The gingerbread house

Well, look whose neighbourhood made Atlas Obscura.

This monstrosity lives on the block south of me. The owner keeps adding more and more kitsch to the jumble and, to my eye, slyly infringing on the houses next to him, this being a semi-detached. Also he keeps an outdoor radio playing all day. And, not to be all yuppie-home-owner-mind, I have to wonder who will buy this thing once he's gone? Houses here now go for a million plus (mine will finance my retirement home, come the day) but there's a limit to what location, location, and location will bring.

Ah well. Not my problem.

(no subject)

The weirdness of my house's heating is-- weird. As in, record breaking cold temps, thermostat set at 18C, upstairs is blistering hot (yay new furnace?) downstairs is wear-a-fleecy chilly, which it should be if thermostat is 18. Can't stand the loud THUMP the funace makes every time it shuts off- and never thesame time: sometimes right after, sometimes two minutes later-- so turn thermostat down to 15. Three hours later, downstairs, feet turn to ice. Go upstairs and upstairs is still take-off-fleecy hot. Block up all upstairs vents and maybe downstairs will warm up. And wonder if installers may have closed vents in the basement, except that they had to put in new exhaust pipes because the specs have changed on these things, and I don't know where the valves are anymore.

Snowed Monday, today is Friday, should be safe to take walker to the supermarket. No. There are still four titsonnabull frontages that can't be arsed to do their front steps let alone the sidewalk, or who cleared front walkway so they could reach their car and ignored the sidewalk, or who showed willing by clearing a foot wide path which of course isn't enough for anything with wheels. I so wish I was able-bodied because I yearn to take my ice chopper to those stretches. But at least the corners hve been graded so I didn't have to cope with alps upon alps arising.