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gwynA huge thank you to the people who came by to help me rip out the carpet in the rest of the house yesterday: my lj-less friends Jay and Michael, who started on it all before anyone else showed up, and who did so much of the Manly Moving of Objects, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
feochadn, mlyn, movies_michelle, and minim_calibre. People even brought many of their own tools, so I didn't have to worry about not having enough! they were all so fast, efficient, and hard-working, I basically was relegated to trying to get them to take breaks, drag out pieces of carpet padding, and fill the garbage bags with nasty, sharp, pointy things. I can't thank you all enough, really.
I think someone may have ended up with my sister's gloves, though -- they are either goat or deer skin, and have a kind of chamois color, with elastic around the wrist. I normally wouldn't care enough to get them back, except they were sis_r's so I'm weirdly sentimental about them.
I fiddled around with some lemon oil last night and after wiping it over a patch in the living room, the floor looks a little cleaner and darker. It emphasizes those horribly worn spots by the kitchen, but if I can get some of those paint drips up and get the floor looking a little less desiccated and ancient, it would be worth the extra work. Plus, the lemon oil smells a lot nicer than the musty old floorboards that I was left with. My dad came by today and he said that he thinks those "burn" marks are actually from something like dirty diapers or pet stains in an old rug -- he said they had that in the house we lived in when I was a baby, and he remembers exactly those kind of marks from back when people didn't have nifty things like changing tables and diaper setups and whatever. I didn't think it was possible to skeev myself out even more over the bedroom, but now I am. I don't want to walk barefoot on them!
So, after an eventful day, I lazed on the couch all night or fiddled with the floor, not doing any of the things I should have like vidding, class work finals, etc. And then I was tired so I went to bed around 11, and heard these guys arguing outside. When it stopped, I thought it was just some drunk guys walking down the street or whatever, but then it started up again really loud replete with snarling dogs and barking (OMG, DOGFIGHTS? I thought), and I pulled down the blind in my bedroom, but saw nothing. It sounded as if it was RIGHT THERE. Then a cop car came flying down the street, stopped in front of my neighbor's house, then took off again around the corner. The yelling and the barking got way worse, and so I went to see if there was something in the alley out back, only to be confronted through the matchstick blinds with some men in my backyard, some dogs, and a flashlight throwing light around wildly. I was like holy shit, and called 911. I guess they connect to cops in the field now these days (I haven't called 911 in a long time) and a guy came on, saying that they were the ones in the backyard and they had a suspect in custody so everything was okay.
Ha ha! I was totally fucking scared, and I know I hadn't locked the garage door because we were going in and out all day with the rugs. But I hung up and was trying to stay away from the window (early lesson learned from living in Las Vegas in a bad neighborhood -- if there is police activity in your yard, stay the fuck away from the windows) but I really didn't understand what was going on. A number of years agon, I was painting outside my house when a guy came crashing through my bushes and over my fence, nearly landing on top of me, and since my natural approach when confronted is to confront back (yes, I'm suicidally stupid, why do you ask?), I bellowed "what the hell do you think you're doing?" And the guy tried to get to his feet, leaped over my neighbor's fence, and brushed himself off and said, "Sorry, sorry" and then took off, getting into a car speeding by. Turned out they had tried to steal something out of a neighbor's garage and half the neighborhood was chasing them. So all I could think was "what the hell is it with my backyard?"
But of course it's huge, jungle-like, unkempt, and full of shrubs, flowers, and trees, fenced, and on a corner, so easily accessible. I finally went out to the porch, but I was barefoot and didn't want to go off the porch (snail city out there when it rains). I heard them saying "All we have is a warrant? That's it?" and other conversation, and there were at least ten officers, plus the dogs (once they got their guy, though, they were so cute! One was all yippy and excited and panting at me like "hey, I saved you." German Shepherds can be cute when they want to.) I couldn't seem to get their attention, so I was looking for some shoes when a couple officers came into the yard again and I said rather plaintively, "What the freaking hell happened?" He said a car thief had hidden in my yard, but they had taken him in, so everything was okay, and I said, I just had no idea what was going on -- I thought you guys were a couple of jackasses doing something nefarious back here, like fighting their dogs. It was so weird. And he laughed and said, nah, but I'm afraid he really did a number on your plants, and asked if it was okay to look around in case he dropped something. I told him I'd look again during the day, and then went inside. They were out there for a looooong time. I was really shaken up, so I called some people because it was kind of weirdly scary. My nabe is so quiet and so uneventful that something like the carpet tearing-out means people come by to ask you what you're up to. I saw all my neighbors wandering around, so i'm sure they were trying to get the scoop, and if I go outside, no doubt everyone will be asking.
Most of the time I feel very safe here, even though I live alone. But being on a corner is very exposed, and it does tend to offer people opportunities they wouldn't find in the middle of the street -- a few years ago, some kids nearly set fire to my garage, because they decided illegal fireworks would be better set off in my parking area out back than in their own. I have to chase the skateboarding kids off my back parking area all the time due to liability issues.
All in all, that was just too eventful of a day, but thank you again to everyone for the good part of the eventful. And now, to the classwork, arg.
feochadn, mlyn, movies_michelle, and minim_calibre. People even brought many of their own tools, so I didn't have to worry about not having enough! they were all so fast, efficient, and hard-working, I basically was relegated to trying to get them to take breaks, drag out pieces of carpet padding, and fill the garbage bags with nasty, sharp, pointy things. I can't thank you all enough, really.I think someone may have ended up with my sister's gloves, though -- they are either goat or deer skin, and have a kind of chamois color, with elastic around the wrist. I normally wouldn't care enough to get them back, except they were sis_r's so I'm weirdly sentimental about them.
I fiddled around with some lemon oil last night and after wiping it over a patch in the living room, the floor looks a little cleaner and darker. It emphasizes those horribly worn spots by the kitchen, but if I can get some of those paint drips up and get the floor looking a little less desiccated and ancient, it would be worth the extra work. Plus, the lemon oil smells a lot nicer than the musty old floorboards that I was left with. My dad came by today and he said that he thinks those "burn" marks are actually from something like dirty diapers or pet stains in an old rug -- he said they had that in the house we lived in when I was a baby, and he remembers exactly those kind of marks from back when people didn't have nifty things like changing tables and diaper setups and whatever. I didn't think it was possible to skeev myself out even more over the bedroom, but now I am. I don't want to walk barefoot on them!
So, after an eventful day, I lazed on the couch all night or fiddled with the floor, not doing any of the things I should have like vidding, class work finals, etc. And then I was tired so I went to bed around 11, and heard these guys arguing outside. When it stopped, I thought it was just some drunk guys walking down the street or whatever, but then it started up again really loud replete with snarling dogs and barking (OMG, DOGFIGHTS? I thought), and I pulled down the blind in my bedroom, but saw nothing. It sounded as if it was RIGHT THERE. Then a cop car came flying down the street, stopped in front of my neighbor's house, then took off again around the corner. The yelling and the barking got way worse, and so I went to see if there was something in the alley out back, only to be confronted through the matchstick blinds with some men in my backyard, some dogs, and a flashlight throwing light around wildly. I was like holy shit, and called 911. I guess they connect to cops in the field now these days (I haven't called 911 in a long time) and a guy came on, saying that they were the ones in the backyard and they had a suspect in custody so everything was okay.
Ha ha! I was totally fucking scared, and I know I hadn't locked the garage door because we were going in and out all day with the rugs. But I hung up and was trying to stay away from the window (early lesson learned from living in Las Vegas in a bad neighborhood -- if there is police activity in your yard, stay the fuck away from the windows) but I really didn't understand what was going on. A number of years agon, I was painting outside my house when a guy came crashing through my bushes and over my fence, nearly landing on top of me, and since my natural approach when confronted is to confront back (yes, I'm suicidally stupid, why do you ask?), I bellowed "what the hell do you think you're doing?" And the guy tried to get to his feet, leaped over my neighbor's fence, and brushed himself off and said, "Sorry, sorry" and then took off, getting into a car speeding by. Turned out they had tried to steal something out of a neighbor's garage and half the neighborhood was chasing them. So all I could think was "what the hell is it with my backyard?"
But of course it's huge, jungle-like, unkempt, and full of shrubs, flowers, and trees, fenced, and on a corner, so easily accessible. I finally went out to the porch, but I was barefoot and didn't want to go off the porch (snail city out there when it rains). I heard them saying "All we have is a warrant? That's it?" and other conversation, and there were at least ten officers, plus the dogs (once they got their guy, though, they were so cute! One was all yippy and excited and panting at me like "hey, I saved you." German Shepherds can be cute when they want to.) I couldn't seem to get their attention, so I was looking for some shoes when a couple officers came into the yard again and I said rather plaintively, "What the freaking hell happened?" He said a car thief had hidden in my yard, but they had taken him in, so everything was okay, and I said, I just had no idea what was going on -- I thought you guys were a couple of jackasses doing something nefarious back here, like fighting their dogs. It was so weird. And he laughed and said, nah, but I'm afraid he really did a number on your plants, and asked if it was okay to look around in case he dropped something. I told him I'd look again during the day, and then went inside. They were out there for a looooong time. I was really shaken up, so I called some people because it was kind of weirdly scary. My nabe is so quiet and so uneventful that something like the carpet tearing-out means people come by to ask you what you're up to. I saw all my neighbors wandering around, so i'm sure they were trying to get the scoop, and if I go outside, no doubt everyone will be asking.
Most of the time I feel very safe here, even though I live alone. But being on a corner is very exposed, and it does tend to offer people opportunities they wouldn't find in the middle of the street -- a few years ago, some kids nearly set fire to my garage, because they decided illegal fireworks would be better set off in my parking area out back than in their own. I have to chase the skateboarding kids off my back parking area all the time due to liability issues.
All in all, that was just too eventful of a day, but thank you again to everyone for the good part of the eventful. And now, to the classwork, arg.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-06-10 07:59 pm (UTC)Is your garden a mess? Feel free to call if you ever need to chat -- my cell is always on now...
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 03:08 am (UTC)I worked for over five hours today. BAH. BAH I SAY. And I'm still not done, but I got a huge chunk done and the rest should go pretty quickly.
Psst, you misspelled my username...
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 07:06 am (UTC)re marks on the floor -- my mom just took up a carpet, and there were a lot of marks on the originally pristine wood floor. She thinks it may be from the (wet) carpet cleaner they used a few years ago. But apparently just walking into a room with after a shower where your dripping hair gets the carpet wet can cause these kinds of spots. Point: there are less yucky explanations.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 04:17 pm (UTC)Only to you
Date: 2007-06-11 09:27 pm (UTC)On the plus side, this will serve as Chapter 19 of your biography. Or perhaps the opening chapter of a Great American Novel.
Jay
Re: Only to you
Date: 2007-06-13 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 04:49 pm (UTC)Glad you are OK. Cop chases are, um, yeah, scary.
Are you planning on sanding/refinishing the floor?
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 04:13 pm (UTC)