Building Bleachers

By
Last Friday was the annual volunteer day at work for a girl scout camp up in the mountains. It's always one of my favorite things to do at the end of each summer. The camp is about an hour's drive, and it's situated right at the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. I've been 6 or 7 years now, and the weather is usually pretty beautiful. The leaves on the aspens are usually just beginning to turn. This year, however, things were a little different. For starters, it was only about 45 or 50 degrees. Usually it's in the 70's. And of course it was raining. I'm amazed whenever I go into the mountains at how quickly the weather can change. Over the course of the time we were there, the weather literally changed from rain to overcast to sun and back again about 3 times. Funny stuff.

One of the things that makes this volunteer day so fun for me is the chance to build things. I always sign up for the construction projects; they're the most fun. When you get a bunch of IT geeks trying to build real stuff as opposed to the virtual stuff they spend most of their time building, it can be quite comical. This year we built bleachers to go near a horse arena. All we had to go off was a hard-to-read plan that had been copied blurry. The plan wasn't that good anyway, so we added a few of our own ideas to the project. I have to say, though it took us quite a while to actually get started (and more than one "oh no, let's do that again" moments, the two bleachers we made actually turned out quite well. Since we were concerned that the original design wouldn't support all the weight needed, our additions ensured that there wasn't anyone who could sit on these guys and break em.


The final product. What's a perfect day when you can be in the mountains using power tools?
I like to share what I learn, and I like to learn from others.

Comments

Lori said…
Again, i applaud you for finding such great service projects!

Isnt moutain weather so crazy and hard to predict? I'm glad you were able to get your project done with reasonably good weather.
September 18, 2008 at 6:29 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walmart Bingo

By
I took my 8-year old on a date tonight and she chose for her activity--wait for it--Walmart Bingo. She found bingo cards online and after our dinner, we commenced the hunt. The items on the card were mostly outrageous and not likely to find (including "bearded woman"), though not outside the realm of possibility; the "someone buying beer and diapers" came pretty close. Here, however, were some delightful finds I did manage to pick up, even if not on the bingo card: Teenage girl in PJ's Dude with "Shh, this is my hangover shirt" t-shirt Dude with one eye Dude with a mohawk and a mouth full of chew Guy buying worms Guy with a full 1-1/2" gauge in his ear, plus more jewelry on his lips.  He looked like livestock Broken bottles on the floor in the drink aisle Mormon missionaries.  Maybe they broke the drinks!  Luckily they were missing the facial jewelry.  Phew. A girl playing (successfully) with 3 hoola hoops at the same time    ^^^M...
Read more

Colorado Flood Update

By
Image
Many friends from outside the area have inquired how we've fared through the recent disaster in Colorado.  Here's an update: Our current place (rental) is fine, though the property we're building on was decimated pretty badly (it's about 2 miles from where we presently live, next to a lake on the St Vrain river).  The river is normally 20-30 feet wide and 1-2 feet deep.  I could have waded across it no problem a week ago.  It was 200-500yds wide when we saw it a few days ago (no typo there).  The shot below is our lake, but it's connected now to the river and the next lake over.  The water continues for hundreds of yards to the right side of the frame.  Utterly amazing. Here's the sign to our neighborhood.  Irony is we just changed the street name from Dougla Drive to Waterside Ln.  How appropriate. This guy tried to go around the road barriers.  Bad idea.  Fire department got their engine stuck trying...
Read more

WFH: Adjusting to the New Reality

By
Image
In the midst of the worldwide pandemic we're each now navigating, we are obviously in uncharted waters in all aspects of our lives. Professionally, nearly every one of us is now working from home (WFH) full time. Though many folks have long WFH'd one day per week or on occasion, it’s a very different thing to become a full-time remote worker. Some of you are adapting to very new ways of working that might at times feel awkward. Here's some tips from those who have been doing the WFH thing for years. Routine. As much as you can, try to maintain a normal routine. That means starting the day on time, getting ready for work as you normally would. You might not be dressing up like you would for the office, but there’s mental value to the whole “getting ready” routine. If you wake up and immediately hit the laptop to start into emails, you don’t get that important ramp-up/ramp-down time in your day. Take breaks as you normally would. It’s not uncommon to find yourself si...
Read more