Last Blog of 2010

Happy New Year!

We have decided to take New Years on the road so we are leaving shortly for Wallace, Idaho. It's about an hour and half drive on a lovely four lane freeway so it's really a breeze. We are going to spend the night in Wallace and ring in the new year there.

We will arise on January First, bright eyed and not hungover at all, and enjoy a day of skiing at Lookout Pass.

We should be working on the house, but there's plenty of time for that in Twenty-Eleven.

Last Snowstorm of Twenty-Ten

I got home last after about an hour on the road that would normally have taken about 20 minutes. After getting cats fed and beer open, I set about the task of snow blowing. At first I thought we had gotten about four inches but that was under a tree. When I got out into the middle of the driveway, there was easily se7en inches.

I had to narrow the swath of blowing destruction and slow the blower down a couple of gears so it took a little longer than normal. I think I was out there for two hours. But in the end, I was victorious and had a lot of snow replaced. I did a good portion of the street too.

The city announced they laid off six or seven employees on Christmas day (Merry Christmas, see ya later) and that meant snow plowing was going to take longer. I do not try to depend on the city for this kind of thing and so I took care of it. My little corner of the neighborhood, plus the sidewalks around the block, plus the alley are in good shape.

Here are some pictures.

Another thing I had to deal with last night was the Arbor Vitae. As I said, this was heavy snow and heavy snow is bad for tall shrubbery. Here's a picture of the Arbor Vitae after I had banged off about half of them.

Next, here is a picture to give a good depiction of the amount of snow we got since this morning.

Okay, that's it for me. I'm going in to enjoy an evening of television.

Hey! How's come the TV don't work!?!

Snow Day

I awoke to two wet, heavy, sloppy inches of snow and more coming down. I shoveled the area out to the cars and brushed the snow off our vehicles. There was no sense to snow blow since more is coming. I hate to leave my area un-blown throughout the day but sometimes you just have to accept your limitations.

The drive to work was fun this morning. It's the Holiday Season so traffic is a touch lighter than normal. But this heavy snow creates these really slushy berms in between lanes on the freeway and they can be a bit dicey when changing lanes.

1:30PM - The snow is still falling. It's still pretty wet. By now, I would guess we are looking at five inches on the ground...and it's still coming. It's gonna be some fun snow blowing when I get home.

I guess I had better realize that the forecasters that I deride so often have it right this time. The more in depth forecast says that it is going to get very cold in the next few days. So all this wet white snow is going to harden up soon and really be a bitch to deal with. I'll be doing a complete blow job tonight when I get home. Pictures to follow!

Iowa 27 Missou 24

We have cats! Four of em. They are a wonderful addition to our lives, bringing joy and adventure to everything they do. -Or- They are over fed barfing balls of fur that totally complicate everything we do. Pick your favorite.

I got home tonight and my first job is to feed the cats. Their first job is to remind me of my first job. They are usually all there waiting for their dish to be presented. Tonight, Oscar was nowhere to be found. I called him from the front and back door. It was raining pretty hard so I figured he would be along anon.

Susan came in and asked if Oscar was at the door when I got home. I said I hadn't seen him yet and we began the search. A cat not showing up at dinner time is cause for concern.

My go to search spot for Oscar is under the front porch. I shined a flashlight under there and voila!...there he was. He didn't appear to be interested in coming in.

Well, eventually, I pulled the lattice of the side of the porch and crawled under there to flush him out. Remarkably, he let me grab him and carry him out. I thought maybe he was injured but that turned out to be untrue.

We think something freaked him out and scared him under there. I think it was the rain.

The forecasters are going crazy telling us that there is snow a-comin. Well, it is 10:45 PM and the temperature here at the house is 37 degrees. It is cooling and the rain is coming down pretty hard right now so I'm thinking they may be correct. Or, they may be covering their asses...which I think is more likely. I'm going to bed now and we'll see what the story is in the morning.

Iowa beat Missouri in the Insight Bowl tonight. Susan is pleased.

Holiday Hangover

I would like to say I'm hungover but I think I'm still drunk. Had a bit to drink last night. Thankfully, I got to bed early. Well, early-ish! Well, before midnight...I think!

Here are a few pictures from the evening.

It has occurred to me that this picture has nothing to do with what we did last night. But it is a good depiction of our open house party.

Open House Flop

If you were one of the few people that attended our After Christmas Open House Party, then none of this is directed at you. If you didn't attend our After Christmas Open House...what the Fuck!

Okay that's all I'll say.


The people that attended our Open House Event were Mark, Mike, Gary, Kim, Lee, Sue, Ted and Ted's Friend whose name I can't remember. That is out of about 25 people we invited. We do not feel slighted by this lack of attendance. We didn't do a very good job of getting the word out or of insuring that those we invited might attend. You know...the whole RSVP thing.

The unfortunate thing is that Susan worked her ass off to prepare for the party and she wasn't feeling all that great as she prepared. I tried my best to help but I have found it's best to keep out of her way and just do as she says.

I think the timing worked against us. It was the end of a long holiday weekend and I think people were tired of being festive.

For me, I'm glad it's behind us and I wish I didn't have this hangover that I'm going to have in the morning.

Merry Christmas 2010

We have made it to Christmas. I'm glad it's here and almost in the history books. It has become a very stressful time of year and that stress is all self inflicted. Both Susan and I do stupid things to add to the stress. I swear to the Lord on high, I'm going to start buying Christmas gifts NOW. When I see something that makes me think that would be good for (Fill in the name), I'm going to buy it...even if I buy it on December 26th.

The only problem with that is I will lose it before Christmas comes around again.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve day. Susan slept in and I woke up early and puttered around the various shopping emporiums until I had filled my bucket with the appropriate gifts.

At noon we went to church and followed that up by touring the Campbell House. It's a local turn of the century mansion that belongs to the museum. They decorate it up for Christmas and I thought it would be fun to go see it. We even coaxed our pastor and his wife to join us.

It's a very impressive house and it has been expertly restored.

We made it back home by three and lolled about until it was time to go to dinner. We attended the traditional family Christmas Eve Feast and had a great time and enjoyed a fabulous Prime Rib.

Just as we were preparing to head out the door, my friend Mike from Bellingham called and announced he was coming to town. We had spoke to him earlier in the week and he asked then if we could put him up. I said of course and he said he would let us know if he was coming.

We hadn't heard from him so we decided he probably wasn't coming. The late notice was no big deal other than making sure he got into the house okay with us gone.

Susan has been affected by her boss and caught his cold. She has been feeling crappy all day. We have pretty much taken it easy except that now she wants to prepare for our open house event we are having tomorrow. That means cleaning, cooking and ordering me about.

All in all, a good Christmas!

Welcome Solstice

I know I noted it in the last post, but yesterday, I totally forgot about the arrival of the Solstice. It wasn't until late in the evening that it even occurred to me.

This doesn't seem like the kind of earth shattering news that would elevate its status to blog worthiness. But I'm trying to beat my record for posts. I need six more posts to tie my record.

I didn't want to just make a post with irrelevant content (like this) just to beat my record. I don't think that is proper and it would be a hollow victory.

So I would also like to add that, true to form, I have bought practically nothing for anyone on my Christmas list. I know what I want to buy. I just haven't gotten around to the pain in the ass process of buying it.

There! Now this is a post worthy of...a hollow victory.

Mo Sno

Another couple of inches of snow over the night. I would estimate we have aboutthree to four inches on the ground right now. It's still snowing as I write this so we'll see what it brings when it's all over.

Here's a scene of the street this morning at about 6:30 as I was trying to clear a little snow before venturing out to work. I'll finish up tonight when I get home.

I should also like to point out that the Winter Solstice is upon us. Finally, the season matches the weather.

Why Would You Live Here

If you didn't like snow, why would you live here?!

The snow has returned. About two inches fell today and I broke out the snow blower tonight and made it go away, only to have it start snowing again. They are saying three to six inches. If more is to come, I'm two inches ahead of it.

It can take a good hour to cover my snow blowing terrain and I broke it down in segments tonight. You have lots of time with your thoughts when you're doing snow removal.

It takes me about 20 minutes to clear the driveway and the alley. I go about a third of the way down the alley. Then I do the southern portion of the sidewalk on the block. that takes about 10 minutes. Then I finish up with the northern portion which takes about 15 minutes.

This can take longer or shorter depending on the snow fall.

So, there is my breakdown of the snow blowing procedure. What could be more interesting?

Almost anything?

Mickey Mouse Electrical Engineering

I fixed the shower light last night but I'm not happy with the method I used. I simply attached some pigtails to the wires already in the can and connected the pigtails to the socket. It works but I don't think it's a permanent solution.

I am looking on-line at DIY.com to see what the specs are for a shower light. There is no danger of electrocution...in my humble unprofessional uninformed opinion...but I want to make my opinnion less humble, more professional, and more informed.

All our many inches of fabulous pre-season snow is gone. It rained a quarter of an inch on Monday and that pretty much washed away what little snow was left. I guess I'm ready for the next round.

Remodeled Shower Issue

About a month ago, the light in our two year old remodeled shower starting flashing off and on. It was intermittent and would be on, then go off for 30 seconds to a minute, then back on. Last week, it pretty much stayed off.

I haven't had a chance to look at it because of our painting schedule so I tore into it tonight. Now I clearly remember purchasing a light can that is made to go in a shower. When I opened it up, there was a lot of rust falling out of the can. The black wire attached from the light socket to a little relay mounted in the can had corroded loose. This is not a wire I had anything to do with while wiring the light so I am emphatically claiming this is not my fault. I believe I bought a cheap piece of Chinese shit. And THAT, is my fault!

I looked back through the blog to try and find out what I wrote about this light and it's installation and perhaps some pictures.

I learned a lot during my search. I was reminded that I walked out of the house to discover some ass wipe trying to steal Susan's car one late December night in 2007. I learned that the camera I replaced last month lasted me just over three years. I learned I have a lot more misspelled words in this thing that I like. And I learned I installed the shower light on December 19th, 2007. I did not say much about it that was helpful to my current problem and there were no pictures because my camera had broken and I complained about having to buy another.

So in this case, the Blog was not helpful. More my fault than the Blog's.

So we will not be using the shower for a couple of days while I fix this problem.You will note on the picture below that the black wire comes into the can on the left and attaches to the little metal block in the center. There is a little brown spot below the wire. That is where the wire attached to the socket corroded away from.

This is clear photographic evidence that I bought a piece of Chinese shit and it's NOT MY FAULT! Except for buying the piece of Chinese shit.

2010 Carriage Ride

On Friday evening, we finished our last sky walk. We are done for the season. Now we can concentrate on the season.

It is Sunday morning, 10:33AM as I write this and we slept through church. Didn't get up in time. We have much to accomplish this day because this evening is the annual Corbin Park Carriage Ride. Yea!

We have a few friends coming over and we will enjoy some neighborhood frivolities.

In the meantime, Susan is on a cleaning jag and I have many lights to finish attaching to the house.

I shall update this post throughout the day as time permits.

I should comment on the party I attended last night. I guy I grew up with named Brian had a holiday party at his place on the south hill...way up the south hill on Glenrose Prairie. This is the second year he and his girlfriend Dana have had the party. I made a batch of beer and it was well received and enjoyed. Happily, I still have some left. Here is a picture from the fire pit looking towards Brian's expansive garage where some party goers are enjoying shots of Jager.11:38AM - I have been successful on the roof with my heat cable. I wrote in an earlier post about this touchy section of the roof where great icicles form and then proceed to screw up the house. I laid this heat cable up there in the middle of the freeze but at that time, I could only lay it out but not secure it. I remedied that today and I think it will work well. I need to buy and 100 foot roll of this stuff to properly cover the whole area.

Now, it's time to get some lights up.

4:41PM - I am declaring victory over the Christmas Lights. Susan has completed the inside decorating...except for the tree, which we have yet to purchase...and probably won't for another week.

We are now ready for the Carriage Ride. The only problem now is that the friends we invited canceled on us. We were somewhat expecting this because these friends have changed plans on us before. It is too late now to try and invite anyone else over. So, we are going to be Susan and Stan tonight. We will hang with our neighbors and catch up on all the neighborhood gossip. There was an ambulance called to a house across the park about an hour ago so maybe we will find out "wazzupwidat!"

Here's how we look for now!

** Happy Krimble Everyone **

10:39PM - Well, I'm afraid I have no good picture to share from the Carriage Ride. We had a great time though. We got our ride around the park and talked to a bunch of neighbors and then Susan and I finished off the evening watching the most recent Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey, Jr. An okay flick with great effects with a story that followed the Holmesian style but never written by Sir Artie Conan Doyle.

We have decided that it has been a good day!

When it Rains...

I have finished my painting for the evening and I drove home in the driving rain...which is the best kind of rain for driving. It's really coming down. If this continues, it will wash away all our snow on the ground. I'm glad that it is melting in the streets but I would like it on the lawns and out in the park.

The forecast is calling for it to turn into snow tomorrow and Saturday. I guess it remains to be seen. In the meantime, I will continue to clean up the driveway and street as I can.

Only one more sky walk and we are fini! I'm looking forward to it being behind us. I painted in the large skywalk from the STA Plaza to Sterling Savings. I crosses Riverside so is one of the longer skywalks. I did it in just over two hours.

I had a heck of a time trying to find a parking space. I don't know what was going on downtown tonight but it appeared to be a pretty happening place. That's not something you see a lot down there.

Festive Festiveness

Susan had to work tonight and so I took a night off from Sky walk painting to get some Christmas lights up on the house. The Annual Carriage Ride is this Sunday and we wanted the house decorated for that event. I still have some stuff to get up but that will have to wait for Sunday...when I have access to some daylight.

In any event, here is how the house looks so far. The temperature has warmed considerably and we have a window in which to do some clean up of all the snow we have on the ground. I was able to get out on the deck and break up the ice rink. I got it broken up and pretty well cleaned off. I hope I will have the ability to clean stuff up some more this weekend.

We have one and a half sky walks to finish...and then we are done painting for the season. Good thing too cuz I am getting tired of snowmen and I know Susan is tired of snow flakes. I'll be out tomorrow finishing my half of one sky walk and then we will hit the last one on Friday. That will be fabulous!

Ice Rink Deck

We painted two sky walks today. That leaves us with three to complete.


But today, I'm writing about the house. Specifically, the deck. After a long day of painting, we decided it was a good time to make use of the hot tub. That's the hot tub right there beyond the railing. You'll note a line of frozen snow in the middle of the deck. That is from the over hang above dripping down on to the deck. It managed to solidify in the middle there and then all the exta water was able to spread out over the entire deck and form a lovely skating rink.

It also built up around the gate we go through to get to the hot tub. That made it very difficult and somewhat life threatening to get to the hot tub. But, we made it work.We managed to get in and enjoy the tub. It was really needed too.

Now we are enjoying the evening with whatever we want to do. Susan wants to start putting up Christmas decorations and she is doing that as I write.

Also, as I write, I am writing this. I just wrote that. I wrote that too and right now I am writing this. Aren't you glad you took time out of your busy schedule to read this...or that!

Faith Restored

My faith in my fellow human person has been restored. I used to think that most people where scumbags. But I think that is too harsh. I have now come to accept that there are only a few scumbags out there and they all hover around me.


I have two snow shovels. One I leave by the back door and one I leave of the front porch. The front porch shovel is gone. Someone of the genus Scumbagus, has adopted it and given it a better home than I could ever have hoped to give it. Bastard!


We have been painting relentlessly for over a week. As of right now, we have three sky walks to finish. We took Friday off from our regular jobs and painted all day. We may have gotten a couple of other jobs in the meantime. That's the big advantage to being out painting on a regular business day. People ask for a card all the time.

When we paint at night like we normally do, we only see kids and vagrants. they never ask for our card.

I should also mention that the whole snow situation is under control for now. It hasn't snowed since Tuesday, which was mostly rain, and the plows came by today and really cleaned up the streets.

More snow is forecast for later in the week so we will see how this develops. Remember, we are only a few days into December and we have significant snowfall on the ground. No Pineapple Express is expected soon.