Ok, lets do an update.
Termites: still gone. They did reappear for a moment... but appear to be gone now. Good.
Spiders: sometimes we'll find one on the bed, mostly hanging
out around the shower. They've backed off a lot though.
And our newest threat: ANTS. We've had two battles with the
ants so far, but they are a weak opponent that lacks my sheer determination and
tragically jobless free-time. The first time they infiltrated our room they
came right under the backyard door into our room and stupidly went for the only
place that didnt have snacks- our dresser. We literally had food of some kind
on every other surface. No more though! So I squashed/sprayed them away in a
late-night skirmish. I also moved our trash to the hall in front of the
backyard door in case they came for that in the night. Sure enough the next day
they had discovered the trash bag, but I was ready. This time they had sneakily
come from under the house and dug up into one of the door jams- a pile of dirt
the only evidence. I destroyed them again, did a clean sweep of the room, and
now they hopefully won't come back. I keep a constant watch and any scouts are
quickly dispatched.
On the up-side we now have a nicely vacuumed room.
This week we've been working on getting Kris' computer
updated. Its been a long process that mostly involved buying new, expensive
stuff, realizing we needed more new stuff to fit the new stuff, then realizing
the electronics store sold us the wrong new new stuff, and so on. Once the thing
was physically built problems continued in the form of old hard drives and
Windows 10 updates. The computer now operational, though updates need to be
downloaded for some programs.
So now we need internet!
Since this house is legit from the 50's the internet line is
not built into the walls- it is plugged into a fixture on the roof and the line
is tacked along the exterior wall and comes into our bedroom through a literal
hole in the wall. The old Akita dog that used to live here (RIP Mochi) used to chew
on the line, so it need to be repaired. Kris tried to splice in a new line,
removing the damaged portion. We own our own modem so all we needed was service
from Comcast. It was set to start today, but our modem isn't getting a signal.
After calling Comcast it appears the remaining line that Kris spliced may have
been fully damaged, as it doesnt seem to be sending or receiving any signal. It
was a pretty big blow, as we've been looking forward to FINALLY having
INTERNETTTTTTTTTTTTT. So now we have to wait til next Wednesday (Labor day
weekend!! Thanks Obama!!!) for someone from Comcast to come out and help us,
thankfully for free.
They job search is.... sucky. Looks like theres not a ton of
art-related jobs in the east bay and I must be uniquely unqualified for fucking
all of them because I'm not getting much response. I mean, aside from those
polite rejection emails of course. So I'm giving up on working in the art field
(once again) and I'm just looking for anything local. I've got an interview for
a clerical position at a local martial arts studio nearby next Friday.
I'm becoming more familiar with the area, so I figured I'd
describe my discoveries as I make them. First of all I've learned that the east
coast of the SF bay is actually shaped like a 3, with Richmond being the middle
point. El Cerrito is slightly south of Richmond and is actually just the tiny
strip of city thats pinched between a small range of hills and the bay. The
freeway (i-80) runs along the coast and the main expressway of El Cerrito, San
Pablo, runs parallel to it. Grandma's house is in some of the lower hills, so
from her house we drive down to San Pablo to get most places. There are many
ways to get to San Pablo and all but 1 are confusing as hell. All the
restaurants are on San Pablo, but theres only, like, a handfull that are really
in El Cerrito and not Albany or some other random-ass chunk of blocks they call
a city around here. No Taco Bell, which seems odd, but there are Nations and
Church's Chicken. Lotta burger places, FML. Since we have no internet I go to Starbucks
(on San Pablo of course) and sit there for some free wifi.
And thats all I can really say about El Cerrito. Oh- and
don't cross under the freeway because then you'll be in Richmond where the
murders all happen. They showed me the exact places and everything. Anyways, it
feels like things are just as difficult and shitty as they've been the last
couple months, but maybe with a light at the end of the tunnel. We'll see in
about a week, I guess.