THIS AND THAT (October 30)

HOUSE WARS Finally some good news.  After lowering the price we had three offers on the house. On the flip side in the process of accepting one, the water heater decided to take a dump...literally. Oh well. This was right after the OH's brother-in-law figured out how to fix the leak in the 2nd bathroom very inexpensively and we had a moment of relief.

 Although one offer was higher they wanted a payback of 6% and it was that awful FHA type. Umm no. I am not painting crumbling sheds in the winter to pass inspection. The other two were "cash" offers so no brainer-take the higher one. However I did counter that the price would go up if they wanted an inspection (just had one from earlier offer which cost us a month). Risky, but after a day she conceded, no contingencies.  Except, of course, for the water heater that took a crap just as we were negotiating. 

Heading up north to hopefully, remove the remainder of the "stuff". Oh joy, just found out Habitat for Humanity cannot pick up our donation until, oh I don't know, when we have a couple of trips out your way. "We'll call you".  Fine but we live 250 miles away. Have I mentioned how much I hate small towns. Also water heaters and installation cost a heck of lot more when there is no competition.  Well, it's not my money after all.

THE GOOD DIE YOUNG So sorry to hear Leslie Jordan passed away last week. A profoundly good and funny man who had to deal with a lot as a gay, short man in Tennesee. He always seemed to play characters like himself who were warm, witty and real. But one quote that stuck with me relates to his being raised in the Baptist church. Considering he was "different" according to some people's standards he said "we learn to hate ourselves in a pew". Profoundly true.  Perfect example of scripture on their tongue and hate in their hearts. 

WINE/WHINE TIME We had one of our legendary wine tastings with my carefully crafted selections and illustrative descriptions of each vintage...which are promptly ignored as we get rolling. By the 3rd bottle (maybe the 2nd), we are pretty much over the presentation portion and into the snacks, jokes and conversations. After the first half of the Green/Blue we gave up on the football game as well. We finally broached the aged bottle of red that we had paid mucho bucks for that we meant to enjoy on our 50th anniversary. Well a year and a month after that milestone was soon enough and it did taste delicious.

 A little talk of politics though I pointed out if you've lived long enough you have seen the stock market go up and down, inflation rise and fall. In fact when we were buying our first houses we would have killed for 7% interest rates.  Meanwhile the oil companies happily post record profits and people continue to buy buy buy.  Although it seems the only ones getting hurt financially are the single parent families and poor folk, but the number one issue is inflation?  Really. And crime when the GOP is calling for blood when the FBI raided Traitor Dumpf's place and an 82 year old grandfather is almost killed from hateful political rhetoric against his wife. 

CRUSHING Speaking of the horrific loss of life in Korea due to 100,000 partiers, I am reminded how I get a lot of grief over my distate (ok hatred) of standing in line or pushing my way through a crush to get to the front. In college we attended a concert where we stood in a long line (with tickets) before they opened the doors and said "Ok, run for it".  Not fun.  Never again I swore and I haven't. What a waste of a whole generation of young people. 

ALL HALLOWS The boy made his annual trick or treat visit last Friday as he is busy canvassing his neighborhood Halloween night and we head to the lake to hand out goodies to the kids and shots to the parents. He had a big weekend as Mom and Dad took him to his first pro football game.  As his Dad is a Lions fan and Joe's heart belongs to the Dolphins and their young quarterback, someone was bound to be disappointed. Well it sure as heck wasn't Joe...Sigh  Peace out and prayers to Ukraine....💚💙💛

                                                           

WOE OR WOAH (October 23)

 SHOPPING WOES After misreading both the sign out front and, apparently, the sign in front of the product, I believed I was charged more and pointed it out twice to cashiers who were at a loss. As it was only 20cents I said forget it. However when I got home I found I had been charged twice for the item   Arrgghhh 😖Then on further examination I realized I was not charged at all for another items that costs 9.99 a lb, though their sticker said 4.19 a pound. Darn labeling rules. Net gain probably $2.  Karma 😄 

Speaking of customer service (well I was) ever notice how difficult it is to find a phone number online to talk to a "live" person on your issue?  It is practically impossible to find on the website and if you query the "customer service" or "contact us" statement it ususally suggests one contact them via email or, my favorite, robotic Chat rooms; but no direct phone number.  Do you think that is by design? hmmm And I'm talking large companies here. 

HOUSE WOES Further delays, oh joy.  After tying up the house for a month, and agreeing to fix what was found on inspection or lowering the price, the buyer "booked". Apparently she is within her rights to do so "pending inspections" so no compensation for us and losing 4 weeks of sale time for nothing. I hate FHA loans. But then after getting news we had a showing already scheduled the next day, we got a call there was a water puddle in the basement. Fortunately my brother-in-law is up there hunting and he's a heck of a handyman....so I convinced him to take a look. He found the leak in an upstairs sink that apparently had been broken for some time but we never ran any water in there so news to us. People on house tours love to test out the faucets. As it is a hot water heating system we can't leave the water off too long or no boiler. He fixed the pipe problem but now the faucet is dripping. Hoping he can fix that today or put a new faucet in. We plan on presenting him with a major gift card in addition to his expenses.  Hard to sell a house from 250 miles away! 

DRIVING WOES I used to like driving, but everyone is so much more aggressive and in a hurry these days. As I have had my share of speeding tickets, I tend to set my cruise a few miles above the speed limit and relax. Except I can't as tailgating is constant.  Best case scenerio - magic finger gestures, worst case-bang bang. I reference the bang-bang to Kristen's and my trip to France in 2000. As our marvelous travel guide forgot there were no taxis after midnight on Friday night we had to basically "hitch hike" rides back to the hotel.

 Sandwiched between two characters in the front seat who did not converse with us in english and the girls in the backseat (Kristen thinking we were going to be kidnapped and murdered), I tried to make conversation from my high school french Zut Alors! Just as you imagine, there is much honking, gesturing and yelling out car windows when one is blocked in downtown Paris. Nobody backs up-kind of an honor thing I guess. At the height of the yelling and obscene gestures I said something like "Etats Unis bang-bang allez." (rough translation in "US we would probably be in shooting mode"). It was only after we arrived safely at our hotel did one of the gentleman ask for a reimbursement (more than a taxi but less than mayhem & murder would have cost) in perfect english.  I paid and "Merci".  

ECONOMY WOES Speaking of economics, I find it interesting that the business leaders are promoting recession, etc., while meanwhile the travel gurus and credit card companies (who actually have their finger on the pulse of American spending) claim people are "business as usual" and not holding back on goodies and travel. Also Halloween is back to 2019 levels to the tune of 10 billion! That's a "hell" of a lot of 16 foot skeletons I see gracing the suburban homes around here.  Speaking of which, guess who is going as the devil himself complimented with his best buddy the Grim Reaper. 

It's all about the light-up mask apparently. Not sure if the bare feet will be walking the neighborhood however.

Continuing with economics I suspected as much and then was reading a claim by Congresswoman Katie Porter from California who is known for her famous whiteboard demos.  After her speech she was fact-checked and proven correct. Business profits were around 11% from 1979 to 2019. Since 2020, the number has jumped to 53.9 (despite those new outrageous higher salaries/otherwise known as the cost of living). Inflation is solely due to government spending my sweet Aunt Fanny. Obviously there are other factors in play but we should not be fooled that we are not paying for that 40% increase. Your're welcome stockholders. 

BACK TO BOILERS A funny story came to mind when I realized we were dependent on water reaching a boiler for heating Sherry's house as the gales of November come closer. Our first apartment was the upstairs of a house and heated by a boiler. There were no downstairs neighbors at the time. ASIDE:  Our former neighbors had a "smoking" habit that tended to make one high just going up to our apartment from the aromas wafting from their apartment. Oh the 70's.

 Anyway the boiler had a tendency to run out of water when it got cold-makes sense right? The OH cheerily showed me what I had to do in the unlikely event of the boiler dying while he was up north deer hunting. I woke one night to all the brand-new kittens and their mother huddled with their paws on the heating elements of the electric blanket. Ruh-ro. I still can't believe I went down 2 flights of stairs in the dark to restart the heating system. If it wasn't for the cats.... Little harder to do 250 miles away. Hopefully we sell the damn place before Dale is done hunting up there.  Definitely, Peace Out..✌💙💛

THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE (October 16)

Definite sign of the changing seasons--dragging Madam Pontoon on a trailer heading to her winter abode. The Robel pole barn was graciously offered thus leading to the perilous journey on back roads with what has to be the most gargantuan trailer on two wheels.  We were the guys you hate to get behind on a two-laner. Considering the cost of gasoline these days, it's a good thing we only have to fill it up once every two years- Ouch.

Offered to to pick up the boy from after school Adventure Club leading to an eager tour of his classroom. He commandeers one of two special seats that face a square of four other desks.  Much like the chairman of the Board. His Mother said at the Homecoming parade twenty people must have stopped to say hello to him so the chairman reference is appropriate. I don't know if it's especially crowded or this is the "new" classroom design, but it is all open rooms with bookshelves between.  Not sure how one can identify their particular hubbub from other classrooms or maybe it doesn't matter. Which reminds me...

Had a much anticipated (not in a good way)  dentist appointment for a new crown this week and they also embrace the open concept with no floor to ceiling separation. A liberal application of gas and/or novacain keeps the clients from freaking out those who are merely there for a cleaning.  I warned ahead of time I insist on frequent breaks as my jaw tends to spasm so we had some interesting conversation. Mother always told us to make an impression so we are not just another patient -positively or negatively I assume. She was a master at "small talk" with strangers. Our friends loved her. We would troop home various bodies on weekends from college and she was always open to it. Not the typical Mom, she would much rather host never-ending euchre tournaments or debate politics than hide in the kitchen.

Anyway, I have been a patient of this dental practice so long I am actually being treated by my original doctor's son. I regaled him with tales about his father such as how much he enjoyed reading my newspaper opinions each week though he did not agree with me on any (read too liberal). I also related that I was the catalyst for insisting they wear gloves when the AIDS/HIV precautions were just coming out. Due to my occupation I had to create a program and do a lot of training on the subject. Both the doctor and technician were shocked it was ever an issue. They're both young, so it was the norm for their training. Things change and become routine. Funny how we forget everything had to start somewhere.  We also had a discussion on chemicals (PFAS) as I had just done a podcast interview on the topic (love to educate). 

Somehow we got on the topic of various inspections I had done including the Ionia prison. I told them the conditions for the traveling dentist were abysmal with such close quarters that body fluids were routinely shared. He relayed his own story where he was treating a prisoner (part of their training I'm guessing) and he normally asks the patient to lift a hand if they are uncomfortable.  Then he realized she was handcuffed to the chair (which would have made me uncomfortable). I said did you tell her to just raise a leg? He had to think about whether that was restrained as well. At any rate, I am not sure if it was a compliment but the Doctor said I was extremely memorable. 

The discussion actually made me realize something.  So many people lose their more liberal, saving the world ideals, and start worrying about themselves as they grow older.  It's one thing to get older, but closing one's mind to new ideas and the concept of change is fatal. It will age you faster than your years. I believe working in safety and health for so many years and having to change my thinking, my strategy, what I thought I knew and what I learned, kept me mentally nimble and open to new research and ideas.  I really resent it when folks become stuck in worn-out comfortable concepts or actually regress as change and listening to up-to-date information becomes too difficult.  

Go back to school; learn a foreign language; visit a new city; go zip-lining.  Staying in one place mentally forever is mind-numbing. That was reinforced when I interviewed the VP of Operations from an environmental consulting firm on PFAS. I had to study a bit as I struggled to keep up with his scientific concepts and acronyms -lol.  Made me feel like a student again!

A couple weeks' break from "es-tating" has been relaxing. Finally good news from the insurance company after two months of pretty constant haranging.  Apparently we have waded through a sufficient amount of paperwork, hoops, rings and dust bunnies to receive the payout. Fortuitous as the estate sale money only goes so far. Slight set-back on the house, but hopefully it will be resolved before winter. Do not relish bob-sledding up to Rogers to sign paperwork. So all good.  Peace out...💙💛

WHEN LIFE & MAKING SAUSAGE COLLIDE (OCTOBER 9)

 I know it's been awhile.  After five weeks of sorting, cleaning, phone calls, banks, lawyers, courts, realtors we finally caught a break. I now know the "dump" people by their first names and have discovered just what second hand shops and recycling centers will actually accept when one is disposing of a lifetime. So true, "you can't take it with you" and "dust to dust".  Lots and lots and lots of dust. Through the course of this undertaking I caught the worst virus in my life culminating with a ruptured eardrum.  However, when one lays on the "good ear" the compromised eardrum stifles any extraneous noise and helps with shuteye, when I was unstressed enough to get any shuteye.

I learned the intricacies and inefficiencies of government and the Veterans Administration in this journey. Not that I was surprised at it, of course, but I have sympathy for those who have neither the patience or ability to persevere against all odds and extreme "hold" times.  I found multi-tasking and speaker phone a great way to wait out the inevitable "your call is important to us, bla bla bla".  Hold times are inevitably followed by "you need to call this department and/or these six other numbers".  As I could not hear out of one ear and suffered a record two weeks of laryangitis, compliments of the ear infection, speaker phone was also my friend. I had to draw the line at foreign operators. It was just too difficult to decipher when one's hearing is compromised. Which led to callbacks and fingers crossed in hopes of a straight mid-western accent. Even a southern twang was difficult. I will say though, each operator made a point of expressing sympathy for my loss. 

Also any issue I was able to resolve ala telephone was later followed up by requesting the same information in writing, sometimes followed by another phone call verifying they received the information verifying the information that was provided originally by phone. You follow?  However through my prompt diligence I was able to snag several small refunds which were sorely needed for the Estate fund (funded by us) to pay bills. Another fun rule, credit unions/banks do not give one access to the deceased person's bank account even though the court-appointed rep (the OH) was required to give an accounting of assets and liabilities.  Funny how that works.

Insurance companies, and a niece with special needs and desires, were their own private nightmares.  I now understand why one hires a lawyer to collect after a vehicle mishap. The insurance goal is to keep providing hoops for one to catapult through before dispensing anything of value. Constant bombardment through phone calls and letters eventually breaks through the reinforced walls. I think; jury is still out. Though our lawyer told me we are moving at "lightning speed". To which I retorted, "because it's my money being spent!" 

 After spending three solid days in ICU and after dropping off the niece to "recover" I guess, us old people spent the next several hours cleaning in a massive "person-hunt" for pertinent papers. An almost useless task as things turned out. The joy of finding a locked mini-safe did not yield the treasured paperwork sought. (I should have guessed from the layer of dust on it) Instead it contained ancient and useless documents;  interesting but of no particular assistance.  Imagine trying to re-create a person's entire financial past-present-future from bits, pieces and conjecture essentially. 

One interesting story from that night still has us bemused. I'll preface it by saying several months after my Mother passed I was feeling particularly sad and wishing she was still within a phone call's reach. Apropos of nothing the rock station I was listening to suddenly, mid-song, broke into the Irish Rovers "Green Alligators, and long-necked geese" etc. the very song we played at Mother's funeral as she liked the group and it seemed appropriate at the time.  Fast-forward 15 years. Finally calling a dinner break the night of Sherry's passing the OH went to a local restaurant (there are a grand total of 4 restaurants in town) to pick up a pizza. Important to the story:  he NEVER turns on the radio. As he drove by the Rogers City cemetery, the radio starting blasting out the 60's station.  Hmmm. So at least I know Sherry made it to Rock and Roll heaven and apparently music is the choice for communicating with the living.

The fatigue factor was high as constant cleaning, sorting and phone calls took over our lives. (We have dedicated our dining room as the Enlow annex). Three estate sales yielded enough to keep the proverbial wolfie from the door in paying essential house bills. Amazing the stuff people will buy, though the positive stories about my late sister-in-law were comforting. She touched many in that town.

BEFORE  

                                                                                 

AFTER

  

 As I said we were constantly sleep-deprived, suffering a viral infection and making a 500 mile round trip every week so a couple of stories emerged. One night after a particularly brutal day, we searched high and low for the hotel room key as we were checking out the next morning. Harsh words were exchanged on who lost what when I flung open the door to find the key sitting securely, and unsafely, in the door lock on the outside...all night - oops.

Pretty much on a first-name basis with the various folks at the local hotel. Though them spinning off my credit card number from memory was a little disturbing. However our "chuminess" led to special services. This hotel is not high on luxury but nice view of Lake Huron. However there was a comfy little wrap-around chair one week in our room. The next week-no chair. When I mentioned it, they assured me they would do some discreet checking of other rooms and lo and behold, the little chair appeared in the room that night! They also knew my phone number by heart as they needed it when we left, get this, a pair of shoes and a swiss army knife in the room which I just had them hold until the next week, because of course we had to come back.

One high note. Real Estate people work any hour of the day or night. After two people mentioned this agent's name. I took it as an omen and put a call into her voice mail. She called that night and asked if she could meet with us the next day, Sunday. I had gotten used to the little town closing up on the weekend so I was beyond thrilled. House listed four days later and offer made the first weekend. Though nothing is certain until it is, I give high marks for the real estate hustle she demonstrated. Much better impression than the appraiser we were required to hire whose first words were "who's gonna pay me", who proceeded to lowball the appraisal and did not notice there was an unexpected extra strip of beautiful forested land behind the house. To be honest, the house has its "issues" but it is offered "as is" as part of an estate.  After the realtor finished the pictures (highlighting the back forest & us shuffling furniture around to make it look better) I was reminded of the old saying "you really don't want to know how the sausage is made"....  Peace out  💙💛

LAKE HURON SUNRISE