Day 4 and Day 5 Slab awaits


Now we wait.  We are in the curing stage with the slab of concrete.  It looks like it made it through the day without the neighbor kids messing it up or rollerblading on it.  By Day 4, it was beginning to look drier in texture, even though it did rain a bit on it.  We felt safer walking on it and Rick took a stroll out across the surface.As the concrete cures, the top coat is coming out a big more.  I guess they buffed it up since it is a garage floor.  It doesn’t have the rough texture that the porch apron has, which will be outside.  You want that so it won’t be as slippery.  Wouldn’t want Rich to fall down while he is BBQing anything.

We are now in wait mode.  The framers are scheduled to show up on Nov 19 to start putting up the walls.  I’m taking a daily picture of the slab and subsequent work.  I thought I’d do one of those time-lapsed progressions to the eventual completion of the garage.  I thought it might be fun to watch.

I was so excited on Friday.  My new favorite band was in town to play a show at the House of Blues.  Trampled Under Foot is their name.  Three siblings have put together this band and they have a really rocking sound.  They’ve been winning competitions and making quite a name for themselves as well as developing a following.  They started out as a Led Zeppelin tribute band as they were building their blues repertoire.  Trampled Under Foot is a Zeppelin song they took their name from.

We heard them when we attended the Cincy Blues Fest in August.  They are awesome.  At the end of their set in Cincy, they performed the song, “Trampled Under Foot.”  Danielle has a voice and power that outdid even Robert Plant.

We had never been to the House of Blues.  We talked about going, but never went.  The TUF show was a good chance for us to finally do it.  Rich had bowling on Friday and doing a roll off to see who is in the finals.  They won!  We packed it up and drove out to the Blue Line for the L train.

It’s been a long time since we’ve taken the L.  The train was packed and standing room only.  That was a little difficult for me to stand and ride, but I didn’t have much choice.  Trains are a good source of people watching.  We had the freshman college girls behind us talking in their very high falsetto voices about the upcoming weekend.  There were the three French couples in town to sightsee.  There were business people headed home or into town.

We arrived at the Clark St. station downtown and made our way topside.  Turning left, we walked one block to the river and could see the Marina Towers where House of Blues is located.  The night was mild and the walk was good.  Arriving inside, we found TUF already on stage in the Back Porch.  They were just playing a song to test the sound.  Getting inside, we found any possible seat already taken so we were in for a couple of hours on feet.  We found a place along the railing where we could leave and hang our jackets.

The show started and people started pouring onto the dance floor/viewing area.  It got packed pretty quickly.  With that came the usual cast of drunks.  I hadn’t been in a bar like this for a while.  Is this what it used to be like back then?  I remembered too that white people don’t dance well.  More people watching opportunities were occurring around me.

During the second set, a couple white guys in fancy business suits brought a couple of girls onto the floor in front of us.  They look like they had already had a few drinks.  By this time, the floor had cleared out quite a bit.  There was plenty of room between everyone.  These four came and stood so close in front of us that I kept hitting the blond chick in front of whenever I applauded.  She didn’t seem to mind so I didn’t apologize or stop.

Anyway, it appeared that the older, bald guy was trying to hit on the blond so I assumed that the two guys had asked these girls out from the office where they all work.  The girls probably came out to get a free dinner and night on the town. The blond was being nice to the bald guy, but she obviously wasn’t interested.  The other girl was there to support her friend, but she made to bones about showing any interest in the other guy.  Poor guy was just standing around.  Oh, the machinations of dating.  Don’t miss that at all.

So the show ended and we headed back to the train.  There were less people so we could actually sit down from the ride back to the Cumberland Ave station.  Rich was telling me a story about his grandfather getting the kids of the apartment to ride the L out to O’Hare, returning to ride to downtown and then back to the California St station by their grandparents’ apartment.  I could see that happening.  There were kids all over the stations up and down the track.  I would say it looked like the Friday night thing to do.  Get on the train and ride around for a while with your friends.

It was 2:00 AM when we finally rolled into the driveway.  Sascha met us at the door, but she didn’t appear happy.  She wouldn’t let either of us pet her.  She went out, hung out with Rich for a while, and then scrambled to bed as he gave up for the night.  I think she was still a little mad the next morning.

On Saturday, Rich started working on putting up the oak beam.  I had wanted to add something to the big blank area between the living room and dining room.  My idea was an beam of sort.  My friend, Dave, had a couple of trees that he took down in his yard and had lumbering into boards so he could make create a bar in his basement.  He had some leftover and offered me one of them.  We picked a nice red oak.  Rich cut it into two pieces and sanded it a little to take down some of the roughness.  We then rubbed it down with linseed oil.  The character and color really came out.

Next step was to actually attach the pieces to the ceiling.  I chose to expose the rougher sides.  I wanted that older, rougher character to be seen.  It took all three of us to hold things in place, but we got it mounted.  It looks better than I had imaged.  The wood is still drying out.  Once Rich gets the handmade plugs into over the screws, I’ll need to rub it down again with linseed oil.  At least this Thanksgiving, I’ll finally have the beam in!

On Saturday night, we went to Mike and Barb’s for a Fall Night Out.  The plan was cookout, sit by a fire, and talk.  That we did.  There was the usual cast of characters.  Barb and Mike have some interesting friends, besides us.  We were looking forward to seeing people that we only see here.  By 10:00, I was toast.  I just can’t do too many late nights in a row anymore.  We said good night and Rick drove us home.

On Sunday morning, it was an early turnout to attend the Northern Illinois Streeters car club breakfast.  Another excuse to see people we don’t see all the time.  During the summer, we go to car shows and during the winter, they hold monthly breakfast meetings.  This was the first of the winter meetings.  Looking forward to the Christmas party with the club in December.  More on that to come after December 15.  Stay tuned.

Storms are moving in.  The wind is kicking up to 30 miles per hour at times.  We’ve just been hanging inside.  Rich was watching the dismal Lions’ game against the Vikings.  Oh well, there’s always next week.  I’m listening to TUF playing blues and writing this blog.  Good Sunday for reading the paper and watching movies.

Now, if I can only get control of the TV.  (Evil laugh heard here.)  Then there is the Browncoats Unite special tonight!  Yes, I’m a Firefly fan and I’m not ashamed to say it.

The slab is still there out there on Day 4. It does look like it is curing nicely.

 

That’s Trampled Under Foot on stage. Not a good photo, but you can see we are at House of Blues. Great show and a great evening out.

 

Saturday and the slab continues to rest quietly. I’m starting to get used to there being something out there now. By the time the garage is complete, it’ll be normal.

 

I had planned to put an oak beam up between the living room and dining room. It thought it might give the area some character. Our friend, Dave, shared an oak board from a tree he had lumbered. It worked perfectly. It took the three of us, but the beam is up. Rick was messing around in this photo.

 

Rich put in the last screw to hold it place while he did the finishing work. Thanks, dear.

 

Rick taking a stroll across the slab. Just another day as a blank slate.

 

Curing concrete has a special character. Can’t wait until it truly is a garage floor.

 


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