It appears that we will not be:
Instead, we’ll be sort of:
It’s good news on the home front.
While the rest of the world might be starting to burn. As I thought it might.
Perhaps tomorrow will be more even keeled.
That Feeling When – May 07th
That feeling when it seems you’ve been beaten heavily about the head and shoulders for weeks and except for being in ICU or prison or the morgue it’s not clear what else can go wrong or add more stress and you’re about to give in and go with “barely good enough” because it’s all that’s available and even that’s iffy but it’s all you’ve got left and “Plan D” is a HUGE freakin’ leap that’s sort of a last resort but at least you have that option when all of a sudden with no warning there’s an opportunity that’s like a bolt of lightning and while you really don’t dare to hope because you’ve gotten your spirits crushed repeatedly you want to hope and you need to hope and when things actually fall into place and this huge weight is being lifted you’re horrified to find that almost all you can think of is a nightmare “what if” scenario where all of this good stuff is just a trap that will temporarily put you on a pedestal so that the upcoming fall will be that much harder and you want to tell your brain to STFU but you can’t quite get past that as fast as things got better for no damn good reason other than blind luck they can get horrible again just as fast.
“Adulting” is sucking it up and going ahead full speed with the good things, despite knowing that those bad things might still be lurking.
Did you see “Arrival” a couple years ago? The big reveal at the end left me a weeping puddle. This is why.
We go on, despite our fears. Maybe some day we’ll even be able to let go of some of the fear.
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Music, Paul
Rabbits
The latest and greatest additions to the urban menagerie (coyotes, hawks, hummingbirds, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, rats, peacocks, mountain lions) are these guys:
Shortly after this picture, these two bolted for the street to cross over into the neighbor’s hedge. They were closely followed by two more who I had been totally unaware of, lurking in the bushes.
I’m just going to assume there are actually more than four, pending today’s response by the coyote contingent.
Filed under Castle Willett, Critters, Photography
Conversation Starter
The general public doesn’t care about science or astronomy?
Bullshit.
For Exhibit “A” I would offer the crowds we get at Halloween when we bring the ‘scopes out while handing out candy, as well as the questions we get asked (“Where are the telescopes?!”) every Halloween when it’s cloudy and we don’t bring them out.
Exhibit “B”:
Roll one of these babies around the storage center and see how much time you spend answering questions from everyone who sees it.
Gotta make sure that it doesn’t stay in storage for long!
Filed under Uncategorized
Someplace Special – May 04th
Blacksburg, VA
(And a secret theme… But you never can tell who’s watching, so it will have to stay secret to those not in the know.)
Filed under Photography, Travel
Moving Out & Moving On – May 03rd
The “adventure” continues.
We’re about 35 days into our 60 day escrow, with the goal of only needing about 45 of those 60 days. That goal is getting harder to hit every day. But there has been massive progress.
Aside from the weekend in Toronto, pretty much every waking moment of every weekend has been spent packing and moving stuff to storage. There’s also been a lot of stuff put into the trash – the bins are full to overflowing every Friday morning. And even more stuff has been schlepped off to Goodwill and various other charities that accept such donations.
At this point, probably 2/3 or more of what obviously needs to get to storage has gotten there. When this weekend is done, I hope that percentage is closer to 90%+.
We have a growing stack of defunct electronics and computers and monitors and televisions that will all get picked up by an e-waste recycling place here at some point. We have a growing list of furniture (shelves, an armoire, a bed, several desks, a couch) which will get donated to just about anyone who will pick them up. And at some point we’ll probably just have to get one of those big trash bins to fill.
Once all of that is done, there will be a relatively short list of things that will remain, with the hope that they’ll be going to “the next home.”
And there’s the rub at this point. We have absolutely zero clue where we’ll be moving to, even though that move will be in 26 days at the most, with 14 days or so being preferred.
Z-E-R-O.
Not that we’re not looking, mind you. But the options boil down to a classic “three-body” problem, trying to balance Location, Quality, and Price. You get two of the three. You can have something in this area with a reasonable commute to work and a low crime rate and you can have it reasonably priced, but it will be a piece of shit that’s falling apart and small. You can have a place that’s nice and decent sized while still being reasonably priced, but it will be 40 miles away with an hour (or longer) commute to work. Or you can have a place nearby that’s nice and decent sized, but you’ll pay about 50% more than we were hoping to.
It’s that final combo where push will probably come to shove.
We’re now finding there’s another factor – getting approved and accepted as the renter. We had found a house last weekend which really was ideal and we immediately filled out an application with high hopes that we would get it quickly and start to finalize the moving process. Today we got our hopes dashed when we got turned down for someone else.
So it’s back to scouring Zillow for listings, going to see three more this evening. The one with the decent price and decent size has multiple things in need of immediate repair despite their claim that it’s ready to move into. The one that’s a very good price is tiny, smaller than most two-bedroom apartments, and not in very good shape either. The one that’s really nice and actually only about two blocks from the current house is expensive – but we’ll grab it if we can. More calls in on more listings to see this weekend.
And it’s time to start thinking about apartments instead of houses. Lots more of them available and while really, REALLY not my first choice, at this point reality is rearing it’s ugly head and reminding me that the other choice might be an “extended stay” hotel and moving twice, once into storage and then back out to a house a month (or two, or three) later after living in a freakin’ glorified Holiday Inn…
Now I know why I didn’t move in the last twenty-seven years!
We will prevail. I just reserve the right to be cranky while prevailing.
Filed under Castle Willett
No Context For You – May 02nd
No question it’s a view from above, and most of the objects in view are reasonably familiar.
The question is WHY the picture got taken, or better yet, HOW? I’m trying to think of the sequence of accidental swipes, button pushes, and butt dials of various ilks that would result in this picture being take at that place at that time.
I’ve got nothing. I guess the phone just has a mind of its own sometimes.
Filed under Castle Willett, Photography
That Feeling When – April 30th
That feeling when it’s dark but not too late yet and you’ve been busting your ass all weekend and you’re really tired and sweaty and from a couple of blocks away you can hear some music and you’re thinking about how different sounds and frequencies carry better than others because what you hear clear as a bell (if faintly) is a trumpet line from some music and you’re thinking that must be why trumpets were used in battle and so on, because the sound carries further, and you’re thinking it must be a quinceañera or something with a mariachi band when suddenly all of the pieces snap into place and you realize it’s the background trumpet music from the choruses of The Monkees’ “Daydream Believer” and you wonder if you’ll ever be able to listen to mariachi music the same way again.
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Music, Paul
Lizard Sunday
I don’t know if this is Fearless Fred from the other side of the yard, but he didn’t seem to bothered to have folks walking by just a couple of feet away all day, and even when I was holding the phone less than four inches away to take the last picture, he just sort of cocked his head and gave me that beady, reptilian stare.
Filed under Critters, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 