General News, June 2008
Summer returns
In 2007 we had a week of days in the 90s in May. Although the atypical weather was a welcome change from the cold and rain, I worried at the time that it might be a harbringer of a brutal summer. I need not have feared. That was pretty much the only warm weather western Washington got last year. For all intents and purposes, we just forgot to have summer. July, August, and September were uncharacteristically cloudy, cool, and at times, rainy.
I left the South because I'm not a lover of sun and heat. That said, even I need SOME warm weather and sun. I have appreciated every single sunny warm day we have had, even the ones this weekend where the temps have climbed into the 90s. And I've done so with very little complaining, even though we have no air conditioning, and my office is in the kitchen instead of nice cool basement.
I needed some sun. Truly.
That said, Jay and I agree that it's time to move back into the basement, and so we began that process this weekend. We're planning to do a big remodel down there, but the outside work comes first. I'm betting the basement is a year away (though I'm hoping for spring). In the meantime, though the basement is ugly concrete floors dotted with the remains of glue, carpet bits, and tack strips, it's perfectly serviceable. It just needs a little cleaning.
It was grungier down there than I expected. While Jay pulled up tack strips, I took a broom and cleared out cobwebs. No bones about it, I'm afraid of spiders. But I've developed a tolerance for them since I moved here. More than a tolerance in some cases. In some cases I name them, talk to them, and occasionally deliver insects to their webs. Yes, I'm strange.
So as I went through the basement today, I had to decide, web by web, whether the denizen was going to get to stay or whether it needed to relocate. In no case did I knowingly kill a spider, but I did destroy a few occupied webs. That Jay is so tolerant of this quirk is proof that he is meant to be my husband. He would even point spiders out to me, so I could run over and move them so he wouldn't accidentally hurt them while removing tack strips. He's a good man.
He does laugh at me occasionally though. I was trying to move a box into his office, and it wouldn't fit through the door as I'd planned, and I was a bit confounded. I looked over, and he was chuckling. "Are you laughing at me?" I asked. "Laughing at something in that general direction, yes," he replied unapologetically.
He also laughed when I was relocating spiders and said, "How would we ever find a housekeeper who would be able to understand which spiders stay and which go?" "We wouldn't, Melissa," he said.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
June update
We have a new fence around the house. I should charge the battery on my camera and take a picture. <searches around for camera> Hmmm. That would entail finding said camera. <searches some more> There it is! Cool. Battery charging. This may or may not result in actual pictures. We'll see.
The fence is gorgeous. Gorgeous. Can't say that enough. Gorgeous. It is secure for both dogs and horses, and just high enough that Rowan hasn't tried to put her head over and graze on the other side. The wooden posts are also concreted in, so hopefully neither horses nor dogs will knock it around and make it wobbly anytime soon.
Right now the fence is just around the house. Todd built it right outside the old fence, except in the back, where he moved it 16 feet into pasture 2. We did that so sometime in the future, when we actually remodel the HOUSE, we have room to move the back of the house out and add a back porch.
Have I mentioned the fence is gorgeous? And I love it?
Next -- after paying for this fence -- is the footing in the dry lot. We may not be able to get to the fence around the dry lot this summer, but we MUST add drainage and change the footing so the horses aren't in mud next winter. I have a lot more tolerance for rain when I and my critters aren't sliding around in the mud.
The aforementioned critters are doing well. Aslan has been growly lately, and I'm wondering if either his ears or his hips/shoulders aren't bothering him. I've cleaned out his ears, and they don't smell oogie, but his infections tend to be way down deep, and I don't know about them until they get really gross. Pax is just trying to stay out of his way and not piss him off by doing something dumb like, you know, walk into a room wrong. <eye roll>
Oh! Aslan is on my LIST. There was a two-day period where we didn't have a secure fence around the house. So I would let the dogs out and encourage them to the front of the property to potty. That area has better fences, and Aslan's recall is good there. In the evening of the first day, I let them out, and they both take off at a run. I don't know what they saw -- deer? rabbit? -- but they saw something and took off after it. Pax came back when I called. Aslan... gone into the woods.
Damn dog. We could hear him, but we couldn't see him because these woods are dense with undergrowth and dark. It took an HOUR to get him back, and I don't think he was ever more than 50 feet from us. I was soooo MAD. He went out on leash the rest of the time we were without a fence, and he hasn't had one paw outside the new fence (and probably won't until we've replaced all the fence in the front half of the property.)
Horses are fine. Princess is still thin, but the vet says that with her lameness issues he'd rather see her at this weight than the equivalent amount overweight. Rowan hasn't gone to Leslie's yet -- and I may have another option. Her farrier, Christina, knows someone who is looking for a horse to start. Long story, but they may be a good match. We'll see. If not, then I'll send Rowan down to Leslie, and I want to send Blue down there regardless.
Pax's littermate is definitely pregnant. Puppies expected July 4! Yay. That doesn't mean that I'll be getting one of the puppies in that litter. I certainly hope so, and we're planning for it, but there just may not be a pup for me. Fingers crossed. I guess I'll know for certain by mid July.
Work is going well, as always. I adore my job. It got crazy last week, but I expect that near rollout time. I should be starting a new project here soon -- not sure what though. Best news is that my friend Myella is going to be working with our group beginning June 30! I absolutely can't wait to work with her again.
I guess the only other news is that I've actually been writing. I've wanted to write a novel for a long time, but prose fiction isn't my strong suit so I worked on screenplays instead. I decided a while ago that I would write my most recent screenplay as a novel, but I never really got started. Until now. That's a tale better told on my Current Projects page, I suppose, so I'll post those updates there.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
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