CARPORTS DON'T LIKE TYRES

So I lost some marks in guestimated structural engineering. A 
sudden gust of wind made my carport collapse due to the force 
against the strips of tyre tread I hung from it as sun shades. One 
beam gave way at a rusty join and let half the double-car-width 
roof drop, but thankfully it held on where it's bolted to a post at 
one end so it ended up hanging precariously at about half-height. 
So it didn't hit the car and I was able to drive that out nervously 
before trying to figure out how to safely resurrect the roof before 
the wind picked up again and finished the job.

With the help of my father I was able to lift the fallen end up 
with a tractor while pulling the outwards-bent beam in with a rope. 
Then with the rest of that day and a couple of mornings this 
weekend I'm quite sure that I've added enough extra bracing around 
the joins on either side that it shouldn't fail again. Perhaps I 
should try to paint it at some point to prevent more rust? The 
outer steelwork was galvanised, but rust started winning the battle 
against that many years ago. Anyway the next task is to close up 
the gap in the roof at one end to stop the purlins rotting away. 
And of course this is all just meant to be temporary before I get 
my raised garage built in the shed, where the car will be more dry, 
so _it_ won't rust.

Rust rust rust, I should just move to the desert, except it's too 
hot and dry for me where I live already. Actually after I finished 
bolting angle iron around the join in one beam yesterday, I decided 
to go visit the nudist beach. Not the one I wrote about in 
2023-10-25Bearings_and_Bare_Bums.txt, but a nearby one that doesn't 
require the stress of driving through a busy town to reach it. Yet 
rust gets me there too because I fear that frequently parking the 
Jag near the sea will accelerate the rust problems with it, so 
after my first visit there I've been trying to find a way to easily 
walk to the beach after parking at a more distant carpark.

As of yesterday I've found out that such a route doesn't exist. 
There's one long and tiring route that I tried the previous time 
and got there so late it was already getting rather cold (it's nice 
when the ocean actually feels warm compared to ambient though), and 
the route I tried this time which is even longer and more tiring 
(lots of ups and downs amidst the forested cliffs), so in the end I 
had to turn around before I get there in order to get back home by 
7PM. Half my trouble is that I feel like going in the afternoons, 
when it's already too late for such a trip. Both times after 
exhausting myself working on the carport in the morning too (first 
time on the tyres which caused the work for the second time). I 
also don't have much stamina for a walk (or working on the carport 
this morning, much hotter than yesterday) under the bright sun, 
even if it's not that hot. Warm cloudy days are a picky thing to 
wait for, not helped by how the weather at home is often quite 
different to the weather there.

Anyway it was a nice walk through the bush, and fun to look down 
from all the impressively tall cliffs that I peered up at while 
walking the beach earlier. One thing I still haven't spotted is any 
sign of the "RAAF Prohibited Area" marked on a 1950s map near where 
the carpark I've been going to is. Probably the location of an 
unexploded bomb from when that coast was a bomber training area 
during WWII, but there's still one path I'd like to look down in 
case it leads past something more interesting.

All that's left me thoroughly worn out this hot Sunday afternoon, 
hence I'm just staying in the cool writing all this. After a little 
more housework I might even come back and write a third post for 
the day, which I think would be a record for me.

 - The Free Thinker