I got my test results back from the blood
tests I had the other day. Apparently
they didn’t like the first run, so they did it over again. I had two completely different test results
in my online chart. And of course I have
no idea what either of them mean. I’m
waiting for Cailyn to get Chris good and awake so she can interpret them for
me. One of them shows what my
cholesterol is doing - good, bad and extraneous. The other one is a repeat for my
rheumatologist. He wasn’t pleased with
my Creatinine levels. There’s a fun one
for you medical buffs to play with. Has
something to do with how badly the medicine to fight joint pain is affecting my
kidneys. Again, I’ll wait for Chris to
get the interpretation on that one. In the
meantime, I’m still here, so I guess I’m OK for now.
Yesterday’s big event was another garage
project checked off. After Hurricane Ike
I inherited around 30 fishing rods and reels.
The reels have been easy enough to store, but most of the rods have just
been leaning against the wall gathering sawdust. I have about eight or nine that I actually
use. The rest are ones from Dad or from
our neighbor that I just hated to see tossed in the trash. Chris has been doing some digging online, and
she came up with an idea for hanging them from the ceiling. As it happened, we had some leftover lattice
from a backyard project of many years ago.
The idea was to hang to lengths of that from the ceiling and slip the
rods through the lattice openings. Great
idea. But how to make it work?
Now our garage is just a one-car affair, so
every inch of space is golden out there.
For this project to work, it would have to hang above the area where the
garage door comes up. Pretty tight
quarters. I had to cut the lattice to
match that space. Still left us with two
rows of openings. Plenty for the extra rods
we have. We did have to make a quick
trip to Home Depot. We needed a piece of
1X2 to provide a brace for the top of the lattice. Oh, and some longer screws to go through the
sheetrock on the ceiling and into the rafters.
We already had some 90 degree angle brackets that would work to attach
them to the ceiling. All went well with
installing the brace piece and brackets.
Then came the fun part – locating a rafter to screw into. Oddly enough, I found one on the first try,
and installation, part one was completed successfully. And then came part two
Of course I was basking in the glory of my
success as I measured carefully to locate the rafter I knew would be there. Before drilling for the screws, though, I went
all old-fashioned on the project. I
pulled out a skinny nail and hammered it into the spot. And no rafter. I moved it over a bit. No rafter.
I moved it a bit more. No rafter. I ended up with fifteen or twenty holes in
the ceiling and no rafter hits. When I finally
did get one, it was nowhere near an appropriate place to connect the
contraption we had. So what do you do
when your best laid plans just aren’t going to work? Switch to sheetrock anchors and put the pole
with reels where the weight is on the opposite end. Sheetrock anchors are plenty strong enough to
hole up the tip ends of 20 rods. Plan B was
on. And now the project is done.
Of course I failed to mention that it took
me several hours more than it should have to get it all accomplished. As I went along I did some culling and
combining of garage storage stuff.
Meanwhile Chris was inside, busily going through the boxes of things we
had out there from Mom and a host of other places as well. The good thing was, Kel and Christina are
having a garage sale this weekend, so we could clear the stuff out right
away. We still have a long way to go, but
check off one more thing. And thank you,
my HGTV home audience, for tuning in once again to The Vaughan House. See you next time.
Exodus
9:16 says, “But I have raised
you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name
might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Father, thank you for creativity and
flexibility. Two of my favorites among
your inventions. Amen.
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