Watch that first step...

It's a doozy!

We are officially in over our heads on this one. Although surely we would do better than the previous remuddler did. At some point they changed the slope of the stairs going from the main floor up to the attic-turned-bedrooms. Or maybe there never were stairs - which would not help explain the shredded nature of what we foundSomething is definitely not right here.Something is definitely not right here.
This is a view of the middle of the support for our stairs that go upstairs, as viewed from the stairwell heading to the basement. The plaster along the latter is now filling 4 very heavy trash bags in the basement. What we seem to be looking at is the culmination of 2 problems, neither seeming to have a very good reason. The stringer (dark wood, supports stairs) is too shallow (why? I don't have any idea) so they just added a 2x4. Simple fix, surely just as strong! The cutout that you see, that sort of looks like an upside down stair is where two stringers meet because neither were long enough (why? I don't have any idea). And it didn't even seem necessary to bridge this gap with the scabbed on 2x4!

We had to take a time out after this one. It all started with replacing the door to the basement and realizing that the door jamb seemed to be supporting the stairs. It will now end with a complete rebuild of the stairs. And this can't even happen until we can move into the main floor bedroom which is after the drywaller comes which was supposed to be after replacing the basement door which will now have to wait.

Oh boy. The take home message here? Buy new or GUT IT ALL right off the bat.

I think my next tattoo should say "Remodeling is NOT fun". It could go right on my index finger so every time I point to another cute little fixer upper the entirety of the conversation would go like this: "That would be fun. Oh wait."

Taboo food

We have been finalizing the health assessment that will be done in El Eden in the last couple weeks.  Many of the questions are in the recommended list of questions provided by EWB-USA, the national organization that oversees the local chapters.  One of those questions was whether there are any foods which are taboo in that community.  Admittedly, I couldn’t even think of an example of such a thing in any culture and in typical fashion blurted that out.  Can you think of one?

 

Someone quickly jogged my memory with cows in India (or more specifically with Hindus).  Of course.  That should have been an easy one.

 

I followed that stellar performance with a statement along the lines of “Well, we don’t have any food taboos here.”  Which quickly fell into the interesting discussion of what things are actually taboo here:

Dog

Cat

Horse

Deer hovers on the threshold

 

But to me, all but the last aren’t “food” so why would I consider them “taboo foods”!? 

 

If you lived in a community with limited means for travel outside your immediate area, assuming the population was fairly homogeneous, it seems that ‘none’ would be the most likely answer to this question.  We will see what happens in the survey, and then see if we can pick any up while we’re down there.  My guess is that they are pretty similar to our taboos.  Which is to say, they only eat food. 

 

It just made me think that even a seemingly straightforward question can carry a lot of extra baggage when placed in various contexts. 

 

Wikipedia, of course, covers all of this in detail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_food_and_drink).