…when there is a hit and run.
We JUST had a hit and run on the block. When relaying what kind of car it was the best I could say was dark blue (remember it is night) or black car, covered in salt. I couldn’t say what the tag number was because, according to one of the neighbors the bastard ripped off his temporary tags. A car, is a car, is a car to me. I can make out Volvos, beamers, Minis, Priuses and bugs. I guess since I don’t own a car, and haven’t for 10 years, most sedans look alike.
Here’s how it went down. I’m websurfing and then I hear a crash. I look out the window a dark colored sedan has plowed into a parked car. I run downstairs and call 911. I figure an ambulance is needed and I barely hear what the dispatcher is saying. I see the driver moving around and figure then maybe it isn’t that bad and maybe just the police. Then the car takes off and heads east.
Luckily I wasn’t the only witness. A car loving neighbor identified the type of car, make, and model(and year?) and also some other little details my car-hating self would have never noticed. There were several witnesses and at least three people who called the police. Another witness noticed that one of the passengers was a young woman with a head wound, who with a male passenger jumped out the car and headed north. Howard U Hospital? Another neighbor hopped in his vehicle and chased after the hit and run car and lost him when the driver got on NY Avenue. Yeah, we are a crazy bunch of mofos ’cause it ain’t the first time one of us has run after a suspect.
Month: February 2007
The best laid plans are probably in a pile somewhere
Today I mailed off a list of what I wanted done for the house and a rough drawing of the desired layout to Contractor #1. I was going to show the plans or the simple layout I had drawn up to IT and also drop off a copy at Contractor #2’s house. But dang it, can’t find them. I remember writing them up and photocopying them but I’m clueless as to their current location. I looked in the usual piles of paper, where graph paper and penciled writing lay, but not the final draft. Early drafts showing the house as it is laid out now, I can find copies of those. Drawings pondering slight adjustments, radical, kooky, and odd adjustments, yup I can find those too.
Worse comes to worse I’ll redraw them. Start with a rectangle-ish shape representing 14’x26’x15′ (house is widens). Throw in some stairs. A bathroom here, a half bath there, remove a wall and done.
I’ll probably have something for Contractor #2 in a few days and will call Contractor #3 tomorrow.
Stayin warm and BACA meeting
First. My personal BACA meeting notes are over at the super secret site. User: thismeeting PSW: neverhappened.
Second. It is 16F outside and I’m ok. Not happy but OK. My electric meter is spinning like a CD. It is spinning so fast I don’t even want to think about it. The heated floor for the kitchen and 4 heater fans are keeping the house above freezing. Somewhere, there is a polar bear drowning because of me.
The two heater fans, are keeping the 1st floor at 63F. It did get up to 66F, but I was cooking with the gas oven and had the fans at full blast. I also tried to stop up any leaks I found. In recent days I have bought heavy curtains to block leakage around the windows. IKEA has some very ugly plaid curtains for sale at 19.99. Ugly but thick and warm. Maybe when it warms up and I develop a crush on a Austrian widower, I’ll make clothes out of them.* I also made a wind break between the front door and the hallway. It helps a little.
I have currently retired to the second floor where I am keeping one room warm with one little heater fan. It feels like 68F. When I do go to bed I’ll keep the heater on and heat up my little bags of rice to keep the bed warm. I took some short grained rice, sewed it up in a old sleeve of a shirt I had torn apart, and made a little rice pillow. I heat up the pillow, about 1 minute per each cup of rice in it, in the microwave. Then I throw them (I made two) under the covers at the foot of the bed. They keep my feet toasty warm all night, and is still moderately warm in the morning when I wake up.
This is not an ideal situation, and I am going to hate to see my electric bill when it comes. I typically don’t use a lot of electricity. Usually when I see my meter spinning fast I rush in the house trying to figure out what is hogging up the juice and turn it off. I hope Spring comes soon.
* Please tell me you did get the Sound of Music reference.
Furnace saga continues
Well Lem did check out my chimney and there really wasn’t anything blocking it. Then he looked at the furnace. Now here is the part were I accept all responsibility for my heating woes. He noticed that it was gunked up with black stuff. Apparently I failed to clean it for the past 5 years. The last guy I had come in to cleaned offended me so badly I refused to bother with anyone else. So I’ve learned my lesson. And for a short while the broiler worked. The radiators got all warm and I got happy and then the Carbon Monoxide alarm went off. And I turned the heat off. Then the radiators got cold and I got sad.
Now I am keeping the place warm with a bunch of heater fans and I’m planning to go out and find other heating sources because I give up. I planned to get rid of that broiler anyway and I really don’t want to throw anymore money at it. Also talking about my heating woes to any poor slump who’d listen, I was told to look into a gas fireplace by a few people. They swear those things put out a lot of heat and can work during a power failure.
So in 2 weeks I’ll have my list. Well now I do have a list of the major things it’s just the thousand little things, like doorbells, that I need to write up.
I’d work for food
In the City Paper’s article on our favorite slow cook take out Thai X-ing it seems you can work for your supper. Dang I’d jump in and help just to get my order going faster. I didn’t know you could volunteer. I’ll have to ask next time I’m there.
Another thing about the article, is Bryan Simmons. I don’t know him but he looks so much like his father in the picture. His dad is the co-worker who told me about Taw’s plans to move.
February Announcement
Nora suggested that I not post for a month. So I am sort of taking all of Black History Month, the shortest month of the year, off. There will be postings but no set schedule. Currently, I post Monday, Wednesday and Friday and other days when I feel like it. This month will be a post when I feel like it month.