Suddenly…Roses!

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Daniel Meyer

The drought last summer was difficult on a LOT of landscaping. We have three peach trees, and for sure, lost one, probably lost the second (the best one), and the third *WAS* surviving until I doused it quite thoroughly in light hydraulic oil (not intentional AND another story…).

BUT, the flowers survived. The nuclear rosebush exploded a few days ago…I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a healthier rose bush. It’s got hundreds of blooms on it. It wouldn’t surprise me to see it grabbing people off the street for lunch.

And the 4-o’clocks have begun…

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Girls…

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Daniel Meyer

We were getting ready to travel. Two cats going with us, two staying. Two carriers prepped…each cat has their favorite towel and toys.

I watched one of the cats that was staying…one of the Siamese girls, systematically enter each carrier, and one by one, grab a toy, toss it out, follow it out and down to the floor, and then pick it up and hide it under the bed…all in the same pile. Rinse, lather, repeat till all toys were gone (about 5 toys per carrier).

Girls

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Meowgrometer

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Daniel Meyer

Meowgrometer:

*pet pet pet* *ZOT!*
*pet pet pet* *ZOT!*
*pet pet pet* *ZOT!*

Evidently the humidity in the house is low today. Poor cat.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

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Stop SOPA

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Daniel Meyer

Take action.

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The rain on the inside.

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Daniel Meyer

Very heavy and steady rain this morning. A reality about an Old Vic, with it’s many roof lines and valleys and a problematic roof (various ages of the different exposures) is that it leaks. It doesn’t *always* leak, and it doesn’t leak much, and it doesn’t leak in the same place every time, but it does on occasion leak.

The cats *hate* this. If a drip starts in the house somewhere, they start tearing around the place chasing I-don’t-know-whats and do-ma-bobbies. The big orange one always manages to get IN the drip and get wet, and then comes and “talks” to me about it. Back and forth he goes. He obviously expects me to do something about the water dripping in the bucket.

One day I’ll spend a dozen thousand dollars or so on a completely new roof, and I’m sure it will just change the location of the occasional leak.

Fortunately I’ll have the cats to enthusiastically point them out to me…

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

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Got enough leaks in the roof already…

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Daniel Meyer

Sooo…pre-storm weather. 72 and balmy. Warm night for sleeping so I had the box fan on. Just me (and cats) all alone in this massive old Victorian house.

Box fan vibrates a bit and can “walk” on the hardwood floor.

See where this is going?

Middle of the night. Deep slumber. Box fan walks to the end of its cord and falls over. The redirected air blew a white plastic grocery bag in the air. The commotion (bang/rustle/cats scattering) woke me and all I could see in the dark was the glow of the white bag floating over the bed…my sleepy brain connected the dots (all wrongly) and I damn near shot it!

Sleep tight!

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

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Yep, good choice.

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Daniel Meyer

Y’all may recall here that we installed a tankless gas water heater in the Old Vic.

Advantages were no closet required, no stack needed, unlimited hot water, and economical.

It was a good choice.

We had a household full of folks over the Thanksgiving holiday. TEN for lunch Thursday. Twelve for dinner. Folks sleeping in nooks and crannies. Baths (huge ball and claw Victorian tub). Showers. Big breakfasts. More lunches.

I can’t even begin to figure out how to count how many dishes we washed.

Endless hot water. Flawless performance.

Did I mention the endless hot water?

Nice to have a decision validated.

Oh, another lesson learned…I am putting the biggest, deepest, 3 bin sink I can fit in a counter when we get to redoing the kitchen.

And…Happy Thanksgiving!

Did I mention the endless hot water?

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

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I’m prepared…

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Daniel Meyer

My bud, Pierre…the 26-toed Polydactyl, Maine Coon, Hemingway cat…likes to make sure I’m prepared for work.

This usually means giving me presents…small tokens packed in my duffel.

So…today, I’m prepared for whatever comes along…just as long as I need a caterpillar, a ball, and a pig (with bottlecap).

More about Pierre here.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

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A bunch of guys…a bunch of money.

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Daniel Meyer

Paid a bunch of guys a bunch of money to use a bunch of glop to seal a bunch of cracks in the roof of the Cupola building yesterday. I simply could not get the time to get up there (it’s a huge roof…over 25′ x 100′).

These roofs always shift around and need reasonably constant attention. With the major hailstorm, then the intense summer we had, we ended up with lots of small leaks.

The glop they use costs around $8/gallon and they used a lot (several 5 gallon buckets), especially across the back of the building, so I probably got off pretty cheap.

Now was not the time though. Money’s tight and we’ve already been hit hard by other issues. That and the property taxes and insurance due…oh…about now…on pretty much everything is catching up to us.

The roof of the Cupola building.

I can reasonably expect to get several more years service out of this roof if I’ll coat it with roof coat and go around it annually and touch up the cracks.

I think I need to sell a lot more art/books to pay for it though!

Sigh. Only money I guess. Don’t suppose y’all will line up and buy a bunch of books? Now would be the time…oh, and Christmas is coming up! You could knock out all your shopping on one place!

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

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Drat…

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Daniel Meyer

We had some pretty serious storms a week ago (Saturday night). Unfortunately we lost some shingles.

The Old Vic took some damage.

Not an easy place to reach

Not sure how to reach this at the moment…

We’re not ready to re-roof yet. Insurance is no help here…this could be repaired for a few hundred, and our deductible is much higher than that due to the age and condition of other parts of the roof.

Sigh.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

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