Life is good on Jackson street. Of course, life was good before, but now it is good with the added bonus of being relatively mold-free. Since my last update here, there has been the metaphorical whirlwind of activity. As it turns out, we decided to move in the middle of the worst heat wave on record for the Portland area. We literally sweated our way through the first few nights in our new home, taking cool showers at night not only to wash away the grime and dust from a hundred boxes, but simply to be able to sleep. In seeking to provide at least some relief from the heat, I thought to install our small air-conditioner in the room that was to be our office, only to discover that almost all of the outlets in our new home are not grounded (two prongs instead of three). This presents a problem that a simple adapter won't solve for an air-conditioner. Namely, the risk of death by electrocution should there be a ground fault in the outlet while said appliance is running. Some googling, head-scratching, and a trip to Home Depot later, I installed a new GFCI outlet in the office. It's not as good as having the outlet actually grounded, but it will prevent someone from lighting up like a Christmas tree should something go wrong.
The day after I triumphantly flipped the switch on my grand heat-relief master plan, it cooled off considerably and it really hasn't been hot since. Somewhere, Murphy is laughing...
But we had other problems, too. The second morning we were here, I woke up and padded in to the office to check a few things online before getting ready for Sunday services...to find the computer off and stubbornly refusing to be turned back on. Later that day, I began work on what has been a computer problem of biblical proportions, right down to the weeping and gnashing of teeth. I'll spare you all the gory details and techno-jargon, and just say that, for now, it is fixed. One of our hard drives is still not cooperating and there are some files I'd like to get from it, but all of the really important stuff like our pictures and videos are safely backed up. In fact, it's those two hard drives that are the only parts remaining from the original computer. Through the generosity of a friend - a friend whose cup runneth over with spare computer parts, mind you - and a couple of well-placed buys of my own, everything else has been replaced. And that's all I really want to say about it. Computer problems suck - just thinking about them can get a guy grumpy! :)
And all the while, we've been chipping away at the clutter, finding homes for the various odds and ends that the boxes belch out at us, looking for one important thing or another and not being able to find it, and feeling just a touch like fish out of water. Though with a month gone by now and all the bedrooms more or less in order, that feeling has ebbed considerably. I'm especially fond (if biased) of how the office turned out. We were originally going to have a TV in here, but it didn't work out (literally, the TV didn't work), and that has turned out to be the best thing that could've happened to this room. Well, that and my previously undiscovered talent for interior decorating. HA! That was a joke - I surprised myself, and I think a few others as well, when it failed to look like a train wreck. "Hey - it actually looks nice in here," they've said, in the same tone that Jim Carrey's character in Dumb and Dumber uses after receiving some help from an elderly woman: "Ya know it's true? Old people, while slow and dangerous behind the wheel, CAN still serve a purpose!" You're welcome to come by and visit if you're in the area, but in case you can't make it and are just dying to see what I mean, I took the liberty (and a few steps to my right) of snapping a quick photo.
What you won't see in the photo is the 200-ft. ethernet cable running from the router next to the computer, around the room, in to the closet, up through the attic, across the house, and in to the new Man Cave, or Man Cave 3.0, if you will. There it connects to the Xbox which sits, as ever, on top of the enormous TV. This time, though, the beast doesn't look all that out of place. The room, a converted and carpeted garage, is much more suited for it, and by "suited" I mean "we no longer have to sit five feet away from a five foot screen." Our landlord has graciously allowed us to use not only the room, but the couch and coffee table therein, as well. I love it. It's pretty close to exactly what I wanted it to be, which is a place that is not just for me, but for others to enjoy and be comfortable in, too. The young men from the youth group that came and helped us get all the furniture and heavy stuff moved had trouble suppressing grins when they caught sight of the TV, so I let them know that they'd have to come over and try it out when I got things all hooked up again. So before they could scamper off to college again, I had them and a couple other youth guys over for a couple of game nights. At 3am the second night/morning when the last of them walked out the side door, I had a couple of thoughts. 1) I can no longer keep up with a teenager on Mt. Dew and video games, and 2) It was more fun to watch those guys having fun than it usually is for me to just sit out there by myself. Subsequently, it's been fun to host movie nights with the Johnsons (if you don't know, Steve is the associate pastor for our church family. He and his wife lead the youth group as well) and basically anyone else that wants to show up. If you read my wife's blog, you'll know how much fun we've been having with our next-door neighbors in general. In the short time we've been here, we've managed not just the several movie nights together, but quite a few shared dinners/lunches, blackberry picking in their back yard which led (naturally) to the girls baking pies together, a trip to the zoo, complete with a picnic on the amphitheater lawn during a bird show, and a cook/campout in the Johnson's front yard, which was Evelyn's first successful all-nighter in a tent. Surprisingly (or not), it was the grown up girls that were having a hard time getting to sleep. Since it was a Saturday night, Steve and I opted for our own beds after we'd had our barbecue chicken - cooked in Jacquie's dutch oven on the front porch - and smores over the fire pit. We chatted for a while as the fire died down to dull, glowing embers, but the giggles were still bubbling out of the tent when I retired to our side of the fence. Evelyn, for her part, was sound asleep in between two women who'd apparently rediscovered their long lost love of slumber parties. You can see a picture from the big event over on Brigetta's blog. Being able to share life like this with our neighbors has, I think more than anything else, helped quickly turn this house in to a home. Of course, just being comfortable inviting someone in to our home is a change for us. We're delighted to not worry about whether or not our house is making us, or anyone that visits us, sick!
And on that note, I'm nearly current. It's football season again already, so Brigetta and I, being rabid Duck fans, are doing our part to encourage Evelyn along the path to rabid fanhood. I may or may not have (hint: the former), on an impulse, purchased Evelyn a hooded Oregon sweatshirt that matches my own in anticipation of the season opener tomorrow (September 3rd). If I did, it's definitely the cutest five year old clothing you've ever seen on a three year old. I'll try to get a picture up soon. In lieu of that, here's a pic or two from our first month on Jackson street:
