What's new...

The husband's mother was in town for a few days. We took her to a play, took her to a dinner circus and hosted a game night with some friends with her.

Fall is here. Looking over my past years blogs, I see that I post the return-of-fall every year. This year the return was sudden. One day it was sunny and warm. The next day it was cool, clouds with a lite drizzle.

A dear friend of the husband is in town for the weekend. We have been seeing the sights and eating too much. 

A wonderful Labor Day weekend.

This last weekend the husband and I went to a retreat for people in AA. This is the third time we've gone. The lodge that hosts the retreat is pleasant and tranquil. It's a great weekend away.

Talking to folks at the retreat has emboldened me to shake up my career. Maybe find a new job elsewhere. Many of the attendees are now living well, despite having burnt down their careers in past lives.

Either way, I've managed to reacquainted myself with a few old friends, including an old coworker who made the decisions that ended up with me (and others including himself) moving from Toronto to Seattle. It was good to catch up with him.

Casey died.

Years ago, when Yo was my roommate, he had a wonderful dog, Casey. I would take Casey on hikes up the small mountains around us. I enjoyed that so much. When we  came across a stream or pool she would run through the water all excited.

Of course she would also run through mud puddles all excited.

But she has aged. She had problems walking, cancer and vestibular disease. She died peacefully.

Our trip to Ontario has me thinking through the future.

What is to become of my parents? They don't want to leave the farm. They are capable of taking care of it now, but every time I'm there, it seems they have slowed down a little more.

We spent some of our time there doing the big chores. Chopping up trees that came down. Removing an old freezer that died.

They have too much food that they don't use. The fridge had year old, expired, salad dressings in it. Dad admitted that some of the frozen chicken in the freezer had been there for at least 5 years. I have a brother who lives more close to my parents. I'll ask him to regularly check these things.

The husband and I now have friends all over Ontario. It's a lot of work to visit when we go back. We can't have lunches, dinners or coffees with everyone. There are cousins that we are growing closer to. And old school friends.

One of the old school friends asked if we would retire to my original hometown. I didn't know how to answer. It's pleasant there in the summer. But, it could get boring and the winters are cold.

It could get boring... like I have an exciting life in Seattle. 

Mac has moved back to Seattle. It's made me very reflective. We were once best friends. Time, jobs and life moved us apart.

When I told the husband that Mac was moving back to Seattle, the husband quickly responded that he was in no rush to reacquaint us with Mac. We do live very different lives now. 

We are flying back from a week in Ontario. It was a hectic week, seeing sights and meeting old friends.

My brothers were in town. It was good to spend time with them as well as my parents. We spent a few days doing errands around our parents farm-- chopping wood, getting rid of appliances that don't work.

The cousins are off. They are now touring the mountains to the east. The Cascades and the Rockies. 

The husband and I flew to Sacramento for the weekend to visit his parents. They are both in their 80s and living independently. The husband would prefer they moved into a retirement home, but the parents aren't ready for that yet. 

Its hot here. Sacramento has been hitting 100F every day. We are spoiled with the pleasant weather back in Seattle. 

Gorgeous day today. I am chilling a bit while the husband naps. Enjoying the sound and scent of the breeze in the trees.

The husbands cousins from England have been here for a week. Lovely people. They are doing a tour with if the west coast. Its made the week busy though, with friends over, or events every night.

Drag Queen bingo was fun though.

Anyways, the cousins are taking a day trip to a local volcano while the husband and I catch up on errand and rest.

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We had a good weekend, though expensive weekend.

We finally got a BBQ hooked up at the house. When we moved in, we had a nice natural gas BBQ. But, the natural gas in the new house was not near the location where the BBQ needed to be. We got a couple of quotes for moving that natural gas-- $2000.00! For that price we could get a nice new propane BBQ.

Eventually we found a quote for $1300.00. Still expensive.

Friday the installer moved the gas. The bills was $1800.00 plus tax! We looked hard at the quote. He did write $1800.00 there, but his pen skipped a bit on the curve of the 8 making it look like $1300.

Sigh.

The BBQ is nice though.

Saturday we went looking for a new sofa. One store offered $9000.00 for a nice sectional sofa! Ouch Moving on the next store was selling a $21,000.00 sectional sofa. No features like a recliner or expensive leather. $21,000 was the basic model. It was nice to see, but $21,000.00

I'm not sure who the customer is for that. Maybe commercial? I'm thinking of a hotel lobby where you have dozens of people sitting down and getting up all day every day for years. That sofa would need to stay looking good after years of hard use.

Eventually we went to a chain store and found a sofa, chair & ottoman for less than a fifth of the designer sofa price.

Such is life in Seattle.

It's been a social 4th. We've attended events every day since Thursday. 

Thursday was a BBQ at Brown's. He has just sold his house, so it was a last hurrah before he moves. He is retiring and is moving to the nice, less expensive, place just a ferry ride away from Seattle. 

Friday I had dinner with my old boss and his wife. They are starting a new business as travel consultants for a large travel company. Things are starting. He knows the next couple of years will be a lot of work. But, they enjoy travel.

Saturday was the big annual pool party with the A-list bear crowd at C6 & J's. C6 has retired and has turned his house into a bit of a resort. There is much gorgeous landscaping at their place. It was great to catch up with everyone.

The Saturday party was important for the husband. He used to be very popular in this crowd. That was during his drinking and partying years. Now that he's sober he's isn't always comfortable in this crowd. It turned out well through. He had a good time.

Sunday was a Sobriety birthday party with Ray. It was a quiet event. There was plenty of cake. Success!

July 4

Happy independence day to all!

We are relaxing today, and heading to a BBQ later on. 

Boring or Chill.

I am ready for quiet time. The husband loves to book social commitments. He feel uncomfortable unless he has a few dinners and a trip or two on the calendar.

He doesn't want to be known as a boring person.

I don't remember the last time I was ever bored. I don't care if someone thinks I'm boring. As far as I'm concerned the past six months has had far too much drama in it-- the husband's hospitalization and recovery, our new house, my trip to Nairobi, to Bangalore, camping, trip to the coast. I'm ready to be boring for a while.

I've been obsessing, a little, over the TV show Schitt's Creek. We started watching it because our other shows ended, and Schitt's Creek seemed like a lite, fun, low commitment program to watch until we found something better to watch.

Season 1 was just that. Then, over season 2 it starts to develop some weight. The kids start to rebel against their parents by becoming slightly less terrible people.

Then in Season 3 a nice gay romance starts up. And I love this story. This is weird, but for the first time in my life I understand why someone would love a rom-com. There is no HIV subplot. There is no political rights angle. There is no coming-out-of-the-closet angst. There are just two men getting to know each other. The only thing that stands between them is their own baggage.

The levity of it all is a social statement in and of itself. The writers have created a small town where gay men can have a romance, and no one objects. Sometimes they have questions. But no one objects.
  

We have accepted an offer on our townhouse. The buyer hasn't backed out. This is good.

At work, when people ask me "How are things?" I've taken to responding "The usual amount of crazy." I'm not sure how else to respond without coming across as "Not a team player." It's not just me either. Many other managers that I talk to are also overwhelmed.

And it's not just "Overwhelmed, but if I work hard I can get through it." It's "Overwhelmed and I don't know where to start on these problems unless I talk to many different people." We are all so tightly interdependent on each other that no one can make a move without coordinating with too many other teams. Of course this means that the Directors have to be tightly involved in all this coordination to ensure the right things are happening.

I spend a good chunk of my week preparing for the weekly Director and Executive reviews. My main hope is that by doing this, my team can actually do real work. 

Our townhouse has not sold yet. I've just lowered the price by $15,000

Work has been chaotic. People are starting on vacations. We finished annual planning

The beach in the Pacific North West is only decorative. So says a friend. The water is cold. There is a constant cool wind. You won’t lay out in the sun or swim on the ocean beaches in Washington and Oregon. But what gorgeous decoration!

Last January, not anticipating the drama we'd have with moving, we booked a house on the beach for my birthday.

So now we are on the coast this weekend, with friends. The weather is gorgeous today. There has been rain and wind as well.

"Tommy" said...

Those must be the big green utility boxes in most subdivisions here... most people plant some plants near them to hide them.

It's exactly that. 

We did get their deposit. $15,000.00. Who walks a way from $15,000? Our mortgage broker said that this is the first time in his 25 year career that he's seen someone walk away from a deposit.

Energy box...

I know a little more.

The energy box is an access vault that the local electrical company uses distribute and maintain the power to our row of townhouses. It's in the common area in front of our townhouse. The vault was tested, and is well within safety limits.

The couple that was going to buy our townhouse have children that have some sort of hemoglobin issue that requires an extra margin of safety.

Yes, the truth here feels very thin.

When we originally accept the couples offer, we had a backup offer. Though that offer has expired, our agent thinks it came from a growing land lord that wants to buy multiple properties. The land lord may still be interested.

Old Townhouse

We planned to close on the sale old townhouse today. I was at the title office signing papers. The husband called me, very angry, and asking me to take him seriously. What he was about to tell me was not a joke.

At the final walk through the couple purchasing our home decided that there was a bad energy box too near the home. The bad energy wouldn't affect them, but they didn't want to raise their kids near it.

I have no idea what a bad energy box is. We are scrambling to figure out what to do. Worst case we will have to restage it and resale.

We should be able to keep their deposit. Restaging & reselling the house is a lot of work.