Saturday, April 30, 2011

I can't sleep, so I thought I'd use some of my time by posting.
Steve can sleep through anything, it seems, and is seldom kept awake.  I have always had trouble sleeping.
Things at the house are going a bit awkwardly.  We hired a new man to help, and it seems that he doesn't know much about carpentry skills.  He is a big strong fellow, and is really nice, but he seem to slow down the other fellows rather than help them along.
Steve Richards (S2) scared me to death the other day, sliding down the wall in the stairway, out of breath.  He's having real respiratory problems, probably not helped by the fact that he chain smokes.  I thought he might be having a heart attack.  Cherokee told me he complains often of pain in his upper back, which is sometimes a sign of heart trouble.  I'd be shocked if he didn't have some kind of heart trouble, the way he's always lived.  He's a heavy smoker and a chronic alcoholic.  He's worked all his life in plaster and concrete products, and sometimes he coughs so badly I think he's going to pass out.
Quite a bit of alcohol is being consumed by the fellows, though not on the property.  I wouldn't allow that.  Caroline Jones, the lady next door, told me that Orlando and Steve had taken to hanging out at the house with Tim at night, and Tim is fairly hung-over in the morning after these times.
They all wanted to be paid in cash yesterday afternoon, and Tim came back after a while and had been drinking.  He reeked of it, and was 'mushy-talking', like some people get after only a few drinks.  I'm going to have to speak to him about that.  It dismays me that people who are substance-dependant seem to want to ruin their lives, no matter what help is offered.
They got the upstairs closet off one of the bedrooms 'rocked' yesterday, after an incredible amount of fussing, measuring, and mis-cuts.  Steve (S1) commented to me that we could have done a much better job, and with less waste and cost in materials.  I'm just not able to lift sheetrock right now.  I'm wondering what the wide seams and awkward joints will look like after they dry and settle.  I can tell that these men are NOT sheetrock men.
I just hope that Steve (S2) can use plaster and tape to cover the obvious bad job they did.
Steve suggested at supper last night that he and I might do the rest of the sheetrock work.  I told him it would have to be some later, but I think, too, that we could do a better job of it.
Tim's wife and some strange man came to pick him up last night for a visit in Knoxville.  His wife is very young and plump, and the man with her made me terribly uncomfortable.  He was dirty and stared at my breasts the whole time we talked in the yard.  I think he's a creep.
He told me he was a nurse, but I think he might have been wanting to nurse, rather than to be one.
I hope he doesn't come back when they bring Tim home.
I told Tim to try to stay out of trouble, but with that crowd......
Jason Higgs came by the house yesterday afternoon with the sad news that his father, Jack, had suffered a massive coronary yesterday morning, and was in ICU at St. Mary's in Knoxville.
He was distraught, and could hardly talk without crying.  I tried to offer him some comfort, and told him that I would keep Jack in my thoughts and prayers.
They are rather dirty people, but Jack and Marsha have been really good friends to me, and I truely do care for Jack.  I hope all is well with him.  I think I may go down to Knoxville to see him while he's there, thought the time will cost me dearly.
Steve wants to get a new weed eater for the yard, but I think a bush hog would be more useful at this time.  It looks like a jungle out there.
A man came and got a swarm of honey bees out of the floor of my Hut.  He brought a vacuum cleaner designed just for that purpose.  I thought he might be joking at first, but he says that's the way they do that sort of thing now.  I learn something new each day.
Lulu, from the Down Home, had sent him after I called her to ask if she knew anyone that might be interested in taking them.  I sure didn't want them.
Steve has been spending a lot of time with the re-wiring of the house.  He had mentioned some time ago that some kind of animal had been leaving droppings in the attic, and he found a small colony of bats there yesterday.  I went up to see them, and they're so small and cute.  I would love to bring them here, but they'd probably just fly back up there the next night.  The workmen were amazed that I would want them.  They eat their weight in night-flying bugs every night, though, and it makes it a lot more pleasant to sit on your porch if you're not being bitten all the time.  We've had small colonies in our barn off and on for years, but they don't use the bat houses I've put there for them.  They just roost on the rafters.
The kitchen now has sheetrock everywhere but the hole in the ceiling that a chimney used to pass through, and I would LOVE to see it taped and plastered.  The sheetrock there looks lots better than the upstairs closet.
I've painted a couple of bird houses to put in the front yard of Creekside, where Caroline had put some (too small) houses years before, which the birds had rejected.  I hope my tastes suit her.
The Acuff's came by yesterday.  He wanted to get some sand from my pile to use in a horse shoe toss area for the American Legion, and I was glad to let him have it.  He hauled it in the back of his car, which I thought was a bad idea, but there was no disuading him.  He's interested in some more of my building products, so I might re-coupe some of my money I've put into them.
He's particularly interested in some stepping stones, and I've sure got plenty of those.
It's clear that he doesn't know much about building from our conversation about his planned deck, but he thinks he's on the right path.  His wife clammed up and said nothing about it.  I think they might have discussed this before. 
She loves the place at Creekside.  She can see the vision I have for it, and it was good to talk with her about my future and present projects.  She's a really sweet lady.
I'm thinking I might be sleepy, now that it's almost daylight outside.  I'm all turned around.
I hope I can fulfill my duties today.