Day 21

I woke up this morning and got ready for work. I went down stairs to the kitchen and prepared my IDS protein shake and my IDS Mass Tab with my additional supplement. I am heavily minded with this deck project and sometimes I feel that I have gone over my head with this one. It seems like there are so many details involved even before one piece of material is even purchased. I am taking the challenge and I will see this all the way to the end. If there is something about me that is that I don’t quit. I tend to do things under my terms but through the struggles of any process I do get to see the other side. I went to work today and worked on the usual projects. I did have a small cup of coffee from Dunkin Donuts and a Chocolate frosted cake. For brunch I had left over rice, beans and steak in sauce. After 12:00 I went with Wilson in his car to his son’s workplace. Michael is a police officer and when we got to his station he was able to give me a tour inside the station. I got to see some cells and the gym. Wilson and Michael had lunch at and they went to a sushi restaurant. I ordered the lunch special which included a mini egg roll, soup, and some noodle with some sauce, shredded peanuts and chicken. After we were done with lunch Michael went back to work and Wilson and I drove back in Michael’s car since Wilson swapped his car so Michael could take it to the mechanic shop. When I got back to work I wrapped up the day and left at 3:45. During the day I did call Lowes to make sure someone was going to work on my material list. I spoke with Tim and he did call me later that day and told me that he finished my quote. On the way home I called my father to find out if I need wood to create the framing for the strings that need to run across the job site in order to determine the accurate dimensions for the post markers. My father told me that he did not have any wood and that I needed to buy it. When I got to Lowes I picked up my material quote and purchased 6 2x1 8 foot long wood boards. I came home and changed to get ready to work in the backyard. My father showed up with his tools and we began cutting down the wood board and made several wooden stakes. We laid them out and using a sledge hammer pushed them into the earth and in position. We then used the construction strings and squared everything out. After we finished this we went over the drawing and the design again and we both recognized several errors in the diagram again. Geez, this part of it is frustrating. We realized that the post will need to move over slightly to the right or left so that when they are dug and set that they are between the joists which will be 16 inches from center. We also noticed that the post position at the east edge of the deck need to be set back about 1 ½ inches. After we were done, Yolanda served us 2 tamales with sour cream, green sauce and cheese with a cup of coca cola. At about 8:00 we stopped the project and I wrapped up the night on my laptop, watching TV, having a cup of ice cream cookies and cream mixed with milk. Finally, I fell asleep.