Tuesday, May 9, 2006 -- I may not have had the formal groundbreaking but in some small way construction began today. Six little Jigstone brick sections were cast. One small step for me, one giant leap for the Bronx. The first castings were perfect. No spillage, no excess, and clean up was a snap. I didn't know if this was a portent of evil disasters to come or not. After all, I intended to build a ballpark and as everyone knows baseball players are the most superstitious humans alive!

May 10, 2006 - Much more realistic results this morning. I tried to mix too much cement and it became gunk in the bottom of my cup so I ran out of batter halfway through filling a mold. I quickly added water so as to produce more and wound up adding this watery slop which just sat on top of the mold and made a mess. Must you make mistakes in order to learn from them? From these bricks the River Avenue side of the Apple Bank will start to rise. I bought some 1" and 2" channel iron this morning. I can hardly wait to drill them and bolt them to 1/2" angle iron to start building the support beams and joists for the elevated train platform. I keep yelling at myself "One project at a time!" I rarely listen.

May 23, 2006 -- I encountered a snag on the first day of actual construction when I burned out the motor on my table saw. As Roseanne Roseannadanna once said...
But anyway after wasting a day assembling the new saw, the Apple Bank on River Avenue finally started to rise. I have no idea how many hours I spent with an Exacto knife cutting tiny parallel lines to simulate the linked metal surface of the facade. I was almost finished when I thought of an alternative tool (right tool for the right job?). I finished in minutes flat when I switched to using a pizza cutting wheel. I wish I'd thought of this yesterday.