Thursday January 1, 2004
...................................................................................It was six years ago today that the Opie Project had its rudimentary beginning. We had discovered the Internet the previous year and decided that our faithful feline Opie, being the perfect cat, deserved a web presence of his own, to inspire the world to greatness, cat-wise.
At that time Opie was still a youthful animal, delighting in bringing us rodentia from the woods behind our home on a regular basis. We began keeping records of his captures (and our captures of his captures to return them to their rightful place in the forest). It seemed like the basis of a somewhat different kind of website, so the Opie Project Online was born.
Of course at the time we had no idea how to go about building or operating a website, but we learned. We were so intrigued by the internet, we would spend hours each day (in separate rooms) surfing uncontrollably - at 28.8 kbps :)
We found that we could learn almost anything from the 'net, but it was a vacation to Colorado that year that wrapped it all up. I had gotten a book about being creative with html (the scripting language from which all websites are composed), and I studied it intently on the four-hour flight to Denver, and again on the flight home. From there it was just a few weeks to going live.
And here we are. Happy New Year to all from the Opie Project.
Wednesday January 7, 2004
...........................................................................................My dentist says I have the bite of a bulldog, a consequence of which is broken teeth. Lots of 'em. I've lost track of how many. But they get repaired and rebuilt (for a price), most of which is not covered by my sterling dental plan (it considers anything beyond fillings to be radical, experimental or cosmetic).
Five years ago I had an implant put in. It was a metal rod screwed into my jawbone, atop which was attached a pseudo (but very realistic) tooth. It was supposed to offer excellent resistance to my destructive bite and last a lifetime (for $2500 it should have). It managed five years. It had broken away from the bone, taking bits of the bone with it and gotten infected, and requiring exploratory surgery to remove the fragments, the infection and the implant. Now a more conventional bridge is being installed (requiring caps on both teeth on either side of the gap to which the bridge will be attached. What that basically means is $3000 more directed into my mouth.
I dunno where the pain is greater - in my mouth or in my wallet.
That was Monday. My gums had been pretty well carved up and will require several weeks to heal. In the interim I hafta chew (carefully) on the left side only (where I have only two working teeth that can grind up food) until the bridge can be installed. There's a lotta yogurt in my immediate future.
Meanwhile, the bottle of Advil and I have struck up a close friendship.
Tuesday January 13, 2004
.......................I wish I was rich.
Of course to be rich you either have to be born into it, or you hafta work long and hard to achieve it. The first didn't happen and the second lacks a certain appeal.
But then, what would I do different if I was rich? Besides pay off my dentist. Not a lot. I'm reasonably happy with my current state of affairs. Some of the happiest years of my life were my college years, when I shared a house with four other guys - our individual share of the rent was $10/month each. Our heating bill was $1.25/week (the cost of 7 gallons of kerosene for the big smelly heater). The house had no insulation, so the heater ran full blast all winter, but the pipes still froze on a regular basis. The curtains would blow in the breeze, even when the windows were closed.
All my disposable income was earned during the summers at my grunt job at the local Pepsi plant (where I was allowed to drink all the Pepsi I wanted - I've never drunk cola of any brand since). I would manage to put away at least $1000 each summer to get me through 'til next summer. That meant I had to live on less than $100/month, which included rent, food, gas, electricity and water. And kerosene.
But they were good times, and we had lots of fun. We never thought about the money. I miss those times, despite the discomfort.
Still, I wish I was rich.
Monday January 19, 2004
..........................This weekend we got our butts in gear and moved into the new year.
Firstly, the final remnants of Christmas were taken down and packed away (we have lots of them). There's still a few things remaining - the Christmas dishes have to be washed and stored away in a blanket chest reserved for that purpose (it currently holds our everyday dishes while the Christmas dishes are in use), and there are a few wall hangings that have underbed storage space awaiting them, and this year's (actually last year's, aren't they?) Christmas cards are still strung up along the hallway, displaying their well-wishes in various forms.
Then there's the remodeling projects that never quite got underway before Christmas. We had two cabinet refacers come out and give us an estimate on new kitchen cabinets and counters - the numbers were larger than we had anticipated, but I think we hid our sticker-shock well. The ultimate decision belongs to the Wife (it's her bonus that's paying for it).
Also on the list is the bathroom remodeling - we're tackling that one ourselves, with the able help of the Wife's father and brother-in-law (both of whom have previous experience with this stuff). We bought the sink, vanity and flooring before Christmas, and it's been occupying floor space downstairs since then. This weekend we began the actual labors, tearing out the old sink and vanity cabinet and putting the new one in a space where it didn't want to go. The countertop was an inch (2.5cm) wider than the space alloted to it, so we ended up cutting out chunks of wall to make it fit, then filling the gaps around it. We also had to trim 1/8 inch (3mm) from a full-width drawer in the vanity cabinet to clear the walls on either side.
So the new sink and vanity are in place and functional, and the surrounding walls are a wasteland of spackle, but we're underway. Next, retiling and a new floor, involving the always-popular toilet removal.
Monday January 26, 2004
.......................Firstly, greetings to the ageless female person in Maryland and her two faithful felines. Welcome to the Opie Project, guys!
It snowed yesterday, but only a dusting. But it's just started snowing again, and this time it means business.
Every area of the U.S. gets its share of snow (except the very southern regions), and each area is prepared to handle the amounts typical for that area (e.g. South Dakota gets snowfalls measured in feet. They have huge equipment to clear the roads and residents take it in stride. But in North Carolina, anything over three inches is paralyzing). So the actual snowfall is not the problem, it's whether or not the locale is prepared for it.
Here in New Jersey, the magic number is around six inches. And that's what's supposed to show up by the morning commute. And that's when people should stay home. But they won't. They'll get out there and drive down the center of the road at their own personally-determined speed limit, like it's mandated by nature. So I'm kinda hoping I'll get the "Don't come in" call this morning. Or I could just take a spontaneous vacation day.
Not that the six inches due by 7:00 am is the end. There's another storm on its heels that will be a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain (the big three).
It's days like this that make telecommuting seem like a very good idea.
Sunday February 1, 2004
........................You may or may not remember that the Wife test drove a Jeep Liberty about ten weeks ago, with every intention of purchasing one. We had to drive to Pennsylvania to find a stick shift version (standard transmissions are a rapidly-vanishing breed). The one she drove was pretty-much equipped the way she wanted (except no ABS brakes). She liked it, but planned to make the actual purchase a little closer to home. But none of the places matched the deal that the dealer in Pennsylvania offered. Then Christmas happened, and the new vehicle purchase was put on hold.
It was left that she would probably have to special-order one the way she wanted it, which meant delivery in March. Her original plan was to have a new 4-wheel drive for the winter months, but that wasn't likely if she had to order it, so there was no rush to proceed.
Then she discovered that Jeep was offering a $2000 rebate AND 0% financing - that was several thousand dollars off the price she had gotten back in November. If she ordered one now, the offer would expire before delivery (deals apply on delivery, not on order). Through the magic of the Internet, she discovered that the Jeep she had driven at the dealer in Pennsylvania was still in their inventory. Every month that a vehicle stays in a dealer's inventory, it incurs a tax, and since this one had been around since July, and last week was the end of the month, the dealer was very interested in getting it outa there.
So after some over-the-phone renegotiating, the Wife managed to get them to install the larger tires she wanted at no additional cost (if they could feasibly have added the ABS brakes she woulda gotten them to do that too). She picked it up Friday night.
Guess what the Wife will be writing about next time :)
Saturday February 7, 2004
............................Today it's back to work on the bathroom remodeling, after a weekend off for the Janet Jackson Bowl. Today we are putting down a new hardwood floor; we being the Wife's father and brother-in-law, along with myself. The brother-in-law has had previous experience installing this kind of floor in his kitchen, and our mutual father-in-law helped. That leaves me as the novice on this construction crew - I'll be learning as I go.
In fact, I'm pretty much a novice on this whole project. I've never installed a bathroom sink, vanity, medicine cabinet, or toilet either (okay, we did remove our old toilet to replace a seal just about one year ago; same operation).
And we're doing this all in one day. Today. Starting not too long after sunrise (I am not a morning person). The Wife is in charge of painting, and she's been doing as much of that as she can during the week. She took off from work yesterday to have it all done for the flooring operation that begins today, before I'm fully awake. We've covered that, haven't we?
Pix will be posted tomorrow on the remodeling page :)
Opie and c.c. have been sniffing around with mandatory curiosity at the tools of the task that are spread out around the house, but they do so with cat aloofness, as if the paint cans stacked in the kitchen or the toilet in the dining room are not that unusual.
All home improvements require at least one trip to the home center for something that was overlooked or unanticipated. That'll probably be my job. That one I can handle.
Friday February 13, 2004
....................Happy Friday the 13th, triscadecaphobes. And you know who you are.
A matter of business: Mighty Microsoft has added a security patch to XP that has screwed up access to e-mail sent to any of the addresses ending in "@opieproject.com" so if you have something to say in the immediate future, please direct it to opieproject@hotmail.com
Your patience is appreciated.
Our isp is working furiously on the problem, and when it is rectified (hopefully soon), a notice will be posted herewith.
It's another home improvement weekend coming up (new medicine cabinet and light fixture will complete the bathroom).
It's also Valentine's Day this weekend. The Wife and I have established a tradition of exchanging movies for Valentine's Day (healthier than candy). I haven't picked one out yet. Maybe I better go shopping :)
Enjoy yours.
Thursday February 19, 2004
..............................The Opie Project has its e-mail back (any address ending in "@opieproject.com"). We never really lost it, but thanks to a new security patch from Microsoft, accessing it from Internet Explorer was iffy. It was there, we just couldn't read it. Using Netscape as a browser assured that no mail got missed, but once you're used to IE, Netscape had become more of an annoyance.
Anyway, we're back in the e-mail retrieval business, so keep those e-cards and letters comin'.
Back in ancient times, Internet-wise (1998), when we began this project, hits were pretty much equally divided between Internet Explorer and Netscape. Now a hit from Netscape is a rarity (though not absent entirely), beaten back by the 900-lb. gorilla known as Microsoft. Bill Gates' plan to take over the world marches on.
We hafta begin cleaning out the kitchen cabinets this weekend (in preparation for the arrival of the cabinet refacers), and the more we look at it, the scarier it becomes. There's a whole lotta stuff in those cabinets. Some of it's been there an awfully long time. We're stocking up on empty boxes for the task, and procrastinating like crazy.
Updates to come.
Wednesday February 25, 2004
..............................The Wife returns from Florida today. She's there for a software seminar, all expenses company-paid. But, as is the case with most business trips, she has been kept busy enough to stay pretty much within the confines of her hotel. Frustrating with Disney World so close by (especially for the Wife). But her tenth-floor room has a balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean with its balmy summer-like breezes. Not too bad. This morning is a half-day wrap-up, followed by a dash to the airport. I will be picking her up tonight.
This weekend it's back to construction/destruction again, this time the kitchen. We hafta empty out the kitchen cabinets 'cause the cabinet refacers are arriving Monday to rip off the front of the cabinets. It's going to be a four-day project which we have happily deferred to the professionals. Although once they have done their thing, we move in and install a new hardwood (laminate) floor, just like we did in the bathroom, and add ceramic tile as a backsplash the full length of the kitchen counter.
The kitchen is the feline's dining spot (and they dine around the clock). We feed them three times a day (a habit we got into when we had three cats, dividing one can of food three ways three times daily), but there is always dry food out for them to nibble on, and the canned food stays in their bowls 'til next feeding so they can finish it (or ignore it when being finicky) at their leisure.
So it's going to be interesting to see how the cats put up with a construction crew in their food arena for eight hours at a time. We'll leave dry food out in the dining room for their between-meal snacking, and we know Opie will observe safely out of harm's way. But c.c. will want to get underfoot and check out everything going on in the kitchen, so we'll have to keep her distracted elsewhere (she likes to catnap in my presence when I'm at the computer - she's purring contentedly nearby now as I hunt 'n peck).
This will mean new pix to post on the home improvement page next week. You surely won't wan't to miss that :)
Tuesday March 2, 2004
..............................Today the wrecking crew arrives. A buncha construction workers with crowbars will dismantle our kitchen while the Wife and I stand around looking helpless.
Once the cabinet fronts are outa here (they throw them on their truck and haul 'em away), they bring in the new all-white cabinet fronts and screw 'em in place. They will also be replacing the countertop, sink and garbage disposal.
Our role in all this is to stay outa the way. And to keep c.c. from wandering curiously into the midst of all this chaos.
This whole process is scheduled to take four days. We're not sure what happens on which day, we just know that they'll be gone Friday and our new kitchen will remain behind in their wake.
Well, not all of it. We still have a new hardwood oak laminate floor to put down over the original vinyl, and tiles to put up on the wall between the counter and the upper cabinets (I will once again be playing the role of appentice to the more experienced team of the Wife's father and brother-in-law). That will entail a couple more weekends.
Then there's the pull-down attic stairs to install, and the new front steps ...
This may take a while.
Monday March 8, 2004
..............................The four of us (felines included) have spent the last few days adjusting to the new kitchen. The Wife bought new countertop appliances to go with the black-and-white motif, and several drawers and cabinets have been rearranged in the name of orderliness.
But the biggest adjustment has been one we didn't expect to be an adjustment at all.
When the contractors were here, they assembled the new countertop and sink (with the old faucet) outside in the driveway and brought it into the kitchen in one piece. We didn't pay a lot of attention to the detail.
The faucet is one of those single-handle models (left for hot, right for cold, up for on, down for off), and on the old sink the handle was to the left of the spigot. There was a soap dispenser to the right. For the new sink we decided to add another soap dispenser (one for hand soap, one for dish soap) with both of them on the right. We failed to notice that the contractors had gotten the order wrong until they were gone. They had put the control handle on the right and a soap dispenser on the left (where we were used to the control handle being).
So four days later we're still trying to turn the water on by lifting up on the soap dispenser. Not only doesn't that work, we get unwanted soap on our fingers. And quickly realizing our mistake (but too quickly to give it a second thought) we reach to the right with the same hand and lift up the control handle, permitting water to flow onto our arm.
You'd think we'd catch on pretty quick after doing that a few times. We're getting there.
Sunday March 14, 2004
..............................The Great Kitchen Remodeling continues. Yesterday we tiled; today we grout.
Part of the remodeling plan was a new refrigerator - a black 26-cu. ft. side-by-side with ice dispenser in the door. Most refrigerators are standard sizes to fit standardized kitchen layouts. The really big ones have a maximum height 68 1/4" and our over-the-fridge cabinet allowed for just that height. But the cabinet refacing added a quarter inch to the bottom of that cabinet, and we will be adding a half inch of new floor over the old, reducing the space between floor and cabinet by three quarters of an inch (19mm). Just enough so the new fridge won't fit. We would have to downsize our plans to a mere 22 cu. ft. (not much more than we already have). The Wife was disappointed - she really wanted that bigger refrigerator.
But necessity being the mother that it is, a brainstorm emerged. Switch the fridge with the kitchen table. The kitchen table fits nicely under that cabinet, and the fridge in the table's former spot is unencumbered by overhead cabinets. Problem solved. It also introduced something new to the equation - a 21" gap between the left side of the fridge and the wall - big enough to add another base cabinet and overhead cabinet. We pondered that for about five minutes, then went out and bought said cabinets. Now we have to get the cabinet refacers back to make a small countertop for the new base cabinet that matches the other countertops they made, and to supply matching door 'n drawer hardware for the new cabinets.
When the table was there, that was c.c.'s feeding corner. She is now going to get nudged out toward the center and closer to Opie. An initial relocation and trial placement of the new cabinet has indicated that this will not be a problem - c.c. could care less, so long as her food is readily available.
And the Wife gets her new fridge AND more counter/cabinet space. All is well.
Saturday March 20, 2004
..............................First, greetings to the cat-sitter in Oregon, who rediscovered our web pages after an absence of several years. Welcome back!
The Great Kitchen Remodeling continues. Today, the new floor.
Fresh from our experience putting down a wood laminate floor in the bathroom, we are ready to tackle the kitchen with confidence. If it goes as smoothly as the bathroom did, it should be a half-day project.
There is also the matter of the new cabinets we purchased last weekend (when we discovered extra space created by relocating the fridge). They still hafta be installed, which requires lotsa careful measurement and physical effort. We also have to run a water line for the icemaker in the new fridge (which we don't have yet), which involves drilling a hole in the floor and snaking a line down to the water supply for the washing machine (which is directly below). This is best done before the new floor is installed to minimize damage (and to be able to cover any drilling errors with the new flooring).
Opie and c.c. will exhibit curiosity, but they generally stay out of areas where hammering and drilling occur. Until mealtime, that is. The kitchen is their dining room, and when it's time to eat, they will be there. We will coax them with fresh food into a designated area in the cluttered (paradise to a cat) dining room.
The folks who installed our new cabinets also installed a custom-made countertop. They will be back a week from Monday to take measurements for a new section of countertop for the new (and previously unplanned) base cabinet so that it will match the rest of the countertops.
We're gettin' there.
Friday March 26, 2004
..............................I was born and raised in Delaware, about 50 miles from here. I have a brother and a sister still living there, and another sister in Pennsylvania. The only time we all get together any more is at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, although we do communicate by phone on rare occasions.
So it wasn't that unusual when my sister (Pennsylvania) called last Saturday needing computer help (she talked with the Wife more than me).
An hour later my brother called. He was in the neighborhood. He had driven up here from Delaware to check out the possible purchase of a motorcycle at a shop near here (he's a grandfather, but he knows what he wants). He ended up not buying it because the dealer wouldn't knock anything off the price. So he dropped in for a while.
An hour after that, my other sister called. She also had a computer question, also ably handled by the Wife.
I hadn't heard from any of my siblings since Christmas, and within a space of three hours, all three of 'em checked in.
Coincidence? Or a major disruption of the space/time continuum?
At this point, c.c. became suddenly and seriously ill and had to have surgery
Wednesday April 7, 2004
..............................What a stressed-filled week this has been. Our c.c. is recovering from two surgeries now, and, although it's a slow recovery, the doc did say she's gradually improving, although any complications could have serious consequences. But she's holding on.
Yesterday was the first time any of the doctors gave us a timetable for her recovery. Probably another week. We'll take anything that sounds like encouragement. There's still a big potential for problems before then, but we will hang on to our optimism.
Many thanks to all the folks who have sent along kind words during this ordeal - they have been very helpful. If we have not responded personally yet, it's because we're totally disorganized and stressed out. We do appreciate them all.
Some people are surprised that we're spending so much on this animal ($3500 so far, and rising), and yet these same people raised no eyebrows when I recently spent $4000 to repair a coupla teeth. We figure c.c. is worth a lot more than a coupla teeth.
Ten years ago we decided we wanted to see Alaska. We made a list of everything we wanted to see, the cost of seeing it, and the tours available. We then began putting money into a vacation fund on a regular basis, so when the time came, the trip was paid for. It worked out well - when we got home we had great memories and no outstanding bills. So we decided to do the same for our next big vacation - Australia. So for the last four years we've been putting money into a vacation fund on a regular basis for a planned trip in 2006. We have about $5000 in that fund. We have no qualms about using that money for c.c.'s medical care.
As someone pointed out - in five more years Australia will still be there, and hopefully, c.c. will too.
Just a few hours later c.c. died. The following replaced the above.
Wednesday April 7, 2004
..............................Yesterday the docs ventured the opinion that c.c. was going to make it, barring any more complications. But this morning was a major complication - c.c. suffered blood clots to the brain and lungs. They said she was suffering and would not recover; we had to let her go.
We won't be updating the site for a few days while we adjust to our loss. We'll have more details (and a slightly revamped website) on Monday.
Many thanks to all the folks who have sent along kind words during this ordeal - they have been very helpful. If we have not responded personally yet, it's because we're totally disorganized and stressed out. We do appreciate them all.
The Opie Project then went dormant for almost a week while we adjusted to life without c.c.
Friday April 16, 2004
..............................We got c.c.'s ashes today. We had thought we would be picking them up at the hospital, but when we called to find out when that might be, we were informed that they would be delivered to us by UPS. We were a little surprised by that, but arrive they did, yesterday. They were sealed in a small metal box and there was a memorial certificate that included the tale of the Rainbow Bridge and a poem by Edwin Arnold that I particularly liked:
Farewell Master, yet not farewell
Where I go, you too shall dwell.I am gone before your face,
A moment's time, a little space.When ye come where I have stepped,
Ye will wonder why we wept.
Tomorrow we will bury c.c.'s ashes back in the Pet Semetary at the edge of the woods, to be with Momma, Scruffy and Squeaker, who have gone before.
And that will be our necessary closure, from which point our lives will continue.
Phase Two had ended.