Texas wildfires

It was so wild, the wild fires I mean. There I am walking across the parking lot and there is little bits of ash in the air. Not like a snow flurry but it was a flake or two you notice if you hold real still and focus. So its not a lot but concidering that these ashes are flying over 30 miles from where the Texas wild fires are burning in the hill country is a neat.

Oh don't worry, the fires are about 15 miles away from El Rancho de Braco. So no real threat of my house catching on fire or anything.

So the whole day everyone is kind of clearing their throats or a lite hacking cough. All this smoke and the cedar pollen has everyone kind of beat. What really amazed me was the smoke on the way back. Now Austin Minor (Round Rock, Texas) has been a polluted city ever since they sold their souls to Mayor Maxwell. Today however was different! Instead of the gray haze it was a thick light brown haze that totally surrounded you. The entire drive home was this light brown "fog"...even when I got to the normally clean air of the Hill Country.

Makes you feel pretty small and connected to a greater scheme of things at the same time.

Long time comin'

Thank god! Its been raining the last couple of days and all the Cedar pollen is washed from the air.....for now. And I finally was able to sleep through the night. So win win.

I don't know if I blogged about this in the past but one thing I love to do it order Chinese food on a rainy day. Nothing is more soul warming then a good rain shower and some Chow Mein. This time I thought I would try the local Hao Ling Kat Chinese place. YUM! That's all I gots to say! Yummy yum yum...

Even my daughter scarfed it down and she is the one that has been a picky eater lately. The Mandarin chicken was gone in a baby gobble...she even tried to copy daddy by using the chop sticks. So of course they end up her nose and she has a piece of chicken hanging out of her mouth.

Bobcats

For those of you that don't know, I live in Texas. The country of, not the state of. The only "state of" here in Texas is the state of mind. Just a little primer for you non-Texas folks. Nothin' personal

Living in Texas means that summer gets hot, or so they tell me. Then again I have been called crazy for playing golf in 108° heat with a long sleeve shirt and blue jeans. I just don't see it getting hot down hear but I'll take everyones word on it. On a side note, Yankees steer clear during the summer. I've seen several of you poor folks melt on the sidewalk and I just can't take it anymore. I can still hear the screams!

ok.......crud. I think I misplaced the point of this post. Under the keyboard...no. hmmmm, in the desk draw...noooo, oh here it is! So the heat! So we got a lil' one, and a medium one, and a wifey one, and a grandma one living out at the ranch. No sooner than the sun hitting the roof in the middle of the afternoon does the house turn into a sauna.

Now I was figuring that since we live out in the open (sort of), and the house is kind old (meaning poor insulation), and living on top of a hill (meanin' closer to the sun) that things would indeed get kind of hot. I always resolved to tackle the problem by putting in new insulation and maybe putting ceiling fans in every room.

Now imagen my surprise when I go to crawl under the house (remember I am networking my house and putting in new phone line) and it is cool and I can feel air pressure. In fact it was cool enough to take a nap under the house. This got me to thinking! So after my nap... I start crawling around so I can determine where this cool air pressure is coming from.

Lo and behold I discover a huge hole in my belly paper (A moisture proof layer of plastic under the house) and my A/C system scattered on the ground. Looking at the A/C duct that is still attached to the house there is a 13" gap, as in not there, in the A/C duct. Better said, the A/C is blowing from the system and into the duct work. The air then attempts to travel this 13" gap back into the other side of this gap to supply a flow of air pressure and conditioned air to the house. Hard to apply both when you do not have a solid, one piece, system! But I'll be tickled if my A/C system isn't working its damnist to make it happen.

Now as I look around I can see huge claw marks......somdamn' mammal has made a scratchin' post of my A/C system! Judging by the size of the claw marks it could be a dog, coyote, or bobcat or something freaking huge. I swear on everything holy (all of which exist in Texas) that I'll make a hat out of whatever did this to my house!

Now I got some local folks comin' out to take a look at it (for free I might add). We'll see how much this will cost me. I also gave the insurance folks a call so I can file a claim and at first it wasn't going well.

Me: Yes, hello James. My policy number is xxxxxxxxxxxxx

James the insurance claim taker: ok, Bryan what can I do?

Me: well I need to file a claim. It seems some critter has taken a fancy to the finer things in life. I believe it found my A/C to be palletable and has commenced to make a feastie out of my A/C duct work.

James: Huh?

Me: Some critter destroyed my A/C ducts

James: Oh.....well Bryan I don't believe your insurance covers animal damage.

Me: Really? Well, that is disappointing. Well, what am I going to tell their maker?

James: I don't follow you sir

Me: Their maker....you know, God. The good lord, Christ O' Mighty, The big guy, Buddy Christ? he is going to be awful upset over this and I am sure that he doesn't approve of the critters actions.

James: Sir, I don't know if I am authorized to talk about theology with customers.

Me: I understand but I am just try to determine what I am going to tell him since he is their custodian.

James: I.....uh....*sigh*..what are you saying

Me: Well, since he made them and rules over them, any act that they make is an act that he makes. Simple commerce law. Nothing do difficult.

James: *Silence*

Me: *Silence*

James *Silence*

Me: *Silence*

James: Ok, I'll have a claims adjuster call you today

Me: Thank you James

James: *click*

Honey do list

In keeping my promise, here is the list of things to do around the house:

1. Wife and mother want a deck with a second story observation deck
   
2. I need to brick up the skirt before I make a deck
3. I need to realign the driveway since half of it is on the neighbors property
4. Fix the driveway retaining wall
   
5. Network the house
6. Establish a structured wiring with junction box
   
7. Fix the electrical sockets in the master bath and in the mothers room
8. Fix the electrical socket outside
9. Put in new 1" wood frames for both entry doors
10. Weatherstrip all the windows and doors
    
11. Get new screens for almost all the windows
12. Install light switches for the master closets instead of those stupid pull-chains
13. Install light switch for the pantry instead of that stupid pull-chain
14. Make a bookshelf for the small library that we have
15. Organize my shed
16. Dig out the rock in the back yard (another soon to be post)

I am going to stop there...

The Martini Procrastination

Monday was about prep'ing the house for the cabling for the home network. I had it all planned out. I would take off a skirt panel near one of the phone jacks in one of the target rooms. Then I would determine how to remove the under-paneling for the floor. Then determine how to locate the floor joist thingy and determine how to fine the phone jack location from there.

So what actually happened?

Martini.........

So I ended up moving the reclaimed brick into piles while I stewed in my intense buzz. I wasn't about to crawl into a cramped area in that condition.

OH GOOD NEWS! Wifey and I are heading out to shop for a pick-up truck after work! I wanted a Dodge but I think she has her heart set out for the Chevy. I tried to tell her that they found the Chevy by the levy but it's not use. She gets what she wants and I am totally cool with that :)

First BBQ

Well I have officially christened the property! We had our first BBQ on Sunday!

I got a bag of wood chips, I hate charcoal, and started up the BBQ grill. My mother and wife also decided this was a wonderful idea and loaded me up with 4 steaks, a large chicken breast, 5 beef franks, 6 hamburger patties.

2 hours of BBQ mayhem!

Judging by the clouds I moved the BBQ grill and lawn table to the car shanty and other than a slight drop or two it was pretty much not an issue. It did provide for a nice humid day which is nice for BBQ I suppose.

One side effect from BBQ is that mosquitoes will NOT bother you. I did enjoy this little event in ultimate ease. Sitting back, BBQ filling the air, birds chirping, eyes closed....and the sound of a shrilled little voice "I'll put out the fire daddy".

WTF....! Damn it he is doing it again! Seems my son doesn't get the concept of a BBQ. He thinks that fire is bad and must be put out with dirt from his brand new shovel....and the food is still on the grill.

I managed to get the shovel from him just before our food would have had a nice glaze of dirt de jour.

We also had our first yard wrestle! My son thought it would be funny to act like a super hero and use his super punch to defeat me. A grab of the wrist, a slight chop to his arm pit and a leg trip to the ground and evil has won the day! I guess daddy never told his son about his Kung-Fu training. All in due time....all in due time.

Wrestling did ensue.....quite the little fighter in him.

Wireless is not the way to go

Well dang nab it! this weekend was suppose to be about me crawling under the house and installing network cable. I had planned to drill 1/4 or so holes going in the base boards and all to run phone and network cable. But I listened to others and thought that wireless would be faster, cheaper, and easier.

*Side note: I already have a wireless router. It drops connections faster than Paris Hilton can drop a line of coke.

Easier, yes it was easier...if you don't count that I had to run to the store to get network cards as I found out my mother does NOT have a on-board network interface. I thought those were standard with computer from 2000 on up...which may lead to another story some day down the road.

Cheaper, Almost....by a few bucks. For the wireless option, the new router cost me $60 and the two network cards cost me $19 each (but don't quote me on that yet). The wired option starts at $26 x 2 for the network cable (100 ft each). Plus the RJ-11/RJ-45 (Phone/Network) jacks cost me $8 @ a qty of three.

- Wireless: $98

-Wired: $92

Hmmmmm....now that I have done the numbers it does look like wired is cheaper. I still need to buy RJ-11 cable to run from the demarcation box to my previously planned network junction box. Not to mention AWG-22 (I think) Black/white/ground wires to said junction box. But still.....The cost looks almost marginal and I get the reliability of cabled network. And hey, those wires run like 19¢!

Faster, Considering the opportunity cost here. Had I fallin' back on my project management skills I would have "costed" out the project, calculated the opportunity cost, built my time lines, and assessed the risk. Big fat "L" on my forehead. I know better and I got caught up in the easy solution.

So as of faster... Considering that I now wasted a perfectly good weekend and my schedule for this week looks full. I might get small 1 hour breaks to pick away at the first option. Delaying the whole "project" by a week. Not to mention that my wife is getting a little P.O'ed every time I say "Well, I have to go to Lowes...."

She's threating to give them a picture of me and telling them to cut me off.

Is their a home improvement anonymous group in the Leander area?

The Interweb!

w00t! DSL modem arrived Wednesday! I tripped over the water soaked box on my way into the house during the monster storm we were having. Lucky for ATT and my sanity that it was wrapped in plastic!

I got it all setup last night....and checked my gmail and went to bed. Doesn't sound like a guy that has been internet deprived for over a month now does it?

Anywho, I'll be running a phone cable from the demarcation box to the master closet. It is the center most location in my house. Where I will be creating a junction with a phone jack, power outlet, modem holder, router holder, and line outs for several CAT5 cables.

A lofty task for this weekend but it should be well worth it to have the house networked.

Since I am still looking for the charge to the digital camera, I got a few extra disposables for pics during the project. Stay tuned kiddos! You get to watch first hand how a man screws himself out of home owners insurance!

Loooooove shack

Its the simple things in life that make me happy, like my meth lab. NO! I do not have a real meth lab. My tool shed is this 10' x 15' shack that looks...very much like a meth lab on the outside.

Lawn mower, weed eater, and my grandfathers tool all go in there. I am even going to haul my grandfathers work bench out to El Rancho de Braco and set it up inside my little shack. I've never had my own tool shed or workshop and I am finding it to be a very enlightening experience.

P.S. The tool shack is on the left

Welcome to the Jungle....

Lord have mercy! This yard thing is a bear.

The yard at El Rancho de Braco is something of a nightmare. It is a mix of grass/weeds and rock. For example I have patches of grass that are just as easy to mow as clubbing a baby seal. Then you have small piles of brick or chiseled stone (previous owner left me presents) in little piles all over the yard. THEN I have areas of protruding rock or a collection of rough large stones. Both of which require the weed eater!

Icing on the cake: Anopheles gambiae!

It got so bad that I had six of them sucking on my arm when I was cleaning out my car last week.

My "solution"... The bug zapper! with the Mosquito bait. I'll admit that the bug zapper is pretty genocidal when it comes to "just the bugs" category, it has at least kept the Mosquito population at bay. I really should stop using it from what I read.

Which leds to my other less-than-ideal solution. Chemical spraying... yeah, I said it. *sigh*. I really really really hate to resort to this but I have got to break their breading cycle if I am ever going to be able to go outside.

UPDATE: I just found this: http://www.diyhappy.com/quick-and-dirty-mosquito-trap/