Porch Swing

The temperature peaked this afternoon at 4:00 at 99°. This heat is taking its toll on me. Today I not go to the “Y” like I wanted to. I’m participating in the “Dog Days of Summer” challenge on the Concept 2 site. This week I need to Erg 30,000 meters. That works out to 6 days of 5,000 meters a day. I’m trying to get my 5,000 meter time below the 20 minute mark. Tuesday I did my workout in 21:17.6. I’ve been doing so well, but…. there is an injury now. Nothing serious: All that friction has caused sores on my butt! I know it sounds funny, but it can be painful! I need to get some padded shorts.

When I think of being “back Home”, my memories don’t go to the house I grew up in on Ontario St, or even my home of 18 years on Grand St. Instead my Lockport home is Joe’s house on Walnut St.

Back in 1997 I was stuck between a rock and a hard place when my transfer south got all botched up and my house sold to the first people who looked at it. Joe rented me a spare room in his house. What was supposed to be a month or two arrangement got dragged out to well over a year.

The front porch at Joe’s house was welcoming and gracious. Sitting on that porch swing reading the paper, or kicked back in a rocking chair resting my feet on the railing are among my happiest memories. For years I’ve debated on installing a porch swing of my own to the front porch.

Finally, I decided with the rebuilding project nearly done, now would be the time to put a swing up. The stores that normally carry these have already emptied their seasonal out with summer clearance sales. The internet is a good place to start and research. I found a swing substantially made of Cyprus wood, fabricated Mobile, AL. It was very reasonably priced and the Fed Ex shipping was only $35.00. Here is where it pays to shop around. Amazon had this same swing listed in their searches. This man also sells on E-Bay with the same swing being $20.00 cheaper!

I bought it on his “Buy it now auction" around noontime Monday. The Fed Ex truck was at my door this morning at 9:50. Not even 48 hours between the initial order and delivery!! I was a very happy boy!

The Cyprus wood is beautiful. I decided to put marine varnish on instead of paint. Three coats should see it through.

The unassembled swing with the first coat of varnish drying on the clothes line. It is really not a regular cotton clothes line but a discarded TV cable I found one morning on a walk! I don’t have to worry about it stretching out or breaking! The pieces are wired on using telephone cable. It must have been 50 years ago a friend of my dad’s who worked for the phone company gave him a 5’ section of phone cable. Who would have ever though I’d still be using sections of that wire in Tuscaloosa, AL in the 21^st Century?

Installing the ceiling hooks was the most nerve-wracking experience. The hooks must go into the rafters the bead-board ceiling is nailed into. Using my magnetic stud finder, I was able to locate the nails where the ceiling was fastened to the rafters. The first hook went in a bit too easily. The second hook went in more like I expected. Once the drill passed through the bead-board, it was like I hit a rock and I got that “pitch smell” of heart pine. There is no way that hook will come out! I drilled a new hole for the other hook and it duplicated the pitch smell and it screwed in really tight. There is no way that swing will come crashing down.

Tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m. I’ll be coxing the eight. That seat is murder on my back and butt. I’ll be sitting on a life jacket for extra padding!!