Weird.

I cut a piece of drywall, and I had some time to kill while waiting for Tim to be ready for it. I was flipping through facebook (yeah. I know. I don't post. I don't comment, but sometimes while I'm standing around wasting time, I will look at the 'great time waster'.) Anyways, this ad popped up, and it was so shocking that it took my breath away. 

I said to Tim, "We need to stop in at Dave and Anna's on the way home."

I showed him the picture. 

They were working on their asparagus bed when we got there. I handed my phone to Dave and he stared at it for a few seconds and said, "Hooooooo boy..." I said, "Isn't that eerie?" and he said, "Yes it is. Show Anna." So I walked over and handed her the phone. She stared and said,"Oh my gosh. She leaned her shovel and went over to machinery shed to see the picture more clearly out of the sun. "Oh...my...gosh!" She seemed at a loss for words. 

This is almost a spitting image of my father. He's been gone for nearly 23 years now. I don't have a lot of pictures of my dad, but here's a bad one. 

Here is a better picture, but he's a lot younger, probably about 45. 

My phone was nearly dead, but Anna screenshot it and sent the photo to her boys and my kids. Almost immediately, her phone pinged back. "That looks like grandpa!" 

My sister is sure that this cannot be a coincidence, and she's going to contact the author to see where their picture came from. 

So that was the weird thing from today, but do you want to hear the weird thing that happened last night? We were both sound asleep and there was an ungodly crash that jolted us both awake. I said, sleepily, "What was that?" Tim answered, "It came from your side of the bed." There is always the possibility of my stack of unread books falling over, so I switched on the reading light. All was well on my side of the bed. "I thought it came from the foot of the bed..." But nothing there either. 

I remember saying, "Oh, whatever it was, it will still be there tomorrow," and I rolled back over and went back to sleep. My reasoning must have been sound to Tim's half awake thinking as well, hecause he did the same thing. 

This morning, when I woke up, it struck me as the oddest thing that we'd been able to hear a sound like that and simply go back to sleep without a care in the world. If it had been an actual break-in, we'd have found the guy in our livingroom eating cookies and watching television. (If we were lucky...) 

I got up immediately and looked around the bedroom again. I went out into the hall, and there I saw it. I've had pictures hanging on that wall for months, school pictures of the grands. The top one fell, dropped on top of a small table with some more pictures and a small lamp sending stuff crashing to the floor and shattering. Lord knows why the picture fell after all this time. It was hung on a regular picture hook, not just a nail. 

But it still makes me laugh to think of the two of us simply making the decision to figure it all out in the morning, and falling right back to sleep. 

We worked at the house today. We have half the ceiling done. Both bedrooms, the pantry, and the hall. The livingroom and kitchen are open concept and one big space. We are using 10 foot drywall for the ceiling there, so we think that should go up pretty quickly. (I am always the optimist!) 

Our roofer is coming Tuesday, which is good news too. 

Probably the only bad thing is that I got another darned tick, working in the yard. For the first time, I seem to be having a reaction to it. Monday, I'll call my doctor and see what she has to say. Tim has had one tick and this is my second tick of the year. I have a feeling this will be a bad year for them.

The Social Whirl

 Last night, we went to a baseball game to watch one of Tim's grandsons play. He's pretty young for the game, but even at his age, you can tell that he is going to be an athlete. 

He has a brother who is older, but I've never seen such a mathematically gifted kid. It is not even so much that he's got an aptitude for it; it is more that he has such an interest in the subject. He taught himself to multiply and divide by watching you-tube videos when he was in 1st grade. He loved how numbers go together. Anyways, he asked, "Do you play chess?" and I admitted that I don't. He loves chess and has no one to play with him. He plays online chess. 

"Tell you what," I said. "I will sit down an learn the moves of the pieces, and we will play chess the next time I see you." He was quite excited about that and began to show me the moves on his Ipad. I watched carefully and listened to him explaining everything. 

I said, "Well, I promise that I'll try my best. I'll have to write it down though. You have to be patient with me because it will probably take awhile."

Magnanimously, he said, "It's okay. I won't get mad at you. Everyone has to learn." 

(*whew*)

Anyways, my phone buzzed while I was sitting there, and I looked down. I had a text from an unknown number. "Hi, Aunt Debby."  So I texted back, "Who do I have the honor of speaking to?" and the answer came, "Are you at a baseball game in Sheffield?" I began looking around. My niece's son was on the opposing team. She was sitting with a woman that looked familiar, but I couldn't place. I felt like an idiot when I realized that we went to school together. We went to the same church for a while. We're friends on facebook. That was a nice visit. 

I saw another friend and had a chinwag there. Her husband had gone over to sit with Tim and visit. They went to school together. 

So, it was a pleasant and sociable night with quite a collection of good folks. We enjoyed ourselves. 

And now I'm trying to memorize chess moves. 

Today was book club. I was anxious to go. One of the group had just returned from a 3 week trip in Italy. Her husband is a photographer, and I'd been following their adventures while they were gone, but I was excited to hear what she had to say. We chattered so much that the 2 hours I'd set aside from work flew by before I knew it. I made my excuses and left that happy group. 

As I drove to the new build, I marveled at how refreshing having time to sit and visit wiht others. I need that. My heart really needs that, and I made up my mind to make sure that it happens regularly.

I got to the house ready to go to work. Tim was already there, working on one of his one person jobs, the kind where having an extra set of hands around is no help at all. We turned our attention to the ceilings, but almost immediately, Tim cut his hand. It would not stop bleeding and so that was the end of that. We ended work at 3PM. 

Tonight we have William's band concert to attend. 

The social whirl never ends here!

An Easier Day

 The inspector came this morning, first thing. We have one thing we need to fix before he comes back to inspect the drywall, but we have a green light to move forward. 

He is a friendly enough fellow. My sister and brother in law had a different guy. Not sure where he went, but I can tell you that we are glad he's not doing this job anymore. He was very condescending and rude, and enjoyed making people feel stupid. I don't like people like that. I don't even understand why they have to be like that. 

This guy is friendly, and enjoys a good joke. (He doesn't even mind the poor ones!)

Anyways, so today, we began installing the ceiling. My sister lent us their drywall lifter, and lord have mercy, does that make the job go a lot easier. Before it was a matter of holding a sheet of drywall over your head while entreating your husband to 'hurry, hurry, hurry!' as he zips the drywall screws in place. 

We just set the drywall onto the rack. Tim stands on scaffolding. I turn the wheel and lift the drywall into place, while he twists it to fit tightly against the wall and the previous piece of drywall. Then he starts running the screws in with the screw gun, and sure as bob's your uncle, before long you're able to move the lift out of the way so that he can finish his part of the job. 

Now that we have a refrigerator in the house, it is nice to be able to have makings for lunch. This week it has been pretty plain, so far. We have a jar of peanut butter and jelly. I'm not a fan of jelly, and so I have peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches. We sit for a while as we eat our sandwiches and we get right back to work. Those simple lunches save us a lot of time.

Today though, the weather was forecasting rain for the next couple days. We had a few sheets of drywall we'd picked up when we returned the extra bundle of insulation, but the 4 sheets of 8 foot and 4 sheets of 10 foot drywall did not last for long. We calculated what we would need for the ceilings. and then we headed off to get what we needed. (14 more sheets of 8ft, and 2 more sheets of 10ft and 2 sheets of the special greenboard drywall for the bathroom ceiling.)

We stopped to get gas and I ran into the store to get a cold drink for us to share. The fellow who waited on me was skeletal. Honestly, I have never seen such a thin face. His cheek bones jutted sharply, and his eyes were hollow. My first thought was 'concentration camp victim'. (We'd watched the Tattooist of Auchwitz last week.) There was quite a long line of people and I had to wait, so I got to watch him in action. He seemed very quiet, well mannered. "Would you like a bag for that?" "Is there anything else?" "Well, congratulations!" (The last was directed to the fellow in front of me who had a $100 winning lottery ticket.) Finally it was my turn. I set my drink on the counter and he said, "Is that it for you today?" and I said, "Sadly, yes. I do not have a winning lottery ticket..." and I put my hand to my forehead in a dramatic gesture. He laughed pleasantly as he rang me up. I handed him my $20 and he handed me my change. 

When I got back to the truck, I handed the change to Tim as I got in. He looked shocked. "How much was your drink?" I said, "A buck ninety." and he said, "You only got change for a $10. I gave you a $20." 

That made me feel stupid. Usually the change gets counted back to you, but he just handed me my change. I should have counted before I left. I normally would have. I walked back to the store, and when I stepped back in, he was busily sweeping the floor. Not a time waster, for sure. When he saw me, he said, "Forget something?" 

I said, "Well, I don't know what we are going to do about this, but I gave you a $20." He said, "You did." I said, "You gave me $8 and a dime in change." He got out his cell phone and began calculating. I said, "My change due was $18.10. I need another $10." He was so apologetic that I got the feeling right away that it was an honest mistake. He said, "We were talking. I didn't pay close enough attention." I told him that I should have counted, just to be sure, so part of the responsibility was on me.

I went back out to the truck and we hauled our load of drywall home, and carried it inside, a roadkilled skunk and an unfortunate wind direction adding a special ambiance to the chore. It reminded me of an old song. 

Which caused my mind to wander like it does. I wondered what ever happened to Loudon Wainright III 

He's around. Getting old like the everyone else. 

Anyways, I digress. After we unloaded the drywall, we locked up and headed home. We nearly both were pretty achey from the previous (and looooong day).  I made mashed potatoes and hamburger gravy for supper, along with some corn and got my dishes washed while everything cooked. (Did I mention that when we get to the new house, there will be a dishwasher? Because there will be and I'm looking forward to that!) 

Except for skunk, it was a satisfactory day.

 Tomorrow we will get up and do it all over again.

The good, the bad and the weary.

 We had our meeting this morning, and for the first time, I felt as if someone listened to our issue, really listened. He asked questions. He carefully looked at the two packages of material sent to the city manager.  He looked at the bills. He looked at pictures. He had a full day today, but he did ask if it would be okay for him to go over to the property and take a look. Of course, we said yes to that. 

He leaned back in his chair and asked, "Would you be willing to split the cost with the city? Perhaps I could use that as a negotiating point." 

We weren't prepared for that. 

Ultimately, we decided no. That sounds awful of us, doesn't it? We've been trying for three months to get some discussion on this, and they have refused. If any negotiating is to take place, it will take place after they come down off their high horse and deign to talk with us. 

He said he understood, and did not think badly of us, and told us he would be back to us in a couple of days. 

We worked on the house today and it was a long day. One of those days when a simple project turns into one darned problem after another. The inspector comes tomorrow. 

I did find a nice hydrangea today 50% off post mother's day. Tim said, "Who are the flowers for?" I told him they were for me, and I planted my $7.48 hydrangea outside the greenhouse. I also planted some rhubarb. My morning glories are sprouting. 

The day had its bright spots for sure, but I am whupped. 

Lights, Camera, Action.

Tim and I were looking forward to last night. We were supposed to be able to see the Aurora Borealis. We couldn't see it from town. Too many competing lights, I suppose, so we hopped in the car and drove to the top of the hill, to the church where we were married (26 years in a few days, which is hard to believe) There was another car there, and you could see those lights, faintly, pulsating fingers of light. We quietly watched the skies, and then headed back down the hill. 

When we saw a gaggle of cars pulled off on the shoulder, we stopped once again. A friendly lady came over and said that another couple had told her that if you watched it using the camera feature on your phone, you'd be able to see the colors better. Did we have our phones? No. We did not. It was such a spontaneous decision that, embarrassingly, I was in my warm nightgown wearing a bathrobe.  Tim was wearing his pajama pants too. Neither one of us had our cellphones. 

We watched for a while, the pale light changing slowly from a greenish glow to a pinkish one and the pale rays of light in the sky. 

But when we got home, Tim checked his computer and it was filled with pictures like this. He said, "Lets go to the new house and see if we can see it there." This time I changed out of my pajamas and we grabbed our cellphones. Unfortunately, it was getting very foggy, so we saw...bupkis. 

But it was an adventure. 

But for all that running around, this morning, a woman who lives 2 streets up from us was showing her pictures. Lovely...and taken from her front porch. 

*sigh*

They are supposed to be, clouds permitting, visible again tonight. We might just stay home. 

We wondered if going up on the hill was our first mistake. That mountain rises above the city. I wonder if the competing light coming up from the city lights and the store lights, etc. 'diluted' what was coming across the sky. 

But it was an adventure.

Ironically, that same woman had an adventure of her own a couple days ago. Her husband left for work and just seconds after he left, she heard the door open again. She thought he'd forgotten something and so went into the kitchen to see. Her dogs were simultaneously going bezerk and she was shocked to see a strange man in her house. At the same moment, her husband DID return home, because as he was leaving, he caught glimpse of the man lurking in their yard and was suspicious. The man ran away, and they both feel that he must have been high. They recognized him as a homeless man who sleeps along the bike hike trail. (I did not even know we had a homeless man who sleeps along the bike hike trail.)

The police responded immediately, and were able to catch the man. He might have been fleet of foot, but he was slow in brain. 

So that was interesting and we have begun to lock our doors. Probably wind up taking the keys out of the vehicles at night. What a world we live in!

On an unrelated but complementary subject, there is one person in this world that we keep a close eye on. He is a danger to the family. It's good for us to keep a bit of an eye on him. He has not been in the area for a while, but lives maybe just over an hour away. Since he does not own a car, that distance has been a great comfort to all of us. 

The best way to keep track of him is on his facebook. He has multiple accounts, but you can generally weed through his dramatic posts that alternate at rage and 'f everyone, who needs you?' and 'I'm desperate and I don't know what to do.' It was a little troubling to me that he'd gone quiet on all of his pages, but to be honest, he's not dumb, so I figured that he had blocked me. 

After all this down time, I was surprised to see two new posts from him. Even more surprised to find out that he was at the local library which is about 5 blocks from my house. He was on the computer there trying to get someone to feel sorry for him. "No phone. No wallet. No money, I'm desperate. I need to get home." 

It was same ol', same ol'. If he was using the computer at the library, he would be required to provide identification to do so. A library card, although I have known them to let someone use their computers with proper ID. The thing is, you just don't walk into the library and sit yourself down at a computer and begin sending out SOS's. 

Predictably, a girl responded. He seems to attract women with strong maternal instincts. She asked him what happened, and he responded that he was in jail for three days because he couldn't pay a fine. Someone else posted 'He lied. He was booked into jail on April 15th, just got out.' 

Wow. I can see the the courthouse from my bedroom. and the jail is in the same building. This man is a dangerous man. He was so close and I had no clue. There was no disturbance in the force. Just seems like there should have been a disturbance in the force. 

Another reason to lock our doors. 

We waited for a part we needed for the house. It was supposed to be in yesterday. It wasn't. So, we'll go pick it up this morning, and get back to work. 

In our ongoing fight with the city, we have escalated it. I have an appointment Monday morning. I said that I'd bring all the documentation I had of the event. He said, "Well, bring along the city's response. I'm curious what they are telling you." 

I said, "Nothing. We have received nothing. They have totally ignored us."

"Nothing?" He sounded surprised. 

"No. The man verbally told us he wasn't paying it. That was it. But I just don't understand how the city gets to simply ignore something like this. If they decided that we owed them money, we would not be given the option of simply ignoring them."

"No," he said. "No you would not." 

So. Meeting Monday morning.

Explained

 I am different. 

It is something that I've always known about myself. I've never understood why exactly, and it has not been because I haven't spent a lifetime trying to figure me out. I have, but at 67, I still haven't figured me out. 

I read my news on line and that reading laps over to a lot of different publications. The other day, I saw this. 

I was a lonely kid. When we were growing up, there were four of us, and we rarely went places. We lived on an isolated road with no other children. Indeed, at the time, there were few year around residences. Most of the houses were summer camps. We didn't go to town. My parents did the grocery shopping. When we needed clothes, my parents went to town and bought them for us. We didn't pick them out.

I had my little group of friends, but I was awkward and quiet. It didn't matter too much because they were awkward and quiet too. We came home from school. I sometimes went to a friend's house to spend the night, but somewhere along the line, my father took the notion that I had something going on with her older brother. For the record, it had never occurred to me. He was not very nice to my friend or me, and he killed kittens. But there was so much drama at home around these visits that after awhile, I simply stopped asking. It wasn't long and the invitations stopped. 

I remembered once, telling someone on the school bus that we were going into town that evening, all of us, and she looked at me and said, "So what's the big deal? We go to Warren all the time." After a few years, I figured out that most kids did have these little trips out and that they were not a big deal. 

There were no school dances. There was no makeup.  No panty hose with our long dresses, always knee socks. And white ones at that because it made laundry easier. And I'm not saying this to get pity or anything like that. It's just how it was. It was a lonely way to grow up, but I had books. I suppose that as kids, we were close, but it's strange. Now that we are adults, only my youngest sister and I are close. 

But as I read those thirteen 'negative traits' from people who grew up in extreme loneliness, I realized that I was 'ticking' a lot of boxes. 

I thought of the previous day, when Mattie tried to give me a hanging pot. I told her no. I would buy it. Tim picked one out for me. Looking at that 'negative trait', I realized that I was setting myself up to always be the giver in a friendship, refusing to allow others to reciprocate. 

That's a pretty poor friend. 

I belong to a book club now. I sought out this group. I really wanted to be part of something. Now that I'm in it, I spend too much time feeling as if I don't fit. That others might find me strange. Maybe I should simply stick to reading. 

That's not how new friends are made. 

My appearance. I've always been a self conscious person. Yesterday, I worked, came home from the new build, made a pot of potato leek soup, and then sat down on the couch, tired. I knew that I should take a shower, but it just felt good to sit down. Tim came in and said hopefully, "want to take a walk with me?" I thought of my rumpled wearing unmade up self and I said, "No. Not today."

There was a chance to walk along and visit with my husband missed. 

I can't stand pictures of myself, ever. It has occurred to me that when I'm gone, my children and grandchildren will not have many (any?) pictures of me to bring back memories. 

The 'icing out' was a bit jarring because a relative once accused me of freezing people out. For the record, I don't think that I do that at all. I accept the fact that some people are not going to like me, and that's okay. I don't feel the need to try to change minds. I just leave them be. 

I went down the list and I realized that every single one of the supposedly negative traits could be applied to myself, and for the first time, I understood me.  All the questions I ever had have been answered. I'm not a perfect person. I've always known that about me, and what people miss is that I see my imperfections far more clearly than they do. 

But for the first time, also. I see it laid out before me, something that I can understand. I feel like I understand me a little better. I feel like there are things that I can change. 

I'm kind of hopeful about this. 

Getting Things Done

 Today was a banner day in a lot of ways. 

We have a roof that was partially replaced on a rental. The bad side required immediate attention, but the other side got put off until the following year. We have the shingles for it. The fellow was supposed to return to do it. You can guess what happened next. 

Nothing.

That's what happened next.

Anyways, Tim made up his mind to get that done this summer. He talked to people but could not seem to get anyone to commit to taking the job. He didn't feel comfortable with a vague 'yeah...we can get to that at some point, I'll be in touch.' 

This morning, headed to Grand Valley, he suddenly did a quick turn into a parking lot and turned around. I was a little puzzled until I saw a team of Amish roofers. He jumped out of the car and spoke with a fellow. It was hard to tell how things were going, but Tim got back into the car in a happy mood. 

"He's Andy Byler. He said that he is looking for work. I told him about 606. He says that he'll be finished with this job by 3, and then he is going to another job that should be finished by 5. He'll meet me down there after that." It reminded me of the joke: 'If we really wanted to build a wall down south, just hire a team of Amish. They'd have it finished by lunchtime.' (Note: This in no way implies support for a wall on our southern border. It was a stupid idea and a massive waste of money.) 

Anyway, we continued on down to Grand Valley. We got the rest of the insulation in the basement done, which was very good news. We can return one bag of R30, which will get us $89 back. We have enough R15 left to insulate the inner wall of the cold room in the north side of the basement. We will use that to store potatoes and apples and squash and the like, just a small space with wooden shelves. 

While we were finishing up, my brother in law stopped in. He'd been out digging leeks and wanted to know did we want some. "Sure," I said. He looked around the basement ceiling. "I still don't get why your inspector is requiring that. Our inspector didn't require us to do that." 

It is odd. It seems like our last inspector had things that he considered important. for example, metal plates hammered into the studs to protect the electrical wires when we put up the walls. This new inspector said, "Nah. You didn't need to do that." The bathroom window was fine by the previous inspector, but this guy didn't like it. We might fall and put our hand through it. I guess that that wouldn't happen in the bedroom or the livingroom or the pantry. Just the bathroom. It just kind of seems like that might just be OUR problem if such a strange thing happened. But, we got the safety film he required, and we did the window. 

Tomorrow, we'll finish up the other thing we have to do, and hopefully next week, get another inspection to proceed on to the next step in the process.

I came home and cleaned leeks and cut them up and made a nice pot of potato-leek soup. Tim walked down to meet the roofing team. He assured Tim that it would be a small, quick job. "We can get this done in one day." This morning, they were free Friday. Of course Friday, they are calling for rain. And Saturday. Sunday. Monday. Tuesday is supposed to be partly cloudy with a 40% chance of rain, so maybe... But it is supposed to resume raining on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 

So...it all depends on the weather, but they will do it the first day without rain, and that it will be done the same day. Tim, for his part, promised to be on site to do their running, provide food and drinks, and any tools they might need. They don't own power tools, but they don't mind borrowing them. 

Tim came home confident that this job has been put in the right hands and we had soup.