Well here we are, May 28th; Memorial Day. Its been just over a year since I rebooted this blog, primarily as an internet diary of my exploits in the creation of the addition to my family's house. Its been an interesting year, that much is for sure. I have personally accomplished more in the past year that I have in most of the other 18 combined years of my life. I've set a few goals; completed some extraordinary feats (well, okay, not really, but, I did help build a house! That's got to count for something... right?), and achieved some things which, at the time, I thought were unlikely to happen.


During this past year, I have enrolled in college, seen the completion of the house project, completed the prerequisites and earned my driver's license, and am even running for public office! Its been a busy year, but as the Spring months quickly fade away and the blistering heat brings about the seemingly slower months of summer, it will only get busier.

Now that the quick summary (to the best of my knowledge at present) has been presented; moving along to current events. Nothing spectacular planned for the summer; I'm shuffling a couple side jobs, and, naturally am in the political race, we'll see how that goes. The addition is complete, as already mentioned. I'll try to get some pictures up in a bit.


Anyway. Yeah. Alot has changed over the past year, some good, some bad, but everything will work out in the end, it is God's great design, he has a plan for all of us, and everything has a reason. No event, good or bad, happens randomly.


This new year has been a little strange. The weather especially; a quick heat wave followed by a sheer frost, alot of crop damage. The damage will definatly be realized as the months wear on, and cached supplies start to run down. Sure seems the weather has stabilized now, though. Nothing but heat, heat, heat. Reminds me of Florida... just without the tropical breeze... or the palm trees... and the doughnuts.

Well, we got a new toy today, an extend able.... bucket? Right now the exact name alludes me, I can only think of cherry picker, but anyway, it's a bucket on the end of a boom, kinda nifty, very useful, and extremely cool! I had a pretty good time running roofing boards and shingles up all day, as well as taking a massive number of pictures (160+ yeah, pretty outstanding huh, well that should be enough for the photo album!).

Oh yeah, we also got some work done on the addition... and we knocked apart mom's old garden, but that's another story. Overall was a pretty decent day, for starting so late in the morning. Decent, soft intermittent breeze throughout most of the day, and for the first time in a while, it was warm, but not a scorching, searing and otherwise eye-clawing kind of heat, just, a perfect working day. We were able to get all the roof tiles down, and the shingles on top, so now we just need to build the two end walls, lay down some... other stuff, then the shingles and we'll be golden!

As for the garden incident that... er, somehow slipped out... well, yeah... it kinda got destroyed when my brother went on a limb culling spree and dropped more than a few branches, limbs, and leafy counterparts onto mom's older flower garden. The veteran picket fe

nce, soiled from years of dauntless service, couldn't hold the strain any longer, and fell in many places as the rebellious tree sprouts fell among them. Well, the garden needed to be replaced anyway! And, if it didn't, well, it sure does now!

As always, it's been a fairly good day, the lift we rented was a MASSIVE help! Really made the day go a lot smoother. It also provided me with a bird's eye view of our establishmen

t, I'd love to add more pictures of the surrounding locale, captured through my cell phone's camera lens (yeah, I know a phone camera is a bit cheesy, but hey, it works!) but I've got relatively limited space in my blog posts, so I'll add a picture or two (or maybe 3...) to the side, should be pretty good...

Whew, and yet another fun filled day under the sun! Which, means we worked on the addition project for the majority of the day under a scorching sun.

This morning there was a cool breeze that would sweep across our hardwood plateau every now and then, and as I dutifully preened the grass, (with a lawnmower) I couldn't help but to reminisce about my time on the Florida bayou, kayaking through the smooth, quiet (somewhat difficult to navigate) mangrove swamps, then abruptly leaving the stilled waterways and entering into the great Sarasota bay, as the ocean breeze tore across the open bay, tossing and turning my petite skiff hither and thither (well, actually, the wind wasn't THAT strong, but yeah, the open bay waters were just a tad bit choppier than the mangrove

waterways...)

Towards the culmination of the blazing scorching day, (which, by some slight degree happened to be cooler than yesterday)

the sun was slowly blotted out as light grey storm clouds started amassing to the east and west, a welcome sight indeed as it brought with it a cool breeze, which was both a blessing and a curse. The refreshing breeze felt quite delightful on our sun charred skin, but, atop a double stacked section of scaffolding, the wind did have a tendency to make one's stay atop these heights somewhat... more 'thrilling'.

May 30th, Memorial Day, the day we look back and honor everyone who gave their lives to make this great country what it is today. A day of solumn remembrance for everyone who has helped build this country into a great pillar of freedom, shining as a bright example for the whole world to see, one nation under God. I personally would like to extend a truly heartfelt appreciation and my sincerist gratitude and thanks for everyone in the armed forces, their sacrifice has made this free country just that, free. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Ok, in other news, Memorial Day also marks one of the busiest days of the year, for us anyway. Since it's a national holiday, everyone has a day off from their usual routine and grudgingly boring day jobs, so instead the whole clan (well, at least everyone still in Michigan) gathered around for a day of fun and games under a shining sun, and soft breeze.

... Yeah, okay... I wish, I really do. Instead, we got to start work at 8 A.M. (yes, that means getting up and around even earlier than a lazy bum like me am used to). As for the shining sun? Yeah, it was shining alright... humidity was so high that sweat was litterally rolling off of me in buckets, and I wasn't even doing anything especially hard! Soft breeze? Well, despite the ground shaking (yes, really, ground shaking) thunderstorm followed by a tidal wave that swept across our little villa last night, there was hardly any breeze at all... just the heat that caused the sweat and sawdust to build up under your sunglass lens, which, if left unchecked, would slowly, panfully, chockingly burn then blind your already slitted eyes.

Needless to say we had a blast! A really humdinger of a party, and we made alot of progress on the addition. Now as I sit here, writing this latest entry, I can only look back at the past day, a slight grin stealing over my steely emotion void face as a few beads of perspiration form on my brow. Ahh, it's been a rough day for all of us, but the best part is at the days end, and the feeling of contentment at a full day, and a job well done. For now...

(Part 2 of "Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?" will commence tomorrow as we most likely will get another day draped in the sweltering furnace as we start to assemble the roof pieces.)

Got the base framework for the first floor done today, well, for the most part. Progress drasticly decreased as the hours waned into the afternoon, with the sun finally emerging from behind the greyscale clouds. Under nromal conditions it would be a welcome sight... but due to the high amounts of rain we've been experiencing lately, it just caused a really high humidity level which was rather uncomfortable to work in (hehe, I was away for most of the afternoon work). Even with the majority of the work crew splitting up between 1 -2 P.M., the remaining staff still managed to toss up a couple

wall sections.

By the end of the day, a dense, yet somewhat cool mist was drifting into our neck of the woods at a rate at which native Floridians might find alarming. With it brought a cool breeze and the satisfaction of a job well-done... well, for now anyway.

I know it's not a very aspiring view, but this is a late picture taken the evening of the first day of clearing for the expansion, showing a void zone where the garden used to be.

And now, it's starting to look like the pieces are coming together.

May 18th

Okay, so I finally got my web log up and running this evening after it's been un-active for a couple years. Ill be updating it every day or so with additional pictures and some marginal information (primarily for comic relief). We're currently undertaking a rather large project: An addition to the house! Yeah, it's pretty slick.

Note: The picture on the left is an old picture I've had sitting around for awhile. Took it right after getting back from a particularly grueling "day at the office". The relatively friendly beast laying in the doorway is my sister's cat Ferdinand. (I know, it's a rather... um... 'interesting' name but yeah...)