Brink of Disaster

Wow! I just made 6 cents doing the laundry. That's up by a sizeable margin from last week. I expect even more next week. I guess the economy has been saved "from the brink of disaster"!

Publications in Progress

I have been spending my time in putting together some publications that I think you will be interested in. I am documenting my most recent travels. There will be 3 publications. I am finished with 2 of them. But I have run into a glitch. Our printer has given up the ghost. She has done some good work over the years. But I think she has printed her last page. I have one of the publications all printed. The second one was almost complete when the printer stopped printing. I was low on ink so I purchased new ink (a pricey venture). The new ink has not resolved the problem. I think I have some blockages but everything I have tried to fix that problem has failed. So I need to figure out how I am going to print up those last 2 pages.

Hopefully we can get the problem resolved one way or another this weekend. I am putting together the third "comic book" that will need to be printed out.

Now you know to expect more of my work. Don't hold your breath. Be assured that as soon as the publication problems can be resolved we will be printing and sending your copies.

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

It is true the people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. But it is equally true that you shouldn't throw stones at glass, period.

Let me explain. On Saturday morning I was sitting in the family room minding my own business. The TV was on and I think I was folding laundry - an endless chore. When suddenly I heard and saw something simultaneously. I heard something crack on one of our south facing windows. What I saw was just a blip really - but I did see something come from over the fence to hit the window. Doug rushed in and asked what happened. It was clear something came over the fence and hit the window so he rushed outside to check things out. I inspected the window closely and luckly the glass hadn't broken. Doug later discovered a "chip" where the object had hit the window. Minimal damage.

As a way of describing the layout: Our wall is about 7 or 8 feet tall on that side of the house. It is only about 6 feet or 8 feet from the side of the house. Then outside that fence is a large empty but landscaped lot that serves as a buffer to the neighborhood. Right on the other side of that lot is a gate unit that controls who gets into the neighborhood. There are only 4 ways to enter our neighborhood. You have to have an authorized clicker to open the gate (they cost $45 each and even though we have paid for 2 we haven't received ours yet). You need to know a secret code to punch in to a phone-type number pad and if you are correct you have a very polite male voice say to you, "Access granted. Please enter" and the gate opens. You can buy a key to a pedestrian gate and walk through. The last way is to know someone in the neighborhood who can let you in remotely through some telephone feature.

Anyway, back to the story. When Doug rushed outside he didn't see anyone by our house. He ran to the gate and saw a lady and teenage girl standing there by their car. Doug asked if they were trying to get in. They said they were trying to get in and asked if so-and-so lived in our house. Doug said no. He told them we lived there. He asked if they had thrown a rock at our house and that it hit our window and almost broke it. They said - "no". He asked if they saw anyone throw a rock at our house. They said - "no". I think their noses grew a couple of inches on those 2 answers. Why do I think that? If they didn't do it there is no way that they couldn't have seen who did it. They were parked right there. Were they blind? No because someone drove their car to the gate. So if they didn't see anyone do it, it must have been them. Then as Doug put things together - when he ran around to the gate he remembered seeing the younger girl out in the landscaped area standing somewhat close to our fence. *Note: the landscaped area is covered with good throwing rocks.

My theory is that they were using the last known phone number to contact the people who used to live in our house. The phone number didn't work so they resorted to their only option. Did I mention the "throwing rocks at your friend's house so you can get their attention and then they'll let you in" method? Well, sure enough, they got our attention. Did they get into the neighborhood. NO WAY!!


So anyway, they did it. The girl had a pretty good arm. She got it over the fence and it hit the house. I just think it was dumb luck that it hit a window. They must have really wanted to talk to the old home owners. That is kind of weird because from what I understand they have been gone for at least 6 months. Oh well - no harm done.

Lesson to learn? Not only: People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones - but it is equally true that you shouldn't thrown stones and glass, period.

Critters

There was a scorpion in the house before it was officially ours. I had come alone to measure windows. So I bravely stood back and threw a phone book at it. After a few failed attempts I hit the bullseye. That smashed it. I had hoped it didn't have any more family or friends in the house. And until today I was pretty confident that it had just accidentally wandered in during the months the house sat vacant. But Doug set up a desk with a computer downstairs so he can have a quiet work station. And while he was down there today he spotted and killed another scorpion. So now I'm a little paranoid about it. And on top of that a medium-sized fast-moving spider came running at me just after Doug's episode with the scorpion. I feel like I'm outside sharing my living space with the critters who really live there.





Am I getting any sympathy out there from anyone? I could use a little.