Upstairs Update 0.1

I guess it's about time I posted something again, and what would be better than giving a little update on what's going on with the building here?

The above picture is a look at what Daniel and I have spent the past two days working on. You can see the beam above and the old "frame" below. That lower part had to come out so...

...We got out the tools and the electric hammers (like a hammer drill, but not a drill) and went to work. The above is sort of a view of the same opening, but without the lower part. It took us a while, the hardest part being the metal beams that were inside the concrete (which was the white part). They were close together making them hard to cut off, which was made even harder because we wanted the cuts to be [close to] flush with the wall. (Sorry for the dark picture, I'll try and lighten it when I get the time)

We ended up spending a lot of time on those beams (which were really just two "L"s welded together). Daniel worked with the small grinder and cut all the welds holding the two pieces together, and I worked at making the big cuts with the big grinder. I think we went through about four disks on the 4.5in grinder and three on the 7incher (which was due to the fact that the cutting was always had to be done in a difficult position, plus the disks were really flimsy). I was just glad that we only had to do cutting on one end of the beams; the other ends were lifted out/off of the wall.

The next thing that was on the list to do was to attach some rebar braces to the new I-beams. We drilled holes in the walls and then hammered rebar into them (which was my job). Then Daniel welded on some pieces that went from those anchor points up to the beam. The wall we were drilling in had all kinds of rocks in it, so it was great when we would find places where the drill would go in deeper than just 20cm. We didn't get both sides finished, but that's because we ran out of rebar (we had been using pieces we had pulled out of the previous "beam").

Then, after we had finished breaking up, cutting up, and welding together we had to "clean" up. This was done using only a shovel and was accomplished to a good degree of success. The section of wall that has the pile of rubble at its base will be further shortened/narrowed sometime in the next few days; that's why our "cleaning" didn't have to be so great.

The push for us to get this done in the past few days is because the "wall finishers" are supposed to start sometime soon, and we wanted to be ready for them (as best we could). There are still some things that have to be done, like making sure all the cables (of all kinds) are run and making sure that all the boxes/outlets are in the right places. Once the walls are finished, most of the "dirty" work will be done. We really don't know when this phase will be completed, but it should be finished in the next month or so, unless some problem comes up (which I don't think would surprise any of us if something did).

It feels good to finally pick up some tools and start working on what we started on three (3) years ago. It's nice to think that the main part of the building will once again be usable and functioning soon. Between then and now we just have to finish what we can and be glad when the next phase gets done. I'll try and remember to take more pictures when we work next time. I know you'll notice that I'm not in any of the pictures above, but that's due to the fact that, like I've said before, "it's kind of hard to take pictures of myself while I work"!

"What am I looking at?"

"Rouse yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to Him. 'Look unto Me'..." O.C. Chambers

I don't usually quote other people's words here, but when I read the above I thought it wouldn't hurt to add it today. It touches on the very problem that I've got - I let the hundred and one things in my life distract me from looking unto God. It's a surprisingly easy thing to do - to allow my attention to wonder from the One that's leading and place it on those waves in life that seem like they are going to drown me at any time. "Look unto Me". And what about the hundred and one good things, the things that most people would think "couldn't harm a fly"? They can just as easily distract my attention from the One I should be looking to. "Look unto Me".

Čas beží *

It's already been a week since I last posted. Not a good way to start out my blogging year. I really wish that I did have something to post on a more regular basis, but I guess I'm prone to just looking over things and not seeing anything really worth writing about.
This (almost) past week has been just one of those ordinary weeks for me. I went to the school again on Tuesday and survived through the two classes (two of the easy ones).

Tomorrow I'm going again, although I may be switching my classes from Friday to another day. I rearranged my "office" the other day. It's not really my office, but I've claimed it since no one else was using it (and because I don't have my own room in the building anymore). It's kind of filled with all kinds of stuff: bookcases with books still in boxes on the shelves, odds and ends (old) computers/copiers/printers, a desk, a few chairs, plus the thing that everyone needs in an office: a server case (one of the big ones that looks like a refrigerator). I got rid of (meaning I just disassembled) the computer that I had been using for internet work. The 21in monitor was just a little over-kill on the desk so I returned it to the floor (where I got it from). I took the tower out from underneath the desk (so I wouldn't kick it to pieces) and put it back in the third office. I then rearranged the pile of stuff that was left over in order to create a little more space. Now the desk has legroom underneath and the top is cleared enough so two laptops can be placed on it at once. I'd take a picture of the "new" look, but the lens on my camera isn't wide enough to take in everything at once, i.e. you would get to see the chairs or the desk or the neatly piled stuff, but not everything at once........or maybe.....

* Time is running

Where are I.......?

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I'm going to try and make that up...somehow. Right now I'm a little handicapped in my typing (see below), which is one of the reasons why I haven't posted anything in the past few days. Another reason is that during the past few days I didn't really have any chance to connect to the internet, which, as you can guess, makes it kind of hard to get anything posted. So be happy because I'm posting now!

In my last post I mentioned a number of things that have come to pass. The snow that I bemoaned as not coming finally did get here. The bustle of Christmas has slowed way down, and the quickly arriving new year has finally come. I guess I'll have to kind of fill you in on what I've been doing since I last posted, so here goes...

The picture above probably doesn't seem like anything real great, but it is one of the pictures that I have that best describes what Christmas looked like. OK, so it's not really what Christmas looked like, but it is a picture that I took on my Christmas trip (while I was driving). I spent the Christmas weekend with the Baldis family (Short intro: They are Americans who are here as missionaries and have been here for fifteen years. I met them in the airport when I went home last time, and after getting back into contact, they invited me to spend Christmas with them). I had a good time there and enjoyed learning about their ministry here in Slovakia. It was definitely a different Christmas, but the differences are what made it good. I spent a number of days with them before I headed back to "my" part of Slovakia.

On Thursday of last week I went with a group (comprised mostly of young people from the churches in Trencin and Previdza) to Vienna, Austria for a day of sight-seeing in the city. It wasn't, in my estimation, the greatest time to go sight-seeing, but there was the slight "charm" of being there while everything was still in it's Christmas dress. A little snow would have helped make the cold a little more bearable, but we didn't get that until we were on our way back. Yup, that's right, it started snowing! By the next morning there were a couple inches on the ground, not as much as I had hoped for, but still something.

That was the day that I packed up again and headed off, along with a number of other people, to the chata (cottage) where the youth from NM would spend the New Years weekend. I was told by the people that went before me that I wouldn't make it up the hill to the chata (the van had to be pulled up by an SUV), but I decided to try anyway. To the surprise of everyone in the chata, I made it up without any problems, and with two other people, the trunk and a seat full of stuff to boot! I was then, because of my car's feat, sent back to the city to act as the taxi for the rest of the people who were waiting there. I went back and filled the car up again, but it was much "fuller" than it had been the first time. The car was loaded down with five people, the trunk and all usable laps full of stuff, plus a guitar (in a hard case) and a sled on the roof-rack. Needless to say, I was pretty doubtful that we would make it up the hill, especially since it had gotten colder and the snow was only getting slicker. We made it up the first hard part with just a little slipping, but the second and hardest part we didn't get anywhere on. I then, in progressive stages, had passengers get out and walk but still I had trouble. Then, after trying unsuccessfully to get up, I was backing back down the hill when my car decided it wanted to change directions (which was interesting because it was a slightly sunken one lane road with a nice sharp turn at the bottom). Thank the Lord! it was just what I needed: I simply put the car in reverse and backed up (which was also rather interesting because it was dark and my car doesn't have backup lights). Needless to say (again), there was a little rejoicing once the car got to the top!

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun and we all got to spend time doing different things with each other. The first night (and following nights) we went sledding on the part of the hill behind the house. It was a great place, especially because it had a little sloping drop-off that ran the width of the hill giving us a little jump for some extra...excitement! On one of the first couple of runs, though, I decided to try and be the third person on a two person sled, and because there wasn't a place to sit, I just stood on the runners. Uh...not a good thing to do! As soon as we hit the lip of the drop-off I fell of the back and whacked my right hand on something (couldn't see what it was because it was dark[!]). We continued sledding for a while, but once we went inside I could tell that I had messed up the little finger on my right hand. It was all swollen and the first knuckle had turned dark in color, looking very much as if it were broken. I used a piece of wood and some electrical tape to make a splint for it, and just hoped that the swelling would go down. It didn't, but now I've decided that I for sure didn't break (as in two pieces) the bone, most likely I just got a stress fracture somewhere in the joint. It's doing a whole lot better now, the swelling having gone down, but the knuckle is still quite stiff so I'm going to leave the splint on for a good while longer.

I'm kind of sorry that I didn't take my camera with me, but I don't really know how I would have taken any pictures of all the excitement if I'd had it. Maybe I just need to get some kind of a helmet with a video camera in it..... Anyway, that was my New Years weekend, plus a couple of things thrown in to make some memories.

That's it! We're now back to the brown and green colors of our unusual winter, and back to the kinds of things that make up most usual days. And yes, I'm going to make it a goal to get some more pictures!