Hrm

Wailing. From the general direction a neighborhood house. I can't tell if it's sex, torture or deep grief. I'd bet it's one of the second two. When my roommate comes out to listen, the noise stops. And then it begins again. It's intermittent, and I've never heard this sort of thing before here.

What would you do?

I called 911 about 5 minutes ago, after discussing with my housemate once again. Better safe than sorry, right? Cops are here, brb.

OK, I told the officer what was going on, and he's going to go check it out. Oh. Just got backup. I was going to go inside, but now I think I'm going to stay out here on the porch and live-blog this event. They're talking to a guy in the house I think the noise was coming from. I think they've gone inside, but it's hard to tell for sure. OK, now one of the inhabitants of the house is out on the front lawn talking to the cops. It's quiet, no fuss. I feel kind of bad for calling, but it looks like everything is OK. At least calm.

I wish I didn't feel bad about calling. I mean, either it's nothing or it's serious, right? And either way it should be the right thing to do, right?

The cops are leaving now, and there doesn't seem to be any fallout.

OK, cops came by to give me a heads up. Turns out the neighbor is in severe distress about a life situation and was just crying very loudly. Poor thing.

Cop's quote: "They're glad to have good neighbors."

I hope so.

Projects on my mind

I have a neat idea, and I'd like some technical support, please.

Psuedo Greenhouse.

There's a nice porch on my house that runs the entire width of the front (See Photo). We don't use much of it, and I'd love to section off maybe 1/4 of it, on the south side, and make it into a very very low-tech greenhouse. The south side of the house runs roughly parallel with the driveway. So what we're talking about here is the area from the garbage can over to halfway between the first two iron pillars from the right.

I'm thinking right now that I could just attach vinyl sheeting from the overhang to the floor alongside the south and west edges (using a staple gun, maybe?), and then put up a tension rod and a heavy duty shower curtain. If I use a tension rod and shower curtain method, it would allow easy access via the porch. I'm not sure if that description made sense.

My excellent tape measure has gone temporarily missing, though, and it's driving me bonkers. I can't measure! The depth of the porch is about 6 feet (72 inches, or approx 2 meters), and the height to the bottom of the overhang looks about 8 feet.

Here are the basic questions I have for you. Keep in mind that I rent.

1. How do I effectively deal with the wind? I don't want strong gusts to blow everything down. This would be more an issue with the south and west sides than the tension rod side. Something I just considered would be attaching hooks into the overhang and use shower curtains there, too. That way they'd detach easily, so that if we have high winds I can just take them down. The added bonus to this possibility would be that I could buy fabric shower curtains to put up in the heat of the summer, providing both shade and privacy from the street.
2. How could I anchor the sheeting on the bottom? I don't want the bottom to be flapping around, but neither do I want to increase the stability so much that the sheeting will act like a sail. (See above re: wind.)
   
3. What other issues am I not taking into consideration? I'm not much of a planner, and I do want to avoid having to re-do the entire project. For instance, when I laid out my raised beds, I overestimated the amount of sun they got. One of my next major projects may be moving them (ugh!) a ways down into the driveway, which is much sunnier.
   

In other news, Project Front Yard is coming along nicely. That big ole mound of woodchips you can see if the photo has been spread over an expanse of cardboard, which should be killing the Bermuda grass in an excellent way. The entire south side of the front yard is now mulched, and the north side has a pleasing curved bed. As soon as I get more cardboard, I plan to also kill/mulch along the south side of the house. There's some nasty tall grass that I can't seem to keep under control.

Oh, another question: What your opinion about Round Up? I have a section in the backyard that is extremely overrun with blackberries and invasive honeysuckle. There's a stump under it all, so I can't mow over it. Will the Round Up leach into the soil and kill other stuff, or is it a valid way to clear the area?

Whew. OK, thanks.

I do love the SNL commentary on the election...

Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill is just genious. And I shouldn't have to mention that Tina Fey must be a national hero by now...

Poor Bubbabub.

Bubba is a rescue dog, and like most still has some demons. It makes me sad when I see them come out, and it even chokes me up, thinking of that past life Bubba had with some horrible person who treated him badly.

Does this happen to anyone else--a sad animal story gets you outright teary, but hearing about two kids locked in a 135 F car who later die just kind of makes you shake your head in disgust? I wonder if that's about outrage fatigue.* I feel guilty that I get more emotionally involved with pet abuse stories than people abuse stories.

Back to Bubba. His mom was out for the evening earlier this week, and I was Bubbasitting (in other words, I was home). Bub is so very very mild-mannered that he only occasionally barks. Only when he thinks something is at the door. Typically, he moves slowly, and doesn't make much of a fuss. Well, Bubster came over to me at one point that evening, and he was dancing around, jumping up in the air and pointing to the door. I thought he was going to bite my pants and drag me to the back door!

He bolted out the door to eat grass, barely letting me clip on the leash. Baby boy has had some tummy troubles recently, and when he needed to puke, by golly, he was going to be thoughtful enough to get a person to let him outside to do it, already! (He's done the same when he was sick with diarrhea a few weeks before this incident. Good Bubba.)

Seriously, how wonderful is that? Asking to be LET OUT to vomit. Good Bubba. Good Boy.

Here's the thing, though. Bubba's mom thinks that Bubba is getting into the trash at a friend's house. And that garbage gut is what's been causing his gastric distress.

Well, last night I caught Bubba in our trash. Trash that had contained raw chicken for over 24 hours. I caught Bubs in the act, and so I clapped loudly, sternly saying "Bubba NO!"

This is where I cried.

See, Bubba's reaction to my loud voice and the clap was to skitter away, cowering as though I was going to hit him. He didn't look just a little guilty. He hid. His tail was curled under, and he contorted his body so that the blows he thought where inevitable would land on his back, not his belly or flank.

Poor Bubba.

His flinch reflex is so strong that all it takes is me reaching up to adjust my hair for him have a similar reaction. Same thing happens with his mom. Poor sweet loveydo.

I made sure to lavish love on him as soon as I could after scolding him. I came out and paid him extra attention over the evening, even lying down on the floor to pet him. (The floor is hard.) Eventually we ended up both on the ground, sharing the same pillow with our heads, my arm around him. Sweet Bubba.

Of course Mom will always be preferred. Shortly after he cuddled with me, he jumped up on the couch with her.

Sweet Bubba, keep healing.


*Wow. The first time I heard the expression I immediately identified with the sentiment. I had no idea that The Onion coined or at least popularized the term.

Random Stew

There's a website I participate on, and someone there built a tool that will put randomize a new comment based on what you've said before. I've decided to create a post with it. (And no, I never said anything about hating anyone, much less chinese folks!)
***********

Cried. Couldn't finish it. Can someone point me to an ophthalmologist anyway... I was just overwhelming. Ramps are almost in season! Make ramp ice cream! Well, if y'all had fun! Oooooh. Warblers make me cringe. Hm. Looks like I'll try some of our overweight patients, and she, too, was aghast. Yes, she knows he's an excellent driver. She knows that there's no problem with. A is my dream. I just made me gag. Eating something actually seemed to help, in that they don't meet all of that keyboard, damn it.

I am so sad I missed this. Though I did it. It soothed me, that I saw my own 11/12. I felt like nothing will work. I tried to change the "signal type" from the get-go, would be so nostalgia-inducing?? I'm totally going to concentrate on The first fish I had one I've wanted to bring them Clinique skin products.

Thank you thank you! I am bothered by the tight clasp the clapper had. Thanks for reminding me how much I like to use, and they need to also." "It's not safe to leave the doors unlocked." "The door needs to be allergy related. When I actively try NOT to "stomp", the only way I can find that's structurally sound and not located in a fortune cookie factory! I actually hate old Chinese people!

(that wasn't meant to be locked when we're not here or sleeping" "I'll be locking the door, and you need (locked room) and not as much information from her side when the only restaurant that I didn't find anything specifically about petroleum jelly, but this tidbit of info about olive oil and vinegar (also a stretch) sugar and spice steak and potatoes brats and beer fruit and nuts pancakes and syrup nuts and bolts

The spermicides, such as the right hand side of my head), (keyword:s Ceceo or seseo). If other things do, and so on, until maybe there's more concern about the puzzle piece type of scavenger hunt, but since I'd like to look at some of the night to cry to him about it, and you might especially like this off the ground and create a strategic plan for how you look at it). Hound the landlord. Explain that the constant NPR in the world than her looks.

I just dabbed a bit creeped out.

I second birding. You can flip if you have to. Don't know what to plant something like that, and THEN at least 20 years, for at least this one or two people dominate.


A local birding listserv I'm on recently pointed this Sibley Guides article, that talks about using a condom on and using the remote to press source doesn't seem to have this kind of humming and hawing to myself about the possible tools they have been about a year, but had always been called that, so it really touched me. I was so freaked out.

So seriously, the saltines with some folks on the back. Actually, pat yourself on the keyboard) It is huge, to be there any tradition/law about children chewing/eating paan? (Sorry for such ignorance on my wrists and rubbed them together.

(this is the best one, i think:)

I wanna experience an earthquake! Not too bad of one, half dozen of the gym-teacher style. Wiith pork chop pockets! And a cold sweat and puking. I called the property management company and explained that it looks like it scraped the phlegm off. Currently I have to act on it.

Solve this mystery!

Later on on the same day I had a visit from the Freakin' Big and Important agency guy, I had a mishap.

What do you think happened? I'd love to hear your conjecture!

I wouldn't hire him...

You just never ever know what you're going to find around here. Today has been a GEM! I was outside watching Bubba rolling around, thinking I was videotaping him, when a guy came up my driveway.

(Now, I'm going to avoid certain words, so use your imagination to fill in the blanks.)

It was an older gentleman, dressed in a suit and tie, holding a badge open. You know, the kind that you hold horizontally and it shows your picture? And your title? And the agency that employs you?

Yeah. In this case the organization sending him around was from the USA, not the state. A BIG and IMPORTANT agency. The kind that gets called when certain lines get crossed. Like the line between Virginia and North Carolina, for example. Yah. That one.

Anyhoo, he told me he was looking for info on a woman who'd lived nearby--nothing nefarious had gone on, though. It was a pre-employment thing. So he was checking her out.

I had the computer open, taping. Or well, I thought I did. But I didn't. Which I did eventually realize. And fix. As you can see. Unfortunately, I messed up turning the tape on two different times, so I missed the best parts. Like the ID, which I had him take out to look at closely several times. And his explanation of what he did--in a nutshell, he's not the guy with a curly thing attached to his ear and wearing these:



No, he had a more mundane title, though that doesn't make the encounter any less bizarre.



Here you have it, with bonus Bubba goodness. Bubba, who brings out the love in everyone.





LOVE HIM! (Where I got the intonation I used to say that in this video is beyond me.)