I Think

Congrats to you and to them for being classy. Good that they made a nice celebration. Sounds like a good time.

Thanks, ragman. I got the stereo today. It had been a good Fisher, when new. Has radio and cassette functions. Two speakers that weigh a ton. Turntable goes through the paces. But, when I plugged in the speakers, one made a loud sound and went dead. The other works, but I can't adjust it to make the sounds tolerable. Fisher Audio Component System MC-735

I didn't take offense at the dirty fingernails comments. When I was young, I was refused jobs a few times, because, even after washing and cleaning up my hands, they still looked dirty. They got that way because I started before my sixteenth birthday framing, siding and shingling houses.

We were taken for dinner by my ex boss, the staff and some corporate members today. I got a card with a home depot gift card in it and a gold coin I was told could fetch me $1200 if I preferred cash. One of the owners wrote me a framed letter, which reads:
"Thank you for over a quarter century of service for your work as being head of our maintenance team. __________ ____ is the best maintained property in Texas. Your leadership role and dedication to your craft is an inspiration to everyone that has worked on the property. Men like you don't need to be told what to do, they know what to do. You lead your team by example. You remind me of my father, the best man I ever knew. He was a mason, a master of his trade. He worked not to impress others he did it for himself. He did it because that is the man he was, just as you are. It has been great knowing you the last 22 years.
Best regards"
One corporate person who was there was a woman whom I felt did not like me. Guess I was wrong.
They almost had me in tears a time or two.

I'm a bit verklempt myself. Clearly they know exactly what you were about and what you contributed.

Ed, Wonderful to get such a send off. Glad to see they knew what they had and appreciated you.

Thank you, boida. Nobody could have been more surprised than me. As an added bonus, I found out yesterday that I will get paid forty hours of the four hundred plus sick hours I accumulated. That's the first time they ever did that for an employee on that property.

Normally, I do not care much for Dali's work, but I find this one interesting.

I built the framework for a platform on which to make the octagon tables. I set it about 3' off of the ground. That way I minimize the times I have to get on my knees. Tomorrow, during the dry part of the day, I will take out the 4x8 sheets for the top and coat it on all sides and edges with a sealer. Then cover it all with a sheet of plastic, for when I am not at work on a project.

Rocky might be of assistance to you. Hey, you never know.

Last time I had to build a small fence around my platform to keep him out of the way.

I made the platform 6 to 8 inches higher than I probably should have. I prefer to have to use a step stool than to crawl on my worn out knees, however. I just got through putting the sealer on the top. I just need an extra 2x4 and to screw down the deck and it will be ready to go.

I asked the worker in Lowes where I could find some outdoor screws with phillips heads. He talked me into using the ones that use a star shaped bit. He was totally correct. Star does work best. I had told him I don't like to try new things and that they have had a couple of centuries to develop a better screw; why would they suddenly have a better one? I is now a believer.

It puzzled me, at our retirement lunch the other day, that as she was preparing to leave, one of the corporate ladies told me my skin was beautiful. After a few hours pondering, I figured it must be a result of the fact that for weeks I have been spritzing my entire head with MMS.

Here is something odd. In my shed, I had some tubes of artist's paint. This morning, I found the tray they had been lying in on the ground and no sight of the tubes. I looked everywhere. It was possible for Rocky to do this, except, he had no paint from biting any of them and the tubes were not in places he would have dropped them. Since possums live in the immediate vicinity, I have begun wondering if they took them. There should be three very young ones. But that was six or eight tubes.

that was a colorful story. It should be easy to track them by their painted possum prints

Uh oh.
I'm inclined to think paint isn't good for possums.

Maybe you have an owl..




kidding, kidding
I know less about owls than I do about possums, while liking both.

There are a limited number of possibilities. We have squirrels, possums, mockingbirds, robins, a dog, racer snakes, neighbor cats and some mornings there is a faint smell of skunk. Since the possums are living right in there near the paint, I nominate them.

Raccoons have a rep as theives. Got any of them?

I have never seen a raccoon close to my property. There are some rabbits near the neighborhood entrance and once I saw a dead armadillo close to the neighborhood. Oh, and a deer less than a quarter mile off.

Of all of the ones you have around there, I think you're right about the possums. Could be the squirrels, but I kinda doubt it. If you take some white sand or wheat flour and spread it on the floor, you'll probably get some tracks to identify.