What are you lookin' at?

What the Hell am I holding?

Please, don't jump to any conclusions when you read this. Wanda and I are very, very clean people. She showers every day and I take one on Thursday whether I need it or not. We have, or I guess I should say, the house has, termites. They are localized to one section in the living room, thank goodness. We are not just clean people, we are also conscientious, and I'll tell you why. We could ignore this and let the kids deal with it, but we won't.

If you are regular readers of this blog you may remember the new TV story. A reminder, we bought the new TV and that became new furniture and new paint, etc. etc. etc. Well, we want to put new flooring in the house. We have kind of a target date, late this year or early next. Over time we have been taking up carpet and removing baseboards.

About a month ago I was vacuuming in the living room. Being the good husband that I am I actually do under the furniture and in the corners. So, I'm slaving away and notice what looks like pepper or tiny little sawdust against one wall. I vacuum it up. A couple of weeks later it's back. This is not normal I say to myself. Over the next couple of days I realize we may have a problem.

Termite poop. I was sweeping up termite poop. They have a nice long scientific name for termite poop. I'm sure it's long so they can charge a lot to get rid of it. Dan, the termite man was out here this morning. I don't have an estimate yet, I do know it will not involve tents on the house.

Dan, the termite man and I talked about the tents on the house. It takes three days, you and any pets need to leave while they fill the tent with poison gas. The cost is around twenty two hundred dollars. For that kind of money I would want a circus tent on the house and a kids jumpy-up thing on the lawn. I wonder what you do with all your dishes and pots and pans and food? Whatever, it is not something we need to concern ourselves with.

They, the termite people, can do a couple of things. The can drill holes in the wall and inject "stuff." They can take down the sheet rock and inject "stuff." With either case we do not leave the house and the cats can stay in the garage. If we hadn't pulled the carpet up I doubt we would have seen this. But we can't ignore it and hope the termites are slow eaters. The kids wouldn't want to inherit a house that looks like Swiss Cheese.

Wanda and I are pretty sure we will live in this house for the duration. A few years ago it was ridiculously overpriced, we would laugh about it. The only way we could take advantage of prices would be a move out of state. Or, maybe, just maybe, to Jenn's place. Jenn, Eric and Nick have a beautiful home and yard with a pool. I was thinking we could move into the garden shed in back. It's quiet, private and relatively spider free.

Really, it looks like we will be here for a long time which is just fine. Wanda and I have done things to the house that make it very comfortable. I expanded the closet in our bedroom and I use that. We put a pantry and extra storage in the front bedroom. Wanda has all her clothes and ironing stuff in there. We have a desk and computer and a nice massage chair in the back bedroom. We have a closet room, a computer room, and a master bedroom.

We both really like this house and it's location. There has been extensive renovation over the last several years downtown. We are just a few minutes away from several nice restaurants. Old Town (as it's called) has classic car displays every Thursday evening throughout the spring and summer. We have a nice Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. Pittsburg really is becoming a cool place to live. There's only one thing I wish for, a second bathroom.

The description of our house is, a three bedroom bath and a half. Who decides to put in half a bath? And why is it even called a bath? . It's not like you can take any part of a bath, unless you want to soak in the toilet and sink. Don't get me wrong as I'm not complaining, having two toilets is nice. I just wish we had another tub or shower. It would come in handy on Thursdays.

Some people have all the luck:

VENTURA, Calif. - The spot where a pair of outhouses stood 130 years ago is proving to be a treasure trove for archaeologists who braved the lingering smell in the dirt to uncover some 19th Century artifacts _ and a mystery.

The one-time site of privies for men and women has been built upon repeatedly. Recently, crews demolished a former school bus barn on the 3.5-acre downtown site in order to build a condominium complex and a parking garage.

But first, archaeologists were called in. Beginning in late May, they started digging into the ground in a discovery process that could last several more weeks.
They uncovered a pistol, a knife, whisky flasks, a set of false teeth, two dog skulls and a blade from a set of sheep shears.

Why can't we ever find anything good?

I may have discovered the answer to that age old question, where does the time go? I think it's a small man wearing a checkered coat, a plaid shirt  and suspenders with a bad comb over. He walks around with a clipboard and a stop watch. stealing it a few seconds at a time.

Future generations will have very small feet since they don't use them much. Small nostrils for breathing not great air. Ears will have a built in "ear bud" or blue tooth thing and very long narrow thumbs for texting.

A friend of ours was telling us she was playing catch with her grandson the other day. It got me thinking about some of my childhood. This is good since I posted that picture of me with the "gun"? I mean, really, what the Hell is that? Anyhow, one birthday I got this thing called a "pitch-back." It was a springy like netting stretched over a metal frame that would balance on the ground. You would throw your baseball at the netting and it would "pitch-back" to you if it was done right. I never realized it was actually a gift for a kid with no friends.

And now Wanda and I have cats and I love them. I grew up in apartments mostly so no pets. I had fish and a turtle. I also had a parakeet, well, a unikeet since I only had one keet. I wanted a kitty when I was little, they gave me Irving's toupee and told me to pretend.

She said, "The next time I'm at the store I'll pick up some upholstery cleaner."
He heard, "The next time I'm at the store I'll pick up some poultry cleaner."

Oh boy, I can't wait until we have chicken for dinner.