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| The Vittas' love America. |
We've gotten a little lax on this whole blog thing. Sorry about that. When you work 374 hours a week it tends to cause you to become a little lethargic in other areas of your life. Like blogging.
But the other part of that is simply - we have no life.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. We aren't world travelers. We enjoy the simple things. A lazy Saturday afternoon, a baseball game, etc. To put it another way, if we owned a hammock I'd be in it as much as possible. It helps the ol' central nervous system but it gives you crap as far as interesting things to blog about go.
So what's been going on?
Well, September has marked the two month mark of home life on the corner of Hinsdale and Whistler. Overall, I'd say it's been a peaceful existence. Also a learning experience.
In the two months that we've lived here, some of the things I've mastered the art of are:
- Watering the lawn: When the climate around you closely represents the atmosphere of the sun as ours has over the past few months, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep your yard alive. At first, I thought I watered too little. Then I saw our water bill and realized I had been watering too much. Now with the drought reaching epic-crazy levels, we have been sacked with water restrictions as much of the state has, and I'm down to a simple two day a week watering schedule. It's been okay so far, and we had some pretty good rains yesterday evening, so it's surviving for now. But if it dies, it dies. Oh well. Life goes on.
- Taking out the trash twice a week: Is this notable? No. But do you have a blog of your own? Most of you can also answer no. So there. Our nice little corner lot has a little patch of grass (that had been devoid of any kind of mowing for awhile and started to get kind of gnarly - more on the lawn mowing in a moment) that collects our refuse twice a week. When we first moved in, this was crushed cardboard box central. Any child looking to built a fort or castle out of them would have been in heaven. But over the weeks to come, it's been toned down to a bag or two of garbage and our recycling bin. Cool, right? This is noteworthy to me because for the first time since living at home I've been saddled with the responsibility of taking out the trash. I feel so adult.
- Mowing the yard (front and back): Ah yes, here's what we all came to read, no? For starters, let me begin by saying that when we purchased our lawn mower off Craigslist from a fine fellow in Carrolton, I realized it was a push mower. I didn't think that would be a big deal, and for the most part, it hasn't been. Am I whipped as a speckled pup by the end of the affair? Yes, but I'd like to think that a great deal of that is also because it's been hotter than hades each time I've had to go out there and mow this summer. But overall, a push mower has sufficed.
Roots have proved to be a semi-major annoyance and have been a beating for my poor little lawn mower to navigate around, but I've learned to just go to town on the area around them with the weed eater and it's made life a little easier.
As far as the bagging versus not bagging the grass clippings debate, I have chosen not to. Mainly, my reasoning for having decided to do this is because it would take me way too freaking long to mow the lawn if I had to stop and empty the bag every five minutes. And that time frame is probably generous, for you see we have mutant grass that likes to grow an inch every day. Maybe every hour, I don't know.
- Met some neighbors: Only some, not many. And nobody has come by with a basket full of fresh baked cookies or a bottle of wine or anything of that nature yet, but I've exchanged pleasantries with a few of our street mates while out mowing the lawn and getting the mail. We've also learned from our previous owner that we've got someone living by us that cooks up a mean brisket. I've got to make friends with him.
And finally
- Nailing down a good route to and from The Ballpark: Silly yes, but key if you're a Vittas. It's no quick two minute trip any longer but it'll do.
In the two months that we've lived here, some of the things I've mastered the art of are:
- Watering the lawn: When the climate around you closely represents the atmosphere of the sun as ours has over the past few months, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep your yard alive. At first, I thought I watered too little. Then I saw our water bill and realized I had been watering too much. Now with the drought reaching epic-crazy levels, we have been sacked with water restrictions as much of the state has, and I'm down to a simple two day a week watering schedule. It's been okay so far, and we had some pretty good rains yesterday evening, so it's surviving for now. But if it dies, it dies. Oh well. Life goes on.
- Taking out the trash twice a week: Is this notable? No. But do you have a blog of your own? Most of you can also answer no. So there. Our nice little corner lot has a little patch of grass (that had been devoid of any kind of mowing for awhile and started to get kind of gnarly - more on the lawn mowing in a moment) that collects our refuse twice a week. When we first moved in, this was crushed cardboard box central. Any child looking to built a fort or castle out of them would have been in heaven. But over the weeks to come, it's been toned down to a bag or two of garbage and our recycling bin. Cool, right? This is noteworthy to me because for the first time since living at home I've been saddled with the responsibility of taking out the trash. I feel so adult.
- Mowing the yard (front and back): Ah yes, here's what we all came to read, no? For starters, let me begin by saying that when we purchased our lawn mower off Craigslist from a fine fellow in Carrolton, I realized it was a push mower. I didn't think that would be a big deal, and for the most part, it hasn't been. Am I whipped as a speckled pup by the end of the affair? Yes, but I'd like to think that a great deal of that is also because it's been hotter than hades each time I've had to go out there and mow this summer. But overall, a push mower has sufficed.
Roots have proved to be a semi-major annoyance and have been a beating for my poor little lawn mower to navigate around, but I've learned to just go to town on the area around them with the weed eater and it's made life a little easier.
As far as the bagging versus not bagging the grass clippings debate, I have chosen not to. Mainly, my reasoning for having decided to do this is because it would take me way too freaking long to mow the lawn if I had to stop and empty the bag every five minutes. And that time frame is probably generous, for you see we have mutant grass that likes to grow an inch every day. Maybe every hour, I don't know.
- Met some neighbors: Only some, not many. And nobody has come by with a basket full of fresh baked cookies or a bottle of wine or anything of that nature yet, but I've exchanged pleasantries with a few of our street mates while out mowing the lawn and getting the mail. We've also learned from our previous owner that we've got someone living by us that cooks up a mean brisket. I've got to make friends with him.
And finally
- Nailing down a good route to and from The Ballpark: Silly yes, but key if you're a Vittas. It's no quick two minute trip any longer but it'll do.
