Sunday Update, I guess.

 Okay, so yesterday morning I detailed what I've been up to lately - with photos.  It's not all that interesting or exciting, but it's keeping me out of trouble.

I spent 6 hours yesterday loading a 14' trailer with Hubs.  Well, actually, half of that was spent loading and the other half was unloading part of it and reloading different stuff.  We had a decided weight problem.  

You know those big ass tool boxes - like 6 foot long and five foot high and filled with various tool stuffs?  Well, we loaded it, but after we got everything else on, the trailer was sitting way too low to safely move.  So, we unloaded the stuff we'd put in after the toolbox and then the toolbox.  Then we loading up again.  

Along the way, we read the specs on the trailer and discovered it was only rated for about 3000 pounds. Umm, the toolbox was probably at least half that.  Blerg. And even after we got it off, we couldn't load as much as we would've like to.  Trying to maintain the right balance, doncha know.  Stupid trailer design.  

I guess there's a reason why the moving company said they would NOT move his toolbox.  He'll have to figure something else out.

We left before the trailer got moved.  I can only hope they didn't need to pull more off of it after they lost their movers, but we were exhausted.  Thank goodness today is an off day because I don't think I could lift a box of feathers right now.

Unfortunately, they're moving in 10 days and there's still a boatload of stuff to do.  They'll call me tonight and we'll go over the game plan for tomorrow.  I'm almost out of Asperceme.  Time to hit the Blue Emu.  And the Aleve, of course.

I'm still a goddess.  The Goddess of Bruising and Pain.  LOL

In other news, because this is the Sunday Update, I guess.  I made zucchini bread yesterday morning before we left.  Active 5 out of 7 days.  Weight: 182.4 as of yesterday a.m.  I did see 180.6 this week, but it went back up again.  

 I got up over 200 million in poker then went back down to 91 million.  I'm making my way back up again, but it's slower going up than it is going down.

I didn't read anything, but I did do like one and half crossword puzzles.  Woohoo.

And that's all I can think of right now.  Another 10 days and I should be back to regular life and regular posts.  

How did your week go?

Beating My Own Drum

This morning, I'm going to beat my own drum.  I worked hard for it, so no apologies.  

I spent the last several days helping sort their garage into keep and throw.  The 'throw' stuff ended up in a trailer to be taken to the solid waste transfer facility (who will then take it to the dump).  Yesterday was the day it went.  The trash in the trailer weighed in at 2400 pounds.  And most of that I had a hand in.  Over a ton worth of junk, thrown in over the course of two days and the third morning wherein we dragged an old nasty piece of carpet over the whole thing so nothing would fly out during transport.  

Here it is before the carpet...

I forgot to take a pic after the carpet went on.  But trust me when I say it added at least another hundred pounds or so.

I am a goddess.  

A tired and sore goddess, to be sure, but still a goddess.  

Today, a covered trailer is being delivered and we'll start moving the 'keep' stuff into that for storage until they're ready to move it to their new home.  

Here's the deck we stained last weekend:

It's bigger than it looks from this angle.  I'd say about 350 sq ft worth, but I'm bad at eyeballing distances.

I didn't take a pic of the other deck we stained the weekend before, but here's the garage we painted the weekend before that:

Also bigger than it looks from this angle.  It's a deep 1.5 car garage and it was mostly dark brown, so two coats on that puppy.

None of the above includes the packing we've done inside.  Or the two trips we've already made to the thrift store with a packed-full, four door mid-sized sedan.  (All kudos to the gals at St. Vinny's who helped us unload.)

Needless to say, Hubs and I have both been deities up to this point.  Especially considering our combined ages equal 117.  Add in my BFF and her husband and the total age is 240.  Old folks can still kick ass.  

I've been at this an average of 4 days a week for the past 4 weeks.  It feels good to actually be physically productive for a change.  Yes, even as tired and sore as I am.  Bruised but unbroken.  Go me.

Like I said, today's another day chockfull of work.  Tomorrow might be a day off.  I think I might need one.  LOL

What's up in your world?  Any drum beating of your own you'd like to do?

Sunday Update - Week 37

:blink blink:  Hello there.  You're still coming around, eh?  Cool.  I should rename this the 'Moving Friends Spectacle', but this will pass and I will someday be back to writing.  Not today, though.

We finished staining the decks - two coats in an Autumn Brown that kind of looks like cedar once it dries.  Looks lavender in the bucket and when it first goes on.  My friend hated it when we first put it on, but it's growing on her.  Or at least the idea that no matter what color it is or whether it clashes with her tastes, it's done and she won't be living with it for too much longer is growing on her.

We've been going to bed at 7:30pm a lot this past week.  Last night we went to bed then and I woke up at 12:30am.  Hubs got up at 2.  Then he went back to bed at around 4 and I went to bed at around five.  I was up again just before 7.

Turned on the TV at 3.  Nothing was on, so I selected Sumo wrestling on the Japan channel.  Live from Tokyo.  But in English, thank god.  Two massive mountains of flesh in tiny attire, grappling and trying to push each other out of a circle of sand lined with rocks (it looked like rocks).  It was like watching the bizarre love children of hippos and grizzlies fight.  Massive muscles underneath mounds of quivering flesh.  Both gross and entrancing.  One guy's thong thing was way too loose.  Another guy's was way too tight.  One guy was super hairy, which I thought was against the whole Sumo thing but I guess not.  One guy reminded me of Jaba the Hut.  For the most part, though, they were well-shaped but incredibly fat dudes.  In one bout, one was 177kg (390lbs) and his opponent was only 130kg (286lbs) and I was sure the larger guy would throw the smaller one around.  Nope.  Skinny (for varying definitions of skinny) dude won.  All in all, it was interesting.  Then Hubs went to bed and I watched the end of The King and I.  Sad.

One of my tomato plants has two new tiny tomatoes.  Yay.  Same plant that gave me the other tomato.  Most of the garden is still alive, but I can tell time is growing short.  In news for next year's garden, I got a bunch of big plastic planters from my friend, so my plants will have larger growing spaces.  

Today or tomorrow - I have both days off - I have to go get the car serviced and buy two new tires.  If Walmart has the tires I want in stock and can put them on today - and if the oil change place is open on Sundays - I'll go there.  If not, I'll get tires closer to home and then drive down for an oil change and groceries tomorrow.  Or I might just veg out today and get it all done tomorrow anyway.  

I'm pretty worn out, so two days off will be nice.  Back at it on Tuesday.  Luckily, it's only packing and cleaning from this point.  No more painting.  No more ladders.  Just some lifting, which should be easy since I am strong like bull - moreso now than when I started this adventure.  I'm also sporting one hell of a tan with tank top and shorts lines.  Actually, it start out as one hell of a sunburn, but aloe took care of that and now it's brown.  (And no, I don't worry about skin cancer, so don't go there.  Let me enjoy my sexy tan.)

I've also lost 3.5 pounds since 8/10.  Loads of activity during and after which I am not inclined to eat a lot.  Weight: 181.2

I finally actually know someone directly who has the 'rona.  He said he felt pretty gross there for a couple weeks, but he sounded about done with it.  I hope it's true.  Hubs will call him today and see if that's the case.  

Well, a creepy, orange-red sun is rising here.  We're getting the wildfire smoke again.  Whoopee.  And I should probably toddle off.  Have a great day wherever you are.  And tell me about your week, if you're so inclined.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That

My world is pretty much pre-moving tasks, poker, and music right now.  (In case you're just coming into the story, I am not moving - a friend is.)

Ate lunch in an actual restaurant yesterday.  Chinese food!  Yay!  I had this chicken dish - I think they called it Hung Su chicken? - that was pretty tasty.  Breaded chunks of chicken in a savory but slightly sweet sauce with veggies.  Very few veggies, but I needed mostly protein so it was good.  And crab ragoon.  Loves me those deep fried pockets of crabby, cheesy awesomeness.  And it was large portions so I brought about half of it home.  Hubs had it for dinner.  He thought it was pretty yummy, too.

I haven't eaten in an actual restaurant in years, so yeah, big deal for me.  

It was the first time I was in a Chinese restaurant that was playing country music.  Weird.  

I've been playing poker in a higher stakes room.  5-10M buy-ins with 100K blinds.  Right now, I have around 200 million in play chips.  About a year and a half of playing took me from 25K to here.  Like I've said before, I wish it were real money.  But it's illegal in the US to play online poker for real money.  Thanks for that, Obama.  Turd.

As for music, I'm enjoying listening to music while I play poker.  This Jango internet radio thing is kinda cool.  Not only does it give me the bands I like, but it gives me the occasional independent artist, too.  Okay, so most of those are pretty bad, but every rare once in a while, I find a gem.  I think what I'm tuned into now is called 'folk rock'?  Lumineers, Phillip Phillips, Of Monsters and Men.  Those have been on the radio, so I was familiar with them.  Another band I'm enjoying is The Head and the Heart.  Oh, and The Strumbellas.  Pretty cool stuff and I haven't heard most of it a million times so it's fresh.  I really need some of this stuff on CD so I can listen to it in the car.

Yesterday, there was nothing on TV, so I tuned in to a biopic about RUSH.  That was pretty cool.  I'm probably the last person to learn that 2112 was dedicated to Ayn Rand.  Gnarly.  Hubs has never been a fan of RUSH, though, so once he came into the room I only made him watch a little before I changed the channel.  He did enjoy some of the folk rock (? alternative country? gothic folk? :shrug:) I played for him.  He likes Phillip Phillips.  And he enjoyed when I played 'Ho Hey' by the Lumineers for him.

Hey, if you've never heard Boyce Avenue, give them a whirl.  They do acoustic covers of a lot of songs.  Here's them doing Dust in the Wind.  Pretty!

Okay, well, I'd better get my buns in gear.  I have to do dishes, what few there are, and then grab a shower before I have to go north for cigarettes and then west to resume my packing duties.  Have a great day.  And leave a comment, if you want.  I'll approve them when I get home.  

Things I Miss About Colorado

Nothing!  Hehe... Not seriously.  (Okay, a little seriously.  Colorado was NOT my favorite state to live in.)

1) Prairie Dogs.  I know they're a pain in the ass for a lot of people, but they're so damn cute.  And the only time I really got to see them was driving through the countryside.  They'd be standing on their little hind legs, staring off into the horizon.  So cute!

2) Western Kingbirds - or as we liked to call them "Giggle Birds".  The sound they make is like giggling.  I could never help but smile when I heard them.  Plus, they're aerial acrobats.  Watching them swoop and dive chasing after bugs was always a treat.

3) The few friends I made there. 

Right now, that's about it.  I'd miss the mountains, but we never really spent much time up there.  The only time I'd really see them was if I drove two hours, and then they were out on the horizon.  They were neat to see, but... eh.  The hills here are better. 

I might, somewhere down the road, miss the wide open vistas.  You really could see forever out there on the plains.  For now, though, I'm still immersed in being back amongst the trees again.  I LOVE trees.  Always have.  Always will.

Before we moved here, someone said something like "Why would you move to Missouri?  With the fire ants and all that humidity."  So far, no fire ants.  (I'm not even sure they have those here.)  As for the humidity?  I'm loving it.  I sure don't miss the dryness of the Eastern Plains.  I don't miss the dust.  I don't miss the wind. 

And if I turn this into a litany of the things I DON'T miss, we'll be here all day.

Colorado.  It's a nice place to visit.  Living there?  Meh.

What do you miss about the last place you lived?  How do you feel about where you live now?

Lessons Learned This Month

And now for a little humor...

- Even though squirrels are supposed to be active during the day, sometimes one or two will go back to the nest to... I don't know... nap?  watch TV? 

- When you're absolutely certain all the squirrels are out, you'll find one or two left inside... AFTER you climb 18 ft, hammer a board over the hole and then put the ladder away.

- Once you leave the Wichita area going east on Hwy 400, there is NOTHING.  No hotels, no gas stations.  Not until you reach Parsons.  131 miles.  And Fredonia doesn't count because if it has any services, they're so far off the highway you won't notice them until it's too late.

- Correction.  There's one.  That roundabout in the middle of nowhere?  If we'd gone all the way around, we could've been at a hotel and a gas station, but there's no place to turn around if you go straight out the other side.  (Seriously, who puts a roundabout in the middle of nowhere?  And what's the point of those damn things anyway?)

- Max, when given enough time and boredom, will figure out how to get into the exposed rafters of the new garage.

- Max, having gotten into the rafters of the new garage, will be unable to find his own way down thereby having to be carried.

- Cats do not like to be carried down a ladder.

- Max, when confronted with a new neighbor, will kill said neighbor.  (Goodbye, Mr. Gray Squirrel.)

- At any given moment, Kira wants to sit wherever the Hubs is sitting - and will stalk his seat until he gets up.

- If Hubs gets up while Kira is on the other side of the house, she will run across the house to jump into his chair.

- Cornell and their bird watch thingie are VERY particular about bird sightings.  And despite the fact that other places do in fact show a particular bird to be in your area, if Cornell hasn't documented it, you need photographic proof before they'll believe you.

- Hummingbirds do not like to be photographed. 

- That thing you're absolutely certain you'll be able to find when you get there so you don't need to pack it to move because it takes up space you don't have?  It won't be there when you get there.

- Dish drainers are passe in Berryville, Arkansas. 


What have you learned this month?

Working on It

Previously on The Writing Spectacle, you watched while our intrepid writer moved a third of the way across the country.  More recently, you got to see the spectacle of moving in and living sans appliances and hot water.

Over the past couple days, though, we've gotten the appliances and the majority of the furniture.  Everything isn't exactly what we want it to be yet, but we're working on it.  (And if the place wasn't such a disaster area, I'd post pics.)  Last night we got to take hot showers for the first time in two weeks.  Right now, the Hubs is doing laundry in our brand new agitator-less washer.  I've got a load of dishes going in our super-quiet dishwasher.  Today, I'm hoping we'll be able to get groceries so the fridge will be full and I can cook dinner on the new stove.

It ain't perfect, but it's beginning to feel like home.

Kinda like writing a book, I guess.  This would be like the 3rd draft stage - where you're loving it, but it still needs work.  ;o)

What are you working on lately?

And just so you don't walk away with nothing today, here's a pic...

I think they're apple blossoms... or maybe cherry.  Not on our property, but just down the road.  Ah, Spring.

I'm Back... Sorta

Hi All!

I'm back on the internet again.  On my own computer... since for the past day or so I've been on the Hubs' laptop.  I really don't know how all you laptop writers get anything done.  Practice, I assume. 

Anyway, I just finished setting up my computer and I'm back online.  Yay.

The sorta part comes in when I let you all know I don't know how much I'll actually be online each day for a while.  There's still loads to do here.  Plus, this place is freakin' amazing, so I'm tempted to be out in the nature rather than here in the unnature.

I'm going to really have to work at working.  LOL

Don't worry, though.  I am committed to my work - which means part of the day spent online blogging and part of the day spent on the computer writing...

I mean, as soon as I locate the notebook with my WIP in it.

Talk more later.  There's loads left to do and I should probably sleep sometime.

Peace out.

-B.E.

The Moving Spectacle?

Ugh.  At this point, I'm thinking I should rename the blog 'The Moving Spectacle' :cue carnival music:

But never fear. I will get back to the writing at some point.  Hopefully some point soon.  I know when I've moved in the past, it's taken me a while to get settled enough to turn the juices on.  But I'm going to try and not let that get me.  Keep your fingers crossed, eh?

Anyway, we're just about all packed up now.  Just have the office to do, which I'll do sometime today.  And a few sundry things otherwise.

The decor you see on the walls doesn't belong to us, so I ain't packin' it.  This place came furnished.  Thanks the gods of sore muscles I don't have to move that damn sleeper sofa.  Ugh.

And here's where we've got the majority of our sh-tuff shoved...

Moving day is pretty near.  Which means I'm about to go dark... but I don't wanna turn my lovely computer off...  wah.

I'll update the post when it happens.

Have a great day, folks, and if I don't see ya before I shuffle off to Missouri, have a great couple of days while I'm gone.  Behave.

;o)

And just for fun, here are my new shoes...

Because sometimes a gal's just gotta feel snazzy.

Update: 12:41 Mountain - Shuttin' 'er down.  Have a great rest of the week and stay safe.  I want you all here when I get back. 

We'll Soon Be There

Moving day is set for Wednesday.  Where will we be moving?

We'll be moving to the 'A'.  And the red dot over the I in United States is where we're moving from.  It's about 700 miles, so don't expect me to be online from Wednesday to Friday (and maybe Tuesday if we get crazed about packing the desks the night before - I'll let y'all know when I go dark.)

Deciding What to Take and What to Leave

I've done this 'move hundreds of miles' thing before.  In 2001, I left my old life in Michigan and moved to Florida.  In 2002, the man I was with at the time got a job in Salt Lake City, so we packed it all up and moved across country.  In 2004, after that guy and I broke up, I found my husband - he just lived 600 miles away in eastern Colorado.  So we moved again.

And now it's time for the process one more time.

When I left Michigan, I got rid of most of my stuff.  I only had the one trailer with which to move.  Pare everything down to basics.  We're back to that again - only this time it'll be a small truck worth of stuff.  The moves from Tallahassee and from Salt Lake were done with movers and a big truck, so I took everything I could.  But even with those, there was a paring down.

What to take?  What to leave?  Am I going to regret taking something because it took up room and I could've re-bought it once we got there?  Am I going to regret leaving something because I'll discover too late that it had sentimental value?

It's no wonder I have crispy-brain.

Then again, it's kind of like editing.  Only what you choose to take or leave - if you regret either one - can be rectified by going back to an earlier version. 

There are no earlier versions here.  The best you can hope for is finding another likeness of the thing you lost, or that you didn't waste too much money moving that bag of dirt.  (Yes, I paid United to move a bag of potting soil, and I still kick myself for it.  It was DIRT for petesakes.  It cost me more to move it than I would've paid for a new bag of dirt.)

Yesterday, I got rid of the rest of my 'books I don't want to move'.  Do I regret it?  A little.  They're books.  I would've taken them all, thrown them on the floor of my new house and rolled around naked in them if I could've.  But that seems a little extreme.  A friend asked me why I didn't just keep all the ones I hadn't read.  Think about it - Let's say I hadn't read half of those.  That's a thousand books.  Let's also say I read a hundred books a year.  It would take me 20 years to read those books - and they keep printing new books I want to read! 

Umm, yeah.  The books went bye-bye.  I kept the ones I really did want to read, and the ones that were precious to me, but the majority... :waves:

Now, I've also had some inquiries into the kitties.  Rest assured, Max is going with us.  And, of course, Her High Grand Princess Kira.  The rest of them will have to go back to their regular routine of scouting out food sources without having my house on their route.  I'd take them all with me, but the boys are all feral, and the girl would be one cat too many in my car.  (I'll find a home for her if I can.)

Okay, so that's enough about me and my decisions.  What about you?  Ever take something you regretted taking when you moved?  And since we've all left something behind at some point, tell me what you left that you regretted most.