Blog of Cris Koonce

We live sort of in the country.  The houses aren't at all close together.  Most folks have at least 3 acres of land.  Bill likes to say, "We have acreage," because we have over an acre... a whopping 1.02 acres to be exact.  We live near the end of a deadend street, so there is very little traffic.

We know most everyones' dogs - many by name.  They wander around and don't bother anyone.  We keep water in a bowl on the deck for them - especially when it's hot out, we pet them, play with them, treat them much as if they were our own.  We consider them family. We keep our own dogs in our back yard, when they aren't in the house.  Our pups go off too far and stay gone too long.  ...but that's another story all together.

Our neighbors a couple of houses down are a young family with 3 kiddos, 4 dogs and 2 black cats.  One of their dogs is a yellow lab looking male dog named Moses.  To look at Moses, one knows he has a definite story and is concerned that he has had a hard life.  Well, that is until he found his current humans.  I don't yet know the full story of Moses, though I hope to one day soon.

Read more: A 3-Legged Dog Named Moses

Freddie

My office is in the finished attic of our home.  It has a low, 7 foot ceiling that is vaulted on two sides. Even though it is ducted and air conditioned, our area of Texas gets pretty hot during the summers and the air conditioning (AC) units can't always keep up.  After all, heat rises, and my office is the highest part of the house.  And being a finished attic, there isn't much wall/ceiling between the inside of my office and what is the exterior roof of the house.

So we bought a small AC window unit and it does a great job.  Between it and the ceiling fan circulating the air, it is quite bearable.

Because we usually take the AC unit out of the window each winter, there isn't a permanent air tight seal around it.  Don't get me wrong, we have sealed it, it just isn't air tight.

When working in my office at night, I turn off the overhead lights and use one or two lamps.  One is a table top lamp near my desk and the other is a floor lamp several feet away.  They are square, oriental-style lamps and emit a pleasant diffused glow - perfect for late night work.

Even though the light is soft, it is also near the window and attracts flying insects.  The window unit is sealed well enough to keep out the big bugs, but the tiny gnat sized guys and the itty bitty moths still manage to find their way in.  Then they go directly to the lamps or to the low ceiling directly above the lights.

This brings us to Freddie.

Read more: Freddie - My Office Spider