Aaron Ewer
Aaron Ewers thoughts about everything

So far, the kids in the neighborhood have enjoyed fireworks for three straight nights. On Wednesday some of the anxious ones started lighting off fireworks in their backyards and driveways. My lawn is littered with spent bottle rockets from the guys across the street. Thanks guys.

On Thursday the amusement park across the lake shot off a huge fireworks display. It lasted at least 20 minutes and had lots of loud bangs, which drove my dogs nuts the whole show. We couldn’t see anything from our own yard because of all the trees. That would have taken away a little of the sting of 20 minutes of barking hysteria. But no.

Then on Friday, the chamber of commerce sponsored their own big show downtown. We watched that on TV, as I am sick to death of crowds and drunk rednecks. It might have been a great show if you saw it live, but on TV it kinda stunk.

I am sure that we will have more neighborhood fireworks on Saturday night. Whoopee.

Last night I covered a carrier route for someone who had an emergency and couldn’t report to work. It was an interesting experience to be driving around the neighborhoods in the “Land of Excess.” I have to say that you can learn quite a bit about people by observing their homes at 4:00 am when they are sleeping or away.

This time of year one of the hard parts of a carrier’s job is keeping track of who has gone away on vacation and who has come back. I had to start a chart on a white board to keep up with all these wealthy travelers.

The hardest part of this job for someone new to the route is hunting and finding the right houses and driveways. Even in this “Land of Excess” there are people who use the cheapest stick on numbers they can find to put their house number on their mailbox, and it is interesting to see over the course of a few weeks which numbers fall off and which homeowners care not to replace the numbers.

Many mailboxes, the primary way to determine a home’s address, have vines and flowers growing up and over the the post and the box which completely cover or obstruct the numbers. Some boxes have no numbers at all - the homeowner has chosen to nail individual brass or painted numbers onto their garage door or adjacent to the entrance door. Try finding those numbers from the street in the dark and in the rain!

The state needs to pass a law requiring all buildings to be located on a named street or road (not just a highway route number) and to display their numbered address in a manner that will be visible from the road, in the dark and in the rain. The numbers need to be large, bright, reflective and easy to see by a driver coming from both directions of the road. In case of an emergency, this could easily save lives.

It seems like this year my allergies have lasted weeks longer than usual. I’ve been sneezing and having sinus headaches ever since the temperatures hit 60 degrees. I’ve always been sensitive to tree pollen, but now I’m concerned that there are other things in the air that bother me, too.

My son has suggested getting an air purifier for the house, and after going through one more box of allergy pills I have to agree with him that it is worth a try. He found a website that gives ratings of air purifiers and we took a look at it tonight to try to decide which one would best suit our needs.

An air purifier would help with my allergies and also help reduce the sensitivity to the smoke that wafts upstairs occasionally when my son has friends over in the family room who smoke in the house - even though we keep asking them not to. So every once in a while smelling smoke in the house is an issue and a purifier would take care of that for me, too.

With the housing market in the tank for most of the country, this is a tough time to be a real estate agent or mortgage broker. I hope these people have set back some money to help them ride out the tough times. But realistically, I’m sure that like most people they spend their money as fast as it comes in.

My neighbor is a real estate agent and has been doing well by focusing on just new homes by one particular builder. The builder has several projects underway and is known for helping first time buyers get into a house. They work together to coach the buyers through the loan application process and even self finance some people that might have problem credit and need a year to fix their credit report.

As a thank you gift to her home buyers, she came up with a really cool idea - customized Gift Cards. These cards are actually VISA gift cards and she has them printed with her business card photo and information, then presents them to the couple at closing as a nice thank you.

This summer might turn into a staycation for us - the cost of gas is still going up and my fun money part of the budget is drying up pretty fast.

The wife would like to just stay at home and have a little staycation instead of an expensive trip to the beach. We can fix up the backyard and maybe go on a few Harley rides to the parks and natural areas that we never seem to get around to seeing.

I’d like to put in a small pond and fountain in the backyard, with a swing and garden area for some quiet moments in the early morning or late evening when either the wife or I want to get away from it all. I’m even thinking about buying a couple of marble statues to make the garden area a little more formal and classy.

I found a website that has a great variety of marble statues and figurines - from classic to modern. I liked one that I saw and then I noticed that the same site has fountains, too. They also have planters, urns, and ornate marble fireplaces. Now I’m getting all kinds of great ideas for landscaping the yard and then we can have a year round staycation - right at home.