custodian of another ford truck
we used to have a Chinese teacher. she was great, came once a week and didn't cost too much. the kids really picked up on the whole second language thing. then, she informed me she was returning to taiwan for six weeks. that turned into months and now more than a year. the kids have since forgotten any chinese she taught them.
just the other day I got an email from her, asking for my help. she'd attached an email from an attorney, noting that she had 24 hours to remove her truck or it would be towed. I knew that if the truck got towed, the towing and impound fees would soon eclipse the value of her truck. I was asked to fetch the truck and bring it here.... to Austin ModHouse. yet, she failed to provide necessary details like, location of the truck and where the key for the truck could be obtained or even what color the truck was. the time difference made email exchange a slow process. I was sure the truck would be gone before we could help. by sunday morning we had enough details to find the truck and liberate it from impending impound.
apparently I will drive a beat up truck with no insurance, expired inspection and registration for just about anybody. she had pledged to have somebody come get it from our house. but now that it's here, I've now been asked to keep it "a while". even by my standards, this thing is pretty beat up and I was surprised it got me home as it doesn't run so well.
home maintenance: sorta sucks and is not cheap.
the deep freeze we had this winter had us replacing the outdoor shower fixture, $600. the expansion valve on the downstairs geothermal hvac quit working, our electric bill went up; hvac ran all the time and didn't cool. the new company that serves our hvac charges $210 an hour... I could've bought 7 window units for the cost of that repair. but it works again.
our koi pool has a negative edge that drains into a snail pool. we've been adding water far more frequently than usual. the kids and I shoveled out the muck from the lower pool and strained it to save hundreds of live snails down there. kids were not happy helping with that task, but they also didn't want to see the snail genocide that would have resulted by just chucking the muck.
new coat of rubber paint applied to the lower pond, where we had figured the leak was. but the water level still dips. I think the extreme drought is what we are experiencing. normally, the upstairs hvac condensate keeps the water level up. but with no humidity in the air, almost no condensate this year. that, and the dry air increases evaporation. we also suspect deer may be having nocturnal water binges as the big level drop usually happens under the black of night.
made a trip to east austin succulents, located in south austin. replaced some plants we had lost during that historic annual hard freeze.
when I brought this one palm inside a friend warned me they don't do well indoors. but this one is doing MUCH better than the two we installed outside. despite me hauling buckets of sink water (graywater) each morning as I do the dishes, they don't look so happy. also featured above are two hand-me-down MCM chairs, thanks.
and, the equisetum in the front planter box is mostly dead and brittle. thedownstairs hvac condensate is plumbed to this box. normally tall, lush and green.... not any more. banana plants are also burning up in the drought and heat.
the school offers a free summer orchestra camp. this was from their final performance. you can see the instructor (back left) is in deep focus mode. one girl demonstrated a new use for an old water bottle (below)
GOOD FOOD:
I'm getting back into the habbit of making my pizza dough from scratch. shitake mushroom, arugula, garlic, greek oregano and asiago above. Tomato hand stretched mozzarella and basil below. the toms and shitake were sourced at the farmer's market. arugula, basil and greek oregano came from our garden.
we had a groupon for Judge's Hill. we each got a pre-fixe meal with four courses for a total of $35. my favorite was the first/cheese course. dried and fresh fruit, nuts, different crakers and bread, spiced honey and dijon mustard and a delicious brazos valley cheese.
I love a good pre-fixe but I wish the desert course had a savory option. I don't like sweets after dark. we couldn't finish it all.
as I'm always looking at my options, we went and checked out a mid-century modern home very near us. great location but some things about the house just weren't right for us. I'd love a project house, not so much a maintenance house, but the price of changing this one made it cost prohibitive for us. not going any place for now. maybe if they drop the price 100k....