Monthly Archive for September, 2011

How’s the View from Your Toilet?

Published on September 26, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 2 Comments

This is the reason we need professional builder help when it comes to room design.

This is the view from our master bedroom toilet.

It’s a very small bathroom, 4 1/2 feet x 8 feet. It will have a sink, toilet and shower.

It almost didn’t exist.

1. We needed a professional to tell us that to build a master bedroom without a bath would be a mistake. We’re not sorry we listened. We are sorry we didn’t give up a foot or two more of bedroom space for a larger bath. The bedroom is huge! 450 square feet. (The rest of the house is 700 square feet.)

Today, Sebastien, our builder came over to check the progress and give us a timetable for picking out tile, interior paint, bath fixtures, light fixtures, etc.

2. When builders are ready, they are ready. He is going with us tomorrow to shop buy tiles, bath fixtures and light fixtures because he is ready to install stuff.

In discussing our bathroom fixtures, a light went off in Sebastien’s head about the window. It is on the wrong wall. If completed, the shower head would have been beside the window and there was no way to affix a shower curtain. We reached a compromise and the window will be moved – at no cost to us.

3. Builders make mistakes. When we got the plans, we should have taken a few days to really look them over and question every detail.  We have never done a major remodeling job, although at work I was involved in major construction and can point out some of the dumb things the architects drew up that got built.  (ie: an electrical junction box that is 4 inches off the wall…)

4. Experience pays. Our brilliant idea for utilizing the tiny bathroom floor space was to

  • have a door that opened out
  • have no door
We decided that we would go for the latter. No door. As we stood in the doorway looking in, it seemed to make perfect sense. But Sebastien put himself in a squatting position about where the toilet would be and said “one of the things to consider is the sight line.”
See above picture.
That gigantic opening will be sliding glass/screen doors. There is a sidewalk that runs the perimeter of the house.
Whatta view – no matter if you’re in, looking out, or out, looking in.
How’s the view from your toilet?
We are not installing a door. We didn’t come here not to see the view.

 

Geeky Animated Gif Monday

Published on September 26, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments

Yes, I Have Become One of *Those* Retired Guys

Published on September 24, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 1 Comment

I thought a lot about what it might be like to be retired. Planning day-dreaming about those days, I just couldn’t imagine what geezer guys would do all day. Geezer women always have a project going – whether it be volunteering or doing something crafty – or yakking on the phone.

Some geezer guys play golf nine times a week with the same group of guys. Good lord, that would NOT be me. How boring to hang with the same dudes, hearing the same complaints/comments/jokes/jabs playing the same eighteen holes, drinking the same beer. Boooooorrrrrring.

So in my planning day-dreaming for retirement, I figured I would spend all day on the innerwebs. No, I would not be one of those geezers that forwards email. I would be different.

Wrong, Data-packet breath.

Since we have OCI (Our Crappy Internet). I spend very little time on the innerwebs – especially on the computer. I use Nancy’s iPhone to check a couple news sites and stream radio broadcasts while sitting outside.

Today, I became one of *those* retired guys.

I have a project.

Two things were broken during the move: our ceramic house number signs. One was a souvenir of Savannah and the other was a souvenir of New Orleans. 733 and 752. I didn’t pack them, I just duct-taped them together and jammed them in the container. They were both cracked beyond repair.

Today, I am attempting a project.

I want to recycle the bracket that held 752 to display our “Sedolosoder” sign. Nancy bought me the sign for our anniversary. It was made by a local kid out of laurel wood. (The same as the ceiling in our Casa de Barky.)  We debated where to display the sign, thinking that it would be permanently affixed to the bodega or the gate.

We decided that having it mounted on a bracket that I can just jab into the ground would give us more options.

A project is born!

The bracket was starting to rust. Lucky for me the bodega painters left their unused anti-corrosive paint.

Some things:

  1. It’s rare that stuff gets left behind after a job. Examples: the welder boys came back after a ratty sheet of plastic to wrap up a compressor on a trailer; our general contractor made sure he got back 50 feet of electrical wire that some other guys took down.
  2. Our stuff has been commandeered into duty on the worksite. Ladders, garden hoses, and brooms that we brought down are now an integral part of the construction. Nobody asked. Just part of living under socialism I guess. And we’re OK with that.
  3. How can anti-corrosive paint be water based?
Today the project was to paint the bracket and mount the sign. It took me ten minutes to conceive the project – and two hours to find a paintbrush – and ten minutes to finish the project once the right tool was located.
The only thing missing was a trip to Home Depot to buy a paint-brush because I couldn’t find what I was looking for.
Nancy was the alternative. She rummaged around and found one of her well-worn artsy-fartsy paint brushes and let me use that.
All that’s left now is to stain the Sedolsoder wood. I am sub-contracting that portion of the project to the guy that ends up staining our ceiling.
So it’s a pretty typical retired geezer project, a brilliant idea followed by a lackadaisical execution and completion by somebody else.

 

 

Sacre Bleu Amigo

Published on September 23, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 1 Comment

Learning a language I don’t habla,

means most of my words come out blah-blah.

Adding an “o” will work you know.

Apartmento, concreto, electronico

Until I need to say candelabra.

OK, that was a pretty poor effort, but I wonder if silly verses are just an English language deal. Do the Spanish make up lame little limericks? Can you Haiku in Hebrew? I’ll bet somebody knows and can provide some examples.

I found the Pimsleur CD’s the other day and have started listening to them again to improve my Spanish.

Turns out, I may also be delaying losing my mind to Alzheimer’s.

“There is a growing body of research pointing to a number of cognitive benefits for bilinguals and this is
very exciting,” said Ms. Begley. “It is my hope that this paper will help bring additional attention to some
of the findings and the research that is being done.”

In compiling extensive research and clinical studies regarding bilingualism and various brain functions,
Begley’s paper gives particular attention to the work of Toronto-based research scientist, Ellen Bialystok,
whose work has shown that lifetime bilinguals experience onset signs of dementia an average 4.1 – 5.1
years later than monolinguals. The paper also summarizes findings indicating that lifetime bilinguals
experience greater cognitive reserve, enhanced cognitive control, and other brain functions.

Yes, I need a greater cognitive reserve… is this anything like a Cognac being Very Superior Old Pale? I don’t know what that greater cognitive reserve means, but I want some.

We live amongst French-Canadians. They are only part-time residents so we have yet to meet any of our neighbors. However, we have learned that most of them prefer French, then Spanish, then English.

Sacre bleu amigo! Looks like I need to polish up my French too.

Aside:

When our daughter, Bulbous, and her husband, St. Todd deCubville visit, I hope they are ready.

Amy = ah-me (no long “a” in Spanish, it’s “ah”)

Todd = only a long “o” (Oh) in Spanish, so he will be Toad.

This will be fun.

 

Is Geri Halliwell Shrinking?

Published on September 21, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 4 Comments

I don’t have a clue who Geri Halliwell is, but her dog walker reminds me of one of my favorite movies… Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice shrunken head

Wonder if the guy’s gonads have shriveled up as much as his head. Or is Geri Halliwell the one doing the shrinking? Take a look… her waist is about the same as the guy’s bicep. She actually could fit into one let of his cargo shorts.

Geri Halliwell

Why do I care? I don’t, I just like making fun of people I don’t know who think they are famous.