I'm Back, I Guess

But I have some unfortunate habits.  One is that when I stay up late on the computer, I drink and smoke too much and ruin my next day.  If I get up at 10am one day and then stay up til 10 am the next, sleeping even just 8 hours brings me to dinnertime and a whole day is shot.  Not to mention any normal sleeping schedule...  So the next day is pretty well shot to hell, too.

I went offline in order to focus on some house improvements, some yard work, and some outside repairs.  I did that because I was spending too many whole nights til dawn and beyond on very interesting computer sites (blogs, discussion boards, how-to sites, etc).


I was doing that more and more often the past few months and I decided to try to re-establish some normal schedule in order to get some work done.  Don't get me wrong, the online hours are important to me.  I enjoy blogging, I enjoy debating topics in discussion boards (and I'm not at crazy screaming adversarial sites - one is a gardening site and one is an atheist site where we just want freedom to discuss science and society without a lot of creationists arguing about Noah's ark and humans living with dinosaurs).  And I play a computer game where you build a space-faring society from a single settler in an unknown location.


But that was using up a lot of time.  And I have a lot of practical things to do that were getting away from me.  And I have used the time away reasonably well.  I spent a full day going around the house and listing all the things, by room, that needed attention.  I've been here 32 years; the list is long.  I did a few of the things on the list that I could do myself.  A lot of them were small things not worth listing, that I had put off.  Some were things that caught me by surprise, like the sudden regrowth of vines and underbrush that happened rather suddenly in June where I had cleared last Fall and seemed under control in May.

The County came out and cleared the storm drains that were buried under tree debris, clay, and gravel.  That was good, but they weren't willing to dredge the drainage easement above the storm drain (they had in the past).  New rules about being ultra-cautious around buried electrical and cable lines...    I will have to hire a professional excavator.  My neighbor is equally responsible for the drainage easement, but he doesn't care because his lawn is 1' higher than mine so all the flooding is on my side.  And according to the County, that is not their concern.

Well, I can afford to hire an excavator to scoop out the washed-in gravel to improve the drainage.  It would tear up the lawn some, but I know how to fix that.  I might raise my front lawn at the same time to match the neighbor's.  That's not a "competition", just making our lawns the same height.  Practically speaking, raising my lawn height effectively makes the the drainage easement deeper, which solves a problem.

One problem I have is "too much stuff".  There are things I bought and never used, things I bought that didn't do what I thought they would do, and things I bought that became useless when I changed a habit.  I am making a list of things to sell.  Two good examples are the bicycle I bought 8 years ago thinking I would ride it for getting back and forth to the car repair shop and the air compressor I bought 15 years ago that was way more powerful than a needed.

RIGHT after I bought the bicycle, the car dealership started a van service to bring customers home and back after repairs, so I don't need the bicycle to get back home and back.  And recently, I bought a small air compressor that is all I need and I can even carry it around (the old -but more powerful one) is good for someone with greater demands.

OLD...
New...

So I am going to fill the garage with stuff to sell and leave the car outside for a coupe weeks.  Good opportunity to wash the car, too...  Once every couple years whether it needs it or not, LOL! 

I'll be mentioning the outdoor and indoor projects as I get to them...  I just can't stay away much longer.  I'll find the time to describe them.  The discussion boards will have to live without my brilliance for a while.  ;)