…I sure as heck wouldn’t be spending my week in a classroom at the University of New Mexico (UNM)! Actually, I have 2 hammers, and they are both well cared for and well used. Just not this week. Crew #4 has only the 12 foot high clerestory trusses, decking and other little carpenter details to install as far as that work goes. There’s some other bug-like things that they’re adding to keep any water on the roof from gathering in corners (crickets). It ain’t gonna be the flattest roof, but it also ain’t gonna be a 12-5 pitched one neither. I’m having a super heavy-duty membrane roof put on, (once again, y’all—NEXT WEEK. This time, truly, it’s for real!) so I decided tonight that I’m just going to run a hose up there and make an oversized slip ‘n slide out of the kitchen roof and portal area. I guess that ‘water element’ (read: pond) I was joking about a few months ago should really get built so that I have someplace to land without getting hurt. It’ll be FUN!
So, yea, the roof will be installed next Weds and Thurs. I still don’t think I need a roof, but everyone says I do. Whatever. It’s been so hot up here this past couple of weeks (in the low 100’s) that when I go out to find some shade under the decking to read my ‘required summer reading’ for my AP classes for next year, I sit on the raised footing of the kiva fireplace, lean up against one of the log posts, light a cigarette and settle in. And before I know it my trailer trash park residents are slowly meandering over and into the house. Ya know—it NEVER fails! I pick up a book and all of sudden everyone decides it’s time to chat. ~sigh~ I knew there was a reason I hung out in hidey spots, remote wildernesses or libraries for a reason. But, the house was well planned by the architect (ME) for great air flow and I was hogging it all, until the doorways got blocked by one of the crew members. No respect!
The next thing you know it’s a full-fledged party and the beers get hauled out of the fridges and no one brings a bottle opener so I just pop ‘em off by laying the edge of the cap on an edge of the fireplace frame and one good solid smack with the heel of my hand and the beer is consumable. I haven’t broken a bottle neck yet. BB’s trailer hitch works well, too. (None of you ever use the word ‘sophisticated’ to describe me, do you? I sure hope not, ‘cause you’d be wrong.) It’s nice having everyone up here, but there are times that I wish I had by solitude and aloneness back. I also realized I should be charging these folks rent! I’m too magnanimous for my own good.
Stephanie the carpenter left for good today. I was sorry to see her go, but we all need to do what’s best for us in this life. I wish her well and am still thanking her for all of her hard work and high level of skill and interest she took in building my ‘trophy’. She’s definitely invited back to see the finished work of art. I may even let her on the Slip ‘n Slide;)
Since I’m back to a roof reference, Brett and Felicia have been heading up the ladder to go catch some of the cooler air in the evening up there on the decking. I found myself being very possessive of it. I should be the first one up there, but this ain’t possible since it wouldn’t be in place if the crew hadn’t been atop it to install it. Dang it anyway! I’ll have it for a good long time. I guess I can let the two young things and their developing fetus enjoy it while they’re here. I guess. ~Harumph!~ And NORBERT wanted to sleep up there last night ‘cause his trailer was so hot, still, at 10 pm. I think he ended up just sleeping in the bed of his truck on some blue foam sheets and a blanket. We’ll all be up there if the overnight temps stay the way they are. The 30 mph winds that kick up around 1 am every night are a bit of a deterrent, however. None of us want to go chasing bedding as it flies aloft and heads for the neighboring county.
I’m trying to come up with some really expressive ways to describe the progress on the house, but there’s only so many ways I know of to talk about a long, arduous process that’s just more of the same. 2100 square feet of lumber and its installation isn’t really much I’ve read many glorious or glowing stories about. And I sure don’t want to start a whole new genre. Not yet, anyway.
I’ve been at UNM all this week, and through Friday, for my Advanced Placement teacher seminar. It’s been pretty good, but it’s tough being a teacher being taught by a teacher who’s stretching out the material because too much time as been assigned for the amount that needs to be presented. As teachers we all know all those tricks that the instructor’s been using, and we’re acting just like the kids do when we, ourselves, do it. I’ll get the REAL down-and-dirty details when I meet with a couple of the other AP English teachers next month. Alcohol will be served, so it should go really fast and in a really fun way. I may want to record the meeting since I may have trouble remembering what we’re there for. The two I’m meeting with are great fun, so who knows how many meetings we’ll have to have?
The news on the Mom front is just frustrating and beyond ridiculous. I have no desire to cough up the ludicrousness of any of it. I did spend last week in Phoenix with Mom. That’s all there is worth mentioning here.
Some cactus blooms fer y'all to enjoy. Bunny and better lizard pics in the next bang-bang/back-to-back posting.
And the fun ends here. This time, anyway.
Muchas mananas, muchachas y muchachos!
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