feeling a bit twitchy.....

Here ....a list: 

• The new construction houses next door? Yeah they finally finished them after almost a year of working on them and unfortunately they are sitting empty in this huge housing market slump. To make matters worse? The builder/owner guy came out about a week ago and set the automatic sprinklers to go off 2 and 3 times a day and for HOURS at a time. It's completely flooding our side yard, soaking our new cedar fence, and you can literally watch the $$ go down the drain as water pours down the street all day. I've called the real estate agent and they assured me they'd deal with it. I've seen no difference since making the call yesterday morning. I finally made a HUGE sign in bold text and pasted it on the front door of the house nearest to us in hopes when the guy's son comes to mow the lawn (any day now) he'll see it and do something about it. ((( grrrrr )))
• Our home phone service is OUT. I noticed it on Tuesday night when I tried to call down to Napa Valley to make a dinner reservation for our anniversary in September. We troubleshooted all that we could yesterday and today a repair man is finally coming out. *After* going over and over with the office folk that yes we tried all of our phones, yes we tried a hard wired phone instead of our cordless system, and yes we tried every phone jack in the house. ((( sigh )))
• Gravel is finally getting laid for our new paver patio today. Unfortunately it requires "tamping" with the use of this machine they call a "jumping jack". Kinda like a jack hammer with a flat paddle on the bottom of it. My house is bouncing and vibrating all morning long. Even pictures are becoming unlevel on the wall. ((( heh )))
• I have tons to do before we set off for another weekend of camping tomorrow. We're going to Fort Stevens near Astoria where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. The weather may or may not hold...and well it kinda looks like rain. Oh well that comes with the territory.

Before I leave you ....I recommend you go read an excerpt from the book "The Wild Trees" about the discovery of the "Grove of Titans" in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park (where we are going in September).  As recently as 1998, two biologists found some of the largest and THE single largest redwood tree on the planet earth. It is just soooo incredible how there are still undiscovered areas to explore in this life isn't it?  Oh and we decided upon Crater Lake for our return trip back home. In case any of you were sitting on pins and needles about that. :)