Behind Infinity

Starbucks Peppermint Mocha, the next best thing to ambrosia.

Today in Farmland, on the one-year anniversary of the day we moved in to our house, we had our very own barn raising, just like the Amish. Except with power tools and minus the straw hats. It was pretty exciting. I am deeply deeply forever grateful to all the wonderful guys (and girl) who came out to help:

(cast in order of appearance) Dad, Aaron, Tim, Emily, Colin, Ethan, Doug, Tony, Seth, David, & Randy

Everything went quite well. The weather was relatively cooperative–30 degrees and mild winds, but no precipitation, which meant things were chilly but not bad as long as you kept moving. The day was productive, everyone was cheerful, there weren’t any major disasters, no severed limbs, nobody fell.

We started by putting up 2×10’s for the trusses to rest on. What a great crew we had. A good balance between “precise” personalities who made sure things got done right, and not-so-precise people who made sure things just plain got done. Randy, Aaron, and Emily, the experienced barn-builders to provide wisdom. Doug and Randy, the crazies who climbed in the rafters as they shook in the wind. And hard workers all around.

With the abundance of more competent help, my role today was limited to lots of holding, carrying, fetching, passing, and running to the hardware store to purchase the wrong thing. (I made 3 trips in 24 hours.) I did no hammering today. That’s ok; hammering is a skill I have yet to master. I hit the nail about 1 in every 4 strokes. And then, not very hard. First thing Aaron did upon arriving was to go around and finish up all my nails from last week Emily, however, was great with a hammer. And a sawzall. The woman is a construction goddess.

I was so happy to see the first truss go up.

Ethan, Seth, and David: our dedicated team of official truss carriers. The guys up high wouldn’t have been able to do their job if it wasn’t for the guys down on the ground.

Halfway done: 8 down, 9 to go. I was praying like crazy every time one of these things went up, that it wouldn’t fall, that nobody would lose their balance, that the wind wouldn’t bring everything crashing to the ground.

Here we see Tim demonstrating his mad nail gun skillz.

Would you look at my dad up there, sitting on a couple of boards high in the air? and Tony, up high on the ladder? These guys must love me a lot (Dad especially ) because they generally avoid heights as much as possible. Doug(in the middle) was right at home, said it felt “just like being on the sailboat”.

That baseball-capped blob clinging to the side is me.

All 17 trusses are up; adding some 2×4s.

Now all we have to do is get the roof sheeting and tar paper on, get the siding up and the doors on, and get the plywood linings on the inside, and it should be ready for The Wild Horse’s occupation in a week and a half. Yikes! This is actually happening, I’m going to have a barn and a wild fire-snorting saddlebred is going to live in it!

Then we’ll add stalls, windows, floor mats, a tack room, water, electric, shingles, a cupola and weathervane on top, shutters…I can see it all in my mind so plainly but this whole vision-to-reality thing is turning out to be a pretty wild ride.

Next time I build a barn I will do it in June.

I think that most girls have had this happen at least once–that is, you spend a considerable amount of time choosing an outfit in the morning, then you go somewhere, and one of your good friends is wearing the same outfit. It’s just a friend-type thing that happens, whether as a result of some sort of subconscious connection, or simply similar taste. This happened to me today. However, it was extra-amusing because my twin-friend was a guy. There we sat in Latin class, Aaron and I, looking like the Bobbsey twins. Furthermore, it was amusing that the outfit in question was a pink shirt and khaki pants, with the shirts being a very peculiar shade of pink. Not bubblegum, not magenta, just…pink…tending towards something else. Like…a mauve?

I had actually been questioning whether or not it was wise of me to wear that particular shade of pink. I can’t really wear pink well; it washes me out. So it was a great relief when I saw that Aaron was wearing the same thing, because we’re of such similar coloring that what works for him generally does for me too. But somehow, I still have this feeling that it works better for him than it does for me.

And that’s just a bit disturbing.
Ah, well. Supposedly pink is the new black….

Speaking of Latin class, we had a substitute professor in Aeneid-style Latin class today. Dr. Levitan was in for Dr. Flaschenreim. I’ve never had Dr. Levitan before. But he’s totally out of this world amazing. He made Latin class into an almost religious experience–such was the fervor and reverence with which he treated the text. Dr. Levitan is short and svelte and reminded me an awful lot like a leprechaun, especially when he sat Indian-style on the tabletop. Also, I’m convinced that he keeps a wardrobe in a Spare Oom at his house. He called on me to recite, and I totally stuttered like I had never read Latin in my life. It was a bad deal. But he was very forgiving. And next year, I plan to take whatever class he’s teaching, no matter what it is.

Also, if you’re a *very* faithful reader you would have noticed that this site was down for a few hours today. Apparently I let my domain registration lapse. Oops. Moral of the story, kids: never mark e-mails from your domain registrar as ’spam’.

Tonight I went to a tea party at Lisa’s. It was delightful. She had lovely decorations and place settings and we drank this wonderful black tea called “Paris” and ate dainty little sandwiches–watercress, cucumber, olive loaf, and the like–with the crusts cut off and had fruit tarts for dessert, all the while making polite conversation.

Then we duct-taped Lisa to a chair*, and then we went home.**

*This was Laura VD’s idea, because she wanted to figure out what would be the best way to hold somebody hostage. Lock them in a room? Tie them to a pipe? Would they be able to move if you tied them to a chair? We couldn’t decide. So we tried it out. Ah, those crazy Canadians…

**We released Lisa first.