Plaster Caster

Back in the "bad old days," when I was helping my mom renovate HER house, we'd take a smoke break every now and then. Breaks are important when you're working; I can remember my grampa coming over to help us hang drywall (or whatever), and mom & I would take a smoke break and he'd sort of sassily complain "What?! You two need a break AGAIN?!?" Heh. Good times. Anyway, now that I'm only a "social smoker" I find that I have a hard time remembering to take breaks, until I'm sweaty and exhausted and pretty much no good to anybody. Blogging is a perfect excuse to cool off for an afternoon break...as is having a beer. I picked up a mixed 6-pack of beer yesterday at Dusty's Cellar, a botique little booze & food store. Today's brew is Bell's Double Cream Stout. Good. Stuff. You wouldn't want to drink, say, four of these in a row (at least I wouldn't!) but as an afternoon refresher, it hits the spot.

Anyway! Miss Tessmacher, having done some research online about the possible harmful effects resulting from a pregnant lady's exposure to lead paint, has decided to stay at her folks' place longer than (I think) either one of us anticipated. This has made ME that much more focused on getting the DAMN JOB DONE, so that my family can come home! Sheesh. I mean, baching it with the cat is nice & all, but there are only so many movies to rent that Tess doesn't want to see also, y'know? So, I'm hustling to get this job done.

Thankfully, my fave fixer-upper product (Dap Patching Plaster) is fairly cheap, because I see myself going through many cartons of it. I've nearly killed one off already, and I'm basically only filling in obvious large cracks & holes, and patching those unfortunate "fixes" from previous owners.

Area of nasty old drywall patch to the left of kneewall door,
now covered in the first of many coats of patching plaster.

My stairway "gangplank," with large cracks
patched in the distance. Good times.

While I was out on my gangplank I heard the close cracking of thunder, and I ventured downstairs (not wanting to be caught over the stairway during the possible occurrence of a blackout) and saw that dime- and quarter-sized hail was spitting from the sky:

Not too impressive here, but click on the photo to
see it full-sized and you'll get a sense of the hail.

Power was thankfully retained, and now the sun is out again, roasting the now-wet leaves of plants that were already too dry to begin with. Damn.

While I'm doing this work, I've been using my lovely USB turntable to burn my extensive collection of comedy albums onto CD. I love comedy albums: I developed this fascination during junior high, and I still maintain it, although I think I'm more focused on those folks I discovered during that time period. Personal faves were always Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart and George Carlin. (Personal aside: those of you who want to know how often the U.S. gets caught in some fucked-up war need to hear Side 2 of George Carlin's Class Clown LP; his insights into the then-current Vietnam conflict will sadly ring all-too appropriate for today's events.) I found Richard Pryor to be hit-or-miss, depending on how stoned he was, and Robin Williams is simply not that funny on album. I had a thing for "shock comics" in my youth, notably Andrew Dice Clay and Sam Kinison, although my adult self finds the racist and over-the-top "fag" jokes of these two rather unsettling nowadays. Eddie Murphy walks a fine line; he too can play into ugly homosexual stereotypes of the early-80s, but some of his shit is damn funny. Any comedy connesieurs out there should seek a little-known record by Jeff Altman called I'll Flip You Like A Cheese Omelet. I think that's the only record he released, and it's drop-dead, laught-out-loud-by-yourself hilarious. And, if you don't already know who Jeff Altman is, I suspect it'll do me no good at all to remind you that he played Boss Hogg's nephew Hughie, will it? Nope. Didn't think so.

Well, I've had the box fan tipped and aimed up the stairway for the past 20 minutes or so, trying to cool off a closed-in area that is quickly becoming a humid heat-trap thanks to 1) my sweat, and 2) drying patching plaster. Time to get back to work; more as I progress.