Thursday June 21/12 update
Happy first day of summer in the northern hemisphere. Happy first day of winter down here where it
is hard to tell the difference, lol.
Pancho kept me up all night but I still goy up at 7:15 and
tackled my Spanish homework. Starting
first thing in the morning is still best for me to remember anything.
Bella is off to do some chores and called me to see if I can
modify a $10 breakfast tray into a reading tray by extending a couple of
legs. As long as there is a couple of
inches of leg to work with this should not be a problem.
I slipped out to Coral to get a small pencil case, an
eraser, and a small pail. This totaled
$2.20. I needed the case for protection
of the stationery stuff when carrying it in the backpack to and from class. I needed a small pail upstairs for watering
the lemon trees, etc.
I had nine videos of Tom that I checked today but I wasn’t
happy with any of them, most are too dark.
I will continue to try to get one earlier in the morning, in the
sunshine, so we can clearly see his wonderful iridescent colours.
Bella returned with the breakfast tray and it was quite
different than I expected, but not insurmountable for the task requested. Bella showed me the angle she required and I
did the measurements over and over, then mulled my options for a while. I figured I needed two rods of wood, metal or
plastic of about 19.5”, a method to anchor these to the table, and then to add some
feet to the new legs. Round was
preferred but rectangular was OK, it didn’t matter, I could make either work.
The local Ferreteria had nothing. The Ferreteria on the hill had nothing. I then scoured Coral for a long time before
finding most pipes, etc would have no feet available and they came in huge
lengths. I then grabbed an expanding
closet rod for $4.32 and tried to figure on a way to secure the legs. I thought that drilling on either side of any
of the many support braces in the table then using plastic zip ties would do
the trick.
Then I realized I already had a closet rod at home gathering
dust so I put the new one back. The closet rods automatically come with rubber
end caps so the feet problem was solved too. I wasn’t sure if I had strong enough zip ties
at home so I bought a large package of long ones for $2.52 and headed home.
I had to cut away a small portion of the table’s foot rests
to allow a straight run for the new legs. Then I took apart the closet rod into the 2
sections. I carefully marked both of
them off at 19.5” and put the hacksaw to work. I held the new legs in place while I “eyeball”
marked spots for drilling holes in them above and below the upper and lower
braces. After quickly drilling right
through the light aluminum I then held the new legs in place again and put the
bit through the front and back holes to continue drilling through the table’s
legs. Now all that was left to do was to
thread the zip ties through each of the double holes to secure the new legs
over the braces securely to the table. Now
the legs can’t move in any direction and yet the legs are small enough that the
table can still fold up for storage reasonably well.
As I do this kind of work I know I am guided by my wonderful
father who was a whiz at repairing things. He also taught me the carpenter’s rule, “Measure
twice, cut once”. I usually measure
about five times…..
Anyway, Bella is happy with her new reading table, and that
is all that matters.
Wow, a friend who had just returned from a visit to the US,
Chris & Bettye’s neighbor, Jim, recommended that I list my
cuencaresidency.blogspot.com site on South Of Zero http://southofzero.wordpress.com/.
They posted the following:
~~~~~NEW LINK ALERT – Al and Bella Bourassa have put
together an Unofficial but Practical Guide to Living in Cuenca , Ecuador Cuenca .
Cuenca Residency has certainly
gotten the SOZ seal of approval.~~~~~
The result is that I got 200 hits on that blog today alone!
Enjoy the pics.
That was today’s excitement.
Hugs to all.
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| 120621 Homemade reading table 1 |
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| 120621 Homemade reading table 2 |
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| 120621 Homemade reading table 3 |
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