|
So where the hell have I been? I made 4 entries in the first 6 days of the month. then I'm gone for 10 days. Let's catch up...
The pool fence is installed and looks great. It is a fence made of 3 1/2 foot high black mesh. The mesh is in five foot wide sections with two black aluminum poles on either end. The poles are stuck in 3 inch deep holes drilled into the concrete or brick surrounding the pool.
The most interesting thing about the construction of the fence is that the aluminum poles are attached to each other by toggle bolts. A toggle bolt - for those who aren't familiar with the term - is a bolt with a spring loaded, butterfly clip that threads on the end of it. The most common application is when it is used to attach things to drywall. You drill a hole into the wall. Then, holding the clip shut, you stick the end into the wall and let go. The spring opens and when you tighten the bolt, the ends of the clip dig into the inside of the plasterboard, allowing the bolt to hold a surprising amount of weight.
The fence pole attach in much the same way. Each adjoining pair of fence poles has one with a screw-eye and one with a toggle bolt attached. While holding the spring loaded clip shut, you pull the two fence posts together until they are close enough for you to stick the clip through the screw-eye. When you let go, the poles straighten up and are held together quite nicely by the tension of the mesh pulling against the toggle bolt.
It is very child-proof, and a little adult-proof. And since the toggle bolt latch is on the inside of the 3 1/2 foot fence, a kid would have to be at least 4 feet tall to be able to unlatch it. The other thing that is nice about it is that it makes the pool look bigger. At least, it looks that way with the cover still on. I hope it has the same effect with the cover off. I'll try to put some pictures up soon.
Termite drilling was done while I was in Rhode Island. I had to go up to our subsidiary company on Thursday and Friday. The drilling was scheduled for Friday, so I had to have the perimeter of the garage cleared by Wednesday night. It was a pain, but I mainly threw everything up into the garage attic and moved everything else into the middle of the garage. Then on Saturday, I cleared out the entire garage and cleaned the cement floor. I figured, how many chances will I get to have the garage totally empty? The when we moved everything back in (including the cars) we were amazed at the fact that we could open the doors all the way when getting out. We used to have to slither out of a slightly opened door because so much junk had accumulated around the edges of the "car spaces". It reminded me of the episode of The Simpsons when Bart kept repainting the lines in the teacher's parking lot. He moved them an inch closer together every week until the teachers couldn't open their car doors at all.
After the garage was back in shape, I started to rehabilitate the garage refrigerator. I've always wanted a "garage refrigerator". My parents always had a second fridge in the basement (now they have 3, 1 in the kitchen, 1 in the basement, and 1 in their walk-in closet of their bedroom!) When we moved in, the outgoing family left a fridge (why is there a "d" inserted when you abbreviate refrigerator?) behind in the garage. But it stunk. So last week, I plugged it in and stuffed it full of newspaper and Arm & Hammer. It absorbed enough of the odor that I could at least stand in the open door and clean it. Now all I have to do is fill it with beer!
Sunday will be Jake's 5th birthday. It is hard to believe that he was born 5 years ago. It seems like both an eternity and the blink of an eye.
|
