I am on vacation and g.d.it, I don't have time to blog. I am too busy living my frigging life, okay.
When I get home I will take the time to chronicle my trip. In the meantime, I'm having a great time!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Blogging Tired
Last night I was blogging tired. I'm not sure why I was so sleepy but I could barely keep my eyes open and my mind wasn't working as well as it usually does. I think that it must have something to do with when I come home to visit my folks.
My parents live in a teeny tiny little town in central Texas. Even though its only 2 hours from Austin, its so far removed from the rest of the world. Here people don't have computers, they don't use cell phones and they still write checks for everything. From the moment I arrive here everything starts to slow down. It drives me crazy and reminds me of all the reasons I had to get out of here as fast as I could when I was a kid.
Aside from the effects it has on me (and my metabolism...I eat 10X more food here because I'm so bored), living in this town has turned my parents into a couple of hermits. I can imagine them 30 years ago living in Dallas, going to parties and hanging out with friends. These days, my parents don't really have any friends, don't go to any social functions except their once monthly domino game, and have no clue what's going on in the world around them. They're just not exposed to it. I think I wrote about this last year around this time when I was trying to convince my dad that he and mom could be on the same cell phone plan and not have to pay two separate bills for each of their phones.
My main reason for coming home this week is to help my grandmother get settled into our house. She has been ill and the doctors finally told her it was time to go to a nursing home. Of course, she would have none of that so it was agreed that she would take over my brother's former room. I still think she's not that happy about it but this is an easier arrangement for my mom who will no longer have to take care of both houses.
Speaking of my brother, my enabler father has given him our lake house to live in. This makes me so f'ing mad. The lake house is supposed to belong to the family. With him there, no one else can use it. When he's done using it (read:when he goes to jail finally) it is doubtful that the place will be in any shape to be used by the family unless we invest major elbow grease cleaning it up. The last time I was there he had been the last one to use it and it took Josh and I a full day of cleaning to make it tolerable and even after that we didn't walk on the floor barefoot.
Last night I had half of an Ambien and slept like a corpse until 2pm today. I wanted to get up earlier and was a little frustrated with myself for being such a lazy bones. I'm going to aim for getting up early again tomorrow so I can finish organizing my mother's freezer. Today I reorganized the refrigerator and the pantry and although she wasn't pleased with me "messing up her system" I didn't care because both areas really needed some form of organization. My mom is one of those people who will buy something every time she goes to the store whether she needs it or not. The items she frequently buys are white chocolate candy coating, cream cheese and artichoke hearts. I'm only halfway done with the process and already have found no less than 10 packages of candy coating, 12 packages of cream cheese and 4 big jars of artichoke hearts. I also threw out a ton of stuff including spice jars I recognized from childhood.
I get so frustrated with my parents because they are crazy pack rats. There is no logic in some of the things they have squirrelled away and our house is becoming less of a home and more of a storage facility every time I come to visit. All of the drawers in my room have been filled by clothing outgrown by my family, games never played, bed linens and comforters from every decorating scheme used by my mother since we built the house in 1979, books and notepads from when I was in grade school, etc. These are just the areas I have access to, I shudder to think what lives in their closet or in my dad's office or in the attic.
Someday I will have to go through it all. For now I'm just going to help myself to another piece of pie and pretend its not there.
My parents live in a teeny tiny little town in central Texas. Even though its only 2 hours from Austin, its so far removed from the rest of the world. Here people don't have computers, they don't use cell phones and they still write checks for everything. From the moment I arrive here everything starts to slow down. It drives me crazy and reminds me of all the reasons I had to get out of here as fast as I could when I was a kid.
Aside from the effects it has on me (and my metabolism...I eat 10X more food here because I'm so bored), living in this town has turned my parents into a couple of hermits. I can imagine them 30 years ago living in Dallas, going to parties and hanging out with friends. These days, my parents don't really have any friends, don't go to any social functions except their once monthly domino game, and have no clue what's going on in the world around them. They're just not exposed to it. I think I wrote about this last year around this time when I was trying to convince my dad that he and mom could be on the same cell phone plan and not have to pay two separate bills for each of their phones.
My main reason for coming home this week is to help my grandmother get settled into our house. She has been ill and the doctors finally told her it was time to go to a nursing home. Of course, she would have none of that so it was agreed that she would take over my brother's former room. I still think she's not that happy about it but this is an easier arrangement for my mom who will no longer have to take care of both houses.
Speaking of my brother, my enabler father has given him our lake house to live in. This makes me so f'ing mad. The lake house is supposed to belong to the family. With him there, no one else can use it. When he's done using it (read:when he goes to jail finally) it is doubtful that the place will be in any shape to be used by the family unless we invest major elbow grease cleaning it up. The last time I was there he had been the last one to use it and it took Josh and I a full day of cleaning to make it tolerable and even after that we didn't walk on the floor barefoot.
Last night I had half of an Ambien and slept like a corpse until 2pm today. I wanted to get up earlier and was a little frustrated with myself for being such a lazy bones. I'm going to aim for getting up early again tomorrow so I can finish organizing my mother's freezer. Today I reorganized the refrigerator and the pantry and although she wasn't pleased with me "messing up her system" I didn't care because both areas really needed some form of organization. My mom is one of those people who will buy something every time she goes to the store whether she needs it or not. The items she frequently buys are white chocolate candy coating, cream cheese and artichoke hearts. I'm only halfway done with the process and already have found no less than 10 packages of candy coating, 12 packages of cream cheese and 4 big jars of artichoke hearts. I also threw out a ton of stuff including spice jars I recognized from childhood.
I get so frustrated with my parents because they are crazy pack rats. There is no logic in some of the things they have squirrelled away and our house is becoming less of a home and more of a storage facility every time I come to visit. All of the drawers in my room have been filled by clothing outgrown by my family, games never played, bed linens and comforters from every decorating scheme used by my mother since we built the house in 1979, books and notepads from when I was in grade school, etc. These are just the areas I have access to, I shudder to think what lives in their closet or in my dad's office or in the attic.
Someday I will have to go through it all. For now I'm just going to help myself to another piece of pie and pretend its not there.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Household Tips
It always suprises me when I come across a household tip that I never heard of before and that is so useful I wonder why I didn't think of it myself.
I just stumbled across this website that has such interesting tips as partially draining your hot water heater every couple of months to increase its energy efficiency and make sure your fan is spinning in the correct direction for the season. Okay, I had heard the fan thing before, but the hot water thing was completely new. And even though these aren't the traditional household cleaning tips (like using ketchup to clean brass plated metalwork) they are money saving tips that can still be put to use by modern girls like myself.
I just stumbled across this website that has such interesting tips as partially draining your hot water heater every couple of months to increase its energy efficiency and make sure your fan is spinning in the correct direction for the season. Okay, I had heard the fan thing before, but the hot water thing was completely new. And even though these aren't the traditional household cleaning tips (like using ketchup to clean brass plated metalwork) they are money saving tips that can still be put to use by modern girls like myself.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Throwing in the Towel, for Tonight
The dishwasher installation has reached a standstill. I can't mess with it anymore today. I started working on it at 11 am and its now 10pm. After having an impossible time trying to remove the old dishwasher (I had to pull of some of the tiles in the kitchen to get it out), the new dishwasher went in and was a piece of cake to hook up, but now the hot water shut off valve won't re-open: the threads are corroded and the bolt is too stripped to turn. I'll have to have the landlord shut off the main water inline tomorrow and then replace the entire valve unit, reattach the washer and then hope there are no leaks.
In a previous post I talked about one of the cons of my apartment was that the dishwasher was old and stinky and had a colony of roaches living in it. I talked with the landlord about this and he agreed that we should replace the dishwasher. I knew I could do it myself and offered to do so as an incentive for him to reimburse me for the materials. Same agreement went for the sink. I found a dishwasher on craigslist and a sink at home depot and was ready to go to town today until the hot water valve kinked my plans.
Meanwhile, my dishes are piling up and I really just want to be done with it. OVerall it has been a good experience. I knew I would be able to do it I just didn't realize how much trouble it would really be. Especially with the old dishwasher being blocked into the hole by poor construction. I haven't even started on the sink yet, I was waiting until I got the dishwasher running before I removed my only other means of cleaning my dishes. I guess I could wash them in the tub, but that sounds as gross as I'm sure it actually would be. By the time I'm done with the place its going to be a veritable palace. Probably this will happen a few weeks before I have to move out.
In a previous post I talked about one of the cons of my apartment was that the dishwasher was old and stinky and had a colony of roaches living in it. I talked with the landlord about this and he agreed that we should replace the dishwasher. I knew I could do it myself and offered to do so as an incentive for him to reimburse me for the materials. Same agreement went for the sink. I found a dishwasher on craigslist and a sink at home depot and was ready to go to town today until the hot water valve kinked my plans.
Meanwhile, my dishes are piling up and I really just want to be done with it. OVerall it has been a good experience. I knew I would be able to do it I just didn't realize how much trouble it would really be. Especially with the old dishwasher being blocked into the hole by poor construction. I haven't even started on the sink yet, I was waiting until I got the dishwasher running before I removed my only other means of cleaning my dishes. I guess I could wash them in the tub, but that sounds as gross as I'm sure it actually would be. By the time I'm done with the place its going to be a veritable palace. Probably this will happen a few weeks before I have to move out.
Shopping Queen Scores again
So I finally tanked my bank account. Pretty sad news for this unemployed gal. But I did manage to score on my last outing. I've been shopping on Ebay for a space saver toaster oven, you know, the kind that goes under the cabinet. Anyway, they go for like $40-$50 bucks on ebay because they're no longer in production. I was about to start bidding on some when I had a brilliant idea. I popped down to ThriftLand (Manchaca) and not only found one, I found two and they were $1.99 each! Of course I bought them both and now one is hanging beneath my glassware and one is about to go up for auction. I may have found a new way to make a little dough! And then I'll toast it.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Machine vs. Nature
This morning I was awakened by bulldozers tearing down a brake of trees behind my house. Obviously they are making way for some sort of new housing development. The sound of the wood cracking and splitting was gruesome. It was like the soundtrack of a horror movie. Thankfully, they seem to be leaving a small row of trees between my property and the tract behind it, but I wonder what happened to all the deer and racoons and other creatures that lived in that little wooded oasis here in the big city? I wonder if the contractor who is behind this development EVER stops to think about the life forms he displaces by his industry? I think that some people must justify that by saying "Oh, people are more important and we have to keep housing costs low enough to be affordable and so we have to continue to expand". I agree with that theory, but not the practice. Because why do we have to expand out? Why not up? Instead of all of these POS 2 and 3 floor apartment complexes why not have a 20 floor building with parking beneath and the housing above? They would of course need to be positioned and spaced so as to avoid the canyon effect. But then again maybe there's something I don't know about this type of housing...after all, I'm no expert on the subject and know very little about architecture and city planning in general. I'm glad they're starting to build these structures downtown but as yet they are not affordable housing. Hopefully if those are successful they will begin to copy the idea in other neighborhoods.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)