Our Olde House: October 2026

Miss Sherry and I had fun at the Clinton Car Show with our Charger. Before that Saturday, I asked the staff organizers if we could get a blue and white car to park next to my red car for a patriotic picture, and I was given ‘permission’ to organize it myself, without any offer to help. Since I did not have the means or inclination to ask other car owners to join me, I gave up on the idea. However, on the day of the show, I happened to be directed to park behind a car that was blue, and a white car arbitrarily parked behind me. I love it when a plan comes together.

I had some hats and books out for people to take, and a few hats were repurposed to someone’s head. My blue car neighbor invited me and the Charger to the Scarecrow Car Show in Madison this Saturday; we are planning to go and have fun. In Clinton, Our Olde Car did not win any prizes, but we did get a parking spot in the shade which we considered to be very valuable.

An area in the backyard is getting holes in the ground that are several inches deep. I am guessing that the deep roots of the oak tree that fell on the house are rotting away and causing the surface dirt to collapse. At first, I thought the holes were just mole tunnels, but now they are too large and too deep for that. I have dumped about fifteen bags of dirt on top of these holes during the past year, but I still have not reached the bottom. I will keep at it.

The wallpaper that I put in my bathroom has pretty much taken leave of all glue that previously held it to the wall. I really need to replace it with something more permanent, like the flooring I was thinking about before but have not done anything about yet. I thought a teak look would be nice, sort of like a sauna with the marble shower and floor, but I did not find any flooring in teak after a very brief search.

I asked Miss Sherry if she could find something in teak on Amazon and she set off looking. Of course she found something, very beautiful teak veneer panels that the manufacturer is very proud of; they are also not flooring sizes but large panels. I need to rethink my installation strategy to minimize the amount of waste generated by going around the window, doors and medicine cabinet. I need to plan how to fit the panels on each of the five walls; I am still thinking about exactly how to do this.

The mystery of our hall receptacle turning itself off and on was somewhat revealed by accident. I decided to replace the physical receptacle again while the light fixture plugged in was off, but before I did that, I checked the receptacle with a volt meter to be absolutely certain that the wires were not hot. When I plugged in the meter it read about 20 volts, apparently not enough voltage to make the lamp work but probably enough voltage to ruin my day.

Low voltage seemed like a clue, but when I searched for possible causes of low voltage all of the answers referred to the entire circuit, and not to just one outlet. The circuit breaker was the favored cause but that would affect all of the outlets on it, so that is not it. I suppose the physical receptacle that was new a few years ago could be at fault, or maybe the physical wire going to that receptacle; since the wiring for this outlet goes under the house, the actual wire will be the last thing I, meaning someone else, will check.

I was introduced to another form of Mississippi wildlife completely by surprise, merely by brushing against a bush in the side yard. Since I am not afraid of trees or bushes, I did not think anything about it until an hour later when I was sitting inside the house and my back was itching. I scratched my back and was feeling for ticks, which I thought was a possibility. I did not feel any ticks, just what seemed like little specks of dirt. After scratching these specks of dirt for a few minutes I asked Miss Sherry to take a look just for fun; that is where the fun ended.

Apparently, there are some infinitesimal specks of red bugs that live here, which are called chiggers. I had never seen chiggers before, and after Miss Sherry spent ten minutes extracting a herd of them from my back, I really hope never to see them again. After this encounter, I am not exactly afraid of bushes, but I do avoid touching them. I thought mosquitoes were bad, but these little red devils are a thousand times worse.