Leelanau Whippersnapper

Well it’s been a dam long time since I’ve written on this blog.  Finally after 2 weeks, I have an internet connection back and I’m pretty much moved into my new place in town.  My vacation from work starts this Friday afternoon (Lord I can’t wait) and all I have yet now to do is get the old place cleaned up and presentable which will involve cleaning the carpets and painting some of the walls.  I expect Jirar and I can make a quick job out of it and be done.  Once it’s finished, it will truly mark the start of a new life for me, Jirar and I will have nothing other than our pets tying us together any longer.  A bit sad but life does indeed go on.  I still miss him quite a bit and quite often but we are both moving on with our lives in positive ways and we are and will likely always be on good terms with each other.  Some feelings never go away for people you’ve spent a great deal of time with in your life.  They are always a part of it in some way.

So Charter Communications (my new internet and cable TV provider) can never do anything right.  I had problems with them in Leelanau, why would I ever think I would not have any in Traverse City?  I signed up for basic expanded cable service which comes with a cable box to take advantage of “on demand” programing.  Well the box was dead on arrival and the contractor who installed it didn’t have another one.  So, not only do I once again not have all of what I am paying for, I have to actually go down to Charter and swap out the box!  On top of that, he never gave me a “user name” for my internet account so I can’t set up my email with charter.  Doesn’t really matter though since I’m using Gmail as my email from now on.  It’s just easier to have a web based email that I can take with me wherever I go.  Oh well, I expect nothing less from monopolies like Charter.  Just fucking sucks that I have to fix the problem.  I will say that the connection speed is amazing.  I am getting a 5mbs download speed now, compare that with a 256kbs speed that I was getting with DSL.  To put that in perspective, a 20mb file now takes just about 8 seconds to download where as before it would have taken about 3 minutes.  Both are MUCH faster than dial up but dam, I am paying less for this than I was for DSL and I get better speed.  Speed is what it’s all about now with the internet.  Video, streaming media, music, and all that shit is worthless if you can’t download it quickly.  At least in my eyes, the internet is pretty much worthless if you have dial up.  It just doesn’t cut it.

Gavin is adjusting well to the new house.  He still barks every now and then but I can’t blame him.  I’ve moved from the middle of nowhere to a condo that is pretty densely populated and I’m right near the airport.  There are lots of new sounds that he is getting used to.  All in all though it has been a good transition.  I’ve not moved the cats yet, we’ll have to see what happens with them.  That will happen this weekend.

So now it’s off to bed in my nice air conditioned condo.  Hope everyone is doing well.

For those of you keeping track, I’ve spent the last 3 months or so searching for a new home.  It’s just too dam expensive to live in Leelanau County any more and I simply can’t justify a 4 bedroom house now that I’m single.  So, today I got an email informing me that the condo I looked at last week and really liked is now mine.  I will go sign the lease early this next week.  I’m pretty excited about this one since, when you look at the big picture, it’s really a steal.  It’s located very close to work for me, it’s a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo with a 2 car garage in a cookie cutter condo complex.  The interior is a little bit dated but it’s not at all unreasonable.  I’ll have central air, a small sun-room in the back, a fenced in side yard for Gavin that is fully landscaped complete with a deck and on top of that I’ll have full access to the community pool and fitness areas as well as all the other amenities that the association offers.  What’s great is that the association dues is already included in my rent so I don’t have to think about it.  The lawn will be mowed, the snow will be plowed, the streets will be safe and quiet.  Not a bad deal.

Now the hard part starts.  Once I finish this, I am going to start putting boxes together to sort and finish packing the rest of my shit.  I’ve kept a little low on that front lately just becuase it’s somewhat difficult to live out of boxes.  My intent is to get out of this house and start living in my new place around mid-August or sooner.  That said, I don’t have tons of time to mess around packing shit up.  The roommate is still living here and nobody is telling me when she is leaving.  There is SO much to get done at this house, I need it empty as soon as possible.

I took the dog and KD the cat to the vet today.  Turns out KD had a bladder infection so that is why she has been peeing in outside the litter box.  I’ve got to give her 2 pills a day now for the next month or so, hopefully I will see some improvement in her general health.  Gavin is healthy and now up to date on all his shots.  I’ve got to get a license for him now that I’m moving to a different county.  I’ll likely go do that this week.  Pooh is doing just fine, fat as ever, and enjoying very good health at the moment.

Alright, it’s off to work now.  I’ve had a few beers and my clothes are in the laundry.  Time to get some work done.

Well it’s been quite a while since I’ve written here.  Suffice to say it’s been crazy busy lately.  With all the visitors at the end of last month and just a crazy ass schedule at work, it has been very hard to find the time to write lately.  Things are beginning to pick up now to the frenzy level.  I need to find an apartment/condo soon so that I can finalize a new lease within the first couple weeks of August.  Got an email from the current landlord today, her recent showing of the house was largely good however it looks like Jirar and I will have to rip out the carpet in the basement.  It would appear that she was less than impressed by the smell of cat pee coming from the basement.  The little one (K.D.) learned a bad habit this past year from a visiting cat I would think and has taken to marking in some areas of the basement.  The deal when we moved in here was that the security deposit would be waived but we would be largely responsible for any sort of damage caused by either ourselves or our animals.  We were not asked to replace the floor coverings, only get rid of the smelly stuff and wash down the concrete under it to remove the odor.  In all, I’m willing to accept the task of doing so but Jirar won’t be let off the hook.  It will happen when he is home.

It’s also time to move forward with renting a dumpster quite soon.  I will wait until we rip out the carpet but at this point I can easily fill up a dumpster with random crap that can not be donated and that I have to get rid of.  I have no idea what the cost will be yet but I would guess it has to be cheaper than hauling the stuff to the dump and paying the tipping fees there which are out of control.  I packed up the office with the exception of my computer the other day and managed to whittle down a lot of that shit to a few boxes.  It’s just amazing how much shit you accumulate over the years that you use for a while and then shove to the back of the closet.  Good to finally go through it I guess.  I’m starting a new chapter in my life, it will be nice to do so without all kinds of random baggage hanging on.

I went golfing with Dad the other day.  I managed to keep the ball in the air most of the time but it was no use, both of us scored well over par and it was a pretty easy course.  That was the first outing that Dad and I will be having this summer, our goal is to play once a month until the season is over.  We got off to a late start.

I have posted new pictures to leelanauphotography.com in the past couple weeks and I intend to post more as I can find the time.  I had been meaning to post this picture below on the blog but had not found the time to do it.  I am posting it full size becuase it makes and excellent background image for your desktop.  Click on the picture and it will open full size, once it’s open right click your mouse and select “use as desktop background” and it will magically be put on your desktop!  Enjoy!

Well today was an exceptionally productive day!  It was hot as hell (upper 80’s and humid) but I got lots done.  The day started off getting a new mattress from Aunt Joan and Uncle Lou.  Mine was getting pretty old and I have no issues using expensive hand-me-downs.  Tonight I shall see how well I sleep on it.  In any case, it’s leaps and bounds better than what I had so all is good.  I met the Indian that lives in Lou’s garage as well.

From there the parents and I headed back home and swapped out the mattress and took the old one to the storage facility for Jirar.  He will get that one.  We then went through lots of rooms and filled up the trailor full of shit for Goodwill.  They took everything but 2 air conditioners (which I was able to unload on a team member at work) and an old chair.  Got rid of a LOT of stuff today and it feels good.  Thank God for Mom and Dad, I never would have been able to accomplish what I did today without their help.  Anyhow, tonight I am now relaxing and scanning pictures.  I was thinking about how in the world I managed to get up to this part of the world.  I found a picture that explains it.