bragging rights.

so far my favorite part of buying an old busted super hottness house
has got to be the old house scavenger hunting;.
we've been playing a couple of super-fun games...
the best one?
a little nose-knows guessing game called:
what's that smell??
old house folks will know what i'm talking about....
it's like trying to find a specific old lady in a labyrinthine thrift store;
moth balls, old wood, and the remnants of the skeevy stoners
make the game SO much more fun.
and,
it almost always goes into extra innings.
wherever there's a closet with a secret cubby,
or a walk in with a false wall,
there's a whole new round to be played!
nice.

one of the other 'nother little hide-and-seeks we've been rockin'
has sadly come to an end.
i offered up a crisp dollar bill to anyone
who could find the switch that turned on the lamp post outside.
it wasn't the meager reward,
so much as the bragging rights that increased in esteem with every fruitless search.
the wiring leads to the second floor from the outside,
but does it really?
it quickly became the loch ness monster of electricity.
sightings and rumours abounded,
and many, many valiant attempts at concrete proof were made,
by a whole mess of savvy homestead searchers.
but,
right up until this morning there was no success.
that is,
until i went down into the basement.
playing an early round of what's that smell ? an' that.
yep.
the basement.
nobody thinks to check the basement for a lightwitch that works out of doors.
unless you're using your 'old house' brain.
that's the one that defies all logic and rationale.....
basement equals outside, i guess.
and of course it's one helluva creepy basement.
of course it is.
and for the record, that smell,
the old basement plus mothballs plus rust smell,
is even more disgustingly unpleasant than the congealed grease in the fan smell.
barely.

i put the homo in homeowner, ya'll;
never quiet, never soft.....