2019: a Very Memorable Christmas Season
Dec 31, 2019 13:33:34 GMT
Ozarks Tom, Jolly, and 3 more like this
Post by bretf on Dec 31, 2019 13:33:34 GMT
2019: A Memorable Christmas Season
And Two Things You Never Want Your Son to Say
Christmas was bearing down on us at break neck speed as it tends to do for adults with much to accomplish and little time to do it. We were thrilled our daughter was returning home from her first semester of college, albeit with her boyfriend in tow. But having her home added to the workload. She is active in Venturing, a branch of Boy Scouts of America. Just before leaving for school, she’d earned the Summit Award, the highest award in Venturing. It is the equivalent of the Eagle Rank and my wife wanted to have a Court of Honor Presentation for her while she was home. The out of town Grandmother would also be flying in to attend and spend a few days with us.
We had other projects we were working feverishly on as well. My wife was working on the annual re-charter for the Scout Troop. She was shooting, editing, and downloading pictures for her school’s yearbook. I was trying to finish up one hundred thirty-three hand-crafted trophies for my son’s Speech and Debate team tournament. I also had to put the finishing touches on a nutcracker I’d spent the past few months creating in secret. My son collects nutcrackers and we try to find one for him each year for Christmas. It is getting harder to find one we like that is unique when the store shelves are stocked – as well as affordable. I took it on myself to make one, using the photo of my son in his full Scout uniform as he posed for the announcement of his Eagle Rank Court of Honor.
All these thing were doable in the timeframe but wouldn’t leave a lot of free time. The nutcracker was close, oh-so close, and just needed a couple of private mornings. The presentation for my daughter took precedence as I was making a dimensional Venturing logo to house candles and be used in the ceremony. I also had to write a short speech/presentation I would give. Like most of my writings it took several rounds of editing before I was satisfied.
The trophies I was making are pieces of rough sawn 1x6 with eased edges, aged with a vinegar-steel wool solution, with horseshoes nailed on and purchased brass plates for each event and place. I’d emailed information with the team leader about the plates several months ago and assumed he would follow through and order them. A month and a half later, I emailed that the boards were ready, I needed him to schedule the Varsity team members to come over and nail the shoes on and apply the plates. When nothing came of it, I nailed all the shoes on, and the final week of school, emailed for him to send the plates home with my son and I’d finish on my own. That is when he dropped the bomb. He hadn’t order the plates.
In the past, they’d ordered online. I’d found a local source who could create them for roughly the same price. I contacted the company and was hit with the next piece of bad news. They were phasing out that portion of the business and weren’t accepting new customers. I was really into scramble mode then.
As I got updated prices and time-line from the online source, I remembered a friend who had started a laser engraving business. I got ahold of him to inquire about having the board engraved and eliminating the plates. His answer was positive - he could do it for less money than the plates. After a couple of days of design work, I delivered the files and boards. I explained to unhearing ears how I didn’t have enough shoes of any size to do all the trophies the same, so I had three sizes, all in labeled boxes for which place they finished in the standings. In addition, I’d branded the school logo on the first place boards, but not the rest. I left, thinking one project was complete, and I was on to my other two looming projects.
Oh, and one more thing. My daughter loves Christmas decorations, so my wife wanted us to get all the outside lights up before she arrived. I have to get on the roof for some of the house lights. It was snowing but not yet sticking so I hurried onto the roof to get that part done. I had a sinking feeling inside when my foot sank in one section and I heard wood popping. Visually, it still looked fine, though sunken, so I hurried to get the lights strung. I went into the house for the next strand of lights and saw water on the floor, and found the roof leaking where I’d stepped. The snow was getting worse so I wasn’t going back to the roof. I set up a catch basin for the drip and put a big reminder note on the refrigerator.
A few days later, with the sun shining and rain in the forecast, I made temporary repairs. It appears I’d had a bad spot for some time and the roof was mush. But I shored it, gooped it, and made it so it would shed water. But the note is still on the refrigerator to do major repairs next summer.
The kids arrived from college and helped finish the decorations. My mother in law arrived. With the Christmas tree set up, our small house was tighter than ever. But we managed.
The Court of Honor went off as planned, and was a success. Whew, one thing done.
I finished the nutcracker, boxed and wrapped it. Alright, another thing done. We’ve got this. Now just regular Christmas stuff.
We got the mother–in-law shipped off, following an emergency run to the airport with an item she’d left at the house, and my wife getting to visit with her for several hours due to delays.
The morning of Christmas Eve, my son came out of his bedroom with the first of two impactful statements he would deliver in a few short days.
“I shouldn’t have flushed twice!”
The toilet was full to the brim, but thankfully hadn’t overflowed. I set my son up to bail so we could get it low enough to use the plunger. The plunger didn’t help. Then someone flushed the other toilet and it failed to drain as well. My first thought was with the extra people in the house, they’d put too much in the toilet and the line was plugged. We poured cleaner down it, and later, more. By nightfall, the situation hadn’t changed. Everyone took advantage of working plumbing while at Christmas Eve Services. We poured more chemical in, which I didn’t like, being on a septic tank.
Christmas dawned around and the lines were still flowing at a snail’s pace. While everyone got ready to go to my parents’ house, I started digging to get to the septic tank with all kinds of worse case scenarios clouding my thoughts. We exposed the septic and the reason was obvious. Tree roots! A couple of threads of roots had found their way in and created a curtain over the inlet. I chopped most of it out with a shovel and stood back as the flow resumed.
The worst was taken care of but I would have to do more digging and heavy treatment of root killer. While it was open, I decided to have the tank pumped as well. It was a nice day for the time of year and I couldn’t have hoped for any better to be working outside in December. I finished it all the day after Christmas and thought things were good. Boy was I naïve.
The next day, I got a call from my friend, the laser engraver. “There are horse heads on some of these boards,” he stated.
“Yes, those came out of the box marked “first place”. Remember how I explained to you I had to use different shoes and how each box was marked appropriately.”
He didn’t remember. He was ready to start burning them right but that would have had me scrambling to make more boards and get them to him. Instead, I wanted him to continue to engrave as he was. I’d pull all the shoes, brand everything, adjusting the position for the smaller shoes, and nail the shoes back on. It would be a task, but I was certain I could get them done on time.
Saturday dawned. I needed to pick up my boards and assess them. Also, the kids would be leaving in the afternoon to spend the remainder of their break with the boyfriend’s family. I got home with the boards and made a late breakfast. It was bacon and sourdough pancakes, one of my daughter’s favorites. The only thing was, she wasn’t home, She’d gone to spend some time with good friends before taking off. Oh well.
The rest of us had breakfast and we cleaned up. I went to my shop, got the fire going in the wood stove, and carried the first box of trophy boards to the workbench. I was on the third board when the boyfriend came out with the worst news yet.
While I was outside, my son and come out of his bedroom with another statement, much more troubling than the toilet not flushing. “My bathroom is on fire!”
Thank the Good Lord for a smart wife. She sent him to the kitchen sink for the fire extinguisher while she went to see what was burning. I rushed in to see her shooting the extinguisher into the ceiling exhaust fan. While she did that I hurried to the attic access. After the boys found the lights not working – they are on the same breaker as the bathroom, I got into the attic and started passing our stored treasures off to the boys to get access. I could hear wood cracking and popping and the smoke got too thick for me.
I got down, had my wife call for the fire department, and we exited the house. Four firetrucks and many firemen later, the investigator determined the fire was caused by the exhaust fan. Thank God we were home and my son was in his bedroom. He’d heard a pop, followed a short time later by the fixture cover falling to the floor. Otherwise, we could be homeless now. But we aren’t and the damage isn’t too bad. If not for waiting for the insurance company adjuster, I would have had it mostly repaired the next day.
As the firefighters did their jobs, we stood in the driveway, the sun shining bright, the day as pleasant as could be hoped for in late December. The next day was totally different. The sky was dark and dreary. Snow fell all day, although we had minimal accumulation.
All together, it was a very memorable Christmas season. Bad things happened but I continue to count my blessings. My family members are fine and healthy, though very busy. We have a home, flawed though it is, it is ours, still standing, and livable.
May you all be equally blessed!
Note: the fire inspector told us he isn’t always popular with his family because he forbids them to leave the house with a fan running. He’s seen too many fires caused from fans, including slow moving ceiling fans. And in my case, this is the second time my house has caught fire. The first time, it was from a food dehydrator, specifically the fan. And back to leak: it was initially caused by a vent that was damaged by the first fan caused fire that I’d missed when I did repairs to the house.
And Two Things You Never Want Your Son to Say
Christmas was bearing down on us at break neck speed as it tends to do for adults with much to accomplish and little time to do it. We were thrilled our daughter was returning home from her first semester of college, albeit with her boyfriend in tow. But having her home added to the workload. She is active in Venturing, a branch of Boy Scouts of America. Just before leaving for school, she’d earned the Summit Award, the highest award in Venturing. It is the equivalent of the Eagle Rank and my wife wanted to have a Court of Honor Presentation for her while she was home. The out of town Grandmother would also be flying in to attend and spend a few days with us.
We had other projects we were working feverishly on as well. My wife was working on the annual re-charter for the Scout Troop. She was shooting, editing, and downloading pictures for her school’s yearbook. I was trying to finish up one hundred thirty-three hand-crafted trophies for my son’s Speech and Debate team tournament. I also had to put the finishing touches on a nutcracker I’d spent the past few months creating in secret. My son collects nutcrackers and we try to find one for him each year for Christmas. It is getting harder to find one we like that is unique when the store shelves are stocked – as well as affordable. I took it on myself to make one, using the photo of my son in his full Scout uniform as he posed for the announcement of his Eagle Rank Court of Honor.
All these thing were doable in the timeframe but wouldn’t leave a lot of free time. The nutcracker was close, oh-so close, and just needed a couple of private mornings. The presentation for my daughter took precedence as I was making a dimensional Venturing logo to house candles and be used in the ceremony. I also had to write a short speech/presentation I would give. Like most of my writings it took several rounds of editing before I was satisfied.
The trophies I was making are pieces of rough sawn 1x6 with eased edges, aged with a vinegar-steel wool solution, with horseshoes nailed on and purchased brass plates for each event and place. I’d emailed information with the team leader about the plates several months ago and assumed he would follow through and order them. A month and a half later, I emailed that the boards were ready, I needed him to schedule the Varsity team members to come over and nail the shoes on and apply the plates. When nothing came of it, I nailed all the shoes on, and the final week of school, emailed for him to send the plates home with my son and I’d finish on my own. That is when he dropped the bomb. He hadn’t order the plates.
In the past, they’d ordered online. I’d found a local source who could create them for roughly the same price. I contacted the company and was hit with the next piece of bad news. They were phasing out that portion of the business and weren’t accepting new customers. I was really into scramble mode then.
As I got updated prices and time-line from the online source, I remembered a friend who had started a laser engraving business. I got ahold of him to inquire about having the board engraved and eliminating the plates. His answer was positive - he could do it for less money than the plates. After a couple of days of design work, I delivered the files and boards. I explained to unhearing ears how I didn’t have enough shoes of any size to do all the trophies the same, so I had three sizes, all in labeled boxes for which place they finished in the standings. In addition, I’d branded the school logo on the first place boards, but not the rest. I left, thinking one project was complete, and I was on to my other two looming projects.
Oh, and one more thing. My daughter loves Christmas decorations, so my wife wanted us to get all the outside lights up before she arrived. I have to get on the roof for some of the house lights. It was snowing but not yet sticking so I hurried onto the roof to get that part done. I had a sinking feeling inside when my foot sank in one section and I heard wood popping. Visually, it still looked fine, though sunken, so I hurried to get the lights strung. I went into the house for the next strand of lights and saw water on the floor, and found the roof leaking where I’d stepped. The snow was getting worse so I wasn’t going back to the roof. I set up a catch basin for the drip and put a big reminder note on the refrigerator.
A few days later, with the sun shining and rain in the forecast, I made temporary repairs. It appears I’d had a bad spot for some time and the roof was mush. But I shored it, gooped it, and made it so it would shed water. But the note is still on the refrigerator to do major repairs next summer.
The kids arrived from college and helped finish the decorations. My mother in law arrived. With the Christmas tree set up, our small house was tighter than ever. But we managed.
The Court of Honor went off as planned, and was a success. Whew, one thing done.
I finished the nutcracker, boxed and wrapped it. Alright, another thing done. We’ve got this. Now just regular Christmas stuff.
We got the mother–in-law shipped off, following an emergency run to the airport with an item she’d left at the house, and my wife getting to visit with her for several hours due to delays.
The morning of Christmas Eve, my son came out of his bedroom with the first of two impactful statements he would deliver in a few short days.
“I shouldn’t have flushed twice!”
The toilet was full to the brim, but thankfully hadn’t overflowed. I set my son up to bail so we could get it low enough to use the plunger. The plunger didn’t help. Then someone flushed the other toilet and it failed to drain as well. My first thought was with the extra people in the house, they’d put too much in the toilet and the line was plugged. We poured cleaner down it, and later, more. By nightfall, the situation hadn’t changed. Everyone took advantage of working plumbing while at Christmas Eve Services. We poured more chemical in, which I didn’t like, being on a septic tank.
Christmas dawned around and the lines were still flowing at a snail’s pace. While everyone got ready to go to my parents’ house, I started digging to get to the septic tank with all kinds of worse case scenarios clouding my thoughts. We exposed the septic and the reason was obvious. Tree roots! A couple of threads of roots had found their way in and created a curtain over the inlet. I chopped most of it out with a shovel and stood back as the flow resumed.
The worst was taken care of but I would have to do more digging and heavy treatment of root killer. While it was open, I decided to have the tank pumped as well. It was a nice day for the time of year and I couldn’t have hoped for any better to be working outside in December. I finished it all the day after Christmas and thought things were good. Boy was I naïve.
The next day, I got a call from my friend, the laser engraver. “There are horse heads on some of these boards,” he stated.
“Yes, those came out of the box marked “first place”. Remember how I explained to you I had to use different shoes and how each box was marked appropriately.”
He didn’t remember. He was ready to start burning them right but that would have had me scrambling to make more boards and get them to him. Instead, I wanted him to continue to engrave as he was. I’d pull all the shoes, brand everything, adjusting the position for the smaller shoes, and nail the shoes back on. It would be a task, but I was certain I could get them done on time.
Saturday dawned. I needed to pick up my boards and assess them. Also, the kids would be leaving in the afternoon to spend the remainder of their break with the boyfriend’s family. I got home with the boards and made a late breakfast. It was bacon and sourdough pancakes, one of my daughter’s favorites. The only thing was, she wasn’t home, She’d gone to spend some time with good friends before taking off. Oh well.
The rest of us had breakfast and we cleaned up. I went to my shop, got the fire going in the wood stove, and carried the first box of trophy boards to the workbench. I was on the third board when the boyfriend came out with the worst news yet.
While I was outside, my son and come out of his bedroom with another statement, much more troubling than the toilet not flushing. “My bathroom is on fire!”
Thank the Good Lord for a smart wife. She sent him to the kitchen sink for the fire extinguisher while she went to see what was burning. I rushed in to see her shooting the extinguisher into the ceiling exhaust fan. While she did that I hurried to the attic access. After the boys found the lights not working – they are on the same breaker as the bathroom, I got into the attic and started passing our stored treasures off to the boys to get access. I could hear wood cracking and popping and the smoke got too thick for me.
I got down, had my wife call for the fire department, and we exited the house. Four firetrucks and many firemen later, the investigator determined the fire was caused by the exhaust fan. Thank God we were home and my son was in his bedroom. He’d heard a pop, followed a short time later by the fixture cover falling to the floor. Otherwise, we could be homeless now. But we aren’t and the damage isn’t too bad. If not for waiting for the insurance company adjuster, I would have had it mostly repaired the next day.
As the firefighters did their jobs, we stood in the driveway, the sun shining bright, the day as pleasant as could be hoped for in late December. The next day was totally different. The sky was dark and dreary. Snow fell all day, although we had minimal accumulation.
All together, it was a very memorable Christmas season. Bad things happened but I continue to count my blessings. My family members are fine and healthy, though very busy. We have a home, flawed though it is, it is ours, still standing, and livable.
May you all be equally blessed!
Note: the fire inspector told us he isn’t always popular with his family because he forbids them to leave the house with a fan running. He’s seen too many fires caused from fans, including slow moving ceiling fans. And in my case, this is the second time my house has caught fire. The first time, it was from a food dehydrator, specifically the fan. And back to leak: it was initially caused by a vent that was damaged by the first fan caused fire that I’d missed when I did repairs to the house.
