Enough Serious Stuff

Actually there will be more serious stuff. But I have some non-serious stuff that might be entertaining.

Brian and I haven't done too much work on the house lately due to this whole hullabaloo over grants etc. Technically to qualify for house renovation grants you can't have started the project already...so we're hesistant to move forward. Which is alright because we've been continuing to form excellent contacts and general rapport around the town I think. Definitely starting to settle in.

We basically wake up slowly and start a fire, cook oatmeal and eggs and then decide the plan for the day. We finished the roof because we finally got the last of our materials. We've built most of the door and we're waiting on the floor before we put up the doorframe etc.

The paper printed another article not really about us but saying that we were being offered help. The help that had been 'offered' (since we weren't told about anything, a friend had to show us the paper) was in the form of a building seminar being hosted in the Gaelte which is the western part of this county...about an hour and a half drive. Graciously one of our local friends drove us all the way out there for the seminar (which technically you had to apply for and had a closing date of before we arrived in the country...) we were taking our chances on whether or not they would let us into the seminar late. However, when we got there, we found out the seminar had been the previous week (the week before the paper printed the article notifying the peninsula about it... so great. No seminar. But we are getting in touch with Heritage Center people who I believe are going to be a huge help.

However, since the seminar was a bust and we were all the way out in the Gaelte our friend decided to stop by and visit long time friends of his...Enya's parents. Awesome, you can imagine how excited Brian and I were about this. So we had a grand ole visit with the family had some food, some laughs, good times. We then drove all the way back to Buncrana.

That night we had to gather more firewood for the fire and so Brian and I hacked away several large tree branches (they were already dead) we hacked them away from bramble bushes. And piled them in the front yard and began splitting them down to size. It was getting dark and we both had our headlamps on and weren't saying anything, all you could hear in the dim lit air was the snapping of sticks. Then each of us picked up a rather large stick and attempted to shake it loose from the rest of the sticks. Pulling and pulling and getting frustrated we finally looked up at each other and saw that we had a hold of the same branch. I smiled and said "Cute"...Brian muttered under his breath "Gross". Yes sir, camraderie is certainly starting to blossom over at McCarron Manor...

Which reminds me. We need suggestions on what to name the place. A lot of the houses around here have little plaques at the front gates displaying the house name (it reminds me of Cape Cod) so we need a name. The suggestions we've come up with so far have been as follows:

McCarron Manor
Darkwood Manor
Castlemaine Manor
5555 Stella
McCarron's Tavern

Also we went to have lunch at one of our local haunts and a lot of the places have those bug zapper things by the door. Well in this fairly small joint we were enjoying some sandwiches when all of a sudden we heard a loud ZAP! We briefly looked up and then went back to our sandwiches and books. Then we heard electrical singe sound and a string of short zap zap zaps. We look up again and while we can't see any insect in the zapper we can tell it's struggling for its life. It's not going quietly for the next 3 minutes this bug zips and zaps its way through this zapper and by the time it dies it has captured the entire restaurant's attention. Looking around at all the faces riveted to the events in the bug zapper seemed quite comical. We were all glued now to this fight for life. But alas, that fly must have died...

Life has slowed down here a bit and become more regular. Hence the lack of exciting news in the blog. But I'll try to keep things interesting. Brian and I both hate corrugated tin with the power of a thousand suns. It's quite possibly the devil's creation. Trying to manipulate it is helpless and frustrating. Kinda like trying to play Asshole...hah.

We need a deck of cards. Anyway, that may be it for now. I can't really think of much else to say. I was going to talk a little more about Beauty, Youth and Morality, but I'm guessing I should let that rest for a bit.

Brian's dreams consistently deal with dinosaurs...we're not sure what that means. I also had a dream where I argued with my mom about how many timezones Canada had. All I remember is trying to explain how longitude works to her and how ridiculous she was insisting that there was a 90 day difference between the West Coast of Canada and the East Coast...Oona? Dave? is this true? Anyway, the West Coast of Canada has about another 60 days before my blog even shows up so I guess we'll have to wait.

Claremont has started another semester and it feels a bit strange/sad? to not be there. For those of you familiar with Brule, Wisconsin and that fantastic 6 day stretch or whatever, cue "If I could Save Time in a Bottle..." Hearing about cross country starting up, getting videos forwarded to me about steeplechasers, catching glimpses of the World Championships in Osaka (what a stellar 1500 by Legat, but he's no Will Leer) just makes me think about how different my life is now than it was not so long ago. I'm starting to get a little gut. I'm not liking it as much as I thought I would. I'm not sure why I wasn't ready to leave when graduation came but I knew it before senior year even started. I knew I wasn't ready to have only one year left...and yet several of my friends couldn't wait to get out. They were tired, sick of it, bored, or just ready for a change. I was sort of ready for a change, but I certainly did not want to give Pomona up. I don't think I wasted any time there, I don't have any regrets, I just wish I had more. There were enough amazing people there that I barely knew that I could have gone through Pomona two or three times getting to know each 'group' better and have been completely satisfied. And now we are all far flung across the world.

Anyway, its just interesting how plans change. I also have a burning desire to show all the people here where I come from, what my life was like, what I was like, etc etc etc and an equally burning desire to show everyone back home my new world here, my new life here, what I'm like here...hahah, how liminal my position is, oh brother. Ok so sappy sentimental stuff I should have dealt with in May is over now.

I think I'll check out as its 6 am on a Saturday on the West Coast and not much later throughout the rest of the country (we don't have that many time zones) so there isn't much chance of catching anybody up. Oh well. Talk to you all some time soon I hope.