Updates and more.

It has been over two weeks since my announcement that we were in the process of purchasing a new house so I wanted to bring everyone up to date. Today is Monday; we closed on our new place this afternoon. Tomorrow two of my strong, willing and financially needy nephews were scheduled to come help us start moving, but the weather will not cooperate. The skies have been dumping raindrops the size of mason jars all day. Last weeks rains left our backyard a boggy marsh and today downpours have turned it into a stock pond.

As I sit here writing this I am covered in bruises, my nails are jagged and broken, my hands are covered in small cuts, and if you look closely traces of paint can still be seen rimming my nails. In the last two weeks every item in my house has been sorted and packed. One end of our basement contains as much plunder (awaiting an upcoming garage sale) as does the boxes stacked in the family room awaiting the movers.

The deck has a fresh coat of redwood stain; the bath has a new coat of something called “Gentle Doe” and four gallons of “Cargo Pants” and “Silver Slipper” are waiting to be applied to the bedroom walls.

The cable and Internet hook ups in the new place cannot be installed for another ten days but the computers have to be disconnected to allow for painting, so I expect to be off line very soon.

The closing on the new place was delayed for a week due to a flooded basement: courtesy of the Telephone Company. AT&T was installing new lines along the road beside the house and cut the drain hose that carried the rainwater away from the house. Since we have been in monsoon season for the last two months the water backed into the basement causing extensive damage. The phone company is footing the bill for the repairs but they are sure taking their time with the repairs.

We went for the walk through today and the place was full of painters and other workers trying to beat the closing deadline. Then the city building inspector showed up and found a list of ten major problems with the plumbing and electrical systems and would not issue the occupancy permit until they are repaired, causing more delays.

Now the move is pushed back another full week as we wait for the permit to move in. I just pray that the weather next week will be better. I do not have much time left to get this house empty. The flyers for our garage sale are posted all over town and a large ad will appear in the Thanksgiving edition of the local newspaper so I have to be ready for the sale by the 27th. Since we do not have a garage we planned to whole the sale in the basement. This time of year folks will not attend a sale that is not indoors.

I have been collecting Christmas Village pieces for thirty years and have hundreds of pieces I plan to sell. It is now or keep them another year. Frankly, I just do not have the desire it takes to do all the work it takes to set up and take down that village, anymore. I want to see it gone. Along with a lot of other collectables and do dads, that has just become dust collectors.

Well, I am falling asleep at the keyboard so time to go. I doubt I will get back until after things settle down and we are moved and this house has been staged and placed on the market to sell. Still have those bedrooms to paint and lots of scrubbing to do.

Please pray that we get a quick sale. In this economy, that has not been an easy thing for most sellers to do. We are not looking forward to having double mortgage payments indefinitely.

Have a Great Thanksgiving dear friends, family and fellow bloggers. I promise I will return to regular posting soon.

explosions and flames start our day

The Old Salt and I were awakened in the wee hours this morning to what sounded like the July 4th fireworks display that is held in the city park near our house each year. Our house was aglow with a bright orange light that was certainly surreal for that time of the morning. It only took a few minutes of investigation for the Old Salt to come back into the bedroom insisting that I get up and get dressed.

It turned out the fireworks were shotgun shells exploding and the orange glow was our neighbors house going up in flames from an early morning house fire. I am not sure who took

the following video which has already found it's way to U-Tube, but, it shows you exactly what we saw from our front door at 3:30 this morning.

Our good friend and neighbor became a real hero and local celebrity early this morning. Bob lives in the house next door to the house that burned (we live directly across the street) and was awakened by the sound of fireworks and could see the flames from his bedroom window. He quickly grabbed his shoes and wearing nothing but his pajama bottoms ran next door. Pounding on the door and yelling until someone answered. He then was able to awaken all the residents of the house and carried the children out of the house to the safety of his living room. Bob's wife contacted our volunteer fire department while Bob hooked up his garden hose. Realizing the house was past saving with the small amount of water his hose put out Bob took his garden hose and began wetting down the vehicles and other items in the area that the fire could spread too, including his own house. Bob can be seen with his hose in the above video.

Thanks to Bob the young family that lived in this house are safe, but, they lost everything they owned in the blaze including one of their beloved dogs. If like me you are a believer in the power of prayer then please say a few for this family. They certainly can use all the help that can be found at this time.

Now here are a few of the photos that I took during the course of this very emotional day.

This next photo is of the damage done by the heat of the fire to the end of Bob's house.

The Fun Stairs. A Fun Theory Project.

With a stair stepper like this I might actually loose some needed pounds. How about you?

To enjoy the pianos sounds you will need to hit the off button on my sidebar play list to stop my music, then turn up your sound.

Rain, ghost and a surprise.

We learned from our neighbors that when we left on our recent travels, we must have taken all the nice weather with us, and forgot to bring it back. Seems the skies over Missouri were so disappointed to see us go that they have been in a constant state of weeping. The rain has not gotten any better since our return either. In fact our favorite weather man announced today that of the 31 days in October we only had twelve without rain. Most of this week we have been having what many would call gully washers.

This past Wednesday the rain let up for a few hours and we grabbed the dry spell to run errands. I noticed that what is usually just a dry creek running behind some houses near us was to the point of overflowing. I also captured the football team at the high school having to resort to practicing on the parking lot because of puddles on the football field. But, I also managed to get some shots of the great fall colors in town Besides rain the wind has been gusting so much that here were leaves everywhere.

While sitting in the car waiting for the Old Salt to return from the Chinese Carry-out with dinner I amused myself by trying to photograph a drop of water dripping from the light fixture beside the car. It took about twelve shots but I finally got it.

When we returned home the fog had set in and all I could see of the neighbors Halloween decorations was this friendly ghost coming out of the mist.

Normally, we do not get many trick or treater's because of all the church and civic groups that host fantastic parties with hay rides, games and lots of free food. But, the rain did let up for the evening and we got more then I expected. Thankfully, I was prepared with large pop corn balls for all. But, I did notice that we got more family groups. Parents seem to be dressing up to escort their young ones around the neighborhood. As these shots show.

Halloween had never been one of my favorite holidays but, it signals the beginning of all the work, activities and great times that come with the holidays through the end of the year. So time to pack away the pumpkins and start sorting and untangling the boxes of Christmas lights. I just hope the weather will break and give us some warm dry days to get them up.

Now, I have some news to share. The Old Salt and I have purchased a condo and will be moving soon. We have then got to stage our current house and get it on the market. Between all that work is the upcoming holidays so I expect to be too busy to have much time for blogging. I find blogging to be very relaxing so I am sure I will not stop altogether. But, do not worry if I am absent more then usual. It will just be a sign that I am busy with moving, home repairs and the needed holiday preparations. After all, I will have two houses to decorate this year.

We know our timing is bad for selling property right now. But, we got too good a deal to pass up buying our dream house. So please pray for a quick sale of our current house. We certainly do not want to have to pay two mortgages for more then a few months if we can help it. And also pray that this old couple can maintain the energy and stamina the work will require.