The Dalai Lama, that is. He is currently across the street, along with a big-assed police escort and what appears to be a contingent of s33kr1t service and FBI agents.
That is all. As you were, comrades.
Month: October 2007
It’s Random Wacky People Week
Carriage House and Pear Tree in Spring
It’s been gross and blustery and cold here the past few days, so I thought a little springtime imagery would be nice.
To add to an otherwise craptacular week (yes, the city inspectors did finally show up yesterday afternoon), I overslept this morning. I think the wind must have made the power flicker, because when I finally woke up at 5:30, my clock was flashing. Yikes! I threw on some clothes and started to take the dog out, when I noticed that there was a strange guy lying on the steps to the upstairs apartments. Double yikes!
I haven’t a clue who he was. He may have belonged to the stompy girls, but I decided I’d better take the dog out back, instead. When we came back inside, I heard some fumbling around in the stairwell and assumed it was Mr. Sleepyhead leaving. I called work to let my boss know I’d be late, then took a shower and finished getting ready. When I finally left, I found the guy passed out in front of my door. I decided that no matter who he was, he didn’t belong there, so I called the police.
It wasn’t even so much that I was creeped out by his presence, but if he did belong to the stompy girls, and was kicked out last night for some reason, then he had no business sticking around. Rather than take a chance that he was intent on causing trouble for them, I thought it would be better to let the cops handle it.
And then, wouldn’t you know, as the cops pulled up, the guy left. They said they saw him leaving our front door and getting into a car that had pulled up.
It must be Random Wacky People Week[tm] in my building!
Laundry Woes
Because life doesn’t suck enough, when I tried to wash a couple of loads of laundry this afternoon, the second washing machine did not drain after the wash cycle. It’s b0rked. I had to fish all my clothes out of the tub of dirty water, put them in another washer, and start all over again.
Alsotoo, obviously, I’m stuck at home again today. And I am clearly brimful of Not Bitter[tm].
Grrrr.
Pandora Sleeping
Someone deboned my cat.
Rainy Tuesday
I came home last night to a flyer on the front door. The HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development) inspector is supposed to be touring the complex today and tomorrow. He will apparently need access to all the windows, as well as the smoke detectors. Pets have to be restrained, and since there is a window in each bedroom, I have no place to stash Miss Brown (her crate is on loan to the pointy-eared red dog).
So, I’m getting an unwanted and unscheduled day at home. Hopefully, they’ll get to my complex today, so I won’t have to take tomorrow off, as well. It’s bad enough making up time on Friday, but I do not want to work on Saturday.
On the bright side, I was up bright and early, and have already made a loaf of whole wheat and sucanat banana bread. It just came out of the oven, and it smells divine.
I also was finally motivated to hang up some artwork. I’ve been here a year, and bookshelves aside, I had yet to hang a single thing on any of the walls. The living room and dining room are now sporting splashes of color, and it feels a little more like home and not just a vanilla apartment.
The little walnut end table was my great grandma Nell’s bedside table. The oak dresser was my mother’s. It’s the one I grew up with. The fish were rescued, and since I’m useless, I keep forgetting to buy aquarium plants for them. The cat is sleeping in an old clementine box, where I keep the dog’s leashes and pick-up baggies. I was a meanypants and took away her perch on top of the little bookcase in the lower right, so she’s relocated.
Some old paintings, because the newer stuff is all in books or on paper, and I haven’t gotten my act together to get anything matted and framed. Actually, only two of them are really old. The three smaller paintings were done while I was living in Owen County, so while not new, they are recent(ish)
The little painting on the top shelf of the bookcase is the encaustic I’m currently working on. The rest of the paintings are old work.
People Watching at Target
I noticed that the fish aquarium was getting a little low on water[1], and I needed paper towels, cat litter, and another fabric softener ball, so I made a trip to Target. While I was wandering around the cleaning products and snacks corner of the store, I kept crossing paths with a guy and his daughter. Dad was a total biker (tattoos, long braided hair, super long beard, leather vest, and leather chaps) and daughter looked like the poster girl for a sorority (very blonde and pink). They were a ludicrous pair, but in an adorable way. I got a kick out of watching them.
I got the impression that dad was in town for a weekend visit, and that he was taking daughter shopping. In every aisle, he’d ask if she needed X, Y, or Z. “Have you got enough paper products?” “Yes, dad!” (complete with impatient sigh). Trash bags? Ditto. Chips? Ditto. Soup? Ditto. She did need bottled water, though, and dish soap.
The whole thing was very sweet. I love it when I get to be entertained while shopping.
Only, I managed to forget tea bags yet again. Damn! I remembered the spring water, though, so the fish are happy.
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[1] I don’t dare use tap water in the aquarium, even with de-chlorinator drops. Every time I’ve used tap water with de-chlorinator, my fish have died. Every. Single. Time. I didn’t pay $50 to rescue these damned fish just to turn around and kill them. So they get the good water.
Apartment Life
I took Harriet out for a last potty break at about 11pm last night. While we were walking across the parking lot, I noticed that there was large group of people in front of one of the other apartments (why, oh why, don’t people par-tay on their patios, instead of in the parking lot?). A couple of small children, presumably belonging to the partiers, were running up and down the terrace in front of my building. While screaming at the tops of their darling little lungs. At 11:00 on a school night. Mere feet away from the bedroom windows of a whole bunch of people who were most likely sleeping.
Charming.
What the hell were those kids’ parents thinking?!
And to make things worse, when Harriet and I returned from our walk, a young, unleashed dog was added to the mix. We re-entered the parking lot to the sounds of small children yelling, “Come back here!” and the sight of a goofy, young adult Pit Bull barreling toward us.
I know the dog, actually, because she is always off leash, and she always follows me when I take out the trash or do laundry. She’s super sweet and friendly, so I wasn’t at all worried about her picking a fight with Harriet. Quite the opposite. I would hate for such a nice dog to get the Cujo treatment from Miss Brown. Thankfully, a car pulled in at the right moment, which broke the puppy’s attention just enough that she heard her kids yelling for her.
All’s well that ends well, but I still think 11pm on a school night is a bad time for a parking lot party. What the hell is wrong with people?!
We also seem to have random people from off the street using our laundry facilities. Not a huge deal, I guess, as the machines aren’t free. Still, we only have two washers and two dryers in our court, so getting a unoccupied machine can be a little bit of a challenge.
I went downstairs to do a load of laundry on Wednesday, and found a girl folding clothes into a large duffel bag. I thought it was a little weird, but whatever. Maybe she didn’t have laundry baskets? She finished and left before I did, so when I got back upstairs, I looked to see where she went. Out of the complex and toward 3rd Street, was where she went!
Even weirder was that she left a wadded heap of clothes on top of one of the dryers. They were lots of different sizes of mens’ jeans, two pairs of sweat pants (one small and one huge), and a 2xxL T-shirt. As of last night, the clothes were still sitting on top of the dryer, only some kind soul was nice enough to fold them.
Weird.
Bumpass Update: They set up a screen room a few weeks ago, halfway on their grass and half on mine. As far as I could tell, they never actually used it. They didn\’t set it up very well, either, because it caved after a couple of days, and then they took it down. M’kaythen!
Friday night, they must have had a party, because when I got up the next morning, the cardboard packaging from a case of Bud Light (o gross!) was lying on the grass between our patios. Nice. It sat there all weekend. I really don’t feel like picking up other people’s trash, but I’m also sick of looking at the damned thing. Harriet’s reaction was priceless, though. She saw it through the patio door and barked at it. Obviously, it Did Not Belong.
Mr. Upstairs Update: He was doing pretty well the past few months, but he’s slowly sliding back into his old habits. I woke up in the middle of the night one day last week to the sound of his dishwasher running and him vacuuming. He’s also back to, um, “playing” the keyboard at random times during the night, and the midnight workouts have recommenced. Complete with dropped free weights. Right on top of my head.
Miss Brown, All a-Woe
I love it when she gathers up all her legs like that, especially when she whips out the Princess Di eyes, too.
More Bones
I spent a couple of hours last night cleaning chicken bones. It’s a disgusting job. It’s also fiddly, because chicken bones are incredibly soft and porous to start with, and cooking them doesn’t help matters. It’s a fine line between removing cartilage and scrubbing away actual bone.
I got some wonderful, tiny vertebrae, though, so I’m not complaining. As soon as they’re done drying, I can begin phase two of the encaustic painting I started last weekend.
More Found Objects
Electrical Outlet
I found this in a heap of building trash that my old landlord had accumulated. It was an ugly eyesore, but a treasure trove if you were looking for rusty old junk.
Bones
Another dog walking find. I picked these up years ago, along with parts of a pelvis and jawbone. They were all lying in a pile next to a path. I assume they were from the same animal, maybe a ‘possum or cat?
Fishing Lures
These came from the clean-up in Owen County. The top lure is a Jitterbug. It was in a pocket-sized tackle box. The bottom one was in a little plastic box full of junk jewellery.
red paper boat 