"You gonna get another job?"...

[Volpone]

Somehow I'm really tired right now. Part of it may be the new dog. She's just about settled in, so it should get less tiring (less checking up on each other, more being able to be off-leash (so less running for me), more things that she can tire herself out on without tiring me out too). Part of it is getting the vacant rental ready, and part of it is likely that I'm just getting old.

Mostly pissed away the morning. Then The Dog cheated her first 1 hour-plus walk--by the time we got to the turn-around we were slightly over-time. Then she compounded it with fuckery--not being willing to leave a groundhog hole she was digging into, not being willing to cross a very shallow creek, needing to go investigate smells, etc.

Went with an early lunch.

Brought her along to clean the house. Smells less like smoke and failure. Made good progress. Still some spot cleaning, but I started on mini-blinds. Now, at one point I decided it was cheaper to just throw away dirty blinds and buy new ones. But then they decided to outlaw cheap blinds to keep stupid kids from accidentally hanging themselves and now blinds cost 3x as much. Even so, after spending far too long, trying to get crud off the first of many blinds, I'd have considered just buying new blinds. Only with the inept situation in our country, it's hard to find blinds--for any amount of money. So scrub away I did.

Then we went for a walk and I was wearing too-small Chuck Taylor's. And we got rained on. So now that I've got a belly full of lasagna, beer, and whisky, I'm about ready for unconscious time.

 

[jack]

Somehow I'm really tired right now. Part of it may be the new dog. She's just about settled in, so it should get less tiring (less checking up on each other, more being able to be off-leash (so less running for me), more things that she can tire herself out on without tiring me out too). Part of it is getting the vacant rental ready, and part of it is likely that I'm just getting old.

Mostly pissed away the morning. Then The Dog cheated her first 1 hour-plus walk--by the time we got to the turn-around we were slightly over-time. Then she compounded it with fuckery--not being willing to leave a groundhog hole she was digging into, not being willing to cross a very shallow creek, needing to go investigate smells, etc.

Went with an early lunch.

Brought her along to clean the house. Smells less like smoke and failure. Made good progress. Still some spot cleaning, but I started on mini-blinds. Now, at one point I decided it was cheaper to just throw away dirty blinds and buy new ones. But then they decided to outlaw cheap blinds to keep stupid kids from accidentally hanging themselves and now blinds cost 3x as much. Even so, after spending far too long, trying to get crud off the first of many blinds, I'd have considered just buying new blinds. Only with the inept situation in our country, it's hard to find blinds--for any amount of money. So scrub away I did.

Then we went for a walk and I was wearing too-small Chuck Taylor's. And we got rained on. So now that I've got a belly full of lasagna, beer, and whisky, I'm about ready for unconscious time.

I love these posts, by the way. I read them all.

 

[Loktar]

I love these posts, by the way. I read them all.

Me too. When I'm feeling depressed and/or having a bad day, these stories help cheer me up.

 

[Volpone]

Ugh. I don't regret getting The Dog. She's a good dog. And I needed her. But it's so much harder to get things done. Dinner time on Sunday and I still owe her a trip to the park. AND I need groceries. With a bottle of vermouth, so I've got to get that before 7pm. Maybe get the vermouth on the way to the park, drop The Dog off (she can't stay in the car long enough for me to shop like Old Dog because she'll jump out an open window). I also need to get out the ladder to clean maple whirlygigs out of the gutters. And then there's desk work--got the basic stuff done, but there are things I need to dig into and read and understand. And the weekend is gone without me getting anything but the bare essentials checked off.

The acre+ yard is part of it. And the ancient mower. It is having cascading failures so when it acts up it is hard to figure out what is happening. It had so much grass in the deck that it was clogging and making the engine work harder (also some plastic wrapped around the shaft. But on top of that, the "deadman switch" handle was...dying. the spot where there's the hole that the cable hooks to was weakening and bending which would give the cable slack and kill the engine. I needed to reinforce it...as soon as I had some free time. Of course it broke today. So now I'm either going to have to see if I can actually get that part or have a welder repair it. Finished mowing the lawn with a vice grip holding the cable in the "on" position. Actually worked pretty well, but I should probably come up with a more orthodox fix....when I have some time.

 

[jack]

You got a new dog? That was quick.

Good for you!

 

[Volpone]

Over a year. I needed to in order to stop being sad. She'll never be the Old Dog, but that's OK.

Popped on for two things: One is an addendum to the previous post: I forgot, the fuse for the power seat on the car keeps blowing. So I'm going to have to get underneath it and hunt for a short. The other is that, while I was doing the grocery shopping there was a girl in the store that...think, maybe a young Gwen Stephani. Maybe she looked nothing like that, but she was pale and blonde and kind of alternative and she was almost certainly not wearing a bra. Snug, thin...I dunno, sweater? Jersey? Cropped at the ribs with perky little apple tits. Wasn't 100% sure and it's like looking at the sun--you have to just make a quick glance out of the corner of your eye, you can't just stare. Stole a look at her back for straps but still nothing conclusive. Luckily we seemed to be hitting the same aisles from opposite directions so I got a few more chances. Was still on the fence until the last glance. And the confirmation that she wasn't wearing a bra was that I could tell that she had at least one pierced nipple. There was a definite barbell outline.

 

[Volpone]

OK. Buzzed and killing time and feeling like bragging dwelling on my victories. Because I can seem (at least to myself--but probably to others) pretty boring, BUT... I have a pretty cool 45th anniversary Mustang. And an rare Japanese cafe racer. And a TARDIS. And an A-Team van. I have, in the past, owned an LP-powered schoolbus that was painted camouflage and converted to a 24 gun mobile paintball field base. I had an opportunity to do a pretty cool Mystery Machine (had a '67 Chevy Van fall in my lap at the same time I found a sign place that literally had a Mystery Machine van wrap parked in their lot as a promotion) but the logistics didn't pan out. Kind of regret that a bit, but not much. Kind of hoping/not hoping that a '91-96 GM station wagon falls in my lap at a good price to do a franchise/reboot Ectomobile. Hoping because it would be cool and geeky. Not hoping because it makes no sense and would be a huge waste of time I don't have and money I shouldn't waste. Still...how cool would that be?

 

[Volpone]

Where to begin? Mini-blinds. The rental has at least 9 mini-blinds (there's almost as many again in the sun room, but they're behind plastic "storm windows"). They're filthy. Really can't blame the renter (although I bet I can guess which rooms he did most of his smoking in by how filthy some of the blinds are) because truth be told, I didn't clean them before he moved in. I was trying to get a long-term renter in before the county enacted its "you must accept Section 8" mandate. I'd just buy new blinds--even though I'm cheap and hate to throw something away just because it needs cleaning--although when they outlawed blinds with cords, replacement blinds got about 3x more expensive. And they have different mounting hardware so you can't just throw away the old blind and pop the new one into the existing hardware. And with our fine government, supply chain issues make it impossible to find any blinds in certain sizes for any amount of money. So I've been cleaning blinds. The one on the dining room window is worth about $100, given the time it took me to clean it. And that's my unskilled labor pay rate, not what a field grade Marine officer with an MBA can bill. But we're getting there.

Property management people stopped in today while I was cleaning blinds. Why does no one believe me? When I hired them, I told them I was proud of my rentals and that I wouldn't rent anything that I didn't want to live in myself. In fact this rental was my home until January 2021. They smiled and nodded. But when I told them what I thought it would rent for, they replied "Well, we'll see. We'll have to get in and have a look." Today they had a look. And went nuts. They were like "it's ready to rent right now. I'm going to take listing photos." I'm like "What? No! Can't you see the ceiling plaster that needs patching and the paint that needs touching up? Can't you see the scratches on the stainless fridge and the living room floor? Also, when I commented on getting rid of the cigarette smell they were like "I didn't smell anything." "Neither did I." How did you not smell it?! This is like the tub refinishing guy-s (plural) who looked at a badly refinished tub and couldn't see that it had been refinished. How is your job refinishing tubs and you can't see that this tub is 2 different colors and there's a very clear paint seam between the 2 colors? Why do I know more than the "experts" about EVERYTHING?!

I also need to comment on the New Dog, but that will have to wait until I've showered and fixed another cocktail; maybe opened some windows. Hot day today.

 

[Volpone]

OK. So New Dog. Old Dog was lab-border collie. Very smart. Very obsessive. Very bossy. Geared towards not damaging other animals--bred to nip at sheep/gently retrieve downed waterfowl. Driven to please. Had her fair share of neuroses. Not at all snuggly. Would leave the bed when I went to bed (although she would tolerate being on the same bed for the afternoon nap). New Dog is lab-Shiba Inu. Hard to train as far as tricks, but she's picked up enough discipline to be trusted off-leash in semi-controlled environments. Very snuggly. Catlike. Like The Cat, she joins me for the lunch siesta. And instead of waking me up to be let out before the alarm goes off (because Old Dog had a thing about anything that rang or beeped), she climbs into bed for a morning snuggle. And she's an absolutely efficient killer. Old Dog learned to kill over time. Even so, groundhogs tended to be a big production--even juveniles. New Dog will kill a juvenile groundhog before you even realize it's there: Pops out of sight, you hear a squeak and a crunch and she comes out of the bushes with a dead groundhog in her mouth. Two days in a row now. It's impressive.

Oh, and Old Dog wasn't big on toys. Her sole purpose for a toy was to see how quickly she could destroy it. New Dog *loves* her toys. She made do with the ones she inherited from Old Dog until I could get her a squeaky hedgehog which she just adored and played with constantly. I also wanted a toy fox for her. Old Dog had a hedgehog and a fox that were her initial release valve for separation anxiety. She didn't really play with them--unless she was left home alone--and then she'd bring them to the door and mouth them until they were soaking wet. So they got buried with her. Took awhile (for some reason) but I finally found New Dog a fox and she loves it even more than the hedgehog. Whilst looking for the fox I wound up getting her a second hedgehog so she could have one for outdoors and one for indoors.

New Dog also...separation isn't as big a deal for her. Old Dog went anywhere with me that she was allowed. New Dog has decided that a lot of the things I take her to in the car aren't that fun, so today she decided she was going to stay home rather than come with me to clean blinds.

 

[Volpone]

Oh, and Problem Child renter knew his old house was listed before I did. Me? I'm just trying to get mini-blinds cleaned and get rid of the cigarette smoke smell. Then the phone pings. Maybe it's the property manager...at 10:30 at night. Pings again a second later. Nope. It's Problem Child. "How could you just rent the place out--for less than I was willing to pay. You must really hate me. My beautiful children loved this little house." I've never broken up with a crazy girlfriend. Until now.

 

[Oerdin]

You can paint the walls with sealer which is designed specifically for cigarette smoke. You then have to repaint them like normal but it does greatly reduce smoke smells.

 

[Volpone]

Bleah. My life is not scalable. This is a cost of liking to do things myself (and being too cheap to pay people). Worked Friday. Work tonight. Did stuff with The Dog. Mowed the lawn at the vacant rental and finished cleaning blinds (easier and cheaper to just throw away dirty blinds than to spend time cleaning them, but right now it's hard to find blinds--and the new style cordless blinds have different mounting brackets so I'd have to fart around with that instead of just popping them in the old brackets). So now I've got *my* lawn to mow, bookkeeping to do, cleaning at my house, AND I've gotta finish up getting the rental ready because the property managers already listed it. Meanwhile I've got a dog obedience class tomorrow and a vet visit Wednesday so fitting everything in is a pain. Well, gotta go. Time to walk The Dog before work.

 

[Volpone]

Oh, and the cat. You wouldn't think it would be so hard to get a goddamned cat, but apparently it is. Because I've been working on it since March or so and still don't have one.

 

[Volpone]

I have a more boring, narrative update for the day that I was considering adding, but for now, I think we will address some of the same material in a more philosophical manner. After my Dog died, I spent a year grieving and wishing for another year with her--even willing to give up 7 years of my life for it (as long as there was no horrible "monkey's paw" curse version of it where she's back and I immediately die or she's back but basically paralyzed like she was towards the end or even that I have to watch her die again). After getting the New Dog, I'm realizing I don't want this and that it was her time to go. She was such an athletic dog, but living with her for so long, and watching the gradual changes, I didn't realize how much harder everything was for her towards the end. The New Dog does such amazing things and then I remember that The Dog had been perhaps even more athletic--certainly before her back injury, but even when she the age this dog is.

Today I needed to work on getting my rental ready--especially since the property managers listed the place last week already. But I also needed to mow my lawn. And my mower is getting old enough that I can't let the grass get too tall or it will kill the mower for good. (The efforts I'm taking to keep it running are a whole other post.) It was supposed to rain today and tomorrow. And I work Friday afternoon so it might've had to wait until Saturday. But the rain held off so after The Dog's walk, I decided to mow until it rained. It didn't rain. Almost got the whole acre mowed but ran out of gas. Hadn't had lunch and The Dog had her first vet appointment soon, so I went in for lunch and a quick nap. Of course a torrential downpour started at exactly the time I needed to take The Dog to the vet. But we got it done. And picked up gas. Considered banging out the rest of the lawn after the evening walk but it was still too wet. And now that I've got a bellyful of lasagna, beer, and assorted tropical cocktails, I'm not going out there even if it *was* dry enough to mow. Because I'm also getting old enough that mowing an acre of lawn with a push mower is a non-trivial task. And in relative years Old Dog had almost 30 years on me. So I'm appreciating how much harder it must've been for her that last year or two.

 

[FBI parte due]

What sort of tropical cocktails?

 

[Volpone]

Mai Tai, Tequila Sunrise...

 

[Volpone]

One of these days I'm going to have to talk about New Dog. She's a good dog. She's not Old Dog. And in some ways that's a relief, but it still feels kind of like a betrayal; like being happy your dog isn't crazy is something you should feel guilty about.

Had an OK day. Interior on the vacant rental is more or less ready. I should do some repair work on a blind that Old Dog chewed up 5-6 slats on; maybe squirt some Elmer's Glue into a turn lock on a door that I don't have a key to that people keep locking. Maybe mop the floors again and see if the water will come up less black. But time is limited and I've got much to do outdoors. Gotta scrub the gutters. The look so much better clean. Paint the back of the garage (mostly for practical purposes--preventing rot, etc). Clean up the fencelines, do some weeding... But it's mostly ready.

So yeah. The Dog behaves surprisingly well. I have pretty much voice command off-leash. She can want to explore, but if I overrule her, she'll happily come back and head in he direction I want her to go. I was a bit freaked out as I was doing it because it kept working--and she was happy to obey--and I was dreading the time it wouldn't work and she'd realize she didn't have to obey, but luckily that didn't happen.

 

[Volpone]

Today I gotta find some time to talk to the property management company and strategerize. Find out where we are on applicants and figure out timeline to make some decisions. Need to get to work on the yard but also need to get some personal stuff done. Been neglecting my own place. But if it gets us to the finish line...

 

[Volpone]

"The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg." Myths and fairy tales are an important frame of reference for us. And a way to relate to things that happen around us. "The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg." Farmer and his wife find out their goose lays golden eggs. Long story short, they either kill it by forcing it to lay too many eggs or cut it open to get the gold--either way, wrecking a good thing they had going by being greedy. 5 months ago I went to an event at a nearby town. Admission was fairly exclusive and not inexpensive. But well-promoted and a pretty good time. Flash forward to this month. Another party. But this time almost no effort went into promotion--and ticket prices were up 27%. Now maybe there's a market demographic that enjoys being used and taken for granted, but I'm not it. I might just have gone if I had nothing else to do, but I'm actually pretty busy right now. And I've got no reason to think this will be worth the extra money. So it looks like I'm not going. Will others pass on it? Don't know. But it would kind of suck if this killed the event just because the organizer got lazy and greedy.

 

[Lanzman]

" . . . got lazy and greedy" kills a whole lot of worthy efforts.