Monday, May 20, 2013

Hi Ho, Hi Ho

Back to work at Measured Progress today, and remembering how much I hate my steel-toed boots! But it's only for a short while, probably not even the end of the school year. And then it's back to trying to work from home.

And no, I won't miss the commute.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Trailer Day

Today was a day to work on Karen's trailer. It wasn't all we did, but it was the main goal. We managed to attach the floor to its wood frame with glue and screws. Now it's ready to have the storage boxes mounted to the bottom. Before we attach the assembly to the trailer, though, we have to varnish the wood, and then spray on a heavy waterproof coating.

If the weather cooperates, we'll get as far as the varnishing tomorrow. If not, at least Karen has the weekend off.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Unfinished Business

I spent a few hours this afternoon leaning into the engine compartment of my car, attempting to remove the starter, so that I can then attempt to replace it. I removed all the electrical connections, and the starter is attached to the engine using only two bolts. I removed the top one, and then tried the bottom one.

Now, the usual procedure for getting at the bottom one is to jack the car up and get at it from underneath. And I have an excellent jack and jack stands. But I also have a dirt driveway, and my excellent jack keeps sinking into the dirt, which keeps me from getting the jack stands under the car.

I tried for more than an hour to get the bottom bolt loose from above, but there's just no leverage from there. Tomorrow I will try putting a nice stout board under my jack to see if that will work. But at the end of the day today I have a pair of greasy hands and some bruises on my knuckles, neither of which will get my car started.

I did manage to hang our new hand-cranked pencil sharpener in the basement stairwell, at least, so we don't have to worry about our on-its-last-legs electric sharpener. So the day wasn't a total loss.

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

New Site, Version One

The new version of the site, which was done mainly to make life easier for me, should be up and running by the time you read this post. It isn't really finished yet—I'm planning for a few internal, invisible changes and quite a few links to more content—but you'll hardly notice the difference. Well, except for the colors. And the logo. And the layout.

Oh yes, the pictures are smaller. But if you click on the daily picture, or the picture from the past, you'll get a full-sized version. Just use the "BACK" button on your browser to get back to our page. The food and art pictures, and the new picture of Karen's trailer project, all lead to Picasaweb galleries.

And you might notice that there are fewer options on the navigation bar. That's because I wanted to make room for creating more links to on-site pages instead of other sites. The links to the sites will be back, but on another page. If you're looking for them, in the meantime, they are:

GSBrooks.com, my personal site;

On a Smaller Scale, Karen's craft site, where we plan to post a lot more content this summer; and

The Books Bunch, the new home for the books we're selling, the future home of some other self-published work, and also some links to books we love and recommend.

Changes will comes slowly, but they will come. And each change will bring more to see from The Brooks Bunch.

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

A Floor

Thomas and I went off to Somersworth today to find the lumber for the floor of Karen's trailer. We had to go that far because, in order to keep the weight of the trailer down, she wanted to used 1/2-inch plywood, but she wanted to use hardwood for a good finish and durability.

Unfortunately, our local lumber dealers wanted a fortune for the 1/2-inch, and our more local big-box hardware store only had 1/4-inch (which she'll be using for the roof, since it has to curve) and 3/4-inch (which is just too heavy).

So off to Somersworth we went. But for our troubles, we came home with two sheets of plywood that will soon be the floor and under-floor storage compartments for the trailer.

Oh, and we got to treat ourselves to lunch at Taco Bell.