2013-03-18 Mon

2013-03-18 Mon

SUFE

I continue to be amazed at what gets Recycled rather than Reused.

Above is part of my haul from last night's foray to the recycling room. The small green plant pot was pressed in to immediate service to hold three plant cuttings that demonstrated roots.

This is a One-Gallon can of Latex Paint, marked "Orange", and apparently unopened.

Who knows, maybe it doesn't contain orange paint after all.

I shall open it, paint a chip, let the chip dry, then offer the can of paint it to whoever wants it.

Perhaps I have been spotted carrying away pockets-full of dead lamp bulbs.

Perhaps these bulbs were deposited in the hazardous-waste by the same clown who snips the wires off appliances that, for him/her/it, don't appear to be working. "If I can't fix it and use it, I'm damn sure no one else will benefit from it".

The two lamp bulbs had the metal shanks twisted off, and then the shanks were crushed with pliers! That, to my mind, is malicious.

Clear Thinking

All bullies are cowards, and vice versa.

Even the faint-of-heart bullies.

I set off for my local internet café this morning, the one with only one much-coveted power outlet. Most of us have learned to share. Some of us still have to learn.

Sitting there, with books and papers and bag spread out two or three feet to the side is my target.

I ask, politely, if I may sit on the (material-occupied) chare because I need access to the power outlet.

Grudgingly the hog allows me some space, explaining as he does, that he really needs the seat because he is waiting for a friend. Presumably both he and the friend will be discussing matters from The Attorney General's Office, for the material covers the counter.

"Sure!", I say, "I may well be finished before your friend arrives". I have a feeling that I will be.

I drag out my session as long as I can, 90 minutes at least. I recompile to the web everything I can think of; I download every podcast I can find; I browse Google Maps and the National Weather Service Animated Radar .

Noon comes and goes; home-made bean soup beckons my stomach. I fold my tent and make to slip away, saying as I do, "Your friend sure is late; I hope they show up soon".

Bullies 0; Christians 5.

SUFE

About a week ago I picked up an as-new Acrylic Rug in the recycling room. That means it is time to retire my old grey rug and fit it to the bathroom.

I make, in sequence from left to right,

1: A rough outline sketch of the room (rectangular) with overall measurements to the nearest centimeter.

2: A detailed sketch of the room with measurements of every nook and cranny, including the overall space required for the toilet pedestal.

After documenting every measurement, I add them up and make sure that they agree in total, and in particular that the aggregate measurements agree with the rough sketch.

3: Carpet must be marked and cut from the underside, so I prepare a mirror-image reflection of the second sketch which can be transferred to the underside of the carpet.

Here is a better view of my mirror-image sketch.

This prepared, I march back into the bathroom and re-measure every nook and cranny to confirm that I've got it right.

After that I brew a pot of tea and sit down for 15 minutes.

The old adage taught me by Mr. Hewitson in 1956-58 still rings true "measure twice, cut once".

After my sit down, I re-measure. Measurement is free, but once I start cutting, both the carpet and I are committed.

I am using the spare track from a closet as a steel straight rule. Here is the start of the markup on the underside of the carpet.

The left margin of the photo shows the dotted line which will be cut to slip the carpet around the toilet pedestal.

The rectangle (top-right) is the base or plinth of the vanity/hand-basin, just inside the door.

The line of blue pile shows where I have cut-along-dotted-line to make a slit to receive the toilet pedestal. I will cut to fit the pedestal once the carpet is laid in the room.

That's the new acrylic rug peeking out from underneath. It takes raw courage to carve up an old rug on top of a new rug.

Here I have cut almost all the way to a triangular chunk. I'll make the final cut once the carpet is laid. There's no sense cutting and making a mistake out here when I can make a better-informed cut on site.

Here is a view from the doorway. The vanity is on the near left.

The carpet slit is fitted around the toilet pedestal.

The small triangular nook is waiting for the carpet to settle into its final position before I trim-to-fit.

Here is the carpet struggling to fit around the toilet pedestal.

The narrow gap between carpet and bathtub will disappear once I settle the carpet into its proper place.

Here is a view looking out to the doorway. The pile is too thick for the door. That means I'll have to remove the door and saw about ¼" from the bottom of the door and repaint the door to seal it against moisture (and hence swelling and warping).