Life

Thinking aloud, because life is good.

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Wife and kids are at Mass. I just finished assembling a cabinet to go by the front door. Note to self: stop buying furniture that requires assembly… yeah it’s not hard (I’m reasonably mechanically inclined), but I’m just tired of “some assembly required”. So since I’ve been doing a lot of work all day, I figured it was time to have a beer (Dogfish Head India Brown Ale) and reflect a bit. I’m going to reflect aloud because well… I’ve got a blog and this is part of why I have it: testimony, recording of life, and so on.

This whole house renovation experience has given me much to think about, and I’m not just talking about the obvious stuff with the house itself. It’s made me revisit and rethink a lot of things.

I’m thankful for my job. I’m compensated fairly, and I work hard to earn that money. I am not earning as much as I could for my skill set and experience, but the trade-off is I get to work from home and be involved with my wife and children. Being so close to my children and having such a good relationship with them? That’s the best compensation in the world.

I’m thankful for Wife. Her good taste guided this renovation, and folks… the house is gorgeous… tho not as gorgeous as she is.

I’m thankful for the generosity of others. In-laws that helped to make this happen. Neighbors that offered up boxes for storage, their kitchens so we could have home-cooked meals instead of eating out constantly. The guys doing the work, and the extra things they’d do to help out that were beyond the scope of their employ. Employers (be it KRT or my day job or whomever) for understanding what I’m going through and working with me on this endeavor.

I’m thankful for having patient children. It’s been massive upheaval the past some weeks, and while it’s worn on all of us, the kids have been real troopers throughout.

I’m thankful for beer. ’nuff said. 😉

I’m thankful to have been graced with what I have in life. I’ve got a good house; I’ve the ability to renovate it. I can keep my family reasonably comfortable throughout all this upheaval. I can only hope that I’m living up to what my parents wanted me to do, which is to be the best I can and provide for my family better than they provided for me.

I realized that going without TV all this time… well sure, I feel a bit out of the loop (I’ve missed those new Futurama episodes), but life goes on just fine and I really haven’t missed it all that much. I tossed around the idea of getting rid of the TV, but upon expressing that to my children well… you should have seen the look of horror on their faces. 😉  TV won’t be going away for the household, but certainly it’s less and less an issue for me (tho I still love me some Invader Zim and the occasional Outdoor Channel show).

I’m thankful that I’m soon to return to my normal routine. Getting up in the morning, reloading 200 rounds of 9mm (haven’t done that in a few weeks while all this chaos has been going on), dry fire practice, some sort of physical exercise, then getting to work.

I’m sure there are other things that I’m forgetting right now.

The bottom line? I feel humbled by the house renovations. I’m very blessed and I do NOT want to take it for granted. I see much that’s around me and I realize that I’ve got a good thing and I have NO place to complain about anything (except the way our Federal government is behaving… that’s a duty).  Life is good, and I’m so fortunate to have Wife to experience it all with.

I see the light!

/ hsoi

Yes… I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The home renovations are almost complete!

New carpet in the master bedroom today, then a lot of little paint details to deal with. We’ll move stuff back into the house over the weekend, inspect work, and hopefully all that has to be done next week will be spit-and-polish sorts of stuff.

Can’t wait for things to return to normal (ha ha ha).  I want to get back on my reloading routine. I need to go check out some new martial arts schools. Kids have schooling starting up again. Just right from one chaos into the next. 🙂

Appreciation

/ hsoi

We’re still living in our house while it’s being renovated.

Living room is dismantled, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom, other little things. We’ve basically moved into the kids’ bedrooms and took a few things with us, like coffee pot and microwave. Using paper plates and plastic utensils, making do with how things are. It’s cramped, unusual, boring. It’s only going to get worse as the week wears on.

But, you consider that there are people who live in such quarters every day. You consider there are people who live in worse conditions every day. After a week or so more, we’ll be “back to normal”, we’ll be moving things back in, setting back up, and going back to our lives. But others, their lives will remain as they are.

That I can do these renovations? I’m fortunate.

It’s been a good experience to make you step back and be appreciative and thankful for what you have.

Foot bath detox

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I always wondered about those “detox foot bath” things. I figured it was bullshit. Yesterday something caused me to think about it again so I finally Googled on it, and here’s the science.

Again, I figured it was bullshit. If you can truly suck “toxins” and metals and other evils out of your body through your feet, well, skin isn’t a one-way door (and imagine how big your pores must be!). So just walking around means you’re sucking up G-d only know what. Plus then it means you could stand say in a spilled beer and get drunk, or maybe stand on a book and get smart. And it’s amazing that our entire insides don’t just slowly drip out through our soles. *roll eyes*   But while I figured it was bullshit, I was curious exactly what the chemistry was that was causing the reaction. And now I know what a magical parlor trick it is.

Here’s the obvious flag: any time someone talks about “toxins” and “ridding the body of toxins”, they’re full of shit. If something is truly toxic to our body, either you will die from it or our body’s mechanisms will get rid of it (e.g. that’s what kidneys and the liver are for, or immediate reactions like vomiting). All this “cleansing” bullshit is just that, bullshit. Drink enough water, let your body work. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Hiding in the walls

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

So the house is undergoing renovations.

Look what we found during demolition:

Click to enlarge, if you need to.

Can you tell what those are?

They’re gecko eggs.

They pulled out the fridge, then pulled off the trim boards and that’s what they found hiding behind the trim board. Makes sense. It’s dark, it’s warm. Geckos are all over this part of the country, see them all over the outside of the house and every so often on the inside of the house (tho the cats take care of them very quickly).

If you think this is an “eeeewwwwwww!” moment, just let your mind wander with it a bit. If this is what you can find in your house, imagine what’s in place that you can’t find? In the walls, up in the recesses of the attic. The workmen tell me they’ve seen far more “interesting” things than this.

Just think about that as you’re falling asleep tonight. 🙂

Rampant Chaos

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

A long-desired dream of Wife’s is finally coming true.

We’re getting the house renovated.

Flooring, paint, all sorts of things. It’s a big undertaking. Some things were completed before we went to Omaha, and right now we’re in process of getting the big work done: floors and paint.

Wife and Kids are all gone, which is good. They’re staying at casa de Wife’s parents. The house is a wreck, barely inhabitable, loads of stuff in the air which would be ugly for the kids to breathe. Heck, I had to change the air filters on the furnaces today because they were caked with dust from all the tile demolition; I need to go to Lowes to pick up more filters because I know I’ll need to change them again very soon. I have to eat out for most every meal, which has its pros and cons. Tonight I’m going to go get some Thai food. Mmmmm.

So it sucks right now, especially being home alone and with much of “habit and routine” out of whack due to the state of the house. But I know I’m blessed and fortunate to be able to have this work done, and I know when we emerge on the other side the house will be beautiful and Wife will be happy.

And in the end, Wife being happy is all I really care about. 🙂

I wanted to go visit a local Aikido dojo tonight, but the painters are still here and I can’t leave. So the visit will have to wait. I’m itching to try Aikido. I don’t know how the experience will be, and I really don’t care at this point how it will evaluate. It’s just the next path on my journey that I wish to explore. It will be what it will be.

And to bring guns into the discussion… it’s cool to talk with the guys doing the work. They’re all hunters to some degree or other. I’m sharing some of the water buffalo meat with them because, why not? 🙂

Texas Women

/ hsoi

Hank Williams, Jr. wrote a song about Texas Women:

and I have to agree.

Any time I leave Texas, like last week when I was in Nebraska, I observe what’s around me. And sure, I see lots of pretty women. But they just can’t hold a candle to Texas women.

I’ve had many a discussion with other folk (including Wife, native Texans, and non-Texans) about this phenomena, and they all agree. There’s just something about how they grow ’em down here. 🙂

God Blessed Texas. 🙂

Trees

/ hsoi

Nebraska City is most famous for being the home of J. Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day.

As you can imagine, trees are a big part of the city. Of course, just having lots of trees around, many varieties, parks, orchards, and so on. But trees are also a large part of the city commerce. Without trees, the city would not be what it is. It provides a reason for people to come to the city, a reason for visitors to spend money, thus the trees help to create businesses, to create jobs, which then allow people to care for themselves and their families. Granted, there’s a lot more to Nebraska City than trees and Arbor Day, but certainly trees are the big thing.

What I found interesting to observe was the dynamic in Nebraska City of how they regarded trees. They were not holy objects, they were not held above all, but they were respected and well-regarded because they are an important resource in many regards. They could not waste trees, they could not harm trees, trees had to be cared for and managed because without them there’d be no way to take care of themselves and their families. The people must be good stewards of the trees. They cared for the trees and the trees cared for them.

I contrast this with living in Austin.

Here, trees are holy objects, to be hugged and held above all. A large branch falls and critically injures someone in Zilker Park. The city, concerned with public safety, opts to have the trees in the parks reviewed and anything unsafe trimmed or removed. The response? The huggers freak-out, city back-pedals, call for review, many trees that should have been removed due to safety concerns are not removed; around 30 trees were to be removed, but only 5 were due to the outcry. As a result, many unsafe trees remain, and just a short while later one falls but thankfully no one was hurt.

Austin can sometimes be like this:

Yes, I’m fond of capitalism. Yes I like money. Yes I like trees. I understand the importance of trees. If we do not take care of the trees we are only going to hurt ourselves in the long run. We need to have balance, we need to take care of the trees so that the trees can take care of us. The way J. Sterling Morton works it? That’s a lot more reverence for trees than what I see around Austin.

Whispering Pines Bed & Breakfast

/ hsoi

The main purpose of the trip to Omaha was to allow my Dad some time with his grandchildren. The plan was for him to take the grandkids for a few days of spoiling. 🙂  Thus, Wife and I had to make ourselves scarce. What to do?

We went to a bed & breakfast.

Some years ago I worked at a company and there met Jeanna Stavas. We hit it off due to our common history with Nebraska. About 5 years ago Jeanna opted to leave the high-tech industry and opened up a B&B called Whispering Pines, in Nebraska City, Nebraska (about an hour drive south of Omaha). I figured that would work out great: let my Dad have the grandkids for a few days and Wife and I spend a little together time at a B&B.

We’ve never done the B&B thing before, and after this experience I think we’ll do it a lot more. It was fantastic.

The Roost

We stayed in “The Roost”, which is an old barn converted to a charming room off from the rest of the house. Everything was quiet, private, and quite nice. The pictures on the Whispering Pines website just do not do the rooms justice, and I think that’s really a limitation of the medium… how can you convey the experience in a picture?

Jeanna was a fantastic host, tending to any needs we had. She even took care of a special request I had to have some of Wife’s favorite flowers already in the room. A little wine, a little cheese, some other treats. Nothing was a problem.

Breakfast. Oh my my my my my. Simply delicious. Gourmet, but not pretentious at all. Fresh fruits, local eggs, veggies from her garden. So so so good.  Oh, and let’s not forget the constant supply of home-made cookies. Mmmm.

Nebraska City itself was pretty cool too. Wife and I actually liked just driving through the town looking at the houses… quite a contrast from your modern tract house subdivisions. Local restaurants like the Timber Room at the Lied Lodge were wonderful. Oh, and Parker’s Smokehouse wasn’t Texas BBQ but it was pretty darn good. Frankly, one nice thing was just seeing the wide variety of trees and other plants, because down in our part of Texas it’s just not as diverse. We also took in the Lewis & Clark Museum, which was really well-executed. Of course, we also did a little shopping, and there were some fantastic little shops down there.

So with all this wonderfulness there has to be a downside somewhere, right? Depends how you look at it. 🙂  We didn’t have great coverage out there, so some phone calls didn’t make it through or would drop. If we were lucky we got AT&T’s Edge network (no 3G at all) but most of the time we had the “o” (GPRS) or “Searching…” or “No Service”. Jeanna does have some Wi-Fi, but the signal doesn’t make it down to The Roost (tho you can get it up at the main house). So, lack of connectivity…. good or bad, all depends how you look at it given your reasons for going to a B&B and how badly your “Internet addiction” is. But it did point out how spoiled I am here in Austin. 🙂

All in all, Wife and I had a fantastic little get-away for a few days, and Jeanna @ the Whispering Pines Bed & Breakfast was at the heart of it all. We look forward to going back.