Marathon

Every first Saturday of the month, there is a Broad Ripple Village Association village clean-up. They give you trash bags, rakes, litter-picker-upper-things, and usually some coffee, and folks just walk around cleaning up the area.

Even though it gives one some serious pause about your fellow man kind-really, is it that hard to just hold onto the container of what you've just consumed until you get to a trash can? Really? Oops. tangent--It is obviously a satisfying thing to do. I tend to go to the canal--photo to follow--and clean up around the banks as there tends to be a lot of launched litter (and also duck-eggs) there.

As I was doing this, I kept hearing cow-bells and encouraging cheering and clapping. I'm a fast one, and figured out there was a race going on. After initially feeling like I'd missed a good local saturday am race (last time I did that was the 5-miler on Labor Day), once I found out that it was the Monumental Marathon, I was happy to be just picking up trash.





This, though, is the best way I think to experience a marathon. From behind the wheel of a convertible…

Update: Front Walkway/Hole.

Front:
Still a hole in my front yard. And, as it's now November, the elements (leveling sand, etc…) I need to get it done are not really for sale right now at Lowes….

Walkways, AKA Big Dig.

For those keeping track, the back walkway project was initiated the one weekend that I was home in August. Just saying.

Here is the update--Back:

Got sod in (see photo where Red Race Car is making Rusty feel missed yet again. Fortunately I had the foresight to put blankets down to protect the car, but it was still a mess…)

Bat-Cave

Open the blinds to a bit of a surprise at my desk the other day. This guy was hanging out there. I was nervous initially that he was somehow stuck in there but I opened the window alongside it and made sure he had a free way out just to be safe. Even though it was kind of cool to see it so up close (although I did close the blinds again to get some work done...) I was pretty happy when he was gone later in the day…

Basement.

This one has been on the list for quite some time. I took the shelves from the bathroom and got them downstairs--which was a huge huge hassle, should have just taken them apart and reassembled downstairs instead of trying to get them down the stairs still built. was just 1/4 inch too big…

Anyway, got the floor cleared out, and everything up and in the shelves….

Halloween

Halloween.

I'm not a big Halloween person, but it appears to be "big" in Broad Ripple…

I did have a record number (probably almost ten...) of trick-or-treaters this year. I am confident that they loved it when they got their nickels and peaches as their treats.

Decline and fall...or, "check it out, I have heat!"

An article from NY Times.

Obviously, like nearly everything that comes from there, it's completely NYC-centric and self-impressed.

But still kind of an interesting thing to read while smugly enjoying scores of square footage from the flyover parts for round about the same amount that apparently allows people to live in boxes, inside.


I'll admit, the blow-up pool+pillow combination is brilliant.

THE LIVE BLOG RETURNS

Not since the roofing adventure have we had live blogging going on here 'Dome-side. But with the HomeCheck Energy Audit (aka "Cavalcade of bad news")going on thought I'd throw a photo up.


They have set up a blower to pull the air out of the house and measure the gaps that the air being drawn out creates....it's a lot.

As I type, I can hear the tape of the window-sealing plastic straining to hold the film in place, as the pressure is making the window-film look like a huge bubble. Shows it's doing the job but also shows that they are Bad.

Also note in the photo, the pool table being put to good use.

Problem...solved?

The drywall (with as-yet-explained as to why it'd be there insulation) is kind of peeling off and falling in the garage in this one spot; has been for the entire time.

Found a perfect, um, solution, to the problem.

From the Archives: VTC in Da Dome

Was in the process of figuring out how to get some shots off the phone when came across some shots of the Feb/March visit from our peeps in the DK.

We can see here Victor doing his Daddy impression with a few fast laps on the Clearydome Entertainment and Training Facility.

Come back soon, you hear?

The First Bag

Well, if you haven't noticed, there is a theme here. Never fear, the first bag of the season has now been documented. Many to follow, although I'll admit, the thought I had as I took this photo was a google search for "leaf removal..."

Back walk

Not to be all "all things are connected" or anything, but to that end...used the dirt from widening the front walkway project to fill in some of the hole left behind in the back yard from the sidewalk removal project there. Not enough stuff, there, but still working on it. Going to continue with my plan of letting the grass come back to the yard and hopefully also having things get a little more even with the levels of the yard there in back. Then I'll work on sorting out whats best for the walkway next spring...

Only two days later..

With what seemed to be a pretty big rain storm, and I suspect some wind through the night...the tree that was pretty much full on Wednesday was a lot more depleted come Friday am. The lawn is not even visible. Just wondering when someone is going to come take care of the raking for me.

Fall time photos

From atop the Dome on Wednesday...some quick changes coming...

Autumn Falls on the Dome....

Um, new interface means I cant seem to post multiple photos. Hold please.

Vote for ClearyDome?!

Vote for me. I think.

Do you have a favorite blog? If so, we are accepting nominations until October 16, 2009 for Linking Indiana's first ever Indiana's Favorite Blog contest. After nominations are received, we'll put your favorite blogs to a vote – and the blog receiving the most votes will be announced on November 5's BlitzIndiana teleconference (you can reserve a slot on the call here).

http://linkingindiana.com/

New Couch, although

I haven't actually got rid of the old one. It's awfully comfortable. But this was the one I've been looking to get for several months, so when I came across one on CL for about half the price of a new one, not to mention the whole not having to go all the way to Ikea thing...

...also, note Rusty's replacement....sigh...

Animal House

Shot from this summer that I hadn't posted yet...

Upon return from VT, found a grocery cart in my front yard. Someone had obviously taken a page out of Animal House when returning someone from a big night out with a little kart ride. I got a few funny looks when I walked back with it to return it to the grocery store.

Return to DIY

Put this (gutter guard...) up the other day in advance of the three-month Attack of the Leaves. Great to have so many trees of course, but the fall is ridiculous in terms of gutter clogging and the like...

Not DIY, rather, YDI

So after my back and arm and shoulder and hand-breaking experience of crushing all the sidewalk out back and the front walkway as well, and then subesquently taking all that debris out back (out of sight, etc...), I really knew that I wanted to end my hands-on relationship with said pile of debris.

So when a guy stopped to see if I had anything I might want hauled away....I was glad to part with some dough to see this pile go.

Not Do It Your Self, but rather, You Do It.

Pile Before

The result of the sidewalk removal....

New Find In Clearydome-land

It's like the farmers market, all week long. Just about 1 mile (its right at the turn-around point for me on my runs down the Monon) south of the Clearydome is Locally Grown Gardens Market. Run by ROn Harris, who is a Culinary Institute of America grad who was a fancy-pants chef in big-city environs like NYC, but somehow ended up back at home in Indy. The location, which I failed to photo, was an abandoned gas station before he took it on...Heres to the harvest!

How I got it back to the rental place

Since I only had Trusty (with the red sweede being parked in NH and of course Rusty having departed...), I had to use him to get the jackhammer back.

Since I made a big grease stain on my ex's car when I picked it up (she doesn't read this, I don't think...although shout out here to Danish dish soap VEL--I used it to get that grease out of the upholstery...VEL, is there nothing it can't do?), I shrewdly decided to protect the seats with a sail that I got at a garage sale last spring.

Fletch-Fest

I was back in town in time to attend the most brilliantly-conceived party, Fletch Fest 2009 to raise funds for Juvenile Diabetes. They had a screening of the worlds best movie, and some folks dressed up as characters from the movie and there was even a Fletch trivia contest. I got nine of ten right; I suspect the person who got them all right googled the answers; I mean, who could possibly know THAT MUCH about one movie??

Thanks to Sarah (who is a Fletch fan, but still seemed bemused that someone would go to the party just to Support the Fletch Cause), for putting it all together.