For Sale....

We had a freak rainstorm this evening. The kind where a heavy downpour just comes up out of nowhere. I was in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner, and getting ready to set up the coffee pot for the automatic timer (I LOVE automatic coffeepots that allow me to wake up to the hot life-giving liquid!!!). I was rinsing the pot out when I felt something drop on my hand. It was a little weird but I was washing stuff in the sink, so a stray drop of water coming from above my head wasn't out of the realm of possibility...stuff splashes...so I ignored it. But I felt it again as I was spooning coffee into the filter, so I looked up to see what in the world was going on. There it was....a steady drip, drip, drip of a leak. Joy. I called out "We've got a problem" to Bruce who walked in, took a look, and headed off to the attic muttering stuff about how sick he was of home ownership.
Me too, baby. Me, too. We long to ditch the homeplace and live in an apartment with NO yardwork and a maintenance crew to call when the sh@t hits the fan. It probably won't happen, for many many reasons.....but we can dream.

So, he went up into the attic, and called down for a pan to catch the water. It had to be a very shallow cake pan kind of thing because this was up under the eaves around an air vent. It is going to need to be caulked to be more watertight. One more thing to add to the to-do list for this weekend. Along with acres of grass, and more stuff than I even want to think about right now. But the problem was temporarily solved. For now. So he climbed back down those God-awful attic steps, the ones that are a pull down ladder and never feels quite stable enough....and walked into the kitchen to show me this:




He found a gigantic snake skin up there in the eaves of the attic. In my house! Under the same roof that I sleep under every night! Well, I can pretty much guarantee I won't be doing much sleeping tonight. And tomorrow? Tomorrow there just might be a For Sale sign in my yard. Not that it would do much good in this economy....but again....I can dream....right?

Anybody

Anybody who has a cat can appreciate the humor in this. :)

Settling In

The kids are getting settled nicely in their new home. Bruce called a little while ago and said they were all pleased with how its coming together. They have spent most of their time out shopping for some things that they needed (a tv table among other things) and trying to get unpacked. I am sure they still have a ways to go, but it sounds like everything fit in there like they were hoping. The main thing they are still lacking is a kitchen table. They left the old one behind because it was rectangular and the new kitchen is probably going to need a round one to fit in right. There are French doors right by the eating area and an oblong table might block part of the path....hopefully they will find what they want this coming week.

One thing that was nice? They had ordered a rocking/glider kind of chair that wasn't scheduled to be delivered until this coming week. They found out that FedEx had delivered it early, and expected it to be waiting there on their front porch for them when they got there. They have a nice covered porch that should be good for leaving packages and stuff. Only it wasn't there. They were planning to notify FedEx on Monday because stolen packages are unfortunately pretty common. It gets replaced...eventually. But today their next-door neighbor in the other side of their duplex came over with it. He had found it on the porch and held it for them. How nice is that? They didn't find out much about him, like if he is married, or living with roommates etc. But at least they know he is nice and honest and that is a big bonus considering.

Bruce also reports that there are some really good places to eat. They have a little diner within easy walking distance that has delicious breakfast food at really reasonable prices. Apparently the pancakes were yummy. And the coffee....LOL. They ate at a couple of other places, too, and all of them were apparently very good. So much moving and packing has been going on that there hasn't been time for a grocery shopping trip. I am sure that will happen soon, but how convenient to have good food right around the corner.

As for me....I am doing ok. I've been feeling a little left out, not being able to see what all was going on. But Bruce said that this whole trip from the long hard drive, to the inevitable moving chaos has been brutal and it's probably for the best that I was spared all of that. I just want pictures so I can visualize my kids in their new space. I can't wait to get up there and see it. Our friends Chris and Jessica drove up to Greenville today and took me out to lunch. That was really nice to get out of the house and have some distraction from the whole Indiana move. I really enjoyed myself and the food. Chinese....yum.

Now I am just looking forward to Bruce getting back home tomorrow. It's been weirdly quiet here this weekend. And I really just don't sleep well when he is gone. Its like I keep waking up every little bit straining to hear if everything is quiet and in order. God help me if it wasn't. LOL. The one thing that we are just going to HAVE to do is have an alarm system put in. That would alleviate a whole lot of my anxiety about being way out here with no close neighbors in a house too large to be able to hear from one end to the other. But I am picking Bruce up from the Greenville airport after work, around 5:30 in the afternoon (I really need to recheck that time to be sure....wouldn't want to mess that up), and I can guarantee you that I will sleep like a baby tomorrow night when he is back home to protect the fort. Even the cats seem to be missing him.