The Structure
5/27/1

Gah, where to start. I guess I�ll talk about The Structure.

And no, I�m not going to explain the concept of �There�s a system to the system.� I will someday. Most of you already know what it means anyway.

The Structure is what The Post used to be.

So, what is The Post?

Around two years ago, we put a 4x4 post into the ground. We borrowed Aisai�s mom�s auger and dug a hole two feet deep and stuck a 10 foot long 4x4 into it.

I measured it the other day. Exactly 8 feet are sticking up above the soil. Are we good or what?

I sure am writing in small paragraphs tonight. I�m writing this from upstairs in the loft. It�s 78 degrees up here and I have that kind of late-night-kinda-sweaty thing going on. It�s only 10 p.m., but I�m the anti-vampire.

Shortly after the post was installed, we put some wisteria near it and foosh, it grew up the thing. This year it was starting its growth after already having reached the top of the post the year before. It was time to take step 2.

Step 2 was supposed to be installing another post and some connecting timbers and putting some bird feeders on it to keep the neighbors from thinking I�m crazy while the wisteria creeps on over. The only thing is, the wisteria is freaking out.

Wisteria grows around 1.5 feet per week per runner. Or so says me. I could be wrong. I don�t think I am.

So, we put in the other three posts. Each one at the corner of a 10 foot square.

We had trouble with the southeast post so we had to hold off on attaching the horizontal timbers on those two sides (the two sides that share the SE corner). The horizontal timbers are actually 5/6 inch by 6 decking planks.

I will put up a wire webbing structure next weekend. This will allow the wisteria to take over the roof-type area. The pattern it will take is a cutesy, string art design. How will it look?

The wisteria is currently on the NW post only. To allow it to spread, I will put an anchor bolt in the top of the post and run wire in a radial fashion to all selected nodes. (How scientific/nerdy I sound.) Nodes are at every foot marking on the east and southern horizontal timbers. There is also a node at the SE timber. The wire begins at the northernmost node of the eastern timber and then travel to the Wisteria Node (WN). It will then travel from WN to the next node to the south on the east timber, etc, until it reaches the final node, the most western on the southern timber.

Draw it, it�s easier to think about. Or don�t. Hey, it�s not your freakish structure.

If the auger wasn�t already super dull, it would have been with all the rocks we were hitting. Also the first horizontal timber was very hard to hang, since I hadn�t done that before. I�m learning from experience, teaching myself. Hurrah.

Tomorrow we�re going to eat at Waffle House with Aisai�s mom and then she�ll show Aisai how to till. We also borrowed her tiller. I�ll add the two other horizontal timbers and maybe the nodes. To add the wire and the WN anchor would require us to steal from our future selves. I wouldn�t have to steal much, but it�s the principle of the thing.

Aisai is watching The Hollow Man DVD. We watched Free Enterprise a second ago. I can�t recommend either really. Maybe if you are pure trek you might really dig Free Enterprise. I commented to Aisai, �I don�t really get the whole independent film thing. Am I supposed to thing it�s good because it�s the kind of thing my next door neighbor would make?� It�s not bad. It had some great scenes. But I don�t need to see it again.

Actually, I think I may listen to the commentary track tomorrow.

Oh, and my computer is a piece of crap. The CD drive keeps blinking in and out of existence.

Peter Norton! You damn dirty ape!

Oh, and I think we're calling it The Arbor.

Oh, and if the dude is out of phase with visibility and all, and doesn't bend light, then why in the pool scene is his body bending light at the coefficient that he would if he was in air?