A crate

The packed POD.

Sittin' on a crate at my computer. I'm not in CA. Will be there Thursday. In the meantime I empty my house of stuff and try not to go insane. One help was today's massage - long overdue. It is good or bad that the masseuse said that he'd like to take me home? No, silly, not for bad reasons. But because I had/have so many spots to be worked on. I'm like a textbook. And I'm willing to take the pain to work through stuff. "I could spend a half hour on one piece of your back alone."

Tomorrow's my last training session. Sad... :-( Here's a funny funny photo of him stretching my neck at the end of a session. I took the photo. Where's my head? Hard to see... Big black man attacking me! [I'm a poet and I didn't even realize it.]

I need to shower and then sleep. But I'll just say that bad cell phone stuff does not help a relationship. M did not get either of my voice mails today, and he swears he called me from one of his stops, and I have no message. I was worried about him, especially since he's been saying how he's trying to avoid thunderstorms.

Anyway, I hope everyone is well and will try and catch up. Yeah yeah, said that before.

changeku

one up in the air
one soon on the way with cat
here we come, new life

Why my place sold - the power of photos

Chipping

Pieces of the life are being chipped away.
- Just dropped off the 5 crates of vinyl at the music store. $75 is what we got.
- Couch is mostly out the door, despite having cat scratches in various places.

Went away for the weekend to M's unofficial high school reunion. Mostly it was a nice time - met some really interesting and nice people. And stayed at his high school best friend's house, who married his friend from college, so they know him a long time. And they are great. Only irritating thing that happened was towards the end of the evening a large man in godawful shorts lumbers over to me 'I heard you're the youngest person here! Is that true? [turns around] Lookee here - M's got the youngest person here! And his wife says to me after that something like "You are really young and we really should hate you but you seem like a nice person". Whatever. Of course I thought of the good comebacks later, like "Yeah, I'm the youngest, and I also seem to be the most mature!"

M's right now getting his birthday (February) massage. The man can't relax until everything's done, and we're not settled in CA yet so it's all not done. He relaxed a little this weekend, but we hit the border of our state and we started arguing. Don't ever move. It sucks. Unless it leads to a great new place. Which I'm hoping CA will be - the promised land.

Oh, also another lesson learned - if you're going to be a consultant for your job after you leave it, calculate your hourly rate on more than just your salary. All said and done, I'm a little more than minimum wage - not worth the headache in this instance.

OK, my 5 minute break is over. Hope everyone is well and hope to read stuff soon-ish (may still be a couple weeks).

A bird goodbye

We got all the final crap out of M's house yesterday to my place and cleaned. I ended up getting a migraine but took drugs in time for us to go eat.

But that's not what this is about.

I'm getting sentimental about birds. I'll miss the bird families at my place. Scraggly robin, morning dove pair, whatever that grey bird is that immediately comes over when Billy goes outside.

At M's place, he tended to throw leftover food into the ivy. Kept the squirrels fed, a fox maybe, certainly rabbits, and likely a crow. Several weeks ago we sat on his deck eating and a crow came to get a piece of food in the lawn. He looked at us, and I put some food on the table across the deck. He looked at us, hopped up on the railing, looked at us, hopped some more, looked at us, hopped onto the table, looked at us, and looked sideways at the food, picked it up and flew off. Five minutes later he comes back and looks at us. So we threw some food across the porch, and he goes through the same process.

Yesterday I said goodbye to the crow. I went outside to throw old vegetables out, and immediately the crow flies over and lands in the tree, looking at me. I said hi, and went inside to get something - ended up being a piece of cheese. So I broke it into pieces and left it on the railing, and went inside. The crow flew down, cawed, and then proceeded to pick up as much as he could in his beak, a piece at a time. It was pretty damn funny. And then he flew off.

I thought that was the end so I threw the rest in the back, since we were getting ready to leave. 5-10 minutes later I hear a caw. Look out and he's in the tree. So I ran quickly and got a piece of bread and left it on the railing. Didn't see him take it, but later as I got into the car I heard a caw. Poor guy has lost a source of food. :-)

Sorry still no time to read... :-(

Hi

Here is the POD sucking in M and a helper. You wouldn't believe how packed the thing is - I'll take a photo. And we had to jettison things like the table from his childhood... It was the hottest humidest nastiest day of the year. Thank goodness for people who are still willing to help in such weather. M's closing is Thursday and he is thus in a little bit of a panic. I am trying to remain calm. My house is taking all the stuff we'll donate or freecycle, because we just don't have the time at his. Did a run to the ReStore yesterday in his truck, which is 25 years old and you have to keep the gas going or it stalls - I never in my life so feared red lights. I made it there and back, but stopped short several times because I used the left foot for the brake sometimes.

OK, gotta run.

Nonsense in the midst of nonsense

Billy has some outside time.

A bird complains he is there.

Another bird gathers to complain.

Yet another bird.

Mom, tell them to stop!

Poor High School Me

Found when cleaning today, written on a small piece of paper. Very neatly, I might add.
-------------
I am not special.
I am not unique.
I am unique only in the sense that noone could be exactly like me.
Why, therefore, do I exist?

I have hidden my intelligence so well that even I cannot find it.

I don't believe I can be great.
That's my biggest obstacle.

-------------
And M. wonders where all this stems from and why I cannot let go of it easily/quickly. I've been fighting it all my life. Whew. You think I would have learned by now how to overcome it. I have a lot, but those words are deep inside and hard to dig out and throw away. I've done a pretty good job so far. Yeah yeah, why not just let it all go? Sigh. I think it's because, if I do let it go, what if I'm still not great? Then I would have no excuse because I'm not holding myself back.

Wow. Can't believe I just wrote that. Now, what to do with it.

Where I stopped to buy a pie

[what a horrible depth of field]

You blink and it's Sunday

Last I wrote was Thursday AM. Amazing.

So, Thursday afternoon we had a huge storm come through with torrential rain for at least 10 minutes. Lots and lots of water. And what happened last year when we had lots and lots of water? With my inspection coming up tomorrow/Monday?

Thankfully it did not end like last year. The water didn't really go down but there wasn't enough to make it rise quickly like it did before. I actually went over M's Thurs night (mostly because I had doctor's appointments right near him and it made no sense for me to be home - I had a triple play of doctors...woo hoo!) But I got back and the water had risen. I fully expected to have to do some major correction. But the neighbor recommended their plumber and he came over. He told me he thought he could clear it, and would like to try, and if it didn't work he wouldn't charge me. I looked at him and asked what it meant for it to be clear, because last year they opened it up and look I had the problem again. A bucket of water running down clean.

So, I let him try and in a couple minutes it was open. And I was taught a very valuable lesson by him, as he cleared my steps and cleaned off the drain area. He showed me how much crap really is there and how important it is to clean it every week at least. We got a lint trap in, and he sent a bucket of water down the steps, and even though it looked clean, there was enough crap to almost close up the drain filter he had put in. Sheepish me. A $300 lesson. Oh well - I have paperwork showing my idiocy and the reason for the flood last year and that the carpet will be ok. Hopefully! But, as the neighbor said, it's part of living in these houses - big rain comes you get the sandbag.

Oh, so the cancer dead husband lady wrote on the house two doors down. So my first thought was that she and the guy buying my house would meet and fall in love. If he's not gay. I could be part of FATE for these two! ha.

Wish I could tell you something exciting. OH! M's plane had problems so we had to drive 1 hour away on Sat to look at it and see if he could fly it back home. So we had a forced vacation. I had just borrowed The Help and I sat there devouring it. And then M was indeed able to fly his plane home, so I had to drive to the airport in his great car with great sound system. Blasting Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die album flying down a 4 lane country byway with the windows open.

I stopped at the farm I got married. Just to say goodbye. It was just closing a chapter. Not really any pangs. I'm happy to be moving forward with M, no matter how stressful all this has been, I know it's right.

I finished The Help this morning. Really very good - read it!

Unemployment

It's unemployment!
So, no money coming in.
But lots going out.

I miss you bloggers.
You are my virtual friends.
I'll be back, sometime.

Days on market:: 2

Well friends, seems like low interest rates combined with great presentation and excellent location make for a bidding war. I am not kidding. Unbelievable. I'm still in shock.

Met with my realtor last night and had FIVE offers, all of them starting at asking price with escalation clauses and only one asking for buyer's assistance. And even one 'puppy dog' letter (as termed by my realtor) - the woman whose husband just died of cancer and the yard would be perfect for her dog, etc. I so wanted to go for her, but went instead for the guy who had the highest price, the most excellent credit, (and he's getting 4.75% financing!!!), etc. - who actually so sounds like a clone of my ex husband.

M of course was very excited, glad that he shares in the fruit of all his labor, and I think a tiny little bit miffed that mine is going so quickly - though he is quick to acknowledge that location location location is very important. He didn't see the smile on my face when I looked at the comparison table my realtor made and it started sinking in, and wonders why my voice isn't alive with pleasure.

It's part of my nature and maybe I'll learn new behavior and maybe not. I want to make sure I know what might go wrong and figure out how to mitigate it ahead of time. Yes, I need to stop and take time to celebrate. And also not worry about things I can't control or aren't here yet (such as, and ok, this is funny in a sad way - since the buyer is a single man all of a sudden it came into my head that he could be a registered sex offender and started searching for his name because my neighbors all have kids. Crazy, right? I think so! I got over it though.)

It was also weird since my realtor is 3 houses away from my ex's and my place. To see that house on the hill, and think of the transition. And the moving on. I still haven't decided if I should see him before I go. I want to and I don't want to. I'll figure that out though.

And now the rest of the games begin: inspection, appraisal and all that good stuff. I've never been through this, so it's a little nerve-wracking. But will all hopefully work out in the end. And the long term celebration will start - a new life in CA!

A breath of fresh air

Almost heaven - West Virginia. Took a day off to head out to say goodbye to one of my favorite climbing haunts. Left 'late' Sunday, drove out, did one climb (a 5.5 and very nice), went to dinner/bluegrass, slept on the floor of the other two friends' room, and left 6:15 am Monday morning (two of them pop up at 6 and are ready in 5 minutes to go. the other two of us groan a little but get up). It was so nice to get away. Freeing. Bringing my energy back. And my friend drove the whole time - I love people who love to do that. OK, sometimes I like to drive, but this time around it was perfect. Beautiful views, good music. Well, except for the bluegrass Sat night. The first band was ok, but the most interesting part was the woman's farmer slut outfit (short skirt, cowboy boots, red checked see through blouse with a black bra, and pigtails). The second band hurt. They weren't horrible - five band members and all could play - but they just didn't work well together. And I felt so bad that the sound SUCKED. Really badly. To the point of some feedback. BAD. Luckily none of my friends wanted/needed to stay the whole time.

I was out of telephone range, but I got back and had a message that I had one offer, and was expecting another. !!!!!!!!!! I will have to respond today to whatever offer(s) are there. Makes one think that I priced too low, but we'll see what the offer is! Whew.

OK, though I am unemployed, I have to run. Dr.'s appn't and dropping off donated stuff, and sending out resume, and so on... Will read blogs later... Hope everyone is well!