Yep. I’m in proposal hell once again. And nope. I haven’t heard anything from the casino. Two weeks ago tomorrow was my interview.
Feeling down. Trying to shake it, but jeeze.
These week days positively suck. And I “get” to face the closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct the early part of next week, which is my life line route to work. The depth of my dread is measured in fathoms. That commute is beyond loathsome on a regular day…
Each evening, I’ve been spending about an hour (because I’m TIRED and can’t face much more than that) boxing up the glass room (aka Nate’s old bedroom). It is a daunting task, as I’ve accumulated
so many supplies and equipment and kiln molds and tools (and of course,
glass coming out of my
ass earlobes). Glass is dicey and awkward and heavy and not one bit fun to pack up.
Barely a dent:

I just need to keep chipping away at it so that Nate can sleep in there (if he’s around to do so) come September 2nd, considering I’m just not here on the weekends. By the way, at some point today, Nate’s ship arrived in San Diego (possibly not yet? I haven’t seen anything on Facebook about it or heard from him, but I may not since I’m sure he’s excited as all get-out to see his girlfriend).
John has had a very challenging week down at Harstine. Physically exhausting work that involved hundreds of trips up and down his scaffold contraption. Basically two separate and very difficult activities. First, finishing up the precision beam work way-the-hell up high in the living/dining room:


Headaches galore due to the imperfections of the framing, dealing with hauling heavy boards up there and getting them to fit perfectly, but he got ‘r done after hours upon hours.
THEN second, yesterday he installed the cooktop vent. OMG. He had to basically weave the scaffold contraption between the ribs of the kitchen lighting thingy, around the kitchen island, taking constant and excruciating care of the granite and flooring (and himself!) as he worked way up in the nose-bleed area (where it was sweaty-hot), and again climbing up and down that contraption over and over and over again. From the (so-high!) ceiling down to the lighting thingy, he worked at attaching the vent piping extension, the wiring, and enclosing the piping with wood. And of course, nothing about anything was easy, especially since he was doing all of this by himself. Everything was heavy and required hitching straps, things didn’t fit right, wood had to be trimmed and then trimmed again, and then again. When I talked to him on the phone last night, he was completely SPENT.


He told me it’s done and works, after spending the entire day working on it, aside from staining the wood part.

It’s a shame the vent is necessary, really (yeah, I know). The wood part of it will look nice blending with the wood lighting thingy, but the stainless steel part that hangs down from that point looks pretty stark and utilitarian in the photos. I’m hoping that in real life it looks OK. John said it was fine, and the stainless steel goes well with the kitchen appliances.
The oven arrived and tomorrow John is hoping to get to its installation before he heads home to pick up the doggies and me and head back down for the (whirlwind) weekend. However, I think his first priority will be staining the cooktop vent wood so he can “untangle” the scaffold. He said the oven (double oven, as one unit) is hella heavy and the cabinet frame for it will require a little tweaking. Sounds like another very challenging project. Poor guy. I suspect this week he’s considering that the slog of working at Boeing and dealing with its corporate ridiculousness sounds pretty easy-peasy.
John sent me some photos today of the excavator work underway for the driveway. I received quite a few before noon, and then nothing again until one more photo late this afternoon (the wait about drove me nuts!) And the last photo isn’t very clear because of the deep shadows.
Here it begins at the spot where the camping trailer used to be:

Then it seemed to all start to soften and blend together:
They also majorly expanded the entrance at the top of the property from the road:

I talked to John a bit ago, and he said they’re about 3/4 done, and get this: they trucked out over 400 yards of dirt (40 dump truck loads!) with another 100-200 yards left to go! Thankfully (and I mean it) a few neighbors were needing fill dirt (so the hauling was short) and boy were they accommodated!
Here is today’s final photo (below). They’ll be back tomorrow to haul out the remainder of the dirt and then begin the “finessing” of grading.

While this was all happening, John was working his ass off cutting down several Madronas on the property line and then chain-sawing them up and delimbing (which explains why I didn’t receive any photos this afternoon). Once again, he was entirely whupped. I said to him, “You have orders to do NOTHING tomorrow, aside from WATCH. No staining, no oven installation, nothing.” I do think he heard me. Since he started working at Boeing in 1981, this guy is accustomed to taking a nap every afternoon (after rising before the butt-crack of dawn in the mornings, which he still does) and for three days straight now, he has missed his nap. That is unheard of. He is completely functioning on fumes.
It’ll be dark by the time I get there tomorrow night, so I won’t be able to really see this change until Saturday. Normally John backs the pickup down the “path” to the garage, and I’m not sure what to expect when we arrive. Face down, because there will be plenty of turnaround space? Or park on top and walk down because the soil will be too soft yet to drive on? (If so, that’ll be a drag hauling down all the groceries and crap…)
It remains to be seen!