While I do LOVE Water…

Sometimes, there can be too much of a good thing.

We’ve had a lot of rain the last week.  Labor Day weekend was a wash – all three days were rainy, cloudy, oh, LOOK!  The sun…just went behind another cloudbank 😦

Today we’re finally supposed to have a clear day, with another one on Friday, but back to more rain on Saturday.

It’s hard to walk to work when I don’t own a pair of swim fins.

The last time I remember Waukesha having this much water is back in 2010.  It was my first summer here, and I was just discovering that walking about this new-to-me town and wielding a camera were necessary to avoid the walls in my studio apartment closing in on me.

My stomping grounds back then was the Riverwalk, because it was JUST outside my back door.  I do remember getting some flood shots, but I can’t find them in my hard drive.  **SIGH**

Guess I’m going to have to get into my files and organize things.

I do like the symmetry in things, so I took a walk tonight after work on the Riverwalk.  Yea, I still like the area, even though it’s kinda full of water.  Here’s what we look like today:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On a positive note – the basement, including the future home of Chainmaille Central (or noisy, smelly, dirty crafting projects I get a wild hair up to experiment with in the future) is dry in spite of all the water falling down outside.  This is a great thing, because one of the things the SQO was terrified of was a wet basement, because wet breeds mold and nobody wants to live above a moldy hole in the ground.

I kinda figured this was the way things were going to go in the basement – with old paneling dating from the 70’s, and old carpet to match, if there was a history of water in the basement, that stuff would either be there and moldy, or have been torn out a LONG time ago.  So I’m happy (even if I’ve been forced to drive in to work) that it’s wet outside just to prove out the long-term viability of the livability of our basement.

Hopefully, we’ll dry out soon, now that the Fates have proved out just HOW happy they are with my land purchase 😀

 

Bridging something…

The city decided to take advantage of my being distracted by chucking boxes filled with my belongings to deal with the old deck boards on my footbridge.

This particular footbridge was one of the landmarks of my walk into work.  Not only did it mark the border between the city leg and the park leg of my journey, it’s where I stopped, offered my affections to my favorite little strip of water, and chirped a happy ‘Good Morning’ to all things Natural.

It’s also been a regular stand in for a LOT of my camera work.

 

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A month ago, in the weeks leading up to the closing of the house, I had the opportunity to walk in to work, and came across the sign above.  Now, my walking route was already in the process of being reconfigured (a different end point will do that 😀 ) so I took the bridge closure in stride…but I just HAD to see what they were doing on the old girl.

They got to work on her right away, I’ll give them that.  They said they’d start on the 9th, and they did.  The put up this rather dull-gray frock to catch any stray bits.

And when I got my nose right up to the chain-link fence they installed to really let the pedestrians know that she’s closed…

They removed all the decking as soon as they could.  Although I loved the old footboards (that lovely shade that only comes from weather-worn wood makes a great backdrop), I do remember feeling a bit of shake whenever I walked across the bridge.  The old girl was due a facelift.

 

 

 

Fast forward to today……………….

This is the 2nd walk I’ve taken to/from work since the move happened.  We’ve had a lot of rain the last week, and I could see the shiny glimmer of standing water across the footpath in Bethesda park.  Yea, this park regularly gets really wet, because it’s sooooo close to the river.

The flooding didn’t stop me, though.  It offered me an opportunity to address the inner child.  I stripped off socks and shoes, rolled up the pant legs, and splashed my way through the extra water.

My feet don’t see much sunshine…

Do you have any idea how POTENT it is to ground in flooded Earth?  Especially when that patch of earth has been covered by water you have a special relationship with?

I hope all the witchy types reading my blog are nodding sagely at the moment…

I’m SUPERCHARGED.

The bridge is open for foot traffic again.  She looks so shiny and new.  Perfect to once again stand on her boards and offer my gratitude for the life that flows through my town.

 

 

 

 

 

Moving Mayhem – Fuzzy edition

OK, the image has NOTHING to do with the post, but it was one of those things that I just HADDA share.

Needless to say, the move was not without its bumps and snarls, and I still haven’t unearthed some of my stuff.  The big stuff came over a week ago Tuesday, so for a little better than a week now, I’ve been sleeping, showering, etc. at the new house.

Huzzah!  for owning (well, with the help of the bank!) the roof you sleep under!

First – the cats.  Mariko took the move OK.  She waltzed into her carry case like the royal queen she is, settled, and waited.  Spook, on the other hand, fought me tooth & nail.

The scars are healing nicely, BTW…

The car ride, brief as it was (it helps to be only moving a couple blocks down the way), was very vocal.  Neither cat enjoyed feeling the movement, and let me know in no uncertain terms EXACTLY how they felt about this atrocious treatment of their furhoods.

I walked both cat carriers down to the basement.  This is where we’re keeping that all-important litter box, and was a space in the house I could let the cats start to explore while all the moving was going on over their heads.  We decided to put nothing in the basement at this point, because we want to take out the old paneling and carpeting, and Chainmaille Central needs a VERY thorough cleaning.

So thorough, I’ve set up a shelf in the bedroom next to my desk and computer to maille in the meantime.   

Mariko gingerly walked out of her carrier, sniffing like a mad thing and talking up a storm.

Spook bolted out of his, then froze, every hair on end.

Mariko explored the basement, not able to keep still.

Spook dove behind the dryer and made himself as small as a 20 pound cat can make himself.

I stayed with both until the movers arrived, then left them locked in the basement.

Thumps, bangs, footsteps, weird noises – yea, I’m certain the cats were happy for the relative boringness of the basement at this point with all the racket going on upstairs.

Once the movers left, I opened the door to the basement.

Mariko was out and exploring this new level within minutes, pretty much mirroring her behavior in the basement – all over the place, very vocal, very excited.

Spook had yet to leave his ‘safe space’ behind the dryer.

In the late afternoon, I ended up pulling the counter away from the dryer so I could squeeze myself back there and dig him out.  I very carefully introduced him to the rest of the house, then let him decide for himself if he’d go back to his safe space.

He found another – under the couch in the living room, and was content to observe the goings-on from this secluded space.  He finally came out for lap time once we stuck a DVD in the player and were still for the evening.

It took both of them a good day+ to fully accept they had a new space to explore and live in.

Kitties aren’t built for moving around this Human world.

 

 

OMG – I have Debt!

I did it.  I survived the closing.  I now have debt over 6 figures.

For those of you bad at math – that’s a 1 (or a higher number, but for me, I’m happy with just the 1) followed by two zeros (or other numbers, again…), a comma (yea, one of these (,) things) and then three more zeros (yadda, yadda on the other numbers thing…) before hitting that decimal point which signifies fractions of a cent.

Aaand…for the more ‘visual’ learners out there…

Just the THOUGHT of this much debt makes me break out in a cold sweat…

But, in return for this new mountain of debt, I also have my own little piece of the Earth.  Lucky for me, there’s a building on it.

Well, OK, with me and my connections to the Natural, I’ve been more or less responsible for manipulating energies throughout the Waukesha area – but now I have my own tiny sliver of land within the area that I can steep in as much esoterica as I feel comfortable placing.

The money is just the Human way of recognizing things 😀

The fun part is just beginning, though.  I’ve got a mountain of boxes in the living room in the apartment that all have to be relocated.  I’ve got furniture, kitchenware, clothing, artworks, supplies, electronics.  All have to be shifted.

The two cats who are coming with me (both the black ones) are in for a rough couple of weeks…they dislike moving as much as I do.

And then, all the wards and energies have to be carefully sucked out of the apartment and reinstalled.

But, I’ve started.  This thing was the first thing in the house, and the first thing I attached to the wall.  I still have to put the dowel tabs on it, so it hangs straight – but that can come AFTER all the heavy lifting is done.

I’m on my way – I own a home again 😀

T-Minus FIVE days!

On Friday, July 27th, at a bit past 10am, I will commence signing of documents that will put me in a massive amount of debt in return for a couple of brass keys.

These brass keys will allow me access to enough parking for 9 cars (if nobody minds a bit of a squeeze), a HUGE pine tree, a corner of the yard populated by ferns, 2 porches, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and Chainmaille Central.

I’m excited.

Actually…let me rephrase that…

I’M SUPER EXCITED!!!!!!!

I’m also staring at this HUGE mound of boxes in the middle of the living room.  I’ve been staring at them (and adding to them) for about a month now.  This evidence of the move looming on the horizon has really interrupted the even flow of energies in the apartment.  It’s hard to think in a space that is so very cluttered with acres of belongings.

This will be the LAST time I pack all my stuff in boxes and move it…
The foot has officially been put down.

…

To stave off the mess in the living room, I took to the pliers yesterday.  The weave is European 4 in 1, which is an easy one, and the preferred weave for inlay artists in the Chainmaille community.  I haven’t done much inlay work (although the quilt patch is what I’ll count as my ‘first’) and haven’t done any inlay work in Euro4-1 before, so it was exciting and soothing and fun all at the same time.

When it’s complete, I will have a rectangular inlay that spells out the word ‘Home.’  Where the ‘O’ is will be a little house.  I’m gonna hang this in the porch, so visitors can see it when they knock at my door.

 

 

 

Dodging a Bullet

I think I’ve figured out where the little gremlins in my head are directing their mischief.  The little bastards have aimed at my credit card.

I’ve been VERY reluctant to use my card while this whole house buying process has been going on.  With my credit rating under the financial microscope, I’ve been given the usual warnings of “don’t buy anything unusual on credit,” to “Don’t buy ANYTHING for the house until you have the keys,” finishing with “Don’t transfer money between your checking and savings without letting us know.”

Yea, I get the reasons why.  The bank can pull your credit scores right up to the morning of the scheduled closing.  If those numbers shift, they can deny the mortgage until the minute you’re sitting at the table and signing documents.  They base your ability to pay for the metric shit-ton of money they’re lending you on how much you earn AND how much you already owe other banks like themselves.

I’ve heard the horror stories about people who’ve bought new cars (we’ll have a garage to fill) and new boats (lakefront property and all that) and that high-end furniture set (but the stuff in our apartment is OLD…) days before closing on the house, thus rending their credit incapable of supporting the bank’s formula on debt-ratios.  Closings didn’t happen in each of these cases.

I will not be yet another horror story!

Well, the gremlins are chomping at the bit to go out and spend like wild things.  It doesn’t help that I’ve been ‘researching’ for months, and have composed a huge list of things I’m gonna need to properly set up house in the house.  It also doesn’t help that my credit card has been in time out status for those months, and it REALLY doesn’t help that Mom’s IRA disbursement deposited the beginning of July and remains secure in my savings account, waiting to be spent on the house.

Finally, it doesn’t help that Amazon is running their Prime Day promotion today, and they’ve taken a third of the cost away from a new Kindle.

I need some sort of internet connected device in Chainmaille Central.  Research, Etsy listings, supply purchases, music, etc…all have to be accessible in that room, but don’t really need a fully functional computer.  Having a Kindle down there, paired with a bluetooth keyboard, is the perfect compromise.

I almost hit the ‘buy’ button today…

As I hovered the mouse over the pretty orange button, I could hear the gremlins celebrating.  There were high-fives going on all across the landscape of my brain, and I think I heard the popping of a cork and glasses clinking together.  I was saved at the absolute last minute by a couple of things.

…

1. I JUST got a replacement card in the mail and activated it on Saturday (they must have changed out the little chip in the card or something?) so before completing a purchase on Amazon I’d have to update my CC info, which is kinda a pain in the ass.
2. A cool voice of reason chimed in.  How it was heard over the clamor, I’ll never know, but I’m very happy to have heard it say “Is saving fifty bucks worth jeopardizing the house, moron?”

I’ve never been happier to call myself a moron in my life 😀

I’m at 11 days to the closing!

 

Not So Wordless Wednesday

First, I would like to apologize for anyone out there who’s sick of me posting stuff from Amazon.  I do have my reasons for haunting the bigliest online shopping supercenter lately, something about an impending home purchase and how I am currently on a credit-card time-out.

 

They always say…don’t buy anything for the house until you have the keys in your hot little hands.  So I’m not actually buying anything…I’m just electronically window-shopping.

I’m currently at T-minus 16 days to the closing, and the excitement is beginning to build.  Chainmaille Central is near enough to smell the … whatever the hell those basement smells are…

 

 

Aaaaanyway…back to Amazon…

The SQO has discovered the joys of Tiger Balm for the stiff muscles along his shoulder and spine.  We borrowed some from the kids, and we’re rapidly approaching the point where we’re gonna have to replace their bottle, because he swears the stuff actually works.

Smells to high heaven, and it’s impossible to wash off my hands after I’ve spread it out on his back…but the relief is worth it.

The stuff is kinda like hopped up Ben Gay.

Now, because I was at home and finally asked the kids what this stuff is called (because the label on the jar is all Japanese (or another Eastern country’s lettering…they all look the same to me…) writing, the computer was close at hand when I got my answer.

Naturally, I jumped on Amazon to look the stuff up…and found an awesome review…

After such a glowing review, I couldn’t NOT put that in my cart, no?

 

Time to Upgrade the Age Mythos?

Today is July 11th.  I had a very interesting day on July 11th once.  After that first July 11th, I’ve had 29 equally interesting days on July 11th.

One per year, as they say…

29 years ago, on this very day, at around 10:30 in the morning, I became a mother.

The story around my eldest’s emergence is one I’ve often told.

I came home from work around 1am.  Ah, the joys of being in your 20’s and just scraping by…you take the crappy hours at the factory, and you drive an hour for the privilege of standing on your feet on concrete for a solid 8 hours.

After a bit of a nibble, I headed to my bed.  I used to go down around 3am.

Again…ah…the early years, when one could stay up until the weeeee hours of the morning!

I woke up around 7.  Dayam, I must have overdone it at work, because my back is KILLING me.

So I took a bath.

It took me a while to realize that these back ‘spasms’ were pretty damn regular.  So I packed things up, and headed to the car.

No panic.  No drama.  No partner (he was in basic training in another state).

So I drove mySELF to the hospital, walked into the ER, and announced that I was in labor.

The next couple of hours are pretty much a blur….because when you expel the wrong color of amniotic fluid and the baby’s heart rate drops, you get dragged into an operating theater real quick.

Don’t worry, I ain’t going to show off my scar 😀

It was all worth it, though…because I got to be a mom.

 

Happy 29th birthday, Son Number One…you’re the same age as me now.  Maybe I should add a decade to that fiction regarding my age?

Just lookit at that face…can I cook, or what???

TRAPPED! or…the apartment doesn’t want us to leave

 

 

It was an interesting night last night.

 

 

First – the apartment I currently inhabit has a single door to enter or exit the apartment…and, as we’re on the 2nd/3rd floors, there is no other way to get into the unit unless you start dragging in ladders and breaking glass.

A single point of entry.  Or…a single way to get OUT.

Last night, that door decided, in whatever passes for wisdom in woodwork, to go on strike.

The internals for the door handle failed.

I’m just glad we found out about this last night, instead of this morning…you know…Monday “I gotta get to work!” morning.

How did we find this meltdown of hardware?  Well, the kids went out and about yesterday, where I stayed quite content at home, packing more stuff, cleaning the kitchen, goofing about on the Evil Book of Faces while ignoring the stuff that was playing on the TV.  All in all, a fairly standard Sunday.

The kids tried the door.  I heard the key scrape in the lock.  Then a thump as they tried to open the thing.  Then another scrape of the key.  Yup…another thump.

At this point, I sauntered up to the door.  Deadbolt was retracted, so I tried the handle.

Enter … the situation.

Actually, NO ENTRY would be the situation, as the handle was no longer retracting the little metal hasp which keeps the door rather firmly secure against unwanted visitors.

The door handle is ancient.  I’d have to guess it’s older than I am (the real, calendar age, not the fiction I keep attempting to run regarding the number 29), so it’s certainly lived the doorknob equivalent of a good life.  At some point … it’s gonna fail.  Everything does.

They built things to last back then…and to resist their retirement.

The problem was with the handle.  Now, it’s been a long time since I got up close and personal with door hardware, but I’ll assume that modern units have a handle (or round knob) that you screw onto the shaft that goes through the door.  This sucker was press-fit into place, and didn’t want anything to do with me yanking it apart.

It had securely held this door shut for over 50 years, thank you very much, and wasn’t budging.

Between calling the apartment’s emergency maintenance number, listing to the kids cuss and swear on the hallway end of the door, and employing various tools, it took me a good 45 minutes to get that handle off so I could get to the internals on the door and finally open it.

Hurrah for brute strength and claw hammers!

But, I may be taking this the wrong way.  What if this is the apartment’s way of telling me it doesn’t want me to leave?

 

 

Ducks in the Amazon River Basin…

I swear…Amazon does occasionally listen.  Either that, or they’ve been stalking my blog and decided to do something nice for me in hopes that I’ll boost their 3rd quarter earnings.

THIS particular offering actually had me drooling.  Pliers?  Oh, yea, baby…bring it on!

Right now, I’m practically wedded to my Xuron Chisel Nose pliers.  They are my go-to’s.  I loved the Chisel Nose so much, I ended up going out and buying a second pair for those REALLY tight spaces…which, in my world, is almost anytime I build something.

Sculpture inherently demands the removal of as much ‘wiggle room’ as possible.

 

I’ve looked at, and drooled over, the Tronex tools for quite a while, as there are plenty of other maillers in my group who swear by them over my beloved Xurons.  There are only 2 reasons why I’ve not jumped at new tools.

1. I love my Xuron’s, and they might feel ‘cheated on’ and
2. HOLY SHIT – look at the PRICE of the Tronex!

Right now, though, my credit card is in time out status, as I’m not buying anything I don’t absolutely NEED because I’m gonna have to dump it in a box and move it, so the Tronex/Xuron/Me love triangle will have to wait until probably September.

Hmmm…my birthday is in September.  Maybe get myself a little something? 😀

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

In totally unrelated news – last week, I got to walk to work exactly 1 time.  Rain, a wicked cold, and running for house-related things kinda ate up the rest of my week.  But that one day I did get to march my happy feet on the pavement, I had a solidly FUN experience.

Because of the rain, my normal route was slightly flooded.  The park IS right next to the river, after all, and when it rains, it retains.  We had enough standing water to flood out the walking path right along the river bank.  But looking at the bright side of things, the new puddles did serve to amuse the ducks…

The good news was, the park wasn’t flooded enough for me to have to turn around.  I could still get up the hill and take ‘the high road’ as it were.  Up by the street, the park has not flooded since I’ve been walking things.

When I got to the park on the walk home, I wanted to see JUST how much water was standing, figuring I could hike up the rise if things got too soggy.

And soggy, they were.  There were a couple of large patches of water covering the footpath and surrounding grasses.

But then, I took inspiration from the little duck I’d seen in the morning…

Shoes and socks came off.  Pant legs got rolled up.  And I SPLASHED my way through the standing water.

Why do we stop doing things like this when we’re adults?  It was FUN.