In 1908 Theodore Roosevelt was the President, the Titanic had not yet sunk, the Model T first rolled off of the Ford Assembly lines, and my house was built. On a historical timeline, the construction of the house that I now call home happened closer to the emancipation proclamation—45 years—than the moon landing—61 years. I have no pithy statement to make about that fact, I just had to share it because it’s crazy. The only thing crazier? Me. For willingly buying a house that’s 113 years old.
But the pandemic has done weird things to all of our brains and so I find myself saying things like “it’s surprisingly well-maintained for its age!” as I peel wallpaper and curse the former homeowners for their preference in paint colors. Did you know that in the ‘70s it was cool to cover original hardwood trim with baby blue paint? Neither did I! Forget rings of a tree—the real way to find the age of something is to scrape through layers of paint.
Having come from a far newer home before buying this house, I had become accustomed to luxuries like level floors and square walls but I’ve traded in all of that for something far more etherial: character. Old houses OOZE character. They also apparently ooze wasp nests in the walls and bats that wake you up at 2 AM but don’t let that distract you from the character. But with great character comes great responsibility, and I feel a pressure that whatever changes or improvements I make have to be good. And that desire for things to be good is mentally butting up against one of my other lifelong commitments: for things to be cheap.
I’m an above average DIYer—not to brag, but not all of my tools are Menards brand—but this house has pushed me to the limits. And adding to all of the chaos of various home projects is the fact that for some reason my kids still demand things like food, clothing, and attention. I’ve discovered a niche genre of social media accounts dedicated to moving into and renovating old homes, but for some reason I can’t seem to find any made by people who aren’t A) independently wealthy, and/or B) parents to 0-2 kids.
So I’m making peace with the reality that there are some things I can do—new bathroom fixtures! Kitchen backsplash! Paint!—and some things I can’t—like climbing 30 foot ladders to fix soffits or installing new garage doors. And I’m making peace with the fact that not doing some things means those things won’t be cheap, but having someone else do the work comes with the fringe benefit of me not being locked into home improvement projects until my kids graduate high school. Old Teddy R. might have been President when this house was built, but I’d like to have my work done before the end of the Biden administration.
To the links!
My wife and I LOVED WandaVision when it came out this fall, and part of our Friday ritual was immediately watching YouTube recaps when it was done. The best one? This guy over at ScreenCrush. Week after week I’d be amazed at all of the connections and deep dives into comics and pop culture.
And all of that is why I was so disappointed by Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Sure it was full of action, but it was missing something deeper. Even with that letdown, though, I’m still looking forward to Loki.
Staying on the Disney+ train, The Bad Batch premiers TODAY (it is May 4th, after all) and I can’t wait for this extension of the Clone Wars universe.
Sports are big business and that means there’s all kinds of licensing restrictions on highlights and broadcast deals to navigate and it’s a whole mess. Luckily, there are some savvy sportscasters out there who have found a way past the firewall: MS Paint. These might not be the best highlights, but they’re for sure the most memorable.
Also, the NBA playoffs are on the horizon and you may be hearing more about the “Play in Tournament.” I love this. I know it’s just something being bolted onto an already weird year because of Covid, but I need every league to adopt this idea STAT. Honestly, it’s probably the only way my Bengals will ever make the playoffs again.
Because I hate my mental health, I’m back on Twitter more these days. But there are glimpses of sunlight through the rainclouds there and this thread about reverse scamming a scammer is one of them. It’s a few months old now, but some content is just EVERGREEN. The big takeaway? Use burner accounts, dummy.
As always, I love hearing from you all about any cool stuff you’ve seen around the internet lately or hobbies/interests you want to share with the world! And as usual, if you like this newsletter, just go ahead and forward it to a friend. At this point any email that isn’t spam email feels like Christmas. Go forth and be Santa Claus.