Pool table assembly

It's under way at Castle Borepatch.  This is actually the third time I've done this, and it's surprisingly easy to do.  Other than putting the slate on the frame, it's a one man job.*

The trick is levelling the frame before you put the slate on.  When I first bought the table, I watched the guys who set it up and learned their secret - playing cards.  You keep adding cards one or two at a time between the frame and the legs until the whole thing is level.  I have two mason's levels (extra long levels) plus a normal sized one, and so this really didn't take too long.  Then bolt everything together.

I was dumb when I took the table apart at Camp Borepatch, because I folded the felt up.  Yeah, they say to replace the felt when you move the table but this is because most pool tables get moved once in a blue moon.  I only set up the table around 18 months ago, and the felt was brand new.  So I ironed it to get the creases out and it looks fine.

But the design and engineering of a pool table is really straight forward.  All you need to put it together is a ratchet set for the bolts, a screwdriver for the side pieces (and screwing down the slate), and a staple gun to make sure that the felt is taught.

And I didn't need a dining room anyway - actually, both the Queen Of The World and I like having the pool table there instead.

* Needless to say, I did the slate by myself, too.  Not sure that I'll do that again.

Georg Frederick Handel - Messiah: Hallelujah Chorus

Not my favorite bit from that piece, but appropriate for the day.   It's been quite some time since I've been to a Handel Sing-a-long and likely can no longer sing the baritone part from memory.  But that's OK - in packing up Camp Borepatch I found my score.  The next time I have I have an opportunity, I shall be prepared.

Out of Chaos ...

... comes order.

I close on Camp Borepatch tomorrow.  It's been chaos.  I expect that to continue for a couple weeks.  I hope at the end that Chaos will catch a Greyhound Bus to the Coast ...

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

- Henry Adams

The Feast

Pieter Breugel the Elder, The Peasant Wedding

The feast has always been more for the soul than for the body.  Today's holiday is the most uniquely American of all.  A day to relax with family and friends, but one that explicitly calls on us to ponder what we are grateful for.

Me, I'm thankful for quite a lot.  It's a quiet day with just the Queen of the World and me.  I'm thankful that I'm an empty nester - the boys seem to be doing pretty well, but it was time.  Probably best for both them and me.

I'm thankful for the dog park and the puppy play that wears Wolfgang out.  I'm thankful that the move back north looks like it will go fairly smoothly.  Roswell and Camp Borepatch have been good places, but a new adventure begins.  I'm thankful that the adventure looks like it's fixin' to be a good one.

And I'm thankful for you, gentle reader.  The community that we've forged is something special indeed.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

*Groan*

Camp Borepatch is officially on the market now.  I sort of ache a lot, but have to say that the place really shines.  It's been a good refuge from the World these last few years.

But #1 Son has ridden off on his motorcycle, and #2 Son moves out at the end of the month.  It's too much house for me, and I need to move to the DC area anyway.

It's odd how you take everyday things for granted: I couldn't muster enough of a damn to make this place sparkle, a couple years back.  With the pressure of getting it listed to sell, I put in the  4 1/2 month effort to do it.  Now it's done and I find that I quite like it when it shines.

There's no doubt a moral in that somewhere ...

James Burton - Working Man Blues

I think I'm done getting Camp Borepatch ready for inspection to put on the market.  May or may not give the front door another coat of pain; got to drop another load of stuff off at Salvation Army.

But oof.  May take a soaky bath in the soaker tub.  Only done that two or three times (like when I added the pond).  Not used to working for a living, and at my age I need an ibuprofen cocktail.

So rock me out, Jimmy ...

Seen inside the Camp Borepatch perimeter

Danaus plexippus.  Click to embiggen.

Chet Baker & Paul Desmond - Autumn Leaves

I've been busy.  Life's been loud, but for once in a good way.  In the meantime, the leaves are falling at Camp Borepatch, so here's some autumn jazz for the occasion.

Busy

The house is almost all done - a quick tidy of the detritus that settled during the last room clean ups and vacuuming and dusting.

Err, and #2 Son tidying his room up ...

But the house across the street just sold.  In 4 hours.  Confidence is high that Camp Borepatch will have new owners in the next little while.

But man I'm worn out.

It's weird being an (almost) empty nester

When I got back from my trip to DC last Friday, #1 Son had moved out.  This was no surprise - he's in his 20s and so it's time, and he'd been planning this for a couple months.

But it was strange to come back to an empty room.  Well, a messy empty room, which seems like an oxymoron.

I feel quite torn by all this.  Not that I want him living in my basement into his 30s - after all, it was time for him to stretch his wings - but this is the first time since 1992 that he wasn't living under my roof.

Maybe I'll go through my whole life seeing him like this:

His first beer at the Hoffbrauhaus in 1996.

I must confess that I'm rather disappointed in myself - my sentimental reaction is so common as to be boring.  It's easy enough for me to be boring, so I shall endeavor to be less so in the future.

But one down and one more to go.  When Camp Borepatch gets sold, that will happen too.

The road goes ever on and on

A new job opportunity has come up, one that's a big step up from where I am.  And so on Monday, I'll start a new gig at a tech company in the Washington DC suburbs.  I'm not a fan of that area but the offer was too good to turn down.

And so when Camp Borepatch finally sells, I'll point the tires north and find myself back in my old stomping grounds of Maryland.  I left there in 1996, bound for London.  Then Atlanta, Boston, and Atlanta again.  Now this.

It seems like a lot of moving.

And it will be strange to have the kids gone.  That was going to happen anyway, but I thought they'd be across town, not hundreds of miles away.

Those of you here in the ATL who would like to meet up sometime in the next month or so, leave a comment.

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.

- Seneca

Dreams

I've been having a recurring dream where I'm taking a Real Estate Agent through my house so I can get it listed.  But there are a whole series of rooms that I didn't know about.  In my dream I keep saying "I've never been in this room before" - and the realtor typically says "And it needs a good cleaning".

I'm not sure if the dream means that my subconscious thinks I'll sell the house for more than I thought, or if cleaning will be harder than I thought.  Or both.

Or maybe it's just the fumes from Formula 409 ...

Alan Jackson - Chattahoochee

Vickery Creek, flowing towards the Chattahoochee.  Photo copyright Borepatch

I can walk from Camp Borepatch to the Chattahoochee river.  There are very nice trails through National Forrest parkland (the picture here is from this parkland), there's a lively riverside activity scene on the river.  In all the years I've lived here, I'd never gone tubing on the 'Hooch.  So we went last weekend.

Remember, it's August, so it's hotter than a hoochie coochie.  You bet there's a country music song about that.

Alan Jackson was one of the stars that blazed brightly in the 1990s, with 35 Billboard #1 country hits.  This was one, which won CMA song of the year in 1993.  As a Georgia boy, he was familiar with the 'Hooch.  Asked about the song, he said:

It's a song about having fun, growing up. and coming of age in a small town - which really applies to anyone across the country, not just by the Chattahoochee. We never thought it would be as big as it's become."

Chattahoochee (Songwriters: Alan Jackson, Jim McBride)

Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee
It gets hotter than a hoochie coochie
We laid rubber on the Georgie asphalt
We got a little crazy but we never got caught

Down by the river on a friday night
A pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight
Talking 'bout cars and dreaming 'bout women
Never had a plan just a livin' for the minute
Yeah way down yonder on the Chattahoochee
Never knew how much that muddy water meant to me
But I learned how to swim and I learned how I was
A lot about livin' and a litttle 'bout love

Well we fogged up the windows in my old chevy
I was willing but she wasn't ready
So a settled for a burger and a grape snowcone
Dropped her off early but I didn't go home

Down by the river on a friday night
A pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight
Talking 'bout cars and dreaming 'bout women
Never had a plan just a livin' for the minute
Yeah way down yonder on the Chattahoochee
Never knew how much that muddy water meant to me
But I learned how to swim and I learned how I was
A lot about livin' and a little 'bout love

Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee
It gets hotter than a hoochie coochie
We laid rubber on the Georgie asphalt
We got a little crazy but we never got caught

Well we fogged up the windows in my old chevy
I was willing but she wasn't ready
So a settled for a burger and a grape snowcone
Dropped her off early but I didn't go home

Down by the river on a friday night
A pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight
Talking 'bout cars and dreaming 'bout women
Never had a plan just a livin' for the minute
Yeah way down yonder on the Chattahoochee
Never knew how much that muddy water meant to me
But I learned how to swim and I learned how I was
A lot about livin' and a little 'bout love

Ah, the joys of getting the kids to clean up so I can sell the house

Going pretty well.

Yeah.  Going really well.

Thoughts on getting the house ready to sell

I'm getting Camp Borepatch ready to sell - the boys are getting their own swinging bachelor pad and Wolfgang and I would be rattling around in a big ol' empty place.  Plus, the market is roaring here in the ATL, and for once in my life I want to see what it's like to sell a house in an an up market.

And so I'm going through room-by-room clearing out junk and setting things up so that the house will show well.  I've discovered some interesting things:

• I have boxes that I've never unpacked since moving here from Mordor on the Charles Massachussets.  "Boxes", as in plural.
• I've discovered that the empty downstairs room that has the freezer and a fridge for the kids will make a dandy shop.  The table saw and other implements of destruction have decamped there.
• I'm filling a Bagster with junk.  Bagsters are the shiznit.  I may get another before I'm done.
• Crews (plumbing, landscaping, etc) are OK when you're (ahem) of a certain age.
• I kind of think that I'm doing what's called "decorating".  I wasn't allowed to do that in the past ...

All in all, things are proceeding.  It's a bit odd to think that I will soon end up in the same situation where I was at FOB Borepatch - on my own, away from the family, only permanently this time.  It's very odd that I'm looking forward to this.

Epic bathroom is epic

Need one of those here.

A Camp Borepatch anniversary

Four years ago today I posted this first photo from inside the secure perimeter at the (then, to us) new Camp Borepatch.

A World Age ago, before Dad's death, before commuting back and forth to FOB Borepatch in Austin, before Wolfgang, and before taking up riding the motorcycle.  The next four years will ideally be less hectic.

Rifle display stand bleg

I'm looking for a display stand that would be suitable for displaying Great Grandfather's rifle on the mantel over the fireplace here at Camp Borepatch.

I'd like something free standing, and be able to display the powder horn as well.  Any recommendations?

So, how was your day?

Ohai!

I've seen there here at Camp Borepatch.

What I love about living in Hotlanta

You can say to someone "Hey, remember that time it snowed?" and they will know exactly which day you're talking about.