(no subject)
Oct. 17th, 2007 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eee1313First and foremost, thanks to everyone who weighed in yesterday on my sofa debacle. It ended up that two guys drove down from DeKalb to get the sofa last night. For those of you not in the know, that's about 60 miles away. Those guys really wanted that sofa! (Thank God!)
So last night I raced over to the apartment and went inside to find out how "dirty" it really was. Dude. That place was CLEAN. Not 100%, but probably a good 95% clean. So I ended up scrubbing the stovetop, the inside of the stove, the fridge (again), all the countertops, the bathtub (which was dirty with mud and footprints from THEIR shoes, mind you), and all the cabinets. And just to show that I had been there and had cleaned, I left every cabinet wide open. Oh, and as for the "stuff" that I left behind in the cabinets, the final tally was four egg cups that I must have missed on a top shelf, a roll of paper towels, and a bottle of wood floor polish. Of course, I purposely left the paper towels and floor polish behind, as I thought that the next tennant might be able to use it upon moving in, but silly me, I should have known better not to be thoughtful. Whatever. I am so done with that place.
So now that I'm officially in at the new place, it continues to bleed our bank accounts dry. Remember how our CO detector went off the other night? Well, this morning we had someone come out to take a look at it. (The Scientist stayed home to take care of it because he can go into work late.) The bad news is that it cost us over $200 to have it looked at. The good news is that it's repaired. Yay! So when we bought the house, one of the contingencies was that we wanted the previous owners to have the furnace thoroughly cleaned. On the front of the furnace, the repairman they hired wrote what he had fixed, including a "full cleaning." Well, either the guy totally hosed them or they just lied about having it cleaned, because this morning our repairman removed one and a half pounds of soot from the furnace. Let me repeat that: one and a half pounds of soot. Our repairman said that there's absolutely no way that a proper cleaning was done before. Needless to say, the Scientist took pictures of it all, as well as kept the bag of soot so that we can have some evidence as to what happened with the furnace. I don't know if we want to deal with lawyers and all that, but he's going to talk with ours to see what it would entail for us to recoup the cost of today's repair. Because really, that was supposed to have been done before we moved in. ANNOYING.
But on the bright side, the repairman today said that our furnace should last a few more years, but will definitely get us through this winter. I guess normally when there's that much soot, it means that a something-or-other is broken. Most repairmen can't fix that piece, and so just recommend a new furnace altogether. But our guy looked at the something-or-other and said ours is fine, and that the soot isn't caused from anything being broken, it's just caused by the furnace not having been cleaned in about two decades. So that's good, because that means we won't have to replace a furnace this winter. YAY!
Getting off the topic of home repair altogether, tonight we're going out for my best friend Debbie's 30th birthday. It's me, Debbie, her husband Craig, the Scientist,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fava_bean, and Debbie's mom. So that should be nice. After that we're going to go home and unpack some more.
And finally, it's the reader participation portion of today's blog. But first, some backstory. The other day on Gapers Block, the Fuel question of the day was "What really scared you as a kid?" Of course there were a ton of responses about clowns, basements, natural disasters, and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. (I was in that last camp, no thanks toyakgirl traumatizing me at the roller rink with it.) So I posted my response, but then remembered my most irrational fear of all:
What Was I Afraid Of?
Well, I was walking in the night
And I saw nothing scary.
For I have never been afraid
Of anything. Not very.
Then I was deep within the woods
When, suddenly, I spied them.
I saw a pair of pale green pants
With nobody inside them!
I wasn't scared. But, yet, I stopped.
What could those pants be there for?
What could a pair of pants at night
Be standing in the air for?
And then they moved! Those empty pants!
They kind of started jumping.
And then my heart, I must admit,
It kind of started thumping.
So I got out. I got out fast
As fast as I could go, sir,
I wasn't scared. But pants like that
I did not care for. No, sir.
After that, a week went by.
Then one dark night in Grin-itch
(I had to do an errand there and
Fetch some Grin-itch spinach).
Well, I had fetched the spinach.
I was starting back through town
When those pants raced round a corner
And they almost knocked me down!
I lost my Grin-itch spinach
But I didn't even care.
I ran for home! Believe me,
I had really had a scare!
Now, bicycles were never made
For pale green pants to ride 'em,
Especially spooky pale green pants
With nobody inside them!
And the NEXT night, I was fishing
For Doubt-trout on Roover River
When those pants came rowing toward me!
Well, I began to shiver.
And by now I was SO frightened
That, I'll tell you, but I hate to.
I screamed and rowed away and lost
My hook and line and bait, too!
I ran and found a Brickel bush.
I hid myself away.
I got brickels in my britches
But I stayed there anyway.
I stayed all night. The next night, too.
I'd be there still, no doubt,
But I had to do an errand
So, the next night, I went out.
I had to do an errand,
Had to pick a peck of Snide
In a dark and gloomy Snide-field
That was almost nine miles wide.
I said, "I do not fear those pants
With nobody inside them."
I said, and said, and said those words.
I said them. But I lied them.
Then I reached inside a Snide bush
And the next thing that I knew,
I felt my hand touch someone!
And I'll bet that you know who.
And there I was! Caught in the Snide!
And in that dreadful place
Those spooky, empty pants and I
Were standing face to face!
I yelled for help, I screamed. I shrieked.
I howled. I yowled. I cried,
"Oh, save me from these pale green pants
With nobody inside!"
But then a strange thing happened.
Why those pants began to cry!
Those pants began to tremble;
They were just as scared as I!
I never heard such whimpering
And I began to see
That I was just as strange to them
As they were strange to me!
I put my arm around their waist
And sat right down beside them
I calmed them down.
Poor empty pants
With nobody inside them.
And now we meet quite often,
Those empty pants and I,
And we never shake or tremble.
We both smile
And we say "Hi!"
As I said on Gapers Block, that story scared me SO MUCH that I couldn't even look at it in the book. I would turn just the corners of the dark blue pages so that I could skip that story. It didn't matter that the pants were just as scared of the little dog-boy in the tale as he was of them, and that they wound up friends. They were still PANTS that MOVED BY THEMSELVES.
Freaked me out.
So I ask you, what was your totally irrational childhood fear that made absolutely no sense? I've shared mine. Come on, it will be fun to laugh ateach other ourselves.
So last night I raced over to the apartment and went inside to find out how "dirty" it really was. Dude. That place was CLEAN. Not 100%, but probably a good 95% clean. So I ended up scrubbing the stovetop, the inside of the stove, the fridge (again), all the countertops, the bathtub (which was dirty with mud and footprints from THEIR shoes, mind you), and all the cabinets. And just to show that I had been there and had cleaned, I left every cabinet wide open. Oh, and as for the "stuff" that I left behind in the cabinets, the final tally was four egg cups that I must have missed on a top shelf, a roll of paper towels, and a bottle of wood floor polish. Of course, I purposely left the paper towels and floor polish behind, as I thought that the next tennant might be able to use it upon moving in, but silly me, I should have known better not to be thoughtful. Whatever. I am so done with that place.
So now that I'm officially in at the new place, it continues to bleed our bank accounts dry. Remember how our CO detector went off the other night? Well, this morning we had someone come out to take a look at it. (The Scientist stayed home to take care of it because he can go into work late.) The bad news is that it cost us over $200 to have it looked at. The good news is that it's repaired. Yay! So when we bought the house, one of the contingencies was that we wanted the previous owners to have the furnace thoroughly cleaned. On the front of the furnace, the repairman they hired wrote what he had fixed, including a "full cleaning." Well, either the guy totally hosed them or they just lied about having it cleaned, because this morning our repairman removed one and a half pounds of soot from the furnace. Let me repeat that: one and a half pounds of soot. Our repairman said that there's absolutely no way that a proper cleaning was done before. Needless to say, the Scientist took pictures of it all, as well as kept the bag of soot so that we can have some evidence as to what happened with the furnace. I don't know if we want to deal with lawyers and all that, but he's going to talk with ours to see what it would entail for us to recoup the cost of today's repair. Because really, that was supposed to have been done before we moved in. ANNOYING.
But on the bright side, the repairman today said that our furnace should last a few more years, but will definitely get us through this winter. I guess normally when there's that much soot, it means that a something-or-other is broken. Most repairmen can't fix that piece, and so just recommend a new furnace altogether. But our guy looked at the something-or-other and said ours is fine, and that the soot isn't caused from anything being broken, it's just caused by the furnace not having been cleaned in about two decades. So that's good, because that means we won't have to replace a furnace this winter. YAY!
Getting off the topic of home repair altogether, tonight we're going out for my best friend Debbie's 30th birthday. It's me, Debbie, her husband Craig, the Scientist,
fava_bean, and Debbie's mom. So that should be nice. After that we're going to go home and unpack some more.And finally, it's the reader participation portion of today's blog. But first, some backstory. The other day on Gapers Block, the Fuel question of the day was "What really scared you as a kid?" Of course there were a ton of responses about clowns, basements, natural disasters, and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. (I was in that last camp, no thanks to
yakgirl traumatizing me at the roller rink with it.) So I posted my response, but then remembered my most irrational fear of all:Well, I was walking in the night
And I saw nothing scary.
For I have never been afraid
Of anything. Not very.
Then I was deep within the woods
When, suddenly, I spied them.
I saw a pair of pale green pants
With nobody inside them!
I wasn't scared. But, yet, I stopped.
What could those pants be there for?
What could a pair of pants at night
Be standing in the air for?
And then they moved! Those empty pants!
They kind of started jumping.
And then my heart, I must admit,
It kind of started thumping.
So I got out. I got out fast
As fast as I could go, sir,
I wasn't scared. But pants like that
I did not care for. No, sir.
After that, a week went by.
Then one dark night in Grin-itch
(I had to do an errand there and
Fetch some Grin-itch spinach).
Well, I had fetched the spinach.
I was starting back through town
When those pants raced round a corner
And they almost knocked me down!
I lost my Grin-itch spinach
But I didn't even care.
I ran for home! Believe me,
I had really had a scare!
Now, bicycles were never made
For pale green pants to ride 'em,
Especially spooky pale green pants
With nobody inside them!
And the NEXT night, I was fishing
For Doubt-trout on Roover River
When those pants came rowing toward me!
Well, I began to shiver.
And by now I was SO frightened
That, I'll tell you, but I hate to.
I screamed and rowed away and lost
My hook and line and bait, too!
I ran and found a Brickel bush.
I hid myself away.
I got brickels in my britches
But I stayed there anyway.
I stayed all night. The next night, too.
I'd be there still, no doubt,
But I had to do an errand
So, the next night, I went out.
I had to do an errand,
Had to pick a peck of Snide
In a dark and gloomy Snide-field
That was almost nine miles wide.
I said, "I do not fear those pants
With nobody inside them."
I said, and said, and said those words.
I said them. But I lied them.
Then I reached inside a Snide bush
And the next thing that I knew,
I felt my hand touch someone!
And I'll bet that you know who.
And there I was! Caught in the Snide!
And in that dreadful place
Those spooky, empty pants and I
Were standing face to face!
I yelled for help, I screamed. I shrieked.
I howled. I yowled. I cried,
"Oh, save me from these pale green pants
With nobody inside!"
But then a strange thing happened.
Why those pants began to cry!
Those pants began to tremble;
They were just as scared as I!
I never heard such whimpering
And I began to see
That I was just as strange to them
As they were strange to me!
I put my arm around their waist
And sat right down beside them
I calmed them down.
Poor empty pants
With nobody inside them.
And now we meet quite often,
Those empty pants and I,
And we never shake or tremble.
We both smile
And we say "Hi!"
As I said on Gapers Block, that story scared me SO MUCH that I couldn't even look at it in the book. I would turn just the corners of the dark blue pages so that I could skip that story. It didn't matter that the pants were just as scared of the little dog-boy in the tale as he was of them, and that they wound up friends. They were still PANTS that MOVED BY THEMSELVES.
Freaked me out.
So I ask you, what was your totally irrational childhood fear that made absolutely no sense? I've shared mine. Come on, it will be fun to laugh at
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-10-17 03:59 pm (UTC)There are federal loan programs for getting a new furnace. I know this only because a good friend of mine had his be teetering on the edge of boom, and then he found this program to get a loan. So...yeah. You may want to poke around, ask your credit union (if you have one), etc.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-17 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-17 04:45 pm (UTC)The opening credits to Scooby Doo. And pretty much all of Scooby-Do Where Are You. Seriously, I used to make the babysitter change it to He-Man because OMG FREAKED ME OUT.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-19 02:04 pm (UTC)You're not the only one afraid of Scooby Doo. Scroll down.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-17 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-19 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-17 06:04 pm (UTC)Also, there's this historic building in my city that we would always pass on the way to my grandmother's house (you can see it from the freeway). It terrified me. I would close my eyes and tell my parents to tell me when it was over. I still don't understand what that was from.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-19 02:01 pm (UTC)As for the building, your guess is as good as mine. Kids are weird.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-18 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-19 01:59 pm (UTC)My parents' next-door neighbor said his mom did the same thing, except since he was a boy they played pirates. I'll be doing the same thing when I have kids some day, so that they won't be scared of storms, either.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 01:46 am (UTC)the pants! the pants!
Date: 2007-10-19 02:20 am (UTC)Re: the pants! the pants!
Date: 2007-10-19 01:58 pm (UTC)And as for the Scooby Doo monster, was it the 10,000 Volt Ghost (http://www.scoobytribute.com/villain.php?img=m76x22.jpg)?