Yeah, She Is Still "Bill"

A personal note from this olelongrooffan: I haven't been blogging a whole here lately. Been accepted pretty well over at http://www.hooniverse.com/ where I blog as longroofian. Go to my byline on any of my posts and click on it and all of mine come up. Or not. Anyway I was able get the previous three out which this olelongroofan thinks are pretty good. Hope you do also. and remember to Celebrate Life.

So, a couple weeks ago this olelongrooffan was hanging out at the Taj Mahal, probably doing a blog as that seems to be my life these days. Other than scleping trailers that is. Anyway, the massive communications system lights up and it turns out it is BabySister. Now BabySister often calls just to make sure her older brother, the "oldest of the four little kids" hasn't yet kicked the bucket...I think she just wants my Comanche when I do eventually pass. "What's up BabySister?" "Well longroof next week I am going to replace the CV joints on my '08 Highlander," was her response. Yeah this is my 46 year old BabySister.

A Christmas Dinner, Florida Style

I hope all of you Counting Along With Me are having a wonderful Christmas Day wherever you may be. As usual, this olelongrooffan had the opportunity to Celebrate Life a bit differently this holiday and, if interested, you can Count Along With Me as I relate my Christmas celebration 2011, longroofstyle.

I have previously mentioned one of my older brothers, thehorsefarmer (yeah, he prefers that over thebeachbiker) and his lovely wife, thebarngoddess (who still loves the beach) moved from Haven Lee Farm up in the Ozarks to sunny historic St. Augustine, Florida last fall. I believe they truly love it there but miss having an extended family around, but not necessarily the resultant chores associated with a farm and all that family.

I did, in fact, ask thehorsefarmer how he likes St. Augustine  he mentioned it was nice but other than his job, which he loves, there is nothing really holding him there. My response? "No sh*t horsefarmer, your house has wheels under it!"

Anyway, it sure is nice having them close by and they seem to get down here to the Birthplace of Speed every couple weeks for a visit to the Taj Mahal, a pass thru at Sam Walton's big *ssed store or a trip out to the local flea market they love so much.

So, as always happens when they visit, we tend to gather together for a meal in an attempt by thebarngoddess to fatten up this olelongrooffan.



And usually, it is quite good. For my birthday in 2011, thebarngoddess and I tried a little momnpop mexican restaurant down on Beach Street and the proportions were huge and delicious. This olelongrooffan brought half of the burrito I ordered home and enjoyed it for dinner later that day.



And thebarngoddess inadvertantly left a freaking huge container of spring mix in the fridge at the Taj Mahal and I ate salads every day for a week in an attempt to consume all of it prior to its going bad. (didn't work)



Last spring when they were down visiting prior to moving to the Sunshine State, thebarngoddess insisted I have a sammich while visiting them down at the Daytona KOA.



This was just prior to her cooking up a mess of Ozark beef for thejeepjunkie and I for a delicious home on wheels cooked meal.

Now onto Christmas dinner.

A couple weeks ago, my massive communications system at the Taj Mahal lit up and it was thehorsefarmer asking me to make reservations for Christmas Eve day for dinner for thebarngoddess, thehorsefarmer and this olelongrooffan at a restaurant of my choice. "And longroof," he said, "not at Appleby's or Friday's, make it someplace nice."

Well Counters, if you clicked on that Birthplace of Speed link above, you will have noted in the background of that image is a Bonefish Grill restaurant, conveniently located just a couple blocks south of my Taj Mahal on A1A. Now Bonefish is this olelongrooffan's favorite restaurant, even though it is a chain. Back when I had a real social life, as opposed to the viral one I have these days, I used to frequent Bonefish quite often. Yeah, a trio of appetizers, a couple drinks and a beautiful female companion often made that place very special for this olelongrooffan. But alas, real life has intervened and I had not been to Bonefish in over three years. So, of course this was my restaurant of choice. I warned thehorsefarmer about the prices there and he approved the costs and Bonefish Grill was the home of our Christmas dinner, 2011.

And just to show how much of a newby thehorsefarmer is to the Sunshine State, he called prior to leaving his rolling castle and asked if shorts were acceptable attire at this particular restaurant. I silently chuckled at his question and said yes they are. After all Counters, this is Florida, shorts are acceptable everywhere.

So after spending a few hours with Manuel Labor in the morning (yeah, I have a BikeWeek deadline on that remodel so days off are few and far between for this olelongrooffan), I was taking a brief nap sitting at the Taj Mahal waiting for thebarngoddess and thehorsefarmer to show up in their Bull so we could head out to Bonefish for a much anticipated holiday meal and to Celebrate Life with them.

And we did. I am pretty sure they both enjoyed my restaurant of choice as thebarngoddess said the salmon she had was the best she had ever had, and that is saying alot given the restaurants worldwide she has enjoyed. And thehorsefarmer was thrilled Bonefish had traditional Scottish style fish and chips, something he hadn't had since his pub attending days in Scotland while serving our country back in his submarine days in the Navy. This olelongrooffan enjoyed a tilapia filet with pan asian sauce after we had all tasted some of Bonefish's legendary Bang Bang Shrimp. thebarngoddess even disected the shrimp sauce recipe for this olelongrooffan and I'm going to be putting that sauce on d*mn near everything I cook for the next few months!

So, we finished up a lovely, non rushed, leisurely seafood dinner and headed back to the Taj Mahal. Then it was time for Christmas images and thehorsefarmer broke out his trusty Samsung camera that had served them so well over the years.



If you noted the past tense of that previous sentence, you will note thehorsefarmer's Samsung camera failed miserably for the first time ever and no amount of replacement AA batteries sourced from the Taj Mahal would make it operable. But all is good, my trusty el cheapo ebay acquired Polaroid still works well (thanks Bus) and I was able to capture a couple images for all of we Counters to enjoy.



So after those images were gathered, thebarngoddess headed into the Taj Mahal to grab a short snooze while thehorsefarmer and this olelongrooffan headed off to thejeepjunkie's garage to play Santa Claus for that branch of the extended Lee family.

As it turns out, thejeepjunkie, thesungoddess, the Kid and the Kid's sister were nowhere to be found. We erroneously thought they might be enjoying an adventure like this one but they were nowhere to be located.

Well, thehorsefarmer dropped down the chimney (yes, there is a fireplace in thesungoddess's home) and left that gift under their tree and we headed out for points unknown.

As we had left the Taj Mahal and the sleeping beauty just a few moments prior, we decided to head out to that flea market and see if we could get a cool license plate for one of thehorsefarmer's underwater friends. Alas, 4:45 pm on Christmas Eve day is not the most successful time to find the Daytona Farmer's and Flea Market open for business and we left a bit dejected but not totally disappointed.  As thehorsefarmer pointed out, "Just another excuse to come down here again."

We then beat it back to the Taj Mahal and thebarngoddess was her usual bright and cheerful self after her power nap and we all bid adieu to each other. They headed back to their castle on wheels in anticipation of a full Christmas day with some old friends up in Jacksonville and this olelongrooffan reflected on yet another wonderful afternoon spent with some of my family.



Hey barngoddess and horsefarmer, thanks for allowing me to spend some holiday time with ya'll, a visit to a great restaurant and a wonderful time.

Oh yeah, what makes this Christmas Dinner Florida Style? Well, it was seafood and we ate dinner at 3 in the afternoon!

Merry Christmas everyone.

A Great Day After Birthday

So Counters, this olelongrooffan had a quiet 52nd birthday and pretty much just surfed around these tubes on Thursday.



However, Friday was anything but quiet. This olelongrooffan has blogged many times about my sister-in-law, newly christened thebeachgoddess. The image of her above was taken a while back during a fateful afternoon back when she was thebarngoddess and a bunch of us built her a Chicken Coupe de Ville out on Haven Lee Farm up in the Missouri Ozarks.



This is an image of her with her team of miniature horses and her Springfield wagon during one of the many parades she and thehorsefarmer participated in back in the day.  She is always smiling, isn't she?



Yes, I just had to include an image of that aforementioned Chicken Coupe de Ville and



like their horses, their chickens are miniature also.



Now last spring thebarngoddess and thehorsefarmer ventured off the cow path to come down to the Birthplace of Speed and spend a wonderful couple of weeks hanging with thejeepjunkie, the Kid and this olelongrooffan.



And the ever so sweet beachgoddess made sure this olelongrooffan had something to eat all the while they were here.



Well, as this olelongrooffan has previously mentioned, thebarngoddess and thehorsefarmer had so much fun down here in the Birthplace of Speed they decided to divest themselves of a bunch of horses, tack, wagons, trailers and tractors and move to the blue hair Sunshine State joining three of his four brothers.



And thehorsefarmer, now thebeachbiker, traded his big *ssed zero turn mower for a beach bike and barbeque grill.



And it should be noted thebeachgoddess will be needing that sweater and scarf should she decide to venture out onto our Atlantic beach this coming January.

So by now, this olelongrooffan can hear those Counting Along With Me, what the h*ll do thebeachgoddess and thebeachbiker have to do with my 52nd birthday and the day after?

Well Counters, refresh that cocktail and this olelongrooffan will relate the happenings of Friday, the last day of September down here in the Birthplace of Speed and its surrounds.

And Away We Go...

After thebeachgoddess and thebeachbiker had made their decision to join their fellow family members down here in the Sunshine State, they decided to have their factory fresh lightly used 2003 Ford Taurus (you know a car had to factor into this blog somehow, didn't you?) receive a service update at their local Ford dealership.  This dealership had performed service on this sedan since the day it was driven off their lot and their service performance had been stellar.  However, on the last visit that Taurus made to that dealership, something went awry and, unfortunately, this problem was not realized until after the Bus had delivered that car to thebeachgoddess and thebeachbiker down in the oldest city in the United States.

A couple weeks ago when they were down visiting this olelongrooffan at the Taj Mahal, thebeachbiker mentioned the Bull was not acting correctly and this fact was mentioned to thejeepjunkie when we finally caught up to him. Of course, that conversation evolved into the isomerics of air pressure in tires with regards to hot versus cold measurement of the same. My eyes kind of glazed over at that point, by the way.

So, anyway, it was determined thebeachgoddess and thejeepjunkie would coordinate their respective schedules and get that Bull down here to the home of the World's Most Famous Beach so thejeepjunkie could get a look at it in his new shop. Well, they set that visit up to coincide with this olelongrooffan's 52nd but due to a scheduling conflict with some of thejeepjunkie's best customers, that meeting was postponed until the following day.

thebeachgoddess and this olelongrooffan determined it would be best if she swung by the Taj Mahal and pick me up prior to heading to thejeepjunkie's shop. We were going to utilize thejeepjunkie's pickemup truck while the Bull was getting diagnosed as to what was up with it.  thebeachgoddess had a few specific things she wanted to do but the rest of the day was left up to this olelongrooffan to figure out what to do. She did, however, comment that she was, once again, feeding this olelongrooffan as she is trying to "put some meat on your bones."

So we got to thejeepjunkie's shop, picked up his pickemup truck and thebeachgoddess mentioned she was starving. Of course, the first thing I mentioned was that we should head over to the Boot Hill Saloon on Main Street and grab some Bloody Mary's and a burger. Well, I must say thebeachgoddess has a great sense of humor, as well as being extremely attractive, but this wasn't what she really had in mind and we just grabbed a quick eggamuffin from Ronny's place.

Now, here I must interject this point. As I have mentioned at least one time previously, this olelongrooffan has been known to be the tour guide. As such, I always strive to provide guests or travelling companions new and interesting destinations and try to venture onto new avenues so as not to get my guests bored with the same old scenery.

Well, Counters, this olelongrooffan, try as I might, failed miserably in my task as a tour guide that day as we drove past these five different times that Friday. thebeachgoddess knows their entire history as well as the location of The Best Damn Garage In Town.

So anyway, we headed out to Sam Walton's big box store where entry requires a little blue card and did us some shopping. Now this olelongrooffan can't remember the last time I was in a big box retailer that didn't specialize in home improvement products but I do know it has been at least ten years. I mean a single guy doesn't really have a need for a 48 pack of toilet tissue or a twenty pound pork tenderloin no matter how inexpensive the per unit cost is. Yeah, I was in sensory overload that is for sure.

After that we again passed by those vacant towers to return to the Taj Mahal to put a bunch of that stuff in the massive refrigerator to keep all that stuff fresh for thebeachgoddess's return trip to her new home town.

We then headed out to the Daytona Beach Flea Market to see what could be seen.  I have lived here for three and a half years and only have been to that market once previously. As we were leaving, I related this fact to thebeachgoddess and she commented that she could see why.

While we were there, thejeepjunkie called with the prognosis on the repairs to the Bull and, after consultation with thebeachbiker, authorization was provided to thejeepjunkie to perform the necessary corrections to get thebeachgoddess's daily driver back up to snuff.

In the meantime, lunch was in order and as we were passing the Daytona International Speedway, I recommended we eat at some Mom-n-Pop place down on Beach Street rather than some restaurant chain there on International Speedway Boulevard. thebeachgoddess concurred and we ended up at a great little Mexican restaurant that I have previously seen but had not previously frequented.



It turned out to be an excellent decision as the food was abundant and delicious, even if the hot sauce was a little to hot for thebeachgoddess. The portions were so gigantic this burrito came home with this olelongrooffan and I thanked thebeachgoddess for the birthday lunch and dinner!

Over lunch, we had an excellent conversation about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. thebeachgoddess commented on how much they enjoy St. Augustine and that she wouldn't mind getting a cheap fishing pole to use in the lake at the place they call home.

After a quick trip through a nearby over priced antique mall, we decided to head back to the Taj Mahal and take a break. Upon arrival, we spent a few minutes on the massive veranda enjoying the ubiquitous ocean breeze and soon thereafter, this olelongrooffan could see a nap would be welcome in thebeachgoddess's world and suggested one. She commented that she didn't want to be rude and I admonished her that she still had to drive home and this olelongrooffan was not offended in the least.

I spent some time on these here webs and then divided up some of those Sam's acquired provisions as thebeachgoddess had instructed me to do. Shortly thereafter, the massive communication system here at the Taj Mahal lights up and as it is thejeepjunkie, I answered with "Is it done yet?"  "Come and get it," was the not unexpected response.

And we did. thebeachgoddess was thrilled at how well the Bull ran and the fact the air was, once again, ice cold. On the way back to the Taj Mahal, we stopped and topped off the fuel for her hour long trip home. We got back to the Taj Mahal and loaded up her provisions and got her on the road to be reunited with thebeachbiker.

A little while later, this olelongrooffan was getting a cold sodie pop out of the frig and noticed that I had forgotten to load this in the box for thebeachgoddess to take home.



Now I don't know how I missed it and even worse, how long will it take me to eat a pound of organic baby spring mix lettuce?



And the final cool thing? While thebeachgoddess was enjoying that much needed rest, this olelongrooffan headed out to pick up some more sodie pops and as I was driving down the street, I spotted this fully functional fishing pole beside the road awaiting pick up by the big green truck that travails my street twice a week. I remembered our conversation over lunch and snagged this for thebeachgoddess. After all, my favorite four letter word is "free".

A wonderful day was had by thebeachgoddess and this olelongrooffan that day and even though we never did make it to the Boot Hill Saloon we certainly did

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: An Unexpected Update

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 24, 2011

So, this olelongrooffan is still in the Mile High City and things are rapidly progressing on the project which brings me here. 

Meanwhile, all four of my brothers are down in the Sunshine State dealing with yet another woman, this one in the form of Hurricane Irene. This olelongrooffan is really bummed that I am not there with them as I have Hurricane Supplies. Well, regardless of how famous and somewhat fatalistic the Bus is these days, I am sure we will all hook up once again.

Now this olelongrooffan asks for a bit of your indulgence here as I share yet another hurricane related story.

It was 1992 and the Hurricane was a dude known as Andrew, to my recollection, the last Category 4 hurricane the Sunshine State has seen. My not yet conceived daughter's Mom and this olelongrooffan were in France with some fantastic friends visiting a sister and her then husband. My Mom and several of her friends were down from the Sho-Me State enjoying our Naples home; thejeepjunkie and his family were living in the greater Fort Lauderdale area; and this olelongrooffan was in western France oblivious to the fact a Cat 4 hurricane was headed for south Florida. So Andrew decides to pay south Florida a visit and my Mom and friends head north to MickeyMouseLand to ride the storm out. thejeepjunkie and his family decided to evacuate to our home in Naples and end up partying like rock stars with my buddy Dr. Dudley and his family. I wake up that fateful day to my brother in law telling me a Cat 4 just hit South Beach and was heading towards my place in FantasyLand. Well, needless to say, this olelongrooffan was stressed more than Brad Keselowski with Carl Edwards on his tail. I mean my aged Mom and friends were in harms way, thejeepjunkie and his family were in the eye landfall area and no communications were available for me to contact them.

So what is an olelongrooffan to do? Well Counters, my doctor brother in law hooks me up with a couple little blue pills (I'm not talking Viagra here) and we four vacationers in that wonderful country caught that previously scheduled afternoon flight to Paris.

Yeah Counters that's right. I evacuated Hurricane Andrew to Paris, France. And know this olelongrooffan will forever tell the tale of how I evacuated Hurricane Irene to the Mile High City, no matter how premature that evacuation was.

Yeah, that's how I rock.

And that forbidden white masking tape was still on the windows of that home when I sold it!

Meanwhile back in Denver,



Big J spent the entire evening after his garage slab was poured spreading abundant amounts of H2O across it in an attempt to prevent the concrete from cracking.  So far success is showing its presence.



The next phase for his efforts was spraying out the interior of the Port Royal to evenly coat the fresh drywall with a base layer of paint.



Yeah, this olelongrooffan was able to capture yet another image of my feet during yet another image taking process.



During the same image taking process, I captured a shot of the window I had installed earlier.



Note the paint particulates in the air on this interior shot? Needless to say I beat it the h*ll out of there rather quickly I might add.



In the meantime, this olelongrooffan was out and about and captured these two beauties on Sheridan Street just around the corner. A '63 Ford longroof country sedan as well as a '65. The '65 is for sale for a mere twelve hundred bucks. Good thing for all of us that twelve hundred bucks is not in my possession on this road trip.



So after the fumes had cleared it is now time to for Big J to lay down his first ever floor tiles.



And, much to his, and my, pleasure that experience was an extreme success. Laundry room done, now on to the kitchen.



And that kitchen will be painted one of these colors prior to that flooring being installed.



Meanwhile out back a super huge garage is being installed and I don't believe these garage framers suspected they were going to be on a tree trimming crew before it was all over. But that worm drive circular saw works excellent as a chain saw.



Two white guys got the roof raised and the sheathing on the rafters in less than two days.



Yeah, room for Big J's BMW X5, girlie's Volvo X70 and my current Denver based Taj Mahal inside Big J's only requirement for his new Port Royal. Pics on Saturday!

Now if those of you Counting Along With Me will note, all of this construction based activity is super fantastic as it allows this olelongrooffan to return to the hurricane laden Sunshine State to resume some of my previous activities and I sure look forward to it once this project has come to fruition.

But if you have, in fact, been Counting Along With Me, you will remember the sighting of these two old cars that reminded me of my Dad, TheGentlemanFarmer, just a few short weeks ago, also here in the Mile High City.

Well, on my return from yet another visit to the big box retailer that loves the number 48 NASCAR racing team, this olelongrooffan spotted this



lovely offering at the intersection of Pecos and 38th street, just a few blocks from Port Royal.

And the fact this olelongrooffan was able to spot the very same old Mercury ragtop driven by a youngish bearded and pony tail bearing dude with his even more youngish daughter in the passenger seat really allows this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: A Port Royal Project Update

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 16, 2011

This olelongrooffan has posted previously about the progress of the project which brings me to the Mile High City.

Well over the course of this past few days things have moved along rapidly thanks to the abilities of Big J and Girlie and we have been able to schedule the required subcontractors in and get their portion of this project completed.



On top of that Teva filled dumpster, the drywall dudes piled the remnants of their phase of renovation while



this olelongrooffan finished up trimming out those newly installed front windows. Once that was completed, one of the drywall dudes came out and mentioned they needed a couple more boxes of "hot mud" to help in their attempt to straighten out the crooked *ss walls in this 110 year old home. So this olelongrooffan set off, once again, to that big box retailer that loves Kobalt tools so much to get them some of that "hot mud."



On the way back to the Port Royal, Big J's name for this project, I spotted this ole Dodge truck parked out front of a boutique beer joint resting comfortably as its mascot.



When I returned, I was able to capture an image of the nearly completed kitchen area of Port Royal,



and out back I noticed that someone had come in and stolen the filled to the brim mini dumpster as well as the fence that formerly traversed the rear property line. That can only mean one thing. Garages R Us must be on the way.



However, in the meantime, this olelongrooffan will be reinstalling the mail filled mailbox out front. And those two occurences really help this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Blowout Edition

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 14, 2011



As those of you who are Counting Along With this olelongrooffan may recall, I have spent that past few weeks out here in the Mile High City helping Big J and his girl renovate their new to them 110 year old home.



While out here I have been able to do some pretty cool stuff and see a boat load of cool old cars and trucks,



some of them are even topless.  In addition to seeing all that stuff, touring Coors Brewery, seeing Tim Tebow in action, hitting up a great concert, this olelongrooffan has been



hanging with Tripod, a really cool mellow little puppy dog.  While I'm not a huge house dog fan, this one is extra special and a fun companion.



Not only that but I have also been tearing a bunch of cr*p up and filling that mini dumpster to capacity.



I also removed a bunch of windows and



installed some new ones. Big J is finishing up the electrical phase of this project and Girlie is cleaning up the remainder of the fence and helping fill that dumpster as this olelongrooffan is taking a break and getting this up for your, hopefully, enjoyment.

Life hasn't been all fun and games though. A serious tragedy occurred yeasterday and this olelongrooffan is still pretty bummed out about it.



See that Teva sandal in the fence filled dumpster? This olelongrooffan has been wearing those suckers for nearly 15 years and yesterday while picking up the drywall for this project at the big box retailer who loves Jimmy Johnson, this olelongrooffan suffered



a serious blowout on the strap of one of them and no amount of duct tape would repair it.

Those beloved Tevas will be spending the remainder of their days in the Denver county municipal dump and this olelongrooffan will miss them dearly.

However, the fact that Filmore, my mobile Taj Mahal here in Denver, was parked just outside the door of that big box retailer and contained a back up pair of shoes for this olelongrooffan allows me to really

Celebrate Life.

On The Road: Denver Edition: The Reason This olelongrooffan Is In The Mile High City

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 24, 2011

As I am sure those of you who have been Counting Along With Me are aware, I have been in the Mile High City for just over two weeks now. The reason this olelongrooffan is hanging out where pot is legal and a right turn on red isn't is because a great friend has purchased a new to him home and he called me last month and asked me to come on out and help he and his girlfriend renovate their first "John Lee" home.



So I did a rare thing. I got on an airplane for only the second time in ten years and headed out to this fair city to be of whatever assistance I could be.



While Big J and Ellie were at the long delayed and much anticipated closing on their home, this olelongrooffan headed over to their new pad, utilized those tin snips in a way that I am confident their designer never thought of, and set those newly clipped roses in a vase on a the portable table on the covered patio out back.



Yeah, in that cooler are a bunch of PBR's, IPA's and a cold bottle of bubbly to Celebrate Life in their new home.



Now this olelongrooffan has to tell you, Big J is all about value. See that fancy dancy green Werner fiberglass ladder he is holding? Thirty nine bucks at the local ACE hardware store. Regular retail? Sixty four bucks. Yeah, "that's value".



Their new home, originally constructed in 1901, is an interesting mixture of architectural finishes and modernizations. There was a commercial style drop ceiling in the downstairs covering some fixed metal duct work and the kitchen cabinets are barely affixed to the walls. The sink was not even hooked up to any plumbing.



And of course, by the end of the first day of possession, Big J had injured himself but it's okay, we have Duct Tape!



And above that metal grid drop ceiling was this falling down plaster ceiling.



This olelongrooffan, after a hot shower over at Big J and Ellie's condo, needed to utilize another tool in an unusual way. I manned that sawzall to trim a branch from the neighbor's tree so I could pop Filmore's top and create a mini me version of the Taj Mahal.  That is Ellie's pup, Tripod, at the base of that el cheapo ladder.  Look closely and those of you Counting Along With Me can determine how this Jamaican born canine got its name.



Like many of the vehicles in the possession of this olelongrooffan, Filmore is having an identity crisis this day.



See this man on the right in the above image? He was sent from God.



No, this olelongrooffan is not responsible for the consumption of this bottle of Mohawk Vodka during the construction of this 110 year old home, nor any of its previous renovations.



Ah, the 2 x 4 less Filmore is an excellent resting place for this olelongrooffan once the top is popped and a cocktail is in hand.



ACE is the place of the helpful hardware man. And their wheelbarrows make an excellent grill stand.



Remember just a moment ago when I mentioned the man sent from God? Well that man, Tim, spent an afternoon of his vacation out from Delaware helping Big J and this olelongrooffan put in this drop ceiling in the living room and extra bedroom in This Old House.



And even though this olelongrooffan has done a "John Lee" house so many times that process possesses my name, I am renovating this home with an engineer and an electronic technician. Sometimes I even get to put my 3 cents in.

And even though this olelongrooffan is not getting rich on this project, finding those 3 cents and putting them in allows me to continue to

Celebrate Life.