Bring Spring! Like, Now!

I have that flu that's been stomping through the Roanoke area. Somewhere along the line it managed to turn into bronchitis.

Four more radiation treatments and I am oficially done with cancer forevah! Like, totally.

The house is neglected, poor thing, while I cough and hack. I have a basement drain to unstop as soon as I can muster the energy for it. Ah! The joys of home ownership. Bring on the baking soda, vinegar, and the snake. Oh yeah!

A friend has offered to help me plant a garden this year. I seriously need to look at some garden planning books. I have big dreams of an herb garden and a labyrinth.

Here's a description of how one goes about walking a labyrinth on the veriditas.org site:
http://veriditas.org/about/guidelines.shtml

Wouldn't it be lovely to have one right in one's own backyard? Ya know, next to the chicken coop? :)

Ask Google and Ye Shall Receive

Here is a link to the Department of Historic Resources website:

http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/index.htm

Of particular interest, to me at least, is the FAQ:

http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_faq.htm

I found this entry really interesting:

"Some friends live in a historic district, and they tell me that they have to get permission from a board to repair their porch or paint their house. Will I have officials looking over my shoulder if I register my house? No. Only locally designated historic districts are subject to local zoning ordinances and procedures. Sometimes, a property or district may be listed at the national, state, and local levels but it is only the local designation that places restrictions on private owners."

So the actual registration of a property does not mean that the owner will be subject to restrictions on what they can do with their property. Those restrictions are left to local governments, who are organized under a Certified Local Government (CLG) program. More info here:

http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/clg/clg.htm

This makes sense in terms of the differences between varying Architectural Review Boards.

I have a lot of questions with regard to accountability, the public's role in setting these CLGs up, and citizen aproval processes, if any.

There's a local DHR office right in Roanoke. It would be interesting to pay them a visit and get a detailed overview.

Another Unpacking Party?

One of the friends who helped organize the unpacking party thrown for me last summer is talking about doing it again. It's true that I am completely overwhelmed with boxes and spending my unpacking energy getting back to work. Lucky for me, there's a terrific pizza place a few blocks away that makes yummy box unpacker feeding goodies. :)

Also lucky for me I have little shame when it comes to my messy house. :P

My friends amaze me on a regular basis.

Someone Else's Local Politics

Here's an interesting article about a neighborhood battle over a historic designation:

http://hamptonroads.com/node/336441

I'd like to find out what the procedure is for a Historic Designation application. One hopes that it is a more democratic process than the one outlined in htis article.

Local politics

A very nice representative from the city came to our neighborhood association meeting last week. One of the things I love about my neighbors, at least the ones who regularly come to the meetings, is that they are not shy. They are not shy about asking difficult questions or saying what is on their minds. They are also so nice about it that one cannot be offended.

We asked the rep about everything from recycling (he'd come to tell us about a recycling contest between our neighborhood and the one next to us) to civic plans. The city spent a lot of money on an Architectural Planning Guide to guide folks through the exterior renovation process. It recommends things such as period appropriate colors and building styles and adornments. Some of us have been suspicious that it is a move toward designating more neighborhoods as historic. So we asked. The rep said that our neighborhood was not in the works for any kind of historic designation. A lot of us heaved sighs of relief. Nonetheless someone did ask the million dollar question: if the neighborhood were up for consideration as a historic district would we be informed? The rep looked a little surprised and said of course we would be informed. Being a suspicious sort I'm still going to keep my eyes open.

The rep did remind us that Old Southwest residents requested the designation. True, but I suspect that a lot of those people did not fully understand what the designation meant in terms of rules and costs. I've looked at one or two other areas with historic review boards and it does seem that Roanoke's is pretty draconian. I would hate to see my neighbors a few doors down have to remove their rusted chicken sculptures. I swear that they look much cooler than that description would suggest.

And furthermore!

I Got Stuff Done this past week. Small things but for me, huge.

I cleaned and polished the oak floors in my TV room and put down an area rug. The color is totally awful for the curtains in the room and I absolutely refuse to put up a picture. Ok, maybe once I'm ready to replace said clashing carpet.

The other reason it took me so long to put down a rug was my 3 cats. or rather, the 3 cats who own me. Claw the carpet they must. I sprayed with some Lambert Kay Boundary Indoor/Outdoor Cat Repellent, stuff I used when I was an apartment dweller. It worked really well for that place, and I'm hoping that between the spray and the expensive kitty condo I put in the room here the little darlings will claw appropriately. Sure they will.

Holy Moly it's freaking COLD!

Even though southwest Virginia tends to be way warmer than my former home in the greater Philadelphia area, these mountains are COLD this week! It went below 30 degrees last night!

What does this have to do with my house? Ha! My house, like so many 1920s abodes, has no wall insulation. Brrr. And let's not EVEN talk about my leaky windows that are still leaky even after the shrink plastic. There were cold breezes wafting though my kitchen last night. I had my thermostat turned up to an embarassingly high temp last night and it was so cold out that my inside temp never got over 66 degrees. That's frigging cold.

I look into my crystal ball and forsee blown-in insulation. Oh Hell, yeah.

In other news the radiation treatments are going well. I feel a little better each week despite the tightly controlled sunburn. That nasty yet life saving chemo is slowly leaving my system. w00t!