Little joy living in a 100-year-old house — especially when we’ve been here 28 of those years
Ah, the joys of having a small income and an old house. Well, not REALLY all that joyful. Our house was built in 1907. We bought it as a "fixer-upper" in 1980. Boy, that was not such a clever move for a guy (me) who has trouble just replacing washers in the bathroom faucets. (In fact, I've actually replaced one of those old faucets about six times over the years since we moved in here in 1980.)
There's still far more fixing up to do than we've ever gotten done. As for any real plan, I have none. My wife and I are now in our 60s, working at low-paying jobs or getting limited, irregular bursts of freelance writing/editing. So paying to have the ceilings repaired and the front and back porches replaced probably isn't going to happen.
I'm thankful, though, that we've managed to keep the mortgage paid, despite multiple refinancing over the years, and we've not been among those who have faced the nasties of foreclosure. If you're one of those good folks who have gone through a foreclosure -- you have my deepest sympathy.
Heck, if you lived here and had the money to make us an offer, I've even got an old house I'd be willing to sell you! It was built in 1907, and boy, as a fixer-upper ... well, you get the idea.
[tags]old homes, home repairs, fixer-uppers, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]
Easter Sunday — musings on a special day and what it meant to me and my family
I'm not trying to get preachy or sermonize here, but this is a special day for my family, Easter Sunday, and this particular Easter has been very "up and down" for me.
On the upside, church was really encouraging for me this morning. We've never been among people who get up before sunrise to attend special church services on Easter. And, no, we didn't do that today. But I did make it to church this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks, and it was encouraging to hear the timeless truths of Jesus' death, burial, and RESURRECTION all over again.
On the downside, I started the day by accidentally ripping a towel holder off the bathroom wall. Not as disastrous as it could have been -- I didn't damage any shower faucets or anything spectacular or plumbing related. Just extremely irritating.
On the upside, we live in a country where we can find quick, easy access to so many consumer goods that it's almost ridiculous, even on Easter Sunday. We stopped at a nearby W*l-M*rt Big Box Store and found a very cheap, durable, hook-over-the-door towel holder that's more useful than the one I broke.
On the downside, I discovered our wise (?) friends (??) at Google shot down the PR rating on one of my blogs for very unfair, unreasonable, uh, reasons. I won't go into the details, but that move is going to eliminate a large chunk of my monthly income. Nevertheless, I won't give up all hope.
On the upside, my son came by for a visit just a while ago and he and my wonderful wife, Shirley, managed to lift my spirits after the Google slap. Life will indeed go on.
And, finally, also on the upside, we had a few minutes after church to visit with our wonderful daughter who doesn't get by as often as we'd like. Her life's going well, she's looking good and feeling good, and she's doing some mighty important work with her life -- far more important than my lamo efforts at blogging.
So, tally for the day: 4 upsides and 1 small downside, 1 BIG downside = Overall, a pretty upbeat, good day.
How about your day? Tell us about it.
[tags]Easter Sunday, upside and downside for the day, good things, bad things, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]
Personal rant: Clock radio technology has passed me by
Okay, that's it: I'm going to sound like a truly grumpy old curmudgeon here -- I should not have to spend most of a day of my life driving from store to store in a metro area of 200,000+ people just to find an affordable clock radio with a built-in CD player.
When you can go to any Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, or Radio Shack and find selection of electronic parts and accessories ranging from iPods, home theaters, flat screen televisions, even a beautiful tv lift cabinet -- you should NOT have to run all around looking for that CD player/clock radio. It's just not right.
Nevertheless, that's what happened to me. I found multiple clock radios. I found 'em with multiple alarms, dimmer displays, and even with docking facilities for iPods and other MP3 players.
But it took me most of one day to FINALLY locate two CD player/clock radios at a Target store. Let's hear a round of applause for Target this time. Hooray, Target!
I've concluded that technology in clock radios simply has passed me by. I do not own an iPod, nor do I own any portable MP3 player. But I guess clock radio manufacturers think I do.
Ah, well, what do I know? I'm just a guy who reads the papers.
[tags]clock radios, MP3 players, CD players in clock radios, shopping news, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]
When the storms of life hit — you’d better learn to duck
Wow. In the city where I live, I feel lucky right now. We had something like 15 hours of severe weather entertain, amuse, and amaze us overnight Monday. It wasn't pretty, and it was certainly more amazing than amusing. The bad news is that many people suffered serious property loss and damage from tornadoes and thunderstorms (wind, rain, flooding, terrible hail, the works), and two people were killed. The good news is we only had to worry about a sump pump repair and about 30 hours of lost telephone service and Internet access.
Which is part of the reason I'm sitting on this public library stool that hurts my behind like cheap discount furniture might instead of leaning over my "Tablemate" laptop stand in my recliner. I had to hang around home for the sump pump repair guy all day yesterday and, lacking either dial up or DSL, I was unable to be here with you? Did you miss me?
I learned from all this mayhem that 1) our part of town was blessed with little more than heavy rain and wind, 2) my son's house seems to be located where the tornadoes lift back into the atmosphere in their onward skip toward the eastern Ozarks, and, 3) I'm thankful for our public library with free WIFI, in spite of their hard chairs.
Most of all, I'm thankful all over again to be alive and see the sun shine today. It was a long night for us all on Monday.
[tags]severe weather, storms, tornadoes, thunderstorms, property damage, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]
Wow, what happened? Another year slipped by so quickly — Happy New Year!
No getting around it, time goes by faster when you get older. I've heard about some psychological studies that have been done on our perceptions of time and the passage of time. It makes sense, what I've read -- the older you get, the quicker time seems to pass because a month, for example, represents a much smaller percentage of the time which has passed when you are, for example again, 60 years old than if you're 13 years old.
Make sense to you? Sort of makes sense to me. Personally, I think the clock just ticks faster today than it did when I was 13, or 3, or 2. I swear that must be it. I know one thing, I'm not getting any older. My wife won't allow me to get older. St. Shirley -- I call her St. Shirl for short -- is two years older than me. So, of course, she forbids me to feel "old," because she doesn't yet feel "old" and won't have such stuff happening in our family.
All that babbling aside, let me wish those of you out there who hang around with me and my truly wonderful wife St. Shirl, a very Happy New Year for the soon-to-be-here-or-already-here 2008. May it be the best year of your life so far!
[tags]time perception, old year, new year, aging, Happy New Year, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]
Playing catch-up: My webhost crashed big time and I’m starting over
Hey, faithful readers out there. I thought I'd bring you up to date on some major problems/changes in the last few days.
On Sunday morning -- December 16 -- I got an emergency message from the company which hosts most of my websites: They not only had a server crash, they had a crash of the double-redundant backup array for that server.
Guess who got an immediate lesson in the importance of keeping regular backups? Yeah, well, it was one of those too little, too late warnings.
I was able to recover a few of my older posts for this site. I haven't completely restored all the sidebar links and information, and I'm still working to recover some of the paid posting I'm obligated to have up.
Scramble, scramble, scurry, scurry. I feel a little like the hustling, bustling White Rabbit from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" -- or maybe Pooh on speed??
Anyhow, please stick around. Please come back again and again. Together, we can make this a better site than ever. Really we can.
Thanks
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