Wanderings about town, and ingraining a little SDSU at home.

I’m sure you all know I don’t spend all of my day in front of the computer. And today was no different.

I had some office duties required of me today, so I was in there working for a bit this AM. I helped my wife take ice and soda down to a crew assembling playground equipment at the new elementary school, and then took her to lunch. And I had a project that’s been in the back of my mind.

Friends on Facebook know I’ve had a head of steam behind me this summer for home improvement projects. I’ve built a few furniture projects (Bed, 2 tables), “upcycled” pallets into projects, installed a sink, and done several other minor little things to keep my hands busy with things other than the computer. I do plenty of that computer stuff, arguably more than my fair share, and I’ll be doing plenty more in the coming months as the weather turns and the political season heats up.  However, there is a big world outside of cyberspace, and it’s great project weather. So I step away from time to time.

For years, I’ve been wanting to do a little expansion on my deck, which I’ve been putting off due to cost.  I have “off-year projects” which I do as time and funds allow. And I have “election year” projects which I pay people to do while I’m crazy busy with political postcards and the like.

The deck project has been languishing for a few years now, and was looking like it might be relegated to being an “election year” project sometime next year, if I managed to find the time right behind the re-shingling of my roof.  Given my aversion to heights, the roof project is a strong priority for having someone else do it.  And the deck would follow far behind it.

Yet today, I happened on to a bit of good fortune.  I stumbled across someone who has a large pile of lumber salvaged from the South Dakota State University Stadium bleachers.

The 2″ by 10″ lumber was a bit stouter than the 2″ by 6″ lumber I was looking for. And they’re 17-18 foot lengths. And it’s all painted. But….

What the “but” was, was a very low price. And unlike next summer, I have the time to do it myself this year.  And suddenly, I’ve got a big project for next year that was conveniently promoted to this years’ big “off-year project.”

I have to admit, I’m a little intrigued to use lumber that came out of the stadium of my Alma Mater in the construction.  There were a lot of memories in that stadium over my years of schooling, whether I was freezing my butt off as a University Police Student Officer, or in the stands sitting on those bleachers cheering on the Jacks.

Yes, that brand new massive stadium of steel under construction across town is going to be nice. But they’re not the only builders in town.

By the time football season rolls around, the University is scheduled to have it’s newly constructed monolith to the game. And I will as well, and likely not be able to help from smiling over the memories that I’ll have tucked away under my feet.