AWOL and back again

So yesterday Dan tells me that I haven't posted here for a month and at the rantblog for a year. I'm sure it's my longest absence from 50265, and I feel bad about that. I don't feel so bad about the rantblog absence.

Maybe it's the remodeling that threw me off. We had our kitchen and one of the upstairs bathrooms redone; they were both pretty beat-up and ugly, with lots of grim 70s brown and yellow touches.



The bathroom reminded me of the decor in my trailer when I was going to school in Carbondale, except the bathroom was always lizard-free.

The immediate motivation, of course, was a minor plumbing project of mine that went badly awry, leaving water-damaged ceiling in the kitchen and closet damage in Rob's room. It seemed advisable to have both projects done at once.

The remodeling work is done now - they finished December 23, just in time to let me cook the Christmas turkey. We're very happy with the work, but even happier to have a kitchen. I never had thought at all about what a pain it is to not have a kitchen - no counter, no oven or stove, no microwave, no sink - for a whole month. Everything is a hassle when you can't just make a pot of coffee, or get a glass of milk, let alone throw on a pizza or something.

While the house was torn-up, we were also helping Vickie's mom move in to assisted living at Wesley Acres. That involved packing up everything in the condo she's been at for the last 15 years or so. Vickie bore the brunt of that, but that of course meant a lot of the big and little things she does around here didn't get done, or worse, I had to do them. So I guess somehow the blog got sidetracked with all of this.

These excuses should be behind us. I have taken off since 12/31 to help put things back together. The garage had been used by the contractor for his tools and to store the materials, and we also had stashed all of the stuff from the kitchen in there. Today I finished clearing that out; Rob gleefully helped me smash the old kitchen drawers with a heavy utility hammer. It's nice to have the cars in the garage again, as they were outside for at least two big snows and an ice storm. Tomorrow I take a minivan-load of surplus kitchen stuff we have accumulated in 20 years of marriage down to the Salvation Army store (yes, I'm taking another day off; I'll make it up by April 15, I'm sure).

The rantblog? I'm not sure I'll start that up again. I originally intended it as a place for posts that seemed too political for my blog at work, but I've become bolder at the workblog, and I haven't felt the need to rant so much. On the national scene, there are plenty of others who more or less share my views, but who write better and smarter than I do, so there's no need for me to work that ground. I have enough to say about Iowa and Polk County politics, but aside from the occasional hilarity, both are pretty depressing, as are politics and politicians as a whole. It's abundantly clear that politicians as a class are at best harmless dummies, and at worst moderately-smart con artists. Yet we continue to elect them, because smart and respectable people stay away from the whole business. Sometimes people actually expect them to solve our problems. Amazing. Sometimes posting about them is cathartic, but mostly it just leaves me depressed.

Also, I'll admit I have a vision of my Dad getting bug-eyed and talking about the Village Fathers. He struggled with hypertension for many years, and it got him eventually, so why raise my risk?

I'd rather talk about the dog, the kitchen, the weather, the family... things I actually enjoy. So more posts here, but don't hold your breath for more at Joesaysso. Still, I'll leave it there, in case they try something as stupid as Project Destiny again.