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[I wrote this shortly after midnight this morning then for some reason saved it as a draft and forgot to publish it. I've re-dated it to reflect the time I wrote it, not the time it actually showed up on the site.] Driving home from Evansville yesterday and sitting under my favorite red tree recovering from the trip, three words kept running through my mind. "We made it." After years of struggling, including some times I'm not sure I'd have survived without the kindness of some people who know me only through my blogging, we made it. I'll never be country club trophy wife rich but I have enough money in the bank and enough more on the way that I'd have to make some incredibly stupid mistakes to ever end up struggling to make ends meet. Not that I haven't made some incredibly stupid mistakes in the past, but I think I learned enough from them to avoid repeating them. I called the Vincennes Social Security office before I hit the road yesterday morning. According to everything they were able to pull together after I called Monday they're convinced I still have about three times as much coming as the check I got Monday was for but they can't explain why I got a check for that amount and it may be a while before I know. My favorite theory for now is that the check I got Monday was sent to correct the Mar '03 vs. Mar '04 problem and I'll be getting a check for the rest of what they owe me sometime within the next month or so. I still have a lot of thinking to do to decide how much of what I got Monday to spend, and on what, before I get the rest of my money. I have a crew coming later today to clean up that corner of the pasture we did the sloppy job on a couple of weeks ago but beyond that I haven't really made any firm decisions. For one thing I haven't talked to Chad for a couple of weeks and I don't know what's going on with the job in Texas he either is or isn't going to be leaving town for sometime. By the time he leaves here tomorrow I'll know more. I think I want to leave most of the remaining fence work for F4TR and his friend, then have some combination of Brad, Chad, Kyle and Taylor finish whatever doesn't get done that weekend later. In the mean time I may have Brad and Chad add some circuits and outlets to the house, remodel the bathroom, install that freeze-proof hydrant, and some other things like that. I also need to get my sister to make some phone calls to track down some information for me; I wasn't real good at that sort of thing even when my lungs were healthy and getting out of breath like I do doesn't help a bit. I need to get some top soil hauled in to have someone spread around in the low spots in the barnlot, I need to get a load of gravel hauled in to have someone use to fill low spots in the drive, we have gas lines that need replaced, Mom needs a decent hearing aid, etc, etc, but without price I can't even get started deciding what to do soon and what will have to wait for the rest of my Social Security back settlement. Time for some more lawn chair time, then some sleep before Brad and Chad get here. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 30, 2008 at 12:27 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 29, 2008 at 12:37 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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That's a nice enough check (5 digits before the decimal point) that we aren't exactly in danger of seeing the utilities turned off any time soon but it's less than a fourth of what I've been promised. A nice lady in the Vincennes Social Security office is looking into it and wants me to call her Wednesday (I have an appointment in Evansville tomorrow.) My theory for now: When I got the letter from Social Security saying they'd received the judge's written opinion and would be sending me money I immediately called to ask why the effective date in the letter was March '04 when it said March '03 in the judge's opinion. The response I got the next day was "It's our mistake and we'll fix it." The amount of today's check would be just about right to cover the year in question. Is that really what's going on? I guess I'll know more Wednesday. I know they definitely owe me more than that -- the lady in Vincennes admitted it today -- but I hope getting it isn't going to turn into a big deal. I need some time to adjust my plans in reaction to getting that check today. All along I've been expecting to get my last VA check Thursday and my first monthly SocSec check Friday, with a big check coming later in May and monthly Social Security checks from there out. The check I got today isn't nearly enough to do everything I have planned for my back settlement -- a newer car or two, adding a room to the house, etc -- but it's enough to get some things done I didn't expect to be able to do for another two or three weeks. It's probably just as well that the trip to Evansville will eat up a big part of tomorrow so I have some time to think before I start throwing money around. I caught up with Brad on the phone a little bit ago and told him I'm ready for him and Chad to come back any time they can manage to be here after tomorrow. He thinks that will probably be Wednesday afternoon. I want to have them fix that northwest corner and maybe re-do the fence on the kennel side of the barnlot, then after that I'll probably put off any more fence work till Fight 4 The Right and his friend come in June. In the mean time I may or may not have Brad and Chad add some circuit breakers to our entry panel and some outlets at strategic locations throughout the house and maybe install that freeze-proof hydrant out by the barnlot for me. I also want to have them help me come up with a shopping list and haul some more things here from Vincennes for me; fence posts, gates, etc, maybe a picnic table and swingset, and probably some other things I haven't thought of yet. I need to go to Vincennes sometime between now and Friday night to pay off the payday loan I took out a couple of weeks ago and the one Mom took out about the time that check hit our mailbox, so maybe I can do some window shopping for swingsets etc while I'm there. If the Vincennes Wal-Mart doesn't have the swingset I want in stock I may go ahead and order one off their web site; I want one here for F4TR and his friend to put together when they come in early June so it's ready to play on when my grandson's here later in the month. *** Did I mention I was sitting outside under my favorite Red Maple when my sister handed me that check from Social Security? I'll probably end up spending a lot of time out there in the next few months. It'll be a lot easier to make plans for the money I got today once I know for sure I'm not going to have to fight for the rest of what I have coming. I don't know why it took me till a few minutes ago to think about calling the lady in Vincennes on my cell phone after my appointment in Evansville tomorrow. If I can make calls from the back yard to the Living Room on it surely I can spare the minutes to do that. I don't know when Chad's leaving for Texas, or even if he still is. If he's around long enough I want to have him and Brad install that freeze-proof hydrant, rewire the house for me, move the window in the hall bath a little north and a few inches down so Mom can see out it and put a combination air conditioner/heater in there for me. Getting a freeze-proof hydrant installed before next winter is absolutely essential but the other stuff's important too. If I can get an outdoor electrical outlet installed near the hydrant that would also be nice but not absolutely essential; I can break ice out of Sunshine's tub with a stick but I can't handle another winter of having to carry water from the bathroom in a bucket when the faucet in the garage freezes. I guess my sister saw on my blog that I thought it might be nice to have some sort of little gazebo out in the garden and thinks it's a wonderful idea. We'll have to decide later exactly where to put it and how fancy to make it. A roof with room under it for a picnic table, at the very least. For now I'm thinking four corner posts supporting a peaked roof but I might decide later I want it fancier than that. We might also decide we need to duplicate it in the back yard near the swingset but I'll defer judgment on that till later as well; I might decide all we need out there is the existing shade trees. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 28, 2008 at 06:13 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Still sittin' around thinkin' (Updated)
Sitting out under that red tree, waiting for Mom to go to bed so I can, I realized how irritated I still am with the Social Security people. It should not have been 39 months from the time I first applied for benefits before I finally got a hearing with a judge and it shouldn't have taken over 6 months after the judge ruled in my favor to get my back settlement check. I first applied for benefits in August of '04, they turned me down, my lawyer and I filed a formal "Request for Reconsideration," they rejected it, we asked for a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge and finally got one 8 Nov '07. If nothing else goes wrong I'll finally get my check sometime in May of '08, over 6 months after the hearing and nearly 4 years after I first applied for benefits. There is definitely something wrong with a system that moves that slowly. My military service during the Viet Nam war qualified me for a VA pension that kept me from going completely under but if not for that pension I'd probably have decided to collect on my life insurance way before last November. At least I finally do have my SSI money in hand (and almost gone), a promise I'll have monthly checks by the 3rd of every month from now on, and a promise that I'll have my back settlement within the next month or so. I've been arguing with myself about how to handle the boundary between the two pastures for days and sitting outside tonight I think I decided to go back to my original plan from last winter. The fence between the two pastures angles from southeast to northwest because that's the way I could maximize the size of the small pasture within the time and budget constraints I was working under last November. My intention at the time was to eventually have that fence torn down and re-run it straight west from where the southeast end of it is now, which would make the south pasture smaller and the north one bigger. Right now I think I'll go back to that plan and include a 12' gap in the fence that can be closed with two 6' gates (easier to get home than one 12' gate) hinged at opposite ends of the gap, which itself will be about 8' from the west fence. Among other things, that design leaves me with 3 good places for Sunshine's water tub so I can move it if the area around it starts getting muddy, or while I have some dirt spread to elevate the part of the barnlot where I expect it to spend most of it's time. The gates will spend most of their time open, folded back against the fence on either side of the gap, but we'll have the ability to restrict the horse to one field or the other when we need to. F4TR, I just realized as I was typing that last paragraph that I think it makes sense to have you and Scottie move that fence for me before we do anything down at the east end of the field the weekend you come down. That way, as long as we get started soon enough to get done the same day, we can shut Sunshine in the little pasture while we tear down the existing east fence, which allows us to use the wire from that fence in the new one if we decide to. We'll still extend the north and south fences before we tear down the old east fence but being able to tear down the existing east fence before we build the new one will simplify things and save me money in the long run. -- I'll still plan on renting a pickup truck from Friday PM to Monday PM, or possibly Saturday AM to Tuesday AM, in case we realize I screwed up and we don't have enough material to do everything. Depending on when my back settlement check gets here I may have to wait till you and Scottie get here to go to Vincennes after some of what I plan on buying (I need to have some healthy help along), which is even more reason to want a truck here that weekend. *** Something else just soaked in while I was spending some more time under the red tree. When we got in a hurry because we were out of hay we left a pile of firewood east of where the east fence is now and west of where it will be eventually and I've been trying to think of some relatively easy way to get it to the garden where we can roast weenies over it eventually. If we redo that diagonal fence first, or at least tear down the existing one, I'll be able to drive a pickup truck through the garden and across the barnlot and pasture to just inside the existing east fence to take some fence posts that direction and bring the firewood back. Just a matter of doing things in the right order. I let the horse con me last night and now he's trying again. Last night when I went out he was down on his belly with his front feet sort of under him and his back feet out to one side. Not an unusual position to see him in for a couple of minutes but he stayed that way long enough to get me concerned and I ended up taking him a little bit of corn and sweet feed to see if he'd get up and come after it, which he promptly did. Twice so far tonight he's been on his feet when I went out, only to lie down on his chest after I'd been there a few minutes. Hmmm, wonder what he's thinkin'. Not gonna fool me this time. btw, about a quarter of a million people are going to see my name in print today. Too bad I can't charge 'em each a dime. -- Yes, I was the Bill Faith that submitted the question but since my brother in law says he prefers to grill over charcoal the answer isn't going to do me any good. We need a new grill soon anyway and I'm going to try to have a nice one here by the time F4TR and his friend come in June; if they're going to put in time doing things I'd have to pay to have done otherwise the least we can do is to treat them to a decent cookout. A decent grill will cost less than they're saving me. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 28, 2008 at 12:50 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 27, 2008 at 09:20 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 26, 2008 at 08:36 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 25, 2008 at 09:55 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 24, 2008 at 06:03 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 23, 2008 at 05:07 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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We're all OK, no harm done. I have some other things to do first but I'll add to this post later. *** I guess I was sitting at the computer when that little quake hit and didn't even realize what was happening. I had my hearing aid out so if it rattled dishes or anything I wouldn't have heard anything and I didn't feel my chair move; the only clue I had was that my flat screen monitor rocked back and forth for a couple of seconds and I thought at the time I was just having one of my occasional dizzy spells. The first clue I had was when my niece called from Alabama this morning to check on us. It's probably just as well my crew didn't show up when I wanted them here last week. My bank has posted the same debit to my account twice and won't discuss the situation with us till the 2nd time moves from the "Pending Transactions" list to the History list; I think it's just wonderful that it can affect my Available Balance from the Pending list but they won't discuss items on that list with us. In the mean time until we get it straightened out I can't have the remaining things done on the fence that I want to have done this month. *** I just turned down an advertising contract that would have paid more up front than any ad I've run since I started blogging; it just didn't smell right. Maybe I misread the situation but it looked to me like the site the ad would have pointed to is selling questions and answers to be memorized to pass some certification tests I know my son in law busted his ass studying to pass the honest way. I'm so sick of being broke, and so scared of ending up that way again, that I'm not sure I can work up any real enthusiasm for most of the things I've been saying I was going to spend money on when my big check gets here. I sat outside half the afternoon arguing with myself about whether I really need a pretty rail fence across the front of the pasture. My best guess is I'm talking around $2,000 to build it and I really don't know if it's worth it. I think I may just finish up the fence beside the house and run wooden rails the first 8 or 16 feet down the front, then settle for the wooden posts and woven wire that are already there for the rest of it. If I do that I'll still use wooden posts for the east fence and maybe put rails about 8 feet each direction from the northeast corner. I've got to do something about the clutter in the kitchen and my room or I'll eventually get fed up with it and get my own place but I don't know if Mom can handle the commotion it's going to cause for a while to get the dining room I've been talking about added. I'll keep scratching my head for another solution, preferably one that costs less. I've got to get back to having a car that's just mine but I keep changing my mind about replacing what I have now. Maybe just buying my sister something she likes so my car no longer needs to be "the family car" would satisfy me. I'll probably try that first and see if that's enough to satisfy me after a while. There's no way I'm going to be satisfied with the situation out back without having a load of dirt hauled in and spread around the barnlot and some low spots in the little pasture. After seeing how muddy the barnlot gets I want it built up compared to what we have now and I want the shallow gully where water runs off of it down across the field filled in, if nothing else because it runs right under the only logical place to put a new barn. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 21, 2008 at 03:46 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Is it gonna shake again?; Update: Now I'm real confused
I'll post this quickly to record my hunch, then update it in a little bit. *** Maybe there's another reason but Sunshine is in the little pasture again, standing on bare ground right across the fence, a fence with a four foot gap in it where a gate used to be, from a field with lots of nice green grass to munch on. The last two times that happened it turned out he was standing there waiting for the ground to shake; he spent the winter in that little field and apparently feels safer there. When he moves back to the new pasture I'll update this post to either say "false alarm" or "I was right." I'm in a little better mood today; Chad's busy and it's still too wet to do part of what I want done anyway but at least it quit raining so I can get in some lawn chair time. Kyle called to say he'd talked to Chad but Chad has an interview this afternoon; they'll get in touch when they identify a time they can both be here. Kyle also said Taylor's back in town so if Chad can't break free sometime soon I can have Kyle and Taylor do what I want done. (Taylor was half of the crew that fenced the little pasture last fall. Eric, the other half, is in jail for nearly killing Kyle.) Once I get my big check I have enough things I want done that I may have Brad, Chad, Kyle and Taylor all here working part of the time. *** 2:30 and I'm still wondering what that horse knows, or thinks he does, that I don't. It's nearly time for his daily corn and sweet feed; the bucket we pour it into hangs from the fence in the bigger field and it will be interesting to see if he comes to get it and how long he stays. *** Now I'm good and confused. All indications recently have been that Sunshine is seeing much better than he was last fall but I'm not the least bit sure he didn't get stuck in the little field this morning because he couldn't find the gap in the fence. When I put corn and sweet feed in his feed bucket this afternoon he walked to the corner of the little field nearest the bucket and paced up and down the fence like he was trying to find his way through. I ended up having to go out into the field and put some feed from the bucket back in the coffee can I'd carried it from the garage in and use the coffee can to lead him into the big field. After he finished eating he stayed in the big field till he'd eaten his fill of grass, then made several galloping passes back and forth across it for no apparent reason except it felt good to be able to; on each pass he stopped just short enough of a fence to convince me he can still see fences, which still leaves me wondering why he couldn't find the gap in the fence between the fields. We'll watch him close for a day or two but I'm afraid I may have to move his water tub and mineral cube back to the barnlot a lot sooner than I wanted to -- it's still plenty muddy out there -- so I can tear down the short fence between where the gate used to be and the fence beside the house; the tub needs to be in a corner or he trips over it and tearing that fence down will eliminate the corner it's in now. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 20, 2008 at 01:08 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Cabin fever at the Circle F (Updated)
Too muddy and rainy to do anything on the fence project even if my crew was available. I managed to get in a few minutes in the back yard between showers but I've basically been stuck inside all day. I can't even go spend money on myself till we get my bank account straightened out. I let my sister's best friend's little girl give me cash and use my debit card to order a rather expensive doll off the web; the bank posted the transaction to my account the day it happened then, for some unknown reason, they added it to my "pending transactions" list again last night, which ties up that much of my available balance until we get it straightened out. There's enough left in the account and enough cash in my pocket that I'm not worried about making it through the month or anything but not enough that I'd feel good about any non-essential purchases till the matter's resolved. I don't really need that cowboy hat and those boots yet anyway and buying some more guns to cling to will have to wait till I get my big back settlement either way. I realized during my brief lawn chair session that I'm probably going to end up needing two swing sets. My grandson and my sisters grandkids are used to having one similar to this one, except without the seesaw, sitting under a tree they love to climb in the back yard so they can climb the ladder to the top of the slide and step from there to the lowest branch on the tree. The one that's out there now has one leg completely rusted through so the slide is the only part of it they were still able to use last fall, and even letting them do that worries me. I think I'll probably replace that one in early May and still go ahead and buy one of these, locally if I can or offline if I have to, after I get my big back settlement check. Kids can't have too many places to play. *** I think being stuck inside like I have been most of the day must make me lazy and depressed. Right now I'm sitting here wondering whether I'll have the energy to do half of what I have planned after I get that back settlement check. It finally quit raining so I could get in some more lawn chair time. I can't tell whether we got just the right amount of rain to give the seed I had spread yesterday a good start or so much most of it washed away. Hell, what do I know about reviving an overgrazed field? Damned little to tell the truth. I'm still not at all certain I won't end up having to have someone run a garden tiller over it, or maybe track down someone with a tractor and disk small enough to fit through a 12' gate to till it for me. I think all the "serious" farmers these days use big monster tractors that we wouldn't be able to get into the field; I wish I could get my hands on the old Alice I used to drive for my future father in law 40 years ago and the disk I used to pull. I may also need to find a way to get some topsoil hauled in in something small enough to fit through the gate. There are places in the barnlot and downhill from it that may never recover otherwise. Maybe I can have some dirt moved from part of the property that isn't inside the pasture to the barnlot; maybe down past the east fence between here and Wal-Mart. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 19, 2008 at 03:37 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 18, 2008 at 10:24 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Another design change at the Circle F; I've spent more time in the back yard "talkin' to the horse" in the last 24 hours than any day since last fall, at least, and maybe more than any day ever. It seems like I just think clearer out there sometimes. A little bit ago I sat out there and figured out how one design change can solve two problems for me.
Solution: Cut diagonally across that corner permanently and put my windmill out there where it will be easily visible from the highway. I need to go talk to Sunshine a little longer then get some sleep. *** I thought, per our discussion Tuesday evening, that Brad and Chad were coming back about noon today. As of 7:30P I still haven't seen them, heard from them, or been able to get either of them on the phone; I don't know whether to be worried or pissed off. Kyle, my nephew's friend and Brad's brother in law, is going to see what he can find out for me. He's also going to spread seed for me in the little field we moved Sunshine out of tomorrow afternoon; weather.com says it will probably rain tomorrow night and almost certainly will Saturday so maybe the timing will work out well. Everything's been done on the fence that absolutely has to be till well into the summer but there's a lot of tidying up I'd like to get done sooner than that if I can. Once I get my back settlement I'll have enough money to get the job finished whether Chad and Brad are available or not but they're good workers when they show up and I'd rather have them do a lot of it. I may have to put off ordering the swingset for my grandkids till I get my big check to avoid a blowout with my sister. That probably makes more sense anyway since it's something not absolutely essential and if my check gets hung up in the works somehow I could end up wishing I hadn't bought it. To have it ready to go when I'd like to I guess I'll be gambling on being able to buy it locally, either in Vincennes or at the new store that's supposed to open next door in mid-May; I can rent a truck if I have to to get it home for less than Wal-Mart wants for shipping it to me anyway, and if Chad's still around I can have him bring it home for me for even less. At worst I won't have it when my grandson and my ex are here in late June but I can definitely have it when he and his parents come back Labor Day weekend. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 17, 2008 at 02:02 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 16, 2008 at 05:47 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 15, 2008 at 09:37 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 14, 2008 at 04:33 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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If the weather'd held we could have had Sunshine out in the big field by now but thanks to rain yesterday and today the best we can hope for now is Tuesday. I walked out in the barnlot yesterday and realized there's more hay left than I'd thought; Sunshine tore the bale apart and scattered it so it doesn't look from the back yard like there's as much as there really is. He'll be fine till we can let him into the new pasture for good. I have things I'd go shopping for if I was sure I could afford them but I think it's better for now to try to keep a pad in my bank account for unexpected expenses. I know that at best I'm going to have to buy a used tire tomorrow and at worst I may have to buy a new one; used tires for my car are hard to locate sometimes. ... I just called and verified that the Vincennes Wal-Mart sells and installs tires. If I can find a used tire somewhere in Lawrenceville or Bridgeport I'll go with that but I'm not repeating the process we went through the last time I need to replace a tire; I ended up buying a tire at a salvage yard in Vincennes and taking it to Bridgeport Marathon to be mounted and installed. I haven't liked how the car rides since I put it on and unless I can find a good used tire without going through all that I'll buy a new one. I'd already been planning to replace all four tires after I get my back settlement and I may just go ahead and replace that one now. I broke the news to my nephew a little bit ago that he's probably not going to end up with a 22" monitor after all. I took a closer look at the desk it would be sitting on and there's no way to sit far enough back to be able to see the monitor easily and still be able to reach the keyboard. I can live with it in here till I can afford to replace it with something I like better then sell it on eBay. Other than being a little big I love the thing and won't hesitate to buy the 19" version of it when I have the money. I'm back to leaning a little more in the direction of wanting a newer car when my ship comes in. There wasn't any realistic alternative to letting my sister drive the one I have now after my nephew blew the engine in hers, and if I wanted to keep peace in the family there wasn't any alternative to letting said nephew drive it. Alternatives or not, it's showing a lot of wear and tear I didn't put on it. Whether I trade it or not I need to have the air conditioner fixed and put new tires on it; maybe after I do that I'll like it better and maybe I won't. If I do replace it I may change my mind about having to have a Chrysler/Dodge product. South Korea seems to be turning into the new Japan where cars are concerned and after driving that KIA last week and liking it I may at least look at KIAs and Hyundais. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 13, 2008 at 05:06 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Done planting posts, ready to start stringing wire; Because of the hay situation I mentioned in that last post I decided yesterday to build the east fence about 50 or 60 feet west of where I want it in the long run. I also had steel t-posts put in the ground instead of wooden posts to save time. In June or so I'll have the north and back fences extended farther east than where we're stopping for now, build a new east fence with wooden posts and rails, then tear down the east fence we're building now. We have all of the post for all of the fences in the ground and all of the wire we need in the front yard. If the weather cooperates Brad and Chad will be back in a few hours to start stringing wire. They think they can get all the wire up in one day but I'm going to be surprised and impressed if they do. The weather's looking iffy enough for the weekend (chilly with a good chance of rain) that if not for the hay situation I'd call a halt till Monday afternoon. Since we are so nearly out of hay I'll let the guys work as much of the weekend as they want to. I guess Fight4TheRight and a friend of his are going to be here the first full weekend in June; here's hoping the weather cooperates and I have my big check in time so we can get some things done. My top priority for that weekend will be getting that swingset up for my grandson to play on later in the month but I may also put off fencing the rest of the east end of the pasture till they've come and gone so they can also do part of that if they want to. *** Brad and Chad decided to take the day off due to the weather conditions. I can't really blame them; it's in the low 40s and threatening to rain. If it wasn't for the hay shortage I'd welcome the day off myself. I've had a new 22" flat screen monitor sitting on the floor by my computer desk since Tuesday afternoon; maybe I can get switched over to it later today. *** I'm now using the new monitor but I'm not sure for how long. Using it's a little like sitting too close to the screen at the movies (That's why we always parked in the back row at the drive-in). I was already feeling bad enough about spending as much as I did on it before I had lots of money to spare and finding out I don't like it all that much just makes it worse. My nephew and brother in law both think they'd like it better than the one currently attached to the family machine and my sister says she's willing to try it in there. The smaller flat screen that's in there now will suit my needs just fine until I get my back settlement. When I get that I'm turning the computer I'm using now into the family machine and buying myself a laptop, then down the road a ways I may buy myself another flat screen to attach to it. *** I think maybe I need a couple of these, or maybe these. The former, probably. We have a little field out back (I remember it as a garden 50 years ago) that we use for weenie-roasts several times a year. In the past all we've had in the way of a table was an old card table but I think it would be nice to have something more solid back there. I wonder what it would cost me to build some sort of little gazebo in that area. Hmmm. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 12, 2008 at 01:18 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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It sure was nice of everyone to give me so much warning that there might not be enough hay to last till I got the rest of the pasture fenced. From here out I obviously need to focus on getting the fence done as quickly as possible, even if it creates extra work and costs me money in the long run; we need to get Sunshine out into the big field as quickly as we possibly can. If someone had told me even a week ago that there wasn't any more hay to be had I could have done some things differently to save time. The first thing that comes to mind is I could have built a temporary north fence, about 20 feet south of the one we're already well into building, using steel t-posts, which can be driven into the ground, rather than wooden posts, which require pre-dug holes. Then after I got the rest of my money I could have built a fence with wooden posts and rails right on the property line and torn the temporary fence down. That would have cost more in the long run but it would have saved two or three days in the short run. Too late now; we already have enough wooden posts in the ground that starting over would slow things down even more. I guess for the next few days we concentrate on "quick," as opposed to "elegant," and figure on doing some touch-up work later. It's quit raining and weather.com says it won't start again till tomorrow night. We won't be able to work Sunday |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 11, 2008 at 01:51 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack |
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I got my wish, changing some plans
I was hoping for a good excuse not to build fence today and I got it. It's been raining on and off all day. I needed the rest but I'd have felt guilty about taking a day off without an excuse. I thought I was done taking out payday loans -- the last time I did was in December -- but I looked the situation over and took one out today. It was looking like it might be a challenge getting the fence finished this month without more money after I pampered my inner geek a little more than I might should've ($390.54 at CompUSA.com) and some other things came up unexpectedly. With both a VA check and a Social Security check coming at the beginning of next month I was able to borrow a little over three times what I was able to the last time, enough that now I'm confident all we need now is decent weather to finish the fence. I found out today that my ex and my grandson are going to be in this area for the last 10 days of June. That means my tentative plans to spend Father's Day in Ft Worth no longer makes sense; I'll have to decide when I'm not so tired whether to brave a trip down in July or August or wait till September. It also changes my deadline for having one of these in the back yard. If Fight4TheRight and his friend come down in early June like we've tentatively decided putting it together will be a good project for them. My ex called while I was typing the above and said, among other things, there won't be any more hay till this fall; it was dry enough last summer that no one was able to grow as much as usual. That makes getting the fence done even more urgent than I already considered it to be and means we need to start giving Sunshine some lead-rope time in the big field as often as we can between now and when it's ready. *** I just decided to reschedule my 4/15 appointment in Evansville back a week or two. Weather.com says that's going to be a perfect day for building fence, Chad gets out of class earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays than he does MWF, and I don't want to lose a day of building fence. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 10, 2008 at 10:13 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 9, 2008 at 05:55 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Brad and Chad brought all but three rolls of my wire as they came over today and got almost all of the fence posts for the north fence properly planted. My CompUSA order came today -- a flat screen monitor and USB hard drive -- but I haven't even opened the packages yet. I'm worn out and have to be up early tomorrow to drive to Marion. I'll probably feel more like blogging another time. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 8, 2008 at 10:27 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Progress, but I can't show you
I'm about ready to tell Net10 I want a refund on the camera phone I bought last month. I like it as a phone, even without the camera, but I've had repeated problems taking pictures with it and sending them to my email, which has me a little leery of trusting it as my only cell phone. For right now I'm carrying two phones, waiting for them to send me a SIM chip so I can transfer my number from the old one to the new one; I'm giving serious thought to just carrying two phones for the foreseeable future, the old one for incoming calls and the new one for outgoing calls. I guess I can afford to do that now. Brad and Chad showed up about 5:30 yesterday afternoon with the rest of the posts I bought at Lowe's Saturday. We have now have both of the 6x6 end posts for the north fence in the ground and about a half dozen of the landscape timbers I'm using for line posts. This afternoon they're going to bring me at least part of what I've bought from TSC -- I'm not sure all of it will fit in the truck at once -- and plant some more posts if the weather permits. I have to take Wednesday off for a trip to Marion and Weather.com says we may not be able to get much done for about three or four days after that. Part of what needs done can be done with the ground wet -- I won't ask anyone to work when it's actually raining -- but there's already part of it we can't do till the ground's drier. We'll get there eventually, I guess. I've been trading emails with Fight4TheRight and it sounds now like he's going to come down the first weekend in June to learn about building fences and barns and swingsets. Blamed fool works indoors and thinks that sounds like a fun way to spend part of his vacation, would you believe? I'm looking forward to having him here whether we get any work done or not. It feels wonderful to see some things start getting done around here, whether I'm up to doing them myself or not. "Engineer Bill" lives, whether he can do the heavy stuff himself or not. I feel more alive than I have anytime since we finished the little pasture last fall, if not longer than that. I'm useful again! |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 8, 2008 at 01:57 AM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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Brad couldn't locate Kyle so he showed up with Chad, the friend whose truck he he'd said earlier he thought we might be able to borrow, in Chad's truck, and we ended up going after part of what I'd paid for yesterday at Lowe's. Only part of it because all of it would have been too heavy for the truck. Chad goes to school during the day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but gets out of class early enough that they're going to bring the rest of what I bought at Lowe's over tomorrow afternoon, then we'll meet at TSC at a yet to be determined time Tuesday to pick up some or all of what they're holding for me. Other than picking up things at Lowe's we also got the northwest corner post for Pasture 2 set and some of the old rails torn off the fence beside the house. We'll use rails from the north end of that fence to replace damaged or missing rails farther south, then use new rails from wherever we run out of old ones to the north end of the fence. As it turns out, the new corner post is right on 20 feet from the north end of the existing fence. I haven't decided exactly where to put it yet but rather than planting a bunch of posts at other-than-eight-feet intervals I'm going to put a four foot wide gate between the front yard and the pasture; I just found a new home for the gate that currently connects Pasture 1 to Pasture 2. Funny how things fall together sometimes; my sister tells me she just realized this afternoon, before I mentioned that plan, that if we ever want to restrict Sunshine to just Pasture 2 we need a shorter path between the yard and Pasture 2 than walking from the back yard into the barnlot and through Pasture 1 to get to Pasture 2. I need some downtime; maybe I'll ad to this post later, maybe I won't. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 6, 2008 at 06:45 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack |
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