Pandas and a Roof

Some of you might have noticed that I have just a few slightly quirky tendencies. Might. Sometimes just being me makes it tough enough to do day-to-day things, and if you throw a mixture of OCD and my own special blend of eccentricities, navigating life can be rather difficult. Allow me to spin you a yarn...

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Panda Soap

If you turned back the clocks a half a dozen years or so and went to Walmart, you'd find a younger, poorer, fatter, hairier version of me buying hand soap. In an attempt to make my hovel a little more fun, I bought soap in fun dispensers. One had a plastic koala climbing the tube, with a jungle theme behind him and the other was similar but not exactly the same.

When the soap ran out, I replaced it with non-anti-bacterial soap because I don't want to promote the evolution of super-bacteria. Unfortunately, only anti-bacterial soap comes in clear form, so for the last 5 years I haven't been able to see the fun 'scapes until the soap gets down below 1/4 full or so.

With the advent of foaming soap, I have become more and more tempted to make the switch to a new dispenser. This, of course, is where one of my issues comes into play. I can't replace something as trivial as a soap dispenser just because I want to try something new. The old one works fine, and I have enough refill soap to finish out the decade. Switching now would be a real waste. This has become a battle between not wanting to toss something perfectly good, and making a slight quality of life improvement.

The other night I decided to pull the trigger, and a trip to Target was ordered. I bought a few items and returned home anxious to play with my new Eucalyptus/Mint foaming hand soap. After wrestling with the thing to get it working, I dispensed one hand-washing worth of soap into my palm; but it didn't foam! I tried again and sure enough it didn't foam. I re-inspected the bottle and apparently the roundish-shaped bottle (as opposed to the triangular bottle) is not the foaming style. After all of the mental anguish and philosophical discussions I ended up with the wrong freaking soap! Damn it!

It does smell good though.

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To Dormer or Not to Dormer

Like most ideas that come into my head, the idea of putting dormers on the back of my house seemed like the perfect solution to my no-sunlight-getting-bedroom problem. The only windows in my bedroom face the north, which is no good when you live in the northern hemisphere. With that setup, I don't get any sunlight in my bedroom. HOWEVER, if I had a dormer on the back of the house (the east side AKA, Eessiyeed) I'd get the morning sun shining into the room, awakening me with its golden rays, plus the sound of birds chirping and the smell of flowers blooming. I don't see any drawbacks.

After having marinated on the idea for a little while I think it's something worth round-tabling during a home improvement discussion at lunch. There are a few projects that would supersede (read: be procrastinated first), but it sho would be nice. Add in the fact that I need a new roof and now's the time to add dormers if I'm going to.

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Mortgage Update

I still have no more information for any of you. I have, however, been receiving calls from an Unavailable number. Given that I have never received one Unavailable call prior to calling the soon-to-be-former-co-owner, I'm worried that I might have somehow started something.

I can see how, to the crazy, illogical, self-centered mind, one might misconstrue something such as breaking off the last remaining connection as trying to get back in touch. Here's how I imagine the warped mind (WM) might work:

WM: "Hmm, Old Coot is trying to get my name off his house. I'm not ready for such a move, I'll ignore."
*Four months later*
WM: "Wow, Old Coot really seems like he's trying to get in touch with me. I know he has been all business and has only discussed the mortgage, but there must be something beneath all of it."
*Another month later*
WM: "Hey, Old Coot just called me and left a message. I know the message only said his attorney is concerned that he hasn't received the signed deed. Yeah, he stressed the fact that he wants it pronto, but I think he really just wanted to talk. I had better call him back."

And so on and so forth. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I wasn't near my phone when either of the calls came in, because I'm dying to know who it is. It's possible that it's just some telemarketer, but the coincidence leads me to believe that it isn't.

The real question is, can I still play nicely? I don't want to burn any bridges before everything is said and done so that she can't change her (warped) mind. At that point, I probably still won't burn that bridge, I'll just forget it exists. I'm too nice of a guy to really speak my mind; it wouldn't do any good.

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Homepieces, I'm out of here.

Over and Out,
Old Coot