So Ben is gone. He pulled into Ohio today. A new start for him, an old start for me. It is difficult to be glib. It is difficult to be light. It is difficult to be cohesive. Ben rearranges his life. I rearrange mine. So let us bathe in what was Ben.
Thanks to all for the outpouring of heartfelt comments and well wishes for Ben. We know how valuable he was. We ask nothing.......................and receive it.
Ben was tangled in the machinations of acquiring a vehicle for the better part of 3 weeks. I tried to keep his mind off of the craziness by assigning him necessary tasks that he could do in a short time span. He spent a lot of time reminding me of safety. "keep one hand on the boat, lest you fall." "Remember these step stools are tippy." He thinks I can't survive without him. I can.
I spent the week advising him about car loans, job prospects, life. I think he can't survive without me. He can.
Ben spent Wednesday packing his stuff.
We did a round trip to Houston on Thursday (4 hours one way if the traffic gods smile upon you........they didn't). A day lost. Ben drove the car and said "OK, I'll take it!". I took off for home. He spent an hour or better getting the bill of sale notarized. The nice lady selling the car made him a sandwich for the road. We both got lost in the construction zone, him worse. He got back 3 hours after me.
Just as we were departing on the big Houston road trip, the refrigerator died. We crammed everything in coolers and left. My task at hand was to get a replacement on Friday, another day lost. I was in the city 30 miles away and mashed the clutch pedal of Ol' (T)Rusty and it jammed stuck halfway down. Now........ I swore an oath before good King Wrencheslaus to never fix cars again other than easy fixes. A $50 tow and a ride home from Budge, who had to pass through anyway, got me and the fridge back home.
This morning I awoke to not-so-mysterious gas explosions and dire rear: Montazuma's revenge has struck, another day lost. I spent the day doing minor stuff around the house, drinking pink liquid, sleeping, and spending quality time with my good friend, the toilet. It's a real pain in the gas!
Hopefully we did something around the boat
Thanks to all for the outpouring of heartfelt comments and well wishes for Ben. We know how valuable he was. We ask nothing.......................and receive it.
Ben was tangled in the machinations of acquiring a vehicle for the better part of 3 weeks. I tried to keep his mind off of the craziness by assigning him necessary tasks that he could do in a short time span. He spent a lot of time reminding me of safety. "keep one hand on the boat, lest you fall." "Remember these step stools are tippy." He thinks I can't survive without him. I can.
I spent the week advising him about car loans, job prospects, life. I think he can't survive without me. He can.
Ben spent Wednesday packing his stuff.
We did a round trip to Houston on Thursday (4 hours one way if the traffic gods smile upon you........they didn't). A day lost. Ben drove the car and said "OK, I'll take it!". I took off for home. He spent an hour or better getting the bill of sale notarized. The nice lady selling the car made him a sandwich for the road. We both got lost in the construction zone, him worse. He got back 3 hours after me.
Just as we were departing on the big Houston road trip, the refrigerator died. We crammed everything in coolers and left. My task at hand was to get a replacement on Friday, another day lost. I was in the city 30 miles away and mashed the clutch pedal of Ol' (T)Rusty and it jammed stuck halfway down. Now........ I swore an oath before good King Wrencheslaus to never fix cars again other than easy fixes. A $50 tow and a ride home from Budge, who had to pass through anyway, got me and the fridge back home.
This morning I awoke to not-so-mysterious gas explosions and dire rear: Montazuma's revenge has struck, another day lost. I spent the day doing minor stuff around the house, drinking pink liquid, sleeping, and spending quality time with my good friend, the toilet. It's a real pain in the gas!
Hopefully we did something around the boat
Remember the bad aft end that Budge rebuilt a while back? He had to add fillets to the rebuilt part. He first had to expand the access so he could get in there. Then he had to make a long fillet tool to reach. The fillets aren't pretty, but they are strong.
Ol' (T)Rusty had an overly efficient flow through ventilation system due to the fact that the driver's side floorboard was mostly nonexistent, Ben cut out a couple pieces of galvanized sheet metal. We formed it a bit and pop riveted it into place wherever the original metal could be found. Then Ben cut a piece of fiberglass to fit over the thin metal and he epoxied everything into place. It's pretty solid again. Ben sprayed undercoating on the bottom.
I treated the center deck slat with two applications of Penofin.
I had to screw the center deck slats to the deck beams. I decided to try filling the screw holes with beeswax instead of epoxy. I melted a shot glass full of beeswax and dipped each screw half way. I also wanted to make some straws to drop into the drilled holes. I took the needle off an epoxy syringe and sucked the melted beeswax into it. After a couple of tries, I determined that the beeswax had to be in a semi-solid state so it could extrude properly. I made a bunch of straws.
On Wednesday I screwed down half the deck. I used thin plywood spacers and clamped the slat against the previous slat to maintain the gap. I drilled each hole in the deck beams and dropped a beeswax straw into each hole and screwed it it down with the wax coated screws. Sometimes I would just mold the straw to the end of the screw and screw it in.
Friday, Ben drove with the car chucky jam full. He loaded up the car and we managed to pack an amazing amount of stuff into it including his local pet cactus that he dug out back, the one on the right. The one on the left is mine
Ben waved a fond farewell..............and he was gone.
The Music ♪: Incredible String Band "How Happy I Am"
In spite of the week that was, I think I'm happy.
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