Say What?

The sun finally made an appearance a few days ago for what seemed like the first time in weeks. It was so welcome even if it did usher in some much cooler temps. It was worth the tradeoff for me. I took advantage of the brightness to capture a few photos of the laundry room work we just completed. We're happy with it. The ceiling didn't quite go as planned because of the color. The harvest yellow we'd chosen seemed too close to natural once it was all in place. Tammy had been hinting all along that she'd like to see more of a whitewashed color and that's what we opted for in the end. It was the right choice all along. See the photo to the left. Karen found a distressed wood bench seat with a mirror at Hom Furniture that we liked and had to have to complete our laundry room's look. Photos of the completed project  here and here . The Glowing Tree in Bloomington has gone dark. I began this Facebook page for it 4 years ago when I noticed that it had none

There's a new app to tell you which of your friends are racist: it's called Facebook—or so the joke goes. I've been avoiding Facebook lately, partly because I've been too busy with home improvement projects but also because of how vitriolic and heavy it's become of late with all of the discussion centering around what many feel (including me) is the heavy-handed approach by some in law enforcement toward minorities and the pass they're being given by grand juries for those actions. I sometimes feel a strong need to push back on some of what I'm reading but more often than not I don't. I quietly sigh and move on. Our home improvement projects are nearly done. All that's left for me to do is to hang a couple of doors in the laundry room. I've got them drying in the garage and intend to install them tomorrow. We're very happy with how both the laundry room and Tammy's sewing room (Rachel's former bedroom) turned out. We hadn't

I walked in to work this morning with no jacket on. All of our snow is gone and the temp is in the mid-40s. This reprieve from what began as a cold harsh winter is welcome but it's not a friend to the trails and my fat-bike. I've been too busy working on an indoor project to have any time at all for riding so it really doesn't matter to me. I'm almost embarrassed to admit how many hours I've been spending on our laundry room renovation . What started out as a simple paint the walls and redo the curtains project has morphed into quite a bit more. Karen suggested we consider painting the oak cabinets and trim throughout the room and adding a slatted wood ceiling. Both very nice ideas. Plus, anything to slowly chip away at the honey-oak look of our home's interior is a good thing. I spent all of Friday night in our garage staining the boards for the slatted wood ceiling that Joe is going to do for us. Tammy isn't totally sold on the color we're going wi

35 years ago today I was discharged from the Navy after my four-year enlistment. Usually, this day comes and goes each year with little notice from me but today I remembered. Four years can seem like a long time to someone who's in their early 20s so it was a big deal to me then. From my journal, 12-10-1979: The sensation of being out caught up with me this afternoon as I was driving the freeway to Chula Vista. I took full advantage and let out a scream of joy, happiness, and freedom. How fitting, Supertramp's Take the Long Way Home was playing.  I had seriously thought about staying in San Diego when I got out but opted to head for home to maybe show my family that I'd grown up and wasn't the troubled kid I was when I'd left. It was a good decision. I'm about to reminisce in a rambling sort of way... I'd spent years leading up to my enlistment just barely getting by in high school. I learned years later when I requested my records that I'd finis