Journey Inside My Mind ™

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Back of apartment building

Day 4 of power being out in our neighborhood and for much of the Greater Cincinnati area.  The Hurricane Ike-related windstorm on Sunday has caused power outages across Central and Southwestern Ohio.  Utility crews are working to restore power to all customers.  Duke Energy reported that about 90% of their customers in the Greater Cincinnati area have had power outages.

At home we’re hunkered down with flashlights and candles (shh!), ice, our propane grill, and whatever non-perishables we’ve found.  We’ve thrown out most of the items in our refrigerator, and we really need to get some laundry done.  We’re hopeful that power will be restored soon.

As I’ve entered our darkened neighborhood on my way home these past few nights, it has felt like I’m entering a scene from I Am Legend.  I keep the blinds open at night when I go to bed to be cheered when the streetlights come on.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we’re using this time as an opportunity to get to know our neighbors better and definitely count our blessings.  Those in the Gulf states are certainly worse off than we are.

For now, among my online friends, we’re affectionately calling this time Survivor: Cincinnati.

  

	CBS – Theme From Survivor
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

In this audio post I share some thoughts about the recent power outage across Cincinnati and beyond.

Growing up this was something my Mom would say to us kids before we went to bed. We have said this to Keisha, too. Little did we know how true we wanted it to be.

We apparently have a bedbug infestation in our apartment. We are having to get rid of a lot of things. Probably will have to get rid of our mattress and boxspring. And, of course the sofa and chair we picked up outside that someone was getting rid of some months ago.

That may very well be where they came from, since before having that in our home, we were all fine. Since then we have felt itchy when we wake up, thinking that it may have to do with our laundry detergent.

But then last night I actually felt a sting, and that’s what prompted us to check our mattress and elsewhere in our bedroom.

If we needed further motivation to clean up around our apartment, I guess this is it!

Related tags: journey+inside+my+mind journeyinsidemymind jimm bedbugs

… the apartment complex doesn’t turn it on until the season has really changed. The reason they do this is because once the boiler heat gets turned on, it stays on for the entire season.

During winter this is nice. Tonight the temperature is supposed to dip to 37 degrees, and tomorrow it will go back up to 72. Our apartment will have no heat until sometime in November, if everything follows the pattern of last year.

So we may be using that extra blanket and the thicker pajamas tonight.

Mood: upbeat, excited, contemplative

Powerless

Yesterday at around 5 PM someone had an accident in which they crashed their car into a telephone pole at an intersection just outside our apartment complex:

We were on our way home and noticed some traffic lights out, and we saw a Hamilton County Sheriff car activate its lights and speed off. When we got to our apartment complex, we saw the accident. We seriously hope that the people involved in the accident are okay. The crash had snapped the top part of the telephone pole, and there were live wires around. Hence the traffic signals being out.

When we got home, we realized that the power to our home was also out. We opened the windows, and I had to shut the computer off because it had been running off the batteries. Fortunately for us, we had dinner plans at another family’s home. More about that in a separate post, perhaps.

In the Dark, Relying on the One who is Powerful

When we got home after 9:30 PM, the power was still out. We found a flashlight, and since the batteries we had weren’t working with the other flashlights, I lit candles around our home.

Keisha, naturally, was afraid, and we did our best to reassure her. We told her that the power company was working as hard and as fast as they could to get power back on. More importantly, God, who never sleeps, is watching over her, and he’s given her a Mommy and Daddy who are watching out for her, too.

Jennie and I set the alarms on our cell phones to go off at 6 AM this morning, but at 11:21 PM last night, the power came back on – thankfully (it was muggy inside our home), as evidenced by the fans turning back on, along with other lights that had come on from our turning the switches out of habit.

I immediately set our alarm clock (that’s why I remember it was 11:21 PM) and went to every room and blew out the candles.

Jennie remarked last night as we came home that she wished there was some kind of food voucher we all could get whenever something like this happened. You see, she had just gone to the grocery store a couple days ago. We’ll have to go through the items in the refrigerator and freezer to see if they are still fresh.

But it’s not just us; its everyone in our section of the apartmennt complex.

Podcast Delay and Some Exciting Changes

So I haven’t spent any time putting together a show for this week. It’s been yuckily hot, and, well, other things have taken priority, naturally. Maybe some time this afternoon or evening, perhaps.

Also, there are going to be some exciting changes going on for us as the next several months progress – (no, we’re not having another baby, Mom). I’ll have to talk about those in a separate post.

Okay, I’ll divulge 1 big thing: August 21st is my 1-year anniversary in podcasting. I welcome your audio comments specifically, but you can also send e-mail. Please visit the podcast page for contact details. You can do something directly via the website or call the Listener Hotline.

Mood: happy and tired
Listening to: Keisha getting ready for bed
Eating: leftover LaRosa’s pizza
Watching: 1st half of Glory Road

We were puzzled earlier tonight. It seemed that, for no reason whatsoever, all of a sudden the volume on our TV would get increased to the maximum. The Mute button on the remote control wouldn’t work, and when we tried to turn the volume down with the remote control and by hand, it wouldn’t stay down.

So we’d have to turn the TV off and turn it back on. That seemed to work. For a little while.

Jennie and I were trying to figure out what was going on. It seemed as though someone else had control of our TV. We speculated that it was because the TV was 10 years old.

And then I got up and walked around the coffee table:

Yesterday I disconnected our digital cable box and our cable modem. I put the remote control for the cable box with this stuff. It appears that the remote control can still control our TV, even though it’s not connected with the digital cable box anymore. I saw that the cable modem was sitting on the remote control, pressing the TV and Volume control.

Whew. And we were thinking that Otis, our house ghost, was back. What? I just heard a sound from somewhere in the apartment.

Mood: restless
Listening to: Teknikal Diffikulties – comedy sketch podcast
Eating: plain bagel with spread, orange juice, 2 small frappacino (sp?) mochas, and 1 beef jerky stick (see below)

Our apartment complex is having a yard sale. Members of the community have signed up for “booths” to sell, buy, trade, whatever. Jennie signed us up yesterday, I think. The sale has been going on since 8:30 this morning and will continue until 4 PM. Most of what we’re selling is Keisha’s old toys, but there is some of our stuff in the mix, too:

Our booth is situated right where Keisha’ bus stop is, and it’s close to the entrance of the duck pond. Having ducks and geese in the neighborhood is a double-edged sword: it adds character, but it also adds mess. Specifically, we have to be on the lookout for duck and geese poop on the sidewalks and streets where we walk.

Jennie came home from work this morning, packed up the stuff we were selling, and went to the booth. I stayed in bed for another couple of hours and finally decided it was time to get up. I feel like I’ve slept so much these past few days, and I needed to get out of the home. Jake needing his walk also was a motivating factor. I got up, put my contacts in, got dressed, and put three plastic bags in my pocket. I put Jake’s leash on him, and I began our walk.

I’ve taken Jake to the food mart near the local fire station before. It’s only a few minutes’ drive, but it’s a good half hour walk. One way, that is. I brought three plastic bags because I know that if I take Jake for that long of a walk, there’s a good chance I’ll need them, to pick up after he relieves himself. And it’s a good thing I did.

Once we got to the food mart, I tied Jake up to a telephone pole and went inside. He was very well-behaved; didn’t bark or whine at all. I went inside and got 2 Starbucks frappacino(sp?) mochas and two beef jerky sticks that were a quarter apiece. One of them I shared with Jake, the other one was mine. Then we came back home.

Right now my right ear feels completely clogged, and I’m still feeling congested, but I’m going to head down to relieve Jennie so that she can come home and get some sleep.

I might bring this laptop with me so that I do some work on this week’s podcast. Yes, I’m still planning on releasing one. Maybe one with very little talk, since I don’t have my usual voice. We’ll see.

I do not believe this. Someone just threw at least three eggs at our apartment building because our living room windows have the ooze all over them.

I was laying on the couch, channel-surfing, when all of a sudden I heard BAM! BAM! BAM!

I got up to see what it was.

I’m half-tempted to go outside and try to track whoever did this down. This all happened at 10:15 PM.

11 PM Update: I just spoke with the police officer who came here. He saw the egg on the windows, etc. He said that it’s really the complex’s responsibility to call a police report in, since they will have to take care of the damage. Especially since it’s to the windows. They aren’t broken, they just got egg mess on them.

I and our neighbor in the same building have tried the maintenance number, but it appears they are having problems with their line because the phone company’s not making the connection.

The officer said they’ve gotten three other phone calls tonight about eggings. They have some suspect descriptions, too.

That’s why I’m glad I called. And I’m glad I’m blogging about this.

Mood: chilled and full
Listening to: 6620 West Kidcast #22
Reading: Weather reports
Eating: Tilapia fish in a white wine sauce, seasoned with flaxseed and bayleaf, couscous with mixed vegetables, and water to drink
Watching: the winter wonderland outside of our apartment

I went out at 6 PM EST and snapped this picture:

As you can tell, the moisture has gotten onto the lens.

Mood: wonder
Listening to: Slate Magazine Podcast: Dreaming of a White (House) Christmas
Eating: chewing some gum
Watching: the snow continue to pile up outside

Here’s what the front of our apartment looks like at one hour later than before, this time in color:

And it’s continuing to come down!

By the way, that’s our apartment on the second floor. See the Christmas tree?

We found out today that the apartment we wanted to move into has been rented out to someone else. They needed for us to give the entire deposit to them a couple weeks ago. We did not have it.

Also, Jennie has not heard back from the place where she had the interview last Wednesday. The person with whom she interviewed said they want to offer her the job and that she would get a letter with the details.

Even if she got the job we don’t have a place to stay down there. Our lease is up at the end of the month.

I’m still feeling kind of numb about everything.

What freezes eventually melts. All that snow we got last week is melting. This naturally comes with its own set of difficulties. I anticipate that waterways will become flooded from the large flow of melted snow.

Closer to home – inside our apartment, in fact – we’re dealing with leaks: Close to our patio door, we have water dripping. Earlier this year contractors came to fix the flashing outside to prevent this from happening again. It looks like it didn’t work.

The maintenance manager poked a hole in the ceiling to allow one focal point for the water to drain, so that we wouldn’t have a huge bubble suddenly crash down on us. I’ve had to poke another hole. We had to move furniture out of the way, lay down plastic and place an empty garbage can underneath.

Similarly, we have a leak in our bedroom, at the window sill. I have a 44-oz cup collecting the water.

The management at the apartment complex told us that there really isn’t anything they can do until the snow has melted so that they can get workers up on the roof. Our situation is a typical one in the complex right now, apparently.

• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 1
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 2
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 3
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 4
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 5
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 6
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 7
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 8

Here’s a picture in front of our apartment. I could look from the top of the pile and see into our apartment on the second floor.

Jim Borgman, the Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, has a great perspective on the storm:

A thought to brighten your season as you slide to work this morning…

• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 1
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 2
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 3
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 4
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 5
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 6
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 7

After Jennie went to bed, and I planned to head back outside to try to get our car into a parking spot. We told Keisha she could either play in her bedroom or lay down next to Mommy. We offered her that last choice because I’d waken her up early, and I knew she was still a little tired.

Armed with our shovel, Jake and I went to our car. He playfully dove into the snow, and I left him to do his business. I think he was a bit confused, as though thinking, “Hey! Where are all my usual smells? What’s this fun white stuff?”

Walking along an unshovelled area of our sidewalk, the snow was up to my knees. When I got to our car, I looked around and I saw that there were a lot of other cars that were stuck along the main roadway. I shovelled under the car and around the wheels. I also cleared the parking space. After awhile, I was able to get the car in the spot.

Jennie, Keisha, Jake, and I stayed inside for the rest of the day. We had left our shovel outside our apartment door, and, from time to time, some neighbors came by asking to borrow it. We obliged, and, they were considerate enough to bring it back when they were finished.

• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 1
• Christmas Storm Chronicles, Part 2

I just came back inside. The spot where our car was parked last night has close to a 12 inches of snow in it. Our road appears impassable; you can barely see that it was plowed yesterday afternoon. Only the cars that were not moved yesterday show how heavy the snow has been. The airport may report only 13.6 inches, but it appears to be at least 24 around here.

While Jake and I were outside, I saw a neighbor’s SUV stuck at the top of the hill. Another neighbor emerged from his apartment, started his SUV up, commenting that he needed to be at the Columbus airport for a flight at 5 PM this afternoon. He has to dig his way out. I helped sweep some snow off his vehicle for awhile.

Jake started whimpering. The snow is up to his shoulders, and the wind is blowing pretty hard. I decided to bring him inside.

I called Jennie’s work and found out that she had already left. We’ve no cell phone, and it appears that she’s not going to get very far in our apartment complex.

Keisha’s awake right now, watching PBS Kids in our bedroom. Regis and Kelly are on the TV in the living room. I’ve made me a cup of coffee with some cocoa mix in it. I’m going to head back outside to look for Jennie in a bit.

Yesterday we spent Thanksgiving with some friends from church who live in Springfield, Ohio. I’d taken Jake our dog outside before we left so that he could relieve himself, but he didn’t poop.

I knew that we would be gone a long time, and I didn’t want Jake to have an accident in our apartment, so I put him in his cage (what we call his ‘bed’).

Fast forward seven hours… we return and find that he had gotten out of his bed. Did I fasten the door securely? I guess not. I inspected our apartment. Fortunately, Jake hadn’t left us any “presents”.

I took him outside for a walk, and he pooped, to my relief. I brought him back inside, and we got ready for bed. Since one of the local radio stations has changed their format to all Christmas music for the season, Keisha kept her hearing aids on so that she could listen to it while she fell asleep.

About an hour later, I got up to take Keisha’s hearing aids out so that her ears could get some rest. I thought she’d taken them out and put them on the floor, and I bent down to pick it up.

It wasn’t a hearing aid. As I walked down the hall to the main bathroom, I realized

that I had a piece of dog poop in my hand! I flushed it down the toilet and washed my hands really well with antibacterial soap. Then I returned to Keisha’s room, this time turning her light on. I saw that there were other pieces on the floor. I was so upset.

I took Keisha’s hearing aids out and placed them on the window sill next to her bed. Then I went to our bedroom, where Jake was laying in his cage. I grabbed him by his collar and drug him to Keisha’s room, showing him that he’d been a bad dog.

I then grabbed a wad of toilet paper from the bathroom to pick up the rest of the poop. I flushed it down the toilet and got some carpet cleaner for the floor. After all of this, I returned to our bedroom, and I made certain to lock Jake in his cage for the night.

The next morning, as I let him out of his cage, I told him I wanted him to be a good dog. And I let him outside to go poop. Which he did.

In typical Halloween tradition, I changed the answering machine message this morning. It says, in a very spooky-sounding voice

Hallow. Yoou hahve reached the hoame of Dan, Jennie, and Keisha Johnson. We ahre not able to come to the phone right now because we are out being spoooky and being spoooked. Please leave yoour message ahfter the tohne and have ah vehry spoooky day.

Jennie and Keisha went to Ace Hardware this morning to decorate a pumpkin. When they returned, Keisha and I carved hers and the pumpkin we’d already had. I put candles in our jack o’ lanterns and placed them in our respective bedrooms, which overlook the parking lot. Keisha named the one in her bedroom Geri. Hmmm. Geri O’Lantern. The one in our bedroom is named Jack O’Lantern. Whatever.

We’ll roast the pumpkin seeds tomorrow. That is, the ones that didn’t accidentally get washed down the drain as I was straining them in the collander from rinsing them off.

Also, tonight was Beggar’s Night in much of the greater Dayton area. Keisha dressed up as a purple princess. Jennie and I decided that most, if not all, of our apartment complex, comprised mostly of childless households (single and married), was not the most effective place to “Trick or Treat”.

Keisha, Jake (our dog), and I walked across Philadelphia Avenue to some residences. One couple gave Keisha some candy. We then walked down Macy Avenue past the Shiloh church of Christ to a residential area across Main Street.

Keisha made out like a bandit. It was great for Jake, too, to get such a long walk. I dressed in a white oxford shirt with a red, black, and white jersey on top. I didn’t even mind that I carried a bag of doggie doo from Jake for most of the trip.

As we headed back home, we stopped by the Kwik n Kold to get something to drink. Keisha got a Sprite Plus, and I got a 22 oz Bud Ice. We also got some Funjons and a couple of Slim Jims for Jake and I.

I guzzled that beer down, and I quickly felt the buzz. Jake thoroughly enjoyed his Slim Jim, and Keisha shared the Funjons with Jake and me as we paused by the bus stop to finish our refreshment.

When we arrived back home, Keisha and I sorted through her stash. She was outraged to think that there are people in this world who are so mean that they would tamper with someone’s candy. C’est la vie.

She told me she didn’t like the Baby Ruths, so I get to have them all. (Yum!)

After disposing of some questionable items, Keisha and I put the rest in her candy container. I then mixed it up, and she picked out a Reese’s Nutrageous to have as a special treat for tonight.

Then I called my Dad for the first time in over a year. We chatted for a moment, trying to catch up on what could be caught up in such a short time. I told him I’d felt guilty for not calling him for so long, asked him to not be a stranger himself, and, after getting my sister and niece’s information, hung up.

I tried my mom’s number, and I got her roommate, who told me she was at work. I look forward to talking with her in awhile.

Jennie will be waking up shortly to head to work tonight. Since Keisha didn’t wear the purple hair wig as part of her costume, I think Jennie might wear it instead.

We got some new neighbors across the hall from us about a month ago. The previous tenant was a single mom with two school-aged kids. In general, they were a quiet bunch. That’s quite a contrast to the current tenants. The new neighbors are generating a lot of suspicion around here.

I have no idea how many people actually live there. We’ve seen so many people going in and out of that place that I almost think they should install a revolving door. Traffic exists at all hours of the day. There have been several occasions where I and others have been bothered by the loud noise coming from cars (stereo systems and horns blaring).

I had to address one vehicle this evening. A blue van arrives, and shortly after parking, starts to blare their horn. Several times.

Keisha and I were playing frisbee in an adjacent field while Jennie was resting. I got indignant at this driver and hollered, “Hey! Cut that out! Some people are trying to sleep around here! Why don’t you just get out and go knock on their door?”

The driver said something like her foot was broken so she couldn’t get out. She asked if I could go knock on the door herself. I then saw that she was talking on a cell phone, apparently to the tenants of the same apartment. She hung up and told me that they were coming out.

Why couldn’t she have just called in the first place?

Another thing I’ve noticed is that there is a lot more litter around our building than there used to be. I am peeved that people are too d*** lazy to take their trash to the dumpster, which is less than 50 feet away.

Another neighbor, with whom we’ve been to a neighborhood watch meeting, talked with me tonight. He and his wife have begun to take down license plate numbers of vehicles that are frequenting this residence. They believe that these signs all point to drug activity. They’ve seen people come by with an air compressor, some hubcaps. He said that what also makes him think this way is that it’s not only black folks but also white folks that are coming and going.

I mentioned in may that we were considering moving back to Cincinnati, Ohio. That was before our car broke down.

Today we signed on for another six months at our apartment, and rent goes up twenty dollars. Nothing else has changed.So, we’ll see how things are next March.

Yesterday evening after dinner Keisha and I took Jake outside. While he did his business, she and I made some chalk drawings in the parking lot.

At first we did some random stuff. Keisha drew a picture of a sun, a tree, and some clouds. I drew something that resembled a sine wave and proceeded to add facial features to each hump of the design.

Then I wrote the following:

You can pick your nose
You can pick your friends
But you can not pick your friend’s NOSE!

Keisha and I wrote our names vertically. I added descriptive words that begin with each letter of our names while she drew pictures of things that begin with the letters in our names. In parentheses are the pictures she drew:

• Kind (Kite)
• Enjoys (Easter egg)
• Inventive (Ice cream cone)
• Smart (Snake)
• Happy (Happy face)
• Artistic (Apple)

• Daredevil (Dinosaur)
• Artistic (Ant)
• Nutsy (Nose)

Then I walked around the area and wrote words with arrows pointing to the objects they described; for example, light, dumpster, parking space, peeing stone (for Jake the dog).

We then walked back to our apartment building and did some chalk stuff there. I wrote more words with arrows; for example, lamp post, tree, retaining wall. Then I felt a little bored, so I started writing the license plate numbers of cars that were parked in front of the sidewalk. I also wrote

Take trash out
This way

with an arrow pointing toward the dumpster.

Finally, I noticed this Ford Bronco that has been sitting for as long as I can remember in the same spot. Once, when the tires had gone flat, the apartment company management stuck a Tow sticker on it. The owner reinflated the tires and removed the sticker.

I wrote in front of the car on the sidewalk:

Does this Bronco ever move?

I spoke with Mom on the phone last night and mentioned our chalking escapades. She said I should be careful because someone might want to kick my butt.