Sparky's
Graffiti Experiment
When us guys sit
in the van while the old folks go fer a bike ride, we often get
out to stretch our legs, and there is often a lot of Graffiti on
things around buildings near the bike trails all over the
country.
Well, I got to thinking, that as
soon as those people paint something on a wall, some other guys
in orange uniforms come along and paint right over it.
That wastes a lot of paint and takes a long time to do. |
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That's why I decided
to get some of those sticky back note paper sheets and print my
message on them using my special Kelsey Printing Press.
That way, them fellers in the orange suits ken jest pull them
off and throw them out if that's what they want to do.
Or, since I'm famous, they ken
jest take that note home to put on their own wall and show their
family how cool it looks to have a note that they got from a
reel celebrity!
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Don't
Even Ask!
Jest because now
you know that I have this heavy duty special Kelsey Printing
Press, don't think that I would be willing to print things for
nobuddy else. I am much too busy to operate a printing
company!
However, if you
need any heavy excavating work done, I would be willing to take
on jobs that I ken do with my Powerful Steam Shovel. Of
course, all prices given will be "Batteries not
included." In other words, I charge extra for the
batteries it takes to do the job, plus the root beer I drink up
during the job.
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Sparky's
Back Yard
Page 7
by Sparky |
The
Split Rock City Railroad |
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Featuring
Construction and Operational Information About the
Railroad |
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The
Big Ladder Contest August
9, 2003, Saturday morning. The day started out pretty
nice, and there was some painter guys working on the house next
door. One of the guys got out a Giant Ladder, that
was about 25 feet long when he got done stretching it out and
putting it up against the house. Then he looked over at me
sitting in my easy chair under the shade of the big Maple tree and
shook his head. Well,
I am not one to let a challenge go unanswered, so I got off my
butt and went into the house and drug out my special train track
ladder that I use for checking on the mailbox to look fer
suspicious packages. I leaned it up against the big
Christmas Tree that we have growing out in the back yard and then
I climbed up into that big tree and looked back at the guy who was
up on that ladder by then. By
my calculations, his ladder was about 9 or 7 times as long as he
is tall, while my train track ladder is 11 times as long as I am
tall, so that means that I won the contest, with
ladder to spare!! That's
when him and the other guy that was also painting over there went
and got 2 more ladders that weren't as tall, and put them up
against the house and stretched them out. Well, I can't
argue with that, cuz that
train track ladder was the only ladder I ken use so I guess
they won the contest. By
that time it was getting pretty hot out, and I didn't want to be
one of those guys that you read about in the paper, who got
overheated, started seeing stars, and fainted in the yard.
My Powerful Steam Shovel isn't air conditioned, either, so I jest
went into the house and kicked back and got a glass of root beer
with ice and relaxed beneath the
sealing see-ling ceiling fan and took a nap. |
Sparky's
Backyard Pitcher Photo Album |
1. Me Checking Out The New Tree
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2. South Walls Completed
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3. Saw & Wagon With Little Bricks |
4. More east side wall completed
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South
Side Retaining Walls Completed
While I was taking
the nap referred to above, Jim stayed outside and completed the
retaining walls on the south side, as shown in photo #2 above in
the photo album.
The big retaining
wall blocks at the bottom are Pavestone blocks that we have all
over the place in the back yard and along the east side of the
house. The next retaining wall is made up of small bricks
that Jim made out of Saltillo tiles from Mexico.
Those tiles are
cheap, about $1.00 per square foot, and they are made from very
soft terra cotta clay that is easy to cut with that diamond blade
in the special tile saw. They're also very poor in quality,
and the full tiles vary in thickness from about 1/2" to about
3/4", and many of them are bowed like the legs on a rocking
chair, so I don't know how a feller would ever be able to put them
down and make a reel floor out of them, but there are a lot of
special designers that reely like things to be reel crooked, so
they are pretty happy with them.
Gloria actually cut
most of them tiles into little bricks, and by cutting them about
2" x 2-1/2", she was able to get about 30 little bricks
out of each large tile. Altogether, she cut up about 1,500
little bricks fer all the little retaining walls Jim needed to
make. To keep them from blowing away or falling over, Jim
put them together with some waterproof wood glue. The
manufacturer of the Saltillo tiles says to only use them in areas
that won't freeze in the winter, so Jim is hoping they don't jest
fall apart next winter.
To find out more
about them tiles, click below on these websites. They also
have some higher quality tiles that are pretty.
Saltillo
Tiles or click here: More
Saltillo Tiles
Of course, you ken
use any kind of tiles or veneer bricks that you like. It
takes quite a while to cut up those little bricks, and the wet saw
spits a bit of dirty water out the back, so it is better to be
done outdoors. Jim also used his radial arm saw inside, with
a dry diamond blade to cut up some retaining wall blocks, and the
dust collector sucked up most of the dust, but it still made a
mess, and it clogged up the filter bags with the fine stone dust,
so that isn't a very good idea either. Another possibility
is to use one of those little tile cutters that works like a glass
cutter, and they are affordable to buy so you don't have to work
all at once, like when you rent a tool.
Photo 4 shows more
of the wood cribbing completed on the east side. This time
Jim tried backfilling the wall with crusher fines, to try to
better hold the wall and prevent it from bowing outward.
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A
Reel Sad Tale
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Sparky
Gets Ordered to Take a Bath |
5. Me sitting there naked, waiting
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6. Me soaking in the water
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7. Me dripping dry in the sink
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8. Me, waiting for clean clothes
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It
had to happen sooner or later. Gloria has been hinting that
I would need to take a bath pretty soon. I figgered that I
would take a bath at the end of summer, probably in late fall or
mid-winter. After all, it's not my fault that I got dirty
working reel hard out in the yard, helping with the yard work,
especially all the hard digging I've been doing with my Powerful
Steam Shovel.
Well, as you ken
see by the pictures above, specifically numbers 5 through 8, the
deed has been done. I sure hate taking several days off of
working in the back yard jest to take a bath, but that's what
happened. Now I'm waiting fer my Super Hero outfit to get
washed, cuz somebuddy noticed a little, tiny, speck of dust on it,
and now it has to take a trip through the washing machine.
I'm glad I don't have to watch that ordeal.
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That's
about it fer now. I'll have
some more pitchers in a couple of days and then I'll add them to
the album on the next page. --Sparky |
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Weather
Report
August 9,
2003
7:00 a.m. 72°
F. Warm, dry and not even a breeze.
12 Noon, 86° F.,
Hot & sunny. Dark clouds coming in from the west.
1:00 p.m., 86°
F., Dark clouds disappeared, hot, sunny and dry.
6:00 p.m. 92°
F., sunny, hot and dry.
Meanwhile...
It's reel hot all
over the place, according to the news:
Britain &
Europe are in the middle of a severe Heat Wave, and
people are jumping into rivers to cool off, even though it's
full of "unwholesome" things that would normally keep
such activity to a minimum.
London is
said to be entering the 9th day in a row of temperatures over
100° F., and folks are wading in the Thames River to help cool
off. The weather is normally not very hot there, and so
very few cars, trucks, buses, trains, subways, buildings or
homes are equipped with air conditioners.
One old codger
was reported to say that it was so hot that "Blokes what
sees stars should get in out of the sun and cool off before they
ends up in hospital."
Paris was
reported to be experiencing temperatures of around 110° F., and
city work crews plowed a section of the Seine River and hauled
in truckloads of sand to make a beach where folks can safely
cool off. They don't have many air conditioners there
either, and people in the subway cars was melting, it was so
hot. (The New York Subway tunnels get very hot, but the
trains are air conditioned).
An old Parisienner
Parisanierite guy that lives in Paris reportedly
said that it was so hot that the Escargot Snails went into
hiding, and there weren't enough of them to eat, so government
trucks brought in truckloads of foreign food, like hamburgers,
spaghetti and chicken fried steaks with mashed potatoes.
"Ugh," He said, "I just hate foreign food!"
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Today's
Dinner
BocaŽ Burgers
Ranch beans
Potatoes with green chili & cheese
Snickerdoodle decaf coffee
Jim decided to
try them BocaŽ Burgers, cuz he was curious about them.
They are meat-free, made from soy beans and cheese and some
other stuff, and they really did look like reel
hamburgers. And all of us guys even liked them. Next
we're gonna try their breakfast sausage.
You ken find out
more about BocaŽ products by clicking here:
bocaburgers
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