So on the new location of Gitmo Poco's big gate there's a space between the latching post and the wall. Couldn't be helped: The space is X big, the gate is Y big, and the remainder comprises a hole in the fence. Not big enough to string more fence, just a little smaller than the width of a concrete block. So I figured, we've got blocks and we've got cement, and we've still got some rebar. How hard can it be?
Not hard at all, actually. It went right up. But I should have thought it through a little more, and taken a little more time. If I'd set that first block on its concrete pad and then let the pad set up, there wouldn't have been a problem. But that felt like procrastination, and procrastination is what I always do - which is why I get so little done. So I felt quite virtuous and pleased with myself for doing it all at one time.
The column waited until I was completely done, and it was totally filled with cement, before it started to lean over.
Look, I've only ever built one block wall in my life, and it isn't rocket surgery. Okay, the wall I built looks like crap but it isn't going anywhere. Of course I had the luxury of building that on a nice solid foundation. With this one, I just pounded in some iron stakes and poured some concrete in a hole. And a single column doesn't have any other blocks to hold it up. So it leaned. Fortunately it started to lean while I was still standing there, and fortunately the rebar was too long so I had something to tie a line to, and fortunately it was leaning away from the fence so tying a line from the rebar to the fence gave me something to pull against, to get the damned thing level again while the concrete sets up.
Yes, that block second from the top sticks out at one corner. It has to, so you can latch the fence. I take comfort in that ancient middle eastern proverb, "Stucco hides a multitude of sins."
But still, I thought it was funny that this time procrastination would have been the right thing to do.
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