An Unexpected Day in the Rain………..The Cat Did What?????

Victory was near…………

But the power of the Ring could not be undone.

It was in this moment, when all hope had faded,  that Isildur,  son of the King, took up his father’s sword…….

 

Had to get a little Lord of the Rings stuff in there right at the onset. Welcome! Apologies to all who are not learned in the way of the Fellowship. I’m talking the movie here people, that first opening sequence is terrific. Hope you all had a great week. I, for one, was very busy with work.

….And for the record victory is near. Had a bust with the New York City Building Department late Friday afternoon. Had to cancel  putting  the crane up on 58th street Saturday. The city wouldn’t issue us a permit on a technicality, if you will, so I didn’t have to go in. Which was a blessing for me in a way. I was sick with a cold all week and it rained here all day Saturday. Nothing like a 12 hour day in the rain to give you a lift with your state of health. Glad I dodged that bullet.  Anyway, Ethan came home for spring break and gave me a hand for 3 hours at the house. It worked out really well. He did all the tedious air sealing around the pipes and I worked on finishing the second layer of styrofoam. We’ll get into that later. Not at any great lengths either.  The air sealing “is what it is” as they say. (By the way, Terence took the day off to catch up on homework. Or at least that’s the story he told me. Somehow he’s here doing more homework as I write this blog. Hmmm….)

That being said it’s time again to go out on a limb. I haven’t told anyone about this and it is a bit embarrassing. I really am going to try and give you the short version but it’s complicated…..

So Friday evening arrives and I’ve just found out I don’t have to go into the city. What a relief. Ethan was coming home for spring break so we waited for him for dinner. (Well we sort of waited for him for a while and then the Editor went off about how hungry she was and threw the pasta into a pot of boiling water. I think with the refrain: I can’t wait forever! I’m starving!!!! To be frank it wasn’t exactly an exhibit of sweet, maternal love….)

Okay, Jim let’s not go off on these ridiculous tangents that no one really cares about. (Editors note: And that are, quite frankly, over-blown tall tales. I was hungry! It was late! But I never said: I can’t wait forever!)

Yes. Let’s move along.

So we finish up dinner and I take my glass of water out and put it on the table in front of the sofa so I can hydrate myself while I watch a little television. (I’m still kinda sick) For some strange reason I don’t sit on the sofa though. I sit in the chair next to it, out of reach of my water.

Glass of water in question.
Glass of water in question.

So I’m sitting there with the Editor, Ethan, and Terence enjoying some after dinner conversation when our cat, Chica,  jumps up on to the table. I watch, in a dumbfounded sort of way, as this cat slowly, and I mean really slowly, lowers its head into my glass of water. The cat then proceeds to take a single swig out of my glass. Which was confirmed by the editor as she exclaims, “Oh isn’t that cute! She drank out of the glass.” Yeah, okay, as a puff of steam comes out of my ears. ( My understanding is Long Island cats know their place in the world and would never drink out of the glass of the hand that feeds them.)

Anyhoo, we wound up going downstairs to watch an episode of Breaking Bad soon thereafter. Needless to say,  I left my glass upstairs. So much for hydration.

This is really getting longer than I thought it would so I’ll hurry up.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. I couldn’t sleep and woke up early so I headed out and went to get rid of our garbage at the dump around 6 AM. I get back, made breakfast and all of a sudden a wave of tiredness comes over me.( Anybody out there ever hear of the tale of Bren and Luthien and how she put Morgoth to sleep?) Well anyway it was sort of like that. So I get a blanket and lay down on the sofa with the table in front of it. I then proceeded to have a nice little “cat nap” if you will.

I wake up and notice my glass from the night before. I pick it up thinking: “Oh yeah let me get rid of this.” As I’m walking to the dishwasher I realize my thirst and begin bringing the glass to my lips.

It’s funny how the brain works. It really is. It’s one of those things where you’re doing something wrong and as you’re doing it one side of your brain is saying:  “Stop!”  Unfortunately, the lazy side of your brain is not really listening. The lazy side is saying  “I mean give me a break already I’m still waking up!”

Then it hits you, “OH MY GOD I JUST DRANK CAT WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I race to the sink to try and spit the water out but it’s too late. I start rinsing my mouth out into the sink like 10 times but the voice inside my head keeps saying. You didn’t listen Jim. It’s too late now.  Face the consequences.

Okay I’ll cut to the chase. I didn’t feel so well after that. It was weird. Later on over at the house I meowed once and then threw up a hair ball. That was it. Hopefully I won’t get parasites. I did also crawl on all fours and rub up against my wife’s leg while she was cooking…….that urge seems to have passed. But I digress.

I’m glad that is out of my system and thanks for bearing with me on that one. It’s all true too. Well the part about crawling on all fours wasn’t…..and I actually meowed twice not just once.

Hmmmmmm. Back to Hobbit House Construction shall we?

So as I was saying earlier, Ethan and I pretty much finished up the air sealing and the second layer of styrofoam. That leaves us with one more layer to go and then we are ready for rebar. I can’t wait to finish up. It’s getting exciting. Anyway, we kind of went over the whys of air sealing and all so I’ll just show a couple of pictures and maybe make a few comments.

Shower stall  drain being air sealed.
Shower stall drain being air sealed.

So this was the first shower stall drain I air sealed. What a pain in the neck. It took me about 35 minutes to do this. The complication was the styrofoam to the left of the vertical pipe. I should have cut this insulation back about 3 inches. It would have made it a lot easier to air seal. I did it on the next one though. Check it out.

Second shower stall air sealing technique. With styrofoam cut back properly.
Second shower stall air sealing technique. With styrofoam cut back properly.

So what I did was cut an oversized piece of poly and drape it over the area being sealed. I then wedged styrofoam in the opening to hold everything in place while I sealed the outer layer. After that I removed that styrofoam and sealed the pipe to the poly.

Ethan air sealing around all the pipes at the electrical panel area.
Ethan air sealing around all the pipes at the electrical panel area.

Ethan was seated here for quite a while. Upward of two hours. Very tedious stuff.

Once we had all the styrofoam down and we were happy with the air sealing we went back and spray foamed any and all gaps in the styrofoam. I think we used about 6 cans of the stuff. We overfilled the holes too. This way once it hardens up we’ll just cut the excess off flush with the existing styro. The final layer will lay nice and flat on the second layer. Check it out.

Ethan spray foaming around the pipes.
Ethan spray foaming around the pipes.
Overspray all the gape and cut off the excess later.
Overspray all the gape and cut off the excess later.

So victory is near. Once we clean up we’ve got about an hours work to finish up the last layer of styrofoam and then we are onto slab rebar.

So I guess the moral of the story is when you see your pet drinking out of your glass do something immediately.

Wait a minute I feel another hair ball coming on. Gotta go.

Enjoy your week!

Jim

 

2 thoughts on “An Unexpected Day in the Rain………..The Cat Did What?????”

    • Hey Mike! Hope all is well with you and your family.

      I haven’t used the litter box but I have had the urge to drink my water out of a bowl instead of a glass.

      Weird, right?

      Take it easy,
      Jim

      Reply

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