Monday, August 3, 2009

Hiatus Warning!

Must be my day for goddam dust.

See, Natalie has finally succeeded in her ongoing harangues about the state of my study. We're getting a bloke in to sand back the floor in the sun-room and restore the much-abused polish, and I agreed that I'd clear out my study and strip the carpet so this room could get prettied up at the same time.

Of course, that means yanking out not only the carpet and the underlay, but years of accumulated... stuff... in here. Which I've been doing for a few days now.

The carpet itself is plain nasty. It appears to have been laid down in the Early Filthocene Era, and repeatedly been conquered by hordes of unwashed barbarians from various incredibly dusty regions of the world. I've pulled up half of it by now, and honestly, I'm choking in here. It's Snot City, and I am the Chief Boogermeister. Achheh. Kaff kafff hacckkh!

Meanwhile, the elderly cast-iron grill in the bottom of our wood-heater/fireplace thing has finally given away, big-time. It's interesting what happens to cast iron that gets repeatedly heated and cooled: today, as I was pulling the thing out, I snapped a couple of the grill-bars with my fingers. These things are at least a centimetre wide, and 3/4 of a centimetre thick. They're not rusted. They're just... heat-fucked, I guess.

I've been looking for a replacement grill for over a week now. Tried both hardware places. Tried both farm-gear places. No go. Launceston wasn't much help either, until this morning, when I took the Mau-Mau in and we tackled a specialty camping-goods outlet. Got myself a loverly new grill, and all I had to do was drive an hour there, and then an hour back again. Oh, and then cut it to fit with my angle grinder. Oh, and then pull the old one out, with all the struggling with fine ash you might expect. Achhehh! Kaff kaff haccckkh!

Anyway, the point of this post is not the dust. Not really. No, it's the satellite modem. See, that little box of goodies sits on the desk in my study. The soon-to-be removed desk. And there's no way to relocate the cables that come down the wall and up through the floor and everything. So from Thursday, there's going to be a bit of a hiatus hereabouts, because I'm not leaving an incredibly expensive satellite modem (and a cheap router) hooked up in a room that's about to have the living shit sanded out of it.

Also, there's three layers of varnish and/or polish to consider. Normally they'd only take a day or two, but it's winter in Taz, and we're having a dampish spell. (Okay. Soggy. Dripping. Deliquescent. Very fucking wet!) Ergo, the varnishing process won't be done quite so quickly.

Not to worry. You'll manage without me for a bit, right? And when I get back into my study, think how much more cleverly I'll be able to write with all that polished wood underfoot...

15 comments:

  1. Lying bastard. What are you really up to?

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  2. Protip: Electrical tape the ends of the cables/ sockets remaining in the room.

    See you when your floor is nicer.

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  3. I'll struggle through but come back soon!

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  4. yeah yeah, you'll get halfway across and the floor will come out from underneath you and you'll break your wrists trying to catch yourself (Okay, nobody but me is stupid enough to actually do that, but IT COULD HAPPEN!)

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  5. See you should have installed that securely lockable door with retina scan/DNA scan/ Voice recognition lock to keep your BlokeSpace(tm) secured from the prying eyes of Those Who Would Mess With Your Stuff i.e spouse, children etc..

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  6. Medway... luckily for me, I've had practice falling on my arse, which is better padded than my wrists.

    Bondi -- I've had to disable the deathtraps so the sander can do his job. To be fair, I didn't like the appalling goddam carpet either. Now, if only I had time to do something about the navy blue ceiling...

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  7. The ceiling comes next...something to look forward to. And if you wanna see dust, come to MONTANA. Winds average 40 mph on most days and down here in the hot, dry plains in summer, well, the dust is so thick it lays all over everything, gets in one's crevaces and places it should NOT. I'm over dusting. It's a thankless job and just returns every day.

    you'll be happy when it's all done and nice and clean....and refurbished. And then you'll forget what a PITA it was. Trust me.

    all's well that ends well.

    Love you. Sent you 4 boxes of stuff today. Some stuff i forgot to comment on but will tell you when they arrive. More boxes of STUFF to pile places. YAY, right? hehehe. Wicked laughter.

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  8. Paint nice white clouds on the ceiling, with a smiley sun in one corner?

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  9. Your lack of faith is disturbing admiral

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  10. Navy blue ceiling. Hmmm. 20 ltr tin of paint, plus correctly mixed.....readily available ingredients and a TRIGGER!. OH, and stand back. best do this BEFORE the sander man arrives I thinks

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  11. glow in the dark stars, or Zubbles! I bet they'd stick to the sandman dust.

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  12. so we are now at the 10th and still no signs on the Horizon, that monsignore Flinthart had not taken to killing the floor layer fellow. Its that or his big feet are stuck to the not yet dry stained and polished floor boards in the DEN of destruction.

    Why do i get the feeling the first post back will be a ball tearin cracker, one to piss one self laughing with

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  13. 12th August. No sign. Send in the sniffer Barnes.

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  14. I thin so BART, I wonder if the boss lady caped him?

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