Day 1826: New floor

We helped Terry this week to install the new floor in the living room.  On Tuesday we ripped up the old carpet, rolled it and hauled it outside, then did  the same with the padding.  The next step was to pull up the nailing strips all around the perimeter and scraped up the staples.  I cleaned and swept while they tried to get the first few courses straight.  Terry spent the whole time on his knees and Steve cut the pieces of laminate for him.

It was backbreaking work.  It made me think about Terry spending the last thirty years working on selling and installing floors in all kinds of conditions.   It's taken a terrible toll on his body.  We planned on helping to reduce costs and he's our retired friend.  If we hadn't pitched in, it would have taken another day or two.   So, now we'll take a week off and then he'll be back to start the kitchen.

I've been glad to have a distraction in the week leading up to the inauguration.  I've watched many of the hearings for the cabinet nominees and was horrified by their incompetence, conflicts of interest and agendas.  Billionaire Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Education Secretary, was one of the worst.  Her family has donated over $200 million to Republican candidates including $9.5 to Trump.  She's an activist from Michigan who has spent her career promoting charter schools and serving on a board that works against the LGBTQ community.

Her answers were ridiculous!  Most of the time she avoided answering directly and simply repeated the same line.  "I believe in accountability."  She would not guarantee that she would enforce the same standards for public and charter schools or that she would make certain federal laws were enforced to guarantee equal access to education for handicapped students.  But the worst comment was related to Chris Murphy's question about her position on having guns in school.  She wants to leave it to the states to determine.  She's sure guns are necessary to fight off the grizzly bears!

I'm all ready for our trip to Washington for the Women's March.   We board the bus at 11:30 and depart at midnight.  The plan is to arrive between 7 and 8 am and pick up breakfast.  The rally starts at 10 and the march at 1:15.   We estimate that we'll return home about 2 am.  I've never done anything like this and it's about time!

Women are banding together to demand equal rights and protest the treatment of women.  There are 616 sister marches taking place in every state and around the world!

New floor!