Thursday, July 31, 2003
Yesterday
We had an errand in La Junta, the town about an hour west of us. On the way, Caro wanted to stop at the Las Animas library to leave a flyer about the upcoming Lamar cook sale, and ask when theirs would be. It turned out they did not have any current plans to have one, but were allowing people to just go root around in the donated books. We didn't mind it being a little warm back there, did we? No we did not.
Well, Mike did object on the grounds that this was boring, but happily we found a book on model railroading and he dropped into quiet longing mode, emphasis on the quiet. We went away with three boxes of pretty cool stuff, like the very old algebra textbook in Japanese. Not that that is madly resalable--but I just like things like that.
The other thing cool about the Las Animas library is that they were setting up to have a Harry Potter birthday party. The librarian is a big fan, and was bravely using lots of her personal items for display. It's somehow a lot more startling yet pleasing to run into someone who is really into something you also like when it happens in a small isolated town.
Well, Mike did object on the grounds that this was boring, but happily we found a book on model railroading and he dropped into quiet longing mode, emphasis on the quiet. We went away with three boxes of pretty cool stuff, like the very old algebra textbook in Japanese. Not that that is madly resalable--but I just like things like that.
The other thing cool about the Las Animas library is that they were setting up to have a Harry Potter birthday party. The librarian is a big fan, and was bravely using lots of her personal items for display. It's somehow a lot more startling yet pleasing to run into someone who is really into something you also like when it happens in a small isolated town.
My idea of Must See TV! Queer Eye!
I don't watch all that much TV, but I just had to check this one out when I heard about it, and I'm hooked. It's hilarious, fascinating, and educational too! I'm about as far from being Martha Stewart as anyone actually living in a house can get, but even I find myself saying, "Hmmm, good idea!"
Plus Carson is so cute and adorable I can barely stand it!
BravoTV.com > Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Plus Carson is so cute and adorable I can barely stand it!
BravoTV.com > Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Getting the hang of Tuesdays
Made some small amount of physical progress towards the eventual new storage sheds today. I cut down three strands of barb wire fencing and got them out of the way, a process which reminded me just how much I hate working with that stuff. Then later in the evening, I hooked up the new weed burner to a propane bottle and started setting the world on fire, which reminded me how much I love that! Hey, wielding a torch that shoots an 8 inch 500,000 BTU flame? What's not fun about that??
So okay, I did accidentally melt the plastic box they deliver our Lamar Daily Snooze into. Now I have to go see how much a new one costs. Although if it is too much, I will just instruct them to place the paper into the white dome top institutional type trash can sitting out there, which was intended to become a planter. It would not be all that inappropriate.
So okay, I did accidentally melt the plastic box they deliver our Lamar Daily Snooze into. Now I have to go see how much a new one costs. Although if it is too much, I will just instruct them to place the paper into the white dome top institutional type trash can sitting out there, which was intended to become a planter. It would not be all that inappropriate.
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Who wants some Catch-up?
Back from the highly jolly weekend, and nearly recovered....
This morning as I was succumbing to pee pressure (TMI, I know, but I couldn't resist the dumb joke) I looked out at the unusually hazy pre-dawn and thought, "Dang, we didn't look in the paper last night to see if there were any Friday yard sales." After a few seconds I realized this was because today is Tuesday. So I went happily back to bed with a clear conscience.
This morning as I was succumbing to pee pressure (TMI, I know, but I couldn't resist the dumb joke) I looked out at the unusually hazy pre-dawn and thought, "Dang, we didn't look in the paper last night to see if there were any Friday yard sales." After a few seconds I realized this was because today is Tuesday. So I went happily back to bed with a clear conscience.
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Incoming!
When I went outside I was reminded of last night's excitement. We are doing some serious clean-up fix-up, and one of the things that sadly must go is a formerly cool old auction acquistion, a set of booth seats from some old diner, the kind that make a half circle in a corner. We'd had no indoor space for them, but they made pretty good outdoor seating until the wind and weather had their way with them.
So now they are basically scrap wood needing to be burned. I tipped one over, the first stage of rolling it to the other old burnables in the bare driveway, It broke in half, and a dozen or so wasps came zooming out!
Luckily it was now dusk, and they either didn't see me or didn't recognize me as a target. Because we've had an infestation in the well house too, I had the tail end of a can of spray handy, and I emptied it in this new good cause, giving the little paper nest a real good dose.
Probably good, because I just now saw that one of the idiot stray pups seems to have pulled it off and eaten it.
Yes, two stray pups. Someone has dumped a Lab-a-like boy out here. He WAS at the neighbors, but they don't have food out like we do, so....
So now they are basically scrap wood needing to be burned. I tipped one over, the first stage of rolling it to the other old burnables in the bare driveway, It broke in half, and a dozen or so wasps came zooming out!
Luckily it was now dusk, and they either didn't see me or didn't recognize me as a target. Because we've had an infestation in the well house too, I had the tail end of a can of spray handy, and I emptied it in this new good cause, giving the little paper nest a real good dose.
Probably good, because I just now saw that one of the idiot stray pups seems to have pulled it off and eaten it.
Yes, two stray pups. Someone has dumped a Lab-a-like boy out here. He WAS at the neighbors, but they don't have food out like we do, so....
Monday on a Wednesday
Had a groggy start this morning. The bronchitis continues to be troublesome off and on. Even though I have a chronic case of Western De-nile Virus, I am starting to think another trip to the doc's is in order. Anyway, couldn't find my glasses at first. Seems they fell (or were PUSHED!) and Caro located them for me on the floor. One of the little nose thingies is busted off. I made a new one out of epoxy paste I think will hold.
As I was staggering around (pre found glasses) the phone rang. It was the head of our water association, asking if we were suddenly using a lot more water for some reason. I didn't think so, I said. But our water bill had been up by $15 bucks last month, and this month was going to be $75, more than double normal. So in a bit I have to go out and see if I can get the cover off the meter and read whether it is still going around with no water in use in the house.... *BIG sigh*
As I was staggering around (pre found glasses) the phone rang. It was the head of our water association, asking if we were suddenly using a lot more water for some reason. I didn't think so, I said. But our water bill had been up by $15 bucks last month, and this month was going to be $75, more than double normal. So in a bit I have to go out and see if I can get the cover off the meter and read whether it is still going around with no water in use in the house.... *BIG sigh*
Thursday, July 17, 2003
Pups rush in where NO ONE treads
Suzie Climber, the pup who is really serious about this sit in strike to become our dog, gave us quite a scare tonight. Mike came in for help, saying she had her head in a glass. I couldn't guess what he meant, but it sounded serious, and we all barreled outside in his wake.
The poor thing had about 3/4ths of a sun tea jar around her neck. This was an old leaky jar that I had (as usual) not been able to bring myself to throw away. Instead it was sitting next to a little volunteer pumkpin plant, supposedly leaking water out in a useful way. But Caro says it had stopped leaking, so she was just keeping it filled and tipping a little water onto the plant when she was around.
So when Suzie found the water dish she shares with the outside cats dry, she went looking for more, and jammed her head in the jar when she found it. Oops. It is actually lucky it was glass and not plastic, because she managed to bust off the end and not drown or suffocate. Caro and I managed to get the jar off her neck without any further trauma, and she was back to her wildly cheerful self in moments.
Unfortunately, she somehow managed to crash through the protective barrier Caro had over the little pumpkin's big volunteer brother, and he has been severely pruned. Looks like it's Safeway pumpkins again this year....
The poor thing had about 3/4ths of a sun tea jar around her neck. This was an old leaky jar that I had (as usual) not been able to bring myself to throw away. Instead it was sitting next to a little volunteer pumkpin plant, supposedly leaking water out in a useful way. But Caro says it had stopped leaking, so she was just keeping it filled and tipping a little water onto the plant when she was around.
So when Suzie found the water dish she shares with the outside cats dry, she went looking for more, and jammed her head in the jar when she found it. Oops. It is actually lucky it was glass and not plastic, because she managed to bust off the end and not drown or suffocate. Caro and I managed to get the jar off her neck without any further trauma, and she was back to her wildly cheerful self in moments.
Unfortunately, she somehow managed to crash through the protective barrier Caro had over the little pumpkin's big volunteer brother, and he has been severely pruned. Looks like it's Safeway pumpkins again this year....
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
It was 106 here today. That's just wrong....
Monday, July 14, 2003
Darwinian Poetry: Home
Survived another weekend!
Around 2:30 Saturday afternoon, Caro observed with amazement we had already put in a very busy 8 hour day. It's true our Saturdays ar often rather active, but this one was a doozy even by our reckoning.
6:00 - 6:30 am: Stagger out of bed, get dressed, wonder why we worked so hard to create the monster of a child EAGER for action, crying "Hurry, people will get all our good stuff!"
6:30 - 9:45 am: Yard sales. A modest haul of what we call bread and butter stuff. No astonishing resale profit margin, but a decent return for the time/money investment. The one thing that delighted me most was getting a plastic pond and waterfall for $5, which we intend to be the cornerstone of our mega-necessary re-landscaping project. (Note to self--finish that web page about the sewer system installation!)
9:45 am: Stop at Daylight Donuts for healthy breakfast before heading to auction.
10:30 am: The auction was well underway when we arrived, but that wasn't a problem, as we had mainly come to look at the two windmills being offered amidst...well, a LOT of stuff. If the farm residents had thrown anything away in the past 50 years, you could not prove it by what was laid out to sell.
The windmills were pretty much EX-windmills which had either joined the choir celestial or were pinin' for the fjords, but that didn't matter to Mike, who enjoyed studying them carefully. He only asked if I was SURE we could not buy them a few (dozen) times, because even he could see the logistics problem of getting them home.
11:30 am - Heading in a more or less homeward direction, though we still had some more stops. Someone had told us there was a good church sponsored yard sale in Wiley, a small town about 11 miles up the road from Lamar. Sadly, it was over by the time we got there. We did find one lonely sale still running, where I got a VERY cool blue and gold wizard's hat, and Mike got a stuffed Pikachu. Which turned out to have the power of attacking with bursts of mold spores, more on which later....
12:15 pm: We checked out the Salvation Army store in Eads, another small local town. Mike and I had been there the month before, and I got a whole box of neat old scandalous cover paperbacks. The volunteer had brought them and promised to bring more on her next scheduled day, which was today. We were there, she was there...but she forgot the books. Oh well, another time.
1:30 pm: After a pause for lunch at Our Place Cafe in Eads, we drove back to Lamar and helped a friend who is *sniff* moving away to move books they don't want to haul to Texas over to Caro's Middle School, so she can get them to the Friends of the Library sale next month. Then we went to pick up my aforementioned fish pond, and that's where we came in, with Caro remarking on our full day.
I got very little accomplished the rest of the day, even after taking TWO much needed naps. Kind of good that I did nap, because the dang moldy Pokeman toy caused my overly picky lungs to hold a protest strike, and I didn't sleep well due to not being able to breathe off and on all night.
Today I was sort of groggy and stupid-feeling. I did accomplish a few tasks without sscrewing them up too badly, so I believe I will mark today as a success!
6:00 - 6:30 am: Stagger out of bed, get dressed, wonder why we worked so hard to create the monster of a child EAGER for action, crying "Hurry, people will get all our good stuff!"
6:30 - 9:45 am: Yard sales. A modest haul of what we call bread and butter stuff. No astonishing resale profit margin, but a decent return for the time/money investment. The one thing that delighted me most was getting a plastic pond and waterfall for $5, which we intend to be the cornerstone of our mega-necessary re-landscaping project. (Note to self--finish that web page about the sewer system installation!)
9:45 am: Stop at Daylight Donuts for healthy breakfast before heading to auction.
10:30 am: The auction was well underway when we arrived, but that wasn't a problem, as we had mainly come to look at the two windmills being offered amidst...well, a LOT of stuff. If the farm residents had thrown anything away in the past 50 years, you could not prove it by what was laid out to sell.
The windmills were pretty much EX-windmills which had either joined the choir celestial or were pinin' for the fjords, but that didn't matter to Mike, who enjoyed studying them carefully. He only asked if I was SURE we could not buy them a few (dozen) times, because even he could see the logistics problem of getting them home.
11:30 am - Heading in a more or less homeward direction, though we still had some more stops. Someone had told us there was a good church sponsored yard sale in Wiley, a small town about 11 miles up the road from Lamar. Sadly, it was over by the time we got there. We did find one lonely sale still running, where I got a VERY cool blue and gold wizard's hat, and Mike got a stuffed Pikachu. Which turned out to have the power of attacking with bursts of mold spores, more on which later....
12:15 pm: We checked out the Salvation Army store in Eads, another small local town. Mike and I had been there the month before, and I got a whole box of neat old scandalous cover paperbacks. The volunteer had brought them and promised to bring more on her next scheduled day, which was today. We were there, she was there...but she forgot the books. Oh well, another time.
1:30 pm: After a pause for lunch at Our Place Cafe in Eads, we drove back to Lamar and helped a friend who is *sniff* moving away to move books they don't want to haul to Texas over to Caro's Middle School, so she can get them to the Friends of the Library sale next month. Then we went to pick up my aforementioned fish pond, and that's where we came in, with Caro remarking on our full day.
I got very little accomplished the rest of the day, even after taking TWO much needed naps. Kind of good that I did nap, because the dang moldy Pokeman toy caused my overly picky lungs to hold a protest strike, and I didn't sleep well due to not being able to breathe off and on all night.
Today I was sort of groggy and stupid-feeling. I did accomplish a few tasks without sscrewing them up too badly, so I believe I will mark today as a success!
Saturday, July 12, 2003
Why I love Lamar
That's my town, in case you just tuned in. Small, 2 hours away in any direction from anything bigger, but chock full of character. Nice people, too.
Today I got my riding lawn mower back from the shop. That was its second trip in this year. First it needed a spring tune-up. While it was away, we had a week and a half of MOST uncharacteristic rain, and the weeds were getting out of control by the time it was ready to run. So I spent the next 5 or 6 nights mowing...and shortly after that *I* needed a tune-up, having breathed in a bit too much dust and weed chop.
So for most of June, I was trying to get over the worst bronchitis attack I'd ever had. But last Thursday I felt ready to renew my war on weeds (wearing a dust mask this time.) The mower's engine revved up just fine...yet the blades would not turn. I did my best to get them unstuck, but only managed to unstick the complicated pulley and belt system of the mower deck.
So back in the shop it went, and of course it was a holiday weekend, plus the shop is always swamped because they are so good.... But today they brought it back. The charge to fix it? Zero. Nothing. "It only took 10 minutes," the guy explained.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think you see that kind of customer service in your average big city. Or maybe I'm just really really really really lucky.
Today I got my riding lawn mower back from the shop. That was its second trip in this year. First it needed a spring tune-up. While it was away, we had a week and a half of MOST uncharacteristic rain, and the weeds were getting out of control by the time it was ready to run. So I spent the next 5 or 6 nights mowing...and shortly after that *I* needed a tune-up, having breathed in a bit too much dust and weed chop.
So for most of June, I was trying to get over the worst bronchitis attack I'd ever had. But last Thursday I felt ready to renew my war on weeds (wearing a dust mask this time.) The mower's engine revved up just fine...yet the blades would not turn. I did my best to get them unstuck, but only managed to unstick the complicated pulley and belt system of the mower deck.
So back in the shop it went, and of course it was a holiday weekend, plus the shop is always swamped because they are so good.... But today they brought it back. The charge to fix it? Zero. Nothing. "It only took 10 minutes," the guy explained.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think you see that kind of customer service in your average big city. Or maybe I'm just really really really really lucky.
Friday, July 11, 2003
Who likes quizzes?? Me, me! *I* do!
I got this from Arthur H's blog. Please don't tell the Official Democratic Party my results. They will just start calling me again, and I'm saving myself for The Doc!
Threat rating: High. The Bush administration is
concerned that it may not get a second term.
Therefore, we are going to change the rules so
that each Democrat vote only counts as 0.2
votes because Democrat is a shorter word than
Republican
What threat to the Bush administration are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Threat rating: High. The Bush administration is
concerned that it may not get a second term.
Therefore, we are going to change the rules so
that each Democrat vote only counts as 0.2
votes because Democrat is a shorter word than
Republican
What threat to the Bush administration are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Hey, something new! There is now a way for readers to leave comments on these posts! Blogger doesn't provide that (yet), but they DO give you links to places where you can get the scripts and do it yourself. How cool is that?
The one I chose was BlogKomm (see link on the right). The creator (Holger Kreis) claimed it would take about 10 minutes to install. The real time was about 4 hours and ten minutes...but that could just be me. Anyway, it works great and I'm really looking forward to all the comments.
Yes, that was a hint that just rushed past screaming.
Obviously since I was sitting in front of my computer going "Huh" for most of the day, I didn't have time for too many adventures. But Mike and I did go out for a drive, to "explore like cats" (Mikelang) and also to continue my vague hunt for a goat.
We have a very weedy pen, you see, with one lonely goose in it. I think a goat would help both those problems. (And probably create lots more, but hey, one crisis at a time.) Strangely enough, it is not as easy as you might think to acquire a goat. No GoatsR'Us. Can't pop in to Wal-mart and grab one. No, you have to find someone who has some, and see if they are in a selling mood, and if not, whether they can point you towards another potential goat source.
So for our exploring adventure, Mike and I drove slowly around several dirt roads near a whole field of quite attractive goats. Then for fun, we followed another road that was more like a dirt track, which runs alongside one of the main irrigation canals. A couple of times I thought I was going to get a chance to try out our SUV Dreamcloud's 4-wheel drive. Mike just thought we were going to get to try out the airbags when we tipped over.
But we made it safely through and back to town, exiting on the street that runs behind the park and swimming pool complex. Driving right past the sign that said, "No Motor Vehicles." (Which there WASN'T one of on the other end!)
The one I chose was BlogKomm (see link on the right). The creator (Holger Kreis) claimed it would take about 10 minutes to install. The real time was about 4 hours and ten minutes...but that could just be me. Anyway, it works great and I'm really looking forward to all the comments.
Yes, that was a hint that just rushed past screaming.
Obviously since I was sitting in front of my computer going "Huh" for most of the day, I didn't have time for too many adventures. But Mike and I did go out for a drive, to "explore like cats" (Mikelang) and also to continue my vague hunt for a goat.
We have a very weedy pen, you see, with one lonely goose in it. I think a goat would help both those problems. (And probably create lots more, but hey, one crisis at a time.) Strangely enough, it is not as easy as you might think to acquire a goat. No GoatsR'Us. Can't pop in to Wal-mart and grab one. No, you have to find someone who has some, and see if they are in a selling mood, and if not, whether they can point you towards another potential goat source.
So for our exploring adventure, Mike and I drove slowly around several dirt roads near a whole field of quite attractive goats. Then for fun, we followed another road that was more like a dirt track, which runs alongside one of the main irrigation canals. A couple of times I thought I was going to get a chance to try out our SUV Dreamcloud's 4-wheel drive. Mike just thought we were going to get to try out the airbags when we tipped over.
But we made it safely through and back to town, exiting on the street that runs behind the park and swimming pool complex. Driving right past the sign that said, "No Motor Vehicles." (Which there WASN'T one of on the other end!)
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
One down....
I think I finally have this blog deal figured out! Links and everything! Now I just have to restart Mike's and I'm all green-lighted!
The funniest thing that happened today was when Suzie Climber, our step-pup who actually belongs to the neighbors, spotted her reflection in the full length bathroom mirror. She must not have ever seen one before. First she eyed it, then bounced and barked, then sniffed it hard. The fact that this flat ghost dog had no scent didn't worry her, because she started bounding up and down, trying to coax it to play. While Mike and I laughed like the superior know-it-alls we are.
This is her:
The funniest thing that happened today was when Suzie Climber, our step-pup who actually belongs to the neighbors, spotted her reflection in the full length bathroom mirror. She must not have ever seen one before. First she eyed it, then bounced and barked, then sniffed it hard. The fact that this flat ghost dog had no scent didn't worry her, because she started bounding up and down, trying to coax it to play. While Mike and I laughed like the superior know-it-alls we are.
This is her:
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
My eBay Items I'm Selling Page for neonnurse
My eBay Items I'm Selling Page for neonnurse
This is an experiment to see how the automatic Blogger post button on my new Google toolbar works!
This is an experiment to see how the automatic Blogger post button on my new Google toolbar works!
Monday, July 07, 2003
Ah, looks like I'm back....
Right, then. Here I am back, a mere year and a half later, and to my amazement Blogger has KEPT all the old postings I thought were lost for good in the FeaturePrice fiasco. I'm not quite sure I have archiving totally figured out yet, but I think this is a big enough step for one day!
