I am real anxious to get started on remodeling my bedroom, but I can’t start that until I have some storage for some of the junk littering my room now. Hence, this article. Or, part 1 of who knows how many to get this thing built. My landlord is letting me do just about anything I want, so my plan here is to add a storage unit to the inside corner of the building on my back patio.

The storage unit will be 4′ wide by 2′ deep. It tucks up under the existing eves of the roof. Because the dimensions are limited, I have to be very frugal with the space. Instead of using regular 2×4 lumber, I am using 2×3″ studs I bought at Home Depot. I’ve used them before, when I made a 2-sided surround for my refrigerator. As long as the demands for structural integrity are minimal, this lumber should work just fine. Should.

The base of the storage unit is going on a concrete slab. Because moisture tends to wick up through concrete, it could rot wood framing placed on top of it. For this reason, it’s wise to use treated lumber. Redwood or Cedar are 2 wood species that can withstand the elements, but they aren’t suitable for the base of a storage unit.

Constructing the base was simple and straight forward – with the exception of having to work around the existing pipes for waste water and water heater blow-off. Don’t ask me why the builder did it that way. All I know is I have to work around it. There’s also a clothes dryer vent that I will have to deal with. I used 3″ deck screws to assemble the base. It went smoothly, but it takes me an extraordinarily long time to do these kinds of things because the exertion taxes my lungs pretty heavily.

The project has taken several days so far – actually, about 4 hours to do the framing for the base and about 2½ hours today on the plywood floor, with the access for the waste clean-out, and the framing for the front of the storage unit. Your mileage will no doubt be much better, especially if you ain’t sucking oxygen through a hose in your nose.

But there was a little snag. I should known the lumber would not be the best, but my previous experience was a whole lot better – and more fun. This batch of 2×3′s is really dry and brittle. I’ve tried to pre-drill for the screws (hey, if screwing insteada nailing framing is good enough for Holmes on Homes, it’s good enough for me), but this lumber was still splitting. It broke my drill bit, so I resorted to nailing. I had 2 different kinds of 16 penny nails, as you see in the picture, but neither prevented the terrible splitting.

That was enough for me today. I decided to ease my tension by writing this. I am either going to try the screws again (with a slightly bigger drill bit starter hole this time), or I will hook up the compressor and nail gun. That might have been easier to begin with, but I don’t have any 16′s for the framing nailer and you have to buy enough for practically a whole house around here. Maybe in Reno, I can find a smaller quantity. For now, this is all I have done. It’s a start and I really do enjoy doing it.

Look for the continuing saga of building a storage unit here soon. Your comments are welcome.

But that day last May was the beginning of something that changed the way I felt about my life and what I wanted to do with at least part of what I had left of it. The credit goes to David Bromstad, interior designer and host of Color Splash – his infectious zest for taking on each new challenge and the joy he brought and shared with everyone around him – and this new viewer. I was just flipping through channels looking for something to watch on TV. I found Color Splash on HGTV.

It didn’t hit me for a couple of days, but soon I was looking for David on the Internet. I found his website and the HGTV site and discovered there were lots of full-length episodes available for me to watch. And it wasn’t just David, but Danielle Hirsch, Ian McCartt and all the assistants and production staff and how they all seemed to be like a family having a great time designing and decorating all these wonderful spaces.

David has immense talent and humility. Sometimes it looks like even he is surprised at what he has been able to create. I remember that feeling from the days I used to do floors – and customize computer cases, remodel my home, build model cars as a kid and even when I was a wannabe decorator in high school (but you didn’t talk about that in the hick school I grew up in). David, Ian and Danielle helped me remember that I have talent too. Maybe not as much as they have, but heck, I could do some of that stuff.

I live in a converted garage. I am very grateful to my closest friend for giving me a place to live when I lost my home. But at the time, it was just a cave for me to crawl into and die. Today, nearly six months after discovering Color Splash and David Bromstad, my cave is beginning to morph into a beautiful and comfortable home. It’s still strewn with lumber, paint cans and you have to contort yourself over the obstacles to get to the only chair left after other furnishings have been put into storage. But it is actually transforming a little bit every day. This normally 2-week project (2 days, for the Color Splash team) is into its 5th month and there’s still a ways to go. My lungs keep me working at a snail’s pace and my finances force me to scrounge, beg and be very patient, but it’s really happening.

Thanks to David, his giddy laugh and contagious joy in the process of creating something beautiful, my place is going to be quite nice. I have been chronicling it somewhat on my flooring forum here: Redesigning My Apartment and I will try to post some of the more memorable transformations here in my blog. But I wanted to start with this homage to David Bromstad and crew. I am so grateful for him bringing me back to life. And I promise to recreate my space into something to be proud of and will produce that same kind of amazement you see on the faces of all his make-over subjects.

Can we finish up with the complaints about our local California Highway Patrol real soon, please? It’s getting tiresome and some of you are sounding like whiners. Really. Because there have been so few cheering for the CHP, allow me.

I’ve been driving the roads of Plumas County most of my adult life. That totals around 12 thousand days I’ve spent behind the wheel of a car, truck or motorcycle just here in Plumas County. For much of that time, I did floors all over Plumas 5, 6 and sometimes 7 days a week, which adds up to a heck of a lot of driving miles. I’m not the best driver and I don’t always follow every law, so consequently, I’ve been stopped by officers on a number of occasions through all these years.

Not once in my 44 year driving history, here and elsewhere, was I ever stopped because I didn’t do something wrong. Every single time I was doing something I shouldn’t have, something that endangered myself or others. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I forget that I don’t really have as much control behind the wheel of a three or four thousand pound vehicle as I think I do. I do like to think I don’t need many reminders, but when I do, the CHP is there to do just that.

My last ticket was about 3 years ago. Speeding – driving too fast while towing a trailer. It broke a personal best of 16 years without a ticket. I was upset because I felt I was driving safe. But the cop did his job because I wasn’t doing mine.

Even though there was a very long span between tickets, I had been stopped for infractions on a number of occasions. I firmly believe it was my attitude and demeanor that saved me from tickets I so deserved. I was not always aware of what law I broke, but I always knew when I was wrong. Infractions were always explained to me and I never denied committing any of them. As a professional in a different field of work, I knew that this professional prob’ly knew better than me. The customer is NOT always right. My feeling is that being humble and willing to learn from someone who knows better, saved me money, time and very well could have saved me or someone else from harm. I have always been grateful for warnings. After a little wound-licking, I have even found gratitude in a couple of real scoldings (I remember thinking once, please, just write me a ticket instead).

Things are a little different for me now. I spend more hours on my “handicap device” than I do behind the wheel of my car. I know I stick out like a sore thumb (it’s actually sore lungs) gliding around wherever I can on my Segway – standing straight up, seemingly balanced precariously between 2 wheels. But as visible as a 260 pound, 6′ 8″ man on two fat tires is, I can’t tell you how many auto drivers just don’t see me. California Vehicle Code considers me a pedestrian, which means I have to follow the rules any other pedestrian follows – and cars are s’posed to regard me as a pedestrian too, but they don’t always.

I rely on law enforcement, particularly the California Highway Patrol, to protect me because drivers don’t always know to let me glide across the street in the cross-walk or otherwise give me the right-of-way as they would any other pedestrian. My complaints are with drivers who don’t look carefully before entering an intersection. I don’t like it when people park right on the sidewalk. I don’t like it when drivers flip me off for gliding on the left side of the roadway, toward oncoming traffic.

I am where I should be, most of the time, and I try hard to follow the rules because my chosen mode of transportation is unconventional. That isn’t to say I want everyone to get a ticket for not letting me use the cross-walk, but I do appreciate that the CHP is there to let you know my rights and keep me and other mobility impaired people safe.

We should support our law enforcement and stop with the public ridicule. They aren’t politicians, they are men and women doing a very difficult job – not even to mention the enormous risk to health and life they face. No doubt they make mistakes, as do we all. I don’t know what I would have done if anyone had written to the editor about a bad carpet seam or a gap I left in the hardwood. A phone call is what it took to make those things right and I suspect that’s what might work when you feel an officer has done their job poorly.

If you feel changes to the laws and policies are in order, then take it up in the appropriate manner. Save those stories about your woes at the hands of lawless law men and women for your friends and associates that enjoy hearing them. Everyone likes a good cop joke, but this recent CHP bash-fest isn’t entertaining at all.

Let’s try to make the patrol officer’s job easier by practicing better driving habits. Report drunk drivers, call about road hazards and take a little responsibility to help make our roads and highways safer, cleaner and more fun to travel. And let those patrol men and women know you appreciate their helping your time on the road to be safer – give them a wave.

My health has deteriorated, as is expected with a disease that is chronic and has no cure. But they adjust my medication levels and even changed some of the inhalers. To be able to go and do the things I like to do, I get around on a Segway and even take it into stores and restaurants when I need to. I’ll talk more about the Seg in another post, but I am mobile.

When I look at my Other Foot List, I realize much of that has changed now. Again, more about that later, in a revised list. It’s true that some things change and some stay the same. I am trying to go with the flow. I was depressed and closed myself off from the world for a very long time, except when I absolutely had to do something. But I feel like something happened a few weeks ago and now I am more excited about this life than ever before.

I’ll expound on that more, as I keep saying, later and in other posts. I wanted to get this message out to you though – I’m not dead yet. I don’t fear the inevitable as much as I did and I am willing to try to make the transition as much fun and interesting as possible. Thanks for hangin’ with me.

Tonight was QUITE different. Maroon5 and It Won’t Be Soon Before Long made the difference. I’ll admit that what initially prompted me to give a listen – or at least wait to see them walk on stage – was the very stylish album cover (us old folks still call ‘em albums – they’re CDs and even smaller an’ shinier than my old 45′s) – go ‘head, give it a click to see the larger version. I know, that’s a pretty weird reason to decide to listen to a group, but I’ve made flimsier decisions than that, ya know. So, the end of the show comes around (by the way, pretty stiff and boring Katie Holmes was and that was a lousy impersonation of Letterman that Frank Caliendo did) and the Maroon 5 were introduced. Right away I noticed it: no screaming. Really, you know what I’m talkin’ about. These guys were smooth. I was tappin’ away on my computer, ferget doin’ what, and I just had to stop. It was a very fresh and clean sound.

This music coming from Maroon 5 is amazing. I know that my taste in music has always run toward pop and dance music, but lately, maybe because I’ve done more reminiscing, I’ve been listening to some of the stuff I enjoyed in my youth. That’s what old folks do, right? But ol’ Dave brought me right back to the here an’ now. Even with the poor sound equipment his producers saddle the musical talent with, these guys sounded very good. So, geek that I am (‘course I waited ’til their set was over), I googled them. Yeah, that’s a verb now.

The Maroon 5 website isn’t as nice as their music. It’s Adobe Flash based and doesn’t function well – no “tool-tips” to tell you what’s what and the worst, no volume control. But the best part is their top tune, “Won’t Go Home Without You” started playin’ right away. I love DSL. It’s the same piece they played on the Letterman show and it really has a much better sound quality. This song has a crisp, but gentle beat and melodic lyrics. The chorus is smooth, so much unlike all that harsh screaming I’ve heard and stumbled over shit trying to get to the volume knob. I found myself bouncing my feet and tapping on my thigh just like I did so long, long ago.

As “…Without You” faded off, I nervously anticipated the next song. You know, you’ve been through it before… a great song turns into the only good thing that group ever did and the rest is kee-rap. Not Maroon 5. These guys got lots more music in them. Up was “Wake Up Call“, a lively tune that really had me wishin’ I could still dance. Well, I can, but only for about 20 seconds an’ then I’m grabbin’ for the rescue inhaler. This tune was one a them you just gotta move to though and I did my best. I pulled the oxygen on and kept playin’ my legs like an old drum kit.

They don’t have every song of the CD on their online player, but the five tracks they do have are enough to sell me. You can get their album through iTunes, or at Amazon.com and either place will let you listen before you buy. Of course, the best listenting is at the Maroon5 website. They have links to iTunes, Amazon.com and several other places you might find interesting (‘course, I am an Amazon affiliate partner and it helps me if you buy the music – or anything – by clicking the links to Amazon I provide here). I tried to join their forum, but they don’t like me, I guess. Couldn’t get much to work there. So, I stole some graphics and high-tailed it outa there. Hope you like what I did with them.

Jim with 1 Foot OUT of the Grave tonight.

But that isn’t what this entry is about. I only mention my case modding because it has been the kind of thing I have enjoyed doing for many years. Oh, not just computer case modding, but modding just about everything. I used to build model cars when I was a kid – customized them and even got published in a model car mag back then. I’ve tried to modify cars, my homes, hell, I even modified the way I pack this damn oxygen tank around – but more on that later. What I am taking the long way around getting to is that I spent the biggest part of this day modifying this website. I just couldn’t leave well enough alone.

The theme I chose for this site was a simple one. Casual, like me, understated colors because I like to pepper my posts with images and graphics, but with an interesting graphic that I immediately knew I was going to be able to replace. The original design looks like this: Coffee Stained Sample Site Well, it wasn’t as quick and simple as I had first thought, but I am really happy with the results. I completely re-did the page graphics, changed the color slightly and moved the column overlays a little lower on the page. I originally search the Net for graphics that I could use with a little editing here and there. But, as usual, I wasn’t satisfied.

Photography has been a hobby of mine for a long time. I have a portfolio I show prospective models – yeah, I like taking pictures of women more than anything else – and I like to think I’ve done some interesting landscapes and abstract work. But today was about the website graphics and I am real pleased (just in case by the time you have gotten around to reading this, I have changed the website again, here is a screen shot of the style I am referring to). It took hours to get the pictures just right. I use Adobe Fireworks for most of my work, but I also use Corel Paint Shop Pro – Fireworks can’t be beat for graphics, but for photo manipulation, it’s lacking and I can’t get the hang of Adobe PhotoShop.

I shot a couple dozen pictures of the oxygen tank on a couple different backgrounds. At first, I thought the tank should have no background at all (except for the graphics of the page), so I spent an hour trying to erase it from the picture. But then I thought, the picture I liked the best was on a background that was similar to the color of the page design already, so I just used the Fireworks Fade Image command and played around with the controls until it looked the way I wanted. I had to use the eraser to soften and blend the hard edges left over. The image was too bold and colorful for a page graphic, so I tried a few different things before I finally settled on the sepia-tone look.

The small drug store I have on my bedroom dresser was a bit tougher. I shot a lot of pictures of those in many different configurations. When I looked through all my shots with my favorite image management program (Thumbs Plus), I finally decided on the very first picture I took. This picture is one I had to remove all traces of the background material I used for the setup – an old flannel sheet. It took a couple of hours, but it turned out very nice, I think. Fireworks has a couple tools for removing backgrounds and I usually like the Magic Wand tool the best, but the flannel wasn’t going to go away so easy. I ended up using the Eraser tool and manually traced around every pill bottle and inhaler. My neck was sore, my back ached, my hand cramped up a couple times, but all that pain put a really big smile on my face when I saw the results.

Okay, I’m bragging. I hope you like my efforts though.