Before the drop

Boo.

Dammit. This stuff doesn't taste like normal candy corn.

How similar are we? (In case you missed this the first time around.) UPDATED: LINK FIXED!

Back in February, I linked to a quiz I created over at OkCupid - I've decided to re-post the link. It's the same quiz, so if you took it before, there's no need to do so again. But, if you missed this adventure the first time around, please TAKE THE QUIZ and tell me your score. I'm curious! Remember answer honestly for yourself, not for how you think I would answer. (And if you want to see the scores of the people who took the quiz back in February, you can do so by clicking here.)

I need a nutcracker.

Hiding in the grass, blending in with the fallen leaves,
this is one tough nut to crack. But if you're patient...

Pecans!

Carter Cemetery, Swamp Rd, Ware Co, GA

(No, this isn't a Halloween decoration, this is a real headstone.)

Sunset in the Ghetto

Kitty cuteness with Livia and Mia

More Waycross architecture

This house is barely over half a mile away from my house-in-the-ghetto.
Can you believe that? (This one is not for sale.)

This one is for sale. It's on the same street as the one above.
It's going for $38,000, but it needs a LOT of work.
The listing is here.
Meanwhile, this is the house mom and I are fixing up:

(You can see a tour of the inside here.)

That hideous addition off the back is the laundry room.
We're going to have to do something about that!

Why buy a McMansion when you could have the real thing for less?

The weather today was beautiful (the past several days have been dreary and drizzly), and as I was up early (gasp!), I decided to take a walk through the historic district along Gilmore Street. Gilmore Street is where the wealthiest of the railroad barons built their homes over a century ago, back when Waycross was in its heyday. While some of the houses on Gilmore have fallen into disrepair over the years, there are still many to gawk at... and several that are up for sale, if anyone is interested! The pictures below are of houses on Gilmore which are for sale. (No, I am NOT a realtor or affiliated with one in any way; I just feel like people should be aware of how far their money can go if they move to Waycross. Hint, hint.) Let's start with this house:

Actually, it no longer looks anything like this picture,
which I took in July 2006, as they've totally remodeled it.
See the image below for its current look!

It's hard to believe it's the same house as the one in the picture above, isn't it? I couldn't get a good shot from the front, as the contractor's truck was parked there. They're asking $329,000 for it - which is a rather absurd sum for Waycross - although check out its listing and see how beautiful it is inside! (The listing also has a good shot of the front.)

This house is catty-corner across the street from the one above.
It's going for $199,000 and its listing is here.

This one's going for $189,000, and its listing is here.

This one's for sale by owner, so I've no idea of its price.

This one is also for sale by owner, so no price info.
Also, it's been subdivided into a triplex.

I need a name!

This is the cat that showed up on my doorstep on Sunday. Her paw was swollen and she couldn't put any weight on it, so I began calling her Limpy. I took her to the vet Monday. Her paw had an abcess which had to be drained, and now she's doing much better... and I can't keep calling her Limpy! Any suggestions? Also, know anyone who might be interested in a seven or eight month old frisky little kitty?

Learning about Kyrgyzstan

This is the first time in a long while that I've planned an extended sojourn in a country about which I know next to nothing. I've been trying to educate myself on this topic, although I must admit that I'm finding it quite difficult to relate to Central Asia from Waycross, GA! Nonetheless, I've gathered a whole bunch of links which I've been perusing, and which perhaps you'll check out too. Here's some of what youtube has to offer:

A nice introduction to the capital city Bishkek, where I'll be living.

Photo and video clips set to music

Different photo and video clips set to music.

Here are some English language Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia
blogs and news sites:
GenderStan
Eurasianet Kyrgyzstan Archive
neweurasia: kyrgyzstan
neweurasia: central asia
Tolkunistan

Kyrgyzstan's been in the news recently, although you might not have noticed if you weren't looking for it. As I know very little about Kyrgyzstan's politics at this point, I figure it will be better for me to link you to the articles, rather than to attempt to summarize them for you :-)

President Strives to Finish Off Political Opponents

Does new constitution strengthen democracy - or President Bakiyev?

Kyrgyzstan's President Dissolves Parliament

I've also ordered a huge stack of books from amazon.com. Some I'll try to read before I leave in January; others I'm planning on taking with me. In case you're interested, these are my purchases:

The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia

Kyrgyz Republic (Odyssey Illustrated Guide)

The Lost Heart of Asia and Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk and

Everyday Life in Central Asia: Past and Present

If you have any book/news/blog suggestions for me on this topic,
please share!

Scantastic: Pass the baby the wine edition

I've spent the past couple of days scanning in photos from family photo albums before the print copies finally disintegrate and vanish into dust. My mom kept photo albums from my birth in 1978 though 1988. When I was 10 I began to look ridiculously unphotogenic, and I'm somewhat convinced that this is why she stopped keeping albums. Post-1988 photos are all in a box in her house. I'm not sure I've got it in me to tackle the task of sorting through them! Anyway, I've uploaded sixty-nine of my childhood photos to a set in flickr. While they will probably only be of interest to family and childhood friends, you're all welcome to take a look. The photos can be seen by clicking here. This is my favorite of the photos, taken on Christmas 1979 - it looks like I'm asking someone to pass me the bottle of wine!

Me, Christmas dinner 1979

Justice, Moral Reasoning and Boredom

I mentioned the other day that I'm covering local community college classes while the teacher is away. This involves little other than taking roll and showing movies. The classes that I covered at the college today got to watch a video on justice and morality in political philosophy. I expected it to be pretty dull. I majored in PolySci and know that it takes a very engaging professor to bring political philosophy to life; sadly many of the PolySci profs out there are lacking in the needed skill to prevent one from nodding off. This film turned out to be quite interesting. It consisted of excerpts from a lecture class at Harvard University. The professor doing the lecturing was quite witty, and I (and the Harvard students) frequently laughed out loud. Meanwhile, my classroom was filled with blank expressions. At one point in the film, pi was mentioned. One of the students, confused, looked at the one next to her and said, "Wha's he talkin' 'bout pie for?" to which the response was a bewildered "Dunno." Sigh.

The gods must really want me to have an eleventh cat.

After it turned out that Blue Eyed Brownie had a home, I felt quite relieved; eight cats plus two who stop by regularly for food is enough! Then this afternoon I heard children's voices shouting, "Miss Jane! Miss Jane!" I went outside and found three of the neighborhood girls pointing at a cat on my porch. "That your cat?" they asked. At first I said yes - as it was a calico tabby that looked just like Alley Cat. Then I realized that it was wearing a flea collar, which none of mine do. I'd actually seen it around recently, but figured that with the flea collar, it must have a home nearby. I told the girls it wasn't my cat and they said, "Oh. We thought it was yours. It's got a broke foot and was in the street crying." Sure enough Alley Cat's doppelganger had a swollen front paw which she was holding up off the ground. I figured I should bring her inside. She seemed very thin, and when I gave her some food, she inhaled more at one go than Daddy Cat does (which is a LOT, believe me). I took off the flea collar, as it seemed really tight - as if someone had put it on her when she was smaller and never bothered to adjust it as she grew - and Advantaged her. She seems about the same size as Blue Eyed Brownie; I wonder if perhaps they're from the same litter? I'll try and take her to the vet about her foot tomorrow. Right now she's curled up on my lap, purring away.

If you look closely at the paw in the foreground, you can see that there's a big welt on top of it. It's also swollen about twice the size of the other front foot.

Mia's Grand Adventure

Mia noticed early on that the other cats merely had to go and stare forlornly at the door, and I would open it and allow them out into The Great Outdoors. Initially, she simply seemed relieved that Those Strange Beasts were out of Her New House. Then she began to get curious as to where they were going, and would watch from windows and through doors. Eventually, she began trying to go outside, and I figured it was time to take her out. Her first two trips outside weren't the best: Daddy Cat chased her back into the house the first time, and rain started pouring on us the next. Nonetheless, she still wanted to go outside. Both yesterday and today I've had her out for about an hour, during which she seems to have had a lot of fun exploring the yard and smelling everything. Several of the other cats - particularly Shady - have been fascinated by the fact that their foreign visitor has finally decided to join them outside. Today I took some photos:

Gah! What's behind me?

Ahh, it's only Shady.

This tree smells nice.

Shady relaxes in the shade once Mia goes inside.

This land is OUR land :-)

Well, we've finally closed on the eight acres, so this morning mom and I took the dogs out there for a run. I should explain that my mom owns three dogs: Ursa, a 12 year old near toothless chow suffering from congestive heart failure, Blix, a 5ish year old, well-behaved German Shephard and Shiva, a year old lab/pit-bull mix someone abandoned at my house as a puppy while I was in Korea. Shiva is beautiful and well meaning, but she has SO MUCH ENERGY and she is also incredibly strong. The dogs have about half an acre at mom's house to run around on. Blix and Ursa seem fine with that, but it's pretty obvious that Shiva has been dying to have the entire Ware County countryside to run around in. The dogs had an incredible amount of fun, rolling around in every mud-puddle and patch of swampland (not on our land, just nearby) that they could find. Shiva even found a rancid deer leg (she was very disappointed that we wouldn't let her bring it home). Ursa got tired out pretty quickly, but the other two took quite some time to wear down. But we did succeed in tiring them out; all three slept all afternoon once they got home.

Mom with her dogs: Shiva, Ursa and Blix

Due to the close proximity to swampland, the mosquitoes are hella big:


(This one's for scale)

And on a totally different note: Mia was curled up in my bathroom sink looking cute, so I ran to get my camera. I came back in time to capture this stinky gem:

Mia watches as Daddy Cat poops over the edge of the box.

Escher... or a Korean backyard?

One of the themes for the next issue of JPG Magazine is Bird's Eye View, and I've selected this image, taken from the rooftop of my apartment in Korea. I'd love it if you'd click here or on the image below and vote :-)

I'm going to Kyrgyzstan!

In a fit of impracticality, I have chosen as my next destination the job which offered me the least in terms of salary, and have decided to head for Kyrgyzstan. The program only accepts teachers under 30, so I figured it was now or never. After all, when else will I get the opportunity to go to Kyrgyzstan? Assuming all goes as planned, I'll be leaving for Kyrgyzstan at the very beginning of January and staying for at least ten months. I'll be living in the capital city of Bishkek and teaching at The London School in Bishkek. In case you're scratching your head, wondering where the hell this Kyrgyzstan place might be, here are some maps to help you out:

Because what I really needed was an eleventh cat... (UPDATED)

UPDATE: So several hours later, after the rain cleared out, I heard someone outside shouting "Blue Eyed Brownie! Blue Eyed Brownie!" over and over. Immediately the kitty jumped up and started looking for a way out. Not that I'm entirely thrilled about giving the obviously underfed and fleabitten cat (at least I Advantaged her) to her owner, but the woman seemed thrilled that I had her. Although she also said that I've probably spoiled her with fancy catfood, and if the cat wanders back down here, I can have her. I made a point of saying But I already have ten cats! although once you reach double digit felines, what's one more anyway?

...look what showed up on my back porch this evening during a rainstorm:

Anybody want a cat?
I'd say she's 6-9 months old, and she's really sweet.

my life in waycross

This week and next week I am "teaching" several classes at Waycross College while one of the instructors is out of town. I place "teaching" in quotes because what I'm actually doing is checking roll and showing movies. It's pretty boring - especially when I have to watch stultifying films such as Altered States: A History of Drug Use in America three times in a row. But it brings in some needed extra cash.

Extra cash is definitely needed when one doesn't have health insurance. Lack of health insurance is probably the biggest drawback of my life plan, as health care costs in this country are ridiculous. I had minor surgery on Tuesday - an outpatient procedure to remove to moles from my left arm for biopsy. I also needed a tetanus shot. Not only did all of this amount to a whopping $335 (even with the cash discount - yes, they charge the insurance companies more than they charge those of us who pay out of our wallets) but if they come back malignant (no physical harm!), then I'm going to have to pay an extra $50 because they charge more to get a malignant sample biopsied than a benign one. WTF? Nothing like setting the costs of procedures after the fact. Sheesh. And of course now I have unpleasant stitches (here and here if you're interested, but they're gross) which hurt like hell. Yay. Also, feel free to shop at my store and help refill the coffers of the unemployed and health-care-less Jane :-)

Mom and I went and looked at a house today. It's for sale for $500, but the buyer would have to move it off the property. As we should be closing on the eight acres any day now, we do have a place where we could put said property. My mom knows a guy who moves houses and who said he could move it for about $3200. Less than $4000 isn't a bad price for a house... although obviously any house being essentially given away for $500 is going to need a LOT of work...

Now, one of the first things you might notice is that this house used to have a pyramid roof, but the top has been lopped off. Apparently the mother of the owner did that years ago because she thought it looked better. Someone would definitely have to see whether or not that alteration has led to structural instability or roof leaks.

The space under the pyramid is roughly 900 square feet and consists of four rooms. That's the original structure. To the back of the pyramid/square were two additions (connected) where the bathroom and kitchen were located:

The two rear additions - kitchen on the right, bathroom on the left.
Sadly, both parts of the rear addition are in terrible shape - especially the kitchen.


Additionally, the corner where the addition meets the original house on this side of the house was poorly done and leaked (and still leaks, I suspect) tremendously...


...leading to horrific water damage on that corner of the pyramid/square.

The rest of the pyramid/square seems to be in decent shape (assuming no structural damage resulting from the tip of the pyramid being snipped off), but would require a lot of work nonetheless. My opinion is that the rear additions should be left where they sit; there's nothing in them worth saving. Now, obviously a four room pyramid/square with no kitchen or bathroom isn't exactly livable... but it would be years (given the rate mom and I work) before the front part would be ready. Perhaps at that point we could hire someone to build some quality rear additions. Although I'm thinking we're going to pass. I'll let you know if we change our mind.

Floridian Road Trip Weekend

Friday afternoon I left Waycross and headed south to visit Melissa and Alex, who live in Orlando. It was an excellent trip - especially since I hadn't seen Melissa and Alex since July 2006. While there, we went out for really delicious food: Indian, Mexican and Korean - heavenly! In addition to ethnic culinary pleasures, Alex has recently decided to take up baking, and his creations are fabulously scrumptious. We didn't merely eat our way through the weekend: we also went to Wekiwa Springs (which we were unable to get into back in July 06) and we saw King of California at the Enzian (we'd actually tried to go to the Enzian back in July 06 only to find the show sold out...) Wekiwa (also sometimes spelled Wekiva) was pretty, although I have to admit that I prefer Ichetucknee. At least at Ichetucknee you can hike along the river if you don't want to swim in the springs or canoe/tube the river. At Wekiwa, it seems that your options are limited to swimming in the springs, or hiking through pine forest nowhere near the river. And really, if you've seen one Floridian pine forest, you've seen them all. Unless said forest goes along something scenic, like a river. Meanwhile, I have nothing but positive things to say about King of California - it was hilarious and well crafted, and I highly recommend it.

Friday was Melissa's birthday. Alex baked her a cake.


Melissa and Alex are having a baby girl!!! :-)


Alex bakes cheddar pennies.


This cranberry-apple pie, made by Alex, was possibly the best pie I've ever eaten. He also made fresh homemade whipped cream to top it off.
Yum, yum, yum.


Likewise, his bread was was simply delicious as well.


Melissa and Alex's cat, Henry


And their cat Henrietta


Wekiwa Springs

This dragonfly hung out on my leg for a while at Wekiwa.

I left Orlando early Monday morning and drove to Tampa, where I spent some time with my dad, and got to see his new Harley:

I was feeling pretty sleepy by the time I left Tampa to begin the five hour drive back up to Waycross. I made it to just south of Gainesville, FL and then decided to stop at a rest area for some rest. And slept for a little over an hour :-)

Of slum lords, infernal beepings, and flower transplants

I had yet another creepy-old-guy encounter today. And no, not with Ronnie. I guess first I should give you some background. Here in Waycross there are two people whom my mother and I consider to be Slum Lords. They own a lot of properties that are in terrible condition. Now, if you're planning to run a rental property, it has to be up to certain codes. If you're planning to sell a house, it doesn't. These two chaps offer people (generally very poor people) the opportunity to rent-to-own these houses. It seems that the general expectation is that eventually these people will miss a payment and get evicted, and they can turn around and set up a rent-to-own scenario with someone else. And getting the properties up to code? Hey, that's the responsibility of the new "owner."

One of these slum lords is (outwardly at least) a fine upstanding pillar of the community, who lives in a big house in one of the nice neighborhoods. (He owns the houses located next to and behind me.) The other... well, I don't know where he lives, but people who've had dealings with him tend to consider him a dirty old man. When my mom was first looking for a place to either buy or rent when she first got a job up here, he made her a skeezy offer of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge variety. Apparently this slum lord owns a property on my street from which the residents have just been evicted. He and some people were there today cleaning out the crap that had been left behind, and he decided to come over and introduce himself.

Now, Ronnie might be somewhat crazy with a tendency to get naked at inappropriate times, but he never came across as creepy or threatening - at least not when he was fully clothed anyway. This guy, despite being a grandfatherly looking (80ish?) old southern boy in a shiny new pickup simply exuded creepiness. He didn't say or do anything inappropriate (other than being somewhat of a close talker), but nonetheless I immediately suspected that he was the dirty-old-man-slum-lord whom my mom had told me about. (This was later confirmed.) He wanted to know if my mom and I owned that house over on... well, let's just say over on that street where mom and I own another house. He said he'd heard a school teacher had bought it. According to my mom, he'd been interested in buying it, but the people who'd sold it to her hadn't wanted to sell to the dirty old man.

Changing topics... three nights ago I was awakened from a deep sleep (and that's pretty hard to do) by an incessant beeping. Beep, beep, beep, pause, beep, beep, beep, pause... etc. It was the repetitive nature of the sound that disturbed my slumber. It sounded like a fire alarm with a low battery. I waited for the owner of said alarm to change or remove the battery. No such luck. The incessant beeping wouldn't stop, and it was right at a frequency guaranteed to give me a headache. This afternoon I realized that it was coming from inside one of the empty houses across the street. While my mom and the neighbors looked on I entered the house (there was no breaking; the front window was already shattered - I simply stuck my arm through the jagged hole and undid the lock), took down the fire alarm (well, mom did that, as she's taller) and ripped out the battery. No more beeping. Thank the gods.

And lastly, mom and I dug up and transplanted some fall daisies, goldenrod and foamflowers into my yard this afternoon. We also planted a crepe myrtle which had been sitting out back in a pot for ages. Planting the crepe myrtle we ran into a bit of trouble. See, my house (build in the late 40s or early 50s) was built on top of the foundations of an older house which had burned down. Apparently the foundations from the old house stretch out under my back lawn. Nothing like trying to dig out bricks coated in concrete with a shovel... Assuming the plants take (fingers crossed!) I'll get some pictures for you. They're all looking a little wilty right now though.

Reflective (yep, time to vote again!)

One of the themes for JPG Magazine's Issue 14 is Emotion Capture, and I've selected Reflective, a shot of my friend Joanna, reflected in the window of the trans-Siberian as we chugged eastward across the plains of Russia. Either click here or on the image below to vote. Thank you so very, very much!

Fuzzy Blue Flowers

(pererennial ageratum, aka foamflower)

Halloweendow