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.
A Short Kitty Tale
Today, this story popped into my head after four decades: I took my beloved cat Little Boy to the vet. He was there for two days. When I picked him up, the vet brought him out at the far end of the long table. I was at the other end. The vet opened the…
Continue ReadingInching Along…and Old Stuff
Today was 38-degees. I dressed warmly and things weren’t that bad. But I’m looking forward to Friday! A balmy 48-dregrees! And Sunday and Monday? A heat wave! Kansas has highly inconsistent weather. It can be 70-dregrees in December. Basically, I can plan on working through to January save a day or…
Continue ReadingInching Along
The drain to the sleeping porch (lower left) has somehow managed to remain intact, even though the porch was enclosed for most of its existence, and all the shingles in this corner were lost long ago. I reopened the porch a few years previous. Curiously, even in massive downpours, I have never seen the…
Continue ReadingShingling…RESUMES!
This corner will be—sigh—incredibly time-consuming, just like the inside corner which took forever. Not only will each shingle need to be custom-sized and with half of them half-rounded on the bottom, but each shingle on the outside corner will need to be vertically beveled so as to properly “kiss” the adjacent beveled shingle, creating…
Continue ReadingMy Corners Are Guarded!
The guards exactly match other such guards in the house. Thanks, Dr. Doug! This small improvement delights me. I added the two bump-outs in 2014 to support a new steel beam in the ceiling and the guards help make this minor change look, well, right.
Continue ReadingDrum Roll, Please! The Marble Vanity ARRIVES!
Celeste is a super-fan of this blog, and has read every post. She even remembered the names of my indoor kitties! It was great fun touring the house with her as she would gasp with delight at X or Y or Z! “Oh! That’s the termire-damaged wall!” We all went out to Radius…
Continue ReadingA Column Milestone!!!!!!!!
Porches are highly vulnerable things, and it is common for Victorian-era houses to have lost their original porches. Like with this house… When I first saw the Cross House in 1999 its porches were in sorry condition with a lot of bits missing including many of the columns. Still,…
Continue ReadingMagical Marble
MAGIC EVENT #1: Five days ago I did a post about a marble vanity. Mary, who reads this blog, found it on CraigsList and brought it to my attention. She thought it seemed perfect for the Cross House. And…it was! However, it was a ten-hour drive away. So, that would be 2-days in…
Continue ReadingSurprises…on the Front Porch. Part I.
I’m absurdly excited about this. I mean, undressed corners is just…indecent. So, having decent corners is a thrill.
Continue ReadingSomething is terribly, terribly…
Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! I need to rush Gray cat to the vet. She’s sitting next to a box rather than in it. Obviously, something is terribly, terribly wrong!
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