100 Things About Mee

Just to join the trend –where it came from, I know not – here are my hunnerd things about me.

1. I was born on April 5, 1945.
2. I was born in Monte Sano Hospital, in Los Angeles, California. (really!)
3 My natural father was of Yugoslavian descent.
4. My mother’s mother was born in 1899.
5. She died in 2001.
6. Yep, she was 102 years old.
7. I had a horrible nightmare when I was about three years old.
8. I still remember that dream to this day.
9. I went to Anatola Elementary School in Reseda, California.
10. Then I went to Reseda Elementary School, in Reseda, California.
11. Then I went to another elementary school, of which I have forgotten the name.
12. I failed sixth grade and had to take it over again.
13. I re-took sixth grade at Citrus Heights Elementary School.
14. I lived with my grandmother for 9 months while attending this school.
15. My teacher at Citrus Heights Elementary School was Mr. Talifer.
16. He was one of the best teachers I ever had.
17. The reason I failed sixth grade was because my parents were getting a divorce.
18. My natural father was a make-up artist.
19. A make-up artist is the person that applies make-up to movie actors.
20. My father worked with many famous people.
21. Clark Gable was one of them.
22. I met Clark Gable when I was 13.
23. I used to like Elvis Presley.
24. I bought almost all of his records. (this was WAY before the days of downloads.)
25. I have always despised the way I look.
26. When I was 12, my mother married a wonderful man named Gordon Nordstrom.
27. He is one of the most awesome men I have ever known.
28. The only time I have drunk too much alcohol was New Years Eve 1965.
29. About four in the morning, several people at the party decided to go to the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.
30. I was the designated driver since I had stopped drinking about 10 PM
31. While standing on Colorado Boulevard, waiting for the parade to come by, I vomited on the sidewalk.
32. I went back to the van to wait for the others.
33. I have never consumed another alcoholic beverage since then.
34. I entered the army on February 14, 1966.
35. My first day in Basic Training, in El Paso, Texas, I saw The Mamas and the Papas singing “California Dreamin.”
36. I spent my 21st birthday on my hands and knees cleaning the floor of the Brigade Colonel’s office with a damp rag.
37. While in basic training, I gained 10 pounds.
38. While on KP one day, I heard Nancy Sinatra singing “These Boots Were Made For Walking.”
39. In July 1966 I went to Korea for 13 months.
40. I was saved on a Sunday night at a Billy Graham movie in Taegu, Korea.
41. While in Korea I met Wayne Barth, Tony Bartlett, and Walt Williams.
42. Wayne Barth told us about the Church of God.
43. I became a Sunday School Teacher at the Military chapel in Taegu.
44. My class was about 4 or 5 ten-year-old boys and girls.
45. One Sunday, only the two Korean boys showed up.
46. The lesson was about prayer.
47. One of the boys said, “Prayer is hard for me because I do not speak English very well.”
48. I told them, “Pray in Korean, God understands Korean.”
49. When I came back from Korea, I was assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas – where I had had Basic Training.
50. While at Fort Bliss, I met Doug Bayless.
51. While at Fort Bliss, I met Jimmy and Judy and David Parker.
52. The first time I saw David, he was standing in his crib with a diaper on.
53. Doug and I went to Jimmy and Judy’s apartment each Sunday to have church.
54. We had church by singing some songs, praying, and listening to a taped sermon by Emerson Wilson.
55. This is the same way we had church in Korea after we found out about the Church of God.
56. I got out of the Army on February 12, 1969.
57. I went home to visit my parents and told them I was moving to Alabama so I could be in a Church of God congregation.
58. I owned a 1967 Volkswagen then.
59. I arrived in Morgan City about 10:30 PM one night.
60. I did not know where anything was so I spent the night in the car.
61. The next morning I walked into what was to become Ken’s Kwik Stop and asked where the Church of God was.
62. They looked at me kind of funny.
63. I do not blame them.
64. I needed a bath.
65. I like Jazz.
66. I like Bluegrass.
67. I was in a folk/Bluegrass trio when I was in college.
68. We were called The Lexingtons.
69. I still have some of our business cards.
70. I like some “New Age” music.
71. I enjoyed watching my children grow up.
72. I liked watching my children learn things and explore new places.
73. One of the first words Joshua said was “coriolas”.
74. Jef used to suck his thumb and play with his hair when he went to sleep.
75. Jef used to read the encyclopedia each evening before going to bed.
76. Cathy used to do her homework sitting on her bed.
77. Timothy had trouble reading.
78. Mitchi taught him to read better my making him read the sports section of the newspaper each night and asking him questions about what he read.
79. I was a Junior High School teacher for six months.
80. I taught at Union Hill School.
81. I took over the classes that Mitchi taught.
82. She retired because she was pregnant with Jeffrey.
83. Only one of our four children graduated from high school.
84. My first car was a white Volvo 544.
85. My second car was a beige Volkswagen beetle.
86. My third car was a gold Volkswagen Van
87. My fourth car was a blue Datsan. (Nissan, now)
88. My fifth car was a blue Honda Civic.
89. My sixth car was a white Honda Civic.
90. I started lifting weights when I was 50.
91. I started running when I was 55.
92. I stopped running when I was 60.
93. I still lift weights.
94. My favorite color is blue.
95. I do not like green or black clothes.
96. I taught myself how the play the guitar when I was in high school.
97. I saw the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the Kinston Trio at the Hollywood Bowl in 1963(?).
98. I saw Merl Travis at the Ash Grove in Hollywood.
99. I saw Roger Miller at the Troubador in Hollywood.
100. I saw the Kingston Trio at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.

Wait! I’m not done. There’s more.

101. I saw the Kinston Trio at Melodyland in Anaheim.
102. I taught Randy Smith how to play the guitar.
103. I taught myself how to play drums.
104. I built my first synthesizer from a kit.
105. I have built two recording studios.
106. I once dated Miss Teenage Los Angeles (twice!).
107 Her name was/is Muriel Dance.
108. She is now the Director of Continuing Education at Antioch University.
109. I was the President of the youth group in the Lutheran church I attended.
110. I chopped the end of my left middle finger off in 1973 or so.
111. I had to stop playing guitar.
112. I taught myself to play piano. (not very well)
113. I love the southwestern American desert.
114. I love the Pacific coast.
115. I love the high Sierra mountains.
116. Donner Pass is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
117. My grandmother used to let me play near the railroad tracks when I was 5.
118. The plan failed.
119. I survived.
120. I love to travel by car.
121. My grandfather was a railroad engineer.
122. I got to ride in the steam engine with my grandfather.
123. I have traveled by train from Reno to Los Angeles.
124. I have traveled by train from Los Angeles to Sacramento.
125. I am decorating my house in southwestern motif.

Blast From The Past

While digging through some old papers I came across this picture.
It was taken in the old Morgan City church building around 1971 - give or take a year or two.
It is of myself and Brother Randy Smith, for all of you young folks who did not know life back in those ancient days.
This was in the time when we both had hair.

Since there is no picture on the wall behind us, it was after the picture was covered.
Since I am playing guitar, it was taken before I chopped off the end of my finger.
I am not sure when that happened.

Did you know Bro. Randy could play bass?

Old timers may get more of a giggle out of this than you youngers.

For you tekkees-
I did not scan this picture, I just put it on my desk and used close-up focus on my digital camera.
I am amazed how well (sharp) it came out.

Death To America - Again?

Last week the Pope made a speech.
In the speech he said the following:

"I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on — perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara — by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor.

The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Qur'an, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship between — as they were called — three "Laws" or "rules of life": the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur'an. It is not my intention to discuss this question in the present lecture; here I would like to discuss only one point — itself rather marginal to the dialogue as a whole — which, in the context of the issue of "faith and reason," I found interesting and which can serve as the starting-point for my reflections on this issue.

"In the seventh conversation edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that (in the Qur'an) surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion." According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war.

"Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels," he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

"The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God," he says, "is not pleased by blood — and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...."

He ended his lecture with the following statement:

"The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur — this is the program with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time. 'Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God,' said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university."

The Pope invited the Muslims, other Christians, Jews and scientists to TALK to each other. Islam responded to his invitation by killing Christians, burning churches and the Pope in effigy, which doesn't appear to be a good way to start a dialogue. Now, I ask you, if the Qur'an teaches Muslims that there should be no compulsion in religion, why are they killing nuns, burning down Christian churches and burning the Pope in effigy? Well at a later date Mohammad wrote in sura 9: 29-30 of the Qur'an:

"9.29": Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.

"9.30": And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away! "

End of quote

In typical fashon, Muslim men all over the world poured into the streets with fists in the air, firing guns and waving pre-printed signs saying/shouting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".

Ho hum.
Another day, another Muslim parade.
New "reason", same script.

So, let me get this straight.
The guy said that the violence of (some) Muslims is "evil and inhuman".
So to protest this statement, many Muslim men all over the world go into the streets and shout,
"Death to America!"
"Death to Israel!"

That should dispel any misconceptions about how they think.

Muslim wife: "I found a bug in the kitchen."
Muslim husband (shouting): "Death to America! Death to Israel!"

Muslim wife: "It looks like it might rain today."
Muslim husband (shouting): "Death to America! Death to Israel!"

Muslim wife: "Little Abdul got a "D" on his spelling test today."
Muslim husband (shouting): "Death to America! Death to Israel!"

Is this the only response this idiots can muster?
The Pope is a GERMAN who lives in ITALY, for crying out loud.
He is about as American as brachworst or linguini.
So if a Dutch cartoonist makes fun of Mohammed, or the German/Italian Pope points out the contradiction between religious conversion and violence, the Muslim response is the same?

"Death to America!"
"Death to Israel!"

And, by the way, can anyone show me ENNEETHING positive Muslims have contributed to the world in the last 500 years?

(And by the way, I don't hate Muslims. I just think that the reaction of many of them is stupid. As in, irrational, illogical, non-productive, self-defeating, counter-advantagous.)

Come and get me Osama.
I dare you,

The Following letter was sent today

To
Senator John McCain
Senator Lindsey Graham
Senator John Warner


Gentlemen,

I am disgusted and offended by your opposition to the definition of interrogation rules under the Geneva Convention.

You are obviously more interested in protecting the enemies of our nation than in protecting this nation.

Because of this latest action and your previous statements, actions and votes on initiatives regarding the prosecution of the war on terrorism, I am convinced you are dangerous to this country.

I consider each of you traitors to this nation and I will fully support your prosecution for treason.

Signs of the Coming Season

I hate to see this.
Leaves on the ground.
It means that the nice hot weather is soon to end and the cold, grey, windy weather is about to begin. I very dislike winter.
I did not understand this for many years.
And I did not understand why.
But now I know.
See, the days get short in the winter.
Thus, it becomes dark earlier in the "day".
So, at 4:00 PM it is dark and it makes you feel that it is later in the day.
As if you worked overtime and missed all the sunlight, when you really did not.
It is a sykological issue, but it affects many peepul (mee included) this way.
Some peepul even become depressed during winter.
I don't really get depressed.
I just get sleepy and eat a lot of soup. :)

On the subject of leevs, I have a pet peev.

This is the back of my little house.
For sum reeson leaves like to pile up right in front of my back door.
Note that there are no leaves in front of the left glass door which does not open.
Just in front of the right glass door which does open. B-(
Obvioulsy this is a function of some aerodynamic attribute of my door frame or something.
I have yet to figure it out but I shall and build a deflector to cause the leaves to pile somewhere else.

And sum daa soon I will explaan too yoo mii plan for changing the english spelling ruls to a fonetic system.
It will maak spelling so much eezeer.

Som Tek Nooz

One petaflop.
It sounds like a tropical plant.
Or a skateboard trick.
But that is not what it is.
It is unit of measure for computer performance.
It stands for 1,000 trillion calculations per second, or one petaflop.
That would be 1 quadrillion calculations per second.
That would be fast.

Just so you can have some more data to forget when you need it, after quadrillion, the number names go like this,
Quintrillion
Sextillion
Septillion
Octillion
Nonillion
Decillion
Undecillion
Duodecillion
Tredecillion
Quattuordecillion
Quindecillion
Sexdecillion
Septendecillion
Octodecillion
Novemdecillion
Vigintillion
Googol

Back to the petaflop.
It was announced this week that IBM is going to build a supercomputer that can perform 1.6 petaflops per second on a sustained basis.
Interestingly, the “computer” will be a collection of “off the shelf” rack-mount servers.
The computer(s) will be running Red Hat Linux version 4.3 (sorry Micro$soft), and use 16,000 AMD Opteron processors (sorry Intel).
The computer will use 4,000 IBM System x 3755 systems with 8,000 IBM BladeCenter H system cards with two Cell Broadband Engine CPUs on them.
The Cell Broadband Engine is the new 64-bit 8-core processor chip developed jointly by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba.


Each of the x3755 systems have FOUR Opteron processors in them and can address up to 128 Gb of RAM. (!) They look like this - (liik yoo kaer)

They will doo the switching and breakdown of the complex equations coming into the system.



Each of the BladeCenter H system cards have two Cell B.E. processors in them and can address up to 16Gb of RAM. They lok liik this -











It will be called “Roadrunner” (Meep! Meep!)

Maintain the 180.

"Stranger In This House" - (apologies to Ronnie Milsap)

When I tell folks that I live alone, that is only partially true.
As you see, I have "others" who share my humble abode.
Every once in a while they come out to visit me.
I am rather unfriendly to some of them - call it prejudice, profiling - whatever.
I just prefer to not associate with some of my house-mates.
And, I must confess, I am violent at times.
I have killed several of my house-mates and sent their corpses to both the local water treatment facility and the local landfill.
I am sure that the "little" creatures mean no harm and are simply doing what comes naturally to them.
But I, in my prejudice, am not open to discourse with them.
And while I am not really "afraid" of them, I experience a certain revulsion that outweighs my normally docile and friendly nature.
And thus, I attack - irrationally, with no apology, with premeditation and intent to inflict lethal bodily harm.
As evidenced here, I have dispached another individual to the great arthropodial resting place out there.

The Vent From Haadeez

Here are a few pichers of the project.

A Busy Day

Today started off nicely.
I had my famous Saturday morning breakfast- a three-egg cheese omlette.
Then it was off to Lowe's and Walmart.
Then home again, home again, bliggity blog.
And the Vent from Hell project.

It seemed like a rather simple project at first.
Let me explain:
My microwave oven sits under the cabinet above my stove.
The microwave has a fan in it but it blows out the front above the door.
I found the user manual and read that the fan can be adjusted so that it blows out the top through a vent.
The change was simple.
All that was required was to remove the microwave, take off a cover plate on the top, take out the fan and rotate it 90 degrees, re-install the fan, re-install the cover plate, re-install the microwave, ta da, fan blows out the top.
Simple, right?
Yes, but there is a problem.

For this to work, you have to have a 4 by 10 inch duct that connects to a round 6 inch duct that vents through the roof.
Oh, and the cabinet above my stove has a shelf across the middle and a top against the ceiling.
But I really need a vent above my stove so....
I went to the giant building supply barn and purchased the 4 by 10 flange, a two foot long section of 6 inch diameter duct, and a cap vent for the top.

The user manual included a template for cutting a duct above the unit.
I marked the corners of the 4 by 10 hole on the shelf directly above the microwave.
I was going to drill marker holes at the four corners of the rectangle I had marked.
But there was a problem.

The shelves in the cabinet are so close together that my drill will not fit inside.
So, with the help of my son, I removed the microwave from its location above the stove.
Now, I could drill and cut the 4 by 10 hole from the BOTTOM, guiding the drill and saw by watching where the blade was in relation to the line I had drawn on the TOP of the shelf.
This turned out to be good practice for what was to come.

Once the 4 by 10 hole was cut, I had room to poke my drill up to drill the starter hole for the six-inch diameter hole for the straight duct in the center shelf.
I marked the shelf (on the bottom side this time), drilled the starter hole, then using my jigsaw, cut the round hole.
Well, I cut most of it.
There was a problem.

See, the vent fan is at the very back of the microwave, so the ductwork has to run right next to the wall of the house.
There is not enough room for power tools when you have to make cuts or holes that are closer than about one inch to the wall.
So I had to finish the cuts closest to the wall with a little hand driven coping saw.
A good shoulder workout.

Then came the six-inch cut in the top of the cabinet.
Poking the drill through the hole I had just cut in the middle shelf, I made the starter hole in the top of the cabinet.
Then using the jigsaw I cut as much of the hole as I could (about 80 percent).
As I expected, when I cut the hole in the cabinet, I cut through the sheet rock ceiling.

Not a problem.
This was what I expected.
Now I could see up into the attic.
My hole was right next to a ceiling joist.
Between the joist and my hole were three big wires.
I had almost cut through my house wires.
But I didn’t. (Hand wipes across forehead)
This left the last step(s) – drilling through the roof.
I put this portion of the project off to another day.

So, today, I caught myself sitting at my computer trying to think of something to do on it when I realized that I was procrastinating.
I did not want to tackle the last part of the duct project.
I laughed as I realized that I was afraid of what I would get into.
And when you start drilling holes in your roof you have to stay with the project until the hole is covered/fixed/completed.
I mentally grabbed myself by the hair and pulled myself out of the chair.
“It will probably only take an hour or so,” I said as I walked toward the kitchen.
That was at 9:30 AM.

It is now 3:03 PM.
I have just finished cleaning up the mess, changed clothes and treated myself to a nice, cold root beer.
I deserved it.
This project was Murphy cubed.
Have I ever told you that I would rather build something new from scratch than attempt to change something in a house already built.
I have again been reminded why.

To mark the hole to be cut in the roof, I ran my level up through the hole in the ceiling until it touched the plywood decking of the roof.
By holding the level exactly vertical (end bubble centered), this would allow me to mark the slanted roof in line with the holes already cut in the cabinet.
But there was a problem.

I could not see anything in the dark attic through the six-inch hole in the ceiling/cabinet.
So I went and got my small hand mirror and flashlight.
By setting the mirror at a 45 degree angle against the wall and shining the flashlight at the mirror, the mirror reflected the light up into the attic and reflected the now illuminated image down to me.
So now, by looking in the mirror, holding the level in one hand and my Sharpie in the other, I marked four points on my six-inch soon-to-be hole on the roof decking.

Then, using the mirror and flashlight as before, I poked the drill up into the attic and drilled a hole at each of the four marks.
Try drilling a hole using a mirror sometime.
It is like driving an Etch-a-Sketch with boxing gloves on.
But there was a problem.

I did not see any daylight through any of the holes.
This was not good.
I knew that the previous owner had build on a large addition across the back of the house.
This addition had a shed-type roof nailed to the existing roof.
My fear was that the vent duct was located so far to the rear of the existing house that the add-on roof covered it.
I would have to cut through two roofs.
Hello Murphy.
And there was another problem.

The space between the ceiling and the roof was just the right distance that I could not get my drill into the attic.
I would have to cut through both roofs from the top.
The good news was that I would have plenty of room to work from the top.
The bad news was, I was not sure where to make my hole.

I rechecked my measurement of the location of the existing hole then went up on the roof.
I measured and began digging through the shingles.
But there was a problem.

After I had cut through two layers of shingles, there was another layer.
And another,
And another.
Yep, FIVE layers of shingles – two white, one black, one blue, and one brown tweed.
Oh, and a layer of tar paper on the bottom.
Then I hit wood.

I drilled a small hole and peeked in – more shingles.
Just like I thought.
I enlarged my hole to about three inches to see if I could see the holes I had drilled from the bottom.
But there was a problem.

Right in the middle of where my six-inch hole should be was a DOUBLE rafter of the add-on roof.
Two two-by-whatevers side by side.
I had missed the joist in the attic, but I bullseyed the rafter of the addition.
I was sure I could hear Murphy chuckling.

The good news was that I was near were the new roof met the old roof so the rafters here were cut on a long taper.
At this point they were only about three inches thick.
After some cutting, I removed a six-inch section of the two rafters.
And there, where the rafters had been, were two of the four holes I had drilled from the inside.
Bingo!
I was dead on target.
After a little more searching, I found the other two holes.
This was gratifying.

I began removing shingles from the “lower” roof.
But there was a problem.

After I had cut through two layers of shingles, there was another layer.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
Yep, SEVEN layers of shingles – four white, one black, one blue, and one brown tweed.
Oh, and a layer of tar paper on the bottom.
Then I hit wood - again.

If you are keeping score, that makes 12 layers of shingles on my house.
At least in this one area.
No wonder I cannot hear the rain on the roof.
This means that in the 43 years since this house was built, the owners re-roofed it an average of every three-and-a-half years.
They must have had a shingle fetish.

BTW, the best tool for cutting through the shingles – which are notorious for ruining cutting tools (I ruined a nice 3/8 drill bit on this project) – was my putty knife.
Yep, just press the corner firmly into the shingle along the line where you want the cut and up they come.
No slips, no cuts, no dull tools.

I was now ready to cut the hole in the roof to the proper size to match the holes in the cabinet and ceiling.
But there was a problem.

The second (lower)(original) roof was so far below the level of the first (upper) (added-on) roof, that none of my power saws would reach it.
So I took my trusty drill and drilled 87 holes (more or less) in a nice six-inch circle (more or less), took my trusty hammer and assisted the center section in escaping the confines of roofhood.
I had a hole in the roof.

Now I could look down into my house and see a series of three six-inch holes and one hole, four inches by ten inches, all stacked one above the other.
I took my two-foot section of six-inch duct and attempted to insert it into my collection of holes.
But there was a problem.

It fidn’t dit.
The hole in the roof(s) was too small and about two inches off from the others.
Murphy! Hush!
So I cut some more upper shingles, cut some more upper deck wood, cut more off the upper rafters, cut some more lower shingles, drilled some more holes in the lower deck wood, removed some more wood, and - KACHING!
The vent duct fit.
I was very happily ever after.

I inserted the vent sections into the holes.
Then, I attempted to slide the roof boot over the protruding duct.
There was a problem.

The vent boot was too small for the duct.
So I took my trusty airline hijacking tool (box cutter) and cut out a section of the boot to match the size of my duct. (the boot is plastic)
Now the boot fit.
I slid it into place.

I slid the rain cap onto the protruding duct and – ta-da – it was done – almost.
Just a few more things to do.

I gathered up my tools – which were many (drill, jig saw, skill saw, box cutter, putty knife, hand saw , hammer and tape measure), and climbed down my ladder to terra firma.
I apprehended my trusty caulking gun and trusty silicone caulk and up my trusty ladder I went.
After spreading toxic goop around my vent pipe, I went down the ladder with the caulk/caulking gun and came up with my big push-broom.
I brushed all the shingles, wood, splinters, nails, and whatever off the roof, took one last admiring look at my handiwork and descended that ladder for the last time.

I swept up the leftovers and deposited them in the trash bin.
Then back in the kitchen, I used my handy stand up vacuum cleaner as a shop vac and sucked up all the dust, insulation, wood chips, etc, that had fallen through my new hole(s).

I was/am tery vired.
Hence, the sitting and the root beer (which is now gone).