". . . but I have MILES TO GO before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep." Robert Frost

My task on my return home this week is to finish the project started in spring, get the insulation installed in the attic.  It was 2 days of work in April to get 30 rolls out of the store, to the house, in the door, up the stairs, up the ladder, through the hatch, and set out across the 40' long floorspace that is criss-crossed by inverted 'V' shaped trusses.  What that means is that we don't have useable floor space in the attic - it is divided by those wooden joists every 24" and the original loose insulation just lays atop the ceiling filling in the space between the floor joists.  So plywood had to be cut so I could lay pieces out every 8 feet or so and lessen the amount of crawling over the angled joists and trying to keep from putting my foot through someone's bedroom ceiling!

 

Today was to open the rolls, cut away the binding, and roll them out lengthwise across the floor joist adding about 9 more inches of insulation on top of the old loose fill.  Never easy when the roof is sloping, nails poke through the ceiling (from the shingles) and you have those damned joists to crawl over and balance on every 2 feet.

 

Really not a difficult task, took some thought to decide how to start the job (under the angled joists but as close to center as possible so the roll could unfurl, then push the laid out strip outward to the edge where the roofline is inces off the floor.  A rake needs to be employed to push the stuff into the father reaches that I can't get too because of the nails sticking through the ceiling.  But, this is stirring up a lot of loose fill, as well as the insulation I added in my teen years.  At that time I wasn't quite as careful and ended up in the E.R. with both arms infected from fibreglass particle slivers under my skin.  Today, new longsleeve shirt over a tee, work gloves on the hands, reading glasses as eye protection (I know, lame, but I wasn't gonna pay $20 for one-time use of googles)) and an OSHA approved insulation mask with filter.

 

3 hours of stetching and bending, kneeling on the thin edge of 2x4s, getting poked in the skull and back by the roofing nails from the sloping roof, and listening to myself sound like Darth Vader.  That's where the day-dreaming began.  Now I'm no hero, and it wasn't a regular event, and probably 70% of the time it was in training and not in a live fire, but as I groan and ache and pant and sweat, I'm thinkin' "I used to do this for fun, with a 40 pound airbottle on my back, IN THE DARK", buck up and get the damn job done!

 

Anyway, I did the sad former fire-fighter thing and went to youtube and watched (and listened) to some great videos, some of which are now nicely edited with music, incredibly edited, I might add, with strobes matching the beat, forcible entry matching the percussion, and guitar solos for the code-three response.  Cameras mounted on apparatus as they manuver through traffic, atop the 'bucket' where the aerial nozzle is located at the top of a hook and ladder's uh, ladder, and even artistically set on the ground as the unit pulls out of the engine bays.  Get's the blood pumping, some of the action can make you smile when it is familiar, the sounds of the siren and horn make you want to lean forward like you're putting on your own air as you respond, and of course, seeing the column of smoke  or hearing the on-scene report of "heavy fire showing" just makes you yearn for the good old exciting days.

 

So, for no one's enjoyment but my own, but in case you might wonder what makes a fireman smile besides the ladies waving from cars as we push through an intersection ; ) , here are two excellent vids from a guy affiliated with a DC suburban fire department, Manassas, Virginia.   Will make tomorrow's return to the attic a little more bearable!

 

first, with the great lyrics "GOD I WANT YOU! RUH!"

 

 

And next, with the initial tones that stop the heartbeat of every fireman in the house for a split second and then the follow-up adrenaline pumping "heavy fire showing" :