Monday, November 5, 2007

Back Again

Well, I'm back. Have been for a couple of days. I was hoping to have a drawing for my first post back but I'm feeling incredibly lazy this week. I think it's the cold. (Well, that and a week of hard labor in Durham.) We had our first fire of the season in the fireplace yesterday and I just vegged in front of the TV watching football. Tried about a dozen or so thumbnails but nothing worth finishing.

One of my co-workers is going to be out the entire month of December for personal reasons so my department head wants me to take all my remaining vacation by Thanksgiving. I was trying to save some for another trip to Durham but that may not work out. She's been pushing me to take more days off this week. Well, don't throw me in that briar patch. That should give me time to work up a sketch or two to share with you. And I've been putting off some work around the house in favor of dealing with the business in Durham. This past summer, we had a leak under one of our bathrooms and I ended up having to rip out the wall and ceiling in the den closet. I fixed the drywall but never had time to finish painting. Maybe now I can.

Durham went well. We got a lot done and there's not much left to deal with. Which is good news. As much as I've been denying it, spending time in that big empty house has taken its toll, emotionally. Last week was very difficult. Whenever I finished a project, I had time to think and that was when it would get bad. As long as I was shovelling gravel or scrubbing down the deck, I was fine. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel when the house is eventually sold. On the one hand, it's a bit of an albatross right now but, when it's finally off our hands, it's liable to be a little painful, like saying goodbye all over again.

It was nice to see Andrew and Vanessa at Chapel Hill Comics again. I took Thursday afternoon off from working and drove to their shop to say, "hi." Their shop is wonderful and it's obvious that Mike liked it very much. It's quite a hike there from Mike's house and it's not a straight shot. So either he was very happy with Chapel Hill Comics or he reeeeeally enjoyed co-ed watching on campus at UNC-CH. I also visited the shop that was about five minutes from the house off Guess Road and I wasn't that impressed. If you're in the area, Chapel Hill Comics is definitely the place to go.

Anyway, it's good to be back. Check back in a day or so and I should have a drawing up.

5 comments:

Brian said...

Good old sweat equity. Don't know what it is, probably being raised by a do it yourself dad, but I just cannot hire folks to come in and do house repairs or projects I can do myself regardless of the amount of grunt work involved.

I thought long and hard about having someone paint the house this year, but ended up doing it myself which worked out well because we ended up with some expensive vet bills for our cat and the good old stock market isn't exactly treating me kindly.

Matt Wieringo said...

Owning your own house is a wonderful thing (at least as much as anyone can truly own anything in this country). But it can also be a colossal drag. Sometimes I miss the days of being able to call the landlord anytime the roof leaked or the toilet backed up. And the leaves! My God, the leaves!

todd said...

hey, matt~

welcome home!
man, i missed ya!
but i'll reserve my apologies and pleas for forgiveness in a regular 'e'!
glad you're back though.
talk to ya soon!
todd

Christian D. Leaf said...

Hey! Hey! Watch your tone when you talk about leaves, sucka.

Unknown said...

Sorry we missed you this last time, Matt. Next time you're down and need a break and/or helping hand raking leaves, gimme a call.

--Rich