19.03.2021 It's all about the journey.

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Friday 19th  34F. Dry and bright start but becoming rather cloudy. A much cooler day is promised. A strange day of leaden skies, hail and sunny periods.

The first priority is to level the dome skirt using the 360° laser. Set aside all delusions of a burning laser beam sweeping across the parking space. This is not a sci-fi movie. A thin green line will allow me to lever up the dome edges to make the skirt level. Then I can see if the bolt holes line up properly.

It's odd to think of all the hours "I waste" doing things solo. When a pair of much younger and much stronger chaps could manage the same job in minutes. But surely, if everything were so easy it would not be worth doing? As long as I don't injure myself the mental and physical exercise is good for me. At least, that is my excuse. 

The hunger to make things I could never otherwise afford started me on this journey in my teens. 60 years later I am still collecting scrap metal, new tools and learning new skills. Still developing unlikely muscles. Still aching all over from yet another bout of foolish exertion. 

I levelled the dome using the laser and then managed to raise the roof segment above the base. That left me enough room to fit two rows of the mastic tape. There followed much toing and froing as I used rods to try and align the holes in the two segments. One by one I kept adding bolts to the total. Just a few more to do now as I pause for lunch. 

This new dome has a very strong acoustic. The plywood one went completely unnoticed. This larger GRP dome echoes, distorts and amplifies every sound. It can even makes sounds like an electric guitar distortion pedal. Very odd!  

All the bolts are now in place and tightened. I had to run a drill through quite a few offset holes because they simply couldn't be made to match up precisely. I am wondering if the roof segment I used was the spare and I should really have used the other. Now I shall have to wait a week for rain. To check its weather proofing qualities. Two rows of mastic tape should even hold back The Flood.

The pea/grass green of the dome's GRP is "a trifle sudden" in the rural landscape. It may fade given enough time. I think I shall [gently] explore the means to make it sage green. The other night I dreamt that I had covered it in leaves cut from Fablon. [a commercial, self-adhesive plastic film.] 🤣 

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