So, once upon a time, I had a blog. Since then, I've sold a house, quit my job, moved to Arizona, decided not to be a manufacturing buyer anymore, began studying desert landscaping, started work at my mother-in-law's store, bought a house, adopted a puppy... And here we are.
I guess for a while now I've essentially replaced blogging with Flickr, and to a smaller extent abbreviated sites like Twitter and Facebook. I hadn't missed journalling too much. Still, I find myself thinking about this site sometimes, and really, there's no reason not to start using this space again as a scrapbook of miscellaneous nonsense I'd like to remember later on.
It's very rainy and blustery here today, which is great. I feel less guilty now about not turning the irrigation systems back on yet. The drip lines are in bad shape and there are a lot of leaks in the brittle PET lines, and I guess I've been avoiding the whole issue by just leaving them off. Also, I haven't really wanted to invest in a lot of repair work until we have a better idea of what we want to do with the landscaping and where we'll need irrigation. I'm still in the middle of learning what I need to know to get started with a Master Plan for the place. Luckily, in the mean time we've had a pretty rainy winter, or at least it's rained with enough regularity that the landscaping is hanging in there without help.
Eventually, though, we're going to have to bite the bullet and flip the controllers back on. I just got through the irrigation portion of my coursework, so now I'm at least basically informed as to how it all works now. Also, yesterday I was pruning our larger grapefruit tree, whose branches had been sagging to the ground, and lo, underneath that tree were the irrigation line valve boxes I've been hoping to find. I'm sure they're in dire need of maintenance, like everything else around here, but knowing the location of everything is/will be a start. Next I have to map out drip lines and figure out how much of that shit's going to need replacing or moving. I'm sure my friend Luigi the Gardener would help me out, but I'm feeling stingy about paying his guys to do things we could maybe do ourselves. We'll see.
Also falling into the category of Quit Procrastinating And Get Some Get Shit Done, How About:
- Apply for my lost car title so I can finally get my car registered in AZ (a mere six months after moving! I just don't know.)
- Figure out why the state of California alla sudden thinks we didn't file taxes for 2007 when oh yes, we fucking did, or else I'm real sorry I paid that ridiculous bill from the tax accountant.
- Finish up some craft gifts for my online friends that were supposed to be done, oh, about three months ago. The first project I planned fizzled and crashed; then we bought a house and the holidays hit and I got massively sick and couldn't think of another thing to do and yada yada yada I'm a loser. I'm halfway through the replacement project now, but I've hit another wall in terms of how to get the things not to suck and the items are languishing on our counter, looking half-assed and resentful.
- Start sorting out the back bedrooms, which have been a horrendous jumble of miscellaneous crap since they day we moved in. I've got to get over my massive, consuming Cardboard Box Ennui, wherein the very notion of having to unpack one more box and make decisions about what to do with the contents makes me want to reach for a can of gas and a Bic.
- Hire a pool guy to start cleaning and doing chems. It's starting to look like the Black Lagoon out there.
There's more, always more, to add to this list of shame, but it's time to get ready to take Angus the Wonder Puppy to the vet for his booster shots. There will be much cooing over his plushy fur and remarking of how much he's grown. I swear if you stare at him for any length of time, you can watch him getting bigger, like one of those time-lapse photography things. I'm already wistful for when he was a bite-sized morsel of a pup.