Scattered Thoughts . . .

Y esterday was haircut day for Lukey and Kenzie.   Kenzie went to Sheila's stylist to get her hair done while Lukey stayed with me so I could cut his hair. I had planned a slightly different haircut for Lukey   (far more up top than I did here)  but his hair was too short already which forced a few changes during the haircut.  All in all, it came out well anyway. I wanted a fade to zero on the sides and back but my shaver isn't the best quality so I really couldn't go to zero.  I'd say this is a fade to half... Sheila's hair stylist did a good job on Kenzie's hair.  She had quite a bit of length cut off... Today is packing day.  I think everyone else packed this morning so I'm the only one left who needs to pack.  My stuff will be a very tight fit.  I have a lot of medications to pack.  Actually, the medications will require almost an entire bag on its own.  I also have quite a bit of photography gear, chargers, cables, laptop ...

O ur outdoor shower project is coming along slowly but surely.  I am almost finished at this point.  I only have some touch-ups to do and some finishing touches.  I definitely wish this project moved along much more quickly though! As you can see in this first photo, I have stained all of the wood and added a roof and lighting.  Don't mind the rest of the back of the house.  That room just beyond the outdoor shower will be our last big project, inside and out.  There will be a set of French doors and a window and then I will add siding the match the rest of the house.  In the meantime, this outdoor shower is looking good and is helping to block that view of the one unfinished corner of the house.     Inside, this shower enclosure is rather spacious!  Actually, this is quite a bit nicer than our current bathroom! These two shelves were added yesterday... I installed the bench this morning... The wet area under this bench was from whe...

I had a very rare, very productive day yesterday but I'm left with excruciating  spinal pain from my lumbar spine all the way up through my thoracic and cervical spine (I have significant injuries in all three areas).  The pain was so extreme last night that it was taking my breath away!  My extensive spinal injuries are still inflamed even today but down to moderately tolerable levels.   Today I plan to do a bit of plumbing work if my body cooperates. I managed to get the entire shower and dressing area enclosed which made for a really good day.  I even made a door and hung it!   The day involved a lot of cutting, ripping and making rabbits on every piece of wood.  All of these piece fit together nicely.   The hot and cold spigots are installed.  Today's job is to connect these spigots to the house water supply.  I already have the wall inside the house that adjoins with this back wall of the house completely opened and ...

W hen I got up this morning, it wasn't raining so I immediately went outside to collect tools and building supplies for one part of this outdoor shower project that has been nagging at me for quite a while.   I had originally planned to use some leftover roofing membrane as a sort of shower pan to lead the water away from the house and toward the French drain.  I couldn't find any of my leftover roofing membrane though.  My next option was to bend my own aluminum flashing in place of the membrane.   So, this morning, I collected the rolled aluminum, some shears, my hand seamer, a hammer, and some straight lumber to use as a makeshift bending brake.  I had planned to head indoors at this point to get ready for my day and eat breakfast but i t was quite nice out there this morning so I stayed out there and started working on shaping the rolled aluminum into a flashing resembling half of a shower pan.   This flashing would protect the exposed lo...

L ukey and Kenzie are both a part of the band at school and last night was their spring concert so we headed out to Cabot last night for a bit of middle school culture.   This was Kenzie's first time singing lead vocals in front of a crowd and she did well considering it was her first time.   Lukey already had another previous concert under his belt (their winter concert) before Kenzie joined the band so he moved around from instrument to instrument on stage during the performances.  I think he prefers drums but he spent time at the keyboard in addition to rocking a tambourine and singing lead vocals.   It was a fun night for all of us!  There is a short video at the bottom of this blog entry with a few short clips of the concert. Below, Kenzie is waiting to come out on stage... I've seen this Kenzie "dirty-look" before...  it is usually directed toward me when I'm joking with her about something.  I'm not sure what it was about on stage...