Tag: roofing

August 10, 2022 – Speaking of Throwbacks

How about some video from 2020? I filmed 90% of this video and I never finished it because I got busy and forgot when I was roofing. At the time, I thought it was worthless because I didn’t get everything I wanted and so the videos just sat. That being said, last week I was watching it to see if I could cut it into segments and I decided I just needed a little more that I could do after the fact. So I did.

Is it my best work? No, I could probably added five minutes more and made it more comprehensive. But, I don’t think it is that bad.

I spent a lot of time trying to edit this. Something seems to happen and I am not sure if it is the 10 minute mark or the 1GB size. I tried everything I could from saving in lower resolution to different programs. There are still some glitches in the video that I don’t see in the raw video. I suppose for what it is worth, I need to be mindful of keeping things shorter because this was too much work.

End Your Programming Routine: Filming something while you work is difficult (or at least takes some practice). I find that if I focus on my work, then I forget to film what I had intended. If I am focused on filming, I make mistakes with my work. Maybe this really requires an outline or script? I don’t know but I am sure practice helps too. That is what I am doing.

August 17, 2021 – A Time of Transition

Change can be difficult, especially if it has been going a particular way for a long time. I have a lot of changes going on in my life at the moment. One of the biggest one is my office space. This is the first day working in the space.

I received my desk yesterday and got it assembled. But there are new components going into my setup and not everything has made it into the space yet. So, I am half in and half out with everything spread everywhere.

I knew that if I started moving then I would need to keep at it. I still have to work while I am fiddling around with all this stuff. So, last night I got to the point where I could at least be productive during the work day. I will have to tear everything apart and reconfigure a couple of times I assume.

Plus, as of yesterday, I only imagined how it would work. I think that there is going to be some trial and error on how my desk is setup and positioning of everything. I can already see some of the consequences of my decisions but I will save that for another day.

Another transition that has already occurred is that I finished my shed roofing. I can check that off of my list of things to do. That means that I need to start moving into my next project which is cleaning up and organizing the basement and garage.

This is something that I want done, but don’t really want to do it. It is going to involve dump runs, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity and a lot of decisions. When doing this kind of thing, it is helpful when doing this kind of activity to sequence it properly. For example, going to the dump is last because there are items that Habitat will not accept. I am dragging my feet because it is a big job to tackle.

We have transitioned out of Quarantine. We all got Negative test results last weekend so we are no longer home bound. Unfortunately, we are transitioning into another mask mandate. Honestly, I never believed that this freedom would last. I think that this state has really transitioned into a pseudo Marxist government. What does that actually mean? It means that the government is making decisions for what they think is best and the people are not allowed to proceed as they see fit.

I think by now everyone knows that we are transitioning as a family. I don’t want to say too much more at the moment other than the circumstances are difficult. Not only are we coping with grief but also trying to do it in a manner where part of those most affected are unable to join us.

There is a sociological theory called the ‘Four Turnings‘. The concept goes that there are four types of generations that repeat on a cycle. I’ll try to explain briefly but it might be helpful to read the article (see link above) yourself.

HighHigh societal cohesion, calm from previous strife Baby Boomers
AwakeningLow institutional faith, personal exploration Generation X
UnravellingInstitutions are weak, individuals are strong Millennials
Crisis/HeroEra of destructionWWII generation

If you follow the theory, we are somewhere between the Unravelling and the Crisis stage as a society. It should also be said that it is not quite enough to just be born into a particular era but you need to be able to do something about it. So nearly all of the World War II people are now gone and we haven’t quite had enough of the Generation Y/Z or whatever we are naming it ascend to a place of relevancy yet.

End Your Programming Routine: Be on the lookout for the next crisis event. It very well may be on the horizon or even already has happened. As I am moving through projects and life events, the world is still moving too. You have to get your head up from time to time so that these transitions don’t occur without your knowledge.

June 24, 2020 – Think like a raindrop

It has been a long day. I usually post in the morning, but today I started work early because it is hot on the roof. So, I spent all day on the roof, making a lot of progress, but I had to stop because I am waiting for vent pipe to be run through the roof so that I can flash around them and finish this thing off. Rain is in the forecast for Sunday and Monday.

After looking inside the bathroom, my wife was concerned that it was too dark. Add a skylight to the list. And then when I was talking to the contractor, he was surprised that I didn’t vent the roof. Now, quick aside for a moment. I listen weekly to the Fine Homebuilding podcast and according to them, the science on vented roofs says that venting really does not actually extend the life of a roof, and therefore unnecessary.

Moisture management is really the key concern, not roof life. Even though the addition is open to the currently vented roof, I am a little concerned that moisture from the bathroom cannot adequately equilibrate efficiently, so I am going to add a roof vent as well.

Think like a raindrop was a phrase that my grandfather used. The older I get the more I understand. At seventeen, I didn’t really understand how water behaved. Now knowing some science I can understand water travels by gravity. It also adheres to surfaces with surface tension. You want to keep water away from the building and make paths for efficient flow.

I remember roofing a garage or some other outbuilding and he kept saying over and over that you need to ‘think like a raindrop’. He must have seen the puzzled look on my face, because he then said ‘if you want to keep the water out, you need to think like a raindrop’, he laughed and moved on. He was always saying some sort of colloquialism or bit of wisdom that was wrapped up in a cryptic message of sorts. It’s funny, but those are the things that stick the most to my memory.

I am cutting this a little short since I lost internet connection last night when I wrote most of this (and lost a bunch of additional work too). It seems like a fitting tribute to my grandfather that I can do all these things. I almost cant wait for the rain this weekend to prove the I can now think like a raindrop.