Second story work in progress

Erection of the second residential floor (click on link for a slideshow of project photos) in the third apartment house at Franke at Seaside, Mt. Pleasant, SC, is underway. Pre-fabricated wall stud panels are being put in place and brick masons are working on the ground level. Utility work is also ongoing in the ground level garage area. The project is scheduled to be completed in mid-2010.

Leave gun laws to the states

The second amendment to the United States Constitution says "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." This is one of precious "rights" written more than two hundred years ago, long before the automobile, trains, airplanes and the Interstate Highway system. The founders could not have anticipated how easy it would be for people to travel from place to place; to travel long distances in short periods of time. Today, millions of Americans are on the road daily in a relatively free and safe atmosphere. So why does Senator John Thune of South Dakota want congress to make a law permitting gun owners to carry guns anywhere in the country without regard to the various states' laws?
Robert Morgenthau, the highly regarded district attorney for New York County since 1975, wrote (The Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2009) that Thune's bill would override the states' restriction on concealed-carry permits. Some states have more stringent laws than others. In Ohio and Missouri, for example, if you are not a felon nor been hospitalized for mental illness you can carry a gun. Under the Thune proposal the same carriers could take their guns into New York despite New York's more stringent rules.
Suppose a New Yorker can't get a permit in that state, could he travel to South Carolina, buy a gun and lawfully carry it in New York? And suppose, for argument's sake he was traveling by plane. Could he carry his South Carolina a gun on an airplane back to the Big Apple?
Years ago and probably still today servicemen being assigned to the Northeast have been cautioned not to carry weapons in their cars while traveling through Massachusetts. (It was suggested they include them in their personal goods shipments.) They have some strict rules on carrying guns in the Bay State. The folks in South Dakota might not like them but the people in Massachusetts do.
We hear a lot about states' rights and if these mean anything the right to regulate the carrying of weapons - concealed or otherwise - ought to be left to the states as they see fit.
Thune's amendment deserves to be defeated.

Understanding how your house is built

Work continues on the third apartment house at Franke at Seaside, Mt. Pleasant, SC. I find it enlightening because the third building is a copy of the second (where I live) and the first. Knowing how my house is constructed is helpful in many ways. I assumed my apartment had mental studding and that hanging large pictures and mirrors would be a challenge. But the construction above the parking garage starts with fabricated wood panels and studs. It is simple enough inside such an apartment to use a stud finder and hang whatever you want. Undoubtedly there is a tremendous savings in terms of man hours and dollars because all the walls have been pre-fabricated at some site, trucked to the job site and lifted into place. This week workmen started installing pre-fabricated floor joists to separate the first and second floors. Examples of this can be seen in the pictures (click on them for a larger view.)

Link corrected

The Walter Cronkite link in the earlier entry had a fatal error. It has been corrected.
Sorry.

Walter Cronkite

It is as if an old friend died. Walter Cronkite was that friend to millions of Americans. It has been written many, many times how he was 'Mr. Believable' and it sounds almost trite to write it here but no greater accolade could be laid on a newsman. I don't know of anyone doing the news today in whom I have as much confidence as I had in Mr. Cronkite. He largely disappeared over the last couple of decades and there are people today who were not even born when he was at the top of his profession as Managing Editor of CBS Evening News. But for those of us who remember that golden age he was the brightest star in the galaxy.

Swimming through life

I'm glad I did not go to the beach to swim as suggested recently by a friend. It has been a long time since I went swimming anywhere, so I went to the residents' pool where I live to check myself out. I was shocked to learn that while I know the mechanics, my body is rusty and swimming is not all that easy to jump back into as a pleasurable hobby or exercise. And getting back into a comfortable, safe and enjoyable swimming mode is very important safety factor.
All of us have seen stories, some as recent as the past week in the Charleston, SC, area, where people are swimming in the ocean and drown. Confident swimmers underestimate the currents, get caught up and, perhaps, over estimate their own capabilities. This is tragic.
Sometimes people drown when a boat they are in overturns, and it comes out after the fact that they did not know how to swim.
All of which says "be careful of the water." Swimming is a pleasure I have enjoyed since my early years. A trip to the lake was a good time. Swimming in the mill canals in and around Lowell, MA, was good fun in the summer to young boys, but in retrospect it was a dangerous stupid venture. The water was dirty, people threw all sorts of trash from tires to old bicycles to broken bottles and whatever in those waterways around the city. Periodically water power managers would shut off the water from the river and the canals would go dry. Looking into the bottom of the canal was an experience which should have told us: "Don't swim here, stupid." But, we were young and over confident, and as boys will do, we ignored the message. Those of us who did it and are still here to talk (write) about it had the good fortune to be watched over by a guardian angel who didn't take the summer off.
In my golden years I still enjoy the water, but I know and respect my limits. If it has been some time since you went swimming, check yourself out first in a pool with a buddy at your side. (Click on photo - taken at Isle of Palms, SC - to enlarge.)

Beautiful Waterfront Park Mt. Pleasant SC

I've added three new albums of photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/archinsc .
There are pictures taken at the beautiful new waterfront park beneath the massive Ravenel Bridge in Mt. Pleasant SC; some updates on the progress at the Woodside Apartment building at Franke at Seaside and a picture of decorating one of our tenants did outside his apartment door over the 4th of July weekend. Hope you enjoy some or all of these. (Click on pictures for full size image.)