.michigosh.com/blog/

Re-newals II

My last entry here assumed Spring was finally happening. Not. Mere days later about 2 weeks of snowing, blowing, cold raining &/or just downright chilly weather ensued. Nasty. Not to mention depressing. Sigh. Both Buffy & I were suffused with warm-weather longing. Despite, or perhaps because of, knowing the unseasonable...

Re-newals I

It's been awhile since both this blog & the photo site have been updated. For many reasons. Most being technical in nature. Perhaps most important, my 4½-yr-old pc was failing, making it impossible to do anything on it beyond email. I managed to get by with the laptop I bought...

July???

You're wondering what happened to May in my life? Never mind June? When it's just become July?!? Really?? Geez oh man. Where've I been, huh? Well, here. Really. And I've got the pictures to prove it. If I ever get around to processing them, that is. Sigh. I just haven't...

Site updated...

Six months ago I wrote about finishing the flowerbed. And then disappeared. At least, from this site. So what the hell have I been doing since? Some stuff. Here's a summary: Summer: Kept the flowerbed & lawn alive, despite a season-long drought & uncommon hot weather (for here). Took some...

The flower(bed) project

Well, it may have taken the better part of 6 wks. but the good news is it's finally done. The flowerbed has landed. Lois & I planted the first two-thirds (of 19) together last Thursday, but I did the last third by my lonesome. It took me 3 days for...

The deck project

Since today's the first truly warm day we've had in awhile — temps in the 70s at last! — it seems an appropriate occasion to chronicle the latest step in my domestication: With the first warm weather in early April (50s, which at the time seemed quite warm after the...

The grass project

Last year there was a bare spot in the sideyard, as well as my backyard, and after the grass grew in this year the spots appeared to be growing, so I asked my neighbor for advice. Everett said it needed reseeding and maybe he knew someone who could do it....

Laughter...

For what may be quite possibly the best piece (of its type & subject) I've ever read, drop everything, right now, yes, do not hesitate, no, nor go anywhere else, no, for now you must go to this story. Which just gave me the best, most uncontrollable laughing fit I've...

Adventures in plumbing II

Pipes on the floor After contracting an early seasonal cold in late Sept. & then finally getting to the far side of it, Saturday morning I was greeted with a familiar & noisome sound in the bathroom. Yup, the drain's in distress again & (naturally) it's a weekend but (fortunately)...

Lawn care?

Clouds over Franklin St. [enlarge on click] The grass is working on growing...I'm working on web sites...the grass is getting high...I'm getting on with working...the grass is growing, obsessively...I'm getting on, obsessively, with web sites...the grass is growing harder...I'm working harder...the grass, the grass, the grass...needs a lot of mowing..........

And then came the flu

Got sick the night of Feb. 14…brought it home from an afternoon excursion down to the lake/river, then up to the Muskegon BestBuy to buy camera batteries & a possible PC-cure (yes, that's right, the darn thing still wasn't fixed) and then back to the lake/river, this time the northern...

Welcome to my nightmare

For those who might've wondered why this log wasn't being updated for sooo long: Got PC back Friday evening…but it would've been a big mistake to assume "problem solved," as I too quickly found out…… Oh dear, I was gonna recount the whole saga, but it's just too painful now....

PC withdrawal

At a loss…computer-less…information-less, except for the tv, which just ain't the same…i miss listening to various versions of npr's Morning Edition (from around the country) while waking up in the morning…and miss checking www.wunderground.com a dozen times a day for weather conditions, specific conditions, here, there & everywhere I choose,...

The pc saga begins

Significant & sustained problems with my computer that began small in the fall but bit-by-bit have accumulated until by mid-January reliable performance was only a memory...problems that just wouldn't resolve no matter what I did, no matter how many hours I spent trying to figure it out...led me to finally...

Pet project, part 3

Meanwhile, contemplation of cats continues. I review my pet history. There were only 2 males, Low & Theo, both of whose tenures ended prematurely...perhaps it's time to pick up where we left off? Thinking particularly of Theo, who was an orange tiger I couldn't keep & found another home for...

A new year

Spent a low-key New Year's Eve having Chinese take-out with friends, playing Scrabble & a new DVD movie trivia game whose name I forget. My friends, who are both morning people, surprised me & themselves by making it to midnight. Happy 2004...may it be a happier, more accomplished year than...

Pet project, part 2

I drove home, very, very carefully...feeling high, even kind of drunk, generally very distracted. As if parts of me got left behind in all those rooms with all those cats. And once again was filled with doubt as to whether I was ready to do this. But considering the mixed...

Pet project, part 1

Have been getting ready for this for many weeks...taking it in stages, one soft step at a time, surveying the available pet accessories in one store or another, contemplating where to place the food dishes, the litter box, looking in on the websites of 3 local animal shelters daily, searching...

A difficult anniversary

It is one year ago today that mom died. I tried to prepare myself for this day for weeks, but just as the difficult day after Thanksgiving took me by surprise, this one took hold when my defenses were down, late at night, & commandeered the rest of the day....

Adventures in plumbing

It began first thing on the morning of Dec. 24, with a peculiar noise that rumble rumbled up beneath the burbling water in the bathroom sink as I washed my face. Thinking it might be coming from the NPR Morning Edition playing on the pc in the dining room, I...

Changes...

So it gets light & dark later here...which has taken some getting used to, far more than I would've thought after my few summery visits. I mean, I think it's a good thing, a thing I like, but rather like jetlag, it leads to some adjustment issues. Like the fact...

what?

don't know where i am, who i am, when or what i am, whatever else is me, here in this new place, this whoever it is. which is as it should be, i suppose, but what it is is disorienting, sometimes even disturbing, other times just strange. finding the words...

In my (new) life...

Ensconced on the couch in the living room of my home, watching the Chicago Cubs play the first game of the NLCS (thanks to the infectious enthusiasm of longtime Cubs fan Mac), and feeling all is right in my world, finally. Adjusting, adapting to my new life has not been...

Taking off...

still not ready, for the move, for the leaving, for the going, for the change. but i'm doing it anyway, aren't i? i've left myself no choice, no room to manuever, no backing out now. in 10 days i'll be off, first to Ohio, to visit the rels in Cincinnati,...

Preparing a way

ecstasy and terror vie for me. i've been marking time for so long, why should it end, how can it end? when can an end be called for something so infinite, so lived-in, so cell deep? i've focused on surviving, on going on despite despair, inspite of impossible insight, on...

Toward a new home

i press my mind into the house, moving furniture about the rooms, meeting walls, floors, windows. there are spaces within spaces. i seek a place there and here, to turn the corner into a new life, in a new state, in a new time. i hover in the yard. the...

In memoriam

in transition, in the midst of changing to who knows what, in leaving behind whatever was, long ago, for so long, so very long, just marking time, keeping a beat to some unknown, unseen, untraveled rhythm. how to take control? how to unknow the knowable future & leave behind the...

Remembering...

Every day the year comes back in a dozen ways, (flashing by) like a dust mote brushing my peripheral vision. The rages. The stubborn rejection of all help, the refusal to recognize the benefit of assistance. The moment I realized her sharp intellect had disappeared. The old critical faculties that...

On the approach to my new life

it's a fairly long runway, but i WILL take off this time. no more endless runways that turn into highways to nowhere, no planes that taxi forever but never take off or follow jetways onto highways to nowhere. but i am scared. it's been such a long time since i...