Vacationing At Home

Vacationing at home is for the birds.  I've decided that I don't like this at all.  We are again plotting a way to cheaply and efficiently get out of town.

Staying home means that we are finding more problems with the lawn and the structure.  Oh, its not me.  J is complaining to the highest levels now about his lawn.  He is restless and this means I too am not going to get the chance to rest.

A soldier on vacation and stuck at home is not a pretty picture.  He loves his routine.  He still exercises in the morning, has his big morning breakfast or tries to at least, then heads directly to the computer like he does at work.  Then my question is: "why is he complaining?". 

Recently we had sod put down where the construction workers had dug up the lawn.  The paperwork we received on the sod and lawn treatment states clearly that the company that put it down would remain responsible for the lawn until it was able to be mowed.

We get back from our three day weekend adventure to find that the sod has died in the back area.  The hydro seed has turned brown too.  J is not a happy camper.  J calls up the office in charge of the situation after telling the water tank driver that he has to water the lawn properly.  Well the reason why he ended up calling the office in charge is because the water tank driver decided to do exactly what he thought J wanted and get closer to the dying grass, he drove up over the lawn.  J is fuming at this point.  There are hoses on the water truck for a reason.  He thought for sure that the driver wasn't as stupid as he looked and would understand that he must get out of his truck and hook up the hoses to water the lawn.  UGH!

So now we are having a tech from Equity come out here today to take a closer look at the lawn and how it is deteriorating.  Not to forget the tree that is now dying because the water truck is taking out its branches and running over its roots.

No J is not a happy person right now.  Vacationing with him at home is not ideal.  He has way too much time on his hands.  So we just might take that Mount St. Helen's and Mount Rainier trip early next week after all.
If it gets bad enough we might take a day trip this weekend just so he doesn't try to find more fault with his surroundings.

I too like to get away from my prison, err...house.  I'm here all day most every day.  But I've gotten used to this place.  I now have a routine.  J is on vacation and has too much energy, too much time on his hands and not enough to do to keep him occupied for long.

Nice Weather Means Construction

Every spring warm weather means construction time.  It doesn't matter where I live in the world, even if its warm in winter, when spring rolls around the construction begins.

Right now my nice, lush, green lawn is discolored with blue, red, white, and green spray paint lines.  This seems to be the norm for my neighborhood as I look up and down the street on my walk to get the mail and find I'm not the only one soon to have trenches in their yard.

Needless to say my husband is rather upset that the lawn he worked so hard on is going to be destroyed.  We've been told that they will restore the lawn after they tear it apart.  I have my doubts as to how good of a job they will do in its reconstruction.

This morning a man in a hard hat was walking up and down my street with white sheets of paper sticking them in every door on the street.  Oh dear, this just can't be good is what I thought.  Its not good.  This is going to be a long process.  I now know the window of destruction.  Starting this Monday, a holiday mind you, February 21st through June 30th our street is going to be crowded with earth moving equipment, loud noises and more often then not rude construction workers.  I realize they have a job to do but I don't like it when they block driveways and make it quite difficult to navigate the narrow road.

In this four months of construction work we are to also have power outages they stated on the paper.

POWER OUTAGES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS WORK WILL BE SCHEDULED AT A LATER DATE AND TENNANTS WILL RECEIVE SEVERAL NOTICES OF PENDING OUTAGES TO INCLUDE TWO WEEKS IN ADVANCE AND UP TO THE DAY BEFORE.  OUTAGES WILL BE KEPT TO A MAXIMUM OF 4 HOURS AT A TIME. 

Note the typo of "tennants" that should be tenants.  I highly doubt they'll keep it to just 4 hours without power as we've gone 16 hours before in cold weather.  This is not going to be my cup of fun. 

Yoga, Tai Chi, and Zen breathing will hopefully get me through the stress of living yet again in a construction zone.  In NY I lived in a construction zone for two years.  I thought I did my time in Hell, I guess not.

Taking Time Off

Today is usually the day that my husband and I go on a date.  I'm not really sure if we are going to go out or just stay in today.  I'm tired.  I've laundry and cleaning to do and he has yard work.  Even though we don't have a tree in our front yard some how we end up with oak and maple leaves all over it.

Yesterday my husband and I went down to the county court house and applied for our concealed pistol licenses.  We'll know in about a month if we are approved.  We both had to be fingerprinted.  Last time I was fingerprinted was when I was working for the Department of Defense.  Many years later they have the electronic fingerprinting system which is so much easier to clean up after.  No more ink stains on the dry skin.  I'm already liking this system. The clerk informed us that our street is well armed.  Well it should be, we live on a military installation.

The three of us went driving around the county in pursuit of firearms that were paid for while deployed.  Our friend bought a nice rifle while deployed and had to go pick it up.  My husband bought a handgun while he was deployed and had to finish up the paperwork on that yesterday.  The handgun should have been in his possession back in August but due to the fact that a lot of soldiers decided to purchase the same item, they were back ordered until now.  There is also a discrepancy in the amount we were charged and what the purchase order states.  The gun shop was trying to collect the tax from us last night when I said hold on there a minute we already paid the tax on this once.  So now we are trying to get in touch with the manufacturer of the weapon to get an itemized bills showing what was actually on the list of charges.  $75.25 is unaccounted for of which we were charged and that is just about what the gun shop owner was trying to charge us yesterday.  I was fine with the additional $35.00 transfer fee but I'm not about to pay out taxes a second time!

After two days of a lot of driving, walking, and just being away from home I think I'll opt for a date night in. Two days of skipping meals, not drinking enough water and trying to keep up with soldiers is enough to wear me out.