Category: Personal

Cue the looming threat movie music, please.

Today our contractor showed up and told me that we were due for an inspection. Eek! But hey, that’s why we hire professionals. The inspector arrived a couple of hours later and was very friendly and understanding. See, we got lots of rain last night and we have no gutters to guide rain away from the house right now. So all of the rain from the rear roof just falls off to the edge of where the patio will go – aka the piling holes. Mix that with the fact that we’re on the downward slope for quite a bit of the neighborhood and those those things are full. Technically, he could choose not to approve it until those holes are dry.

Fortunately, he’s not an ass, and in addition to showing up on time, he issued the approval with a note that the holes should be pumped first. He said he didn’t want to hold us up, especially because we could likely be done with this just in time for the warmer weather. He asked if we were looking forward to having a new outdoor living space. Yes!

So we passed inspection, the contractor came back by, and he said he would get in touch with the concrete guy ASAP to see about getting it poured. If he has finished up his other job by now, he could be by as early as this afternoon. If he can’t be by today, he’ll come by tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Now, the big question. Should Sebastian & I carve a little something in the corner? :)
Continue reading “Home Improvement: The Government Regulation Begins”

From Bitter and her mom, I got the the complete first two seasons of Rome.  One of the creators of this HBO series is John Milius, who is an NRA board member, and up for re-election this year.  Like Wayne Anthony Ross, he’s someone who will get my vote, even though we didn’t endorse him.

So much for that weather delay.  Or, if this is what weather delay progress means, bring it on Mother Nature.

It was rather unexpected to be stirred this morning sometime after 7am by people destroying things in the backyard.  Fortunately for us, those people were our concrete guys and the destroyed items were the remaining pieces of concrete that previously supported the beams to hold up the roof.  I thought they would stop there.

By the time Sebastian left, they were putting in the frame.  Awesome.  By noon, they finished the holes for the pilings, hauling in the gravel and getting everything set up for the next step.  I assume the next time we see the workers will probably be on Monday if the schedule holds up.

It was nineteen years ago that I became old enough to drive.  It was seventeen years ago I became old enough to sign a contract, join the military, vote, or buy a long gun.  Fourteen years ago I became old enough to drink and buy and carry a pistol (should those things really go together?).  Been ten years since I’ve been able to rent a car anywhere from anyone.  But today is a momentous day.  Today, I am finally eligible to be President of the United States:

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

I will form an exploratory committee forthwith.  Obama better watch out in 2012.  Hopefully I can at least get an NRA endorsement.

UPDATE: I should point out that my background as a community organizer makes me eminently qualified for the job.

Well so far no parts of the house have collapsed. I consider that a good thing.

Today, Peter the contractor came by at the much less painful hour of 9:30 and started propping up the roof so he could remove the beams holding it up.

That means those last little bit of concrete can be removed and they can begin working on the process of getting the patio poured eventually. Unfortunately, we’ve hit another delay. That’s right, a weather delay. We’re in for rain tomorrow. On Friday, Norm the concrete guy is finishing up one other job quickly. Then we’re plagued by rain again through the weekend. So hopefully Monday will be wonderfully sunny and we can get moving with the project again.

In the meantime, Sebastian made a dangerous decision.  He said I can do whatever I want out there to decorate.  That’s true love – or madness.  It is yet to be determined.  First, I need to find some new light fixtures to go on either side of the door.  I’m opposed to paying insane amounts for these since I need at least two in the back, and possibly one for the front if I can convince Sebastian that my neurotic self will not sleep until the lighting fixtures around the outside match.

I’m also going to be on the lookout for patio furniture at a reasonable price.  I checked out the Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe’s websites.  My goodness!  I am not going to ask Sebastian to spend $1,000 on a seating set for 4.  More importantly, I want a seating set for 4-6 that doesn’t have a dining table or coffee table.  I’d rather have a couple of side tables instead.  Oh, and did I mention I hate wicker?  So wicker furniture is also out.  In other words, this is going to be an adventure, and probably not a fun one.

What was intended to be a fall project, then a “before the first snow” project, and is now a spring project has finally started.

The first delays were due to contractor issues. We couldn’t find one last fall. For all the construction and home improvement slowdown reports, we had contractors who wouldn’t show up for quote appointments, contractors who were quoting 3x what the eventual job will cost, and contractors who came out before deciding they didn’t want the job and didn’t return our phone calls. Fun.

In early fall, a neighbor and I started chatting and he gave me the name of someone he used for construction projects at his job. (He said he would use him for home projects, but he didn’t want to be perceived at work as possibly getting kickbacks.) We called him out, he was willing to do the job, and even better, at the lowest price. Talk about lucky for us.

But then, we had to wait for the weather to break to get the tree out since it required a very heavy crane and the ground was simply too soft. That happened in December. But, we still couldn’t get started. Turns out that licensing and permits from the town go on a calendar year cycle. So if we started in December and hit a delay, we would have to start the paperwork over again and pay another round of government fees.

January arrives and we make contact with our contractor again. He jumped through all the hoops for the town. By the time we get all of the paperwork in hand, signed, and notarized – along with all of the construction drawings and documents – it’s late-February. He drew up a contract, we paid it, and we waited. And waited. And, finally, on Friday, we got permission.

They started work at 8am. And, oddly enough, both neighbors also had either a contractor or landscaper out to do work as well. I think we gave the trash and recycling truck drivers a hard time with all of the trucks in the road. I’ll update with more photos as the project progresses. I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s done by the end of the week.

Got an eye exam today.  First in probably five years.  I noticed my eyes were having some difficulty focusing on the computer screen, and seeing distant targets clearly.  I didn’t thnk my sight had deteriorated all that much, but as soon as I was in front of the chart, and could see all the way to the bottom on the left eye, and only down three lines on the right, I knew it going to mean a new prescription.

I’m anxious to see how this affects my shooting.  I don’t have too much difficulty with indoor or air gun Silhouette animals, which max out at 25 yards, but a military SR target out at 200 yards looks pretty fuzzy to me.  I prefer a six o’clock hold on those, and it’s too fuzzy for me to make out whether I’m lollypoping the target properly, or whether I’m a bit under it.  The fuzz kinds of runs together.  Hopefully the new prescription will help me with that.

Other than that, the eyes are fine.  I had one imperfection in my eye lens that they say is congential, and isn’t big enough to affect my vision.  Blood pressure was a little high (don’t ask me why optometrists take blood pressure), but I have white coat hypertension, so that wasn’t a surprise to me.  Put me in any clinical setting and I exhibit pretty severe anxiety.  My resting pulse rate is 60-70 bpm.  The machine read my pulse rate at 120 bpm.  I don’t like doctors offices.  The dentist is even worse.  Good thing they don’t take blood pressure.

Alton Brown’s pretzel recipe is not bad.  Compared to a genuine Philly soft pretzel, it is a bit different, but good in its own right.  Traditionally, pretzels are first boiled in lye.  This recipe uses baking soda.  It works, but makes a slightly different flavor, and doesn’t quite do as good a job with the hard outer shell.  But this looks good:

They taste pretty good too.

• Bitter is baking some apple coffee cake
• I have a strange desire to make home made soft pretzels.
• I should really think about loading up some .44 Special for the IHMSA match next Sunday.  Field pistol with a .44 is tough.  The most I’ve been able to hit is 13 animals.  Most competitors in field pistol seem to prefer the .22 Hornet.
• Next Saturday is also the next practical rifle match at Langhorne. Last time was murder on my knees having to drop from offhand standing to kneeling to prone repeatedly.  But I don’t know the course of fire.  I could use some .223 loaded up for that if I’m going to go.  If it’s 50 yards or under, the Wolf .223 I’ve been wanting to get rid of, which is crap for anything long range, is fine.
• Finish watching Season 3 of The Office

Tree guy came by today to talk about the removal.  $2500 to remove it.  The tree guy felt pretty bad the insurance company denied our claim, but he had to bring in a 30 ton crane to hoist the tree out over my other trees and get the tree off the neighbor’s house.  That doesn’t come cheap.

The insurance company said my house and property are insured for damage.  Acts of God are covered only if said act causes damage to my property.  Isn’t the tree my property?   To me, the Act of God was the wind, and the wind caused damage to my property (the tree).  But apparently the tree is not covered by the policy unless it falls on something of mine and damages it.  Any damage to my neighbor’s property is on their insurance.

The half of the tree that fell on my property fell into another tree.  I had the tree guy come out all quick because I was afraid of it falling and damaging something.  Apparently the smart, but perhaps not proper course of action would have been to let it fall, and smash into my deck.  Then the insurance company would have paid for a new deck, and to remove the tree.

Essentially the insurance company was betting the tree wasn’t going to fall and damage something, and I was betting it would by removing it.  I didn’t give the insurance company the chance to lose the bet.