Late Winter in TN

Just on our way back from TN after a few days away. One of the primary reasons for the trip was to drive the van back to NY. It got stranded when we drove Rocky the Bear down last time.

I flew out of Syracuse following the 2nd annual EBD Executive meeting. It's a whole day event with 10-12 of our key people to review the past year and discuss strategy and initiatives for the new one. We cap the night off with a great dinner and drinks at the Craftsman grill. Since the house in Syracuse just sold the week prior, I stayed at the hotel attached to the Craftsman and left early for SYR en route to TYS. It was so cold last week I was happy and grateful to head South!

Easy flight and a nice day when we arrived. We went shopping and looked at some new parking spots in the area around the airport. We had lunch at our go-to Black Horse Brewery. The weather was beautiful for the most part in the low 50s. We had a good time just hanging out with the Welches and watching some Olympics.

The other reason for the trip was to be there when the pool table was delivered on Friday. We had the location all laid out and ready when they arrived.

They set it up in about 2 and 1/2 hours but I swear it would have taken me 2 days. They leveled up the frame. Then they add the 2-in late on top and attach it to the frame with some pretty heavy duty screws. They level the slate using very small 6-in pieces of metal to make sure there's no pumps or bumps where the pieces of slate go together. Then they use melted beeswax to fill in the holes for the screws and at the very small gaps where the two pieces of slate come together. Then they install the felt stretch it tight and staple it. Finally the bumpers get screwed on the top. Pretty impressive.

Of course the light in the room was not centered on the pool table as originally planned so I built some scaffolding to go over the pool table and fished wire to a new box where we hung the new light. It went relatively smoothly until the very end when we went to put the globes on and there was some pieces missing. I had to drive to Knoxville the next day and get the pieces that were missing

After the first night of playing pool and drinking beer and watching the Olympics we realized we needed to move the TV so we did that. I'm pretty happy with the result. But we still need to work on our pool game.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/cdb224_78fc4f94534e4d8d8d0a77bc366bccbc/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Just arrived home after a relatively smooth trip back. The snow is still here but it's melting. There were odds on whether or not the van would make it all the way. Christine was hoping that it would break down somewhere on the way so that she could douse it with gasoline and set it on fire. I don't think there could be any more warning lights lit on the dash but we made it

I'm looking forward to a trip in early April with Chucky to do some work on the roads and walls.