Summer Projects

Well, what’ve ya got planned? I mean, taking a kayaking expedition to the Bering Sea? Gutting the house and starting over?

I’ve got the following:
[ul]
[li] Moving one side of the stockade fence to the property line, cutting it in half lengthwise and removing every other board, thereby creating a picket fence. We’re actually starting this this weekend.[/li][li] Maybe building a brick patio with a trellised “roof” over it (to grow wisteria on), if we’ve got the money[/li][li] Paint the kitchen cabinets.[/li][li] Paint the bedroom[/li][li] Build some flower beds[/li][li] Dopapalooza!![/li][li] 4 days at Little Manistique Lake over July 4th[/li][li] Kayaking/canoeing on the Muskegon River[/li][li] Babysitting my 4-year old niece A LOT since my sister is having twins in May/June.[/li][li] Road trip in Ontario along Lake Huron in May.[/li][li] Shipshewanna some time in June[/li][/ul]
Can you tell we don’t have kids?! I’d also like to be able to take a kayaking lesson - a kayak is something I want to purchase, but I’d like to try them out before I do, just to make sure it’s something I can get into as much as I think would.

Holy spittle, Batman! You certainly have a full plate, Bunnygirl.

Odd you should mention kayaking/canoeing, though. I and a friend are buying a canoe in a couple o’ weeks. We’re gonna try to use it fairly regularly this summer/fall on the many local rivers and nearby lakes. The purpose of this is become proficient and then next year attempt to canoe/camp the Erie canal, all 360 miles of it between Lake Erie and the Hudson River. But like I said, that’s next year; this summer is a practice season.

I’ve also joined a summer rimfire pistol league. I expect to totally suck at that. At least it’s cheap. Well, it is now that I’ve already got the pistol.

I am going to run away and get married sometime this summer.

Also, soon to be Mr. Zumba is taking a job for the next few months that will take him out of town. He will be traveling to different cities every week or two. Once a month I am going to go and visit him in the coolest city of the month. (He said I can decide which city is coolest.)

I am going to take a trip to FL to visit my grandparents.

I am going to start exercising more.

I plan to fix up my yard. I have to start on that soon before it gets too hot to be outside comfortably.

I haven’t decided what else I am going to do. I am going to be on my own a lot so I will get to do what ever I want! Decisions, Decisions.

Yeah, I know. I’m one of those people that have a real hard time sitting still.

The Muskegon River is an incredible river to canoe/camp on! Suggest it to your friend. It’s a very cold, quick but shallow river (typically, depending on rain fall), has trout and a pretty fair tannin level, making the water rusty colored. We used to go tubing down it and have just a ball. You could probably walk the whole way down if you wanted, it’s that navigable. There’s a county park in Newaygo and lots of drop off points from there. Dad used to make a deal with the park manager to take him back up to the High Rollaways (name of the site we put in at) once we got back. The campground is right on the river. Good fishin’, good canoeing, good everything.

Let me know if you want more info!

[ul]
[li]Trimming a 50-foot tall oak tree before it drops a branch on my car.[/li][li]reset the pavers in a slate sidewalk.[/li][li]lay a new slate sidewalk connecting the driveway to the front door.[/li][li]pour a concrete landing at the foot of the back stoop.[/li][li]pour a concrete pad for a garbage-can enclosure.[/li][li]build the enclosure for the garbage cans.[/li][li]plant some shrubs.[/li][li]wire the garage for electricity.[/li][li]look into removing the fence in the front yard and replacing it with a different style.[/li][li]go into the crawlspace and wrap the pipes with insulation.[/li][li]check the wiring in the living room. The lights flicker sometimes.[/li][/ul]

Did I mention that this is not at my house?
All this work needs to be done at my girlfriend’s house.
I have a big S for sucker on my forehead…

Part One: Visit Brother Porpentine in New Zealand, and spend a few weeks backpacking around the country. As New Zealand is a long way off, this will entail a few stops in exotic places like Rarotonga, Fiji, and Los Angeles. Pretty cool. :slight_smile:

Part Two: Get on another plane going in the opposite direction, all the way to London. Find a job, hopefully, as I’ll probably be broke by then. Spend a couple of very intense months with my guy, whom I haven’t seen since January. Attempt to figure out whether I can live over there permanently – and whether I want to live with him permanently. Also pretty cool, in a way, but damned scary. :eek:

frobozz Dude! Want some help with the wiring the garage? I need to do mine, but I’d like practice with someone who knows what they are doing, or, barring that, just someone else’s house

We are supposed to paint a few rooms, build a 2 foot high brick circle around the avacado tree, plant a wide variety of edible things in said circle, build a balcony off the master bedroom ( on the second floor ), tear down the wall on off the patio and replace with a new one, finish replacing the steel plumbing with copper (we just need to go upstairs), and replace the gutters ( with copper gutters - my wife is obviously trying to kill me ).

Oh, and road trip, LA, CA to Louisville, KY, with lots of stops in between.

That all said, I’m getting a ducati 748 this weekend, so I have no idea how much time I’ll spend working on the house.

My goals for this summer:

Acquisition of a motorcycle license and a bike, starting this month and hoping to take deliver of the bike by mid-May.

7 days at the Ben Sutton School of Golf. I had hoped to do it this month, but things came up at work. Now I’m shooting for late June/early July. If anyone else wants to do this, let me know and I’ll see if we can arrange a week-long doperfest/golf fest.

My sister’s wedding is in May.

I hope to make either the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte (night NASCAR!) or the MBNA Platinum 400 at Dover Downs in late May/early June.

Family vacation in August. (Just a few miles from Myrtle Beach, as it happens – time to see if those golf lessons took!)

A couple of “long-weekend” vacations scattered around the summer to see friends, old and new. If only the world had more airports! Do you know there are places that are >100 miles from even a half-way decent airport, and >600 miles from an airport that merits direct service from the New York area? Sheesh! What, do they live in huts out there? Do they have moisture farms like on Tattooine?

At least one out-of-town dopefest. I had hoped for Spiffled, but again, work intervenes.

Put away a few buckaroos to mitigate the damage done to my retirement fund.

WOW :eek:

Could you people have any more to do? Havn’t you ever heard that the summer’s for relaxing?

Sheesh!

Me personally?

I’m gonna try to get my pilot’s liscense.
:slight_smile:

I don’t have any major reconstruction plans, but on tap so far are :

1 : Getting my collection of well over 100 videotapes of Disney cartoons organized.

2 : Reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

3 : Re-inventing myself.

Me, I’m going for a few simple things in order to better myself. A little “do what makes you happy” project.

1 - Find some jamming partners (music, that is).

2 - Coach youth soccer (I’ll volunteer somewhere).

3 - Finish a screenplay, whether it sucks or not.

That’s it. Captain Boring.

Well, I’m going on a tour of Italy with my youth orchestra, then I have 2 week-long camps to fill in the rest of the summer. While I’m at home, I’ll be doing the boring summer projects - the ones where I read a couple books, write some stuff, and have it all due the first day of school. :stuck_out_tongue:

Graduating high school (it’s about time!

Therefore, graduation party of course

As many Saturday nights at the dirt track as I can fit in

Helping my best friend move into her college apartment out in Connecticut (it’s a mostly boys school, so the girls don’t have dorms, they get real apartments off campus for the same price the boys pay for dorm housing)

Spending a weekend with her doing Connecticut seaside things

Moving myself down to Mississippi for college

Visiting Gunslinger as soon as possible once I get down there

That’s it.

Work during the weeks. On weekends:

–Build a '55-'57 Ford Fairlane (if you have one [or any other '50s car] to sell, email me!) like a period NASCAR racer.

–Race it at the local dirt track.

–Be visited by racinchikki.

–Do things with racinchikki that can’t be mentioned on a family message board. :wink:

Things I will be doing this summer.

  1. I’ve already reinvented myself. I’ll be applying for the patents.
  2. Potty Training two toddlers. shudder
  3. Getting the van into driving shape. I’ll be making a lap of the Tennesee/Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma/Arkansas area.
  4. Sending Racinchikki a “Welcome to Mississippi” card, and on increasing the doper density by 33%.

Okay… So… ignore the first of my double posts. The second one is the correct one.

If the first one could be deleted I’d thank someone.

Done.

#1 go to (24hr bus trip to) West Virginia on a Missions trip (Church)
#2 kayak as much as I can
#3 bike at LEAST 2,000 miles (I biked 1,500 last summer)
#4 Hi Opal!
#5 (maybe) get a steady relationship with a perfect female
#6 hang out with friends
#7 Work my car as much as I can to get her pumped up for drivin’
#8 go Fishing around the Apostle Islands
#9 go to Indiana
#10 Survive the summer

Get my motorbike license.
Get a new job.
Move to London.
Learn to speak English.
Practise drinking stale, warm beer.
Learning to control my gag reflex.

That sort of thing. :wink:

Work:[ul][li]Maybe repair some cracks in the walls resulting form the fact that my house was built on farmland[/li][li]A bare minimum of outdoor chores, such as keeping the pool clean and the chemicals balanced[/li][li]Clean the carpet (I hate this chore like no other)[/ul]Play:[ul][]Dopapalooza![/li][li]Backpacking Paria Canyon[/li][li]Hiking Humphreys Peak[/li][li]Hiking Mount Baldy (insert your own dirty Gavin MacLeod joke here)[/li][li]Attending the Telluride Blues Festival (I’m somewhere in the crowd in that panoramic shot; see if you can find me)[/li][li]Visit from Mom at the end of June/beginning of July, because that’s such a great time to visit Phoenix[/li][li]Birthday[/li][]Hopefully joining the Maricopa County Mountain Rescue Team (I wasn’t sure whether to categorize this as “Work” or “Play;” since I’m volunteering, I’ll put it under “Play”)[/ul]I see that my “Play” list is much longer than my “Work” list. I’m glad to see I have my priorities straight.