House Made

Here’s how we decide whether we’re going to do something ourselves or hire it out: will this project require procuring and/or moving more than 500lbs of material? I think we max out at 500lbs. Well, Beth maxes out at 500lbs (see the great mulch-haul). I crumble under far less. Cuz you know why? It’s heavy and it makes me mad to carry heavy things. There it is.

So we’ve been saving up to get the driveway repoured in lovely, spanking new concrete. Oh why bother? Because it used to look like this:

When the guys went to tear it out, in addition to finding that there was no rebar (not suprising in an old house) they also tore out several tree-trunk size roots including one that was easily 12 inches across and 7 feet long. (Sadly my camera picked that day to crap out for good so my photos of it turned out as a test-pattern of green pixels. Fie!) Demolition done, the guys doing the work laid down a lovely modern mesh of rebar and poured the crack free, un-paint-spilled-on, properly reinforced driveway. Now all the concrete on the front of our property is new and gorgeous.

As an added bonus, they poured a couple of piers in front of our retaining walls (again, old walls, no rebar, no modern drainage) for a little extra stability. When digging the holes, our foreman showed me the rebar he was going to use to support the piers: 4 inch rebar that was leftover from the new Bay Bridge! Yep, our house is reinforced with bridge materials. Rad. Of course I still need to paint.

Needless to say, Merideth and I are sad that Proposition 8 passed. We are appalled that discrimination was written into the California Constitution. We are disappointed that other anti-gay measures were passed in Arizona and Florida.

However.

We are thrilled that our nation overcame a history of racism to elect a man who will be a fantastic President.

We are excited about the progress that California has made in gay rights. As Jono, our brother-in-law pointed out this morning:

In 2000, Prop22 [a ballot initiative that prevented California from recognizing same-sex marriages] passed 61% to 38%. In 2008, Prop8 passed by only 52% to 48%. In 8 years 10% of California changed their minds, and on issues like this that’s a huge change, and something to be happy about.

You know this is gonna be on the ballot again in another 8 years, and you know the trend will continue and next time we win.

We only need another 2%.

We have discovered, as one does in times of trouble, who our friends are. And they are unparalleled. Thank you so much to those who have written or called with condolences.

We have noted that counties that have a high gay population had higher numbers of voting against Proposition 8, which just goes to show that people who know and love gay people have a much harder time voting to restrict their rights, as the gay population alone could not have produced those numbers.

We’re going to make a ton of money on the diet book I’m going to write entitled, “Eat All You Want and Don’t Exercise — Lose Weight By Maintaining a Constant State of Stress and Anxiety Coupled With Periodic Breakdowns!”