Monday, June 16, 2008

Jim's Curse

My friend, and I use the term loosely sometimes, tried to put the whammy on the weather this weekend. When I told him I had a construction project to do, Jim says "It's gonna rain all day every day this weekend, where ever you go!" Thanks Jim just what I needed. A curse to rile up the weather gods. Fortunately there were no gypsy relatives in his background so he couldn't put a curse on anything. He was dead wrong. The weather for a change was wonderful. And I was able to finish the skirting as you shall see.

Last time I estimated $100 in supplies well it only took $80. So I am already ahead by twenty bucks. I figured a two day job and it came in one. The step problem that has been bugging me in the back of my mind since the deck went in last fall worked out perfectly once I determined what I had to do. And I was able to use a lot of the scrap left over from the trailer skirting so I had lots of materiel left over which I was able to give to a friend for his project. (He offered to buy it but since it was given to me by the guy that sold me the original package with the trailer I thought it would only be fair to give it free to the next guy who needed it. )

So the weather made me nervous all the way out. As we left town Jim's curse was firing on all 8 cylinders. The sky turned black then wet. If someone passed you you could not see. Even with the wipers on full speed you could not see very well. And on the QE2 speedway aka Highway 2 that did not phase the morons a bit. They still were passing everything in sight. And don't bother putting your lights on just stay invisible in the spray and mess. Then all of a sudden the rain stopped. Bye bye curse.

There were pools of water everywhere and not a thing was dry but it wasn't raining anymore when we got to Sundre. But where I had to work was drying quickly. as it was getting the evening sun. So we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best for Saturday. Then in the middle of the night the rain started again. It woke me up and I figured Jim had struck again. So I rolled over and went back to sleep. What else could I do?

Saturday dawned cloudy. Thanks Jim. We walked the dogs and made breakfast. It was wet everywhere but the rain held off. By 8:30 blue sky was poking through the clouds. The hardware opened at 8:00 but it was almost nine when it looked like it might be a good day. By the time we were back at 9:30 it was nice enough to get started. I had the base in by noon. As I was taking the last piece down the dogs escaped from the deck. Maybe Jim's curse was back.

The weather was co-operating but now I had to try to chase down 2 beagles on a "Thelma and Louise" weekend. In a fenced yard they will come when called. In the great outdoors Ha! They were gone and as far as I could tell they were coyote bait. We looked for them called them but nothing. So we went back to work hoping they would find their way home on their own. They never got too far away because every so often they would get the scent of some poor bush denizen and they would start to howl. When we heard them we would stop what we were doing and try to find them to call them home. When they heard us they would quiet down. When they saw us they would grin and wag their tails good bye.

So we would go back to work. They would go back to "huntin' an' howl'n". As long as we could hear them they had a chance of coming back. And about 4 hours later Belle came dragging back in soaking wet and a it turned out a little worse for wear. An hour or so after that Dixie came home as it is no fun chasing yourself around the woods. That apparently is a game for two. Belle did something to her hind leg. It was very tender and she would not let anyone touch her at first. It was not bleeding or cut so it must a have been a sprain or a fall. All she wanted to do was sleep so we let her be. Just because she was hurt we still took both of them for their regular walks which on Saturday night was probably punishment enough.

We finished the skirting on Saturday night about 8:00. And the rain stayed away all day. It rained on the hunters which probably cut the run short, and there were thunderstorms in the area which I thought might have scared them away permanently (but didn't). So Jim's curse did not work. And when the job was done the sun came out and stayed. Everyone was home. Safe if not sore. And it was a good weekend after that.

Here is a shot of the guys taking down the tree last week.

And the finished product all skirted in,

And finally the view from the inside...

Now where did I put the mint julep mix....

Randy