adventure

Summer semester officially ends today. As such, I'm in a lull for about two to three weeks, and I'm not complaining. I'm doing some tidying and reorganizing - mostly digitally. I still have a couple of short shifts in the testing center each week, so it's not a total slugfest. 

With the tuting, I don't blog as much as I used to. This blog has served to help me recall the whats and whens of different happenings, so a few bullets from recent.

• A couple of weeks ago, we went out with Wolfgang and Meego to celebrate Wolfgang's recent birthday. He chose a Korean BBQ place, and we put away much food. The restaurant brings all the dishes out along with raw meats that we cooked at table top, built-in grills. Intereactive!

At one point I was enjoying tearing into a seafood pancake and noticed some soft little white ring things. I had no idea what they were, and later I happened to come across a video of a chef cooking up some squid and realized that's what I was eating. So I've eaten squid, cool.

• Our little brush with nature last week, in the form of a rattlesnake, sent me down a snake infested rabbit hole of learning about rattlesnakes. They are actually pretty cool critters, but I still don't want to ever ever get bitten by one. 
  
  
• We've been pondering the idea of getting some nearby recreational land, but haven't gotten very far beyond the pondering stage. We'd like to kick things up and get more active on that "project" before we're too old to enjoy it.
  
  
• 
  This morning, I was leaving the gym when a shiny new Mercedez-Benz G-wagon pulled into the parking lot. I'd only ever seen one from afar, and never really took much notice. Up close, it was obviously quite the adventure toy. 

 

I realized that, for the price of one G-wagon, we could get about 35 acres of rural land and all the rattlesnakes it would hold. 

make room

There is currently much grinding, sawing, interspersed with jack-hammering going on as I sit here in my comfy home cave. We've got a bit of renovation going. We have a back patio slab of cement that sits fully exposed in the southwest corner of our east-facing house. 

I've never attempted it, but I bet I could throw some pork loin out there mid-morning and have sliders by dinnertime. The place is a slab of hotness in summertime - unfit for human habitation. We've made do by putting out a couple of small tables outfitted with big umbrellas. And that's just to create some shade. The "patio" is still uninhabitable. And the umbrella cloth has become as fragile as the Shroud of Turin after all that sun exposure.

Napolion and one of his underlings

So our reno project is to extend our roof over the space and enclose it - a screen room, as they say. 

If all goes according to plan, the cat will, no doubt, believe it's for him. A proper "catio". There will be no sense in arguing.

Napolion, our cat. We didn't name him, but it suits him.

midweek check-in *YAWN*

The new assistant boss FINALLY started working this week. It was a good 2-month process from the time we stopped taking applications to getting through the hiring process to actually getting a person in house. She's fitting in nicely while we've been training her up. Classes start up again next week for the spring semester, so we'll be running on all cylinders shortly.

I've been feeling a bit restless with the downtime from tutoring and hoping my tutor schedule fills up nicely with the start of the new semester. I did get a lot of decluttering accomplished during the break. And I'm sure I can find more to purge. Seems like there's always more.

In other projects, I really want to get started on painting most walls of the house. EVERY wall is "rental white", as our house was a rental when we first moved here. Seems like a good after-purge project.

I'm off work today and have a few errands to take care of. It's crappy windy today, but wind seems to be the main weather phenomenon without rain and snow and whatever else the east coast is getting. I was reading reports of high risk for downed power lines and power outages in some parts of the country and thinking how we don't typically have that problem. Our powerlines are underground, so power outages are usually caused by some freak thing like a squirrel getting into a transformer box.

Now I probably just jinxed it, and our power's going to go out... Well, we do have a lot of neighbor squirrels.

Let you go

I've taken today and yesterday off of work since I'm still dealing with this dang cold. I feel okay, actually. I'm sure I could perform my "job duties as assigned" just fine, but I'm still a bit congested and scratchy and don't want to sicken my coworkers. Our work setting is an open "corral", so not much for social distancing. I explained to Boss that I wasn't quite fit for humanity just yet.

As such, I've been feeling a bit restless while holed up at home. But The Great Declutter of 2024 has been going quite well.

On Monday, I tried to drop a couple of bags of donations at ARC,  but they had stopped taking donations by the time I got there. Fine, I drove over to Goodwill, which turned out to be closed for New Year's Day.  So I came back home and scheduled a pickupplease.org truck. They're coming next Wednesday.

In the meantime, I've been working on filling up more stuff for the truck. I think I've gathered about all I care to donate right now, and the rest of the crap is going in the trash, unworthy.

I'd thought myself a minimalist, but still had much to answer for. For example:

• Handfuls of panty hose?? I rarely wear panty hose. Much of it must have been from my corporate working girl days 27+ freaking years ago. I've been schlepping that along each time we've moved?
• Extension cords. So. Many. Extension cords.
• Cinch sacks - from employee orientations and road race paraphernalia, cinch sacks are/were the handout of choice for so many. Be gone!

I also happily sold a couple of items through Marketplace: a fully waterproof backpack we hardly ever used and a double-wide computer monitor I haven't used since downsizing to just a laptop. Both items sold quickly and went to, I believe, good homes. 

• I met with a young "dude"  at a pizza place downtown to exchange the backpack. He plans to use it for rafting - perfect.
• A young dad met me in a nearby parking lot for the monitor. He said he has the same model already, so now he'll have double-double! 

Everybody's happy.

Lastly, I've been chipping away at this 1000-piece puzzle from step-MIL that we started on Christmas. Claude Monet. 

So much sky. So much water. So many pieces look alike. I hate/must finish it!  

Damn you, Monet!

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Linking up with [John] for Mama Kat this week for the prompt:

1. Share something that you worked on this week.

what's the point?

Last Monday, I was happily pedaling to work, thinking about nothing in particular, when the thought came to me: "stop the beers".  

I'm not a big drinker by any means. Remember when my kids were afraid I'd get trashed after one shot? That was a bit extreme, but they weren't totally wrong. I haven't been truly drunk in a long long time.

However, somewhere along the last couple years, Magnum and I started drinking a beer each night at dinnertime. I say "a" beer as in one beer between the two of us - so around 6 oz. apiece. I don't remember why or when the habit started, it just did. 

It really has no noticeable effect on me, so I decided just not to do it anymore. That voice in my head.

Later, I consulted this little productivity image I saved in Pinterest a while back (then never looked at again, like a lot of things I save in Pinterest...). 

I noticed the 20th thing, corresponding with Monday's date, was to eliminate a habit. 

Aha, further prompting!

So I stopped the beers. Magnum did too, his choice. 

Now I'm looking to other things from the list I can easily do.

I kind of did a #22 with a new tutor student who talked the coordinator at the college into tutoring even though the semester is two thirds finished.

I agreed to squeeze her into my calendar. I won't go into detail, but she semi showed up for our first scheduled zoom, not at all prepared for a tutoring session. 

She asked if we could reschedule, and it was such a surprising request after she'd seemed so needy, I said "uh... okay?" and agreed to meet at an even more inconvenient-to-me time.

But then I slept on it, and decided "wait a minute, no!", after I'd set aside a time that she'd agreed to, then she decided to nope out and try a last minute change. So...

22. "stop doing" - going out of my way to over-accommodate grown ass adults.

something next to nothing but different than the day before

1. Write about a time you participated in a competition.

This one time? At band camp?

No, actually... I did marching band and sports - basketball and track - all through high school. Competitions were a part of daily life. At one track meet during my freshman year, Coach added me to the long jump roster. 

Now, I was a sprinter, and track rules were that each athlete could compete in (I think it was) 5 events or less. No more. Between my individual events and relays, I was maxed out already. But Coach noticed that there were not many girls competing in the long jump at that particular meet, so she added a couple of teammates and I to the event figuring that chances were high we might get some points out of it. 

I jumped as an imposter, code name: Cordova. 

I wasn't really into it, but what the heck. Problem was, a couple of times "my" name Cordova was called to jump, it failed to occur to me that the track official was summoning me. I vividly recall my teammate Debby smacking me on the arm, "you're up CORDOVA *big bug eyes* wink wink nudge nudge*

"OH, yup! That's me! Cordova!", I bellied up to the deck as the official looked at us suspiciously. Then I performed my mediocre-just-became-a-longjumper-an-hour-ago jump.

I somehow managed to sort of make a name for myself in my real events by the end of that season, so most of the other coaches at meets we attended eventually knew my real name. That was the end of my track fraud career.

2. Tell us about a recent favorite purchase.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Magnum and I left the gym we'd been members of and bought city rec passes instead. The rec pass is cheaper than the gym and gives us access to more facilities including several pools, three different weight/ cardio rooms, indoor gymnasiums, etc. So far, I'm happy with the change. I've mainly only been to the the weight /cardio room housed inside the local Senior Center because it's closest to where we live, and it's populated with a good mix of ages. 

Seems there's a water aerobics class going on during the times I've gone to the gym. So several older ladies are in the locker room readying to get their water aerobics on. They're sweet and I can tell this is a social as well as physical event for them. 

I walk through a sitting/coffee area to get to the workout room, and in that area are several retired men sitting around solving the world's problems. 

I'm glad there's such a place for these swimmers and world problem solvers. I'm not quite ready to count myself among them.

3. Share a project you are working on.

I'm tutoring a handful of nice students this semester. They're all struggling, which is the reason they sign up for tutoring in the first place. One of these students is clearly intelligent and articulate, but she processes concepts slower than average. 

I've known her from my job in the testing center since she is one of the students who tests with accommodations. I honestly don't know what her "disability" is - something neurological, I think. There is nothing obvious when speaking with her, and again, she is witty and articulate, already has a bachelor's degree in another area. But math concepts take a toll. We're nearly at the end of unit 2, and she's still struggling with unit 1 skills. She's a project I'm trying to figure out.

4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: trip

Magnum and I are embarking on a getaway to somewhere sunny and warm. We'll be wearing shorts and short sleeves and enjoying clean, fresh air.  Playing and relaxing.

... then I woke up. It was dark and temperatures outside were in the single digits. I feel due for a real trip rather than just the dream kind.

5. Write about something you are looking forward to.

 I will let the cat speak for me when I say I'm ready for spring.

Not even necessarily full-on itchy, sneezy, allergeny spring. But I am looking forward to the prelude to spring:  sunny days consistently getting into the 50's, overnights staying above 30, snow that melts the day after it falls.

It's coming, Kitty!

Linking up this week with Mama Kat. Doing ALL the prompts.

rocky mountain not too high

In addition to attending Tour de Fat over the long weekend, I also managed to get stoned.

Ugh, the previous owners of our house went hog wild with gravel landscaping, of which I am not a fan. I'm okay with the borders along the back yard, but the front has this area next to the driveway all graveled out, presumably a place to park a vehicle?

I got this image from google maps streetview from 2012

Now it's 2022. We've long since gotten rid of the junipers along the right side of the driveway and replaced the grey poupon exterior paint. That graveled area next to the driveway? Picture that, but overrun by weeds and whatever would decide to grow. Recall that our house was a rental for several years before we bought it. What renter is going to maintain a gravel driveway?

standing atop my plunder

It's a pain to keep gravel weed-free without using weed killers - can't hoe or rake efficiently. It's been an exercise in ultra-inefficiency.

Magnum made a couple of gravel sieves of half-inch screen, and I had it out with those obnoxious stones. Extracted, shoveled, sieved, and made an ugly mountain of gravel up near the fence, exposing the soil and whatever tatters remained of the ancient landscaping fabric underneath.

Of course now, the area is but a rectangle of dirt. Plan is to put mulch and pavers. We'll park the boat... except we have no boat nor plans to get one. Small detail.

going for cozy

This past Wednesday night was the coldest of the season so far.  It was -4F when I checked early Thursday morning.  What makes this noteworthy (maybe) is that our furnace decided to crap out Wednesday evening.  

It was about 8:30pm when Magnum noticed the furnace wasn't kicking on when he adjusted the thermostat.  

After fiddling around like the non-HVAC technicians we are while the inside temperature continued to drop, we decided to call someone who might actually know what they're doing.

Long story short, our furnace was back, hobbled but on the job, by around 10:30 for a "small fee".  While it sucks to lose your heat source on the coldest night of the year, I'm quite happy with how things went down because

• we  noticed it before going to bed.  Had we not, we and the pets would surely have died in the night... Okay, maybe nothing that dramatic.  BUT the house would've probably dropped into the 30s or 40s, pipes would probably have frozen, etc.
• the technician was able to find and band-aid the problem - dirty/corroded contacts on the gas valve.  Initially, he thought we might need a part that is no longer stocked because we have a geriatric furnace.
• it wasn't a total shock as we've been chipping away at projects/upgrades to our previously neglected house since we bought it a couple years ago.  Might as well do the heating system next.
  
  

So we bought a new furnace this morning - well, half of one anyways.  We'll buy the other half when it's installed next week.  In the meantime, old Bessie (current furnace) is earning her keep without complaint, and I'm hoping she can hold on for another cold week.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

2. Write about your most recent purchase.

in search of a crack ho(e)

We're slowly getting our house up to our liking.  Of course, as most homeowners know, this is a never ending saga.  The house was a rental for years before we bought it in March, so it's been a little neglected.  We have a list of improvements to be made and have checked a few off.

Note:  my office ceiling still has a cat portal.

There are some big jobs that are best left to the professionals, and other little things we can tackle.  One thing I don't like is little weeds growing up through the cracks in the driveway.  How is it I get those, but can't keep a houseplant alive??

I wanted to find a tool to remove the weeds from the driveway cracks.  What term to search on?  The first thing that came to mind is "crack hoe", but then I figured that's probably not what they're called.  Yup, "crack weeder" or "concrete weeder" or the combo "concrete crack weeder" work.  

I would love to just get all the improvements done in one big swoop of activity.  Patience is not one of my virtues.  

Ever watch HGTV?  We don't have cable or dish or anything more than network TV, but it seems like whenever I've been in a waiting area with a TV, HGTV was on.  Good thing Meego had braces or I would never have learned the many home improvement methods from the orthodontist office.  But who are these people with unlimited budgets?  I saw this meme and had to nod in recognition

Yesterday, I worked my last shift at the hospital before my voluntary 2-week furlough kicks in.  I hope to get a few projects completed during the downtime, but also have some adventure time planned, so projects will have to wait.

The driveway will be a quick task.  I just need that crack ho.

pets and peeves

"

Friday afternoon, Meego and one of his housemates came by to pick up Meego's critter tank:  a big glass enclosure with air holes and screened cover.  It is the former home of his snake, Reese, who escaped to the wilds several years ago.  I think it's about a 75-gallon.

The guys can't have pets in their rented house, but Meego said the landlords gave them the go ahead for their herpetology endeavors.  

"Don't know if/ when we'll get anything.  We just want to see if there's a good spot in the house for the tank", he says.

Then last evening, he sent this photo.

Well, that didn't take long.  It's an as yet unnamed uromastyx. 

As I was texting back and forth about the tank and the lizard, I was remembering what easy and entertaining pets reptiles make.  We used to go to maybe a couple of reptile shows a year.  In fact, we acquired the California King Snake, Reese at one of them.

We'd usually see Reese's breeder at subsequent shows, and he'd remember us and ask about Reese.  After The Great Escape, we avoided that breeder at shows...

So this morning, I'm sitting here in my back "office".  The ceiling consists of those crappy tiles I remember from old high school classrooms.

In the meantime, the cat had managed to climb up into the ceiling.  I could hear him rummaging around, and I'm thinking he could come crashing through at any minute.

...which is exactly what he did a few minutes ago.

Napolion the cat is fine, landing on the carpeted floor, feet first of course.

And actually, I was planning to remove those ugly tiles anyway - going for the "industrial" look.

This was probably Napolion's way of getting the show on the road.

In the meantime, reptiles as pets are earning points.

not the Robinsons

Day 2 of the siege.

Obviously, I don't mean the Covid lockdown siege.  I've lost count of those days.  I'm referring to our interior stairs rip-out/replace project siege. 

I''m hanging out in my loosely named home office with the door closed so the cat doesn't escape and get accidentally sawed in half or something.  Now THIS is how quarantine SHOULD feel.



But it's all good.  Thankfully, both the cat and I have snacks and access to a bathroom.  Not so
thankfully, the cat's bathroom is all to easily accessible for him.


The view from my hideout:


That red bandana?  That's my face mask for being holed up with a cat.  I'm wearing it as I type since I snapped the pic just a bit ago.





The project does seem to be going quite well.  I'm glad I found these guys.  They should finish up today, hopefully I didn't just jinx it.

Last night and this morning, we had no stairs in the house, which is a tri-level.  We've been using ladders to get to and from different levels.  I told Magnum I feel like we're living in the Swiss Family Robinson house, which would have been much more fun if I was about 10 years old, but it'll do.

I've been streaming random videos and doodling, and now the stir crazies are getting to me.  I'm about to bust out. 

Gotta go check the potato patch? ←← the only reference I remember from "Swiss Family Robinson" other than their tree house.

Potatoes, anyone?

measure twice, cut once

I'm blogging from my bunker, holed up in my back "office" with the cat as there are men in the house ransacking the place.  Right on schedule.

We're having our interior stairs replaced - a project I've never been a part of before.  I found what I think/hope is a skilled contractor to do the deed.  Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, how about some movie reviews?  We streamed (naturally, since there's no going to the theaters) three flicks this past weekend.  I really liked two of them, and the third wasn't horrible.  In the order we watched...

First, Border.  This movie was SO weird in places, but so good!  I don't even want to say much more about it because it's a film where it's best to watch not knowing where it's going.  Just let it unfold.

Is it drama? Fantasy?  Romance? Fairy Tale? Sci-fi?  Yes!
Excellent casting and acting.  It's Swedish, so unless you speak the language, you're going to have to read.  Well worth the effort IMHO.  👍👍👍👍👍

Next, we watched The Art of Self Defense.  This was rather meh for me.  I guess it would be categorized as dark comedy.

Jesse Eisenberg plays a fearful unassertive man who decides to take up karate to help him be less fearful and unassertive.  Spoiler alert: it works for the most part.   I found the movie mildly entertaining, but not great.  It gets somewhat gruesome and disturbing in a comedic context and does bring about ponderings on what it means to be "masculine".    I like the quote, "I want to be what intimidates me", from the movie, but overall, I could take it or leave it. 👍👍👍

Thirdly is Monos.  Monos involves a group of eight teenage Colombian paramilitary soldiers along with the American hostage they've been put in charge of.  It's not particularly plot heavy, it's more about the group dynamics of these kids in such a setting.  They come across as naive and playful one minute, and the next, they are highly trained rebel soldiers engaged in jungle warfare.

Throw in some raging hormones and a mix of genders, and anything is possible.  It's sort of "Lord of the Flies" but with machine guns, and it's so goooooood! 👍👍👍👍👍
Monos is in Spanish, so once again, English subtitles.

Whatcha watching?

chickenpox and dairy free

Rolled out of bed on Sunday feeling tired, achy, a bit chillish /feverish... maybe?  I don't have THE virus, I'm 99% sure.  I finally got 'round to getting my second hit of Shingrix vaccine Saturday afternoon.

Anyone reading had that particular vaccine for Shingles?  Recommended for us over-50 people, but known to have annoying side effects that, as I relived them, are quite similar to COVID-19 without the cough.  It's given in two doses, 2 to 6 months apart.  I got my first hit in early November, and set a reminder for myself four months later. Who knew we'd be in the middle of a global pandemic?

So I waited a bit for the pharmacy frenzy to die down, then headed there on Saturday to get it over with.  I vaguely remember my first hit back in November and then just spending the next day mostly on the couch.  So I planned to do it when I didn't have to work the day after and then thankfully spent a good portion of Sunday on the couch.  The cat seemed to enjoy our time together.  I was happy to rally enough to get out for a nice walk in the immune system-strengthening fresh air and sunshine.  Lots of people outside doing similar.

Monday morning, I awoke as my bright-eyed and bushy-tailed self.  I'm glad to be finished battling Shingrix anyway.  Back to the standard battles of the day.

The hospital remains eerily quiet with no visitors and no one allowed in group areas.  Like the donation to supply free coffee to health care workers, another donation came in yesterday:  cans and cans of this stuff...

I have yet to try it, but it looks good. I'm thinking it packs a caffeinated punch.  Anyone had it?

My manager at the hospital is a nice young guy.  He was asking some of us older types if we remembered ever having to go through something similar to this COVID-19 response.

We all thought a bit, but nope.  One guy said the closest he could think of was 9-11 with the shutting down of airports and everyone glued to the news for days.

Boss says, "Yeah, I remember that.  I was in middle school!"

PSSSSHHHHH!!  Middle school!

Today, we're at home in the new old house and joined by a plumber.  The house has some issues, and this is the first of our major projects to turn the house into a well-oiled architectural machine.  Sometimes it seems like we're not in the situation the world is in.

I'm thankful for running water.

just bought two houses

Now that we've sold a house, the task of finding a new home remains.  Not gonna lie, I'm not thrilled at the thought of moving again.  Although we're not in a hurry, we did pop into an open house over the weekend.  A new listing popped up, and we had nothing better to do, so we went on in.

The house was okay, priced about right, I'd say, and in a favorable location.  Floor plan was a little too closed in and the yard was a little too big for my liking, but it was good to see a little of what's out there.

The thing that steered me away, though?  Neighbor's backyard.  There was a fire pit surrounded by a few chairs and some pilfered road signs.  It just looked like a party backyard to me, and having just moved from next door neighbors that had occassional 3am bonfires, I'm scrutinizing neighbor yards.

Thing is, I liked those previous neighbors.  They were friendly and hard-working and took good enough care of their property and such.  They weren't awful, but what's with the (illegal) bonfires and party tunes in the wee hours of the morning?  Oh well, not my problem anymore.

And I know that neighbors can change.  Our old neighborhood went through a few iterations while we lived there, so no guarantees.  At least we didn't have any crackhouses or meth labs... to my knowledge.

In the meantime, the dogs at least have some new digs.  We got this new kennel for them when we moved.  It's 6' x 16' , and I just got back from picking up matching dog houses.  Nothing fancy, just the lovely plastic shelters.  The dogs are pretty civilized, though.


The cat still pines away for the great outdoors even though I've explained to him that it's illegal in these parts.  He clearly has no respect for the law.



The lease for the house we're renting is up at the end of May, so we've got some time to shop.  We sort of have an agent here - someone we met at an open house last fall when we were REALLY just snooping.  But she seems nice and competent.  She knows we just closed the sale on our house and sent me a gift card for a local espresso and pastry.  Yes, I'll accept bribes favors.

Do you like/ dislike/ feel neutral about your neighbors?  Any horror stories?

augers at dawn

The good news is, our fence is in the process of being fixed / replaced.  The bad news is that it came down in the first place.

In our housing development, we all have these crappy wooden fences, as seen in the background of this recent pic from Thanksgiving day:

The fences or portions of them need replacing quite regularly.  We had a big old wind storm on Friday night. Max gusts of about 80 mph.  The entire north length of our fence - the one in the pic - didn't survive.

We share that side of fence with the neighbors to our north.  I went out Saturday morning to assess the carnage and found the neighbor and one of his adolescent kids out there taking down measurements and looking very industrious.

By the end of the day on Saturday, neighbor man and two boys had popped in 4 new posts, and by Sunday, they had a couple more posts and several slats replaced.   It seems they saw the downed fence as a wonderful bonding opportunity.  Well, I'm certainly not one to interfere with a bonding opportunity!  We did provide some cement for the posts, but other than that, they've literally done all the heavy lifting and provided all materials.  We'll cover a good portion of the moolah.

In the meantime, I've been putting up a few fresh coats of paint inside our house, and today, some guys came and installed new carpeting in three bedrooms. 

Paint fumes + new carpet fumes = I'm probably high right now.

what's cookin'?

We've got snow, yes we do!  We've got snow, how 'bout you?  *points*

Okay, it's Colorado. It snowed.  Not really news, but sheesh, there's so much of it.  I think we got about 10 inches at our house.  It felt like more when I shoveled it, but I did have "help" from these two.

Poor Penny, she's so short, when she first went out to the ladies room, all I could see was her head and shoulders.  Didn't seem to phase her, though.

Chaco, who lives a little north and west of Denver, sent this pic from his place, saying, "and it's still snowing!"

Then I got this pic from Meego in Fort Collins:

It's actually rather pretty for those who don't need to go anywhere.  And... I might be a little annoyed that these college boys have better patio furniture than we do.

In a way, it's good to be shut in because it's been good help in getting our house ready to vacate.  Magnum's sis is hosting Thanksgiving again this year, and I'm thankful that I don't have to cook anything.  We're responsible for booze.

With that in mind, my task for today is to clean the oven.  It's a self-cleaning oven, but to be honest, I plan to just scrub it with some Dawn dish soap.  Self-cleaning ovens freak me out a bit.  Ours is the type that uses high heat - like 1000 degrees F - to burn everything up.

I had a self-cleaning oven in one of my college apartments.  I recall coming home one night from my retail job to find firetrucks leaving the parking lot and our oven sitting outside on the grass.  What the...? 

My roommate had tried the self-cleaning mode. 

As I recall, I don't think there was any actual fire.  Just lots and lots of smoke and fumes.  The firefighters were nice enough to loan us a fan. 

As I was pondering a good cleaning for our oven, I paused at the various precautionary notes in the owner's manual and my online research - research that didn't make me want to use self-cleaning mode.  One note stated that the fumes can be specifically harmful to birds, so remove pet birds before cleaning.  I don't have any pet birds but, yeah,  no.

Anyone reading ever used the oven self-cleaning feature?  Any stories to tell?

the dead stuff behind me

All the plants are dead.  There I said it.  Well, I typed it.

But the first part of recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Here's the thing.  A few years ago, Meego got a pet King Snake.  He was a cool King Snake, and Meego named him Reese because he was the colors of chocolate and peanut butter.

Reese was fun to have around.  He liked to hug.  He liked to hug because he was a constrictor, not necessarily because he was cuddly and loving, but technically, he was at least quite cuddly.

He was also fun to have around for science's sake.  We fed him dead mice and would have to make the mice seem to be alive so Reese would instinctively "kill" and eat them.  As he grew, Reese would shed his skin, an event that was always cause for excitement.

We were able to acquire a good sized tank from a friend down the street.  The friend had also owned a snake and fed the snake actual live mice.  One mouse was quite the survivor, however, and ended up killing the pet snake - from the inside out, I understand!  That fact isn't necessarily pertinent to my story here, but thought I'd include it for the shock value.

We took over the tank for Reese, Meego lovingly landscaped it, and Reese happily did his snake stuff in his warm, roomy digs...

...until one day when he escaped from his feeding box.  We haven't seen him since.

See, we would feed him the pretend alive mice in a separate box from the tank since snakes will instinctively strike at anything moving nearby.  By feeding them in a container different from their "living room", they become conditioned to not strike when someone reaches into their living space for some cuddle time.

Wolfgang and Chaco had just recently moved back home during summer break from college.  There were boxes and college boy things scattered about.  When Meego went to put Reese back in his tank after a feeding, there was a telltale hole in the feeding box, and Reese was nowhere to be seen.  Ah, that fateful day.

We never found him.  I hope he escaped into the yard and has been sowing his oats with the neighbor snakes.

A couple of years ago, Meego and I decided to turn the big tank into a big terrarium. It was desert themed with sand and succulents. Despite having hardly ANY natural light, I'd hoped the sun lamp we had for Reese would suffice.

So much for hopes.

The tank is still there, a house of dead plants.  It sits behind me as I type.  It sits in the background when I tutor online, but thankfully, the video image is relatively small and the student's image somewhat covers the tank of death. No one has yet asked, "what is that tank of dead things behind you?"

But I know it's there.

I'm wondering if I should move it to where there would be better lighting, clean it out, and retry?  I've never had much of a green thumb, and will not bother trying to grow marijuana.

Suggestions are welcome... aside from growing pot.

almost empty

I vaguely recall that, several years ago, I posted about our prepper efforts.  "Preppers", those strange people that are at the ready for an apocalypse? 

Well, okay, we've not been quite that extreme, but we did live in Utah for about 4 years, and while I can't buy into the religion (after death, I become Mrs. God??), there are some appealing aspects to the Mormon Ways...

One of which is being prepared for emergencies, natural disasters and the like.  Where would you rather be?  Home with the family, comfortably living off your provisions or standing in a long FEMA line, hoping for a bottle of water?

Especially with three little kids, this was something into which we put some thought and effort.  For that particular blog post, I snapped a pic of our food storage.

Fast forward to today - the nest is pretty empty, Magnum and I are looking to downsize, it's no news that I've been tidying, discarding, organizing, and generally removing our lives from the lower level of our house.  I'm not going to search through the archives for that food storage pic, but I can show what the former stash room looks like today.  Voila'

Yeah, a whole lotta  not much.  Note that there were two more of the large utility shelves - one is sitting empty in the hallway, and the other, I disassembled and Chaco took it for his use last weekend.  

And really, the main reason that one on the end still has stuff in it is because the cat likes to go up there to hang out near the heater vent sometimes, and I was afraid that, if the shelves were empty, the whole cat 'n' caboodle would come crashing down when the cat did his graceful climb and totally threw off the center of gravity.  

It's  nice having the room so open and airy.  This was also the room where I'd strung my clothesline and dried the laundry - because we're frugal that way and live in a dry climate.  Now, I'm doing laundry for two and don't need that whole clothesline network.  I've got a nice dryer rack that Wolfgang left laying around gifted me when he moved last spring.  

This isn't to say we have no provisions, I've just made room for that stuff on the main level and transferred while the cat gave me dirty looks.   Thought I'd mention that in case some zombie apocalypse was out there waiting for me to jinx ourselves.

Anyone  need some utility shelves?  

appreciation Friday

circa 2012

For those who weren't here back then, I once held the prestigious title of "School Crossing Guard".  Our kids' elementary school was not far away, I was a stay-at-home-mom, it was a nice little gig for a bit of mad money.

Some days, it would be FREEZING cold.  I didn't typically have many "customers" on those days, but had to be there nonetheless for the handful of tough kids.

And it wasn't that bad since each shift was only about 30 minutes long.




Here is what my old office looks like today:

There's been a major project on this road for about two  months now.  The city is replacing about a half-mile of the water main that runs from the crosswalk on down.  The road went from 5 lanes to two, and it's been messy and inconvenient.  But I don't care.  These guys are gettin' 'er done, so I'm giving them a shout out!

It's clearly a big project.  Living in the neighborhood, I've seen much daily progress.  Out with the old pipe, in with the new, and all the tearing-up-the-road that entails.  Those workers are out there every day in all kinds of weather and traffic.  New years eve?  When the weather was nearly unfit for penguins?  They were out there!  Just like today.

So I appreciate them working to get this project completed without delay and with minimal inconvenience.  Also, there's been no interruption in water service this whole time.  I probably just jinxed us, but as least we have our backup hillbilly water jugs in storage.

Speaking of projects and storage, I've made inroads on Operation Consolidation and clearing out the basement level.  I was reminded of Marie Kondo's advice (paraphrasing):

Don't look at your stuff and think about what you want to discard.  Look at your stuff and think about what you want to keep.

*looks around at my stuff*

Yeesh.

popping down

Many years ago, when I was a working girl with no kids, some co-workers and I would go for lunchbreak walks near our office park.  One walking buddy was just emptying his nest as his youngest kid was off to college.  He explained to us how he and his wife bought their little single-story house and then added the top level when their three kids started arriving.  Now it would just be him and the wife living there, with no need for the top story.

Another walking buddy was about my age, no kids.

"There should be pop-up houses", he mused, along the lines of pop-up campers.  "One level for couples that pop-up a second story for kid additions.  Then pop back down when the kids grow up!"

Yeah, so we all chuckled, but I'm starting to see the practicality of it.  For a while, after our kids reached their teens, our house often seemed too small.  Now?  I could do with half a house.

I've begun Operation Consolidation.

Our house is a raised ranch with finished basement.  Magnum and I are wanting to downsize to about half the size of our house now.  So, in preparation, I thought I'd consolidate all our stuff to the main floor.  Can  I do it?  Yes!  I think

Well... the laundry's gonna stay downstairs because... that's where it is.  And I'll keep my office downstairs because that's where the internet cable (better than wifi for online tuting) taps in, and I don't feel like drilling and rerouting.

BUT, everything* else is going up!

Which means, I need to de-clutter the main level to make room for necessities from the lower.  I'd been thinking that I've done a good job of it, but then I got this consolidation idea and am looking around...

This should be fun?  Okay, I'm starting today.

Step 1.  Motivation

It's a start.  And I'm actually still in touch with both of those walking buddies.  Empty nester is now a grandpa several times over, and Pop-up guy now has two sons similar in age to our kids.  I wonder if he has a pop-up?