Planet perks
We were doing the usual Saturday thing today, having lunch with Janel the bartender downtown and someone had the nerve to actually sit there and review financial crapola. I mean to say that I think that The Pensioner has plenty of time to review financial crapola when The Breadwinner is off, you know, bringing home the bacon bread and does not need to haul a bunch of charts and graphs down to the Griz and sit there working on it at the bar, leaving his long-suffering Crabby Bitch to do the xword on her phone and listen to a fan of the Trumpian Bombasty at great volume on her other side. (Actually, I have no clue where this male specimen falls on the polly-tickle spectrum but he sure was obnoxious about sports teams. Oh, it’s okay. I was chortling to myself every time he opened his great big trap. I do hope Janel managed to reunite him with the plaid cashmere scarf he dropped on the floor…)
I didn’t really want to talk about financial crapola today. TP will say that I don’t want to talk about it ever. That’s only partially true but that’d be a whole ‘nother blahg entry and not one that I want to write about tonight. One thing we both seemed to be able to agree on? Living on The Planet Ann Arbor is wonderful! He is right! I could go on and on and on (and on) about what a great place this small great lakes area city is but I won’t. But I will tell you about what we encountered on our way home from downtown today!
I have been walking by the cute little house in the top photo for more years than I am strong enough to count. It is pretty much across the street from Slauson Middle School and two of my Ann Arbor cuzzints went to Slauson back when it was a junior high. They lived a couple blocks up and just around the corner, so when we came down from the yooperland to visit, my cousin Pooh and I would walk past this house on our way downtown. I don’t really remember the house from then. I’m sure we were talking about boyz or clothes/makeup or prime number sieves or whatever.
I *have* noticed the house about a billion times since I have *lived* here on The Planet Ann Arbor as an adult. I can’t *exactly* remember when people started hanging Tibetan prayer flags but it was somewhere in the 1990s. The house was built in the 1870s and a daughter of the man who built it died only a couple of years ago at the age of 101. There’s a long story about that and the relationship between former and current owners. Talk about a wormhole!
So, we were walking up Washington today going home and the Himalayan Lodge was having a garage sale and there was this beautiful rickshaw out in the driveway. The current owner of the house had been planning to give people rides around the Slauson Middle School parking lot in the richshaw but it is frickin’ cold here and there is intermittent snow/ice everywhere. If you didn’t follow the link(s), the current owner now lives in a different house and she is now renting this one out on AirBnB. We were (I was) reluctant at first to take her up on the offer to tour the house. I think I have been walking by that place for so many years that I felt funny about entering someone’s private space. But it’s now an AirBnB and the owner doesn’t live there and the owner was soooo friendly, we took a tour. I’m sure it doesn’t look much like it did in the 1870s or probably even when the current owner bought it but love it!
December 10th, 2016 at 11:42 pm
I hate dealing with financial stuff, especially when I just want to relax and chill. 🙂 It is great to love where you live. I do too, most of the time. Going to be super cold here though and we’re not used to that. Ack.
December 11th, 2016 at 10:33 am
My third (or fourth?) grade teacher lived in the middle of that block on Eighth, same side. I was confused at first, because I was thinking of 9th street which runs into the main entrance at Slauson, and I didn’t remember that house. Good memories!
December 11th, 2016 at 1:52 pm
OK – I was also confusing 9th with Eighth. But I spent a lot of time in the house on the corner of Ninth and Washington (East side of Ninth), which then should have been right next door to this house. I went onto Google Maps to look at the house, and !There is a new house between my friends house on the corner and the house described. They did have a really big yard, so I guess that explains it. There was a huge tree that lost the top half during some storm where the new house is located. (And their grandparents lived right next door on Ninth Street)
Blast from the past.
December 12th, 2016 at 8:15 am
I think Heather is the woman who owns this house. I’ve met her a couple times at parties. She’s a real traveler in regards to Nepal. I didn’t know this was an AirBnB now. makes sense though since she has that store on Main St. now.