Monday, 31 March 2008
 

Still dodgin' raindrops at the Circle F

I've had to shut down three times so far today because of storms and the radar says I probably will again before I'm really ready to call it a night. I'm ready for the end of the rainy season but I'd just as soon it didn't get hot till I can afford a window air conditioner for my room and a newer, bigger replacement for the wall-mounted unit in the living room.

I sat in the back yard for a few minutes after I fed Sunshine and made another design change to the pasture. I've been trying for weeks to figure out a good long-term location for his water tub; it's easier for him to find and less likely to get dumped when it's nested in a corner where two fences meet, and it needs to be right through a fence from the yard. For right now the corner where the fence between Pasture 1 and Pasture 2 meets the fence beside the yard works but after Pasture 2's done there won't be a corner there any more. It finally soaked in this afternoon that I need to take back some of the space I left between the barnlot and the kennel when I was pinching pennies and racing to get done last fall. Right now there's a roughly 50' straight fence out there that meets the fence between the yard and the barnlot at least 5 or 6 feet farther from the kennel than it needs to. The answer to "where's a good spot for the water tub?" is to put a turn in that fence and move the end nearest the yard closer to the kennel. I know that would all make more sense with a drawing but I'm lazy tonight; Heather, F4TR, I'll show you what I'm talking about when you come to visit.

My daughter tells me my grandson already has a newer computer than the one I gave him; things like that happen when you have a geeky daddy. On the other hand, she tells me that both her little geek and her big one would love to have a Wii. It looks like to get one by May or June I'll have to buy a package deal -- the Wii itself and some games that could otherwise wait -- off Wal-Mart's web site; I think I'll do that, take the Wii itself with me when I go down in a couple of months, and hold onto some of the games to use as birthday gifts in August.

I think I want a roof that doesn't leak almost as bad as I want an air conditioner for my room. I don't know how may attempts have been made to fix the roof over this room but so far no one's been successful for more than a few months at a time. It's leaking again right now, for at least the fourth time this spring.

It looks like it's about time for me to shut down again and go out in the garage and watch it rain. I need to try to get to be earlier than normal anyway to be wide awake in time to leave for Evansville in the morning; they can't get that new clinic in Vincennes open any to soon to suit me.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 31, 2008 at 09:31 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 30 March 2008
 

What happened to that nice weather we were gonna have?

When I crashed last night weather.com was saying today was going to be a nice day for hanging out in the yard. When I woke up it was raining and I was informed we'd had a very impressive thunderstorm overnight. It finally quit raining long enough for me to get in some lawn-chair time but the sun never did get around to coming out. I did a little Old War Dogs blogging but ended up spending a substantial part of my day Windows shopping, getting a feel for the pricing on things I want to do with part of that SSI check when it gets here. Top priority for that money is still getting Pasture 2 fenced but that leaves some money I can spend on other things.

I guess I'm pretty much committed to buying a new monitor when that money comes in, something that I wanted to do sometime soon anyway. I've told my sister's oldest son he can have the computer I was using before I got the one I have now but so far he hasn't even moved it to his room since he doesn't have a decent monitor to hook to it. (He currently has an antique all-in-on unit with the CPU and monitor all in one box.) I told him today that shortly after my SSI check gets here he can have the monitor I'm using now in return for helping me move my computer desk a few inches and promising to do some other similar things for me later. With a flat-screen monitor I can move my computer desk about 8" closer to the wall than it is now which, as crowded as this room is and taking the traffic patterns through it into account, is non-trivial. I've been trying to make sense out of the dimensions CompUSA shows for some of the monitors on their web site to decide how big a screen I can have -- my computer desk has an overhead hutch/bookshelf that limits how tall the monitor can be -- and I think I can safely bet on a 22" monitor fitting the available space. If I buy one and find out it won't fit I'll attach it to the family machine and bring the one that's currently on it in here. The whole arrangements temporary anyway; as soon as I get my main back-settlement check I'm going to buy myself a laptop and as soon as we get the Dining Room added and the dining room table out of my room I'm going to get myself a nicer computer desk, at which time I'll also buy myself a nice flat-screen monitor to sit on it.

I wouldn't have to yet but I think I'm also going to go ahead and buy a 500GB external (USB) hard drive. In the short term it will alleviate a serious space problem on the family machine and later, when I buy my laptop and start moving computers around, it will make it much, much easier to move music, pictures etc between machines. In the long run, I'll put a 40-acre drive in this machine right before it becomes the family machine and use the USB drive as the second hard drive for my laptop.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 30, 2008 at 09:31 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 29 March 2008
 

Back to just sitting around bored again (Updated)

My current energy state:

The pups aren't ours -- they belong to a lady in Nebraska who googled "shiranians" -- but we have some due next week. We didn't get any black ones last time around but our Shih Tzu's father was black so maybe this time.

***

I guess now than I know that SSI check's still coming I'm out of excuses to be paranoid about the situations. (Yeah, but why's it taking so long?) Now I can go back to just being bored and impatient. I have fences to build and a grandson to go see and I feel like my whole life's still on hold.

I did some knocking around online last night and realized it probably isn't realistic to hope I can take my grandson a Wii when I go to Texas in May or June. I think the best I can hope for is to come up with one by Christmas; with a new baby sister or brother coming in November it won't hurt a thing to make sure he knows he's still a big deal even after the baby gets here. His current computer is one I built for my use back when Millennium was new; maybe I can get him a better one this spring and set that one aside for the baby. He thought the Webshots slide show ("kittens and puppies and people I know") I put on it was pretty neat by the time he was three months old and I'll bet his little sister or brother will too.

Note to self: Unlike Nokia phones, which display a message and shut down when the battery gets low, Motorola phone try to keep going but no longer work right.

I spent a non-trivial part of the afternoon getting frustrated with my new phone. I decided it was time to learn to take pictures with it and email them to myself, managed to get it right once, then couldn't get it to work again. By the time I gave up I couldn't even send text messages to my PC or my old computer. Nothing three hours on the charger couldn't fix; next time I'll recognize the symptoms.

It took a 10 year old to show my sister and me how to use the zoom feature in our camera phones, and how to control the brightness of the pictures we took. I'll get out tomorrow afternoon and experiment a little more. The camera in it will be nice for spur of the moment shots but it's definitely not "grandpa camera" quality. I have a three year old digital camera that takes pretty decent pictures but I think as soon as I can afford to I'll start shopping for one that doesn't take so long to actually take a picture after you push the button. If that's what it takes to start getting pictures from Texas more often I may have to buy my daughter something newer too.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 29, 2008 at 09:09 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 28 March 2008
 

So why'd he tell me two weeks then? (Updated)

Did I ever mention I'm not real good at waiting?

I finally got nerved up enough a little bit ago to call my Social Security contact in Vincennes -- the one who told me 22 days ago I'd have my SSI check in "about two weeks." He checked his computer and told me my check's scheduled to go out on 2 April. That's good to know -- it means I can spend part of the VA check I get on the 1st on things I normally wouldn't and still make it through the month -- but I wish he hadn't told me before to expect it sooner than that. We were having snail-mail problems for a while -- no mail two days running, late delivery several days -- and I've been worried sick that a substitute carrier might have left my check in someone else's mailbox, someone who found some way to cash it. Now that I know that didn't happen I'll sleep better at night and quit walking to the mailbox as soon as it's time for the mail to be here every day. Based on a poster on the wall at the Social Security office I think I'm correct in saying that after things settle out I'll be getting checks on the 3rd Wednesday of every month; that may or may not mean I'll get my first monthly check on 4/16.

btw, I love the new cell phone, including the fact it has a volume control I can turn up so I can hear people better. Until that SIM chip gets here so I can transfer the number from my old TracFone to it I guess I'll keep carrying both of them, one for inbound calls and one to call out on. After that I'll get a new number assigned to the TracFone and keep it alive till I'm sure the new phone works in Ft Worth and everyplace between here and there; I made one trip down there with a TracFone that quit working as soon as I crossed into Texas and I don't want to repeat the experience.

***

I guess when I heard "It will probably be around two weeks till you get your SSI check but we have 30 days before it's overdue" I should just have planned on 30 days to begin with; April 2nd, when they now say the check will be mailed, will be 27 days after I was told that. If it takes more than 3 days to get here, which wouldn't surprise me any, it's going to be officially overdue.

One thing I'd definitely have handled differently if I'd known how long it would actually be till I got that check is the fence project. The original plan was for my ex to send me enough to cover the whole project in two checks two weeks apart. After I was told I'd probably have my SSI money "in a couple of weeks" I called her and told her not to send the 2nd check, that I'd cover the rest of the project. So, now it's past time the 2nd check would have been here and I'm still at least a week from having the SSI check, which means Sunshine is going to end up spending more time in the little pasture than he would have if I hadn't been so trusting. I also bought myself a new camera phone (with grandson pictures in mind, but also useful when my granddaughter (Think pink!) gets here) and the family a new DVD burner with money I'd have held onto if I'd known how long it would really be till I had the SSI money. If nothing disastrous happens between now and the 1st we'll make it through the month OK but I'd feel a lot more comfortable with more money in reserve than we have right now.

I've been arguing with myself all day about how much of the VA check I get on the 1st to spend getting started on the fence project. With my check coming on the 1st and Mom's Social Security check coming on the 3rd, I guess I could go to Vincennes on the 2nd (I have appointments in Evansville on the 1st) and buy a bunch of fencing material, but what if I do that then the Post Office manages to lose my SSI check? Better to wait, I guess.

I've also been giving a lot of thought to how soon after I get the SSI check I want to take off for a few days in FT Worth. For now I think I've decided to wait till after I get my main back-settlement check which, based on everything people have told me about how long it usually takes, should be here by late May. If I spend enough of the SSI check on the fence project to get it done, then have the air conditioner in my car fixed, which needs to be done before I head to Texas, I'm not going to have enough left to really enjoy the trip like I will if I have more money in the bank when I leave. I want to leave with enough money in the bank to not feel rushed getting there -- I'd like be able to stop at a motel twice each way if I get tired enough to want to -- and I'd like to be able to spend a lot more freely on the road than in the past. There are some truck stops between here and there that I've always thought I'd like to get back to with more money in my pocket than the times I've been there in the past (I need a new insulated vest and a bomber jacket with a collar) and a couple of places in the Ft Worth-Dallas area where I'd like to do some shopping, not to mention wanting to be able to throw around some money on my daughter and grandson -- The last time I bought him anything nice was three years ago when I bought him a better monitor for the computer I gave him when he was three months old. I'm thinking Wii but I'll have to discuss it with his parents first. I don't think he's really outgrown the computer I gave him when he was little but, otoh, it still has Millennium on it and I doubt that it could handle anything newer successfully. Another reason for waiting is I think I'll enjoy my time there more if I have a nice laptop PC with me; in the past I've used my daughter's computer while she was at work to half-way keep up with the news and my email but she telecommutes most days now. They have a nice WiFi network I guess they'll probably let me tie into while I'm there. At one point last winter I was thinking that I might take the long way home from Ft Worth -- I have cousins in Hobbs, NM and Russ Vaughn lives somewhere in the western part of the state -- but I'll have to see how energetic I feel by the time I get my money to decide for sure about that; I may even decide to swing through Colorado on the way home from New Mexico if I feel up to it. I guess I still have plenty of time to decide.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 28, 2008 at 02:36 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 27 March 2008
 

I'm gonna be a grandpa again!

I mentioned this in my last post but it's too big a deal to just bury among a bunch of other things. I just found out about an hour ago that my daughter's expecting a baby the day before Thanksgiving! There's no way I could love anyone more than I do her and the little boy she already has but that doesn't mean I can't love someone else just as much. The last time I got news that good was the last time she told me she was expecting.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 27, 2008 at 11:57 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Three weeks into "about two," my paranoia's back.

(I'm starting this on Thursday night but I've already had to shut down once to wait for a thunderstorm to blow over and the radar says there's another one on the way. I'm going to post what I have as time goes on instead of waiting till the post is all done to post any of it.)

I know logically that it's just normal government incompetence, not something to take personally, but that doesn't change the fact it's been three weeks since I was told I'd have that SSI check in "about two." I also know that if there was something going on other than people just not doing their jobs efficiently I'd have mail telling me not to expect that money after all, but for some reason I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop; I'll believe I'm actually getting the money I've been promised when it's actually in my bank account.

I went ahead and activated my new camera phone this afternoon after several days of arguing with myself about it; as long as it was still in the package I had the option of taking it back to Wal-Mart for a refund. I can call out and receive calls on it but I did some things out of order and they're going to have to send me a new SIM card so they can transfer my old cell phone number to it. I specified that I wanted a phone that would work in the Ft Worth area when I ordered it so there shouldn't be chance that it won't but I think I'm still going to keep my TracFone alive till I've been down there to make sure it does.

***

Great news when I fired the computer back up after that first storm! I'm gonna be a grandpa again! Nobody ever loved anyone more than I love the grandson I have now but that doesn't mean I can't love his little brother or sister just as much when the time comes.

***

I guess one silver lining to having to wait so long for my money after the judge said I'd won my case is that it's given me time to take a harder look at what I'm willing to spend money for when that big check finally gets here vs. how much I want to just hold on to as insurance against ever being broke again:

• I already decided weeks ago that I don't really need that apartment out back; it makes more sense to spend the money improving the main house. If I have a reasonable size storage room built out back to move some of the clutter from the house to, have an air conditioner installed in the hall bathroom, add a Dining Room so there's someplace to move the big table out of my room to and  move a microwave and small fridge into some of the space that creates living in the main house won't be that bad.

• I also decided several days ago that I don't really need a new car right away. All the one I have now really needs is some air conditioner repairs and new tires. If I put off buying something newer now I'll be in a better position to buy something newer later when I really need to.

• It soaked in while I was drinking coffee and trying to wake up this morning that I don't really need to end up owning a desktop computer when the dust settles. I'm going to want a laptop for trips to Texas and to surf the web while I have my morning coffee in the new Dining Room after I have it built anyway. Throw in an external keyboard and mouse, and an external monitor after I get the dining room table out of my room and a roomier computer workstation (I like the looks of this one) moved in, and I'll have all I need. That frees up the computer I'm using now to become "the family machine." I'll max out the RAM in the thing and add a DVD burner and figure it's all anyone in the family really needs. I've promised my sister's best friend since jr. high and her daughter our existing family machine when everything settles out. The machine this one replaced will end up in my nephew's room shortly after I get my SSI check; to get any good out of it he needs a monitor to attach to it and I'm going to give him the one I have now as soon as I can afford a nice flat-screen model to replace it.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 27, 2008 at 11:17 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Still just sitting around at the Circle F

(Just realized I saved this as a draft two days ago and forgot to publish it.)

19 days into "about two weeks" and still no SSI check. The pasture project and some other things I'd really like to get on with are on hold till it gets here. I don't know for sure but I think my lack of energy the last few days is probably simple boredom and depression over still not having money for anything but absolute essentials; at least I hope that's all that's going on. I have an appointment in Evansville next Tuesday for some blood work and a BP check, then I'm supposed to call Marion and set up an appointment with my Renal specialist shortly after that so I guess if anything's out of whack I'll find out then. The people in Evansville want me to come down for "fasting" blood work but I'm not going to do that, at least not right away. I know enough about how my body reacts to hunger that if there's a way around making the drive down there with no food in my stomach I need to go for it, even if it means some delay. I'll supposedly be able to have blood drawn at the new VA Clinic in Vincennes by early September, not to mention that I expect to be on Medicare by then.  Even before then I should have enough money that I can get a local doctor to order blood work and let me know if there's a problem.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 27, 2008 at 11:12 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 22 March 2008
 

A good day for just going back to bed;
Update: Another design change

Still no SSI check. It's not officially overdue for another two weeks but if it's really going to take that long I wish the guy at the Vincennes Social Security office hadn't told me 16 days ago that I'd probably get it in about two weeks. The fence project is on hold till it gets here; I have a couple of hours work I could have the guys do but a situation has come up that has me wondering if we might need the money that would cost worse for something else. (Sara and Elizabeth aren't really blood family but if they're in a bind and we can help we'll help.)  Even if I had money the high today's supposed to be in the low 40s and it's supposed to be either rainy or too cold for me to want to be out and about for the next several days anyway. On the other hand, if I had that money I could go to Lowe's and TSC and pay for the rest of the wire and posts we're going to need so they're ready to pick up when we're ready for them.

I'm about down with a cold. I just took a handful of pills that will make me puke if I lie down within the next hour or so but after that I think I may crash till I feel like being up and around.

***

It's not too bad out if you're dressed for it. I fed and watered Sunshine and walked around in the yard for a few minutes sorting some things out in my head. If I have the guys pull the north three posts on the existing wooden fence, that would make the distance from the north fence to what's left of the wooden fence about 43', or 6 x 7'2", with all the posts south of that 8' apart. An advantage to doing it that way is that the transition between the two intervals will be hidden, as viewed from the drive, by a nice evergreen tree. Even viewed from the other end of the field the evergreen will provide enough of a visual distraction to make the transition seem less obviously abrupt. At the east end of the pasture I may decide to put the north-south fence a couple of feet farther east or west than I would otherwise just to make the length of the north fence an even multiple of 8'; that entire fence will be visible from the highway, I'm shelling out money to put a pretty wooden fence there instead of just t-posts and wire, and I want it to look good.

I took my first good daylight look at the situation and decided the southernmost of the posts the neighbor who owns the field north of us had set down the west side of it (to keep my sister's son in law from driving in his field) is pretty much right on our north line. I'll still feel better if my sister can get him on the phone and he says he agrees but if we can't catch up with him I'm pretty confident it won't be a problem. 

Damn I wish that money would hurry up and get here! Did I ever mention I'm not real good at waiting?

***

I went out a little bit ago to say Hi to Sunshine and sit in a lawn chair thinking for a (very; it's cooling off) few minutes and made another fence design change while I was out. Aside from the fact Daddy's fence never got finished, some of the rails on it are rotten, warped and split and really need to be replaced. I'd been thinking till a few minutes ago I'd just take them all off and replace them with new ones to avoid a patchwork appearance. What I think I'll do instead is, after all of the rails that need replaced are off, start taking good rails off near the north end of the fence and use them to fill gaps farther south. When we get done the part of the fence near the back yard won't have any missing rails and will look like "Daddy's fence" except for mot having any missing rails. I'll still buy enough new rails to fill in from wherever we run out of old ones to the north end of the fence, so that end matches the new north fence. My best guess without actually counting is that the transition from old rails to new ones will happen somewhere beside the house, where it's not visible from the drive. It will be visible from the new Wal-Mart but my sister and I have agreed it's more important to have part of "Daddy's fence" left than it is for everything to look perfect to a bunch of people we don't know.

I'll have to see how some things go and decide whether I can afford to but I may get Kyle and Brad started on moving fence rails the next time the weather's decent.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 22, 2008 at 01:45 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 21 March 2008
 

Nuthin' happenin' here

We finally got some mail but not as much as I'd have expected after two days of not getting any, and not the SSI check I was told I'd 15 days ago I'd probably have in about two weeks. I don't think I've been so anxious to get to the mailbox every day since Nam.

We had nice weather enough of the day that I could have had Kyle and Brad finish up everything I can afford to have them do till I get my SSI check but I didn't have them come out today. My sister worked during the day today, I didn't know for sure if her son would be around, go to Flat Rock with his dad, help his dad move some of the brush we cut yesterday or what so I decided it would be a good day for me to spend most of in the house with Mom. As it turned out Cordell was here and in the house all day so I could have been outside saying "Dig here" but at most we lost 2 or 3 hours by not working today.

I did manage to get in some lawn-chair time just meditating on the situation; I think I finally have all the important design decisions made. I can't put all the wooden rails on the fence till I get my big check, not to mention having a volunteer crew lined up for a long weekend in May, but I think I'm going to go ahead and put a few of them on. Specifically, I want to put them on the first 8' of fence each direction from the northwest and northeast corners of Pasture 2 as soon as we have the posts up,  just to have something visible from the highway to mark off what we're doing. 12 rails now, 177 more when I can afford to.

On another front, it finally soaked in this morning that moving the kitchen range to the south wall of the kitchen after we have the Dining Room added doesn't have to involve anyone working under the house like I'd been thinking. The gas line into the house comes through the wall below the south side of the kitchen, then branches out to the range, the Warm Morning stove in the Living Room, the water heater in the bathroom and the through-the-wall space heaters in my room and my sister's room. There's no reason we can't put a tee in where it currently comes into the house, run a line two or three feet farther east through the garage, then turn it north through the wall to right behind where we move the range to. Then we can cut a small hole in the floor around where the existing supply line for the range comes up, cap it off below the floor, then patch the floor. That spot will be right under a built-in dishwasher when the dust settles so it doesn't matter if it doesn't match the rest of the floor. ... Actually, I'm not even sure the old line can't just be left where it is, under the dishwasher. We'll deal with that question in real time.

***

I just went out with a tape measure to check an assumption I'd been making all along it was wrong. I'd been thinking all along that it was 16' or a little less from the north end of the existing wood fence beside the house to our north property line. Actually it's closer to 19. No big deal; it just means I need one more fence post and three more rails than I'd been thinking. I also need to decide after I get an exact measurement how to distribute the posts. I don't want to pull up any existing posts so the question is how to split 19' into 3 pieces so the job looks as good as possible when we're done. 3+8+8 doesn't work for me but I think 6+6+7 might. Step one is to get out there with some help and decide exactly where I want the corner post, then measure exactly how far that is from the end of the existing fence. The north fence probably won't work out to an exact multiple of 8' either but at least there I can make the transition from one short section to a bunch of longer ones more gradually, or maybe even decide exactly where to put the east fence so the numbers do work out to a multiple of 8. (Since Dad was just building that wooden fence for decorative purposes when he built it I'm pretty sure he would have just stopped at the 16' mark and not worried about the last post being right on the property line.)

Can you tell I'm making this up as I go?

I know I'm probably just tired from being out and around yesterday but sometimes I really wonder if I'm going to have enough energy to see everything through that I have planned. At least after the fence is done most of the rest of my plans just involve signing off on drawings and letting someone else worry about the details of getting the job done.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 21, 2008 at 06:42 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 20 March 2008
 

Progress at the Circle F,
I just can't wait for Socialized Medicine

Kyle and Brad showed up about a half hour late but we got all the brush cut that needed to be so we can build a fence down the back property line and all the old wire, etc off the pasture side of the wooden fence beside the house. My sister's working during the day tomorrow, which makes it not a good day for me to spend out in the pasture, so we'll have to see what the weather does before we decide when it makes sense for them to come back. Between rain and cool temperatures in the forecast I'm guessing next Tuesday right now. I've only got about two hours work -- 3 wooden posts and 14 t-posts -- I can have them do between now and when I get my SSI check.

For the second day in a row, we got absolutely no mail at all; no bills, no sale flyers, and no SSI check. My sister called the post office and they assured her it's nothing personal; they haven't been getting as much mail in as normal for a couple of days and suspect the weather may have caused some delays upstream. If the government can't even deliver the mail on time I just can't wait for Hillarycare.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 20, 2008 at 08:00 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 19 March 2008
 

... and still no word from Publisher's Clearing House

Actually, we didn't get any mail of any sort today, a very rare but not completely unprecedented event. My sister thinks the mail-lady may have decided the shoulder of the road in front of our mailbox looked to marshy to trust but there's no way to prove it if she's right. At any rate I still don't have that SSI check and I can't afford to go buy posts and fence wire till it gets here. 

I haven't heard any official number for how much rain we've gotten so far but I know I dumped a guestimated three inches of water out of Sunshine's feed bucket yesterday and a measured five inches almost exactly 24 hours later. It looks like it's probably quit raining for 36 hours or so but if Kyle and Brad consider the pasture too marshy to clear brush tomorrow I won't hold it against them.

One thing that needs to happen when I get my big check is repairs on the roof over this room. Caleb put sealer on it last fall but it's already leaking again. It's hard to keep a flat roof from doing that. I wonder what it would cost to have a peaked roof built over it, or whether that would even work for long. I need to talk the matter over with some people.

After I get Pasture 2 fenced and spend some time in Texas my top priority will be getting a bunch of the clutter out of this room. I put trash bags over my old computer and my printer/scanner when the roof started leaking again but there were some things that simply got wet because there wasn't room to move them out of the way without carrying them to the other end of the house; I hope nothing important got ruined. Building that storage room out back will help the situation in here, as will moving the dining room table to the new dining room, but I think what will help as much as anything is having enough money to tell my sister to get rid of a boatload of stuff that hasn't been worn/used in years but she's keeping around in case we ever want it; on the off chance that something gets tossed that we want sometime down the road we'll replace it.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 19, 2008 at 06:38 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
 

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

I shut my computer off about 1:30 this morning due to a thunderstorm and I don't think it's quit raining since. I'm not sure how much we've gotten all together but I know I poured over 3 inches of water out of Sunshine's feed bucket about 3:30 this afternoon. My sister says they were predicting about 6 inches total counting what they expect tomorrow. Needless to say we didn't build fence today. I'm not even sure right now the pasture isn't going to be too marshy to get out and do much Thursday.

Woke up with a head cold and a major case of the drags, got very little all day but sit in my blogging corner. I did manage to feed and water Sunshine (as if he didn't have water available) and stopped on the way in to clean out a trench it should not have been my job to clean out in front of the garage. When it's properly cleaned out it channels rain water that would otherwise end up in the garage out into the back yard.

Cordell went to bed earlier than normal, which I hope means Mom will, so maybe I can as well. There's no question of being able to get out and do anything useful tomorrow but I need to get in the habit of getting up earlier for when the weather clears up and I have some money to work with.

***

I think I've changed my mind again and decided not to add the new bathroom I was thinking about. The way I picture this room being arranged when the dust settles it wouldn't be all that convenient to get to and from and I'm thinking right now it just isn't worth the time and confusion. The more I study the existing bathroom the more I think the problem isn't the room itself being too small, it's the amount of clutter in it, which should decrease a bunch after I have the storage room out back and the dining room added. There's a nook in one wall of the hallway that originally held a roll-away bed and is now occupied by a freezer that will end up in the kitchen after the dining room project is complete. If we buy some shelves or have some built to take advantage of that space there's really no reason for the bathroom to stay as cluttered as it is now. If I move the window that's currently over the commode down the wall a little I can add an air conditioner/heater unit over the commode so it's not so hot in there in the summer time and feel like I've done all that really needs done, without spending nearly as much money as a whole new room would cost.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 18, 2008 at 10:06 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

RIP: Arthur C. Clarke

Not a lot I can say that Ed didn't cover here. He influenced my life. I'll miss him.

InstaGlenn has more here.

***

Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008

I'd forgotten Clarke wrote "Childhood's End," the book that turned me on to SciFi. Thank you, sir.

***

See also.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 18, 2008 at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 17 March 2008
 

Weather hold at the Circle F

I thought last night I might be able to get some more brush trimmed today but it didn't work out. It rained this morning and threatened to all day. I had Kyle and Brad (his brother in law) come out for a little while but all we did was walk around the pasture and talk the job over; it was too damp and breezy for me to want to be out and around much today even if they'd wanted to work, which they didn't. They'll be back at 10:00 Thursday morning if it isn't raining; right now weather.com thinks it will storm tomorrow and Wednesday then clear up Thursday.

Brad says he's pretty sure he can borrow his brother's pickup to haul things home from Vincennes. I told him I'd give his brother part of what it saves me not to have to rent one from Enterprise but he doesn't think he'll want it. Knowing where I can get a truck without driving to Vincennes to pick it up gives me a little more flexibility than I had. It means, for instance, that I can go ahead and buy fence posts at Lowe's and have them start planting them before the wire I ordered from TSC comes in if that ends up making sense.

There's only so much I can have anyone do before my SSI check gets here. If it actually gets here two weeks after the gent in Vincennes said I'd probably have it in two weeks it won't be an issue. If it doesn't, I can have Kyle and Brad finish trimming the brush on our back line and put 5" posts every 96' where the back fence is going to be (fortunately I miscalculated last fall and have 3 in the back yard), then we'll be on hold waiting for money to buy posts and wire with.

I guess I need to remind myself that we don't need to be in as big a hurry as we were last fall. Then we were scrambling to get a fence around Pasture 1 before the weather got bad, and just made it. Now we're anxious to give Sunshine more grazing room but if it takes a day or too longer than it would absolutely have to it's not a major disaster. Mainly I'm just not good at waiting and I feel sorry for Sunshine every time I see him gazing over the fence at where his new pasture's going to be and wishing someone would open the gate for him. 

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 17, 2008 at 05:56 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 16 March 2008
 

Be There!

This post will remain at the top of my site through 16 March. Please scroll down for newer entries.

Thank you William "1stCav" Page for information and the image. BTW, I'm pretty sure you don't have to be a Nam Vet to show up and support our troops. Y'all come.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 16, 2008 at 11:59 PM in Caring about our troops | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Progress at the Circle F

Remember that broken tree I've been worrying about getting out of the way so I could fence all the way down our back line? ...

... It's firewood now. I got so tired watching my brother in law cut it up that I didn't have enough energy to go back outside with a camera but it's no longer an issue. He also cut a bunch of other brush out of that back fence row and some little trees that sprouted under the fence between the side yard and the pasture and didn't get cut years ago when they should have been.

Still a whole lot of work left to do before the "Pasture 2" project is done, but at least now I can tell myself we've started on it. Between the spring rains and waiting for my SSI check to get here there won't be much we can do for the next few days but maybe I can get Kyle and his brother in law to finish cleaning up that back line sometime soon anyway.

***

I had my sister call my nephew to see if he'd caught up with Kyle this afternoon. He had, and Kyle knows I'd love to see him here tomorrow morning. It's short notice but maybe he'll be anxious enough to work that he'll be here.

I am seriously worn out, which is ridiculous since all I did today was stand around at watch Matt work. On the other hand I'm very pleased with the fact that we can build all the Pasture 2 fences in their final locations on the first pass; I'd really been worried we'd have to build a temporary north-south fence west of that broken tree.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 16, 2008 at 09:02 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 15 March 2008
 

Just be there!

Via email from William "1stCav" Page:

From Dan in NY...

PLEASE FORWARD THIS ALERT TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

Fighting the Insurgency at Home
Action Alert

Who:    Gathering of Eagles, Eagles Up!, Rolling Thunder, and more!
What:    Eagles Muster to denounce Winter Soldier II
Where:  Washington, DC and Silver Springs, MD
When:  Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15

Have you had it with the left wing organizations demeaning and slandering our troops at every opportunity?  Has the escalation in attacks against our recruiters across the nation, which progressed to the bombing of the Recruiter Station in Times Square last week, alerted you to the fact that we are fighting a REAL INSURGENCY in this country?

In NY City this weekend we held a rally in support of our troops and our recruiters in Times Square.  You can read my after action report here:

http://tinyurl.com/yv34lr

This morning I discover the cretins from Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), who are running their program to slander and defame this generation of American Warriors in the same fashion as their guiding lights from the old VVAW did to our Vietnam Veterans, noticed our display of patriotism in Times Square.

Their response:

You are going to eat it if unless you cease and desist from your planned "events".

Their earlier comment on the bombing of the Times Square Recruiter Station was:

Fuck recruiters.

I don't know about you, but it gets my Irish up when someone can, in effect, condone and endorse domestic terrorism against our troops and then threaten more against anyone who supports the troops.

Up until now I have wanted to protest their planned defamation of our warriors at the Labor College in Silver Springs, Maryland, but work requirements were going to restrict my travel only to the Saturday Rally and March in DC.  Now, wild horses couldn't keep me away on Friday.

I condemn in the strongest language the willful terrorist enabling of the AFL-CIO for allowing this group to use the Labor College for their planned seditious  blackballing of our American Troops. 

I strongly recommend that anyone with a union card and patriotism join us in a mass burning of union cards outside the university gates on Friday to demonstrate to the fat labor bosses what we think of their collaboration. 

I demand that any media organization planning to cover the IVAW lie fest explicitly  include in their reports the above IVAW quotes to demonstrate IVAWs true level of support for our troops.
I demand that any media organization who runs anything on the IVAW propaganda campaign specifically use the DUPES process outlined here: http://tinyurl.com/2lmmqq   to perform their due diligence on anything the IVAW may claim.

The agenda for Friday, March 14th is:

Truth Challenge against IVAW Winter Soldier II
National Labor College
10000 New Hampshire Avenue
New Hampshire Ave and Powder Mill Road
Silver Spring, Maryland 20903
Map Link: http://tinyurl.com/3attuz
Starting 8am, All Day

The agenda for Friday Night, March 14th is:

Support our Wounded and counter Code Pink
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Ave.
Georgia Ave and Elder Street
Washington DC 20307
Map Link: http://tinyurl.com/257qwf
From 7pm until the Troop Bus returns from dinner

The agenda for Saturday, March 15th is:

Eagles Muster and March
Washington Monument
15th St NW south of Constitution Ave
Map Link:  http://tinyurl.com/2jw8wq
From 10am.  March at 1pm to Capital

Bring your flags, signs, banners, whistles, cowbells, megaphones and anything else you think will be required to get our message across.  Never again will one generation of warriors abandon another!

Never Again!

www.eaglesup.us/

***

I just realized this information is also posted here on the GOE site.

See also: A bomb threat against the Gathering of Eagles

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 15, 2008 at 11:59 PM in Caring about our troops, Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Another design change at the Circle F;
Update: I have a fencing crew!

It seems like I still have some of my best ideas sitting at the kitchen table trying to wake up, which probably really means I have them overnight and they percolate to my conscious mind after a cup or two of coffee. Either way, it happened again this morning.

I've known all along that one of the negative points to this design was that it involved running underground water and drain lines under the existing kitchen, which could turn out to be a bit non-trivial. It finally soaked in this morning that water lines need to be run at least two feet underground in this area but gas lines are supposed to be above ground. Running a gas line under the kitchen still means someone working in a not-too-roomy crawl space under the house but it's a lot smaller deal than burying water lines two feet deep. Hence this design, which has the advantage of having the dishwasher right next to the sink. It means giving up some storage space we're used to having under the east end of the sink (water hoses to and a drain hose from the dishwasher will take up that space) but the pantry in the new Dining Room will more than compensate for that. The water line to the ice-maker in the new fridge will have to be run out in the open but we're talking there about a clear plastic hose about 1/8" in diameter which can run up the west wall next to the sink, above the door, and down the wall next to the fridge without being too noticeable. Comments, anyone?

***

I have a fencing crew! I don't have any details but apparently Taylor has left town for parts unknown for some undetermined amount of time. On the other hand, Kyle, the young man Eric's in jail for putting in the hospital, now considers himself healthy enough to be half of a fencing crew and says his brother in law wants to be the other half. I told him to consider both of them hired and I'll count on the brother in law to make sure he doesn't overdo. Kyle was working part time and going to school last fall but I know from the few hours he spent here that he's a good worker; I'll take his word for it that his brother in law is.

I had hopes for a while of getting that broken tree the rest of the way down this afternoon but they blew away. When I said this morning that I was anxious to see if we were going to be able to do the job without professional help my brother in law said he was too. We didn't get the rain weather.com was predicting but unfortunately the wind picked up enough that I had to agree with him there'd be better days to destabilize the top half of the tree. Maybe tomorrow. If not tomorrow, the first day Kyle and his brother in law consider the weather appropriate. I may also have them go ahead and trim some of the brush along our back line. We'd talked about my brother in law doing that during his vacation week after next but I'm sure I won't have any trouble finding something for him to do if that's already done. Maybe I can have them pile what they cut down just far enough from the property line to allow room for a fence and have him move the piles to a better spot later; we should be in great shape for weenie-roast firewood for at least a couple of years, even after burning the small stuff that isn't worth saving.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 15, 2008 at 03:33 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I'm moving my daily roundups back to Old War Dogs

I've talked thing over with Russ and we've agreed it makes sense for me to start posting my daily Politics and National Defense Roundups at Old War Dogs for the foreseeable future. As I explained when I started posting them at Bill's Bites, my main reason was fear of causing friction within the pack by being too open with my opinions about who should get the Republican presidential nomination. Now that John McCain has the nomination sewn up there's no longer any danger of that. I sense no danger of upsetting any member of the pack by bad-mouthing Billary or that Obama kid -- We sent the only Hillary fan in the pack on his way months ago -- so it's time for me to start contributing more to the main site and restrict my place to "friends and family" items.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 15, 2008 at 12:06 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 14 March 2008
 

Another small step at the Circle F

I woke up with a major cold and a serious case of the drags this morning but I managed to make it to Vincennes to order some wire so not having it won't hold up fencing in more of the pasture once I get my SSI check.

I also bought some hose repair kits while I was at TSC so I could move Sunshine's water tub out of that swampy corner where it's been for the last couple of months. Between him stepping on the end of a hose and me breaking one trying to bend it when it was frozen solid that corner was the only logical place to put it; fences on two sides of it and within one 50 ft. hose-length of the faucet in the garage. It worked out well till we started getting so much rain but I can't remember the last time that corner wasn't either frozen or muddy. After I fixed a couple of hoses and connected them end-to-end I moved the tub to the corner where the fence between Pasture 1 and Pasture 2 meets the wooden fence beside the house. That area drains better than where we had it before and leaving the tub there should work fine till I can buy a bigger one and have a frame built around it to keep him from spilling it. By next winter I intend to have a freeze-proof hydrant right across the fence from his tub and an electrical outlet near it, to plug a tank heater into, so keeping him watered isn't nearly as much work as it was this year.

***

My nephew says that neither he nor any of their common friends has heard from Taylor for several days and I'm feeling a lot less optimistic than I was about having him help with my fencing project. On the plus side, Kyle (the guy Eric's in jail for putting in the hospital) thinks his sister's boyfriend might be interested; he's checking into it.

Weather.com says it's going to rain most of the day tomorrow but I think maybe my brother in law is going to try his hand at getting that broken tree off the back fence Sunday. He and I both think there' a good chance that if he starts trimming at what was the top of the tree before it broke and works in toward the tree gradually we can get the broken part of the tree to fall off that way. It also occurred to me this afternoon that no more respect the guy who bought that land behind us showed for our fence that I wouldn't have any qualms about going a couple of feet over the line to cut the part of the tree that's still standing (The base of the tree is on his side of the property line.)

My brother in law has the week after next off and it sounds like there's some chance of hiring him to help with my fence project then as well. If I don't have my SSI check by then there won't be a lot we can do that week other than clear brush. I miscalculated last fall and ended up with some posts left over, including three 5" wooden ones that eventually need to be planted at 96' intervals down that back line, after the brush is cleared. I also have some T-posts we could go ahead and drive but not nearly enough to come close to finishing the job. Beyond that, everything's on hold till I get that check.

There's no school tomorrow, which means Cordell will be home, which means it's OK if I'm not up and moving before Mom is. If it's gonna rain so I can't do anything outside anyway maybe I can get some extra sleep.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 14, 2008 at 10:47 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2008.03.13 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Worth knowing about today:

• Winter Soldier II Off To A Lying Start
• Winter Soldier II: The curtain opens; Plus: More on the anti-recruiter war;
  Update: Pinkos disrupt Move America Forward press conference;
• Pittsburgh Anarchists Plan Violent Take Over of Military Recruiting Station on March 19th!
• Winter Soldier Redux
• Lying about military service
• Antiwar Liars on Parade
• Heroes on tour

• Saddam supported at least two al-Qaeda groups: Pentagon; Update: What it means

• Breaking: Americans nab high-value Osama lieutenant

• The Tired Gaza Two-Step

• McCain’s new POW ad: 35 years ago today…
• "John was offered early release [by the North Vietnamese], and he told them to shove it."
• Video: McCain lets Obama off the hook for Wright

• Stating the obvious
• The Democrats' Race & Gender Campaign

• Controversial minister leaves Obama campaign
• Obama issues statement repudiating Wright ...
  [Too little, too late, even if he means it, which I doubt]
• Obama 'Strongly Condemns' Wright's Statements
• Jeremiah Wright, the Sister Souljah of 2008
• Oprah’s boards burning with Wright responses;
  Wright accuses America of creating the HIV virus
• Rezko Played Bigger Role, Obama Says
• Racism or victimhood?
• Wright and Obama: It Only Gets Worse
• 2007 Profile: Wright provides “spiritual guidance” for Obama, Oprah 
• The audacity of hate, Part Three, The audacity of hate, Part Four
• Obama's Spiritual Mentor Speaks
• Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright Has Formal Role in Obama Campaign and Plays Significant Role in His Life
• Senator Obama's Foreign Policy Judgment
• Senate 97, Obama 0
• Obama's budget vote could come back to bite him
• Obama and the Minister
• Barack Obama hoards the race issue
• The Audacity of hate, Part Two

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 14, 2008 at 12:45 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 13 March 2008
 

Did I ever mention I'm not good at waiting?;
Update: A journey of a thousand miles ...

A dozen things I'm anxious to get moving on and they're all on hold due to weather or money or both.

I'm anxious to get someone started on clearing brush along our back property line, I guess just to be able to say we've started on the pasture-expansion project. I don't know what the rush is about really; we're going to have one day we can work followed by three or four days of rain for the foreseeable future and even if the brush was gone it'd still be a while before I had posts and wire.

I have no idea why it's taking so long for the money my ex sent to get here; depending on what the weather does ordering wire could turn out to be the thing that determines how soon we can actually have the new fence up. I guess if the check doesn't show up tomorrow I'll make another attempt at convincing her to use PayPal, then I'll tear the check up when it  gets here.

During that period of uncertainty about whether the Social Security Administration would deduct what I've gotten from the VA from my back-settlement my sister and I agreed we could do OK sharing a newer car if we had to, although I don't intend for my nephew to drive it. Now that I know I have more coming than I was afraid I did I want to eventually have a car that's just mine but I think it makes sense to do things a little differently than I'd first thought. I'd been saying all along that I wanted to by something for just me with no trade-in, then trade in what we have now for something for her. I realized a little bit ago that we'll get more for what we're driving now if we trade it in on a new or slightly used car for me, which I'll share with her for a while, then shop for something for her later. That also gives us the option of deciding later just to keep on sharing whatever I buy for me if we decide it makes sense. I don't have that many places to go and it might well make more sense to plan on renting something for her to drive on days I need my car all day, or to drive her son's car occasionally. I don't know of anything he's ever done to earn something fancy but I will see to it he has something reliable to drive to and from work, etc, to eliminate arguments about him driving my car. 

***

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. We took a couple of small ones today.

I guess some days I really do get around better than others. A couple weeks back I got out and paced around Pasture 2, estimating fence lengths, for at least an hour and came back to the house feeling no worse for the wear. Today I recruited my sister to hold one end of a measuring tape so I can be sure of the distance involved before I buy wire and came back to the house totally exhausted after about 20 minutes. (My estimate for the length of the north side of our pasture was off by almost a foot; it's a good thing I double-checked it!)

The check from my ex finally got here, 10 days after she mailed it. I'll be going to Vincennes tomorrow to spend part of it on wire that will take a few days to get here.  Depending on the weather and how soon my SSI check gets here waiting for wire to come in may well turn out to be the critical path to getting the new fence finished. 

Sunshine spent about an hour out in what will be Pasture 2 this afternoon, the first time he's been out there in about three months. I thought getting him out there might mean someone having to wade through mud in Pasture 1 to put a lead rope on him; all it actually took was opening the gate between the two pastures and staying out of his way. Then I figured getting him back in Pasture 1 might be challenging but all that took was Cordell putting corn and sweet feed in his feed bucket, which hangs from the gate into the barnlot, and calling his name. Maybe the weather will be decent often enough for him to spend some time out there now and then between now and when we get it fenced in so he can stay there all the time.

Still no luck finding out where Taylor is and what he's up to. This is the second day in a row I'd have kept him busy if he'd been here. My nephew's been asking around and no one seems to know where he is. Weather.com says it's going to rain more days than it doesn't for the next week or so but after that I really do need to come up with a fencing crew from somewhere. My brother in law is on vacation the week after next and it sounds like I may be able to get him to clear some of the brush along that back fence line and maybe plant some fence posts but it takes two healthy adults to string fence wire and I don't qualify any more.

I'd thought till I ran the numbers that I'd order enough wire for the whole Pasture 2 project tomorrow but I I do I won't have anything left to pay Taylor with if he does show up some day. I think I'm going to settle for just ordering the wire for the back fence, 3 100' rolls of 5' high wire, and figure on buying the rest of what I need after I get my SSI check, which supposedly will be here in about another week. Between TSC, Lowe's, and if I have to Rural King, I don't think I'll have any trouble coming up with enough 4' high wire to meet my needs; at worst it will cost a little more than if I ordered it tomorrow. I'll be buying fence posts at Lowe's anyway and Rural King is right across the street.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 13, 2008 at 12:42 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2008.03.13 Politics and National Defense Roundup

I've never had a lot of use for Geraldine Ferraro, and I still don't, but she has definitely done the country a favor by pointing out that there's no way  that Obama kid would ever have gotten close to a presidential nomination without having a black father. I don't have any problem with the idea of having a black President, or a female President, if the time ever comes when the most qualified candidate just happens to be black or female. So far that hasn't happened.

Worth knowing about today:

• Summer Soldiers by Any Other Name
• Hot Air TV: Sen. Jean Fraud Kerry confronted about Winter Soldier II
• Unclassified memo warns military personnel of anti-war threats to recruiters, Army installations/facilities
• Salon’s Preview of Winter Soldier II Propaganda
• Low-hanging fruit: Antiwar organizer hates the troops, America

• Support for war effort highest since 2006
• Pew: Majority of Americans see a successful conclusion in Iraq
• Iraqi Troops May Move to Reclaim Basra’s Port

• Canada comes through 
• Canada votes to extend Afghan mission

• No "ass-kissing chickenshit" he
• The Fall of Admiral George B. McFallon
• Warriors welcome resignation
  Current and former military officials welcomed the resignation of Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, saying he failed to prevent foreign fighters and munitions from entering Iraq.
• Can We Get A Fact Check From Fred Kaplan?

• Report: IDF kills mastermind of Jerusalem terror attack

• Linda Foley’s Mouth Shrills Again

• Campaign 2012 begins: Mitt to form PAC to elect Republican candidates

• Confirmed: Hillary’s supporters the coolest in America
• Hillary channels Brenda Lee over Ferraro contretemps

• Rezko-Obama: Beyond “Guilt By Association”
• One of Obama's Earmarks Went to Hospital That Employs Michelle Obama
• Obama requested million-dollar earmark for … his wife’s hospital?
• Obama's Pastor After 9/11: 'America's chickens are coming home to roost.'
• Obama's Pastor's Other Comments on 9/11
• VDH: Race and the Democrats
• Mickey Kaus: Psst!--Ferraro Was Right
• The audacity of hate
• Guilt by Association
• The Wright Stuff
• Video: Jeremiah Wright and “God damn America”
• Does Barack Agree?
• Video: Obama’s pastor takes highly nuanced approach to racial divisiveness;
  Update: More nuance: “God damn America”; Update: Role with campaign?
• Obama's Achilles' Heel
• Racial Issue Bubbles Up Again for Democrats 
• Sacked for stating the obvious
• Ferraro Defends Remarks About Obama as ‘Statement of Fact’ After Leaving Clinton Team
• Obama on Race and the Race
• WSJ: Obama and the Race Card
• Obama's Self-Portrait

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 13, 2008 at 12:31 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 12 March 2008
 

$40,000 worth of good news, a beautiful day going to waste

I just got verification a little bit ago that the Social Security Administration will not deduct the money I've gotten from the VA over the last three years from my SSDI back-settlement. I don't have bids yet but I think that means I can have my own car and have the new dining room and bathroom built. I've been pretty nerved up since the gent in Vincennes said he wasn't sure; he checked with someone higher up and now he is.

For some unknown reason my nephew wasn't able to get word to Taylor that I'd like him to work today. It's a beautiful day for trimming brush to make room for a fence and it's apparently going to be a few days till we have another one but I guess the job will have to wait; even if I could manage to get the saw started without help I know it would make my eye problem worse.

I also still don't have the money my ex said she sent, which means I still can't go to Vincennes and order wire so it's here when we're ready for it. Getting that wire ordered could easily turn into the thing that determines how much longer Sunshine spends in just the part of the pasture we got fenced last fall.

Did I ever mention I'm not good at waiting?

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 12, 2008 at 02:15 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2008.03.12 Politics and National Defense Roundup

My politics and national defense blogging may get sorta sporadic for a while. Those of you who've been reading everything on my blog and not just my daily roundups know that thing have finally started moving on the Social Security front and it looks like I may get a little bit of my money within the next couple of weeks. You also know I have a pasture to expand -- If my help shows up we'll start on that this afternoon -- and some remodeling I'd like to have done on the house. I'm not going to quit blogging all together but my threshold for what's important enough to mention may be higher some days than others.

Worth knowing about today:

• Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Major Assault Begins Thursday
• IVAW nutball update: One membership terminated, another indefinitely suspended
• The anti-recruiter movement: Bombs, vandalism, assassination threats, and now a call to “cage” the troops
• IVAW Sets Timer On Dishonor Bomb
• Jesse MacBeth to Winter Soldier: Exposing Dahr Jamail
• The return of Micah Wright

• Fred Kaplan: Fallon wasn’t pushed out over Iran
• Max Boot: Fallon didn't get it
• Fred Kaplan: "Fox" Fallon Wasn't Hounded Out

• Ethnic dispute tears al Qaeda, Hayden says

• Khatami: Heretic?

• The Bad War: the left vs. military recruiters.

• Thomas Lifson: The Air Force Tanker Deal

• President Bush Comes Out Full Force Against 'Fairness Doctrine'

• BBC Fabricates Home Demolition Report
• On the other side of the firing line 

• David Mamet: No longer a “brain-dead liberal”
• David Mamet, “Classical Liberal.”
• When a huge liberal tree falls out of the forest, will anyone listen?

• Video: Spitz resigns, pretends that he’s sorry
• Spitzer Resigns In Wake Of Prostitution Scandal
• Spitzer [D-NY] Spent $80 Grand on Hookers - Update: Resigning Tomorrow?
• Sooner or Later, Spitzer Will Affect The Presidential Race

• Client Number Nine's Troubling Number Two

• Romney for Veep?

• VDH: The Obama-Clinton-McCain Paradoxes

• The Rezko Scandal, In a Nutshell

• Is Hillary McCain's Fifth Column?

• Obama and the judges
• Ferraro quits
• Welcome to the 21st century, Gerry
• Speaking Truth To Power
• Ferraro booted from Clinton campaign for telling the truth about Obams
• Is time on Clinton’s side?
• Hillary at 3 a.m.
• Team Obama Provides McCain With Anti-Hillary Ad Fodder
• Flashback! HRC once thought taxes should be open (H/T: Heather Faith Brinkley)

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 12, 2008 at 12:03 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 11 March 2008
 

Little wheels keep on turnin'; Update: ... and turnin'

The smart thing for me to do would be to quit coming up with more ideas for spending that big check till I'm sure I know how big it's gonna be but so far I haven't managed to do that.

Credit my daughter with planting the seeds of this one in my head, although what she suggested and what I ended up doing with the idea aren't much alike. She emailed that if I'm not going to have an apartment built out back I should at least have a laundry room and a bathroom added to the house. After thinking about it a while, I realized having the washer and dryer in my room doesn't really bother me; I can turn off my hearing aids and forget they're there. I'd love to have my own bathroom but the place it would really make sense to put it is right over a septic tank I don't want to have to hassle with having moved. 

Don't even think about trying to scale the drawing but here's kinda/sorta what I have in mind for the house if I end up with enough money to do it. Black is what's there now, blue is changes. 

BR2 is "my" room. I realized while I was working on that drawing that it would be possible to add a small bathroom east of the existing one but what I think I'd rather do is make the existing one bigger; there's barely room to turn around in there. It wasn't that cramped when we moved here; the hallway that connects BR1 and BR2 to the bath was part of the bathroom at that time and there was a shower stall instead of the tub that's there now. All of that changed when Dad's mother got too old to live by herself and moved here in 1970, the same time as he added BR3 for her to sleep in. He was working with a very limited budget and I don't blame him a bit for not doing a fancier job but that doesn't mean I shouldn't improve the place now if I can come up with the money.

I'll have to wait till I see how much money I end up with, get some quotes, and decide how much of what I want to do I can really afford. I guess my top priority is the Dining Room, since that gets the dining room table out of my room. The storage room out back would eliminate a lot of clutter in the house but I'll need time to think about it if I have to choose between that and expanding the bathroom.

All this thinking makes my head tired. I need some sleep.

***

I'm never done with any idea till I've slept on it a few times. I realized over my morning coffee that it does make sense to implement half of my daughter's suggestion after all. Just because I add on a bathroom that opens into my room doesn't mean it has to be "my" bathroom exclusively.

Really, seriously folks, don't scale the drawing:

I had time over night to fully grasp what a mess it would be for a few days to tear the east wall out of the exiting hall bath and move it east a couple of feet. There's a half-bath in BR3 but we'd end up having to rent a motel room for a few days to be able to shower. I haven't priced it out but my instincts are telling me it wouldn't be much more expensive, may even less expensive, to simply add a bathroom as indicated above. It would increase the traffic through my room a little, but not that much; I'm already on the route from the Living Room and Kitchen to the hall bath. People headed that way via BR1 would probably just turn into the hall bath anyway.

I'm not even going to try to draw up a floor plan for the new room till I'm not as tired as I am now. I need to locate my tape measure and decide where it makes sense to put the door; the washer and dryer are on the north wall of my room and can't be moved very far without being a big deal, but they're back-to-back with the hall bath and there's plenty of room for a door east of them. There's a through-the-wall gas heater where the door needs to go but there's room to move it to the north end of the east wall.

I need to sleep on the matter some more, preferably sometime soon. I'm worn out without having done much of anything today.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 11, 2008 at 01:09 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2008.03.11 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Worth knowing about today:

• Blackfive: Admiral Fallon Steps Down
• Fallon Gonged in Favor of Petraeus
• Fallon resigns as head of Centcom; Update: In the works for awhile?
• Admiral Fallon Resigns as Head of Centcom
• Top Middle East military commander resigns

• The Pentagon vs. Petraeus

• Saddam had “no operational ties” to AQ: Pentagon

• Boeing: We was robbed … after we robbed others!

• In Havana, A Page From McCain's Past

• Porkutopia: All three presidential candidates to sponsor moratorium on pork

• Sources: Spitzer to quit tomorrow; Update: He was a good tipper, says escort
• Will Spitzer resign — or deploy the Clinton/Craig strategy?
• Spitzer aides to NYT: He’s out; Update: “Inevitable,” sources tell ABC;
  Update: Maybe not, says yet another aide;
  Update: Spitzer used escort service for more than a year
• Video flashback: A very special message from New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer
• NY Post: Spitzer Has Been a John for At Least Six Years
• NY Post: Spitzer’s been using hookers for at least six years;
  Update: Feds feared Spitzer was being blackmailed
• Left and right agree: Eliot Spitzer [D-NY] must go;
  Update: “At least six years and possibly for more than a decade”
• The Rise And Fall Of Elliot Sptizer (D-NY)
• Spitzer [D-NY]: From Cloud Nine to Client No. Nine
• The Spitzer Scandal: Lust Plus Pride

• “Ain’t no party like a Clinton party”

• Ferraro: Pickin’ on me ‘cuz I’m white! Update: Twenty-year flashback!
• The Democrat Punch and Judy show continues
• Obama Says Ferraro Race Comments Are ‘Patently Absurd,’ Campaign Calls for Ouster
  [The only thing Ferraro did wrong was to tell the truth and the only thing Clinton did wrong was to say she doesn't agree with Ferraro.]

• Where in the world is Michelle Obama?

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 11, 2008 at 01:08 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 10 March 2008
 

A little nervous again, a tempting offer;
Update: Good news, possible bad news

For some reason nobody remembered to stop and pick up the mail on their way in or out Saturday so I decided to walk up the road and get it myself yesterday afternoon. The fence money from my ex still wasn't there but the letter I was watching for from the Social Security gent in Vincennes was. Basically it was just a bunch of information from my file with instructions to look it over and call him if any of it was wrong. Unfortunately, the date they have on file for when I became disabled is 4 months before the date they should have. No idea how it happened; obviously a miscommunication or transcription error someplace along the way.  I need to call him after I've had some sleep and some coffee and hope telling him that information's wrong doesn't throw a major monkey wrench in the works and delay the process of getting some money to me. I'm going to stay a little nervous till I actually get that big back settlement check but I'm going to be even more so till I call and find out whether needing to change that date is a big deal.

My efriend Figtht4TheRight, a.k.a. Holger, emailed a little bit ago with a tempting offer if I can figure out how to take advantage of it. He has some vacation time coming in May and suggested that maybe he and a friend could come down for a long weekend of fence building and maybe even get some other efriends of his to spend Saturday and Sunday around here. I've let him know I need to sleep on the offer and wait till I see how some things go on the money front, which leaves me trying to figure out how to make the most of his offer to help. (I'm typing as I think; possible incoherent rambling ahead.) Unless my call to Vincennes tomorrow screws up the timing on when I get that SSI check I fully intend to have "Pasture 2" (as defined here) done by mid-April at the latest and it wouldn't be fair to Sunshine to put it off waiting on free help. On the other hand, Pasture 2 isn't the end of our "horsing around" needs around here. If things move fast enough, and/or if I rethink my priorities a little, I might still be able to take advantage of some free help in May. Even if I don't have that big check by then I'll be past the 60 day window for that review committee to decide the judge screwed up and I don't really have money coming, which means I'll feel safe spending whatever I do have by then. If I put off buying things like new laptops a little longer I might even be able to come up with material for a barn, or at least for extending the fence. Even if I don't have that broken tree out of the way by then we could go ahead and extend the north fence to the east end of the field and put some of the rails on it, and/or start the repairs on the fence between the yard and the pasture. We could also go ahead and build a three rail north-south wood fence where I intend for the east end of the pasture to be eventually even if we don't take the one at the end of Pasture 2 down till later.

I realized while I was typing that last paragraph that I've been planning on using the barn to decide if I trust Caleb to build that storage room out back and the storage room as a test to decide if I trust him enough to have him build the dining room. If F4TR and his friend want to come down and help with something it needs to be fence-building.

F4TR, if you read this before I get an email out I guess the bottom line is that I'd love to have you and your friends around for a while in May if I can come up with money for fencing material by then. That's going to depend on some things I can't predict for sure yet but if you want to come down to just sit around in the yard and shoot the breeze that would be great even if I can't afford to put you to work.

I've been thinking as I was typing, trying to figure out how to get that broken tree out of the equation. The "right" way to do it involves a cherry-picker truck but there may be other possibilities. If we could get a strong enough rope on it high enough up I wonder if we might be able to pull it down with the mini-winch I bought to stretch fence wire with last fall. If we did that, we could put all the stage-2 fences in their final locations. That would still leave a weekend's worth of work to do putting the rails on the north and east fences and replacing the rails on the west one. If I can come up with the money for the rails by May maybe F4TR and his friends could do that for me and what they don't get done I can have some of my nephew's friends do later. I think the first day the weather's decent I may have to see if that works.

*** ***

The good news is that I spoke to the gent I needed to in the Vincennes Social Security office and he says the "error" on when I became disabled may not even be an error, and even if it is it's no big deal; they may subtract a little from my back-settlement check or short me a monthly check or two later to balance the books properly but I'll still get my SSI check and the first few monthly checks on time.

I also caught up with my lawyer this morning after 3 days of phone tag at the end of last week. He sent me a letter addressed to the judge who heard my case and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with it. He wants me to sign it and send it back to him so he can send it on to Evansville, presumably with a letter from him as well. His prediction is that they'll stick it in my file and forget about it but at least I'll be covered against any charges that I tried to cheat Uncle Sugar out of some money.

The possible bad news is that the guy I spoke to in Vincennes isn't sure they won't deduct everything I've gotten from the VA from my back-settlement; he's going to find out and call me back. Everything I've read or heard from other sources indicates the VA money is mine to keep but I'll breath easier once I hear him say it is.

F4TR, at this point the only way I won't want you and your friends around for that weekend in May is if someone screws up and I don't get some of what I've been promised when I've been told I will.

***

Damn I'm tired. I got up early this morning to call that guy in Vincennes, then denied myself an afternoon nap for fear of being asleep when he called back. It's catchin' up with me. Basically I'm still awake at this point in case Mom has problems; I'll crash as soon as I know she made it to bed safely. Tomorrow I sleep in and if the guy in Vincennes calls before I'm up I can call him back at a more reasonable hour.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 10, 2008 at 02:02 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2008.03.10 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Worth knowing about today:

• Michael Yon: Guitar Heroes
• Michael J Totten: In the Villages of Al Anbar

• In Tanker Bid, It Was Boeing vs. Bold Ideas
• A Good Deal of Credit to McCain for Stopping a Bad Deal

• New Jihad Watch: Afghans with fake Mexican passports

• Mahmoud Abbas' Official PA Newspaper Glorifies Mass Murder

• The continuing war on recruiters that the Left doesn’t want to talk about

• Right in ‘08: The conservative campaign to end race/gender preferences

• Glenn Reynolds: No 'freedom to keep secrets'

• Monday moocher of the morning

• Strike Three For The Times: Self-Inflicted Scars
• Is This Any Angrier Than Hillary's 'Shame On You, Barack Obama'?
• A Good Deal of Credit to McCain for Stopping a Bad Deal

• ABC: Spitzer led feds to prostitution ring, not vice versa
• Right Now, Hillary Wishes Spitzer Had Backed Obama
• Gov.Elliiot Spitzer (D-NY) Is Linked to Prostitution Ring
• Sources: Spitzer under prostitution investigation
• What Spitzer was up to today before the news broke
• A walk down Spitzer Memory Lane
• The fall of Eliot Spitzer: “Client Number 9?”
  Update: Report - Expected to resign; Report - indicted?;
  Update: “I apologize to my family. I apologize to the public.”
  Rumor: Resignation at 7pm?; Federal wiretap info; Wall Street cheered
• America’s worst governor linked to hookers? Update: The Emperor’s Club?
  Update: Spitzer to resign? Update: Spitzer apologizes; Update: Caught on federal wiretap; Update: Video added; no resignation; Update: Not indicted;
  Update: Hillary scrubs website of Spitzer references; Update: New details

• Rising tide lifts One America
• 'The message from the Democratic campaign is that America is an unreliable ally.'

• Hello, faddah, hello, mama, here I am at Camp Obama
• Michelle Obama: ' What I Notice About Men, All Men... Is That 'Me' Is First.'
• Obama to Hillary: How come I’m qualified to be VP but not president?
• The Governing Downside of a Unity Ticket
• Obama ridicules idea of being Clinton's running mate.
• Obama: I Am Not Running to be Hillary’s No. 2
• WSJ: Obama’s pastor pretty much openly campaigning for him from the pulpit
• Obama's Constitution
• Sure, Obama's a smart, sweet guy — but can he fight?

• Hillary Isn't Playing the Experience Card Quite Right.
• Daschle: First Lady isn’t The Apprentice
• The Monster: A Loyal Clinton Soldier Turns in His Badge
• Girl Power, Clinton-Style
• Sniping by Her Aides Hurt Clinton’s Image as Manager

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 10, 2008 at 02:00 AM in Politics and National Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 08 March 2008
 

More redesignin' at the Circle F;
Update: Goodbye "Breakfast Nook," hello "Dining Room";
Updated again

(See previous) First, a refresher about what I'm discussing. (Image below the fold.)

Don't scale the drawing. I've tried to get the proportions as close to right as I can, but they're a long way from exact.

"Pasture 1" is what we were able to get fenced in between the time we found out Sunshine needed a new home and the time winter got here last fall. "Pasture 2" is what I plan to get fenced in within the next month or so. On the west side there's a wooden fence that stops about 16' short of our north property line; I'm going to fasten some welded wire to the back of it and extend it north to the property line. On the north edge of the place there will eventually be a 3-rail wood fence but for the short term there will be wooden posts and welded wire; we'll attach the rails when that big back-settlement check gets here. On the back side we'll go with t-posts and welded wire permanently. In the short term, the east fence will be t-posts and welded wire but eventually (I need to have a fallen tree cleaned up first) I'll replace it with a wood fence farther east.

As far as changes since my last post on the matter, the main one is the decision to eventually build a wooden fence at the east edge of the pasture. Due to all the recent and ongoing "improvements" in the neighborhood there's now a clear view of our pasture from the parking lot of the Wal-Mart next door, so we may as well make it pretty. I'm not going to fence all the way to the east end of the place; we'll leave space down at the end for some trees and brush to try to provide a little privacy. The picture doesn't show it but I'm also leaving some space between the back fence and the back property line for that same purpose.

We haven't decided yet whether to tear down the fence between Pasture 1 and Pasture 2 after we get done this spring. Part of me wants to allow for the possibility of restricting the horse to just one of the pastures now and then but I can't really think of a scenario under which we'd want to. If we don't tear the whole fence out we'll tear out about 16' of it at the house end. That would leave a 4' gate right next to the gap and another 100' of fence between the gate and the back fence. With Sunshine's vision problems, if I had to make the decision right now I'd say to tear out the whole fence. On the other hand he's learned his way around the area he has available now well enough that I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take him long to figure out how to get between the two fields.

***

I just worked up a spreadsheet estimate for my fence project. It looks like if I cash the check my ex says is on the way and cover the rest of it myself we'll be splitting the cost almost exactly 50/50. I'll still send her enough out of my back-settlement when I get it that she won't end up having paid for any fencing in the long run but for right now splitting this one 50/50 feels about right since it's our grandson's horse that needs it done.

***

At least it warmed up enough today for the ice in Sunshine's water tub to melt. I'm still waiting to see if the garden hose is going to be usable later in the day. One day when it doesn't wouldn't be at real disaster; I have a 5 gal bucket and a 1 gal bucket full of water sitting in the yard near the tub -- at worst I'll have to transfer water from them to the tub.

One thing that needs to be very high on my list as soon as I get that SSI check is a trip to St Louis. I haven't done anything more strenuous recently than sneezing and coughing hard and there's enough blood floating around in my right eyeball again that if both eyes were like that I wouldn't even be able to read a computer screen. As soon as I can afford it I need to pick a day for my sister to drive a rental car so mine can be gone long enough to get me to St Louis and back without being a major hassle for her and Mom.

***

The little light in my head went on while I was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee this morning and I realized there was a way to not only improve my "breakfast nook" design, but also free up a  bunch of space in my room.

Check out my new Kitchen/Dining Room design here. The Kitchen's there now but I'm rearranging things within it; the sink and range stay where they are now and the window in the west wall becomes a door. The fridge and dishwasher are new (the old ones get tossed) and the freezer's currently taking up way too much space in the hallway near the bathroom. The Dining Room is new construction. I'd been planning for a while to have a Breakfast Nook added and move the dinette there from the kitchen. I realized this morning that if I was going to mess with having a room added at all, I might as well do it right. "Right" meaning room for a bigger table and an exterior door opening to the area where my brother in law does his grilling, which is also near the driveway.

I currently share "my room" with a washer and dryer, which will be staying where they are, and the dining room table I plan to move. The table is used for big family meals at Thanksgiving and other than that one end of it gets used for sorting laundry and the rest of it pretty much just collects clutter. Moving the table to the new Dining Room and the dinette to my room, near the washer and dryer, will free up enough space that I can move in a computer workcenter similar to this one, facing outward from my current blogging corner. I'll also have room for a small fridge and a microwave for times I get hungry while my brother in law has the kitchen tied up fixing a big meal. Coupled with moving things to the storage room I intend to have built where I was thinking at one time about adding an apartment I'll finally feel like I have room to breathe in my room for the first time since I moved back here from Texas. It still won't be as nice a setup as if I had that apartment added on but, especially considering I'd already promised Mom and my sister a breakfast nook, it won't set me back nearly as much money. ... It just occurred to me that I might want to look for some portable walls and create a little "cubicle" in my blogging corner to provide some visual isolation between my computer and the washer and dryer.

Something else that soaked in this morning is that there's a better way to reroute gas lines and move the gas meter than what I'd been thinking. I'd been thinking of rerouting gas lines from where the gas meter is now (in the southeast corner of the new room) through the pantry to where I want the meter moved to. It finally soaked in that there are shelves in the garage back-to-back with the eastern part of the pantry. The line out of the gas meter currently goes thru the garage wall, runs a coupe of feet east under the bottom shelf, then turns north to run under the house. What I need to do is have the gas line that comes out of the ground under the meter go into the garage where the current line out of the meter does, turn west to go out to the new meter location, then come back into the garage downstream from the meter and go into the house where it does now. I don't know why I didn't think of that weeks ago.

Time frames? Were talking a few months yet before everything's done. First I need to see if Caleb can build a barn I like without pissing me off in the process. If he can, then we'll give him a shot at building a dry storage room out back of the garage. If he doesn't screw that up, then I'll get him started on the Dining Room. I guess I can live with the cramped situation in my room that much longer if I know there's light at the end of the tunnel. 

***

1:00 o'clock Sunday morning and I just came in from giving Sunshine some corn and sweet feed. I'm hoping this is the last night till winter it gets cold enough that I feel that's warranted. According to weather.com we've already seen our low for the night and it's not supposed to get this cold again for at least the next ten days, by which time it will be late enough in the year that I hope that means it won't till November or so.

I think part of it's short term -- I have a major cold and I think the eyestrain from the blood in my eyeball is making me feel tireder -- but I'm so tired right now I wonder if I have the energy to see through all the plans I have for the next few months. Part of it doesn't involve much more than me handing off some drawings and saying "Build it," but part of it does. The new fence isn't going to happen without me spending some time out moving around in the pasture to make sure the kids understand what I want done. The barn and the storage room are pretty much a case of me just drawing up what I want and staying out of the way. I guess the kitchen expansion is too, except for the fact it's gonna get pretty messy around here for a while while it's being built. I guess since I'm planning on a door from the new dining room to the outside they should be able to do the job without ever having to have the house open to the outside but removing the window at the west end of the existing kitchen to put in a door is still going to create some mess. I don't see any way to get my room rearranged to my satisfaction after the dining room table moves to the new room without getting pretty involved with the matter.

Part of the problem is the chemo drugs they have my sister on keep her so run down I wonder how much she'll be able to do without help when it comes time to start moving and rearranging things. We have a bunch of "we might want it sometime" stuff lying around that needs to move to the storage room I have built and she's the only one qualified to decide what can move outside and what needs to stay in the house. Maybe she can hire someone to help with the actual lifting and carrying but she's still going to have to be pretty involved. I need a whole lot of the clutter to disappear out of my room before I can get it set up like I want it and it needs to land someplace where she'll be able to find it if she ever wants it. ----- The thought just occurred to me that her oldest son's girlfriend night be interested in making some extra money. She and my sister get along well and my sister's got big hopes of having her as a daughter in law eventually. ... Better yet, maybe my nephew and the girlfriend could both help move things so they get some time together out of the job. With them involved my younger nephew will help too, and possibly the girlfriend's daughter as well. (She's a little doll and I think my sister's already harboring ideas about her also becoming a daughter in law in a few years.) I might even offer the younger two 3 or 4 bucks an hour to help.

I've been down so long I'm still having trouble believing deep down that things are really going to come together like I want them to but going ahead with the planning is the only way I can stay sane while I wait for the money to get here so I can actually get started on things.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 8, 2008 at 12:11 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack