Wordzzle - Week Fifteen

What? Is there a pattern developing here? This is the second week in a row I've decided to play along with Raven's Wordzzle challenge. If I'm not real careful this just might become a habit.

If you'd like to join the fun please go by her site and check out the particulars. Even if you don't want to join the writing aspect of it, you can visit a great site and get acquainted with a host of others who play from week to week. You can find her by clicking here.

This week's words were the following: perpendicular, carpentry, garage, lute player, radishes, tin roof, wildflowers, stop light, gargantuan.

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While sitting at a stop light, my wife noticed one of those pick-ups with a lumber rack on it and magnetic sign on the door that read, "H&H Construction...Call us first!"

Without skipping a beat she read aloud the above name and catch phrase and then said, "That would have been a novel idea dear, don't you think?"

I of course, knew exactly what she was referring to. It had only been about a month earlier when her brother Francis, the lute player, and I set out to show her what great carpentry skills we each possessed. Little did we know what a gargantuan mistake that would turn out to be. The whole process seemed easy enough at the beginning. Simply follow the the instructions that came with the kit and according to the sheet, two hours later I would be the proud owner of a brand new storage shed.

Three and a half hours into the project we both wondered who in the hell had come up with that ridiculous time frame in the first place. It took us that long just to figure out where all the pieces were. Well finally, after a series of frustrating bungles it was time to put the tin roof on this sucker. This would have been the final step had we have built the walls perpendicular to the ground! Instead our handiwork had produced something that looked more like a parallelogram and we came to the realization that we would nearly have to start all over again if this "two hour" project was going to come out anywhere close to decent.

It was about this time that my wife came out of the garage with that look in her eyes. I just stood there with my face as red as a bowl of radishes, half from anger and half from embarrassment.

"Wow, you boys have really outdone yourself this time! And to think, last year all we had to look at where this um...this a... this building is was some nice wildflowers.

***

The mini-challenge had the following words: gravy boat, cat carrier, Madison, Wisconsin, March Hare, gratitude.

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Just before heading for Madison, Wisconsin I put Fluffy into the cat carrier. She was obviously as mad as a March Hare with the whole process. "What gratitude," I thought. I'd even let her lick the gravy boat from the previous night's dinner as a treat too.

Why... Thank You!

Do you have rude drivers where you live? How about rude pedestrians? We've got 'em both and I'm guessing you do too.

I'm not talking about the jerk face that cuts in front of you at 65mph with no turn signal on, nor am I talking about the butt-for-brains that feels it's perfectly alright to saunter across the intersection when the light is in your favor.

No, today's snivel session is dedicated to arrogant humans everywhere that have forgotten a simple wave or a nod of the head can be an appropriate response to an act of kindness.


Pet peeve #1: Holding the door

I was taught that holding the door open for someone was, and still is, the right thing to do. Man or woman, boy or girl, young or old, it doesn't matter; everyone deserves the same courtesy. Apparently, there are those out there who feel it's their right to just blow through the door without so much as a hint of appreciation in their demeanor.

I certainly don't expect any big to-do, but even a simple grunt in my direction would be ok.


Pet peeve #2: Letting a driver merge in

This one really chaps my ass. You very likely have experienced this scenario. There you sit in a long line of cars waiting for the light to turn green, (hopefully you're not at a stop sign when this happens), when you notice a poor unfortunate sole trying to join the fray by turning right. Being the kind, considerate individual that you are, you motion to him or her and leave enough room for them to squeeze in. They inch forward and take the opening you've relinquished to them and then it happens...or should I say, then it doesn't happen. You get no hand wave, no glance from their rear view mirror, nothing...nada...zip...zilch!

What the hell?

Is it any wonder why people continue to be more and more rude? After a while I think a fair amount of people get fed-up with this lack of response to their kindness and become less and less likely to offer up these simple little gestures of goodwill.

I for one am not going to buy into this pattern though. I will continue holding the door open for people even when they hurry past me while talking on their cell phone, totally oblivious to the rest of the world. I will also continue to let people into traffic even though the guy behind me will flail his arms wildly at the annoyance of having to wait an extra five seconds and even though the person merging in could seem to care less that someone gives a rip about them.

Why the soapbox moment about things that seem so trivial you ask? Are these two activities a big deal in the overall experience of life? Maybe they don't appear to be on the surface, but perhaps they somehow contribute to the underlying mood of people around us. Just little ways to either make somebodies day better or worse.

So the next time someone holds the door open for you, please say a simple "thanks", or the next time someone lets you into the flow of traffic, give them a little wave (with all your fingers up!).

If we fail to repay kindness with more kindness, then the next time around, we may not be so fortunate.

Wordzzle- Vegas Style

I've read some of the short stories that many of you have come up with through Raven's Saturday Wordzzles and have enjoyed seeing how a few abstract words can be blended into so many different types of stories. Thought I'd jump in and give it a go this week.

This is week 14 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: flamingo, monster trucks, Darth Vader, cucumbers, sugar-free, banking, determinate, thurible, sarcasm, drums

And for the Mini Challenge: procrastinate, memory lane, alley cat, argument, Florida

The idea is to use these words in a short, but coherent paragraph. I opted for a story with dialog in it so it isn't exactly one paragraph, but it is short. Hopefully that slight alteration to the rules doesn't tweak anybodies melon. Be sure to go by and see Raven for her contribution and to find some other participants.

***

While sitting in one of the many lounges of the world famous casino the Flamingo, in Las Vegas, a cocktail waitress walked up and asked me what I was drinking.

"I'll take a sugar-free vanilla latte if it's not too much trouble."

Noting my obvious sarcasm, she replied, "Perhaps I can bring you some nice cucumber sandwiches to go with that sir?"

"As lovely as that sounds, I think I'll take a Corona instead. Oh by the way, where's that sound of drums coming from?" I asked.

She informed me it was coming from a cover band called the "Alley Cat Strays", who were performing on a stage just past a bank of nearby slot-machines. I procrastinated for a moment, then decided that this was a show I could miss. Instead, I would walk over to the sports betting area and make a couple of wagers. My attitude was determinate that I'd be a winner; in fact, I was banking on my intuitions that told me the horse I had picked "Thurible Go", would win. I nearly got into an argument with the guy sitting next to me when I placed my bet.

"Are you crazy son?" he said, "That horse is the long shot! If I was your father, I'd have taught you a thing or two about the dark side of horse racing."

His voice and words took me down memory lane, because they reminded me of James Earl Jones as he portrayed Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies I'd watched as a kid. Well, in spite of all my wishful thinking, it didn't pay off. My horse pulled up lame in the third turn. Oh well, I thought, maybe I'll take my chances betting on the Monster Truck races they were holding down in Florida next.

Wood or Composite?

It's another busy week around here. Trying to get the exterior of a house painted, but the weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate. When we started last Friday it got up to 101 degrees and the last two days it's been around 55-60 and raining.
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April showers bring May flowers, but May rain is just a big pain. Oh well, by tomorrow it should level out and be decent again.
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While we had our little heat wave (yes that's what we call 100 degrees in Oregon Songbird) I recalled a deck project that I worked on a couple of years ago. I remembered it because it was about 104 when I was working on it and as you will see from the following pictures it was in the full sun. Good South-west exposure, with zero shade.
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Outside of the heat it really was a fun project. The client had an old cedar deck that had been neglected for quite some time. The wood was extremely dried out and the underside had areas of rot where it connected to the house. Apparently when it was first constructed, the builder never put any metal flashing between it and the house, so over the years the wood soaked up water and rotted both the deck and the siding on the house.
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I completely removed the old deck and started from scratch, and yes I put the proper flashing in place for them. I suggested they go with a composite material decking instead of wood again, so they wouldn't have to stain/seal it every year or two. The up front cost is a bit more, but I have never had anybody regret going this route once it's in. The only maintenance on this baby is to wash it once a year.
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All of the under pitting (framing) is pressure treated lumber too. Even though it has no contact with the ground I like to use this type of lumber because it provides for a worry free type of construction. In twenty five years, this deck will look pretty much the way it did the day it was built.
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Here are some before and after shots with roughly the same perspective. For some reason the last one I didn't have a before shot of. In case you're wondering, the composite material is from a company called TimberTech.