Sunday, June 13, 2021
30th anniversary reprint
Today is my 30th anniversary in this little house, which has served loyally through snow and wind and insects, despite some long gaps in my attention. THANKS, house!
I'm too weary and disgusted this week to write anything positive, so I'll reprint this from 7 years ago.
= = = = = START REPRINT:
After making a picture of my house in the context of fixing wind damage, I looked back at an earlier entry here in which I traced the history of the house.
Bored without a new work assignment, I decided to look into the first owners, Jim and Bertha Willis. Found them in the 1940 Census, and found obits for both. Jim was born in Howell County, Mo, and Bertha was born in Hazelton, Kan, near Joplin. After Jim and Bertha moved to Spokane in 1909, they first bought (or built?) a house three blocks south of here. I'm guessing 'built' because that house was built in 1910 and has a distinctly Missoura look. It still exists and I see it every day on my walks. I've noticed it because it's next door to this slow construction project which still isn't finished.
Jim then bought or built this house in 1948. It's not clear why they wanted to 'downsize' out of a bigger and better house.
Jim's birthplace in Howell County struck a note, because that's where my father's folks lived before they wandered out to Okla.
Back to the Census. Grandpa and Jim wouldn't be there in 1940, but I hoped to find some indication of the names. Grandpa was born in West Plains, and Jim's obit listed Mountain View. Neither of those cities contained any of either name in 1940. But one township NE of West Plains contained a whole pile of Willises AND a whole pile of my father's folks. They were neighbors!
No wonder this house suits me.
= = = = =
Semi-related sidenotes: (1) It's unlikely that my father's folks ever lived inside the urbane cosmopolitan metropolis of West Plains. Once he told about visiting some of them in the late '40s. They ran a ramshackle semi-farm "way out in the sticks" and they had never gotten around to building an outhouse. Peeing off the porch and pooping in the bushes was good enough for them. (2) The Census for Howell County included a place called Shanty Town. Haven't yet figured out where it was. It consisted mainly of Alsups and DeBoards, both of whom clearly favored VERY large families. (3) Broadly, Howell County resembles the Okla counties I searched earlier. Single-person households were extremely rare, maybe 2% of all households. Income correlated negatively with number of children, and domestic servants were common in middle-class homes. (4) One pattern that I didn't see in Okla: A correlation between names and income. Occupants of the more expensive houses or farms had hard clattery Yankee names like Victor or Ted or Katy or Rebecca. Names you can punch a timeclock with. Everyone else had soft Missoura names like Earl or Wade or Eula or Pearline. Names you can spend some time with.
= = = = = END REPRINT.
Also about the neighborhood: here and here.
After making a picture of my house in the context of fixing wind damage, I looked back at an earlier entry here in which I traced the history of the house.
Bored without a new work assignment, I decided to look into the first owners, Jim and Bertha Willis. Found them in the 1940 Census, and found obits for both. Jim was born in Howell County, Mo, and Bertha was born in Hazelton, Kan, near Joplin. After Jim and Bertha moved to Spokane in 1909, they first bought (or built?) a house three blocks south of here. I'm guessing 'built' because that house was built in 1910 and has a distinctly Missoura look. It still exists and I see it every day on my walks. I've noticed it because it's next door to this slow construction project which still isn't finished.
Jim then bought or built this house in 1948. It's not clear why they wanted to 'downsize' out of a bigger and better house.
Jim's birthplace in Howell County struck a note, because that's where my father's folks lived before they wandered out to Okla.
Back to the Census. Grandpa and Jim wouldn't be there in 1940, but I hoped to find some indication of the names. Grandpa was born in West Plains, and Jim's obit listed Mountain View. Neither of those cities contained any of either name in 1940. But one township NE of West Plains contained a whole pile of Willises AND a whole pile of my father's folks. They were neighbors!
No wonder this house suits me.
= = = = =
Semi-related sidenotes: (1) It's unlikely that my father's folks ever lived inside the urbane cosmopolitan metropolis of West Plains. Once he told about visiting some of them in the late '40s. They ran a ramshackle semi-farm "way out in the sticks" and they had never gotten around to building an outhouse. Peeing off the porch and pooping in the bushes was good enough for them. (2) The Census for Howell County included a place called Shanty Town. Haven't yet figured out where it was. It consisted mainly of Alsups and DeBoards, both of whom clearly favored VERY large families. (3) Broadly, Howell County resembles the Okla counties I searched earlier. Single-person households were extremely rare, maybe 2% of all households. Income correlated negatively with number of children, and domestic servants were common in middle-class homes. (4) One pattern that I didn't see in Okla: A correlation between names and income. Occupants of the more expensive houses or farms had hard clattery Yankee names like Victor or Ted or Katy or Rebecca. Names you can punch a timeclock with. Everyone else had soft Missoura names like Earl or Wade or Eula or Pearline. Names you can spend some time with.
= = = = = END REPRINT.
Also about the neighborhood: here and here.
Labels: Heimatkunde, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 11:52 AM
Sunday, October 08, 2017
Corner of SE 14 and Cinderella ... redux
After noting yet again the decline of this neighborhood, which is aided by the copkilling Insatiable Aliens currently in charge of this fucked former "city", I happened to bump into some videos that explain how another neighborhood STOPPED declining.
Three years ago I wrote a sort of tribute to the Shidler-Wheeler area in OKC. I had lived there briefly in the '70s and loved the place even though I was going through a messy phase at the time. In 2014 the area seemed to be intentionally recovering, but I didn't know why.
= = = = = START REPRINT FROM 2014
After mentioning emptied-out neighborhoods in previous entry, I googlestreeted a couple of areas that I remembered from OKC. Have they been emptied yet?
I'd previously googlestreeted them about a year ago. At that time they looked perfectly familiar, unchanged from 1972. Ready to be emptied. No other destiny.
When I "drove" through them this morning, I thought: Whoa there! Did I type the wrong address?
No. It's the same address, but sometime between 2007 and 2014 it was magnificently gentrified.
Above is 2007, below is Aug 2014. This is typical (though not universal) of the whole neighborhood around Byers and SE14. The houses aren't any bigger, but they're smartly renovated. Presumably some of the occupants are new, but I doubt that everyone was forced to evacuate. So the old occupants are pulling up to fit the new standard.
OKC has broken the boom-bust ratchet! Instead of ripping out the smallest shacks, transform the shacks into cottages ... Then the cottage people will come ... Note the little hipster car! ... And the shack people will either leave or rediscover how to be cottage people ... Which most of them were at one time.
THIS IS THE CORRECT ALTERNATIVE TO EMPTIED-OUT NEIGHBORHOODS.
Double Bravo to OKC for doing it RIGHT!
= = = = =
Later: Presumably most of the work was done by individual contractors and flippers, but the results have a coordinated 'look'. This implies city planning or urging. Those brick mailboxes were starting to appear in the 2007 googleview, and they're all over the neighborhood in the newer picture. They must have been a city effort to give the neighborhood an instinctive and distinctive identity. OKC has been running a clever and productive neighborhood-identity program for quite a while, but I don't see any references to this well-defined little area in online discussions of the program.
When I lived there, the 'perceived boundaries' were the river on the north, SE17 on the south, High on the east, and Central on the west. I did most of my shopping along Central and only occasionally went over to Capitol Hill.
Aha. Here's the only specific description online. The document is a 1994 survey for historic landmarks, which looks down its haughty nose and sniffs:
Shidler-Wheeler #1 district is primarily residential, consisting of bungalows, Folk Victorian, and shotgun houses. Included is a row of brick-veneer shotgun houses on SE15. The area is approximately from SE10 to SE15 and S Byers to S Laird, comprising most of the Central Addition platted in 1908. Many of the houses were built prior to the 1920's; however, many have been drastically altered, some demolished, and a number of inappropriate infill buildings constructed. The survey determined that the area no longer meets the criteria for National Register listing.
Drastically altered? Inappropriate infill? Hmph to you too, assholes.
Infill is a city's salvation.
= = = = = END REPRINT FROM 2014
Now the video made by the organization responsible for the recovery:
Nice to see LOCAL people trying to restore a place they love.
Above is 2007, below is Aug 2014. This is typical (though not universal) of the whole neighborhood around Byers and SE14. The houses aren't any bigger, but they're smartly renovated. Presumably some of the occupants are new, but I doubt that everyone was forced to evacuate. So the old occupants are pulling up to fit the new standard.
OKC has broken the boom-bust ratchet! Instead of ripping out the smallest shacks, transform the shacks into cottages ... Then the cottage people will come ... Note the little hipster car! ... And the shack people will either leave or rediscover how to be cottage people ... Which most of them were at one time.
THIS IS THE CORRECT ALTERNATIVE TO EMPTIED-OUT NEIGHBORHOODS.
Double Bravo to OKC for doing it RIGHT!
= = = = =
Later: Presumably most of the work was done by individual contractors and flippers, but the results have a coordinated 'look'. This implies city planning or urging. Those brick mailboxes were starting to appear in the 2007 googleview, and they're all over the neighborhood in the newer picture. They must have been a city effort to give the neighborhood an instinctive and distinctive identity. OKC has been running a clever and productive neighborhood-identity program for quite a while, but I don't see any references to this well-defined little area in online discussions of the program.
When I lived there, the 'perceived boundaries' were the river on the north, SE17 on the south, High on the east, and Central on the west. I did most of my shopping along Central and only occasionally went over to Capitol Hill.
Aha. Here's the only specific description online. The document is a 1994 survey for historic landmarks, which looks down its haughty nose and sniffs:
Shidler-Wheeler #1 district is primarily residential, consisting of bungalows, Folk Victorian, and shotgun houses. Included is a row of brick-veneer shotgun houses on SE15. The area is approximately from SE10 to SE15 and S Byers to S Laird, comprising most of the Central Addition platted in 1908. Many of the houses were built prior to the 1920's; however, many have been drastically altered, some demolished, and a number of inappropriate infill buildings constructed. The survey determined that the area no longer meets the criteria for National Register listing.
Drastically altered? Inappropriate infill? Hmph to you too, assholes.
Infill is a city's salvation.
= = = = = END REPRINT FROM 2014
Now the video made by the organization responsible for the recovery:
Nice to see LOCAL people trying to restore a place they love.Labels: Asked and answered, infill, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 3:14 PM
Wednesday, July 05, 2017
Double-hung virtues
So far this summer is STRICTLY AVERAGE, which is a good thing. Most days are 55/85 with a few 90s and a couple 100s. Average days allow me to minimize use of the air conditioner by opening windows during the 55 part and using the AC during the 85 part.
Last winter I had a new front door installed, which helped some in winter. Definitely better insulation than the old door. It's less advantageous in summer.
Picture I took in winter:
The old screen door opened from the bottom; new opens from the top. Doesn't matter in winter when it stays closed anyway, but it turns out to be a poor source of 55 air in the summer. The top opening lets out warm air but doesn't let in cool air.
I can tell the difference by opening the entire door. With the screen open the room doesn't cool much. When the entire door is open even a few inches, the room cools IMMEDIATELY.
The double-hung sash is nearly obsolete now, and its purpose is forgotten.
Forgot or not, the purpose is still valid. Cool comes in below, hot goes out above.
The old screen door opened from the bottom; new opens from the top. Doesn't matter in winter when it stays closed anyway, but it turns out to be a poor source of 55 air in the summer. The top opening lets out warm air but doesn't let in cool air.
I can tell the difference by opening the entire door. With the screen open the room doesn't cool much. When the entire door is open even a few inches, the room cools IMMEDIATELY.
The double-hung sash is nearly obsolete now, and its purpose is forgotten.
Forgot or not, the purpose is still valid. Cool comes in below, hot goes out above.Labels: Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 3:49 AM
Friday, February 05, 2016
Dynamic reasoning
This article at Takimag shows Sanders as a 'hypocrite' who started out life dirt-poor, then used money in venal ways after he finally got it.
Good. Contrary to the author's purpose, this makes me feel better about Sanders. This makes him seem LESS hypocritical, not MORE.
Before this, I was seeing Sanders as the Ideologically Pure type. He reminds me of my original Commie mentor in 1968, who was the Pure type. A political "science" prof who constantly burned with socialist fervor. He actually HAD money ... an inherited farm that paid rent from crops ... but he never USED the money to make his own family comfortable. They continued to live just above poverty. All his money and energy went into The Cause.
Why does this show Sanders as LESS hypocritical? Think in dynamic terms.
Why does a populist politician want to change the system? Not simply because the system is bad. That's a static reason. He wants change so poor people can have better work and better lives.
The feverish ascetic doesn't give his family a better life. They're always waiting while he Serves The Cause. If Sanders is as venal as this article claims, it shows that he PRACTICES WHAT HE PREACHES. When he got power and money, he used both to make his own family more comfortable. Thus he knows what money is for.
Labels: Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 10:47 AM
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Irrelevant observation
After doing snow work (shoveling path, raking roof) my shoes and pants are completely snow-covered. I take off shoes and turn them upside-down to melt and drain better. This accomplishes the intended purpose; the inside of the shoe is dry the next time I put it on. It also has another effect that I can't figure out. After sitting upside-down, the inside of the shoe is noticeably warmer than the floor. Feels like at least 10 degrees above 'usual'. The shoes aren't near a baseboard heater, so it can't be from that source.
New Years Resolution: Before next winter I'm getting a metal roof. This ice-dam fight is ridiculous and unnecessary. Good exercise, but I'm too old for the risk.
Labels: Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 7:12 AM
Monday, September 07, 2015
This is the stat I was looking for!
Not entirely but close enough. I've noticed for a long time that my direct 'viewports' into the 1930s showed a less disastrous picture than the conventional story. My ancestors got through the Depression without starving or losing their houses. 1940 census data, in cities that I know well, also showed a less dramatic picture.
Here's part of the reason:
Note the rightmost column, income in 1932 as a percent of 1929. One of my grandpas worked for Detroit Edison (Electric light and power and gas) and the other was a school janitor (Government). They were in the least damaged parts of the economy.
The same book also answers the other half of the question, though not in simple tabular form. Oklahoma depended mainly on cattle and oil. Cattle production didn't drop at all from '29 to '32. Petroleum lost 22%, but the industries typical of the Northeast lost around 70%. So Okla wasn't hurt as badly as the states where media and historians live.
Incidentally, the href'd book is valuable for an odd reason. It's a 10-year collection of newsletters from the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1922 to 1933. Packed with useful and readable info about those years. But how did a book published in 1933 make it past the grasping claws of Steamboat Willie? Because it wasn't exactly published. It appears to have been assembled by a librarian, without a title page to show copyright or publication date. The first page is simply the first newsletter, dated 1922. Just outside Steamboat's well-guarded border.
Note the rightmost column, income in 1932 as a percent of 1929. One of my grandpas worked for Detroit Edison (Electric light and power and gas) and the other was a school janitor (Government). They were in the least damaged parts of the economy.
The same book also answers the other half of the question, though not in simple tabular form. Oklahoma depended mainly on cattle and oil. Cattle production didn't drop at all from '29 to '32. Petroleum lost 22%, but the industries typical of the Northeast lost around 70%. So Okla wasn't hurt as badly as the states where media and historians live.
Incidentally, the href'd book is valuable for an odd reason. It's a 10-year collection of newsletters from the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1922 to 1933. Packed with useful and readable info about those years. But how did a book published in 1933 make it past the grasping claws of Steamboat Willie? Because it wasn't exactly published. It appears to have been assembled by a librarian, without a title page to show copyright or publication date. The first page is simply the first newsletter, dated 1922. Just outside Steamboat's well-guarded border.Labels: Asked and answered, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 4:54 AM
Sunday, August 02, 2015
Good presentation, bad presentation
Polistra has been impressed positively and negatively by two presentations of more or less scientific material, both strongly localist.
= = = = =
(1) Good presentation: Here. An article on how bees vaccinate their babies. Bees obviously don't have breast milk, but they somehow manage to pass on locally acquired immunities to their kids.
How they do it: The workers digest pollen and nectar into honey, which they then, um, spit out to feed the queen and the babies. The honey contains broken-up and thus deactivated bacteria that were present on the nearby plants. The queen eats the deactivated bacteria in the honey, and those pieces are picked up by special protein units in her blood. When she produces an egg, those protein units get into the egg and carry the bacteria 'signals'. Each baby then develops immunity to the bacteria.
Fairly complex, but the accompanying picture makes it BEAUTIFULLY clear. I wouldn't have understood it from the text. Prize-winning graphics. I won't copy it out of respect, but you really should look at the original!
= = = = =
(2) Bad presentation: The public radio program 'Innovation Hub' interviewed an architect who was making an important point. Unfortunately he messed up the point by missing every opportunity to connect with reality. He was talking about the tendency in modern architecture to ignore experiential learning. Instead of obeying the experimental record of people who have been living in a location for a long time, architects zoom into town, create a horrible monstrosity that requires monstrous amounts of energy, then zoom out with a billion-dollar paycheck.
Excellent point. But he illustrated it with some weird stuff about Macccccchuuuu Picccccccchhhhuuu in Peruuuu, which apparently has a suspension bridge made of grass. And of course he chanted the required magic incantation CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE CHANGE at least 300 times.
Huh? Grass bridge? How does that inform and instruct an architect in Spokane or Tulsa?
Polistra wants to say just ONE WORD to this frustrating theoretician.
BUNGALOW.
This is the American experimental record, and it WORKS if built with proper attention to sun and orientation. [ie Porch faces south.] Overhang keeps the walls cool in summer, high ceilings keep the heat above your head. Bungalows last a long time, partly because the same overhang also protects the foundation from water and termites.
Presumably Mister Maccchuuu couldn't say the word BUNGALOW because Bungalows were largely built and occupied by unspeakable unthinkable unnameable
He can think of the grass bridge because it was built by those delicate vulnerable endangered nonviolent zenlike Aztecs when they weren't busy tossing virgins in the volcano. That's COOOL. Killing innocents is always COOOOOL. Death wins the MacArthur Prize.
= = = = =
Addendum: Bungalows are optimal for hot places with little snow. For snowy places, a hip roof with deep overhangs on all sides is preferable.
Lots of soffits around the bottom, lots of vents on top. Result: Roof stays as cool as possible, and has a UNIFORM temperature from top to bottom. Very low chance of ice dams. The exposed overhang on bungalows pretty much guarantees ice dams. In all seasons hip is better than gable because hip causes water to spread out while it flows downward. Flow distributes evenly on all sides. About 40% of the houses in this neighborhood have wide hips like this. I don't know if they were intended to be platonic houses, but that's exactly what they are! (Wish I could afford one. Maybe later.)
= = = = =
Addendum next day: Now HERE is a combination of both subjects above. A single wonderfully explanatory picture that covers the development of American vernacular architecture. NEAT! I love it!
= = = = =
Much later update about the hip-roof theory: I WAS DEAD WRONG. It sounds good, but houses built on that design are ACTUALLY the worst ice-dammers. More here. Thus proving yet again that you should go with EXPERIENCE, NOT THEORY.
This is the American experimental record, and it WORKS if built with proper attention to sun and orientation. [ie Porch faces south.] Overhang keeps the walls cool in summer, high ceilings keep the heat above your head. Bungalows last a long time, partly because the same overhang also protects the foundation from water and termites.
Presumably Mister Maccchuuu couldn't say the word BUNGALOW because Bungalows were largely built and occupied by unspeakable unthinkable unnameable
He can think of the grass bridge because it was built by those delicate vulnerable endangered nonviolent zenlike Aztecs when they weren't busy tossing virgins in the volcano. That's COOOL. Killing innocents is always COOOOOL. Death wins the MacArthur Prize.
= = = = =
Addendum: Bungalows are optimal for hot places with little snow. For snowy places, a hip roof with deep overhangs on all sides is preferable.
Lots of soffits around the bottom, lots of vents on top. Result: Roof stays as cool as possible, and has a UNIFORM temperature from top to bottom. Very low chance of ice dams. The exposed overhang on bungalows pretty much guarantees ice dams. In all seasons hip is better than gable because hip causes water to spread out while it flows downward. Flow distributes evenly on all sides. About 40% of the houses in this neighborhood have wide hips like this. I don't know if they were intended to be platonic houses, but that's exactly what they are! (Wish I could afford one. Maybe later.)
= = = = =
Addendum next day: Now HERE is a combination of both subjects above. A single wonderfully explanatory picture that covers the development of American vernacular architecture. NEAT! I love it!
= = = = =
Much later update about the hip-roof theory: I WAS DEAD WRONG. It sounds good, but houses built on that design are ACTUALLY the worst ice-dammers. More here. Thus proving yet again that you should go with EXPERIENCE, NOT THEORY.Labels: Experiential education, Grand Blueprint, Heimatkunde, infill, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 4:03 PM
Saturday, August 01, 2015
Bing beats boredom
Out of boredom I decided to list all the addresses where I'd lived, not counting parents. With assistance from Bing Maps, I was able to count 27 rented houses and apartments between 1970 and 1990. Left out a few highly temporary hippie-era crash pads, left in a couple that arguably belonged in that category. Couldn't draw a firm line.
At this temporal distance I've probably missed one or two places entirely.
Since 1990, only one address. Right here. First and only owned house. All paid for.
Bing's birds-eye made it easy to tell which structures have disappeared. Of the 27 known addresses, only 6 are gone, either vacant lots or replaced by commercial buildings. No obvious correlation with quality of house. Two of the six were modern apt buildings; one was unfit for habitation when I lived there; and three had been decent houses in the '70s. Presumably they declined later. The worst place of all, a little cement shack in SW OKC with a bathroom constantly flooded with sewage, is still there and seems to have been nicely flipped. OKC is the capital of inspired gentrification, so maybe that's not such a surprise.
Labels: Shack people - Cottage people, TMI
¶ 12:57 PM
Friday, July 24, 2015
Malaria and the BIG question
Probably the biggest news of the year. If 2015 is going to be remembered for something other than Satan's ferocious victory slaughter, this would be it. A vaccine for malaria has completed 30 years of testing and improvement, and is (more or less?) ready for market.
The commenters at the Telegraph article are arguing along the usual lines. Idiot Malthusians versus observers of actual reality. Exp versus tanh. When you know most of your kids will die quickly, you produce a lot of babies. When you know your kids will survive, you produce less.
But they're all missing the bigger point. Malaria weakens more than it kills.
We don't need to be thinking about a simple increase in African numbers; we should be pondering an increase in African physical and mental strength.
At this point in history, Africa is on the upswing. Many countries have finally grown tired of the post-colonial excuses and dependence. They're taking control of their own destiny.
Africa is the LAST STRONGHOLD of non-Satanic people. The only place where Satan can be slowed down for a few femtoseconds.
As malaria fades, more Africans will be mentally and physically available to solve their own problems. Will they live within a culture and government that wants them to solve problems, or will they live within a culture and government that needs more subsidy-suckers and Global Warming Victims and cannon fodder?
The biggest question of all, for the entire world and especially Africa, is the old song. How ya gonna keep em down on the farm after they've seen Nairobeeeee? Or Shanghaiiiii? Or even Pareeeee?
How do we make small-scale farming more profitable and interesting than city life? More protected from predatory bankers and speculators? More attractive for families to stay on the same plot of land?
That's the BIG question.
That's the BIG question.Labels: Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 3:28 AM
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Improving maintainable-ness
Houses and humans both need attention as they get older. My house has a winter shutoff valve for the outside faucet. The shutoff valve is under the floor, reached through a little trapdoor inside a kitchen cabinet. It's a tricky spot that requires some flexibility. I've aged and weakened to the point where I can still turn the valve, but can't do anything fancy in there; can't maneuver a wrench easily. This year when I turned the valve on, it started dripping, and I couldn't make it stop by tightening the packing nut.
So I found a plumber (via Angieslist) and had him replace the old valve with one of those 90-degree lever units. This lever can be moved 'by fingertips', so it should continue to be usable for a while.
Mainly it doesn't drip. After I got rid of termites in 2008, I vowed that I'd never let the crawl space get wet again, because deeply damp soil is what attracts them.
The plumber also replaced the outer faucet, which looks nice but (unlike previous repair) isn't really noticeable and doesn't really matter.
Expensive at $400, but worth it.
Maintainable-ness has two sides. Parts should be replaceable, and adjustments should be reachable. This old house doesn't score well on either side. Everything is non-standard and hard to reach. Every step to improve maintainable-ness helps both me and the house to age better.
Expensive at $400, but worth it.
Maintainable-ness has two sides. Parts should be replaceable, and adjustments should be reachable. This old house doesn't score well on either side. Everything is non-standard and hard to reach. Every step to improve maintainable-ness helps both me and the house to age better.
Labels: coot-proofing, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 3:14 AM
Saturday, December 27, 2014
First snow! Sort of.
First snow of the winter. Unimpressive. Weather bureau was predicting 4 inches, and we got about 1.5 inches. Not enough to properly shovel. Too bad; I was actually looking forward to shoveling the paths and raking the roof. Good exercise and sense of accomplishment.
Not too surprising. This is a Nino year, which means the storm track is mainly heading for Calif. They need it and we don't. Nature always reverts to the mean.
If this snow wanted to get some respect, it should have jetted over to England where it would be seen as a DEADLY LETHAL UNPRECEDENTED WEATHER BOMB!!!!!
Next morning after walk: This snow didn't amount to much, but it turned into a formidable obstacle to walking and driving. It got clumpy toward the end then froze HARD. Result is like walking on lava. Good traction but throws your ankles in all directions at once. Amazingly noisy. CRUNCH! CRACK! POP! I suspect we'll see a lot of flat tires this morning.
First snow of the winter. Unimpressive. Weather bureau was predicting 4 inches, and we got about 1.5 inches. Not enough to properly shovel. Too bad; I was actually looking forward to shoveling the paths and raking the roof. Good exercise and sense of accomplishment.
Not too surprising. This is a Nino year, which means the storm track is mainly heading for Calif. They need it and we don't. Nature always reverts to the mean.
If this snow wanted to get some respect, it should have jetted over to England where it would be seen as a DEADLY LETHAL UNPRECEDENTED WEATHER BOMB!!!!!
Next morning after walk: This snow didn't amount to much, but it turned into a formidable obstacle to walking and driving. It got clumpy toward the end then froze HARD. Result is like walking on lava. Good traction but throws your ankles in all directions at once. Amazingly noisy. CRUNCH! CRACK! POP! I suspect we'll see a lot of flat tires this morning.Labels: Carbon Cult, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 4:21 PM
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Rhythm method
I got carried away with 1940Censusing. Started looking for father's mother's line. I knew these folks came from somewhere around Belle, Mo. They turned out to be a lot more common than father's father's name. Scattered all over Osage and Maries counties. After skimming a few dozen pages, I picked up a rhythm of sorts, based on the firm correlation between income and family size. My folks were somewhere around the 30th percentile, which placed them closer to the big-family end but not quite there. I found that I could predict safely which pages were likely to contain my folks just by the pattern.
Left page is too poor = too many kids per household. Right page is too rich = too few kids. Middle page contains one of my folks.
Somewhat puzzled, though. In this case I had a point of reference: my great-grandfather who I met once when I was 4 and he was 94. I thought he had stayed in Mo. The Census showed 25 households with the correct last name in Osage and Maries, but nobody with the correct first name. Maybe he did move to Okla after all. This is my third incorrect assumption about addresses of ancestors in 1940! [Sidenote: I could look up these facts directly. Most of my ancestors have been thoroughly genealogized. But I'm not doing genealogy; I'm just exercising my creaky old mind and drawing some broader conclusions about history.]
Osage County had one peculiarity that made it stand out from the general run of Census pages. It was mainly German Catholic, which meant a lot of LONG names (Aufderheide, Kochenberger) and a lot of Catholic schools scattered through the farmland. Because the Census was only for residents, it didn't show schools or businesses as such. But each Catholic school had a dozen resident Sisters, who were easily visible as a block of similarly shaped names that overflowed the blanks. There was one parochial school for every hundred households or so. Bear in mind that this was 1940, still nominally in the Depression... but these farmers remained prosperous enough to support a mini-convent while they were paying taxes for the public schools they weren't using. Yet another data point opposing the common notion that "only WW2 broke the Depression".
Left page is too poor = too many kids per household. Right page is too rich = too few kids. Middle page contains one of my folks.
Somewhat puzzled, though. In this case I had a point of reference: my great-grandfather who I met once when I was 4 and he was 94. I thought he had stayed in Mo. The Census showed 25 households with the correct last name in Osage and Maries, but nobody with the correct first name. Maybe he did move to Okla after all. This is my third incorrect assumption about addresses of ancestors in 1940! [Sidenote: I could look up these facts directly. Most of my ancestors have been thoroughly genealogized. But I'm not doing genealogy; I'm just exercising my creaky old mind and drawing some broader conclusions about history.]
Osage County had one peculiarity that made it stand out from the general run of Census pages. It was mainly German Catholic, which meant a lot of LONG names (Aufderheide, Kochenberger) and a lot of Catholic schools scattered through the farmland. Because the Census was only for residents, it didn't show schools or businesses as such. But each Catholic school had a dozen resident Sisters, who were easily visible as a block of similarly shaped names that overflowed the blanks. There was one parochial school for every hundred households or so. Bear in mind that this was 1940, still nominally in the Depression... but these farmers remained prosperous enough to support a mini-convent while they were paying taxes for the public schools they weren't using. Yet another data point opposing the common notion that "only WW2 broke the Depression".Labels: Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 8:17 AM
Saturday, December 20, 2014
No wonder.
After making a picture of my house in the context of fixing wind damage, I looked back at an earlier entry here in which I traced the history of the house.
Bored without a new work assignment, I decided to look into the first owners, Jim and Bertha Willis. Found them in the 1940 Census, and found obits for both. Jim was born in Howell County, Mo, and Bertha was born in Hazelton, Kan, near Joplin. After Jim and Bertha moved to Spokane in 1909, they first bought (or built?) a house three blocks south of here. I'm guessing 'built' because that house was built in 1910 and has a distinctly Missoura look. It still exists and I see it every day on my walks. I've noticed it because it's next door to this slow construction project which still isn't finished.
Jim then bought or built this house in 1948. It's not clear why they wanted to 'downsize' out of a bigger and better house.
Jim's birthplace in Howell County struck a note, because that's where my father's folks lived before they wandered out to Okla.
Back to the Census. Grandpa and Jim wouldn't be there in 1940, but I hoped to find some indication of the names. Grandpa was born in West Plains, and Jim's obit listed Mountain View. Neither of those cities contained any of either name in 1940. But one township NE of West Plains contained a whole pile of Willises AND a whole pile of my father's folks. They were neighbors!
No wonder this house suits me.
= = = = =
Semi-related sidenotes: (1) It's unlikely that my father's folks ever lived inside the urbane cosmopolitan metropolis of West Plains. Once he told about visiting some of them in the late '40s. They ran a ramshackle semi-farm "way out in the sticks" and they had never gotten around to building an outhouse. Peeing off the porch and pooping in the bushes was good enough for them. (2) The Census for Howell County included a place called Shanty Town. Haven't yet figured out where it was. It consisted mainly of Alsups and DeBoards, both of whom clearly favored VERY large families. (3) Broadly, Howell County resembles the Okla counties I searched earlier. Single-person households were extremely rare, maybe 2% of all households. Income correlated negatively with number of children, and domestic servants were common in middle-class homes. (4) One pattern that I didn't see in Okla: A correlation between names and income. Occupants of the more expensive houses or farms had hard clattery Yankee names like Victor or Ted or Katy or Rebecca. Names you can punch a timeclock with. Everyone else had soft Missoura names like Earl or Wade or Eula or Pearline. Names you can spend some time with.
After making a picture of my house in the context of fixing wind damage, I looked back at an earlier entry here in which I traced the history of the house.
Bored without a new work assignment, I decided to look into the first owners, Jim and Bertha Willis. Found them in the 1940 Census, and found obits for both. Jim was born in Howell County, Mo, and Bertha was born in Hazelton, Kan, near Joplin. After Jim and Bertha moved to Spokane in 1909, they first bought (or built?) a house three blocks south of here. I'm guessing 'built' because that house was built in 1910 and has a distinctly Missoura look. It still exists and I see it every day on my walks. I've noticed it because it's next door to this slow construction project which still isn't finished.
Jim then bought or built this house in 1948. It's not clear why they wanted to 'downsize' out of a bigger and better house.
Jim's birthplace in Howell County struck a note, because that's where my father's folks lived before they wandered out to Okla.
Back to the Census. Grandpa and Jim wouldn't be there in 1940, but I hoped to find some indication of the names. Grandpa was born in West Plains, and Jim's obit listed Mountain View. Neither of those cities contained any of either name in 1940. But one township NE of West Plains contained a whole pile of Willises AND a whole pile of my father's folks. They were neighbors!
No wonder this house suits me.
= = = = =
Semi-related sidenotes: (1) It's unlikely that my father's folks ever lived inside the urbane cosmopolitan metropolis of West Plains. Once he told about visiting some of them in the late '40s. They ran a ramshackle semi-farm "way out in the sticks" and they had never gotten around to building an outhouse. Peeing off the porch and pooping in the bushes was good enough for them. (2) The Census for Howell County included a place called Shanty Town. Haven't yet figured out where it was. It consisted mainly of Alsups and DeBoards, both of whom clearly favored VERY large families. (3) Broadly, Howell County resembles the Okla counties I searched earlier. Single-person households were extremely rare, maybe 2% of all households. Income correlated negatively with number of children, and domestic servants were common in middle-class homes. (4) One pattern that I didn't see in Okla: A correlation between names and income. Occupants of the more expensive houses or farms had hard clattery Yankee names like Victor or Ted or Katy or Rebecca. Names you can punch a timeclock with. Everyone else had soft Missoura names like Earl or Wade or Eula or Pearline. Names you can spend some time with. Labels: Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 2:33 AM
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
Cottage people
The benefits of being 'independently poor'.
Two things happened yesterday.
(1) I finally got a handyman to replace a piece of metal siding that had popped off in the July-August windstorms. The metal siding encases an original layer of cedar siding, so it wasn't exposing anything structural, but it looked awful and invited a chain-reaction popoff. Used Angieslist to find and deal with the handyman. Very satisfactory experience, and now that the house is proper again, I feel more like cottage people than shack people.
(2) Learned that the publisher of my courseware has suddenly sold off the whole division including my stuff, as part of their JPMorgan hostile-takeover-bankruptcy process. The new publisher might or might not continue with this project. So I've just put in a year of 50-hour weeks, brought the project close to completion, and may never get paid for it.
Which event matters to me? (1) Pride of property. The publisher shit doesn't bother me a bit.
This is exactly why I set up my life this way, starting with a plan in 1985. I can take or leave idiot New York Goldmanite assholes. Independently poor. DECOUPLED.
= = = = =
Oddly enough, I was thinking about writing a piece on the destruction of human capital by feral Goldmanism. I was going to extend recent thoughts about soil conservation into the notion of conserving human capital. When you run a business for pure share value, you have no regard for training, no regard for developing a labor force. Everything is outsourced, everything is temped, everyone is disposable.
Now the publisher has given me a nice personalized example.
(2) Learned that the publisher of my courseware has suddenly sold off the whole division including my stuff, as part of their JPMorgan hostile-takeover-bankruptcy process. The new publisher might or might not continue with this project. So I've just put in a year of 50-hour weeks, brought the project close to completion, and may never get paid for it.
Which event matters to me? (1) Pride of property. The publisher shit doesn't bother me a bit.
This is exactly why I set up my life this way, starting with a plan in 1985. I can take or leave idiot New York Goldmanite assholes. Independently poor. DECOUPLED.
= = = = =
Oddly enough, I was thinking about writing a piece on the destruction of human capital by feral Goldmanism. I was going to extend recent thoughts about soil conservation into the notion of conserving human capital. When you run a business for pure share value, you have no regard for training, no regard for developing a labor force. Everything is outsourced, everything is temped, everyone is disposable.
Now the publisher has given me a nice personalized example.Labels: Shack people - Cottage people, the broken circle, Zero Problems
¶ 3:48 PM
Wednesday, November 05, 2014
Wine and sewage 2
Antipopess Francine does a good job of destroying the economic side of natural law. In a recent speech to some kind of Occupy organization, she provided a good synopsis of the natural law 'platform', but instantly destroyed each 'plank' with fashionable Goldman-serving poison.
From a somewhat clumsy translation here. I've put Francine's part in quotes and my comment in square brackets.
"Love of the poor is at the heart of the Gospel. Land, roof and work, what you struggle for, are sacred rights."
[Exactly correct, and an excellent formulation. No argument.]
"Land. At the beginning of creation, God created man, custodian of His work, charging him to cultivate and protect it."
[From there she went directly into Global Warming poison, which takes land from the poor and gives it to the rich.]
"Second, roof. I said it and I repeat it: a house for every family. "
[And then she denounced infill, denounced the transformation of shacks into cottages: "... must displace totally ... those projects that pretend to varnish poor neighborhoods, tidy the fringes and put makeup on social wounds instead of curing them by promoting a genuine and respectful integration." It's not clear what she means here by integration. If she means mixing the poor directly into rich apartments, that's a recipe for disaster.]
"Third, work. There is no worse material poverty ... than one that does not allow for earning one's bread and deprives one of the dignity of work."
[Excellent point, often skipped by welfare-loving 'social justice' advocates. But then she makes labor unions the heart of work. Unions begin as a useful counterforce to corporatism, but always become an integral part of corporatism.]
After those three points, Francine finishes the speech with a toxic dose of the usual Global Warming and Die-Versity shit. And in other speeches this week, she has praised the Big Bang and denounced Intelligent Design.... thus EXPLICITLY preferring Satanic trillion-dollar lunacy over godly low-budget science.
Satan is the Confuser, the Cuisinart of logic and consistency. Francine has neutered each of the proper elements of natural law in the economic realm; and then canceled the whole thing with anti-natural sewage in the realms of family and sex and science.
Wine + sewage = sewage.
If you want a consistent meal that agrees with natural law in ALL areas, you've got sharia. Already fully prepared, no need to re-invent anything.
Labels: Grand Blueprint, Natural law = Sharia law, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 3:44 AM
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Corner of SE 14 and Cinderella
After mentioning emptied-out neighborhoods in previous entry, I googlestreeted a couple of areas that I remembered from OKC. Have they been emptied yet?
I'd previously googlestreeted them about a year ago. At that time they looked perfectly familiar, unchanged from 1972. Ready to be emptied. No other destiny.
When I "drove" through them this morning, I thought: Whoa there! Did I type the wrong address?
No. It's the same address, but sometime between 2007 and 2014 it was magnificently gentrified.
Above is 2007, below is Aug 2014. This is typical (though not universal) of the whole neighborhood around Byers and SE14. The houses aren't any bigger, but they're smartly renovated. Presumably some of the occupants are new, but I doubt that everyone was forced to evacuate. So the old occupants are pulling up to fit the new standard.
OKC has broken the boom-bust ratchet! Instead of ripping out the smallest shacks, transform the shacks into cottages ... Then the cottage people will come ... Note the little hipster car! ... And the shack people will either leave or rediscover how to be cottage people ... Which most of them were at one time.
THIS IS THE CORRECT ALTERNATIVE TO EMPTIED-OUT NEIGHBORHOODS.
Double Bravo to OKC for doing it RIGHT!
= = = = =
Later: Presumably most of the work was done by individual contractors and flippers, but the results have a coordinated 'look'. This implies city planning or urging. Those brick mailboxes were starting to appear in the 2007 googleview, and they're all over the neighborhood in the newer picture. They must have been a city effort to give the neighborhood an instinctive and distinctive identity. OKC has been running a clever and productive neighborhood-identity program for quite a while, but I don't see any references to this well-defined little area in online discussions of the program.
When I lived there, the 'perceived boundaries' were the river on the north, SE17 on the south, High on the east, and Central on the west. I did most of my shopping along Central and only occasionally went over to Capitol Hill.
Aha. Here's the only specific description online. The document is a 1994 survey for historic landmarks, which looks down its haughty nose and sniffs:
Shidler-Wheeler #1 district is primarily residential, consisting of bungalows, Folk Victorian, and shotgun houses. Included is a row of brick-veneer shotgun houses on SE15. The area is approximately from SE10 to SE15 and S Byers to S Laird, comprising most of the Central Addition platted in 1908. Many of the houses were built prior to the 1920's; however, many have been drastically altered, some demolished, and a number of inappropriate infill buildings constructed. The survey determined that the area no longer meets the criteria for National Register listing.
Drastically altered? Inappropriate infill? Hmph to you too, assholes.
Infill is a city's salvation.
= = = = =
**Footnote for non-Okies: Shidler rhymes with Idler, not with Midler or something else.
Above is 2007, below is Aug 2014. This is typical (though not universal) of the whole neighborhood around Byers and SE14. The houses aren't any bigger, but they're smartly renovated. Presumably some of the occupants are new, but I doubt that everyone was forced to evacuate. So the old occupants are pulling up to fit the new standard.
OKC has broken the boom-bust ratchet! Instead of ripping out the smallest shacks, transform the shacks into cottages ... Then the cottage people will come ... Note the little hipster car! ... And the shack people will either leave or rediscover how to be cottage people ... Which most of them were at one time.
THIS IS THE CORRECT ALTERNATIVE TO EMPTIED-OUT NEIGHBORHOODS.
Double Bravo to OKC for doing it RIGHT!
= = = = =
Later: Presumably most of the work was done by individual contractors and flippers, but the results have a coordinated 'look'. This implies city planning or urging. Those brick mailboxes were starting to appear in the 2007 googleview, and they're all over the neighborhood in the newer picture. They must have been a city effort to give the neighborhood an instinctive and distinctive identity. OKC has been running a clever and productive neighborhood-identity program for quite a while, but I don't see any references to this well-defined little area in online discussions of the program.
When I lived there, the 'perceived boundaries' were the river on the north, SE17 on the south, High on the east, and Central on the west. I did most of my shopping along Central and only occasionally went over to Capitol Hill.
Aha. Here's the only specific description online. The document is a 1994 survey for historic landmarks, which looks down its haughty nose and sniffs:
Shidler-Wheeler #1 district is primarily residential, consisting of bungalows, Folk Victorian, and shotgun houses. Included is a row of brick-veneer shotgun houses on SE15. The area is approximately from SE10 to SE15 and S Byers to S Laird, comprising most of the Central Addition platted in 1908. Many of the houses were built prior to the 1920's; however, many have been drastically altered, some demolished, and a number of inappropriate infill buildings constructed. The survey determined that the area no longer meets the criteria for National Register listing.
Drastically altered? Inappropriate infill? Hmph to you too, assholes.
Infill is a city's salvation.
= = = = =
**Footnote for non-Okies: Shidler rhymes with Idler, not with Midler or something else.
Labels: infill, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 8:09 AM
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Chickens!
This part of Spokane is thoroughly old-suburb-ish now, but it was nearly rural from 1910 to 1940, with only one house built on each block and no utilities. You can still see indications of rurality. Several pre-1950 houses still have fuel-oil tanks, and a few retain a pure country feel.
One of those time-capsule farmhouses was sold earlier this year, after a long period of being occupied but untouched. The new occupant has removed the cars and neatened up the back area, which contains a long-unused cottage; but no changes to the sprawling main house. None of the usual flip stuff.
This morning there's a change! A chicken pen right out in front, with big white healthy-looking hens pecking and squawking! Have to wonder: why the front yard? The back lot has enough space for a pony, and the unused cottage would make a good coop.
Almost seems like a dare, as in "Okay, zoning board. I got chickens here. Whatcha gonna do about it?"
Later, after a closer look: About 6 chickens of various colors, all big flashy birds. I'd say these are show-chickens, if that's a word. Maybe fighting cocks. Not plain egg-layers or fryers.
= = = = =
Update March 2013: Now they've planted an organized set of young fruit trees in the front yard. 4 rows of 4 trees. Not the way you'd plant for ornamental purposes, more like starting an orchard. Looks like they're trying to build a real urban farmstead!
July 2015: For a couple years it looked like nothing was happening, and those fruit trees didn't appear to be thriving. I was afraid the place was going to fail. This year it's IMPRESSIVE. Hot weather has boosted astonishing growth in rows of sunflowers, tomatoes, corn, and other stuff in the back, and the fruit trees are flowering and growing.
June 2016: Last year's TALL crop must have been profitable. The front yard now has an expensive-looking fence to hold more chickens, and everything looks more prosperous in general.
Labels: Heimatkunde, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 10:37 AM
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Tiny status
Nice article in UK Guardian about the high-status attraction of Tiny Houses. I understand the basic appeal, since I've been cheaply and happily living in this 500 sqft cottage for 21 years. Distinctly small but not tiny by the proper definition.
Author touches an important point but doesn't quite hit it:
As usual the Greenies are backwards. When you own enough land for a farm but don't use it for farming or livestock, you're not Green. You're just another rich man engaging in Conspicuous Consumption. When you live far from town, unless you're strictly self-sufficient, you're using vastly more gasoline and other materials than you would in town. Number of rooms isn't the main variable when the energy has to be transported 30 miles to reach your house. The fuel and labor for the propane tank truck, the maintenance and resistance of the long single-user electric wire, and the electricity needed to pump and purify your well water, more than compensate for the rooms you're not heating.
The best way to use minimal resources is to live in a closely-built 'walkable' city with good mass transit. Apartment, semi-detached, or small house, equally good when you're not operating a car.
Some Greenies do appreciate that point, but not the Tiny-housers described above.
Another thought: Trailer-park living is pure Tiny-house, but the Tiny-housers refuse to recognize it. An 8 x 32 travel trailer is beautifully designed to make the best use of available space, and the trailer park uses land and utilities efficiently. Nope, doesn't count because it's incurably unfashionable. Associated with poor white Christians, thus unthinkable. In short, the Tiny-housers are reinventing the 5th-wheel, and doing a shitty job of it.
Author touches an important point but doesn't quite hit it:
I know I'm not alone in finding tiny homes so weirdly compelling. People have lived in very small spaces since the dawn of civilisation, of course, whether out of necessity or monkish self-denial. ... The rural wing of the tiny homes movement, meanwhile, is motivated primarily by environmental concerns. How much more lightly can you tread on the planet than by having only one room to heat, and no space to accumulate the detritus of the modern consumer economy?
As usual the Greenies are backwards. When you own enough land for a farm but don't use it for farming or livestock, you're not Green. You're just another rich man engaging in Conspicuous Consumption. When you live far from town, unless you're strictly self-sufficient, you're using vastly more gasoline and other materials than you would in town. Number of rooms isn't the main variable when the energy has to be transported 30 miles to reach your house. The fuel and labor for the propane tank truck, the maintenance and resistance of the long single-user electric wire, and the electricity needed to pump and purify your well water, more than compensate for the rooms you're not heating.
The best way to use minimal resources is to live in a closely-built 'walkable' city with good mass transit. Apartment, semi-detached, or small house, equally good when you're not operating a car.
Some Greenies do appreciate that point, but not the Tiny-housers described above.
Another thought: Trailer-park living is pure Tiny-house, but the Tiny-housers refuse to recognize it. An 8 x 32 travel trailer is beautifully designed to make the best use of available space, and the trailer park uses land and utilities efficiently. Nope, doesn't count because it's incurably unfashionable. Associated with poor white Christians, thus unthinkable. In short, the Tiny-housers are reinventing the 5th-wheel, and doing a shitty job of it.
Labels: Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 4:43 AM
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Infill
Since December I've doubled my weekly exercise, infilling between the usual M-W-F trips to the store. Walking every day makes a noticeable difference in mood and health.
These infill walks required fighting two old internal rules made by my Kraut chromosomes.
Rule 1: «Achtung! Valk must haff Purpose! No Valk mitout Utility!»
This rule never made any sense. In younger years I felt free to drive or bike without a destination, but walking has always needed a firm reason. No idea why. Breaking this rule was easy; just one pleasant random walk deconditioned it.
Rule 2: «Achtung! All Valking Routes must be Maximally Efficient! Cut all Corners, never go around Unnecessary Block!»
This rule does make sense for a lifetime pedestrian, and I've learned quite a few tricks to find the shortest possible path. But it's completely wrong for a random walk, where the only destination is Back Home, and the purpose is to maximize distance without getting overly tired. Because it's logical, this rule is harder to break, and still requires some Strangelovian internal slapdowns.
= = = = =
Useful walks always head south and east from my house, because that's where the stores and bus stops are. So the random walks have headed north and west, to explore unfamiliar territory. And there's a surprising amount of unfamiliar stuff within a one-mile radius, because I simply never looked in those directions before!
Earlier I noted a 'locus of new growth' that seems to be propagating from the city's beautiful repaving of Wellesley. Flips, sales, existing remodels, and new construction. Infill as usual in Spokane, the Infill Capital of the West. Nevertheless, an indication of positive economic activity in this part of town. The new construction is on lots that have been vacant for a hundred years!
Now I'm noticing a 'locus of decay' in the other direction, propagating from the only apartment building in the neighborhood. This apt is a two-story wood structure, possibly a WW2 barracks extensively remodeled. It's been decaying for a long time and fully abandoned for a couple years. The apt seems to be infecting nearby houses with Who-Gives-A-Fuck-Itis. Near the apt are several collapsing failed remodels, mixed as usual in Spokane with beautiful and elegant 1930's cottages.....
These infill walks required fighting two old internal rules made by my Kraut chromosomes.
Rule 1: «Achtung! Valk must haff Purpose! No Valk mitout Utility!»
This rule never made any sense. In younger years I felt free to drive or bike without a destination, but walking has always needed a firm reason. No idea why. Breaking this rule was easy; just one pleasant random walk deconditioned it.
Rule 2: «Achtung! All Valking Routes must be Maximally Efficient! Cut all Corners, never go around Unnecessary Block!»
This rule does make sense for a lifetime pedestrian, and I've learned quite a few tricks to find the shortest possible path. But it's completely wrong for a random walk, where the only destination is Back Home, and the purpose is to maximize distance without getting overly tired. Because it's logical, this rule is harder to break, and still requires some Strangelovian internal slapdowns.
= = = = =
Useful walks always head south and east from my house, because that's where the stores and bus stops are. So the random walks have headed north and west, to explore unfamiliar territory. And there's a surprising amount of unfamiliar stuff within a one-mile radius, because I simply never looked in those directions before!
Earlier I noted a 'locus of new growth' that seems to be propagating from the city's beautiful repaving of Wellesley. Flips, sales, existing remodels, and new construction. Infill as usual in Spokane, the Infill Capital of the West. Nevertheless, an indication of positive economic activity in this part of town. The new construction is on lots that have been vacant for a hundred years!
Now I'm noticing a 'locus of decay' in the other direction, propagating from the only apartment building in the neighborhood. This apt is a two-story wood structure, possibly a WW2 barracks extensively remodeled. It's been decaying for a long time and fully abandoned for a couple years. The apt seems to be infecting nearby houses with Who-Gives-A-Fuck-Itis. Near the apt are several collapsing failed remodels, mixed as usual in Spokane with beautiful and elegant 1930's cottages.....
Labels: infill, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 1:58 PM
