Fake Grass
Wednesday, June 7th, 2023 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio74F and sunny this morning. All pets accounted for. Cottonwood seeds are still flying out there.
Last night... bored, with hours of free time on my hands... I went upstairs and got my USB cassette player. Then I went to my car to get the earphones I bought last fall.
Then I went down in the basement, got the tasket full of old tapes, and lugged it up the stairs into the back room.
I had been going through those tapes last August right before I adopted Snoop & Prowly.
Anyway, I have old audio journals from the mid 1990s, and I digitized part of one and uploaded it to my music soundcloud account.
--<>--
At the time, I had a suction cup mike from Radio Shack that could attach to the handset of a phone and record the caller.
And I had that plugged into one side of a stereo cassette deck, with a condenser mike in the other side, to get my voice in the room.
And then I also had a mobile stereo walkman recorder with a stereo condenser mike, for when I was out and about.
And these journals I have were edited down, at the time.
But twenty three years later, I had a passage from it in Audacity and edited it even further...
I was really struck how, on a Saturday in January, I'm just at home, fielding phone calls for a big part of the day, and so is everybody else.
Like... people used to just sit by the phone for several hours either making or answering calls to catch up, or make plans.
And I have, call waiting, which tells me a second person is calling, and allows me to put the first person on hold, or switch between them. I forgot all about that!
The surprise call from Beth, a teenage girl I worked with at the public library, is exquisitely awkward!
But I also got a laugh out of hearing myself say to my friend Laura that I couldn't quit my job because I was saving up to buy recording equipment!
--<>--
Anyway, now I have something to do if I'm bored on a week night.
As I said, I did edit this stuff back when it was current. But with over twenty years of hindsight, it's easy to pluck out just the best of the best moments.
And it's also super easy to clip out pauses, that slow down the flow.
So, as I delve into these, the resulting uploads will go on a playlist called, "Analog Nights."
------------{=0=}------------
Here in the present, I was really thinking of buying grass seed from Home Depot, because Monday is too far away.
But... that shit's expensive, and I'm part time so, I should just wait.
However, I may still go to Home Depot today to get artificial grass rugs!
Cleaning up the hill is a top priority, so... I can busy myself with that, and the grass seed mat for the old shed site until Monday.
------------{=0=}------------
8:30PM
After work I went straight to the Naperville Home Depot and grabbed two 6X8 rolls of fake turf, and paid for it with the Home Depot card.
Then back at home, after walking Yvette, I got straight to it!..
First thing I did was gather all the broken bricks and put them on the tarp with the other rock garden stuff.
They'd been just sitting on the ground with weeds growing around them since I removed them from the original grass seed mat in the back.
Then I moved all the other stuff on the hill over to the old shed site.
Then I raked the hell out of the hill area, and even busted out the chainsaw to cut down a few little sapling stumps.
After that, I busted out the mower and mowed the hill.
It was amazing how quickly that area cleaned up!
Here's my two 6X8 rugs, tucked under that weird fence rail, with bricks to keep them from blowing away.
And, voila!.. everythings back! And there's still space for the wood rack!
This is the wood rack I plan to get. It's now in my shopping cart, but I haven't placed the order yet.
--<>--
The rack is four feet tall, and four feet wide.
I'm gonna have to sit the legs on top of four of those big square pavers, or they'll punch right through the rug.
And since I want to align it with that fence, I'll have to rearrange stuff a bit.
I think I may even ditch one of those two tables, and possibly the two garbage cans.
The turtle is actually good for kindling sticks, but he needs replacement eyes.
I can possibly use stakes to really stretch those rugs taut, as well.
And I think the best thing to do with wood chips is just pile them on top of the rug.
In other words... this utility space will be worked quite a bit before it's done, but the main thing is... the rugs are there now, so nothing can grow up from underneath all that stuff, and I have a perimeter to mow around.
Also, I should put a ton of grass seed in the surrounding area.
Grass never used to grow here, because it was in the shade of the mulberry, but now it can!
--<>--
Okay... that's my Wednesday!
I'm gonna digitize another journal entry tonight!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
Last night... bored, with hours of free time on my hands... I went upstairs and got my USB cassette player. Then I went to my car to get the earphones I bought last fall.
Then I went down in the basement, got the tasket full of old tapes, and lugged it up the stairs into the back room.
I had been going through those tapes last August right before I adopted Snoop & Prowly.
Anyway, I have old audio journals from the mid 1990s, and I digitized part of one and uploaded it to my music soundcloud account.
At the time, I had a suction cup mike from Radio Shack that could attach to the handset of a phone and record the caller.
And I had that plugged into one side of a stereo cassette deck, with a condenser mike in the other side, to get my voice in the room.
And then I also had a mobile stereo walkman recorder with a stereo condenser mike, for when I was out and about.
And these journals I have were edited down, at the time.
But twenty three years later, I had a passage from it in Audacity and edited it even further...
I was really struck how, on a Saturday in January, I'm just at home, fielding phone calls for a big part of the day, and so is everybody else.
Like... people used to just sit by the phone for several hours either making or answering calls to catch up, or make plans.
And I have, call waiting, which tells me a second person is calling, and allows me to put the first person on hold, or switch between them. I forgot all about that!
The surprise call from Beth, a teenage girl I worked with at the public library, is exquisitely awkward!
But I also got a laugh out of hearing myself say to my friend Laura that I couldn't quit my job because I was saving up to buy recording equipment!
Anyway, now I have something to do if I'm bored on a week night.
As I said, I did edit this stuff back when it was current. But with over twenty years of hindsight, it's easy to pluck out just the best of the best moments.
And it's also super easy to clip out pauses, that slow down the flow.
So, as I delve into these, the resulting uploads will go on a playlist called, "Analog Nights."
Here in the present, I was really thinking of buying grass seed from Home Depot, because Monday is too far away.
But... that shit's expensive, and I'm part time so, I should just wait.
However, I may still go to Home Depot today to get artificial grass rugs!
Cleaning up the hill is a top priority, so... I can busy myself with that, and the grass seed mat for the old shed site until Monday.
After work I went straight to the Naperville Home Depot and grabbed two 6X8 rolls of fake turf, and paid for it with the Home Depot card.
Then back at home, after walking Yvette, I got straight to it!..
First thing I did was gather all the broken bricks and put them on the tarp with the other rock garden stuff.
They'd been just sitting on the ground with weeds growing around them since I removed them from the original grass seed mat in the back.
Then I moved all the other stuff on the hill over to the old shed site.
Then I raked the hell out of the hill area, and even busted out the chainsaw to cut down a few little sapling stumps.
After that, I busted out the mower and mowed the hill.
It was amazing how quickly that area cleaned up!
Here's my two 6X8 rugs, tucked under that weird fence rail, with bricks to keep them from blowing away.
And, voila!.. everythings back! And there's still space for the wood rack!
This is the wood rack I plan to get. It's now in my shopping cart, but I haven't placed the order yet.
The rack is four feet tall, and four feet wide.
I'm gonna have to sit the legs on top of four of those big square pavers, or they'll punch right through the rug.
And since I want to align it with that fence, I'll have to rearrange stuff a bit.
I think I may even ditch one of those two tables, and possibly the two garbage cans.
The turtle is actually good for kindling sticks, but he needs replacement eyes.
I can possibly use stakes to really stretch those rugs taut, as well.
And I think the best thing to do with wood chips is just pile them on top of the rug.
In other words... this utility space will be worked quite a bit before it's done, but the main thing is... the rugs are there now, so nothing can grow up from underneath all that stuff, and I have a perimeter to mow around.
Also, I should put a ton of grass seed in the surrounding area.
Grass never used to grow here, because it was in the shade of the mulberry, but now it can!
Okay... that's my Wednesday!
I'm gonna digitize another journal entry tonight!
°¦}
