This winter has been a very productive season for Ann and I.  Since my 2005 seasonal job in Shenandoah National Park ended around Halloween, we have changed the flooring appearance of three of the main rooms on our first floor, plus some changes to rooms upstairs as well.  and seen a son or two move to places distant.  We are still attacking projects, but the project that is occupying the living room right now, is getting my stuff ready to move back up to the mountain.  There is a lot of stuff.  And you thought "Only rocks don't learn." 

 

I report to work on Monday, April 2nd.  So I need to be moved in before then.  And my friend Cass, who last year said that I had too much stuff in my Big Meadows Gettos Appartment, was right, and I looks like I am headed that way again. 

 

I will be in different quarters this year, moving to the other side of the tracks, where an occasional stray visitor is likely to say, what a cute rustic house.  I'll be in a one bedroom wood house with a wooden deck with a view of woods instead of the cinderblock prison cell with a view of the maintanence yard.

 

Yesterday, at 1:26pm EST, the astronomical start of spring came bouncing in.  Today, in Silver Spring, they are predicting snow, and the air is down right chilly.  So I decided to resurect my journal entry about how long it takes for spring to get to Big Meadows.

Here is some TMI for you about the construction work I have been doing for the last eight days.  The overall plan of replacing the kitchen flooring has progressed well.  The laminate flooring was finished Thursday.  On Friday, mid-day, I finished the shoe molding around the edge of the room.  While installing the anti-tip plate for the range, I let the power screwdriver slip off a long screw and plunged its revolving Philips head bit into the side of my left thumb.  OH OUCH!   DRAT!  (and other expletives). 

Things got a bit bloody for a while.  I got a little bit woozy for a minute or two as I used direct pressure and elevation to stop the bleeding.  My wife put a Band-Aid over it for me, and I went back to working. 

We were expecting a couple friendly construction workers to stop by any minute to move the refrigerator and range back into the kitchen for us.  They arrived and I helped with things like removing the doors and hinges of the double door refrigerator so it would fit through the doorway.  As they were finishing the move and left, I noticed blood spots on everything I had touched with my left thumb.  So after they departed, my wife helped me stop the bleeding again and re bandaged it.  Then I went back to working again. 

I still had to install the doors back on the fridge, and change the way the range anti-tip plate was attached to the floor.  We had installed easy slide foot rests on both the range and the fridge so they would not damage the new flooring.  That made the anti-tip plate not fit.  So I manufactured a spacer to put under the anti-tip plate and sculpted the foot rest to fit into it.  After those steps were done, I helped my Ann put the door shelves back in the fridge.  Yep!  bloody left thumb prints on the shelves that I was handling.  Again, Ann and I worked on stopping the bleeding.  This time she put three Band-Aids over it. 

That evening, it was showing blood coming through the three layers of Band-Aid, so I checked with the 1-800 Nurse Line and they suggested that I not wait until Monday to get it treated by a professional.  So I went into the hospital emergency room.  They soaked it, cleaned it, B-a-n-d-a-g-e-d it, and put me on antibiotics.  They offered me narcotics for the pain, but I turned them down. 

Any way, Ann made me not work at all Saturday, and today, I did only things that do not require me to use my left thumb.  I successfully repaired a number of problems on the maple top cabinet. including replacing one bottom corner wood that was split and damaged, repaired rickety drawers, added slidy feet to the bottom, all with Ann's help to keep my left thumb idle.  Lots of sawing, nailing, glueing, clamping, etc.