A note to my very sweet (but slightly overachieving) neighbors:

Please note that the assorted crabgrass and weeds have now been trimmed to a more manageable height. I realize the yard isn’t likely to impress you–or hell, even to placate you–but I hope you at least appreciate the gesture on my part. I even swept some of my trimmings off the street and disposed of that pile of leaves by the garage.

That said, please don’t look on this as a sign that I will be spending the rest of my weekends this spring and summer vacuuming the grass and steam-cleaning the driveway, as you apparently do, nor do I need a suggestion about which specific Disney animators you hire to make sure you have only the most attractive birds in your trees. Priorities, you know? I’m not a yard person, and this is the best I can am willing to do.

Thank you,
David

Ever re-read something you’ve posted and realized it didn’t come across at all as you’d intended? Yeah, me too. More than usual lately, as it happens.

The Church
Under the Milky Way (1988)

No, really. Pair Networks (based in Pittsburgh, by the way) may be the only company I’ve dealt with in the past decade that has never disappointed me. They are so incredibly amazing that I’m ticked pink to pay a (relatively small) premium to use their web hosting service rather than suffer through the nightmare of some others I’ve dealt with. I’ve been using Pair for more than ten years and the difference between them and other hosts is unbelievable.

Why? Because their service is scalable and user-friendly for techies and non-techies alike. And because they have kick-ass tech support that (a) is completely based in Pittsburgh, (b) is staffed by people who speak English, and (c) exudes competence and is inclined to actually do something when you have a problem rather than just read from a fucking script.

We love yinz guys…