Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Life since my last post... (long time ago...)

I've gotten away from writing much anymore and I've been told that I need to keep at it. I guess people want me to keep developing my vernacular and vocabulary... Ok, Folks, I'll try to be more consistant.

Not too awful much has happened since I posted last. Since the economy has deteriorated, I've been basically subsisting. I didn't rent a shelter in Apalachicola this past winter; my dog and I, more or less, just camped out of my truck. I had an invitation to park behind a friend's house, and it was very secluded considering that it was downtown.

Fortunately I have friends that had smaller projects for me to work on. I think they were, in all actuality, throwing me a proverbial bone. Thanks, y'all! I replaced some siding on a house, applied Ospho to a metal roof to stabilize the rust and then painted it with a tarnished copper-toned roof sealer. I then scraped a popcorn ceiling in a different friend's garage (to make it smooth) and painted the ceiling and walls with primer and two top-coats of high gloss oil based paint. That way, when it's raining and my buddy needs to process wild game in there, he can just hose down the walls. I then prepped the concrete floor of the garage and applied a 2-part tinted epoxy to seal and shine the surface. Turned out really nice.

When those jobs were completed, I decided to head up to Brooklyn, NY to be with my sweetheart, who I've known for around four years. Over Christmas, she came down to Apalach to be with her family, and I've always tried to make it a point to be able to see her when she's in town. We ended up having a really nice connection over our four day visit (staying up until 4am talking about anything and everything) and I decided that come hell or high water I was going to persue her to the ends of the earth. I was devastated that she planned to join the peace corps and I resigned myself to waiting for her for the 27 month sojurn. I think she's changed her mind for the time being, and we plan on doing a nat'l walkabout for several months come September. I'm really excited.

Anyway, I stayed in Brooklyn for a month with almost no work at all, and after harvesting 6 parking tickets, totaling $450 more or less, from my windshield, I decided that I should go where I could work. I went back to Asheville, NC, where my parents live, and over the course of another month I skim-coated raw cinderblock walls with topping cement, painted the soffit, fascia and trim on a garage and house, and cased and installed a steel door on the same cinderblock structure on which I applied the topping cement. Fun, fun!!

When I finished those projects in NC, paid my parking tickets and performed routine maintenance on my truck, I hopped in at 5pm last Saturday, and made good time on I-81 north. I drove all night on a steady diet of 1 energy drink every four hours, and arrived back in Brooklyn at 7am Sunday morning. I suprised my girlfriend because neither one of us thought I'd make it up here until 9 at the earliest. I think it was a pleasant suprise! =-)

I'm currently driving a 1986 full size Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 4x4 with the 305 small block v-8. I was shocked to see that she gets almost 18 mpg after a tune up! My last mid-80's 4x4 pickup had the 351 windsor big block v-8 and I was tickled in Kansas, with a tail wind, to get 12!! It's all relative!

Well, that's the news for now, and I'll try to keep y'all "posted" (snicker)...