Day 27, Tuesday, August 28, 2001

The phone rings a 7:45 AM. Its Phil from the stone place. He is sending over the gravel for the basement. What's that you say? Didn't I just spend three weeks digging stone out of the basement? Why yes, I did. But this is different stone. Its ROUND. $450.00 worth. About 40 tons. You can't really level shale and it makes lousy drainage, that's why I need a foot or so of easier to spread and level 2B stone. Guess who is going to spread it? Me. All of it. Good thing it's as hot as the sun today. I take a lot of breaks. I drink a lot of Gatorade. I scoop the gravel up with the machine and drive it to the basement. I then transfer it to the wheel barrow and put it all around the basement. Slowly. Then I cut and dry fit the pipes for the drains in the slab. I wonder if the building inspector will question the drains. I guess I'll find out soon enough. More gravel. Mercifully, it clouds up. I work better now. At 4 it starts raining. It rains like crazy. I retreat to the shed to assemble my cement mixer. I got it on ebay. I am pleasantly surprised at the high quality. I get half way done and the rain stops. I go move some more gravel. Yeah. Quit at 9 PM. I'm licked.

13 Hours, hot, rains one hour