huh.  floor estimate came in about 1/2 what I thought it would be.  I’m a little suspicious, though the guy gets very good reviews.  it seems like he under measured the sq ft quite a lot, but I suppose it’s not my place to correct his measurements.  for oak everywhere and new stair treads, he quoted me what I paid for the furnace/heat pump.  and that’s just two hunks of plastic and metal that can be mass produced and installed by fairly unintelligent people in some cases.  floors are custom.  well, I’ll see what the other two bidders say.

I’m somewhat disappointed in how perfect the samples look.  it doesn’t look like wood.  it’s too perfect.  he showed me two brands, and one was way, way too perfect.  flat as a mirror.  he said yeah they actually fill in every little indentation with some kind of filler before they coat it.  so it really is perfectly flat.  and he seemed to think most people want that.  and then he had another brand where the bumps weren’t all filled, and that one looked a bit better to me, though it still looked a little too perfect perhaps.  I looked up the product and it’s definitely solid oak, or advertised as such.  it’s all pre-finished stuff.  on the one hand I’m suspicious, but on the other hand there’s little question it would look and function (be more cleanable) much better than what I have now.  unless you’re one of those people who think these things are somehow in the eye of the beholder.   this is the exact product: http://www.bruce.com/hardwood/C1210.asp

now getting some feedback that floors should be done last.  Building science is not a settled matter.

Also getting some “you can do it either way” feedback.

The flooring guy who was just here said flooring should be done last.  The painter who is on the way says… either way works.

floorers are coming monday and tues.  skilled labor.

the o’s are in first place.

I didn’t even know it was opening day.  I barely even knew it was day.

it. nice out.

thing about taxes is, when you actually go to do them, it’s easy.  I use this to justify putting it off.

what will they say?  the floorers.  what will they say?

did I tell you about tiny houses.  there is a small house movement.  and a small house society.

HOLY.. I just called three flooring companies.  I am feeling not so DIY, and it is a good feeling.

aahhhhh.  floors first.  a contractor told me that today.  The usual approach is to get floors first, then you do the painting.  they recommended a flooring company.

because if you paint first then get any kind of floors that require refinishing, you get dust all over the walls and ceilings, and it’s not so easy to get all that dust off of eggshell and flat paint.

so instead they come in and tape down paper all over the new floors and then paint.

now we see!  all I had to do was ask!

hey, I took a big step.  I actually called three painters to get bids.  I had made a list a couple weeks ago of contractors I wanted to call.  Today I called them.  I got through to one.  I left voice mails with the other two.  these painters are also able to do carpentry and drywall.  any of the three could certainly handle the interior doors, drywall finishing, painting.  and hopefully can give me feedback about my floor options.  I am still going back and forth about floor  options but gravitating toward hardwood options.  perhaps taking up the laminate and putting down oak over top of all floors downstairs, including the kitchen.  but not the bathroom.  ceramic in the bathroom.  upstairs I am more open to cork, but maybe will just put oak down upstairs as well.  but cork is an option upstairs.  I don’t want cork downstairs where sand and rocks and things can get tracked in.

I have had some faint thought processes going on sporadically and faintly for some weeks, and perhaps months, about trying WWW dating again.  today I went so far as to look at a dating site for about 4 seconds.  I didn’t make it past the homepage.  I don’t want to do the work.  I don’t want to type into the forms.  seriously.  so I’m typing into this form instead.  generally I’m not sure I’m ready for the tumult but am vaguely aware that there is at times too much sameness and uniformity in my existence that perhaps needs to be interrupted.  sometimes I feel like kind of a boring person.  or a person who has a boring life.  that’s not a majority opinion.  just a passing thought sometimes.

why did obama start talking about the supreme court.  I don’t get it.  did he really think he could influence kennedy.  seems unlikely.

antsy about so much work, sometimes.  would like to take a weekday off sometime.  a bit fatigued.  I want to take a trip when this contract is done.

the small adjustments.

I like to go to bed.

because my bed is comfortable, horizontal and in the dark.

a lot of people don’t like grocery shopping.

my sister and her roommate order groceries.

it was nice out sunday.  the day lasted forever.  I’ve been having a lot of these forever days when the weather is good on a weekend day.  I think about pockets of stasis.  and accidents.  I think about being an american human in the history of the universe.  I read some, write some, walk a lot, do some chores and things in the yard.  I look at things.

there is a real albeit shallow deterministic way in which everything I do for the rest of my life depends on what I do today and this week.

but for the most part, everything I do for the rest of my life doesn’t depend on what I do today or this week.  there is a useful unimportance I sometimes overlook.

He is 49 years old.  He will be the #2 starter for the Rockies this season, after missing all of last season due to injury.

I recall 17 years ago when Moyer was a member of the Baltimore Orioles, and they let him get away for no apparent reason.  I knew it was a mistake.  I thought, this guy might have 3 or 4 good years left in him.  Since then he has won more than 200 games.  He has 267 career wins, and will soon pass Jim Palmer on that list.  He will likely not make it to 300, but who knows.  He is not a Hall of Famer, certainly.  Even if he somehow wins 300.  But he has finished in the top 6 in Cy Young voting 3 times and did have the one 20-win season.

I went looking for comparable careers and for some reason looked up Don Sutton’s stats and Mike Mussina.  In fact both Sutton and Mussina had much better careers than Moyer, so those are not good comparisons.  Mussina actually has shockingly good career stats and should land in the HOF, especially considering the timing of his career, in the meat of the steroid era.  Barry Bonds had his 73 home run season in 2001.  That year, in the other league, Mussina had a 3.15 era.  Actually, that same year was Moyer’s 20-win season, and he pitched to a 3.43 era.  Arguably 1998 is a better date for the high point of the steroid era.  That was the McGwire / Sosa year.  In any case, Mussina was a steroid era pitcher who presumably did not himself take roids.  Quite shockingly also, Mussina’s lifetime k/bb ratio is better than Greg Maddux’.  3.58 vs 3.37.  Despite pitching in what was during that era clearly the better hitting league.  Sutton’s k/bb ratio was 2.66.  Moyer’s is 2.12.

Moyer turns 50 on November 18.  If I had to bet I’d say he will pitch in the majors at the age of 50.

I’ve been doing a reasonable but not large amount of social things outside my apartment at times and also inside my apartment.  I’ve alluded to these things perhaps.  one social thing I have not done is read my blog, and presently I’m somewhat curious what it would be like to read, say, the last 12 months.  I might have to send it to Lulu. oh, an odd thing the other day.  my hometown friend was here, and I offered him a copy of my book.  he declined, saying that he had bought a copy when it came out.  I don’t know if that’s possible.  it’s one of those minor mysteries that he said that.  it wouldn’t have been at a reading, and I think I would have noticed an online purchase maybe.  hm.  not hmm, though.

“homegrown” came on the shuffle.  I’m about to open some checks.  that’s a thing I do in my life sometimes.  but sometimes even that bit of information… exposing myself to even that amount of data seems extraneous layered on top of the work day.  I’m incapable of opening the envelopes because it’s just… more data.  that’s all.  even if it’s good data, it’s still data.  that can’t be it.  must be something else.

I do miss loud music.  a song is playing now and it sounds loud.  it may be the loudest I’ve ever played music in this house, and of course I can’t do that for long or at all but at the moment I am.  then the song ended and I turned it down.

I suppose I’ll go to the bar in a short while.

oh, Ian sang a song in character.  I think he was a scottish rapper.  it went on for a while.  he was on the couch and he warned me he was going to do it, then he did.  at one point I was telling him something about the conversation with my hometown friend and he seemed to think I was being overly concerned about details of my friend’s life or concerned in some particularly needless way.

I did miss the thing on wednesday.  I thought it was going to be on thursday.