We worked more on the house last night; the upstairs hallway (and all seven doors in it) are now painted and my wife primered (?) over some stenciled roses in the bedroom. Tonight we’re going to a Colorado Rockies game, so we won’t get any painting done. But tomorrow, while she’s at work, I will try to get the stairwell painted. I read more of Sophie’s World last night, and I also got a couple of books in the mail that I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while. Where the Southern Cross the Dog (Fairwood Press) and Veil of the Soul (Yard Dog Press) are chapbooks by Trey Barker, a writer-stagehand-musician-former radio personality-funny guy in Illinois. I’m especially looking forward to Where the Southern Cross the Dog, because the stories in it are inspired by Mississippi Delta Blues. When I complete each, I will post a review on this site.
Author Archives: lytspeed
Sophie’s Snowman
We actually did do a lot of work on the house last night. All of the tile behind the stove is now gone, and the ceiling in the hallway and stairwell is now a dazzling shade of white. Overall, I’m pleased with my Wagner Power Painter; I will certainly use it on the remaining ceilings, and I’m thinking about using it on the walls as well. There is one spot in the stairwell that we will have to roll by hand with an extension, but that’s a small thing compared to painting an entire flocked ceiling with a roller.
There is one disadvantage to using a paint sprayer to paint the ceiling; by the time we were done last night, I looked like a snowman.
As far as intellectual creativity goes, I spent my lunch hour today reading more of Sophie’s World. I’m enjoying that book, and will write a review of it when I finish. The writing style seems a tad anachronistic, but I’m not sure whether that assessment is fair to make. The book does have similarities to Lewis Carroll, and that could be coloring my perceptions of it. It could also be that the writing is more stiff and archaic in translation than in the original; I believe the work was originally written in Norwegian. At any rate, occasionally modern day references will pop up that feel a little out of sync with the writing style, but that’s hardly a reason not to like the book. It probably has more to do with the baggage I’m bringing to the book than anything else.
Isabelle and Hummer
Due to my wife getting off work late and the prospect of painting a ceiling in the dark, we didn’t get anything done on the house last night. But I did read up on how to use the power painter properly, so I can know which rules I’m breaking and why the final result won’t be what I expected. I should have enough daylight to get the ceiling painted tonight, though. All the pieces are in place, and all I have to do is hook up and paint. I might even be able to get it done before my wife gets off work.
I noticed some bare spots in our new kitten’s neck fur, where our older cat (Isabelle) has been carrying her around. Hummer, the kitten, is about 3 months old now, and has bonded well with Isabelle. However, I think Isabelle’s motherly instincts might be off on their timing. It’s almost as if she’s adopted the kitten, but thinks she is younger than she actually is. So, she drags Hummer all over the house. Isabelle is a small cat, and can’t manage to completely pick up Hummer by the nape of the neck, so she has to drag her. She has been dragging her around so much that I can see marks on the kitten’s neck through the thinning fur.
I’m concerned about that behavior, and I’m trying to break Isabelle of it, but the kitten seems unconcerned. She meows in alarm when Isabelle drags her around, but then when she breaks out of the grip, she immediately goes back to playing with her surrogate mother. I guess I will just have to monitor the situation and let Isabelle’s natural timetable follow through. As long as the kitten is not showing any other signs of distress, I think things are probably okay.
Morning Morrowind
I felt better today, and attended work as usual. I’m upset with myself for missing work over a silly sinus problem, because I also missed a meeting that I was actually looking forward to attending. This morning, I got up at 5:30 AM and rode the exercise bike for a while, then discovered that I had plenty of time to do something else before I went to work.
So I played Morrowind. I know, I know, I’m supposed to write, not play games during this morning time. That was the agreement I made with myself. Hey, at least I exercised. That’s a start, and hopefully I will be able to get into that full bore when I’m not so worn out from playing “This Ole House” every night.
I should at least be able to get the hall ceiling painted tonight, and my wife can get some particularly needful parts of the bedroom primed.
Silly Sinus Problems
I stayed home from work today. I’ve been fighting with my sinuses since before we went to Las Vegas, and I think the sawdust from the bookshelf project did me in. I didn’t do much except sleep, sniffle, and read Sophie’s World today, but in the evening I did replace a damaged door upstairs. We wanted to get the new door up before painting the bedroom. Hopefully I will be able to paint the hall and bedroom ceilings tomorrow night, but I’m not overly optimistic.