How many rolls of insulation will fit in a Toyota Tacoma?

Like me, I'll be every one of you has asked this question. Only recently did I have the opportunity to determine the answer putting to rest one of life's greatest mysteries.

With a passenger (assuming she is willing to carry one roll on her lap)...34
With a not-so-willing passenger...33
Leaving your passenger behind...35 (this is anecdotal as I dared not leave my passenger behind)

[Look carefully at the picture and you'll notice the pink stuffed behind the seats.]

These answers are all dependent on having a shell on the truck bed and a rack on which to place one bundle (of six rolls). After some additional ciphering, I now believe that a willingness to drive home in truck reminiscent of a clown car at the circus would allow a person to carry 52 rolls. I'll have to wait until we get a bigger house to test that hypothesis.

As to why we need 34 rolls of insulation, we are going to insulate the floor of our house. This involves a fun filled day in one of my favorite places...the crawlspace. I'll be installing a new 6 mil vapor barrier over the old and then stuffing insulation in the floor joists.

The joys of home ownership.

A White Christmas...and then some

It was a weak moment I'll admit. But plane tickets were expensive and leaving the dog behind for Christmas seemed like an unforgivable offense. So the decision was made to drive to Iowa for Christmas. Yes, DRIVE to Iowa. Nevermind that in my 20+ Christmases living in that state I witnessed countless news reports of hazardous driving conditions, travelers stranded in the hubs of various transportation modalities, deaths by hypothermia, and snow blinded adventurers found wandering in the cornfields. Clearly, I need my head examined.

But on the evening of December 19, we loaded the car with presents, luggage, and the dog. The idea was to use time spent "wasted" at home to get a jump on the weather system heading for Iowa. I'm glad we did because as we approached Iowa City we saw the first of 23 instances of travelers whose Christmas would be spent in the local body shop waiting for repair estimates for their automobiles. Life is good between the ditches.

We were seriously tired upon our arrival and went to bed early. Little did we know what Mother Nature had in store for us. We woke to temperatures preceded by a minus sign and wind that pushed the wind chill factor even lower. Even the normally-adventurous dog didn't venture beyond the deck necessitating a cleanup "scoop" a bit later in the day. Welcome back to the frozen tundra.

Outside of the weather, the visit was spent having a terrific time with family and friends. The mood was only dampened by the thought of a Christmas Day departure for yet another 16 hours spent in the car. But as we crossed into Georgia the thermometer in the car read 60 degrees. Ah! Life is good!