On The Road Denver Edition: The Anatomy Of A Colorado Concrete Slab

Dateline Denver, Colorado:  August 18, 2011

As those of you who have been Counting Along With this olelongrooffan will remember I am spending some time here in the Mile High City working with some buds, no pun intended, renovating their new to them home.



And if you happened to have read my last blogpost, you will remember this is what the backyard of the Port Royal looked like after someone had stolen that Teva filled dumpster.



Well Counters, yesterday afternoon at about Japanese Dental Appointment, you know tooth-hurty, this bobcat comes rolling around the corner from the alley out back and commenced to tearing that formerly nearly pristine backyard all to h*ll.



As you can see in the previous image the subsurface of that backyard was filled with all sorts of junk, chunks of concrete, asphalt and I don't know what all. But there was no septic tank! Once that skilled skid steer operator had reached clean soil, those no longer needed dump trucks were dispatched elsewhere and the backyard was then set at two distinct levels. One level was recessed for the garage slab and the other was set at nearly the preexisting elevation and set aside for the outdoor living area of the yard.



The operator of that skid steer then attached this device and penetrated the earth around the perimeter of the slab location to loosen the soils so he could then



dig the footer portion of this monolithic slab with the bucket of that Bobcat.  This olelongrooffan has most recently seen this same feat performed with shovels by a crew filled with individuals of the Manuel Labor persuasion.



Once those footers were excavated, the form boards and grade stakes were installed.



Seeing this guy on his hands and knees using a 2 x 4 as a rake to even out this subgrade reminded me of a great story.

Go ahead and refresh that cocktail...I am.... then on with that memory.

And here it is.

Around about eleven or twelve years ago, sh*t, this olelongrooffan is getting old, anyway I was living down in FantasyLand and looking for a new place to hang my hat. That Sunday I was hanging with an old friend and meeting some new friends at their pool in a swanky area of town. Some of my new friends, Terry and Debbie, were getting buzzed as we all were and were bummed out as they had to leave to show "The Little House" to some potential tenants. We started talking about the Miami style bungalow they owned adjacent to their "Big House" and it sounded extremely desirable to me. I mentioned I would be interested in renting it from them and the pool party continued on in full blown mode.

Anyway, I ended up getting that place, cleaned it up, painted it with some design assistance of my at the time girlfriend and it turned out super cool, if I do say so myself. At the time I was working for a pretty high end building contractor and we had a model home on our hands that had been around for a while.  We found a buyer for this multi million dollar home but the buyer wanted a different paver brick driveway installed. My boss balked at the $5,000 cost but finally relented so we could move on from that spider web filled model home.

Those pavers? Well they ended up in the front yard of "The Little House" awaiting installation. Terry finally got around to finding an installation crew comprised of a bunch of Manuel Labor's friends. As they were installing those paver bricks, the lead guy used a machete to sharpen a carpenter's pencil to mark some cuts on those bricks.

Terry looks over at this olelongrooffan and made the comment, "A Mexican Utility Knife." To this day we still call a machete that and we laugh about it every time we see each other.

Well Counters, you have seen, in the above image, a Mexican Yard Rake. And like that utility knife, this olelongrooffan will never look at a four foot long 2 x 4 the same ever again.

Now you know why I mentioned you should refresh your cocktail for that story.

And finally after that diversion it's time to get back to The Anatomy Of A Colorado Concrete Slab.



So the slab area was prepped and the the wire mesh installed in an attempt to prevent future cracking.



The footer preparation is a bit different than this Sunshine State based olelongrooffan is used to but it appears to be effective here in this climate.



So in the meantime, this olelongrooffan had to run an errand and while out and about a 65 Ford F250 stepside was spotted out in the wild. All ya'll can read more about that sighting here.



Shortly after my return to Port Royal, the slab inspector showed up and approved the efforts provided by Manuel Labor and his crew and now it's time to



hang with Carroll Shelby's infamous creation.



The foreman of the concrete finish crew showed up and started watering down the dry soils we have here in the Mile High City as there has been no rain here since the first couple weeks this olelongrooffan arrived.



Got Concrete?



The crew to finish the concrete was running a bit tardy



so the concrete truck drivers started filling those footers with that rapidly hardening, in the truck, mix.



The finish crew finally showed up and got the job done and we now



are ready to get some walls up on that garage and that is an excellent reason for all of us here at the Port Royal 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: Just For thejeepjunkie and the Bus

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 15, 2011

As you can surmise, this olelongrooffan is still in the Mile High City and spotted something today I know thejeepjunkie and the Bus would appreciate.



Frequent Counters may probably remember a post I did way back in January about a couple of trailers thejeepjunkie had acquired through somewhat dubious means.



The intent of thejeepjunkie was to restore that old U-Haul trailer and tow it behind his yellow CJ2a when he takes his family to the beach on Sundays. It will work great once it is done and all of his beach cr*p will fit in it nicely.

However today, while out and about near the big box retailer that likes Chad Knauss so much, this olelongrooffan spotted a much more appropriate one to be used behind that 2a.



To bad I can't fit this in my checked baggage on my flight home. FYI jeepjunkie, it is at Mile High Jeep Rebuilders on Federal Avenue near downtown Denver.



Spotting that toy trailer and the fact drywall is finally being installed at my project house is an excellent way this olelongrooffan can

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: How About Some Football?

Dateline Denver, Colorado:  August 8, 2011



So last week this olelongrooffan was chatting it up with the land surveyor for the project in which I am engaged here in the Mile High City and the subject of the Denver Broncos arose. Seems his daughter is some big muckity muck within the Broncos organization and had obtained he and his wife VIP tickets to a Broncos practice session down at their practice field about 45 minutes south of here.

An idea popped in my head that this would not be a bad gig to attend so I pulled up the Broncos website and realized that on this past Saturday, the Broncos were holding a scrimmage at their game field, Invesco Field at the Mile High Stadium.

Well Counters, you know what this olelongrooffan did, don't ya? Yep, I finished up working round the "Port Royal" about 1, showered and headed the six blocks to Invesco Field to catch me some National Football League action.  Did I mention it was free admission to boot?



It was a pretty cool gig and, although I was seated facing the western sun, I enjoyed myself along with around 10,000 other folks that afternoon.



I had pretty decent seats and lots of room to spread out.  The opposite side of the field was mostly shady and packed.



After a series of field goal practice kicks, the blue and white teams sided up and commenced to getting at it.



It seems the Broncos are pretty strong on the passing plays but their running plays left something to be desired.



And let me tell you folks, pro football cheerleaders look alot older on the boob tube than they appear live and in the flesh.



And I have this to say about that. I was not at all impressed with young Tim Tebow. 24 plays, 3 interceptions, 4 sacks and ZERO first downs.  I imagine that kid's learning curve is pretty steep these days.



After watching those plays, this olelongrooffan decided to call it a Broncos day and headed on out. Just outside gate 4 the powers that be have installed a series of horseshoe pits open, free of charge, to the general public. Broncos...Horseshoes...Get it? Pretty clever this olelongrooffan thinks.



See that parking lot at the end of the walkway to Invesco Field.  As I arrived, the cops had the entrance to this not yet full parking lot blocked off and were directing us fans to a lot several blocks away.  I decided to head back to the main drag and try and find something a little closer. As I was turning onto Federal Road, I spotted a gap in the cable surrounding that parking lot and followed an Audi A4 through it into that just across the street parking lot. Yeah, this olelongrooffan is not known as "Create A Parking Spot John" for no reason. FTW.



So anyway, out in that walkway portion the Broncos have some pretty cool sculptures, all football related. Here is a mouthpiece that was about 15 feet long.



Here is a neckbrace...



A chinstrap...



Knee pads...



A section of a cleat...



And a tee used for place kicks...



And although there was not an oversized jockstrap in sight, this olelongrooffan did receive a Broncos keepsake on my way out that, even today, allows me to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Mobile Taj Mahal

So, over the course of the past couple evenings, this olelongrooffan has had a few conversations with some east coast time (yeah, I miss it) friends of mine who have absolutely no idea what a Westfalia Vanagon is.



Well for those unknowing Counters, (of which there can only be the ones I spoke to recently) this is a 1980 Volkswagen Westfalia in all its glory.



It is a factory approved camper conversion of a basic Vanagon with a gas stove, refrigerator, slide out table with a seat that converts to a bed and a pop top that is also another sleeping area.



But, more important than that, Filmore, as it is affectionately named by its owners, is also the chosen home of this olelongrooffan for the duration of my stay here in the Mile High City. And this vehicle signifies the desired lifestyle of its owners. The above image captures it all on the day after my host's 30th birthday party.

Newly acquired, but unseen, first home behind the image taker of this picture: Check

Newly acquired blown up pool, inflated by the 45 dollar air compressor purchased to apply yet to be applied nails to the walls of this 1901 constructed home: Check

Large trash pile of food wastes accumulated while the urban trash collection schedule was decifered: Check

Even more recycle ready items: Check

Construction waste dumpster nearly filled to capacity (but thankfully without foodstuffs): Check

The Denver based minature Taj Mahal with the pop top in the background: Check

Legal here in Colorado cannibas in the foreground: Check

I am fairly confident that might explain to you the situation here in the Mile High City.

But know this Counters, my dad, TheGentleManFarmer, used to call this olelongrooffan JD, short for John David.



And if any of you are cruising I-70 near the Pecos Street exit in the Mile High City, stop in and enjoy a cool one with this olelongrooffan as Filmore and I continue to

Celebrate Life.