Pete's random thoughts

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

First post to this blog - the mildew hunt

Since I hear from a lot of people that they enjoy reading our website, I thought it would be fun for everyone to keep a blog so as to keep everyone posted about what goes on here on a day-to-day basis.

I originally was going to post it on the Middlesex Village Trtading Co. website as simple HTML, but thought about it and felt using a premade "blog" server would be more efficient for me to use.

So sit back, relax, and feel free to make fun of me, because here is the first post:

Stalking the wild mildew....

Over the past week, a yucky mildew odor has started down here in the shop, and thermodynamics being what they are, it has carried up the stairwell to the house.

It's a new smell, but definately mildew. The problem is, I can find no evidence of dampness down here. I thought it may have come from something we moved in recently (more on the move later) but there really isn't anything here in the shop that got wet in the move.

It's really irritating Wendy's allergies. She never seems to miss an opportunity to say "that mildew smell is really bad" (as if I hadn't noticed).

So far, I have moved almost every box and smelled it to see if it was the source. No luck.

The silver lining to this cloud is that it is motivating me to really get things organized here and get these boxes unpacked. I'm finding all sorts of assorted goodies. Christmas night, after I watched "A Christmas Story" on TBS and Caleigh went to bed, I came down and kept pecking away at the pile. I opened up a little box marked "bathroom" in a handwriting I don't quite recognize. It must be my grandfather's writing, because in it was a bunch of old B&W photos, cards, and two spiral bound notebooks.

The notebooks were significant because they were journals kept by my grandmother about life with my older brother from the day he was born. He was born with two severely clubbed feet, and it was a full time job to take care of him because there were hours of physical therapy and stretches to be done every day. She died of a stroke when I was 13 months old, so I never really knew her. I have photos of her, and some of her "papers", but these journals are the first thing I have found that give me an insight into who she was, not just what she did. The journals also answer some genealogy questions that I had never been able to solve. I could go on for hours about the content of the notebooks, but I have guns to ship.

No guarantees, but today I want to try and get a few of the RHR pistols out. There are a couple of them that need the angle of the cocks adjusted, especially the prototype piece that I have promised to send to Ted R.

Ted is the guy who came up with the idea of the RHR, and did much of the research for it. I promised the first one to him, but it's been such a busy year that I haven't gotten around to tuning it up and sending it out. The way the angle is changed is to remove the cock, weld up the corners of the tumbler hole, and file new flats at a slightly different angle. It's tedious work, but relatively simple.

If I keep writing, I'll never get to it, so I had better close for now, finish my lunch, and get back to work...