We had a very lovely reunion meeting of my old Writer's Group this afternoon, with lots of yummy snacks and hours of interesting conversation, catching up with everyone, finding out what everyone is up to these days, not only with regard to their writing, but also their lives and families.
Adam made some brownies; I stopped by the store and grabbed some sodas. Because I am not the cooking type.
It was difficult to talk about my own writing because there has not been much of it happening lately, what with the basement obsession. And the job-hunting obsession. And the myriad of other distractions. Frankly, there isn't much time for it, and my heart can't be in it when there are so many more important things to be done.
There was a big dog at the reunion, a big fluffy dog who was shedding all over the place -- and I was wearing black jeans. Guess what they were covered with by the time we left?
Erin had a fun time sniffing me after we got home. Probably wondering who this strange dog was I'd been hanging around with. But she handled it well, didn't get all puffy and freaked-out. Just demanded more scratching behind her ears as penance. And I'm a sucker for a docile cat.
:::
Deb is in the process of buying her first car. She's been driving my red Subaru, the one James was driving before he lit off for the hinterlands of Germany. But she's been wanting to be more independent, and somehow she has gotten this idea (from her father) that a car represents the ultimate expression of freedom. So she did a lot of research on carguru.com and craigslist, asking our opinions of which car to get, and how old of a car to get (which is based on the price she can afford, ultimately). And she wrote down the list and started getting in touch with the sellers.
One car, a Honda Accord, looked pretty good, even though it had over 200k miles; it was in East Lansing, about an hour away. And we were getting ready to drive over there to take a look at it - I'd even taken the day off - when she got a text from the guy that he'd just sold it. So that didn't work out, and I was sad - because now I had to go back to work.
But then she found a real deal, a 2000 Toyota Camry with low miles (135k), just ten minutes away, and arranged for me to meet the guy around 5 pm (because she had to get to work). So I went and looked the car over. Clean engine, slight leak in the exhaust (a little loud, but not too bad), a few cosmetic issues, some broken pieces, but relatively rust-free and running good. Looked like a Mommy car. A bit more room than the old Corolla, a huge trunk for putting groceries in, a sunroof, and some other nice amenities. Best part was the price: $1k. She could easily afford that (although it took most of her savings).
I told the guy we'd take it, but since the banks were closed, we wouldn't be able to pay him til the next day. And he was cool with that. So by 9 am the next morning, Cheryl and I met him in the same parking lot and gave him the money and got the title and were ready to go.
Except we didn't get a chance to get the title transfer done because Deb wasn't available the rest of the day, owing to school and work.
So we'll do it on Tuesday after the holiday.
And then she'll finally have her own car! And I get my red Subaru back!
:::
I spent the majority of the week splitting my time between office work and house work. The office work was running remote tests on aviation software, which has its moments of dullness and its moments of fun; the house work was pure basement, prepping for the electrical and framing inspections.
One would probably wonder by this point what on earth is taking so long. And the answer to that question is easy. I'm an idiot. As I was going through my faux-inspection, checking all the things that the inspector will be (or should be) looking at, I found a few mistakes. Mostly in the area of exceeding the maximum number of wires in junctions boxes. Which meant I had to install additional junction boxes and split the wires between the two. Which meant (in some cases) installing additional wire runs in order to reroute the entire branch circuit away from the middle of the room where the ceiling boxes were, so that there wouldn't be square junction boxes scattered all over the ceiling. Which would make things very messy.
Adam made some brownies; I stopped by the store and grabbed some sodas. Because I am not the cooking type.
It was difficult to talk about my own writing because there has not been much of it happening lately, what with the basement obsession. And the job-hunting obsession. And the myriad of other distractions. Frankly, there isn't much time for it, and my heart can't be in it when there are so many more important things to be done.
There was a big dog at the reunion, a big fluffy dog who was shedding all over the place -- and I was wearing black jeans. Guess what they were covered with by the time we left?
Erin had a fun time sniffing me after we got home. Probably wondering who this strange dog was I'd been hanging around with. But she handled it well, didn't get all puffy and freaked-out. Just demanded more scratching behind her ears as penance. And I'm a sucker for a docile cat.
:::
Deb is in the process of buying her first car. She's been driving my red Subaru, the one James was driving before he lit off for the hinterlands of Germany. But she's been wanting to be more independent, and somehow she has gotten this idea (from her father) that a car represents the ultimate expression of freedom. So she did a lot of research on carguru.com and craigslist, asking our opinions of which car to get, and how old of a car to get (which is based on the price she can afford, ultimately). And she wrote down the list and started getting in touch with the sellers.
One car, a Honda Accord, looked pretty good, even though it had over 200k miles; it was in East Lansing, about an hour away. And we were getting ready to drive over there to take a look at it - I'd even taken the day off - when she got a text from the guy that he'd just sold it. So that didn't work out, and I was sad - because now I had to go back to work.
But then she found a real deal, a 2000 Toyota Camry with low miles (135k), just ten minutes away, and arranged for me to meet the guy around 5 pm (because she had to get to work). So I went and looked the car over. Clean engine, slight leak in the exhaust (a little loud, but not too bad), a few cosmetic issues, some broken pieces, but relatively rust-free and running good. Looked like a Mommy car. A bit more room than the old Corolla, a huge trunk for putting groceries in, a sunroof, and some other nice amenities. Best part was the price: $1k. She could easily afford that (although it took most of her savings).
I told the guy we'd take it, but since the banks were closed, we wouldn't be able to pay him til the next day. And he was cool with that. So by 9 am the next morning, Cheryl and I met him in the same parking lot and gave him the money and got the title and were ready to go.
Except we didn't get a chance to get the title transfer done because Deb wasn't available the rest of the day, owing to school and work.
So we'll do it on Tuesday after the holiday.
And then she'll finally have her own car! And I get my red Subaru back!
:::
I spent the majority of the week splitting my time between office work and house work. The office work was running remote tests on aviation software, which has its moments of dullness and its moments of fun; the house work was pure basement, prepping for the electrical and framing inspections.
One would probably wonder by this point what on earth is taking so long. And the answer to that question is easy. I'm an idiot. As I was going through my faux-inspection, checking all the things that the inspector will be (or should be) looking at, I found a few mistakes. Mostly in the area of exceeding the maximum number of wires in junctions boxes. Which meant I had to install additional junction boxes and split the wires between the two. Which meant (in some cases) installing additional wire runs in order to reroute the entire branch circuit away from the middle of the room where the ceiling boxes were, so that there wouldn't be square junction boxes scattered all over the ceiling. Which would make things very messy.
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