Saturday night – ceiling

Diane and I spent the entire day painting the ceiling downstairs.. it was a big job, but satisfying.. we now have a white ceiling.. but it’s a different white than we had..  it actually looks really good.. We haven’t painted the ceiling in 13 years… and the windows in 17.. It feels new in there again.. or as new as a 140 year old building can feel.

I did manage to slip out of the house once to go for a run with the dogs. I ran the upper honey hollow loop. The foliage is even more beautiful up there than it was 2 days ago.. here’s a picture of Ken W’s place at the top of the hill you can see the mix of reds and greens in the background.

I love this loop.. there’s lots of  uphill which I helps me clear my head and my longs. the dogs love it because of all the streams to play in..

I checked and found one of the samstones we placed at the ford in one of the creeks is still standing guard.

I have this thing for walking/running broad empty dirt roads in the fall.. it doesn’t get any prettier than this.

This is the same day, but different woods.. this is the view out towards mansfiled form tim and jen’s house form later in the day.

By the time I got home, Diane was back with the paint and we started in… like all jobs.. it took much longer than I imagined.. we started at 11 and ended around 6.

Friend Lee lent us a big 18″ roller which made things a ton easier.. Despite our best efforts we spattered soem paint on things including this chunk of steel.. this is one of the first things I did the week after Sam died.. I went out and welded his name into a bunch of scrap like this..   The paint actually brings out his name…

Around 6L30 we all headed up to Tim and Jens for dinner and to meet their friend Niko from Belize. niko is up touring the northeast for a few months. Hes a tour guid and EMT  near Belmopan in central Belize. He told us some amazing stories abotu things he’s foudn in the jungle down there. He told us abotu a cave a freind of his had found accidentally that icontaind obsidian tools, old pottery and some fosilized human bones.. the center of one of the chambers had an alter with four human schools that were later dated to 200 CE,!  The Discovery channel just made a movie about the find.

Deb’s parents were also in town. It was great meeting them after hearing about them for so long !

Well that was the day.. nothing special… now.. on to this innoavation blog.. only 4 more days.


1. What, if anything related to innovating occurred for you today?
I pretty much took the day off from inventing.. I concentrated on the mindless/mindfull act of painting.. i used it to claear my mind.. I have so much on my plate right now that thinking of nothing for that long was rejuvinating.

2. Who else was involved (knowingly or not!) in what happened for you on that effort today? (Please don’t forget to include ST chats, email exchanges, etc.)

Oh, wait.. I did do a little work on Project-X today.. Becca called with some dimensions for the modified skull.. Tomorrow we need to measure to make sure that the big guys knees don’t take out his jaw when he’s in a full squatting position.

3. In general, do you feel more optimistic or more concerned about the potential / likely success of this effort today than yesterday? Why?

Still very nervous abotu the dtes. I have soem reqork of the processor board to clean it up and add some variable audio attenuatuation so I can run it off the speaker output. Hope I can find time tomorrow morning.

4. Please take a picture of something (anything) that is suggestive of this effort in any way that is meaningful to you…. (or draw one).

Here is the drawing I made of the skull from the dimensions Becca gave me over the phone.. The monsters jaw is longer and wider than we originally intended.. we may have to make soem adjustments..

5. Did anything hinder your innovativeness today ?

Well.. this painting exercise has just reinforced soemthing I’m learnign (again) about myself through some recent work experinces.. I realize that I don’t like things to change out from under me.. or maybe I don’t like to cause change ? E.g. I realize instantly what I don’t  like in the wall colors we  chose  , but  I am really struggling to help Diane choose other paint colors..   It’s weird because I always tell myself that I like new situations and new things.. Maybe I don’t like being behind the changes ? I don’t know.. but it seems to relate some how to the ways I prefere to invent…

OK.. All for now.. I’m exhausted.. more tomorrow.. Nite all.. nite Sam.

-me