MichaelandChrissy.com

The roof is progressing well. Glenn started on Tuesday with a friend helping him, who was supposed to be responsible for stripping the old shingles off. That lasted about a day. By Thursday, I was up on the roof instead. I spent most of Friday helping Glenn and then from 8 AM to 7 PM on Saturday and Sunday. I found out that roofing is hard work.

Glenn and I stripped both layers of shingles off of the back side of the house on Friday. There are special shovel-like tools for prying up the nails. I got the hang of it quickly, but it was exhausting. I attempted to strip the shingles off of the garage by myself on Saturday, but it turned out to be a very hot day. The heat made the shingles stick together, and then I was sitting on a bed of hot tar once the first layer of shingles was up. I gave up by noon and helped Glenn with the house instead. Chrissy and Aiden were there to take pictures.

Glenn helped me strip the garage on Sunday. We started early before it could get too hot. We tore off both layers from one side by noon, and then spent another hour cleaning up. We could toss the old shingles directly into the dumpster from the top of the house, but the garage was too far away. We bribed the neighbor boys to carry our mess to the dumpster for the second half of the garage. Progress was made much more quickly this way.

I don’t think that I’ve ever been so dirty. I wore the same pair of pants until Sunday night; I didn’t want to ruin more than one pair. I had dirt and black tar smudged all over me from removing the shingles and tar paper. I’ve still got dirt engrained into my hands that just won’t wash off. There must have been ten thousand roofing nails up there, and I had at least five of them stuck in my shoe at some point. And I’m sunburned on top of that. I’m just dirty, burned and exhausted.

Glenn still has more work to do. The house is shingled completely, but the chimneys still need to be water-proofed and the garage needs new shingles. Glenn is also replacing the attic vents with a single crest vent that is supposed to ventilate the attic better. He should be done by the end of the week. In the meantime, I need to buy some shoes that aren’t covered in tar…

The sleep study on Tuesday night was actually a nice experience. I got to the clinic at 9:30 PM and they had me fill out some paperwork. They showed me to my room, which was small by comfortable. I’ve had worse hotel rooms, and this one had cable. The bed was firm, but comfy, and I almost fell asleep before they attached the monitoring devices.

After about twenty minutes, the technicians came in and hooked me up. I had close to two dozen electrodes attached to my head with adhesive paste, a couple on my legs and a bunch on my face. I also had a tube around my nose and a microphone on my neck. If I snored, they would know; if my legs twitched, they would know; if my breathing slowed, they would know. I didn’t know how I would get to sleep like this, but I found that it wasn’t too hard to move around.

I watched some Family Guy on the television and then fell asleep. It took a little longer to pass out than usual, but no longer than ten minutes. I think I woke up a couple of times in the night, but I usually go to the bathroom before I go to bed (I was wired up to the wall by that time though, so I couldn’t). I was a little groggy when they woke me, but my circumstances roused me quickly.

The technician told me that I have definite “sleep issues”, but she said that only a doctor could diagnose me. It takes about two weeks to work through all the data, so I’ve got an appointment with the sleep doctor in three weeks. At that point, he should have some suggestions on how to get me to sleep better.

The shingles arrived yesterday. The supply company delivered them on a big truck and used a conveyor belt to send them to the top of the roof. The dumpster was also delivered early this morning, so we have the main pieces in place to start the roofing project.

Unfortunately, it was supposed to rain today, so we can’t start until tomorrow. The rest of the week should be nice though. Glenn is buying the rest of the supplies today, so we’ll be all set. Glenn and his assistant will be tearing off the old shingles by 8 AM tomorrow. With any luck, we’ll have a new roof by the end of the week.

I finally got around to scheduling a sleep study at the Medical Specialists sleep clinic. I’ve been very fatigued for the last several months, and I felt that I needed to have it checked out. To be honest, I’ve always been tired in the daytime, but it has been getting rediculous lately. After some bloodwork, my doctor discovered that I was all messed up (now I’m on meds) and he referred me to a sleep specialist.

The specialist told me that falling asleep in your car is bad. I kinda knew that, which is why I was there. The consistent headaches that I blamed on my eyeglass prescription, I find out, are most likely caused by a sleep disorder. Snoring may play a part, but I don’t think it’s the entire problem. So now I just have to figure out what type of disorder I have.

The sleep study is scheduled for September 25th. I go in at 9:30 PM, they hook me up to the machines, and then I can sleep until 5:30 AM. Good luck waking me up that early — Chrissy can barely do that, and she has no problem with kicking me in the head. I hope that I’m able to fall asleep. I once had trouble sleeping on the plane to England, but I normally have no trouble at all (I sometimes fall asleep when I don’t want to).

I beat BioShock last Friday. I’m already playing it again, since there is a high replay value and you notice a lot more detail the second time around. It occurred to me that I have been playing it alot over the last two weeks, which may explain why I haven’t done much updating of my blog. My good friend Swavek got a copy about a day before I did, so we exchanged notes almost daily about our progress.

In retrospect, I wrote a small book on the subject via email. I meant to put the more interesting bits of it here and there in my blog, but I couldn’t tear myself away from the game to do it. So, I’ve compiled the emails that I sent out below, along with hindsight commentary in brackets. If you’re at all interested in information about BioShock gameplay or links to cool BioShock stuff, then read on. Beware of spoilers!

Continue Reading »

The next phase of home remodeling has begun. This time, we’re going to replace the roof. Glenn noticed last spring that the shingles on our roof are curling, which means that it’s time to get a new roof. I’m not sure how we’re going to afford it, but it needs to be done. We’re going to replace both layers of shingles on the house and the garage.

When I say “we“, I mean Glenn and I. Somebody needs to explain to Chrissy that it is a terrible idea to put me on top of the house for any length of time. I’ll be wearing a harness that is attached to the crest of the roof by a rope, though. I’ll look rediculous, but I’ll be less likely to die. At least we waited until the fall to do this. It would have really sucked to be roofing in the heat of late August.

We put in the order for the supplies last week, and they should be calling for a delivery date soon. Glenn also ordered lumber to reinforce the joists in the garage. It turns out that the joists are sagging as much as six inches and are cracked in some places. That will come first, since we don’t want the new garage roof to cave in on my cars.

The new fall lineup is coming out soon, so there will be less netflixing and more tivoing in the house. Chrissy loves “How I Met Your Mother“, “Two and a Half Men“, and “Survivor“. We also like “CSI” (only the original), “Til Death“, and “The Biggest Loser“. I can’t wait for new Sci-Fi: “Battlestar Galactica“, “Stargate Atlantis“. I might even try “The Bionic Woman“, since “Painkiller Jane” sucked so bad.

We’ve got the entire last season of “Smallville” and “Supernatural” recorded, but I haven’t watched any of them yet. We used to follow these two, but then Survivor came on over them. We just got done watching the third season of “The Office” from Netflix, so we’re both hyped to see that too. And we can’t forget “Family Guy” and “American Dad“. I think we watch too much TV…

I’m debating on whether or not to get into some shows. I like the Geico commercials, but I’m not sure if I’ll dig “Cavemen“. I never got into the first season of “Heroes” either. I saw enough of them to get the storyline, but I’m not sure if I’ll watch the second season (maybe I’ll get season 2 on DVD later?). It’s nice to be able to forego a season in favor of something else, but still have the option to get the entire collection on DVD the week after the season ends.