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Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Well it's Spring, alright. Yesterday I came home for lunch and my whole front yard was abuzz. There were thousands of bees swarming in front of the house. Fortunately, the back yard was clear, so I went in through the back door. By the time my lunch break was over (30 minutes! How uncivilized!), the bees were gone... or so I thought.
When I pulled into the driveway yesterday evening, I saw a dark mass on the wall of my house. For a second, I thought it was a squirrel, but I quickly came to the realization that it was the bees. Lets back track just a little. A few years ago, a woodpecker started pecking holes in my house. He made one big hole, which I immediately repaired, only to have him peck three more just like it. I'm not digressing here. This is important. I didn't repair the new holes for fear that they would multiply threefold again. Well, the bees found these holes and made a home of them. That's right. A beehive in the walls of my house. Janice went next door today to warn them that we had a swarm afoot, and to keep an eye on their kids. It turns out, they had the same problem recently, and their bees found their way into the house. They successfully killed them off with a poison that they still had plenty of, so they gave the bottle to Janice, and I gave them a good dose of it today. The holes they are nesting in are close to an upstairs window, so I opened the window and sprayed. I sprayed the flying bees, as well as the interior of the hole. They were flying all over the place, but I wasn't being stung, so I didn't worry too much. Finally, the humming sound of the bees grew to loud. It seemed like they should be all over me, judging by the sound, but they weren't. Then I realized they were going crazy inside the wall. The whole wall seemed to hum. Then I noticed an awful lot of bees in the room. I knew one or two had come in before I closed the window, but now there were dozens. They had found a little hole next to the windowsill (darned old houses and their nooks and crannies). With a little more interior spraying, I had finished them off, but they might still want to come in through that hole. I kept an eye on them as I mowed the grass this evening. There was a lot of activity outside the hole. Maybe the survivors can't get in, or maybe the spray had no effect. We'll see. That's all. Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Okay, I'm starting to figure out this marriage thing (and it's only taken 21 years). I just told Janice that I didn't think too much of George W., and she went ballistic, and ranted as she frantically cleaned the kitchen. Hasn't been that tidy in a while. Now if I can piss her off in the bathroom, we'll get that cleaned up, too. Monday, May 10, 2004
Busy weekend!
Friday night, we went to the Blue Moon for live Zydeco music and drinks, but first we ate Asian food at a little uncrowded place we like. Tip: Never get soft-shell crabs anywhere, for any reason. They were well prepared, I suppose, but I could have ordered something better. This was at Mae Sone Noodle (I think I’m spelling it right.) We were with Wilda and Al, and we all managed to eat our entire meal with chopsticks, except Janice. She finally gave it a try, but didn’t care to develop any new skills that night. Wilda and Al had just returned from another trip to China, so they had the chopstick thing down. The Blue Moon is the kind of place that should be crawling with tourists, but it isn’t. It’s a hole-in-the-wall place with live music outdoors, in the back yard of an old house. I’ve never been indoors there. The indoors is a hostel, and the back yard is a juke joint. It’s fantastic. After we went to bed that night, I found Janice on the bathroom floor at the toilet. We had a bit to drink, but not enough to make most people sick. Not that Janice can’t hold liquor. She can, but she gets sick at the drop of the hat. Sometimes liquor knocks her on her ass, and sometimes not. She was sober enough to drive home, then it hit her all of a sudden in the night. The next morning was Saturday, and we had made plans to sail with Mack and Denise. If we were going out alone, we would have canceled, because Janice was still at the toilet, but Mack and Denise were coming, so there was no backing out. As luck would have it, Janice finally puked (nothing but dry heaves before that), and said she was feeling much better, and wanted to go sail with us. From hung over, to sailing. Yikes! Well, sailing was great. We spent many hours on the water, and Janice was doing fine, though we avoided alcohol until dinner. Sunday we were back at the yacht club for another day of sailing. We spent most of that time at anchor, just kicking back and sunning ourselves. We brought the kayak, and paddled around a bit while at anchor. Great weekend. Here’s a tip for small-boat sailors. Keep a small anchor handy for days like this. Who wants to mess with a heavy anchor when they’re having fun? If you’re just chillin’ for a few hours on a mild day, a little anchor will make things go smoothly. We anchor off the stern at times like this. When you’re overnighting, anchor by the book. Tuesday, May 04, 2004
If you kow me, you know that I work for the Dept. of Social Services, more specifically, Child Protection. The stories I hear, and the things I see, you wouldn't believe. The average American has no idea what goes on behind closed doors in this country, and I'm forbidden to discuss my cases, but...
Today, I found this article. Considering the source, I'd say there's a good chance this is fiction, but it's fiction that tells the truth because, believe me, it's no exaggeration.
I'm just noticing how big a gap there was in my posts. Another thing you missed: I finally got that "new" boat. It's a 1974 O'day 22. For those who aren't aware, that's a sailboat. It's just big enough to spend the weekend in it with a little comfort, but small enough to tow easily. We took it to Florida last year, and plan to do the same this year.
Another thing I've done with all this non-blogging time. I started a mindless humor website called DontForward.com.
Yes, it's infantile, but I enjoy it. I host the site through MoonSoftSystems.com. I'm delighted with this service. I get 200MB of server space and lots of extras for about $1.83 per month. There's no reason not to have a website at those prices. I found them on Ebay, but you can order services without going through Ebay. 
Another long span with no blogs. There's no point pretending I'll get back to it on a regular basis, so visit when you think about it, but don't think about it too often. I've decided on a shorter hairstyle. Should be easy to keep it combed. Other than that, well, I bought a really nice piece of art from Jimmie Arroyo, an artist in New Jersey. I've admired his work for some time, and asked if he'd sell it. I'm delighted with it. I recently got it back from the frame shop. We hang most of our artwork in the more formal rooms of our house, but we'll hang this one in the back, maybe in the bedroom, where I can see it every day. This piece really spoke to me. The original is a delight to see. 
Since my last post (o so many months ago), I have become a board member at the yacht club, and I've become the webmaster. Visit the website at Cypremort.com Archives11/01/2001 - 12/01/2001 12/01/2001 - 01/01/2002 01/01/2002 - 02/01/2002 02/01/2002 - 03/01/2002 03/01/2002 - 04/01/2002 09/01/2002 - 10/01/2002 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 |