Category Archives: General

Come home, Son

By lytspeed Posted in General, Music Leave a reply

The Rockies beat the Cubbies 2-0 last night, and I finished painting the stairwell in its entirety this morning. Did I mention that I hate painting?

In the early evening, I went to the airport to pick up my son, who had spent the last four weeks with his Mom in Texas. I’m very glad to have him, and eternally guilt-ridden that he has to split his time between his parents because we couldn’t make it as a couple. It’s not his fault; if anybody’s, it’s mine, because I’m the one who asked for the divorce. But he’s the one suffering. I tell myself that he would be suffering more if we were together, though. I think that’s true …

While eating a late dinner at Gunther Toody’s, I got a phone call from Brad the Drummer, giving me a heads up that John from Dante Spumante was going to be calling me in the morning to see if I would be able to play with them on Tuesday night at Cricket on the Hill in Denver. I haven’t played much since we started working on the house, so I dug out the guitar and played along with the CD of our performance at Herman’s Hideaway on July 23rd. I hope John actually does call tomorrow.

Sophie’s Snowman

By lytspeed Posted in General, Reading Leave a reply

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

By lytspeed Posted in General, Pets Leave a reply

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.

Silly Sinus Problems

By lytspeed Posted in General, Reading Leave a reply

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.

Creative Space

By lytspeed Posted in General Leave a reply

Today I worked on populating the bookshelves, a full-day job. A number of books that were downstairs had to come upstairs, and vice versa. For the first time in my life, I have more bookshelf space than books to fill it, and I find this creates a sense of silly urgency in me. My wife stripped wallpaper in our bedroom and prepped those walls for paint.

It was nice to be able to sit in the office in the evening, feel the rain-scented evening breeze blow in through the window, and look at a finished room, with everything I want at my fingertips or across the room. This should be a good creative space.