Bits 'O This 'N That

Well it's 2200 here and the Little One and the Mrs have retired for the evening. He's gotten very good at going up and down the stairs, and when he goes up the stairs, he heads directly to "his" room, and the toys all come out and get scattered around on the floor.

The downstairs family room is still foreign to him. We spent time there in the winter with the fireplace going, but I doubt he remembers it.

He did NOT like getting put on the rattan footstool and being rotated! Pilot training will have to wait a few years, I guess.

With all the heat we've had the last few days, the basement has turned into a pleasant place to spend time. It's about 72* down there, and probably a bit damp. When I was a kid growing up, one of my jobs was to empty the water catch pan the dehumidifier in the basement had. I checked it every day, and if it was more than half-full, I'd empty it. Probably be a good idea to get one for down there.

I finally decided on the workbench/operating desk layout for the Radio Room. After getting some quotes from people who build this stuff, I've decided at this point in life I don't need a custom $1500 workbench and custom $2500 desk to operate from, additional shelving optional. About $900 worth of stuff from IKEA will do both sides of the room, and give me more drawers and shelves to store stuff in. The sad/ironic part is I'll be replacing pretty much the same stuff I threw/gave away in Long Beach. Oh, well....this time I'm much more familiar with their product lines, and how to find things on their website. Everything has a part number and a price, right down to the individual bits of their knocked-down kits. You can find something close to what you want, get an idea of what makes up that ensemble, and then go A La Carte to build up something customized. I'll be buying two drawer units with tabletops, and then adding additional drawer units, tabletops, and legs to get an "L" shaped bench for the workbench, and a "U" shaped bench for the operating position. Adding a couple of riser units in a complimentary color to the operating desk will give it the functionality I want, and a semi-custom look.

And I made some rough measurements and sketches of where the cable penetration will go. I'll need about a 3" hole cored through the concrete foundation to get the pipe inside, and then I'm not sure if I'll continue the run of cables in the pipe, or break them out into a cable tray. Cable trays mounted to the walls or hung from the ceiling just look so.........Professional!

It'll come down to cost, of course. 3" electrical PVC conduit is probably MUCH cheaper than even small size cable tray. The pipe will be laid in with NO 90* elbows allowed. We'll use two 45* elbows with a foot or so of straight section between them. I've fought with waaay too many cable pulling jobs that had runs loaded with 90* turns, and NO junction boxes or "Pull Boxes" anywhere.

And while down in the basement measuring things, I went through and sorted 4 boxes of clothing. I wound up with two boxes of things that will never fit again, things that have lost their appeal to me, and some just plain weird T-shirts I have no idea how I came about owning. All going to Goodwill in the next day or two.