I have to say, this massage chair looks more intimidating than relaxing.

It looks like a padded electric chair -- "Ol Sparky" goes upscale.

Or could be a "mandated-procedure" dental chair.

There is a curious story out of Oakland, CA, involving the murder of a newspaper editor.

When did we last hear of a newspaperman being murdered in the US because of his work? I can't remember.

UPDATE: Here is a story about journalists assassinated in the US.

UPDATE II: See the two articles mentioned in this comment to get a fix on the organization Mr. Bailey was investigating.

UPDATE III: Shanikka at Political Sapphire has a good round-up and a rant.

Jane Galt is a little off in this post.

Not having children is for me, a Nail-Patella mutant, a way of cleaning up the gene pool and avoiding a massive burden.

I have been successful in avoiding pregnancies all my life. It's called "contraception," and should be available to all at-risk women.

Now, motherly women of my status, women with the NPS genetic defect, have the option of in-vitro fertilization with a DNA scan to reject embryos that carry the gene.

I think that's good.

Who are you to chance the child I would have to rear?

Colby Cosh has posted an SCTV tribute to Ingmar Bergman.

I remember Count Floyd fondly.

Lyman's parents are coming for fried bream and catfish this evening.

Today is their 66th wedding anniversary.

By way of Radley Balko, I found the Lost in America site.

Which led to a search for a picture of this cool 1960 Plymouth dashboard.

Lyman found ten crisp $20s and a one dollar bill neatly folded in the parking lot at Wal-mart yesterday.

He came home and called the manager.

"I found some money in the parking lot. I won't tell you how much it is, but it's over $100."

The manager took his name and number, and said he would turn it over to the service desk with the note that Lyman had found some money.

Mrs. A called tonight. That was her 24th anniversary mad money. The check will go out tomorrow to east Mississippi.

About that change of e-mail there on the left. That is a secondary account.

The one in your files still works, too.

Discussion below turned to roofs.

Here is an article from 2004 about developing more reflective asphalt shingles.

By the time we're in the market, maybe these will be a reality. Maybe they already are. Much as I like the idea of the metal roof, we'd be the only house on the street with one, except for the historic house a few blocks up.

My brother drove up in a brand new car to collect a package of shrimp creole and fresh tomatoes today.

"Let me see your car," I said.

It looks much the same, different color, with the same good angle and good light for plucking eyebrows.

"I found out, waiting for you, that this car provides a perfect situation for plucking eyebrows. May I pluck my eyebrows in your car?"

What a weak, smiling "no".

There are other African Greys on the 'net. Thank you, Burd.

Charlie is just beginning to work on Old McDonald's farm. The only animal on Mr. McDonald's farm so far is a duck.

Charlie's duck gets around a little more than the usual duck on the farm, and needs a kiss every once in a while.

Hmmm. I'm looking over the new utility bill. This one covers the period 6/13 to 7/13.

Again, we've made a mid-cycle change. I finished the project on July 3.

This year's usage is 2062 kW compared to last year's 2278 for the same period -- a savings of about 9.5 percent.

We still haven't done the ceiling work which will entail sealing up the leaks around the air supply boots and recessed lights. I plan to do that this week.

According to my calculations (100w X 24 hours X 30 days=72,000w, 72,000/1000w=72kW), changing out the recessed light bulbs over the bar should save up to 72 kW a month, which is nothing to ignore -- about 3.5 percent of this month's usage.

After that, there's not a lot more we can do before we replace the old clothes dryer when it's needed. It would no doubt help to replace the air-conditioning unit we bought in 1996, but it's working fine.

Our base electrical load, i.e. without the air conditioner, was as low as 1011 kW in the winter months. The bill covering 7/13 to 8/13 is historically the highest around here. Yikes, you should have seen it when we had the swimming pool.

Mr. Byrd, the auditor, said that given the shade around this house, the new insulated windows will likely show their utility more in the winter months when we will be comparing natural gas usage.

This post begins my sixth year of blogging.

Out of the blue, Lyman started whistling this song today.

Neither of us could think of its name or who performed it. We both listened to Herb Alpert when we were younger, though. My family owned that album.

We thought it was instrumental. I started by looking at Ventures recordings.

I still like it.

UPDATE: And for some reason, I remember that Ventures Telstar album cover, but I don't remember having that at home. Maybe we did. I certainly remember Green Onions.

Here we go. There were about three minutes to the whole encounter, all of the same tone.

I like the way Lucy flounces off the screen and Charlie looks at the camera -- "What'd I do?"

(1 minute 18 seconds)

Tomorrow morning, I'll try to edit and upload a tape of a solicitation of allopreening gone all wrong.

I had the camera set up to record Charlie singing "We've got the bonk," but he was more interested in the camera than singing.

Then Lucy came along. You'll see that Charlie could use some improvement in the art of persuasion.

UPDATE: More background on allopreening.

Steven Taylor points to the story on Queen's guitarist working on earning a doctorate in astrophysics.

Mr. Brian May is 60. Not the usual path for an aging rock star.

For Charlie:



I think she's one of the best girl rock singers, even if this is a lousy recording.

All in all, I like this guy on CFLS.

I'm not so sure about that incandescent surcharge. We have a lot of people in our region struggling by. There's a lot of difference between a 25 cent light bulb and a $2 light bulb when the bills come in.

Here is a video of Charlie for you to listen to. These are just a couple of moments from a 14 minute tape.

Charlie seems to making this sound at will. Again, he seems in perfect health.

(1 minute 33 seconds)

The incandescent lightbulbs in the recessed lights over the bar finally blew. These lights are on 24 hours a day.

We replaced them with Lowe's Bright Effects CFL bulbs that we bought at the coast in May.

The color of the light is good, but it is much brighter than the incandescents that we used there. We'll need to shop for the next step down, I think. We can save these to use over the sink.

UPDATE: Hah. We changed the dimmer out to a straight switch to use these bulbs. Now I can't find a lower wattage R30, but there are dimmable R30s. At a formidable price, I might add. Maybe the 13-watt R30s are in the stores.

Charlie has been making an odd little whistling sound that I thought might indicate a cold. But he has no nasal discharges, no sneezing or coughing and nothing is off about him -- his appetite is good, his eyes are clear, he's steady and vocal. His droppings are normal.

I first heard the tiny whistle when he was approaching Lucy to have her preen his head after emerging from captivity.

So, is allopreening "it"?

Or is it a heretofore unobserved symptom of early stage aspergillosis?

What a neurotic mother I would be.

New word today:

allopreening

I'm looking, I'm looking.

Allopreening in owls. This is pertinent:

Usually, the bird that initiated allopreening indicated its intent by staring at the other bird and uttering low cooing or whistling calls. If the other bird was receptive, it usually stared back, sometimes giving low cooing calls. After this brief solicitation exchange, one bird would fly or walk to a position beside the other (if it was not already in this position), where it would lean over and begin to preen the other's head. Typically, allopreening birds perched side by side, facing in the same direction (Fig. 1). Both birds partially or entirely closed their eyelids and nictitating membranes while allopreening, a behavior also described for the Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis) (Harrison 1965).

Preening was concentrated around the facial area, the top of the head, and the side of the head facing the preener. The recipient usually moved its head, as if to facilitate preening in whatever area was being preened. Most frequently, this consisted of lowering the head to expose the nape and top of the head or turning the head slightly toward the preener to expose the facial area.

Although most bouts began with one bird preening the other, preening usually became reciprocal or simultaneous as bouts proceeded. One bird would preen the other for a period, then roles would be reversed, often several times in a single bout. Simultaneous allopreening (both birds allopreening at the same time) occurred most frequently during periods of a few seconds when birds were changing roles as reciprocal allopreeners.

While allopreening, owls frequently made vocal cooing or whistling sounds that were just barely audible. Infrequently, a short staccato series of chittering notes was also given.

Both sexes initiated allopreening bouts, but we did not record which sex initiated them most frequently. Bouts lasted from only a few seconds (infrequently) to several minutes and usually ended when one or both birds seemed to lose interest in allopreening and went to sleep or began to autopreen. When one bird wished to terminate allopreening but the other bird persisted, the former usually sidled (or flew) away.

The mechanics of allopreening were similar to autopreening; the preener would mandibulate or nibble the feathers of the other bird, occasionally sliding one or more feathers between its mandibles with a gentle vibrating motion. The principal dif- ferences between allopreening and autopreening were that allopreening motions were more rapid, and no attempt was made to preen a particular area or feather thoroughly. The rapidity of allopreening motions left the impression that owls were "running their bills through each others'... feathers," as described by Miller (1974). We never observed any instance in which owls jabbed or tugged at each other in an aggressive manner while allopreening. Paragraphs mine -- Janis

Well, dearies (English novels again), that's in owls, and bonding pairs. Lucy will nip Charlie, much as my mother would bonk my head with a hairbrush if I wouldn't sit still.

Charlie approaches Lucy as a juvenile to an adult bird (aka Mama). He never offers to preen her, and would likely be out of line if he tried.

I'm interested in the "whistling sound that is barely audible."

Lucy turned six years old yesterday!

I don't know about you, but that prodded me into nagging Lyman to finally produce a will for me.

I do, in this marriage, legally hold some immoveable property which would pass to my brothers and sister and their offspring were I not to channel it back to the rightful heirs, my stepsons.

Let me live through the night to gather some witnesses.

This letter was published June 15, 2007, in the Natchez Democrat.

This obituary note was published today, July 14.

She was my sweet lady doctor.

My father-in-law told me of this yesterday. He was not clear on cause of death, but heard that she contracted an uncontrollable infection.

She's She was just about my age. My father-in-law commented, "God is no respecter of persons."

UPDATE: Here is a story.

UPDATE II: An updated obituary here.

I flicked down the visor on my side of the car to check my makeup, and said, "Ooooh."

That mirror at that angle would be perfect for plucking eyebrows. As it was, it showed the ones I missed.

Do you think my brother will let me come sit in his Infiniti to pluck my brows?

It's not as though it would break his starch or anything.

That is one boring drive. It might have been better had I been driving, but not by much. Charles is himself much better now, with the occasional relapse, as he had a couple of weekends ago -- with the fever and the beat-up feeling.

Jackson is about two hours away. It has all the popular stores, and local establishments, too. But after two hours of flatlands, who cares?

Sick people are dragged up and down that road all the time. Jackson has the hospitals and specialists, too.

New Orleans is farther -- 2-1/2 hours -- but the drive seems easier. Of course, in that direction one will eventually arrive in New Orleans.

I'm going to Jackson.

Goodbye.

Dr. Alice has a post up about the difficulties doctors face when asked to sign death certificates.

A few months back, she had a series of posts about a medical mission to Guatamala.

Today is Possum's birthday!

This is as good a time as any to point to this post from Sean Kinsell.

Chris takes dozens of good photographs, but I like the last one in this series.

And just an aside: I was about 25 when I had my ears pierced. When it was done I had to sit in the mall with my head between my knees. I was mutilated!

How do you keep a silly boy from going bonk when he plays so hard that he is that unbalanced?

Look at those flight feathers.

Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn, has been drawing comment. She's a smart, accomplished, good-looking blonde of forty.

But, by gosh, that blue dress is as tacky as can be. No one of any age or build is going to look classy in that dress. It might be appropriate for Lucinda Faberge (see comments).

Frederick's of Hollywood doesn't come close.

Here's my challenge to you. Find a source for a dress that sleazy looking.

(Thanks, Irrational Woman, for the images.)

And as the load spun there arose such a clatter,
That I rose from my chair to see what was the matter,
And after it quit, and the water had cleared,
And the dryer was running, I said what have we here?

It was a roofing nail poking through one of the drain holes in the washing machine tub. Had it not been raining, the repairman would have been on his way. He thinks there's no harm done.

This ring would be a fair replacement for the lost band. I think I pulled it off my finger gummed up with mastic in a paper towel and set it aside. Then forgot the ring was in the towel and whisked it all into the trash.

I went to the mall. Zales has a white-gold replacement for $250. I don't think so. But I did use the ring sizers on my finger. I wear a 4-1/2.

I've a couple more places to check before ordering online.

UPDATE: No, it's a four. And the nice man at Reynolds' Jewelry has ordered one for me.

Finished "project" here.

I lost my wedding band.

Duct mastic is a soft material about the consistency of cream-cheese frosting fresh, and it dries to the consistency of gum on the sidewalk or thereabouts.

I must have taken the ring along with mastic when I was cleaning my hands with paper towels.

It's no material loss. It was a silver band from the French Market in New Orleans that cost $5. But I feel right nekkid.

Now I'm ready to extend heartiest congratulations to Mrs. Schranck for earning her Ph.D.

Meaning no disrespect, Ma'am, but she ain't a spring chicken either.

Finished! I'll let it cure overnight and take a picture tomorrow.

Believe me, it's not pretty.

See that flap of backing up there? It has to go before I do anything further. It's at about fingertip height as I stretch above that crossbrace. (Lyman made the cut in the duct board and I won't be thanking him for it anytime soon. My fault, too. When I measured the cut in the board, I could have allowed a good three more inches for the top piece, and been working lower here at the bottom. I forgot about the cursed brace. Well, I'll know next time. Ha, ha, ha.)

And that damnable crossbrace. The vent opening is not framed well, which will entail building some little walls of duct board right around the mouth of the vent. This might be the only crummy detail in an otherwise very well-built house. And I want my Daddy.

Astrologically, I am an Aquarian with Virgo rising, so I read both horoscopes, when I read them at all.

It reads for Virgo today: Occasionally, we all have to perform some tasks or assignments we find distasteful, and today may be just one of those days for you. If you smile instead of frown, it'll make it easier.

They have my number today. I'll show you in a few minutes.

That's the progress so far. This afternoon, I'm going to seal those upper edges and seams with mastic. Then I can do away with the turkey pot.

Finishing that open wall can be done standing sitting on the ground.

UPDATE: That part is done. Do I get an "honorary lizard" badge or something?

Gary Farber posts a link to an NYT criticism of the new animated film Ratatouille.

We saw a trailer for it last night, and Lyman wants to go see it. In a theater.

We haven't gone to a theater for a movie together yet in nearly 14 years.

I been in "the hole" today. But I don't think I'll finish today.

There's some trick I'll need to learn about slithering out of that slot when I cover up my crossbeam.

For height, I'm using a 12-inch diameter, 16-inch tall turkey pot. It's sturdy, and it fits.

Let me tell you, kids, it's hot.

The truck brought the materials for "the project" today.

I went by the city office and picked up a printout of our energy usage from January 2006 to date.

The reads come at midmonth. Last year's electric use was 1989 Kw hours for the period from 5/14-6/13. This year's is 1833. The windows were installed on the 30th of May, so we're only seeing half a month's worth of savings this cycle. The next read should be more revealing.

I heard this song on the radio in the car today.

Silly boy.

Charlie sings "We've got the bonk", instead.

Sing what you know, yes?

He's out of the cage and running for a few weeks now.

So Butch, the really nice air conditioner guy, came by today to look at the "project" while I was napping.

Lyman said that as Butch looked up the chute he could see the wheels turning. Backwards.

Lyman said, "We could do it ourselves."

Butch said, "I'll have the materials delivered for you tomorrow."

UPDATE: Surely they're all kidding.

So, Mr. Wade Byrd, the energy auditor, returned yesterday to see what we have done, and we haven't done enough.

His instructions weren't clear (he agrees) on sealing the return chase on our HVAC system.

That means taking this panel off.

Then one enters this space which is 18" x 34" x 8' raw.

He wants that lined with duct board and sealed with non-toxic duct mastic to force the system to use only properly cooled or heated return air to reduce the load on the system and protect the evaporator coils from filth. It will be a cool 12" x 24" (give or take an inch) sealed. Now these things are usually finished with sheetrock during construction.

Lyman can get in there, but I think he'd have a fit trying to do the work. I am going to go ahead and vacuum the thing with the shop vac, and decide if I can stand it. Whoever does it needs to be pretty darn slender. And I'd have to buy and learn to operate a nail gun.

And we just might hire someone else. Someone skinny and flexible. Gumby might be able.

UPDATE: No. No nail gun. 1.5 inch roofing nails and a hammer at broad intervals.

I've vacuumed the space out, made a call to Mr. Byrd for some direction, and set on doing this myself.

Now I need some materials -- 2 4x10 sheets of duct board, a gallon of mastic, and about a pound of roofing nails. And a small ladder that I can fit into the space.

Lyman cooked alligator scalloppine again last night, and yes it was good, again.

You might not remember, but I did write one time about being a "lacto-ovo" vegetarian for a couple of years when I was about 22. I gave it up because it was not healthy for me, as demonstrated by a stress fracture in my foot that refused to knit after four weeks in a cast.

Anyway, I do have the occasional qualm when I eat a piece of meat. I refuse to eat quail anymore. Lucy and Charlie would pluck to about the size of one.

However, I can't gather a lot of sympathy for this face.

I thought he would finally say.

Tonight Lyman said, "I think Giada de Laurentiis is an attractive woman."

I said, "What took you so long to say so? Is it because I get the house?"

Mathematicians and modellers in conflict at Climate Audit.

UPDATE: I hope you didn't imagine that I could understand all the math. But you don't have to be a scholar to read the tone of the debate.

I'll object to the notion that women are more prone to verbal or sonic pornography.

What about that back?

Why not encourage her to learn both?

One of my teachers at UT taught both. The two languages were so similar that she would sometimes stumble in our French class.

And boy, do I wish I had taken Spanish.

Tony Woodlief on Father's Day.

Here, again, is my father.

And a good one to you, fellas.

Oh, for crying out loud. Will you look at that?

We received a cool 0.05 inch of rain from that front. And yes, it was moving eastward.

My brother informs me that the doctors in Jackson have settled on histoplasmosis as their diagnosis.

Peregrine chicks in Wisconsin, courtesy of Diane.

Tough crowd.

UPDATE: And another "NAME THAT JUVENILE PEREGRINE BAND" contest!

My local brother is in Jackson, MS, this week undergoing a second battery of tests, this time under the supervision of an infectious disease specialist.

He has been feeling poorly since March, when he suffered what he thought was a bout of flu. For nearly three months now, he's suffered from headaches and intermittent fevers, along with a debilitating lack of energy.

Doctors have been successful at ruling things out, but they can't get a grip on what ails him.

Michael is taking Lyman's parents to Baton Rouge tomorrow.

You might be amused by Lyman's list for Tony's Seafood:

2 rabbits
2 pounds of turtle
2 packs of boudin balls

We're stocked on shrimp and alligator.

UPDATE: Oops, include 2 pounds of alligator.

Scraping ivy off the house and weeding the front flowerbeds this morning, I couldn't get this song out of my head.

Nice couple, too.

We managed our improvements in the nick of time. Average high around here at this date is 88F. Yesterday, Lyman's weather station registered 97F, which is flirting with the high of 98F recorded in 1963.

We are a fairly lackadaisical bunch in these warm days, except for Kate.

I've ridden pillion on a motorcycle before, but nothing like that.

Looks like Mr. Gore has just about completed the conversions on his home in Nashville to make it more energy efficient.

And I say good for him. I've never thought him the hypocrite on the global warming issue that he might have appeared to be.

I'd still like for them to talk about the process somewhere -- their decision-making, the products they used, their negotiations with the zoning board. Did they have to overcome restrictions in a historical neighborhood?

Eyebrow threading?

Ladies, here is a video of "eyebrow threading," a technique long used in India and the Middle East for shaping eyebrows.

There are other videos, too, listed to the right of that site.

Would that ever take some practice. I think I'm going back to tweezers. Nancy waxed too much from the inner edges of mine last time.

Lyman fries the catfish around here. He does a good job -- nice and crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.

His mother doesn't like it that way.

Lyman's dad loves fried catfish more than any food around, so that's what Lyman cooked for his birthday dinner, along with some Alabama red potato fries. I assembled the coleslaw and took another stab at blackberry cobbler.

Lyman starts his mother's fish before anything else. After about 20 minutes yesterday, he asked her to test her pieces.

"No, it can cook a little longer."

"We can do that. We can let it burn slap-dab up if that's the way you want it."

I simply cain't put up with John Edwards no longer. The boy don't click fast.

A question was put to him that elicited something along the line of this response: "I don't know that I can define a rich man."

He did lose a child, and there's a good chance that he'll lose his wife to cancer. But the boy do have money. About $30 mil, I've read.

Of course, that doesn't come near Theresa Heinz's fortune. Maybe there are two Americas -- the rich and the filthy rich.

I watched the tail-end of the debate between the Democratic candidates for president on CNN.

I have a question. What are all you men doing in what appears to be white or pale blue eyeshadow?

Chris Dodd was one, and the commentator afterwards is sporting the same thing.

UPDATE: And Ms. Huffington is too old to be appearing showing cleavage.

M. has built the furniture for the guest room. I am finishing it with Minwax Tung Oil Finish which, according to research, proves to have no tung oil in it. It just looks like a tung oil finish, which is fine by me. Woodworkers call it a "wipe-on varnish." It's supposedly stronger than tung oil alone.

M. can do more detailed work than this, but I was aiming toward the 30's or 40's furniture that I remember from the room I rented in college.

I am developing an affection for the little table that is top-side down. Look at those two back legs. Their "feet" point in the same direction. On it's legs it looks like it might like to take a walk.

"Look at this, Janis. I made a mistake."

"Let's call it a conversation piece."

These pieces will live with two of these lamps, this hanging, this lamp (thanks again, Sarah), and this chest.

The side tables have one drawer apiece. Knobs or pulls?

Pop on over to Ann Althouse and watch the lovely video of women's faces in art.

When I was picking up seasoning for our last crawfish boil of the season this past weekend, I ran across a sazon by McCormick. So tonight I am cooking Francesca's bean recipe to have with ribs tomorrow.

Sounds good, eh?

UPDATE: Let me try this recipe again at another time. Those sun-dried tomatoes were too old. Talk about a "whang."

Sorry, Francesca. I'll do better next time.

This spending to mitigate global warming seems to really work.

Here at 4:30 p.m. on the 30th day of May it's only 83F outside. The average for this date is 86F. See?

New Windows

Four gentlemen showed up at 10:15, installed nine windows (three of them double), and were cleaned up and packed to go at a quarter to three.

They were a courteous group, and more importantly, were courteous to each other.

UPDATE: Why no mintons? I was outvoted on dividers for the windows. Windows do work two ways, and the men in my family want to see out.

The installers are here.

Joe Miller has 28 years in the business. Good deal.

Well, let's hope today is the day. Or it might be tomorrow.

UPDATE: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time...

Memorial Day Parade

Julie Finley of The Natchez Democrat wrote a short history of the local Memorial Day parade here. The drummers practice in the neighborhood near us for a few weeks before the day. Since I have the camcorder, I thought I'd go see and share.

This tape shows where the parade emerges from the neighborhood, and a shot as the marchers start to cross the Mississippi bridge.



And despite my voice I wasn't drunk. I was distracted. I've never thought of filming a public event.

(3 minutes)

Time to Lighten Up

I like the look of this template, and can read it well enough, but what about you? I am worn out with boxes and hard colors.

Comment capability might or might not appear with this post.

UPDATE: Well, that's good. But I didn't save my other template and I have a lot of catching up to do.

We planted cucumber seeds this year, and the fruit is coming in.

We keep a container of them peeled and sliced in a solution of rice vinegar, a little water, and salt in the refrigerator at all times.

However, there is a nice, cool, easy soup that I found years ago in a New York Times large-print cookbook that might be good this week:

CUCUMBER AND YOGURT SOUP

1 med. cucumber
salt
2 c. plain yogurt
2 c. chilled chicken broth
2 tbsp. finely chopped walnuts
1-1/2 cloves garlic, finely minced
Black pepper
Chives to garnish

Dice cucumber fairly finely. Sprinkle with salt and let stand in refrigerator 20 minutes. Mix together yogurt, broth, walnuts and garlic. Rinse and drain cucumber. Add to liquid mixture. Black pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped chives. Makes about four servings.

The crew blew the insulation in this morning. Of course, now I'm reading that blown fiberglass loses R-Value when the temperature drops below 50F. Whatever.

All right, Possum, you did it.

I just got a call from the window installer. The lead guy who was coming this way got a call in Jonesville from school in Alexandria that his 10-year-old son was sick.

He turned around and is with the boy at the hospital now. Seems the boy was ill with a stomach virus, but felt well enough to go to school today. But he's dehydrated from the virus and is being attended. The man asked for a couple of days off.

So now we're looking at Tuesday morning. No skin off my nose, but Papa Possum, did you have to include the boy in your jinx?

UPDATE: Or did the father run across Eileen at the Stop and Shop and decide to shack up for the weekend?

Lucy has another egg today. She had one on Monday, too.

That's three this month.

I got LSU's interim mascot right here.

Ahem. It is 10:10. There are no workers here. We have received no calls. I'm getting a dial tone when I lift the telephone receiver.

I've taken down the pleated shades in the great room.

What's the deal?

UPDATE: Mr. Vater doesn't know where the crew is, either. When I called he said they should be here. He can't raise them on a cellphone.

I hope they haven't been in an accident.

Our energy auditor, Mr. Byrd, was appalled at the amount of air infiltration caused by the recessed lights in this house. All the reports remark that they are terrible energy wasters when the housings are in unconditioned spaces. They play hell with air quality, too, allowing dust and gases from the attic into the house. Lyman installed most before Halo (Home Depot, Lowe's) manufactured airtight housings.

That's one of the reasons why Mr. Byrd was pushing us toward foam. Well, foam is right out of the budget, and I've been worrying about what to do about the lights.

After some research, I've found that Halo makes retrofit kits to make housings airtight for six-inch housings. In combination with a gasket fitted under the ceiling trim, these lights can conform unto California's Title 24 Energy Efficiency Standards, which are strict.

That would only leave six four-inchers without protection.

If you have the same problem, be informed that the Halo retrofit trim kits are part of the SUPER TRIM catalog. It took me half a day to find out the name of the series. Kits for flat recessed lights run about $15 for white ones at Home Depot and Lowe's. I haven't found a price for eyeballs, but they are available.

Sure beats Lyman going into the attic and rewiring all of them. There are 16 of those up there.

The windows arrive today and installation starts Thursday.

I dread the coming disruption, and I hope these guys know what they're doing 'cause I sure don't.

The birds are gonna be beside themselves.

Oh, Charlie, the big tiger died.

Lucy laid an egg today.

$2000 for foam insulation? Not even. That's something in the range of $7500. An R38 layer of blown fiberglass is more in that range. So that's what we'll go with. The fellow who'll install that insulation will manufacture caps for the recessed lights, which should provide some sealing.

The duct guy has been here and will start work on Friday. New ducts are of better material and will carry this house many years forward.

Ducts, insulation and windows, in that order.

It's a fair dreadful time to do these things, because we'll have the air-conditioning down for days. But when the summer really heats up, we might see some savings.

So, Al, what's going on in Nashville? You get some new lightbulbs or something?

UPDATE: From what I understand, the house in Nashville is about 70 years old. It would be interesting and enlightening for the Gores to detail the steps they're taking to make the house more efficient.

When we replace said chairs, I want to bring those home, but this time we carried a club chair home (we might be the only family who takes old things from the beach property to the home property).

So I bought a couple of bottles of Tilex to give them a good cleaning. There is no place on the property there to get after something with a water hose, so I used pails of water to rinse the chairs down when I was done.

On one trip to the balcony I slipped in a spill of water and fell flat of my back and knocked my head against the tile floor. No breaks or splits, but I feel every one of my years and then some days later.

But the old chairs look pretty good.

This type of patio furniture is called "strap" furniture and I can find one vendor in this resort town that sells it for a cool $135 a chair. The design has changed a little since these were bought in 1984 or so, but they've held up well over time except for some peeling paint, and one broken strap from six chairs, and it was cut some way after the hurricane. Our boy Fitzroy painted them once in one of his stays here, but he and his wife Ann are now busy at their place in South Carolina.

Our guests love these chairs. They're both comfortable and sturdy. Do we replace these chairs? Internet cost runs about $65 a chair plus shipping and figuring out how to get them delivered. Or do we tap down to Wal-Mart and buy 6 poly chairs for the price of one.

UPDATE: There's a lot to be said about renting a condo here and then bitching about what's wrong. And I have been remiss. Rents here are up to about $245 a night in the summer, and I don't even have the interest to justify that.

And we need a new refrigerator. There's absolutely nothing wrong anywhere except for an internal band of rust at the bottom of the door that interferes with the gasket. That's another four hundred to replace the GE bought in 2001 or so before the hurricane.

We are at the coast.

We arrived to find one of the sofas thoroughly stove-up, so it's turned into a furniture-buying trip in addition to an owner's meeting tomorrow.

I am not in the least interested in going into the second-generation of renovations that development down here demands. Those include custom cabinetry in the kitchen and bath, granite countertops and assorted other high-dollar investments.

Janis, you're very quiet. Why so?

I'm always quiet while I'm thinking about spending money.

We have accepted a bid on replacing the windows, we're looking further at blowing foam insulation into the attic, and we need to do something about our ductwork. All of these things contribute to energy inefficiency in this house.

We are in process of becoming a HERO home. Supposedly, under this program we can get some cash back on our improvements.

We paid for a visit by Home Energy Rater Wade Byrd from Baton Rouge, who is a practical energy guy, who also thinks that Al and his like should practice what they preach.

One of the things that he told us, and that his equipment proved, is that the recessed lights that we installed are all direct conduits to the 140 degree heat and dust from the attic. He suggests blowing in non-rigid foam. He does not like dry celluose. Wet cellulose he'll go with. The foam will seal the lights, and bring us up to an R38 rating from the near worthless 2-1/2 inches or so which has packed down in the attic with less bulk. We haven't gotten an estimate yet from the local provider of that service, but there, we're looking at $2000 or so.

But, you know, if we do those improvements we'll spend about what we paid for the enormous Viking, which you'll pry from my cold dead hands, and that substandard Jenn-Air.

Because I do think we should conserve energy. I think global warming is real, whatever its source, and a 30 percent savings is a reasonable goal in this old house.

Here are a few of my pet bees.

They took up with this soaker hose when it was first laid out, and there are scores of them.

Lyman wants to replace this hose with a Simple Soaker, and move the true simple soaker to the front, underneath a tree. The set-up will be entirely different and the bees will be deprived.

I'm not so sure that I can allow that.

I have deleted this post since the photograph has gone missing.

The actor Alec Baldwin threw a fit at his 11-year-old daughter.

I've been reading Dr. Helen on the topic, and one of her commenters gets to the point:

Anonymous said...
dittos to what tmink said.

I don't know about punishment, but the dude could sure use some anger management counselling or parenting classes or something. If he's this over the top about an eleven year old not answering her phone, he's going to stroke out when she's fifteen. (In my experience, most obnoxious age of them all.)

Lucy laid an egg last night, 4/20/07. It goes with the one she laid on 4/17/07.

Seems there is a problem with bees leaving their hives.

Could it be a water problem? I have a couple hundred bees living around one of the raised beds to suck on the soaker hose -- the one where I decided to plant flowers. My flowers aren't beyond seedlings.

Scientists are working on this problem, and Lyman reminds me that my experience is thin. He's right. So am I.

I saw these geraniums and the blue-purple petunias near one another at the nursery and couldn't resist. Do they remind you of Peter Max, too?

I called the lumber yard. We're looking at about $150 per 35" X 60" for Energy Star windows.