It is so, so cool, but not as cool as you.
It is great to finely have you out here with us.
jh
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gabriel Orgrease" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 7:05 PM
Subject: Week in Review


> I am trying to remember what happened this week. For me Friday has been
> the day to drop a thoughtful note on BP.
>
> Monday... on Monday I promised that I would give some information on a
> rigging project to Duffy Hoffman (or was it Tuesday) and before I could
> do that I had to crunch a bunch of numbers like FICA & FUTA in order to
> project a newly reorganized rate scale. I've been trying to drop
> overhead like dead wood. I keep thinking about the winter we lived in a
> yurt and sh*t in the woods and cut dead wood to heat the place. That was
> low overhead. I made $2,257.36 one year, a few years after the yurt. I
> forgot to file taxes that year. When I get my SS statement there is a
> gap. I was into self-sufficiency and not talking, much. Well, number
> crunching away in the makeshift office in the basement, two saw horses
> and a sheet of plyood for a desk, and Kathy turned on the dishwasher
> which blew the circuit and shut down the computer. Darkness in a wet
> basement. I had not saved anything. Still have not got back to that
> point in my development. We purchase a flatbed trailer to pull behind
> the Subaru. We promise the seller that we will not drive to Georgia
> without registering it.
>
> Tuesday... life in the basement is really weird with the sump pump
> malfunctioning in the background and water bubbling up through the
> concrete floor in small holes where yellow sand is brought up in small
> mounds on the gray paint at locations that I could have sworn I had
> filled and patched two years ago. The previous owner of the house
> excavated the basement under the house. He was a short guy and only
> excavated enough for him and his likewise short wife. When the two of
> them stood side by side they did not get any taller. I'm still trying to
> figure out what he knew about concrete floors. I dread to know what book
> he got his bright ideas from - Audel? As promised we have not, in all of
> our 12 years dug any holes where they buried their dog. The little
> office on main street Mastic beach for PreCon LogStrat is a former Camp
> Upton troop bungalow. After WW2 the US Army sold off the bungalows and
> enterprising people (like the local cobbler whom we are renting from)
> bought them up and moved them to each side of the street and instantly
> there was a downtown Mastic Beach. Viola! Since then somewhat more
> substantial buildings have filled in and vacated and filled in and
> vacated. So we got our electrical hook-up and our phone. But no internet
> broadband. We get a license plate for the trailer and actually enjoy our
> sojourn at the DMV. I call my brother in Houston and tell him that
> Keyspan Energy trucks are powered by Natural Gas. (Our childhood
> imaginary company, Gas & Epileptic, a Far to Fit.)
>
> Wednesday... the sump pump is psychotic, like some of my friends, and
> decides to suck when it wants, or not wants, regardless of the increased
> level of water in the basement. Kathy tells me that she is mad at Sears
> along about in here for not coming up with the clothes dryer that she
> ordered. I'm beginning to feel like I am forgot in the boonies then I
> get cheered up by my unpsychotic friends who send me all kinds of
> supportive notes of encouragement. My mother's card reader says
> everything is going to be all right and I believe her and my mother
> despite the fact that they go to the horse track together. It is raining
> outside and we begin to remobilize and move everything to the "new"
> office. The toilet at central command is broken, it has a big hole in
> the tank and looks like someone was mad at it before they vacated. The
> fact that the toilet leans into the wall and that the ceiling is too low
> either bodes that nobody will be taking long breaks from work, or we
> have to rebuild the floor before someone falls through. For the interim
> we drive back to the house. Command central for the most part is dry but
> we cannot get the multi-tasking HP thingy we just spent too much money
> acquiring to receive a fax. David goes and helps Kathy get the new dryer
> but it needs a 220 cable hook-up.
>
> Thursday... we return to the scene of our extended crime in Brooklyn and
> find ourselves accosted for conspiracy to freedom. It seems the fact
> that we took our computer and one other computer without asking
> permission is seen as proof that we are bad people. We argue, we calm
> down, we fart around, I turn in all my credit cards -- but take back the
> gas card, and we leave, David and I go down to Baptist Temple where
> Debcaves has pulled off a really amazing super-triple excellent
> temporary stabilization of the main tower w/ our primo buddy Sam McCoy.
> If you want to see a tension structure in pure form go look at the
> netting on the tower. Sam is supposed to be finishing up his Masters in
> Math and damned if he is not the best probe technician I have seen in a
> long time. Major talent, both. This is a temporary netting job to brag
> about -- keep in mind, some of our most enduring work is temporary. Off
> to Harlem to view the last remaining penguin of four that wants to go to
> Switzerland. We like the concrete penguin at the fountain of the Harlem
> Houses though why it is sniffing it's wing pit we are not quite sure. I
> love working in Harlem and as we drive through I show David various
> locations where his mother and I used to work during out 2.5 year stint
> at three bus depots. We drive from Harlem south, way south, to St. Marks
> and there we meet the guy that was responsible for the restoration of
> the flame on the Statue of Liberty and we get ourselves sucked into
> another worthy cause, we hope. I see, and the president, the flame
> restoration guy, reads, the a blurb on PTN in Traditional Building which
> I wake up halfway through the meeting and realize that I wrote it...
> DREAM TEAM and all, though I have no idea how it got into TB... and I
> find an opportunity to talk about the importance of convergence between
> craft and architecture. David and Pam Smith are plannig to spend two
> weeks at the end of July working as volunteers on an old church in
> Nantucket. Seems I have an opportunity to help American kids go to
> France for two week stints to work on 13th century castles & stuff. \
>
> I have consigned myself to a simple scenario that as much as I want to
> reduce my overload I am not happy when the world around me is not
> agitated into action. When I have less agitation I am simply going to go
> find more. I spend all week looking for something to bother me. It is my
> son's 23 birthday on Thursday and we spend the entire day together. All
> day he pays attention and he teaches me. Though my emotional stress is
> peaking out, he remains rational and we make it all the way home. Thank
> god. We may or may not have unlimited access to a JOS machine for
> cleaning samples. Kathy goes to the laundrymat.
>
> Friday... I get my delayed bloodwork done. With the diabetes they
> recently picked up mild kidney failure and a spot of blood in the eye,
> though not that I can see it. I'm told with proper maintenance I will be
> able to retain my reading sight for another 30 years. I've got too
> damned many books not to pay attention. This is why I am revolting --
> plus the fact that people on BP keep telling me stories that make me
> imagine another world over there somewhere if we only dare reach out for
> it. Though I have always enjoyed John Milton I do not want to end up in
> a white fog, or a black one either. Within one week I have managed to
> adjust and stabilize my blood sugar level. I'm happy. Turns out David's
> driver license expired yesterday and he goes and renews it, no problem.
> We get the fax machine to receive faxes. On Sunday we are running away
> to Mannasas, VA to pick up the stone for the fireplace in Hartford, CT
> where the SUV ran into the oldest house in that place. I'm hoping to
> have time to bother the folks at the Twain house if the selection of
> books in the place is authentic to period, leastways, to find out who
> made the selection if it was deliberate. No time to stop in Bridgeport
> at the Barnum Museum, though possibly a fly by with Leland. I talk with
> my friend Dick and he explains the Trust that is legal in the
> disbursement of funds in a constructiion contract and I am scared out of
> my wits and promise that I will meet with the lawyer that he recommends.
> What I really want to talk with Dick about is ghost writing his life
> story. The hour that he spent on the ophone one Friday afternoon
> explaining to me the inner workings of the Columbian sugar cartel
> remains a precious memory. In the mean time I have to figure out how to
> cut out some limestone in a church so that a water fountain can be
> installed. The fax machine now receives. Broadband should be installed
> by the end of next week. David put the licens plate on the trailer. I
> filed for an EIN w/ the IRS.
>
> It is so kool!
>
> ][<
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>
>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>