Spring Vacation Part II, Ring Cameras & Hail Update

Tuesday and Wednesday, days 7 and 8, I had dental appointments in the mornings.  See day 1 notes last post for all the dental details.  After the root canal on Tuesday I went home, and as I was driving down the street the neighbor's cat wandered out right in front of me, oblivious, as was her owner just on the sidewalk.  I stopped right behind the cat, waited a moment, then gave the horn a quick beep.  The cat scattered out of the roadway and I pulled into the driveway.  Next thing I know, this neighbor was coming down my driveway, flipping me off and swearing up a storm.  I started yelling back that her cat was in the damn road, but my mouth was still numb so didn't say a whole lot more other than to get the hell off my property.  This is the same neighbor that slashed my tire right after we first moved in, in 2009.  She's trash that's come into money and acts like she's the baddest bitch on the block.  We've never been friendly and we never will be.

We have dashcams in both cars now, more security for us.

I told the story to my wife and showed her the dashcam video.  My wife said that's it, we need a doorbell camera.  I spent that day and Wednesday researching and we bought a Ring doorbell and I got a Ring spotlight camera with solar panel for the back.  The doorbell camera I installed last weekend, and the later-arriving solar panel and spotlight camera were installed on the house this morning.  I must say, having the extra security feels pretty good.  Otherwise, I didn't do a whole lot on these dental days.

Thursday was day 9.  I know I took too long to write about all this; I haven't the foggiest idea what I did on Thursday.  There were many little jobs and projects that I did along the way, so I imagine a few of those and probably lunch out.

Friday, day 10, I had to go into work.  Ahead of time I had requested a certain client for a community outing, and we spent all day out and about, only going back in time for him to catch his bus.  I did not want to lose my vacation vibe yet, especially with a three day weekend after.

Kate had to work the weekend due to the holiday, so we missed my niece's high school graduation on Saturday, day 11.  Also on Saturday I planted 24 more sunflower seeds.  I'll plant 12 to fill in around the yard here and the other 12 I'm going to make some cages for and take them to work, we'll see how they fare there.  I originally planned on all 24 going to work but that seemed a bit ambitious and would take more of my own resources.  Twelve is much better than the two (of 3) I grew at work last year.  We'll have to find out if the critters out there will behave.  This new batch of seeds just popped out of the soil today so should be ready to plant very soon.

Sunday and Monday, days 12 and 13, were mostly rest and relaxation as far as I can remember.  

A great view of the back.  The actual view extends about 25% further up and down, this pic is the size of my phone screen.

No fire pits on this vacation.  I had a couple opportunities but mostly it was too windy or I was too tired.  Last night would have been perfect too, but I was beat, and tonight is too windy again.  So far this year I've only had the one fire on the Spring equinox.  Let's hope I have another before the Summer solstice and before the mosquitoes emerge.

*          *     Hail     *         *

Also happening during this time, our auto claim for hail damage got settled.  The insurance company totaled my wife's van as the repairs would cost more than it was worth.  The settlement was for blue book value if we signed the van over to them, or the lesser trade-in value if we wanted to keep it.  Well, even used cars are much more expensive these days, so my wife opted to keep the van rather than hurriedly shop for cars and invest thousands more dollars, possibly tens of thousands.  We'll have to get the windshield replaced, but the dents will stay.  Final payment should be in our account by early next week.

The house claim has also mostly been settled.  Now I will have to fix the basement window, find someone to replace the roof and gutters, and we have to decide if we will have the window flashing replaced.  I am not planning on replacing the siding as those dents are not as noticeable and when we do replace some siding we'll do the whole house and maybe something a little different.  There also may be a few window screens to replace, and I think that's about it.  Once all is done and receipt copies uploaded, this will be done, too.  Repairs are happening rapidly all over this side of town, but I've been more patient.  All will be done long before winter.

And within the last two weeks we had our insurance premiums due for house and cars.  They did go up, but I'm not sure if the claims had anything to do with that or not.  What do you think?

What's New?

Well, what's new with me these days.  Time to start typing and see what comes out...

• My back is feeling better finally.  I threw it out 3 weeks ago yesterday after clearing snow.  Yes, after clearing snow as I was kicking off my boots I felt that old familiar twang and knew I would be hurting for a while.  I was right.
• Our white trash neighbor across the street tried to park me in this morning.  It is alternate side parking here for winter which limits the space somewhat but there is still plenty of room on the street for everyone.  I was the first car there last night, this morning the doughboy's car was about a foot off my back bumper.  The skank bartends and gets home in the wee hours so she surely saw that and intentionally backed her car up within about 2 feet of my front bumper.  (FYI, they have the only house on the block without a driveway or garage, though there is room to put one in.) Just a bit more and I would have called the cops to wake them up and move a vehicle.  As it was, it was a pain to get out.  They have been a pain to us ever since we moved in and she slashed my tire because she liked to park in front of our house and all of a sudden I started parking there. I took pictures in case I need them later.
• Die Antwoord's new release, "Ten$ion" is out now (see last post).  I enjoyed listening to it twice today at work.  Still very good, very edgy, but maybe not as good as their first, "$o$."  It will surely grow on me, though.  They were on David Letterman the other night!
• Our winter continues to be a very very mild one.  There hasn't been much snow, even now the ground is mostly clear, and temps have been mild, above freezing most days and even considerably above freezing some days.  I can't complain...  yet.  There's still time.
• I've applied for a different position at my work, an upgrade, promotion if you will.  I really really hope I get it, I desperately need a change of scenery from the department I'm in now.  A year and a half ago I did get a promotion but then had to turn it down because I broke my leg and they couldn't hold up the class.  That interview I didn't think went very well yet I was offered the position.  This interview I think went very well and, well, keep your fingers crossed for me!
• I bought myself a new lunchbox that arrived today.  It cost about 35 dollars, but is much bigger than my old one (that we got for free but I used for at least 6 years), which was always packed to the top.  Mostly it needs to hold ice packs and water bottles and now I'll have more room for actual food. But the increased size has me steeling myself for the 'man-purse' comments I may get.  Oh well, the smaller size was too small so I'll just deal with it.

That's all I can think of right now.  Mostly we're just dealing with the daily drudgery that we all have, especially this time of year, I hope yours is more exciting than ours.  Ta Ta for now!

Tire slashed

I had my tire slashed early this morning. We are not happy to say the least. I had to take a day off work to file a police report and get it fixed. I have my theories, actually we're 99.9% sure who it was, but I can't say since there is no proof. Very ticked off. I'm actually proud of my restraint.