OTHER COOL THINGS is the blog page where I go off topic. In other words, this is a page where I ramble about a wide variety of subjects which have nothing to do with the Cross House restoration or Emporia.
OTHER COOL THINGS is where I might suggest a great new restaurant. Or a movie I enjoyed, or book. Or a favored blog.
OTHER COOL THINGS may — fasten your seat belt — open discussions about dangerous subjects such politics or religion.
OTHER COOL THINGS will, in short, be a page where I ramble about anything which captures my special attention. Like, perhaps, a nice moment I had with my favorite cat Gilda.
I love comments, so please do not hesitate to toss your two cents in, even if you disagree with me.
My blog posts are below. Enjoy!
Gilda. My favorite ever cat.
THE ROSS: The 2025 Year End Report
What a doozy of a year. For two overarching reasons: Trump 2.0 Putting the Cross Properties on hiatus for a year. The Cross Properties wholly took over my life in March, 2014, and then dominated my life ever since. I cannot express enough how intense the word domination is in this respect. Then…in August…the domination…
Continue ReadingTHE HOUSE: The 2025 Year End Report
2025 ended vastly, profoundly, and spectacularly different than it began. And in a manner I wholly did not foresee. It all began innocently… AN EXPECTED GIFT Susan and Harrison Cross built the Cross House. Their granddaughter, Mary, lived with them. She was nine-years-old when the house was finished….
Continue ReadingPunching Up Crispy. Again.
In 2017, I first posted about the importance of having a crispy house. If you missed the post, you might enjoy reading it. I did another crispy post in 2020 after discovering that the eyebrow window on the north facade had gotten…oh, the horror…uncrispy. And now, in 2025, I am again chagrined to reveal that…
Continue ReadingRenovating RestoringRoss
If you go here you may note a change to this blog thingy. I replaced RESTORING YACHTS with RESTORING THE TIN HOUSE. The former never got any attention while the latter seemed to warrant its own category.
Continue ReadingWhite Tootsie
In 2018 I posted about how I had become, a number of years previously, a Crazy Cat Person when an astonishing 22 kittens came into my life kinda all at once. In 2024, I posted this: I RELINQUISH MY CRAZY CAT PERSON CROWN. This post detailed how, one by one, my 22 count had been…
Continue ReadingDownsizing
With the Cross House and Carriage House on hiatus for about a year, it seemed extravagant to keep two large side-by-side refrigerators running just to keep a half-dozen soda cans cold, and a jar of jelly (for my lunch sandwiches). I did not even know they made fridges so small. I look forward…
Continue ReadingWanna Meet The TIN HOUSE? YET AGAIN!!!!!!!!
Recently I did a post introducing the Tin House. I revised the post and added images. Then I sent out an email about the new post. But, the link I included was wrong. Bad Ross. So, here is another email. You can revisit here. If you want to leave a comment it might make more…
Continue ReadingWanna Meet The TIN HOUSE? AGAIN!!!!!!!!
Recently I did a post introducing the Tin House. I revised the post and added images. You can revisit here. If you want to leave a comment it might make more sense to comment on the revised post rather than this new one.
Continue ReadingWanna Meet The TIN HOUSE?
As part of my year-long plan, I am focused on getting a small house I own in a tiny town (Matfield Green, pop 49) ready for sale. I have owned the house since the late 1990s, after encountering it on my very first day in Chase County (July 5, 1996). On that first day I…
Continue ReadingThe Word of the Day
This is a political post. If interested please scroll down. A while back I spoke with a Trump supporter. He hated antifa. A livid, foaming-at-the-mouth kinda hatred. I acted dumb and asked him to explain what antifa…
Continue ReadingAn Unfolding Horror
This is a political post. If interested please scroll down.
Continue ReadingThings That Make You Think
This is a political post. If interested please scroll down. The Trump regime has been all out in demonizing immigrants. But…immigrants created America. And immigrants made America strong. Trump even married two immigrants. Trump said he was only going to…
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