Monday, July 7, 2008

How I Spent My Summer Vacation



I helped my son yesterday with the pickup and assembly of a playset. When I said I would help, I was thinking swingset with some steel tubing, plastic caps on the end of the bolts and a couple hours of time invested. Boy was I ever wrong! The picture shows the end result of about 7 hours of labor by two guys that are pretty handy with tools. While one guy was working on a part the other was leap frogging to the next step so we could keep it moving. I'm glad I didn't bid that job. I would have lost my shirt. I will say that it's an extremely well thought out item. Everything went together well, the wood pieces were all pretty straight, and everything was sanded really nice. You could probably pull under the part where the swings are going to hang and use the crossbeam to jerk the motor out of your truck. It's going to be pretty nice once the stairs, roof, plumbing and electrical is all in. I'm surprised you don't need a building permit for these things.

As a bonus for the day, I ran into the Q-Blast guy. Q-Blast is a sports drink developed locally. I tried it a few years ago at a couple of the runs I do. It's different from most sports drinks in that it's not loaded with sugar and has a higher percentage of potassium. It's safe for diabetics and I can drink it guilt free knowing I'm not loading up on a bunch of extra sugar. It was available in a couple of stores around here for a while but then it dried up. Anyway, I think I've got the hook-up now to get some for myself and the gym. Those young guys all want to drink some kind of energy drink when what they really need is to drink water and replace their electrolytes. They get enough sugar and sodium from their diets. So there's the unsolicited testimonial for the day.

1 comment:

Surly said...

The playset is done save for a few doo-dads and the anchors.