Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1056
Greenhouse progress, I have found my crematorium, Walmart shoplifting measures and the death of complaining to brands on social, endless Cities: Skylines, Jane and I picking out art.
Good morning. Good Monday morning. Merry Monday. Should I buy the new Nick Cave live album? I might be done buying Nick Cave albums on vinyl. Feel like 20 or so is enough?
Lovely weekend. Got the greenhouse looking done. There is still lots to be done. The door needs to be aligned, and it can’t be aligned until we get the replacement glass from a local glass dealer because we have a drop door (kinda crazy this kit expects you to go buy local parts for… the kit). We still need to dig a trench to get the electric and data to it, then I need to get the electric and data to it. We need to connect the water, and that also involves trenching, but it’s also hella complex and some tough decisions need to be made because I have two water sources, and I prefer to use the well, but the well isn’t on in the winter, and I will be watering things in the greenhouse in the winter, cuz, well, greenhouse. So do I make the water switchable? Is that overkill? I have to hang the curtains. And I have to hang the curtains before the electrician comes cuz he needs to know where they hang so he can attach conduit, because it’s a greenhouse and you can only attach conduit to so many places. Which means I probably need to iron the curtains. Which means I need… man is there even an ironing board over there?
All of these things are going to take a long time, because they can only be done in a certain order, and with certain professionals who only have certain availability.
And all of that needs to be done before I can actually put garden beds in the greenhouse, because the electrician (and yours truly, curtain installer) will need to use a ladder.
But the important thing is it looks done. I bought a bunch of plexiglass and gaffer’s tape, made very expensive experience learning to cut plexiglass, and then got it mounted into all the gaps so the thing is actually sealed and starting to warm up. If we ever get sun, that is. And I put a wireless thermometer in there so I can tell how much it warms up.
So…. behold!
Oh and I still need to pressure wash the wall.
I put this photo on Instagram, I never post on Instagram, it got like 200 likes. I never post on Instagram. But, boy, Instagram, social media manna from heaven. I’m lucky to get, like, 3 likes on Threads.
On Friday I also went to Sherwin Williams and got a 5 gallon bucket of paint color-matched with a spectrometer to my grey walls at the base of the greenhouse. My god, paint is expensive. Anyway, I was going to assemble and paint the new compost bins. And I did get them assembled, but all the wood was really wet, so I tarped it and am going to paint it next week after it dries a bit. I also did a bit o landlording and blew the leaves off of the tenant walkway and got her a pretty bucket and filled it wish sand and gave her a nice scoop in case it gets icy. I am very into my landlord chores.
Other than that, not a lot this weekend. Took the recycling to the collection center. On the way out, I passed the new Crematorium. Looks amazing. I feel a profound sense of comfort knowing that that building is where my body will turn to dust and be put into a little urn. As soon as they formally open I’ll probably march in and pre-pay.
Went to Walmart. They played New Order and Joy Division on Walmart radio which really sorta sent me into a tailspin of aging. New Order are classic rock. Even “Regret.” I mean, even new New Order is thirty years old.
(Speaking of new New Order, Sean T. Drinkwater wrote an amazing screenplay once involving a band named New New Order and my god it was such a good movie I wish someone would produce it.)
The special needs guy who works the parking lot collecting carts and I talked a lot about cobras and rattlesnakes. Very into poisonous snakes, he was, on Friday. Except, oddly, he did not want to talk about copperheads, our indigenous poisonous snakes. I kinda pressed it. Dude, copperheads are just as poisonous and there could be one within 20 yards of us right now. He didn’t care. It was the combination of venom and, I suspect, exoticness that excited him. Not that rattlesnakes are exotic, but I suppose they are around here.
Walmart has upped their security so the machines are alerting the employees more as you check out that you did something “suspicious.” It is arranged to make it look like the machines just messed up and they do not suspect you of shoplifting, which is clever but also annoying. I know this because internal memos leaked and I keep tabs of such things. This is all fine but twice now, when this has happened, my Walpay does not work. I’m not sure why the two would be linked, maybe something with electronic receipts and the ability to forge them with screencaps I dunno. But anyway, it is really annoying.
And I would complain about it on Twitter except no one goes there anymore.
And maybe Walmart is on Threads, who knows, but they wouldn’t see my complaint anyway because Threads has garbage search, no decent enterprise API, no enterprise social tools, etc.
Which is really weird, given that it’s Meta and, you know, they suck at the brand teat.
So maybe we are entering a phase where we can’t be whiny bitches on social media complaining to brands and them hoping we shut up by showily giving us free shit.
I suppose this is a good thing. But I am in withdrawal.
Other than that, pretty much played my Sim City ripoff game all weekend. I have hit a wall at 100,000 people. Well, 95k. Can’t break 100k. I think it probably has to do with affordable housing. I have assumed I could make a city filled with people who want to live in a walkable, dense city but I suspect those assumptions are flawed. I cannot tell you how much time I played this game this weekend, it would be embarrassing. I’ve purchased the parks and campus expansion packs now. I spent an hour at one point elevating and sinking a rail line to alleviate traffic. I have probably spent four, five hours just alleviating traffic. I see zoning grids behind everything I see in the real world. I am so glad I bought this thing on the PS5 and not my Mac because I wouldn’t do a lick of work otherwise. It is bad.
Jane and I picked out a bunch of possible art for the Somerville apartment out of the flat file. Some of the things Jane picked: A Sister of Mercy Vision Thing poster (“mommy likes them”), a Future Bible Heroes poster (pretty colors), four different posters from concerts at TT The Bears/Middle East, which strikes me as wonderfully thematically fitting. They were Bardo Pond on the Amanita tour, Lisa Germano and the Pale Saints, The Clientele, and a hand-colored by the band Turkish Delight poster. Plus a Laibach poster, New Order, a Merge Records tea towel, and a Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula original promotional poster. Will all of these past muster with the wife? Unclear but it’s not a bad set.
She was amazing this morning, it has to be said. Woke up happy, did all her morning stuff. A+ no complaints. Did I send her to school with crazy person frizzy hair with her braids coming out and bright red extensions woven in? Well, yes, but you try telling her that daddy should take out her braids.
We had a good weekend, Jane and I. Dance Parties were brief but she did let me get one new song in, even if it was a different Blackpink song. She did sort of watch semi-interestedly when I was watching the Young Fathers KEXP live set (my god, so good), so, you know, maybe some progress. She made a giant fort with her mommy. She sang the Cars “Dangerous Type” for a while. Lotta lego playing. Some really amazing crafting, crafted this amazing 3D dancefloor with kitties on it, it was fantastic.
She would not do outdoor chores with me, though. And she won’t go over to the other house to see Grandma, and Grandma doesn’t seem to leave the house too much, so we are at a bit of a standstill there. But no one seems overly concerned so, I guess I won’t be concerned either. Family.
Moody and quiet playlist for you today, all new. Man. New American Analog Set, Kevin Drew, Advance Base, Acetone, Crime & The City Solution, it is a good time in Music. If not somewhat hard on the pocketbook.
You guys are swell thank you for your time and attention. Talk tomorrow.