Trim and paint, cabinets and fixtures and then one more coat of poly on the floors and I go find me a renter while hassling Wells Fargo for the last third of the insurance check. Looks like I’ll have this gut to the studs remodel job knocked out in time for the fall garden…
14 months ago I got The Call from the fire department. 14 months of one big pain in the ass. The thing that has kept me going is the full color brochure of the 16 Series Mahindra tractor taped to the fireplace mantle in the house. That way, when I’m slumped over tired to the bone on the stairwell “tractor” gets me back up for another round of fun. I probably moan out “Mahindra” in my sleep at night.
Somewhere along the line during this time period I’ve become completely indifferent (or maybe just totally disgusted with) to commerce and shopping and people and traffic – the general mayhem of civilized culture. 16 hours on a belt sander grinding and smoothing 1740 sq ft of tongue and groove flooring sucks a lot worse than the same time spent playing “find the vegetables” in the garden. The hour’s commute each way to the house is so seemingly pointless that I have taken to camping out there two nights a week to save the time wasted. Most people are shitty drivers at best, and now that the cell phone texting phenomenon has taken over it’s flat out dangerous on the road. I swear to god when this thing is over I’m never setting foot in a Lowe’s or Home Despot again. They can go on my Wal-Mart list… I simply can’t stand subjecting myself to being around that level of consumerism anymore.
14 months ago the insurance check was 3000 less than what I owed on the mortgage. some guy offered 5000 for the burned out carcass. I could walked with 2 grand in the pocket but noooo, I went for the 18 grand net profit. Never again. I’m going back into retirement in a month and never looking back. Out of the economy, peripheral involvement in commercial activity and back to leaving the homestead once a week to offload eggs and visit my mother. Hanging out until the power goes out, ho ho!
I miss being home. I missed the first goat kid of the season the other day. I know the wife is sick of all the critter chores since summer came and I’m on the job all day every day. I miss blogging – no time to sort out all the things in my head and say what I mean. I feel like I’ve lost 14 months of my life and wonder how in the hell people do most folks watch years and decades go by in the mill without going postal. I’ll get more than a tractor out of this deal… I got a good close up look at a culture choking on its own vomit.
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vole mart
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I heard the news today. Oh boy.
Toy Story 3 is number one in the box office and Lady Ga Ga is a person after all.
Dry heaves.
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Lately I find a good number of my rants are anti-consumerism. We are destroying the world for all this junk?
Drivers are getting nuttier all the time. There I am doing the speed limit in my rural area. Suddenly I’m passed like I’m sitting on jacks, in a curve, with double yellow lines, by a guy on a cell phone, in moose country.
Hope you get the tractor and it’s worth it.
The tractor will be paid for, title in hand, no note. Hell yes it’s worth it! Most bozos I know have those things on a five year note at 10%. 14 months and no interest or PAYMENTS is a hell of a deal. Yeah, I hate Hopeless Depot worse than vole mart. Haven’t bought anything there in years, and don’t plan to either. I don’t go to “town” if I can avoid it at all, the throngs of goofy looking consumo-bots really do make me sick….
The more I see in the city, the more I like my cows…
Jealous on the tractor….really gonna come in handy, isn’t it?!?!
Comrade,
I chuckled at this post. Love it.
Had to remove some trees that have grown up bigger in the last few years and were shading the greenhouse. I’m getting too old for this. Wonder how long I can hang in there. Rabbits are kindling, chickens ar laying, garden is growing. Hmmm not so bad I guess.