Packing It In.

I continue to with my packing - I'm concentrating on the kitchen as that will be one of the first rooms finished and we'll be able to ferry everything over and just put it away. We are about 3 and a half weeks until we close if everything continues to go well so I am packing but trying not to pack what we're actually using. I've already  unpacked one box looking for a specific baking dish (found it) and was scouring the kitchen this morning looking for containers (didn't find it). On Sundays I make things ahead of time that take awhile to make - anything boiled, baked, etc... that way during the week we always have time for a decent dinner. I ended up doing a lot of shuffling!! and getting the fridge cleaned out in the process. I'm also going through the root cellar which we use as an attic in the basement - that is a chore and a half.

I keep running across old pictures, which I of course have to look at - and my year books. I had previously found my 10th grade year book  a couple of years ago and  and spent days happily posting pictures of my former classmates. Due to Facebook I can share them, I still in contact with quite a few people I went to school with. I grew up in a fairly small town where the locals (back then) didn't move so the people  I started kindergarten with I graduated with. Most of our parents had also gone to school together so you knew each other one way or another. This time around  I found my 11th grade book and some old wedding pictures - and posted away. I've never had anyone take it down or get upset - I think we like to see pictures of high school - when we're not in it! I found people's senior quotes and pictures, friends together, fun stuff. Everyone had a lot of fun with it and I'm sure a lot of kids are interested to see what their parents looked like back then.  But I digress. 

I am still sorting, trying not to throw out things that are important to my boys,but wow, there is a lot of stuff. But I'll get through it - and then onto to the second half - the UNpacking!!

Shameful

Someone recently posted an article about a woman in an Asian country that had 18 abortions in order to give her husband a son - it was supposed to be anti-abortion propaganda. I immediately unfriended this person - and I remain beyond disgusted as this party touts themselves as deeply religious and humanitarian. I did not unfriend because of the anti-abortion stance - every one's entitled to their opinion. I did because I do not need to see such a hateful, misogynist person - someone who hides behind "god's word" to justify  their finger pointing at someone, who obviously does not need one more finger pointed at them. If you really understood this article you would understand this woman is living in a culture where the female population is not valued - her husband was obviously in support of her killing the unwanted female fetuses and most likely is the one that pressured her into it. 

In the documentary "It's a Girl" they interview a woman from India who is not only hiding from her husband - but her mother in law as well.  When they discovered she was pregnant with twin girls both demanded she abort - when she refused they attacked her, actually pushing her down the stairs and her ending up hospitalized. She and both of her daughters survived, but she was divorced and still hiding - where is your outrage at that?? Or the fact that most of these abortions are female - that woman are pushed and bullied into aborting their daughters - does your "religious values" not cover this? Female genital mutilation, that ISIS regularly kidnaps and rapes women with the intention of impregnating them, all crimes against women and ALL you're concerned about is no one has an abortion?? Seriously?

There are now reports that the abortion rates are starting to rise and it's a direct result of the religious right that is fighting to close Planned Parenthood. So....to keep people from having abortions we take away their birth control and then we - guess what! - punish women for getting pregnant. Because that seems to be the real agenda here, for all their yammering about no more free birth control and no more abortions you sure don't hear too much about the men that made them pregnant, do you? Not a peep! When Brock Turner raped that poor young woman you certainly didn't see anything posted by Miss Morals, when ISIS kidnapped and raped all of those school girls, not a peep - nothing. You should be ashamed of yourself, truly. As I've said before and I'll say it again, people like this are one more reason to not believe in a god. And I'll say this again - if you're really pro-life - support legislature that jails and punishes dead beat dads, adopt a child, support Planned Parenthood, teach your daughters and sons about being responsible and using birth control, push for better laws to incarcerate rapists and other sex offenders. If you wish to be just "pro-birth", well, you can just go to hell. And I'll be more than happy to give you a push in the right direction. 

More Or Less

I've been buying clothes for my granddaughters since they've been born- I probably send a box every 6 weeks or so. Shoes, pants, socks - you name it. One of the reasons I do it is clothing here is weirdly inexpensive so the $20 dollar Carters pjs are only $5 - or less - here. I like to feel like I'm helping since I can't be there physically, I feel a little bit more involved. But the other part of it - is the thrill of the chase. I LOVE a good bargain and will brag on it endlessly. I bought two pairs of toddler boots originally priced at $28 a pair - I got both for $13. Pants? Three bucks a piece, 7 onsies for 6 dollars....winter coats, 6.99 apiece.

Part of this is just me, I've always shopped the outlets and sales, I know where all the bargin bins are. When I first started with Bayada as a clincial manager back in the Poconos I didn't have any office wear - not a  problem. My friend Liz came up and we hit the Cold Water Creek outlet's clearance rack - I got my first wardrobe for under $30. I tried on everything that even looked remotedly ok, Liz turned it all inside out to make sure the irregulars were fixable.  And most things ARE fixable or actually not a problem. Our current dining room set was originally $700, we got it for $75 because of a "missing part". We discovered the missing part was a seat from one of the 8 chairs, whatever! We have happily lived without the 8th chair for a few years now.

I'm constantly sifting through the clearance racks, whether it's in Home Depot or Old Navy - why pay $1300 for a perfect vanity when you can pay $300 for one with a little ding in the corner? I guess part of what makes me sucessful is I'm willing to put up with a little imperfection - I don't have  to have the perfect stove  - a little ding in the back isn't going to hurt anyone. We stock pile too - I've been buying winter  and fall clothes for the girls, it will fit them in the fall. We just bought a sink and vanity from Lowes this morning, originally $200, we paid $25. Granted, the top may not be fixable, but the rest of it is fine -we can get a sink that fits for about $35 which pushes us up to what, $60? Still $140 less than we would have paid for a perfect one. So, I guess my advice to those who want to save money - you need to look, you can buy ahead and stop being so picky! Perfect only lasts about a week if you think about it, the day you wear, plug in, use, etc... you make it imperfect. But if you got at 80% off, you'll feel like it's not such a big deal, after all you didn't pay that much for it, did you?

Final Resting Place

So, the question I've been asked the most since we bought this house in Mather is......

Are you going to stay there?

We have moved quite a few time since we left Long Island so many years ago, this present house is the longest stretch so far - a little over 6 years. In that time we have lost 4 cats and 1 dog.We've gained another cat and another dog. I've changed jobs three times including the year long stint as a visit nurse to satisfy my noncompete clause. David has renovated about 7 houses or more- we always forget one. My older son has left the navy, moved home and then out again, moved, and moved again. My younger son has been deployed, returned, married, has two daughters and currently parks his shoes all the way across the country. I entered my50s.

We've made friends and lost friends, I've knitted countless items. I got a car. Time just keeps rolling and rolling, doesn't it? We're currently packing and sorting, the potential buyers asked if they could show the house to their parents on Sunday night so we had to vamoose for a couple of hours. We hung out in the Mather house, David has penned in the back yard so the Terrible Two were out exploring the yard, I sat on the backporch on the cement steps and read the end of my book. The deer came up to the pen and started snorting and stomping in challenge to Boobins. Apparently ownership of the crabapples trees is being established (they're right outside of the ence line)and it not Boobins job to own them.Rueben gave them What For right back by pointing at them ALOT and giving them his best hairy eyeball. Right now the house does not seem real, the walls are torn out, the kitchen cabinets are piled in the middle of the floor, it's hot and sweaty and damp. But I look at the picture that was left of the house and her owner - it will be that soon. With updates and our touches of course, but it is already coming alive and the neighborhood is waiting 

So, will this be our final resting place? I think so - but I thought that about this place. In the end it doesn't matter - because it will be restored. Just like all the other homes we've touched. Neighborhoods love to see David coming because that eyesore on the corner, that dilapidated house that's fallen into disgrace - it comes back. The house we sold recently that had been neglected and falling apart is now a home to someone. And when people buy our houses they get excited, you can see when they look they don't see a renovated house, they see thier home. They walk through and see a couch, curtains, cooking dinner with the patio doors wide open. So in answer to your question - maybe we will stay - or maybe not. But it doesn't matter because if we don't, someone else will get to come home - and we will get to come home again too. 

Go.

So, we have started packing - who saw that coming? Not me, not by a long shot. And some days I actually think about it and think I'm a little crazy. I'll be moving out of my two story, air conditioned landscaped home to.... a gutted disaster with a fan and waist high weeds. There's water in the basement and deer in the barn, scary wiring and hornet nests. And yet - I'm excited. There are a lot of issues of course, we'll need french drains and the kitchen is not going in as smoothly as David had hoped, but this house has so many possibilities. Going there is exploration at best, I have not gotten through the horse pen yet, but I have made it to the back of property. David has already gotten the kitchen Sheetrock and the addition started, we should be glamping by July

I had worked last weekend so I took Friday off - David was at the house so I started sorting and packing. As I've said in the past if you know you're moving and you have time to sort through things that's both good and bad. Good because you can get rid of things you don't use, bad because you can get so overwhelmed you just start getting rid of things that your really shouldn't, I have a lot of knitting books and yarn that I've collected over the years so I had gone through it once, then again and it's actually down to sort of reasonable.  Since we still have at least a month here I'm trying to get carried away, I packed half the kitchen. The other thing is we can start moving things over there and bringing back the bins to reuse. David already has the dog pen up and both Molly and Reuben have been to the new digs. Bob will have to stay in for at least a month or so til she's acclimated to her new home, but I don't see an issue. She's been very clingy with Vincent gone lately - it's so sad. I can see she's upset and looking for him a bit - it will take time because I catch myself looking for him too.

I don't know if we'll get another cat or not - but usually what happens is one eventually shows up so I'll just let the fates decide. We are slowing down buying things for the new house, we are in a holding pattern at this point as we have more money out than in, but hopefully in 7 weeks that will change. The buyers are coming to the house tomorrow early evening to show it to their parents with Thieu agent so we  will have to vamoose for an hour or so. But we have the dog pen up and the water turned on so it won't be that bad. Hopefully this doesn't get too interesting!!

An Accidental Experiment

A few weeks ago on a holiday weekend, we lost our internet on Friday, after 5 of course. We did what everyone does - shut it off, unplug, reset, reboot, shut it off again, again again. Nothing. Most frustrating was it would say connected, but no internet - that didn't even make sense!! We called and sat through a bit of Musak and of course the tech person wanted us to shut it off, unplug, reboot... they checked it from their end - nothing. So then they did the unthinkable and scheduled us for a service visit- for Wednesday. Of next week. Five days and no amount of cajoling and whining changed that. That we are good customers that pay our bill on time, we had never had a service call - even pulling out the pediatric nurse that NEEDS internet card did nothing. 

I could still do a little facebook and check my email from my phone, but after having an 18 inch tablet to dork around on, my wee little phone screen sucked. The thing is, even 5 or 6 years ago I would have been annoyed, but not SOL. Because things have changed. Alexa would no longer talk to me and sat silent on my dresser. No news brief, no weather report, No Rock Lobsters or Love Shacks to get dressed to in the morning. Her little pal Dot down in the kitchen just sat like a lump and was no fun. I could still watch TV - but satellite, no Netflix or Hulu. The Great British Baking Show was dead to me, no Archer, no movies that I like. The internet on my phone was even a bit sketchy, coming and going as it pleased like a morose teenager. Isn't it weird how we don't notice how much our day relies on it til it's gone? I could still knit of course watching Stinky Ass TV and read - but I hadn't downloaded my new books yet so they remained drifting in the morass while I sifted through what I did have and did find a few things to read. We did find other things to do, watched The Classic Movie Channel in the morning instead of surfing, read in the evening, used the music channels on our Dish TV. But it not as much fun, it was more work and it was sort of boring. 

The service person showed up a day early which would have been super had we known they were going to be here a day early - no one was home of course.But he did leave a filter and instructions on how to hook it up and Eureka!! We were back on the grid, Alexa and Dot started singing Take On Me and playing Lie Swatter.David was back to looking at the market place on Facebook (his new obsession and yes, we have already gotten stuff from it, that's where the six foot windows in our new sun room came from) and I quickie downloaded my new books just in case. We did not learn anything from this adventure, it did not open our eyes- just sort of annoyed everyone. We are internet people, no shame in that. We do know how to get along without it, but I also know how to get along without coffee. I CAN,but who wants to?

A Life Well Lived

We had to put our Vincent to sleep today. A couple of days ago we came home to find him staggering a little, looking down and distressed. He was eating, so we put him to bed with us hoping he would get past it. The next day he went out, but hid under the deck and would not come out. He slept with us again, but did not move during the night. Today David took him to the vet and it was not fixable - he stayed with him and held him - Vincent passed peacefully with someone that loved him holding him - what more can you ask?

I'm sad, but because I miss him, not because of our decision. Vincent arrived on our front door step almost 15 years ago, about 2 or 3years old,starving and abandoned - his wounds were terrible. We had a wonderful, old school vet who worked on him after we agreed he would have a home with us and only charged us $64. Vincent spent the next few weeks recovering on our couch, so weak and in pain we carried him until he regained his strength. I would carry him in the laundry basket while I did stuff in the house with him peeping over the edge at everything around him. When he got well enough to climb the stairs he would come up in the middle of the night makng a lot of noise and drama and would park himself right between us, purring like a steam engine and marching around until he got yelled at and stuffed under the covers. He was Jackson's cat, how he loved him. Everywhere Jackson went so did Vincent, he would park himself everytime Jackson did. It took a long time for him to get used to Jackson being gone after his boy joined the Navy - but he did. He moved from house to house with us, he never strayed, was always home at night for dinner. From the day we picked him up off our porch he never suffered again, he was always fed, loved like he deserved, his life was sunshine and cat treats. When he took a turn for the worse the other night, we had him between us and it reminded me so much of when we first got him and he was finally recovered - the cold winter stars outside and Vincent happily purring, snuggled deep in the covers - just so glad to be there, it remains one of my favorite and fondest memories. And then I thought the other night - here we are again, Vincent between us. But he was not snuggling or purring, he was tucked up and leaving me. But as sad as that makes me - it's ok.  I am so glad we found him before it was too late  - I hope tonight he is with my Pearl, eating whatever he wants and running the Elysian fields til I get there. I miss you friend.