Need a Little Christmas

I finally managed to mail my Christmas cards this evening.  Last night I went to the movies and saw the Rifftrax Christmas Shorts program.  That was fun and the most Christmas-y I’ve felt all month.  This December has sorta been more blah-blah-blah than ho-ho-ho.

I need to find some Christmas cheer this weekend.  Maybe I can find a few Christmas light displays or watch a few good Christmas specials.

Aluminum Kept the Check from Bouncing

I didn’t receive an unemployment payment this week.  A few weeks ago, I filled out a form and was notified I’d been approved for an extension.  And then, even though I still had money left on my old claim to keep me going into January, I was given the same form to fill out again.  Then after that I learned I could file this upcoming Sunday, but with no guarantee that I’ll receive a deposit.  Was this supposed to be some sort of waiting week period?  Did I answer a question wrong?  Was this all some sort a data base hiccup?

I had helped a person in their home office for a few hours this week and expected to get a check for $90 when I saw him on Friday.  But there was a family emergency, and I won’t see him until Monday.

The thing is I thought my checking account was still hunky-dory.  In fact, on Thursday when I wrote checks for the phone and water bills I paid extra, so when I got around to balancing the checkbook doing the subtraction would be easier.

On Friday, I shopped for my family ornament exchange.  I used my bank card to purchase an angel ornament for my sister and a little snowman and Santa for myself.  Then I withdrew $60 from the ATM and found a glass bell ornament for my mom.  I also bought a venti coffee frapaccino and a Pick4 ticket for myself.

However, when I got home and started to balance my checkbook and see how close to zero I was getting, I learned that–with the mailed, not-yet-cleared checks–my checking account ended up being about forty-six dollars overdrawn.

Well, of course, the first thing I did was check and see if my Pick4 ticket was a winner.  Nope, it wasn’t.  Darn you, cute little snowman and Santa, even though you were 20% off.  Darn you, venti coffee frapaccino.

I had $41 dollars left over from my ATM withdrawal.  But where to get the other five dollars and some odd cents?  I dumped my penny jar, found dimes and quarters around the house in places like my laundry basket and on top of the refrigerator, but was still short.

Thank goodness, I recycle.  In fact, when I come across aluminum cans in parking lots I put them in a bag in my car trunk.  People toss beer cans into my yard.  I add those to the bag as well.  The bag wasn’t anywhere close to halfway full, but on the way to the bank this morning I stopped by the scrap yard and received $1.35 for basically collecting other people’s litter.

Once the phone and water bills clear on Monday, I’ll have a total of 91 cents still left in my checking account.  The lesson: it pays to recycle.  (Also: don’t put off balancing your checkbook)  Next time you’re driving and see aluminum cans on the ground, remember it’s the same as spotting loose change.  It adds up over time.  Or, in this case, at 45 cents a pound.

I’ve needed to get some exercise.  Parking my car and walking around short distances and picking up cans could be a way to burn calories and earn some quick change.  If one can is worth 2 cents then on the way to the bank and back home this morning I saw at least thirty cents lying along the streets.

The Heavy Coat Season is Upon Us

Today has been cold and windy.  For me, the first day of a Midwest winter is when you must accept that your light jacket or sweatshirt just isn’t enough to keep you warm anymore.  The season for heavy coats has begun.

This morning at the gas station I watched other people standing beside their cars, miserable and freezing.  This one woman kept pulling half of her leather dress jacket tightly across herself with one hand while pumping gas with the other.

A week ago I had hopes the warm weather would last.  Ah, silly me. 

When autumn summer extends late into November and into December it’s sort of like going to school and having a substitute teacher.  And you get optimistic that the regular teacher, Winter, might be absent long enough, so you won’t have to deal with all that tough homework Winter assigns, such as coping with the wind chill factor, scraping ice-covered windshields and handling  slick pavement or digging out of snow banks.

In fact, you think when Winter returns he might be milder this time.  But then a morning comes and Winter is back with a snap quiz on what coat you should be wearing in December.

Smokin’ Keepsake Bingo Hot

Today, I ended up solving someone’s website email problem.   Good thing too because the day before I had actually made the problem worse.  But they never found out, so I just call it a private learning experience.

This evening I attended a Hallmark club meeting where I mopped up playing Keepsake bingo.  I had an insanely good card.  I even called double bingo when I got a diagonal and a vertical row filled at the same time.  In all, I won a certificate for a free year’s membership, a lighted gingerbread house that plays “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” and so many coupons I ended up giving four away to the people at my table.

Ladder Matters

I finally got around to pruning the mulberry tree.  But what seemed like a matter of cutting back some low hanging branches turned out to be much more once I climbed the ladder and took a closer look.  Most of the branches had actually started growing straight up from the limbs.  But once their progress had been obstructed by higher branches that’s when they started growing downward.  So instead of a few snips, this turned out to be a pruning saw type of job, and that got stuck halfway through one particularly obstinate branch.  I had to use another saw to cut and wedge it out.

During this time, around the block, a couple of thieves took off with a couple’s pickup that had a fourwheeler in the back.  I did notice the truck go down the alley, but I was over twenty feet in the air at the time and couldn’t have given anyone a description of the suspects.

This meant police cars were cruising up and down the alley for a while.  It sucked because while I had the ladder out I wanted to climb up to the rear balcony of an abandoned house behind my property and close the door left ajar.  There’s a closed screen door in front of it, but I’ve worried winter snow and rain will still manage to get in and cause some water damage. 

It was night when I finally finished.  And just when I picked up the ladder and thought about walking a few feet over to close that door (seriously, it would have taken less than two minutes) a cop pulls into the alley. I walked towards my back gate, but the officer pulled alongside me and asked if the 32-foot, heavy ladder was mine.  When I said yes and had been using it for pruning, the cop said, “It’s a little dark to be pruning.”

“It was daylight when I started,” I replied.

I know this isn’t a great neighborhood, but did he think I was lugging this heavy, cumbersome thing around trying to make a getaway on foot or selling it for some quick cash?   “Hey man, are you looking for a 32-foot ladder?  I got one here that I can get ya real cheap.”

“If you have my gun, can I have it back?”

I made good use of the pleasant fall weather this afternoon and worked on clearing  my front garden and getting it ready for winter.    As I was piling leaves and stems into my wheelbarrow, a guy walked up my driveway.  He told me how his friend had tossed something in my yard because he thought he’d be stopped by the police.  They’d come by my house earlier and knocked on my door as well as my neighbor’s looking to find what the friend had tossed.  But I guess they couldn’t find it.

I told him I’d been clearing the garden and hadn’t come across anything.  What was this “something” that had been tossed in my yard?  It turns out it was a gun.

I suggested maybe the police saw the friend ditch it and they have it?  No, it seems the gun was ditched before the police got to the friend.

All I could say was that I’d cleared my garden and hadn’t come across anything.  Of course, I hadn’t gone around my barberry bushes.  I said he could look around them if he wanted, but there were thorns, so he should be careful.

He walked away.  This happened a few hours ago, and I’m wondering if there really was a friend.  Did the guy think because he couldnt find the gun that maybe I had it?  If so, did he expect me to pull the gun out of my pocket and just hand it over to him.  Sure, let me hand over this loaded gun to you, Mr. Complete Stranger.

Salvage. Study. Salvage.

I spent the entire night studying for my accounting final, completing inventory statements and  balance sheets, calculating the price of goods sold, and getting the hang of reverse closing entries.

While I’m pleased with all the salvageable materials I’ve managed to recover over the weekend, another day studying would have really helped me get all the chapters down pat.  However, the final turned out to be one of the simplest I’ve ever taken.  I expected problems that involved taking transactions all the way from inventory to closing journal entries.  But, hell, it was just simple addition and subtraction.  Instead of relief, I was disappointed–and sort of  insulted.

There were also 30 multiple choice questions, but we only had to answer 15.  And some were so easy that I refused to answer them and worked on the harder ones instead.  I only missed one multiple choice question, but since I got the extra credit right I ended up with a score of 103.  On one hand, I want a good grade, but I also don’t like things too easy, especially since I lost sleep studying for this.

Afterward, I was so tired that I almost fell asleep in line waiting for my next term’s textbooks.  On the way home, I noticed the wrecking crew was starting on another home.  So I took a nap, woke up and got to the house.  Not much to salvage, except for lumber.  There was a wooden step ladder that I thought about using as a support for flowering vines, but thought better of it and put it back.  There were two other abandoned homes that hadn’t been touched yet.  I got the window sill counter weights out of them.  I think I’ll use those for rigging hanging plants to pulleys.

I also found planting pots, a watering can and metal fencing reinforcing some sort of animal pen that I’ll use as a trellis for my clematis.  As I was loading my trunk, one of the scrap metal scavengers came over from the newly demolished house and warned me that this particular demolition company could have the cops arrest me for trespassing, which could result in one year’s probation.

It’s sad some of these homes will be demolished.  The studs in the second floor of the  home I recovered counter weights from were all exposed.  Someone long ago must have started renovating and later abandoned the project.  But all that nearly century-old timber—this durable, sturdy building material–could be saved and used to build another home.

It’s just sad thinking what all is wasted.

No reward for an effortless A

I won’t have to take my management final.  My instructor  has a rule that if you have perfect attendance, participate in class, turn in assignments on time and maintain an A average throughout the term then you earn an exemption.

I got a 98 for the class, but don’t feel like a star pupil.  These last two weeks I’ve had to force myself to sit down with my textbooks and finish homework.  I’m too easily distracted.  There’s something a little too ironic about putting off a written assignment describing my personal one, two and five year life plans until the last minute.  I get A’s, but question why I’m not approaching my assignments with a little more gusto and efficiency.

I’m doing enough; and sometimes, lately, just enough.  But more than enough is far more satisfying.

Busy Saturday

I woke up early and attended the Capital Improvement Program town hall meeting at the Dayton Convention Center and listened to a panel of city department heads discuss the progress of existing infrastructure projects as well as future ones. Me and less than 30 other people. A noticeably different turnout compared to the 200 that turned out for the Vacant to Vibrant town hall two months ago. And the mayor sounded a little scold-y when suggesting that next month’s town hall could be better publicized.

True, but it could also be that this is the third straight month of public meetings addressing Dayton’s planned future. Last month there was that Creative Youth Summit. Or maybe asking Daytonians to crawl out of bed early on a Saturday morning isn’t going to draw a large audience now that the weather is warmer–no matter how many free knickknack pens and water bottles you set out on tables to lure them.

Actually, I found this a very positive, informative meeting. Thanks to federal stimulus money even more projects are on the table. The good news is that Dayton will be undergoing some very visible improvements, especially around downtown. Rebuilt bridges as well as street and interstate upgrades. Five times more nuisance structures will be taken down. The problem is several of these changes won’t be noticeable for at least another year. Guess it’s a matter of looking at the glass half full.

Afterwards I went to Second Street Market, which seems to be getting more popular lately. This is my favorite place in the city. Diverse crowd. Fresh, organic food. With the live music at the east end and the little kids walking around with their balloon animals it has a recreational, festival atmosphere that the strip malls and shopping centers don’t have. I wish it could be open seven days a week.

 

I think I can spot the Second Street-newbies though because they haven’t figured out that when you shop the Second Street Market it isn’t like the mall or supermarket. The Market’s aisle is much narrower, which means people shouldn’t stop in the middle of it and chitchat. (hint, hint) It just makes getting around even more difficult for others.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there I drove to the Wegerzyn Gardens Plant Sale where I bought a few tomato plants and a sunflower. Not much of a selection. At least for me.  I wish I had known about their giveaway area because I have hostas, lambs ear and creeping jenny that I need to find a new home for soon and would’ve gladly donated them. Heck, in another month or so I’ll have irises, Russian sage and water lilies to give away too. I might have to take up guerilla gardening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I drove all the way to Green Vista Gardens because I needed barely straw for my green, murky pondwater. I told myself I’d just be in and out, but water features are like garden porn to me. After examining the bog filtration pond I knew I have to try some sort of mini-bog myself because my pump filter needs replacing much too often. Let nature do the work for me.

 

Oh, and I almost stepped on a snake while examining the bog.

Kinda cool though.

 

 

 

 

On my way home I went to a construction site in Kettering because I needed some stone edging for my garden. Over the years, I’ve saved a fortune in stonework by going to contruction sites with a shovel and digging out stones uncovered by bulldozers. I’ve found rocks of all sorts of colors, shapes and textures. Accent stones and the rocks used in my pond and garden paths all came from sites where housing developments and restaurants now stand.

Of course, I follow rules. I never enter a site that has a “No Trespassing” sign.  And I steer clear of the machinery and buildings so as not to give anyone cause for worry. And I never try to take anything too large, not that I could with my little Elantra. Sometimes there isn’t a convenient parking spot and hauling rocks back to the car can be a workout. And it can get muddy.

By the time I finished it was evening, so I took my tired butt home, did some garden weeding and called it a day.

A Little Block Party

A neighborhood church held a block party this afternoon. Nothing fancy. Free hamburgers and balloons. Games and trinkets. The kids and parents enjoyed themselves.

A small, sincere gesture in a part of town not known for sincere gestures. For a few hours there was something neighborly about this northside neighborhood.