A Glenwood Halloween

The Beck girls come to trick or treat!  Emily is The Cookie Monster and Elizabeth is Little Red Riding Hood/  We so appreciate them coming out!  Elizabeth had a medical boot on her foot.  She broke it a couple of weeks ago, and it was good to see her out!

Emma Varnes, another Flying Dragoneer, came as Zombie Zipper Girl.  It was the best costume we saw all evening,  The makeup was through the roof awesome - her mother did an excellent job!  Emma was Kitkat in Flying Dragon's recent performance of Charlotte's Web, and also had excellent makeup for that part.

Our son, Benjamin, helps set up our porch for our Halloween guests.  He is dressed as Team Fortress 2 Engineer, a character from a video game.  He made the candy dispenser himself, and is related to his character.

It was our first Christmas at Glenwood, our new neighborhood in Blackshear.

We knew that there might be a lot of traffic,  It was the neighborhood we took Benjamin to, even before we moved here.  

We prepared and planned.  We got ten bags of candy, enough to fill the Halloween bowl, Benjamin's candy dispenser, and enough to refill the containers twice.  We used outdoor Halloween decorations for the first time in our lives.  We placed our record player so that we could play spooky sound effects.

They started to come, but it was slow.  I told Benjamin to start giving kids as many as three pieces of candy each.  Then about 7:30, the crowd began to pick up tremendously.  So much so that we couldn't make it to Halloween's official end, 8:30, and had to give up the ghost at about 8:10.  I'll know better next year.

It was basically a zombie horde.  Easily three quarters of the costumes were zombie related.

Seeing so many kids on Halloween made me nostalgic for the Halloweens of my youth.  Back then, you often got homemade treats, and nobody worried about it.  I asked on Facebook what people got that they looked forward to the most.  My answer, and the answer of a good number of others, were homemade popcorn balls.  The memory and taste of those linger about as long as any Halloween memory I have.

Who knows?  Maybe even next Halloween, I'll dress up.  It would be the first time in over twenty years if I do.

Occupy Glenwood!

This is the Glenwood living room.  Although it is not completely finished, much decorating has been done.   That's a nice rug.  TV works, which is always a plus.

Exterior of Glenwood.  Please notice that the front porch toilets are now gone.

Ding room of Glenwood.  Alison, her mother and Angela Manders have decorated several rooms with antiques and decor.  Some of Alison's favorite antiques are in this room. Her very favorite is not pictured here.  That would be me.

In the kitchen, the dogs await the serving of food and water.  It apparently has been so long for Ellie Mae that her eyes are starting to white and glowy.

Redneck curtains. Hopefully temporary.

Redneck shades.

Some rooms are further along the path to completion than others.  This is the guest room.  My son Doug is coming next weekend.  It should be ready by then.  ......  hahaha!!!

INTERNET UP!!!

My Internet's back, Baby!!!

More to come very soon but wanted to let y'all know I'm up and running!  High speed Internet in all it's glory!  

It was quite an adventure but after pushing all the buttons we could find, we got ATC out here and our internet installed.  Only took them a few minutes, so I'm not quite sure why it took so long, but that is all water under the spilling bridge now.

Glenwood has been a great place and a nice neighborhood.  We are very quickly getting used to our new surroundings.  We haven't got a backyard fence so we are still walking the dogs plenty, but that has been good for both us and the dogs.

Tonight starts Flying Dragon's The Wizard of Oz.  Four different casts perform this best of all musicals.  Why so many casts?  Flying Dragon strives to give as many children stage exposure as possible. There is no one star at Flying Dragon.  There is a whole celestial firmament of them!

Keep watch, as I hope to return to my once a day posts, and there is plenty to write about!  The insanity of the coming sequester, the Oscars, a story about my dog Spot, plenty about local theater, the exciting new Writer's Guild, fake poems, History of the Trap, Crowley stories and much, much, much more!

Thank you, ATC!

INTERNET DOWN!!!

It's the dark side of the move.

After posting something at least once a day since May (with the exception of our move in mid-December), we may have a slight disruption of activity.

We will keep our high speed Internet.  It has been amazing and one of the best reasons to come back in to the city.  We will not be keeping our cable television.  We will be switching back to Direct TV.  We had hoped that the local cable company would have more Savannah channels but alas, it did not.  Their DVR boxes have been substantially inferior and difficult to impossible to operate.

Direct TV will be at our place tomorrow to install their service.  ATC, the local Internet provider, that does indeed have awesome Internet, is not quite as customer driven. They move at the speed of an unmotivated turtle and it may be the better of a week before they even think about installing Internet at Glenwood.

Meanwhile, I will do what I can.  I may be able to repost some things now and then. I do have Internet on my smart phone.  The only trouble is that my smart phone is smarter than I am, so we'll just have to see how much and how quickly I can learn.  There is also the possibility that if it goes on long enough, I could get to work early and use the connection we have there.  The problem with that is that at this time of year, it very difficult to our early work.

So that combined with February being the shortest month, there probably won't be any activity records this month. Stick with me, though.  ATC should like to make money, so sooner or later you would think it would be in their interests to get us back up and running.

Until next time, whenever that may be,

T. M. Strait

Happy Valentine's Day, Alison! Glenwood is Ready!

Final pre-move in shot of our living room.  

Our hallway, with free ladder.

This is...okay, I don't know where this is.


Congratulation. Alison!  Glenwood is ready for move in and the movers will move our storage unit stuff in there today.  How many couples get a brand new house on Valentine's Day!  Enjoy, and I promise we'll go on a real date soon after we settle in.  Happy Valentine's Day, Alibeth!

Love, T.M.

Glenwood Faucet and Flow February 11th

Our one bowl sink with it's faucet installed.  This is one of my favorite pictures of the house so far.

Another row of cabinetry in the kitchen with a stove and range top stuck in the middle of it.  There will be cooking!

In the dining room, an "engineered" hardwood floor was put in place.  Dogs may be doing some skating.

Sir!  The mawster can awaits you!

Glenwood Carpet and Counter-tops February 8th

How 'bout them counter-tops   Pretty, eh?  This were my first choice of the ones Alison showed. me.  

We got carpet in the Master!  The door leads into our very dark master bathroom.  We have a toilet in a box, which won't do us much good.

Obligatory living room shot.  Different?  I can't tell.

Carpeting in Benjamin's bedroom,

Alison's world famous one bowl sink.  She really loves sinks this way.  You can lay down more stuff in it.

The beginnings of Benjamin's toilet.  Our plumber is really falling behind.  But I'll try not to make this a negative post, and not comment on all the sub-contractors who are FALLING behind schedule.

Festival of Appliances and Cabinets Glenwood February 1st

These are the cabinets in the guest bathroom.  The primary guest is Benjamin.  He will be staying with us for the next  six years or so, and then has a Quickpass back whenever he needs to.

This is the standard shot of the living room.  If you can figure out something new, let me know.

We have a refrigerator!  It doesn't work yet, as the electric plug to it is apparently not operational yet.

We have a stove!  Apparently it's outlet doesn't work either.

We have a washer and dryer!  They would work, had they put in a dryer plug instead of a range plug.

We have a microwave!  It's still hiding in it's box.

We have a dishwasher!  It also is still hiding in it's box.

Invasion of the air conditioning vents!  They quietly line up in preparation to take over the  world.

Glenwood January 26th

The shelves are in and the mantle has been better defined in the living room.  I have also been told that the shelves aren't solely for books but also for knick knacks and other displays.  So I have to try to share. Sigh.

The kitchen now has flooring. The vinyl pattern is a little too small to step on the squares without stepping in-between  but Alison does her best.

Benjamin dances in the den.  Maybe we should make it the ballroom!

Benjamin's ceiling fan, the blades of which he helped paint red.  In this picture, it looks like his arm might have gotten too close to the blades.

Berries of some kind on a bush in our front yard.  So we always have something to eat.   Unless they're poison and they kill you.  Or maybe they'll just give you the runs/  So it may be a good thing that we still have three toilets on the front porch.

Glenwood January 18th

The Glenwood living room has had built-in bookshelves added to each side of the fireplace.  Why?  Because I, unlike many others, like to decorate with books.  Books that I have either read or I am going to read.

In the Glenwood dining room, the sheves for the book cases are being prepared.  Book cases work so much better with them.

Our porch now has doors.  THese are going to be fairly important as the weather warms up, in order to help keep the bugs out.  Even on this January day where the temperature was slightly cool, I could see some gnats.

This is the foyer, such as it is.  Door and a closet.

A special bonis of this house is that it came with this wonderful Tonka truck in the yard.   I really think that a Tonka truck should be free with every home purchase.

Glenwood at January 11th

Looks about the same as last week.  That stick leaning against the fireplace might be new.   .....Wait!  We have a fireplace?

The kitchen....dark, mysterious, empty...but soon to change.

The roof!  The roof!  The roof is all metal!

Another view of the roof.  While we were there we heard an acorn fall on it...or maybe it was a meteor.

We have a flagpole!  Not quite sure what to do with it.  Anybody have an suggestions as to what I can run up my flagpole?

A tub in every carport.  See, Herbert Hoover just had the slogan wrong!

Glenwood Progress Lurches Forward

A view from the living room.  The walls have begun to be painted with a color called "Amazing Gray".  It's a mixture of gray and beige...a greige.

Benjamin's bathroom...PINK NO MORE!

In the master closet is the last remnant of the hardwood floor CARPET.  Yes, you read that right,  It's a carpet designed to look like a hardwood floor.  And yes, it's as creepy as it sounds!

All the rage in front porch decoration...three toilets in a row!  Betcha wish we were your neighbors!

A view of our screened-in porch from the inside.  Benjamin is worshiping the porch gods.