Mowing Continued

Finally replaced my GPS over the weekend. For the inaugural use I stuck it in my pocket while I mowed the lawn yesterday.

7.21 miles. Most of the distance was riding but a good 50% of the time was on foot.

The raw data can be found here.

Not a Problem

Mowing

 So we bought a house. That's already old news. Here it is:

Clearly a satellite/aerial view, Google Earth in fact. Our place is the one closer to the center, off to the left is the neighbor's place (also for sale, we looked at it, total train wreck layout). Our lot has a good amount of grass, and it needs regular mowing, and to that end I have purchased a lawn tractor, a push mower, and a string trimmer. In case you're wondering, the push mower is necessary due to the fact that there is a fair amount of terrain that the  lawn tractor can't handle. Here's the same image as above, post a little awesome MS Paint work by yours truly showing the property lines in red and grass in green:

3½ hours. And I'm not done yet. Still need to bust out the string trimmer tomorrow for another ½ hour at least. I'm hoping that with regular maintenance I can cut that down to 2½ total, but fuck me, that's a lot of mowing. Sure glad I got the "fast" tractor.

House Progress

So we closed on the new house on Wednesday and everything has been a bit of a blur since. I changed the locks right away Wednesday afternoon and ever since we've been doing a lot of prep work ahead of the actual move. There was cleaning, furniture acquisition and assembly, painting, data infrastructure, and yard shit. Much of this is still going on but I'm quickly running out of time because the movers are coming on Wednesday to pack and load everything and on Thursday the house will be populated with all of our crap.

Mom came out on Saturday to watch Porter for a week or two, and that has been a great help. However, it was Paul who picked her up at SeaTac and brought her out and he, together with Sean, made the decision that we will be keeping the large pond/fountain in the backyard. I was really looking forward to getting rid of that thing, but there are also frogs in there so Michele is now also against me on this so long as I make it shallow enough that the monster can't fall in and drown. Paul and Sean visiting for the weekend wasn't all bad of course, they've committed themselves to future visits wherein they will be doing a fair amount of yard work in order to help beautify the grounds. Less yard for me to deal with is always going to be okay in my book. Fuck, I almost forgot, the two plus acres of grass we now own means that I had to buy a lawn tractor, not something I'm very excited about, especially since there's a fair amount of grass on steep hills which means that I also need a regular lawnmower. My laziness is really going to take a bit of a hit with this place.

On the plus side (who are we kidding, everything is a plus really), I think I may already have figured out my pump track/trail system in the woods. We've got a little over three acres of woods around the house with the majority of that clumped together and the underbrush already cleared. I think I can put together something with some decent flow and measuring a couple hundred yards in length that'll be nice for just fucking around when I get bored.

I'll try and post some pictures in the next day or two while the house is still mostly empty. If I don't get to it right away, it might be a while since the office may very well be in limbo for a while.

New Blog?

I swear I'm going to start a new blog and call it "Voice Mail From My Mother As Transcribed By Google Voice" and it'll feature gems like this:

Hey buddy, I'm standing here for the sole binder section deejays the only thing I think it says monkey is south Africans smoke seeding land. Is that what you're after. I'll get on this path. It's I don't hear from you. Love you.Bye bye.

and this:

Hi Sean, This Is mom. Hope you guys made it home at all at weather looks like you did. Anyway. Thank you again very much and would you have. Dr staff give me a call when she gets a minute. I'm out hiking. Love, Dad bikes, and I took a pretty good following recipient. I seeking the toll on my hand and don't know. If it's okay sweetie pie here if I need to get back down my system place, and I thought maybe I can pick it up a local familydot for an answer on that. Love you. Bye bye.

and even this:

Hey Sean, It's your mamma. I have a question for you. The IS it. 8. Newark see you guys have or color. Kendall how you know wage and if I wanted to get you soon. Gift books, to read on your whichever is how do I go about doing that. Okay, thank you bye bye.

I may also have the occasional special guest appearances by my wife:

Hey, hey. I will see you know that one and I was going on. Okay, most of the bay, cos O ciao Yeah, but hopefully it won't work out. I'll talk to you I think you're different, strange St. For games before, hey hey. So just slow. All HI ohh. Hey, bye I don't know. I get away. So you know So I don't know if with the release. Bye. Peace, yeah I get to the truth. So if you can. Bye no Yeah, Yeah, regards, ohh there it won't work or later. Bye. I'm going to dinner, for. So just let me know. Hello HI When are you And hello, hey north. No, for. No, no later. But I don't know Yeah, hey, what's up. Well, Yeah, with you. Bye, C bye HI but. I was on the alter bye bye bye, alright to see if you get a hold of you. But talk to you.

my sister:

Whom. Hello. Hey Homey. At the you say hello. Well, ohh, hey. Hello. Who. Okay bye. The only way to call shorter than they Hi Sean, So, calling to leave you a message. I'll be at it. Very well, with you later. Shaun Hi Anne. It's a Hi Michelle, hey. And. And what about the order HI you bye okay. Have a nice day bye bye, bye bye. And Love You. Hello. So badly. Hey, bye bye, bye.

my brother:

Yeah I got a 350. My cell which is Yuki. Yes 55. It's up in my view, structural there, but I don't know if you got it yet, bye.

Paul:

Hey, it's Paul, I'm driving so I thought I might be a little easier to call you then. Texting tonight. You school were ever whenever i actually I'm pretty open today. Shawn it up rolling a. Should be back in time, but if not then you're stuck with just me. So, the front right now. I mean I don't know. But so whatever we gas Michelle. She, has to do the tires because I think she's one of the most likes and dislikes. So yeah but then I know. Okay bye. 

and Eddie:

Hey Jonathan, Mann give me. Gimme a ring. So I wanted to work out some details about today. Got your message about. The V. Yeah, I don't know. Gimme a call. Thanks.

I think it's a sure fire hit.

Busy Busy

It's been a while since I've posted here, but believe me, I've got a good reason. Porter is 18 months old. Also (as if I needed a second excuse), we are currently 2-3 weeks away from closing on our new home. 2200 sf plus another 1k in shop space. Oh fuck it feels nice to say that. One more time, 1k in shop space. Mmm...

Not the most creative looking place, but it also comes with 5.5 acres and a bit of a mountain view. More as things continue to develop.

First Flight

I really thought I had already posted this, apparently not. I uploaded the pictures, wrote most of the words, but never finished and never posted. Anyway, here it is:

In spite of Michele's protests I managed to get Porter on an airplane. Let me back up for a second. Michele is afraid to fly. Really afraid to fly, and that fear has always extended to cover me as well. I love to fly and enjoy getting from point A to B quickly, but anytime I fly Michele is a bit of a wreck until I'm on the ground. Now that we have Porter, her fear covers him as well. So when my siblings proposed that we all fly out with our kids, but sans spouses (for reasons beyond our control) to surprise my mom for her 60th I naturally took a bit of a pause to consider how my wife would feel about it. Not much of a pause though.

Porter and I got up at the ass crack of dawn to make the drive in to SeaTac (2.5-3 hours depending on traffic and ferry wait), got through security, waited for an hour or so, and then got on our plane. What I thought would be the hard part, the flight itself, was no big deal. Everything before it kinda sucked. Keeping the boy corralled for the hour before boarding while keeping track of carry-ons and the car seat was a real pain in the ass. Once on the plane, he fell asleep and showed no signs of stirring until we were back on the ground in the 'nix.

It took a good hour and a half to get off the plane, gather our shit, and get the Crown Vic we rented. Armed with my old lady car, we headed North to see Char. I don't know if I ever covered who Char is before so here's the quick rundown: She lived in our condo complex in the 'nix and was the very first person I met when I got there. For the two years we were there we were thick as thieves. We dined together regularly, partied, drank, went to the movies (okay, the movies only happened once), swam in the pool, you get the point. When we left town and my parents arrived, they picked up with Char right where we left of. Oh, and the monster is named after her husband. He died long before we ever met Char, but I loved hearing about him. 

Anyway, at Char's place is where we surprised my mom. My siblings arrived a day earlier and had already surprised her but she never thought Porter and I would be there (remember Michele's fear of flying?). Showing up was the big part of the weekend, there was some partying, bbqing, and general fucking around, but that's not really important. Here's some pics: