Tamara Unleashed

Days I do Habitat, I drop Carli off at James at 630 AM. This was waiting for me this morning. So sweet. However, he wanted me to wear the ballon around the Habitat site today. We have had a lot of rain over the past several days. Thursday and Friday, they worked in rain. Yesterday and today we worked in the mud.

This was what I looked like at noon yesterday. I wore the same pants today.

Today it was cloudy at the beginning, followed by a 30 minute downpour followed by bright sunshine – I prefer the cloudy. Yesterday I cut my finger while trying to cut the “blue board which is 1.5 inches deep. The utility knife does not cut through the full thickness. Theoretically, you cut part way through and then you can break it the rest of the thickness. Perhaps with lots of practice you can get this to work reliably but my team was struggling with it. So I was given a big “dullish” kitchen knife to try. It worked a bit better but was very dull. Just as I was saying “this is so dull, I don’t think it would even cut skin”, I cut the skin at the base of my left index finger – I was wrong. It cut full thickness of the skin but I had sensation and movement so I wasn’t too worried. It was bleeding a fair amount and it was in a position it was going to be hard to bandage. We poured water over it and antibiotic ointment and but a couple of small steri- strips on it. It slowed the bleeding but did not stop it. I was then offered Super Glue which is what the Habitat people use. It worked. It immediately stopped bleeding. I covered it as best as I could. When I got home, it was bleeding a bit so I decided to wash it with soap and water and use hydrogen peroxide on it and then applied more super glue. I ended up with superglue all over my hand but the bleeding stopped. I left it open over night. Bandaged it as best as I could to keep it clean today. it worked.

The bandage worked. The would was clean. The only thing I am a bit concerned about is infection since the knife was dirty and my skin was dirty at the time of the cut but so far so good.

This is me at the end of today – happy that I was able to help build homes for other mothers that are working so hard to provide homes for their families.

Now I get to have dinner at my son’s and pick up Carli, my balloon and flowers.

Happy Mother’s Day.!!

Two friends for my Krakow trip and 3 women I have not traveled with yet are heading to St. Remy de Provence – arriving May 19th and returning on May 28th. Yesterday I went to AAA to get an International Driver’s License. I am not sure who the old woman is in this photo. We have an AirBnB, a car and one of our traveling companions visits this area every year so we have lots of options of things to do. One day will be a winery tour. I will skip the day of cooking lessons as I would not be able to appreciate any of the flavors and cycle instead.

I have held my mail; gotten the driver’s license and have enough Euro’s from previous travel to get me started.

As my condo has been such a mess from the bathroom renovations, I have not unpacked my cruise suitcase yet. So today is the day, I will select clothes from the cruise suitcase to go into the France carry-on. Toiletries is always the challenge for carry-on. I got may haircut yesterday so it takes fewer products. I need to make sure I can purchase spa 100 sun screen in France and I should be able to do it with just my carry-on.

The renovation is complete except for drawers next to sink and the hardware which will be done on Monday.

It was so fun to be able to hang my first coat up in the hall closet. Floor will be finished once I figure out the plan for taking care of the water damage from upstairs water damage. Closet will be full by end of the day along with the bathroom cabinets.

Wednesday the cabinet guy came to install the “tower” on top of the granite only to discover that the granite installers installed the back splash when they should not have. When I saw the granite last Friday after the installation I saw the back splash and thought the cabinets must be notched out for the backsplash – not the case.

So the backsplash was removed later that day and the tower installed. Yesterday the crown was placed on top of cabinet. The two side drawers need to be made a bit less deep to allow clearance for the sink.

I am most excited to have a hall closet. Previously, this space opened on the opposite wall inside the tub/shower room which made no sense when it could have been planned as a hall closet. This is going to end up being a very expensive hall closet because this is higher quality shelving than I needed. I saw a picture and sent it to contractor and said this is the design I want and they reproduced it. The rod for the hangers needs to be move back bit to allow clearance for the hangers in front. They may also need to remove the molding around the door inside the closet. I knew it was a bit of a tight fit for an hanger but I was not expecting the molding inside the closet. I think that is a bit overkill.

This should be all done next week and then I can start planning towards replacing the floors in the dining room, living room and hallway because of water damage leak in unit upstairs.

It was a clear day without wind as we started turning wall panels into walls; securing them to the foundations, sheathing them and top plating.

In the photo to the right, two stacks are the exterior and interior walls for one house.

Below is a foundation waiting for walls.

Above is the house I worked on today. There was a team drilling through the bottom plate into the concrete and then firing bolts down into the concrete. The sheathing is installed on the outside. Fortunately we were able to use nail guns which makes the nailing go much faster but you have to make sure no one is working inside near where you are using the gun which gets increasingly challenging as more sheath goes up. The sheath is nailed to each stud and at the top and bottom every 6 or 12 inches. Nails are placed every 65 inches around windows and doors. There is caulk placed at the top and bottom. It goes pretty quickly once you get the rhythm down. I was supervising a team of sheathers.

The top plating involves placing an additional 2×6 (for exterior and 24 for Interior) board to anchor the walls to each other and the interior to the exterior. There is a lot of measuring and cutting for this step. We did not have enough nail guns for all of the work so the top plates were done with hammering.

You can see the top plating in this photo with Jean, the SOS who has been my main mentor on this journey.

Below shows the area we worked at the end of the day. 4 houses have walls. One is fully sheathed and top plated and ready for trusses for the roof. Supposedly, the volunteers will be building 13 houses to completion by the end of June.

I can’t wait to see how this all progresses

I can hear the footsteps of the man who lives above me. He is an early riser so if I am awake or near awake I hear him. This morning I heard him and then at some point later I heard other footsteps. There were quieter than his and tonally different. The next thing I know there is a man in my bathroom (which I can see through the master closet) with a tool belt on. It is 615 and the electrician is here to install the vanity lights in the bathrooms. The next time thing I know there are 3 more electricians working in a small space.

The bathrooms are getting close to being done.

I was on the cruise when the electricians did their part earlier so they likely thought I was still gone. Thank goodness I don’t own a gun.

Yesterday was a busy day with health care visits. I saw my cardiologist at 9 AM; dentist at 10 and neurologist at 1 in 3 different locations. Thanks to genetics I have a lot of plaque in my heart vessels so my lipids are being monitored carefully. All is well.

My dentist is still out but there was a substitute dentist seeing patients such as myself that could not wait. I liked this dentist better than the other. He was surprised by how many spikes (the dental term is buttons) I had on my teeth. While it was not painful, having them drilled off was not pleasant. He then took images of my mouth that would be used to make the retainer which took a long time (mostly because he was not that familiar with this particular device). I walked out without spikes – with a different bite that I am still getting used to and no space between my front teeth. I asked this dentist to look at my X-rays and let me know how many fillings he thought I needed to get replaced. I am guessing he is going to say that none are urgent. Once I start chaining anything in my mouth, the retainer may not fit properly which means getting a new retainer.

I started waking up with numbness in my right had 5-6 years ago. It occurred a few times a year and I assumed I had just slept wrong. Just over a year ago, it started happening much more frequently and I got it evaluated. The hand specialist thought it was carpal tunnel and recommended nerve conduction and muscle testing as well as wearing a wrist brace at night. I wore the brace and scheduled the test. After wearing the brace for a month or so, it resolved for a few months. It came back so I started wearing the brace again which worked great until just after I returned from the cruise when I started having the numbness randomly during the day. So I got the tests done yesterday and I do have mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome. I will go ahead and get the surgery to relieve the pressure on the nerve as the daytime numbness is VERY annoying.

The joys of gradual wear and tear on the body……

Thursday night I attended the taping of Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me at the Tennessee Performance Arts Center. It was memorable for a number of reasons. It was my first time at TPAC and it will not be my last. The only thing I did not like about the theater is that it does not have a center isle which means there are A LOT of people walking by and stepping on your toes. Just an extra inch between the rows would have helped for those with long femurs and big feet such as myself.

It was a very fun show and I would highly recommend seeing it if you get a chance. It usually tapes in Chicago but apparently goes to different cities several times a year. All the way through residency, I watched Bill Curtis and Diane Sawyer while I ate my breakfast between 5 and 6 AM. It was fun to see him in a sparkly country musician type sport coat and cowboy hat. It was an all woman panel with very good humor and Brad Paisley was the special guest. ‘The show was about 90 minutes and they edit it down for the actual program. I am sure they edit out some of the funniest comments that are not appropriate for broadcast. After they end the show, they spend about 5 minutes going back and re-recording certain sentences that were not clear.

It was the first time I have been amongst that many people without a mask and given the audience, I was a bit surprised that I did not see anyone with a mask on. A couple of the ushers wore masks. As I prepare for another trip and with immunity from last vaccination waning, I will go back to masking everywhere very soon.

I had a GREAT day at Habitat yesterday. It was a bit drizzly all day but that meant it was not too hot or sunny so a positive in my book. I had a crew of 4, a good size. They had some experience. We made no mistakes and constructed a very complicated interior wall with 3 adjacent doorways. Next Thursday we start construction the houses out of the wall panels. The goal is to frame 4 houses in 4 days. I can’t wait to see this in action.

Carli wishes everyone a great weekend.

I started volunteering at Nashville Tools for Schools in December of 2021. This group of retired guys meet Monday-Thursday mornings in a very nice workshop. My first day there, they had labeled one of the two bathrooms for Ladies. They have had a woman or two volunteer for short times in the past, but I have stuck with it the longest. It has taken a while for the guy to realize they can still just are the guys when I am around.

Today we cleaned up the shop so we could have a group lunch. Each day there are generally 6-8 volunteers.

It is a great group of guys and I enjoy going and learning new things 2-3 mornings a week.

This area next to the Fine Furniture area used to have plywood around the pipes. Our area was always cluttered so Bill the Handyman tore down the plywood and built us custom shelves around the pipes.

We were able to go through our pieces of wood today and organize them which felt great. I should have the prototype TV tray finished next week.

While I wrote the letters to Allegiant and Princess yesterday, I needed to mail them today. There is not a mail box on this property. People just put the letters on top of the locked mail boxes which makes me a bit uncomfortable even though when I have done it, the letters seemed to arrive fine.

I often put my letters in my son’s mailbox that has a flag on it to raise when there is mail to pick up. I decided to do that today. On my way to my strength training, I stopped by my son’s to mail the letters. With the letters to mail in my hand, I opened the box and removed their junk mail, raised the flag and continued on my way. When I got to my trainers, I saw the letters I intended to mail on the seat with the junk mail.

I went back after training and the mail had not gone yet, so I was still able to get the letters mailed.

Pain: I have been putting off writing my letters to Customer Relations regarding my cruise suitcase not making it to San Francisco and the bad Customer Service that led to us almost not getting on the cruise. I find complaining pretty painful and I am not sure I expect anything to come from either letter but I hope to be compensated by Allegiant for the clothes and toiletries I had to purchase. I am most. concerned about the Princess Customer Service and the Princess requirement that is more stringent than what is required by US Customs and Border Protection which clearly states that an Enhanced Driver’s License is all that is required for a closed loop cruise which ours was. We were fortunate that we had family members available to go into our homes and take pictures of what Princess wanted, BUT others may not be so fortunate.

Joy: Today was a great day at Tools for Schools. The Executive Director for House to Homes Nashville that we build most of our furniture for mentioned that TV trays are very popular. I found a wood one at Habitat ReStore and bought it as a template. I took the doors off of my bathroom cabinets before they cabinets were taken out for the remodel and took them in to see if we could use them as the table top. Pictured is our first attempt. It is stable. It is a bit out of proportion – the top surface is a bit smaller than the prototype and we should have allowed more distance for the legs to spread further apart but it is OK for the first one. Tomorrow I will start the painting.

The most fun today was that I got to do my first beveled edges on the big saw. The big table saw scares me a bit. I learned how change the saw blade to bevel and how to line the board up to create the perfect beveled edge. I also learned what a dull saw blade cuts like; learned how to clean and replace the blade and feel the small bit of improvement with a cleaned blade while waiting for a new blade to be picked up.

The new blade was a day and night difference. The cut was so much smoother and it felt much safer. I am so thankful for these activities to get me out of bed each day.