Sweet Home

There is nothing like it.

I am finally getting used to the peace and quiet on my street. The mosquitos I could do without, but the quiet is wonderful. The first couple of nights, I was up and down with all the strange noises I heard. The new fridge would click on and off, the house would moan and creak, my A/C made funny sounds...the usual. The worst sounds I have to deal with are the dogs barking across the street, and the acorns that occasionally drop on the roof. The dogs are no big deal. They actually alerted me to a potential problem in my neighborhood, garbage rummagers. Heard the neighbor's dogs across the street going off last night and peeked out the front window to see what was up. Right next door to me, a guy got out of his car and started rummaging around the trash and recycling bins. He took a couple of things out and put them in his trunk and drove off to the next house. I got a good look at the guy and will remember him if I see him in the neighborhood. I will introduce him to my friend, Mr. Blasty, if he comes round my trash cans. I don't plan on putting my trash at the street until the morning of trash day. That should prevent garbage looters from giving me extra ulcers. I keep my trash can behind the fence. That fence is marked as private property with a yard sign, so there is no argument about who and what belong where.

I am not sure what to make of the crime scene in that part of Houston. To give you a rough idea of where I live, I am in the Northwest Patrol division for HPD. Inside the Beltway, north of I-10 and south of Clay Rd. My house is in the middle third of the block, and it is a long block. Behind me are some nice 5+ acre lots with million dollar homes. There are also a couple of immigrant/Katrician laced apartments within walking distance, too. These provide most of the foot traffic on my street. Everyone is walking to and from work and the store. I have seen a few familiar faces, but see new people walking down the street every evening. Gonna take some time before I know them all. I thought the apartments were the cause of a shooting on Monday night. I could be wrong. My guess, it was one of the rich kids behind me unloading on a raccoon or possum with his .38. It was so close, the shots did sound like a .38 spl. I didn't hear any return fire, so I may be right about the racoon.

I am very happy with this house. So far, anything that needed fixing by my own hand has been fixed. I only have the plumbing left to deal with. I want to do it right, so I bought a general how-to plumbing book and plan on tackling some of those projects this weekend. Swede and I are going to finish getting the rest of our stuff from the apartment this weekend. Tonight we are heading over from work to clean out the trash and the two closets with clothes in them. If there is room left, I plan on getting as much crap out of the garage as humanly possible. All in all, we should be done by Sunday. Then we can focus our attention on unpacking the rest of the boxes and getting the rest of our furniture.

I can also get my lawnmower this weekend, too. We need to do some yardwork...leaves are starting to pile up. Nothing that a little sweat and elbow grease can take care of.

Oh, did I mention that my microwave blew up? Bought a new one at Lowe's that matched the scheme in the kitchen. Plugged it in and read the directions. I put a plate of pasta in to reheat and WHAMMO! The darn thing arced and then died. Lowe's is taking their dear sweet time posting my refund to the account, but at least I got a new microwave. It works without lightining bolts shooting out the back.

In-laws are coming in on Tuesday from Sweden. While they recover from jet lag, the Brinks dude and my electrician are coming by to finish outlets and install a home-security system. Here's to hoping they don't wake my in-laws.