Change is Good

A boss once told me that “change is good!”. I told her that was only true when things were sucking to begin with – and I was happy with the way things were. Too bad! I really liked that job.

Well, nothing lasts forever – a much better way to express it – and things are starting to change here on the compound. Changes coming so fast I haven’t had much time lately to write.

To start with Snowball’s knees are getting worse. She’s doing the best she can with water exercise class and the like but stairs are becoming a real problem. And since her fabrication shop, photo studio and wash room are all downstairs at the compound, another solution for the location of her shop was looked for.

Another big change is daughter-of-Snowball has decided to leave the compound and move with her boyfriend to an apartment. This will make half of the duplex available for a new renter – after a lot of refurbishing the pet and other normal wear and tear. But in the long run we should be able to create an actual revenue stream with it.

The pieces began to fall into place when mother-of-Snowball, who lives alone, started getting a little worried about her own well being. She wished that we would find a way to spend more time with her and since she has a one-level ranch style house with no stairs, Snowball decided it would be cool to move her fabrication shop to her mom’s house so she could work there without stairs and watch mom at the same time.

Of course there were some necessary steps to be taken first. Like Snowball, mother-of-Snowball is an avid gardener. However, much to the family’s chagrin, in the colder month’s the entire house mostly the garage and a paneled, shag-carpeted studio is taken over by plants as she works to keep them over the winter. So many plants that there were  years I wanted to contact NASA to see if they could see the grow lights from the ISS. Snowball’s solution was to add on a two hundred forty square foot sun room for the plants so we could make room for human occupation in the garage and studio.

If you’ve ever tried to put an addition on an old house you know the unseen infrastructure issues that crop up; An air conditioning compressor had to be moved and a quarter of the back yard deck had to be torn out. New tile flooring was put in the studio to replace the vintage 1970’s shag that had been in there for years. The electrician we hired to move the main feed and install new lighting had the gall to show up in a brand new truck which I claimed we as good as bought for him.

Things are moving along. Ninety percent of the stuff for the shop is moved waiting to be organized. The footings for the sun room are waiting for a nice day to be poured. So far, whenever anyone has gone ballistic we’ve be able to talk them down. There’s been a few hiccups with the electrical but they are being worked through. Fingers crossed everyone!

Do You Know Someone Who Believes in Little Grey Men?

Darwin's evolution had a little help from ancient aliens
Darwin’s evolution theory had a little help from ancient aliens.

My DVR is full of shows that tell about how long ago races came from other planets and influenced the development of people here. I just love that shit. I don’t know if it’s the excess paranoia or just the nagging feeling that we don’t know exactly what’s really going on but something is driving the popularity of those shows. You can find lots of websites and books devoted to it to.

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Did We Just Break Another Treaty?

You know my thing about seeing patterns. Well here’s another one that’s a little hard for me to ignore.

First of all let’s review. That last round trip to the moon was made in the seventies. This was after a half dozen human excursions were made to fulfill the dream of a fallen martyr and some other unmanned landings. If that is entirely true, than all well and good. Many have asked why no major programs to return have happened since then. Some have answered with the possibility that an agreement was made with those not of that current earth to not revisit our nearest neighbor in space. […]

How to Kickstart Space Exploration – Again

This week marks the 45th anniversary of the United States publicly landing a human representative on the moon. The first of about about a dozen such men visiting the moon and then a couple of years later – nothing. Now all we have is an orbiting space station. Just floating around in near earth orbit, looking at stuff on the ground with their powerful telescopes like a bunch of hi-tech voyeurs. […]