B & G's Deck Update + Racing Announcement

Today was the day everyone was looking forward to........we started the railing installation.

Here is a photo of B and G making sure everything is on the level.
We used two 8 inch long carriage bolts to attach each post. The photo below is of R using a ratchet and socket to tighten the nut on the back side of the rim joist. We used 8 inch long bolts because we needed to go through two thirds of a 4 X 4 and one 2 X 8 and one 2 X 10. Next spring G will re tighten the nuts after the deck goes through a winter and the lumber shrinks even more.
There's those shorts again!!!!!

Just as dusk fell and after the posts were installed on the perimeter of the deck we started to install some the 2 X 4's that join the posts together to form the railing. A 2 X 10 will cap off the railing. The spindles will be square 2 X 2's.

In the photo below the railing looks rather tall but believe me when I say it is not...I am just short.

Notice how the patio door blinds are open at the bottom.....that's Twiggy making sure everything is done to spec, I think she's undercover for the building inspector.
Next on the agenda for the deck is to make 4 additional posts for the step railings, finish all the 2 X 4 installation, install 2 X 10 cap, cut spindles to length, install spindles, and touch up paint.

In racing news.....R finished his first season racing a sprint car in the MTS Series. He accumulated enough points to finish the season in 10th place and also at age 57 won Rookie of the Year honors. I guess this retiree isn't sitting home in a recliner watching TV. The trick is to stay active. Here is a photo of the happy guy today as he was taking the car apart to power wash it.
Speaking of retirees.....my newly retired sister has taken to writing letters to the editor of The Flint Journal newspaper. Seems one of Flint's favorite columnists, Andrew Heller, made a statement concerning the advertised mpg of his new GM vehicle and she had to set him straight.

Added 9-24-09 Seems Andy felt the need to pull that particular column. Maybe the formidable Marcia smacked him upside the head and said "Dumb Andy dumb."

And just for your FYI, the advertised mpg is the average after the engine is broken in. You may or not get that mileage right away. Remember with a new engine everything is tight because of the close tolerances that are used today. Tight equals friction, friction equals heat, heat equals less efficiency. When purchasing a brand new vehicle it is best to get an oil and oil filter change after 3k miles and after that change to every 5k for fossil oil and 7-10k for synthetic oil. Also unless the vehicle came equipped with synthetic oil, use fossil oil for the first 10k miles before switching to synthetic oil. DO NOT SWITCH TO SYNTHETIC on an engine with a lot of miles on it, you will be wasting your money and you could develop oil leaks.

All vehicles in this household have always used synthetic oil once they were broke in. Our vehicles have 260k, 430k, 330k, 8k miles on them. Who says GM vehicles don't last? The vehicle with 8k came with Mobil One and says to use Mobil One only because it was designed (due to the coating on the piston of this high compression engine) and tested to use only Mobil One. My husband uses Mobil One in all his vehicles and I use Valvoline full synthetic in mine. I think synthetic is the only way to go. It is more expensive (roughly twice the cost) but you can get twice the miles and it saves non renewable oil for more important uses. So I guess you could say synthetic oil is green.

In NASCAR news...The Chase has started. Tony didn't have a great day but it could have been worse. He had to pit to replace an axle cap. That is kind of an odd problem and usually a sign that you have damaged the axle spline from spinning the tires before they hit the ground when you are coming down off the jack. Tony still finished on the lead lap.

At the beginning of the season I joined the fantasy racing league on the Pepsi site. I am currently ranked 999th out of 55,980. I did pretty good this week and should move up a little when they tally the points from today's race.

So let me get this out of the way......Gooooooo Smoke!!!!! Good luck in The Chase.