Let me give you the highlights of the The Great Pool Project that I’ve been working on for the last five years.

Photo of pool

Back when (in 2004), it was a yard with a swing set, trees and a shed.

Trees and shed

Gibson and Lucas on the hammock

Someone at work put their above-ground pool up for sale on the employee classifieds. It was huge and only $800. I had always wanted a pool and this looked like the right ‘deal’. They even let me do ‘lay-away’ payments. And so it was that I bought and installed the largest above ground pool you can buy

I didn’t want to rent a Bobcat so I dug and leveled the yard by hand.

Before I buried the trees with fill dirt I put brick ‘wells’ around the them to keep them from dying.  I used water as a tool to find out how level the pool actually was becoming.

Two of the trees had to go to make room for the pool. One was Nicole’s lovely peach tree.

Nicole's peach tree, bearing fruit.

I kept it maintained for 5 years and then last year the liner cracked. 

This year I decided to sell it and get my yard back!

With a shovel and a wheelbarrow and hard work!

Pool hole almost gone.

Another addition to the Hering family in 2004 was this beautiful Stratocaster. It’s a sunburst colored mid-1980’s vintage Japanese made (MIJ) Fender Stratocaster that I found on eBay.  Much against my better judgment I bought it (you’re supposed to play them first) and I was quite pleased. It has a somewhat rare Fender System I tremolo that was built by Shaller (Wikipedia) who also make my favorite guitar strap locks.

Photo of Strat bridge

The photos on the “Strat Bridge” page mostly represent my effort to find parts to complete the guitar. It was missing the ‘locking nut’ locks and a screw from the bridge.  I still haven’t purchased the original whammy bar, mostly due to the fact that a piece of tape makes a regular one work and the only place I found having one wanted $45 for it!  (Okay, I have to confess, I went back today and found one for only$25.  Maybe the other one was on eBay, or maybe my memory is just in error!)

… late model Dodge truck.

My favorite new ‘wish list’ item

As you may or may not know, in 2004 I purchased an example of said Honda off eBay, and without trying it out first. It was not good.

Aside from the fact that I rode the overnight bus to Greenville, SC to fetch it, the car turned out to have more problems than I was willing to deal with, and so after replacing the radiator and finding out that was not the source of the overheating… it got parked in the garage.  After the divorce, some time in 2007, it was rolled out, wouldn’t start and so I sold it ‘as is’ to someone with more enthusiasm for the vehicle.

As of the fall of 2009 the fleet (all ‘paid for’ vehicles I’m proud to say) stands at one 1983 Pontiac 6000, one 1997 retired police intercepter (bought untested from GovDeals.org – will I ever learn?!?), one 1997 Mercury Grand Marquis, and one 1990 Toyota Supra (destined for Lucas – contingent on his high school performance – thus the name ‘red Jap carrot’).
I’m working on saving up for the next vehicle – and then I got laid off!  God will provide.

(note from 2013:  As I saved up and had most of the money and as I say “it got real” I began asking myself what I would do with a truck bed as opposed to covered hauling space.

2005 Ford Expedition

I got a Ford Expedition instead.)

“Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers!” – Jack Horkheimer

After being shown that there were visible satellites in the dusk and dawn skies, including the ISS (International Space Station) I pulled out my trusty old binoculars and discovered that I could also just barely see what appeared to be the moons of Jupiter. That started a period of intense research into the world of astronomy.

My 6" dob ready for viewing the sky

This is a photo of the almost-finished telescope I built. I used a concrete form tube for the telescope barrel and OSB (plywood) for the base.  The observatory director of the Von Braun Astronomical Society loaned me an old 6″ mirror and a focuser and I built the rest from, you guessed it, plans on the internet.

So to say goodbye, again, as Jack would; “Keep looking up!”