[Gathnet] MO Gathmans -pt1

Sun Jul 18 09:07:03 EDT 2004

   Just a minor correction.  The wedding mentioned here was not the one 
where the groom was knighted.  That was the previous wedding I did.  I 
had mentioned it to Beth in connection to unusual wedding moments in 
which I've participated recently.  This was the first in which I was 
pretty much it, except for a piano playing in the congregational-singing 
portion of the wedding, and one other accompanying slot.

   FYI, the doors of the kitchen cabinets finally dried enough.  Beth is 
satisfied.

   The kids are coming home today.  Jacqui and I have missed them very 
much, though, as I have said before, it wasn't really possible to do the 
kind of work we've done with them here, or without Beth.

   Open House today.  Feel free to drop by... ;)

E G wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> Greetings from St. Lois
> 
> Yes, Jon's been keeping me busy.  The weather here is VERY sticky. . . 
> 100% humidity!  Yeesh.  I grew up in this kind of weather, but  the 
> dryness of San Diego  definitely has some advantages.  Last week while 
> sanding the door for some touch-up plastering in cracks, we found some 
> dry rot at the bottom of the door frame.  Jon want's the house to be 
> really nice in all respects (as a value-added factor so the buyer can 
> just move in and not need to think about having to fix up or repair 
> anything), so we dug it out and put in epoxy.  (Besides being too 
> impatient and trying to put it in while it was still too runny so we 
> spent a lot of time spooning it back into the cavity), we got it all 
> fixed up and today I sat on the back porch and basically carved the 
> epoxy to match the moulding.  After a mere 5 min outside - just 
> sitting!-  sweat is dripping off my nose while I'm carving and my shirt 
> is soaked.
> 
> Anyway, he's had me refinishing his kitchen cabinets which had a lot of 
> spots where the finish was gone down to the wood - just from water 
> spashes from the sink and stuff (can't have been the greatest finish 
> they had on to start with).   Now Jon is embarrassed because I normally 
> DON'T do finishes.  :)  And now I remember why!  Man the stuff never 
> dries.  In all fairness, I have to say that I remember sticking to pews 
> (which had been finished for years and years) in church many times, so 
> it seems that humidity simply has that kind of effect on finishes 
> sometimes.  At any rate, sanding between coats is very delicate as the 
> surface is still quite tacky  Glad that's over and that they look very 
> nice now.
> 
> We've also been up on the hot tar roof  pulling off a facia board Jon 
> has discovered some dry rot in.  (I've generally been on ladder duty - 
> two stories up)  We matched the cuts on new wood and I'm finishing up 
> the color coats tonight.  We'll put them on tomorrow before the POD 
> arrives, which is a small container you rent like a trash container, but 
> it's for moving.  They leave it at your place and you fill it, they they 
> take it to the new place for your where you empty it.  The rest of the 
> week will be spent filling the pod I expect.
> 
> They had new carpet put in just after I came so we spent some days 
> moving everything out of half of the house, then everything to the other 
> half of the house the next day, then putting stuff back in show-mode for 
> marketing picture taking.
> 
> In all his spare time, Jon went off one evening to conduct an orchestra 
> - for a production I think.  I may get to go next time.  The next night 
> he had a wedding rehersal, and the wedding to play for on Saturday.   
> (The couple  wanted all cello for the service, rather unsusual.  But I 
> understand that was the goal as they did knighting with a sword or some 
> such thing).
> 
> <break>
> 
> So, to continue,
> Jon and Jaquie both play in the church orchestra.  Orchestra?  Yep.  
> They have a Pianist (2 if you count the worship leader who uses a 
> keyboard during the service to lead), percusionist (percussionist mind 
> you -  there is a drum set, but more interestinly, there is a set of 
> timpani, wood blocks, xylephone, chimes, those tinkly rods on a pole, 
> and other stuff), one cello, 2 violins, 1 viola, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 
> 1 tuba, 1 saxaphone, 1 clarinet, 1 flute, 1 French horn, 1 bass guitar 
> and 1 guitar.  Last Sunday they were trying to record (for the first time).
> 
> They had a youth ensemble sing during the service who did a great job.   
> It was called "Days of Elijah" and was evidently origionally sung by the 
> Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.  Starts out slow, but then turns into kind of 
> calipso.
> 
> Sunday we went out to see the new place.  Wow.  10 acres in the woods, 
> and you really have to wind around to get there off the highway.  At the 
> same time, it's amazingly close to useful stores like grocery, homedepot 
> etc. (maybe 7 min?).
> 
> There is a large grassy back yard/pasture, a large pond, and a LOT of 
> woods.  We didn't see much farther than imediately around the house (and 
> the pond of course).  Inside, they have another room upstairs (compared 
> to their curent house) which will be for the piano (and recording).  
> Otherwise, there are the same number of rooms roughly, all much larger.  
> Oh, but  there's a mud-room/laundry UPSTAIRS (which tickles Jacqui to no 
> end).  Also a pantry UPSTAIRS.  Then there's the basement.  IF they ever 
> need more room, there is LOTS of space where they can finish a couple 
> rooms and still leave room for garage/workshop kind of thing.   The 
> current owner has a hobby of motorcycles and there are maybe a dozen 
> cycles from old harleys on up parked in rows down there.
> 
> I tried to ifnish the color coat on the facia boards last night, but the 
> finish wouldn't cooperate.  IT DOESNT DRY!  In fact when we went out to 
> look this morning, we discovered that some squirrel had been dancing on 
> the boards last night.  Somewhere, there's a squirrel with blue feet :)
> We dedided to put them up today anyway without a final coat + paint 
> later, so we did.  Poor Jon was raining on the roof even though it was 
> only 9:00.  Raining?  Sweating great drops that dripped off, and hit the 
> roof (and splashed onto me :)  ).
> 
> The PODs came this morning. (Portable On Demand Storage).   Quite 
> clever.  First, while you can store it as long as you need to in their 
> warehouse (like renting normal storage),  you don't have to make 
> multiple trips to town with this system  They drop it off where you want 
> it and you fill it at your leisure.  When you're done, they pick it up 
> and store it till you want it delivered to whereever.  No extra moving 
> of stuff.    It comes on a flatbed with a unique hydralique walker.  On 
> arrival, the walker is manipulated to lift the pod, then the flatbed 
> drives off.  next the walker is maneuvered to wherever you want the pod 
> where it sets the pod down.  The walker is walked back to the truck, the 
> truck drives under, the walker sits down on it, and off they go. Pretty 
> neat.
> 
> I'll sign off for now.  Jon wants to go looking for boxes.
> 
> Beth
> 
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-- 
Jonathan Gathman
"Think, Speak and Do Well"
Urquhart Family Crest