Wow, more than a week since my last update. Not much has been going on around here–just the normal daily grind. Michael’s third birthday was Monday, and the day turned out pretty good. I can’t believe I’ve been a father for three years now. In some respects it seems like it’s only been months, but in other ways it seems like this is the way things have always been, probably because I can’t imagine how things were without kids.
A work crew started early this morning on paving over the gaping hole in the street out front, but unfortunately it wasn’t the boys from Nelco–it was Price Shitty. They did their usual half-assed job, moving and compressing a lot of asphalt with their fucking boots or the backhoe rather than the fucking steam roller that they brought along. The asphalt they used was cold, so cold that when they tried dumping it out of the dump truck, it wouldn’t flow out of the dump bed, and they had to use the backhoe to remove it in chunks and then break it up so it could be spread out. Nelco used a saw to cut the torn-up asphalt on a straight edge so the re-paving job would last longer, but the clowns from Price Shitty ended up tearing the straight lines up with their backhoe before paving. They also didn’t bother cleaning up a lot of the gravel left on the road from the filled-in trench, which means most of the new asphalt won’t stick very well to the existing stuff. I have no doubt that within a couple of months, the seam where old meets new will be ripped to shreds, since this is one of the most heavily-travelled streets in town. And I’ll be the first one to complain to the city about it, since I indirectly paid for that job through my homeowner’s insurance.
I got a shitload of money back after filing my taxes, and instead of spending it on stuff that I really need, Traci and I decided that we’d do a little home improvement (arr arr arr!). We’re going to start off by remodeling our dining room with some beadboard on the walls, a chair rail and new baseboard all around, a window seat, and a lot of other improvements to the room. After that I’m going to put up a fence and a gate in the driveway, forward of the back door, so we can let the kids out the back door without worrying about them playing in traffic in front of the house. We’re also going to get a playset for the kids, a new roof for the garage, and we’ll re-do the upstairs bathroom as well.
It looks like we’ll be getting roughly the same tax refund back each year from now on, and I’m not inclined to change my withholding allowances, since a forced savings isn’t necessarily a bad thing for us. Although, if the same happens next year, I’m buying some guns. A lot of guns.