Transistion time

I met with my new department manager, Teresa, today and learned some of the things I need to know about the Team Leader's position. I start in electrical Saturday. The department manager in building materials isn't happy about it. He thought I had another week in lumber. I don't know who is actually right, but based on what I've been told I will be moving on Saturday, 6/2/7.

I really hope this is the first move of several. I really would like to move up the ladder as fast as I can. I am hoping for department manager in at least another year, and zone manager in 18 months from that. I keep being told it is possible. So we will see.

I agreed to work 2 hours over today. No one seems to know how I got scheduled for 5.75 hours today. But I clocked in 15 minutes early, took .5 hour for lunch and stayed 2.25 hours longer. So ended up with a 7.75 hour day with lunch thrown in.

Electrical only has one full time associate, John. We have two part time associates, Joel and Bill, and me as team leader and Teresa as department manager. So three of us will be working most of the hours. But while the work may be more tedious and busier (not sure how) it is bound to be less strenuous physically. That is what I need right now. I think all of us except Teresa have retired or semi-retired from other occupations.

So tomorrow is my last day in lumber. It was a good department to start in. I guess. I learned a lot. Worked hard. Proved to myself and others that I could work with the best of them. I think I have a solid beginning.

More later.

Cross down

Backyard waiting on the Loving Spoonful. And that might not make any sense to you unless you know 60's music.


The cross is down. I have made some very minor errors in getting this far, but since I'm not going to tell anyone, I doubt anyone will see them. Still lots left to get done with this phase. The chair rail needs to be put up and the base needs to be painted and put down. Up, down, something going everywhere.

Next the desk building phase begins. But that I know more about so it should go much quicker.














This the curtain Georgiann found at Lowe's. Colors are perfect.

Back to work tomorrow, so that means the room isn't worked on as much. I will post pictures as progress is made. If you didn't already know, you can click on the picture and it will enlarge it.

A Day off AT LAST!

A long 7 day stretch of working. Plus 4 of those days were the Memorial Day weekend. We did more business on Friday than Saturday, but set a new sales record on Monday for the store. We were slammed!! And I am so glad to be off a couple of days. Mowing grass right now. Will be putting down tile a little later.

Two more days in the lumber department. I don't dislike the department, but it is pretty hard on me. And more than my age, it is the shape I've allowed my body to get into over the years. At 57 I don't believe I'm too old to tote 94 lb bags of cement, or pick up 16 feet of 4X4s. But not having to do that sort of work on a regular basis all of my life has contributed to my inability to do a lot of it.

I am looking forward to the challenge of the electrical department. I am getting some hints that personel may create as many challenges as the department does. Well, I picked it, huh?!?

The entire family graciously came over yesterday for an early cookout because I had to leave for work a little before 3. We were all here, including Chad and Lesa's little girl, but still being in utero, we didn't hear or see anything of her. Here are some pictures of this extremely happy family. A tribute to American Gothic.



Todd seems to be going over in his mind all of the places he'd rather be.













Not just another pretty face. Mrs. Todd, or Diana as we know her.









Three expectant parents. Chad and Lesa on the left, Jill on the opposite end, and Grandma Chic in the middle. She is smiling because she doesn't have to be returned to the "home"until Thursday. She doesn't like the food there. We were so happy to have her home a few days. Doesn't she look good?

Slow progress

Well, no progress on my degree. Slow progress on the study and job transition. We did, thanks to Rick Moran that works with Georgiann at the YMCA, got the air conditioner running today. He took the panels off the heat pump last week and found a blown (as in burned and charred) thermister. I replaced the thermister and the unit still didn't run. After all of my years of getting people to unplug and then replug all cords and turn OFF then turn back ON all switches and circuit breakers on computer power, I did not follow my own instructions. The circuit breaker was tripped at the panel in the basement. So we now have air conditioning again. Hurray!! Thanks, Rick.

Rumor has it that I switch to Electrical on June 2. No official word as of yet. We'll see. I'm plenty ready. I have to work the entire Memorial Day weekend. Yech! Oh well, should be busy and interesting. Hope I don't go postal on any customers. Geez some of them get under my skin. I am NOT the reason you can't find what you want.

Got my tile for the study floor today and decided to make a major change in the way the cross is going to go in and what it is made of. As you can see in the pics the cross is made of a subtle green tile while the rest of the room is in a subtle red. Both have an African name. The red is named African Katanga Copper. Katanga is the southernmost province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The green is named African Tugela Green. Tugela is a river in the KwaZulu-Atal province of South Africa. The river has a waterfall on it that is the second highest waterfall on the planet (3110 feet). So my ties to Africa are reflected in the study. It wasn't planned, I just liked the colors. The cross is just laid out here to see how it would look. I haven't started laying it yet. Still not settled on placement.

Cross in rough form

I have the cross cut out. It needs sanded, some more cuts to delineate the cross, sealed and glued down. Where? I haven't decided. I wanted it at the door so that anyone entering the room has to cross the cross. A reminder that every day, every moment, we owed a debt we could not pay, but Christ paid it for us. And we owe Him everything.

I got a lot done on my chair rails today, but also had a setback in applying the paint to the center of the screen bead. So, nothing to show in the room for a day filled with some pretty intensive labor.

Georgiann and I went to the Depot Grill tonight. I think it is one of, if not the one, favorite restaurant in the Staunton area.I had the Bison burger. Always do. I'm a man of limited interests. In the way of food.

Good luck to this year's graduates. I hope you make good decisions and that you understand why you are on earth early enough to do something really good for others. Don't look inwardly, look outwardly, for peace, joy and accomplishment.

Azalea bush and study trim

This is our Azalea bush just in front of the porch. It only blooms for a week or so, so I got a picture of it before it went away. Not the bush, the blooms, go away. But you knew that.

I tried to miter the corners of my crown molding, but just couldn't get them to meet perfectly. So I decided to make my own corner pieces. I actually priced them but decided $8 a corner was too much. Besides, I wanted to create something unique to me. I started by gluing up some 2X stock, cutting it to size and sanding it.

After the sanding was done, I put a curve on one edge of the block, then sanded down to the line and tapered the curve.

I marked the center of the block and drilled a hole to take the screw of a spindle I found in the millwork section of the store. I'm not sure if they are spindles or very short legs for something.

I drove a finish nail in the end of the spindle and cut it to about 1 inch.

I painted it to match the wallpaper and trim and glued them in place. This is a shot of the finished trim in one corner.

This is the trim for the beadboard. I glued up three pieces of trim, a piece of casing, a piece of cove, a piece of screen bead, and a piece of scrap in the back that matches the beadboard in thickness. That piece of scrap sits on the top of the beadboard and the casing sits in front of the beadboard. The center of the screen bead is painted with the same paint as the wallpaper and crown molding. The room is looking really great.

Georgiann got back this afternoon from her parents in Stanton, Kentucky. She went down for Mother's Day and spent a few more days with them. Her mom is 82 and her dad 83. Both are still living in their own home but need a reasonable amount of looking after. Phyllis and Bill along with Greg and Mary keep a close eye on things and help with meals. It was Georgiann's first trip of significance alone. It's about 7 hours each way.

Not too much else happening here. I haven't made the transition to electrical yet, and it looks like it will be a week or so. I am more than ready.

More later.

Progress in study

Sunday evening, May 6, 2007. It has now been one week since Frank gave up his battle with cancer. I have now lost both of the brother-in-laws I started with to cancer. Now, of course, I have bilb, brother-in-law Bill. Bill became my brother-in-law in 2003. At least Georgiann and I believe it was 2003. And Bill is certainly a fine brother-in-law. He doesn't take Jon's place, nor would he want to, but he is certainly a great addition to the family and a great assest. Especially in the way he has helped with mom Wilson's care and dad Wilson's corralling. Wanna buy a bike there Bill?

But today my thoughts have been on Yvonne and wondering how she is doing. I could have called. Just didn't feel led to. I will do that this week. I sure hope she forgives me for not being there.

I got the promotion I interviewed for at work. I am now the team leader for the electrical department. Nothing that marches are written for or national holidays declared for, but the first step in moving up. First of many, I hope. I will be in lumber for a while while new people are brought up to speed in lumber. Lots of training and education go into making a person a good cart retriever and board flat stacker, you know. Or maybe I'm just slow.

Cool weather here in the Shenandoah Valley today. Perfect for yard work. Which I did. I worked on trim for the study but didn't really work IN the study. But here are some pictures of the progress in the last week or so.

Having watched way too many tv crime shows, this looks a lot like a crime scene. Jill said I should have added a human chalk outline on the floor. Funny.








Wallpaper is all painted and the beadboard is going up.


Bookcases painted and anchored in placed. Crown molding going up. Progress. Or as Chad and Jill were fond of saying, making headway.

Troubles come in threes

I got a phone call from my brother Phillip today with some amazing news. Mom and Dad's house was sold to Phillip's oldest child, Stephanie, and her husband, John, recently with them moving in some time after that. I believe Phillip said Stephanie and John were out of town last Sunday when Phillip's youngest child, Echo, decided to roast some marshmallows in Dad's old garage. You guess it. The garage burned completely up and about half of the house. Resulting in a total loss of both.

Echo is 6 I think. Around that I believe. The best part in all this, and the most important thing, is that Echo was not hurt, or anyone else. I don't know about the huge bullfrogs that used to hang out in the garage. Sorry, daddy-cow frogs to those of you who know that story. There might have been some succulent frog legs in the embers if they had thought to look.

I am very sorry about the personal things that Stephanie and John lost. And sorry, too, that they lost their home. But we are so blessed to have Echo still with us, and in a family that will help her get over the trauma of what happened. Hang in there, Echo. You get the urge to light fires from a long line of fire buffs.

I don't know, maybe Echo was sending a smoke signal to her uncle Frank hoping he'd understand. I don't mean to belittle the situation or make fun of it, but things can be replaced.

I just now found out that Kristina's youngest boy (Yvonne's grandson), Xavier, fell tonight and split his head open to the point of needing a fair number of stiches at the ER. And Kristrina self launched into close earth orbit. You might see her go by if you look to the west tonight.

Amazing run of events on and around Yvonne's birthday. I hope she finds the peace and comfort of Jesus surrounding her. And I trust that Echo will not carry lasting images of the fire in her mind to haunt her.

Thursday is Frank's funeral. I will not be able to attend it. I hope Yvonne won't think I am the worse brother that ever lived. I'd be there if I could.