Whatchalldoinforthe1st/4th???

I'm putting in kitchen cabinets and countertops! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Sorry I haven't been around to visit much, but it's crunch time folks and the weather has been VERY accomodating. I promise to be more of a presence after the kitchen is completed, but the next 5 days are going to be pretty busy. Y'all play nice - you hear that Southern Drip?

Here's the lastest in a string of smaller projects (including the midnight footing pour complete with Buffle-supervision. Steps have to season some before we apply the stain, but it's functional!

HAPPY 4TH!!!!!!!

Sometimes you just have to go play!

We don’t always see eye to eye on things, but one thing we still have the capacity for is recognizing when one or the other of us is completely “burnt-out” and needing some air. Sunday was a mutually recognizable burn-out viewing.

Walking out onto the deck and into the sunshine
Mornin’
Mmmm *not quite a grunt*
Hands her coffee
Mmmm *more appreciative sortta grunt *
The air is cool with a slight morning breeze and it has that fresh, non-carboned scent – not city-like at all
You gonna work on the steps?
Yeah. I think so – too pretty to be working inside today. Think I’ll cut the grass early though.
You guys been for a walk?
Yeah, at dawn – three new homeless folk sleeping in the park this morning
Any needles?
Nope. What’s your P.O.D.?
Our bills, company bills … I’d rather be outside …
Hear you … what if we just bagged work today and went for a ride?
Taylor looks up in anticipation at the word “ride”
Hmmmm….wanna go to Rainier….that dog friendly trail?
Hmmm…too late, that’s 70 miles to the trailhead…we could go to Rattlesnake Ridge or up to Snoqualmie Pass and let him run free in the meadows
Hmmm…k…lets just go and we’ll sort out where on the way
Ready in ten…

Rattlesnake Ridge was too busy, but the pass was splendid.



It was a little hazy from the heat, but it was a glorious day and the Buffledog had a great time sniffing new news and marmot poo, but cut the critters a wide berth.


Sometimes you just have to get-out-of-town!

HAPPY HUMP DAY!!!!!!

Its summer in Seattle (finally)

It’s summer in Seattle (well not officially since that’s not until July 5th – the natives will know exactly what I mean) and there seems to always be something going on. Put anyone in a colorless room for 2/3ds of their year and they’ll squeeze the bright days till they squeal!

So it was The Fremont Solstice Parade of wackiness and faux debauchery last weekend and yesterday our neighborhood is the gathering place of the annual Greenwood Auto Show. Now we aren’t talking about some weenie little event here, but blocking off the Ave for 20 blocks and filled from north to south with cars angle parked and little show peeps making sure they are spaced correctly with their piece of PVC pipe and a tennis ball on each end to set the spacing. There is everything here and some are very droolable pieces – cars folks, cars (although the crowd can be fun too)! There’s new iron and very old iron, fast iron and turtle iron, pretty iron and works in progress and then there is the iron that makes you go, “Hmmmm”. All of it represents a lot of work from a lot of very dedicated gear-heads.

Well, here is all 20 blocks of the show and, yes, it was a literal sea of peeps!


Now, you’d think in that many people you see someone you’d know, right? Nope, nada, none! I thought I saw someone, well, more like a fanciful thought, because it would been imposserous, but the thought was fun anyway. How is it in 20 blocks of wall-to-wall people that you see no one you know – not even neighbors? It is my neighborhood after all!

So IF you are looking for my birthday present early here is a suggestion:



Let’s see if anyone can figure out what this radiator monogram belongs too – just the make, I’m not that mean!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

PBase Galleries

1st - I've unlocked the '04 and '05 Solstice Parade galleries for those interested.

2nd - There are a ton of pics from this year, but it might be the end of next week before they are posted on PBase.

HAPPY WEEKEND Y'ALL!

FREE SPIRITS

IT'S LATE, BUT IT'S STILL THURSDAY - RIGHT?

HAPPY HNT from the Center of the Universe!!!!

FREMONT SOLSTICE PARADE

More free!

Well the pictures are worth a thousand words!

UPDATE: MEGA PIC POST FOR HNT TONIGHT! :)

Finally! An accurate view of the Shrub (our dickless wonder) - pffffttttt!

HAPPY TUESDAY!

Sunny & Free - Solstice '06

Summer officially parades into Seattle and the paradees tried their best to dispell the gray and the rain. The day started out pretty iffy, but as you can see the sun did shine in many places that it normally doesn't!

There are so many good photos that I'm going to split this post over the next several days. Eventually I'll load the whole series into my PBase gallery (but that might be a week away).

ENJOY! HAPPY SUMMER!

It's the Fremont Solstice Parade tomorrow!

Some places you should never look!

UPDATE: pics finally worked (using Firefox instead of IE)! Now y'all get to see too! *evil grin*

So this Craftsman house, circa 1920, is 86 years old. It has been a wonderful place for the 6 years we’ve been in it and has had very few “real” problems; mostly the work has been cosmetic. All that changed when, quite by accident I discovered a “ground fault” in the wiring putting in a lamp on a circuit that I hadn’t had to touch since we’ve been here (ground fault meaning that I had a hot lead leaking current to the ground wire – and no I’m not happy knowing that we’ve been here for 6 years and the problem wasn’t discovered during the house inspection). In fairness it is a circuit for lighting only, but the problem has resulted in me rewiring that and another “suspect” circuit – neither easy since it was in the walls and attic.

So this leads me to having to access a part of the attic that has been sealed up – out of sight, out of mind - for what we think may be 40 years! I had to tear out a closet knee wall to gain access and you cannot imagine my shock when I first looked in!




Now some folks find unexpected treasures like MONEY and old STOCKS and other items of value! What do I find? A squirrel playground, several piles of chestnuts, old liquor bottles (or perhaps medicine) complete with cork, sheets, plastic sheeting, wood roof shingles and tarpaper, insulation that looks like a bomb exploded and the pièce de résistance, bed pans! Not one, but two! No frigging money – bedpans! BEDPANS and not MONEY – no Doubloons, no Rubles, no Silver Certificates – just places of deposit of another sort! Oh! I did find the hiding place for some badly deteriorated old porn in a false wall near the chimney! I’m still looking for the money!

So a box of Hefty Bags later, a 30 gallon trash can and clearing out the decades of cobwebs I can now see the joist and wiring - a fresh start for a long neglected space.

Y’all ever see The Money Pit? I’m living it, but I’m smiling! This WILL have a happy ending!

*SINCE PHOTO UPLOADING IS WONKY AGAIN THIS MORNING YOU ALL HAVE BEEN SPARED TEMPORARILY OF THE HORRORS OF THE ATTIC*

Wednesday picture potpourri

"Come young master, let me show you the dark side."

"Holes", the kitchen.

"The Mother Ship" - folks there's only 2 fixtures and 2 switches!

Just how convoluted does it have to be?

"...and we are going to walk, when?"

My salvation and welcome respite!

HAPPY HUMP DAY!!!!

Mmmmmmmmmmm

Mmmmmmmmmmmm … mmmmm … mmmmm … mmmmmhmmmm … oh! Hi! Sorry, just blissing out here for a bit …mmmmmmm … mmmmhmmm ……… oh ok! Guess you want me to talk, huh? Well, not much to say other than I’ve again discovered a potential addiction – brought to me by my masseuse – had no idea I hurt in so many places – I’d forgotten how wonderful that kind of relaxation feels – mmmmmhmmmmm ……………………. Happy Tuesday ….. mmmmmm ………

Remodelus Cocytus

It started out as a small job really; one that has a clear beginning, defined middle and a foreseeable end. Lies! It was all lies!

THE DARK WOOD OF ERROR

~Think I’ll start on the stairs to the bedroom - in and out in a couple of days.
~Ok, that’ll be one piece that gets finished quickly. Then you start back on the kitchen?
~Spruce up the door frame. Rip out the carpet and clean up the treads. Put up the bead board. Piece o’ cake…shouldn’t be bad…
~Can you put in a wall lamp at the bottom? Three way switch? Ummmm, how about a three way switch for the ceiling lamp in the bedroom?
~That all?
~Yeah…for now.

…and thus the slow descent to Remodelus Cocytus, skipping the second level, Lustful, (to which I always thought I was forever doomed) and falling straight for the ninth – there is no love in the attic.


I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE

~Hmmmm…if I just bore this hole at a slight angle I’ll come out the side of the joist…
*whir, whir, rumble, rumble, whir, POP!*
~SEAMUS?
~What?
~Why is there a hole through the bathroom wall?
~WHAT?
~Yeah, near the ceiling!
~&^%@$@%^^%&&*((())(&(*&^&%$%$
~Heeheeheehee
~Bwahahahahahaha
~Heehee
~That’s not good! Plan “B”.

I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW

~Hmmm…this won’t be bad…
*tugs on the end of the carpet*
*rippppppppppppppp…*
~What’s this on the stair tread? That’s not supposed to be there!
*peels back vinyl tread covering*
~Oh, this is not good! Not good at all. Damn adhesive!
*poking and scraping at green gelatinous substance that is in GREAT abundance*
~Gotta use stripper! Not the kind of stripper I want to play with either! Damnitall and it’s little brother too!

ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE

~Why’s this wire here?
*tug*
~Open end? Hmmmmm….
*zzzaaap!*
~This isn’t good…
*clambers out of attic in search of correct circuit breaker – fuck it – kill the house*
~Where does this go? Fuck, I gotta crawl over there?
*belly crawls through the insulation, over the heating ducts toward the eaves while desperately avoiding the nails coming through the roof*
~If my arm were just 5 inches longer I could reach that…
*Abandoning the quest for terminus of non-specified hot wire, the worm turns*
~I’m gonna have to tear out part of the kitchen ceiling now. Fuck – I just fixed that spot next to the pantry!

So…passing through The Dark Wood of Error, and stopping for a moment to pet the She-wolf before she drives me through the Gate of Remodelus I see only a miniscule light at the bottom of the pit – I think that is just the baleful glow of the level entrance, not the exit sign – not the Poet’s Way Out!

Hello Sunday!

Lighter fare

Seamus in nature

Seamus's brain on nature

HAPPY THURSDAY!!!

Summer in the park

An explosion of trash was scattered around the litter barrel and out into the street. Beer cans of the quart variety with names that I do not recognize formed a rough arc around the barrel, some crushed in the road with the remaining contents pooling like blood around their mangled bodies. The crows were already out, picking at the leavings of some indistinguishable fast food, alternately calling for the rest of the flock and chasing off the new nibblers – do they just want an audience to eat? Taylor, under voice command, was straining against his instinct to not chase after the feasting harbingers of doom. He stops in that stance of both attention and alarm and shies away a few feet. Following the path of his gaze, searching for the object of his wariness, I both see and smell the pool of bloody vomit near the curb and looking left toward the small copse of fir trees and see a person sprawled against the base of a tree, obviously alive with limbs twitching either in dream or fit. A male in total disarray and of indistinguishable age lay in his own vomit, piss and shit in our park.

I held my phone for a moment in debate before dialing 911. It was the glint of the needle that ended the debate. First one, then two and I became as angry as I had been in a long time with nowhere to direct it…were they his or another party? There had been far more miscreants to create this mess than the one in fitful slumber beneath the trees. We moved about 20 yards away to escape the stench and sight of the human cesspool and waited for the beat cop to arrive.

Fortunately our wait was not a long one and after a brief conversation with Officer Friendly we aborted our walk and turned for home. We, as a neighborhood, have been fairly tolerant of the parade of homeless and transient campers around the park, but we draw the line with needles and trash and indecent behavior. I shake my head trying to dispel the visual and the seething anger, breathing deeply to clear my sinuses of the residual stink, and wonder yet again what drives folks to this level of despair and degradation.

…in our park…our summer playground…our children and dogs…how many needles this year…

Do you ever feel...

…like if you just went away that you could just think things through? Take a road trip, a short drive to the beach, a day wandering over mountain trails, a day climbing to the top of some favorite peak or even just finding a quiet park, coffee shop or book store. Why is it that we feel like we have to escape from our known and familiar places and spaces? The short answer I know, the gaining of distance and perspective, but it seems almost counter-productive to engage in this activity because the mind then wanders down paths of fancy and fantasy. So assuming that we hold to our purpose and return to our known and familiar with fresh resolve, why is it that it dissolves back into the chaos known as our daily lives? Does change, real change, really only manifest in the blinding light of crisis? Historically this seems true both individually and as humanity en masse. Thus is my head today!

Progress!!!!!

“Just what has been keeping Seamus busy these days? He talks about all this “stuff” going on at the casa and we never see any progress! Slacker!!!!”

What? Slacker? Had to come out sooner or later! Ha!

So here is some of what he’s been “slackin’ on – remember this pic?

Well – here’s some progress

And here where he got before he moved on! Can’t keep the boy directed – thinks he has to start something else. Adults! Think he’s lost in the kitchen now.

Happy Weekend all! (Seamus will be busy)