New Addition

Well I have a new addition to my house. The couch in my den has been replaced by an actual new couch. That's right, that is the first new couch I've had. I have to say it's quite an improvement over the old one. Alas I didn't get any pictures of the old one, but that's probably for the best. However I do ramble on about the pictures of the new one.

So this is a picture of the illustrious new couch. It's actually about a foot shorter than the old one, but much of that is arm rest. The back is a little shorter, but it sits higher. The cushions are much firmer, which should soften over time, and they are much shallower. I like it. Well of course otherwise I wouldn't have chosen it. You can tell it's a gold color with a hint of green and maybe cranberry or wine in specks. The thing is this is the tipping point. I was content with the status quo, but that has changed. Next is the craptacular carpet in front of the sofa. It too moved from a previous abode, and was merely there to provide sound deadening and some scuff protection to the floor. So my search has begun.

This is the first foray. A few small pieces I picked up at one location to test in the lighting of the den. This like the other picture had to be color corrected slightly to make it look closer to reality. Darned flash. Anyway, the one on the left I wanted to use to confirm it was too busy for the room. The big version is even worse, so it's right out. My Godsister likes the middle one. It brings out the colors in the couch well. It gets more of the red and brown in the full size version. The one on the right I like, but I'm not sure for this room though. It's a dark forest green around the edge that transitions to a lighter green/beige in the middle. The three rectangles in the middle are the same green/beige with lots of blue speckles. The two vines are a dark wine. The big version is almost identical with the vines getting slightly thicker, but mostly longer with more leaves. I'll look some more places to see what they have.

What do you think?

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Disconnected

The venerable DSL modem that has been used for 6-7 years, maybe longer, has finally ceased to function. Therefore my home has been disconnected from the Aether since late Tuesday evening. I have been taking it surprisingly well considering I always have a portal to the Intarweb open next to my customary place of butt parkage. I have entertained myself with various DVDs I haven't had a chance to watch, and by reading my current book. I take it as a further sign that I truly am not addicted to it. I have had no convulsions or crazed thoughts. Though I must admit I do spend all of my working hours with a rather speedy connection to it as well. However, work time use of the connection to infinite knowledge and amusement always seems different than home use. Anyway, AT&T is supposed to be sending me a new entryway to the information thoroughfare either today or tomorrow. it is more complicated then what I need, so I hope it works without much trouble. I have things that I would like to accomplish using it this weekend.

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Boomstick of My Own

A few months before I started going to school at Clemson my Grandfather passed away. My Grandmother lived in the house for 10 or so more years, before her failing eyesight forced her to move. There is a bunch of stuff one can collect in a house over 50+ years. Piles and lists were made of what to keep, sell, give away, or throw away. One item was in the back of my Grandparent's closet. It had probably sat unused for around 30 years. My dad nor his brothers seemed all that interested in it, and so that's how I acquired my Grandfather's shotgun. I'll ramble a bit about it, with illustrations, after the link.


It's a Stevens 12 gauge, 2-3/4 " shell, double barrel model 5100. I've looked around, but this one seems to have been made before that started stamping a date code on them. That puts it at least before '49, which I would have guessed already. It's not a long gun. My Dad said Granddad used it to hunt rabbits I think. Anyway at the time I was renting a house with some friends. I kept the gun in the closet, and didn't bother with having it checked out or keeping any ammunition. I mean I was sharing a house I didn't own with other people. I didn't need liability.


Well After I bought my mortgage I started thinking about the gun more. In my yard I've seen opossums, squirrels, a wild dog of some kind, deer, and the previous owners had a black bear come by. You can understand why I was thinking about the gun. I'm only really worried about the four legged intruders. I decided to have the thing checked out. I wanted to have it cleaned in case 30 years of dust may have gotten in it. It looked in really good shape to me, but I'm not that familiar with guns. Besides, knowing Granddad, he kept it immaculate. I took it to Grady's in Anderson. I've been there before and a friend said they set him up with his handgun about getting ammo and cleaning supplies.


I got a case for the gun and brought it back the next day. The older gentleman behind the counter took a look at the gun and said that it was in excellent shape and didn't really have any dirt on it. He recommended spraying it down with some cleaner and letting it drain down the barrels, but other than that it was ready to go. I picked up a couple boxes of ammo, 00 Buck and a box of turkey load #4 for varments. Apparently Grady's had a big Christmas and were out of all kinds of ammo. So I went home an ordered 30 rounds of 3 different types of light load shells to see which ones I liked. I've got some friends coming up for MLK day, and we might make a journey to a gun range another friend uses. It would be my first time using powder. I'm probably going to have to write that one up too.

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Saturday

A few interesting things happened Saturday. For one thing the continuation of the rain storms at some point during the day continued. We got some rain in the evening. I’ve been really happy that I haven’t had to water the garden in the past several days. Watering different parts of it daily was getting to be quite a chore. Now however, the grass is starting to grow. Well you can’t have everything.

I picked okra early in the morning, since I had neglected to pick it Friday. My parents went to Commerce, GA Friday and stopped by my house that morning on the trip. They picked up something I had to exchange for my Dad and a little okra as well. I had way too much for myself to be able to prepare and freeze, so they took it. As a surprise they left something in its place. They left me some corn from my Dad’s garden, and 2 small pomegranate sproutlings they got from a friend’s yard. Now I have them in pots waiting on them to get a little bigger before I decide where to put them. I’m thinking it’ll have to be in the sunnier and drier parts of the yard. Maybe in front of the garden.

I did the requisite dish cleaning and such after some breakfast and a little TV watching. I went outside to receive my self prescribed dose of ultraviolet radiation. It’s my way of fighting the kickin’ farmer’s tan I was building up in the early spring. While outside I heard something moving around and looked up from my book. Lo and behold, what may have been a Gray fox went trotting across the back yard. I’ve been looking up information about them. The animal seemed a little tall and the muzzle was a little long and thick for a Gray fox, so it may have been something else. In fact it looked a little like a young Grey wolf, leading me to believe it may have merely been a wild dog. I’m not sure, but the scat that appeared in the front yard a week ago resembles descriptions of fox scat on the web, and I have seen several dead foxes on the side of the road over the past year. I’ll keep my eyes open and see if I can get a picture if I ever see it again.

I came back in showered and decided I was bored, so I went to see a movie. I freely admit I went to see “Evan Almighty.” I enjoyed the first movie, so I figured why not. As for the review, I give it a big meh. It was ok. Rent it if you want to see it. No need to go to a theater and pay those prices. In the end it’s a sequel that doesn’t live up to its original.

I came home made some dinner and roasted about 3 dozen little Roma tomatoes. I’m trying to make a sauce so I can freeze it for later. Then I decided to do something I haven’t done in many months. I took my blender out to make a “Purple Pomelator,” that’s a “Purple Nurple” with some pomegranate juice in there. Anyway I put the mixin’s inside and the ice and fired up the blender. I heard the normal grinding of the ice and what not and then it went WHEEEEEEEEEE. I wasn’t sure what had happened. I lifted the jar off the motor and my worst fear had happened. The danged gear on the top of the motor housing had shattered. It was ruined. I had always considered that to be my greatest concern as a point of failure, and those fears bore out. Well it did last for over 5 glorious years and lots of ice and frozen beverages. I’m going to see if I can find a way to replace the gear. I hate for a piece of hard plastic to kill an otherwise fantastic piece of equipment. Anyway, so Sunday I took my trusty 20% off coupon to BB&B to get a new one. Well BB&B doesn’t sell that model anymore. They sell a new model that has a design change that specifically fixes the component that failed on my blender. The only problem is that it comes with a polycarbonate jar rather than a glass one. Polycarbonate costs less to make and ship, but it is much noisier when you start throwing ice around inside of it. So I broke down, used the coupon, and bought the blender. It works quite nicely, but it is at least twice as loud as my old one. But I haven’t given up yet. I’m going to look for a way to revive my onyx jewel. Hopefully I can.

Update: I have just placed an order for 2 blender couplings for my little black baby. They should arrive in a couple of weeks. From forum that I have read I now need to make a special wrench to hold the shaft while I take the busted one off. I like a challenge.

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Snow Day

I have not forgotten you blogspherians. It’s almost a month since my last post. Really there hasn’t been much going on. Or at least that’s the excuse I’m making for what is probably just an episode of laziness or indifference. Or maybe it was distraction. Anyway I had the pleasure of having a snow day this past Thursday. It’s one of the small perks of working for a University. I didn’t get out in it really. There just wasn’t enough to make it worthwhile for play. I did manage to get out and take a couple of pictures though.

I went out the kitchen door. It was a really wet snow, so I had to be careful of slippery wetness.

I stood under the carport and watched it drop who knows what mixture of frozen and liquid precipitation.

Then I walked out to the end of the driveway to get a shot of the house. You can see my footprints in the snow at bottom right. I was actually still in my slippers, pajamas, and robe. Actually I was wearing one of my cowboy hats to keep the precip. of my head and the camera. I probably made a pretty strange sight. I can’t wait for a real honest to goodness snow with some accumulation. I wonder how many years that will take.

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Sand is the New Silver

I was outside and popped a picture of my house and hibiscus with my cell phone. I really need to get a digital camera, so I can make some decent pictures.

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State of the Plantation

Well it’s been less than a month so that’s not too bad. I’ve been slammed at work finishing classrooms and showing people how to hit power buttons. Believe it or not Masters Degrees and Doctorates can’t figure out how to hit the power button. Anyway, that seems like it’s slowing down. Apparently this year has been one of the best so far. I hope that part of it is my presence.

I finished the ceiling mudding and sanding. I had to go buy a shop vac (Actually it’s a 14 gallon Rigid vac from Home Depot. That thing is way quieter than most shop vacs I’m used to.), because attempts to borrow one fell through. I wasn’t going to use a house vac for that nastiness. Anyway that’s done, and I finished painting Wednesday. I’ve started putting furniture back in there now. I hope to put more in there today and get closer to a normal house situation.

I think I’m gonna have to mow the grass this afternoon. Friggin rain.

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Muddin’ the Top

Well I’m sitting here in the dining room in my Lazyboy. I had thought I would be putting furniture in the rooms I head refinished this weekend, but I got sidetracked. See I decided to test something, and it happened better than I expected. See there was textured ceiling finish in the den, and It was not the best choice for the room. I tested it and the stuff came down way easy. So, I spent yesterday scraping the stuff down and starting a skim coat of drywall mud on the ceiling. I finished the skim coat this morning and am waiting for it to dry, so that I can sand it. Oh and I protected the floor before I started. I should have it finished and painted this week and can start moving furniture then. I was going to wait for this, but it’s been uncharacteristically cool the past two days allowing me to keep the doors open.

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Polymer Solvents

Well today we pretty good for me. I received word yesterday that the person who I hired to refinish the floor in two rooms wanted to start this morning, a full week ahead of schedule. I had some down time at work, and I found an inexpensive replacement part for a piece of equipment that could have held up an install at work. Of course given the visit by the flooring guy I’m sitting in a house that smells of polyurethane fumes. I can live with that if it means I’ll get the floors done. So for now I’m sitting in me bedroom with all my stuff shoved into half a house. I can’t wait until I can retake my den in the name of living space.

As an aside I mowed half my garden today. The previous owners couldn’t devote time to it over the past year or so. The entire thing is overgrown with abandoned plants, grass, and a huge crop of giant marigolds. I mowed it down, so the sun could kill some of it. Then I’m going to cover the area with a tarp to kill the rest. I prefer that to spraying the area. Oh and an abandoned cantaloupe plant yielded a fruit. I’ll find out what it tastes like tomorrow.

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Hope in one hand and…

Guess which one filled up first? I got back from Florida and work really swung into effect. This is the busiest time of year at work, and will probably remain so until September. I spent most evenings in July preparing to move, moving some items, doing work at the new house, and trying to stay up on some of the normal web reading I do.

So now I have been technically moved into the new house for about a week now. I’m waiting on someone to come refinish the floors in two of the rooms, so I can’t move everything around to final locations until that is done. That means my house is in a state of mess. I’m going to try to spend some of today to do a little catching up on here. We’ll see if this works out any better than before.

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Death Pledge

So I stated earlier that I might have some news about what has been keeping me busy. Well as of this afternoon I am now the proud owner of a mortgage. We’ll see when the blind fear starts to set in.

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