NH Repairs

Last weekend, me, McCarthy, Bill, Nelly and Storm went up to the house in NH to fix the stairs which a nighbor's tree had destroyed when it fell over the winter.

McCarthy, Bill and me rode up on Friday morning full of ambition and drive.  We stopped at the food store along the way for supplies and made decent time in getting to the house.

During the inspection process (to see exactly what we were facing), we found some other things which needed attention, including a small set of stairs for the garage, as well as a new entry porch to the house.  Both of these things needed to be completely demo'd and replaced.  On top of that, there were a couple of other items that needed attention, too; removing an old AC unit and replacing the wooden panel that was in the window with it, as well as tightening up the deck on the lake side to make it more sturdy.

The weather wasn't doing us any favors (cold and rain) but we managed to clear the tree as well as demo the parts of the stairs that needed to be removed.  From there it was a parts and supplies run to Home Depot...which is an hour away...

On our way back, we stopped at Hawg's Pen for a late lunch (it was about 3 by now), and that wound up setting the pace for the rest of the day.  We left there, headed to the house and got things unloaded as best we could.  It was getting dark, and was still rainy and cold, so we opted to hang inside for the night (Nelly and Storm arrived about 10).

The next morning the rain had slowed to a steady misty/drizzle and the temps were still pretty chilly.  It took us until early afternoon to finish the stairs - something that I'd thought we'd be able to knock out in a couple of hours.  Humping the materials up and down the stairs didn't do anything for my mood - I was farkin' miserable.   How the hell do people work in this kind of weather?!?

From there it was on to the other projects, a couple more supply runs to Home Depot by Bill and Storm while the rest of us kept at things.

We put in a good solid day's work on Saturday and got a lot accomplished.  I'd honestly thought (hoped) that we'd have had everything done by end of day, but we still had to finish up the garage stairs and the entry porch to the house.

Saturday night was much tamer.  We were pretty beat and just hung in, watching a couple of movies.  Before long, most heads were drooping and it was time for our respective beds.

Sunday brought chilly temps again but no rain or drizzle, which was welcome.  The sun had actually broken out as we were cleaning up the night before, and was soon greeting us again this day.  By late morning, the last screws were set, and the tools began being put away.

Inside, we did a decent clean on the place, got the laundry and dishes done and hit the road.  It'd been a long weekend, we were ready for home.

The cold and wet led me to come down with a cold which I've been fighting all week, but I'm finally feeling better...just in time to head back up there this weekend.  I'm heading up from work in about a half hour, McCarthy and Michael will be heading up when they're done with work, and then Steph and Ally will be coming up tomorrow.

The focus will be to pull off the front fascia on the garage above the door.  When we arrived last week, we saw that it was rotted, so that has to get opened up so we can see what kind of mess awaits us there.  Fingers crossed that it's nothing serious, as that's the main support beam for the front of the garage.

No real miles on the bike lately, but not for lack of want.  Hopefully next week - although now that I think of it, I've got Thursday and Friday off for the Olean Regatta.  So it appears the mileage will remain low for a while.

"Pics or it didn't happen", right?  So here you go...

Staircase fixed...

I know, right?  It doesn't look like there was that much to do, but believe me, it took hours an hours.

New stairs for the garage.

New entry porch.

AC and panel removed, new window in its place.

Some carriage bolts, some spacers, and that railing won't budge again.

The best for last; McCarthy in his Sunday best, cooking breakfast for us ungrateful slobs.

That's it for now, Happy Friday.

Annual Marathon Monday / Red Sox Outing

I had Monday off for our annual Marathon Monday / Sox game extravaganza.  We were in line at Game On (Boston bar) @ 7:45, and seated with a frosty in-hand at 8:06.  Not a bad way to start the day.  (We took the train in, so no driving!)

We stayed there for a few hours then headed off to the Sox game.  They were playing some team from some other city (big baseball fan here), and wound up winning, so that was a good outing.  Got to see a young kid a few rows in front of us catch a ground-rule double (it bounced out of play and into the stands, basically right to the kid).  He was pretty stoked as everyone around him kept congratulating him.

The forecast was about as optimal as it could be - well...for us at least.  The runners weren't too crazy about the mid-70's and beaming sunshine, but we loved it.  Sitting in the stands, watching these grown men getting paid millions of dollars to run around and play a childhood game.  Do I sound jealous?  Because I'm jealous!

From there it was off to the new Tilted Kilt Boston.  I'd heard of this chain many times; supposedly a slightly better version of Hooters, as the descriptions went.  Well...we were completely unimpressed.  Service was terrible, food was so-so, and the sights weren't impressive at all.  Am I bashing the ladies?  Not at all, because I know for a fact that I'm no prize.  But when an establishment bills itself has having a certain type of workforce, I think that should be lived up to.  Even the girls who were with us said they were unimpressed.  (See?  We're not complete pigs, we had girls with us!).

From there it was back to the train station for the long, relaxing ride home...

...and the knowledge that we had to be at work all-too-soon.  Nelly had it the worst; he had to be up at 3:30.  I was lucky - I shut my alarm off, skipped the gym, and was able to delay my arrival until 7:30.  Ahhhh, bed.  I love it.

I need to hit the lottery so that every Monday can be like that one.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Return of the Assless [sic] Chaps

I was doing some closet cleaning a few months ago and stumbled upon my old set of chaps.  I wore these things for years and years, spanning from the Shovelhead, all the way up to the Electra Glide (when I finally broke down and bought riding pants).  During that time, I'd had the chaps resized twice because I was doing the powerlifting thing and my legs kept getting bigger.  (I remember the guy at Walter Dyer even commenting that I was going to need my own cow at the rate I was going.)

Anyway, once I stopped powerlifting, I lost a lot of the size so the chaps got loose on me...then I went to the riding pants thing, so I tucked the chaps away....for ages.

Well, this morning as I was getting dressed for the ride in, I was going to go with the usual plan; sweats under the jeans for the ride in (it's 50 out now, but gonna be 75+ on the ride home), but then it hit me...

I should give the chaps a try!  Yeah!  Let's see how they fit!

Well, the waist was disappointing because I wasn't able to draw it as tight as I used to.  And the legs?  Yeah, they fit just fine.  But I haven't been doing any powerlifting so that must mean all the beers and burgers are stacking up just nicely.

And the snaps on the bottom of the legs?  I'd forgotten that 5 out of the total 6 were broken.  So there I was this morning, riding in and right leg bottom (one working snap, at the bottom, thankfully) was holding on for deal life, while the left leg bottom (no working snaps) was flapping in the breeze, slowly causing the zipper to work it's way upward.  By the time I got to work, the thing was unzipped almost to my knee.  (shrug)  They worked well enough to keep my comfy for the ride in.

Maybe it's time I broke down and got myself a new pair of chaps.

The assless kind, of course.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Has Spring Sprung?

They say April showers bring May flowers, and at the rate we've been gettting rain, May is going to have some serious bloomage going on.  But hey, at least it's not snow.

Tomorrow looks to be overcast and then back to the rain, possibly right through the weekend.  So we have that going forus.  :-\

The only other thing I've got for ya is my trusty riding pants suffered a severe blowout on Sunday; one of the leg zippers kept hanging up for no reason that I could discern.  Then the zipped part suddenly pulled apart so I gave up, threw them in the corner, and went with my backup set.  I've owned the backup set for probably three years but have never worn them.  Well...they suck.  The materials they're made of don't allow for an easy donning or doffing, the zippers are tiny, and the waist is not a good design.  (But aside from all of that, they're wonderful.)

I tried working on the old pair last night but then the zipper revealed why it wasn't working correctly; it had split on one side.  When I started futzing around with it, the thing just let go and split apart completely.  So now it looks like I'm stuck with the new pair.

At least until I get fed up and buy another set, anyway.

So...yeah.  Still not much going on but I felt the need to put something up here.

Happy Tuesday