Monday, September 25, 2006

Routine

In the interest of getting into the routine of updating here daily, I'm posting even though not much is happening. I had a basically good day. Few calls, and I had the time and opportunity to go to lunch with oddball. So, I got pizza and enjoyed the company of a nice attractive male. Both Good Things. I remembered to go get my CSA basket, which I forgot to do last Monday. That worked out last week, though, because yesterday I managed to clean out my fridge. Tonight I cooked another of the squash for supper. I am officially tired of squash. It would help if I knew some way to fix it other than bake it then drown it in butter. I am tired of anything fixed the only other way I know to cook, which is saute a thing in olive oil and onions. I have 5 more squash in the fridge to eat. This week. This is one reason the pizza tasted so good.

I picked a new realtor, and her phone is busy. For the past 2 hours it's been busy. I'll try her again in the morning. If it's busy then, I'll go looking for yet another realtor. I checked the listings, and I honestly think my house is priced appropriately. It is older and smaller, but closer in to town than some. It also has more land. Oh well.

And, I didn't hear anything about the second interview for the job yet.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Lazy

I can call it overwhelmed to make it sound better, but lately I am definitely lazy. Ok, not just lately, but I am more bothered by it lately.

I found my down sleeping bag. It is one of my prized possessions because of the freedom it gives me. I bought it 20 years ago after a relationship broke up. That and a small tent. No longer would I need a man to go do the things I enjoy! The bag keeps me warm, and being down, is also fine for summer. I have been careful during this move to keep it near me. I thought. Labor Day weekend when I went to James Cave I couldn't find the bag. I figured it was just in Another Place, since with 2 houses and 4 outbuildings I have a lot of Places. Before heading to Montgomery I looked in every Place I could thing of, no bag. I decided it saw me looking lustfully at new -20 degree bags in the new ultralight gear sites and being the jealous type it took a hike. Well, apparently it has forgiven me, because yesterday I walked into the room where I had looked in the closet and under the bed for the bag, and it was leaning against the wall next to the dresser. I keep it unstuffed in a muslin bag, so it is 2.5 ft tall and over a foot around, so it isn't like it's something small to look for. But, somehow I had gone into that room many times looking specifically for that sleeping bag and not seen it sitting right there. sigh. At any rate, I have my freedom back and can look forward to sleeping warm whatever travels I decide to head out on.

All but one of the hikers I've followed on the Appalachian Trail are either finished or have dropped off the trail at this point. It has been bittersweet, since I no longer will have any connection to these folks I feel I've come to know through their blogs. I do have a goal to hike the trail myself in 3 or 4 years. This gives me a concrete timeline to get myself and my gear and my finances where they need to be. I could refer back to my opening comments on being lazy here. As the weather gets cooler I want to go back to the Smoky Mountains and do the day hike that is my gauge on how in or out of shape I am. I won't schedule it for Christmas Day again since the weather has a habit of making it's sudden turn to winter right around Christmas Eve, and the park won't let me up to the trailhead when there is snow since I don't have 4wd.

Hopefully I'll post this evening on what all I've managed to accomplish today. It is almost 11:30 and I haven't started...

Friday, September 22, 2006

Snippets

Some things that I come across and think I should blog:

At the entrance to the landfill in this county is a big sign that says "SLOW - BUZZARDS AT PLAY" which I think is hysterical. It gets the point across and makes me smile.

I hang out at SimpleLiving.net on the discussion boards (under a different name). In a thread about 'what degree(s) do you have and would you do it over again?' a long-time poster detailed a list as long as my arm of certifications from his military career and then pretty much every certification that Microsoft and Cisco have. At the end he noted 'One lesson learned: certifications expire, but an academic degree is forever'. This is the most concise reason for going to college vs. just 'getting the certifications' that I've ever read.

I added a new experience in field service recently. I worked on a computer in the surgery of an animal hospital while a dog was being operated on behind me. The client contact stood behind me as a human curtain since I have a weak stomach. This job is definitely interesting.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Quick Update

The showing of the house was a no-go and the realtor came and got his signs on Sunday. I wouldn't let him have his lockbox since Nancye and Charlie might have needed them to get into the house when they got here on Monday.

They made it in to town here just as I got my drink and chips at the Mexican restaurant where we had decided to have dinner Monday evening. We had a good time relaxing, then came back to my home where they spent the night. It was nice to have plenty of space to have a couple of over night guests. The next morning Charlie was on his way early, and Nancye and I talked for a bit. Then she reclaimed her car and headed home. We decided it had been a fun adventure of the kind she and I both enjoy. I just wish I could have had more time with Charlie and Sandy.

I heard this afternoon finally that I have officially made it to the second round of interviews for the job. Also, the rumor is that they may hire 2 folks rather than 1. So, I am 1 of 5 left in the process. Life would indeed be much easier financially if I was making decent money again. But, those thoughts are best left to dwell on after I find out I have the job.

Dad's tests have been postponed again for a week. Guess no one thinks that his issues are terribly dangerous, which is good.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Change Happens. Maybe.

The job interview was rescheduled to Friday afternoon, right in the middle of my scheduled trip to Montgomery. I felt like I had been hit with a load of bricks. Before I could do much, especially since I was driving to Ft. Campbell on a call at the time, Mom called. She was taking Dad to the emergency room. I called Nancye and said 'my life is kind of falling apart right now, I'll get back to you on the trip...' Well, I decided to run Nancye down to Montgomery after work on Thursday, and get up fairly early and head back for the job interview. Mom called and said that the specialist the emergency room ordered has scheduled tests next week, and released Dad till then. So, Thursday about 4 pm Nancye and I piled into her much nicer car and headed south.

I had mentioned to Catonic in the chatroom earlier in the day that we would be through Birmingham that evening, and he should call me when he was finished working out if he wanted to meet for dinner. The fact that I hadn't eaten all day started being an issue about the time we crossed into Alabama, and we ended up stopping and getting some extremely good bar-b-q long before Birmingham. A bit after we were back on the road Catonic left a message on my phone, which hadn't bothered to ring or record his number, asking where we were. I had given him my number, but hadn't gotten his, so I had no way to call him back. I got hold of Oddball, and he posted to the chatroom to Catonic to call me again, which he did. So, Nancye and I ended up stoping and visiting with Catonic at a Starbucks in Birmingham that wasn't far off the interstate. I enjoy meeting people I formerly only knew on the internet. He and Nancye talked Mac computers. One of the few times that Nancye followed a computer conversation better than I did. I kept having to ask her what Catonic was saying...

We got in to Charlie and Sandy's campsite in Montgomery around 11 pm. Sandy was already in bed as she had to work Friday as the last day on that contract. Charlie already had our beds made out in the living room and kitchen (I slept on the bed made from the breakfast nook of the travel trailer), so we crashed. I didn't sleep well, may have been the Starbucks coffee so late in the evening. I was awake around 6 for the day, and after seeing Sandy off to work with a hug, I got ready and headed back out to Nashville in Nancye's nice car. She will help Charlie and Sandy move their 3 vehicles up to Arkansas. Actually I talked to her earlier today, and they got the trailer situated and headed out around 8 this morning.

The trip up to Nashville was uneventful, thankfully. I got home around 1pm and called Mom to call me a bit before 2 to make sure I was awake. I knew that if I even sat down I'd go to sleep and miss the interview. She called and woke me up on schedule, and I made it to the interview by 3:30. I interviewed well. This job hits all my strong suits. I am pretty sure I did well enough to get called back for the second round of interviews, but I won't know till Monday for sure.

Friends of my parents' from Missouri showed up as I was talking to Mom after the interview, so I said I'd drive on up to see them. Having only eaten a breakfast biscuit around 8:30 am, the turkey and deviled eggs and such that Mom was sitting out for supper looked good. After supper all of us walked around the senior apartment complex and looked at the various flowers that everyone has in the plot of ground between the porches and sidewalk that is theirs to garden. I looked over Mom's computer and reset some things she couldn't figure out, then I said my goodbyes and headed home.

This morning I got up with no plans except to relax. I did start laundry, figured I'd clean up the mess I'd made of the house before the interview later, and took a nap. At 11 my former realtor called me and said that a different realtor wanted to show the house at noon. He had told me Friday that they had called and it might happen, but I didn't really think it would. So, after being woken from a dead sleep, I had an hour to get the house ready. Luckily it was just surface mess from unpacking and such, so I cleaned it all up and headed out by noon.

I went to the rails to trails trailhead and was just going to sit there in the shade but decided to walk. I'm tired but a bit edgy by now. I walked about a mile, reading the information signs that are a new addition since the last time I walked there. I then stopped at Sonic and got one of their small banana splits to celebrate.

I am back home, and I've had a bit more of a nap. I think I'll get cleaned up and go someplace to eat later. I need a good meal. Tomorrow I may go back and visit with my parents and their company, or I may just veg. I haven't decided.

So, I may end up selling the house (haven't heard back from anyone on that yet) and getting a good job, or one or the other, or both may fall through. I'm too tired to care much right now.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Oops

While driving down to town for my job interview, I got a call confirming that I would be there... tomorrow. Hmmm. Not sure where the mix-up was. At any rate, all has been rescheduled and it will work out at least as well as if it had been done correctly the first time. Actually, it was better because I got a lot of things done around here that had been bothering me. I did make the trash run in the rain. The rain looked a lot more threatening from inside than it ended up being when I was actually tossing the trash into the compacter at the landfill. I got the grass that I tracked all over the house after mowing this weekend all vacuumed and swept up. I did the dishes so they are currently caught up. I got the clean sheets put on the bed. All good things

I feel so good about being more caught up that I have enjoyed spending a lot of time just reading random blogs. I bookmarked a few for further reading. There seem to be a couple of main types of blogs. Ok, some are in Spanish. I don't read enough Spanish to manage those. That was the only other language I stumbled across. Some college classes seem to require a blog as an assignment. Those blogs have a much more cut and dried sound to them and I don't tend to bookmark those, maybe because they are written for a teacher to read rather than friends. Another common group seems to be the religious folks. I was reading one blog of a woman who is a teacher up in Amish country in northern Indiana. Since I am from Indiana originally, I enjoy her descriptions. She also spent time in Africa this summer on some kind of graduate class/mission project. I believe she might be Mennonite, which if there has to be missionaries they seem like the most helpful type. I did bookmark her blog. Another one I bookmarked was by a woman who seems to be part of a frugality network. I want to explore that group more extensively.

I brought from my readings a vision from a student of almost empty bookshelves. He characterized the picture as how he sees himself right now, bringing little from his previous life into his current one, waiting to fill the shelves with what he will learn as he goes onward. I'm thinking I need to clear off some (a lot!) of space on my mental/emotional shelves myself. I also brought the sense of excitement that wandering as a lifestyle can have from the lady who was in Africa. Wandering in the sense that I could take time to enjoy the trip, see detours as opportunities for adventure, etc., and not be as concerned about any perceived destination. I may as well view my life as wandering since I don't seem to be making any straight-line progress anywhere right now.

Time to think about supper. A new cooking adventure. sigh.

Two Steps Back

The guy from dont4close.com won't call me back, even to give the courtsey of saying he's not interested in even talking about buying my house. The guy from tnbuy.com talked to me and said he wouldn't be interested because it's so far out and its a modular home, but he took time to try to give me suggestions of other ways to sell. So, I'll continue getting the house ready to show again and call a different realtor.

I took today off work because I didn't know till yesterday when I got home from work what time my job interview is today. It's 3:30 this afternoon, so I have time to do things beforehand. I was going to run to the landfill, since I didn't do it Saturday. However, it is raining. I do need to run down to town and pay some bills, though.

I'm feeling myself slipping into a depression. I'm trying to eat more, but I can't figure out what I want most of the time. Thursday after work Nancye and I are headed down to Montgomery, AL so I can drop her off to help some of our friends move to Arkansas. It will be good to see everyone, and feel like I'm giving a little back to a common cause. Depending on what goes on I'll either drive back Friday or Saturday morning. It's only a 4 hour drive down there, so it's no biggie.

Madcap Mum has a quote on her blog something to the effect that how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Makes sense. But, when I look at my days I see a lot of sitting around feeling overwhelmed by something, either housework or finances or my job or something. Gotta find the energy to break out of this somehow.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

It's Here

The Saturday that I have no 'plans' and can do all the stuff that I wanted to put off till I had a Saturday when I had no plans. And, I'm sitting here on the computer. Ok, I'm going to take a minute to start some dishes to soak...

Ok, back. I don't do dishes all week, just put them in the dishwasher. But, I don't actually use the dishwasher, I wash things by hand on the weekend. I have thoughts that if I did things during the week I could go do fun things on the weekend, but haven't managed to get there yet. So, I only have about 3 sink-fulls of dishes. It wouldn't be the difficult to do them at night. It's on the list.

The main things I want to get done today are making a trash run, since Saturday is the only day the landfill is open that I'm not working, and mowing the yard here at the 'old' house. The next things I'd like to do is run a couple of loads of stuff from the 'old' house to the 'new' house. At some point I need to do a large trash run, taking the stuff that I have to pay to drop off. I don't have a lot of stuff, but it tends to be the bigger stuff that takes up room and looks bad sitting around, like the old beat up mail box and such.

I was reading a thread on simpleliving.net about decluttering makeup. I really need to do this. I have drawers and drawers of makeup, some of it older than some of my current friends. I don't tend to wear makeup. I kind of have it layered, with the stuff pulled out that I think I might wear in one room and drawer, another drawer there that didn't hold everything, and 2 or 3 drawers of stuff in another room that didn't make that cut. I'll try to eliminate one drawer of makeup today.

I didn't hear from the broker last night. I may or may not call them Monday again. I kinda want to see how they play this game, so I might continue the dance just to see what happens. I still need to go to the other url to see what they do. I also need to go through my bills and pay some of them. A better job or selling this house would go a long way toward making me feel better about that area of my life.

So, with all this to do, why am I still sitting here?

Friday, September 08, 2006

Tipsy

I met my friend Trisha for beer and garlic bread after work today. We get together occasionally and whine/commiserate/enjoy what's going on in our lives. Tonight I had about 2.5 mugs of beer, which is 1.5 more than I usually have. I am feeling it. Amazingly I didn't feel any effects while driving home till I was about a mile away, at which point I was very glad I was on a 2 lane county road since I definitely felt drunk. I got a ticket already this morning for turning right at an intersection that has a 'no turn on red' sign, so I really, really didn't want to get stopped for driving while intoxicated.

So, any in-depth posting will have to wait till in the morning. Of course, tomorrow is the Saturday that I have put off pretty much everything that I should have been doing for the past month. Since posting is the least of the things I should deal with I may actually get that done. Oh, and I haven't heard from the broker I called to see if they would buy my house. Somewhat surprisingly, I saw another sign with a url for a place that 'pays cash for houses'. I will at last go to the website. I am still mostly trying to figure out what the gig is with these folks. So far I know that not calling me back is part of the game. I am not desperate, so I can sit and play as long as they want to. I imagine that for folks who are in dire financial straits and see this place as their only hope, waiting for a few days is a killer and may make them more ready to do whatever it takes to work with the company. Not so for me.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Beat Goes On

Yesterday I called one of the cash-for-houses folks. I was not going to give a lot of personal information on the phone, but they didn't ask much, just basics about the property. Not sure how I feel about that. Since one of the first questions was 'is it a mobile, modular, or ...' and I said modular, that may have stopped them. Anyway, they will call me 'by Thursday' to let me know if they are interested. I also got a letter from a realtor who saw that my listing had expired and they want to talk to me about listing with them. Sine they are out of Joelton I may try again with them if the cash place doesn't want to work with me.

The weather has cooled. I was busy all weekend doing things away from here, but I feel a lot better and am getting more done. I also feel better about work. I think that not dealing with driving around, getting in and out of the truck, etc. in the heat is helping.

I have a lot to say about the weekend, but since I kept putting it off I decided a quick note is better than not posting at all. So, maybe tonight I'll write about the weekend.