First, there was power. Then, there was cable.

The electrician's hard at work, City Light's hooked up a line from the utility pole, and by the end of the day, we'll have a temporary power connection. The Seattle DCLU (Dept. of Construction and Land Use) will be out Thursday to inspect, and on Friday, AT&T will be by to fix our cable line and the neighbor's. Monday or so, we'll get a permanent connection from City Light. All in all, things are moving right along. The tree still needs to be removed, the fence needs to be repaired, and we'll need to figure out something to do for the gutters. The electrician has to put the new electrical mast up higher, so he has to cut the gutter to do it. I'm sure we'll figure something out for that.

If I get a hot shower tomorrow, I'll be one happy camper.

Update, 20:58 PST - Power's been restored. The connection made at the mast is only temporary, but so far we've got all of our lights and heat back. We're limping along on dialup, and cable will be reconnected on Friday. We should get our permanent power connection sometime next week.

1900 House soon no more

Woooooooo! We finally got an electrician and bid for work. Repairs start later today. Hooray! Soon, perhaps in a couple days, living in our house won't be like living in the 1900 House.

The electrician told us our wiring appears to be of 1930s vintage. To get our wiring up to code, he'll be re-wiring much of the fusebox, electrical mast, etc. Our system never was properly grounded (we only obtained a ground when we got a cable hookup in August), so he'll be fixing that too. He's going to be one busy man, but here's hoping that we'll have a fully working electrical system within the next couple of days.

Are there no good electricians?

Ugh, the electricians I called yesterday never showed up. And, I can't get them on the phone. All I get is voicemail. Wonderful.

I've called a couple electricians today. Because it's Sunday, they want an extra fee for Sunday work (so far, anywhere from $125-200 on top of their normal rate), plus one charges an extra 20% for their work. Instead of $1900 to fix the damage, one told us it'd be $3500. I think we'll be spending another day sans electricity.

I've opened up a claim with my renter's insurance. Hell, it's worth a shot, and it might give us a little bit of financial backing to actually get someone here to fix the house.

Well, time to conserve precious battery life on my PowerBook.

Pictures of the carnage

Still no word from the electricians. I called another; they wanted $1900 to fix the damage to the house. I can't afford that, so I'll have to wait to hear from the first electricians I called this morning.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the carnage. Enjoy!

Now you're cookin'... with wood heat!

Last night was a little eventful. Before Nicole and I went to bed before 8pm, I stoked the woodstove as full as I could get it. As I was soon to find out, this was a big big mistake, as I also closed the damper too much, and smoke started filling the house. Eventually, the smoke alarm went off and Nicole and I spent a good two hours airing out the house and watching the fire. I also went to the store and got a new set of fireplace tools, as our set was missing the scoop, and because I set our sweeper on fire, accidently. Just to be extra cautious, I picked up a fire extinguisher.

No more wood for us. I'm sticking to the 3-hr firelogs, as they produce good heat and good consistency. And, as another little trick, I've put a pot of water on top of the fireplace (it's an insert) so that we'll humidify the house a bit. The hope is (and it seems to be working) that as the house gets more humid, it'll hold heat. And because it'll be more muggy in the house, it'll feel warmer. Here's hoping.

Seattle City Light came buy late late last night after we went to sleep and detached the power line from the pole. They left a friendly little note letting us know that we'll need to have our electrical mast reconnected before they can hook up the line again. We're waiting for the electrician to come by right now. They said it'd be sometime between 3pm and 5pm. It's now 5:26pm.

Who knows when we'll get our electricity hooked back up. We're also going to have to have the cable TV/Internet line re-strung, as the tree took out the cable line. Ugh, and not to mention the big ass tree that needs to be hauled away, or the fence that needs to be repaired/torn up. I'd like it repaired. It's a nice fence.

Always fun. I just wish the electrician would show up soon so Nicole and I can go to my work and cook our dinner up. Our refrigerator is truly an icebox now, with three 10-lb. blocks of ice between the freezer and fridge compartments.

Never a dull moment around here.

Thar she blows!

Ah, what a day....

Today started out like any other day, with the exception that I took Nicole to work. That's a bit different than what normally happens. It was a slow day at work, what with a lot of our school customers being gone for the holidays. So, Nicole and I get home this afternoon, and there's a cop car at the end of our block, blocking off the road. Uh, what the hell?

I look a little bit further, and our big tree that's in front of the house has been blown down by today's wind storm. Damn, talk about exciting. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a loss of power to our little house, as the power lines went through the tree. In the process, the electric meter and AT&T cable box were ripped off of the front of the house.

I'm typing this right now from my PowerBook, as it has two batteries, and our phone line's still intact. I'm dialed up using my mom's dialup account, and I actually pulled out a 46667 connection. Not too shabby, all things considered. I've taken pictures of the carnage, but I won't be posting them until I can get to a broadband equipped location. I think I"ll be going to work tomorrow, at least to charge the PowerBook and upload those pictures.

Thank goodness we have a fireplace. Without it, it'd be much colder in here, right now, even if the fireplace is taking forever to heat this place. Also, thank goodness for a very nice Seattle City Light guy who came out here on his own time to snip the live electrical line that crossed the street. I don't have to worry about getting jolted from the downed line in my front yard anymore.

I just hope the landlords get back to me soon. I really really really want to watch some TV right now.

The ass is still working...

Almost two weeks after I posted about starting at the gym, and I'm still going. I've gone about nine or ten times since I last posted, and my body's loving me for it. My clothes aren't, as they're smelly and sweaty, but that's the price you have to pay.

So far I'm liking it. I do hate getting all sweaty, though, but my arms feel tighter after working some of the weight machines there. I spent a few sessions on the exercise bikes, and then moved to treadmills, and then today I tried the cross trainer. Yowch. That thing really gets your heart going, and your muscles burning. On the treadmill, I'd keep my heart rate at 160-165. On the crosstrainer, the lowest I could keep it was 176. I'm going to have to take it easy on that thing.

My sister had her baby, and I'm now the proud uncle of a little baby boy named Raven Michael. He's a cutie. I haven't seen him in person yet, but I will when I go down to Longview for Christmas with the family.

It's been busy here, which explains for the lack of any postings in the journal. You know I'm busy if I'm not wasting time pontificating about crap that most people don't care about.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Time to go sweep the driveway of needles and tree debris and then take a shower. Happy Holidays!

Work that ass.

Since August, I've been on the Atkins Diet. Oh, sorry - the Atkins Nutritional Approach. Well, I'm still on it, and my pants certainly fit better than they look like they did in this picture. People have also told me my face doesn't look as fat. That's a good sign - how about my ass not looking as fat?

Well, I've started doing something about it. I went and did 35 minutes on a bike last night at the gym that's in front of my house. I'm going to *try* to stick with it. The last time I tried, I lost interest after about a month. I've got a little bit more encouragement now, in the form of Nicole. She'll keep me in line ;-)

The real trick for me is not to go whole hog and then burn myself out. Moderation is the key. I only did the bike last night because I haven't done anything else in a while, and I need to start somewhere. Nicole says I need to get on the cross trainer, and I will when I'm ready. I'll be happy with the bike right now. At least the gym has TVs all over the place ;-)