1000 lbs of steel later...

Oy. I just loaded 1000 lbs of steel into the container. My god I hurt. The body, she is the old.

The good news is that I found all of my steel in the 'scrap' leftovers so it was 1/3 the price of new steel. If you ever need metal, go to Alco in San Leandro - a virtual candy store for metal whores. Bad news...I started the day off by loading 6 seventy pound batteries - so I pissed off my back from the get-go. I sheared a nice chunk out of my right hand too, complete with profuse bleeding. So why not piss my back off more! By all means! I'll go drag steel off the racks at the Alco yard, , load into the truck, load off the truck, load into the container...so I guess I lifted 4000 lbs of steel - ugh.

As of 10pm my hands, arms and legs have stopped co-operating...the nerves are not firing quite right, so I'm managing to drop 1/2 of everything I pick up or randomly veer off course, into insidiously placed corners, when walking. Who put a frigging wall there!

For all my tired complaining, I really am thrilled that I'm almost done. Solar panels & batteries are packed, crap is packed, storage is empty. Tomorrow I'm lugging the windows, plamsa cutter, welder & genny down to the container..strap it all in and call it done.

Super tired woot.

egads, I'm still here

My shipping company bites. I had to pull out the legaleese nastygram on Monday. Grrr! I am still here in CA fixing things, but finally moving forward. My storage units are empty & the container is packed to the gills. The good news is that I've scavenged everything on my list except a bathtub and a ladder. I even sold the Tipi (yay craigslist). I think I'm going to just saw a 55 gallon drum longways for a tub & rough it for a while... any excuse to use the new (to me) plasma cutter, heh.

I'm picking up my solar panels in Petaluma tomorrow then off to Alco Metals to pick up scrap steel. I can't wait to play, er WORK, with the welder. First project will probably be making the adjustable roof mounts for the solar panels - we'll see.

Great news this afternoon... One of my neighbors in Puna is going to help me set it up my solar system so I don't zap myself :) Brian is getting all of my batteries wholesale too, so that rocks - to the tune of a couple hundred bucks! Learning the little details of solar is making my brain hurt, but it's finally starting to make sense. Kinda wish I'd paid more attention to all of the electrical crap Phil's tried to teach me over the past 5 years on the playa - Amp Shmamp...oh well :P

Hopefully the container will be on the boat by Friday. Then I have a whirlwind tour of the Peninsula to visit HighWire pals, Amacker & play polo in La Honda. I thought I had given away my polo mallet & riding boots but I found them yesterday - yee haw!

Oooohh! And our new lava flow just did the 'bad thing' folks have been dreading. It created a lava tube & became pehoehoe (aka travels long distances, can't tell where it'll pop up and travels fast). The folks back home are shitting their shorts. Me not so much cuz my house MOVES :) woot! Here's to hoping that land prices plummit.

And a big shout out to my friends in Puna who keep calling me to tell me how COLD it is - 74 degrees at night, oh the horror.

Oh, and I was *THIS* close to getting a ride in a 16 million dollar Ferrari GTO at Sears Point last week - I'm still kicking myself. I have to say that seeing 30 GTOs in one place was quite a site. There are only about 45 in the entire world, so seeing 30 at Sears was a once in a lifetime experience. It was cool tho to stand right on the start finish as the GTO's whizzed by. One wrong move & all the spectators would have been splatted. I spent a good amount of the session up in the start/finish tower -what a view! Somebody hired a helicopter to film & I swear, the pilot flew so low that he was 10' feet above my head. We're still debating how he got permission to do that or if it was insanely illegal. My guess is that it's a licensed stunt pilot from LA who's licensed to do that kind of shit. Honestly it was right out of Mission Impossible... Big black unmarked helicopter chasing down hot sports cars 40' off the ground - it gave me the willies.

On a sorta sad note, I've noticed I'm pessimistic, snarky and impatient here...I can't tell you how many drivers and pedestrians I've cursed at. I always figured that's just what I'm like, but I'm not like that in Puna. I'm a completely different person. I'm defintely cut out for Island time & Aloha. Wierd, but good.

PS. Mercury retrograde can bite my hiney.

oh NO WAY

So, today I sold my Ducati to two nice (hot) brothers from Equador. While we were loading the bike into their truck I notice a "Desert Polo" bumper sticker. "Oh Desert Polo?" Yes, they are both in the states to play polo. Get the fuck out of town! So yeah, they know the folks I used to train for, and I get to go play with them next week if I want. Heck yeah! This should be hilarious since I haven't been on a horse in 7 years...haven't played polo (badly) for 15!!! but hot damn, the smile on my face is 10 miles wide! I'm gonna play poooollooooo, I'm gonna play poooolllloooo. whee!

well, make that 5 weeks

I want to go home where it's warm, but I'm staying in the Bay Area for 2 extra weeks. Shipping plans got munged at the last minute & I had to stay to fix em.

As It turns out... I can scavenge most of my 'house' off of Craiglist for 1/10 the price of buying things in Hawaii! Hot Damn! So far I've found a propane stove, 2 huge solar hot water collectors, 5 gigantic aluminum windows, a flat panel monitor, water purifier and 15 solar lights. All for super cheap or free. Egads I love SF Craigslist. Total savings so far is $3000.

Still searching for Mig Welder, Plasma Cutter, generator, Inverter, Solar Charge Controller, Solar Panels, clawfoot tub, dead water heaters, collapsable above ground pool, pvc & copper pipe & fittings, manual bilge pump, exterior doors, heavy duty hinges, barn door sliding hardware & tracks, kitchen sink w/faucet & kitchen cabinets. Woo, isn't my life thrilling? hee hee. I'm probably going to prefab a lot of my steel 'thingies' for the container here, so all I have to do is cut holes & weld stuff on when I get home. Should save a lot of time & energy since I have all the metalworking experts on hand in Berkeley.

wish me luck! and yes, I'm coming to visit folks I promised to visit. Things just got a little hectic last week :)