A dreary sort of day

I am back in Orlando, ready to get the new semester started... although that doesn't kick off for a few more days. Ideally I'd be enjoying my few days in limbo before the work kicks back in, but as it's unpleasantly dreary outside, I've done little more than get dressed and work on some of my computer-related projects. (I hate to complain too much about the weather, as it got up to 66F today, which is not cold at all - but with the omnipresent clouds and the continual drizzle, it just isn't the sort of day for doing things that involve leaving your house unless you absolutely have to do so.)

I posted two stories written by my friend BS (and it never fails to amuse me that his initials are BS) to the Desolation Travel website:

Holiday in Abkhazia and Elista: Desolate Disappointment

I added a new video to The Inhumane Society - although if you haven't been keeping up with the posts over there, you might want to read the first one hundred pages in one stretch... which can be done by clicking here.

And lastly, here's a video I shot before leaving Georgia of the current state of my mom's 1906 Bungalow. Enjoy!

I'm not sure how much time I'll have for blogging this coming semester. Last semester I had my grading assistantship and three graduate level classes... this semester I'm taking four classes, plus my graduate assistantship, plus a part time teaching gig that will be anywhere from one and a half to four and a half hours a day (not including prep time). I'm not sure when I'll have time to sleep, much less blog, but I'll keep you posted when I can!

Quests for Bows and Yellow Flowers

In the area of southeast GA where my mom lives, there's a yearly event called the Fifteen Mile Yard Sale. Pretty much everyone who lives along its route has a yard sale during this event. People who don't live there drive in and set up shop along the side of the road. Food trucks sell sausage dogs and funnel cakes and hot tamales. The fifteen mile stretch of the normally sleepy two-lane is packed with cars. Yes, I drove three and a half hours to GA to attend the Fifteen Mile Yard Sale. 

Mom and I spent SIX hours yard sale-ing. It was a little insane. I even ate a sausage dog. I came away with a bunch of paperback mysteries, a lot of clothing, a picture frame shaped like a cat, a super-awesome orange purse (originally priced at $80; purchased by me for $5), and a $500 value compound hunting bow (purchased for $250). Before we started out in the morning, I had actually said that the one thing I really wanted to find was a compound bow. I'd been looking at them online and knew how much they went for, and I certainly didn't expect to find one, but whaddyaknow. I'm one step closer to being ready for the apocalypse.

That would be me, trying to look tough.
Some other pictures from my 24hr stint in GA:
This is Donnie, one of the "kittens" dumped at our land back in April. Boy has he grown - and his tail is ALWAYS up like that. I can't believe no one has adopted him :(
Mom has started getting the interior of the house sheetrocked. It is slowly coming along.
Jack O' Lanterns on mom's front porch
Oh, Georgia. Every time I go there, this sign has gotten even more ridiculous. (Also, there's been all sorts of crazy racist shit over this sign:
see here, here, here, and here.) I've already voted... and I voted for OBAMA. Take that, sign.
Meanwhile, down in the Orlando area, there's a lake called Lake Jesup. It's located just to the south of Sanford. One of my classes meets every other week at the Sanford/Lake Mary campus, and to get there I drive along the 417 (large toll-road), which crosses Lake Jesup. This past week when driving across the bridge over the lake, I noticed that the area to my right (east of the bridge) along the shore was just blanketed in gorgeous yellow flowers, which looked incredibly picturesque, especially as the fields of flowers flowed into the lake, and were dotted by palms. Apparently, this area is known for its beautiful swamp sunflowers that bloom during the last week of September and first week of October. I really wanted to make it down there to check them out while I still had the chance. I actually planned to stop off at the Lake Jesup Conservation Area on my way home from Georgia - but as I didn't roll into Orlando until after 8pm (I hadn't expected to spend six hours at a yard sale!), that didn't happen. I really needed to spend today studying (midterms start this coming week), but I figured it was now or never.
Apparently it's going to be never. I found my way to the Marl Flats entrance to the Lake Jesup Conservation Area, and began hiking in. Unfortunately, it was very, very wet. My hiking shoes were no match for being up to mid-calf in water and muck. I plowed on until I reached a spot where the actual location of the trail became impossible to discern. I didn't mind the wetness and the muck too much when I knew I was on the right track, but I wasn't going to just wade out blindly into the wetland all by my lonesome. I did find some of the swamp sunflowers, but I never made it to anywhere particularly picturesque.
The trail was flowing.

This was definitely wetland. Emphasis on wet.
You can see a few yellow flowers, but nothing like the view from the highway.
I then decided to drive to the western side of the 417, where there's a park called the Lake Jesup Park. I thought I might be able to get a decent view of the yellow flowers from over there. Instead I got a couple of decent shots of a duck and of the lake, and then found myself up to my knees in muck amongst some not-too-photogenic swamp sunflowers.
Lake Jesup


This path started out all dry and promising, but just led to a muckhole with no view. Alas.
Apparently the best way to photograph the flowers is to pull off to the side of the 417 and shoot from there - and apparently people do. I'm kind of amazed, as I opted not to do that, thinking it was to dangerous even for me. Anyway, if you'd like to see what I was unable to shoot, here are some links to the blog of a fellow who photographs these flowers every year: here, here, here, here, and here.
I'm not anticipating much posting - either here or over at The Inhumane Society - during the next two weeks or so, as I have three midterm exams to prepare for and take, a conference proposal to write, a presentation to plan and give, and a web posting to write. I'll see you on the flip side!

Civilization has come!

Roughly a year ago, my mom began looking at a 1906 bungalow in town, and she began to consider moving it out to her land - land which lacked the modern amenities of electricity or running water. Since then, the house has been moved out there, the land has been electrified, a new well with an electric pump has been installed, the house has been rewired and had new plumbing installed... and as of today, it has a septic tank! Civilization has arrived - all mom needs are some appliances and she can move right on in :-) Granted, it still looks pretty rough inside, but we've got the essentials! We totally recommend Bob's Septic Tank Company - they showed up promptly, exactly when they said they would, and had the septic tank installed in just a few hours.

catching up via lots of photos

Okeedokee. Since I’ve been encouraged to keep blogging, I’ll see what I can do. It’s not that I haven’t been doing things over the past month or so, it’s just that I haven’t blogged about them. This post will be low on writing and heavy on the photos. Enjoy!

Early in May I went down to Lake City, FL to hang out with some good friends of mine who were in town to celebrate both a birthday and a baby shower.

Me, with friends M and C
Me with the ladies at the baby shower. The mama to be is directly behind me.

At one point we went to a brand new “Japanese” restaurant in Lake City called Yamato. I put that in quotes because anyone who knows anything about either Korean or Japanese will recognize that as Korean script. The “sake” on the menu was soju and bekseju. There was also galbi on the menu. Hmmmm. The food didn’t taste either Korean or Japanese to me (I had the scallops and they were incredibly rich and wonderful) – it tasted more like a Korean/Japanese fusion with an American twist. I hope they stay open as the food was scrumptious… And it’s Lake City. I doubt the owners expected anyone from Lake City to walk in and be able to read hangul.

The cover of the menu at Yamato: 100% Korean text
The day I got back to the Small Southern Town from Lake City was a sad day. Blix, our 14 year old German Shepherd had finally reached the point where he was simply unable to stand. He’d been having trouble walking for some time, and we’d had him on various joint medications, but his old age finally defeated them. He spent most of the day on the front sidewalk with his good friend Reddy Cat, and was euthanized that afternoon.

Blix and Reddy

Several days later, Mom and I took a trip to Statesboro, GA to visit the Georgia Southern Botanical Gardens, a small but beautifully landscaped garden near the Georgia Southern campus. Unfortunately, the day was overcast and dreary (although luckily for us it didn’t rain), but I was still able to get some good photos.

Pomegranate


Very pollenated bee atop a passionflower

Glory Vine

Me

And because you know that animals play a huge part in my life:

Viktor, at home in mom’s back yard.

Reddy Cat, snuggling with a mop.

Mom and I decided to take another day trip – this one to Jekyll Island, GA. Unfortunately, I had my camera – my lovely and expensive DSLR – in my purse with my Brita water bottle. Which I had, in my hurry to get out the door, not closed properly. The entire contents of the bottle had emptied themselves onto my camera on the drive to Jekyll Island, and by the time we arrived, it was dead.

When I got home, I submerged it in rice, in hopes that it would dry out and begin working once more. Alas, the rice was not helpful. (Earlier in the month, my cell phone had fallen out of my pocket and had spent the night outside in the pouring rain. Three days in a bowl of rice and it was fine. My camera was not so lucky.)

I’d brought my point-and-shoot with me to Jekyll Island, so I was able to take photographs. The point-and-shoot is a top-of-the-line point-and-shoot, and it is useful in a lot of scenarios, but being forced to make the switch was rough. The remainder of the pictures in this post were taken with the point-and-shoot.

Driftwood Beach
The road to Driftwood Beach
South Beach
My mom on South Beach
Me at South Beach

Then of course there’s The Old House (mom’s 1906 bungalow). She’s in the process of having some contractors do some work on the kitchen, bathroom, and master bedroom. In theory, she can move in once those three rooms are taken care of.

Progress, I swear! Left: paneling removed; Right: sheetrocked

Unfortunately, with the contractors tramping in and out of the house, we had to move Mama Cat and her kittens out of the master bedroom and into the A-frame. It’s a much smaller area, but it has three levels, giving the kittens a lot of new things to play on.

We’ve had a spot or two of car trouble. Not with *my* car (the one which shall soon be moving to Orlando with me), but with my mother’s two vehicles, a 1997 Ford Escort and a 1984 Chevyvan.

The Escort turned out to need a new alternator and a new starter.

The van needed a new water pump and thermostat.

I’m working on convincing my mother that she needs to buy a two or three year old light truck, since A) I will be taking the only reliable vehicle (2003 Toyota Echo) to Orlando in August, and B) a truck could get in and out of flooded areas much better than a car.

Flooded areas? Well, our “road” floods if we get a lot of rain, and this was the result of Tropical Storm Beryl:

Left: The "road" Right: Mom, wading down the road

However, the blackberries have loved all the excess rain, and are plump and juicy:

This past weekend I drove to Live Oak, FL to attend the wedding of a good friend from high school. I hadn’t seen her in ages, and I wished that we’d had more time to catch up, but weddings tend to keep the bride busy. Still, she looked great, and was positively glowing.

A and her husband C
A and me :-)

Yesterday, mom and I drove to Jacksonville, FL to take my DSLR in for an estimate. I had to leave it, and am still waiting to hear how much it’s going to cost to fix it – or if it can even be fixed. After dropping off my camera, we decided to go and check out two parks located right next to each other: Pumpkin Hill Creek State Park and Betz-Tiger Preserve. While sadly devoid of tigers, the area was a lovely marsh park. As soon as my mom buys herself a truck (hint, hint), we can come down here and go kayaking.

Hunters hunt in the pineforests out by our land. We often come across the remains of their handiwork – but usually what we’re left is nothing more than a skeleton and some entrails. Most people around here do seem to eat what they kill. But not all. Take a look at what was waiting for us the other day:

Some asshole shot it, took the head (“Lookit what I done kilt - I’m a man!”), and left the body to rot. It was already noticeably rotting by the time we got out there, or we would’ve been tempted to try and salvage some meat. As it was, what a complete waste, and so disrespectful to the hog. If you’re going to kill it, eat it. Also, please don’t leave carcasses in the area where we normally let our dog run free. We can’t now, because he would love nothing more than to roll in some rotting pig juice.

And lastly, my little garden is coming along quite nicely. I’m planning to add some Mexican Petunias either this evening or tomorrow. They’ll go in that little bare patch on the left. And of course, I still need to dig out and mulch the rest of the bed.

1906 Bungalow Exterior and Interior

Kittens in a 1906 Bungalow

Now that I've somewhat gotten over the shock of having a mama cat and 5 babies dumped at our gate, it's time to take that next logical step: posting tons of supercute kitten photos. And these little rascals are cute. Somehow only three of the five appear in my favorite 5 photos - although that's just an excuse for me to keep taking photos until I get supercute shots of all of them. Enjoy!

This gorgeous little baby (I think she's a girl) made it into 3 of my favs.(FYI - that funkiness on the floor is from where the carpet was pulled up.)

Exploring the fireplace.
Meanwhile this one (I think she's a girl, too) totally posed for the camera.
I'm pretty sure this fellow's a boy. He loves to climb into things (like my purse) and up things (like my back). I just hope he doesn't discover the hole where the chimney used to be, or he'll have access to the attic - and from there, the entire house.
And for those who are interested in the 1906 bungalow in which these critters now live, here's a guided tour!

American Interlude Part 4: House Moving Madness Part D

The below tale of absurd redneck drama might not all be in the correct sequential order, as it's been several weeks and a couple continents since this all happened, but you'll get the general idea.

The drama had to do with the Deliverance Crew, as I'd taken to referring to them. These folks. (I wrote about them here.) My mother had hired the two Deliverance men, R and J, to take the roof down three feet, remove the chimneys, haul the wood from the roof and the bricks from the chimneys out to the land, and put the roof back together once the house was reassembled. They said they'd do all that for $1200. She advanced them most of it up front.

Early on in the process, R cut his foot with a chain saw. Following this, he simply didn't wear a shoe on that foot (although he did, at least, wear a sock) as "it done swolled up" and wouldn't fit in his shoe. And possibly because he had chopped his shoe open with the chainsaw. But, chainsaw accidents notwithstanding, the roof got taken down three feet, and the chimneys got dismantled. (We'll get to the specifics on how that actually happened in a bit.) A couple loads of wood and bricks even got carted out to the land.

At one point, I was at my mom's house alone while she was at work. I got a call from the woman of the Deliverance Crew. She asked me to have my mother call her or stop by the house as soon as possible. They needed to talk to her. (I should add that with their unbelievably thick southern redneck accents, understanding them in person is tough. Understanding them over the telephone was nearly impossible.) I immediately let my mom know, and she popped over to the house. Of course, she'd been planning on going over there on her break, it wasn't like she was jumping at their beck and call. They talked to her while she was there, but just about generalities; they didn't seem to have any specific reason for talking to her. A couple hours later, the woman called again. Yet again, she needed to talk to my mom ASAP. This time - after she got off work and stopped by the house - they (J and the woman) told my mom they needed gas money in order to haul the rest of the wood and bricks out to the land. (At this point, J and the woman were the only people at the house site; for some reason they hadn't wanted to ask in earshot of R, the house's owner, or the house moving crew.) They claimed their truck "really drinks gas" and that they wouldn't be able to get all of the wood and bricks out there without some more cash. Mom gave them $40. Only one load of bricks made it out to the land.

Two days later, they needed more gas money. Likely story. My mom has a 1984 Chevy van that drinks gas like a mofo, and I can make it from town to her land and back quite a few times on $40 worth of gasoline. I think my mom did give them more gas money, but about half what they were asking.

Around 9:30 at night at one point in the middle of the process (I think one half of the house had been maneuvered out to the land by this point), we received a phone call from the woman. (My mom usually goes to bed around 9 or 10.) She claimed she was in the hospital, suffering from heat exhaustion from working on the house all day. (Keep in mind that A: mom had hired R and J, not the woman and B: the woman never did any work; she literally just sat around all day.) The woman told my mom she needed (!) to go over to the house site, because J wanted to talk to her. My mom told her she was in bed already and would see them the next day.

The next day, mom promptly told the house owner and the house moving crew of the bizarre phone call that she had received, and told them that she did not want the woman on either the house site or the land. The next time I showed up at the house site, the rumor among the house movers was, "Did that big woman say she was gonna sue y'all?"

At some point my mom finally ran into J, who was once again asking for money. When asked what he'd done with the money she had advanced them... well, she'd given the money to R, who had apparently given J 1/4 of the money, not the 1/2 he was promised. Or so he said. Mom told J he would have to take this up with R; she wasn't going to pay J money that R owned him.

After all of this, mom was still planning on having R and J reattach the roof once the two halves of the house were reunited, although I had no doubt that they were completely incapable of such a feat, and my mom was beginning to share my belief.

After the second half of the house was brought out to the land, the house moving crew still had a couple of days worth of 'tying the house back together' (as they put it). While talking to the head of the house moving crew, he mentioned that the cost was going to come to $8000, not the $6000 upon which they had originally agreed. Obviously my mom was pretty upset about this 1/3 increase in price. The house mover kind of hemmed and hawed a bit... but finally he came out with it: his crew had had to do a lot of extra work, including taking down most of the roof and chimneys, as the Deliverance Crew hadn't had any clue as to what to do or how to do it.

Let's just say that my mom ended up hiring a roofer to reattach the roof and re-shingle the top three feet.

And that's all for my house moving madness... I returned to Korea before the roof was re-attached. The following photos were taken by my mother: