I certainly agree. My daughter is fortunate to not have to worry about finances (no help from us), and they've not been afraid to expose their kids to the world. They've been to Europe, in England during the London Olympics, Hawaii more than once and then Greece. While #1 grandson was in Greece, #2 was at camp. The kids are well grounded and do not take their situation for granted. They're both terrific students performing well in the school and the community. Makes us very happy.
On Friday I worked more on the front wall and still misunderstood the different between the front-front and the front of the inner wall. If you look at the picture and the diagram below the structure you'll see that I still have parts to install. For example: the blocking extends across the entire 2nd level (and all subsequent ones if I was building it higher), and there is no door opening in the 2nd level front wall just as there isn't an elevator opening. I will finish all this nonsense tomorrow.
Just for fun, here's a video on building a tower crane. There's actually quite a few on YouTube. I didn't realize it, but it makes sense, they build an entire concrete foundation to anchor the crane's base to the ground. It's a significant part of the job. Also, for some of the smaller cranes they're assembled using a high-lift crane on the ground. I found it fascinating to watch the serious work being performed by humans high in the air to put these things together and take them apart again. Some of them have sections that fit together with male/female sleeves held with what looks like 4" diameter hollow pins that are then pulled tight with through-bolts that are torqued like crazy. Others have a butt joint held with three large stubs that are torqued with nuts on the top and bottom. These are tightened with powered torque wrenches. What i didn't see in the vids was how power is gotten to the hoist machinery up top. I'm sure there are conduits that run up the tower, but it was hard to see.
