morrowlife

Here are Reader Number One and Your Humble and Obedient Servant at the Hopewell Furnace. That was really an excellent day and an interesting place. I think we can pretty safely say this picture wasn’t taken by me. Sadly, I don’t know who to credit. It’s either Loyal Reader Number Two or Number Four.

I finally fixed the door on the bottom of the planter box in the back yard. After only one and a half years! It took about half an hour. It’s funny how you get motivated by the desire for money. Come to think of it, though, that’s the only reason I go to work too.

I also fixed the pond again. Both pumps had basically stopped pumping. I took some things apart, based on what I’ve discovered in the past, but finally found out the filters were both just really full. Apparently, the fish have been pooping at a record rate. Good work, fellas!

I also found Whitey again. He hadn’t shown up at mealtime for a day or two, and we were getting worried. I noticed him when I was working on the filters, and he popped up again when I fed the fellas this evening. Had quite an appetite too. I’m really going to miss the fellas when we’re gone.

Reader Number Two and I went over to my friend Mike’s house to help him take the snowplow off his tractor and get the bucket back on. He’s a lot of fun to visit because he owns literally everything, most of which he bought on eBay. He showed us his new military water-supply bags today. They hold a hundred gallons each but fold down to about the size of a small pillow when empty – perfect for food storage. He’s in a little bit of trouble health-wise. We’re hoping and praying for him.

We have a house showing tomorrow morning! It’s really good to get the first one out of the way – it makes it feel like we’re making progress. Of course, one of our garage door springs broke this evening, just in time for the first showing. We have a serviceman coming tomorrow in the early afternoon. I guess we’ll have to leave a note for the suckers guests telling them not to open the garage door. Reader Number Four is seriously worried about what else is going to break before we can get this place sold. “Pretty much everything” is my guess.

We’re planning to take a quarry tour tomorrow during the showing. Our local quarry is having an open house and we need someplace to go. Besides, we’ve always been curious as to what exactly is going on in there.

Time for bed – I missed out on ice cream tonight. See you on Monday.

Okay, this is kind of a formulaic picture, but I like it. Hopefully, you do too.

There’s a price to be paid for not posting for a couple of days, on top of missing a few days last week. I fear my loyal readers are starting to abandon me for other blogs. We cannot allow this to happen. This calls for a dramatic increase in quality.

Maybe I can think of something besides that. There must be some other way.

Nobody bought the house yet. I guess we need to give it at least a few days. It’s not even on realtor.com yet. As soon as it hits there, you can depend on finding a link here.

Took Reader Number Two to a barbershop chorus performance this evening. They did a very nice job and I was glad to get to go. Reader Number One went to his dance class and Reader Number Four went to her book group. I’m the only one who had nothing to do tonight. Well, there’s also Belle, but I’m not sure she counts, being a non-human and all.

We had our Relocation Orientation Session this morning with Matt, our Relocation Consultant. It went fine, and I was delighted to learn that the company will pay to ship our two cars and for us to drive the truck with the trailer. They won’t cover meals and lodging while we’re on the road because we’re flying out there in June and coming back for the truck and trailer in August, but the mileage is the important thing, believe me. I calculated today that we’ll spend about $1000 on gas alone, assuming we take the most direct route, which we don’t intend to do. In fact, we hope to be able to follow through with our family camping trip to Ohio in August as part of the trip. Fortunately, the company will pay over $1600 for the mileage (45.5 cents/mile for the truck and 13.5 cents/mile for the trailer). That ought to about cover the gas.

It’s only 10:00 and I’m already exhausted, so I’m off to bed. I need to chase the boys there too. See you tomorrow.

I’m pretty sure this picture has never graced these pages before. It’s Reader Number One working on his Eagle project, for which the court of honor is scheduled on the twenty-sixth of this month. Congratulations, Number One!

No posts yesterday or the day before, and barely time for one tonight. We just got home from the opera – well, from a dress rehearsal for the opera. It was very well done and the director didn’t have to stop the action at any point. There were a lot of school kids in the audience, so it was maybe a little noisier than the average opera, but we really enjoyed it. And the tickets were free. Rode the train down there, which was also enjoyable.

Our house went on the market today. We’re priced surprisingly high, but the real estate agent is pretty sure we’ll get our price or very close to it. We certainly need it. Maybe we can afford a shack in California, rather than the hovel I was expecting.

It’s way late, so I’m off to bed. Good night.

Here’s a leftover from the Roman empire in Trier, Germany – the same place I photographed Hiawatha a few weeks ago. In fact, this was taken the very same day. As if that mattered. At least it explains all the litter, which, as we know, was totally gone a few hours later.

I hear your puzzled cries. Why, you ask, is there a post on Sunday? Could it be that this is a Very Special Sunday post? And I answer: could be. Or it could just be that I forgot to post anything on Friday and need to make up for it. We’ll just have to see, won’t we?

We’re all pretty preoccupied with the Big Move. We’re still trying to figure out the myriad details, and considering that we don’t have much information other than a start date yet, everything is pretty much speculation and conjecture at this point. Still, S and C can be pretty fun. We’re getting hours of entertainment.

We’ve had our first showing of the house already. A neighbor heard we were moving and brought a friend over for a look. They were hoping to convince us to sell without a realtor, and at a bargain-basement price, so nothing came of it, of course. Still, it’s nice to have some interest. We keep hearing how houses are selling well again around here, and today we heard that property values are not very good in the bay area right now. That’s good news! Let’s just hope there’s some truth in there somewhere.

We got authorized to start with the relocation people, so we expect the house to go on the market sometime this coming week. Other houses in our neighborhood have sold recently in just a few days, so we just might all be ready to go at the beginning of June. Or, we might not sell it for months and I’ll have to go to California by myself in June. Who knows? It’s okay if it doesn’t sell right away, of course, since we don’t have any idea where we’ll live anyway.

I finished Psmith, Journalist the other day. As previously mentioned, it managed to be humorous and entertaining without being really funny. This episode has Psmith talking the hapless assistant editor of an incredibly boring, poorly written old lady’s newspaper into changing it to a crusading journal that protects the Oppressed Masses. They get into various scrapes but expose the bad guys and come out well in the end. I can’t say I’ve really turned into a fan of Wodehouse’s Psmith books, although I enjoyed them. I conditionally recommend them to my Loyal Readers, especially the ones who already know and like Wodehouse’s work. Wodehouse neophytes would probably do well to check out the Jeeves books first.

I’ve added a few more Wodehouse books to the list, over there on the right. I’m reading Something New now, but I’m not far enough into it yet to have developed an opinion. I’ll let you know later. Stay on the edge of your seat in the meantime.

Well, the Very Special Sunday Post is swiftly coming to an end. See you on Monday. Hopefully, we’ll keep to the schedule this week.

It’s Loyal Reader Number Nine’s time in the spotlight! You’re famous now – try to use your newfound influence in constructive ways. The interesting thing about this shot (which, by the way, was provided by LRNN himself, and is thus one of the rare morrowlife photos not taken by Your Humble and Obedient Servant) is that it was taken on Alcatraz Island, a landmark well known for its proximity to San Francisco, which is thought to be part of The Bay Area, which is where we’re moving soon. If you look carefully, you can see all kinds of prison-related rubble in the background. The rubble in the foreground is, of course, LRNN.

No posts for the last couple of days. Sorry about that. On Tuesday, we went down to Washington to attend our friend Jeri’s wedding, and I was dog-tired when we got back and functionally illiterate for the evening (insert joke about my level of literacy on all other occasions here).

I stayed home from work on Wednesday and did a little bit of work around the house along with a little bit of recovering from my launch campaign, so there’s no excuse for yesterday.

Speaking of dog-tired, I think we can all agree that’s a term that evokes correct images of a dog’s life. I’ve frankly become a little suspicious of people who tell me they’ve “worked like a dog.” I have a dog and all she does is eat, sleep, and poop. Is that what these people have been doing? However, “dog-tired” pretty much describes my dog most of the time.

Speaking of dogs, The Girls (Jeri’s dogs) are with us for only three more days. We’ve taken to calling them The Halfwit, since they’re each about a quarter-wit on their own. It’s a good thing they’re cute or they wouldn’t have any friends at all. They won’t come when we call them, so why bother having names? They won’t sit, lay down, play dead, or do anything else on command. They don’t even so much as turn their heads. They circle around the dining room table like sharks while we eat. They go outside and can’t seem to remember why. All in all, they make Belle seem like the World’s Greatest Pet.

We’re glad they’re with us, though. Jeri’s a great friend and we’d do anything for her. I just hope she isn’t a Stealth Reader.

Got my report date to Sunnyvale figured out today. I’m starting on the fifth of June. That gives me a whole month and a little to tie up any loose ends around here. I’ve been working on the house a little and have a whole lot more to do. Compared to Loyal Reader Number Four’s to-do list, however, mine looks pretty easy.

I only have one more trip to Europe before the move. I’m going to Paris on the 17th and 18th of May. I have one more systemwide upgrade on United to use up, so I guess I don’t mind the trip, even though it’s right on top of Loyal Reader Number Four’s birthday.

I finished a PG Wodehouse book yesterday, but will leave the morrowlife Book Club wrapup on it until tomorrow. See you then.