backyard, freshly mowed, 9.8.03
I never thought I’d say this, but I have to admit that I enjoyed mowing my own lawn this afternoon. My memory of mowing dates back to the days of high school, when I lived in a house on the side of a mountain and my lawn was about the size of a football field and it took a day to finish the whole thing. My Dad had a commercial mower that dated back to before my birth, and weighed more than a Sherman tank. Generally, Diver Down by Van Halen on my Walkman at maximum volume (that was the only way I could hear it over the drone of that 20-year-old engine) was the only thing that made it feasible. Today I put my new Murray 21-inch mower together and did the front and side lawns in 20 minutes. The back lawn is a mixture of grass, exposed roots, downed branches, and English ivy, so it’s a little tricky, but I enjoyed it.
Yesterday Jen and I rented a wallpaper steamer and we were able to get everything of the walls of the Sticky room, the Anxious room, and a large section of the hunting mural in the dining room. The original window showed up in the middle of the mural, covered over with a sheet of drywall and thin skim of plaster. We left the mural in place where it was bonded to the drywall but cleaned up the areas around it in preparation for uncovering the window at a later date. (Say a prayer for us in the hope that the window is still under there.)
Today I ripped about two truckloads of vine from the side of the garage, along the driveway, and beside the property. The tree at the front of the driveway got a pruning as well as the stuff above the garage, and the place looks a lot less overgrown as a result. Jen cooked a huge, delicious lasagna for me, and we devoured our dinner with a bottle of red wine.
geneva, teller, obviously upset with each other 9.5.03
So I replaced the Sears lawnmower (the mystery engine) last night with a Murray machine featuring a 4.5 HP Briggs & Stratton. I figure the rest of the unit is steel; I can’t see myself wrecking the deck of the mower before the engine. Plus, it was $20 cheaper.
Candidate for Worst F**ing Website In Corporate History Award: Intermatic, the folks who manufactured the in-wall timers installed in my house. No mention of how to use the products, reprints of the user manuals, nothing. And their FAQ is a joke. Thanks for nothing.
Looks like we’re going to have to invest in some Kilz for the walls in the house; all of the discussion boards and links I’ve followed regarding nicotine stains on walls have pretty gloomy forecasts for what can be done. There are some recipes for cleaning solutions that sound like a heck of a lot of work, or the simple sealer route where we wash the woodwork and seal the walls.
Postscript to the picture above: Jen told me earlier that Sage and Teller mixed it up for the first time a few hours ago. There’s only so much lovin’ to go around, I suppose.
For about the thirtieth day in a row, it’s been raining here in Baltimore. Since we’ve been in the new house, I think there’s been about a half-day of sunshine—and that was with about 80% humidity. Ugh. It kind of sucks going from central air to open windows and rain; you wind up sleeping in a bed that more closely resembles warm pea soup. Yeah, you say, boo-hoo, Bill; you could be a Marine in Afghanistan walking around in full combat gear, but the fact is, I’m not. My new house is about to float away down the Patapsco.
Last night I was finally able to get some work done in the house; I ran three new phone lines to the kitchen, living room, and dining room so that we don’t have to use the basement stairwell anymore. Halleleujah, amen. Next up is a quick upgrade to the dining room wiring; I’d like to run a grounded circuit to the plug where we have our printer, hub, and power strip so that we don’t fry the 1950’s era wire job.
In other geek news, it looks like Eudora has upgraded their client to version 6. I have mixed emotions about 5.1 (I basically have to use it because my email server requires a client that supports APOP) and the basic usability of the program, but the new spam filtering in the paid version is tempting. I’m going to wait for a few weeks and then see what the feedback sounds like.
Holy crap. I just found out that my high school orchestra teacher, the guy who taught me how to play bass violin, was arrested on charges of child abuse for molesting 6-year-old girls. For the love of God, that is screwed up.
The good Doctor had a variety of phone lines installed over the years, from old four-wire copper to newer Cat 5 eight-wire stuff; as the phone contractor put new stuff in, they just left the old stuff up in the rafters. There’s a mixture of new plastic “network interface boxes” and ancient steel panels with old-school copper nut fasteners. Throughout the house, there are a numbing array of connectors for the phones—all of which don’t work. Currently in order to get online we have to stand in the basement stairwell, plug Jen’s laptop into the test panel for the working phone line, and balance on the stair and windowsill while we type (thank god for laptops.) The good thing is that we’re basing the networking off Airport, so with the exception of the server(s), everything will be wireless, and there’s clean signal all the way out to the greenhouse.
Last night I spent about fifteen minutes attempting to troubleshoot one line to try and put a phone line somewhere inside the main house, and had to give up. In my wake I ripped about eight lines out which started nowhere and ended up noplace. I can see this is going to be only the beginning of a long process (the electrical lines in this house vary from Roosevelt-era post and wire to some new and creative uses of Romex.) Big fun.
For all the folks who thought that our cats were going to draw knives and massacre each other, you needn’t worry. Jen found her cat Sage laying right up next to my cat Penn, each oblivious to each other.
I went out last night and bought a bunch of crap for the house, the largest of which was a Craftsman 4.5HP 21″ lawnmower on sale for $159.99. I walked through the local Sears, which has the eerie ambiance of a sinking ocean liner, until I found the garden center, and bought the last boxed model for sale. Loading it into the truck, I then drove to the Home Depot to compare pricing on some other items (a mixed bag, or at least dead even) when I found a comparable brand-name mower with a better engine for $149.99. D’oh! Luckily it’s still in the box and in my garage (hee hee! I love saying that: my garage) so I can return it tomorrow. Lucky also, that it’s raining right now and will continue until sometime next week, so I don’t have to face my lawn just yet.
No luck with the phone situation; I’m going to continue to troubleshoot the wiring and attempt to get more than one line working in the house. I did buy a geektastic headlamp so that I can see what I’m working on when the lights are off.
Up for bids this weekend: most likely, a steamer rental for the horrendous wallpaper through the bedrooms in the house. We have four:
- The G-Spot, so named because of its bright pink wall paint and matching carpet (as well as the large bulge next to the door where the plaster has separated from the lathe). This room needs new paint and some window work.
- The Sticky Room, where the vinyl wallpaper has collected nicotine from the previous tenant and gathered dust. This room also features beautiful green all-weather carpeting. I need to remove the old AC unit, patch the walls, pull the carpet, and paint the radiator.
- The Library, featuring shelving from the Doctor’s home office, a beautiful oak desk, and a woven oval rug. Probably the best one out of all of them. This room needs minimal patching, but a righteous floor-sanding.
- Finally, the Anxious Room, where the good Doctor made his bed. This room stars an anxious-making red floral wallpaper, which covers the walls, closet, and atrium. It’s paper, probably dates back to the 40’s, and covers the water damage from the roof leak (now fixed). I’m afraid to see what’s behind there. Besides the bulge in the G-spot, this room will need the most patching work, because the west wall has pulled away from the north wall in the corner, and the floor is in bad shape.
I also made arrangements today to pay off the increasing credit card debt that I was hemorrhaging; with one online payment I should be free and clear of a $75/mo. minimum payment and something like a $65 finance charge. That will go a long way to making the monthly bills less of a train wreck.