Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts

Friday, February 03, 2012

A Neighborhood Novella

Shortly after midnight a while back* I heard people talking out on the street. I looked out my window to see a guy and a girl walking back to a car that I had earlier noticed parked on the street in front of my house. Nothing too unusual about that. I saw the guy open the passenger door for the girl before I closed the blinds. I heard the door close and listened for the driver's door to close, expecting them to drive away at that point. That second door didn't sound, though.

 

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The State of Purpose

I need a recommendation. For a time, I've wanted to learn-- to come to understand-- U.S. history. Now we all know that a story is as much a part of the teller as it is of the subject. That one has to consider the source. So, instead of my grade-school textbook on American history, I thought I could go and just pick up A People's History, that it would fill in all the details and explain causes and movements. But Zinn's work apparently assumes that one has already learned U.S. history from somewhere and that we just need to re-learn it. He skims past topics like the Boston Tea Party quickly, without explaining what brought the event about or its context.


So the recommendation, then, is for a solid, thorough explanation of really any piece of history. U.S. history might be a logical place to start for me, but really and piece or bit would do just fine, if it's lucid and engaging. My paternal grandfather really keyed me into this interest years ago, when he would send family letters (by U.S. mail) describing the books he'd read, often on historical subjects. I realized, through those letters, that history-- despite what my public schooling did to dry it out-- was actually a deep and rich bed, out of which current and daily events have grown.

This all serves as background, really, to the engagement that I want to make with my immediate and future world, in a few specific ways. In one part, it stems from living in the mid-west, where the highly political water-cooler talk isn't so easy that I can just affirm and abide. Yet, my lack of background impairs my faculty for informed response.

In an altogether different regard, I want to understand the business and financial worlds well enough to answer various questions I pose to myself while planning for the next thirty odd years:
Would I be happy pursuing a PhD and subsequently working in research, or would an MBA be a rewarding career move? Will I have enough savings to retire, or will there even be such a thing in 35 years? What connection do I hold with my maternal homestead?
Answers to such questions require fairly well-informed thought and a fair amount of research. But it's alright to take a few years to answer then and well worth the time investment. I enjoy this part of growing up; it's what we do.

So please, share with me your reading lists. Let me know who awakens your intellect and grounds your discourse. Write me back into our community, for the arid plains are beginning to make me parch.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

In the stillness of exacting motion, a cessation of hiatus

Remiss, derelict, just generally absent from this space lately. I've missed you, dear reader. I think about you frequently. But it takes a certain set of chops to navigate these strange and complex changes. I feel as though i've lost my greatest audience. Readership has dropped a unit of late.

Now i fear the rains are bleeding my ink.

It certainly is late: late summer, late afternoon, late to return home. But a certain home drives my thoughts and actions fast. For since the last missive, we have pressed forward with our intentions. An offer, a negotiation, a counter, and now it is written. Our stamps are stumped and the parties arrived. Dear friend, a home has been found. We do silly dances and sleep lightly.

This is just a mention, a check-in after the respite. Tomorrow i leave for PDX for the week. My employer needs me to check a few things there, make sure everything is working as it should. Should be a blast, though also a distraction at the moment of action.

Sometimes you must move quickly just to stay in place. Sometimes there is naught to do but wait and rest a few bars on the bridge. Trust that things will resolve in time. I test, trust, and rattle the keys. And hope that i'm reading the right pages, for i've not run through this one ever before.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A Home on the Range

This is the moment. What better place to weather the Great Recession than where the Dust Bowl hit? More to the point, if I don't act now, I'll miss the moment. What moment? I'm going to buy a house.

I'm not sure what else to say.... I'm in the planning stages and only know it will be in the vicinity of KC, but I don't know what neighborhood or township yet. Put the word out, send me your comments, your emails, your advice, your spreadsheets. Anything you've got. I'm considering a 15-year mortgage, for instance, because it builds equity faster and costs a lot less in the end. It just depends on how much house you buy. New or old? Carpet or hardwood floors? Single or two-story? These are all big, tough questions.

I'm excited and dream about it. I plan and scheme it. I've been reading up and checking my credit report. I wonder how long it will take? All the rest is just details, but of course, it's all details.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

The breaking day


I wake while others sleep, but do not wake slowly. Once i have fallen out of dreams, i am immediately, fully awake. Maybe there is a minute of sitting on the side of the bed, focusing my eyes, but it is only posturing.


When last we left, we were bound for Chicago on Thanksgiving vacation. Now, back at work, things are business as usual. My employer announced huge layoffs recently (in good company there, as employers everywhere are doing daily now). There is no certainty, only a bit of anhedonia at CoH.


Some unseasonably warm weather has blessed the locale. Warm winter days are possibly my favoritest season. You have beautiful, blistering vistas, but none of the pesky, biting bugs that mar the warm summer months. My hiking companion and i visited Knob Noster as well as more local spots which during the summer are almost inhabitable.


A deep forest trail is apparently the best place to spot a stealth bomber. They fly out of a miltary base adjacent the park, going, i guess, to iraq or afghanistan.


There is no particular theme here today. Just a general update before the world's alarm clock goes off.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Civilized 1, Bohemian 0

After enduring due derision from essentially every vistor, I got myself a bit more civ'lized, home-stylewize. I found these structures, flanking the patio doors in the picture, which allow one to layer books on top of one another, thus maximizing storage capabilities of living quarters.


So, for example, those two 'chestnut' structures in the included figure just about precisely hold all the books that previously trimmed my primary living space. Now I suppose the next addition is a machine that sucks up dirt.... sort of creates a, how would you say, vacuum of air around the detritus about the perimeter.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Kitty kitty



Got a new member of the household. She's a six-year-old kitty named Kitty. She's a really big sweetie. After spending the first day under the bed, she has begun to come out on her own and snuggle like crazy.


I think she's nocturnal, but she's also house-trained, which is nice. The picture is a bit of a blur, which well represents her dynamism. Now i have to find a vet....

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Sábado e Domingo


Chores and errands completed this weekend:



  • clean bathroom and kitchen
  • grocery shopping
  • make lunches
  • iron business clothes
  • TNCA newsletter
  • career: update resume
  • wash dishes

Sunday, June 03, 2007

A bird on the deck


A little while ago, i noticed a small bird flying up to the door sill going out onto my deck. I remarked upon it, but otherwise took little notice.


Well yesterday, when i stepped out in the morning to check the weather, this bird was inbound and, spotting me, bore towards me in flight carrying worms in her mouth. When i failed to flee, she abated and repaired to the tree of the north end of the deck.


Immediately I realized that this bird, which had for some days been alighting above my door, had the while been nesting and was now returning with food for her young hatchling. Indeed, while I stood at the south end of the deck and watched, a mere chick cried out, head just breaching the top of the nest, while his mother perched not five feet away, watching me instead to determine my intentions.



Seeing now this intruder upon her home, she left off her errand, instead crossing the porch to fly at me, only to turn and land on a step at ground level below. After a few more feints, hoping to scare me off, she returned to the tree still holding the worms. As i failed to relent, simply standing at the far end of the deck, she made a dash for the nest, dropping the serving straight down the chick's throat.


While i snuck back inside to retrieve my camera, she made another foray. I returned camera in hand and waited for her to come with more worms. What a racket the child made, in a rougher and more shrill cry than his family generally makes in song.



Perhaps my naturalist readers can educate me as to the manner of bird nesting here. I could only observe this summer ritual and record what i could with my amateur tools. The bird is brown-coated with a orange belly and yellow beak. They're very common in this area and are the size of a child's fist. I own i took more pictures than would easily be shown here. The rest can be found in an album i put onto facebook.


As a bonus for my patience, while the feathery mother was off hunting, a chipmunk passed just below, stopping on the retaining wall steps before jetting down a hole in the hillside.