A West Virginia Haunting.

A couple of months ago a woman showed up on my Ring doorbell video, she looked about our age. She knocked and waited, then left with some papers in her hand. We didn't know who she was and we  really don't get many people we don't know down here. Our house is about 3 miles down a back dirt road and there are only about 8 houses - it's not an ideal place to solicit and no one end ups here accidently. When we got home there was no sign, nothing stuck in the door or mailbox, no note with a phone number. We figured she was looking for someone else and had found them. Two weeks later - she was back again. This time we were out of town and she rang the Ring doorbell, but I didn't catch it til she was in her car - once again we missed her. And again there was no note or any way to contact her. I posted a picture on the local FB community board hoping someone would recognize her and then someone piped up

"that's a process server".

Now, when you flip foreclosures you occasionally do end up in court - the reason they're so cheap is not only due to condition but there's often issues with neighbors, irate relatives, the deed, etc....but we'd never been served with papers. And the only house out here we flipped was the Astoria house which I will someday tell the entire story of that mess - we did well selling it but what a fucking disaster it was with the local assholes. But I digress. As you can imagine we were freaking out in the What Now Area - but then about a week later she came back and David called me laughing. It was over a stupid piece of property in Fairmont WV that we had bought about 8 years ago? It was a little nothing that there was some big issues with the deed that left us paying the taxes every year but unable to sell it. David actually though about challenging it but....no.It's not a desirable area, the piece is really small - like an 1/8 of an acre if that.  We stopped paying the taxes a couple of years ago and someone was buying it. David thought briefly of paying the taxes but I was No. By the time we got done fixing the deed etc... it would not be worth it. We let it go.

I was just relieved it was something small. Yesterday David got an email that we were getting a registered letter in the mail that needed signed - ugh!! So it came and it was another legal document ........from West Virginia. About a house we sold in 2012 and a deed correction tjat has absolutely nothing to do with us. Nothing. Nada. From reading it over it they have to notify everyone involved. I said to David we should just Strongly Object just for the hell of it, this is getting silly and annoying.  The problem with lawsuits, even the stupid ones can run into money whether you're right or wrong. You can be sued for anything at anytime and the kicker is even if its totally stupid if you dont show up you lose automatically.

I'm hoping this is the end of it, I'm sure with RE booming the house in Bruceton Mills is being sold, and that they just found an issue with the deed. Which is on the title company, not us. 

 

Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head

You know how they always talk about Washington and Oregon being overcast and dismal all the time? It's kind of true, some weeks it just rains constantly. We ask Alexa for the weather report and I've noticed she tries to mix it up a bit so it doesn't sound so bad. "Monday rain Tuesday Rain Wednesday Showers, Thursday wet weather....." - but I'm not fooled. And then there are the winds so you can't really carry an umbrella, I have 3 raincoats thank you for asking. It doesn't rain all day - but it will pour overnight, then be Dismal, black clouds rain, clears up......everything this time of year is damp and muddy. David tries to keep up with the floors but it's a losing battle. He did get the lawn mowed today, the sun came out for a few hours and when it does it doesn't look real - endless blue skies with puffy clouds, mountain in the background - technicolor grass and flowers. Everything is green - it never stays cold enough for it not to be green and the grass grows year around. The flowers bloomed a month ago, trees are all budded up and I can see the giant rose bush we unburied from the vines last year will be spectacular. 

My hydroponic garden continues I'm down to about 20 plants but the ones left are growing well. The biggest ones I am pretty sure are zucchini and two of the plants have blossoms on them as of this morning. I think the next go around I will have separate the seeds because I'm not sure what didn't make it. I'm going to start some more hydro seedling and then some in regular peat pots. I will have a raised garden this year so I have to get started on that. David built a small deck around the back and it will be enclosed by winter - I'm still planning on being able to grow year round. We continue to work on the yard, David is going to fence in the front where we have the giant cement pads, I'm trying to figure out what I want to plant and where. We're still arguing about the Monkey tree which is native to here and David HATES it, goes on and on about how ugly it is, it's not my decision, blah blah blah. It's seriously not that bad and cutting it down would be more trouble than it's worth. 

This is the first weekend in almost a month we do not have small children - it's very quiet around here. We have nothing really planned, a couple estate sales, maybe doing a little cleaning out, some planting and yard work but just pottering around for the most part. Tomorrow there will  be sunshine at least for part of Saturday so we can get out and do something fun. Have a good weekend everyone!

 

Easter And All That Sugar

Yes, I know we just had them last week, we actually dropped them off the previous Sunday morning only to have them heading back in this direction Friday night. The reason was their spring break occurred the first week of April and Easter did not. But Brandi was fine with driving down so we could celebrate together and left shortly after getting off from work. And then headed back to get the Easter stuff that she'd carefully hidden in her closet and forgot. They didn't arrive til almost 11 pm but I had everyone's room ready, we got the girls in bed, then they realized they were here so I herded them back to bed a few times despite protests. I started the vaporizer as they both have allergies and I think they sleep much better anyhow. Brandi went upstairs to her room and that was all she wrote. 

The girls were up early the next morning since they had slept in the car, we left Brandi alone as i knew she must've been tired. I started boiling the eggs, tucked everyone in with Poppop and tablets so we could play the Makeup game. They LOVE the Makeup game - you get a girl face and you can do the hair, eye color and apply enough cyber cosmetics to make anyone look like a Deranged Prostitute in no time. When you're done you can take a screen shot and email it to Mommy's messenger which I'm sure delights her to no end. So the eggs cooled - not fast enough of course, but they did it. By that time Brandi was up and it was time to dye the eggs! It is also Close Supervision Time because having two six year olds, 18 eggs and six cups of dye can be a bit harrowing. The kit I bought (Paas of course!) came with paint so while the eggs dried we mixed the cake complete with the Breaking Of The Eggs - they do well with it. It's funny how you don't realize until you see a small child do it how much dexterity it takes to do things like break eggs and pour ingredients. They're very crafty right now and we do tons of arts and crafts, baking,etc - not only do they enjoy it but it's so good for motor skills. I wonder sometimes how many kids end up with physical issues because they simply don't have the everyday practice. 

While the cake baked and cooled we went back to the eggs, painted them then on to decorating the bunny cake. This consists of Nana just putting out bowls of candy, sprinkles and then I let them go. This year the bunny had actually eyes and whiskers - and some sort of Pox. Easter morning was spectacular, they're at that great age where they're young enough to  still believe but old enough to get excited about it. We got up and hid the eggs to prevent Bee and Dutch from finding them (they are hunting dogs after all!) D is a driven egg hunter, she needed to be reined in a bit, loping around the house  with her easter basket in hand. Brandi had also brought plastic eggs with small prizes so they both had a good run. Then we had to get ready for brunch, pulled the table out to giant size, got the extra chairs from the basement and Aunt Kim, Uncle Steve and Meg from Colorado showed up at 10. C and D LOVED Meg like they had known her since college and hauled her all over the house. D announced she would be her dining partner while C positioned her bad self between Brandi and Aunt Kiim. It was so much fun. Brandi and the girls headed out around 11:30 - school and work on Monday, Kim and crew left an hour later to drop Meg off at the airport. It was too fast, sometimes too busy but an awesome weekend!

 

Lights Out

Ugh. When I woke up I knew it was not time to get up, it  felt like almost but not quite - you know how you feel something is off but you're just not sure what it could be? It was chilly so I pulled up the blankets a bit then looked to see what time it was. Yup. Nothing. Nada. No faint glow of the clock, no blue light from the USB ports on the outlet. Our entire house has a faint blue glow to it at night - printer, Alexa, lap top, etc..... you get used to it, don't you?, so when the lights go out it's very noticible. I picked up my phone - 3;45am and it wasn't charging of course because we had no electricity. Hmm. There had been a weather advisory about snow, but I figured it was a bunch of hooey. (in my defense, it usually is). I looked out the window, Dammit!! I looked at the Clatskanie Community Board on FB which is where we get all of our info - and 2300 people were pioneering according the PUD. Dammit. 

We have a portable propane heater so David fired that up after snitching the tank off the BBQ - my poor hydroponic garden though was SOL for the morning. To keep the heat I had to shut off the sunroom where they live, poor Neo! I got the solar flashlight/chargers off the windowsill, they were fully charged and ready to go. We also have rechargable light bulbs - good for up to 3 hours. Those I love - you recharge them by just putting them in a lamp and turning it on for a couple of hours. In the video on YouTube they said you can also use them as regular lightbulbs so if the lights go out them lamp just stays on. But the electric doesn't go out that often and David uses them for other stuff. Since the propane tank was on the heater that meant no BBQ coffee - after living in PA and WV in which the lights go out a bit more often I'm pretty good at. David hooked up the generator and it ran enough for the coffee pot to make some busy noise,....then stopped. After  few more tries he gave it up, it was too cold to keep putzing with it.  By this time it was almost 7:30 and David said according the Community Board town had some lights. So he drove up and got us coffee, 

I got a text from work that the office was closed, the road was a mess and the bridge that connects Oregon to Washington was closed as it was a sheet of ice. No interet, but we actually have cell service here so I watched Victoria on my wee little screen. Victoria is a spanish soap opera that I watched years ago - got halfway through and they took it off! ARRGH. But it's back and I've been binge watching for an embarrassingly long time - there's almost 180 one hour episodes and I'm determined to finish it this time. David said he would like to hear the english language once in awhile but I'm 30 shows out and then I'm done so he'll just have to suck it up.  But I digress. The lights finally came back on close to noon so I didn't get as much done as I wanted but there's always tomorrow, isn't there? The temperatures are back up in the 40s and it looks likes its melted, hopefully we can get back to spring - I was really enjoying those 60 degree temps and I want them back!

 

Grandparenting 101

When I tell people that we are keeping our grandkids for up to  10 days I'm often met with disbelief that we have then for that long of a stretch. We live close - but it's still a 4 hour hike, well if you drive straight. On the other hand if you meander up the coast, stop for dinner, do a little shopping AND take the ferry it's a bit longer.  So doing a weekend is doable but it's a crunch. The reason we take them for a week and a half is because Brandi is taking care of them herself and deserves a break and and a full week at the sitters is expensive so  we try really hard to cover school breaks. I know there's plenty of kids that spend all the school vacations at the sitters or daycare but if there's another option, why not? When we take them they can hang in pajamas, dawdle around - and play all day. And this is why we are here at the end of t he day, to see our grandkids on a regular basis, we wanted to be Nana and Popppop, not just two faces on a screen. 

C and D are on spring break, this time around is a little different. Since we have them pretty often I use a lot of vacation time up driving, etc.... and there's really no reason for it. David is semi-retired and is more than capable of taking care of them. They're six now so they can amuse themselves, you can take them with you and they are both about 95% independent in the bathroom department. We have the house set up so there's plenty for them to do - swings and a fenced in yard, two rambunctious and overly friendly dogs to run about with. We have an alcove behind the stairs that serves as a playroom - I buy toys off of FB marketplace to furnish it. It's pretty cheap and since they're not here all the time when they outgrow the toys I just donate them to Goodwill and start again. They have thier own beds, crayons, playdough, tub toys - so far we've never heard "there's nothing to do!". The loft which is my home office is the most popular place in the house with the miniture sectional couch, tiny wall mounted flat screen and low table and cube seats for coloring and rolling playdough. What's not to like!

I worked from home 3 days this week, I have my regular schedule of two days home plus the 8 hour Zoom training for the next 4 weeks on Thursday. On Wednesday C came up and I sent her down. she came up again, asked for a drink. Toast. Could she watch TV? did I like Sharks?Started a long winded conversation which included a bazillion questions. I told her to go downstairs because i was working. She then said she didn't see me working since I was talking to her. We both went downstairs and rousted Poppop out of bed with me explaining if this continued I would be packing My toys and going into the office. This went well for a few hours but then  they announced it was no longer Nana's turn to be in the Fun Home Office and I got kicked dowstairs since we are supposed to share Nana! Thursday David packed them up and they went to  visit Aunt Kim and Uncle Steve in Seaside - they rode the carasol, got toy kttens that meowed, played on the beach and made a friend, petted PIggles thier favorite little dog, and fell into bed exhausted after their bath. They've also been to Lowe's, the Tractor Supply and Shop&SAve - they're not picky. 

But all in all, the week has gone very well, we actuallly got stuff done this week. The weather has been awful the past two days - ugh. Rain, hail, wind, sun, fog, temp goes up, temp goes down . They have taken over the upstairs which is fine, not much to do today. We did go to Farmhouse Coffee this morning to see the Easter Bunny which was a hit. Then they got italian sodas and unicorn cupcakes, they attracted the attention of t wo women in thier mid-80's and showed off doing splits before I could stop them ( I looked at one of the women and said "Ok, your turn!" and she replied only if she got another hip replaced, LOL!). But aside from the spontaneous splits they behave well in public and enjoy going out. They head home tomorrow, Monday is school for them and work for me, at the end you can tell they're starting to miss home and Mommy. Brandi has gotten a few workfree/childfree days to herself and that's the other reason we do this, everyone needs a little time to themselves. Next up is Easter, they'll be coming down again this year. We do Easter dinner the night before and then Easter we do the hunt and a big brunch with Kim and Steve - I can't wait!