So, busy couple of weeks.

Took a few days off ending last week to head up to Steamboat Springs with Mary and get my wings snowboarding.

There was some of this:


But there was probably more of this:


So after two days of getting thrashed by a mountain that didn't even have to try, I came to two important decisions: first, I would definitely be going again and second, that I would definitely need a helmet on that occasion. Steamboat itself was pretty sweet, I could definitely spend some more time up there. Drive out and back was more or less a frozen hell, but more than worth it to hang out there.

Headed back to work Tuesday, and in the time I was gone the interior was almost completely finished, with cabinets in and counters down. Liz and I finished the interior trim paint, we got and installed appliances, Doug hooked up all our final plumbing, and when carpets go down Monday the interior will be done but for final clean-up. We got the dumpster out of the front yard and Mike did all the grading out front to prep the driveway, we got it formed, graded and filled, then poured yesterday. And even after concrete, I still love my job.

Had some of the kids over last night for a bonfire and a few of us are heading up to Silverthorne either tonight or tomorrow--weather depending--to get some more snowboarding in up on Copper. Pics, I'm sure, will follow.

Sometimes I just really love the French.

That training up in Arapahoe Pass, "How to Aimlessly Snowshoe the Rockies," most definitely paid off!

So yesterday and today constituted the Habitat Metro-Denver Hut Trip 09. And it was a blast. Tiring, mildly stressful, probably dangerous, and most definitely worth it. More later, but I've spent enough time posting these when I should have been walking a borrowed dog and catching up on sleep.

And how.

And that not said with any sarcasm or resignation... it's been a really, really busy couple of days... but I still love my job.

Tuesday was really slow--as they tend to be. Morning in the office at meetings, afternoon checking inspections (all passed, that's how we do) and sort of tidying up the trailer and site. Wednesday kind of slow--we were supposed to have seven homeowners and none showed up. Pretty much just prepared for Thursday, when we had four good folks from Lowes, one of our sponsor groups. We pretty much finished up all the exterior trim work, including painting and soffit, with just the corner boards (painted) to install and some 1-by to put up under the F-channel. It's just that we were supposed to get drywall that morning so we could spend the second half of the day doing ceilings. It came as we were cleaning up site. So instead of three days to work on drywall, we had two. Enter Friday and yesterday.

So Friday Mike got to site at 6 and I rolled in at 7 to start closets and ceilings so that when volunteers came we'd be all set to rock and roll. Two volunteers came. So a ten-hour day later we had all closets done, the bathroom done, and about half of each of the two bedrooms done. We were lucky in that Amanda and her buddy Topher swung by and gave us a hand the second half of the day, but it was still nowhere near where we wanted to be. You see, we are going to start mudding and taping all our own drywall from this house forward, and Bruce (construction supervisor) wants to give a demonstration to all supers and AmeriCorps on Thursday because he doesn't work Fridays. So we need a drywall inspection Wednesday, and we're not working Tuesday (HUT TRIP!). So the goal was to be done with drywall, with only some screw-checking left, by yesterday. And Mike had to take the day off. So I drove home Friday (after getting rear-ended in a hit-and-run) knowing Saturday was going to have to be pretty hardcore.

So a twelve-hour day later we are short only five or six sheets of drywall from a house completely rocked. We stole Maarty and Alison, a super and an AmeriCorps, and I owe them a million for rocking all the ceilings, which I suck at. Vanessa and Miguel were out all day (I love those two!) and made up Maarty's crew. I got Amanda again and she got all four homeowners started, teaching them how to drywall through a thick communication barrier, then knocked out the other pain-in-the-neck pieces on her own. I had two other regulars for a half-day to help finish a bedroom and start the main rooms. Then this awesome mother-daughter combo brought us hot meatball sandwiches for lunch, which is really what made my day. The daughter wanted to volunteer but is I think 10 years old, so instead they brought us lunch and I showed her around the site and explained some of how we put a house together. I love that a ten-year-old wants to build already, and you could tell she really, really does.

So it was an early day, a late day, a long day, and a great day. I really owe Maarty, Alison, and Amanda for helping out so much. It's just that today I feel like I got hit by a truck and it backed up over my hands. There's something about drywall that just tears up your hands, and mine always swell up after working with it. Nothing else that I know of can give you paper cuts and road rash at once. I'm good and tore-up sore just in time for the hut trip -- we'll call it leveling the playing field, since I have such an unfair advantage and all.

Still watching Kiowa, which is kind of fun but at the same time adds an extra 45 minutes to the beginning of my day and an hour after work and before bed. I love dogs, and she reminds me a lot of Moe, complete with age and "go lay down" command, but this time it's really throwing a kink in all my plans. Throwing off my groove, if you will. At the same time, I didn't stand a chance of saying "no."

So today it's a bunch of random errands, recovery, and getting ready for the hut trip... which I'm really, really excited about, even though it half breaks my heart that Elena can't come. Stupid knees.

So finally I'll leave you with this:



The view at the beginning and the end of my day yesterday. That is the moon shining over 7260 Oneida.

Had to let them go back home. So sad. But I had an absolute blast while they were here. It was great to catch up, great to show them the things I love most out here, and a great excuse to try a few new things and places. From the places my camera followed and made an appearance, here's some of what we got up to.

I dragged them on a few hikes, including Chautauqua to break them in, snowshoeing up Arapahoe Pass because I love it so very very much, and out above Breckenridge, a first for me but soon to be a familiar place. Took in a silent Red Rocks and played on the red rocks outside, watched the sun set from the Garden of the Gods, and followed fossil tracks up Dinosaur Ridge. Took the cog railway up to Pikes Peak and ate the obligatory donuts, did the Coors Tourery and drank the obligatory three freebies, rang in the new year at the Flogging Molly concert and bounced until I thought I wouldn't stop. Sampled every local beer we could find, from the decorated bottles of the well-known breweries to the obscure and delicious pints of the brew-pubs. Discovered Firefly. Played a few games of Risk on Recovery Day that needed recovering from in their own right. Learned you can't kill Newbai. Made the boys work two days on site and roofed three-quarters of a house, including weaving the valleys so that Vanessa's shingles are the envy of the Habitat homeowners. Introduced the boys to how much Mexican we eat around here. Wandered downtown, took in the art of Sante Fe on First Friday, visited the History Museum... and pretty much proved how little I live in Denver and how much more I live on site, in the bars, and in the mountains.

I wish the other Americorps were around and could hang out, especially Elena and Neal--though we did get Alison back just in time for New Year's. I wish I'd had more time, more equipment, even more of an idea of where to go to show these guys the best time Colorado can offer... but we did pretty well with what we had. Wouldn't trade it for the world, and hope they can somehow make it back out. You never miss a place, really. Not as much as the people.

And that's kind of the thing about airports. Whether or not you like them depends mostly on whether the last time you visited you were picking someone up or dropping them off.

Not "back" so much as "finally for the first time," but the sentiment is similar. It is really, really good to see them.

Flew in Friday and wandered around downtown for a while, introduced them to our favorite sketchy little Mexican place and reaffirmed that I know nearly nothing about the city except how to leave it for the mountains. Dragged them up to Chautauqua yesterday, bouncing around the flatirons as the bunny slope approach to hiking and hoping their lungs won't explode on the next ones. Checking out Pike's Peak today, taking the cog railway up and hopefully getting some time to just wander around before and after. Tomorrow, somehow some way, I am going to try to get them up to Arapahoe Pass, the most beautiful place in my world. Bumming snowshoes off of Mike tonight on our way back, and wishing I could bum him or his car as well. Then it's work Tuesday and Wednesday, concerts both nights, a trip to Golden on National Hangover Day for a slow recovery, and hopefully Red Rocks on Friday. Saturday Jon leaves so I refuse to look that far ahead.

For now, however, it's the stealthy sneak up the stairs to put milk in my mug without waking anyone up. Apparently climbing mountains is tiring and no one else needs an hour sipping coffee in the morning. After all, it wouldn't work if anyone did and I long ago learned how to dodge the creaky spots in the floor.

So the tidbit from this morning's sunrise cafe goes toward my--and many's--building unease regarding Russia.

So in short, life's still good. Jeanne, my boss, dropped off her chihuahua Sheckle tonight, I'll be watching her through Christmas til the boys get here while Jeanne's off in far states worrying about her. Much shit as I give small dogs, she's pretty cool. Laid back, super friendly, not pesky at all... pretty much a cat that comes when she's called and can't jump on the counters.

Finishing up Christmas presents and trying to get them in the mail tomorrow, planning and plotting, cleaning and researching and generally trying to stay warm at the dupe.

And don't forget about ongoing progress on the house.

My new favorite thing, courtesy of last night, is getting snowed into a dive bar when it's the bartender's birthday.

My new least favorite thing, courtesy of tonight, is a weather report that reads, "Low tonight of 8 degrees, with winds at 15 to 20 miles an hour making that feel like negative 12. High tomorrow of 8 degrees with more gusting winds and snow flurries expected until noon. Record low tomorrow night, Denver, with a high of negative 19 degrees!"

Decorated the Ronald McDonald house in Denver today, after rolling out and surfing home then hitting Target for a million light strands. Was fun, but understandably a bit chilly. We were the most amusing thing in Target as five kids wrapped fifty layers and unable to turn our heads to talk to each other for all the hoods and hats piled on. Sam, one of my regular volunteers and the nicest man in the world, came to help and sent us home with a box of Christmas ornaments he was getting rid of.

"Seriously," he said, "they're hideous. They won't even sell at Goodwill, but I can't keep looking at the box. They're awful."

They're awesome. I love the dupe's now painfully obvious enthusiasm for the holidays.

We had an amazing dinner a la Bryan and called it a cold night in after that, with some of the group hoping to head out for some snowboarding tomorrow and me hoping to get some things done around the dupe, finish Christmas shopping and projects, heat the house from the kitchen, and just generally never open the front door. Unless, of course, I can talk someone into snowshoeing, at which point it's ON.

That is, I love playing on and in the roof.



The woman in the yellow hat is Vanessa, the homeowner, who is was terrified of heights. We're on build day six and have just finished all the sheathing for tomorrow's inspection. We'd love it dried in by Saturday, since Sunday is supposed to be a miserable mix of snow and rain and we'd really like the crawl to dry out after all that snow... but Mike shingles by laying the tar carefully and then laying courses based on those lines. Whereas I'm used to slapping the tarpaper up however it works to keep the interior dry, then snapping lines from the center. But "we take no lateral steps," Mike and I.

Progress can still be found here, even if I missed a few fun parts here and there. Like Tuesday, when the crane came to lift our trusses. That, my friends, is an awesome and intimidating process. Lift them up by hand? No, no... not here. Instead, you poke them gingerly with a hammer handle as a bundle of twenty swings precariously in the breeze above the house and try to center them on the top-plate in the right order as they're lowered. Pretty sweet. We raise them and set them by hand still, but the actual lifting is left to the crane--though we'll do the garage and porch ones ourselves, they're pretty small anyway.

Still loving what I do, even with the occasional frustrating volunteers. Especially since I got another note from Jeanne that another volunteer sent her a happy email about their day with Mike and I. That makes a big difference. Getting pretty excited about the holidays--I'll be borrowing Jeanne's sewing machine and chihuahua, which should be an interesting combination. Babysitting (not really dogsitting) Sheckles will be fun, and I get to send her home with the most obnoxious pink sweater I can come up with. Getting some things tentatively laid out for when the boys make an appearance, and hoping it all pans out.

Mostly hoping there's some work left for them to do on the house, the rate we're playing these days.

Gotta steal pics of yesterday and Wednesday from Mike and Mike, but til then you can follow progress (of the exciting parts) herabouts.

Apropos of nothing, I bring you good news and bad news.

Two fun facts for your everyday life:

At 25 degrees, the water in your Nalgene freezes over an eighth- to quarter-inch. Brought to you by yesterday.

At 17 degrees, your metal speed square sticks to your gloves to the point that you have to push it off with the other hand. Brought to you by today.

Yesterday we poured our rat slab and slogged through it raking, leveling, skeeting, and floating. We brushed the dusting of snow off our lumber piles and worked through barely noticeable afternoon flurries to bolt on sill plate (mudsill, hereabouts) and nail on rim board. We raised two garage walls for the hell of it--mostly to be in our way today. Laid plastic over our slab to let it cure and dry, and went home happy.

Today we swept and shoveled three to five inches of snow off that plastic, with a few flawless if unintentional pirouettes performed in the process, and wondered if volunteers would show up for a high of 17 and continuous accumulation of snow. Three did (one for each inch of snow that fell as we worked) plus two of my favorite regulars. Set our steel beam and all our floor joists, and framed the crawl access before lunch, when it dropped to 15. Cue the handwarmers in the gloves. After lunch, sheathed the entire floor minus the last course that needs to be ripped, sweeping the tops of the joists as we went. Laid out the first exterior wall for tomorrow. Went home happy.

I know at some point the novelty of working in this mess will wear off and it might end up as miserable as everyone thinks it is... but for right now, I love it. I love working with Mike, my super for this house, I love the homeowners, I love that I'm starting from a foundation and will get to roof it, I love that Mike explains everything to a degree that I could lead a house within the year, I love that snow is dry and fluffy, I love that I have a huge Carhart jacket and fancypants socks, I love knocking nails loose in a bucket with a cat's paw, I love that icicles form on the saw tables as we're using them, I love that I have a coffee pot in the tool trailer, and I love that everyone else loves being there almost as much as I do. The Americorps that are already working on the interior of their houses, or are doing random projects waiting on their next house, think I must be freezing and miserable. But this is the most fun I've had on a site since I've been here. And that's sayin somethin.

My camera's being weird but Mike and Mike are taking tons of pics, so I'll have some up soon.

And if my favorite philosophy from working with Brian is "Caulk and paint will make it what it ain't," my new favorite from Mike is, "Remember, we're not building a piano. Just the box to put it in."

Today's high: 61F and sunny
Tonight's low: 25F and snow showers.
Sunset: 4:35PM


The question of the past few days remains: What will you do with your nine hours of sunlight?

In very related news, current book: Thomas L. Friedman's The World is Flat.

I swear this came my way through sheer Providence, and that in no way was I searching out such information. However. The fact remains--inarguable and indisputable--that as it appears in the Irish Independent News & Gossip page, so must it be true: Jerry's single again.

That's right, my hooker's available.

Why am I not there to console him in his time of need, especially with that knee injury from the All Blacks game that's kept him off the field these few weeks?

Limerick never looked so good.

So, by popular request, here are a reminder of what I do these days: I build houses, and I climb mountains.

Other than eating an excessive amount of Mexican food and occasionally trying a new bar, that's about it.

And, as I've pointed out to everyone who'll listen... that's a great way to be.

So here's the photographic coverage of the first two.

The Dayjob:

Best shown with the finished products—the houses and neighborhood we built on 18th and Altura here in Aurora, seen at the dedications on November 8th.

The weekends:

Including the first mountain I (accidentally) climbed, Green Mountain in Chataqua, as well as my first fourteener, Mount Bierstadt.

And, most recently, my newest love: the Arapahoe Pass trail, including Caribou Lake valley where I will live forever in a wood cabin, Lake Dorothy—the highest lake in CO and currently frozen, and a glacier we haven't made it to yet but will next weekend.

As I find myself with the time and ability to sit and watch the only real version of Pride and Prejudice out there, the BBC/A&E one that I love so much (on loan from a friend), and as I find that for some reason neither of my roommates have any interest in joining me in the venture, I find that I can also be a nerd and type a few things up on my laptop while I recite the second DVD in full.

So, in short, I have a second to type up tonight's excitement, such as it was.

Now just as we used to joke, with a bit of honesty behind it, that anything involving flames in High Point involved our crew, so we tend to assume hereabouts that anything involving flashing lights in Aurora involves our neighborhood. So when we spotted three helicopters circling ahead on the way home from work, we joked that it was most likely our street, and turned the Fratellis up aiming for green lights. Then the swarm of blue lights swung into view as we got closer, then we realized that one helicopter hovered directly above our neighborhood and the other three circled around it... then the nice officer at the roadblock on 17th, a few blocks from our house, waved us away. “But we live on Akron, can't we just go home?” got me a simple and non-negotiable, “No.”

I did a lap around the perimeter they set up, not letting anyone in and no other officers even as nice as to answer before waving us on, and then we headed over to the other duplex to bother Neal and try to catch the story on the news. Here, in a slightly sensationalist version, is what we found out:

"Cold-blooded killer" eludes dragnet after Aurora shooting

And now, because it's been a while since I've fiddled with such things, let me help with the foreign street names and put things, quite literally, in perspective. Here, then is the area they're talking about:



And that, my friends, is the Nicest Little Ghetto of Aurora.

So, dedications for the four houses I've been working on were Saturday. One that I followed through since the roof went on, three that I picked up after their supervisors had to move on to the next house on their schedules. There are still a few minor touch-up things to be done, as well as some odds and ends to pass final inspections, but this end of the street is essentially done. Where we go from here, though, I'm not sure.

The real beauty of this article is the video at the top.

Updates coming soon, I promise. And pics.

It's just that I don't spend any time on the computer anymore. And that makes me, in general, really really happy.

Usually I was stuck on here writing essays, looking up notes, answering emails, and everything else that tied the laptop to my hip. So when I was done from all that, or needed a break from it, I'd type out what I'd been up to. But now instead of being tied to a laptop, I can go out and climb a mountain, try a new Mexican restaurant, watch a movie at somebody's place, work in the backyard... or, you know, build a house. Everything's moving pretty quickly and I'm staying busy at the most amazing things. Life's pretty good right now.

So things are good. Didn't have quite as much of an adventurous long weekend as I'd hoped, but it's been fairly productive instead. The backyard is shaping up -- cleared the last of the brush, with the leaves and trash all bagged and the sticks ready to be burned, dug out the fire pit and turned the ash into the raised garden bed, finished trimming the overgrown trees, moved the flagstones to lead to the hammock instead of the middle of the fence, and cleaned up the trash in the back alley. That particular aspect was revolting, but overall the yard is really looking better. Still only five blades of grass, but there's the threat of a sixth next to one of the trees.

Kitchen got a thorough scrubbing, too, so that inside the cupboards is no longer a scary place. Rearranged where a lot of things are kept, fixed doors and drawers so that they open properly (and in one case, at all), cleaned the appliances, and generally got it in proper working order. I love Bill -- he's clean. Do you know how rare that is? Someone must have warned Jeanne about me. (Remember, "It's not that I'm a neat-freak -- it's that everyone else is a slob.") Actually, she admitted that she assigned me to this apartment when she heard I like yardwork so that it could be salvaged. I'm okay with that, especially since the shed came equipped with a good amount of the equipment I'll need for it. Sometime after work this week I'll pick up a load of free fill dirt and see what can be done about the beds.

Went to hear Barack Obama speak Thursday but naturally couldn't get into the stadium (tickets?), so went to Union Station where the city had big screens set up. It was a good crowd, but we couldn't actually hear anything, so we just went to one of the many pubs broadcasting the speech on their TVs and enjoyed it there. This was our, Bill and I's, meeting of the other two Americorps recently moved in -- Neal and Amanda. And two of Amanda's friends that were in town on a leg of their roadtrip. Bill's getting used to his new responsibility of keeping me out of the road, and it's definitely for the best that Denver doesn't have any major rivers passing through.

Friday we had our teambuilding day on one of the worksites here in Aurora, a little neighborhood very like Dowling Ridge in construction status. One side of the street lined with adorable houses from a builder's blitz last year, half of the other side recently finished Habitat houses, the last half still under construction. I think there were six under construction on our end with small teams of volunteers and most of the supervisors, so it was a great way to meet folks and get a taste for both the construction process and the finished product. There were only seven of the nine Americorps present, with our future roommate Elena staying another week at home before coming out and Steve simply running behind schedule on his trip out. Amanda and Ken, the two office volunteers, were there and got a taste of hanging drywall on the ceilings. It wasn't a day aimed at full-steam-ahead production, we were all just meeting and asking all the questions I'm sure they wanted to wait and cover at the real orientation. Hard hats are mandatory, an unwelcome change in practice for all of us, and we were warned that Metro-Denver takes safety pretty seriously. Which is, you know, great in theory and certainly sounds better than "just don't kill anyone," but you're not as receptive to safety procedures the seventh time you whack your hardhat on the underside of an I-beam in the crawlspace. And how long would it take you to adjust to suddenly being two inches taller while doing gymnastics in a truss system?

But the houses were gorgeous. Aurora has funny rules on building, which is why the affiliate doesn't particularly relish building here, but they keep getting land to build on. For example, each house must have at least half brick exteriors and must have a garage. Homeowners don't get as much choice here as in Wake, and as much of a pain in the ass as it generally was, it's a shame they don't get to pick from several kitchen arrangements. The three-month build schedule means we don't get to make adjustments to the plans like we sometimes did in Wake, and in this neighborhood, because it's such a large build project, they didn't even get to pick the color of their house exteriors. Metro-Denver doesn't re-use floorplans as often as Wake, with a lot of their plans designed by architects to fit the plot and the family, but that family doesn't have much say in the matter. Trade-offs I'll have to see in action a bit more before I decide how I feel about them. But Friday was fun.

Had Katie and Colleen over for lasagna Saturday, and it was good to hang out with old school State Habitatters. We universally agreed that we really, really miss it -- and are going to be miserable on this side of Shack-A-Thon. We're mail-ordering T-shirts. Gave the fire pit its first exhibition with satisfying results -- that is, wood burned inside it and no lawns or houses burned outside it -- and I am going to continue loving the fact that, any time I want, I can sit around a fire with folks and stare at coals while we talk about the old days and the next weekends.

Since Elena won't be here until the sixth two guys are moving in later today to crash indefinitely til they can find an apartment. One is Steve, the last of the Americorps, and the other is the buddy he's moving out with. They were hoping to find an apartment before coming out, and it didn't work out. So they'll take over the extra bedroom and I'm assuming couch upstairs (love that sectional) til we can find them a permanent place in the area. I'm excited, now that I feel like the place is more or less in order, I like having people over. Dunno how the single bathroom is gonna hold up, but we've managed so far. Doing pulled pork (otherwise known as "loose meat") for dinner, so they better not be vegetarians.

Bill paid a visit to the largest REI in the nation yesterday (go Denver!) and picked up a guide book on the best rock-climbing areas around here... so that's awesome. He's promised to teach me the basics provided I promise not to kill myself. Fair trade, I felt. I'm really excited about it -- as backwards as it may sound, I feel like climbing up a rock face is far less dangerous for me personally than screaming down a snowy slope or a frothing river. Not that I'm counting either of those options out of my future weekend plans, but rock-climbing might rank first until it's too cold and we're forced to start our Extreme Sledding League. After all, heading up a rock face I'm only fighting gravity, whereas with the other two I'm fighting gravity, momentum, trees and currents. So there'll be that and hiking, when we finally get our shit in order.

And finally, in related news, I see this in my future: Little old lady vs. airport instructions.