Sunday, January 13, 2013

HB poem 2013Jan13

In the corner of the yard
Where the bushes are
Where the weeds grow
Where the flower tree is
Where the bees go
That's where my dad shined my bike
Where I once did my homework
That's where the shed is near
-HB 2013Jan13

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year's Day

My son and his mother are in the kitchen at 8939 Turriff Houston TX on New Year's Day. The kitchen window looked out past the utility room door and past a large oak tree. It had twin trunks each about 18-24" in diameter.

Beyond the utility room door, on the outside wall was successively, the electric meter and the window of the bathroom for the "master bedroom" which was a converted two car garage.

There was a walkway of concrete pavers that paralleled the outside wall.  Just beyond the electric meter, there was a gate to the backyard fence.  The fence, six (?) foot chain link I had installed my self, was perpendicular to the outside wall.

After the gate, the fence turned toward the house at a 45 degree angle to the gate.  The tree was inside the fence.  Just beyond the fence on that end of the back yard, was a fig tree, a shed and another fruit tree.

The fence went to the back property line where it turned again to follow the line to the far corner of the lot.  Later this part of the fence was torn down by the neighbors behind us (without my knowledge or permission) and replaced with a six foot wood fence.

It had been raining and the ground was soaked.

She is preparing black eye peas and telling our son that Southerners do this on New Year's Day for good luck in the new year.  Whereupon the tree comes out by its roots.  It falls away from the house.  It rips down the electric line, pulling the meter partly off the wall.  It damages the phone line.  It damages the fig tree, the shed and the other fruit tree.  It just misses taking out the neighborhood power, which lines ran along that side of the house.

8939 Turriff Houston TX

This house was purchased in 1971 while empty for some time for less than $30k.  It was occupied late in the year (November?).

With a two car garage converted into a "master bedroom", it had more than 2400 sq.ft.

Starting in the summer of 1980 and finishing the following year, I reroofed this house myself.  The roof being replaced was an asphalt roof over a rotting cedar wood shingle roof.  The roof had four valleys and therefore four separate ridges.

After removing both roofs, I replaced about 25-33% of the 1x4s used to support the wood shingles.  I also replaced one of the rafters.

It took about 100 sheets of plywood to replace the roof.

I moved to Pittsburgh late October 1986 to work at Duquesne Systems.  The children came up January 1987 by Greyhound bus.  Their mother came up in the middle of the year (May?) and we looked at houses. We purchased 3823 (?) Baytree around July.  I moved the family and some household goods up August 1987.

Summer of 1987 S returned to this house and stayed beyond of the summer.  She returned only after a discussion she and I had on the subject.

She returned to this house for several additional summers.

This house was sold 1992, probably at a loss.

New Year's Day