Hatch to Storm Transition
Saturday, September 9th, 2023 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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77F and sunny on this final afternoon of the Queen of Clubs. I forgot to change my alarm last night, so I woke up at the Saturday default, 2PM. I bubbled Natalie while we were out in the yard, and, after taking a walk around, could see that the grass really does need a mow.
Is that gonna happen? I dunno. I've gotten a late start. The sun sets earlier than it used to. And the neighbors are setting up for another big back yard party.
One thing I have to do is get to Home Depot. And I guess I AM gonna get a sheet of OSB plywood to cut a table top from, like I was talking about last Tuesday.
And I do want to fine tune the rigging for the hatch door today, before sundown.
Speaking of sundown, I did bump the timer back to 6:30 for the garden lights, a few days ago.
I do want to install an astronomic timer eventually, but it's a low priority right now.
As for D313, it struck me last night that when I started for the hospital as a janitor, they had me at an offsite in a hybrid position that was both housekeeping and maintenance.
It's far fetched, but wouldn't it be cool if they decided to stick me over at Odlaw in a similar position? That would justify paying me a little more.
They do see from my resume that I have years of maintenance experience, and it came up at the interview.
We know that they do have a 2nd shift opening over there, and there's a scenario in which they may be looking at me as a godsend, for actually requesting to work there.
In that scenario, people still consider Odlaw to be smack in the middle of, "the hood."
It used to have that reputation... I mean, this whole part of town had the reputation for being the dangerous hood... because back in the 1990s, it kinda was, with gangs and drive by shootings, etc.
But Odlaw, especially, was seen as one of the scarier parts of the hood... because it's a junior high full of juvenille delinquents, and because it's just a very densely packed corner of town, with lots of houses & buildings on narrow city streets with alley ways and ... just your typical comic book hood.
Also, it's an old building dating back to 1912, and I know from my work experience that many people do get the creeps about working in old buildings, especially at night. The fear of ghosts is a real thing employers have to deal with.
Thus... in my scenario, they not only have trouble keeping a night janitor on site, but maintenance guys also complain and drag their feet about going there for work orders, because it's too scary.
Now here's this guy who wants to work at Odlaw, and lives four blocks away... who has both janitorial and maintenance experience in spades.
The trouble is, he wants more money than a janitor makes, and he doesn't want to do overtime.
But, if they're clever, they may arrive at the solution that putting me there in a hybrid position, for a few extra bucks would solve a lot of problems.
And on top of that they could probably convince me to be more or less on call for the building... because I live so close.
In other words, any weird alarm that goes off, or maintenance issue that happens on a weekend, or after hours, they could call me for, and I'd run over and look into it.
I would actually be game for that, because Odlaw is so close, that I could conceivably go there drunk, without any trouble from the cops.
It's just a straight shot down Jackson Street... 25 miles per hour, one stop sign, no turns. And in the middle of the night... no traffic either.
I dunno if I'll get the opportunity to sell them on this idea... or if they'll come up with it on their own... but in theory it could be great!
I went to Home Depot, and got all my stuff, including screws and nails. The total came to $76.00.
Then, as soon as I got back, Yvette, of course, wanted to go for a walk. And we just got back inside from that.
I did buy a 3/4" sheet of OSB, seen here on the roof rack.
It's always fun to try and bungee these damn things down, and then drive 25MPH the entire way back home, praying the wind won't cach 'em.
This will be my work table top, out on the porch.
Here's the 1/2 inch wooden dowels... I bought a couple extra. And you can see some small circular dowel here. I'm gonna cut pegs out of that.
You're looking at a 1X3, but there are 1X2's mixed in there.
Took a while to find four of each that weren't all full of splits and gashes.
So, I think I'm gonna leave it all sit in the car for a bit and get straight to fine tuning the hatch door hardware before it get's dark out.
Then later on I can bring in the lumber, and maybe cut that plywood to a manageable size.
Okay, I did my fine tuning to the hardware... the stuff on the right is now further to the left and more of a true mirror image of the left rigging.
And I also tightened down the lids of the counterweights.
There's still a lot of resistance when closing it, and it still wobbles on the way down.
I think maybe I should just eliminate two of the pulleys!
I also have some silicone lubricant coming tomorrow for the pulleys.
So... maybe I'll mess around with it a little more tomorrow.
We'll see.
After making a couple TikToks and finishing this entry, I'm kinda out of time, because we're gonna have another four-way sibling conference call tonight.
So, this was my Saturday.
I got some sleep... got the shit... walked the dog... and fine tuned the rigging.
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