hello

Now that is a stylin' solution.

I need you here.

Ugh. Sorry to hear it, girl. Is it just a problem of gathered water of do you have rot problems too?

Sheesh. All these pretty ladies and so far away.

No, no rot (well, tap on wood). It's more a matter of the life irony.

Well, that one we never escape no matter what choices we make. Some poor soul turned left too soon, died in the resulting accident, and now Dick Cheney has his heart.

What a thought. There could be a story there..
probably is.

No you don't.

Sorry, not sure how I got that wrong.

Granddad?

Yo mama.

You did all that? Respect.

I'm doing some bricklaying at the moment. No pix tho.

You're such a mean person.

I've had very little opportunity to lay brick, only one project years ago. But I quite loved the challenge and the aesthetics of it. Here in the Pacific Northwest, the availability of wood determined the sorts of skills one would normally pick up or need.

Well, you're so peripatetic that everywhere ends up far away.

Are you guys part Rom?

Making some easy-going steps for my father-in-law's patio deck (he's 93 now, so no limbo dancing any more) I had to borrow and use for the first time in my life, a power circular saw.
On the other hand, I've got a complete set of bricklaying tools.

I'm using reclaimed brick, a very hard heavy variety known as Accrington NORI facing brick. You can't buy them now. They will last for ever.
Why the unusual name? Apparently when they made the first moulds at the Accrington brickworks to fire up the first batch made from their excellent clay, the guy who made the mould spelled IRON backwards. Well, he spelled it the right way round, if you see what I mean, but it was for the pattern mould.
The name stuck.

My pirate demeanor and manifest musical gifts might suggest it, but no. I'm a Hither and Jane is a Thither. As you can well imagine, problems ensued.

What are you building with your backwards brick?

Circular saws are damned handy but really for rough work. If you use it much or need clean and precise cuts, get a good quality blade. I've built up a wood-working shop here now so use my table saw or mitre saw for most cutting. But when I was removing the cedar siding from this home, much of it while on a ladder, I didn't want to use a regular circular saw (too heavy and need both hands) so picked up one of these http://bit.ly/1lzVJfp Great tool.

I faced our newly poured front porch (low concrete block surround wall/footing/rebar, gravel fill, and top pour/w.wire mesh/tooled scorelines done by contractor) with thick used bricks (had to scrape them clean of mortar first), re-mortar. The top pour lipped over the wall, so the bricks set under that. My hands hurt from the mortar - if I remember, I gave up and used gloves but not all the time, or did I? I sometimes hate gloves - this was 20 years ago. It turned out fine and after it was done I could say it was fun.
There are photos but I can't scan at the moment.

Did use a circular power saw on several projects but gave it to a friend when I left California. Wouldn't mind having it back now, but at this late date I'd probably cause myself funny fingers..

You can get perfectly fine circular saws for quite cheap. Danger to fingers not very high given the nature of how they cut. Table saws rather more dangerous. Several months ago, I had taken off the blade guard to make a particular cut, didn't replace it immediately, and proceeded to trim my middle finger on my right hand fortunately top to bottom rather than across. It's a sculpted look. And so now when I'm angry with some other driver on the road, I signal them with a gesture that probably means something like, "Up yours towards the evening star!"

My teacher, a professional double-bass player an excellent handyman, divided one of his fingers with a bandsaw. Luckily he stopped before he went all the way down the nail.

I'm wary of my ability to call up clumsiness since the day I cut half way through a finger tendon while slicing a pork roast (in the seventies). But hands are interesting, telling stories with time.

I used to have excellent manual dexterity, which I learned about when teaching med residents to put wee drops from tiny needles into teenie spaces for some lab tests. Plus have done a lot of drafting of plans the old fashioned way. It's just that once in a while, kerflooey, insufficient attention claims the day.