Fitting in

I was in Arlington this past weekend, and actually managed to get a good bit done.  I got the yard picked up, and burned the pile of tree trash I'd been collecting, along with Joe's old mattress that the garbage collectors wouldn't haul off. That took a 1/4 bottle of charcoal starter, and about 2 pints of good ol' unleaded.

Whoosh!

I also got the kitchen sink unclogged, and did most of the dishes that had piled up while the sink was out of action. This coming weekend, I'll be concentrating on the basement...shop vac'ing up all the water, and figuring out how to keep it out. I'm thinking that this will involve cement and a sump pump, both of which I plan on buying locally.  If I can get that done, we can start getting rid of the trash in the basement, and turn it into a usable part of the house.

I saw a cammo jacket on sale at MidwayUSA a couple of weeks ago, and bought it on speculation. Surprise! When wearing it doing the yard work, I look like I actually belonged there...given that every other male above the diaper stage wears cammo...and part of the diaper crowd probably does, too.

when was the last time.....

...everyone you know were talking about the same book.  I just saw an Audible.Com commercial which used that as the premise of why you should listen to books. I read a lot. Gayle can confirm this, as can the cats (assuming you speak the southern version of feline). I work in a freaking orthopaedic clinic, where you would assume that we have intelligent employees, but not a single person at work has ever admitted to reading anything, except for maybe the intro to a YouTube video.

Lest you think that I'm putting on airs, I'll admit to trying to slog through classic 20th century novels, beginning with The Grapes of Wrath. The main thing I brought away from that was the instruction that my first creative writing teacher taught was absolutely dead on...DO NOT USE SLANG, "HIP" TALK OR OTHERWISE DATE YOUR WORK. If everyone in the 30's talked like that, no wonder they were prone to lawlessness and gunplay.  Hell, I'd have shot them myself!

On call weekends and gun shows

I'm on call this weekend, and that means I saved some project work to do during off hours. There's always things that need to be done, but require that the users be off the systems. That means that the weekend is the best time for it. This weekend it's moving files between servers, which is easy, time consuming and boring as hell. The main issue is to make sure that all security attributes are copied with the files, so that the correct users have access to them on Monday. RoboCopy is the perfect tool for this, and so that's exactly what I'm using. Tomorrow I'll finish up with this, along with the other tasks I've got on the agenda.

After getting all of this started, I went to the gun show being held at the AgriCenter in Germantown. I've not been to a gun show in forever, and had a fine old time.  It was crowded as hell, but that was really the only downside. And, since you can't go to such a thing without buying something, I picked up a couple of new magazines and 2 metal ammo cans. All of this was less than 40 bucks, so I was reasonably frugal.  There were so many interesting things, that I probably went past every booth at least 3 times just to make sure I'd seen everything.

While all this is fun, I'd much rather be up in Arlington with Gayle. She could use the help and companionship, and I'm just ready to get to where I plan on being for the duration.  I figure the sooner I can get up there and get settled in, both locally and with a job, the sooner we can make friends and actually start to have a social life. I just hope that I can find a job that pays close to what I'm making now...while it's cheaper to live there, I need to really start pumping cash into the 401k.

Mikey just hopped up onto the arm of the chair, to let me know that I've typed enough. These critters sure are pushy at times....

If this was Arlington, I'd be smelling West Vaco

One of the main employers in the area of west Kentucky where Gayle hangs out now is a pulp mill that used to be called (and to most, always will be) West Vaco. When it's foggy/cloudy/rainy in Arlington, you can smell the pulp mill most strongly. To anyone who's ever lived in proximity to a pulp mill, you know just how horrific this can be.

Normally I'll load the car as far as I can the night before I head up to Kentucky, just to cut down on the amount of time it takes to get out of Memphis on Friday afternoon.  However, it's raining so damn hard right now I'll just pile everything up, and load it up tomorrow, when it's supposed to be cool and clear.

Mikey has been waiting on the arm of the chair patiently for me to finish this post, only occasionally reaching out to try to take over the mouse. So, I'll click publish and let him flow over onto my lap for his afternoon pets.

What dictionary are you using?

I've been a fan of internet shopping for a long time. It's easy, avoids going to places like malls, and I've generally had good luck with doing so. However, I've started to notice a trend where a vendor posts that they have an item in stock. What this is coming to mean is that they think that their vendor has it in stock, and that they'll ship it to you as soon as they get it from them. What all this means, is that "we'll ship in 3 - 7 business days" means don't hold your breath, you'll get it when we get it to ship to you. No wonder everyone is starting to ship for free...they save money on inventory taxes.

I'm getting into the rhythm of driving to Arlington most weekends, and I'm really getting comfortable there. I'm recognized in the local grocery store, and with as much as I'm buying from them, I should be known at the local restaurant. This weekend I'm taking entree items so that I can cut down on that particular expense, and have the opportunity to cook for more than myself and the cats.

Speaking of my diminutive room mates, Mikey got tired of taking crap from Jules today and beat the living hell out of him.  Jules was trapped under the bed, yelling for help and denying that he'd done anything to have caused such an unwarranted attack. I had to pull Mikey out by the tail to get him out of attack mode, after which he stalked down the hallway, stopping occasionally to glare back towards the bedroom, muttering things like "punk ass bitch" and "wait til we're alone, and you've got nobody to save you". Fortunately for Jules, Mikey has the memory of a late stage dementia patient, so Jules will probably live to torment another day.

Happy New Year...

I was on call this weekend, so I had to stay in Memphis instead of going to Arlington. Being a sensible person, I stayed at the apartment last night, and left the public partying to younger, braver folks. I rang in the new year with 2 idiot cats, and an open chat window to Gayle. Gayle's comments were, as usual, more sensible than anything that Jules or Mikey came up with.

We did watch "Cowboys and Aliens", which is a pretty good movie. There were a lot of cliches, but they didn't really interfere with me and the boys enjoyment of the flick. Of course, watching it beginning at 12:30am with a couple of drinks in me might have influenced my opinion.

Christmas in Arlington

It's 6pm on Christmas eve, and I'm sitting in the den of the Arlington house, happy to be warm.  We woke up this morning to a dead furnace, and it took all day to get hold of the tradesman that works on it for us.  He got here around 4:30, and had it working in under an hour. One of the good things about living in a rural area is that this repair on Christmas Eve cost us under $200 part and labor, and the repair was done by the man who installed the furnace, and is familiar with everything about it.  In Memphis, assuming I could have found somebody to come out, it would have cost at least $500 for the same repair, and would have been a stroke of luck if they had the part available.

I've scheduled the best local plumber to come in early next week to get started on fixing the mess that my father in law managed to create when adding a new bathroom/laudery room.  The drains are slow, and we get sewer gas back into the house every time a toilet is flushed. I'm hoping that this guy, who comes very well recommended, can get everything working for not too much, and in not too much time. We also have some other things we need done, and he should be able to get it all knocked out at the same time.

This house is in need a a lot of work.  We need a new roof, and we really need to replace the old fuse panels with breakers. Actually, we can probably get all the work we want done to this house done for under $20k. So, I'll be planning on getting the quotes and getting a home equity loan for the work, and with any luck we'll have it all done by the end of summer. We'll also be painting the inside of the house, to get rid of all the pink walls that still make me cringe when I see them, and removing the matching pink (or salmon, if you're a designer) carpets that are covering quite lovely hardwood floors.

Happy holidays, and best wishes for the new year!