Nothing like 5 hours of driving and a little construction in 95 degree heat to just invigorate you.  We had to attend to some parenting issues over the last several days; not the least of which was having one of the roommates go off of his meds (clinical schizophrenic as it seems), impersonate a police officer, berate Aaron outside of his window, scare the bejeezuz out of him, break into the apartment and then get arrested.  Ah, college life.  Everything else seemed pretty easy to handle after all of that.  He had a doctor appointment on Friday and then back up to school.

However, in the midst of all this, an engineering department manager saw Aaron sitting outside of class the other day.  Aaron is an Origami Artist.  It keeps his hands busy while he is reading.  The prof saw his stuff and was very impressed.  He asked Aaron what he wanted to do with his ME degree when he finally escaped college.  Aaron basically said, “planes and or automobiles”.  The guy gave Aaron his card, told him he knew of an engineering research prof that needed an assistant. Aaron emailed his resume and Voila! Interview next Tuesday.  This professor does research in “Multi-functional polymers and composite materials” (Ya, me neither).

So after an up and back to school on Thursday and Friday, I get a text from him about this.  He needed the only dress shirt he owns and wanted my lighter road bike instead of the heavy Trek mountain bike, in order to ride the 4 miles to the interview.  I told him to ride at a reasonable pace so as not to be a sweaty mess when he arrives (there is a campus bus service, but being a control freak like his mother, he didn’t want to take a chance that the bus would be late).  So off I went, up to deliver said items.  I swear all of the Front Range is under construction!

After 5 hours, I was back home and set to the next in a series of smaller projects that needs to get done.  The first was the building of the composters.  This next one was from the lessons learned from the land hurricane that hit us last winter.  The first doesn’t involve anything from me except writing a check.  We are having a shed built for the boy goats.  Of all the critters, they took the bomb cyclone the worst.  They had the least shelter and those poor boys had ice hanging from their coats.  I love my animals and that shall never happen again.  Secondly, the dogs had a hog hut as a dog house.  The blizzard had such strong winds that it swirled the snow around the front and actually filled the hut up with snow.  So in the fashion of the little grow out coop I made for the chickens, I am making a “Dog House” for the pups (And for the off chance we need to house an elephant).  It will have the actual shelter and I will be adding an awning to it for shade.  That way, along with their swimming tank, they can stay outside all day if need be.  I can too if I get kicked out of the house.  Always be prepared!

So while Zina is off to Detroitistan to help clear out her folks’ house to get it ready to sell, I’m here doing what I do best: weeding, screwing screws, swearing at the barn sprites and keeping the place running.  How did I do all this while I was still working?  Can’t remember, but there is a scar on my back to remind me.

I should be done with the framing and wall covering tomorrow.  Then it’s off to the Stockyard Supply Store for the metal roofing.  Then the awning.  I’m thinking of putting a gutter on the back that runs into their swimming tank.  We’ll plumb that when we get to it.