Yesterday was December, last day of the NYC Transit Strike... stay tuned
on that score.
For us it was a 14 hour day and the accomplishment that three of us
working together set three brick.
The day before working together we removed three brick... this day we
put replacements back in the hole.

I started out in the driveway rummaging around for buckets & a trowel.
(The one I used at the musical interlude at IPTW 2005.)
Unsocial neighbor did not seem to like the early ambient noise.
Went to Hoime Depot to buy a heat gun.
Drove from one county to another to pick up raydome. Then to another
county, to Kings County to pick up David.
Then to the masonry supplier in Queens county.
Picked out a brick. We had to purchase a slice of each color of two,
meaning 100 brick per slice. No problem.
We visited for a while & commiserated w/ our friend, the owner, over his
recent heart attack. It was news to us.
My age. My biological father had three heart attacks by the time he was
my age.
We got one slice tan & one slice red for two separate holes.
At the yard we had to negotiate that we only wanted to take 12 of the
tan and 24 of the red.
Telling folks that you don't want what you paid for is counter intuitive.
It is cheaper not to have to figure out what to do with extra brick.
It is not like yoiu can just stop at a corner and chuck them behind a
bush then come back 6 months later to retrieve them.
When I did stone work upstate I had piles of materials hid at various
rural intersections.
Too much weight to fit in the car what with everything else we had to
carry like sand & lime & cement.
Worried about busting out the suspension or breaking down on a bridge.
A 1:2:5 mix was specified. Measure a paper coffee cup in a 5- gallon bucket.
Drove to Minhattan... that took 2 hours.
Parked the car on the street, somebody has to stay close to it.
Signed in w/ security.
Got the ladder (underated for our weight and a few feet too short,
supplied by the low-bid scaffolding supplier), climbed up on the
sidewalk bridge.
Got coffee... got the materials up on the bridge.
Suited up. Full body harnesses. Thermal underwear.
Rode 10 stories up on the side of the building.
It is like riding a bicycle.
Set the brick... we were fortunate to have warm water.
Stood there and looked at the wall for a while.
My epiphany of the week, as much as a masonry wall is a heat sink it is
also a cold sink.
Decided we had enough of that and rode down the side of the building.
In the mean time David interfaced w/ all the street contacts.
The guy assigned to watch us who had a stroke last year and nobody can
understand what he is saying.
He smiles a lot. One more year till he can go out on pension. An old
horse not quite yet to pasture?
David made the half dozen phone calls needed to let folks know we had
filled the hole.
They want to move the rig. Not our rig.
Put our gear back in the car.
Signed out w/ security.
Drove off to the supplier and picked up a portion of the remainder of
our brick.
Tipped the fork lift driver for not forcing us to take all of what we
had bought.
Went to David's apartment in Brooklyn.
Dropped off bag of Portland & hydrated lime w/ 5 red brick at his place.
So that the next hole can be filled in.
Told David his Xmas present is that I won't bother him until it is over.
In short, a four day weekend.
Drove raydome home. Weird traffic.
Went home myself. Trouble driving at night without my glasses.
Listened on XM to the guy in Slidell w/ the home video exclaim that he
had not saved his golf clubs.
Had dinner.
Watched on the television Joan Rivers & her daughter & guests talk about
suicide.
It was a fine day.

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