Well, Autumn decided to come to our area with quite some flare, in the form of a crazy cold front! Yes, fall starts tomorrow, but Mother Nature wanted to make sure we knew she was changing things up on us!
The first wave was just a good rain. Then around 7pm, we started hearing severe weather reports pop up on the TV. The next band was fast moving, strong winds and rain with thunder and lightning, and lastly, hail! The hail got thrown in last minute - Eric was worried about his car, so he even moved it to a nearby garage (since we do not have our own yet). Just as he got back to the house, the rain came in like a wall! Then came the hail... sure enough.
It was only pea sized, so it only did damage to vegetation. Leaves came down off of the trees, ripped to shreds if they were bigger leaves. My pour pumpkin vine took a beating, too, but I'm sure it'll survive. But those leaves that were as big as my head are no more! But it came down in droves and littered the yard and walk everywhere!
And the temperature DROPPED! The rain, itself, was cold! I ran out in it (after the hail part was done)at one point to grab something and it was piercingly cold! But then it ended.
The storm left behind a few power outages, a lot of mess on the ground in the form of leaves and twigs, and a much cooler temperature. Hello, Fall!
So this one will be short, but not sweet. But as the election nears, it just gets worse and I just get more riled up.
This blogs topic... the damn ads! I'd like to see a political ad where the politician tells me what he's going to do for me and how he's going to make things better, not what's wrong with the other candidate! That's not going to get my vote. It fact, that makes me want to vote for you less!
I also don't care who supports you and your campaign. Again, that does not tell me what I want... no, what I NEED to know! You have a better chance of losing my vote if the wrong person supports you.
Finally, I don't give a crap about which candidate raised more money! It doesn't matter! again, it doesn't hep in enlightening me, or anyone else, on what will be better when you are in office.
Honestly, I'd love for political ads to go away all together. They're biased and tell us nothing. Lets go back to the old school way... hobnobbing and a good, straight forward, bio in the paper as the election gets near. Not that I want politicians knocking on my door, but do us all a favor and just get on your soapbox about YOU, and not your opponent.
Last night was one more concert for the year... one we seemingly planned for since we knew about it for months. But all that changed quickly... it went from being downtown at The Lawn, to up in Noblesville at Deer Creek. We were going to meet some other friends either before or after (or both, but with us having to drive to Noblesville now, that wouldn't happen. So why all the change? A storm.
We knew a storm was coming - it was talked about for days. That's why they moved the show up to Deer Creek, under the pavilion. Why they didn't do it until the morning of, I don't know - made for some chaotic last minute planning. But we all still managed to make it up there and meet up (there was a group of us). We got into the venue as the opening, opening act was finishing up, but you could see the storm was looming.
So official showtime approaches, and instead of a band walking on stage, it was the MC from he local radio station for the concert. They were going to delay until the storm passed, and we could go wait in our cars or stay under the pavilion. We stayed.
Then the storm blew in. And boy did it blow in! Leaves were swirling around, rain was blowing under parts of the pavilion, and the temperature dropped! And it rained!! Torrential downpour for about an hour (at least!). REports were coming back from downtown Indy that there was flooding everywhere because it came down so fast - gushing up through the storm inlets! But we stuck it out.
Finally, the first band, Metric, took the stage around 9:45pm. They played for about an hour, and then we debated amongst ourselves whether or not Cake would play past the 11pm curfew as they broke down Metric's stage. I said yes, without a doubt. Other people had doubts. But by the time Cake took the stage, it was nearly 11pm! And they did, indeed, play well after the curfew, wrapping up around midnight.
Made for a long night,but isn't half the concert experience just that - the experience? This will be one remembered for the storm.
So I'm convinced... if you don't work (or go to school) on a consistent 5 day a week schedule, you'll lose track of what day it is. Not just the date, but the actual day.
Yesterday, the plumber came in the morning to replace our stack, and my intention was go go in after he was done, around lunch time. Well, it took a little longer than anticipated, so I ended up not going in at all. Which threw me off for the rest of the day and I forgot to do about half the things I planned on doing (errands and such). It was so bad that I, in fact, thought it was Friday! Cruel joke.
So then Friday actually does come along, and since I already had the day off, I was even more confused as to what day it was. I spent all day today thinking it was Saturday, which was really odd since I wasn't working on the house. I felt antsy all day, like I was forgetting to do something. I didn't forget to do anything, at least... but it was still a very odd feeling all day.
Now my 'fear' is that with the already anticipated long Labor Day weekend, I'm going to be so out of whack come Tuesday that it'll take me the whole day to get back into the swing of things. I gotta say, if it wasn't for work, I really would have no idea what day it was... not sure if that's really a bad thing, though.
So now that Isaac has made his way inland, I can say this... what the hell was with all the media hype??
I'm all for being prepared and not having another Katrina (or Camille, of Hugo, or Andrew...), but did MY local media sources really need to send reporters down to cover it?? The hotels in New Orleans probably had about as much occupancy as they do during Mardi Gras, thanks to all the media converging on the area. You'd think it was a Cat 5 as is began to loom over the bayous... but no... it barely made it to a Cat 1 before making landfall.
Yes, I know it's still a hurricane and it can still cause damage in the way of wind and water... but did I really need to have 15 minute updates in Indiana? I'm assuming we weren't the only State to have the idiocracy of local media covering things...
So now Isaac in inland and actually heading up towards Indiana, likely to still be a drenching depression when it gets here. So what do we do? Hype it up some more! Our local government is filling up and giving away sandbags. Really??
Maybe I'm just numb to weather 'disasters' since I grew up in FL... where I never saw as much hype about a hurricane as I did this most recent one. But it just seems to me that we're going a little overboard with this one. Just a little.
It's not even September yet, and I am SO ready for this election to be over! Politics, in general, are becoming worse and worse with each election. If there's any doubt about why this country is torn about the answer is simple... POLITICS!
So for this post (vent), I am going to take a minute to reiterate my stance on the fact that we REALLY need to do away with the party system. I won't go into the details of how it works like I have in the past, but I will say this... a democracy will survive just fine with out parties.
I took a survey recently that really pointed out how much politician DON'T listen to their constituents and just play by the party rules. Some of today's 'hot topics',like the healthcare overhaul and gun control (in light of recent events) are part of the questionnaire you take, which can be as short or as long as yo want it to be. Politician's really lead you to believe that what their party thinks is what the entire US population thinks - they're manipulative that way. For example, I was really starting to think lot of people really did disagree with the Affordable Healthcare Act. But looking at the survey results, an overwhelming majority think it was the right thing to do and should stay in place!
Now before you get on your high horse and assume I took a poll sent to me via email by one of the parties, making it a one sided pole, that's not how it happened. I stumbled across this site that was put together by some media outlets to help the everyday voter actually side with the candidates that had the same beliefs they did. Novel concept, I know... but check it out for yourself. It's called ElectNext.com and it helps you learn your own stance on things better, if nothing else.
But back to the fact that the election is still over two months away... why must we throw mud?? I think, honestly, the each elected official should be REQUIRED to poll their constituents on big issues, and maybe a smaller make-up of their districts for other issues and actually vote base off those responses. I know - another crazy idea! My City Councilman does that, and it is so awesome that he does! He sends out an email, gets opinions, then chooses to vote based off of the responses and what he thinks is right, even if it's against party lines! I love this guy! He's actually in politics for the right reason and treating his position as it should be - a representative of his district and, essentially, his neighborhood. If only other politicians would get the hint.
Oh well... maybe one day we can get back to where our forefathers meant for us to be...
This is probably one of my favorite times of year... when we move from baseball season, to football season! Yes, I know baseball isn't over. But the important thing is that football is starting! No so much pro-football, but college football... less than one week away!
I caught a few baseball games this year... one Cubs game in Chicago, and a couple of Indianapolis Indians game (most recently, this afternoon for the Indians). It is, after all, as American as it gets. Just give me some apple pie and a Chevy on a levee.
But while baseball is America's past time, it really doesn't get much more American than football... American football. We are, after all, the only country that really recognizes this sport. "Football" in ever other country is what we call soccer in the US... because football has been taken. Which is kind of funny since the foot/feet aren't used to often in football, but they are all that's used in soccer. But I digress.
I absolutely love my college football. More specifically, my Auburn football! And I cannot wait until next Saturday, when we have our first game. Yay! I so wish I could make a game this year, but my fall is already jammed pack and it doesn't look too promising. So I'll have to settle for TV and watch parties with the local Auburn Club.
Yes, I like the pro games, too. But there's something about the heart that is in college football that seems to have been lost in the NFL. Whether it's because the NFL has become so commercialized, or because the player themselves have turned it into a greed fest, it's just not the same.
Though at any given time if given the choice over any other sport, football of any sort would win... without a doubt.
So, I know some of you have been wondering how the bathroom is going... and no, it's not done yet. Hence the word 'update' in the title. But it IS getting closer!
If you know the history of the bathroom, you know we've had to do a lot of re-work from some bad work done by the old contractor (which is why he's no longer our contractor). It's been a very tedious process, but we're kind of glad he left when he did because a lot of bad work would have been covered up with none the wiser... until something broke. Eric and I have become novice carpenters/framers, plumbers, and electricians over the past 6 months. Nothing we ever thought we'd do, but yet we did it. And we feel a lot better about our work than the work we replaced!
But we're finally getting past all that. We're finally getting to point where we're on track and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We can actually count the weekend until we'll be putting tile down on the floor! How exciting is that?? I'd take a picture and post it, but you really can't tell the progress or what really is going on. Beside, it's still kind of chaotic in there. But you'll have to take my word for it.
We do have one item, which we will hire a professional to do, that's outstanding before we can really start flying through our final tasks. And it's something we decided to do since it may be our only opportunity to do so... replace the sewer stack. Sounds glamorous, right? It runs down our back wall, which is opened up right now, and knowing that's it's decades old cast iron, it's probably just a good idea, at this point. Once that's done int he next week or so, we can close all the walls an floors up... and it's 'easy stuff' from there.
So I'll say it for record's sake... my goal is to be done by the end of September. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
It was only pea sized, so it only did damage to vegetation. Leaves came down off of the trees, ripped to shreds if they were bigger leaves. My pour pumpkin vine took a beating, too, but I'm sure it'll survive. But those leaves that were as big as my head are no more! But it came down in droves and littered the yard and walk everywhere!
