| Week nine started with Ernie and another laborer working on
the waterproofing. As I wandered onto the site on Tuesday morning, I heard
Ernie cussing. He was down in the hole, painting the wall with black tar,
and applying tar paper to the icky, sticky surface. He was also probably
applying his clothes and skin to the tar, or vice versa. He told me later
that he worked on the black tar all day Monday and had to throw away his
pants when he got home.
Those are 8x8x16 blocks on the scaffolding. The blocklayers couldn't lay the last few courses until the beam was removed. |
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| The beam has been removed and it looks like the foundation is still in good shape. And guess what! Without the beam there's another way for cats to get into the crawlspace. I'm sure I'll get yelled at if I try to block this entry. (Note, a forty-five pound block is difficult for people to lift if placed in front of a certain easily-accessible vent hole. It hasn't moved since it was placed there Friday evening. And my next-door neighbor was wandering around in her backyard the entire time I was there today and didn't even acknowledge my presence.) |
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| Here's another shot of the beamless foundation. The problem now is backfilling between the foundation wall and the dirt. It's skinny, which means it's hard to get dirt down there, and it's also inaccessible with the earthmoving equipment, due to the reach over the hole. Mark figures he's going to have to fill the narrow space with slurry (isn't that a beverage at Dairy Queen?) once the other backfill is complete. |
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| The back bumper of Ernie's truck. I've applied black tar
before, and this is an eminently reasonable way of dealing with a
mind-numbingly crummy job.
The only difference between Ernie and me is that my crummy job is at a desk, I listen to my music on the computer with Winamp, and I drink Fat Tire Amber Ale all morning, not Miller High Life. And I drink out of a glass, not a bag. And if my supervisor is reading this, I'm just kidding. I don't really think my job is crummy! |
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| By Thursday, the final courses of block were laid. The
masons waited around for the inspector to show up and finally decided to
just go ahead grout the wall before the inspector got there. The inspector
that had done the previous inspections was a real reasonable guy and was
familiar with their work. The masons figured they could take a picture,
grout the wall, then when the inspector showed up, he'd give them a green
tag based on the photograph. Wrong! A different inspector showed up and he
didn't like the idea of approving based on a picture. He was going to red
tag the job. They'd have to knock out the top four courses and re-lay
them. That would be time-consuming and expensive.
The inspector said if the architect approved it--based on the photo--and would write a letter stating such, he'd green tag it. That's why there's a one-line letter on the job site. We'll see this inspector many times again. |
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| Here's a couple of shots of the basement. That
white area under what will be the bed in the master bedroom just looks
white from up on top. If you get down onto the slab, though, you notice
something in the wet cement. That same little cat that came in with the
fog in week seven apparently has been back, and has been moving on through
the wet cement.
I did have a nice conversation with Roberta today, who is no longer allowing the cats under the house. |
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| Here's a shot of everybody's favorite webmaster checking out
the view from the bedroom window.
Does this shirt make me look fat? Or is it the small window? |
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| No, the shirt and window don't make you look fat, you are fat.
And bald! And uncoordinated. And I don't have a very good tan.
Thanks for the great photograph, Jim! |
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Fig. 1. Justin and Assistant Principal McKay.
Fig. 2. Justin "Chillin'." |
And, since no week is complete without the Justin Report, here it is in one word: Okay, you all know I can't just limit myself to one word. We had a pretty good feeling last week about Justin being readmitted. Boy, were we wrong. A decision was made, and it wasn't favorable. (See Fig. 1.) Technically, Justin has been "suspended" until the end of the semester, which, in reality, is an expulsion. The Assistant Principal, Mr. McKay, and the Dean of Discipline, Ms. Golsten, based their decision on a couple of things. One, this was his second offense--you might say he's a "chronic" offender. Two, was the fact that in three years of high school he's only managed to bank three credits out of a possible fifteen. Three, several kids who were picked up at the same time said Justin provided the herb they were smoking. Roll another number for the road, dude. Mr. McKay and Ms. Golsten voted. Justin was the weakest link. Bye Bye. I was looking at the Alhambra website and note that they only have a 1.8% dropout rate with an enrollment of about 2400 kids. The way they keep the dropout rate low is to throw out the at-risk kids like Justin before they have a chance to drop out. And before they have a chance to bring Alhambra's scores down by doing poorly on the AIMS test. Alhambra spent two years working Justin through the truancy system, trying to make him stay in school, then cut him loose without a second thought to how much time they'd spent trying to keep him in school nine months ago. Sound public policy. We will be checking into Bostrom Alternative High School, as well as other possible options in the coming week.
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We don't want to overlook Brittany on this page, so here's a bit of news about her. We went to a parent-teacher conference the other day, where we heard that Brittany is one of the three smartest girls in her class. She always turns her homework in, and is an "asset to the class." She's going to be testing for the gifted program the first week in February. She tested a year or two ago and missed it by only a point or two. Here's hoping this test goes a bit better. |
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