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I hate tarps. I really hate tarps.

Actually, I guess I don't hate tarps, I just hate the problem they are intented to fix. The tarp has blown down several times, and now most of the eyelets are ripped out. I've decided there's not much I can do to protect the building at this point. I'm only going to try and keep more water from getting into the floor, where it can't easily get out.

With all the things going wrong, I sure am happy that these walls are straight and square:




















I'm also very exicted about a detail that I decided to add. The overhang will have a knee-brace below it and will support the end rafters. I love details like this that are both structural and ornamental.

Latest workshop progess:

The long walls were pretty quick and easy to build, requiring about 4-5 hours each. The short walls are proving to be very diffiult to square up, mostly I think because of their diagonal top.

Yesterday, I went for a walk again in the forest. Same area as last time. I figure I covered ~15 KM.

Today I made the journey into Stuttgart. Being Sunday, almost everything was closed, so I just walked around and took some pictures.

Some of the galleries and museums were open, although I only had about enough energy for one. The gallery I picked was very close to the Subway station, and had a very cool architecture. It was basically a 5 story glass cube. Most of the art consisted f paitings, but a bit of scupture and other stuff as well. A few of the paintings were very provoking and morbid, to the point that I was pretty shocked. For example, one of the art displays had a chair hanging from the ceiling, with long sharp spikes protruding through the back, and blood spatter on the wall. Some of the paintings by Otto Dix intruiged me. They were quite strange, bending deep, dark and strange with comedy and parody. I did some research on him when I got back to the hotel. His life history explained his work.

You scored as Miyamoto Musashi. You're considered a sword saint, whatever the phrack that is. You don't give two hoots what weapon or tact people come at you with, as your solution is a steady grip on a sharp blade and it tends to work. You're never going to be defeated in battle, but you are going to die of Cancer. Miyamoto Musashi 83% C.G. Jung 83% Jesus Christ 75% Charles Manson 67% Dante Alighieri 67% Friedrich Nietzsche 67% Hugh Hefner 67% Adolf Hitler 58% Stephen Hawking 50% Sigmund Freud 42% Elvis Presley 42% Steven Morrissey 33% O.J. Simpson 17% Mother Teresa 8% What Pseudo Historical Figure Best Suits You? created with QuizFarm.com

My Diabetes, my job, my lifestyle, my health and my future

A part of me really enjoys the fact that my job often entails that I travel to far away lands. Getting to live life somewhat differently, experience different culture, and see different sights has truly enlarged my understanding of the world, and to some extent has partially raised a veil of ignorance that I’ve always had regarding many aspects of the human race.

For me, a typical overseas trip pulls my stress level way up however. Two problems that consistently plague me are my inability to adjust to local time, and inexplicably bad blood sugar episodes.

I left for Germany this past Sunday, and it’s now early Friday morning. I’m still waking up in the middle of the night and then lying in bed for hours, too tired to do anything, but too awake to sleep. At 4:15 AM this morning, I awoke feeling sick. Managing my eating, exercise/exertion/stress, and my thus my blood sugars, is always a challenge on a trip, so right away I headed for my blood glucose meter. 19.6. This is very bad. In the 14 years that I’ve had Diabetes, I’ve been above 18 less than 20 times. All, except 2-3, have been within the last two years.

I’ve always chosen to make life decisions that most people would not call conservative, especially considering my Diabetes. I’ve run 10 Km races, all without adequate training. Once I even ran after being up all night partying, although at least I didn’t drink. I’ve stayed up all night partying and drinking. I’ve eaten an incredibly diverse range of foods from chocolate bars to sushi. From authentic curries prepared by real Indian people to the Tiramisu that I ate tonight for dessert at the Italian restaurant, and that most definitely contributed to my 19.6 blood sugar. I have pushed my body physically to almost exhaustion, hiking, working for a moving company, and most recently doing construction work on my building. I’ve damaged my body by breaking bones, spraining ankles, cutting myself.

My point is basically that I have not let my diabetes limit my life much, if at all. I try hard to manage my blood sugars. I’m certainly not ignorant of the situation. Sometimes I test as much as 10 times in a day.

<< I have more to say, but it I feel like crap, and I’m tired. I’ll continue this later>>>

Prairie dogs, my relationship with coffee, the fridge, the car wheel, and a really, really painful visit to the bookstore

The pain came on suddenly and was excruciating. It happened just after I walked into the bookstore and located the sci-fi section. It wasn’t really that I wanted to buy a book; I was there more just to pass time at the airport. I’m not sure what triggered it, but my right thumb instantly started pulsing and throbbing. I brought it up close to my eyes to have a look. Sure enough, there was a small pimple-like bump. There was clearly infection. Retched painful infection. Also, as I turned to exit, I noticed the cashier was curiously watching my strange behavior. Odd to have a pimple on the thickly padded skin over my thumb, I thought. At first I couldn’t bear to touch the area, the pain was too great, but, knowing what I had to do, I vacated the bookstore and found a more private location to burst the pimple, and purge the vile infection from myself. I mustered up the courage to squeeze, and sure enough, a tiny explosion of pus and blood burst from under. But, I still did not feel any relief. I could hardy stand the pain, but squeezed again. This time amongst the blood and fluid, a small black spec appeared. Again, I squeezed, tears threatening to stream down my face, I squeezed harder, and a tiny black splinter revealed itself. A few moments of thought, and I knew what it was. A small bit of one of the thousand drywall screws I drove into the floor of my building, while working in the cold darkness last night. Even though the fundamental problem of my pain was now revealed, however, I still could not resolve it. As I squeezed, the sliver would come up above my skin, like a prairie dog poking its head out of barren landscape. I tried to pinch it between my nails, but in doing so, I had to release the squeeze. Frustrating, but eventually I did pull the damn thing, and boy did it feel better.

On another note, life was rather crazy this week. While in Syracuse, Jen informed me that she had a flat tire, and that the fridge had stopped working. Plus, I was hell-bent on making some progress on the workshop during my short stopover back home before going to Germany for two weeks. Let me tells you, Sears is not a pleasant bunch. Anyway, to make a long story short, I hate Sears. They suck bad. I highly recommend using anti-seize compound on wheel hubs before putting wheels on the car. I have no idea why we are getting so many flat tires, and I bought a reciprocating saw which really helped to make me feel better.

For some reason I drank a coffee today. It’s the 4rth one I’ve had in my life. I didn’t like it very much.

Here are a few pics of the workshop as of Saturday Nov 4:

Income trusts tank!

Jen sent me an email early this morning, knowing that most of my investments are income trusts, and that new legislation is mandating increased taxes on companies operating income trusts. I didn't think it would have all that much effect. I was wrong.

I own 5 stocks, 4 of which are income trusts. They are down and average of about 16% today. I'm hoping they'll bounce back, as stocks often do when bad new comes out. Or, maybe it's just the start of a mass self-off. The following is an excerpt from a stockhouse.ca article from today:

It's a day that could go down in Canadian stock market history as Black Wednesday. After the markets closed on Halloween, Canadian Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty spooked Bay Street by announcing a new tax on income trust distributions in a bid to stem the growing number of companies that are converting to trusts.

Not something I need right now when I'm way overextended trying to pay for the workshop construction.