03:45 No Sleep

Ok, I wasn’t up this early, but not too far after it either.

I’m a borderline insomniac. I have been for the last decade. Five hours a night of sleep for me is not uncommon – and rare if it is five hours in a row. Oddly enough, I’m not too bad with it. At the very least, I’ve learned to cope with it.

I can fall asleep in a heartbeat – I just can’t stay asleep.

This awake time should be used for something more productive, but it isn’t.  Actually, for the ten years or so I’ve been like this, you think I would have adapted to what my body does – or doesn’t do, in this case.

Here is what I do.  My alarm is always set, on the off-chance I over sleep.  I’m not sure I’ve heard it go off too many times.  Most of the time it is on after I get out of the shower, change and eat breakfast.

Here is also what I do.  I wake up at 04:30 and there I lie.  I think of things I have to do – usually at work.  I think horrible thoughts of ‘what if Denton dies before I do’.  I think maybe I’ll go back to sleep.    It is especially that last one that baffles me.   I don’t go back to sleep, not really.  Maybe for a 10 minute eyes closed kind of thing, but I’m never truly back to sleep, yet I can’t drag my sorry ass out of bed.

First – I don’t want to wake Denton.  Secondly – I don’t want to disturb the cats.  They sleep right next to me, on either side.  They seemingly need me there and what would happen if I were to move?   Thirdly – what would I do?   TV?  No.   Wash dishes – probably not.   The gym isn’t open that early and I’d have to deactivate the alarm to get out the door, which would wake up the firstly and secondly feature of this paragraph.

So I lay there.

I am hoping (or I think Denton is) that my new exercise routine will change my sleep patterns. It would be nice I guess.  I do not seem any worse for the wear, but that might bedelusional on my part.  And I’m not alone.  CNN says folks in the U.S. are getting less and less sleep:  6.7 hours a night as an average.  I should be so lucky!   And I am bringing down that average.

Tonite (well, tomorrow morning actually) we set our clocks one hour ahead.   Yay for me!  One less hour of sleep!

Song by: the Cardigans

Accidents Never Happen

Another winter day. Another accident outside our house. Though sometimes you can hear the crash, usually it is the lack of sound that signals there has been a crash.

This is from last Saturday. The roads weren’t even that bad. Actually, they weren’t bad at all. I never know why they lose control on this hill. Most of them end up in our yard – like this one from last year.

With three lanes, two of them were blocked by the car and the emergency vehicles. I was thinking I might not make it to the gym. But it really wasn’t too hard to go around them.

Actually, I took the first shot through the screen – by accident. But it is a cool shot – isn’t it?

See?

I’m sure it is wrong of me to think, but I just assume if you can’t keep it together on a mostly dry road, you’re probably just drunk.   Yeah – that’s it.

Song by: Blondie

Running Through the Garden

No No. The pic right here is not a Monet or Van Gogh. Actually, it is a garden that is all indoors. At least for this last weekend.

Yesterday we went to the annual Home & Garden Show.

Granted, we didn’t pay for these tickets. Friends of ours had comps and even they wouldn’t couldn’t go, so they were offered to us. It was a cold and snowy day, so what the hell we went. …and then got hit for fuckin’ $8 for parking!

Let’s just say, we didn’t get our $8 worth.

What you see above was almost the only real garden. There were a few displays of pergolas, water features and the likes. Then there were things like stone walks, windows replacements and gutter covers. Oh and hot tubs and outdoor furniture. (click image to enlarge)

Seriously, who would ever thing placing larger than life ants on their display was a good idea?

After that, the place was filled up with even more crap: homemade candies, incense, jewelry, hand-crafted wooden model airplanes, greyhound adoption, Sham-Wows and imitation Sham-Wows.

Home & Garden? Je think not! Yes you can put all these things IN a home, but c’mon……it’s a stretch at best.

Oh oh oh oh….and there is this: (you must click on image you enlarge. I mean – you must!)

WTF ????

I love the suspended-animation hair head. The “guy” styling her hair was not that amused by me taking her picture. I’ll let you decide whom I mean by “her”.

Again – Home & Garden?

Oh – and for no real good reason, there is this: An indoor ferris wheel.

I know I can’t get that in my home!

Song by: Fleetwood Mac

White Rabbit

I was home all day on Friday.  I had to be for two reasons – the biggest one was that it was -13 (sans windchill).  It was not a record low, oddly enough.  It did make it to -32 (avec windchill).  I wasn’t intending to wander outside unless absolutely necessary.

But while in Mexico I got a call that chairs I ordered way back in November had arrived!!  Yayyyyy.

While I was in DC, I stopped in Mitchell Gold+Bob Williams.  Well, “stopped in” is a fallacy.  I ducked in during an unexpected downpour.  I mean, I always wanted to go in each time I passed the store, but was always on the way somewhere else.

But while walking around the store, I came upon a chair I really liked and decided I wanted: The Alice.  We desperately needed two chairs for our living room but had never found anything remotely appropriate.   I will say this, I did hold off on ordering them right then and there before consulting with Denton.  I thought this to be fair.

Upon my return home, I showed it to him on-line.  There is no Gold+Williams store in Ohio, but we did have an independent retailer who carries their line – kind of.  So, off I dragged him to see the chair…………….which they didn’t have.  But we ordered two anyway, sight unseen by one of us. This is a big step for the partner, trust me.   We actually decided on fabric and wood colour in less than 30 minutes.  This is a huge step for us both.  Trust me.

So since I was going to be home on Friday, I arranged delivery from another country.  Sweet!  Not only that, they arrived not only between the designated time stated, but 10 minutes into the the earliest time!!!  SWEET!

Here are two shots of just one chair:

It looks more slope-y than it actually is.  They are bigger than they seemed in the big, wide-open store, but they work in the room.  Naturally now, Denton wants to replace the sofa, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.  I think it fits fine.

We will have to make sure the cats don’t sharpen their imaginary claws on them though.  The chairs that were there before were ruined by those non-clawed cats.  Believe it or not, those pads can damage more than you think.  So far so good.

Song by: Jefferson Airplane

Portrait

Everyone is doing it – and I’m nothing if not a follower.  I made my own Obama poster.  You can too.  Thanks Paste Magazine!

I probably would have done it anyway, but because I have been on vacation, I needed to get something up and running.

We came back from Mexico to a 69 degree deficit. Yes, it was 73 degrees when we got to the airport in Cancun and 4 when I got to my car in the parking lot in Cleveburgh.   It was a brutal awakening.

It got a lot more brutal when we got home and found someone had gotten stuck in our new landscaping and probably just spun their tires for quite a bit of time before getting free.  Was it the mailman?  Was it the dry cleaner?  I know it wasn’t the pet sitter.   I do, but don’t care about the $$$$ (ok, I do!), but I would have really liked someone to fess up to it with an apology.

So, I’ll probably do one last vacation post with a few more pics.  I’m so sorry it’s over.  But whatta gonna do?

Song by: Rosanne Cash

Tall Trees

So, my plane arrives on Thursdee afternoon , and like the good partner I am, I call to say the (b)eagle has landed and that I’m headed home.

I know he’s at work. But he goes, “ummmm…..there might be a crew there when you get home.” Naturally, I respond “what kind of crew?”

Apparently, more landscaping. Much more. Denton “claims” I gave him a verbal ok. I do not recall this. I do recall him saying he was getting estimates and I believe that was the last I heard of it. Now I expect things in writing. And notarized.

Granted, we have had four or five ash trees right in front. Skinny little-ish things that stood 40-50′ high. But at least in NE Ohio, there is an ash borer that is going around killing all these trees. Cities up here have been taking them down proactively. Apparently, so are we. Just without my buy-in.

So this was the scene when I pulled up to the front of the house:

….and trust me, that isn’t even a sliver that was on the other side of the pile. More chopped up tree trunks and branches and a half-dozen undocumented workers landscapers.

It wasn’t all trees taken out.  No, a number of bushes had been removed too – but it’s not like he is going to leave things bare.  Above are the replacement shrubs, bushes and trees to go in their place.   There are more that are not in this picture.

They are all planted now, but it was pitch black at 7p when I got home last night.  And I haven’t been outside this morning.

I’m thinking in the next day or so, you’ll get a before, during and after post.  Because tomorrow is Sundee, and I haven’t even begun to think of a topic.  I might just make it easy on myself.

Song by: Crowded House

Now I Can’t Find the Door

….and now a break from my seemingly non-stop posts on politics.  Even I was getting tired of writing them – so reading them was probably no fun either.   ….at least after awhile.

As we slowly do some home improvement (not a good sign when the gay couple down the street has lived in their house for 31 years and still improving/renovating!), we just decided to get rid of the monochromatic entrance.   Or side entrance as the case may be – but it is used as the main one.  Don’t ask – it’s too complicated.

The entire way we enter the house needs to be redone, but that is a time and cash consuming project.  In this economic downturn, investing that much into it is not our highest priority.  So with $22 of paint and brushes, we (well Denton) tackled the door.

In a few mere hours we went to this:

We are looking for a new light to go above.  We found one, but I said it was too big.  No one listened to me – they never do.  But I was right – I always am.

The pictures don’t show it as much, but it makes a huge improvement when you approach the house.  The door really kind of pops.

Who knows, in another 31 years, we might be close to finishing this project.

Song by: Sam Phillips

Farewell to the Old Me

I was going to title this post, “Old Man”, but I thought that would be too easy. But in reality, that is exactly what I’ve become.

Case in point: the other day I had come home from work and was out watering the lawn (our new grass) and our newly planted flora and fauna. As I was doing this, I saw a car seemingly pull up at the curb in front of the house. Four teenagers got out and headed down the street towards the heavily wooded area across the way.

I’m not fool – I used to be one of those kids. But lest you think I cared that they were going to get high, I didn’t. I did notice their car sat at a weird angle, so I headed to the front of the yard. ….and damn if those fucking kids didn’t park on the lawn! My lawn. Our lawn.

Being the old man I now am, I chased them down and told them to….and I quote….’get your fucking car off my lawn’.

Only one of the four came back. He shrugged like it was no big deal. But of course, I couldn’t let it go. I had to go on about how I had just paid to have the lawn to be redone and did he not know that if you drive up and over the curb it is no longer the street? He just shrugged – again.

He thought he was going to back up in our drive, but I stood right there not letting him. He had to use reverse to go down the street as he was smart enough not to dare even using the driveway across the street.

If there was a punishment, it was that his friends went without him and were probably halfway through their pot before he made it back. It wasn’t long before they walked back – all four of them. They looked up into the yard, and I made sure they saw that I saw them, less they tried any retribution.

So yeah – I’m turning into the typical neighborhood dad. So what??

But as for the planting. Here is the before of part of the side of the drive:

……and here is the after

more before

more after

I’ll get pics of the front of the house in a bit.   But I guess this is what old men who are the neighborhood coots do…..run off kids and show off their gardens.

So long, Young Blobby.

Song by: Dar Williams

A Home

Last week, I took a short cut through the street we used to live. Our first house. I hadn’t been down there in maybe a year or so, even though it is only four miles away from where we currently reside.

We loved that house. We knew the minute we walked in it was what we wanted. We put a bid in on it that day and it was accepted. Nerves and excitement don’t even begin to describe signing the papers for that….and the check too.

We lived there for over seven years and moved out three years and one month ago (but who is counting?). We sold it to an incoming Resident at one of the big hospitals in the area (and actually had bought it from a set of Residents at a big area hospital). So it stands to reason that in three years, this person’s residency program would be up.

Yet, I was surprised when driving down the street to notice that “our house” was for sale. It looked the same, save the privet I planted between us and the neighbors, so I could block their crappy drive and garage. The privet were mere sticks when I planted them and I had cultivated them into a hedge about 6’ tall. They are now at least 9’ tall. I think they are beyond trimming, unless Lurch moves in.

The few times I have driven down the street, I was amazed that the new owners had every window shut, every blind drawn. I know residents work weird hours, but to close off every source of natural light was just so odd to me.

Immediately when I made it back to our ‘new’ home, I went on-line and looked at what they were selling it for. They are asking $17,000 LESS than what we did. They are asking $10,000 less than they paid us for it.

I don’t know if it is the market or something they’ve done to the house to make it depreciate in value. Or maybe they are motivated sellers, before their Fellowship starts in another city. Perhaps a combination of things. As we drove down the street, Denton mentioned how the ‘hood looked a little sad and rundown – and he was right. So that might be a contributing factor.

Denton also mentioned, that this was probably the first time in the house’s life (88 years) that the value has gone down. Poor little house.

So Sunday, they had an open house. I was determined to go in it and look at the current state of the house and what they had done to our baby. But they say you can’t go home again, and maybe Medusa was wrong. As the time came, and we pulled up in front of the house, there was a massive downpour. Or as my mother would say, “it is teeming outside!”

I was thinking it, but Denton said it: “seems like a sign we shouldn’t be going in” – and I think he and the powers that be were right. We stayed put for about five minutes with no let-up in the rain as it pounded the roof of my car to deafening levels.

We decided it was better to keep the memory of what we had, versus what it had become. We didn’t go in.

Five minutes after driving away – the rain stopped.

Song by: the Dixie Chicks

Working on a Building

We are slowly, but surely, making a little progress on our master bathroom renovation.

Now now….don’t get all excited on me. We’re haven’t started demo or anything. With our work schedules and travel schedules, we haven’t even regrouped with the architect, as I insisted on a second quote from another contractor. The reality is, I’ll probably want three.

Denton really likes our architect since he works on historic houses (like ours), but I’m not wedded to this guy nor to the notion that the bathroom has to be in line with the style of the house. It’s a place to do my personal business and wash my twig and berries. And floss. Not necessarily in that order.

So what progress have we made, you ask?

Floor tile – picked out!
Cabinetry – picked out!
Counter tops – narrowed down!

Hey – two out of three ain’t bad. I mean – we haven’t even gone down the fixtures road yet. First things first.

For those of you who are unaware, our last bathroom renovation – which we did almost completely by ourselves – could have ended in mandatory jail time our relationship. And that was just over the picking out of tile.

I’ve come a long way, baby. I let more stuff roll off my back and again, it’s just a place to shave and drop the kids off at the pool. Not necessarily in that order.

The cabinetry thing was odd. We walked into the store last Saturday and though it wasn’t the first thing we saw, it was one of the first things. We both just knew it. That was it. 10 minutes.  Boom. Done.

The guy who helped us was great. And a true salesmen – in the fact that two guys coming in together didn’t phase him one bit. I still just assume the straight male (if he is one), still cringes on the inside at the thought of two guys. Sometimes that inside cringe manifests itself on the outside.

But he was great and we’re happy to give him the business.

Yes, I’m aware many gays in the home improvement / design business frequent these places, but that doesn’t always change one’s fews of gay men together. I wish I could link to you the Plain Dealer’s ‘Question of the Day’ about Gay Marriage (the link is not working). The responses were nauseating. Only one was funny – saying, they’d be for it, right after we could get gambling legalized in Ohio.

So back to decorating! Here are some slabs of (cary) granite we saw last Saturday (as always, click on image to enlarge them).

We’re not really interested in this. Denton pointed out if they had called it Ebony Granite, I never would have even given it a first look, let alone a second.

It’s not like I’m a leather nut. Though I still have a leather scented candle that Morty gave me about 15 years ago. It smelled great then – and it still does. I’ve never lit it even. Now that I think of it, I am not quite sure why he gifted it to me in the first place. Even putting that in print here might get a comment that I don’t want others to see – but I’ll take my chances.

We’re not really interested in this either. It looks a lot like Jupiter, don’t you think? It was more the name – and it made both of us immediately think of Rebecca and her malaprop:  ‘a little calypso will get that out!’.

We do expect to start this oft delayed project this summer.

I just don’t know what to do with the cats when this work is going on. Bother!

Song by: the Cowboy Junkies