Redemption.

 I was going back and forth this morning with one of my face book friends - I don't really know him but he apparently graduated high school with my brother - on that social network I think we all tend to pick up internet acquaintances through friends, interests - I even have a small posse of Julia Lesters on my list simply because we share the same name.. He has strong religious views and we've had some back and forth - I find other points of view interesting but generally don't indulge with either AA people or those of the born again/charismatic religions. I've found in the past they tend to have one opinion - and it's not yours. This particular person pretty much has been given a list by god and his friends letting him know who's on the list for heaven and who is not. I am not and of course, he is. That does not bother me, I find it amusing that someone can consign me to the fiery pits of hell from Face book and even better yet tell everyone exactly what opinions god and Jesus hold about everything. He will often tell me I'm going to hell and then turn around and tell me Jesus said that, not him. As far as I know there are no deities with a face book page of their own so you'll have to draw your own conclusions. But not an issue - he is delightful in his skirting the issue responses and I find it an intellectual challenge to ferret out various psalms to fire back at him. But today I unfriended him, not because I'm going to hell and he's in charge of the list, but because he told me he'd been redeemed by Our Lord and Savior and that I cannot abide by. If you boil down what makes me the maddest about organized religion it would be that concept. Not that I think a person should not be forgiven, not by any means. But the idea that you can do terrible, dark awful things and come to a god, seek forgiveness in your heart and go do it again. And again that I cannot stomach. Think about it - that concept of forgiveness for sins is what destroyed thousands of children in the Catholic Church. The priests raped children, went to confession, got a soul cleaning and off we went again. Do you remember that evangelist years ago that had gotten caught with the prostitute and went on national TV,crying and carrying on - guess what! - according to him god forgave him. He forgave him again too when he got caught again. Eventually the drop in rating and donations showed that perhaps god would forgive but those sitting at home watching with credit cards in hand were not so forgiving. Jim Baker would have been forgiven too had it not been for the embezzling and tax evasion. He too I believe claimed he had heard from god and had gotten the green light for the pearly gates. Reverend Jimmy Swaggart joked about killing gays, The very same pastor that was caught with a prostitute. twice. Not always, but a lot of people that have received redemption have done something that they need to be redeemed for. Think of all those that have been "saved" in prison, the cells are full of them - and it often plays a part in their bids for parole.  I have no issues with forgiveness but if you do a bad thing - you need to pay for it. Those priests that so eagerly confessed to Our Lord and Savior were not so eager to confess to Our Police Department were they? Nor did they think any jail time was warranted. I mean they were already forgiven by our Lord, why do they need a trial? I find that redemption takes away personal responsibility for what you do. I do bad things sometimes, but I try to apologize and if I don't - if it was a bad thing on my end I'll surely pay for it in my next life. Because that's fair - if you kill someone now you don't get to advance and you suffer the next time around - and will continue til you figure it out and get it right. Given the list of people that are sure they're qualified for heaven - Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Baker, who was that one that was found with transvestite prostitutes again?? - no thank you! I'm hoping to share bench space with all those satanists - you know, Gandhi, Buddha, Qwan Yin to name a few.

Let The Games Begin.

 SO David asked me what I wanted to do today. Then he said "I'll bet you don't want to load up the riding tractor, stop at Lowes and go to Clarksburg". That was really not my first choice. Or my second. But apparently it was the only one. So I brought my ereader - I'm halfway through the third of the series and off we went. Since I now have off on  Wednesday it sort of takes the wind of out Saturday anyhow. So we stopped at Lowes to get industrial strength cleaner, a manual spray pump and new locks. While David did that I surfed around - still no feasible clearance appliances but I did find a $90 light fixture for $10, nice score since we will be getting rid of the outdated filthy dining room light. And then I came across the bathtub - original $239 marked down to $50 for two small, fixable cracks along the top. We offered $40 and off we went - $300 dollars worth of stuff for fifty bucks - who's your daddy now! It's not for the Clarksburg house but the other one - for now it can be stored at house one until we close on house two. So we hit the house - David had opened the lid of the toilet to see the condition - I posted the picture on Facebook, it is beyond disgusting but does not weirdly smell. It is the ONLY thing in the house that doesn't reek. So David started spraying down the walls in the living room - the nicotine started streaming down, I did the rest and it's amazing how much there is. Everything was originally white apparently, not tan and beige. We changed the locks today too, the former residents - as per the neighbors - were not the fine upstanding citizens we had hoped they would be since we found out from the neighbors they stole the unit for the central air and sold it -you never know who might retain a key. We met some more of the neighbors and everyone seems relieved that David is fixing up the house to resell. I sat out on the front porch while David finished up and mowed the lawn, we'd forgotten to bring masks and gloves - that won't happen twice. What sticky, nasty mess! We didn't do too much after since we were dragging the trailer, just stopped for gas and groceries and headed home. The weather has finally cleared up, this summer I have never seen so much rain! I'm so tired of everything being soggy and wet. David took my car for a wash yesterday - poor thing. I got it back the same day - it turned out to be the transmission needed to be adjusted and re calibrated. A minor fix and thank goodness for that! Dave at the garage said it was just one of those things, he'd also thought the worst too and was equally relieved it was not a major fix. I ended up losing a day of work but I was glad it was last week when we were on low census and I was able to move my patients to  the next day. I'm still working on the knit dress. I finished the hem and am now picking up stitches to begin knitting the skirt part. I still have no clear idea of what I'm doing but I suppose that's half the fun. For the rest of the day I have no plans, just some couch time and hanging with the hooligans. Tomorrow will be Cleaning The House And So Forth, getting ready for Janet and Diane's visit over the holidays. But for now, feet up, coffee to the right, Molly to the left and Candy Crush front and center - I hope you have a good rest of the day too!

Hey Big Spender

 Well, yesterday we dropped the Subaru off for  because of my slowly leaking tire and to have the oil changed since it was there anyhow. Then we headed out to Clarksburg to take possession of our first foreclosure. Unlike a real house closing where we all sit at a big table and everyone excitedly signs, the keys are passed in a slightly dramatic way, hugs and handshakes - this was David wiring the money to the bank and getting an email back. The lock box was removed and the key was taped in a (hopefully) Ceremonial Way to the inside of the screen door. So after dropping the car off and driving over, David performed the Untaping Of The Key Ceremony and in we went - immediately being hit by the smell of stinky rugs and old cigarette smoke. Wow. It must've been a small army of heavy smokers - you could see white squares of where the pictures had been removed on the sticky tan walls. The fixture in the dining room area looked bronze but on closer inspection it was glazed with nicotine - so much you could see where it had started to drip down the glass. Between that and what was soaked in to the rug - it was a Festival Of Pure Stinkiness. David was trying to get the blinds down by batting at them so he wouldn't have to touch them but finally just pulled them up high and tight to let some sun in there. It's not a huge deal, believe it or not. The ceiling, the walls, the rugs, the padding, the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom are all going to be pulled down and out - the rest he'll be scrubbing down with a car brush and special cleaner. He's good with the special cleaners - David could de-stink a skunk party at this point and be home for lunch. We already have all the kitchen cabinets ready - we got over a thousand dollars worth for less than $300 by surfing the clearance areas. David also got a $900 washing machine for $299 which is gracing our home and the washer I have will be moved over there. We found a fridge for under $400 but we have time to keep scouting and the kitchen counter and sink is going to be salvaged.The bathrooms are completely renovation, we might be able to save the toilets but I don't know. The water had been turned off and I didn't have the guts to peek.  Wednesdays are still workdays for me - just a different kind of work. We did some grocery shopping and headed back - my car was ready with it's (fifth) new tire. This morning I got an early start and was at my first patient before 8 - work has been a bit light this past week so I had time to sit and talk with them. On the way back to my next patient I pulled into a church parking lot to finish my paperwork (although, we are exclusively on computer so I'm not sure what I should call it now - computer work? data collection? whatever!), synced my android and started my engine. I backed up but when I put car in drive and started - ALL the lights came on. It was not like winning a prize or Christmas, it was Super Upsetting and had I not been driving I probably would have had The Vapors or something. I called David who told me to pull over as soon as I could and he called the dealership. I managed to make it to the Citgo, backed in and killed the engine. I sat and waited - fortunately the gas station had stellar coffee and a bathroom and I had my ereader for entertainment. I called the office and I have to say, of all days this was a good day to break down if I'd had my choice. They gave some of my visits away since we're on low census this week, I moved the others to tomorrow and called all my patients to let them know what was going on. The car hauler showed up and the dealer sent me a loaner car, same model but a deep dark........purple. Hmm. So I'm home today in shorts with the Hooligans catching up on a few things that need doing and so forth. David left a little while with the trailer loaded with the cabinets, I'm staying here in case the dealership calls. If they don't get it done not a biggie since I have a loaner.

Odds And Ends

 Hump days has turned into us doing odds and ends that we either don't get to or don't have time for during the week. We're at the in between point with the houses, we scanned and emailed the last set of paperwork yesterday so the now we just wait. David got back home yesterday from Ray's having spent an extra day. They had a good time, he did some work on Ray's house - odds and ends - they went out to dinner with Ray's friend Jackie and just hung out. The drive back was a bit tough going, the rain had started - again - when he left NJ so it ended up taking him a couple hours more than it usually does. We had the rain here  too but it hit at 2 am. I know that because it included thunder and Molly decided to have a melt down and do her best impression of the Two AM Girl for me. She knocked down the gate and was running around the bed, stepping on me and getting tangled in the curtains. That made Reuben think it was time to go out (sigh!) and after a brief sojourn in the yard I commenced stuffing Molly in her crate. Once I got her and the requisite biscuits in, the door shut she settled down right away and went to sleep. Boobins and I went back upstairs - he took complete advantage of the situation and hogged the pillows. Needless to say Tuesday was a very long day indeed. Today we just did stuff - I renewed my benefits through work which took an hour. I suppose it usually doesn't take that long  but it was a fun call and the representative has been through here so there was a lot of talking between health questions. I upped some things and left other alone, the one problem with adding things on to your insurance it is really adds up. Fast. Do you want cancer coverage? Disaster? Long term disability? Short term? Life? Dental? Supplemental? Insurance is no longer cut and dry, no longer is there one policy that covers everything and then on top of that  there's the co-pay for everything. And what the insurance actually covers. When I see the glaucoma guy I have to pay $45 co-pay and then cover the $43 my insurance doesn't. However if I had to pay the whole thing it's about $600 so I'll pay the $87 and count my blessings. I have my cancer coverage through Aflac - the problems with these little policies is you're afraid if you cancel them - you'll get cancer and die a broke nasty mess. So it's really superstition I pay for every week and nothing more. I'm on call this weekend so we tried to get the shopping done - hopefully it won't be as bad as the call last week when I ended up out at 10pm one night and 6 am another day. I still hate on call but having Wednesday makes it a little better. A little.

Stalling and Starting

 SO - I was going to knit the dress in the latest Vogue. I've never knit a dress so it would be something new - and it would be a pretty big project. First I decided I couldn't knit it in wool as previously discussed and will be making it out of silk. This changes the dynamics because silk is not stretchy and nor is it something you can block. I have to knit it on size two needles - and of course I didn't have size two circular needles so back to the yarn shop in Morgantown. I need to reconfigure the amount of stitches and rows due to the decrease in needle size and since I"m doing all of that that, I don't really like the pattern they use. Too complicated and and too confusing. So I got out my stitch pattern books and found the ones I like. While I'm changing the skirt part I decided to change up the top so it is not the same dress anymore, is it? So, we'll see what happens. David went to NJ on Friday morning to stay with Ray for a few days, when I called to relay a message they were happily sitting down to dinner at the Stack House, Ray's favorite restaurant. The rain finally cleared up the other day but the yard is a squelchy mess, my garden goes with out saying. I pulled up the giant weeds today - at least they are growing well. At this point I'm just clearing around the little that's left and will just give it up as a bad job. Whatever the deer didn't decimate rotted from all the rain we have been getting. I didn't do too much this weekend, just hung out with the dogs and did a little grocery shopping. Adam has bought a laser pointer to drive the dogs crazy. They LOVE it and will chase the dot around for a long time. They harass him endlessly now to play with it, smiling and staring at him in what they perceive as a friendly manner. I had all these things I was going to do this weekend

but all I really ended up was doing playing with the dogs, knitting and reading. Not a bad life, is it?

Running Amok On Humpday

 There were several reasons I reduced my schedule, one was stress as I have mentioned 87 times but the other is David is really rolling along with the house resale thing and my working all the time is stressing HIM out. The check cleared, we paid off most of our debts and bankrolled what was left, now we're getting ready to dive in again. This time around David has decided to buy two lower priced, smaller houses which will be quicker to finish and resell but will keep him scrambling to get them done in a very timely fashion. Unlike just selling a house we have to get rid of it as soon as possible when its finished - every day it sits on the market is another bit of money off our profit margin. We've found a real estate that seems to be fitting our needs so far and they also seem to get  it. We know they don't make a whole  lot on the initial sale - but after David finishes we give them the listing to sell for us - so they can hit it twice. Hello! We don't have time to be chasing people around and David certainly does not have time to be calling someone repeatedly hoping to get one call back. We're done with Howard Hannah for now and Housefinders seems to filling the bill. We're closing on one house in the next couple of weeks and the other one a few weeks from there if it all goes as planned. We headed out this morning to see both houses and take pictures of everything doing the initial planning - one is going to definitely need a BIG fence on one side as Garbageland occupies one side of the house. The other side is the flip side of the coin the Neat-nicks.  There's a lot to do so the other part of the day we spent scoping a little for the best deal for carpet, paint, etc... we also bought a new coffee pot and toaster - living large my friends, living large! We are being careful, we've not been to the Tax People who have a tendency to take everything but a percentage of your underpants. We spent the rest of the afternoon scanning and emailing paperwork - our poor little printer was not meant for such lofty things. In knitting news I have skeined up the yarn but am rethinking the dress. The problem is even if I use the thinnest wool in my collection it will still be, at the end of the day, an ornate heavy wool sleeveless dress. The no sleeves makes it useless for winter and honestly, who wants to wear a wool dress in summer? If I use the yarn that will be perfect - a thin silk yarn which I now have 3000 yards of - the size needles the pattern calls for leaves it looking like a pile of netting and that's BEFORE I block it. If I use the needles that will give it a tight weave the dress will be Barbie sized. SO I'm going to use the dimensions of the dress and reductions but use a different stitch pattern. It should be an adventure. I'm on call for three days, but off for the weekend. David is heading out to NJ to visit Ray on Friday - it will be before he has to get started on the houses and in between my on calls days - hopefully it won't rain too much. We had yet another thunderstorm, Molly has made peace with that. She is fine in her crate with the door shut, snuggled in her blankets until the storm passes. The other thing we bought was dog beds. We bought a giant one that surprise surprise! Reuben didn't destroy and it was big enough for both of them. However that was our opinion, not Molly who parks her bad self right in the middle, peeking over the edge at Reuben The Unwanted. Sigh, so we now have our own little trailer park going of dog beds outside the bedroom door.

Out You Go

 Today I got rid of about 2 bags of garbage - every once in awhile I'll take a couple trash bags and go through drawers, closets, the basement, etc and just toss the flotsam we  seem to think we need to save. We all tend to save the box of every item we buy like GPS, ereader, etc.. I threw the boxes from both of my ereaders out, an old carrying case for a GPS we no longer have, left over rug padding some UFOs - out out out. We really don't have that much but if you don't go through it once in awhile you can end up with a lot. I stayed home today and got some things done, I swamped out the basement today - with all the issues we've had plus the nonstop rain it's was getting a bit musty down there. Molly and Reuben came down to supervise and I had to chase them off a couple of times since they found the bleach/soap water quite intriguing. Since the only vet available on Sunday is the Emergency vet in Fairmont at a gazillion dollars a visit they got chased up the stairs. We have enough to spend our money on thank you. I also finished the sweater I've been working on. It went pretty fast I think since it was plain knitting with no tricky decreases or increases. The one piece thing was interesting, I've never knitted a sweater like but it was nice not to have to stitch it together at the end. I've skeined up the yarn for the next project which will be a dress, believe it or not. I think it will have to be the extra or small size though, I thought the 2000 yards would be enough but if I make a  medium/large size I'll be running short. I might email the owner of the yarn shop to see if she has one more skein but I think I bought the last one. I have pink yarn that's the right weight but it's wool - this Burgundy is silk. I guess it doesn't matter because I don't intend to wear it and I'm not making for any one  in particular. Like most garments - well, except for this last sweater - I just make it to see if I can then ship it off to whoever might fit it. It's a good system that has worked for quite awhile. I went out and checked what's left of my garden - at this point I'm just trying to salvage something and next year will be moving my base of operations up to the house. Between the sneaky deer, the flooding water and the dogs my garden had no chance this year. I'll get a lot of sunflowers, some zucchini and there a couple of  plants that are unidentified but seem to be wanting to produce something. I just weed around what's left and hope for the best at this point.

The Other Side

 Well after multiple delays, lazy lawyers and other Sundry Events - we closed on the house in Bruceton Mills last week.  David stopped at the Huntington Bank in the  Giant Eagle where we shop and they cheerfully announced they were as excited as he was about the whole thing and that the check had cleared. David does most of his banking there and they get to talking so everyone is following along. But we got through it and did it well - Yahoo! This has been a little bit of an experiment, a big scary one at that. This is the first time we've intentionally bought a house that we were not living in to fix and sell. When we sell the house we're living in it's not as stressful - if it takes awhile it doesn't matter since we live here. We only have to borrow for repairs and the renovation, etc. This we had to borrow the whole shebang, pay for the inspections - every day it sat on the market was a little bit more out of our pockets. But it sold pretty fast and we survived. At the moment David has bids into two houses while scoping more out - it takes awhile to find another project and every one we do we get a little bit better at it. We constantly look for materials - the return and clearance piles at Lowes and Home Depot are good for that. Our advantage is we can buy as we go, squirrelling it away for future reference. We scored on kitchen cabinets today, special order returns so we got $600 worth of cabinets for $136 - they'll be stored until we need them. My work schedule was reduced to four days last week so I have more time to help with that if needed. I'm also planning on taking Molly out more - she is better but still flips out at the sight of strange dogs or people coming towards her. It does not help that she's a pretty and unusual looking dog that people want to pet - she is having none of it. No siree keep your hands to yourself. And take your dog with you while you're getting. We're thinking of going back to LI in the fall and have no idea what we will do with her. Once I take her out a few times we'll hopefully be able to leave her in a kennel over night to see how she does with it, she'll have Reuben with her too. She's a pretty happy camper otherwise, loving the garden and general area. They both love fetching crab apples - I have no idea but it can keep them both occupied for long stretches of times. It's raining again this weekend so I'm working on the sweater - I'm two inches from finishing the second sleeve and reading of course. Still love my Kobo thank you for asking.