Friday, September 30, 2022

September 2022

Welcome to fall, with warm September days and chilly nights. Good for sleeping with the windows open, for sure. The pumpkins in the garden have been harvested and are chilling in the basement waiting for Halloween and the rest of the garden is slowly being cleared out. We already have next year's garden partially planned out. Maybe fewer tomatoes next time...

Also: gettin' mah hairs did while I watched mah stories:


They were disappointed that my hair wasn't long enough for liberty spikes.


Emily and Vanessa spotted me taking their picture before the homecoming game halftime performance:


Rose with the help of her cheer squad cleverly spelling out a message asking Fern to the homecoming dance:



And Mr. Ballard leading a cheer. Remember, it's always a great day to be a Warrior:


This is Rose's last year of cheering at Wash. It's all going so fast! More pictures from the homecoming game:




Friday night lights:


Leaving for the homecoming dance:



Cool siblings pose:


Cynthia picked up an old Fisher Price Little People house and began working on turning it into a haunted house:


After a coat of black primer and a coat of dark grayish brown paint leftover from the ceiling fan, Cynthia started painting around the raised details:



Some Family Dollar skulls were added:



Last coat of weathering paint done and painting in the small details:


Popsicle sticks were used to board up the windows and make window boxes. Dried moss was added, too:




If there was actually a spider on your house that size I think you would hear it before you saw it:


Speaking of haunted houses, the girls picked up a couple of haunted house cookie kits:


We tried eating some of the cookies and stuff used to decorate the houses, but they were not great. Not really intended for eating, just for looks, yo.


Rose and Fern's house is on the right:


We put the finishing touches on the kitchen, adding a glass mosaic backsplash, baseboards, and a range hood. The kitchen looks so friggin' awesome almost like it doesn't even belong in our house.

Working on the backsplash:


Backsplash done, range hood installed, microwave moved into the kitchen:


Baseboards installed:


Now we just have to wait for the window guy to come out and replace the two kitchen windows in October and we will be DONE.

When Halloween stuff started appearing on store shelves we picked up a life-size skeleton, which then began showing up in random places around the house to scare people. This time he's waiting for Rose to come home from work:


Cynthia and I spent a Saturday in Des Moines visiting some of our favorite places. We had lunch at the Drake Diner, which still looks exactly the way it did the first time I went there. The food was awesome:


In my day you wouldn't be caught dead wearing your jammies to school. That's the kind of thing kids used to have nightmares about. Also, if you and your crew all showed up and you're obviously all wearing the same pants. Times have changed:

Friday, September 16, 2022

House Divided

everybody's gathering round the gallows
smoke is rising from the town
grab your shoes let's hurry
let's go see what's going down

remember that heretic last week
went up like a dried out cob
didn't have a leg to stand on
at the knees we cut him off

yes it's justice they always say
these desperate wretches caught
paying for reckless virtues
a quick demise is what they bought

i wonder if this one will recant
to be spared from being hung
a fool can eat his words all day
show pity and cut out his tongue

there's strength in numbers, mind you
and i would never be caught dead
speaking out my errant thoughts
for fear i'd lose my head

do what you're told, learn your place
swift to judgment, the mob knows best
follies are not forgiven here
the wolves are howling...
who's it gonna be next