Tassilo’s class is building a homecoming float in our driveway. They’re using our Harbor Freight 4×8 trailer and building a cage on top of it, with 2×4s. Theme is “Taming the Lion”:

Friday and Saturday our col-de-sac was buzzing from the many seniors that showed up to help with the build. They had a real good dynamic going and everyone tried hard to not be a nuisance to family and neighbors. Good kids. I was nearby working on my shed and did a little spying on the action. Just in time before the forecasted rain I finally completed all earth moving work and set the last post block:

Looks like nothing, but there went about 100 wheelbarrow loads of cement into the retaining wall and post blocks. Next up is building the frame, which will be so much nicer then digging holes, mixing and pouring cement.

Tonight on my way driving back home from Seattle I was lucky to sneak through sever floodings in western Washington that shut down hundreds of roads and made wide parts of the state inaccessible (see NY Times article). Over radio they announced the closure of a 20-miles stretch of I5 around Chehalis - the same location that was hit by massive floods two years ago and where local communities are still recovering from damages and the big mud.

A thought that made my own little plight of trying to get through this mess and continue my trip home seem rather insignificant. Regardless, I had to decide what to do with the freeway closure: turn back and look for a hotel room or try to find a way around it in the back country? The traffic information wasn’t too helpful: no alternative routes were suggested. Dana researched for me at home on the Internet - and found nothing there either.

Finally I turned off I5 just north of the closure and headed south on smaller roads. I was shocked to find wide stretches of the countryside under water. On several locations the road was submerged and I was thankful to drive the higher Honda, rather then the road hugging Volvo (I would have had to turn around).

Three times I tried to get back onto the freeway, but they kept expanding the closed stretch and the onramp was always blocked. Stranded trucks were standing everywhere. I talked to a few truckers: they resolved to staying over night and said they wouldn’t be surprised if they had to stay another one. The Bud Light sixpacks were already handed around and they took the whole thing with good trucker banter, wishing me good luck on the back routes they had suggested to me. Surprisingly, I saw only a few passenger cars - which made me wonder where all my fellow I5 travelers went. Did I not just an hour ago nudge in stop-and-go traffic into the same direction with hundreds of them?

The driving conditions were - interesting: besides the water on the road it kept raining buckets and fog was raising from the ground and then blown horizontally by strong wind gusts. I passed through towns with sand bags protecting buildings and again whole streets under water and blocked off.

The photos are blurry as I took them from the car, hand holding.

Do you see the car crossing the intersection? :)

Eventually somewhere a little north of Toledo there finally was an open on-ramp to I5 and I could continue on a direct path through the night - no other cars to see until a little later after passing more open freeway exits . My thoughts were with the people that had to stay, either on their way on I5 or, probably worse, because they live were the land sinks under a sheet of water sometime into the winter.

Last week there was a free piano offered at the Freecycle Network. I wasn’t the first to respond to this ad, but apparently the people that were faster backed out, for whatever reasons, and finally the piano was offered to us. We picked it up last night. Johanna is very excited about “finally” getting her wish.

Now we need a tuner for the piano and teacher for Johanna.

By the way, the state-of-the-art teenager room in our house looks like that:

That’s Juli (our first cat) on the bed. She sleeps every night in Tassilo’s bed and is quite lonely when he has a sleep-over somewhere else.

Dana went to a conference in Washington DC and we decided to meet up in NYC to visit Peter, Katya and Romi. Two years ago Peter and I did a “Picture a Week” project and after having corresponded and talked on the phone for years now I (and Dana too) was very much looking forward to meeting Peter and his family in person.

We had wonderful three days with the Drubetskoy’s. Precious time with old, new friends, and hopefully we will reunite again over not too long.

In the above (shaky blurry) photo we are waiting for a great production of the Nutcracker.

Two-year-old Romi is such a firebug and stole our hearts in one fast swoop.

Dana returned home with long curtains for Tassilo’s room. Heavy blue fabric and large golden grommets - some here found them a little fag (a word you can use every now and then to not feel left behind), but they do work handily as Halloween costume:

Today is all about numbers. Most importantly, of course: the elections. The stakes are high: If the Democrats don’t win tonight our family will have to live underground. Literally. According to Johanna, announced this morning while she was picking out a blue, white and red outfit:

Me: “If Obama doesn’t win we’ll move to Australia.”
Johanna: “Oh no! Then we’ll have to live underground!”
Me: “Uh? Why’s that?”
Johanna: “Because it’s so hot in Australia!”

Unrelated (besides being numbers again), I’ve used the plasma cutter on a first little project, house numbers:

They turned out a little squiggly with the zero somewhat out of shape and on the obese side. It wasn’t easy to follow the sharpie line with the plasma cutter. While cutting the zero I wandered off into the wrong direction once and welded that shut later. That’s neat about metal, you can screw up and fix it without trace. Several times during cutting some glowing splatter fell on my feet and made me squirming around. Next time I’ll cover them with a canvas.

The plate is some 3/16″ scrap metal and there is a thin aluminum sheet behind it. Clear spray can coat on the bare metal. I’ll look for some inexpensive, solar powered light to illuminate it at night.

Another number: 7 days of straight rain forecasted:

Farewell, beloved sun, I hope to see you again in April next year! Dana just rolls her eyes - she’s married to a weather wimp.

The good news, though: I’m done digging for the second retaining wall:

It looks crooked on the photo, but the blocks are more and less level. They are not yet cemented in, but I can do this in the rain. There’s going to be two more rows on the top.

If you think a proper digging in the yard should involve not only one severed phone line…I quite like your stout attitude. Because I hit that damn line not once, but three times. For the last repair the Qwest technician, a fellow sailor, did it for free. And while we’re at cutting lines: I also destroyed a drain pipe, and two hours ago the water main. Which makes 5 hits so far.

I have to explain the water main before you throw a fit like some did here at home. I had requested the marking of the supply lines. They came out swiftly and beautifully colored - the neighbor’s property. Surely left him wondering what’s behind that prank. But it’s the neighbor that doesn’t talk with the rest of the street, hence we’ll leave it at that. It took another week or so to finally mark our property, during which time I had proven once again efficient in locating selected lines - however in a little destructive fashion. So today I started digging with the comforting knowledge I won’t hit anything if only I stay clear of the fluorescent markings. Well, as they explained it to me on the phone later, they don’t mark the water line because it’s the home owner’s deal.

BTW, our water main is a flimsy 1″ OD PVC pipe about 10″ from the surface. I’ll fix it tomorrow after getting the parts from Home Depot.

The one good news is the retaining wall is almost finished:

The pier brackets turned out too tall to cement into the wall. A perfect opportunity to put the new plasma cutter and welder to use. I cut them shorter and welded a piece of rebar on as anchor. That galvanized surface sure is nasty to weld! I had it ground off a little, but of course there was still plenty on the inner side. I held my breath while the snow white fumes danced around the helmet - but that must have shaved off one or two years of my life expectancy.

Johanna and Ammiel went to work today and showed me how to start and finish building a house in a single day:

See the swing up in the tree?

Armed with safety glasses, they proudly cut out the wooden parts on the band saw. All you see there they made from scratch: swing, house, the little table and chair.

Meanwhile I continue digging for the shed. Dana says it looks like I’m trying to hide bodies, and it is generally agreed there is little progress visible for how often they see me swinging the shovel. Anyway, I decided to put in a retaining wall to keep the floor of the shed under 3 ft from the ground (possibly a city regulation):

Finished trench for the retaining wall.

Also, Tassilo and I picked up a chimney for $20, found in Craigslist:

Concrete chimney blocks

These blocks are incredible heavy. Some are still glued together. It’s going to be fun to put this chimney together. I am still undecided whether to put it inside the house (technically better), or outside. If it was outside we could connect a pizza/bread oven to it. Ah, I’m dreaming again.

Our garage is overflowing. Never mind fitting a car in it, the space is just a mess with an aircraft fuselage, three hang gliders, the bicycles and the result from 8 years of dad’s tool buying orgy. Time to build a garden shed.

Sketch of final shed

It will be around 12×15ft, with the maximum allowed height of 10ft. I hope we’ll have enough umpf to wall one part off for a little living space. For guests, or as a hideout for the kids.

I am now digging madly to get as much as possible done before the rain sets in. Of course, it was a futile race as we already had a week of abundant precipitation. A tarp keeps some of the work area dry.

First step: leveling out the slope

We hauled quite a bit of dirt in to level the sloped ground. Otherwise the shed would need pretty high stilts, and we’re not so sure that’s legal. The wooden beams is “landscape lumber” and will keep the dirt in place.

Digging holes

There will be 20 of these cement blocks. I have to dig deep (3-5 ft) to get to the solid ground. Then I fill up the hole with cement and insert the concrete block on top. Johanna and Ammiel helped yesterday and signed their work into the concrete.