Category: Uncategorized

I go through phases where I cannot get enough of one subject. The history of this sometimes single mindedness can be found on my book shelves. When I was looking to buy a house I bought Tips & Traps When Buying A Condo, Co-op, or Townhouse by Robert Irwin, Ilyce Glink’s 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask a homebuying must read and several other Irwin books. I have given away some of those books because they will serve someone else better in their hands rather than on my shelves. I remember giving much away to Nora Bombay when she was buying her condo in Alexandria and gave The Virgin Homeowner to my next door neighbors.

After getting the house, came the fixing of the house, and so I have many many books on home repair, because you just can not have one book on plumbing. There are books on plumbing, wiring, trimwork, flooring, and doors and windows, in addition to the general DIY books. Among the DIY there is diversity. I have an incredibly useful book put out by Old House Journal on home repair and with a 100+ year old house, it has at times been helpful explaining “what the heck is that?” and dealing with the ancient stuff still in the house. Then there are the general DIY books put out by Home Depot and the UK version of Home Depot, B&Q. I like the B&Q book as it sometimes tackles old building issues like plaster and hot water heating.

Currently, I’m not interested in fooling with the house for a while. Now my interest is gardening. This year I got a bunch of good fruit from my tomato plants and I am inspired to try some more food crops in 2005. For Christmas Nathan and BL got me a month by month gardening book and that was a lovely addition to the small number of gardening books I do have. So far in December, according to the book, I do squat. Also for Christmas my cousins got me a Border’s gift card. Now when I walked into the store I was going to buy a Ray Charles CD and maybe a small C.S. Lewis book, but music and philosophy are downstairs and gardening is ground level. I am now the proud owner of two books on container gardening. One being one of those general on sale books you find in the front of the store, the other being The Bountiful Container by McGee & Stuckey. So far so good, with recommendations on the type of container or soil depth needed to grow potatoes, squash, collards and the like.

Right now I am barely talking to my neighbor because of thisarticle(Tiny Car to Test U.S. Tastes (washingtonpost.com)). I got all excited seeing that the Smart car and he just dismissed it as another ugly car.

First, it gets 60 miles to the gallon.

Second, it is perfect for the city as it is smaller than a Mini Cooper.

Third, loved them in Britian.

Fourth, you don’t like the color you can change the panels.

Over Christmas dinner my Uncle Jimmy was saying how important seniors are to certain segments of the economy which got me to thinking about age diversity. One of the reasons why I like my block is the diversity.

Seniors are important to the civic life of a community. While I’m working, far from home, they are an extra set of eyes on the block. If they are retired but still mobile they can go to city hall or other city offices with petitions and complaints about things effecting the neighborhood. Why can’t I go? Well I’d have to use my annual leave, my precious annual leave to do those errands. Also there are many seniors, like my Uncle Jimmy, who volunteer for activities and causes in the area where they live.

On the other end of the scale, young heathens, also known as children can be put to good use. I am a great believer in child labor. It’s not the best labor, but work is a good thing. I hope that Giant will sell some cheap snow shovels so I can get some good cheap child labor to make a path, not a good path, down the walk for $3-$5. I discovered the wonders of cheap child labor when cooking and discovered I didn’t have a certain ingredient and couldn’t leave the stove. There were some 10 year olds hanging out in front and I knew one was allowed to walk to the Giant. So for about $1 and some loose change I got a food runner.

Teenagers. So far they’ve been good for hanging out on street corners and making the neighborhood look less safe.

The rest of us, what are we good for? Home and garden improvement? Filler. We make good filler.