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moving plywood with my Honda Civic hatchback
Saturday, September 22 2007
Due to the collapse of the housing bubble, building lumber is at a 20 year low, making it an excellent time to build things such as the woodshed I've undertaken. I didn't know that lumber prices had collapsed when I bought the first load of lumber for the project and had been amazed that eight foot 2 X 6s were only about $3.50. Today, though, when I went to Lowes to buy all the pieces for the shed's roof, I was fully aware of the situation. Despite the low prices, some things (such as half inch sheets of plywood) will always be just a little more expensive than I expect. As for things like roofing metal, it seems to be about as expensive as it's always been.
The main achievement for the day was transporting all these materials home using nothing other than my 1997 Honda Civic Hatchback. This marked the first time I'd attempted to carry four by eight foot pieces of plywood with my car, and to do this I needed to lash it down to the roof. I stacked three pieces of plywood up there and crowned it with a stack of six two by eight foot pieces of galvanized roofing metal. I've had things come off my roof before so this time I didn't take any chances. I tied everything down with several redundant loops of rope reaching from bumper to bumper and passing through the open windows of the cockpit. In order to drive the car I had to climb in through the window. It had been a good decision not to bring the dogs.
On the drive home I rarely exceeded 35 miles per hour (which looks like 40 mph on this car's speedometer), even on US 209. When I got to the two-lane part, I turned on my hazards and moved onto the shoulder to let others pass so as to satisfy my inner-altruist.
I started having various mid-level intestinal complaints while I was out and was happy they never became bad enough to incapacitate me or otherwise interfere with my mission. It would have been unpleasant to have to clamber out of a car window as part of an gastroenterological emergency.
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