Nostalgia

These past couple days I have been making myself go to bed at around 10:30pm (very early for me) and sleep until at least 8am. Nothing beats Ambian with a glass of wine. I was really out of it last week. Kind of feeling beat-down and tired.

I'm rebounding now. I went to the gym last night and then stayed up late reading World Systems Analysis for school. I have a paper due next week, so I am very focused on that right now.

I listened to a radio show the other day about nostalgia -- you, know the emotion of romanticizing the past. It was really beautiful. The narrator of the program had looked up his babysitter form 20 years ago. He had to hire a detective to find her, but when he finally found her they had this wonderful, truthful conversation where they compared notes about their memories. It was an interesting analysis of memory too.

I hardly remember my old babysitters...but I do have intense feelings of nostalgia for various episodes in my childhood. Like going hiking in the public park with my dad and my sister. Or hanging out at "Arabica," the local coffee shop. Or riding my bike to the comic shops all the way across town.

It's funny what triggers nostalgia. Could be any sense, and yet no sense to it all.

Kitchen before and after

Ok, so here are the before and after photos following an intense weekend of cleaning, priming and painting.

Brains and brawn, not necessarily in that order

I'm making good progress up here. I cleaned the cabinets and taped up the walls around them last night and figured I would stop at that point. But then I go motivated and removed the doors and, well, I got really motivated and started to put on the primer. Yes, I got all the priming done last night by about 2 a.m. !

This morning I painted the first coat -- it's a semi-gloss white -- and in an hour or so I am going to do the second coat. It may only need two, in which case I'm done painting and will put the doors back on tomorrow before I leave here. Or maybe it will need a third coat, we'll see.

My next project will be to replace the counter tops and sink in the kitchen. That's actual hard work, so I might have to hire some help or twist a friend's arm into it. Counter tops weigh about 500 pounds, so it's not something I can do alone.

And yeah. Painting is real work. My right arm feels like it's going to fall off.

So now as I wait for the paint to dry I am doing my school reading (Eli Zaretsky, Marie Mies) and sitting by the fire. Not so bad for a weekend. I like the mix of physical and mental work.

This morning the crew from the well-drilling company came. They had to survey the land to make sure they can get their 33 ton truck in here. I filled out all the paperwork and paid a deposit...a few more weeks and I'll finally have good water up here. At last :-)

Here!

I just arrived at my house, a long drive alone, but peaceful and actually good weather for driving. After listening to the news on my iPod, I listened to an album I recorded with Carbon Based Souls back in the mid 1990s. It's a pretty rocking album, too bad we never released it -- that was when my aspirations for a full time career as a musician ended, actually. It always makes me feel a little nostalgic, but I still enjoy hearing the music every once in a while.

As previously reported, I had to get my car fixed this past week -- so after the tune up, the drive up here was even better since I wasn't worrying the whole time that he engine was about to blow up. Turns out the car needed a new knock filter (which I had read about on line as a somewhat common problem for this car) and I also got the power steering fixed so it no longer whines at me when I parallel-park. New spark plugs, a tune up etc too. All in all, not so bad -- but none of it was covered by the bogus warranty. I didn't really expect it would be, but nonetheless felt a little disappointed. Anyway!

On my way up here I bought painting supplies -- including a ladder! I am going to clean and repaint the cabinets in my kitchen this wknd. I am a little nervous about doing it right...I don't want to fuck it up! But I suppose the worst that could happen is that I'd have to re-do the work. So I'll just relax and enjoy the process of doing work with my hands. I have a stereo and some beer too. Maybe I'll get some pizza to complete the scene :-)

I'm going to start by cleaning the surfaces and then priming them with BIN. Next, I'll slather on some white paint. After the paint job, I'm going to get some new hardware and start trying to figure out how to get a new counter top and sink in there too. It's going to look great and I am hoping to do almost all the work myself. I'm also going to rip out that ugly drop-in ceiling from the 1970s. Bleh. Maybe I'll get really motivated and post some photos on here.

Car repair; wish me luck

I just dropped off the car to get it fixed -- the engine light is on. What a bummer, eh? I went ten years without being owned by a car, er, owning a car. It was dreamy. Blissful. Trouble free! But now I have the car and that means maintaining and parking it -- which is all the more hassley in New York City. So....fingers crossed, the boys at the shop in Brooklyn will be able to get me and my little Subaru back on the road.