Framing done (I think)

I got the rest of the framing done, so now we have a perfect little pantry with a pocket door. That has a nice onomatopoeia to it does it not?

I also included an open style coat closet so you can close the door then park shoes and coats right inside the front door, like mister rogers did. Now it's time to get the electrical finished and drywall, then it might actually be a room again. Whee!

Kitchen work

I just got some more of the entry way framed up. A little wall with a 10.5" flag hanging off the corner, to accommodate a heater vent, and to give us some privacy during the entrance. With cheereos all over the floor, the dog licking his crotch, baby toys strewn about and occasional dollops of cat barf for the sheer joy of it, I'm sure we need as much privacy as we can.

I really like framing up walls and other features. I'll be setting up a pantry with a pocket door, and an open closet thing that allows me to put shoes and stuff in the bottom in little cubbies. Framing goes the quickest, and utilizes my two favorite power tools: compound miter saw and a framing air nailer.

It is nice to have this wall up because it gives me an actual feel for the kitchen size when finished. I have been concerned that it will be still too small after, but I think it will be great, considering the type of house it is in.

Tomorrow? Patching holes in the roof, figuring out where to put drywall, and sweeping up cheereos.

Office werks

Our office move is coming up at the end of July. I'm tasked with getting the internet tubes hooked up so our big trucks can carry data through pipes. Or some sort of internet meme. I think that what I do is really, REALLY abstracted from the real world. You know, (or maybe you don't?) the ground you walk on, cars you drive, the sunlight, moonlight, or rain. Total disconnect.

I think I read somewhere that if you were to weigh all the information on the internet, where the "information" was actually the electrons carried through our networks, it would weigh .02 millionths of an ounce. Very tiny. So imagine the task that the humble IT servant endures, shunting our meager electrons around in the various patterns necessary to go about our business. From the context of physical labor, it's completely effortless - you're flapping around the breath of angels on heads of pins.

Thus, my frustration about the job sometimes - I think I'd rather be pushing around mounds of dirt with a bulldozer. My office a 14 foot tall enclosed glass box, with many controls at my finger tips, diesel engine pushing hydraulic fluid through high pressure hoses and driving huge tracks. I follow the whim of whatever project manager has in mind, making piles of dirt here and there.

It's essentially the same thing, the heavy equipment operator and I - we shunt around basic elements of our universe (dirt, electrons) into useful patterns (roads, networks, computing) so other people can be blissfully unaware of what they are riding over the top of, in order to accomplish an idea of their own. We both shape ideas into other ideas, forming a system for others to utilize.

It's somewhat of a thankless task but I think when you stop and ponder the details it carries it's own rewards.

Stop and smell the flowers, and think about who or what planted them there.