Renting Sucks
I try not to worry about too much that I can’t control, and usually I’m pretty good about it. Not today though.
Tonight Andrea and I went to look at a house for rent in a small town north of Ft. Riley. It’s a cute little 2 bedroom house with a 2 car garage. $500 a month, and not too bad of a drive for either of us. I really like it. The first problem with it is though, that it’s available in June, so we’d have to double up on rent for two months. I have some money saved up, but doing that will take a decent chunk of it. And also it doesn’t accept pets, so we’d have to get rid of Nala.
It’s such a great house though! But the combination of spending all that money and having to say goodbye to Nala makes me really apprehensive. She said she’s got several great applicants so far and that her decision was going to be pretty hard. So we might not even get the place. It’s just got me kinda shaken up. I’d be giving up alot, but I’d be getting alot as well. *sigh* It’s life, eh?
It’s just that time of year…
We just got settled into the new house, Fuzz is finally back to her old self and Duane is gone on the road again. You think things are getting back to normal and WHAMMO, literally!
It was about 8:30, Fuzz and I were in the kitchen when something hit the house. I opened the back door and peeked out, but the only thing I saw was a big ole hoot owl in the neighbor’s tree next to my driveway. I just shut the door and figured I’d show Jamie the owl when she came over to use the computer in a little while.
When she showed up I stepped out the back door to have her look up and see the HUGE owl. I heard this clacking noise and I looked down. There at my feet was a baby owl trying to nip at me with his beak. I took off running for Jamie’s car. When she sees the little owl right next to my back door she keeps saying it’s a cat. Just as I show her the Momma up in the tree it takes off flying and we take off screaming.
We ran around front and came inside, ran to the back door and Jamie sees it is a baby owl. I know it’s illegal to kill them so I was afraid to call Bryan. Sure as we tried to do anything the dang thing would die and we’d all have huge fines with Fish and Game.
Duane happened to call home as we were trying to think what to do and he said no matter what don’t mess with it cuz owls are mean. Great! Tell me something that I DON’T know! Seriously, do the math…sharp beak and big ass talon claws? Duane said to call the sheriff’s dept and have them deal with it.
A couple hours later Shannon showed up and I stepped outside. I had heard the momma owl in the trees earlier but never could find her. We checked out the trees and never could see her. He made a call to Fish and Game and they said to move it to a quiet place and hope it’s momma grabs it back over night. So I gave Shannon a broom and he moved it over behind my garage. He said if it was still there this morning that they’d have someone from Fish and Game come take care of it.
I was up early to check and the baby was gone. Not sure if it’s momma got it or it went back into the tall grass behind the house. The game warden said it’s just the time of year when the little owls are learning to fly. Shannon said it’s the second owl call they’ve had from this location in the past couple of weeks. The up side of it all, if we have owls this thick here, I bet we don’t have mice this winter!
Sweet! My jug shipped!
Well I got some more time to work on my car at work the other day and I decided to take apart the windshield washer jug to see where it was leaking. Unfortunately there was a big ass crack along the seam that would be pretty hard to fix. I had heard that GM actually still made these things for my car (weird) so I ordered a brand new one for $20 shipped. Nice!
It said the part was “on-order” and could take 7 days to 2 weeks before it SHIPS! But I just got my tracking number! Woo hoo! I bet no one has ever been so excited over a jug! Ha ha!
05.7.07And the floodgates opened
Andrea and I came home to quite a suprise Sunday after going to Wichita for her sister’s birthday. It had rained quite a lot Saturday night, and before we left I noticed that the creek out back was up quite a bit but other than that I didn’t think much of it. When we came home, I noticed the parking lot was rather vacant and a lot of the old junk that had been piled by the dumpsters was now sitting in the parking spaces out front of our apartment. Then I looked around and you could see a definite waterline across what cars were still in the parking lot.
Apparently while we were gone the water from the creek had risen to about 8 inches where our apartment was but waist high closer to where the laundry building was. This is a picture I found from the Manhattan Mercury. This would be looking down the street from sorta where that tire shop is. Our apartment complex is on the left and the grey/brick building further down is the retirement community that sits on that curve. It got high enough that Andrea’s car got a couple inches inside on the floor boards. It started up fine, but shot about a gallon of water out the tailpipe. It seems fine now, but time will tell what kind of long term issues it will have.
Power was out when we got home too. And we planned on staying the night there, but I got to worrying about idiots looking for an easy smash and grab since most of the people had already left the complex, that I decided I’d just assume grab a hotel room and stay the night there. Power was supposed to be back on this morning, but I haven’t been by yet to check it out. I went straight to work from the hotel.
All things considered it’s not too bad. Andrea’s car is the only thing that’s damaged and it could have been much worse. It’s hard to complain about it when you think of what the poor folks in Greensburg are going through. I mean, right now it’s looking like my life is pretty much already back to normal and only had one screwed up evening. The people down there are going to take years to recover. So say a prayer for them. Just wanted to let everybody know what happened in my neck of the woods and that we’re doing fine.
Does this mean these Dell laptops will be cheaper?
Dell announced today that it’s going to provide Ubuntu Linux as an option for the operating system on some of it’s new laptops. Of course this is a free, open source operating system, so linux laptops should be cheaper by ~$100 right?
The big deterrent to Linux at the moment (for me at least) is compatibility. It does most things just as good if not better than Windows, but won’t run most Windows software without some serious hassle and hardware choices are sometimes limited. Dell has pledged, however, to develop fully supported machines that ship with the operating system effectively removing one big hurdle. It’s a big step in the right direction towards Linux being accepted as a viable Windows alternative. Should it gain a significant market share, hardware and software will only expand to go where there’s money to be made. It’s a good day for Linux fans.
What to do with my time (or lack thereof)?
Alternatively titled: Reasons I don’t need a Wii (right now).
It’s ~9:00pm and I just got in from working on my car. Did quite a bit really. Installed a new air cleaner gasket, new hood lifts (goodbye prop bar!), and adjusted the shift points a bit. The thing shifts so much smoother now. Don’t let anyone tell you 1/16th of an inch won’t do anything! …Anyway it was a very therapeutic session (despite the frustration) after a long day of remotes and work that started at about 6:30 this morning. My shade tree mechanic work didn’t take long, maybe an hour or so, but it’s something that’ I’ve been trying to find time for for the last two weeks at least. Just haven’t been able to squeeze it in.
There’s just so many things that I’m really interested in right now, and it’s hard to balance it all out to the point where you can look back on any one thing and see significant progress. I’ve been really enjoying Guild Wars as of late. Our guild just finished up a weekend long festival of games and competition. It was a blast, but it soaked up just about any free time I had due to the time that was required to get all the prizes together and organize the event. Not that it’s a bad thing, like I said I really have been having fun with it. But it’s a big reason why I didn’t get around to working on my car until tonight. Lame or not, judge me if you must. I’ve also borrowed a copy of the new Zelda game which I’ve only put about two or three hours into and is also a BLAST! But between everything else it kinda falls through the cracks. Not to mention trying to find time to just sit down and spend some time with Andrea (though she’s been playing alot of Guild Wars lately too hehe)! Sadly the blog has been suffering as of late too.
I know, I know. It’s life and everyone that is reading this can tell the same sad story. I guess I just wanted to express my frustrations and get it out of my system. Not really looking for answers because there aren’t any realistic ones. Just hunker down and do what feels right at the moment. Oh and about the Wii. It just doesn’t seem like it’d be a good investment, as in money in exchange for entertainment value. I have so much backlogged that I really enjoy the crap out of that I’m afraid the Wii wouldn’t justify the cost unless I completely abandoned everything else. I’ll get a Wii. But not until I 1) Beat Final Fantasy XII, 2) Beat Zelda Twilight Princess, 3) Beat all the missions in Guild Wars. That should take care of most of my backlogged video games. And then I can handle keeping an old car running and kicking ass in Wii Tennis at the same time!
04.28.07The last straw.
As you may or may not know. Our cat has had issues remembering where her litterbox is. Now…I don’t completely fault her. Sometimes my lazy ass puts off cleaning the box out for too long, and I can’t blame her for pissing somewhere else. Imagine if you didn’t flush your toilet for a week. Yeah, I’d whizz on the bed too!
Well I awoke at 6:30 this morning to a cat pawing at my leg. At first I thought that she was being a little brat and though that she needed fed a couple hours earlier than usual. But no! Apparently she had just finished crawling up between Andrea and I to take a piss! That was pretty much it. It’s one thing to do it while I’m gone and come home and find it, but it’s quite another when you crawl ON ME to do your business. I was seriously ready to haul her off back to the animal shelter where we got her.
But after I cooled down abit, Andrea and I decided that we’re just going to have to keep her out of the bedroom. She’s got her scent on the bed (from several occasions) so it’s hard to keep her from doing it. And we’re going to start scooping out the litter box daily. All the things we do for a freakin’ cat! But if she finds a new place to call a toilet, I’m afraid poor Nala is going to have to find another home.
Stupid cute cat.
04.18.07Stupid Keys. Wal-Mart suprises.
I locked my keys in my car for the second time in the last couple months. The first time it WASN’T my fault! I have a long lanyard on my key chain and it got caught on the door as I was closing it and sucked the keys right out of my hand into the car as the locked door slammed shut. And I didn’t have any spare keys. Ugh!
This time it’s my own dumb ass fault. I just got out, locked the door and left the keys in the ignition. GRR! I’m always so paranoid about locking my keys in my car too. That I usually check twice to make sure I have my keys when I get out of the car. And I STILL didn’t have any spare keys for this car! Dumb ass moment again, I know.
So the guy pop the lock with relative ease. And I paid him and I head to Wal-Mart to finally go get a spare set of keys made. As I walk up to the automotive counter, they are JUST shutting off all the lights. But the girl closing counter is nice enough that she said she’d make a set for me real quick. I was shocked to find someone that nice and willing to take extra time to help somebody out when they could just punch out and get the hell out of there. But as she’s looking, they’re out of the keys I need! GRR! But I still thanked her for being willing to help me even after they shut down. So I didn’t walk away feeling completely disgusted.
But I STILL don’t have spare keys for this car. I’m going to have to go by True Value tonight or something. I gotta get some damned keys…or a slim jim. I can’t afford to keep paying locksmiths every couple months!
04.16.07What does that even mean?
I’m just too damned white.
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t run around in the “urban” circles. But people surely don’t talk like this casually do they? I mean, I see this ad, and I think that even the wanna be thugs have to laugh.
Obviously this is targeted towards the black audience. Because I don’t know a single white person that can pull off the phrase “Big things poppin’.” But then again, I don’t know any black people that would seriously use the phrase either! This almost strikes me as a white guy sitting at a photoshop screen saying to himself, “How would I make an ad that speaks to ‘the blacks’?”
At anyrate don’t be suprised if you never get to hear the ‘hot new track’ from T.I. vs TIP because this ad already scared everyone away who would actually listen to it.
I’m sorry. I just thought this was funny.
