Never thought retirement would be like this

Thanks, SeaBreeze.

Cut all floor trim molding last night---23 separate pieces, of pvc! Had to number them to keep them straight. Painted them this morning, because pvc isn't quite the same shade of white as the baseboards. That stuff attracts trash like crazy (static electricity). Had to swipe each piece with a dryer sheet and paint ASAP before dust flew back onto it. Six pieces up, 17 to go. Taking a short break right now. ;)

The no-parking yellow lines on the curb in front of the house are important because parked cars block view to pull out of driveway. A policeman out front giving tickets a year ago told me to call the city because they were faded, but warned it would cost the city $10,000 to paint just 5 blocks. :confused: So I didn't. This year the cars can't even see the lines and are getting tickets. Once it becomes "a cause greater than myself," I can muster up the courage to follow up. Ha! A man was already sent out to look and said the whole street definitely needs repainting, and it's already on a work order. It will be 2 months. I expected longer really.

GA-DNR is not going to do a dam inspection, only a downstream inspection to see if any structures have been built since last time. Not likely. It's a gully down there. Otherwise it would have to be re-classified as Type I (instead of II). At least two weeks from now. They really don't need access for that. She is going to email a list of contractors. Doubt if there are any new names, but we'll see.

Need prescription refilled and doctor is not going to let me get by without an appointment this time.:p


ETA: Molding is done. Slight delay finding some things---one of the hazards of having to completely empty a room and putting things in every available space. Just needs a little touch up paint. Last part is the pantry door. I have an idea how to do that now. After that comes income taxes.:p And squeezed in between all that---the goats.
 

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Picture tall heavy pantry door balanced precariously on small round table in kitchen (had to saw 1/4" off bottom). Filling worn screw holes from old hinges with dowels pounded and glued in. Piles of shims retrieved from the "shim room" (old joke). Got door to hang right on the second try!!! The best anyone could do, I think, with an out-of-square door frame. At least no one can say I took short cuts or did a sloppy job. The hardest part of all this was getting the door on and off that table. :p


Squirrels have chewed another hole in the cabin through 2 inches of lumber. Makeshift barrier put up last time because many supplies were in town. The whole back side of the cabin now needs to be covered with hardware cloth all along the top, because you can see where they have tried to chew through every piece of vertical siding---all in just the last month. Covered the other 3 sides 2 years ago. There must be a thousand trees out there suitable for squirrel nests, but no. What if they decide to try to come up from under the floor. :eewwk:


The snapping turtles are back out. Sadly, also spotted two new nesting geese on the other side of the lake. Their babies won't stand a chance in the water. But we wouldn't want to hurt the sweet turtles, would we? If there gets to be too many for the lake to support, I guess I could start hauling out truckloads of feed for them. Instead, gathering up all the old milk jugs my mother saved over the years and shopping for a Ruger Mini-30 next week.

.
 
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You're a busy lady Nancy, I really admire your energy and know-how to do all these projects. You really take pride in your work, I'm very impressed! We have a lot of squirrels, but thankfully they're not damaging the house, my husband put up some wire mesh in a couple of places near the roof gutters years back and that seemed to do the trick. I'm not surprise that they are drawn to people's houses and have no interest in trees. Hope you get a good deal on the Ruger for the turtles. :playful:
 

SeaBreeze said:
You're a busy lady Nancy, I really admire your energy and know-how to do all these projects. You really take pride in your work, I'm very impressed! We have a lot of squirrels, but thankfully they're not damaging the house, my husband put up some wire mesh in a couple of places near the roof gutters years back and that seemed to do the trick. I'm not surprise that they are drawn to people's houses and have no interest in trees. Hope you get a good deal on the Ruger for the turtles. :playful:
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I had a constant battle with the squirrels in my last house. They managed to get into a space way back under the eaves and had a passel of young'uns up there. I didn't want to seal the opening up with the squirrels still in there so I tried everything under the sun to get them out. Someone told me that they don't like mothballs so I bought three boxes of moth balls and blew them through a tube into the area, thinking that would drive them out. I came home from work the next day and my yard was riddled with mothballs in a semi-circle around the side of the house. Those little rascals had thrown almost every one of them out of the space. I just kept blowing the moth balls back into the space every day and eventually I wore 'em out and was able to plug up the opening.
 
Yep, jujube, under the eaves---that's where they are chewing through. When I tore out and replaced the old ceiling, because of squirrels, I tossed several boxes of mothballs in the attic as I crawled out. Thought about making a trap door into the attic from inside at the time. Wish I had done that now.

Maybe I should just surrender, give that cabin to the squirrels, and build a new one made of steel.
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So happy to find a version of Up On The Roof, by James Taylor, where he doesn't go completely berserk with the melody, just had to post it. [Love the song, originally by The Drifters.]


This is just filler here, like styrofoam peanuts. Might be in a serious mood tomorrow. :playful:
 
At lunch on Easter Sunday a real life friend gave me the greatest compliment ever. I don't think it was deserved. Nevertheless when someone who you respect does that, it makes you want to become a better person, worthy of the compliment.

Then I accidently ran across a video of an interview by Katie Couric of David Brooks. It was about his book, The Road To Character. It was surprising how many topics in that interview were relevant to a lot of the things that I have been thinking about lately. [Not expecting anyone to watch this, just including the link.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pcZ4-etOrc [1 hour, July, 2015]

Brooks believes everyone has flaws, which he calls "core sins," and that it takes inward thought and the ability to see yourself as others see you, in order to recognize these sins in yourself. But he claims it takes reading, plus social interaction to correct them, and to build character. I suppose without social interaction you would just be building theoretical character, right? ;) He also said everyone should read David Foster Wallace's commencement address to Kenyon College, so I found an audio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYGaXzJGVAQ [22 mins, spring 2005]

Very odd speech. Wallace was a writer who struggled with depression. He committed suicide 3 years after this address.

Top it all off, Brooks discusses the new culture of outward projection. And Couric mentions a survey of young people in which 55% think if you don't post something on social media, it didn't really happen. Surely they must mean no one would believe you that it happened? Anyway, all this, just after posting a couple picture albums on this forum, for the first time, and in fact this whole diary itself, now seems like outward projection, and I don't like it.

I wanted to sort all this out, but just can't write well enough. Maybe I'll try again later... Or maybe I'm just trying to avoid doing income taxes.:p
 
If you don't post it on social media, did it really happen?

Way back in November (Post #566 of this diary) I described the first day of a trip to Calcutta (now called Kolkata), India, in 1990. I always wondered if folks thought I was making it up because there were no pictures. Just found them today searching through tax documents.:p I don't think any current members of this forum would know what I'm talking about, but it's something that has been bugging me for a long time, so I'm posting them just to begin to tie up some loose ends. All I took with me was a 20 year old Kodak Instamatic camera and 3 rolls of film. One or the other was no good, because most pictures were underexposed. Thank goodness for digital cameras. I had no idea they were bad until I got home.:(

This is part of the compound where I was staying, taken from the building I was staying in, and showing the pond that flooded the first day.

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An outdoor market across the street from the compound. I went there almost every night just to watch people and buy snacks. At night when the power went out in the city (which was often) every shop lit candles. It was rather romantic. Second picture is Dunlop Bridge market, a community near the compound.

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These were some shops on the road right behind the compound. First picture is a bookstore (blue & yellow sign, 2nd door) and barbershop (3rd door). I don't know Bengali. According to Google, the bookstore is still there. The other 3 pictures are just more shops on that road.

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Riding on a rickshaw on the main road in front of the compound. I only did it once. It just didn't seem right. Rickshaws were banned inside city limits. Second is a picture of downtown Calcutta. You had to take a bus or a taxi to get there. It was 6 miles from the compound but took nearly an hour to get there. The traffic was bumper to bumper, with everyone honking horns to no avail.

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This last is the only picture of the flood. I put it here just to show how bad some of the pictures came out. Boo!

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Good night!
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Wonderful, Nancy. I often think of your post about the flood and smile. Not that the incident was humorous. Only your depiction of it. Now I have an accurate mental picture of the locale. Thank you.
 
Mixed with the pictures of India was this one of my father and his younger brother, in WV. (...so organized.:rolleyes:)
Maybe a young teenager? I know my uncle was about 8-9 years younger.

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The guy at the gun shop today said it is difficult to put a scope on a Chinese SKS rifle---it has to be side mounted.:confused: They had 2 used at $300 ea. New Ruger Mini-30's are out of stock almost everywhere. The websites that claim to have them in stock are way overpriced, like $1K. I'll have to rethink this.
 
Income taxes are finished!!!!

:woohoo1:

Just found out they aren't due until the 18th this year. If I had known that, I'd have waited a little longer to start. :)

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Even though some of your pictures are dark, you did get pictures. I like the picture of your dad and uncle. Glad you got your taxes done. That's always a relief. I've started writing some stuff for a younger generation but got to get it organized. My grandson set up a blog for that purpose but I'm not a skilled writer but I love that picture I chose for it. I would like to have set it up so the first is last and the last first but blogs do not work that way. I don't always comment but I look in on you from time to time. I like what you're doing.
 
Hey drifter! You are too modest. I remember some of the things you wrote here. I'm going to find your new blog.;)
 
I used to think I might retire to NE GA, live in a trailer (it was OK to call them that back then) on the side of a mountain on somebody's farm, not too far from a lake.

Oh, well.
 
For you only. Check out the the photo of the covered wagon. To me it represent the beginning of a journey, perhaps into the unknown. The horse and wagon lend a sense of history. I like the picture.
 
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Guitarist said:
I used to think I might retire to NE GA, live in a trailer (it was OK to call them that back then) on the side of a mountain on somebody's farm, not too far from a lake.

Oh, well.
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I have just the place for you Guitarist. Side of a hill (not a mountain) overlooking a pond. Already has a bored well and septic tank. Just bring your trailer and set it up.

All you have to do is look after 4 goats and mow a lawn (riding mower). And teach me how to play a guitar.:)
 
drifter said:
... Check out the photo of the covered wagon. To me it represent the beginning of a journey, perhaps into the unknown. The horse and wagon lend a sense of history. I like the picture.
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Thank you, drifter. Great picture. There is a haunting quality about the view ahead of that wagon. Take care on your journey. (And take plenty of water with you.;))
 
I have. My cousin married a girl from Sand Mountain and sent a letter to me at Fort Campbell, Kentucky where I was a young soldier. He wanted me to come meet his new wife and her folks if I could get away. I had to asked a mail carrier which highway to take out of Chatanuga. He said take the Ringed- Dalton highway and fourteen miles down that highway I would come to a cattle guard and a big black mailbox just inside the fence. He said from that cattle guard it is six miles, part road and part trail up to Sand Mountain, a small community of people living a top the mountain.
 
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You sure have a good memory, drifter. I'm guessing that was Ringgold-Dalton HWY, which is probably US 41 between Ringgold and Dalton, GA. Google maps puts a marker for Sand Mountain on the top of a hill nearby, but I don't see any houses up there on the satellite image.

If you want to see the map, click this link:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/S...2!3m1!1s0x88607a7ee201da21:0xac88b7990734805a

(I like maps.:))
 
Doesn't matter. Google maps is wrong. Sand Mountain is on the west side of the old Ringold/Dalton highway and is now populated all over from south of sand mtn. Into Chattenooga.
 
Good to know, drifter. Makes more sense than it just disappearing. Although disappearing gives a person a lot more to think about. :)
 

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