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Sewer Inspection

Earlier this year I installed a Ring video doorbell.  And thankfully, the majority of its motion captures involve routine comings and goings, with a smattering of false triggers.

But then it captured validation to paranoia.  One morning, as I left work, I noticed a plain white van parked in front of the house, with a simple label: “Sewer Inspection”.  Now, the sewer line was indeed replaced prior to our purchasing the house, but according to the neighbors it had been done by a certain prominent company, and I know from casual observation that their vans are decorated.

Adding to the suspicion was that the man inside the van never approached the house while I was home, nor did he look up to meet my gaze as I was leaving.  And a half hour after I left for work, the doorbell did its job and sent me an alert:

Click image to view movie, or watch on Ring:
https://ring.com/share/6535749457719096295

He also wandered around nowhere near the sewer line.  Liz thought he might be looking to steal the edging.  It does appear that he’s examining it.

Maybe it was a legit inspection, but nothing about it seemed right, and that usually means it isn’t.  I think it’s time for more cameras.

Validation from Ring’s social network!

–Simon

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Edging

To further beautify the house, we got some expensive edging.  I’m kind of ashamed to say how much the edging costed, so I won’t.

But we needed something, and as was evidenced by the fact that I pulled ancient plastic edging out to install the new–cheap plastic edging is ineffective (and ugly).

So after much digging, behold!

Fancy-ass edging.  That is all (I mean, I’d talk about it more, but it’s edging.  And I’m not paid by the word here).

–Simon

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Strawberry Garden Upgrade

Last summer, we constructed a strawberry garden out of old wooden boxes.  It worked, but it was quaint, and Liz wanted a real strawberry garden.  And I like strawberries and gardens, and I was itching to finally use that saw that’s been sitting in a box in my garage since we bought the house, so this seemed like as good a reason as any.

So after procuring some 2x8s and a work table from Lowe’s, I had a perfectly respectable setup, ready to butcher some lumber:

My blood coursed with suburban manliness (and histamine–Spring allergies that did not appreciate the sawdust)!  I really only needed to cut a single board in half, but it was the manliest single cut I could make!

The majority of the work was far less creative and primarily involved grunt labor: digging trenches and hammering stakes.  But I had no intention of installing a garden that would shift and become unsightly, so all boards were carefully leveled and secured with corrosion-resistant deck screws:

Okay, it just looks like a box (because it is), but soon it’ll be growing delicious fruit and look way cooler.

–Simon