Archive for category The House
Ghosts in the neighborhood?
As you can see by this picture I took recently, we seem to have ghosts in the neighborhood…
Capturing Criminals at 4:30 am in the Hawthorne Neighborhood
There was yet another adventure in the Hawthorne neighborhood this morning. At 3:30 AM, the dog started barking, this is nothing new. As usual I got up and looked out the window. Unlike most of the times when the dog barking in the middle of the night, there was something to bark at. Sitting next to the driveway at the house across the street, a guy was doing something. I couldn’t tell immediately what he was doing. He had a backpack at his feet, and seemed to be prying at things. It seemed odd that someone would be sitting in front of a home at 3:30 AM going through a backpack. I watched him for a couple of minutes and then called the police non-emergency number. After a brief description of the individual and his behavior, I was off the phone. I continued to watch him. That’s when things became amusing. He took, what looked to be a digital camera out of the backpack, and flashed the camera right in his face. It was pretty obvious that he hadn’t used the camera before. Then he pulled a laser pointer out and shined it around. He kept mucking around in the bag, pulling out different things, but in the dark it was difficult to see what he was doing. He stuffed some things from the backpack into his pockets, or fanny pack. I couldn’t tell which. I then called the police again to let them know that I was pretty sure the guy was playing with stuff he had stolen. I got out our digital camera and took some nightshot pictures, of the guy while I watched him. He stood up, and started taking pictures with the camera.
About that time, the first police officer drove up. The officer asked the guy for ID, which he said he didn’t have. I could hear most of the conversation across the street through our open window. He claimed that someone had given him the stuff. While the officer was going through the guys backpack, he found a laptop, and other expensive things. I realized that the officer might be interested in the fact that he had taken things out of the backpack and put them in his pocket. I didn’t want this guy to see me, or where I lived, so I called the non-emergency number again, and gave the additional information. Another officer arrived. Then a third appeared. A few minutes later, the officer started checking the guy more carefully. They found a wallet, and soon after had him in handcuffs. Once they put him in a car, I went out to talk to one of the officers. It turns out that the guy had a gun, and was wanted in connection with a couple of burglaries, as well as a high speed chase in Lake Oswego. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep any more. Hooray for our crime fighting poodle:
I was so STUPID!
Ok, so I learned my lesson: power tools are to be respected. The problem is, I knew that before I took a chunk out of my middle finger with the router table! I guess I needed a “gentle” reminder.
I was just being stupid. I was attempting to make sure I had the bit adjusted correctly to make the dados for my fence rails. The problem was, the piece of wood was too small to hold securely. The router sent the piece of wood flying away, leaving my finger to experience the bit. I was just starting to construct a gate to go with the fence we finished before our Disney trip:
Unfortunately, it looks like the gate is going to have to wait a least a week before I will be able to do any real work on it. The ER staff at Providence was great! Friendly, compassionate and they even laughed at some of my jokes.
I realize how lucky I am to only have a flesh wound. While on a business trip to Boise last week, I saw a man missing his right arm and leg. This gentleman wasn’t in a wheelchair, nor did he have a crutch. He hopped everywhere. He hopped out of the restaurant, over to his van, and drove away. It certainly made me realize how lucky I am to have all my limbs.
Daisy and Passion Flower pictures
This is a daisy in one of the side strips in front of our house. We had just watered, and the drops looked pretty nifty. The daisy is pretty but tends to smell similar to vomit, thus the desire to put it near the street. Click on the image for the full 5 Megapixel version…
The passion flower has been blooming non-stop this summer. Here is a couple of close up of the flower. Click on them for the full sized versions.
Weekend Activities
Our weekend started on Friday night. Morgan was with his father, so Lisa and I took the opportunity to have a “date” night. We went to Jake’s Famous Crawfish for Happy Hour. Lisa had a couple of drinks, I had a couple of beers, and we had various appetizers. We got to do some people watching as well, as we were seated outside. Portland is an eclectic mix of people, with obvious variations in ethnicity and economies.
After Jake’s, we went and saw Fahrenheit 9/11. The movie is essentially Moore’s perspective on the 2000 election, and the behavior of the Bush administration that leads up to the war in Iraq. While the movie does have a slanted perspective, it is a documentary — a documentary of Moore’s perspective. He balances the slant with plenty of facts. The most interesting parts of the film, to me at least, isn’t his commentary — it is the various pieces of film of President Bush that the public never sees. It becomes very clear that Bush is an inarticulate schlump, who happens to know a lot of people.
The footage in Iraq is also eye-opening, and the interviews with the soldiers are illuminating as well.
When we returned home from the movie, I felt like I was in a war zone. Our neighbors had all the windows open in their house, and were playing their band for the benefit of the neighborhood. There were people coming from Hawthorne because the music was so loud. This was 9:30 at night. They also had a campfire in the back yard AGAIN. I called the police non-emergency number about the fire, and they sent the firemen out AGAIN. They put the fire out. Things were a little quieter, but there were still a lot of people about.
By the time Lisa and I opted to go to bed, it was about 10:30. There were a multitude of people sitting on their porch, drinking a lot, and being really loud and obnoxious. It was hot in our house, so we didn’t have much choice but to have a window open in our bedroom. I called the police again, to complain about the noise. About 10 minutes later, an officer came by and told them to go inside, which they did. It was a little better, and we were finally able to sleep.
The next day, I dug out the posts from the old fence between the two houses. Next weekend will be the start of the fence building. A nice six foot fence should make for better neighbors. It is too bad that it has come down to this, but they really didn’t give us much choice. I find it odd that they have such a lack of regard for other people in the neighborhood. I think if you asked them if they respect other people’s lifestyle, they would whole-heartedly assert that they do, while their actions speak differently.
Roses from the Garden
I took some pictures of roses I cut from around the house. One of the great benefits to living in Oregon is that we get roses! I guess that’s why they call Portland the Rose City.
One of my favorites is the Voodoo from the front yard:
Personal Update
Life is moving along at home and work.
At work, I have been coming up to speed on Linux Driver Development. I have been reading a couple of books (Linux Kernel Development and Linux Device Drivers), which have both been quite helpful. I am coming to the conclusion that this sort of software is the “armpit” of computing — it is important to have, but no one (except the sensory deprived) wants to spend much time there. It is complicated to develop, difficult to debug, and requires a lot of patience. It doesn’t help that there are swallows inside the building that keep flying around.
On the personal front, I have been reading “POWERFUL PROFIT$ FROM CRAPS“. It doesn’t seem to be well edited. The language used in the book is grammatically poor. It doesn’t explain how the “true odds” for a particular bet are calculated, and in fact, I found one error in the book (on page 25, the Pays for a Place Bet on 4 or 10 should be 9:5, not 2:1 — this confused the heck out of me for a while).
Since Lisa and I cleaned out the garage last weekend, I should be able to get started on some of the wood working projects I want to do. Unfortunately, we have been busy just about every night this week, and Lisa’s parents are going to be here this weekend. Looks like I’ll have to wait another week to start.
Lisa had a knitting class, so I took Morgan to his T-Ball game by myself. We practiced throwing and catching before the game, and I did some base coaching during the game. Morgan had a good time, and we got home just in time for him to go to bed.
Another Small Victory
Last night Lisa and I hooked up the two remaining undercabinet lights. They seem to work! Not that I was worried.
Tonight we are hoping to hook up the hood. I’ll need Lisa’s help with it anyway as it is kinda heavy and awkward for one person to manage.
Busy Day…
Today was a busy day. I had a long day at work and came home to more work. It turns out that some of the outlets ended up in the wrong locations. The worst one was the phone outlet that was going to end up in the corner cabinet. I ended up having to make a junction box that will go behind the refrigerator. It isn’t pretty, but at least it will work with the cabinets.
You can see the mess here. The junction box is on the far left. The hole in the middle is where the box used to be. The box on the bottom is where the new outlet will be, and the phone connection is the orange box. Lucky for us I used the new adjustable boxes. I could screw the boxes out of the wall, which made it a whole lot easier to fix the problem. That, along with the low voltage box (orange one), made the problem easier to fix without tearing the wall apart. I hope there isn’t too much more of this.
I also set up journals for Kelly and Lisa’s Aunt Betty. Not sure when they are going to start using them, but I promised I would when I had a free moment.
Yipee!
Phone Taxes
Is it just me, or is this ridiculous? These are the monthly taxes and fees present on our phone bill.
- County at .465%
- Federal Excise at 3%
- Federal Universal Serv Fund at 8.7%
- Federal Universal Serv Fund Private Line at 8.7%
- Franchise at 3%
- Oregon PUC fee as required by law
- Oregon Universal Service Surcharge of 6.5%
- Residential Service Protection Fund at $.13 per access line
- State 911 at $.75 per access line
- Federal Access Charge++
- Federal ChargeService Provider Number
$0.07
$0.73
$0.65
$2.44
$0.38
$0.13
$0.96
$0.13
$0.75
$6.50
$0.43
Total Taxes, Fees and Surcharges $13.17
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