Coffee All Day and All Night

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Fense

If you know me, you know that I can have an obsessive personality. There are a few things I feel, at times, I cannot live without. One, of course, is music. FensePost will tell you that. Another is coffee. I love the stuff. And I like my drip black.

In Mount Vernon, there are a few good spots to get coffee, most downtown. I prefer the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, as their drip is supreme. Bring your own mug and it’s only $0.97 making it even more appealing when in need of a quick fix.

If I’ll be sitting, I’ll hit Ristretto a few blocks down, which is your typical coffee shop with free internet if you make a purchase. It’s a bit more expensive, but it has the right atmosphere. The bonus there is that come next week they’ll be serving beer and wine, making it an ideal after work spot. More on this business later (got a review started but want to hit the wine and beer first, and take a few photos).

There has to be a point here, right? There is. It all surrounds a mug. Mine is green and I bought it with a $20 Starbucks gift certificate someone gave me a few years back. Somewhat like this one in appearance and size (albeit a bit stockier), mine will keep hot coffee hot for a solid 12 hours.

I hit the Co-op this morning around 9:15, and at 3:45 my coffee tastes just as good as it did six and a half hours ago.

In unrelated news, I heard back regarding the BMW. All goes well, it’ll be in my garage come tomorrow noon.

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Jump FAIL and A No Show

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Fense

One thing I have come to really appreciate about Skagit County is that there is no shortage of good drives. It’s not like Seattle, where my car was as much a burden as it was a necessity; and it was a necessity only due to my residence in Ballard and my work in Columbia City. It was a burden because of traffic. Going places sucked.

Here, especially during the warm (warm, not sweltering hot mind you) summer days, it’s vast stretches of narrow, straight roads sided by flat fields that make driving worthwhile. I can think of nothing better than cranking down the windows on a sunny day, turning up the tunes, and hitting the backroads. Go East and you’ll hit rolling hills, go West and it’s the breathtaking Puget Sound. That’s why my desire to find a summer car has come to dominate my thoughts.

It was on one of these roads that I found myself last Saturday, on my way to see that BMW. Now don’t get me wrong, I am a car fanatic but I know very little about what makes them work. So little, in fact, that my attempt to jump-start the thing ended in a most epic FAIL.

The owner was a no-show, but his son was there. Earlier in the day he texted me and said the car was running and sounded good at 4500 RPM. He also passed along the picture shown above, although I gave it a good edit. Well the engine wouldn’t turn and after we got the jumpers hooked up correctly, I gave it another try to no avail. Only later would I realize that I did two integral things wrong. First, I didn’t start my car to give the charge a boost. Second, I tried to restart the BMW almost immediately.

The car was great, though. For a beater Beamer from the late 60s at the price of $1k, it was perfect but for a few minor (but major in my book) flaws.

1. A bit too much body rust.
2. No radio or speakers.

I hit the guy up later in the day via email and asked if he’d be willing to negotiate the price, then I sent a text on Tuesday. Nothing. So it looks like I may still be on the hunt. She sure was a beautiful 1600 though, despite a fair share of character.

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The Compromise

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Fense

When I bought this house, it came with an add-on from the previous owner. They had cut a section out of the second-level deck, and built a stairway to a second, lower deck which they threw together haphazardly. It was pretty bad. The thing wasn’t parallel with the top deck and they didn’t follow city code. The deck had no support, no breathing room; it bowed in places and sagged in others. Hell, they even built half of it in the damn utility easement! The lower deck also included a hot tub.

Now I’m a fan of the hot tub, having grown up with one and having had one at my Seattle condo. However, I didn’t use them very often. Still, they were a nice commodity to have around for parties and the like. The girlfriend, on the other hand, despises them.

She’s been on me for some time, trying to get me to agree to get rid of the thing. It’s huge – a large 7 foot by 7 foot square beast. Because it’s been sitting in a crappy deck for a few years (and because we tore the deck apart) it’s dirty as hell. And it’s tilted — they didn’t level the cement.

Plus it’s a hot tub with germs and chemicals and who knows what else. She won’t have it.

So I came up with a compromise: I’ll agree to get rid of the hot tub if she’ll let me purchase an inexpensive old car to tinker on and have fun with. She, surprisingly, agreed.

Classic European automobiles from the 1960s and early 1970s, particularly those from Germany (BMW, Mercedes), Sweden (Saab, Volvo) and Italy (Alfa Romeo), have always caught my fancy. Well as my luck would have it, a downtrodden 1968 BMW 1600 is for sale right here in good ol’ Mount Vernon. While I have yet to see it, I’m sure it has seen better days.

Still, in all it’s future glory in my potential possession, it could look like this:

With any luck, I’ll be scrambling to find a way to get it to my house tomorrow.

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Chicken Run / Storage Shed

Posted on June 20, 2010 by Fense

Yesterday was the perfect day for working outside and we took full advantage of it, beginning construction on enclosing the area below the deck. Our goal was to complete half of the project and we came fairly close, securing half of the structural poles, completing the attachment of chicken wire to the poles, and adding lattice to a few of the panels.

Here’s how it all looks thus far:

The lattice at the lower end of the staircase didn’t turn out too well, so we haven’t attached it yet, in hopes that we can re-cut it to fit with the section attached to the upper half.

Here’s the progress from another angle:

That was yesterday. Today I dug the remaining holes, but rain kept me from doing much else. Hopefully the weather will cooperate tomorrow and the rest of this week and we’ll be able to make more headway on the project before next week.

For fun, here are the chickens:

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Why On The Fense?

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Fense

I created this blog some time ago as a personal aside to my other blogging venture, FensePost. With a nickname like “Fense” it only seemed natural to dub a personal blog “On The Fense.” Clever, eh? Two years and several failed launch attempts later, a light bulb switched on. The double meaning of “On The Fense” conveys the insecurity about a decision, the question Did I make the right choice? That, coupled with my recent past of relocating from Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood to the heart of Mount Vernon, and the sheer difference between city life and small town life — it seemed to fit. Added bonus: there don’t seem to be many blogs in this area covering, well, this area in any sort of depth.

Synergy achieved. Goals and objectives created. (Don’t be surprised at the technical talk — I received a Masters in Business from Washington State University back in 2006.)

While I am completely satisfied with everything in my life, and have made it a life goal to always be completely satisfied with everything in my life, and to a great extent have achieved this goal, it seemed only fitting to take it to the next step. Thus, “On The Fense” is to become a proving ground for someone who doesn’t really need proving. Maybe that’s not the right terminology. It will be a stomping ground for the explorer, a grand attempt to discover a bit of the underground in this place and others, the effort of a self-described homebody to step out the front door on occasion and become a bit of a socialite, and for one who has never been great at meeting people outside the digital world do just that.

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Yet Another Beginning

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Fense

As a young professional, settling down in a new, fairly small town has its challenges. One isn’t familiar with their surroundings and thus it is difficult to meet new people — especially those with like minds. Coming from a large city, albeit the nearby Seattle, the change can be great.

Mount Vernon is a quaint little town, typically friendly and open. It has it’s problems, but everywhere has problems. Underneath the issues which tend to dominate news is a lovely little place filled with well-kept secrets and an untapped heritage. My goal here is to do some digging and explore this place a little; maybe provide some depth into a truly hidden gem or two.

The plan is to be flexible and informal. This blog will span both personal and professional — I hope to cover outings with my friends in Bellingham and Seattle, but the majority will cover Skagit County. And hopefully I’ll meet some amazing people along the way.

Feel free to leave a comment or feedback if you like what you see. They’ll all be moderated, and I’m more than willing to approve critical comments as long as they’re constructive. Let the journey begin!

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