We ain’t blowed up yet.

I have been furtively glancing at the sky for perhaps a huge meteor shower or maybe a mushroom cloud,  but so far it’s just overcast. 

I did manage to pop a blood vessel in my right eye yesterday somehow quite mysteriously,  but I think that was the result of doing one of those “old man” things where I get mixed up between breathing and swallowing?  Sucks when you almost have to hack up a lung after inhaling some gob.  I think that’s what happened. 

There will be no photographic evidence.  It’s a bit nasty looking,  trust me.

Speaking of taking pictures of shit for no particular reason however,  I offer you the following:

 

This is not where we normally make coffee.  See,  I’m not overly keen on the smell of vinegar,  and this particular coffee maker was in need of some remediation.  I think I used that term the other day in reference to the rest of the place,  so pardon my repetitiveness.  I’ll break out the thesaurus. 

For the life of me I couldn’t seem to find white vinegar in Vienna,  and finally found some in Slovenia.  Here you can buy gallons of it.  It works wonders when it comes to loosening up scale.  Our water here is a tad hard.  I just can’t handle the smell,  especially if heated.  If you’re going to make pickles?  I won’t be around.

 

And the following,  ladies and gentlemen, is a little sample of some of the things we do to pass the time while at home. 

It’s not the neighbour’s house I’m looking at,  but rather the windows. 

It’s perfectly understandable that the “kids” would be reluctant to attempt any sort of clean up when it comes to these modern marvels.  

No really,  they are wonderful.  It’s just that,  after installing the curtain/blind arrangement (several years ago),  it’s impossible to get the screens out without following an exact set of steps.  

And if you’re going to do that,  you may as well go whole hog and vacuum out all the other crud that gets in there as a result of the tiny creatures that so love to hang out.

I saw evidence of at least one Mud Dauber,  along with a bunch of other fuzzy stuff that I’d need an etymologist to identify. 

 

 

 

Fun stuff.

Speaking of steps.  One of the steps is to close off the kitchen to keep out the curious cat.  He’s cute and all,  but he has issues with getting out of the way,  and is just underfoot the whole time.  

 

He finally gave up and took up his spot with the dog. 

We think he thinks he’s just another dog,  since he was “raised” by that one. 

 

 

 

There was a question the other day about the flower beds.  The answer is…yes.  

See,  once upon a time,  we had a service that did the lawn and beds.   We’ve had lawn care since something like 2002,  when we hiked off to Puerto Rico for a year.   I kept the service when we came home,  since it was pretty cool to have someone else cut the grass.   Then in 2008,  when we moved to Europe,  we already had someone reliable.

The only thing was,  in the last year or so,  the price kept going up,  and the service got worse,  so we punted them out,  and a nephew was hired to do the cutting.  My impression is that he didn’t quite keep up with the beds?   Plus,  it’s been too freakin’ warm lately,  and everything kept growing.  Gah!

So,  it’ll depend on how brutal the weather is over the next several days,  but I’ll most likely be out there digging.   Oh I just can’t wait.    (Um, you can insert the sarcastic font there?)

 

I have a couple more windows to knock off before heading off to the pub.   Should be fun.   (Not the window part.)

 

Have a fine weekend if I fail to check in.  Well, assuming that we’re all here in one piece after today.   Fingers crossed.  

 

I refuse to add an additional “label” with something like “the end of the world”,  although this isn’t the first time the subject has come up.  We’ll just go with “retarded people”.   Hope that helps.

 

 

Thanks for stopping in.

 

Sticks.  Ice.  You know.

 

 

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