Ace of Hearts Week Begins
Sunday, March 19th, 2023 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioWell, we made it! The spring equinox is Tuesday. It was still a chilly 34F out there, but things are growing, birds are singing, and it's sunny today.
I've gotta get groceries today, but the dog's outside right now, so... gotta let her be, because she's stuck inside so much.
------------{=0=}------------
2:15PM
I'm doing a little research about wood chippers. By all accounts, the best one overall is the Great Circle USA chipper for $700.00... which is a gas powered residential machine.
My reservation is just my lack of experience with gas powered stuff. I see somebody mention adjusting the choke... and I choke!
Spark plug gapper? Carburetor? Help!
I'm all about hand tools and electric tools, but I'm not a car guy.
But... there is always YouTube for tutorials, right?
--<>--
You know, this reminds me that I can finally get Dad's old corded electric mower out of my shed!
Even though I bought a DeWalt battery mower in 2021 that works just great, Dad would've been dismayed if I didn't hang on to his corded mower from 1995... because it's perfectly good!.. and like everything else, he was sentimental about it.
Since I'm still waiting on the dog, I'm gonna go put that thing on the curb for somebody to take!
------------{=0=}------------
3:15PM
Okay, I put dad's corded mower on the parking, which makes room in the shed for the wood chipper I was looking at.
Then I started a load of laundry.
After that I took down the St. Patrick's Day door hangings on the front door and the side porch window.
I had an Easter door hanging for the front door, but... didn't I also have one for the porch window? Where was it?.. Oh!..
It was a banner with a stained glass looking cross and the words, "He is risen!"
Sorry, but... we're not doing that anymore.
I ordered a proper Easter Bunny door hanging on Amazon. It'll be here tomorrow.
After that I took the Christmas lights off the bushes in front, and by the porch, and put them away.
Noticed green buds on the lilac by the porch as I was removing the light string.
It's crazy to think that when I put them up in November, Dad was still alive and well, and Snoop & Prowly were still kittens!
I miss that life!.. and Dad!
Okay, I really need to get to Aldi and buy groceries! I am seriously considering just leaving Yvette outside while I make the run.
------------{=0=}------------
4:50PM
Well, I worked a little bit on the house history I'm writing, but Yvette showed no signs of wanting to come in, so around 3:45 I hopped in the car and went to Aldi... leaving her out in her yard while I was gone.
Made one stop for smokes at Fiesta Food Mart on the way back, but the whole trip took about an hour.
Yvette seemed a little shocked that I'd left her like that, but... not enough to come back inside. Maybe I'll take her for a walk later, to make it up to her.
Took a while to get everything put away, but now that it's done... I kinda want a beer!
I'll try to hold off on that another hour. It's only 5PM.
------------{=0=}------------
9:35PM
I did have a beer at 6:30, but then I took Yvette for a walk and didn't have the second one until 7PM.
I got all my dry laundry upstairs and put away, and also trimmed my beard and took a good long shower.
But I did spent most of the past four hours banging away at the house history.
--<>--
It's a good story, because this house has been in the family for five generations, since it was built. And it was built a mile from where it stands now, and moved to this location ten years after construction... where it was then added onto.
I absorbed all the oral history that I could from Dad while he was still alive, but also delved into city directories, Ancestry.Org, and plain old history... to get the fullest picture of things.
What I'm writing is just weaving all those strands together into a coherant, chronological story.
I've been working on this for years, and this is currently the third draft. But I feel like now that Dad's gone, and we're having a family reunion in October, I'd like to have draft 3 done, so I can give hard copies to everybody.
--<>--
One thing Tim & I realized while he was here, digging through all the cabinets and drawers for easter eggs, like old journals and letters... is that nothing survives the ages like paper!
I could have a perfect hypertext version of house history and have it online at a great website, but... after I'm dead, that's gone!
I could put it on a flash drive but... nobody's gonna be able to read that drive in 100 years.
Paper's not forever, but it can last for centuries.
--<>--
How the hell am I gonna get a hard copy of this blog?
I need to look into that.
------------{=0=}------------
I did talk to Tim on the phone late last night, and he was suggesting, now that I have the loan money, that... after I pay off the credit cards... I should set up all the utilities to auto-deduct from the AM-EX... and then have all the little Netflix and Disney Plus crap auto deduct from the Discover.
This keeps the two cards active, and guarantees that none of that stuff is ever late. Then, whenever in the month I have the money, I just pay them back down.
I think that's pretty genius, actually!
The hard problem with having mortgage due on the 1st, and this personal loan due on the 16th is that, my paychecks won't always line up with those dates!
So, if the utilities and the little stuff are guaranteed to get paid on time in the background, during the month, then it's easier for me to focus on paying the big stuff.
But, keeping the cards active helps with the credit score.
He also said to accept as many new offers as I get for new cards, or credit increases, even if I don't use them... because it's all about credit to debt ratio. So the higher the available credit, the better the ratio, and the better the credit score.
This is a crazy game I never wanted to play!.. but circumstances have forced me to play, so I may as well understand the rules.
--<>--
He said he would take care of lining up the burial of Dad's ashes with the cemetery, in October, and make sure it lined up with the funeral mass at the church.
It's the final thing on our original to-do list, and Tim's now the only person who remembers the details well enough to get it knocked out.
But I told him I'd front the money.
------------{=0=}------------
Tomorrow begins week three of full time work, and week four of me living here by myself.
Daylight Saving Time has also come into effect, the spring equinox is on Tuesday, the Christmas lights are put away, and the Easter decorations are hanging.
The winter cold still lingers, but trees are budding, things are growing, and songbirds have been back for a minute!
A new chapter in my life, and in the history of this house and yard are just starting to take shape!
--<>--
But you know that it always comes back to the field crickets for me, and this August will be the first time that the recordings... whether they're lousy or great... will be from a yard I actually own!
I dunno why, but it feels like that makes Snoozefest more legitimate?
Like... it's not just a guy recording at his Dad's house, while his Dad is asleep.
Like... I inherited the whole property, which means I inherited the dirt, and the field cricket eggs that are about to hatch in that dirt... so they'll be MY crickets!
I dunno... that's still months away.
There is a Home Run In pizza on the table waiting for me to cook it!
I just checked out front and Dad's corded electric lawn mower is gone!
Talk to you tomorrow.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
I've gotta get groceries today, but the dog's outside right now, so... gotta let her be, because she's stuck inside so much.
I'm doing a little research about wood chippers. By all accounts, the best one overall is the Great Circle USA chipper for $700.00... which is a gas powered residential machine.
My reservation is just my lack of experience with gas powered stuff. I see somebody mention adjusting the choke... and I choke!
Spark plug gapper? Carburetor? Help!
I'm all about hand tools and electric tools, but I'm not a car guy.
But... there is always YouTube for tutorials, right?
You know, this reminds me that I can finally get Dad's old corded electric mower out of my shed!
Even though I bought a DeWalt battery mower in 2021 that works just great, Dad would've been dismayed if I didn't hang on to his corded mower from 1995... because it's perfectly good!.. and like everything else, he was sentimental about it.
Since I'm still waiting on the dog, I'm gonna go put that thing on the curb for somebody to take!
Okay, I put dad's corded mower on the parking, which makes room in the shed for the wood chipper I was looking at.
Then I started a load of laundry.
After that I took down the St. Patrick's Day door hangings on the front door and the side porch window.
I had an Easter door hanging for the front door, but... didn't I also have one for the porch window? Where was it?.. Oh!..
It was a banner with a stained glass looking cross and the words, "He is risen!"
Sorry, but... we're not doing that anymore.
I ordered a proper Easter Bunny door hanging on Amazon. It'll be here tomorrow.
After that I took the Christmas lights off the bushes in front, and by the porch, and put them away.
Noticed green buds on the lilac by the porch as I was removing the light string.
It's crazy to think that when I put them up in November, Dad was still alive and well, and Snoop & Prowly were still kittens!
I miss that life!.. and Dad!
Okay, I really need to get to Aldi and buy groceries! I am seriously considering just leaving Yvette outside while I make the run.
Well, I worked a little bit on the house history I'm writing, but Yvette showed no signs of wanting to come in, so around 3:45 I hopped in the car and went to Aldi... leaving her out in her yard while I was gone.
Made one stop for smokes at Fiesta Food Mart on the way back, but the whole trip took about an hour.
Yvette seemed a little shocked that I'd left her like that, but... not enough to come back inside. Maybe I'll take her for a walk later, to make it up to her.
Took a while to get everything put away, but now that it's done... I kinda want a beer!
I'll try to hold off on that another hour. It's only 5PM.
I did have a beer at 6:30, but then I took Yvette for a walk and didn't have the second one until 7PM.
I got all my dry laundry upstairs and put away, and also trimmed my beard and took a good long shower.
But I did spent most of the past four hours banging away at the house history.
It's a good story, because this house has been in the family for five generations, since it was built. And it was built a mile from where it stands now, and moved to this location ten years after construction... where it was then added onto.
I absorbed all the oral history that I could from Dad while he was still alive, but also delved into city directories, Ancestry.Org, and plain old history... to get the fullest picture of things.
What I'm writing is just weaving all those strands together into a coherant, chronological story.
I've been working on this for years, and this is currently the third draft. But I feel like now that Dad's gone, and we're having a family reunion in October, I'd like to have draft 3 done, so I can give hard copies to everybody.
One thing Tim & I realized while he was here, digging through all the cabinets and drawers for easter eggs, like old journals and letters... is that nothing survives the ages like paper!
I could have a perfect hypertext version of house history and have it online at a great website, but... after I'm dead, that's gone!
I could put it on a flash drive but... nobody's gonna be able to read that drive in 100 years.
Paper's not forever, but it can last for centuries.
How the hell am I gonna get a hard copy of this blog?
I need to look into that.
I did talk to Tim on the phone late last night, and he was suggesting, now that I have the loan money, that... after I pay off the credit cards... I should set up all the utilities to auto-deduct from the AM-EX... and then have all the little Netflix and Disney Plus crap auto deduct from the Discover.
This keeps the two cards active, and guarantees that none of that stuff is ever late. Then, whenever in the month I have the money, I just pay them back down.
I think that's pretty genius, actually!
The hard problem with having mortgage due on the 1st, and this personal loan due on the 16th is that, my paychecks won't always line up with those dates!
So, if the utilities and the little stuff are guaranteed to get paid on time in the background, during the month, then it's easier for me to focus on paying the big stuff.
But, keeping the cards active helps with the credit score.
He also said to accept as many new offers as I get for new cards, or credit increases, even if I don't use them... because it's all about credit to debt ratio. So the higher the available credit, the better the ratio, and the better the credit score.
This is a crazy game I never wanted to play!.. but circumstances have forced me to play, so I may as well understand the rules.
He said he would take care of lining up the burial of Dad's ashes with the cemetery, in October, and make sure it lined up with the funeral mass at the church.
It's the final thing on our original to-do list, and Tim's now the only person who remembers the details well enough to get it knocked out.
But I told him I'd front the money.
Tomorrow begins week three of full time work, and week four of me living here by myself.
Daylight Saving Time has also come into effect, the spring equinox is on Tuesday, the Christmas lights are put away, and the Easter decorations are hanging.
The winter cold still lingers, but trees are budding, things are growing, and songbirds have been back for a minute!
A new chapter in my life, and in the history of this house and yard are just starting to take shape!
But you know that it always comes back to the field crickets for me, and this August will be the first time that the recordings... whether they're lousy or great... will be from a yard I actually own!
I dunno why, but it feels like that makes Snoozefest more legitimate?
Like... it's not just a guy recording at his Dad's house, while his Dad is asleep.
Like... I inherited the whole property, which means I inherited the dirt, and the field cricket eggs that are about to hatch in that dirt... so they'll be MY crickets!
I dunno... that's still months away.
There is a Home Run In pizza on the table waiting for me to cook it!
I just checked out front and Dad's corded electric lawn mower is gone!
Talk to you tomorrow.
°¦}
