"You gonna get another job?"...

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
This post brought to you because I've forgotten how to have a normal life--if I ever knew. For 10 years the dog and cat made it very hard for me to get out to socialize. For that matter, the dog made it hard for me to have some great jobs that I was qualified for because it was basically impossible for me to travel or work long hours. So I was fortunate and had the vision to fashion an alternative life that allowed me to live on a part time income.

Now the cat and dog are gone and I'm working for my friend 10-6 M-F. It's work-from-home, so still not totally normal (hence the time zone shift on the hours). At first my excuse for not getting out was 'rona restrictions on socializing. Now I have the excuse of an unforeseen expense just as I was rebuilding my "rainy day" fund. If I weren't doing this job I'd be working a lot harder/longer hours, getting this house renovated and lining up my next rental property. But as it is, it's easy to say "I can't go do X tonight because I've got to work tomorrow so I need to get to bed." So I sit here in my jammies, not yet 9pm, contemplating just going to bed. It's a beautiful day and now that I no longer have an old dog with a bad leg who can't run anymore, I probably should go for a run. But then again, I probably should've done that at 8pm instead of taking a shower and mixing a cocktail.

On one level, I'm ready for another dog--even have one I've been keeping an eye on (online) at a nearby shelter. But I remember how hard it was to date when I had my dog and for whatever reason I've decided I want a dog that is about as crazy and demanding as the old one, so I've promised myself I'd try dating before getting another dog. Also, since I'm keeping my part time night job while I'm working for my friend, I don't want to add a dog that needs 2-3 hours of attention 7 days a week. The consulting gig will wrap up September, at the latest, so I just need to hang on and learn how to interact with humans again (even though 57%+ of "normal" humans fill me with horror and loathing.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
Guess I could practice the ukulele, reread my "Sandman"s, or watch one of the "grieving" movies I've been meaning to work through ("E.T.", The 'Trek trilogy of 2-4)...

Or I could just sit here, make cocktails, and click bookmarks until I'm bored out of my mind.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
A quick snapshot of my brain wiring: Apparently a big chunk of this job involves sitting around while programs run on the computer. Huge data files that are pulled over a VPN. Even with the best optimization, you spend a lot of time looking at the assorted "downloading/progress" icons. Or I can go in the other room and screw around on my personal computer, like now.
Here's the funny thing, though: Instead of wasting that time, I could be making phone calls and other things related to real estate investing. But I'm not, obviously. Why? I'm not sure. Somehow, my brain is maybe OK with screwing off on company time, but not moonlighting while on company time. Or it could be that I don't want to get in the middle of something and then have to drop it because I can get back to work on the job. Or it could just be that all my business stuff involves risk, so if I avoid doing it, I delay exposing myself to new risks. Or I'm just lazy. Or some combination of all this.
 

Oerdin

Active Member
A lot of that sounds like the normal corporate confusion. Concentrate on doing a good job so you rebuild your reputation in your chosen professional field and any free time look for a woman who is at least ten years younger so she is still of child baring age. Yes, getting married and have a sproge is very much a part of a healthy life for most men. You'd be starting late but there is still time; even for you. Get the dog after you get the women.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
When I was a new Marine, still in school, I was sitting in the back of a 5 ton one day with a bunch of other 2nd Lts, waiting for whatever was supposed to happen next to get sorted out and happen. I turn to the guy next to me and say "The whole world looks up to the USMC as the best of the best. We know how fucked up we are. So can you imagine what it must be like in the Greek Navy?" That's kind of the way I feel about this gig. Working with huge databases over a VPN. Spent literally half the day updating my data, only to get the end and have the log say "Oh, I wasn't able to get the data you needed." So now I have to do it all over again. When I look at how much money is wasted by me sitting around watching a download slider I can only imagine how much money would be made if I could spend even 6 hours of the day being productive. And this is a huge successful company. I can only imagine what it is like for a smaller company. OK. They probably don't have massive files that people need to access from home, but you know what I mean.

Another guy on the team showed me a workaround that creates a local copy of the file that you can use while developing the program instead of going after the real time data. It's worth doing but it hurts my brain doubly--because I have to figure out how to do it now and because it makes an already convoluted process even more clunky. Like a power strip with a half dozen outlet splitter "trees" plugged into it .
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
FAAAHHHHK! 2 1/2 hours into my second attempt at downloading the 3 files that I need and one downloaded, 1 failed, and the other is still going. Torture.

I'm thinking what I might do is create separate download programs to download each file I need and write it to my hard drive. That way I can run one download at a time and theoretically minimize the chance of a glitch. Then, for now, I just change the path in the actual program to the local files. There might be some way to automate everything, but given all the moving parts, I'm not optimistic. Heck, just now the computer wanted to reboot itself to install new updates. Can you imagine farting around this long and then having to start over?
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
...and it shit its pants again. This time it only took 3 hours though. And it did manage to get 1 of the files I needed.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
1) This isn't entirely off-topic of this thread, given that I've discussed finding a girl in here
2) I forget what 2 was.
3) No I don't, 2 was "This is way too early to be crowing and I shouldn't say anything or I'll jinx it.

I may have met a girl. I almost can't remember how I found out about her. And she said she wasn't interested in me. And I found her at a (online) place that I'd written off as pretty much useless YET somehow.... I decided to zap off a message and she replied back and I'm getting that excited sticking your tongue on a 9volt battery feeling like maybe I've found the one person who was meant for me--and I was meant for her. Of course this all started less than half a day ago and I haven't even seen her in person, but I hope she gets as excited by me as I do by her. Fingers crossed.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
The hot tiny 21 year old black chick wore a skintight peach colored halter-top catsuit to work today. With nothing underneath. It was...distracting.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
Many things are happening. I hesitate to mention some because of my superstitious nature about things that are supposed to happen but haven't yet. That said...

The overflow on my brain buffer is starting to empty out and I'm starting to feel like I've got a handle on the consulting job. Today I think I figured out how to get my database files to download for the data mining software I'm working with. Three 1.5Gig-ish files, over a VPN. The software will spend literally hours downloading them and then fail 10Meg before the file is complete. After the first attempt, I'll leave 2 of the files with their (incomplete) caches, clear 1, and run the program. Then I'll clear another of the failed caches and run again. But the last cache just wasn't downloading. Having used up all my other ideas, I closed out Outlook, MSTeams--even the Web browser. The 2-3 hour run time that would end in failure was successful--and cut to 17 minutes. Everything must be running on the VPN and since communication tools--especially Teams with real time chat and video/teleconferencing--where quality of service is essential, must take higher priority than downloads. So the download gets whatever bandwidth is left after Outlook and Teams soak up the rest of it. I figured all this out with enough time to look at the output, step through it, and decide it looks like it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. Then I had a look at the "month-end" stuff I've been roped into.

My friend is down about 3 people on a 5 person team right now due to promotions and transfers and stuff so he's going to have me help out with the accounting stuff. It's technically outside the scope of what I'm supposed to be doing, but there isn't actually an official scope of what I'm supposed to be doing and technically I'm supposed to be experienced at the stuff I'm supposed to be doing. So what the hell, why not. Now after getting my quick class, I went back to review the meeting notes after my brain had dealt with what it had already been given to work on. There was a link to tutorials. When I clicked it I learned that I didn't have access permissions to the folder they were in. Pretty much everything else in the parent folder, but not that one. And the person who used to handle that was one of the people who had moved on. I got a trouble ticket opened for folder permission but since I still had a little time after figuring out my download challenge and examining the data, I thought I'd review what notes I did have access to.

It isn't rocket science. I've got software that will connect me up to the databases I need. I've got a list of reports that need to be generated, what database will create the report, and the people the reports are e-mailed to. I've also got a folder of text files that get pasted into the program and will generate the reports I need. I also know what days the work will be done on. The only thing I don't know is if the reports are in order of priority and if any need to be done by a certain day or if I just get going on them and have 4 days to get through them all by. So I'm feeling a little better.

Now on to personal life. I met a girl. On FetLife, of all places. I have a love/hate/mostly hate relationship with FetLife, where I'll build up my profile and try to meet new and interesting people to do new and interesting things with, get frustrated and delete pretty much everything out of my profile and just grumble at how horrible the place is. Now that I have time to meet girls because I don't have the dog, I was considering some online dating sites, but as far as this I was just killing some time on my machine while waiting for files to download on the work computer. Currently I've got a pretty snarky and arrogant profile writeup and some pictures that I'm pretty sure will run off women. And some writing in a similar vein. There was one girl who I'd been working because she was "fetish-hot."* But she must not have been interested in me. Then I found a girl that was VERY interesting to me and, to me, much hotter than the girl I'd been trying to score with. The problem was that she was looking for guys at least 7 years younger than me. But what the hell, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, so I sent her a message. She got back within hours. We hit it off and have been flirting for the past week. We're supposed to meet for coffee tomorrow night before heading back to her place for freaky monkey sex. I feel there's less than a 25% chance of me waking up in a tub full of ice, missing a kidney. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, I worked at the factory last night. Not all the lines for the same product stop at the same time. If they're having problems with one assembly, the independent sub-assemblies can keep working and then just load their parts into buffer racks for when the other line gets going again. But for various reasons, they don't let anyone leave until the end of the shift. So I'm still working. Of course work was to sit on a milk crate and watch a robot move a part from one belt to another and only do anything if the robot fucked up. The robot fucked up quite a bit early on, but for the last 2 hours or so it was running smoothly. Maybe 20 minutes before quitting time, the scorching hot little young black chick came over to sit down and flirt with me. It was awesome. And I may have to try to date her, team lead/friend be damned. Anyway, the guy's married. I'm not. And my FetLife girl might not pan out. I need to make the play while I'm feeling confident because someone's interested in me. If the FetLife girl falls through then I'll have the stink of desperation and creepiness on me again--especially since this girl is less than half my age. As I type that I realize the fact that she's flirting with me in an interesting manner means she probably doesn't think of me sexually at all. If she was actually attracted to me she'd be all shy. But this girl may be the exception. Because she almost certainly knows how hot she is. And as I type *that* I realize she could just be cock-teasing me for her amusement. But what the heck, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. In a perfect world they'll have a girl-fight over which one gets to suck my cock and which one sucks my balls. Then one will bounce on my dick while the other sits on my face and they make out with each other. Excuse me. I gotta go do something.



*Fetish girls are almost universally overweight. The majority are morbidly obese. The tiny number that aren't either have a daddy/dom, are lesbians, or are porn girls trying to lure guys into paying for their content, but most of them are dogs. You can chat up the hottest girl at a "munch" and feel pretty good about yourself; pretty excited. But then you meet them at a "vanilla" function and she'll be literally the ugliest girl in the place. It's freaky.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
Yeah. Never count your weasels before they've popped.

Clearly there is something about my personality that works online but somehow doesn't translate to in-person. And women are so fundamentally different from men. Tonight was the gaming equivalent of getting through all the levels, finishing all the side quests, and going into the final showdown with the Big Boss--and then saying "Eh, I think I'm bored with this game now." A guy, if he wants sex and meets a girl who also wants sex and you decide you are physically attractive and have similar interests, spend a week coordinating a meet-up, and finally get together in person, even if there's zero chemistry a guy's going to be like "eh, let's do it anyway" because even if it isn't that good or you aren't interested in the person, bad sex is still sex. But apparently women don't think that way. And there's never any useful feedback from the situation. I could tell I was floundering, but she really wasn't giving me anything to work off of and once you get to the dreaded "I'm not comfortable, at this point, going farther," you're just stuck going home frustrated and disappointed. Geez, if one would just say "look, you can't talk about X," or "you have to tell me Y," then I'd have something to go from to get better. But it's just "thanks, we'll be in touch if anything opens up."

Oh well. I might try to at least get some feedback from her after some time has gone by. Why did God make the creatures we're attracted to impossible to understand? Oh, right, he's a sick fuck with a dark sense of humor.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
I should just stick to dogs. No, you can't start a family with a dog, and the best you can hope for is 10-50 years that ends with a broken heart and a grave in the backyard, but for that 10-15 years you get complete, total, unconditional love, trust, and loyalty.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
I'll live. When you think how long it's been since I went on anything remotely like a date, I didn't do horribly. Really, my brain has gotten wired to the sorts of things that interested my dog. I was thinking of reaching out to this girl in a week or so to see if she'd give me some pointers on what I did wrong so that I could fix it and make myself and some other girl happy. But then I decided to go for a walk, since I suddenly had a bunch of time on my hands. And I know what I did wrong. I screwed up so much that it's hard to say where to start. By body language was terrible. I picked horrible subjects for conversation and couldn't figure out how to carry any conversation she offered. Even if I picked something that was interesting, I quickly took it on some bizarre tangent. Add to that a difficult meeting place and the fact that she has her own baggage she's dealing with and it's really no surprise that the meeting was doomed.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
And somehow I just had no interest in her when I finally met her. I mean, she looked just like her online photos--maybe even cuter--but I'm sitting there going "Huh. Not feeling anything. I mean, I'd have sex with her. But I'm not terribly excited about finally seeing her in person."

Oh, and I totally forgot the work aspect of my day. I literally sat around and did nothing for 90% of the day. There was a brief rollercoaster of terror in the morning. I'm helping out with month-end accounting. So it stands to reason that you can't do any month-end reports until the month actually ends. But apparently there *are* things that happen for month-end before the month ends. Luckily, it didn't seem to be anything I was on the hook for. Until I found the checklist and learned that 3 of the reports I'm supposed to do were supposed to be happening about the time I learned about them. Better than being a day behind, but still not fun. So I started doing my magic to them--and immediately couldn't figure out a few key magic words. I couldn't figure out the date format--or where to enter it--so the report would create an error message instead of a report. The girl who showed me how to do the work got free for a bit. First she told me the checklist was out of date and these reports weren't...on it?...anymore. At any rate, I wasn't behind. Once we got the report going I thanked her and let her go. Then, when the report was run I realized I had no idea how to export it into an Excel file. That didn't take long to walk through. I decided to do the not-required reports just for practice. Then I proceeded to screw up my chances for my date by sending increasingly inept PMs. Once I'd accomplished as much on that front as I could, I played a lot of Solitaire and waited for the virtual meeting we'd have at 4pm (5pm for me). Meanwhile my friend/boss finally got the time to tell me we'd go over the progress on the work I'd been hired for after the meeting. The meeting got started 15 minutes late but it did get done more or less on time. I told him I had a hard stop at 5/6pm and we got into the work I was doing. It looked good until we looked at the output. The data was there. The data was good. The "dashboard" had data in it. But the screens of metrics feeding the dashboard were blank. We brought in the girl who'd built the tool. We got to my hard stop. We got 11 minutes past my hard stop. Eventually we found out the reason the screens were blank was because the data fields didn't match up and for the past...3 weeks I'd been working on the wrong file. We tracked down the right file and I said I absolutely had to leave. Then I got to go out to the car in a pouring rain that I hadn't factored in while planning for my date.

I also hadn't factored in that the coffee place we were going to meet was air conditioned down to 39 degrees and had no cozy booths or semiprivate nooks. So we sat out on the patio at a cast iron table that allowed no intimacy or privacy and tried to have an interaction where she was in the process of tying up a bad relationship so she only wanted something physical and no romantic feelings. How do you play that? Even if you could talk sexy things with the family with young kids sitting within earshot, you come across as a creepy pervert. I did manage to get her to talk about a tattoo peeking out of her shirt and it quickly became clear that she got it over her failing relationship. Oh well. It is what it is.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
I "get" the diabolical genius villains--the Khans, the Masters, the Lex Luthors. My IQ is somewhere around 135 and that's a lonely and frustrating place to be. I consistently know more about people's jobs than the "experts" do. I regularly wind up just doing things myself because I know if I pay someone it will cost a lot of money and won't wind up as nice as if I did it (there are exceptions. I have an excellent electrician and an excellent plumber. My HVAC guy is Top Notch, but I digress). Or if it's something I *can't* do myself I've got to decide if I want to be disappointed or just do without. At some point I see going "screw it, I'll just be evil." And it often isn't even being evil. It's helping the weak and stupid people to live better lives. They really, REALLY, just want to be guided and told what to do. If I tell them, they're happy. And the world's a better place.

Whoops! I'm rambling. The other day I was thinking about how nice it is that people finally listen to me. When I was in my 20s, I had great ideas. But if I could get a word in edgewise, it went ignored. Then 20 minutes or 3 months or 5 years later someone would say EXACTLY what I'd said and people would be like "BRILLIANT!"

Other day I was thinking about how this hardly ever happens anymore, People listen to me now and I can make things happen. But then I realized this wasn't true. I just got powerful with enough resources that I don't NEED people for most things; I just do them myself. Later people go '"HOLY CRAP! HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?" And I just smile and shrug. But sometimes I get stuck. I can't "go fuck myself." I need another person for that. So I'm back to convincing someone to trust me. And I'm back to how my brain is 3 years ahead of everyone else so everyone just thinks I'm crazy. Except for the stupid people. I mean the really numbingly, painfully idiotic people. They think I'm stupid. I just smile.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
Holy crap. I'm at a loss for words.

I hadn't come here expecting that. I might circle back on it later, but I was just going to hit on some musings today that somewhat relate to the initial topic I started the thread on.

The Plan was to get this house habitable but not do the complete remodel until I had one more rental. I'm sure I mentioned it upthread a half dozen times but it's a 2 bedroom house with a big dining room that the bathroom, kitchen, back door, and hall closet all open off of. The way it is set up it will be fairly simple to frame it off into a hallway and a bedroom, giving me a 3 bedroom house and increasing the sale value by around 25%. Legally, you don't need a closet for a room to be a bedroom, but people think you do. And even licensed Realtors hedge their bets if you try to ask them. So I'm going to check the box and stick a little closet in a corner that has wasted space anyway. I also worry that adding the hallway will make things claustrophobic so as a compromise I'm putting double sliding 36" doors on this bedroom, creating a 6' opening in the 14' or so hallway wall. I taped out the floor plan and I'm excited by it. And getting it framed will let me finish up interior painting (and show it to the Realtor I did the deal with as a brag). But since 1 guy living by himself really doesn't need 3 bedrooms, I'm not going all the way and completely finishing out the room.

The Plan is to put an electrical outlet on the only clean uninterrupted wall. Then I can stick an electric fireplace there. I'm not doing pocket doors for the sliding doors and I'm having the doors inside the bedroom, so when they're open they'll create a kind of paneling effect since they'll take up pretty much all of that wall. I plan to stick a nice big wardrobe in front of the crappy little closet. Maybe if I'm feeling artsy I'll modify it with a secret back door and then paint the closet with a mural of Narnia. I dunno. But The Plan is to do this room up as a 20th century London club. The couch will still have a hide-a-bed/futon to it and there will be other bedroom furniture without screaming "bedroom". But all that costs money. And doesn't *make* money. So it should wait. When I've got my garage space rented out and I've got another rental property and I don't need to punch a clock anymore, I can finish up the details of my house.

Except that I've gotten my first few paychecks from my consulting gig for my friend.

They're big.

I mean, there are probably even people on this board who wouldn't bat an eye at them, but for my lifestyle, I can live quite nicely on them. In a work week of less than 30 hours, I'm making enough that I could just about pay the month's bills. With 3 more weeks that are free and clear. Along with the money from my "real" part time job. And my rent. So if I'm Smart, I'll use that money to fatten up my cash reserve and then start stockpiling it to see if I can buy another house for cash instead of having to get a mortgage. But I really want to get rid of the annoying white electric stove that came with the place and put in the neat stainless gas range that I put in my rental. It's already plumbed for gas. I've just got to buy the new range, pull out the old one, take the cap off the pipe and add the connector and then turn it on when the new stove is connected. And since I'm screwing off, I might as well put the doors on the new bedroom. And install the electric outlet I want/need. And furnish that room.

With this girl I was courting, I was toying with the idea of leaving the room empty so it could become the new master bedroom. But since I wound up fumbling that play, maybe I'll just furnish it anyway.

But I'm rambling. The other thing that happened at work is I got a text from my newest renter. The guy who's in my old house. Apparently the neighbor kids broke one of the windows to the crawlspace. Yes, the crawlspace has windows. Yes, it is odd. But in some way it appeals to me. And because there are window frames, by God, I put glass in 'em. Now I could just point him to the lease and say it isn't my problem, but I kind of like puttering with this sort of thing. And I'm pretty sure I have some kind of glass I can use down in my basement as I type this. And there's a karmic aspect to it. Of all the things that could need repairing--including the AC--a window to an uninhabited crawlspace that has no access to the house is about the simplest easiest thing that could need attention. Now it IS a double-edged sword: doing this *could* create the perception that I value my renter and my property and I take prompt action, sparing no expense, to give him and his kids the best home possible. OR I could create the perception that I'm a soft pushover who can be taken advantage of. But he's on a 1 year lease so I guess I'll take the chance and if I fuck up, I can not renew the lease.

And yeah, the girl. It's the damndest thing. I can do so well with a girl online and then totally bungle the in person meeting. And I enjoy flirting with her online and still see the potential she has, so I'm tempted to try to salvage this thing--much more tempted earlier tonight--but the more I think about it, I think I should just count it as a learning experience (and I *did* learn) and move on.

Well, that's about it. It's 4th of July weekend, but I've got lots to get done.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
OH! NOW I remember what I was missing.

Portland OR is the fucking Bermuda Triangle. It took me 8 years longer than it should've, but eventually I realized I had to get out. It's a place where you have dentists tending bar and aerospace engineers (literal rocket scientists) waiting tables. After I moved, I tried to throw a lifeline to a few friends. The result was inevitable ("All my family are here." "I really don't like the heat." ) HELLO! How did you enjoy last week's 118 temperatures? Yeah, Summer heat in Kentucky sucks, but at least everyone has central air.

Anyway, this is all beside the point. The point is that an Oregon friend just posted a Facebook update about his new "job." The "job" is an unpaid volunteer position. And no, he may be a very experienced and competent software engineer, but he doesn't have an actual job that pays money. Because he's decided he wants to live in Portland, regardless of the wisdom.

Hands down, the single biggest income bleed in my life was deciding it would be a good idea to live in Portland, OR. Get out. GET OUT!
 

The Question

Eternal
California is a fucking tumor, and it metastasized into Oregon long ago. Washington didn't hold out much (if at all) longer. Arizona is next. I miss my home state, but I'm starting to find myself very glad that I'm no longer there.
 

Volpone

Zombie Hunter
"Don't fall in love with real estate" is a maxim I've heard from investors. Interestingly, one of the local guru/mentors, in a seminar, revealed that he would never turn a house he and his family had lived in into a rental property. And yeah, I understand the point of the maxim and I understand why it is easier said than done.

See, renters don't see your house the way you see it. This is in part simply because they aren't you. Even if you get a renter who loves what you've done and shares 90% of your taste, they're going to do things you don't like. The simplest, most boring example is shower curtains. I've rented out 2 houses so far. And when I was showing them, I picked the perfect shower curtain for each bathroom. And both renters were like "thanks, but we've got our own shower curtain.

My first rental, for various reasons I attempted to put a fish pond next to the deck. But it didn't work. One of the reasons for the pond was that the water table was so high. But it wasn't high enough to guarantee a pond year-round. So I put down heavy plastic sheeting when I filled the pond. The problem is, with the high water table, with a good rain, water seeps in from the surrounding ground and bubbles up the plastic sheeting. Getting enough gravel and other weight on the plastic to keep it in place apparently created enough holes that the pond dried up in the summer. The tenants attempted to refill it, not knowing that tap water contains chloramine to prevent bacteria. Chloramine will kill fish. If you use tap water for fish, you need to let it sit for 24 hours for the chloromine to evaporate out. So I was out about 64 cents worth of goldfish and my second attempt at goldfish also ended in failure. I pulled up the plastic liner and as much of the rocks as I could. They didn't want me to fill in the hole because the hubby had a gardeining idea. The hubby also dug up what I thought was a perfectly good bush on the corner of the house so he could plant a different perfectly good bush. They also used the fireplace--in spite of the glass screen being painted black and having no handles to open it and the hearth not having a grate to put logs on. Somehow none of this seemed odd to them.

But the reason for this post is my house that I moved out of and rented out. This morning I got a text that the neighbor kids had apparently broken a window on the crawlspace (yes, the crawlspace has windows. I didn't build the place). I got there and found it was the cheapest, shittiest window on the crawlspace. I'd forgotten how cheap and shitty it was. It was basically the plastic "glass" of a poster frame. With 4 years of UV radiation and temperature fluctuations, I'm surprised it hadn't broken before now.

But repairing it, I wound up at the house. Now the guy who's renting it works for a tree trimming company. I do have a few big old trees that probably needed some maintenance. And he expressed worries about the big unhealthy branches of a tree that overhung where he parked his car (don't get me started on why renters don't just park their car in the garage that is RIGHT THERE). So I hired his company to clean up some of the deadwood on the bigger trees. Their quote was kind of seat-of-the-pants. And they didn't say when they would be out to do the work, so I was a bit surprised and bummed when I found they'd cut down 2 nice bushes in the front yard. Now these bushes have been cut down before, if Google Street View can be believed. But these guys knew what they were doing. They cut them down, tilled up the soil containing the roots, and salted the earth for all I knew.

You roll with it. I mean, I could've bitched about it. But that wouldn't have brought the bushes back. I could've sued or haggled for a refund and used the money to replant the busnes (once I figured out what they were). I could just plant 2 new bushes. But I won't be there to care for them any more than the goldfish.

But I knew about these bushes. I'd come to terms with them. Besides, they were bushes. I'd cut them down to 4' tall every spring and every winter they'd be 10' tall. Today I realized the little tree that was literally the centerpiece of the backyard was gone. Yes, it was close to the house. But not impossibly close. And yes, it was hollow in parts from ants, but it was still strong and thriving. In Kentucky there are big old hardwoods that are hollow enough that I could just about climb inside them. Now I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure I said I didn't want that tree cut down. And that one will probably take 30 years to replace--if I can figure out what it was. I don't even understand how they would decide to cut it down. It was kind of a major focal point of the backyard. But it is becoming apparent that people don't understand these thngs. I could probably create the perfect feng shui paradise and within 5 years of selling or otherwise putting a person in it, they'd manage to fuck it up. :(
 
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