I Went To A Garden Party...

So... now you all can see, first hand, just how lousy I’yam at keeping my resolutions.

Here we sit half way through the fifth month of the year and I think I’ve posted something once for January and once for February... I’m not even gonna bother to verify that that is the case... it’s not that important really, just to show the failure of my keeping a resolution is complete. I even managed to not post something for Lyndsey’s birthday, and it was her first, nor did I post anything for Emmah, and hers was equally important... it was her golden birthday, she turned 10. Well all the birthdays are important... and what do you know... I missed posting something for Jake too... he turned five. That makes Lyndsey 1 on Feb. 9^th, Emmah 10 on March 10^th and Jake just turning 5 this past weekend on the 13^th.

One might be left to surmise then that I’ve been too busy to keep at it, then again you might be thinking... dude, it’s only one time a month... Hmmm, maybe I should slow down a sec... I’m assuming I have readers other than myself. In any event, both accounts are correct, been really busy and well lazy at the same time, too lazy to compose even the shortest of posts. Someday, and hopefully soon... though I know for some of you out there it won’t be soon enough... I will get around to posting some updated photos of the kids. I know I’ve been saying that now for a while, but at this rate they’ll be able to do it on their own and I figure if I can just hold out... I’m off the hook.

As usual, I “compose and post” at the expense of sleeping and that is the case with this one too. I don’t know what’s making me feel compelled to post something today/tonight, but I guess that that’s not important at this point in time since I’m already here and knee deep in a posting. And since that is the case, I will continue with an update of events taking place... recent past, present and recent future. Hmmm, I guess you can’t really have a recent future now can you... or can you? Anyway... for now, that would be near future.

Much to the dismay of the family accountant, and the family contractor, the garage project has been stalled. The family accountant doesn’t like having to pay for all those extra months of storage. The family contractor doesn’t like the same... plus he doesn’t like the fact that he doesn’t have a work area... a covered, secure, non restricted by the weather work area. I sense you’re all asking your collective selves... “Why o’why did they stop work on the garage”? You see... it seems that we’re not working fast enough... on anything, nor are we, much to the dismay of the city, making sufficient progress to/with/on the house and have been taken to court over some pending issues pertaining to the condition of said dwelling.

Needless to say faced with fines and a potential lien on the house/property we’ve shifted our focus ever so slightly in the direction of the house. We were hoping to get the garage complete, so as to have secure storage of our own (see previous posts pertaining to thefts on said property) and for me to have a work area/shop to work. Well, because of unforeseeable delays... the contractor who was assisting me no longer had the time to devote to me... the nerve... he went to help his dad (who happens to be our next door neighbor) with his house. Long before being served the summons, we decided to put a stop on the garage and a bigger go on the house knowing that his immediate availability was about to dry up.

I guess the really annoying thing about being brought to court, to me anyway, and this is on top of that standing on my shoulder, living under the microscope, looking at people as they drive or walk by and think “is it YOU” feeling... is the fact that this “list” of violations they produced was the same list that they fired off a warning shot with last September to which we addressed all but a few things on. Oh and the pictures they had were old... like last fall old, like after most of said violations were already completed. Anyway... the few outstanding items pertained to the demolition and reconstruction of the front porch. We didn’t feel the need to replace a storm door that wasn’t going to be part of the final design once the porch got it’s makeover.

The small porch was an enclosed one when we bought the house, we’ve decided to restore it as close as possible to it’s original being which means making it an open air porch once again. A porch that won’t have a need for a storm door that’s not “weather-tight”... the current one is a jealousy storm door that is missing a few louvers of glass... hence the not being “weather-tight” which apparently is a violation within itself. I wonder how they would feel if I just tacked some tyvek up over the face of it... then it would be “weather-tight”.

Personally, I think their anger stems from jealousy over my “golf-course” lawn as I’ve
heard it referred to.  Unlike what Rick Nelson once said... “But it's all right now, I
learned my lesson well... You see, you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself”
in this case it’s all about pleasing everyone else.  So we have to go back on the 13th of
June to please everyone.  I’ll stop the rant now, but don’t be surprised if I get on another
one some other time in the “recent future”.

So this past weekend some friends of ours got married in Iowa... congrats to Bev and Rick... and Julie and the kids made the adventurous trip to Northeast Iowa... as an added bonus Julie’s mom made the trip as well. I’m sure she was riding that imaginary brake as she sat passenger... though with Julie driving, she might have been hitting the accelerator and instead reserve the braking for when she’s a passenger when I’m driving. Why didn’t I go instead? Well I, you see, was chained to the house to work on it... I feel like I need to check in with the “committee for a better Joliet” before I take my lunch or my “necessary” breaks and make sure it’s okay... sheesh!

I must say though... my golf course lawn looks fabulous... and until the summer heat and watering bans take hold I can enjoy it’s lushness, but not too much cuz someone passing might think “why isn’t he working on that damn house”? It’s funny, not amusing funny, but ironic funny... we both (Julie and I) know that we shouldn’t waste/devote so much energy to getting upset over this little shin-dig with the city, but it’s really hard not to. It’s one of those things... the harder you try not to think about something is the more you end up doing exactly that... thinking about it. As Jim Morrison spun... “People are strange”

Guilty as charged...