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Written July 12, 2008:

Now that I’ve paid some attention to TTC, I guess I can quit stalling and catch y’all up on the haps with the house.

The week started lethargically following the 4th of July three-day weekend. I don’t know what the deal was, but the weather certainly played into it. It’s been overcast with intermittent light rains all week. The temps have been only as high as the mid-80’s, which is damn near perfect working weather. For some reason everyone’s been dragging ass; me included. I’m not on a deadline, however.

Maybe the phase we’re in with the build played into the malaise. It’s not exactly riveting work right now. It could also have been the fact that all the inspections that were scheduled got effed up, or were no-shows. I guess it could’ve also been too many sub contractors tripping over one another kinda took the wind out of our sails. For me, it was daily trips to Los Lunas’ Home Depot. I’m their newest line of fixtures.

I’ve been frustrated beyond words. The crew’s getting short with one another. The work has been necessary but mundane. The lighting sucks ‘cause the electrical inspector wouldn’t sign off on the work done until some changes were addressed. With low natural light due to the cloud cover and no ‘hot’ electrical lines into the house, our moods followed. The nasty florescent lights at Home Depot did nothing but irritate me even more, given how I was there for hours at a time, since no one there makes themselves available, and the few that know what they’re doing are scheduled off that day, or at lunch. I continue to breath deeply and frequently.

Two windows had to be special ordered; one due to damage from the storm, the other to accommodate a Rex-mis-sized window frame. Two weeks from now the windows will all be in. I had some trouble with the door supplier, and we’re now politely wishing our transaction to be completed so we never have to deal with one another ever again. I got my five exterior doors; we’ll install ‘em since the frames have to be modified by the crew. Why should I pay $60/door to be installed when all the real work was done by us? Hell, even I can hang a pre-hung door!

Now I have to find a supplier who has the door locks/hardware that I want. You’d think that Spanish style hardware would be easy to find in New Mexico. Ummmmm….NO! That precipitates a trip to Albuquerque or Santa Fe this coming week. Carolyn and I are going to Abq anyway one day this week to buy tile for assorted locations around the abode.

I did find the sweetest gay-boy sales dude when I went cabinet shopping! I tried to give my business to a cabinet/flooring place here in Belen, but after 4 trips and no response from the giggling fools in the back room, I decided to try one in Los Lunas. That’s where I found Randy. It took us 5 times as long as it should have to plan out the kitchen ‘cause we were having such a howling good time with each other. I LOVE gay-boy designer-types. Look at how many I went to art school with! Randy got some pricing to me yesterday.

So, all of those pesky tasks are addressed and in process. The backhoe showed up on Tues, as scheduled. After eight hours of reshaping the land, he still had to come back yesterday to dig a trench for the septic hookup and finish a couple of spots on the east side of the house. The place looks like a war zone again.

The plumbing inspector never showed, despite several calls from the plumber and multiple calls from Norbert and I to the plumber. The building inspector was called, and showed up, but couldn’t sign off ‘cause the other two inspectors (plumbing and electrical) hadn’t signed off on their stuff. He also expressed concern about the modified trusses. Rut-roh! We knew this could be a sticking point, and…it is. We have three options to get them approved, we know not which one, if any, will pan out. We be skwoo-d if none of ‘em do.

It’s not like this sort of modification doesn’t happen all the time—it does. It’s just that none of us have the usual local connections to make this ‘slip’ right through/past the powers that be. If you get my drift. It’ll work out. The mods are done right, it’s just getting the right person up here ASAP.

We should have the other two inspections done Monday. That means we’ll have power to the house, and we can use the toilet rough-ins if we want to. J/K I don’t even have toilets yet.

11:15 p.m.
I just stepped out into another round of gentle rain to cruise around the house. First I find a centipede centipeding around one of the guest bedrooms. He found a hole between two blocks and centipeded out once the beam from my flashlight found him. Then I check out a couple of more rooms (I wander aimlessly through all this newly defined space. It’s become a daily ritual—a necessity to balance out the confinement of TTC.) and head out under the portal to see what I can see, in the pitch black, of the mountains.

A quiet banging and flapping sound spun me around and tugged my gaze upward. I was thinking I’d see a bat. Nope—worse: A sparrow was lost under the portal roof and desperately trying to find a way out. It hung on the poultry wire (formally known as chicken wire, but I guess we have to be PC about wire patterns and gauges now, too) and banged off the beams and planks until I shone the light in the direction of freedom. The poor little thing was breathing heavily from fear and effort, but caught his/her breath as it rested on a crossbeam, then took off into the wet night.

These two incidents were not the only ones tonight. Earlier I had been sitting out on the steps to TTC and heard what I hope was one of the bunnies scratching around on a tarp under TTC. It could’ve been one of the two dozen types of rodents that coexist with me up here, though, too.

Seems everyone and everything is a bit out of sorts out here at the ranchita tonight. I sure hope it settles down and gets back to normal soon.

And, as far as me assigning the sparrow the benefit of being either male or female, but not the centipede—anything with more than four legs doesn’t deserve the consideration of being female in my books.

Just another day in my Tits 2 the Wind life.

See ya in a few mananas from now, y’all. Sleep tight. Don’t let the centipedes, disoriented unlaiden sparrows and frolicking bunnies bite;)