The top 20 search terms used to find my blog in 2011:

1. diy tv stand (and what a stand it is…!)
2. forbes field (I have one photograph)
3. ford trimotor (ibid, but at least this one’s a potentially interesting photograph)
4. diy kitchen table (although it turned out to be more of a writing desk)
5. trigger finger (the ligament inflammation, not the need to shoot people)
6. spooky gulch (referring to the gulch, not to my grad school experiences)
7. b-52 (several photos actually)
8. diy tv stand plans
9. reagan library
10. tv stand diy (it was still a terrible project)
11. gluing wood together (although I can see my info being possibly helpful to someone trying to glue wood together)
12. general sherman (the tree, not the general; anyone looking for the general will have been disappointed)
13. tv stand plans
14. b52
15. ford tri motor
16. diy tv stands
17. flying tigers (one photo)
18. diy entertainment center
19. washing machine drain (one photo)
20. spruce goose (ibid)

In addition, 49 people found my site by searching for the word “clamps”, 33 by searching for “kia jeep” (which isn’t discussed anywhere on this domain), and 30 by searching for “pittsburgh toilet” (and to think that two years ago I’d never heard of such).

bkd

I should probably just start posting these on Facebook instead. Just that I kind of want Facebook to fail, so — you know. Also, I don’t remember in which month I got the phone. Probably spring some time.

A giant eagle at Lowe's: a retail allegory.

Because Giant Eagle is the big grocery chain in western Pennsylvania is why. That’s a really big bird, though. And not very shy. And I’m not sure which of the small children there he had his sites set on.

A pan fish I caught.

It’s not as big as it looks. Orrin did a nice job with the trick photography. But the impressive thing in the photo isn’t the fish that was about to be un-hooked, it’s (IMHO) this:

The effects of poison ivy.

Before moving to Pittsburgh, I was barely even aware that poison ivy still existed in the modern world. I certainly wasn’t aware of how, just, ridiculously awful it is. Fortunately, after the fourth or fifth outbreak I figured out a regimen to minimize the damage of the contact. But man, at this point I itch just looking at it. Hopefully none of the poison got on the fish…

Meanwhile, here’s a sunset:

Sunset on Keystone Lake

Also this…

The eastern rat snake that got into my garage.

As mentioned elsewhere, he was a gentleman among snakes. Waited for me to open the garage door before slithering in, then barely complained when I picked him up with my snow shovel and threw him out into the yard. Four feet long, inch and a half thick. They eat bird eggs, mice, and chipmunks.

This next photo was taken at the mall nearest my house (Century III) at about 12:30 PM.

This is the food court.

Interestingly, most of the restaurant spaces were occupied (and the restaurants were open for business). OTOH, you know your mall isn’t doing very well when it not only has two GameStops in it, but it also has two Army recruiting offices. (Would seem to indicate low lease rates is what I’m saying.)

A shirt I wore one day while fighting my cell phone.

Here are a couple shots of Mt. Rainier taken while maneuvering around the breakwater barges in Commencement Bay (Tacoma) in my dad’s boat.

Heading out of the marina

Then onto the open waters of Commencement Bay.

Also while out west this summer, I got to reconnect with some old friends:

This was in Spokane (downtown). It is the most friendly Carl's Jr. I've ever been to. The guy taking orders at the counter actually knew the names of his regular customers *and* knew what they usually ordered. It was almost too much to handle.

The Del Taco in South Bend (Ind.) wasn't as friendly. And South Bend isn't exactly "out west", it was just close enough to have a Del Taco. Food was good, but I got the impression they don't sell a lot of the churros.

And this is a cup of Postum:

And then I went to eBay and saw that a jar of the stuff costs like $400 now because they quit making it several years ago.

All right, then there’s this building on the campus at Pitt that’s called the “Cathedral of Learning”. It was a WPP project. How could it not have been? Anyway, every time I see it I think of the Tower of Babel, although I’m not sure any sacrilege (or language instruction) actually happens there.

And then there was this day when I was thinking that I hadn’t seen an AMC Pacer on the road in like a decade. Then a couple days later I saw this one (with current inspection stickers).

You can't beat the paint scheme.

Or maybe you *can* beat it, I don’t know. I’ve never actually tried.

Anyway, that’s a big enough dump I guess.

bkd

viagra online writes “The author is really cool. But some of the commentators are just posting stupid words.”

His (her?) point is spot-on, but I was made a little suspicious by the fact that this was posted on a photo of a P-40 Warhawk that has yet to receive comments. The user name was also kind of a red flag…

HefHiesuchsic writes “I can not participate now in discussion – there is no free time. I will be released – I will necessarily express the opinion.”

Makes you think, right? Is HefHiesuchsic currently incarcerated? For crimes he (she?) didn’t commit? And what of “the opinion”?! Sadly, HefHiesuchsic never returned to (again) the photo of the P-40 Warhawk to explain. We may never learn the secret(s?).

Mei Hestand comments on this page “bathroom-drywall 008 | bkdunn.com? You should have thought of a much better title than that, lol.”

Again, a prescient point. I get pretty lazy about titling my photos of drywall in bathrooms.

Commenter preiswert urlaub raved about my trigger finger splints photo: “People Incident,force dog detailed shout term duty mental opinion page fill easy sometimes gate myself religion possibly work yourself dinner likely phase absolutely relative silence reform anyway blow contact boy equipment total corporate survey brother wonder define generally since state index responsibility method flight fact late event never effective pupil method accompany everyone yeah late reach grey have employment pleasure creation deal long deal comparison fund match museum see flow vast traffic pool aye significant impose sheet sky recognize lay shall arrange make sport plate satisfy traditional under survey”

And I’m inclined to agree. Meanwhile, over on my 48stateroadtrip site, commenter Vivienne Damone delivers some good news:

Pleased new calendar year!

Although it’s unclear whether she means that my post regarding the Valley of the Gods that has accomplished said pleasing. And then everyone’s friend jobs in graphic design had this counter-argument regarding the Blue Ridge Parkway:

I don’t accept this blog post. Nonetheless, I had searched in Yahoo and I’ve found out that you are right and I seemed to be thinking in the improper way. Keep on publishing high quality content similar to this.

I guess it wasn’t much of a counter-argument.

And now I figure it’s only a matter of time before the Good Times virus makes a comeback through social networking.

bkd

One of the cool things about it was that, while pretty nice, it was unapologetically western Pennsylvania. It wasn’t trying to shoehorn Park City or Stowe into the Laurel Highlands, it was just trying to be what it was. Frex:

• They have a bowling alley.
• And a tubing hill.
• And a skeet-shooting range.

I think I was kind of expecting it to be either run-down (like anything in the Catskills) or just pathetic (two functioning chairlifts and a j-bar). It was neither and the snow (mostly man-made) was pretty good (although I quickly figured out to stay on the run with the snow-making machinery if I wanted to avoid ice).

I’m using a lot of parenthetical statements (like this one).

This being Pennsylvania, the biggest problem they have is lack of elevation change. Per their website, I think the biggest drop is like 750 feet. So basically, by the time you get your pole straps on you’re at the bottom of the hill.

I mean, not *quite*, but almost. I timed it once: 55 seconds top-to-bottom. And that’s with the clock starting at the time my butt got off the chair at the top to the time it again made chair contact at the bottom. Although that also kind of speaks to how not-overcrowded the lift was.

It also sort of speaks to the kind of runs they have there — almost everything there is a bombing run. There are a couple of runs that are meant to be mogul fields, but with no new snow for a couple of days, these areas were icy and no fun to ski (for me).  The bombing runs were pretty good bombing runs, though, with maybe an inch or so of soft stuff on top and enough small bumps and military crests to keep it interesting (for 55 seconds).

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

The weather was also good — sunny and mid-20′s, cold enough to prevent the formation of slush, warm enough that you didn’t wish you were dead when going up the lift. Kind of a long walk from the parking lot to the lifts (there’s a shuttle bus you can take instead). Bowling alley, yeah, and like six restaurants. I don’t know. Is there any other relevant information anyone wants to have? Even though this was the biggest, most expensive resort in the area, when you take rentals and gas money into consideration, the price becomes comparable. When you also factor in that, short though the hills might be, it has more terrain than other places — yeah.

Right: if (questions) then {ask;}.

bkd

1. Do-It-Yourself TV Stand and/or Entertainment Center Part 1: Plans and Stuff to By – It’s a crappy entertainment center, but that title is such tasty search engine bait. How could Google resist? How could someone looking for “diy entertainment center” resist? (I’m omitting parts 2-4 from this list; they’d occupy spots 2-4 if I included them. Because it’s kind of a crappy entertainment center. It’s falling apart even as I type. It probably didn’t deserve to make the move.)
2. US War Deaths by Day by Conflict (War, Battle) and How Iraq Compares – More good SEO-bait in the title, but at least this time it’s sort of a worthwhile article. Gives some perspective and all. Korea was way worse than anyone gives it credit for.
3. More B-52 Photos, By Request (Plus a Couple Pics of AMARG) – SEO-centric title, yep. And, fwiw, the post delivers as promised. The photos look warm.
4. My First Red Egg and Ginger Party – Turns out other non-Chinese people also don’t know what gift is appropriate at one of these (money in a red envelope is the right answer).
5. Getting Closer: My Do-It-Yourself Kitchen Table Project So Far – The title was not written to impress you, it was written to impress an algorithm. Algorithms have no soul (I don’t think). And right now the table is in the garage holding up my compound miter saw.
6. Spooky Gulch, Peek-a-Boo Gulch, and Dry Fork Hike – Yeah, it’s probably a hike everyone should go on in their lifetime (unless they’re claustrophobic or exceptionally wide-hipped).
7. Elwha Valley, Humes Ranch Loop, and Goblin Gate (A Six-Mile Hike) – I’ve posted less-read articles about much more interesting hikes. Goblins Gate is cool, but the rest is a tree prison. Hopefully those that read the post last year now understand as much.
8. Trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park(s?) – The follow-on post about General Sherman and General Grant was immediately below this one in the rankings, but it’s sort of the same post, so not included. Big trees, much snow, many photos. Well — a *few* photos.
9. Planes of Fame Air Show 2009: Old Planes in the 909 – I went to this air show. It’s a lot better than you’d expect an air show in Chino to be. Many WWII-vintage planes in the air.
10. Gantt Chart for My Home Renovation Project (in Pittsburgh) – Yeah, so I didn’t really keep to the schedule, unfortunately. If I had — just, wow.

And for what it’s worth, here were the top five images viewed. These only count if they were viewed as a separate page, which probably only usually happened if they were found through Google or Bing image search.

1. Ford Tri-Motor Interior – It’s a photo of the interior of a Ford Tri-Motor (passenger) airplane located at the Evergreen Aerospace Museum. It’s a nice photo. I’d want to look at it.
2. Gantt Chart – It’s the Gantt Chart from above. Not very photographic, but it gives the appearance of having planned.
3. P-40 Warhawk Flying Tiger – From the same collection as the tri-motor above, only this one has a drip pan!
4. Trigger Finger Splints (1) – Way better than Trigger Finger Splints (2). It shows off my trigger finger splints.
5. Forbes Field Outfield Wall – And now I see this wall *every* *single* *day* (unless I don’t go to school, in which case I don’t see the wall).

So now you know and, assuming that knowing remains half the battle, that makes this useful.

bkd

Edgar’s Double, 1995

That’s not just 50 seconds of baseball radio announcing, that’s vindication for everyone who lived in the Northwest from 1977 to 1994 and followed the local baseball team despite its historic ineptitude. Dave Niehaus was the man who made people think that following a bunch of deservedly unknown guys play through summer after summer of terrible baseball was, in fact, a good idea. The promised land was always just around the corner.

It might still be, but we’re down a guy who could say so and make you believe it.

bkd

PS, I guess it’s probably a good thing if some guy you don’t know dies of a heart attack at age 75 and it’s the worst news you’ve had in a long time. But still.

1998

• The Mac Is Not a Typewriter, Robin Williams
• Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
• Ball Four, Jim Bouton

1999

• Stats Minor League Handbook 2000, Bill James
• Stats Major League Handbook 2000, Bill James
• Best American Short Stories 1999, Amy Tan (ed.)
• A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin
• Scream, Dracula, Scream, Rocket from the Crypt (CD)
• Permission Marketing, Seth Godin
• Anaconda (VHS Movie)
• 1999 Minor League Scouting Notebook, John Sickels
• You’ve Come a Long Way Baby, Fatboy Slim (CD)
• Dr. Axelrod’s Mini-Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes, Dr. Herbert Axelrod

2000

• The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Cristiansen
• Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types, David Keirsey
• Enema of the State, Blink 182

2001

• The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, Brady Udall
• Philips EXP103 eXpanium Portable MP3-CD Player with 45-Second Anti-Skip and Car Kit
• Perl for Dummies, Paul Hoffman
• The Associated Press Style Book and Briefing on Media Law, Norm Goldstein (ed.)
• Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steven Krug.
• Lord of the Flies, William Golding
• The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

2002

• The Complete Guide to Contracting Your Home, Kent Lester
• The Simpsons – Complete Second Season (DVD)
• Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (DVD)
• On the Waterfront (DVD)
• Building Wealth: The New Rules for Individuals, Companies, and Nations in a Knowledge-Based Economy, Lester C. Thurow

2003

• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the CIA, Allan Swenson
• Inside the CIA, Ronald Kesler
• Greatest Hits, 1991-2001, Barenaked Ladies (CD)

2004

• The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, H. A. Dorfman
• Charley Lau’s Laws on Hitting, Charley Lau

2005

• Etymotic Research ER6i Isolator Earphones
• Thirsty, M.T. Anderson
• Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
• Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link
• Post Office, Charles Bukowski
• Aristoi, Walter Jon Williams
• A Place So Foreign and Eight More, Corey Doctorow
• The Snow Queen, Joan Vinge
• Eastern Standard Tribe, Corey Doctorow
• Life, Gwyneth Jones
• Olympic Games, Leslie What

2006

• Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction, Damon Knight
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 22nd Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois (ed.)
• D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths, Ingri D’Aulaire
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein
• I, Claudius, Robert Graves
• Beginnings, Middles, and Ends, Nancy Kress
• Dynamic Characters: How to Create Personalities That Keep Readers Captivated, Nancy Kress
• Macally USB Slim Keyboard – ICEKEY
• The Field Guide (Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1), Holly Black
• On the Road, Jack Kerouac
• New York Doll (DVD)

2007 (a representative sample)

• Free Orange County: The Ultimate Free Fun Guide to the California Riviera, Robert Stock
• Lonely Planet Los Angeles and Southern California, Andrea Schute-Peevers
• iRobot Roomba 4220 Discovery SE Intelligent Floorvac Vacuuming Robot, Grey
• The Movies (Mac) (Video Game)
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• Kid A, Radiohead (CD)
• Given Up for Dead: America’s Heroic Stand at Wake Island, Bill Sloan
• FUBAR F—ed Up Beyond All Recognition: Soldier Slang of World War II, Gordon Rottman
• Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
• Making the Corps, Thomas Ricks
• Last Chapter, Ernie Pyle
• Up Front, Bill Mauldin
• Brave Men, Ernie Pyle
• Guidebook for Marines, Leatherneck Association
• World War II Jungle Warfare Tactics, Stephen Bull
• The World Within War: America’s Combat Experience in World War II, Gerald Linderman
• With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, Eugene Sledge
• Stay Off the Skyline: The Sixth Marine Division on Okinawa, An Oral History, Laura Homan Lacey
• Guadalcanal: Starvation Island, Eric Hammel
• Peleliu 1944: The Forgotten Corner of Hell, Gordon Rottman
• The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed, Andrew Doughty
• Kauai Trailblazer: Where to Hike, Snorkel, Bike, Paddle, Surf, Jerry Sprout
• US Marine Corps Scout/Sniper Training Manual
• Solomon Islands Map
• Moon Handbooks South Pacific, David Stanley
• On the Canal, Ore J. Marion
• No Bended Knee: The Battle for Guadalcanal, Merrill B. Twining
• Into the Valley: Marines at Guadalcanal, John Hersey
• Guadalcanal Diary, Richard Tregaskis
• The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer

That was about half of the war-related books I bought from Amazon in ’07.

2008 (selections)

• Polar Insulated Water Bottle (24-Ounce, White)
• Stearns SunShower 4.0 with Pocket and 3-4 showers (Capacity- 4 gallons)
• Coleman SportCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology
• From Here to Eternity, James Jones
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Video Game)
• Deliverance, James Dickey
• Wii
• 4x Hasbro Nerf N-Strike Firefly REV-8
• Football Manager 2009 (PC / Intel Mac) (Video Game)
• Fallout 3 (XBox 360) (Video Game)
• Slumberjack Big Timber 10F Long Right Sleeping Bag
• Intex Pillow Rest Twin Airbed with Built-in Electric Pump
• Samsung Touch of Color T260HD 26-Inch LCD HDTV Monitor
• Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens
• (Man, you can sure tell what years I was gainfully employed — Toshiba, Amazon thanks you!)
• The Heritage of World Civilizations: Combined Brief Edition, Albert Craig et al.
• Economic Policy Beyond the Headlines, George Schultz
• The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad 1750 to the Present, Walter La Feber
• Realities of Foreign Service Life, Patricia Linderman
• Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell
• A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East, David Fromkin
• Agents of Innocence, David Ignatius
• Costa Rica (Country Guide), Mara Vorhees
• Living Abroad in Costa Rica, Erin Van Rheenen
• The Lives of Others (DVD)
• Karting: Everything You Need to Know, Memo Gidley
• Pidgin: The Languages of Oceania, Trevor Balzer
• Canon ZR800 MiniDV Camcorder with 35x Optical Zoom
• Advanced Elements BackBone – For AdvancedFrame1
• Substance, Joy Division (CD)
• Logitech Harmony H-659 Advanced Universal Remote Control (Black)
• Rand McNally 2008 Road Atlas and Travel Guide: United States/Canada/Mexico
• Property Management for Dummies, Robert Griswold
• Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy

2009 (selections)

• The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips, Readers Digest
• Montrail Enduro-Sole LP (Black)
• Kaplan GMAT 800, 2005/06
• NHL 09 (XBox 360) (Video Game)
• Slumberjack Standard Camp Pillow
• Contour Elliptic Trekking Poles by Black Diamond
• Full-Size Aluminum Folding Portable Chair
• Folding GI Aluminum Cot -Aircraft-Aluminum Construction-3 Years Warranty-Top Of The Line Construction-Reinforced Aluminum Frame-400 lbs. Max Weight Ca
• FitDeck Bodyweight & Instructional DVD
• Kindle 2
• The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition, Graduate Management Admission Council
• National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States
• Xantrex Technologies 851-0400 XPower Plus 400-Watt Inverter
• Oahu Revealed: The Ultimate Guide to Honolulu, Waikiki and Beyond, Andrew Doughty
• Fallout (Mac) (Video Game)

2010 (selections)

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition
• Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation, James Utterback
• Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill
• Information Ethics: Privacy, Policy, and Power, Adam Moore (ed.)
• Brother HL-2170W 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless and Wired Network Interfaces
• How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
• Fallout: New Vegas (XBox 360)
• The Makings of a Hard Rock Miner, Stephen Voynick
• Design and Analysis: A Researcher’s Handbook, Geoffrey Keppel
• Framing the Domains of IT Management, Robert Zmud (ed.)
• Writing the Doctoral Dissertation, Gordon Davis
• All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
• Nordic Ware Microwave Eggs ‘n Muffin Breakfast Pan
• Iwo Jima 32 Piece set by BMC Toys
• Hercules XPS 2.0 30 2.0 Multimedia Speakers (Black)
• Day and Overnight Hikes in West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest, Johnny Molloy
• Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
• Complete Tiling (Stanley Complete)
• Complete Wiring (Stanley Complete)
• Complete Baths (Stanley Complete)
• Rubbermaid 3H89 Configurations 4-to-8-Foot Deluxe Custom Closet Kit, Titanium
• The Milepost 2010: Alaska Travel Planner
• Sierra Designs Light Year 1 One-Person Ultralight Tent
• Hiking from Here to Wow: Utah Canyon Country, Kathy Copeland
• Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets, John Lewis

Man. That’s basically every major event in my life coupled with my susceptibility to pop culture and overlaid with stuff I thought I might want to do. That’s definitely me since 1998.

bkd

1. Age on my next birthday:

The crazy thing is that I actually know what HICSS *is*. I’ll probably attend in a couple years.

2. My favorite color.

3. My middle name.

4. Last meal I ate.

5. My bad habit.

6. My favorite fruit or vegetable.

7. My favorite animal.

8. The town I live in.

9. The name of my last pet.

10. My occupation.

11. My birth city.

12. My favorite song.

Labor Day last year.

Labor Day this year.

I miss that trip like I assume most people miss, like, people. I start getting choked up when I start flipping through my photos. Seriously.

Oh well. In memory of the events of last year, here’s an FAQ made up of a few questions I’ve been asked a lot and a much larger number that I’ve never been asked. I guess it’s more just a Q.

Q: What was your favorite place?

A: I understand why that seems like a good question, but it’s not. Seriously, think about it. I was on the road for 129 days, each of which included a very different experience from the one before. What set of criteria could be used to reasonably answer that question? I haven’t come up with one.

Q: What was the prettiest place then?

A: Seriously, that’s the same question. Going back through my photos, I think the Sierras were the most photogenic, but while I was there I don’t know that I felt I was in a prettier place than, say, the Hoh Rain Forest, Glacier, Pictured Rocks, Cathedral Canyon, or in its own way Manhattan.

Q: In which of the places you visited do you think you might want to live?

A: That one’s probably better, although it involves accessing information that had nothing to do with the trip, e.g., average tax rates. But whatever: the Nevada side of Tahoe, Western Oregon, the Spokane area, Western Montana, Northern Michigan, and South Carolina.

Q: After four-and-a-half months, weren’t you sick of it?

A: Not at all. If I could figure out a way to do that as a full-time gig without starving to death or running out of gas, I would absolutely do it. Aside from the fact that it was getting into mid-November and getting pretty cold for camping, I was very disappointed when it was over.

Q: What was the best part of it?

A: I think anyone who might have asked this one was hoping I’d name a state or a park or something, but, yeah, no. The best part of it was being almost entirely free from group social norming, while at the same time feeling like I was making legitimate, productive use of my time and energy.

Q: Do you think it would be as good if you did it again?

A: Probably not as good. One of the other great feelings I had on the trip was the constant feeling of discovery. Obviously I did not “discover” the Adirondacks or Pedernales Falls, but I’d never been there before, so it was all brand new. I imagine it wasn’t *quite* the same as Columbus “discovering” the “New World”, but I’m guessing my feelings were at least 80-percent of the way there. That said, I really enjoyed living out of my truck, traveling from place-to-place, and engaging in a wide range of activities that I couldn’t do while strapped to a desk and executive chair. I think those good parts would always be there for me and that they’d be enough to make re-engaging in that lifestyle a worthwhile endeavor.

Q: Wasn’t it hard to sleep/eat/shower?

A: Not really. After the first week sleeping in the truck, cooking over my JetBoil or Coleman stove, and looking for campgrounds with showers or a private site to set up my portable shower bladder was just normal. At first I felt a little deprived without running water, convenient lighting, or the ability to sit up in bed without hitting my head on the camper shell ceiling, but I got over that. In fact, after the first few nights, I generally slept as well or better on the trip than I did prior to it or have since.

Q: You had a very detailed itinerary. Did you ever feel like you’d over-planned?

A: Not once, no. I planned the exact right amount for me. If I’d done less planning, I would have done less and felt guilty about wasting opportunities. This was another one of my favorite parts of the trip — it was a great stoke to my ego to plan a detailed itinerary, packing list, and considerations for road life and then for that plan to work out exceptionally well.

Q: Is there anything you wish you would have done differently?

A: A more fuel-efficient vehicle would have been nice (although it would have to be large enough to sleep in still, which really limits the options and, from a cost perspective, running my pick-up with its crappy mileage was a more cost-effective solution than purchasing a purpose-bought vehicle). I also took some stuff I didn’t need (the generator never came in handy, I didn’t ever use the X-Box except so that I could say I did, and I could have easily done without my bicycle and inflatable kayak).

Q: Was four-and-a-half months the right amount of time to see all the lower 48 states?

A: Apart from the fact that I wished the trip had gone on longer, yes, that was a pretty good duration, although it also includes about seven days “off” so I could work on grad school applications as well as about seven additional days spent waiting for my transmission to get fixed. If I’d gone less than four months, I think I would have felt deprived to some degree.

Q: Did you visit everywhere you wanted to visit?

A: I visited everywhere I *planned* to visit. I would have liked to have gone to the Everglades and Florida Keys, but they were a long way out of my way and it was the wrong time of year for either location. I also woud have liked to have visited a few places in the mountains in Colorado and spent more time in Southern Utah, but, as earlier implied, it was getting too cold to comfortably camp in those locations.

Q: What did you learn about yourself on the trip?

A: I’m still parsing that one. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I was surprised at how rarely I wished there were other people around — I’d imagined that if I indulged my asocial tendencies to the degree planned on the trip, I’d eventually realize I needed people more than I thought I did; it didn’t turn out that way and while I was happy when I got to see friends and family along the way, I was hardly unhappy when I didn’t.

Q: What did you learn about the country?

A: It’s pretty. From a natural beauty standpoint, I don’t think there’s anything in any other country that’s “better” or “more worthwhile” than any given region in the US. I.e., from a natural beauty standpoint, I got as much out of visiting Michigan for three days as I did out of any three days in Fiji or New Zealand.

Q: What did you learn about people in the US?

A: They’re scared and like the security of groups. I think I always knew that and I think it’s possibly less prounounced in the US than it is in other parts of the world, but still, the trip kind of brought that home. There aren’t a lot of people who are willing to risk arriving at independent conclusions or taking independent actions based on objective considerations.

That’s been further hammered home after the trip. I’ve had numerous people tell me they would “love” to do something similar — but they never will, because doing a trip like this poses some social risk (family, job security, whatever). In what sense, then, would they “love” to do a trip like mine? I’ve come to accept that when people say they would “love” to do something, what they really mean is that if they had infinite time and resources and there were no possibility of social repercussions, they would consider doing it.

Moreso than ever after the trip, I think most people shouldn’t bother saying most of the things they say. Our species should either be more interesting or quieter.

Q: So you didn’t like the people?

A: Generally speaking, when conversations occurred, people were disarmingly friendly. This was considerably less true of old people in Oregon and more true of middle-aged and older single guys, who seemed to have a native understanding for what I was doing and why. Some of the regions that I’d thought would be the most stuck up (Vermont and Maine in particular) had, in fact, some of the most gracious and easy-to-interact-with people that I met. From a random-person-you-meet-on-the-street perspective, Americans are pretty cool.

Q: Where did people have the best accents?

A: The Maine accent was compelling, although I only understood about 80-percent of what the master practitioners were saying. I was also taken aback when I got to (inland) Virginia, heard some locals talking in a diner, and realized they weren’t faking it.

Q: Where was the best driving?

A: Aside from “anywhere where there were no cars”, the upper two-thirds of Michigan were excellent. The drivers there were generally fast, competent, and cooperative.

Q: Where was the worst driving?

A: The South. They dawdle on the road, stop and turn suddenly and without warning, and are wholly impolite when behind the wheel. They will not let you merge and have no compunctions about honking any time you seize the initiative due to their uncooperativeness.

Q: What part of the country felt the “most free”?

A: What an odd question; fortunately, I’ve considered it and have an answer. I was shocked to discover that the western states, from a number of perspectives, feel considerably more weighed down by Big Brother than eastern states. The most aggressive anti-driver messaging in the country is in Wyoming, where every road sign threatens you somehow (“if you speed, we will catch you and you will pay”). There seems to be considerably more trust in a number of the country’s older places, e.g., the midwest and extreme northeast. But the answer is Texas or South Carolina.

Q: Do you think you’ll do another road trip like this again?

A: I hope so. I’m going to be trying to justify doing it after my third year of grad school here, department-willing. I’m also hoping to take a road trip through BC and Alberta and up to Alaska next summer during break.

Q: Why don’t you write about the trip and try to sell it?

A: Because the after-the-fact reflections on the trip would come off as life-affirming as this post. And even if they didn’t and I went with a tone and content set similar to what was on the road trip blog, who would pay money for that? And even if someone would, they still wouldn’t pay very much. I think people who haven’t checked into it usually over-estimate the amount of money made by writers. Writing pays like it’s an avocation, not a vocation.

So there you go. One day I’ll write my coffee table book. It’ll probably be about as upbeat as this blog post and, no, no publisher will pick it up — but that’ll be okay. I’ll be the only one who needs to read it anyway.

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So infuriatingly not dead.

• They were always relieving themselves on my deck — the railing and floor.
• Sometimes they would vomit carcasses onto my deck. I found an entire dead crab there once.
• My brilliant neighbors fed them. At first they didn’t know what to feed them, so they called an ornithologist to get advice. He advised raw meat. Sometimes I found raw meat on my deck.
• I taped nails on top of my deck railing to keep them from standing there, but they just sort of stood around the nails.
• They have orange eyes and their feathers are greasy.

Coincidentally, I had this conversation with some random woman while on Kauai and visiting the arboretum:

Woman: Did you see those birds?

Me: Yes. I got a bunch of them at my house at home and I hate them.

Woman: Well I think it would be neat to live somewhere that has herons. Where do you live?

Me: California — Mission Viejo. You?

Woman: Uh — Lake Forest.

True story. (Lake Forest and Mission Viejo border each other icydk.)

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(They’re “black-crowned night herons”. May they soon go extinct.)

There’s nothing like a medical condition that makes you feel old while at the same time emasculating you. Because it’s most common in women over 40. Anyway.

• Basically the tendons are swollen, such that if my left ring finger or right pinky is curled up, the middle knuckle “catches” when trying to extend the finger out straight.
• It’s like that when I first wake up, but as things warm up during the day, the fingers act normal.
• It started coming on back when I was doing the floor. Apparently it’s a bad thing when, after finishing sanding, your hands feel like they’re full of springs.
• Working with my hands every day since then apparently exacerbated the situation, until maybe three weeks ago when the “catching” started.
• It doesn’t hurt (all my fingers have been a little stiff and sore since mid-May), it’s just disconcerting and likely to progressively worsen without measures being taken.
• Recommended course of action is to (a) stop doing things that require me to grab stuff, especially power tools that oscillate or vibrate; (b) splint the affected fingers, especially at night; and (c) maybe pop some “anti-inflammatories” (ibuprofen). Should heal itself in four to six weeks.
• If that doesn’t work, then I can go in and get some cortisone injections. I’ll feel like a professional athlete! Like an old, emasculated professional athlete.

Not sure whether this means I just stop doing anything with the house or what. It’s going to be hard to be here without trying to do stuff, since:

• All that’s left to do in the kitchen is install the cabinets (and sink and dishwasher and disposal).
• The den is looking good, but needs bookshelves that I’d need to build.
• I ordered five sets of slat blinds that should arrive next week some time; it might be hard to avoid hanging them once they get here.
• Now that the master bedroom is basically ready to go, it’d be cool to put a door on the room — but the door needs to be painted and hung, which require grabbing and tool-use.
• With the kitchen floor done, I can start moving stuff from the basement into the living room, but carrying all that stuff might be proscribed.
• The upstairs bathroom is still a no-mans land and it sucks having to go downstairs to use the toilet.
• Plus the whole rest of the house and all.

Guess I should’ve gone to Oregon for the family reunion. It’s amazing how pretty much everything I sort of am interested in doing requires me to grab stuff. I’m not sure I should even consider hiking in WVa, since all the interesting hikes there have river crossings and I’d be mad trying to do them without poles. Also unsure about fishing, since it’d require me to have my hands in curled-up positions.

Instead I’m heading to Southern Virginia — it’s cheaper than Oregon on short notice and most of what there is to do there is passive (read: a lot of looking). It’ll keep me off my hands for a few days and then when I get back I can maybe re-evaluate. Also, in case you were wondering, it doesn’t make sense to visit a doctor until September when I have real insurance and not the kind with the $5,000 deductible.

I dunno. Maybe this is the blown transmission of the house renovation months. I swear I’m not just trying to find excuses to avoid painting doors.

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It’s a real word.

Never saw the movie, but it was nice of them to get me a gift.

Contains MSG, so you know it can’t be all bad.

Hell is standing around for two hours listening to Tom Brunanski try and tell you how to teach a nine-year-old how to catch a fly ball.

And I still need to write my post entitled “All I Really Need to Know about Humanity I Learned Assistant Coaching My Nephew’s Little League Team for Half a Season”.

“Fewer”, because I don’t think they’re referring to the band.

A photo my nephew took of me before I eventually realized I didn’t know where my phone was.

I just don’t think Uday rates Ace-of-Hearts.

My niece posing with her brothers after her baptism.

My inner left elbow.

Every third Saturday the gunfighters shoot the teachers. Wax bullets.

Watching TV while driving.

Maybe my favorite touch-screen button ever.

Real and functional: we’re not in California any more.

That was probably too many.

Mostly ambivalent,

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You can click on the photo to see a bigger version of it.

0-1 Correct: You’re probably normal.

2-3: Somewhat better than normal.

4-5: Way better than normal.

6 or more: Some sort of super-genius (or else you follow my blogs and retain a lot of information — I guess those aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive).

Kind of makes me want to go on a road trip around the country or something. Tell you what, summer after I do my comps, I’m gonna take four months off again. Maybe.

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• About the third day after I moved into the house, I started getting this rash on my left arm. It covered most of my forearm and then spread to my right arm and lower abdomen. It’s just now going away. I’m thinking it’s an allergy to dust, 52-year-old varnish, crystalized cat urine, polyurethane, latex, humidity, Pittsburgh, or a combination of the above. I’m hoping it’s not Pittsburgh, that would be awkward.
• There was one afternoon last week where Home Depot was hounding me about returning the drum sander — that I’d returned a week earlier. They warned me that it was accumulating charges by being checked out so long etc., etc. It turns out that they couldn’t find it because they’d checked it out to another customer.
• Closest Home Depot with tool rentals is out in Monroeville — about 25 minutes, depending on the tunnel.
• Had to go pick up my repaired laptop one afternoon last week in Cranberry — about 45 minutes. It was covered under the nVidia recall. The repair, I mean.
• Went to campus to meet with my faculty advisor last Monday and to discuss a Scholarly Article that I’d read and written a couple of pages about. Took about a half a day.
• Guy from Verizon came on Friday to hook up my FiOS, which took four entire hours during which I did nothing productive.
• Week and a half ago I went go kart racing out in Beaver Falls. They kept giving us more and more practice laps, qualifying laps, heats, and final races, which was good from a value perspective. Came home with badly bruised ribs that make it hard to reach up (with, for instance, a paint roller) or sleep on my left side.
• Couple nights ago at about three in the morning I was woken up by sirens. They were apparently next door. Kept seeing a red light oscillating through my window. I’m guessing ambulance.
• One of my neighbors came over to tell me that if I park my truck too close to the stop sign, another neighbor will call the police.
• Tried to go to a church function last Monday, but after driving around the park twice, gave up. The second time through I saw a sign that said to turn right, but when I turned right, there were no church people. The park was about 20 minutes away from here.
• Driving back from the paint store, didn’t realize I needed to be in the left lane until it was too late, so instead I ended up turning right and acting like I’d meant to go to Walgreens all along. Getting out of Walgreens parking lot there was no left turn allowed, so I had to drive up the road, turn onto another road, then flip a U-ey using someone’s driveway, which I’m sure is way better than letting someone make a U-turn out of Walgreens’ parking lot.
• Drove the guy who chaperoned me during my Pitt fly-out and his wife to the airport. She forgot to pack her contact lenses, so I broke into their apartment, found them, and FedEx-ed them to her the next day.
• Getting my roof replacement and kitchen wall tear-down estimated required six phone calls, four in-person visits, seven text messages, and two emails. Work on the roof started today.

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• There was a cop blocking the onramp for Mifflin Road, so I had to veer off onto Carson Street and was half-way to South Side flats before there was a turnoff I could use to turn around again.
• Found out it was going to cost me $5,000 to get my roof fixed.
• Ken Griffey, Jr. retired.
• Big ol’ electrical storm.
• Power went out (and stayed out for 18 hours).

Took a shower by flashlight, then I went back to bed. Today I got a revised estimate on the roof: $3,900. And it seems like I should have taken a photo of the bird.

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PS, My hair’s too short to comb, but the rhythm would’ve been way off without it. Also considered using the Easy Star All-Stars variation (fingers+dreads), but figured the original would be confusing enough.

PPS, I’m sad about Griffey retiring.His bat was too slow and he should have retired at the end of last year, but he was a big part of the reason I ended up liking baseball as much as I do; he was the guy that made my team relevant. With him out of the game it feels like a part of me is, now, officially and irrevocably, washed up.

1. Dear God, what is that *thing*?
   
   It’s a 2001 Toyota Prius.
   
   
2. And you bought it?
   
   Yes.
   
   
3. Seriously?
   
   Seriously.
   
   
4. Why?
   
   The reasons are as plentiful as they are interesting. Or maybe not. Depends on your definitions of terms. For one thing, I didn’t want to be driving my big ol’ pickup around in Pittsburgh — it’s expensive to operate and too big to fit on city streets.
   
   
5. So you’re selling your truck?
   
   Not sure yet.
   
   
6. So why a Prius?
   
   It was a good deal and it’s fuel-efficient.
   
   
7. How much?
   
   $4,625.
   
   
8. But — a Prius?
   
   I was looking for an econobox. My first choice would have been something like a Honda Fit or Scion xA, neither of which are ego-enhancing, but both of which are fuel-efficient and small enough to fit in Pittsburgh and more fun to drive than a Prius. However, thanks to (I’m guessing) the current economy and (I’m also guessing) Dear Leader’s societal engineering projects (read: Cash for Clunkers), the prices on used cars, small ones in particular, are insane.
   
   
9. Saying small car prices are insane is racist.
   
   Probably.
   
   
10. Like — how insane?
    
    Like ElEff bought a 2008 salvage title Fit two years ago for $8K. Today, a 2008 salvage title Fit will cost you $9,000+ — unless you want one that actually runs right, in which case add another thousand or just buy non-salvage for $11K. Similar story for the entire category — Scion xA’s, Civics, Mazda3s, Matrixes (Matrices?), et al.
    
    
11. So why didn’t you just sell your truck and buy something more expensive then?
    
    Because I wasn’t going to buy a salvage Fit for $9K. And then because if I’m going to spend $10K+ for a car, it should be a car I kind of want and would enjoy driving, not one I’m buying for the sake of being pragmatic for a while. Nothing that’s any fun to drive and that’s under 80K miles and eight years old costs less than $17K right now. And I’m not in a position to spend $17K on a car. All hail reality.
    
    
12. So does this make you some sort of environmentalist now then?
    
    It’s just a car.
    
    
13. Hmm.
    
    Exactly.
    

So I’m not necessarily *excited* about the car, but then again, it’s not a car I bought for the sake of excitement. It’ll definitely get good mileage. I bought it from a known source that I know isn’t trying to scam me. It was cheap enough that if it spontaneously combusts RIGHT NOW, I’ll recover financially. It’s not pure driving excitement, but OTOH it handles and responds better than the second-gen Prius I drove from Phoenix back to OC, so — you know.

ElEff called this car the vehicular equivalent of the house I’m (hopefully) buying in Pittsburgh. Sounds about right. At least I’m enjoying a new level of consistency.

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It also struck me as probably a really bad way to begin the NYC adventure — by longing for the wild, open spaces of the west.

There’s a lot that’s different this time around, though, in particular:

1. Pittsburgh is not New York City. You can drive in Pittsburgh. There are grocery stores with parking lots. Stuff is CHEAP. I’m going to be living in a house with a yard and a garage. I’ll be working with a group of people and I’ve already met some that are cool while at the same time not manic-depressive.
2. Pittsburgh is sort-of the West. Definitely through the Angle of Repose lens Pittsburgh would have been considered more like the wilderness that it would have been like the civilization of New York. And it’s sort of a frontier town anyway. Once you get out of downtown and Oakland, Pittsburgh starts looking and feeling like the capital of Appalachia, more like a part of West Virginia than part of the same state that includes Philadelphia.
3. The west isn’t The West. Maybe there are parts of Montana and Nevada that shouldn’t be painted with this gloss, but the modern-day west has nothing to do with the frontiers and taming-the-wilderness values and lifestyle of Angle of Repose. That’s one of the things the road trip taught me — the romantic West is pretty dead. In fact, it seemed more controlled and less “rugged individualist” than a lot of other parts of the country. Wyoming had the most offensive, threatening road signs in the country (e.g., “if you don’t wear your seatbelt, we’ll find you and it will cost you”-type messages) and most of the west was similar. Granted, I tend to perceive the world almost exclusively through a windshield, which might not always be an accurate reflection of reality, but still — driving in Michigan, for example, felt considerably more free. And after you’ve been on the trail to Half Dome for an hour and a half, you realize that the freedom and solitude and therefore to a large extent the bigness of the western wilderness is likewise little more than a matter of legend.

So basically, I think Pittsburgh will be much better than New York. And I don’t think it fits my ideal place to live, but after that road trip, I don’t know that a close approximation of my ideal exists anyway. Oh well.

And I still think that the book ends too quickly and/or that the author should have spent a little more time on the framing story to better justify its existence. And it’s still one of my top five books of all time.

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(A photo to keep the front page concept from breaking:

)

This isn’t about Plan B, though. This is about my having looked at, like, seven houses today and most of them being variations on awful that I hadn’t necessarily considered possible. The sloped rooms and all. I mean, really. Here are the seven:

1. Horrifying salt box in West View that needed, at a minimum, a new everything. Most particularly a new smell.
2. Kind of interesting big, old three-story house in West View that had a cool yard, a slight slant to the floor in the living room, a two-car garage, and probably required more time and money than I was gonna give it.
3. Frightening three-bedroom in Morningside where you couldn’t really walk around for all the cobwebs and stuff piled on the floor (and on all other flat spaces). There were ruddy crosses finger-painted above every bedroom door. Non-positive vibe. My agent had hand sanitizer in the car.
4. Interesting-enough, small two-bedroom in Greenfield. Very narrow house, obviously had spent most of its recent years as a student rental, awesome kitchen flooring.
5. Unfortunate three-bedroom in Greenfield. In kind of a weird part of the neighborhood and walking from its front to back made me seasick with all the variations in, like, flatness. OTOH, the toilet worked.
6. The house in Lincoln Place on which I’m making an offer.
7. Another slant-floored house in Lincoln Place. The “kitchen” and “bathroom” were both located in the basement for some reason.

Here are some photos. Everyone likes photos. (All but one of these are from nos. 1 and 4 above; really should have photographed the lamb’s blood in no. 3.)

The shame of it is that the artist didn't sign his (her?) work.

You can't *really* tell, but the wallpaper in this one is reflective silver. Would have worked great in East Germany.

(Which is not to say that it doesn’t work great in Pittsburgh.)

A boiler.

A boiler! My agent said it needed to be replaced (by a NEW boiler!). And unfortunately we didn’t not come into contact with any of what he called “octopus furnaces”.

Needs a new garage door.

A Pittsburgh toilet.

This is a real, functioning toilet that’s in the middle of the basement floor (or off to the side, I guess). Apparently this is a thing here in the Burgh — it’s actually called a “Pittsburgh toilet”. According to legend, the steel mill worker would come home covered in soot and slag, enter through the side door, then head to the basement to… well, take a crap I guess. There was probably once a shower head down here next to the toilet, which may have helped with the soot.

And no walls. Basement toilet stall walls are gauche. Or they were 100 years ago.

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The one I’m trying to buy is in the Lincoln Place neighborhood of Pittsburgh. I’m taking the offer paperwork over to the office in the morning. Here’s what it looks like:

Front Elevation. I suppose I'd have to put shutters on the left window.

The kitchen; I like the floor-to-ceiling tile. Makes it look like an operating room where they perform unnecessary surgeries.

A bedroom. They all looked about like this. And I didn't take a picture of the living room for some reason.

Which is a shame, because someone had painted a fireplace on one of the living room walls. It almost fools you in the listing photo.

Rec Room. The bar is wet.

The downstairs bathroom. I kind of like the retro -- which is good, b/c my real estate agent told me not to mess with the tile in this one.

OTOH, he told me I *did* need to mess with the one upstairs. The one upstairs looks pretty much the same as this one, only it’s pink for some reason.

The workshop. Seriously, the house has a workshop in it. Rocks.

The OVERSIZED (one-car) garage.

Anyway. It’s a cool house. It’s also bank-owned. If I get it, it needs the following (at least):

• New roof.
• New kitchen (floors, walls, cabinets, appliances).
• New upstairs bathroom.
• New paint (everywhere).
• Wood floors re-finished (sanded, re-stained).
• New ceiling in basement.
• Jury-rigged basement A/C unit replaced.
• New carpet in basement and on stairs.
• Shutters on front-left window.
• Paint on outside railing and stairs.
• Yard care.

Otherwise, good to go. With the price I’m hoping to get it for and what it should be worth fixed up, this should be a really good deal.

Mal sehen was wird.

Also, my real estate agent does not displease me. He gets what I’m trying to do here and has enough experience with house flipping that I trust his advice. Or, if it’s all just an act on his part, *really* well played.

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The upside of these photos is that they give me good ideas of what I should do with my house I’m maybe gonna buy in Pittsburgh. Very good ideas.

Gera (March-May 1993)

I’m not sure how using the Gera bathroom for two months did *not* kill me. And it was the nicest one I had the whole two years. The washer-dryer combo emptying into the tub is a nice touch. Sehr mode!

Dresden (January-May 1992)

That one was at the Kurt-Fischer-Hotel (which was not actually a hotel; we called it that because if someone was getting blitzed home, that missionary stayed their last night with us — I’m sure I personally inspired everyone who came through there to eventually straighten up, fly correctly). The shower fed off a two-gallon hot water tank; the desk lamp over the sink seems like an under-utilized concept. And if I could, I’d usually try and hold it till I got to Tiergartenstraße 40 in the morning.

Weimar (December 1991-January 1992).

I don’t think the bathtub actually worked here, which explains why the definitely non-functional communist Schleudermaschine is inside it. And the best part of this apartment was that we had a Nazi fork among the silverware. Should have grabbed it on my way out. Biggest regret of my mission.

Borna (August 1991-December 1991)

The toilet is through that door. The door is down the stairs from the apartment. Because it’s not a flush-toilet, that’s why it’s nowhere near the actual apartment (I figure).

Um, so yeah. Then here’s my ranking of Best Bathrooms of East German Apartments I Used to Live In That Are Not Pictured Above:

1. Döbeln – Frost on the inside window of an in-house outhouse toilet closet!
2. Halberstadt – For some reason the apartment had 12 rooms and covered 2,000 s.f., but the bathroom was contained in a cubby hole. (We had a library in that apartment, a workout room, a clothes-drying room, and a room where we threw unwanted baked goods.)
3. Hohenstein-Ernstthal – Very little recollection of this bathroom except that it was in the kitchen.
4. Hof (bei Weber) – Though technically in West Germany, Hof was East Germany in spirit. And we had a neighbor who was always begging to borrow our shower because he was tired of having to bathe in his sink. A lot of things wrong with that. (Also wish I could have scored a copy of that tape Denny and Kalama(?) made for Omi Weber — so many regrets.)
5. Mittweida (bei Jentzsch/Laube sort of) – We were living in an apartment that the Laube family was renovating while living in alongside us. Got walked in on a few times (they hadn’t gotten around to putting a doorknob on the bathroom yet).
6. Hof (the *good* Wohnung) – Utterly westernly normal.

Somit aufgenommen.

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PS, Re: the headline, it’s the *apartments* that I lived in; I did not live (primarily) in the bathrooms.