Saturday, June 06, 2015

4050 Up the river

Saturday, June 6, 2015

"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."
 --Sir Winston Churchill--

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Last Monday, June 1st, I drove up to the country house in the morning to meet the a/c man in the afternoon, to discuss getting central air there.   The house has a 30-year-old water-based heat pump for a/c, but the well water is so hard and so silty the coils are clogged up, and it hasn't worked in years.

It hadn't been too much of a problem when I lived there for several reasons:
- There were only a few days in July, usually, when the outdoor temp got over 90,
- I could pop the attic hatch and open the basement door, and then the attic fan pulled cool air from the basement,
- Since I was there all the time and could keep "on top of it", it never got out of hand.

But the past few summers there have been whole weeks with outdoor temps well over 90.  And if I arrive at the house and it's already super hot in there, I can't get it cooled down enough in an afternoon to be able to sleep there.  Plus, age seems to have made me much less tolerant of temperature extremes.

So, I need central air to get anything done up there.

I settled on one of the largest and oldest family-owned heating/cooling/plumbing companies in the area - they have lots of people, support a variety of systems, and their reviews are very good.  The owner himself came out to look at the place.  It's all good.  I have confidence.  He sent a chart of all my options as to size and add-ons, and I've chosen the middle one as being adequate and the best price.  So now I'm just waiting to hear when they can get started.  He said it would take one day (!) to install it and have it up and running, and then one day to remove the miserable heat pump.  And he did give me a price for the whole job, NOT an estimate.

The deck across the back of the house is rotting.  I had thought I'd have to replace the whole thing - it's over 30 years old.  I had expected it would cost a fortune.  But when we were walking under it, he said no, only the decking needs replacing.  It's not rotted, just all dried out and warped from the sun.  He said the underpinnings, posts and beams, are fine.  Wow!  That means I can just hire the Hairless Hunk to replace the deck!  I'm excited.

I'm pretty dense sometimes.  I told him how much I love the area, and how I really would like to keep the house, but it's just too much to keep up.  He asked if I'd be happy with a townhouse or condo.  I am so dense!  It was like a revelation!  Yes!  I could sell the house, and find something else, maybe something tiny, like an efficiency apartment.  Heck, I'd mainly be going up there for events and stuff, not to just sit inside, so I don't need more than a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and closet.  

Yeah.  I'm getting excited again.

I went online and searched for condos and such in north-western Dutchess county.  There's not much in the areas where I'd want to live.  There's new "senior housing" right in the village, that would be ideal, I've seen the place, it's nice, they have 1-bedroom apartments, balconies, pool, the usual, but they have income limits - and I'm past the limit by a bit.  (If I could invent a fake husband to share the place with me, then I'm within the limits for two.)  There's nothing like apartment buildings anywhere near the village.  I guess there are downsides to rural living.  I do want to find someplace in the Rhinebeck-to-Tivoli area, though.  I really like all the farms and orchards, historic mansions, woods and trails, the fairgrounds, all that.

And mainly, the CLEAN AIR!

Oh, well, plenty of time to work on that.

I returned to the city house on Wednesday, late.  
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Monday, June 01, 2015

4049 Change done.

Monday, June 1, 2015

"I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."

--Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.---

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Update to the prior post, #4048:

Bruce Jenner is now Caitlyn Jenner, is now "she" (if you watched the interview you understand the special significance of the pronoun), and is on the cover of the next issue of "Vanity Fair".

Google "Caitlyn Jenner" and click on "images", or go to http://mashable.com/2015/06/01/caitlyn-jenner-vanity-fair-2/

Wow.

She doesn't look 65. Maybe I should try for sexual reasignment. "I want to be transformed into a 39-year-old woman, please."
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4048 Changing

Monday, June 1, 2015

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished
unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
 --Voltaire--

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Didja hear they caught a 3-D printer sneakily printing a 3-D printer?

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Why do they always give me cole slaw with my pastrami ruben? Can one overdose on cabbage?

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I watched the Diane Sawyer / Bruce Jenner interview the other day, on YouTube, and I'm glad I did.  A lot of my questions about what's going on with him were answered, and I'm left with a lot of respect for Bruce.

But (sigh) there's still so much I don't understand.  So many men (people assigned male, raised as male, whatever... I'm not sure what words to use) who want to transition to female seem to be obsessed with dresses, makeup, high heels, all the trappings.  I don't understand that.

I am 100% female, no question about it, and yet I can't remember the last time I wore a dress (caftans and mu'u-mu'us don't count), or the last time I wore a heel higher than 1.5 inches.  I did wear makeup to a Meetup dinner last Wednesday, but it felt strange (clownish) and I'm pretty sure that was the first time in at least a year. Clothes, shoes, lipstick and eyeliner don't make me feminine.  I'm not sure what does, but I guarantee everyone who sees me knows I'm 100% heterosexual female.

Seems to me these guys just need to get rid of the beard, change the voice, dump the muscles (hormones should fix all that), practice (slightly!) softer movements, and then just wear whatever's comfortable, like lifelong mature women do.  Don't go all girly, for pity's sake.  BE female!  Don't go all female impersonator.

But, like I said, I don't understand, so obviously I don't know what I'm talking about.

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This all reminds me of something that happened many decades ago, I don't remember when or where exactly, probably in the mid-70s.  Back then anyone contemplating a sex change had to endure major psychiatric counseling, and had to pretty much prove their seriousness through all kinds of sometimes humiliating exercises.

I was in a checkout line at a grocery store.  At the end of the checkouts, against the windows near the door, where everyone had to pass him? her? was a person. I'll use "him", because I'm pretty sure he was not very far into the process.

He was at least six feet tall, broad-shouldered, square-jawed, wearing high heels, a beautiful lavender dress with Victorian lace trim down the bodice, shoulder-length brown hair, matching earrings and bracelet set, perfect understated makeup, and holding one of those two-handled purses that, let's face it, no one runs errands with.  It was obvious he'd put a lot of care into his appearance.  He was dressed like for Easter Sunday services at a southern Baptist church, minus the enormous flowered hat.

It was also obvious he was supremely uncomfortable.  This was obviously an "exercise", a test.  Just standing there, being judged by every person leaving the store.

All the people in front of me in the checkout lane were whispering, pointing, rolling their eyes, and making no effort to hide it.  As they walked past him to the exit, they avoided looking at him.

Me?  I thought that dress was the most beautiful color I'd ever seen.  On my way out I stopped in front of him, looked at the lace front of the dress, and looked up (way up) at his eyes.  They were so sad, like he was begging me not to say anything nasty.

I smiled, and said, "That dress is the most beautiful color I've ever seen.  It looks good on you."

I have never forgotten the smile I got.   The light in his eyes.  I hope he made it.
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