I kind of like waking up to thunderstorms. I can't quite say why. Something about the light of a thunderstorm in the morning.
18 thoughts on “August 17, 2023: Darker Than The Day”
Oh, God, there's more structural stupidity in our house.
So, we have a vaulted ceiling, with large, arched windows near the ridge and two regular windows down lower. We knew there was no header above the arched window to transfer load from the ridge beam.
But there IS a header board spanning across the two lower windows. Which is very much NOT the way to engineer this wall, since there is no proper transfer of load from the roof down to the plate. They now have to cut out the drywall between the windows, cut this header, install proper king studs to the new, high header all the way to the floor plate/rim joist/whatever you call it. Which also means all of the electrical (which ran OVER the decorative faux beam) for the other side of that wall--outlets, lights, outlets and lights in the adjacent sitting room....
Good God. I am rebuilding the whole fucking second floor, piece by spendy piece.
With all this electrical, I'm probably gonna have them rebuild the panel and install whole-house arc-fault protection too. Which probably means figuring out WTF the knob-and-tube circuits I see in the basement are doing. Because what is money anyway?
Now you can sell it in a couple decades as refurbished.
Exactly!
Upper windows are out on both sides
You can see the temporary supports inside holding the rafters up....
28-ft PSL beam going in this afternoon.
Ridge beam is in place. I think tomorrow they get all the rafters hung and can start replacing the plywood they removed.
That means our roofer should be able to come back next week to finish the roof.
Then we just need windows, stucco work, drywall, .... And may our contractor can get back to the job we hired him for: the bathroom remodel.
Filed under "least surprising news of the week," the coach of the USWNT is out.
That we've reached a point where some Americans actively root against a national sports team is worth pondering.
Yea, that's effing embarrassing. They are the probably the greatest national soccer team in history (not this year's edition, but spread over the last decade or so).
really, shenanigans is inadequate, because that phrase doesn't convey the seriousness of the rightwing assault on what has been a huge source of pride and joy and greatness.
This looks like a culture war they probably figured out they already lost handily, along with Barbie. They can keep their shitty country songs. Honestly though, I kind of wish they kept at it instead of getting back to screwing with the rights of LGBTQ people. Man, we live in the worst possible timeline.
I am with Algonad on this one, but certain political actors have made it their strategy to continually flood the zone with shit, trying to convince us that this is the worst possible timeline and Only He Can Fix It. If he's not a fascist, he's certainly using the fascist playbook (or in Steve Bannon's case, it's the Leninist playbook).
FWIW, median household income has mostly gone up over the last forty years, which contradicts the widely-held assertion that things are getting worse for most working-class people. Yes, the very very rich have grabbed a bigger share of income. But growth has raised almost all boats in the U.S.
That is not to deny the existence of poverty or to deny the fact that the costs of things like healthcare and higher education have grown exorbitantly.
It depends on your scope. Global vs just US. And inequality has gotten much better in the last couple years as lower quality earnings have grown faster lately.
My take is that one of our biggest problems is the size and power of the baby boomer generation. They do many things in their best interest that hurts the younger generations and then blame the younger generations.
Oh, God, there's more structural stupidity in our house.
So, we have a vaulted ceiling, with large, arched windows near the ridge and two regular windows down lower. We knew there was no header above the arched window to transfer load from the ridge beam.
But there IS a header board spanning across the two lower windows. Which is very much NOT the way to engineer this wall, since there is no proper transfer of load from the roof down to the plate. They now have to cut out the drywall between the windows, cut this header, install proper king studs to the new, high header all the way to the floor plate/rim joist/whatever you call it. Which also means all of the electrical (which ran OVER the decorative faux beam) for the other side of that wall--outlets, lights, outlets and lights in the adjacent sitting room....
Good God. I am rebuilding the whole fucking second floor, piece by spendy piece.
With all this electrical, I'm probably gonna have them rebuild the panel and install whole-house arc-fault protection too. Which probably means figuring out WTF the knob-and-tube circuits I see in the basement are doing. Because what is money anyway?
Now you can sell it in a couple decades as refurbished.
Exactly!
Upper windows are out on both sides
You can see the temporary supports inside holding the rafters up....
28-ft PSL beam going in this afternoon.
Ridge beam is in place. I think tomorrow they get all the rafters hung and can start replacing the plywood they removed.
That means our roofer should be able to come back next week to finish the roof.
Then we just need windows, stucco work, drywall, .... And may our contractor can get back to the job we hired him for: the bathroom remodel.
Filed under "least surprising news of the week," the coach of the USWNT is out.
That we've reached a point where some Americans actively root against a national sports team is worth pondering.
Yea, that's effing embarrassing. They are the probably the greatest national soccer team in history (not this year's edition, but spread over the last decade or so).
But FZ shenanigans.