Sunday, July 24, 2016

Art & Shawarma

 
Went downtown again to take care of stuff that brother Tim needed.
We.ve figured out that it is actually better to take Woodward, all the way.
As long as you don't get caught in the LightRail project,
it's faster than the freeway, and lot's to look at.
 
Like this building that someone stood on top of,
 and poured paint buckets over the edge...

 
Or this...
 
I don't know what to say about this particular piece of art.

 
So... as long as we were down there already,
we snuck over to the Shawarma restaurant.
 
Terry said, "Let's take them home and eat them".
 
Well, I couldn't wait and ate mine while he drove,
and I got the finger.

 
He kept driving faster and faster...

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

L.M.A.O.

 
Tuesday morning they were banging on our door at 7:00 in the morning.
They wanted us to move our car out of our driveway.
 
Here they are banging out one single piece of cement slab
 right smack in the middle of our driveway entry
 because it had a tiny crack in the corner.
What a bunch of crap !

 
This production line moved like a well choreographed dance troupe.
 

I will explain while Sandy catches Pokemen...
(and I'll explain that later).
 
Every twenty years, cities replace sidewalk slabs that become cracked, or raised by tree roots. The cost of this is passed on to the homeowner. The city (most all cities), also make a very big commitment to their love of trees, and that all trees are so important that they take precedent over the trees constant uplifting of sidewalk slabs. What What? 
 
This means that instead of them removing their trees from the curbside, they elect to make homeowners pay for new sidewalks every couple of decades.
Sounds absurd, but true, as I can attest that Terry and I have lived in three different houses in the last ten years and we have had to pay for this ridiculous ritual in every home.
 
Now, back to the fun...  

 
Ooh, it's lunch time for the troupe.

 
It was pretty impressive, how they did our entire block in one day.
They remove slabs, dig out tree roots,
 lay framing, tamp down dirt, pour concrete,
 level it, spritz it, put up barricades, and they are gone.

 
Two slabs by the tree...

 
The corner is not done yet. (That will be more fun on another day...)

 
Three slabs down the front sidewalk.


Oops, what happened here?
Some mischief?
 
We went down to the city hall to pay our Summer property taxes,
 and I showed them a picture of what some little hooligans did overnite,
 to one of our slabs of fresh cement...
 
(LMAO means laugh my ass off).
 
They took note of it and said that we were not alone
 and they have to replace multiple slabs
 due to vandalism throughout the neighborhood.
 
Whatever...
 
I want to say something else here,
 but it would contain alot of swearing, so just forget it.
 
Meanwhile, in the backyard...

 
Ha ha, you dirty rat.

 
L.M.A.O.
 
 
As for the Pokeman... (pronounced Pokeemon).
This new game has taken the world by storm;
it is the summer phenomenon of 2016.
In a nutshell;
the game uses GPS tracking to place Pokemen in different locations.
You are forced to walk to these locations to catch Pokemen,
 and to catch Pokeballs in order to feed your Pokeman.
It turns out that there is a "Pokestop" right outside our backyard gate,
which is causing a lot of traffic and congestion.
 
Lucky for us, we can get our lifelines right inside the gate.
 
Ergo, Sandy sitting back there waiting for "Pokeballs".
 
I have collected more Pokemen than her.
 
I'm such an idiot. 
 
  



Monday, July 18, 2016

A Good Guy and A Dirty Rat

 
Terry spent his whole Sunday working on the garage.
 
The gutters were so dirty they were stained grayish black.
He scrubbed and sprayed and scrubbed some more...

 
He's so cute.

 
After his prep work,
he painted the gutters and beneath.
 
It looks so much better.

 
Today the sidewalk guys showed up.
 
The city is doing it's twenty year sidewalk slab replacement bullshit,
and we are getting double slammed,
living on a corner lot.

 
We have six slabs; also the city corner,
 where they have to put in handicap bumps,
 and a single slab, right in front of our driveway.
 
I can think of so many things I'd rather spend $1,200 on
 than stupid sidewalk slabs !

 
Here they come...

 
Holy cow, these guys are good.
He picks out a whole slab
and swings it around into the dump truck.

 
Pretty impressive.

 
After they left for the day,
we went out to survey.
 
Here's just one section where
 they took out two slabs behind a tree.
 They are going to shave the tree roots back
 and lay the new cement.
 
Why don't they just take out the damn tree?
 
This is the second time they are redoing these slabs.
 
Just makes me mad.

 
Meanwhile; in the backyard...
 
We are trying to catch a rat.
 
Thought it was a mouse,
 but this guy is cleaning out the mouse traps
 and throwing them back at us.
 
This appears to be his home,
 a burrow under the cedar tree in the yard next door.
 
We'll get him.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Suburbanites

 
Too busy and too hot to do much around the house lately.
This was the ONLY substantial rain
we have had in the whole summer season.
It happened last week, at one in the morning,
and I tried to get a picture of the flooding street.
 
It dried up within hours, and it hasn't rained again...
 
Ahh, life in the suburbs of Detroit.

 
We had to take Terry's brother to a doctor appointment yesterday,
which meant picking him up downtown,
driving him to Birmingham,
taking him back downtown,
and then returning back to the suburbs.
 
The traffic is so bad,
and the freeway is so congested,
we decided to take Woodward all the way
 from downtown,
 to 14 mile in Royal Oak,
because we had shopping to do for mom too. 

 
Once we got past the "lightrail" project,
it was smooth sailing...
 
and I started noticing churches on every corner.

 
I also noticed some crumbling buildings...

 
One beautiful church after another.

 
I don't even know where we are here...

 
Don't know what this is...

 
Nice one.

 
Trowbridge Street...
 
Are we getting closer to civilization yet?

 
Strange world down here...
New stuff and old stuff
trying to co-mingle.

 
Homeless and hipsters...

 
These old churches are majestic
and it makes me want to go inside... 

 
This old church is now "Soul Harvest Ministries"
whatever that means...

 
More modern,
getting closer to the "mean streets". 

 
Seven Mile.

 
Eight mile.
 
State Fair Apartments.
My grandma used to live there...

 
Nine mile.

 
Jim Fresard,
where we used to frequent.
Used to be Pontiac, where we leased our cars from...
 
Back to civilization,
as we suburbanites call it.
 
Into Ferndale, and Royal Oak,
 
and on to mom's house.

 
This silly, (or smart) Robin has made a nest atop mom's gutter.
 
Ahh, the suburbs.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Wonderful Saturday

 Today was an interesting day.
We started out going to an estate sale in St. Clair Shores,
where we found nothing of interest.
 
It was a beautiful morning,
and not wanting to go home yet,
we traveled down Jefferson,
all the way to downtown Detroit,
where we ended up at a Shawarma cafe.
 
We took our sandwiches
and drove into the Elmwood Cemetery
 where my Great-Great Grandparents are buried.
 
Their story continues to be a mystery that we
keep trying to research,
but always come up empty handed.
 
We sat by their graves
and ate our sandwiches
and talked about our never-ending search for their story...
 
Then we decided to get back home,
and get to work on that porch roof.
 
 
Shingles...

 
After watching multiple YouTube videos,
we felt confident about getting this done.

 
The cherry tomatoes are just starting to come in,
and Roxy is stealing every last one of them.
 
(looks like a face on that old soccer ball).
 
Weird.

 
Because of the gazebo,
Terry is having to contort his body to reach the top of the porch...

 
Look at him,
crazy man...

 
It took a couple of tries,
but we figured it out.

 
He never stops,
he keeps going, and going, and going...
 
Tomorrow, we need to figure out how to do the flashing,
and then there are some odds and ends to work out.
 
The door needs casing,
and the brick needs cleaning.
and the cedar needs sealant,
and the doorbell needs to be installed...
 
and we'd rather be visiting cemeteries.