I am glad that I told my wife not to bother buying more candy, because we only had two trick or treaters tonight.

One came while I was out running, and the other came while I was cooking dinner. The one that came while I was home was a soccer player with a screwdriver going through her head from the forehead through her chin.

I am a little disappointed. Maybe if we had had time to carve our pumpkin into a jack o’ lantern we would have had more trick or treaters. At least I got to see a bunch of kids out in the neighborhood while I was running; they didn’t know what to make of the bobbing head lamp rushing towards them.

I have not yet purchased the insulation for my attic. It was raining too hard this weekend, and I am supposed to be tapering for a marathon, so I decided to wait for a few weeks before I purchased it. One of my concerns about buying a lot of insulation at once was that there was no way I would get it home in one trip. I have a pickup truck, but insulation can take up a lot of space (hence the point of having it) and a small Ranger just will not cut it. There is a solution, though!
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Buying your first house means that your budget gets stretched a little thin, and comparison shopping becomes more important. The best deals can usually be had online, when compared to looking around in a brick and mortar store. You save the gas to get there, you can comparison shop more easily and effectively, and prices are often lower. You need to be careful not to lose all of your savings in shipping costs, but many home goods merchants online will waive shipping fees.
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Thankfully, I spent more time raking the leaves on Friday evening. Yesterday the rain did not hold off until lunchtime like I thought it would; torrential downpours and high winds greeted me when I woke up in the morning. Today is not much better on the wind front; while the sky is plenty sunny, the winds coming through are just as bad as I used to get when I lived in Rochester, New York.

There is a tree across the road that was snapped in half during a storm some months back. The top half of it is barely attached to the truck and swings down rather haphazardly. When it is windy, I thought that I could hear it creaking in the wind, and have considered climbing up and finishing the removal of the top half. My own laziness, no real need, and the fact that I do not own that land all combined to keep me behind my own property line. When I ran by this morning, though, I discovered that the creaking noise was coming from a different tree anyway. That tree is still intact; it just likes to creak in the wind.

There is a tree across the river from me that has been swaying mightily as well. This is really surprising to me, since the tree’s diameter is over 30 inches. I can understand the branches at the top blowing in the wind, but looking out the wind you can see the base of the trunk moving back and forth. The tree looks vibrant, so I doubt that it is rotting inside.

This evening when I got home from work, I raked the leaves. I have no idea how well of a job I did, but we had two days of sunshine so I had to get out there. I did promise that I would, after all. It was pitch black by the time I finished. I was wearing a small head lamp, but I’ll see how well I did tomorrow after the sun comes up.
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There are a lot of trees on my property. This time of year, that means that there are a lot of leaves in my yard. I started raking a few weeks ago, but if you look out there now you would not be able to tell. The problem is that the first snowfall is not far off, and the leaves have still not been raked.

There has not been more than two days of sunshine running for a couple weeks now. I do not really have any desire to rake wet leaves; I’d prefer that they be dry or at least damp. Every time that I get two days of sun in a row, storm clouds come up and we get three days of rain. I am starting to wonder if I am going to have a chance to rake the leaves before I leave on vacation for my next marathon.

My thinking is that I will not wait for the third day of sun to start raking next time. If I can get two days, I will be out there even if it means going out there at 10:00 at night.

You can get a tax credit for insulating your attic. I am in the process right now of deciding how much insulation I need, how I am going to get it up into the attic in the first place, and whether it will qualify for a rebate and a tax credit.

As far as I can tell, the IRS is allowing a 10% tax rebate on any improvements that improve the energy efficiency in your house. That includes insulating your attic and walls to a minimum standard. You have from the beginning of this year until the end of next year to make the improvements, and can get up to a $500 rebate. You do not have to claim it all in one year, but the amount that you can claim is cumulative over the two years and you have to claim the rebate(s) in the year that you make the improvement.

This is a great program, in my mind. You are saving money and not wasting as much energy by making your home more efficient, and you get a rebate at the same time. My trick now is just figuring out how much I need, getting a good price on it, and finding out how to get it home since I certainly can not fit all that insulation in my truck in one trip. I currently have 6 inches of insulation between the joist in my attic; my plan is to put another 6 inches lengthwise over the joists.

I no longer own any Epson inkjet printers, but I have owned one in the past. When I had the printer, I really liked it. The prints looked great, especially the photo prints (when printed on the photo paper anyway), and I was able to swap out the individual colors as they needed replacing. That is definately something that I look for in a color printer.
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Knowing the right people can make all the difference sometimes.

Today, I got a care package in the mail.

The box materialized out of thin air while I was away from my desk for a few minutes today.

The vent is now wired and working! Not being comfortable with the wiring of the vent ourselves, my uncle and I installed it but did not hook it up. Tonight I had the electrician that does all of electrical work at my place employment come out and hook things up. His son in law came with him, which made the work go relatively quickly and I did not have to do too much.
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