Spring Fever

As the weather begins to warm, it becomes more and more difficult to stay indoors. Mornings seem calmer outside. Evenings seem longer outside, sounds seem softer outside. I have even gone so far as to download a sound loop of tweeting birds.

A few years ago I aquired a huge stack of used 2x4s. My goal this spring is to use them all or toss them out. And so, this weekend, I pulled out the handy dandy miter saw and created two benches around the pecans out back. 

There are still about 20 boards to go through. Any ideas for what to build with the remainder?

The Good, the Good, the Good, the Good, the Good, and the Bad

In a recent conference, a speaker shared that in marriage, or in relationships in general, that it takes five good interactions to counteract the effects of one bad interaction.

My thoughts on the matter amount to the following. In marriage, for most of us, that translates to one of two things: either we alter our behavior to reduce the number of bad interactions or we drastically increase the number of good interactions. For me, I am an introvert with a tendency to stick my foot in my mouth even when I intend to convey a compliment. So the chances that every one of the five potentially good interactions ending well is not high.

For me, the best bet is to reduce the number of intentionally bad interactions. The funny thing that I have noticed is that my annoyance with my family has more to do with the behaviors of my students and coworkers than it does with what the members of the family actually do... or don't do.

For example, I find myself getting really annoyed at my kids for playing video games when I have had to listen to excuses from students about the reasons they missed class and the midnight release of "Call of Halo's Duty 4". The same goes for my wife, who had no control over a verbose coworker who extended a Friday afternoon meeting beyond the allotted time.

I guess my point is that there are really four people in the world who are the closest to me emotionally and physically (and another 20 or so family and friends). They rarely actually do things that annoy me, but because I am not free to show my annoyance towards the other 7.5 billion people in the world, I often let fly on them, because they will forgive me. They have to... they are family.

And so, I would like to apologize to them. They so often feel the brunt of my frustration and I am grateful for their willingness to forgive. But I know that it does take a toll and I resolve to reduce the times that I allow them to feel my frustration towards others.

A poem about Arguments

Should an argument

  arise between

  sound logic,

  and the inane?

Side with inanity,

  should you have the opportunity.

Logic and reason

  stand no chance,

  when arguing against

  One who chooses,

  incoherence as

  a battle strategy.

___________________________

It may not be cummings or Hemmingway

But this just about sums up my week.

Patio Begins

The 24'x6' patio project began this Sunday. About half way done with the digging... Unless we find more bricks... which could make it a 24'x9' patio. Then we take the truck to pickup sand from the desert, level it with a slope and we will lay the bricks. Pretty excited, but lots of medical stuff on the horizon, so it may be slow going. Fun work though.

Gutters and the beginning of a waterfall

This row of rocks is the beginning of a three tier waterfall, on the far wall and a fireplace on the left wall. If we can find more bricks, the area in front will be a patio with chairs and small tables. Park benches will sit on either side of the little pond at the bottom of the falls. We are in stage one and this is phase four, five and six of the backyard plan. We are looking at a few years here, but it will be fun getting there.

The bricks we gathered from our neighbor will become the back patio, but in order to make sure that those 5,600 lbs of  bricks stay where they are put, we splurged and today, I installed gutters over the front and back doors of the house. I still need to finish the down spouts, but it should divert water as it stands.

Now we just need a good downpour to test if it works. I am not holding my breath.

Free bricks will become a new patio.

Passing a neighbors house, I noticed a large stack of bricks. My neighbor was more than happy to have them removed from his property, and we are going to save a ton of money on the 24' by 7' patio we were planning on building out back. The little Ranger can only hold a quarter ton or about 120 bricks at a time, so it took quite a few trips, but we now have around 1,400 bricks in two stacks in the back yard.

Now the back breaking work begins. I am very glad that I don't have to hunch over laying bricks for a living.

The first load. Too many bricks, the truck did not like it. At 4.5 lbs each, a quarter ton is not a lot of bricks.

This is a few rows less than half of them.

Sulley and Mike in the kids bathroom hallway.

For Christmas my wife wanted to personalize the house. We started by painting aspen trees in the dining room. Then more trees in our room. Finally the kids hallway was outfitted with characters from Monsters University. The next step is to paint Randell the disappearing monster in glow in the dark outlines in the bathroom. Personally, I think the kids will be too scared to use their bathroom and will invade ours. We are still in negotiations regarding Randell.

Mike and Sulley waiting their turn for the bathroom

Sulley, before I fixed his chin.

The dining room. Two of eight trees

The full dining room wall

Our room. I made the fireplace last year.

One of six red cardinals that perch on the trees. No cardinals baseball fans here, we just like the red bird for the color and memories of summers in Illinois.