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End of an Experiment - June 21, 2005

Back in February of 2003, I bought a car on eBay. Now I'm offering it for sale. It's got a beautiful new $2600 paint job (everything painted but the roof as a result of the vandalism), and it looks really pretty.

FOR SALE: 1999 Volvo S-80 T6, 82,000 miles, black exterior, camel leather interior with an integrated Nokia phone system. Kelly Blue Book tells me this car is worth $12,435 in "good" condition. Because of the new paint, I'm asking $13,000.

It is still a very fast (ummmm Twin Turbos), smooth, comfortable and quiet driver getting 17/24 mpg from the V6. The photo's are still accurate. It's never been wrecked (as far as I know), and it's been serviced regularly by trained volvo specialists.

#  | 01:02 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: House)

Overrun by Foreigners - July 30, 2004

Once upon a time, our land was populated with a singular race of fescue, lovingly nurtured with chemical stimulants, automated watering, periodic aeration, and sharp mulching blades. The lush deep green carpet was a beautiful landscape of soft consistent dark shades of green. But there was trouble ahead. The vast greenery required constant cutting - twice weekly during the summer. The time, effort and sheer mileage for mowage forced the task into a chore mode. As the seasons went by, the scourge of Oregon spring rains and a faulty grade conspired against us resulting in a grassy, mud bog.

The solution was concrete - yards of hard, stamped, colored concrete. Commercial "sandy loam" was backbreakingly brought in to resolve the soil to patio transition, and a store bought mix of "quality" fescue was spread. The bog was erased along with 500 square feet of grass and half of zone 1 of the carefully computer designed sprinklers. Certain sprinkler heads were capped, and some heads quickly repositioned to water grass, and not patio.

In time, the new grass filled in, but dry spots emerged. The original anal sprinkler design combined with the repositioned heads had gaps, and required manual intervention during the long hot days in the dead of summer.

More time goes by and new planter beds are built, peripheral planter beds are expanded, more lawn is removed, and sprinkler heads repositioned. And more dry spots emerge. Soon the manual watering time is eating into our personal time, and becomes a low spot on the priority list.

Our constant companion during mowing sessions, the European crane fly. A rather large flying insect that resembles a mosquito, the fly neither bites nor feeds. It's short life is consumed with mating and laying eggs in the lawn.

It's the egg part that causes the problem. When they hatch, the larvae feed on the root systems of grass, causing brown patches and weakening the structure of the lawn.

Then come the intruders. Drifting on the wings of cool breezes, or riding shotgun on the myriad of stray pets and wild birds come the evil seeds of our discontent: foreign grass. They start innocently enough, but soon infiltrate into the very heart of the lawn. Their proliferation is easily ignored, as a vigorous and healthy lawn can combat the intruders. But alas, the society of fescue had been neglected, and the foreigners began to undermine the fundamental society of our lawn.

Seemingly overnight, the foreigners have taken over the environment. What was once an consistent rich soft carpet of beautiful green grass was now a hard patchwork of textures and colors ranging from green to brown. Sitting on the grass seemed like an itchy version of the concrete, and something had to be done.

Fresh off a reading of a book on lawncare, Marie decided that the first step was to rid the property of foreign grass, which would allow the local grass to thrive. Armed with a lethal Roundup cocktail, she began to serve the foreigners.

The only problem was that there was so much foreign grass, she couldn't identify the locals.

So she took the approach of the military: "Kill em All". She was very effective.

For two months now, we've had a dead lawn.

But this weekend, the grass (albeit dead) will be removed.

Monday is going to be one of those "oh my aching back" days.

But soon, sprinklers will be redesigned for effective coverage. In September/October, the grade will be adjusted with a new injection of fresh soil and amendments. And a new lawn will emerge. Seed or sod is not yet known at this point. Sod gives the immediate satisfaction of dirt one day, grass the next - but it expensive. Seed can give a healthier lawn, but requries great care and attention to get established.

I am looking forward to the beautiful lush soft green carpet again. I just hope we can keep up with it to keep it that way.

#  | 12:14 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: House)

Furniture Building - October 21, 2003

As I mentioned in the Oh My Aching Back entry a few days ago, we purchased and I built a new kitchen table. It's a booth style, and has a bench on one side. It will sit 4 or 5 comfortably, and is a honey pine color. It's relatively comfortable, in a church pew type of way (which is to say I imediately have to fight my Pavlovian instinct to yawn uncontrollably), but it seems to fit the room much better.

The real trick though was...
Going from this...
Before Assembly		 To this....
After Assembly
In 4 bad words or less.

I think I actually did it. Having "Parrot" Garrett around helped keep me in line. I kept the mood light by singing several variations of the "Bob the Builder" theme song - some of which would probably not be authorized by the Producers, but helped me mask some of the frustrations. I only had to unassemble 1 part due to RTFM deficiencies on my part.

#  | 09:20 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: House)

More Hardscape - May 27, 2003

This past Memorial Day weekend I built another planter box out of those Roman Stacking Stones. While this is not a big deal, it was a heavy deal. Each block weighs 17 pounds. I made 4 trips to Home Depot to buy the blocks. I bought 60, 53, 75 and 63 blocks each. I picked that amount to essentially map to the number of rows that would be stacked, and that I didn't want to overload the truck. The truck handled each load without issue. However on the last load I started doing some math in the head. 60+53+75+63 = 251 blocks, multiplied by 17 lbs is : 4267 lbs! I hauled more than two tons of blocks from the driveway to the backyard this weekend!

No wonder my body was sore.

#  | 03:23 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: House)

Moving Furniture - May 20, 2003

We did what I thought I'd never do over the weekend: move the entertainment center.

Just so you know, the entertainment center was purchased a few years ago and was constructed of the ever-evil pressboard core with simulated wood-grain laminate on the top. If you've ever had this type of furniture, and frankly I think everyone has at one point or another, you know that this stuff is 1) heavy, and 2) does not take kindly to moving.

With this in mind, when I constructed this 5'x6'x2' unit (that came in a 5 inch thick box), I asked Marie where she wanted it, because it wasn't ever moving from that spot.

Never say Never I guess.

So the plan was to move all the kids stuff to the family room from the living room, and make the living room the place where adults hang out and watch TV. Doesn't sound so bad. But the fun was only beginning.

So the entertainment center moved to the living room. This required moving the metal art work to another location. Both wingback recliners and an end-table moved to the "reading area" (what the home designer would have called the dining room). This required moving the never-used piano. So the piano moved to the family room along with the littler TV, VCR. But the file cabinet that held the TV doesn't "go" in the family room. So that was moved to the office, and one of the old black shelving units moved upstairs was once again brought downstairs to hold the TV/VCR. But now we need music in the family room, so the Receiver from the office was moved to the family room, the CD player in the entertainment center was moved to the family room and the CD player from the office was moved to the entertainment center.

Phew. Is that it? Not quite.

The living room had no end-tables, so one of the stylish glass tables put away when Garrett was born was ressurected for the living room. Now the wall where the metal art was looks barren, the family room wall has nothing and the overhead lamp in the living room is no longer connected to a wall-switch, and it now sits behind the recliner. The on/off switch for the lamp is below the level of the back of the recliner making it impossible to reach while sitting. The back speakers of my surround sound home theater are still on the walls in the family room connected to wires that travel to the other side of the room and collect next to the piano.

I like it though. It's different.

Anybody want to buy a piano?

#  | 09:52 AM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: House)