What we've done this weekend... A conglomerate
Duncan got his Trellis/Gateway up at the community center, after about 9 hours of labor -- post-hole digging and putting the uprights in, then drilling the stringers to the real, as opposed to the theoretical, lengths and installing them. nitnorth's design suggestion of putting them on with metal rods and letting gravity hold them on was excellent -- it made them easier to put on and will be easier for long-term maintenance. It was also really cold all day. I took them chili, hot cocoa, and hot apple cider around lunch -- today the vacuum pot of boiling water I took over to them was still hot when I opened it up!
I fell so deeply asleep last night after yesterday's scout adventures and then watching Ghost Rider, that when cnewsonsmith arrived about 2 am her pounding on the door and calling on the phone didn't wake me up. Luckily, she found the only unlocked door and got in. Talk about deep embarrassment. At least Duncan and I had gotten her bed ready earlier in the evening. I hope we remembered to put everything on it!!
We liked it. It was definitely a transformation from a graphic novel, one I've not read. I'm not going to talk very much about it, as I don't want to do the spoiler thing..) It was very interesting that Nicholas Cage's was so erudite and self-educated. I liked Sam Elliott, as always. I thought it was terribly ironic that Peter Fonda was so satisfied with the motorcycles. The trick Cage uses to be able to defeat the Big Bad at the end was clever, I thought.
Well, more on that in another entry.
cnewsonsmith and we all slept in late, and then went over to a local restaurant for breakfast. When we left for it the rain was pouring -- and when we got back, too. I was worried that C would have a dreadful drive home, but it was starting to clear as she left. I wish we'd had more time together, but the strength of the storm predicted had me worried. A lot.
Duncan's gateway withstood the very energetic rain- and sleet storm last night. We went back about 6 PM tonight, and the quick-set cement was very, very hard. We took the guy-ropes off and it was totally stable. Since it rained all day we couldn't go and put the touch-up paint on (or paint the old fence-rails that they connected back to the gateway). Something to do later this week. One of the Rec Center folks is going to put up white fencing on the other side of the gateway; it wasn't in the scope of Dunc's project but it will make the whole area look more finished. (At the moment there's a 10-foot gap to the chain-link fence.)
The DG path help up well in the storm, as well. There's one place that had some erosion from the rushing water, but Duncan will deal with that, and with the place where they hadn't packed the dirt into an old post-hole as deeply as they needed, and it sank some in the rain. In some ways, this huge rain storm right as they finished building the trellis and path is good. They can finish off any faults that show up now, as he's approaching his committee, rather than find things later that would be embarrassing.
Duncan's nasty cold and my sinus-y dripping are worse -- I hope C. was here a short enough time she didn't catch it. We spent most of the middle of the day being slugs. Duncan did a bunch of his Calculus homework (His AP Exams are coming up in early April, and he will have 4 of them to take). He's sick enough that he's staying home from school tomorrow -- he's been having horrible coughing fits. Bleh.
Very Interesting Battlestar Gallactica tonight. Serious issues here.