Build a Deck or Build an Ark?

Gosh...I don't know at this point. It rained....no wait.....stormed for about 8 hours. In that time it rained anywhere between 5 and 6 inches of rain.

Thirty minutes into the rain storm we lost the power or as they say in Jamaica....the current. It would try to come on and then die again and again and again. We went outside (yes in the rain) to see if we were the only one experiencing this problem. We were not because we watched lights come on in houses and then go out, come on and go out, come on and go out.

Time to break out the candles and transistor radio (oldie). By the light of my laptop operating on battery power, we placed jars candles in all the important places...bathroom, refrigerator, and bedroom.

R had the oldies station on and we just sat and listened to that cheesy radio thinking about all the stuff I had to do and couldn't. Grrrrr

The power came back on around 530am but no cable or Internet. That did not start working until mid afternoon and I am still trying to catch up.

Work on the deck consisted mainly of installing more of those short joists. The humidity was unbearable. tomorrow is a race day so I will run errands and maybe spray Round Up on weeds if it doesn't rain.This is what kind of joists were there before we started the rebuild project. The joists were nailed in place without joist hangers. They were also undersized and tapered down to 4 inches on one end. If that wasn't enough badness, they were spaced 6 feet apart. yes, that's right 6 feet. Ours new joists are 2 X 10 installed with joist hangers using screws and spaced 22 inches on center. We came up with 22 inches because it would evenly space the joists and miss any structure that would impede the joist placement.
The deck is nearly without bounce or any movement all. The deck boards need to be replaced but we will do that at a later date. At that time we will screw down the new boards and that should remove the remaining rattle and movement. The current boards are cupped and warped and all the nails are loose.
R prefers an electric drill motor and his preferred choice is a 1960 metal housing model. Well, he first wore out the drill motor with reverse and now the forward only drill motor has given it up, also. Damn only 50 years of service.

Not to worry, though. In R's travels the other day he noticed a plastic case out to the curb on trash day. He thought he could store something in the case and stopped and picked it up. He was surprised that it was heavy. When he got home, he opened it up and found a Craftsman 13.2V drill motor, charger, an assortment of bits, and two batteries.
He thought that either the drill motor was bad or the batteries or charger. He plugged it all in and waited. He then did this.
Yup, it all works and works really well, too.

Oh no....here comes another big storm.