All's Good in the 'Hood

Things are slowly getting back to normal around town after last week's storm. I've gotten used to the sounds of chain saws roaring at 7am, gotten all of the leaves and branches out of the yard and was forced to give the fridge a good cleaning once the power was back up...... which, looking back, was actually kind of a good thing!

And -- I was VERY happy to discover that the Vagina Tree on the corner of 38th and Dodge survived the storm!

I *heart* the Vagina Tree!

In other news.... work on replacing the driveway at the house started this week -- which was a wee bit nerve-wrecking during the demo phase... especially when a chunk of bricks that had basically turned to dust fell off one of the corners leaving a foot long gap between the rest of the house and the ground --- NOT CUTE!

The old driveway was basically built for horse carriages (not kidding). It was SUPER narrow (passengers had to get out of the car on the street and I can't use it in the winter because the driver's door opens onto a hill of ice) and there's a part of my house that sticks out so that you can't drive all the way up to the garage in the back yard. It's also basically being held together with tar at this point.... and last winter, it buckled and there are now holes leading to nowhere all over the place. So about 1/2 of my property's been covered in cracked, ugly, useless concrete for the last 30 years. It's bad.

The guys working on the house are amazing and have been being really good to me... it will be wonderful once it's done. They're widening it so that I can actually get out of the car in the winter without risking my life by sliding under it. And they're not replacing the parts I can't use -- so I can have more grass and green stuff on the side of the house. They're also replacing the retaining wall which had started to fall over in the back. It's not gonna be cheap -- but it REALLY needed to be done (water was basically flowing right under the house when it rains) and I think it will definitely increase the value of the property a bit (um... I hope!).

I've really just kinda been loving being at home lately... just reading on the porch and watching fireflies. It's more than loving the house -- there's something about having this sense of HOME that's been making me really, very happy.

And speaking of homes.... I'm headed to Michigan for a few days this weekend. I haven't seen most of my family in over a year and I miss them -- a lot. Going back there always brings out loads of mixed emotions for me.... I miss my family and hate being away from them... but I feel like they don't know what I'm doing out here (I mean, hell, sometimes I don't know what I'm doing out here!) and they're concerned about things --- lots of things. I would like to just go and have three days to play with my family... but I think it will be more like three days of defending a shop the majority of them haven't seen and my life here. Which, um, ain't a vacay, kids.

It's a stress fest.

But hopefully, that's not the way it goes. I really am just silly excited to see them and be away for a few days.

Distraction: Three girls (I truly doubt they were 18 years old) just walked in here sporting brand new matching 6" Playboy bunny tattoos on their right shoulders that they just got at the tattoo parlor down the street.......... to "celebrate the 4th!" -- I kid you not.

Happy 4th of July, ya'll!