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life uncategorized

Today Our Ceiling Fell In

So today, Holly goes “you should take a lookit this ceiling in here” and i knew it was gonna be something bad. There’s been an open seam running parallel to the wall right above the sofa, underneath the upstairs bedroom closet. This afternoon, it had suddenly open and torn itself roughly perpendicular, in an ‘L’ shape. I immediately called our landslumlord (the guy who refused to fix the downstairs electrical tangle-box, and who doesn’t seem to care much that people who wear sandals over here get their feet cut open because the front door has an entire pane of glass completely shattered and glass is always falling out of it all over everywhere; it’s a good thing Speck hasn’t eaten any – yet), and left a message that he better get someone over here soon, because it’s GOING to fall in.

Why is it that these things always, always, always happen directly above the sofa?

Later that day…

Holly and i go out for supplies. We pull back in to see a van in the driveway. Then, a white-haired figure coming out of our house. It’s our landslumlord. I ask what brings him over, wondering if he got my message, but also wondering just what the hell he was doing in our place. He’s coughing his lungs out and looks bad. He’s also dumping god knows what into the neighbor’s trash can. He tells us that the ceiling had fallen out. We’re like ZOMG WTFH!?!! and he’s telling us that yes, it actually did fall. He tells us to open as many windows as we can, that someone would be out to fix it tomorrow (today now), and hightails it out of there.

So we’re like ZOMFG WTF! and we open the door to see… pure, pure white. A thick powdery haze is everywhere! We’re breathing plaster.

Everything in the downstairs floor was covered in white powder. Everything. The worst, of course, was in the living room, where my PC and the laptop were. And the furniture, and the TV, etc.

We cleaned up as much as we could, and let it air out (none of the windows open, or the ones that do don’t have screens, so we open the doors and i prop a box fan on a chair and point two more to it, directing the coke-like haze to leave at once. It’s approximately breathable again.

Incidentally, we’re pretty sure that it hadn’t crashed down before he arrived. Holly has a giant teddy bear that we keep in a chair. When we got in, the bear was on the floor and wasn’t nearly as dusted up as the chair it had been propped up on. We think he was fucking around with the ceiling and it crashed in on top of him.

Here’s what we have now. I can’t find our Olympus, so these were taken with the laptop’s webcam. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

Approximately what we saw when we arrived on the scene (haze added in GIMP 2.0):
ceiling, with an approximation of the powdery haze we had to breathe (done in GIMP)

And here’s what it looks like right now:
ceiling, with giant hole

Close-up:
ceiling, closeup

Incidentally, a black PS2 controller:
detail of PS2 controller... that's a BLACK controller

The black shop-vac that he left for us:
the shop-vac that he left for us... also formerly black in color

How am i feeling? I HAS RILLY ANGRY!1!!!
a little bit upset

Categories
creative current events life local memories music uncategorized

stuff and things

Holly- we went to the ER a couple of weeks back. She’s back on insulin. She’s been really up and down a lot lately. It’s rough for us both, but i can’t imagine having to be her and go through that. She’s getting better, though.

Music- i’ve been making music again. Funny thing is, i started trying to rework a 10 year old song of mine that i’ve always loved that i’ve never been able to get a good recording of. It’s a dark ballad about love gone badly wrong; very much in the Afghan Whigs tradition. I did arrange a brand new piano part for ambience, but stranger than that is that i was fooling around and stumbled onto a new chord that just completely breathes new life into a chorus part that was definitely in danger of being a little too comfortably numb. I changed a G to a Em/G in the third position, like a Cmaj7 but with a G root. I think it saved my song. I’ll have a recording of that in a few days.

Residence- we have yet to meet the new owner of the house we’re living in. We’re dealing with some tough issues with that. Like what happens if he decides that we’re not paying enough rent to live in a crummy but huge house? What if he wants us out right away? We have no idea what our near future holds with regard to our living situation. And that blows, big time.

Locally- It’s been so hot here that the glue holding the rear-view mirror onto the windshield of my grandpa’s Alero has melted and the mirror fell clean off!

Categories
life local Speck uncategorized

gah!

Ok. We found out that our landlord has definitely sold the place.

And i keep hearing his words from right after he took the buyer on a tour through the house: “I really love your dog… if you ever want to get rid of him, let me know, I’d love to have him!”

i am beyond frustrated.

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life local uncategorized

well, there goes that.

I haven’t talked to him yet, but i’m all but certain that my landlord just sold the house that we’re living in. The one we just moved into. The one we had our hearts set on buying. What this really means is anybody’s guess.

See, he just showed the place last week. And just today, the listing i had bookmarked is gone; in its place, a dialogue box pops up advising that it’s been “taken off the market.”

We’ll see. I really, really, really don’t want to move all over again.

Categories
internets life uncategorized

offline

starting now, i will not be online for a day or two. if you need me, call.

Categories
life local uncategorized

A Short Recap

Old Wyoming HouseSo, to recap…

  • We’re moving soon. Any help appreciated, especially with cleaning, painting, repairs, and moving!
  • Got my PC back; it’s still having issues with shutdown, but basically seems pretty stable otherwise. A new mobo helps.
  • Also got my first credit card. Do you believe that?!

Things are looking, as it were, up.

The house thing, though… boy, is that place a mess. It’s incredible how much TLC the place needs. Holly did a fantastic job on the place already, but we’ve barely scratched the time-scarred surface. So if you’re bored this weekend, or anytime over the next month or so….