USMB Coffee Shop IV

[Foxfyre]

So, it is LITERALLY raining cats and dogs and hamsters here...but my weather widget keeps saying 80% chance of rain. I am skeptical.

Yes, and all that is going to eventually come here. And we still have a leak in our roof and the roofers can't give us a firm date earlier than February 25. It wouldn't matter so much if we already had interior damage that we had to fix, but right now we don't. It hasn't brought down the sheetrock and paint in the ceiling. But by late February we'll almost certainly have the cost of interior damage to repair as well as the relatively minor roofing repairs. Frustrating.

We live on a hill, and had drainage problems for the first few years. mr. boe came up with this master plan of pipes and french drains which is a masterpiece. No more flooding in the basement. Without his project, I'd be cleaning up a giant mess right now instead of illuminating the interwebs.

No basements for me, too many water issues. You're lucky you're on a hill that allowed your husband to install proper drainage, drainage that should have been installed when the house was first built, something most homebuilders don't do.

Well, we live in an old house - and it was clear when we bought it that attempts had been made to address the issue. We love the house - the bay view is so fabulous! mr. boe is an engineer - he knew he could solve the problem and he did. I'm so proud of him.

Plus - we love having a basement. It's a necessity for pack rats.

Yes we had one basement that very occasionally backed up with runoff water when the city drainage system was overloaded. But the other three were dry and functional. And a real blessing during tornado season because we were living in Kansas. We had to take whatever rental we could find when Hombre was first transferred to Pittsburg KS in the far southeast corner--just 30 miles west of Joplin MO. Great finished basement but even with that too small. The second house was great on 3-1/2 landscaped acres backed up to a wild forest with blackberry bushes. But that was the basement that flooded from time to time. The owner sold it out from under us so we moved to another house two doors down. Full basement but unfinished and ugly, but dry and great to store extraneous stuff in.

First house in Salina had unfinished basement but we finished it. Dry and functional. Sold that and bought a bi-level but sufficiently shielded with surrounding dirt to provide protection from storms.

 

[Ringel05]

High winds with gusts up to 65 MPH......... Just saw Margaret Hamilton fly by on a bicycle......

 

[Sbiker]

Hey, how the weather at Hawaii? Is it possible to swim there now?

The weather here is as close to perfect as one can ask for... Almost boring at times... I grew up in the American Midwest and one could always count on the weather to slap you around on occasion... Winter time here now... High temps during the daytime hours now is low 80's and nighttime is low 70's and high 60's (Fahrenheit obviously)… It is tough to live here, but someone has to do it... And I am just the fellar to do it... ...

Hey, how the weather at Hawaii? Is it possible to swim there now?

The weather here is as close to perfect as one can ask for... Almost boring at times... I grew up in the American Midwest and one could always count on the weather to slap you around on occasion... Winter time here now... High temps during the daytime hours now is low 80's and nighttime is low 70's and high 60's (Fahrenheit obviously)… It is tough to live here, but someone has to do it... And I am just the fellar to do it... ...

Better you than me! Too hot.

I just want to look at Hawaii I prefer cold weather when I'm working, so these frosts are very comfortable for me, while I'm sitting at warm office and drinking hot coffee.

 

[Ringel05]

Caught a picture of this out back. Dust storm rainbow?

 

[Sbiker]

It's a good time of year, but too cold...Brrr

Looks like home to me. We've gotten a lot of frozen fog, which causes that white frosting on everything. Looks nice, but it will take down trees! Good to see you back again.

My friend, I glad to see you too! How are you, what's new? Does it seems to you, life is not only moves forward, but also have a spiral structure and periodically returns us to some life circumstances?

Absolutely. I actually see things like a wheel rotating through the seasons and of course we're moving in a spiral as time passes.

Oh, it's a good time. My friend Dima absolutely agree with us both, we just sitting at my flat, drinking spanish wine and russian beer and celebrating another friday in our life, viewing a series BMS (have you seen it too? )) by one eye each. After 40 I feel the life is permanently accelerating, so we have to run faster a twice to have only a chance to move But we're enjoing the current moment both. So do you like yours as we're?

 

[boedicca]

So, it is LITERALLY raining cats and dogs and hamsters here...but my weather widget keeps saying 80% chance of rain. I am skeptical.

Yes, and all that is going to eventually come here. And we still have a leak in our roof and the roofers can't give us a firm date earlier than February 25. It wouldn't matter so much if we already had interior damage that we had to fix, but right now we don't. It hasn't brought down the sheetrock and paint in the ceiling. But by late February we'll almost certainly have the cost of interior damage to repair as well as the relatively minor roofing repairs. Frustrating.

We live on a hill, and had drainage problems for the first few years. mr. boe came up with this master plan of pipes and french drains which is a masterpiece. No more flooding in the basement. Without his project, I'd be cleaning up a giant mess right now instead of illuminating the interwebs.

No basements for me, too many water issues. You're lucky you're on a hill that allowed your husband to install proper drainage, drainage that should have been installed when the house was first built, something most homebuilders don't do.

Well, we live in an old house - and it was clear when we bought it that attempts had been made to address the issue. We love the house - the bay view is so fabulous! mr. boe is an engineer - he knew he could solve the problem and he did. I'm so proud of him.

Plus - we love having a basement. It's a necessity for pack rats.

That's what garages are for..... We're learning not to be pack rats....... Working on selling off much of what we have carried around with us for five moves since 2012..........
And as we get older we find stairs are more and more of a pain, one level on a slab is our desired habitat.

We're a bit away from the Swedish Death Cleaning phase. I'm slowing going through closets to get rid of stuff. Our biggest issue is books. We have thousands...and if/when we downsize to a single level house, we certainly won't have room for them. It is really hard for us to get rid of books - feels like a sacrilege.

 

[Ringel05]

Yes, and all that is going to eventually come here. And we still have a leak in our roof and the roofers can't give us a firm date earlier than February 25. It wouldn't matter so much if we already had interior damage that we had to fix, but right now we don't. It hasn't brought down the sheetrock and paint in the ceiling. But by late February we'll almost certainly have the cost of interior damage to repair as well as the relatively minor roofing repairs. Frustrating.

We live on a hill, and had drainage problems for the first few years. mr. boe came up with this master plan of pipes and french drains which is a masterpiece. No more flooding in the basement. Without his project, I'd be cleaning up a giant mess right now instead of illuminating the interwebs.

No basements for me, too many water issues. You're lucky you're on a hill that allowed your husband to install proper drainage, drainage that should have been installed when the house was first built, something most homebuilders don't do.

Well, we live in an old house - and it was clear when we bought it that attempts had been made to address the issue. We love the house - the bay view is so fabulous! mr. boe is an engineer - he knew he could solve the problem and he did. I'm so proud of him.

Plus - we love having a basement. It's a necessity for pack rats.

That's what garages are for..... We're learning not to be pack rats....... Working on selling off much of what we have carried around with us for five moves since 2012..........
And as we get older we find stairs are more and more of a pain, one level on a slab is our desired habitat.

We're a bit away from the Swedish Death Cleaning phase. I'm slowing going through closets to get rid of stuff. Our biggest issue is books. We have thousands...and if when we downsize to a single level house, we certainly won't have room for them. It is really hard for us to get rid of books - feels like a sacrilege.

We were the same way with book or more accurately the wife had about a thousand. She started donating her books when we were in Trinidad Co then finally cut the number in half when we were in El Paso TX. then got rid of half of those when we were in Albuquerque. Now she's looking at what's left and starting to cull those. Basically she realized two things, one there's only a relatively small number of books either one of us really want to keep and two they're heavy and take up a lot of room when moving. The third thing is we really don't need a 3000 sq ft house (though it's nice), we can comfortably make do with a 1400 - 1700 sq ft house with a garage and or storage shed.

 

[beautress]

Beauty,
It would have so exciting, being in Alaska back in those days. Now, even the most rural villages are "modernized". And, of course, we've had our share of "immigrants" from other states. I did hear a report a couple of days ago that this is the sixth year that the total of people leaving the state outnumber those coming into Alaska. Suits me.
Alaskan factoid: While Everest is the highest mountain based on total elevation, Denali is the single greatest land rise from base to summit, making it technically the tallest mountain on Earth.

You would have loved the beauty and majesty of white-capped mountains in the far distance, lovely, rushing mountain creeks flanked by trees with leaves on them that made a pleasant little shaking noise in a breeze, cool air and friendly people, who were wearing mouton-lined parkas of blue and red, catching a glimpse now and then of a mama moose with her huge but cute baby moose, often laying in a road, oblivious to humans who didn't dare disturb them or accept the consequences of a mad moose mama.

Maybe the moose don't do that anymore in the huge town Anchorage has become. Anyway, looking out the car window at the miles and miles of driving, there was something wonderful about seeing nature at her finest at every twist of the road that was flanked by a stream before the snows began. Surely there is a lot of that left out there in your area.

 

[Gracie]

Hi guys. Sorry I have not caught up except for a few posts I see of quotes and whatnot......

I envy Ridgerunner. My goal my whole life was to get to Maui or the hawaiian island to live forever...but as far west as I got was to San Luis Obispo area. And even then that didn't last longer than 30 years. I'm trying to make my way back there since Hawaii is now out of the question and has been for..oh...30 years, lol.

Anyway...things are fixing to change yet again. Not sure what is going to happen so the only thing I can do it just take each day at a time. No rest for the wear, eh?
Anne has her new boyfriend I told y'all about. Well, he bought a fixer upper home in bumfuck egypt (west of Corning out in "cow country" with a total of 64 population) and she told me today that escrow closes on that house he bought (but I think SHE bought it and isn't telling me)...and she will be moving there with him in about 2 months. Escrow closes in a month. Then its going to take about another month (or less) to make it livable enough for her to move in to...with just him, mind you...and then she and we will discuss what is to happen to me and MrG. Of course we are not invited....New Boyfriend, who I will now nicname NB...wants her all to himself. Well of course he does. He has no money, so he says. So I wonder if he has no money how he came up with 70K. Oh. Wait. I know. SHE has that, and more. She said he can't afford to take her to dinner cuz he is broke. Yet..he just bought a house. Um hm. Ok. Anyway...fishy fishy fishy but it isn't my business and if I even hint of doubts about his plans..she gets angry with me. So I keep my mouth shut. Her money, her business. Except its MY business when it comes to me and MrG and what we should be planning if anything at all..and sooner rather than later. I do NOT want to wind back up in the van. I doubt it will come to that, but I like to plan ahead since my whole life is now nothing but "don't think to settle. Nothing stays as its supposed to".

She mentioned she would keep this duplex, be a roomie, pay half the rent like all of us are doing now, but still move in with him. Personally, I see that happening for a short amount of time. NB might not like it that she is paying half rent on a place she only uses now and then, shared with us. I have no clue about this guy...what his agenda is...what their plans are...but I know the first thing someone wants to do to gain control is to separate the persn from friends and family. And this house NB supposedly bought is far far away. At least a 2 hour drive from here...and 3 hours from her sister, who she said she wanted to be close to. When I asked why she was moving FURTHER away from her sister, she looked everywhere but at me and mumbled no clear answers, so I shut up.

Anyway...in two months..I have no clue what is going to happen, where we will be, etc.

Happy happy joy, eh?

 

[Gracie]

Oh..and NB doesn't like dogs or cats. Which means they will stay with me and MrG. Which is why she will continue to pay half the rent even though she will not be living here except as a passerby on the way to visit her sister now and then. Which means I just gained 2 cats, a dog and 2 chickens. Um. Not in the plans I had for myself, that. I love the dog. Serena the cat is fine. Baby Kitty...she has to be locked up in Anne's bedroom because she pees all over furniture and fights with Serena. Not thrilled about taking care of chickens either. They are messy. They have the whole backyard that was SUPPOSED to be part mine for a small garden area. Nope. Its now a big chicken coop.
In short...she needs us to take care of her critters cuz NB doesn't really want him at the new place. He wants HER. Not her baggage.

 

[Gracie]

And...I no longer have plans for a garden back there anyway. Why plan for something that will be taken away from me anyway? And now...as soon as 2 months perhaps. Sigh.

 

[beautress]

Gallent Warrior, I found a picture of Anchorage in 1953 when my family was there. While my memories aren't exact, this picture looks convincingly right to me. The day we drove the strip that downtown was then, this was pretty much what I recall, but mom and dad got my big brother and me mouton-lined parkas that day, and were they cozy for the long winter ahead.

​

 

[Foxfyre]

So, it is LITERALLY raining cats and dogs and hamsters here...but my weather widget keeps saying 80% chance of rain. I am skeptical.

Yes, and all that is going to eventually come here. And we still have a leak in our roof and the roofers can't give us a firm date earlier than February 25. It wouldn't matter so much if we already had interior damage that we had to fix, but right now we don't. It hasn't brought down the sheetrock and paint in the ceiling. But by late February we'll almost certainly have the cost of interior damage to repair as well as the relatively minor roofing repairs. Frustrating.

We live on a hill, and had drainage problems for the first few years. mr. boe came up with this master plan of pipes and french drains which is a masterpiece. No more flooding in the basement. Without his project, I'd be cleaning up a giant mess right now instead of illuminating the interwebs.

No basements for me, too many water issues. You're lucky you're on a hill that allowed your husband to install proper drainage, drainage that should have been installed when the house was first built, something most homebuilders don't do.

Well, we live in an old house - and it was clear when we bought it that attempts had been made to address the issue. We love the house - the bay view is so fabulous! mr. boe is an engineer - he knew he could solve the problem and he did. I'm so proud of him.

Plus - we love having a basement. It's a necessity for pack rats.

That's what garages are for..... We're learning not to be pack rats....... Working on selling off much of what we have carried around with us for five moves since 2012..........
And as we get older we find stairs are more and more of a pain, one level on a slab is our desired habitat.

We put all our overflow into the garage but need to get two cars in there too so garage storage is somewhat limited. We are also paring down, getting rid of stuff that we have had for decades on the theory 'we might need that sometime. . ." I'm considering selling my sewing machine because I use it so seldom. But that is going to take a bit more emotional fortifying to do.

 

[Foxfyre]

Gallent Warrior, I found a picture of Anchorage in 1953 when my family was there. While my memories aren't exact, this picture looks convincingly right to me. The day we drove the strip that downtown was then, this was pretty much what I recall, but mom and dad got my big brother and me mouton-lined parkas that day, and were they cozy for the long winter ahead.

​

I was there roughly a dozen years ago. Much more of an aesthetically pleasing tourist trap look at that time and probably now. At least in the vicinity of the down town hotel where we were.

 

[Ringel05]

Yes, and all that is going to eventually come here. And we still have a leak in our roof and the roofers can't give us a firm date earlier than February 25. It wouldn't matter so much if we already had interior damage that we had to fix, but right now we don't. It hasn't brought down the sheetrock and paint in the ceiling. But by late February we'll almost certainly have the cost of interior damage to repair as well as the relatively minor roofing repairs. Frustrating.

We live on a hill, and had drainage problems for the first few years. mr. boe came up with this master plan of pipes and french drains which is a masterpiece. No more flooding in the basement. Without his project, I'd be cleaning up a giant mess right now instead of illuminating the interwebs.

No basements for me, too many water issues. You're lucky you're on a hill that allowed your husband to install proper drainage, drainage that should have been installed when the house was first built, something most homebuilders don't do.

Well, we live in an old house - and it was clear when we bought it that attempts had been made to address the issue. We love the house - the bay view is so fabulous! mr. boe is an engineer - he knew he could solve the problem and he did. I'm so proud of him.

Plus - we love having a basement. It's a necessity for pack rats.

That's what garages are for..... We're learning not to be pack rats....... Working on selling off much of what we have carried around with us for five moves since 2012..........
And as we get older we find stairs are more and more of a pain, one level on a slab is our desired habitat.

We put all our overflow into the garage but need to get two cars in there too so garage storage is somewhat limited. We are also paring down, getting rid of stuff that we have had for decades on the theory 'we might need that sometime. . ." I'm considering selling my sewing machine because I use it so seldom. But that is going to take a bit more emotional fortifying to do.

You put vehicles in a garage??!!! What a novel idea!

 

[beautress]

Gallent Warrior, I found a picture of Anchorage in 1953 when my family was there. While my memories aren't exact, this picture looks convincingly right to me. The day we drove the strip that downtown was then, this was pretty much what I recall, but mom and dad got my big brother and me mouton-lined parkas that day, and were they cozy for the long winter ahead.

​

I was there roughly a dozen years ago. Much more of an aesthetically pleasing tourist trap look at that time and probably now. At least in the vicinity of the down town hotel where we were.

Wow, those flowers growing in planters add a touch of class to beautiful downtown Anchorage, and the ooutdoor café adds an international flair. It was sorta a plain and simple country town when we were there.

Thanks for sharing what the future was to have been.

 

[Ringel05]

Gallent Warrior, I found a picture of Anchorage in 1953 when my family was there. While my memories aren't exact, this picture looks convincingly right to me. The day we drove the strip that downtown was then, this was pretty much what I recall, but mom and dad got my big brother and me mouton-lined parkas that day, and were they cozy for the long winter ahead.

​

I was there roughly a dozen years ago. Much more of an aesthetically pleasing tourist trap look at that time and probably now. At least in the vicinity of the down town hotel where we were.

Wow, those flowers growing in planters add a touch of class to beautiful downtown Anchorage, and the ooutdoor café adds an international flair. It was sorta a plain and simple country town when we were there.

Thanks for sharing what the future was to have been.

It was plain and sorta simple everywhere back in the 1950s........
Then color was finally introduced in Pleasantville and the rest they say is history........

 

[Ringel05]

Over ate for dinner...... Oven BBQed country ribs with rice and green beans....... Uff da!!

 

[Hossfly]

And...I no longer have plans for a garden back there anyway. Why plan for something that will be taken away from me anyway? And now...as soon as 2 months perhaps. Sigh.

 

[Hossfly]

Over ate for dinner...... Oven BBQed country ribs with rice and green beans....... Uff da!!

I had spinach quiche and panatone bread with banana cream pie..