Home Improvements (Part Four) 257

Last paragraph, last post was:

Even more comforting was that he was saying "we" a lot. "We'll come up with the pole," etc. However, E.F. told me to make all the arrangements. Bobolink was contributing positively to the conversation, which was also very comforting.

The problem here is this: As long as they're alive and able, my dealings about this place will be with E.F. Hutton and Abbie. They own the land. E.F. Hutton has said there is a possibility they'd sell this plot to me outright. I think Abbie favors a 99 year lease - in her eyes, there's no difference.

But there is a difference. When the land itself passes down to Bobolink so will the 99 year lease. I don't think Bobolink himself would ever do me wrong, but because men often think with their little heads instead of their big ones, Bobolink could be influenced by some woman to kick me off the property. Especially if the woman is the girlfriend he had up at the shop last Saturday. What if they get married, and Bobolink gets killed in an wreck or something? Then the gold digger wife would hold my lease. What then???

BUT I can't afford to buy this place now. I don't even know if I can afford the home improvements. To me, the bigger problem is improving the place - because it would solve a lot of problems with the trailer itself - but it would be a shame to sink a bunch of money into permanent structures without some steadfast leagal assurance that I could live here until I die.

Mother is adamant about it, and wants all of us to sit down and sort it out; and I suppose a pow-wow is necessary sometime soon. It hurts my brain to think about such complicated affairs. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, etc., and how is it possible to get all parties on the same wavelength? Stuff like this makes my hair hurt.

And on top of all this, technically I don't even have a job. I trust Whatagreatguy's word, but until I'm on the road again, I don't have a job.

In other news, I'm having a relapse of whatever this bug is, cold/flu/whatever. I feel like doodoo today. I've been taking the antibiotics, but I don't think they're helping much.

Home Improvements (Part Three) 256

I've had a cold/flu/something, but last Saturday I felt good enough to take Buddy for a walk. It was kinda late for E.F. Hutton to be in his shop, but thankfully he was - along with Cousin Bobolink and his girlfriend.

I don't personally know the girlfriend, but my impression of her isn't a good one. This woman, who is probably close to my and Bobolink's age (late 40s) was sitting in a chair next to Bobolink with her leg draped over his - as if she were at home, with no regard or respect for E.F. Hutton or me. My notion of her is that she cares nothing for Bobolink, but cares a geat deal for what Bobolink will inherit. A psychiatrist might say she was showing possession, or ownership of Bobolink (and his stuff) by covering him with her leg in such a disrespectful way.

Men often think with their little heads instead of their big ones, so I don't particularly fault Bobolink for allowing her behavior. But she should have known better. We aren't teenagers anymore. This woman figures into the home improvement saga a little later.

E.F. has known about my home improvement plans from the beginning, and I called Bobolink a few days ago to tell him about it. So, when I mentioned my dilemma about moving the service/utility/whatever pole, they both knew what I was talking about. I told E.F. I was lost about what to do next, and it was so comforting to hear him lay out a plan and explain what happens when the service is moved.

One important thing I learned was that the inspector works for Jefferson County - not AL Power. And when the inspector comes out to inspect, he only wants to see that the pole doesn't lean and how the electrician wires the lines into the house.

Even more comforting was that he was saying "we" a lot. "We'll come up with the pole," etc. However, E.F. told me to make all the arrangements. Bobolink was contributing positively to the conversation, which was also very comforting.

Home Improvements (Part Two) 254

I'm becoming more and more anxious/nervous/whatever about making these improvements. I feel as if I'm standing still on something urgent. Maybe I've just been home too long and need to get my mind on something else. I didn't get anything from Dr. Goodheart today, and I'm beginning to wonder if he sent the letter I need (to get my job back) directly to Dr. Flagman in Dothan.

Back to home improvements. I still haven't gotten an estimate on what the shed itself will cost.

I mentioned yesterday that an engineer from AL Power was coming out to advise me about moving our utility service pole. He suggested putting it on the east end on the house - by my bedroom. He rambled off some other stuff I didn't understand, but one thing's clear; I'm gonna have to hire a high priced electrician to do the work so the AL Power inspector will approve it. And I learned that a buried power line would run from the big utility pole by the road to the house - an expense I'm sure I can't afford. I wouldn't want to have to dig it up later.

The only thing AL Power will physically do is move the power line. But their list of requirements and specifications covers everything I'm responsible for. Which is ... what?

I learned that I have to buy and set the pole. I don't want us to be without power any longer than necessary, so I'll get another pole and have everything ready for a one hour swap. Maybe. But what kind of pole does it have to be?

I went over to the AL Power office in Hueytown this morning and picked up 'Spec Sheets'. This is what they say about the pole itself:



Ok, so it's got to be treated wood. It's got to be 18' long. 4' of that 18 has to be in the ground, so I've got to dig a hole 4' deep. If the pole is round, it's got to be 5" in diameter. If the pole is aquare, it's got to be 6"x6", which is what we have now. And once you put it up, if the thing's not stable in AL Power's eyes, they won't connect the power.

I'm getting a headache. Just for the record, here are the spec sheets in full:

Home Improvements (Part One) 253

(Part Two will follow as things progress.)

I've already mentioned the shed I want to put over the trailer. Just for the record, here are more details on that subject. To find people to call for an estimate, I just searched the internet. Several places do commercial work, but few are interested in a project this small.

Anyway, one of the places gave me a number for a guy that does a lot of their work, Paul. Paul gave me his email address, and he was able to tell what I wanted to do just by looking at the link I sent him. He asked me to measure from the ground to the roof - it's 11.5' at the tallest point. We've talked a couple of times, but I haven't heard back from him since then.

I also called Southern Home Remodeling. These people have shown more interest, actually coming to the house to take measurements. And yesterday they called me back to say they were waiting on a price from somebody else.

Apparently it takes a while for a contractor/builder/whatever to get an estimate together. I thought they could just quote a price based on footage - quick and easy like. Obviously, I've never had any experience with this kind of thing, but my sense of urgency has become more intense since the last rain.

The remnants of Hurricane Ida came through a couple of days ago, dumping about 4.5 inches of blowing rain in about 36 hours. It was coming through the back door somehow. Not around the edges, but through it, I think. The door is a typical cheap trailer door. It needs to be replaced, but trailer doors don't conform to standard specs. I'd have to order one online, then hire somebody to hang it (to be sure it's a snug fit.) The rain was also blowing through the kitchen window where the air conditioner is; (Long story about how Disabro didn't fix it back right.)

This shed would solve a lot of problems, including a roof over the front porch and general aesthetics for the neighborhood.

An engineer from AL Power is coming out this morning to give me advice about moving the power line. I'm considering putting it underground, but to simply move it over might be the cheapest way. I don't know.

In other, sort-of related news: There aren't any kind of handholds in the bathroom for Mother when she's taking a shower. Because she's almost 80 yo it scares me to death that she might trip/slip stepping out of the shower. So I bought one of these from Target Online:



It's heavy and well made for the price, but it won't fit our tub. Our tub has two 'lips' at the top at exactly the wrong places, and the rail can't screw onto the side evenly. I took it back to the local Target yesterday.

Our tub is also narrow compared to standard tubs, so I ordered one of these from Target Online too:



Just to remind everybody, the only reason I can even consider improvements to the house is because I got all that money back from BCBS. It won't be anywhere near enough for the shed, but it's a start. Hopefully I'll be able to get that financed somehow - possibly with E.F. Hutton and Abbie.

Finally, I've had a cold or something since 11/04/09. Bad! headaches and stuffy nose, but not many other symptoms. I called Cinderella 3 days ago and asked if Dr. Feelgood would phone in some antibiotics for me. Yesterday I picked up 14 tablets of Sulfamethoxazole-TMP DS, "...a combination of two antibiotics used to treat a wide variety of bacterial infections (e.g., middle ear, urine, respiratory and intestinal infections). I think I'm on the mend.

I still haven't gotten the letter I need to get by job back, but I'm not real concerned - yet.

Facebook, YoVille, AdSense, And 249

It seems like forever since I've made a post here.... I've been playing A LOT of the Facebook games Farmville, YoVille, and Farm Town. Ingenious and intricate games that simulate real life - sort of. I showed Mother how they work, but she didn't quite grasp the concept. She said, "Well, when does the game end?" I told her they don't end.

In the farm games, you plow, plant, harvest, and sell your crops so you can earn money and buy bigger and better stuff for your farm. In YoVille, a 'city-ized' version of the farm games, you bake stuff at the Sweets Factory instead of farming. These cute games are ingenious to me. All the things the developers and writers had to think about when they wrote the programs - it's mind-boggling!

Also, I found a way to put the Google AdSense ads inside the posts here instead of between posts. The article is here at My Digital Life, Living Digitally and Electronically. It's an effort to make the ads more diverse. I'm not sure what everybody else sees, but I only see ads about trucking. There's more to this blog than just trucking, so I'm exploring ways to make the ads more appealing and interesting.

And you may have already noticed that I changed the big, banner type ads to simple links. I think they look more like blog content instead of big banner ads. The experts say doing this will increase the number of clicks, or click through rate (CTR) in AdSense jargon. There are other ways to enhance the CTR too. When I have the time, and my brain is in a learning mode, I'm going to check them out.

In other news: We have yet to recover from the sink hole move, and I'm anxious to improve the looks of our house. Someone is coming out at noon today to give me an estimate on putting the shed over the trailer. They've seen this picture, and know what I want to accomplish:


And yesterday I had to call AT&T to get help connecting to the internet. Several months ago Bellouth (AT&T) changed their email platform to Yahoo email. You had to log into Bellsouth first, then be redirected to a new AT&T page, and log in again. It's complicated and frustrating, and I get the feeling AT&T can't even figure out what they've done.

Anyway, I was trying to delete Mother's old Bellsouth.net email address. In the process, I changed the password to the email account - or did I? I still don't know, because I never got to the email stuff. The next time I tried to get on the internet, I kept getting the message that I'd changed the password to the modem! I couldn't connect to the internet at all!

I called AT&T and found out how to reset the modem:



Once you do that, and reopen the browser on your computer, you have to log into the AT&T INTERNET page (totally different than the phone page), enter a password, and complete a couple of other steps. What an ordeal! But then I remembered there was a time when nobody could access the internet.... I'm sure there was a better way around this external modem fix to use the internet and phone at the same time, but I was on the road when all this happened.

Finally, tomorrow is my appointment with Dr. Misery. From the internet (that I apparently can't live without anymore) I learned where to park - but I'm gonna let the valets do it. Let them remember where my car is....