Annual battle between expectations...hope...and reality

"April is the cruelest month..." - T.S. Elliot. Truer words have never been spoken, at least in upstate New York. "May is not looking much better." - Dave Morford. Excuse me Mr. Elliot for tagging on to your famous quote but if there is a time to get away from here, this is it. Please understand, I like it here. Summer is glorious. The occasional "heat wave" broken by Canadian cold fronts bringing sunny warm days under puffy clouds and nights of "good sleeping weather". Fall is my favorite. Best holidays combined with spectacular scenery and just fantastic weather. Winter. Find yourself an open field or woodlot and hear the silence as the snow falls. Even the city's noises are muffled by thick blankets of white. But then there's Spring.

Typical "Spring" drive to work

Days shrouded in an endless cover of "battleship grey oblivion" (thanks Jim, best quote ever). There's dead grass and patches of mud. Crocuses, daffodils, and eventually tulips struggle against blasts of cold and snow. Potholes yawn in all roads delivering teeth chattering blows. Sure, you'll get teased with  a couple days of sun and warmth, but reality lurks with the next cut off low pressure system, seemingly attracted to New York. Or, it's a "backdoor" cold front sliding in from New England delivering damp and cold North Atlantic air while places as close as Philadelphia and Cleveland bask in warm air..

The poor Binghamton Mets, locked into their opening day by forces beyond their control have hideous weather for at least the first month of their season and struggle with attendance. Who wants to sit in the drizzle and fog at 40 degrees and watch baseball with a handful of other poor souls? Unfortunately, this lack of enthusiasm seems to carry over into the rest of the season making the B-Mets chronically among the poorest attended AA teams and sparking waves of rumors that they will leave town. When the weather does turn nice, numerous outdoor events pack nearly every night and certainly every weekend making them compete for fans. Other sports do well in this town. The Binghamton Senators hockey team thrives. A cold snowy night and a hockey game are a good fit. Anyway, we are definitely on the northern fringe of what could be called the climate zone for baseball.

Of course, "nice" weather is very subjective and a matter of personal opinion. Even when the weather generally turns "nice" in the middle or end of May, it's still not swimming weather. An annual right around here is the local paper posting Memorial Day pictures of little boys and girls shivering in bathing suits at the opening of pools for the season. Adults have normally learned their lesson and don't attend. Swimming season here typically extends from mid June to mid August. Memorial Day and Labor Day are pushing the season.

As far as the house is concerned, the weather definitely sets the schedule for repairs and maintenance. I've cut the grass for the first time with my little push mower and immediately decided that a riding mower is a necessity. I hope to have news on that soon. Planting grass in our bush and brush removal areas has been delayed by the weather. First, I'm looking for a good stretch of daytime highs 60 or better, and need to wait to seed the area near the house until after the walls get power washed. Any run off from the washing and trampling from the washers and ladders will definitely destroy fresh grass seedlings.

Spring fire

One advantage of a cold Spring? It's still fireplace weather. Cindy complained she was cold the other day so while she was off visiting her dad I got a nice fire going and got dinner ready. It was a date night at home with dinner, fire and movie. I guess the best way to fight bad weather is to embrace it and turn it to your advantage.

Miscellaneous...Part 2

Wall, bereft of wallpaper.:) 

Life has gotten real busy in the past few weeks and the blog has taken a back seat, as has the house projects but I still have plenty to write about, so here we go. First an update on the wallpaper in the vestibule. It's all gone! I continued to spray and scrape, and really struggled with the area above the the big closets, standing on my tippy toes (on the ladder!) and leaning forward. This did not allow me to get much muscle behind my scrapping but luckily the wallpaper hangers must have struggled too because there was definitely less glue back there. After all the scrapping was done, it was time to remove the leftover glue and small bits of paper. I first used a sponge and weakly soapy water, but that had little effect. Then I decided to go with a plastic pot scraper and Formula 409.  That really worked well and had the added benefit of pretty much removing the overpowering vinegar smell and replacing it with a light lemon scent. I've now started repairing the plaster beneath the paper, spackling holes and cracks. There is a deep crack in the corner by the doorway into the living room that will take a couple of spackle applications before it is properly filled. The wall has several deep brown stains so I will be using stain blocker, then perhaps primer before painting so I still have a long way to go, but at least the wallpaper is gone for good. Also plan to install a new light fixture and *gasp* more crown molding. I've picked a more simple style than in the living since I will be installing it myself. It should be easier (ha ha).

The least useful thing we moved.

We still haven't completely unpacked and I have spent spare time going through boxes and stowing my (our) stuff. We hadn't moved for 25 years before this and didn't completely think the move through so naturally we made mistakes. One of the bigger mistakes was packing things we no longer needed or wanted, only to move them to our new place and throwing them out there. We had spent time over the past few years trying to simplify our lives by sifting through our stuff. However, that's a difficult and somewhat depressing job. Going though boxes of old stuff in the attic reminds you of failed projects, misplaced friends, gained weight and lost youth. For a while, we made the commitment to throw away one full garbage bag of stuff a week. That lasted until we had picked the low hanging fruit and the decisions to keep or discard became difficult. When it became time to move, we didn't have the time to pick and choose so all of it came to the new house. Now, as we unpack, we are going through our life. Anybody want a massive boom box that uses like 8 "D" batteries and plays cassettes?

My 2006 Hemi Charger. Hanging  in there despite our
New York winters.

First Father-In-Law Gene painting the
living room last October.

The weather has finally broken and I have taken time off from house projects to try to get the winter grime off the cars, I am normally meticulous with the car detailing and care but with the new house and move I have just not had time. Well, I made time recently and it makes me happy to drive a much cleaner car. To me, nothing is more relaxing and gratifying than putting on a some music, icing a few beers, and detailing a car on sunny and warm spring day. It's really fun to drive a clean car too!

One final note: Cindy and I want to thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers, notes, generous gifts and offers of assistance, for Cindy's dad Gene. It's been a difficult time for us with him being so seriously ill. He continues to battle his illness and has made some slow improvement. He's not out of the woods yet but we have hope that a full recovery is in his future. Please keep him in your thoughts and give Cindy a hug if you see her.

Upcoming blogs: To ride or push, power washing, critters in the night, and that damn garage door.