Jake’s blog

  Pete and I were back in the area today around 5:00pm, after leaving my place at 6:30am for the drive to Connecticut.  I retrieved my "new" 1988 BMW 325ix, 2 door, 5 speed.  Fun stuff!  Definitely needs some TLC, like a pretty serious oil leak.  But the car is solid, the paint and body are definitely good, so just need to get it happy.  In fact, the biggest problem besides the oil leak right now seems to be that I need to fix the seat rails so I can move the seat up close enough to comfortably reach the petals :P

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Off to bed..

  A quick entry, since I need to get running.  But I downloaded some pictures I want to share, and I have a link or two to share.

  I bought a 1988 BMW 325ix, 5-speed coupe.  I have to wait two weeks to retrieve it.  And I had to deal with a trainwreck with eBay, so details of the car aren't even available online anymore.  But the car basically looks like this, just not same car: <http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.imsbmw.com/images/88_325ix-2/88-325ix-20.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.imsbmw.com/html/88_325ix-2/88_325ix-20.html&usg=___-epQkl4roSlZqdRPSwe-gSTj3s=&h=535&w=800&sz=53&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=GdEkhJoF78RJlM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbmw%2B325ix%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG>

  Also, the wind storm through here on Thursday blew over a pine tree right next to my house.  It apparently had damage from carpenter ants, and was mostly hollowed out.  So now I need to have the trees around it examined for the same damage, too.  My brother should be here soon, so we can begin cutting it up.  It missed my other trees, and fell about 10 feet short of my neighbor's driveway...

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  Also, a pair of additional pictures from my work on the second floor of my house.  I haven't started any of the second coats of paint, so these pictures are a few weeks old.

  I started a site on Facebook, really meant to be a point-of-presence, not a replacement for Vox.  And I still believe that I'll maintain the site that way.  But I'm still experimenting.  People are coming out of the woodwork!  Mostly from high school, but I've located a few other people.  Still can't find Megan, so still can't apologize..

I posted this on Facebook, and decided to cross-post it here:

Just got in from seeing Twilight again (second time). It's funny sitting in the old Emmaus theater, but I love it. Two trains went by during the movie, and a third as I was leaving. It seems like there are a lot of seats, much more than newer theaters, but it might be due to the long distance between the screen and the very last row of seats. It was a pretty good crowd for a movie that has been out for almost two months, and this was the third weekend it was held over. I already read the four books of the series, and the movie didn't hold a candle to the first book (fire hazard..) If the movies continue all the way to the fourth book, as I'm sure they will, it will be interesting to see how they pull it all together. I struggled through the second book because I could feel the burn, so to speak. The third book now seems lost in my memory, even though I read it six weeks ago. The last book was really difficult to get through in the beginning due to the changing points of view, but pulled together nicely before the end.

I guess I felt the same way about Harry Potter, but I felt better about it after re-reading the entire series start to finish. Originally I blew through the sixth book and literally didn't remember a thing about it, since I plowed right into the last book on the same night I finished the sixth. Now that the - buttheads - postponed the release of the already-finished sixth movie, I'll end needing to read the book, or the series, again before seeing the movie. Not a bad thing, just another month of not doing anything besides work, sleep, and reading (not necessarily in that order..)

It was nice walking today, and I hope to get out again tomorrow. I forgot to wear my pedometer.. I also plant to chip away at the rest of the ice in the driveway tomorrow, since it was so warm today and should be almost 50 degrees tomorrow.

  I just stumbled upon this nice image I have of Poofie, so I thought I'd post it.  It's take from a Palm Zire 71, so it's grainy and a bit dark (no post-processing..)  But now that Poofie is afraid of cameras, this might be the best picture I have of her.  I love my little girl!

Poofie on couch

  I've been lax in posting - well, anything, really, but especially photos.  So here are a few from Christmas day, one of my new car, a light-adjusted image of light pollution from nothing more than three billboards with upward-facing lights, and finally a picture of one of the bedrooms I've been painting.  The only possible theme there is "winter holidays"..

  I'd take two feet of snow over even a 1/4 inch of ice..  I turned up the heat in case the power goes out overnight, so the house can endure more temperature drop if necessary.  My anxiety on the other hand..  Not so good, but hanging in there.  Nothing's ever easy :)

  It was nice having a two week break.  I'm obviously happy being back at work as opposed to the possibility of being unemployed.  My company is laying off, globally, so I think everyone is nervous but not freaking out.  That's a lot of positions, but spread across the company, so I guess it allows us to have some false sense of hope.  I'll keep my fingers crossed.

  I haven't downloaded and/or processed pictures from over the holidays yet, but I'll get them out here soon.  For now - attempting to sleep.  Zzz..

   I plan to take some pictures today with my mom, brother, nephews, etc.  I'd love to take a picture of Poofie, but she's afraid of the camera..  I had a very nice night at my friends' house last night, and the weather cooperated - so warm all the ice melted, but very windy.  Fortunately no power outages throughout this entire wintery mess - come on spring!!  We're past the shortest daylight period now, so only two months until I'm happy again! ;)

  I was able to get my Chevy started last week (just now remembered that I haven't gotten any pictures of the new Fusion yet!)  So I backed the Chevy out of the garage in order to get the snowblower out.  Hopefully I didn't write about that already, like a broken record..  I was glad that I had just a little extra time away from work to be able to prepare for the winter weather.

  One fun little outcome of all this ice is that one of my gutter drain pipes froze.  So the water froze up the downspouts, too, and probably in the gutters.  The gutters held fast, but the downspouts couldn't handle the extra weight and they all crashed down yesterday.  So I have water from two gutters smacking the side of the house, and running down into my cellar.  So I have a second dehumidifier down there trying to help dry up the mess.  The water doesn't get deep, compliments of two french drains.  But that much moisture always brings a fresh round of musty, mildewy smell which affects both me and Poofie.  Allergies suck..

  I decided that I'm going to set a goal to sell my house in 2009.  Sound insane?  Probably.  But the goal is really just telling myself to get into gear and finish the work around here.  So that way the house can be ready to be sold.  If it happens, great.  If not, I don't need to leave (at the moment, anyway).  So far I'm still employed, but my company is about to layoff 1300 people, so..  Nothing is ever guaranteed.

  It's Christmas, so I'm going to stop whining :)  Today will start with a trip to my brother's, followed by a 4-block trek to my mom's, and then most likely ending with a visit with my dad.  We'll plan a separate visit with my dad when my brother and his family are available.

  I pretty much wasted my first week of vacation, so I'm hoping to have a pile of energy starting, well, tomorrow.  And I think that will be the case.  I need to take a break from reading..  I finished books 2 and 3 (New Moon and Eclipse) from the Twilight series, and I'm just starting the last book, Breaking Dawn.  And I don't have a good feeling about it, but I don't know why.  I already want to re-read the first book, to see what clues I missed, etc.  Anyway - I have run a lot of errands, done a lot of cleaning, etc.  But I really want to return to work on January 5 with at least one coat of paint on all the walls upstairs.  It's a tall order, but very doable.  We're supposed to have a very warm day early next week, so I'll probably put a fan in a window upstairs and sand out the last room that's in need of it.  That will pave the way for getting carpet up there within the next two months or so.  Which will definitely bring me closer to my goal for 2009 :)

Have a wonderful day!

  I don't usually post while I'm at work, but I didn't want to lose the thought..  I had one of my classic dreams last night, surely spawned by my recent activities - watching the first four Harry Potter movies (or at least having them on TV) during a marathon on ABC Family last week; and engrossing myself in the Twilight series of books.  I'm at the end of the second book now, and I bought the third book yesterday..

  So I had another dream which mixed work, friends (from outside work), characters, and themes from various stories.  Basically this morning, I dreamt that I worked with Emma Watson, but we were from different offices - opposite sides of "the pond", which is true.  But the theme was in tune with Twilight, where she was the "vampire" of sorts, and I was pining at the separation.  It was bizarre as usual, and I could recognize some of the locations in the dream from past dreams.  So I was "in the neighborhood", so to speak.  In fact, in the dream world, this is my work neighborhood.  My home neighborhood doesn't look too dissimilar to real life, but there are always a few differences - enclosed porch, wider yard, etc.

So I woke up, sighed, went to an unrelated doctor appointment, and drove into work.  Joy! :P

  Last Sunday, I was basically trying to dig myself out of cold, rainy despair.  This week, the sun is shining brightly, and I'm full of nervous energy because the high winds knocked the power out for almost two hours.  Technically I have a backup heat source, in the form of a kerosene heater.  But with Poofie's asthma, I'm not sure what that would do to her nowadays - in the past, she was fine with it, but her problems are much more severe than they used to be.  Obviously, if I really needed the heat, I would run it.  But I hope I never need to make that decision..

  I would like to get a vent-free gas stove, partly for supplemental heat - new windows or not, a 120 year old house is drafty, period.  And a stove/fireplace would look nice.  And of course, that would soothe my nerves, knowing I had a valid source of backup heat, barring a broken gas main - you have to put your faith in something, so that's where I choose to draw the line.  I have a constant internal struggle about buying a gas-powered backup power generator.  Like today, for instance - the power was out, the house was getting colder, but it didn't *need* to be heated yet.  So I probably would not have started a generator.  But if I had a gas stove, it definitely would have been hummin' along. 

   Now to put the gas stove where I want it - already basically have an enclave for it, right above the gas line in my house - I would need to shutdown and move my fish tank.  And that is no small undertaking, but doable. It's freshwater, so at least I wouldn't be risking the destruction of a reef.  But I would need to start up a quaranteen tank I have, at the risk of some lingering bacteria infecting my fish; drain the entire tank and even remove the substrate, since it is a planted (live) tank; then move, refill, and restart the tank in a new, less optimal location.  And after the water stabilized, I could transfer the fish and shutdown the smaller tank.  Either I'm a whiny idiot, or this is truly a lot of work.  And that doesn't cover the work of getting the new stove in place, which someone else would need to do.  I'm not rich, by a long shot, but I'm less concerned about the expense at the moment, it's the feeling of being overwhelmed by the task(s) at hand.  Speaking of the fish tank - I need to pull the filter apart and give it a good, proper cleaning.

  So anyway..  A hot cup of tea is going down nicely right now.  I spend the quiet time without power reading more of Twilight - it's a page-turner alright, for me anyway.  Why do I always seem to either side with female characters, or at least be able to understand them?  I actually feel like I can understand, if not put myself in the place of more than one character in this book.  It's really cool.  But I can definitely tell that now is the time to see an eye doctor.  So let's see - suffering from continued "seratonin management issues" as I collectively call them, some muscle problem in my extreme lower back, and now I can't see straight.  Maybe I should start drinking excessively to give myself a real problem ;)  My left eye is fine, though I am right-handed and right-eye dominant.  In fact, in the past, my left eye was better than 20/20.  But my right eye is weak, and after an hour of reading, it takes a long time before that eye can refocus.  It used to only be bad late at night, but I can still feel it now after reading this morning.

  And I'll close with the item that should have started this entire discussion - I leased a new car yesterday.  I'm getting a 2009 Ford Fusion, manual transmission of course :)  Delivery should be Wednesday night.  I really didn't want to do another lease, and not during this time of financial uncertainty.  I think I have a pretty stable job, but nothing is guaranteed, particularly my job as an IT guy.  But my current auto lease was about to expire, so I didn't have a choice.  And a lease is at least slightly less committed than a purchase - if I reeeeeally needed to end the lease, I could pay the penalty and get rid of the car.  If you own it, all you can do is try to sell it before the bank comes for it.  But the plus side is that American car companies are literally giving away cars at this point, so the price was definitely right.

  Alrighty then - wrapping up, then off to one of too many things to do - fish tank, painting upstairs, and maybe a very brisk walk later this afternoon.  Followed by more online Christmas shopping this evening, and maybe a visit with Dad, and an email to Mom :)

  I heard some good things about the original book "Twilight", so I picked up the paperback version while I was waiting at a pharmacy (that's another story).  So I'm going to try to finish reading it before the movie exits the theaters.  So far, so good - it's really holding my attention.  I like the author's writing style.

  So today, I just received my collector's copy of JK Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard".  Too freakin' cool!  So I read a bunch of pages from that, too.  Looks like I'm not going to get much done this weekend :)

  Back to the comment about the pharmacy - I have some sort of extreme-lower-back pain.  Like, tail bone.  Walking - fine.  Sitting for any length of time - not good, like a sore muscle.  No problem while sleeping, and no pain in the morning.  My compassionate friends from home said I must have a gay ghost in my house who's having his way with my while I sleep..  Did I mention I need new friends? :)  Not sure what's causing it, so the doc ordered an x-ray, so we'll see.  In the mean time, it just gives me more reason to lay around and read!

So far Poofie has been doing okay.  I'm not looking forward to her scratching again when it all scabs over..

Hey, it's 1:20am - TGIF!