Well…damn, another day of working my butt off but it looks like it will be my last on this house….after finding out that the new houses across the street are rentals and reading studies that show that the introduction of rental property depresses the worth of other properties in the neighborhood by 15 to 30%…so the act of them just putting out that rental sign cost me at least 15,000 dollars and possibly more…whatever the cost, I’ve lost almost all of what I made on the house in the past 14 months and the prospect of the worth of this place going up again at all is virtually nil…so there is no reason for me to bust my ass making this place or this neighborhood better…and that really sucks…I thought I had found the place to enjoy for the rest of my life and the greed of both the developers and the city has made that impossible….typical rich get richer and the hell with everyone else…
April 18th
Well…damn, another 2:41 morning and had such a hard time getting back to sleep that, after I finally got back to sleep about 4, I didn’t get out of bed til around 6:30…and that makes me running late this morning with lots to do…and the big decision now is whether to get on the bike or not….it is nice that this is the last painting day probably til the end of summer unless I decide to do the dining room with having 5 weeks until the end of May which is my original goal for being done for the summer…we’ll see….it is nice that just taking the battery out of the laptop and resetting it made it work almost like new and I don’t have to wait for it to start or to change from page to page…thought I was going to have to buy a new one and that is just not in the budget right now….slept on my right shoulder most of the night last night and it just aches today but the rest time starts this afternoon and I sure hope my hand gets better along with it…still have a hard time gripping anything and probably should take some ibuprofen before I start on painting…I need to clean this place up this afternoon and tomorrow morning since T may be coming out for a visit tomorrow and I need to put all the tools away and clean the dust up in the dining room and kitchen…it will be nice to stop using the dining room as a work room…so, I need to get moving and start the day so I can get the painting done by noon or so….still damn tired…more later…
Found the blinds on amazon…
Well…after spending an hour looking at every big box store to try to find the blinds I want for the bedroom with no luck, on a whim I tried amazon and they had the one size I needed on sale for only 19 bucks so I ordered it but needed another 6 bucks to get free shipping so I bought another pair of riding gloves for 7 bucks since I’ll need them later in the summer…so I spent another 28 bucks today even though I wanted to not spend anything for a while…and I’ll spend another 30 tomorrow getting the paint, trim pad, manure, and garden soil at depot so I can start on getting the garden planted downstairs so the plants can go out as soon as they sprout….and I did find my seeds from last year that I think I have enough for another garden but I may need some cukes since I only have a few of those seeds left…and I may buy some onion seeds just for the heck of it to see if they’ll grow…maybe some lettuce and cabbage, too? Had too many tomatoes last year and could free up some room for them….still feel like I didn’t accomplish anything today and I think this will be my last day of taking Sunday off since I have so much work to do….
Waiting on the blinds…
Well…forgot to talk about trying to order the blinds for the bedroom yesterday and got the crappy surprise that they are out of stock both in the store and online and don’t know when they will be available again…so, I think I’ll check at Lowe’s and Menards to see if I can get them there…but doing that is such a pain when I get free delivery from depot…and they are such a strange size at 30 by 64 inches that very few companies even make them…so, darn…I guess I’ll have to live with the newspaper on the window until I can find something…and the ones in there, in the small bedroom, and in the living room need to match so that makes it even a little harder…oh, well…only the first glitch and I will have the room painted tomorrow so I can still go forward with moving in there…
Man, I’m tired…
Well…just finished up getting the bedroom prepped for painting tomorrow and I am just darn tired from not getting any sleep last night…had to clear out the sawhorses and other stuff that I needed to paint the shelving for the closet and then dump the last of the paint, wallpaper, and glue that was in the trash can outside and put the drop cloth down to catch any paint drips that may happen tomorrow….and I have been fighting problems with my laptop that appear to be fixed and I think it was from not shutting it off for a month or so…it just froze up and I had to pull the battery out of it to get it to do a complete restart…and that took about a half hour for it to figure out if it wanted to work or not…luckily it did and I’m back at this…and now they are playing the Doctor Who episode that never showed up on Plex that will lead into the new season that starts right after it so my afternoon is planned…so I need to finish this and get ready….more later….maybe….
Bird flu…
Well…damn, just when I finally get birds coming to my feeder, the experts are saying to take it down and not to feed the birds until summer because of the bird flu that is starting to kill birds all over the US…and yet, they say that songbirds are not really affected by it right now…and the thing that I don’t understand is why feeders? The grackles out here travel in huge flocks and feed right next to each other and there are never more than two birds on my feeders at a time so the chance of spreading the virus from bird to bird is quite small….so I guess I have to make a decision here in a while…do I fill it or take it down? Have to think about that one…..
April 17th
Well…okay, feeling better this morning about the rentals across the street but didn’t sleep for crap and part of that is that damn Lowes sent me a text at 2:14 in the damn morning and it took me an hour or better to get back to sleep…but it’s my day off so I can cope with that pretty well…and I had a memory flash last night where I remembered a tool that I can use to edge the trim in the bedroom I’m working on…it’s a little pad with rollers on it that you slide along the top of the baseboards and the ceiling corners to get a nice straight line for the grey paint so I can paint the bedroom without masking the whole thing off…and the cool thing is that the tool is only 4 bucks and that is half what a roll of tape would cost…and that means I can paint the bedroom and finish it up tomorrow and start moving in by the end of the week….need to find an area rug to put in there with how crappy the floor is but I can live with the small one I have for now…have been living without one in the small bedroom so I’m used to it…and I can even start on doing the small bedroom but I’m not sure how much I want to do in there before summer…certainly get rid of the dropped ceiling and work on the baseboards but I need it for a work room to do the doors so I don’t have to drag them downstairs…but that is work and I don’t want to talk about that right now….I am looking forward to resting my body some since the skin on my hands is so dried out from all of the washing I do when working on this place…I do still want to buy a kayak but I’m not sure how much I’d use it and I really hate buying things I won’t use a lot…like a grill…my brother said he had one he’d let me have but I haven’t heard from him since last fall so I guess that’s not going to happen and I don’t want to spend 200 bucks on one….I do want to buy a couple more plastic Adirondek chairs for outside just in case anyone ever comes out to visit so I’ll have to look for those here in a while….I am looking forward to getting on the yard this week and doing the cleanup and prepping the garden for planting…I want to get some crabgrass preventer/food and get it on the lawn this week, too, and work on the mower to get it ready but those are fooling around jobs that can be fun…not much to do today…there is a new football league starting today and there is a Michigan team in it so I may take a look at that at noon and I need to clear everything out of the bedroom so I can paint tomorrow along with ordering the blinds…so an easy day…and I need one of those….more later….
Rentals…
Well…feel like I was sucker punched today when I saw that the two new houses across the street are going to be frickin rentals and I am so damn pissed that I can’t see straight…in the whole damn neighborhood, they put up rentals across from me and with all of the bullshit that comes with rentals up here…after all, every damn noise complaint I’ve had to make, over 80 and counting, was for people in the tons of rental housing up here already…the one thing we don’t need is more rentals and the noise and bullshit that comes with them…I mean renters don’t give a crap about the neighborhood they live in and have no “skin in the game” as we owners do….and just the act of them putting up a “for rent” sign cost me 15K on the price of my house since rental housing always lowers home values in any neighborhood they are in…and yes, I’ve read the studies that support this fact and I am going to go to the city commission meeting next week to let them have it about them costing me money and them not caring since they don’t live up here. I am just stewing about this and am about ready to stop working on this place since I’ll never get my money back for what I’m putting into it or rewarded for making this a better neighborhood with all of my damn work cleaning up after the pigs that live up here…I will say that I’m done taking care of the vacant lots up here since all of my work has been nullified by the act of putting up a for rent sign across the street…so, I guess I’ll start looking for other houses but I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to afford anything as nice as this place…so, it looks like I’m stuck here for now…and really, really depressed…crap…
Got some painting done…
Well…not sure why I did this to myself but I had another damn schedule to meet this morning and got up already behind…and that is kind of funny when I got out of bed at 5:37….so I was on the bike before 7 today and done by 7:45 and then right into painting to get done before Man U came on but I shouldn’t have bothered with them playing with no defense again…I mean up by 2-0 and losing the darn game?…Okay, that was wrong…they won by 3-2 but against Norwich City? I turned it off after they were tied…but, I did get the closet painted to a certain point….ran low on this grey paint and needed to save some for touch ups so I couldn’t do two coats on the entire closet but settled for the outer part that I’ll have to look at…but without a light in there the rest doesn’t matter and can wait until I have leftovers from the next gallon of a little darker paint….so, after I finished painting and could put my painter clothes in the washer along with the rest of the laundry, I ran a load and I am waiting for the dryer to finish so I can put the clothes away….and that met my schedule for the day when I was supposed to have the day off…oh, got some bad news that I will relate in the next one….
Can’t think of a political one so how about some music?
Well….as the title says, I can’t think of a political one that grabs me enough to cut through how overwhelmed I feel about the happenings in the world…just too much going on right now and I don’t have the energy to sort through it…so, let’s talk about music for a bit…when I was on the indoor bike yesterday, it dawned on me that the music that was in my ears was all nearly 50 years old…the Allman Brothers live at the Filmore east, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the Cars, CSNY’s 4 way street, the Beatles and on and on…and I wonder if any of you are the same way? I’ve talked about this before that I have stopped listening to new music and I wonder why that would be? I know I may be one of those snobs that think that the best music was done when I was young…but, can you argue with “In memory of Elizibeth Reed” live from the Allman’s in 1970? Or “Southern Man” from 4 way street? Or the story from “Doctor Wu” that takes you from happiness to despair and back again in a 6 minute song? I admit that as I age the emotional aspects of songs have more meaning to me…or maybe I’ve become more perceptive to them as I spend more and more time alone? Who knows? I’m sure I’m bringing some of my own interpretations to the meanings and that fits with what is going on with me right now…to a point, but a lot of it relates to what I’ve been though in this life from the time my older brother played Elvis, Buddy Holley, and Roy Orbison that I guess I absorbed without knowing it at the time. Don’t get me started on Steely Dan or Pink Floyd…especially Dark Side where the run of “Time” and “Great Gig in the Sky” always takes my breath away and talks to me as I get older…and with SD, I see myself in the characters and worlds they create…about the losers and the underachievers and the people who just can’t help themselves like in “Black Cow” where the protagonist has poured everything into helping his friend or lover “talk it out til daylight” but then realizes that it’s over and sends her away…or from “Your Gold Teeth” where a woman comes back into a man’s life that she burned at least once before but he knows what’s coming and the dismissive line “you don’t have to dance for me, I’ve seen you dance before” describes that fact…I guess what I’m saying in this long one is that music has always been important to me and I wonder if anyone else has the intimate connection that I have or if it’s unhealthy? I know that even if it is, that won’t change how I feel….