About that Post the Other Day . . .

I posted this on Facebook Friday. Bursting with vagueness. I had news, but it was embargoed, and because, you know, decorum, I held to that. My wife mockingly took my temperature when I announced my holding back, but nevertheless, that's what I did.

Today, this:

They haven't set a date yet -- or at least they haven't told me, because blabbermouth.

Earlier today, I saw this video and thought, "Hey, this is what meeting the future in-laws is gonna feel like:"

 

Behold, the Slanty Shanty!

When you have a lot of bicycles but not a lot of room to store said bicycles, you get creative. And by creative, I mean you bodge together some old fence wood and a tarp -- I need to get a few more tarps -- into this ersatz shelter you hope will last the winter.

If it's anything like last winter, it won't last, but we've got an El Nino coming, which should mean less snow. Plans are still to build a shop, but that's not going to happen immediately, and with news that came today maybe not next year at all. I can't blab about that news yet, but rest assured it's good news.

Geography Lessons for the Hermit of Iapetus

 

I love that our knowledge of these worlds continues to increase. I might eventually get back to writing that book set on Iapetus.

Way Too Late at the Movies: Jabberwocky

This week my movie to watch was Terry Gilliam's "Jabberwocky," from 1977.

Of the Gilliam films I've seen, it's the most, uh, Gilliam.

The story, of course, is based on Lewis Carroll's poem of the same name, and is an attempt to give a bit of backstory to the hero of the poem, who goes into the tulgey wood to slay the beast.

While Michael Palin is game as the protagonist, the story gets muddled really quickly and frankly just stays in the muddle. They occasionally quote bits of the poem in the form of a Punch and Judy show, but the rest is just a "Look! We Did A Grotty Midieval Movie!" set piece that is rather boring.

As I do with these films, I spent time spotting actors I know from other films. John Le Mesurier (the Major from Keeping Up Appearances" is at his smarmy best as a chamberlain who doesn't want the beast killed as refugees are making the city rich. Kenneth "Admiral Piett" Colley is pretty funny as a fanatic who decides *he* wants to receive the torture promised Palin's character, who is caught dressed up as a nun. David Prowse, who plays the physical presence of Darth Vader is also there, in disguise as the Black Knight.

I don't recommend the film, though. Even for Gilliam, it's a mess.

(Kenneth Colley, center)

The Brain Hath Spoken

I've had a roll of insulation rolling around in the garage for a few years now. Never found the right place to store it, so it bounced around from shelf to pile to shelf again and then wandered the garage all summer long.

Today I was in the garage trying to sort things out so we can get another car parked in there for the winter. Found the insulation and thought, "Well, where am I going to put this?"

Suddenly, I heard in my head "WHY DON'T YOU INSTALL IT, ZITBRAIN?"

So I did. One more wall of the garage is insulated and I no longer have to bounce that roll around.

I have to wonder at my brain calling itself "Zitbrain," though. That seems naughty.

This *is* A Hot Mess

Facebook, a word.

You toss a lot of random stuff into my feed. Occasionally, I'm gonna comment on it.

These folks seem nice, and they're really excited to have me follow them because I "recently commented on their post."

I go to their page. I look at many of their posts. [Insert Confused Gandalf in Moria GIF]

I'm sure my comment was witty, but it does me little good to follow a food truck based in a city I have driven by maybe twice in my life.

If you're going to do this kind of thing, at least let me know what post I commented on.

Yours and etc.,

A Facebook Babbler.

Way Too Late at the Movies: Transylvania 6-5000

 As I do, as I began spooling this movie yesterday (one that has been on and off my radar for decades) I went to IMDB so I could identify obscoure actors and read trivia and other matter about the film.

This entry has an interesting bit of info: The movie was financed by Dow Chemical Company to spend some money that was frozen and could only be spent in Yugoslavia.

So the film was filmed in Yugo -- though about 98 percent of it feels like it was filmed on a studio backlot.

Verdict? Dow Chemical would have been better off just giving that money to the commies.

Yes, it was bad.

It had a cavalcade of 80s stars: Jeffrey Jones, Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum and a few others. Oh yeah, Ed Begley, Jr. Which means, obligatory:

There were a few highlights:

1. Watching Michael Richards get his head squashed in a sliding portrait in the hotel wall:

2. Watching the fight wherein John Byner was used as the weapon was pretty funny.

They kept referring back to this song because, obligatory I guess.

So now I've seen it. Don't have to see it again.

It's Done

 

Finishing today, that was the goal.

To do that, I had to call in the heavy guns: My wife Michelle, who spent her summer at the COPE and climbing tower at Island Park Scout Camp and thus is more inured to rickety ladders and heights than I am and was the one who went to the top of the second floor so we could FINISH THE FREAKING SIDING TODAY.

It's a good feeling.

I don't know that I enjoyed every aspect of this project, but it has been satisfying to do it, and seeing it done is even a better satisfaction.

All that's left is to clean up the horrendous mess in the backyard from today's discards, get all the discards hauled off, and then figure out how to store the bits of siding I have left because that's traditionally what you do with the leftover stuff. I have a few shelves in the garage where I think it'll hide nicely.

This also means if I can get everything cleaned up I'll have an easier time parking my own car in the garage this winter.

Speaking of Madmen . . .

A lot of people are going to start dumping anew on Mitt Romney, as he announces he's not going to run for re-election in the Senate.

Not that I blame him. As a Republican, the party left him a long time ago. He'd have fit in better in the 1980s when there were more reasonable Republicans, but not so today.

Is he a perfect man? No. Does he have more integrity in his little finger than the sycophants in Congress and the Republican Party? No question.

Reading this article is enlightening. These are the people who are ruling the nation: Morons.

But remember, it's the RINO we're supposed to be scared of, not those who blink at an insurrection or support a president who lost an election and tried to steal it back.

You'll note I'm not putting this on Facebook. That is because, unlike Mitt Romney, I am a coward. I just don't want to deal with the sycophants, yanno? The echo chamber on social media is large.

"Who Would Have Noticed Another Madman 'Round Here?"

This is the only thing that seems fitting to post today.

When will we give up war?

Just as Edmund Blackadder tried and failed to go mad at the Battle of the Somme, we have tried and failed to go mad in the last twenty years.

It doesn't seem like we've learned a thing for good. A lot of people are dead, but since that war to end all wars, it feels like we have seen nothing but war.

And the war comes home, with hate for those who are not exactly like us, who do not think like us, who do not vote like us.

It's a war we can't win. And a war I don't wish to fight in.

Baldrick: I have a plan, sir.

Edmund: Really, Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one?

Baldrick: Yes, sir.

Edmund: As cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?

Baldrick: Yes, sir.

Voice: On the signal, company will advance!

Edmund: Well, I’m afraid it’ll have to wait. Whatever it was, I’m sure it was better than my plan to get out of this by pretending to be mad. I mean, who would have noticed another madman round here?

(whistle blows)

Edmund: Good luck, everyone. (blows his whistle)

[The company leaps out of the trench amid a barrage of rilfe and artillery fire.]

These were the sane men, in the trenches. Captain Darling was right to write "Bugger" as the only word to describe his assignment to the trenches. They clung to hope, and grasped at the straws that the silenceing of the guns meant the war was over, not that their side was going to give the Germans the chance to kill them instead.

Hope without guarantees. It inspired a young JRR Tolkein, who lost friend after friend in the war, to also grasp at that hope when all felt lost.

What pale light did Tolkein cling to in the West?

And what light can I see as the wave overcomes the world?

It's Almost A Noteiversary

I've had this contact information on this post-it for nigh on a year, from when we got the idea to buy key fobs for our kids for Christmas 2022.

Taking care of the first car was easy. Of course, that car got sold shortly afterward, but it had two key fobs when it left.

The second car took a bit longer, but by spring 2023 it too was taken care of.

Third car, well the owner of the third car misplaced the fobs for a very long time, so I held onto this post-it for a long time. The fobs recently resurfaced, so in no fewer than three trips, we got them taken care of.

They're not getting anything for Christmas this year. Maybe I should wrap up this note . . .

Closing in on Finishing

Started out today on the last major wall of this project. But was stymied because I forgot to buy more housewrap. My wife was nice enough to get some for me while she was out, but was a little miffed in her OCD way when all the wrap I put on today was upside down.

Good news is, I got it all covered.

Hoping to get more done tomorrow (hoping to finish, actually). But we'll see if that happens. I'm going to have to get the ladder up on the roof and then an assistant to hold the ladder as I work. Going to try to get as much done from the "ground" as I can, though. I don't like ladders.

This might be the wonkiest wall of siding I've done on the house, as I've struggled to keep it level. It's in "close enough" territory, so I'm not that worried about it.

I am down to only one box of siding in the garage. Which is a good thing. I still have to finish the big wall and the chimney, including the short side seen in this photo, as I haven't even started on that wall yet.

Here's one thing to think about, though. As I buy my supplies at Home Depot, I note they have vynil soffit and fascia there as well. So I may be doing that next year. Though I think next year will be a "finish the fence" year.

HASSAN SHOP!

I don't know if this will actually happen, but we're at least looking at it.

What is it, you ask? An actual shop. Behind the house. If it'll fit. And if the city will approve it and if we can afford it all, because building alone, that's a lot of concrete to go in. Because the driveway out front of the house isn't all that great either.

We might have to do the concrete in sections.

I have no idea how much it'll cost. I want to do what work I can myself, but that'll depend on a lot of factors. I'm looking at a steel structure, which might be doable since they come in kits which I assume come with instructions. Or probably just a plan and who knows if I can follow a plan?

Demo of the old driveway won't be a problem. The young men helped with such a project a few years ago, and it involved a rented dump trailer and jackhammer. But putting in new concrete? Well, I've done it. But the scale of this frightens me. And I kinda want it to look good at the end.

So many things to consider. I'll have to relocate and remove sprinkler pipe and wiring. We've got two gutter drains on that part of the house and the water would have to go somewhere, preferably not onto the neighbor's property, so probably burying a drain somewhere would be a good idea. Then there's getting electricity to the shop -- I'm not doing that by a long shot. So many little things to consider.

It would be a fun feature to add to the property. When we were moving out of Sugar a while back, a shop was a priority for me. While we found a few houses that had a good-size shop on the property, the houses weren't all that much to brag about. Still, I wish things had gone the other way.

Good news is: We may be heading into another housing crisis, which was advantageous to us when we bought our current house. So maybe one person's misery will be my gain. But I don't know if we'll be that lucky again.

There's No Place Like . . . A Vacant Lot.

Today I learned that Roselawn, the childhood home of L. Frank Baum near Syracuse, New York, burned down in 1899. His mother rebuilt a house there, which upon her death was used as a roadhouse/hotel. That structure burned down in the 1950s, and was replaced by a roller rink which went belly-up.

The lot now sits vacant. On Google Maps, it's at 2601 Brewerton, Mattydale, Syracuse NY.

I don't know why I went down this particular rabbit hole, but here we are.

I wonder if that would bother him, though. He grew up in a wealthy family -- his father was one of those who struck it rich in Pennsylvania oil -- and had a lot of his dreams and fancies, ranging from raising show chickens to touring with a company of actors putting on a play of his own creation, paid for by his father, who it seems rather indulged him (not knocking that; at least he wasn't a skinflint with his oil money). Baum might look at the lot and be philosophical about it all, as he wrote about a world that was changing from agrarian to industrial in his books.

This has also been enlightening:

By the way, if you're prone to cancelling those from the past for "naughty" thoughts and actions, don't watch this. Or, by extension, read his books. But you're so enlightened you probably already knew that.

If you can get past that, give this a watch. It's a pretty fascinating story of a man fighting against his own failures and espousing views at the time that would have had him cancelled then.

[Laughs Pessimistically]

So I'm back on the siding thing. No, wait, still on it.

All I have left to so is the upper part of the northern part of the house to do. If I could only figure out how to get the truck up there so I can put the ladder in the back of it like I did on the lower part of the north side, I'll be in business.

But, of course, that's not going to happen. So I'm going to have to use a ladder.

Dammit.

So right now I'm concentrating on the lower bits I can reach from the roof. Behold, after two days of work:

I'm actually a little further on than that, having covered most of the house wrap on the chimney here. I was just too tired to go out and take another picture.

I don't mind saying getting the angles along the bottom of the chimney kicked my butt; I ended up wasting two lengths of siding trying to get it right.

Clearly the north side is where all the bugs, particularly houseflies, go to die, because the old siding has been absolutely full of bug corpses. I've swept a lot of them up.

I had hoped to be further along than this, but what I've got done has taken a lot out of me. Walking on the slanty roof is a lot more tiring than it should be. But I can see the end of it, so that's good news.