Greetings and Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers
Well I have let the blog go a little stale again. I guess I don’t really feel like it since I twitter everyday. But I digress.
It has been a fairly uneventful couple of weeks here at Stapleton HQ. Petey is recovering well from his procedure; he is off all of his drugs and we believe his hearing is back to normal.
Jess continues to receive therapy and treatment from the wreck. June 2nd marks 20 weeks and her recovery is progressing. There are good days and bad days, that is just about the best way I can put it. She is making progress everyday. Her attitude remains good for the most part, but bringing your life to a screeching halt for 20 weeks is hard for anyone to take. She has been a trooper, but as you can expect there is frustration, irritation, & uncertainty that she deals with everyday. I think the next big step to her recovery is getting back into the job market. She sent out her first stack of resumes on Friday and she has already received several hits. Please continue to keep her in your prayers; we still have a long road to travel to get back to”normal”. (That’s a loaded term in this family)
I have spent the last couple of weeks catching up on customer visit’s and paperwork. I took a long Memorial Day weekend and did not touch a laptop, Blackberry, or a single piece of work. It fell good but I really could have used a longer break. (I am thinking sun, sand, waves, & my cell phone floating in the surf.) Jess and I went to go see the new Indiana Jones movie, which was the low point of my weekend; I was really disappointed with it. As a special treat for my long 4 day weekend I went out and got Poison Ivy. I am on the down hill slope but it was a bad case. Hopefully it will be cleared up by the end of the week.
After a lengthy search for the Poison Ivy that infected me; I located it under the ugly, rotten, red deck that I never have taken off the back of the house. It appears that I was infected while weed eating and I threw the Poison Ivy all over my shins at a high velocity for a really nice splatter effect. This was all the excuse I needed to exact my revenge on the Poison Ivy and the deck in one act of pure unmitigated vengeance. (That sounded particularly evil, go ahead and picture me stroking Phoebe with an evil laugh)
This culminated last Saturday with the use of multiple power tools, hand tools, trash trucks, and a trip to the dump! It does not get much better than that. My original plan was to take the deck off with a chain saw last Friday evening. So I borrowed one of my father in laws trucks (yes he has 3) and his chain saw. Resistance by the deck was intense. It appears that the wood was petrified. All the chain saw did was smoke when it hit the wood. So I called for backup and Rick came down and give me a hand. So we spent Saturday morning tearing the deck off the house and killing the Poison Ivy. It was a fun exercise; demolition is always better than construction.
The entire NuVentures fleet on maneuvers.
Ugly Deck I have you now!
Crap what do I do with the space now?
I am leaning towards a screened in patio with a concrete floor. If anyone has any better ideas for the space please feel free to submit them.
Just don’t dream too big we have to be careful how much money we spend on the house. Recently we had another appraisal on the house for the re-finance/completion of our home loan. (dropped the rate 120 basis points YES!) The house came in right where we wanted it that is both a good and bad thing. It’s good because when we re-finished the house before we moved in and completed the basement we got all that money back in the increased appraisal. The bad news it that the appraisal put us in the higher end for our block and comparables. So anything else we do big dollar to the house we most likely won’t recoup in resale. So as far as I am concerned the house is done for big dollar stuff. The house still has a lot of flexibility left in it so I am not too concerned.
Well that’s just about it from Stapleton HQ. I am looking forward to the family reunion this weekend. Hopefully Jess can handle the car ride to Ripley and we can enjoy sometime visiting with everyone.
Everyone take care that’s the news I am outta here!
Estabilshed 1999 AD
For 2 scores and 2 years your Mother has amassed a fine collection of bricks, cinder blocks, and stepping stones. This rare and unique Stapleton family heirloom needs to be preserved in an area where they can be properly displayed for all mankind to admire, instead of being piled into nice stacks on the old Stapleton basketball court. I can help you move and build a proper display for such a rare collection. If you allow it, I can make a plaque documenting the hundreds of trips I have made carrying the bricks to various points in Mom’s yard over and over again. Isn’t funny that no matter where the bricks are for years or just days they always end up back on the basketball court in nice neat stacks. This plaque will be made of high class tin suitable for mounting on your house next to your front door. Just remember this display of the Stapleton family heirloom in your old patio space will have to wait for the fall, since the bricks have been stacked to provide a garden for Mom’s okra and tomatoes.
The committee will take this unique idea under advisement.
Just as long as the committee does not require me to move the bricks, because I am tired of the freakin’ things!
This is very funny……………….
Your ugly deck would be a good match for the notorious and oh so famous crooked a__ awning!!
I’m wondering how far over this screened in porch will go because you will have a nice view of it from the laundry room window if it goes too far.
I think you should plant a garden/flower bed below the window. It’ll give phoebe a nice view from her perch.
so yea htat brick step stone idea is good…add some flowers/plant foliage maybe a cute little dwarf tree and u got yourself a nice little (and inexpensive) landscaped garden back there!
u could later go crazy and throw in a pond wiht a little trickling fountain for jess to relax by and petey to drink.
i love you stapleton people.