Journeys With GG

I Guess I'm Just a Stupid White Girl....

So, the sweet little old lady next door has been having some major work done on her place.  She didn't have a proper foundation for the Bay Area, which makes me wonder how she was even able to get home insurance for all the years she's been living there (more than 50 at this point). 

Aside from the foundation work, I'd heard a neighbor saying she had termites too.  Not wanting to believe every rumor you hear, I asked her 50-something year old daughter the other day if in addition to the foundation work, there were termite problems.

No she said.

Good, I said, I was wondering if I should have someone out here to check things out.

Well, she said, totally snarky, you should have a termite inspection every year, or at least every three years.

Well, I said, I've been here three years, so I should probably do that.  But, something just didn't jive.

I was pretty turned off she was so nasty about it.  Two days later (yesterday) I get home from picking up my car and getting a morning coffee.  Workers are in my driveway, which is flush with her house, tearing the stucco off of it.

Hmmmm.

So, I go to the guy in charge and I'm all, hey, what's up here, is there termite damage?

He, all excited says, yes - you HAVE to come see this, it's incredible.

Basically, her house has been eaten alive, and per the damage, it's been going on for more than three years, probably  more like 15-20.  Inspection every year my lily white butt. 

So, I haven't seen my neighbors daughter since, to subtly drop the hint that I know that she flat out lied to my face.  But Je-sus people, can't you even be honest with your neighbors?  It's not like her mom got busted for dealing crack or anything.  By the way, that would be really funny since she's like 85.

I know at times I am perceived as somewhat Pollyanna and innocent due to the big blue eyes thing, but give me a freakin' break.  Get ready for my Hope Williams Brady eyebrow raise when I innocently say, "Gee, I actually heard you do have termite damage.  Gosh, between that and the new foundation, everything must be costing you a fortune.  Have a nice day, and you take care!"

Tonight I Came Home to a Warm House

Yep, that's right.  In two short days my central heat installation was completed.  I need to make an appointment with the City of Oakland to get everything inspected and then pay the "Your Energy Source" guys (I don't have to pay until it passes inspection).  The great news is my tax refund more than pays for the new system so I still have my nest-egg in tact for other house projects that I plan to get started on.

Another thing I got done a few weeks ago was haul like seven bags of old clothes to Goodwill. 

The Irony of Fixing Things

This is my first entry.  Ten minutes ago I was thinking about how I'd introduce this blog.  Life is a journey right?  Not just all the great trips, but the little adventures as well.  I mainly started this blog to write about the big travel adventures I have coming up soon, but there is so much else that I can classify as a journey, this blog will be more than just about travel.

There have been a few things around the house I've needed to do, mainly reattaching the base of a lighting fixture in my entry hallway.  The other is vacuuming and cleaning my sandy colored carpets.  I needed to go to Target to make these things happen.

The vacuum I have sucks, or more accurately, doesn't.  I got this nifty little bagless thing from

Eureka

that's a fun sparkly green color.  I also got a Bissel power spot cleaner to help eliminate those random spots that just kind of appear and you have no idea where they came from.  The last thing I needed was a really high stepping stool to reach my lighting fixture.  I'm tall, but standing on a chair just wasn't working for me.

I spent a couple hours working on the carpets in the house and they look really nice now.  It's amazing how much gunk collected in the canister that one just can't see on the carpets, but I view it as a good sign that it's all being removed now. 

Feeling ambitious, I took on the lighting fixture.  I got the base up, finally, and then fixed the glass cover, very tightly, all the screws that needed to be tightened were, and it was done.  A work of art.

Then my sister gets home and exclaims the carpets look great!  I then pointed out the light fixture and she oohed and ahhed.  Then as the door closed behind us I heard a loud crash.  Yes, the fixture had fallen and shattered into a couple hundred pieces.  Sigh.

Yes, I'm totally bummed, but it's probably a sign.  I didn't really like the fixture; it came with the house, so I can put something funkier in now.  At least I had a brand new vacuum cleaner to suck up every last smidge of glass that embedded itself in the carpet past the entry way tile - right?