Living Again in a Place Where the Sun Don't Shine (Much--This Time of Year)

Fruit (nut?) from our backyard ginkgo tree

The last time I held out my hand for this blog, Winter was winding up, and we were headed for a place where it tends to linger. Not for long, we thought. Just for a season or two. Yes, the house in Florida is on the market, but it will never sell. We forgot what someone once told my parents who were anxious to sell their house at the time. Something along the lines of: There may not be a house for every fool, but there's a fool for every house.

By the time the house in Florida had sold, we had our eye on an oldy-but-goody one here. Actually, my foolish imagination had an eye on her before we ever saw her. A lovely, grand lady dressed Victorian or Edwardian style floated above SAM's head as he slept. Not literally, of course! She was in my dream, and the next day I found her, solid as a brick house, in a real estate listing online. Initially, SAM must have thought I was nuts. Buy a house based on a dream? Sure honey. I know you're a little shook up about moving from Florida (again), but you want us to buy a house that's more than 100 years old??? 







Okay, so she's not brand-spankin' new, but then neither are we. We've got some mileage on us. Besides, she's had a lot of work done to bring her up to speed. More is needed, mainly outside; I'll grant you that.

Ginkgo fruit, anyone?

Underneath those leaves lurk bushels of ginkgo fruits (imagine the smell)

Most of that work, though, will have to wait until Spring arrives. Hopefully, by that time, the ginkgo-stinko fruit will have dried up. The sun will come out again and warm the soil...

...and the rose bushes will bloom again.

A Tile Tale: I'm Not Grout-chy!

On Monday, while driving to our new-old home, I was listening to a radio program about negativity in social media. Some communications professor was touting his latest book, of course. It reveals how users of social networking sites like Facebook or Blogger are losing the ability or willingness to be forthright or honest with other people. We don't want to offend or drive people away, i.e., lose followers. They might think we're ranting or grumpy if we say something negative about someone or something. But what if it helps someone else avoid making a mistake? Here's a tile tale. You decide if it's a rant or something helpful:

Last week, SAM and I came home (yes, we're back in our own home--for good, I hope) to bring some stuff we didn't want the movers to handle: paintings, mirrors, glass tops for tables, SAM's fragile minerals, my German china... We park the stuff at the house and head to Pensacola for another item on our to-do list: new floor coverings. Our first stop is a dead-end. Lumber Liquidators (SAM is so tired he keeps calling them Liquid Lumberdators) has moved its location but has neglected to relay that information on its website. Okay, so we head to Davis Highway, apparently the hotspot (I want to say Mecca but don't want to offend:) for floor coverings. We find Liquid Lumberdators right across the parking lot from another flooring outlet. The one salesperson on duty has five or six customers clamoring for service so we go across the parking lot to the other place. A nice young man there spends about an hour showing us the many options we have to choose from: tile, vinyl, carpet, or wood? We narrow it down to tile and carpet, and he gives us a reasonable estimate. Still, there's one more place we want to visit. American Carpets. "Open 8 to 8 so don't be late." I don't know how many times I've been annoyed by that TV commercial. It is 6:30, though, and the nice young man is probably wanting to go home for supper. We haven't seen anything we're just wild about in his showroom. Can we get back with you?

A few blocks north on Davis Highway, and the lights are still on at Amercian Carpets. It's true! They really are open 'til 8. We wander around the showroom, and SAM finds the tile. It's Italian porcelain, and it's beautiful, I must admit. Now we're in business. Another estimate, somewhat higher than the other one, but we're all about that Italian tile now. We find some carpet to match it that will go in the bedrooms, and get down to the nitty-gritty of making arrangements for installation. We tell the salesman we're on a tight schedule. Can we get this done by Monday, March 5? He steps aside to confer with his boss, and yes, it can be done! We pay the deposit and sign the agreement. Before we leave, the salesman warns us that there will be a bit of a mess to clean up. How big of a bit? Some dust on the walls and cabinets. Okay, I can handle that. Thursday afternoon, he calls to say there will another $200 added to the bill for fixing some cracks in the concrete floor before the tile is installed. Okay, do it. We can't have cracks, now, can we? Fast forward to Monday.

I'm already a nervous wreck from driving for three hours with a cat who does not like car rides. I've left SAM behind with the movers still loading up the truck. They will be unloading here bright and early Tuesday morning. I get to work with the vacuum and mop. The cat is underfoot. I have just a few hours to spare before SAM arrives with his pickup truck of more stuff to unload. While I'm mopping, I notice some air bubbles in the grout, pieces of grout missing, and chunks of dried grout stuck to the tile, the wall, the cabinets. The quarter-round trim looks uneven. There are places where it should be, and it's missing. Dust is everywhere. I finally give up cleaning when SAM arrives. What's the point? The movers will be here in the morning, and there will be more of a mess then.

Tuesday morning, and the movers are here as promised. What a great crew! Nothing is broken, and they are so patient with me while I try to decide where I want certain pieces of furniture. All of the boxes go in the living room, please. One of our neighbors stops by to welcome us back and admire the new tile. Are they planning to come back and seal the grout? What? You mean it still has to be sealed? A quick call to our salesman confirms it. But we have all of our stuff here now. I'm whining, and SAM is not happy about the prospect of moving all of those boxes into the bedrooms. He's also not pleased with the holes in the grout and the crappy looking trim. Fast forward to Thursday.

The tile installer and his helper arrive late in the afternoon to inspect their handiwork and face the homeowners' wrath. No, we're not mad now. We're over that part already. Just make it right, please. Another $165 to seal the grout? Sure. We're familiar with this song-and-dance. In fact, it's so familiar I wonder if anyone else has heard it before? No? Well, have a listen and learn from our tile tale. It's really not a rant, and I'm not grout-chy. Honest! I prefer to call it Grout Chi. Thanks for the energy boost, American Carpets. I hope it won't be added to our bill.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: S is for Springtime and Sale, T is for Trash or Treasure

S is for Springtime and Sale, T is for Trash or Treasure

I know I'm probably breaking the rules for the challenge here, but I'm going to combine S and T because they go together so well for this post. And I've been too darn busy the last couple of days to do one at a time.

Springtime in Florida is ideal for having a garage sale or moving sale or whatever-you-fancy sale. We fancy getting rid of a lot of stuff before we make the final move to Tallahassee. The house we're moving into is about 400 square feet smaller than our home, and there's no garage or barn for extra storage. Besides, what do we need with all of this extraneous stuff? It's not exactly trash to us, but it may well be treasure to someone else.

Microwave, anyone? Don't need it since the new house already has one. Christmas tree stand? Extra one purchased years ago for an extra-large tree when we were younger and even more careless with our money. Cookie tins? They're great for giving away homemade treats! In-line skates? Not mine, Daughter's. My ankles aren't that strong. Orthopedic boot? Now you see why I don't skate. Weak ankles.

SAM thought he could sell some of his surplus rocks, but no one seemed all that interested. Yard sales don't seem to attract serious mineral collectors. There were a few kids, though, who oohed and ahhed over pieces of fluorite, quartz, and pyrite. They got a great deal on some they picked out. SAM is such a sucker for kids who love rocks.

We found a buyer for one of our big-ticket items. The treadmill. Who hasn't had one or wanted one? This one was professional grade and logged several hundred miles for someone with weak ankles. I wish we could take it with us, but there's no room for it at the new place. Not to worry, though. We have plenty of places there to walk outdoors, and no fake hills are necessary.

The only item I wish we could have sold and haven't so far is the roll-top desk. No room for it either. I guess not many people use fancy desks anymore. Laptops and hand-held devices have made them almost obsolete. Today's trash may be tomorrow's treasure. I hope I'm not stealing some popular TV show slogan. If you see this desk netting someone big bucks on Antique Road Show 50 years from now, you can say you saw it here first. Of course by then, TV will probably be obsolete.

Please visit A to Z Blogging Challenge for links to more S's and T's posted by Challenge hosts and other writers.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: R is for Remember (Sign)

R is for Remember (Sign)

Rediscovering remarkable books and remembering the reason for buying them removes some of the pain of moving. I purchased this sign language book some years ago when Daughter and I took a beginners' course in sign language. It was one of those courses offered at a community college. Daughter had just begun her career as a licensed massage therapist, and one of her first clients was a young deaf-mute man. She had learned in school the importance of communicating with a client for determining his comfort level (enough pressure/not enough?) and likes or dislikes ("don't mess up my hair" or "oooh, my feet really need it today"). Intake forms are a good place to start understanding a client's history, but they're just not enough to realize all of his or her preferences, long or short-term. Maybe a client won't include minor details on the form and suddenly thinks of them during the massage session. At any rate, Daughter thought she needed to know sign language, and I wanted to learn right along with her.

I recall wanting to know just as much or more about the history of sign language and the reasons behind the signs as the signs themselves. For instance, what's the purpose of the thumbs in this particular sign for "remember"? As far as I've been able to determine, the thumb (pollex being the Latin word) stands for strength. We would be rendered powerless without our thumbs. The same thing could be said about memories. They help define who we are, where we came from, and why we choose certain paths in life. Remembering should be an integral part of any story. Is it part of yours?

Please visit A to Z Blogging Challenge for links to more "R's" from Challenge hosts and other writers.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: Q is for Quadratus Lumborum (the Reading and Writing Muscle)

 Q is for Quadratus Lumborum

If there's anything I've learned from all of the moving we've done over the years, it has to be: Quit expecting the back to do more than its fair share of the work. Lift with the legs. Don't carry more weight than you're capable of lifting without straining those back muscles. If you're like me, those muscles are probably weak anyway.

Take the quadratus lumborum (QL) for example. It connects the pelvis to the spine, adding stability to both regions. Its most important function is to hike the hip or laterally tilt it. I sure gave mine a workout this past weekend. We have steps from the parking area up to the house, and there are more steps leading to the bedrooms upstairs.

Can you guess what most of the heaviest boxes contained? Yes, I'd bet my books could outnumber Imelda Marcos' pairs of shoes. Do you think owning a Kindle would help? Fortunately, for this move, SAM hired a local moving company to do most of the heavy lifting. Now I just have to arrange the contents of the boxes among various bookcases located throughout the new place. That's no small task, I'll have you know. 

The QL has some hefty tasks of its own to accomplish. Besides hiking the hips, when it shortens or contracts it's also helping you bend to one side or the other. It also helps keep that old back straight when you're sitting in front of the computer and typing away or in your easy chair reading a book. And, since part of it is attached to the last rib on each side, it keeps it from going all over the place when you're breathing in or exhaling forcefully, as in huffing and puffing up the stairs.

If I used it more for its primary action, hiking those hips, and did less of those other activities--except maybe breathing--I'd probably have a really buff quadratus lumborum.

In the meantime, while I'm waiting for it to win prizes in one of those bodybuilding contests, I'll keep it nice and supple with some stretching. I found some good ones here (click link).

Please see A to Z Blogging Challenge for links to more "Q's" from Challenge hosts and other writers.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: P is for Putting Things in Perspective...but Which One?

 P is for Putting Things in Perspective...but Which One?

It's been a while since I last posted...or commented anywhere. Please forgive me!

Moving is a real pain. But that's just my perspective. It comes from experience. In the nearly 51 years of my lifetime, I've moved on average about every two years. You would think I'd be used to it by now. Nope.

I'm too much a creature of habit. I like for things to stay the same. It's comforting to have things in order. I can't stand chaos. All this talk of change--expect it, embrace it--makes me think that the people who insist on it for everyone else won't be playing by the same rules. Things will stay the same for them while the rest of us get moved around like pieces in a game of chess. 

I should let my thoughts lay down like the wind does almost every evening. Put the boxes aside for a while. Watch the game from the sidelines. Plan my next move. The first part is over. Now on to the next one. All work and no play...    

Please see A to Z Blogging Challenge for links to more "P's" posted by Challenge hosts and other writers.