Now We Know

Well, now, what has transpired in the Kroger expansion saga in the last few days? Here's the update:

Half of the fence is up. Kroger representatives told the fence company to install ONLY that portion of the fence, and nothing further, to satisfy an apparent side agreement between Kroger and Bryan Patrick(? - the mayor? - who else was in on this?) in order to receive their Certificate of Occupancy. And that is exactly what the fence company did in a day and a half. When the fence reached the negotiated spot, the fence company quit...pulled off the job...before noon last Friday. The new partial eight foot fence stops mid-way in my neighbor's backyard. My next door neighbors have three little girls who will continue to be exposed to carcinogenic benzene fumes and at risk for leukemia, as will the rest of the neighbors south of them. Nice work Kroger. Nice work Bryan Patrick, director of the Conway Planning Department. Nice work Mayor Townsell and the majority of city council members.

So, the gas station opened Friday afternoon. The fence installers did not return after lunch, nor are they here this morning, although I will give them the benefit of the doubt because it is raining. But my guess is they won't be back any time soon even though it would take probably all of a day to a day and a half to complete the mandatory fence as required by the Planned Unit Development (PUD) conditions.

We have been very troubled by the urgency to open the gas station. My neighbor even sent an email to Bryan Patrick, director of the Conway Planning Department, asking why the rush to open the gas station without completion of the terms of the PUD. She has not received a response. But she found out on her own. Of course, it's all about money.

She found the following at these two sites: Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) and U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT)

Sunday After Thanksgiving is Heaviest Travel Day of the Year

The most traveled day of the holiday period - and of the entire year - is the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when 13.7 million long-distance trips are made (Figure 2). The day after Christmas is the second most traveled day during the holidays, with 12 million trips. New Year's Eve is less traveled than either Christmas or Thanksgiving, with 8.3 million people traveling. There appears to be no increased pattern of travel associated with the celebration of Hanukkah.

While Christmas and Thanksgiving record about the same amount of travel, Thanksgiving's high volume of travel is concentrated in fewer days, which places a heavier burden on the transportation system. During the five days surrounding Thanksgiving, an average of 10.8 million trips are taken per day, nearly double the average number of daily trips for the whole year; the daily average for the five days around Christmas is 9.5 million trips, but more Christmas travelers leave earlier and stay longer than Thanksgiving travelers so that trips are spread out over a longer period of time.

Okay, so we get that corporate greed trumps safety, health and compliance with laws. Kroger Co. is a corporation and greed will prevail.

But what about the city officials and nine elected representatives? Where are they? I've sent no less than six emails protesting the issuance of a COO without the completion of the mandatory protective barrier. I have received three responses, none of them from the mayor (who has never responded to any of my emails, EVER) or the representatives of my specific area (they are called "wards" here).

I will name the people who have at least responded because I want you to know who is attempting to work on behalf of their constituency and who is not. That will be important come election time.

Shelia Whitmore was the first to respond to tell me that she "told Bryan I personally was not in favor of the fuel station opening without the fence in place."

Shelley Mehl did not respond to us directly, but sent a copy of an email she sent to Bryan Patrick stating "I am not in favor of this until the fence is up. The fence was a condition of operation."

Lastly, David Grimes also did not respond to us directly, but sent a copy of his email to Bryan Patrick which states first, "I agree with Shelley. They need to build the fence first," and continues his email by asking the very question we've been asking, "How hard can it be for them to do that?" How hard indeed Mr. Grimes. A simple answer: someone in the city told them they didn't have to.

So, where are the other six elected officials? Their silence is deafening...and perhaps telling.

What conversations are taking place behind the scenes? What are these people saying to each other? How can they possibly justify jeopardizing the health and safety of citizens when all it would have taken to complete that damn fence and protect the constituency was just one more work day, or day and a half maximum, to complete the entire fence. The fencing company could have finished the fence on Saturday and Kroger could have opened on Sunday...a mere day and half delay but still before the big profitable Thanksgiving weekend. What is motivating these people? It can't be money, can it? How much revenue could the city gain in a day and a half worth of gasoline sales.....sales that are not ADDITIONAL sales, but sales drawn from surrounding gas stations whose business saw a drop because of the opening of the Kroger gas station.

As I said in my letter to the city council, there is a blatant enforcement double standard. I've known people to receive citations for using too many garage sale signs (I think we're allowed two) or leaving their garage sale signs up too long. Code enforcement routinely issues citations if you allow your grass to grow too long or leave your garbage bin on the curb too long. We've personally known code enforcement to deny a homeowner a final COO for one single 1/16th of an inch building code violation. Yet, Kroger received a COO without completing the single most safety related mandated PUD condition. How is that equal enforcement?

In early October, one of our neighbors sent us an email to let us know they had called OSHA and Arkansas EPA. The workers at the Kroger construction site had been cutting concrete blocks for days. The dust from the cutting saw, which is being used without water or any sort of dust collection system, was uncontrolled and completely permeated the air in the neighborhood, particularly for those of us who live adjacent to the construction. The dust was intolerable and likely hazardous. The air was so bad that our neighbors were unable to work in their own backyard without respiratory protection, and even then found it too overwhelming and finally retreated into their house for relief. And this was just one of many times our environment became so intolerable because of the construction. My question to Bryan Patrick that day was, "Who is responsible for monitoring Kroger’s continued disregard for and noncompliance with safety standards? How and when can we get this constant dirt and dust under some reasonable control in order to mitigate any unnecessary exposure of the surrounding residents (not to mention the workers at the construction site) from the continued physical hazards."

One of my neighbors sent an email to Tab Townsell, our illustrious mayor, inviting him to their home for dinner so that he could experience first-hand how we are impacted. The mayor didn't even have the courtesy to respond, not even to decline the invitation and apologize for any inconvenience the massive construction project has caused. Deafening silence.

But the mayor happily and quickly responded to a call from an affluent executive of Southwestern Energy, who had been denied a final COO for his newly constructed home because of obvious safety and building code violations. Wanting to be a representative of the people (well, maybe just certain people), the mayor stepped in on the executive's behalf (probably after some back-slapping and vigorous handshaking) and ordered the code enforcement department to issue the COO in spite of the violations. But, but, but...what about the homeowner with the 1/16th of an inch violation? Hmmmmm.

I have been updating my status on Facebook and posting links to this blog so family and friends can follow along. A couple of people joked (or maybe even half serious) that Kroger should provide adjacent residents with everything from a gift card to free gas and groceries for five years.

Then I started thinking. What if it is money? Or gifts? Could it be some elected officials are receiving sizable contributions to campaign coffers? Is Kroger doling out gift certificates for dinners at local restaurants for council members, city officials and a hundred of their closet friends? Or maybe tickets, lodging and dining for sporting events and such. Though, I'm only speculating, one has to wonder and question the motives of the city officials when they refuse to protect the health and safety of the citizens in deference to corporate demands. Just sayin'

Just Because Everything Is Different Doesn't Mean Anything Has Really Changed

Nothing has changed really. I still live in the same house. I still hear construction and construction equipment every single day. There are days when I can cope, but there are other days when I finish the day in tears.

If I could move tomorrow, I would. I've been looking at the housing market in our area and it's not too bad considering the beating everyone else has taken in this economy. We could probably sell our house for a decent price, but with all the debt we've accumulated in the last three years because of the lack of work, it's just not feasible right now. In the meantime, we just grit our teeth and try to make our living conditions better.

We bought this house as a fixer-upper and fixing-upping we are, albeit a very little bit at a time. Have I mentioned that I'm sick of remodeling? I'm sick of sanding, scraping, painting, grouting...all of it. But we have more to do and we add projects almost monthly. Now we are considering enlarging our bedroom closet by cutting into the office closet and framing in the door on the office side to make it a wall. Huge, dirty, dusty and extremely inconvenient project.

Anyway, when we moved in five years ago, we started on the kitchen and dining room, which has been a work in progress until just recently when we finally had some painters in to finish painting as a trade for Tom's precious Audi convertible ~ which has finally met it's permanent death, but that's another story.

The kitchen started out as a closed-in, u-shaped room and we wanted to open it up into a kitchen/dining room. This is the wall that had to go...

And go, it did...


Until it was gone...


Tom reused some of the cabinets by extending countertop and cabinets further into the dining room...


Then he built hood-like features over the sink and new stove, constructed the island with huge drawers for storage on one side and a space for seating on the other, then he laid ceramic tile. After we had the marble countertops installed, we have this...

...the extended cabinet...


...and the island...



..and the dining room went from this...


to this...


Then we did the guest bath. We started with this:


Notice the lovely, bright turquoise color on the walls and the equally lovely southwestern style wallpaper border just below the ceiling...


Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan, so we ripped out the existing cabinet and sink, painted, installed a new free-standing cabinet and sink and laid more ceramic tile. Much better.


I didn't have anything on the walls for the longest time...probably a couple of years. Then, last August when we visited Chris and Kelly, I went to Bealle's Outlet (if I move near there, I fear that I will regain my love of shopping) and found these three canvas prints and I knew I had to have them for the bathroom. And they were CHEAP!! - like $2 or $3 bucks each.



A couple of weeks ago, I was headed toward the hardware department in Walmart and took a shortcut through the bed and bath department and this shower curtain caught my eye. I couldn't believe that it matched perfectly the prints I purchased in Florida. $19-bucks


The only thing left to do was replace the toilet seat that had a major ick-factor - the paint had worn off in spots so it never looked clean even though it was. Done.

Interspersed between and throughout the more extensive projects, we worked on our den and living room.

The den. A bright, sunny room that apparently screamed to the previous owner, More sunshine and flowers, please!!". So she painted it a BRIGHT yellow...


And since that wasn't quite abrasive enough, she added a coordinating sunflower wallpaper border..


Tom constructed built-in shelves for our DVD collection, our extensive accumulation of books and his nautical memorabilia. We took down the cheap blue curtains and hung wooden blinds. Then we painted. I'd still like to do something different with the mantel, but that can wait until the mood strikes me and I see something I really like.



My mother had a peculiar euphemism: "All her taste is in her mouth," and the first time we walked through this house, that's exactly what popped into my head.

The living room. What you can't see very well are the filthy white roll-up vinyl blinds that I ripped out of the front window the first week we moved in. Maroon curtains and green walls. I think I vomited up something resembling those colors once.

It's funny what a little paint and new trim can do. Then...




Now...new wood blinds, beige sheers, sand colored paint...




I didn't take any initial "before" photos of our master bathroom. I don't know why, other than the paint color wasn't as horrifying as the rest of the rooms in the house so it didn't seem necessary to document any changes.

In October 2008 we bought ceramic tile, a new light fixture and a framed mirror.


Over the course of the last three years, we've only tackled the easier stuff. We removed the huge flat wall mirror and hung the framed mirror in it's place. Then we removed the cabinet doors and installed shelves. I purchased baskets to fit underneath the shelves for all the miscellaneous bathroom toiletries and sundries, so Tom had the idea to screw the baskets onto flat wooden bases secured to drawer guides so the baskets could easily be pulled out and slid back into place. Genius (I know, I'm prejudice). The new light fixture was next. While I was in Florida in May, Tom painted the bathroom a zen green and I brought back two flip-flop wall hangings, again from Bealle's Outlet.

Finally, two weeks ago, we started the floor. We had enough tile, but I wanted something a little more decorative, so we purchased some strips of smaller tiles interspersed with glass tiles and used that as a border. The bathroom floor went from this linoleum...


To this...


The following weekend, we were going to start the countertop and we wanted a glass sink with a cascading faucet, but we couldn't find anything we liked for under $1,000. The clerk at Home Depot told us we should look online because they had a lot more stuff there than they did in the store. We did and found a really cool sink and faucet set for only $200.

So Tom removed the old countertop and sink...


...laid the same kind of tile as the floor onto the countertop...


...installed this very cool green glass sink with matching glass cascading faucet...


and all that we need are new drawer fronts and a little bit of touch up paint.


But that's not all that is left to be done. The next big thing is flooring...in the den, hallway, living room and all three bedrooms. When we moved in, all the rooms that had been carpeted were stripped down to the concrete foundation/floor and the concrete had been stained with a sponge and wood stain. I could live with that rather than dirty carpet. But I've lived with it too long.

Tom just finished a job for a local lumber company and was "paid" in hardwood flooring...enough for the living room. It is stacked in the extra bedroom waiting for time enough to remove all the furniture for a couple of days, install the flooring and return the furniture to it's original position.

Tom is milling flooring for the den and hallway, which will have to be stained and sealed before we put it down. Who knows when that will get finished, since I'm the person who is supposed to stain and finish it. I'd like carpet in the bedrooms. That will have to wait for another more financially robust time.

Five years into it, we are still remodeling. But it has to end sometime, doesn't it? And then what? What will we do with our time and money once we are done?

Ommmmmmm......

I don't mind progress. In fact, I think it's inevitable.

But shouldn't voting for progress require some sort of clear conscientious thought and deliberation and a thorough evaluation of the possible negative ramifications in order to determine the best approach?

Our City of Conway Arkansas Council members, in their infinite wisdom (sarcasm intended), decided it was in the city's best interest to completely remove the "buffer zone" provided by previous zoning requirements established for the specific purpose to act as a buffer to protect adjacent neighborhoods and rezone the property behind our house and those of all my neighbors on the east side of our street to allow the neighborhood Kroger grocery store to expand to three times its current size into a 123,000 square foot mega super center, in addition to approving an 8-bay gas station, all of which will be built within 100 feet of our backyards. Access to this mega center will be inadequately provided by two small arterial two lane roads definitely not suited for the 6,000 daily auto trips projected. Whoo Hoo!

In the initial proposal stage, the planning commission denied the application, and rightly so. There are properties all over Conway that are much more suited for a project as large as this. But Kroger appealed the decision to the city council and our honorable Mayor, Tab Townsell, broke the tie with his vote in favor of the expansion. He liked the idea that other communities would be envious. Yes, it had more to do with his ego than what was right for the citizens. Even though, as I mentioned, there are more suitable sites in the city for a project of this size. Although, a couple of those site are fairly close to Mr. Townsell's backyard...and we certainly couldn't disturb his quality of life now, could we?

Kroger is just getting started with the project, so we don't even know what the full impact will be on the surrounding neighborhoods. We're about to find out.

For the last month or so, this has been going on just over my back fence. First the grading of the entire field that buffered the noise and activity from the grocery store...

Then the digging of the access road, which will follow the configuration of all of the backyards of the homes adjacent to this property...


This photo was taken from my backyard at 7:00am this morning.


For this photo, I was standing on a concrete step with my forearms resting on the fence.


They start the behemoth heavy construction equipment at 6:30am every day and all day long my house shudders and my windows rattle as a result of the thundering machinery and this continues until 5:00pm when the air becomes startlingly quiet in comparison and I can hear myself think again.

Tom overhead the Kroger manager tell another customer that Kroger plans to open the gas station in two months. I have two reactions to that timeline.

First, I am grateful to have a time frame for when the construction noise will finally be over and gone.

However, the required 8-foot fence isn't under construction and I don't see any of those "buffering" trees being delivered for planting along the fence line.

Those items were just two of the conditions of approval of the project in order to protect the us, the homeowners, from noise and gas fumes pollution from the new gas station and the traffic activity and noise from the mega super center. Will the city council demand Kroger comply with the requirements to receive their permit to open the gas station? We'll see.

We, the neighbors directly impacted by this expansion, are already in offensive mode (as in aggressive and preemptive) and, upon hearing the news, immediately voiced our concerns about any possible waiver of the conditions to the planning commission, who is charged with monitoring the progress of approved projects. Let's hope our ego-driven mayor doesn't step in the middle of it and decide to override any code or contingency as he has done in the past with other departments, namely building code enforcement. But I won't get into that right now.

In other great news, we brought our little convertible back from Florida and had to take it into the shop because of an "engine error" icon on the dash. It was lucky for us that Chris rented a trailer for us to pull the car back home rather than drive it. The engine error turned out to be a cracked gas tank (can you imagine driving a car with a leaking gas tank 1,000 miles?), probably, the service manager said, because the gas tank had a small undetected defect, which, of course, didn't present itself until after the warranty had expired. My little red convertible has a new gas tank and we can pick it up and bring her home this afternoon after we pay the $1,500 bill. I've never named anything except my children and my animals, including my chickens and sheep. I've never named a house or car or boat or any other inanimate object. But, for the first time, I'm thinking of naming this car...something fairly descriptive, like "F**king Blood Sucking Bitch".

Anyway, my subsequent posts will probably be rather sporadic since I am working on compiling a cookbook of all my late mother-in-law's recipes, many of which she translated many times and in many forms from recipes she received from her mother and mother-in-law. Her handwriting is so distinctive and I'm enjoying reading all of her instructions and side notes. It is like having a conversation with her. It's so comforting to sit with her here at my desk.

"Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans." - Peter F. Drucker

Crap. It's been a terrible 2 weeks.

I started Week 2 of the C25K and the first day went fine. The 90 second runs were hard but doable. Then... Wham!... life hits. We had to get the flip done because our realtor's client wanted to come by to see it, which meant that I was spending more time there than usual, so no running. Okay, then, that done... I got the flu and definitely no running.

Needless to say, I will be starting Week 2 over again, provided my level of fitness is up to par. If not, I will be starting Week 1 again.

Of course, an offer on our flip is not forthcoming and since our realtor is no longer working in real estate full-time (she now has a full-time job elsewhere), she can't really work to sell it. We are going to have to list it. So Tom met with our realtor's broker. He did not have one good thing to say about the house, and, you know what? It is a cute house with lots of upgrades and the workmanship is impeccable. Pissed both of us off. So we called David from Crye-Leike and he went out to look at it. He didn't even approach the subject of listing it. Instead, he is trying to save us some money and he went back to his office and announced at their weekly staff meeting that it was on the market. But, I think we are going to have to list it anyway. We really need to sell it.

Okay, so the meaning of the title?? Did I make a commitment to myself? Yes. Did I follow through? No. I can't get fit on hopes and promises.

Too Long And Not Enough

It's been too long since I have posted on this blog. And, no, I have not done enough exercise of any kind. Here are my list of excuses:

1. Life is kicking my ass! We closed escrow on our flip (a house we purchased to renovate and sell at a profit ~ fingers crossed) on June 14th. We did some work on it (tore out the seven-foot ceiling in the living room to raise it, gutted 2 bathrooms, tore up floor coverings), then we promptly went on the vacation (see previous post). Four of my grandkids came home with us for a week. Everyone went home after a week of that.

2. My youngest son, Chris, came out to help with the flip and he and I were over at the flip every day for the 2-1/2 weeks he was here, sanding (my job), sheetrocking and mudding (his job), removing wallpaper (layer, upon layer, upon layer of very nasty stuff ~ my job), repairing floors and ceilings (Chris' job) and priming everything for paint (also Chris' job).

3. In the meantime, it got hot. Really, really HOT! Yesterday when I was coming home for lunch, the temperature on the bank's sign at the intersection was 108 degrees at 12:27. That is just freaking hot! Unbearable!

4. Tired, tired, tired. Lazy, lazy, lazy. If you have read my post on my Myspace blog, you know that I have a new favorite phrase, "I'm too old for this shit." That's because I really feel old. The physical work at the house is really hard for me and I am really, really tired at the end of the day. I am guessing that if I were in better shape, I would fair better, but right now I don't have the energy to do more. At the end of the day, the only thing that comes to mind is, "I'm too old for this shit!"

I know... waaaaa, waaaaa, call the waaaa-mbulance!

So, the down side is, I am not running. I am not even walking. The upside is, I have lost a few pounds because I am physically moving all day long, every day. Honestly, I have to say that running (or, in my case, trying to run) was easier.

We have a couple of weeks of work left on the house and we will put it on the market. I only hope it has cooled down some (some mid-70's in the mornings would be nice) so I can get back out on the path.

In the meantime, I am off to the house to begin painting...

And the beat goes on

I am stressing about the "flip" house right now. We knew that the heat/air pump needed repair and we estimated about $500 to have it done. Tom just called. The compressor is shot and it will cost about $2000 to replace it. That is assuming it can be replaced. We probably will have to get a whole new package, the cost of which will be revealed this afternoon when the "other guy" comes to look at the compressor to see if they can get one. The unit is about 14 years old and parts may not be available. Great. It is time to start trimming the budget elsewhere, which means that I will probably be painting the kitchen cabinets instead of replacing them with new ones. It is such tedious work and I don't look forward to it.


In the meantime, I have added my 8-week running program schedule to the sidebar with the hopes that it will help me stay motivated, which I am definitely not right now. I am just so damn tired.


I did not do really well last week. I only ran 3 days out of the 4 and I didn't walk any of the days. The one minute run was hard and I am looking at this week when I have to run 3 minutes and I just don't know how I am going to be able to do it. It seems insurmountable right now.


I didn't run this morning while it was cooler, so I have to go this evening before dinner. It will still be hot. I'm not looking forward to it.


And, my right foot hurts. That's the foot that I injured last summer and tore the ligaments. It still hurts sometimes. The left foot that I injured at the same time (a broken bone) healed fine and I don't have any problems with it at all. Not so with the right foot. It still hurts pretty often. It doesn't keep me from running or walking, it just aches. I guess I will try the shoe inserts again.