09:39 – I was able to talk Barbara into taking it easy this weekend. Right now, while I do laundry, she’s down cleaning out the basement. Then she’ll clean the upstairs, blow leaves, and then head out to plow and plant the back 40. Then, after lunch, we’ll work on kit stuff.
We’ve started getting a few political calls again, two or three a day, all from the Republicans. I got an automated poll call the other day. I agreed to take it, just for fun. The first question was about my age. I pressed one for 18 or under. Then it asked if I had already voted. I pressed one for yes. Then it asked if I’d voted for Obama, Romney, or another candidate. I pressed one for Obama. I do so enjoy doing my bit to screw up polls.
11:32 – Ben Franklin is probably spinning in his grave. Barbara reminds me that the time changes again at 0200 tomorrow. It really pisses me off. Eight months ago, the government “borrowed” an hour from me. Of course, “borrowing” at gunpoint is usually called armed robbery. Now, months later, they’re finally going to repay it, with with zero interest. That’s right, they stole 3600 seconds from me, and early tomorrow morning they’re going to give back only 3,600 seconds. Bastards. I hope they all die slowly and in agony.
Let’s noodle up a nightmare polling scenario: a survey or polling company is under contract to a government. SurveyUSA does work for government agencies, and I’m sure others do as well. So, under the theory that these companies are acting as government agents and the generally established finding that it’s against the law to lie to government agents, Bob’s actions would become illegal. Add in a bit of “your response is required by law” and we have the nightmare scenario.
Bob,
“Then, after lunch, we’ll work on kit stuff.”
I *knew* you had ulterior motives for convincing her to “take some days off” 😉
Actually, she volunteered. She’ll label bottles while she watches Grey’s Anatomy. It’s a win-win situation. She gets to watch GA, which I won’t be in the same room with, and I get bottles labeled.
Call me nuts but we are making a low ball offer on a used house in the sticks just one mile away from our business property:
http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cfm?mlnum=14291024
I am very worried about the economy but I figure any real bad times are way in the future. The housing market here in Houston is hot with less than two months inventory for sale which is by definition a sellers market. In fact, I’ll bet that there are over a 1,000 homes under construction within 10 miles of my current home.
John Scalzi, noted SF author and president of SFWA, is predicting Obama will win, 294 – 244:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/11/03/my-2012-election-prediction-obama-294-romney-244/
I think that Romney will carry the popular vote but I am not sure about the electoral college.
Lynn, geez, that’s quite the house, at nearly 4000 sq. feet. Looks nice, but do you really need/want that much space?
Much as I actually enjoy handyman work, I am fed up with the amount – and cost – of maintenance required for our current building. We’re combined business/private, with around 4500 sq. feet plus another 2000 in the basement.
In our next house, we intend to massively downsize; 1500 sq. feet at most, maybe less. We’ve found the book The not so big house very thought provoking.
I’ve got my disabled 25 yr old daughter living with us and this gives her a private space with two bedrooms connected by a hollywood bath. The master is on one side of the common space and the other 3 bedrooms are on the other side. She has had Lyme disease for over a decade and it has wrecked her body. Rheumatoid arthritis and constant migraines just do one in. She is doing better but we just do not know if she will ever be cured. It has even killed her time sense and is living 25 to 26 hours per day with her sleep time moving that much each day. We have a 3600 ft2 two story right now and she is has to wear knee braces to climb the stairs.
I also want to put in a pool and hot tub and the back yard has plenty of room (0.75 acre). Large one story homes rarely have enough backyard room for a pool on the normal sized lot.
What’s a Hollywood bathroom, one of the sinks holds cocaine rather than soap and water?
Regional differences: In the Northeast, an in-ground swimming pool actually decreases the value of the property. An above-ground pool may as well. The useful season is very short, the expense is non-zero, and the liability is very high if some stupid bastard gets drunk, hops the fence, and drowns.
If for some reason you can’t get the new house, can you put a chair lift on the stairs? My mom doesn’t quite need that yet but probably will before long.
A Hollywood bath is a three-room bathroom between two bedrooms.
Nope, our stairway has two landings built into it. One is 90 degree and the other is 45 degree. The first floor has 10 foot ceilings so the stairway is extra long.
I am thinking that one of these pool retractable enclosures would be nice:
http://www.sunfunenclosures.com/swimming_pool_enclosure.html
They are about $15k or so and make the pool year round usable and keep the varmints out.
RBT wrote:
“Ben Franklin is probably spinning in his grave. Barbara reminds me that the time changes again at 0200 tomorrow. It really pisses me off. Eight months ago, the government “borrowed” an hour from me. Of course, “borrowing” at gunpoint is usually called armed robbery. Now, months later, they’re finally going to repay it, with with zero interest. That’s right, they stole 3600 seconds from me, and early tomorrow morning they’re going to give back only 3,600 seconds. Bastards. I hope they all die slowly and in agony.”
Geez, stop whining. If you’d lived in the mid Eighteenth Century they would have stolen 11 days from you.
Lynn wrote:
“I also want to put in a pool and hot tub and the back yard has plenty of room (0.75 acre). Large one story homes rarely have enough backyard room for a pool on the normal sized lot.”
The neighbors across the road filled in the pool when they bought their house. I’m ambivalent about pools. I like swimming but wouldn’t pay extra for a house that had one.
A three room bathroom?
When I bought my current house in 1985 the neighbors were amazed that a single guy was buying such an enormous house (4BR, 1540 square feet.) My house is about half the size of US houses I typically read about but I consider it to be above average.
I’m with you Miles – I’ve been away long enough that I just don’t get the size of US houses. When I lived their, this trend to super-size your house was just starting. When I visited family over Easter, I got to see it up close an personal, because all of my cousins now have these huge things. Sure, it’s possible to spread out and fill it, but I’m not sure it’s terribly useful.
In our building, the four of us privately occupy about 2000 square feet, and it’s more than enough: we have rooms we rarely use.
Geez, stop whining. If you’d lived in the mid Eighteenth Century they would have stolen 11 days from you.
I’m surprised that Robert hasn’t come out against the arbitrary tyranny of time zones.
Well, I did once suggest that the prime meridian should be defined as wherever I happen to be.
When I first bought this place there were rooms I didn’t enter for months at a time. Literally.
Now I’ve got so much junk the place is pretty full with it. I’ve been ditching stuff lately just so I have room to sort and ditch more stuff. I like having a bit of space byt the McMansions just go beyond silly.
The Hollywood bath is three room bathroom between two bedrooms. The outer two rooms of the bathroom only have a sink each and sometimes a toilet (rarely). The inner room has the shower and usually the toilet.
bedroom -> sink room -> shower and toilet -> sink room -> bedroom
The sink rooms rarely have a door and are usually closet sized at best.