Home

Maybe the upcoming holidays have people thinking about home more than usual -- in a small way. Something's up, because these all hit my facebook wall this afternoon:

Micro Livable Homes

$20,000 House

Tiny House

Each posted by people who don't know each other. And all within a span of about 30 minutes. It's funny how things bunch up like that.

ps. I know I'm behind, but I'll get caught up eventually. The empty days will fill in over the holiday week, I hope

Houseaversary!

It's been seven years! This photo dates back to the last time we had a white christmas, which was in 2010. It's gotten pretty cold already this year, which makes me wonder if we'll have a shot at a snowy holiday in 2013...

House-iversary #6!

I can't believe how quickly time flies! I didn't prepare a photo, but when I looked back at recent pictures, I saw this shot from a recent night, before the weather turned cold. After a day raking and another afternoon constructing a new fire pit, G-Dog and I spent the evening out back, sitting beside a warm blaze, watching some of said raked leaves go up in flames.

It's been a good six years.

ANTS!!

I have never seen so many ants in such a small space in my life. Those little sugar ants. At least a gazillion dexabillion of them.

We've got a box screwed to side of our fence that remotely operates the gate that sits between our carport and the road. Last week it started to respond poorly to entreaties from our remote transmitter to open and/or close. We've been through this at least once before, so I knew to go get a new power cell for the thing (which, btw, is the size of a car battery!). I replaced it, tried out all the transmitters, and everything was working great. Job well done.

Yesterday, after a couple of days when no one drove the cars, and therefore, no one used the gate, I got in the car, hit the button and... nothing happened (hrmmm... like in a Colin Hay song...). Tried a different remote. Nothing. Tried all the different remotes (for some reason, we have six of them). Zip. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Nix. Squat.

Well, I didn't have time to deal with it yesterday. Actually, I didn't have time to deal with it today, either, but I tackled the job anyway. At least the weather was nice, and tomorrow it might rain (as it turned out, it's raining now, as I type this), so I figured I better get on it while the gettin's good.

First, I cut off all the power to the whole unit, and then opened it up and rather quickly noticed that there were some ants in there that hadn't been there the other day. A lot of ants.

But even then, I had no idea how many were really there. My little project was about to become a scene from a horror movie.

First I pulled the receiver off the back wall inside the unit. It's a little box with a circuit board inside that's attached by coax to the antenna on the outside of the larger unit. I opened up that little box and ants spilled out all over the place. It was like an ant bomb had exploded in my hands. BOOM. I wish I had had the time and presence of mind to take a picture.

I sprayed the box out with compressed air, but the ants kept reappearing. I'd blow them to oblivion, but there would still be more of them. Over and over again.

Instead of playing a long whack-a-mole game with these little beasts, I found a tiny screwdriver to take out the tiny screw that held the circuit board onto the back of the box and... wow. There were even more ants under that thing than there had been on top of it. Damn.

I kept blasting the thing with more compressed air, and at this point, I also started spraying peppermint oil on everything that wasn't electronic and/or sensitive circuits (I've had good luck with it in the past with regard to deterring sugar ants), hoping that the receiver might still be salvageable.

Before starting to reassemble it all, I tried to make sure that there weren't all that many ants left in the unit. But I kept finding more of them. And more and more. I checked the cables leading up to the unit from the fence and the ground, but the peppermint oil that was coating them seemed to be keeping away any return visitors. That there were no ants on the fence. So, where were all these ants I was still seeing coming from?

Then I lifted up the battery. OMFG. This was the biggest colony of ants yet. A magillion kadrillion bazillion ants. The Manila of ant encampments.

Long-story-not-quite-so-long, I'm out of compressed air, there are a lot of dead and dislocated ants out there, the fence around the box is now saturated in peppermint oil, and the ground below the fence is buried in borax. But with the ants banished from the operator unit, lo and behold, the receiver works again! I'll have to keep a watchful eye on the situation, and maybe reapply the peppermint oil and borax after the rain, but hopefully I've taken that battlefield back from the ants for good.

But still I wonder... how is it possible for that many ants to have assembled in just three days?!? There were none, I am sure, when I put that new battery in on Monday afternoon. Then, BOOM. So many ants.

And now, several hours, a 2-mile run and a shower later, I still feel creepy crawlies on my skin. And I'm afraid I may dream about bugs tonight.

But at least tomorrow is the weekend. An end to a very long and difficult week.

I hate ants.

Another Milestone

Five years ago was our first night in this house. It's been an adventure -- which started out rather chaotically -- but we've gradually become very comfortable and dug in here. To honor the occasion, I offer a few songs:

In other news, this weekend, my sister pointed out that a few days ago was the 42nd anniversary of the day my family moved into the house that I think of as my childhood home (there were three houses: 1) the one my parents lived in when I was born; 2) the one where I spent most my childhood; and 3) the one my parents moved into the year I got married and moved to the South).

Some days, I really do want to run back to that childhood home. But other times, like when we have a gorgeous fall afternoon like today, complete with beautiful autumn colors and filled with fragrant fall air, this seems like just the right place to be. And the house is pretty awesome, too.  ;-)

Bonus WW!

Here are pics I took at yesterday's National Night Out (the date of which, by the way, must have been set by an extreme northerner!)..

Home

Four years ago today was our first night in this house. The time has sped by at an alarming rate -- a blink of an eye, really -- but it also feels like we've always been here. I'm not an easily domesticated creature, but this place just might get me to settle down and dial back the wanderlust. Here's a recent peek out the back door:

House-iversary

Three years ago today was our first night in this house. It felt a bit bittersweet at the time, but we've had three really good years here since then. I love the the neighborhood and the people, I dig the fact that I can ride my bike to some very cool places from here (and that we're close to the busline!), and I look forward to the progress this area will be making from this point. Plus, it's a really cool house -- if you haven't been by yet, I hope we can get you to visit some time soon!

I was outside a lot of the day today,* but I didn't take any photos, so here's one of the house from a little over three years ago.

* I had such a productive day! I watered all the plants (no small feat, since most of the herb garden, along with all the porch ferns, are inside for the winter, not to mention the regular house plants and the orchids!), did the laundry, raked all the leaves in the front and side yards (the back yard is next weekend's project), ran 5K, and then started my first batch of kimchi (to be finished tomorrow, and done fermenting in a week or so!). Whew! I wish I could be this productive every day -- then I could maybe finally knock a few things off of the dreaded to-do list!

Pre-christmas construction!

Gosh, but it's gotten quiet around here lately! I've been swamped getting ready for the house full of people we'll be getting over Christmas. Dusting, vacuuming and meal planning is all well and good, but it's not inspirational (well, maybe thinking about menus is...). Plus, the news hasn't been motivating me to spring over to the keyboard to participate in the discussion -- I can't get worked up one way or another about the idea of a Senator Caroline Kennedy (I'd like to see the job go to someone who's done some dues-paying, but I think she'll probably do a good job -- and if she doesn't, New Yorkers can vote for someone else in two years). And I'm not stirred to action over the news that Rick Warren will pray -- or something -- at the inauguration (yeah, the guy can be a douche, but Obama's right -- if we're all going to try to get along, we're going to have to try to get along).

But I do have some pictures of the fun we had last week, fixing a sinking, cracking wall in our circa 1914 house...

Oh, so quiet...

Sorry, I haven't been able to work up a post today -- I've been busy, busy, busy... but the good news is that I can now walk into my walk-in closet!

Further updates as events warrant...

I have no words.

I'm not of a mind to write these days. I have a few things in the queue, but haven't been motivated to slap them into shape yet. During the election buildup, I was looking forward to post-election blogging about all things non-political, but nothing really has been flowing for me so far. The gears in my brain haven't shifted yet, so I just don't have much to say.

To make matters worse, I've been a bit of a bore lately -- a happy one, but a yawn nonetheless. What with all the obsessing over Nov. 4th, and especially after hurting my back, things here at Chez 10K were in pretty rough shape. I've been poking at it a bit here and there, but was waiting for an all-clear from the physical therapist before I really hit it hard, and I got that on Friday. So, I spent the weekend vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing and generally puttering about the house, and it was wonderful. I loved every minute of it. I fussed over the plants and sucked up the dust bunnies hiding behind the doors and cleaned out the fridge and made homemade pizza and even watched a few movies with Emmie, who came in to keep me company while G-Dog was out of town leading a retreat over the weekend.

I assume I'll eventually get into a groove when I finally settle into some kind of a post-election routine, but at the moment, I'm at a loss. So, I'll leave you with this, a quote from my rss reader's clippings folder, in which I've been saving up all sorts of fun stuff for non-political posts. I don't have a link, but this is a post from a now-defunct blog that was called Fly Over This, by a dude named Zack. The post's title was "Email Signature Politics."

You know this Margaret Mead quote? "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." That quote seems to have been adopted as the standard email signature for a certain element of the progressive left.

Meanwhile, Christian email is fast adopting Mother Teresa's quote, "There are no great things, only small things with great love."

I like both of those quotes. But I always have the feeling that both are being used as bludgeons against out-of-fashion ideas like long-term planning, goal setting, big-picture thinking and even just plain organizing.

So, at the bottom of someone's email today I saw a great quote that I somehow have not come across before. Maybe I will add it to my own email settings:

"Small acts of humanity amid the chaos of inhumanity provide hope. But small acts are insufficient."
- Paul Rusesabagina

Rusesabagina is the Rwandan hotel manager who saved a whole bunch of people in the genocide and inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda.

A Short Tale

You're not going to believe this one.

Last Thursday-into-Friday night, our two bikes (one for me, one for G-Dog), were stolen out of our yard while we slept. I blame a combination of our stupidity and a false sense of security created by the fact that our back yard is surrounded by a 6-foot privacy fence. But we really should have kept the bikes locked up, since anyone watching us coming and going through the driveway gate would have a full view of the fact that we didn't keep our bikes locked. So, lesson learned there.

This evening was National Night Out. If you've ever been to one, you know it's an event were neighbors get together, in the neighborhoods, with local police and fire fighters and mingle for an evening of camaraderie, improved familiarity, and better relations. Also if you've ever been to a National Night Out, you probably realize that it's the last place you'd want to be with a bike that had been stolen from one of the neighbors who was standing right there, chatting with some cops. But sometimes crazy things do happen, and ... well, I now have my bike back. No word yet on G-Dog's bike...

A Perfect Day

The temperature never got over 70°. The sun was out, with a bit of cloudiness left over from last night's rain. G-Dog and I picked up some plants at our local garden center and spent the day in the yard, playing in the dirt. We planted flowers and shrubs, repotted plants, hung bird feeders and bat boxes, cleaned, dug, watered and swept.

It was a great, fun day.

I'm kinda sore.

Day Off

Even though there's still plenty of news (especially for a Sunday), I think I need to take the day off from politics. I'm sure some of you are tired of it and I'm way tired and not quite ready for Monday yet.
I did have a good time at the auction with G-Dog this weekend, where we picked up a painting, a sofa bed and a cool box of hats (for Emmie). Getting the sofa up the stairs was quite the adventure but proved, once again, that we both have decent bone density (if I had any osteoporosis, I definitely would have snapped like a twig under the weight of that thing as we struggled to get it around the corner of the landing half-way up the stairs...). I hope you had a good weekend!

Chattanooga is a Very Small Town

So, we're sitting at Christmas dinner this evening, at the home of some friends who live up on Signal Mountain. There's a woman there who we've met for the first time just today (she's our daughter's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend's friend from work). And she's not having a great Christmas and is explaining why it hasn't been the best of holidays this year. And one contributing factor is that just a couple of days ago, some drunk guy plowed into the side of her car while it was parked on the street, and then the dude just ran off!

At this point, G-Dog has to stop her, because this story sounds freakishly familiar. "Wait a minute! That was your car? Over in Highland Park on Saturday night?" And sure enough...

Now, what are the chances that we'd spend the evening watching this drama unfold on our porch on a Saturday night and find ourselves, the following Tuesday, all the way over on the other side of town, sharing Christmas dinner with one of the victims in this crime?

I think it's pretty freaky.

I hope everyone had a beautiful day!

The Drama Outside My Window

I'll be interested to hear what people think about this.

So, we're just sitting here, hanging out after getting home on a Saturday night, and we hear this awful sound outside. Metal on metal grinding. And it's pretty late at night (between 11:30 and midnight), so we're understandably curious.

We step onto the porch to see what's going on out there. There is a long row of cars parked along the curb all the way up the road, and a van has come to a crooked stop on the other side of the street. We're about to go over there to see if everyone's ok, and all of a sudden, the van's door flies open and the driver takes off down the street and disappears up an alley.

Damn! So now our accident has turned into a crime.

At this point, while we're watching all this transpire, we give the cops a call and make sure someone is headed this way. In the meantime, people are starting to pour out of some nearby houses and it becomes clear that a couple of cars along the curb were hit by the van before it bounced over to the other side of the street, and a bunch of young people from the house right next to the damaged cars start swarming around the van.

Then comes the next shocker. Some other dude emerges from the van and all he's saying is "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" And he's not getting a warm reception from the people who surround him (some girl said "Don't talk to me, you drunk motherfucker! You fucked up my car!"). Perp-boy tries to apologize over and over again, and she keeps responding with variations on that theme.

In a few minutes, though, things calm down a bit and people get quieter. They're all pretty much standing around, waiting for the cops to show up. But then perp-boy panics, and suddenly he takes off and starts running through an empty lot next to his van. A bunch of people take off after him and a chase follows. Perp-boy doesn't get very far before he's taken down in a parking lot on the other side of the empty lot. Ouch.

They drag him back to the van and everyone mills about until a cop finally shows up. Then things get really weird.

Before the cop even showed up, perp-boy starts to cry. And when he sees the police car pull up, he really starts wailing. Within a few moments of the cop's arrival, perp-boy is face down on the pavement getting cuffed before he's led over to the police car and pushed into the back. He's really crying now.

After getting perp-boy into the car, the cop proceeds to talk to witnesses. He chats with quite a few and eventually the group ends up moving up onto the porch of the house that sits in front of the damaged vehicles. It's drizzling a bit, so they probably just wanted to get out of the rain. At this point, I figure we're just waiting for a tow truck to show up to take the van away.

But then something interesting happens. The cop comes down off the porch and with a flashlight in hand, starts poking around in the van. He then moves away from the van, with an unopened can of beer in his hand. He steps into the beams of the police cruiser's headlights, and, staring through the windshield at perp-boy in the back seat, pops open the beer can, pours it out onto the road, and then tosses the empty can back into the van. Someone on the porch says, "Hey, there ya go!"

The cop then returns to the porch with the witnesses and everyone hangs out until the tow truck shows up. It drags the van away, and a few minutes later, the cop comes off the porch and gets into his car. He drives over to a nearby alley, gets out and flashes his light down the alley for a few moments and then gets back behind the wheel and the car disappears down the alley.

At this point, that's the end of the story, just about an hour from when the drama began.

House-iversary

I can't believe how quickly time flies. A year ago today was our first night in the new house. We felt a bit like refugees at the time (for good reason), but we've done some nesting since then, have had a few house guests come through, and are really enjoying our digs. This is an old photo (from when the house was still on the market -- you can even see the realtor's sign in the foreground), but it's before the drought, so the colors look lush and pretty.

Friday Creature

There's this house in my neighborhood that has a bit of a menagerie in the yard -- all manner of outdoor and indoor furniture, trellises, plastic pink flamingos and woodland deer, decoys... and then there are the live residents: the birds, cats, dogs, all scattered like sown seeds behind a chain link fence. Every time I pass by, I catch a glimpse of something new.

I almost missed this creature when I was walking by recently because I thought it was another animal statue. But then it moved. It was shocking, but there it is -- whatever it might be, I think it belongs by the water, but it somehow managed to find its way to my neighborhood.

Have a warm and wonderful weekend, folks! As usual, critters await!

EPB, cable and cops!

The EPB board approved Fiber to the Home today, and the cable TV industry is panicking (are you surprised?).

Also, there are TONS of cops swarming my neighborhood this evening (is five ounces of marijuana really worth $25,000 these days!?! I hope that was a typo!).

On the homefront...

Well, it's been a busy week and I haven't been keeping up with things very well around here. Last week I mentioned a bit of chaos in the back yard, but never got around to the story. To keep it short, we spent several days last week puzzling though a plumbing problem in our early 20th-century house. The resolution finally arrived on Friday (along with a backhoe) when a couple of guys dug up one side of the backyard and replaced a 93-year-old clay pipe. Now that the job's done, the back yard will need some TLC, but that will have to wait until cooler temps arrive (hopefully soon!).

Then, at the beginning of this week, we had some visitors who came all the way from upstate New York. We enjoyed a great couple of days frolicking in Chattanooga, taking in (among other things), Rock City (which is where I took this week's WW photo) and the Tennessee Aquarium:

[btw, since school has already started for the year in Chattanooga, we had both attractions nearly to ourselves. There was only one group at Rock City (a few dozen blind people rolled up in a couple of vans with Louisiana tags just as we arrived) and there were no groups at all at the Aquarium -- just a smattering of tourists. These first few weeks of the school year apparently provide a great opportunity for us locals to see the cool stuff in town without the huge crowds.]

And here we are, almost to another weekend! Time just zings past us lately! We're looking forward to getting some relief from the heat and dry weather, though, so the Labor Day weekend should be a good one!