Over two years ago they said “Give up your parking spaces, a grocery store is at hand!” And the city took out the bumpers, fenced the lot, and the lot sat empty. And yet no grocery store. A year went by, and they used it for a staging area to finish the multi-colored apartments across the street. And yet no grocery store. With the apartments finished, the fences came down, “No Parking” signs went up, and yet no grocery store. People started parking on the periphery and then in the still empty lot. And yet no grocery store. The “No Parking” signs disappeared, more parked cars, movie studios set up staging one day and disappear the next. Another year gone by, and yet no grocery store. Then came Monday’s announcement of the ground breaking for the new grocery store on Tuesday. Yesterday was gloomy and cold as the people gathered and the politicians and business representatives gave their speeches. Shovels ready, cameras rolling, the grocery store is at hand. Hooray! Let the destruction begin.
The tree is down and the apartments are finished. A similar day as yesterday in the lot behind the office over a year ago.
The Mayor in the middle.
Liz celebrating the apocryphal news of the grocery store almost three years ago.
Rebuilt desk. I built the white desktop to replace the portion of the oak desktop above that I cut down and refaced before reinstalling it at standing height.
While I assume most of our staff were out having a great time on the first day of winter break (we close the office for the week between Christmas and New Year’s), I rebuilt the desk in Andy’s office so I could make it standing height (lead photo).
Old buildings are full of surprises. Two weeks ago, a wet spot developed under Andy’s desk. At first he thought someone had spilled water on the carpet at the holiday party, but when the wet spot grew and soaked the carpet under his desk, it was obviously not a spill.
I pulled everything on the floor out of the office, pulled out the desk I had built-in the office several years ago, and pulled up the carpet to expose the slab. The building owners had the slab torn up and they found an uncapped floor drain under the slab that had backed up and the water eventually worked its way up through the slab and soaked the carpet. They capped the drain, replaced the wet dirt with dry fill, poured new concrete, and replaced the pad under the carpet. We left the carpet to dry for a week, got it cleaned, and then I spent yesterday rebuilding the desk so it could be raised to standing height.
I have now raised six desks at the office to standing height, as staff members want to vary between sitting on a stool or drafting chair and standing while they work. Since I had built-in most of the desks at the office between 2004 and 2008, raising the desks requires taking the desktops out, raising the frames, and reinstalling the desktops. The “L” shaped desktops are relativity easy, but the “U” shaped desktops require a certain amount of rebuilding before they can be raised to standing height (in a former life I was a cabinet and furniture maker and I also worked in construction). The last two photos show the two “U” shaped desks I raised a couple of months ago. These two were complex projects because of the shape of the desks, and the height differences between the staff members who occupy them.
Two “U” shaped desktops I modified and raised to standing height. My desk is at the back of the room. My desktop wraps around and turns into Bruce’s desktop — we sit with our backs to each other. Our desk is made up of 44 feet of oak desktop held up by five walls, and there is only one point between the two ends of the desk where there is support between the frame and the floor. Raising our desk to standing height will be a major project, so I’m thinking about alternatives for raising our workstations to standing height.
Panorama showing the differences in the heights of the desktops.
We went to the Ballet Repertory Theatre of New Mexico’s production of “The Nutcracker” last night in the historic Kimo Theater. Laurie wore her pink stripes and pleats with “Count of Monte Cristo” boots, white silk scarf, and her Harley Davidson leather jacket for the cold walk back to the car.
If you are in Albuquerque during the holidays, and go to the River of Lights at the ABQ BioPark, you will drive by the El Vado Motel at 2500 Central Ave (Old Route 66). A brief history provided by the Nation Park Service states that it was built by Daniel Murphy in 1937, but a sign on one of the buildings reads “Since 1936”. It was considered “Swanky” with its two rows of single-story rooms, and carports stuck in-between some of the rooms.
Originally named “El Vado Auto Court Motel”, it was built on Central Ave close to where the old Route 66 bridge crossed the Rio Grande, which was the site of a “ford” (crossing) before the bridge was built, thus the name El Vado — “The Ford”. The El Vado was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, and while it probably is “the purest Route 66 Motel surviving”, it hasn’t been “Open 24 Hours” for many years. Since it’s a national historic place, it can’t simply be demolished, so its buildings sit abandoned and boarded up.
But not all is lost, the City of Albuquerque put out a request for proposal for development and architectural services for The El Vado Redevelopment in July, and unveiled the plan October 1st. A controversy has arisen over the company chosen to redevelop the El Vado, but whoever ends up doing the job, the planned $16 million redevelopment is expected to be completed by 2016 — the year the El Vado turns 80.
I heard the Dog House was in “Breaking Bad”, but I have never seen the show. I drive by the Dog House quite often, but I have never eaten there. So while I’ve seen the Dog House, I’ve never been there, and while the Dog House is in “Breaking Bad”, I’ve never seen it.
Off Center & Not Even 