The guy who runs my local bank branch is another crypto asshole. He took the job because his family told him he was becoming a psychopath and his shrink told him to get a job. So now he runs a bank branch in a shitty part of town in a Safeway. True? Don't know. All crypto people are liars.

Through interesting coincidence (all crypto people are liars) he started renovating a house about the time I started renovating a house. Initially it was in Edmonds, now it's in Marysville. He's been having some issues, much as I've been having issues.

He told me yesterday that the foundation of his house was damaged to the point where he decided to tear it down. After spending $250k.

Now - all crypto people are liars. I've been doubting the veracity of his statements for a while - I grew up with enough damaged people that we just called them "pathologicals" and moved on. There are a lot more pathologicals out there than most people think. So it's whatever?

But I mean I've got hardwood going down.

I passed inspection on the big hole in the middle of the house.

Two bedrooms are painted.

We're about to button up the upstairs.

We're about to put in the kitchen cabinets.

There just aren't... that many big things left.

It sucks! There's so much uncertainty. You think YOU freaked out when we bombed Iran. I actually know something about it! And I mean I'm so jumpy now that I feel BAD when something good happens. I scored about $30k worth of Lista workstations for - wait for it - $300 because audio companies up here are dying left and right and there aren't that many audio companies left to pick over the bones of other audio companies. And it mostly just left me shell-shocked because I was just supposed to meet with an electrician on Friday because my former electrician is now working for the Port and my new electrician didn't show and then a friend mentioned his neighbor and he didn't come out for two days and then he did and he mentioned that "some audiophile company" was packing up and he was looking at workbenches and I should too and I went there and it was bloody Audiocontrol and they had like 80 employees up here and now production is moving to South Carolina or some shit and I had a plan! Didn't need $30k worth of Lista! But they're powered, they're wired, they have a 1000lb load capacity and I went and got a u-haul and needed to grab my straps and dragged my father-in-law down because he was bored and they closed at 1pm for some reason so I had to bring the u-haul back and try again in the morning and holy shit I grabbed a u-haul full of Lista and it took a damn forklift and three guys to load these things up but I got them all home and it only took two guys and furniture dolly to offload them and they just fucking disappeared into the shop but I had to stop down from a day of pulling my own trim because my normal guy's daughter is in town and also he needs to move his 36 BMWs by the end of the month or his uncle gets evicted and the end result is I scored multiple thousands of dollars of kit but it left me with fucking trauma

And I mean... I was gonna go to Home Depot, buy some adjustable height benches and rim the walls with leftover 2x4s because it was cheap and easy.

Now?

The lurking menace at the lower left of that photo is a set of cheesy toast makers, by the way. When Trump first started playing tariff games I figured buying luxury German appliances should be done before they got too expensive. And then because I'm a bottom-feeder I checked scratch'n'dent. Turns out Miele discontinued "white" about a year ago so I saved - wait for it - eight thousand dollars. Now set aside the fact that Lista was nowhere near the budget? There's... a substantial discount reflected in this photo. But the sheer uncertainty and shenanigans involved in converting imaginary money into real durable goods has been taking its toll.

One fun thing. We're almost to the point where the driveway can go back together. It was one of the first things destroyed. And in order to figure out how I want to deal with a certain section with too much asphalt, we decided a little pond would be fun. So I bought a Sunset "ponds and water gardens" book from 1968 off eBay for like $4.

Several of the photos in it are credited to the same guy who designed the landscaping of this house, the father of the guy who built it.

Felt like the universe was giving its seal of approval.