Ten Thoughts for Thursday

Since blogger did not like me on Tuesday enough to allow pictures, I have waited until Thursday for this ten.



1. The election is over - no matter who you were pulling for, the fact that it is finally over (no recounts thank you ) is a good thing that we all can agree on. I do not think the outcome was a huge surprise given the way the end of the campaign went. Obama has campaigning down to an art and McCain had a pitbull. I really thought McCain's concession speech was a class act - I really liked the old John McCain before he was "handled" by his conservative staff, but he became something I could no longer recognize, let alone vote for at the end. But that speech was a real great one and I hope he is back on his original path before the detour into uber-conservative land. As for Obama - I liked his speech too, but we have come to expect such a good performance that it is hard to get overly excited about it anymore. I hope he can pull our country out of the trouble we are in, but seriously, who in there right mind would want this job right now.



2. The election of Obama made me think about my daughter. She probably will not remember much about his presidency, but the fact that she will never know a US that did not have a black president will be so totally different from the world that any of us have grown up in. What will it all mean and how will she come to understand the whole thing remains to be seen, but what a strange and exciting time we are living in.


3. Okay, as promised, a reflection upon our chimney liner project. A few weeks ago, we pulled our stove pipe out of our flue to find that our clay flue liner had busted and fallen down (for those of you who do not know what that means just picture this $$$$$). Anyway, we then began the process of trying to figure out a long-term solution that did not involve propane (our backup heat source). So after some research and a few consultations, we decided to install flexible stainless steel liner in our chimney. Simple enough or maybe not. By Halloween our plan had materialized and the installation began - first, we decided to cut a hole in the chimney to have a cleanout for our flue. This job was MESSY and not without some issues since the prior owners had also replaced a chimney liner and left most of the old liner in the bottom of the flue with cement on top of it. Nice.


After that, the real fun started. Enter our cast of characters:



On the roof we have Larry. I think if I photoshop this a bit, I will not have much trouble convincing Vivian that Santa Clause can go down our chimney.






On the porch, we have Bartles and James. Not really, its Edwin and Alvy on a break.




Here is the scene when the liner was being raised up by the boom truck to be stuffed in the chimney.

And then here are all the supervisors watching as the liner was secured at the top. From left to right we have Edwin, Alvy, my Dad, and Junior (notice he is ready to chuck a rock at Larry - oh yeah, we were definitely the most happening thing in Franklin that Halloween).

My brother Ashby was also helping out, but he avoided pictures. Thanks so much to everyone who came to help. It turned out great and I really appreciate you guys helping us out. I am sitting by my stove with a nice little fire in it right now.

4. On of the funniest moments of the chimney liner installation was when a guy passing by stopped to ask us if we had a card. Did we look like professionals? Alvy and I pondered whether we could make money at this for a sideline, I think we decided it is not worth it, but you never know, we all just may go into the chimney liner business - heaven knows that you cannot wrangle a contractor in these parts without a pretty long wait and when you need heat, waiting really is not an option.

5. Overnight On Call. This is my least favorite part of my husband's job. We are up off and on most all night when he is on call. It wears me out. The weird part is after spending a night listening to the scanner/radio/pager and taking phone calls from the ComCenter you kind of forget what actually happened and have to rehash it in the morning to see if you had the same recollection. Thankfully Vivian has been pretty good about sleeping through it, I just wish I could.

6. I think you are officially parents when you cannot remember the last movie you watched that was not a cartoon. Right now, we have 101 Dalmatians memorized to the point that Rick and I both sing the songs from the movie. Rick also has a new infatuation with the Bee Movie. I have yet to watch it all the way through.

7. On that note, we are going to take Vivian to the movie theater for the first time to see Madagascar 2. I hope it goes well because I really want to see this sequel.

8. Speaking of Vivian, she has turned into quite a little cookie monster. Sunday evening, Rick brought home some cookies and put the container on the kitchen table. I was in a different part of the house and heard Rick telling Vivian no. Turns out the kid is pretty talented at getting what she wants and she had pulled the cookies off the table, opened the container, dumped all of them out, and had a cookie in each hand that she was chowing down on. It was pretty funny. Unfortunately, Rick cleaned up the majority of it before I could get my camera, but here are some shots after she got her cookie.

9. Why are all the stores full of Christmas decorations right now? It really blows my mind that all this stuff is out already. I went down to Rite-Aid the day before Halloween and they had already moved all their fall/Halloween stuff to the clearance bin because they had to put out Christmas stuff in its place. What happened to Thanksgiving? My Judge and I were pondering this very question the other day after I tracked him down at his house to sign an order and he was busy getting out Thanksgiving decorations for his lawn that he had someone make for him since you cannot find anything in the stores. I think I will take Vivian to get her picture taken with his display - he has this 8 foot tall pilgrim. It is pretty wild.

10. An update on pictures. Thanks for all your input on the fall pictures I took of Vivian. I decided to use #6 for the 11 x 14 picture. I liked them all but I thought that one would look best where I wanted to put it. I printed a few others too. My next challenge is a Christmas shot. Wish me luck.