Hand off

Mike handed off the keys, and the house, to his chosen realtor, and went home.

It's done.  Now, we let fate take its course.

The house is listed at $155K.  It needs to be updated, as it still has light fixtures, cabinets, (super ugly) sheet vinyl flooring, (hideous) wallpaper, and some appliances from 1972.

The folks added a small additional room off of the back of the house some time in the intervening years, which became their tv room.  I guess they wanted the living room to be more formal.

Anyway, fingers crossed that it sells quickly, rather than sitting empty for ages.

In the news of our house, we figured out that the back porch light was disconnected by the electrician and never reconnected to the new circuits.

Dave thought the bulb burned out, but he changed it and.... still no light.

Dave took off work twice this past week to wait for the electriian to come back.  He cancelled the first time, and he was three and a half hours late the second time, but he finally came and fixed it.

I wrote out a really big check and plopped it into the mail.

We have been discussing the possibility of replacing my car, right?

Well, this past week, I got a letter from my dealership saying that they want to have my Mazda 2 for a trade, and would be willing to deal in order to get it, while keeping my payments the same as they are now for a newer vehicle.

Perfect timing! 

SO, I went on line and looked at the dealership's website.  I picked out a couple of good ones, and settled on which car I was going to test drive.  I had in my mind the $$ amount shown on their site.

Surprisingly, both were 2018 year models that had not yet sold.  I figured that was also playing in my favor.

I made an appointment, and we went.

I told the salesman which model of car I was most interested in.

Lo, and behold, what a cooincidence, the salesman brought up the exact cars I had researched on line, the more expensive one, with more gadgets....and the one I had my eye on.

So far, my plan was going perfectly.

We looked at the pricey one, and then we test drove the one I had settled on.

We came back, and he wrote up an offer.

It was $3K HIGHER than the price I had seen on line before we arrived. 

Okay, thought I, he wants to haggle now.

SO, having set my max price in my mind, I told HIM what my max monthly payment was, and he said "Sorry."

WHAT?? 

A car dealer who doesn't want to sell a car??  NO HAGGLING??

I could have argued and said "Wait a second.... why does the car show a price $3K LESS on your website, but you offer it to ME at THIS price"

Nope....

SO, we came home!  The Little Green Crash Magnet is still mine!

Also yesterday, Dave gave up on trying to sell his bass guitar, hard case, and amp on line, and drove it over to Guitar Center.  They bought the whole kit and kaboodle, and gave him cash.

Now that's out of the second bedroom, and will make getting in there this afternoon to continue the "home re set" a little easier.

We will also go visit Pop, stop at Kohl's and get Dave some new shoes, and get the back yard mowed.  It will be a pretty busy day.  Best get going on it.

Wiring and spring cleaning

Our home re-wiring job was finally completed this last week.

What a HUGE relief that is for us.

It was the most expensive home update we have done, which is why it was saved for last, but it was probably the one we needed to do the most.  AND... now IT'S DONE!

No more knob and tube wiring, no more un-grounded outlets, no more flickering lights, no more "buzz" when we flip a light switch.

We got a couple of outlets put in where they make sense.

The house still isn't up to code, in terms of the modern requirements for the number of outlets per room, but that would have cost us a LOT more money, including a permit fee.

We just changed what we had to modern wiring, and added those two convenient outlets.

We got the antique desk/secretary from the Bowen house converted into our home bar, and it's PERFECT!

The glass door book case will be used to replace the book case that is in the bed room, which we got at a thrift store.

This morning, we got up and had breakfast, and started right away on our plan for today.

We started with The Great Book Purge.

We went through all of our book cases, and chose which books to take to Half Price Books to sell.

Getting something for them is better than getting nothing for them by taking them to a thrift store!!

The most difficult part of this process, for me, was to clear out all of my massage and bodywork books, as well as a huge number of herbal medicine books.  I sincerely don't need them anymore.  Maybe someone else can use them.

Since the vast majority of the books removed from the house were mine, I got to keep the $85 we got.

I plan to buy some really good sandals like my podiatrist recommended.

Anyway, last weekend, Dave put his exercise bike out at the curb, since he stopped using it last year, and it was in the living room.

Then, today, we moved my elliptical to the guest room.  Since it's walking weather again, I won't be using it for a while, and it was ALSO in the living room.

We used to work out in front of the tv, and this was the only room we had space for the exercise equipment when the guest room was my office.

SO.... there is now room for the Bowen rocking chair, and the living room looks like a living room instead of a gym!

Next weekend, we will continue this huge "home re-set."

The book case in the bedroom will be emptied and taken out to the shed, where it will be quite useful, and the glass door book case from the Bowen house will be set up in its place.

The glass door book case is currently in the middle of the guest room....making the guest room a bit chaotic right now, with the elliptical, and other items just in there haphazardly!

After the book case swap, we will then be able to get into the guest room and finish re arranging in there!

That will tie up the ends of our massive spring cleaning/re-arranging project, which was brought about by the wiring getting done, and by the arrival of the furniture items from the Bowen house!!

Dave's brother Mike is STILL here, still staying at the house, and overseeing the repairs and painting.

The house is EMPTY except for his air mattress and personal effects.

We will be having dinner with him tonight, and he leaves town, at last, on Wednesday.

He has really stepped up and gotten things done beautifully. 

The sale of valuable items from the house, and the garage sale, has paid for all of the repairs, painting, and new carpet.

Amazing.

When he leaves, he will hand the keys to the realtor.

Dave is THRILLED that he never has to set foot in that house ever again.

I finally got my little green car back from the body shop. It was fun to drive that super fancy Cadillac for a couple of weeks, but I am very happy to have my car back.

Dave still wants to ask my dealership if they'll allow me to trade my car off to something bigger, but I think I owe too much on this one yet.  We'll see.  I guess it can't hurt to ask.

Dave has had a HORRIBLE cough for the past week, along with lots of congestion.

The re wiring stirred up TONS of ancient dust in the house, and he was here the whole time.  Plus, the yard guy came last weekend and did a spring clean up of the yard, and Dave was out with him for part of the time.

His allergies have really gotten bad.  I told him he should call the doc in the morning to see about getting a codeine cough syrup so he can sleep at night...... well, so we BOTH can....because DAMN.

Okay, I am off to finally get my "normal" chores finished, and to throw a casserole in the oven for our lunches next week.

Spring has sprung in OKC, and it's been lovely outside, with some rain, and light breezes.  I wish it would last!!

Clearing out

Dave's brother has done SO much work at Pop's house.

This past week, he rented a FULL sized dumpster, and Dave and Eric went to the house on Wednesday, and they all worked ALL DAY filling that dumpster with two lifetime's worth of junk.

Mike says there may be enough for another half dumpster next week, after this weekend's garage sale.

I am hoping no one buys the depression glass pitcher and glasses set.  I will happily adopt it, since I identified it for Mike, and he was able to place a value on it.

Last I heard, he had made almost $2,000.00 in garage sale funds by yesterday afternoon.

Larry and Denise came down from Kansas to help.  Finally. Now that the hardest work is done (sorry, I can't help but be snarky).

With the garage sale, along with the sale of Pop's cameras, HAM radio equipment, and Mom's valuable collectibles, the house painting, repairs, and re-carpeting are being paid for without touching Pop's savings.

This is a wonderful thing, since his new residence costs ALL of his monthly retirement income, and then some.  Just living there will remove money from the trust savings every month.

I think Dave might be ready to go visit Pop soon.  He hasn't seen him since that first weekend at the new place.  He really needed a break.

We got our hoped-for antique secretary desk, and have converted it into our home bar.  It's perfect!  We also got the rocking chair, and a glass front book case we did not anticipate.

It will be used to replace a cheap particle board book case that I got when I lived in the condo.

Eric and his friend moved the big items for us.

I need to go through all of my massage therapy and spiritual books and clear some out.  I have made good money at Half Price Books doing that in the past.

I am holding on to many of the books for sentimental reasons, and really never look  at them much.  They need a new life with someone who will use them.

If I clear enough stuff out, we can dispose of the thrift store book shelf in the bedroom, too, and make some extra room in there.

Dave is making noises about getting a new bed.  I'm not convinced yet..that's a lot of money.

Anyway, it's good to change things up occasionally.  Moves the energy around, and opens the way so that other, deeper changes can feel comfortable when they arise.

My car finally got picked up and taken to the body shop.  The other party's insurance is paying for me to drive a FREAKING CADILLAC CTS!

We are having a great deal of fun with this top of the line, ALL options included, 2019 luxury car.

It has a brain capable of knowing that it's cold out, so it should turn on the heated steering wheel.  Or it's warm enough for the a/c to come on, and make the car a perfect 72 degrees.

And it buzzes the left side of the driver's seat if another car is too close on the left side.... or it buzzes the right side of the seat if there's a car coming up too close on the right.

There are so many gadgets and gizmos we don't know the half of them yet!

My car was damaged pretty badly, and won't be ready to pick up until the end of next week.

I reviewed my outstanding loan balance, and there is likely no way we can trade the car in yet.  I wonder how many more times it will be hit before I can trade it off on my tank.

Today, I have a yoga and traditional Ayurvedic lifestyle class I am going to for 2 hours.  Should be interesting.

Other than that, some cooking and relaxing.

Our plans with our friend for last night fell through because she wasn't feeling well.  We'll do a rain check.

My massage appointment got canceled yesterday, too.... My massage therapist's grandma died.

After my morning yoga class, I came home and got the house clean, then everything started canceling.  *shrug*

Yesterday was sort of a bust, but then it was nice to just be home and have a clean house!

Fortunately, I had a chicken in the fridge that I was going to cook tonight, so I did that last night with some roasted sweet potatoes.

It got warm enough yesterday afternoon to open up the storm doors and to sit outside for a while.

I'm starting to think about starting another container garden, and putting an herb garden in the ground this year.  We have a week off in April to get these things underway.

We do not celebrate St. Patrick's day, as it honors a man who converted pagans of our ancestry....so he's not really relevant to us, HA!  But we will raise a Guinness to our ancestors!

Have a good Sunday!

Another dance show

the "disco divas" did a 70's disco themed Cairo style number

5 months of classes, rehearsal, costume sewing, and fun culminated with 3:48 minutes on stage in the spot light in front of a half filled house last night.

Most of the people had left by the time we went on during the third set, but it was still fun, and I am still so grateful that I can do this... at my age, and with  my history.

Someone from work ACTUALLY SHOWED UP, and she loved it.  She wants to start taking classes!  She said that I was the best dancer in my group.  I know she is not one to lie.

We were rear-ended AGAIN in my little green car on Wednesday.

I swear that car MUST be invisible.  This is the FIFTH TIME someone has hit it since I bought it in 2014.

This time, we got hit harder than usual.  

Not REALLY hard, but hard though to make my car un-drivable (the back bumper is pushed up and under, and the air bag lights are on, which means they could deploy at random), and to give us both neck pain for a couple of days.  

(We tried to go to an urgent/convenient care place, but they didn't accept auto claims, and said our health insurance would deny...so we got no medical care.)

There was a cop up ahead who had someone pulled over, so rush hour traffic was merging left.  We had merged, and stopped in line with the traffic, but the Jeep Cherokee behind us forgot to stop-- until he rammed into us at about 10 or 15 mph.

BAM!!

This time, the refreshing difference is that the other guy actually HAS insurance!  This is literally the first time!

Dave called the claim in as soon as we got home on Wednesday, but they have not called us yet, so it's a damned good thing we have a second car, because we still have to get to work!

We should have a loaner by now, and my car should be in the shop by now, but not even a call, so Dave is going to call first thing tomorrow and ask "WHAT THE FUCK?"

Once the car is fixed, I have decided to trade it in on a TANK. 

I drove for 31 years in Chicagoland and my car was only run into once in all that time (while it was parked in front of my family home on Christmas Eve, and the neighbor across the street backed into it).

Okie drivers are HORRIBLE, and the vast majority of them don't have insurance.  We see multiple people run red lights EVERY DAY on our short commute, and the highways TERRIFY me.

My neck is finally feeling better.  Dave's only hurt for a couple of days.

In other news, we went to Pop's house yesterday and met with Dave's eldest brother.  

He has worked VERY hard on the house this past week. 

We went through the house and picked out stuff we wanted.  Pictures, and bath towels, and silverware, and glassware... 

Eric will help us pick up the furniture pieces we want later this week, hopefully.

Mike wants to do a garage sale next weekend.  There is depression glass, and camera equipment, and old computers, and SO MUCH JUNK!

Mike formally apologized to me for something terrible that he said to me a few months ago, so that was good.  Now I can stand to be in the same room as him.  Not that I will have to deal with that very often.

Today is going to be very low key.  It's supposed to start being rainy today, and that will last through most of next week.  

We have not been in our hot tub for weeks....  I wanted to last night, but Dave didn't , and I can't get the top off of it by myself, so I took a hot epsom salt bath.

Hope you remembered to change your clocks!  Maybe some day we will get rid of daylight saving time....

Catch up

We admitted Pop to the memory care center on Friday the 22nd.  Since neither of Dave's brothers could be bothered to be here to support him during that process, I went with him.

Pop was transported from the cardiac rehab center by medvan, so we didn't have to go pick him up and take him ourselves.  Instead, we were there when he arrived.

We both took the afternoon off from work, and went to Target for some essentials, like deodorant, toothbrush and tooth paste, tissues, a trash can, and so on.

We went over and talked to the head nurse about some stuff, and got Pop on the list for regular hair cuts and shaves.

We had the tv on when he was wheeled into his room, to make it as homey as possible.

Dave was convinced that he would be combative and angry, but instead, he was placid, and actually said thank you a couple of times.

We think that is because I was there.

We left him sitting in the wheel chair they'd brought him in on, watching the tv.

Dave called on Saturday and all was well.

Then on Sunday, Dave went back up to check in on him, and took another couple of things to fill out the room, like a little table for next to the sink, since there's no counter space in the bathroom.

He still needs a dresser, but Dave's brother can deal with that.

Dave hasn't been back or called again. 

I really think he needs a long break.  It's such a HUGE relief to him to not have to worry about going and finding Pop injured or dead at the house. 

I am glad his stubborn ass hole of a brother finally saw reason. 

He put Dave through living hell, with NO regard for Dave's mental health issues (which he CLEARLY does not understand), and couldn't be bothered to show up until it was over.

Yesterday, Dave's brother arrived.  He intends to stay "as long as it takes" to get the house sorted out and sold. 

I sincerely hope that I don't have to see him while he's here.

Dave is not participating in dealing with the house unless called upon to do so.  Being the only kid who stayed here, he did everything for mom and dad for the past ... forever. 

That's enough.

We are supposed to be given a beautiful antique cabinet, but if Mike sells it, he sells it.  I don't really care anymore.

Anyway, I had a 20 hour dance ethnology workshop all last weekend that started not long after we made sure Pop was settled in.

I was at the dance studio until 10 Friday night, then went back for all of Saturday, again until 10, and then for most of Sunday, until 4.

This was part 2 of the similar workshop I took a year ago.  It's fascinating stuff, but I am pretty sure I will never complete the program, as parts 3 and 4 involve a 3 week trip to Egypt.

That's not really in my cards, I don't think.  If I am ever going to take a 3 week trip anywhere, I'd rather it be the UK.

Then, this past week was just a normal week, for the most part. 

Dave saw his doctor, and got an adjustment to his blood pressure meds again.  As of yesterday, it seems to be starting to work.

We're both finally well, I think.  I was sick for the better part of three weeks, and am finally feeling mostly normal again.

I've achieved my goal weight, and maintaining it, so I am now back to just eating clean instead of restricting anything. 

We mostly follow what's called a "primal" diet.  It's not as strict as "Paleo," and basically is just a clean, whole foods diet.

Last night, I met up with a couple whose wedding I am to officiate in April.  They bought us pizza (not clean, whole food, but it was a gift)  and we had a good visit.

Today will be all about trying to catch up from not being able to do my usual stuff last weekend.  There are cooking projects to be done!

We got all of the errands done yesterday, so since it's quite cold for Oklahoma, we will stay inside and have all of today to regroup.