. dwayne said that the connection was loose at the poll and that could have been some of the problem. then when he looked in the house he said right away that another reason for broken connection could be that i had been using the wrong size cable. apparently cable users should be using RG 6 cable and i was using RG 9. i also asked if that was going to effect some of my digital channels especially the national geographic channel. "sure". so i turned on the tv and luckily the channel was acting up. cause you know the problem NEVER happens when the technician is around. but it was. so he went to his truck and got out the right sized cable, hooked it up and boom the channel came on. yeah yeah yeah.
i went out after he left and bought the right cable. i haven't changed it over yet because it would mean a lot of moving shit. but my internet is working right now. lets see if after i change all the cables over if i have anymore problems.

but in the long run, dwayne was courteous, explained what i needed to fix the problem and gets kudo's for being a nice guy. at my job i'm not always the nicest person to deal with. i have a job to do and i don't tolerate stupid gracefully. however, if you are nice to me i'm nice to you and i always, ALWAYS try to get along with the IT people. i find that if you are nice to the people who keep your system running then they will keep you that way. the same attitude applies to the people who come to my house to repair or install something. they are there to do a job and if you treat them with respect more than likely you'll get it back.

it was easy as 1,2...

by 6:30 last night i was up and running with my new HIGH SPEED internet. and it was easy to a point and that point was running the comcast install wizard. which is really the very first step after connecting all the cables.
everything was good but the connectivity, but my modem showed activity and my computer showed connection with the ethernet, so why wasn't it working? ah shit. i was going to have to call comcast. i was hoping to avoid that. so i called. problem with the system "our representatives are busy at the moment and will take your call in the order it arrived" blah blah. it was only a few minutes, the first time anyway. so some dude named james answered. i explained what the deal was and was on the phone for less that 5 minutes and i had already found out that he was from cincinnati and he was living in nashville and was trying hard to become a country music writer and at the moment beside working at comcast he was working as a staff writer on music row. in less than five minutes. but that happens all the time. i learn way to much about people i've never met. anyhoo, the bastard put me on hold an never came back. well i could have let myself get very pissed off about this but i chose to remain semi calm and call again. this time i got a girl, thank goddess because the guy sure as hell didn't help me. so i explained to "nesha" what the deal was and we come to find out that the reason that the wizard wont work is because i'm not set up in their system as having internet. since i had ordered my modem and kit from a comcast offers website the actually comcast had no idea, so that's why the wizard wouldn't work. but nesha rocked, she got me set up and i was able to get the same username that i had with bellsouth. and that made me excited. it's a simple name and i've had it for around 15 years and no one had chosen it yet from comcast. yeah me.
nesha even helped me set up my email account. and have i mentioned yet that brad really didn't do much of anything? nope not really much other than giving me moral support.
so it's all good now.

fly like an eagle

oh people-todays the day
last week i sent for my self install kit from comcast for HIGH SPEED internet. i have decided to pay the extra money for HIGH SPEED internet and get rid of my land line. and today it has arrived.

i have been on dial up for about forever now and even though i am semi-ok with the slloooowwwwneessss of it i was still not ready to make the jump because of the price. however, it seems now that the only people calling me are telemarketers ( and yes i did sign up to be on the no call list but the roaches still seem to get through) and if i got rid of my phone and the internet through them i will be saving money.
it was getting rid of the land line that has been the biggest obstacle on my road to HIGH SPEED browsing. for some reason i connected the land line to being grounded. it’s the way it has always been. for me and people my age we didn’t have computers when i was in high school much less the ability to fly like an eagle around the world and back from the comfort of my living room. and everyone had a land line. i’m ok with change after the fact it’s the decision to change from what i have always known that makes me stop. it’s in our genetic makeup to fear change it’s also in our genetic makeup to explore. yes i know that i am comparing getting HIGH SPEED internet to exploring but that’s the way i process so back off. this morning i was all set to bitch about the disabled peoples boycott of “tropic thunder” which i think i crazy. if you want to be treated as an equal to the NON-special people you need to get used to people making fun of you. this little rant is much more positive.
so today when i go home brad is going to help me set this hi-tech stuff up. the problem may be is that i have a MAC and that is something my brainiac boyfriend is not familiar with. but as he has said many times in the end it’s all the same. so we shall see.

brad is also the one who found the site that would allow me to get internet for 19.99a month for 6 months and also a (free) modem. and if i’m not on crack i think they will also give me $100. the (free) modem and $100 are after rebate of course. but i’m good with rebates. so far that is.

there is a scene from “the chronicles of riddick” that has been running through my mind lately. the scene takes place after riddick has been caught and is taken to the planet Crematoria. for those of you who haven’t seen the movie. crematoria is a dead world were the day time surface temperatures (like a 1000 degrees) scorch the face of the planet, while the night time temps are survivable. it’s also a prison miles underneath the surface. anyway, when the sun isn’t blaring and darkness is over the land, it’s possible to exist on the surface but when the sun comes it destroy anything living with it’s blast furnace heat. this is how it’s been feeling lately here in the ‘boro. night time is bearable but the the daytime is freaking hot. not to mention that the humidity is around 70%. so everyday when i walk out side and i immediately feel sticky and hot that scene runs through my mind. it doesn’t help that i’ve seen this movie more than several times and that’s the only scene that i remember vividly.

it’s also the dog days of summer. it’s a time from around the middle of july to the middle of august. wikipedia calls it a phenomenon. don’t know why it’s a phenomenon. but it’s considered a “time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by a dull lack of progress”. also ‘popularly believed to be an evil time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies” -brady’s clavis calendarium”. yep that about covers it.

however, my banana plants are digging it. especially since i put them in pots this year instead of planting them. i find i am more likely to water a plant in a pot then in the ground.
here are some pics. the bigger tree is suppose to bear fruit in it's 3rd year which is next year.


the leaves are huge. you can see my arm holding up the leaf. they are about a yard long

and here are the babies.

if you don't have anything to say

then don't say anything.

yeah that sounds like me. i'm known for keeping my mouth shut.

ya'll i am tired of hearing brett favre’s name. what i do find weird is that when i do hear his name it’s on the radio and t.v. but i never see any articles about him. from what i understand he went into retirement from the packers but decided he wanted to play again but got pissed off when the packers wouldn’t let him start. he sounds like a big ol’ baby, that’s what i think.

big brother started again. last time it sucked. they had big brother “soul mate” or something like that. each person in the house had another person in the house that was suppose to be their soul mate. oh please. so i didn’t watch much of it. i do believe that big brother would be the reality show that i could handle being on, if it wasn’t for the slop. i’m not into eating anything that looks like oatmeal and god knows what it taste like. i’m a picky eater.

also some of my other favorite reality shows have started again. “sheer genius” & “project runway”. yeah. i love my t.v. and it’s too hot to go outside.

last night was the sneak preview of "dinner impossible" with michael symon. the food network hired michael to do the show after robert irvine fattened up his resume with some bullshit info. anyway...for desert he decided to fry up some bacon and cover them in chocolate and then add almonds on top.
OH
MY
GOD
as some of you may know i am a bacon addict, and i had to remove myself from looking at the t.v. because it was just toooooo much for me. bacon and chocolate? my 2 favorite things. it was all i could do not to run into the kitchen at 10pm and pull out the bacon and melt some chocolate and have at. but i used my willpower to just walk away. it didn't help that a little later brad came into the bed room to tell me that one of the women who tried the desert said from me to eat my heart out.

i need to give a congrats shout out to BF brad. he is now on the grid.

happy birthday America

what a long weekend. me, brad and the kid-lettes spent the 4th with the boyd-reeds, doing what all good americans do to celebrate our countries freedom. eating and fireworks. i don't quite know how having friends over for a cook-out represents our country's birthday, but i would like to think it has something to do with our right to assemble, and our right to blow our hands off with explosives. or in one of my friends cases, burn your finger with a sparkler. those sparklers can be dangerous people.

anyhoo, after stuffing ourselves for several hours some of us headed over to campus to watch the fireworks accompanied by mtsu's orchestra. i LOVE to watch fireworks. personally i find it an art. the ability to mix and match elements in a small container and then upon explosion create beautiful figures of sparkly bits and colors.

we got to campus a little early. found our spots on the grass amid the other hundreds of people who came to see and experience the same occasion. it's these moments that i feel connected to everyone. a collective mass of other beating hearts who may not share the same beliefs but do share the common bond of being in and being a AMERICAN.

the long awaited drumbeat

meet the new addition to my drum family



this is a native frame drum. my friend stan "the drum man" finally finished it. stan is great. he has been traveling the country for over a decade teaching people and helping people make their own drum at his drum workshops. they usually last 2 days. you can decorate your drum shells, and that's the easy part. it's the stringing the can shread the skin off your hands.
if any of you are interested in having a workshop check out the website. buildadrum.com or you could email stan at stan@buildadrum.com

ashiko's, djembe's, djundjun's these are all african drums. but for the longest time i have been wanting a tribal drum or the native frame drum. and now i have it.
the skin is elk, the frame is cedar. the back handle (if you can see it) is deer antler. i'm thrilled and i am still waiting for the skin to dry so i can hear her tone.

i do confess that i don't play as much as i use to. i guess when the opportunities reduce the playing does to. i'm not one to play at home by myself.

the itsy bitsy spider

the itsy bitsy spider just fucking bit me. and wasn’t so itsty bitsy at all. it was as big as the palm of my hand...well a good couple of inches. on saturday evening i went outside to push mow my side yard since all the scrap metal from the shed is gone, gone, gone. and i though hey at the same time i will move the concrete diverter? that diverts the water from the downspout a different way. so there i was, rocking it back and forth when all of a sudden a sharp hot piercing pain came from my top knuckle on my thumb. i think the little fucker even stayed attached cause when i shook my hand something slung off it.
at this point many things went through my mind. i was pissed, scared that i would have to go to the hospital (which i don’t want to do at all) and how this all fits into my way of thinking with animal totems. but mainly i was pissed. how dare this spider bite me.
i ran inside and soaked my thumb in alcohol, which took away the initial burn. then i started freaking out. my body had just been bitten and adrenaline had just been dumped into said body. was i having a reaction to the bite? or just over-saturated with adrenaline? the thumb started to swell and i knew i needed to go onto the internet to see what i could see. all in all i treated it like an insect bite and put ice on it.
and then i called brad. i needed someone to talk me down from my freaking out high. and it worked.
i was still pissed. i wanted to start mowing and i wasn’t about to let the little fucker defeat me. so i went out and mowed. all the while thinking what the hell was that all about? when i have encounters with creatures i believe that spirit is trying to tell me something but even now i haven’t figured it out. the next day my thumb was stiff and sore and a little red but today it just feels like i bruised it.
if you haven’t figured it out by now i have never been bit by a spider, or where i recognized it as a full out assault from the 8 legged creature. and i find it very confusing. bee stings? no problem. wasp? no problem. sweat bees? no problem but a spider? iiiii don’t get it. i feel personally attacked.

but i’ll live. and sometime in the future i will see what spirit is trying to tell me other than wear gloves. but you see i do wear gloves...usually.
and i will still remove the little fuckers from my house instead of killing them.

project "new shed" FINISHED

yeah the new shed has been finished for quite some time. but many things have been going on and postings of pictures of days past were more important to me than showing the completed shed with ramp. but i have just moved the slideshow to the main page and on we go.
look at the inside. i can fit things in it. like mowers and ladders and...stuff. i can fit stuff in that shed and i don't have to worry about the shed falling down.





now the ramp was a different creature all together. my man the engineer was in charge of the ramp. i say that like he wasn't in charge of everything else but that is neither here nor there. it took mr. man a while to get the right angles on the ramp. my yard slopes every so slightly and the ramp was...well something to think about. but it's done.



yes the hole in the middle of the ramp was thought out. yes there is a hole because we ran out of wood but i like it. it's very i ching. i will like it until i fall through it and out it will go. i am trying to figure out what i can put on the ground that you would be able to see. colors stones, glass a cool plaque?

and finally landscaping.

all my rowdy friends are coming over tonight

as promised. then and now pictures. i do have to apoligize to shannon and wendy. i couldn't find any up close picture's of you back then. so i just included the now. but wendy i do have a good one of you at halloween. i would have liked to organize them but i can only do so much on the blog. but do check out the slide show. i do have a disclaimer. not all of the now pictures came from me but from dollie and shannon who own a digital camera. i hope you guys don't mind.

reunion

que the 80's music-

time goes on but somethings remain the same

it was mtsu’s theatre alumni reunion weekend and of course i didn’t go to any of the functions. the reasons can be listed on a regular sheet of lined paper but the readers digest version is “been there, done that”.
but the reunion brought back to the boro several people who i haven’t seen in a long time. mike and dollie hosted a small gathering on friday night. those in attendance were, mike & dollie of course, me, craig (el badger), jenny from new zealand, shannon from miami, wendy from springfield (tn), lee from west (by god) virginia and derek from the lovely city of la vergne. if i have forgotten someone i am terribly sorry, i wasn’t drunk but my memory sometimes is.
anyhoo, friday night was great. i don’t know if it’s me or not but i have found many times that when i am around friends from college i feel relaxed. there is no having to explain who you are. no hoping to god that they get your sense of humor, or in my case not to piss someone off because a tactless comment has come out of my mouth. i had several circles of friends in college. friday night was a cross section of them. and if i remember correctly these people love a good argument, they are very bright and charismatic and it’s hard to get a word in edgewise. so if you got something to say you need to bring your stage voice. and if you don’t have anything to say then why the fuck are you there?
we all looked great. none of us look a day over 25. i am convinced that our perception of age is skewed when it comes to people we knew and loved in our 20’s. of course there a few more wrinkles and a lot more life experiences but the energy is the same.
we rehashed old memories danced to 80’s songs and showed pictures of our lives now. i found old pictures from the college days and brought them over so everyone could remember how much we partied and drank ourselves silly. a lot of “oh my god, i remember that party” or “hey that’s so and so with hair”. and pics of people who are no longer with us on this earth.

saturday night was another round of drinking and hanging out. an ex-professor showed up and for the out of towners it was a good time to get caught up with her.
hopefully then and now pictures will be coming later.

project "new shed"...almost there

well the deck was easier to put up than the shed. it also took longer to put up the shed. however, it wasn't difficult.

so 2 weekends ago the whole crew came and put up the thousand piece shed. not really but at times it felt like that.
so what you see above is the bottom track and the corners going in first. the kids helped. every exterior screw or bolt had to have a plastic washer on it so they prepared the screws for us. they would also hold up the metal if we needed it. and after a couple of hours of that it was all down hill for them. craziness insued. but i felt that they could have been alot worse so it was all good.



here is eli coming out of the finished bottom half. and then a pic of the thingy's that go across the shed to help hold up the roof. eli is a good helper. they all are but eli does what you ask and doesn't ask alot of questions. unlike ethan who can always find a fault or give a suggestion on how you need to do something. just like his father.

anyhoo, at this point it was hot outside. brad has already sliced his finger and bled on the metal and the deck. at least it was a clean cut, that metal is SHARP. but that helped me out. him slicing his finger and all. i was wondering how i was going to bless the shed and brad did it for me. to me it's good luck to bled on your work. i'm a seamstress for the theater by hobby and it is good luck to prick your finger while sewing and then spread your blood on a seam, if your lucky to get to a seam. so when he bled on the shed it was good luck. i don't think brad shared the same thought. but that's what he gets. i had started out as the one screwing the shed together but i was going to slow and methodical so he took over. men. they have to rush through everything. well rushing will get you sliced.

finally got the roof on that evening just as the sun was going down. all the screws weren't in but it was good enough. the next day, i think. i made brad finish the roof. and secure down the shed to the deck. he was quite nasty about it. he wasn't in the mood to finish his work and he didn't like me asking questions. but i knew heavy winds were coming and he needed to finish the job. so whatever.




it n' it cute? i like it. from the front of the house it has opened up the back yard. BUT it's still not done. there is one last thing to be done. the ramp hasn't made it. i need the ramp. that was one of the reason's i got a shed was to house my new mower. and to do that i need a ramp. it's taking some time and with it raining every day. that and the fact that i have a slightly sloping yard. so hopefully my big new shed project will be done soon...hopefully.

toodles

blessed beltane to all

In your neat garden iris grows
Bright yellow, mauve - in stately rows.
This one you’ve picked’s a lovely thing,
I know it brightens up our spring.
But in the forest, springtime’s child,
A purple iris growing wild,
Can melt my heart as spring melts snow,
It’s spoilt me for the sort you grow!
- Jude, Wild Iris

happy beltane or may day everyone. may day is all about fertility, sensuality, and delight and flowering of life. a beginning of growth.

a mayday or beltane tradition is to fill a basket of flowers and give to someone in need of caring or healing. here is my gift to you.

project new shed day 4ish

wow, the dek block system rocks. put the block down on a semi level surface and then cut a 4 x 4 block to level out the joist. i kept wanting to square things up and make things perfect. brad was constantly saying "you don't need to, it will take care of itself." but seriously, if you have lot's of rocks in your yard. or you don't want to dig and don't care about seeing a couple of blocks underneath your deck. (i'm sure you can hide them somehow). then dek blocks are for you.

i'm sounding like a commercial. so far it's been a couple of hours each night and brad doing all the work and last night the deck boards started to go on. (yes all by themselves)

on these pictures you can see the 4 x 4 post cut to size to level out the joist. they are toe nailed (screwed ) in. then it's easy peasy from there. (like i would know). so far brad hasn't really let me doing much of anything. i don't exactly know why, but i think it may have something to do with him thinking it would slow him down. and he is right, i would be slow but it's not like i've never used tools before. when i was in the theatre i built a lot of things and used a lot of tools. big tools. tools that i wouldn't touch today. but where was i? oh yeah. the top deck boards have started going in. soon i'll be ready to set up my new metal 8 x 10 shed. that came in a 3 x 6 box. doesn't seem quite right, sizing wise that it. but...when it comes to assembly i don't question, i just pull out everything, make sure all the pieces are there and i read the instructions.

until next time.

project new shed...day uhh 3ish?

things have been happening a little at a time on the new shed. we stopped work last thursday. we took the weekend off. well brad took the weekend off. he had the kids and was working on his plot of land. so on saturday i dismantled the old shed 1 screw at a time. no using the sledge hammer. i patiently unscrewed each corroded, molded, painted over screw on the old rusty shed. now the pieces are stacked up in a pile waiting for haul off.

monday we set the corner blocks for the deck. pictures will come later. yesterday we laid all the other blocks and the floor joist. oh wait. we laid all the blocks but 1. that will happen tonight. so maybe by tomorrow we will be ready to put the floor boards on.

oh concrete ye will nary get the best o' me

this specific concrete that is. ok-so last night was the night to see if we (brad) could break up the concrete enough so we (brad) wouldn't need the jack hammer i was going to rent. i had an idea of what to do with some of the concrete chunks. i am recycling them to make a flower bed wall. they have a rustic flare and lots of edges. and frankly i don't give a shit. what else was i going to do with the concrete pieces? i have sink holes but i really didn't want to fill them in with concrete and my other option was to throw them out into the woods.


i get home, change clothes and head out to start putting the big concrete chunks into my new red wheelbarrow. that i of course cover with thick plastic so the concrete wouldn't scar my new red wheelbarrow. anyway, i soon find out that there is of course a wire mess sheet underneath the concrete. after a lot of hitting and smashing from brad we realize that what we really need to do is remove the wire mesh and then just maneuver the concrete pieces around so we can set the dek block underneath all the rubble. cause that's what it's going to be. rubble. i mean look at it, thousands of rocks. we both vote to hide it.


a little into the job brad has to leave, before he goes i try out the sledge hammer. not to bad. kind of fun. got safety glasses. (i did have brad take a picture but it was staged and didn't turn out good) while he is gone my goal is to pull up the wire mess embedded in the concrete. which i did. i am proud to say. i was exhausted and i could barely lift the sledge hammer but i did it.

the wire is NO longer embedded into the concrete. there is still concrete attached to the wire, but as brad says "no problem, take a sledge hammer to it". which i plan on doing tonight.

to recap-in the beginning my intentions were to remove all concrete from the area so the dek block could set on the earth. now after the destruction and the realization that there is way to much rubble the the rubble will be moved around to accommodate the block. brad and i are too lazy to really clean it all out. and since a deck will be going above it it sounds like the perfect solution.

i need to add that after a good 30 or 40 minutes welding a sledge hammer, not constantly of course, that i only feel pain in the sides of my lower back. and even that isn't to bad. i have a splinter that is causing me more pain.