random thoughts - Day 1962 (Thursday) - waiting

Wednesday's push of the closing on the Lowell house made for an agonizing day today. 

There was the reading of countless job descriptions and and a job application submitted. There was the paying of bills online. There was the reading of news and review of the floor plan to sketch out furniture placement. And there was waiting and wondering. 

I didn't know what time the closing was because I didn't need to be there. There were many checks of the phone to be sure I hadn't missed a call or a text. It was nearly 3:30 when we learned the transaction had been recorded, the house was sold, and I was officially liberated of a mortgage. 

The full focus shifted to the next wonderment -- the time of my closing for the purchase of the next home. As it approached 4:30, I started getting nervous. At 4:57 the email arrived with the time -- 11:00 am Friday. Phew! I could stop fretting that there would be a delay and breathe. And the sleep will probably be great tonight.

Kiki is still avoiding me. She has taken refuge under the bed and in the closet. When I check on her, she ignores me most of the day. At bedtime, treats in hand, I can lure her to the edge of the bed she hides under and rub her head. Knowing I'll be inflicting more trauma on her in a matter of days feels horrible. 

Tomorrow, it's some paperwork to sign at the law office, and then visiting the bank, a store for a few additional cleaning supplies, and the new dwelling to begin cleaning and clearing things from Mom's spare bedroom and shed and installing them next door. Exciting! 

random thoughts - Day 1961 (Wednesday) - seriously?

I woke up feeling more rested and refreshed than any other day in recent weeks. The guest bed at the home of my friends is amazing. As we had coffee, I said it was the first day since being laid off that wasn't packed with stuff 

After breakfast, I applied online for a copywriting job that sounded really cool. It took much longer than it should have. First, after uploading my tesume, I noticed the email address didn't match my LinkedIn profile, and fixed it. Then I realized it said Lowell instead of Gardner, and updated. When the info from my resume populated into the recruiting format, I saw it still showed me as working at the bank. I backed up one screen, updated the dates, loaded the third revision for the morning, and tried again. Cripes! It got done, but it was screwy. Then, there were a few minutes of relaxation. Very few. 

There was an email from the paralegal asking me to try to get the payoff figure for my mortgage. Seriously? Instead of telling them that isn't my job according to the fee agreement and because I need my purchase transaction to close on time, I checked my mortgage account and called the bank. There was payoff item noted as a transaction in the account, which made it seem they had received the payoff request. I called the bank and a call center rep repeated all the previously known methods of requesting payoff figures which were the problematic fax number, the known email address, and now a second email address.

After I updated the paralegal about the payoff fee it turned out the office had the needed info already and "someone" (paralegal finger pointing) had filed it in my buying folder, not my selling folder. Awesome. Glad I could explode my morning to do your job (for which I'm paying a fee) for the second time this week.  

My realtor checked in about our walkthrough at the new house today. What what?!?! In all the stress and nonsense I had completely forgotten that was today. Stressed much? Yes, sadly.

There were calls, emails, and forms from the insurance company related to the delayed closing date. So much for thinking I finally had a day free of activity and stress.

Before the walkthrough, I went to Mom's and put more stuff in her now crowded with my other stuff spare room. I had invited her to the walk through and when the realtor arrived, the three of us headed next door. There were no issues, and we are good to go on that front which was a relief. 

After the walk through, it was back to my friends' home. The chef of the duo made butternut squash risotto for supper and it was delicious. Supper was a much needed relaxing time with conversation and great food. Thank goodness. 

random thoughts – Day 1,960 – (Tuesday) – erasing and leaving

It’s only Tuesday, but it feels much later in the week. Ugh. The day began and ending with what felt like erasing myself from the house.

There was packing and forgetting and being interrupted by calls and messages from insurance and legal folks. Today had an email asking for a signature on something I did last week, and an application for insurance coverage that had several errors including spelling the city wrong. Cool.

This was all while trying to load the car to get out of the house forever. The destination was the home of friends closer to the new home.

From the start, there were challenges. Up at 5:30, and at 6:00, the roll of toilet paper ran out. Spares of everything had been delivered to Mom’s on Monday. WTF. The closest store opened at 8. There was sweeping and wiping and emptying the fridge. There was the buying to toilet paper. There was no coffee, and I didn't die.

It took a span of four hours to load the car (with detours for other major tasks). Items were sacrificed to the disposal and trash gods because I didn’t have the physical capacity to take it with me (limited cargo space and passenger seat needed for Kiki and carrier).

There was a decision on Sunday to keep Kiki’s litter cabinet in place as long as possible because she was distraught over the chaos. That decision led to issues today when I needed to get it into the car. The cargo area was rearranged countless times. Items previously groped in logical collections were consolidated. The plan of not leaving behind a bin full of trash was abandoned and it felt lucky that I could leave the new folks the rest of the official city Purple Overflow Trash Bags.

A friend came to the rescue and helped with the mattress, box spring, and futon mattress recycling. We loaded stuff into his truck, and after he left and I sat on the couch, I realized we’d forgotten the futon mattress.  

While on the phone with the realtor discussing the news of the one-day delay of the closing of the sale, I realized I had forgot the wall clocks. Later I nearly forgot to take the wifi router.

The final countdown -
Kiki in her box spring.

Kiki was torqued up and hung out in what was left of her beloved box spring until it was ripped from her. The calming treats I gave her must have finally worked because I was able to pick her up and get her into the crate in one attempt. She yowled in displeasure. She yowled the whole one hour and fifteen minute ride to my friends’ house. 

I was concerned the battery might have drained from the car doors and tailgate being open all day, but the real problem was that I neglected to check the fuel level before we rolled out and we nearly ran out of gas. It totally fit with the flow of the day. I finally started to relax somewhere on Route 119, headed to Ashburnham.

Another tiring day, but the finish line is in sight.

random thoughts – Day 1,959 – (Monday) – head splitter

The headache came in strong and early, likely due to caffeine deprivation. Instant chai latte tastes nice, but does not have the same invigorating effect as coffee. Fail.

The morning was loaded with hiccups (in addition to the headache, or maybe because of). Trying to log into a bank account resulted in blank screens and not even the benefit of an error message. Logging into the unemployment site was not successful. There was an email from a paralegal about difficulty submitting the mortgage payoff request to the bank-provided fax number. Umm, ok? Should that not be a call to the bank? I ended up signing in to the bank’s online portal for possibly the first time since 2016 to check if requesting a payoff was possible in the portal (nope). I was able to submit a question via chat. 

By 10:15 it felt like an entire day had passed and my head felt like it would crack open. The pod pickup window was 11-2, so there wasn't time to go hunt for coffee. In the midst of trying to sign up for one of the letters of the Medicare alphabet soup bullshit, the truck arrived early to pick up the moving box. I was caught off guard because my phone, which often fails to signal an incoming call, was on strike again today and I missed the call from the driver that he was on the way.

Bye bye stuff, see you in a few days.

The company sent the 40-plus-foot truck to pick up the pod, which was too big for the space between my driveway and the front steps of the house across the street. I told the driver it looked like a bigger truck than had delivered the thing, and the driver of the smaller truck had trouble maneuvering into position. They had to send the 30-something-foot truck that originally delivered the unit “maybe today, definitely tomorrow.” The importance of the box going away today was stressed and it happened. 

I decided to take on something I could control. The headache was raging, but it was too close to noon to hunt down coffee if I wanted any hope of sleeping tonight. I loaded the car and drove over to St. Vincent de Paul with another donation drop off, where I was witness to more parking lot drama as I unloaded things from my car, this time involving two grown males. One guy was walking through the lot and somehow ended up in a yelling match with an older guy sitting in a car, and called the car sitter “a f*cking redneck.” He kept yelling and swearing as he walked away. A worker came out and the car guy said the other guy tried to sell him drugs and got mad when he said no.

When I ran the vacuum, Kiki started yowling like she was being tortured. Usually, she just slinks out to a hiding place, but the place is empty, save for a mattress and box spring leaning on a wall in the living room, the futon, and the litter box cabinet. Yesterday, when the vacuum was on, she yowled and ran around, but all her hiding places had disappeared, which made her even more anxious. She ended up crouched in a corner of the bathroom for several hours. Today she took refuge in her litter box cabinet, then relocated to the top of the stairs where she remained all day. Prior to these two episodes, I had no idea she was so bothered by the vacuum. Poor kitty has been living in turmoil for two months as things disappeared from rooms and strange people came in and out and she's had enough. Unfortunately, it's not over yet.

The smaller truck arrived a couple hours later and the pod was whisked away. I’ll see it again on Saturday. In the meantime, I’ll be praying hard that the securing of the load holds. This pod style had limited opportunities to attach straps compared to the company I used before.

I loaded my car with things to go to Mom’s – random stuff that never made it into the pod. The runners in the porch and bathroom should have gone into the pod, but they were so much a part of the landscape I never even noticed them until the thing had been taken away. There were also items I didn’t want to go into the pod, like the TV. My head hurt the entire trip there and back.

I tried to finish the Medicare alphabet thing again, but ran into another glitch involving the fact that my address will be changing on August 1, the same day the thing is to take effect, and it wouldn’t let me update to the new address. It looks like the fun will continue tomorrow.

As much as I wanted to avoid leaving trash in the barrel, and even added a second “Purple Overflow Trash” bag to the curbside collection this morning, it’s going to happen. With no tv or even books, I kept cleaning things, which kept creating dirty paper towels and more stuff to empty out of the vacuum. The fridge still had items because I still need to eat, which meant empty containers and used paper plates. Hey, I tried. It’s not my fault trash pickup is on Monday and the past two weeks it’s happened five hours earlier than usual.

Ice cream and chips.

Tomorrow, there will be coffee. I’m not going through this head-splitting torture again. For tonight, comfort was sought in black raspberry ice cream with mini chocolate chips and potato chips, straight from the container with a plastic spoon (no bowls, plate seemed dumb). 

random thoughts – Day 1,958 – (Sunday) – firsts

In eight years and ten months at The BungaLowell, I had a perfect record of never needing a “Purple Overflow Trash Bag.” Yes, that is how it’s referred to on the city website. Usually, my tall kitchen can size trash bag is less than full, sometimes only half full. Today, because moving generates a lot more trash with the tossing of no longer needed items in addition to the regular trash, I needed a purple overflow bag. I did not realize this for sure until nearly 7 pm, but luckily, Market Basket, the local purveyor of the Lowell official city purple overflow trash bags is open until 8 on Sundays. Off I went.

Leading up to the realization of the trash excess, I had suspected it might be the case, and then, through a combination of forgetting and neglecting, failed to buy any of the purple magical bags to spirit away what doesn’t fit into the bin. The package of bags, quantity not specified on the label, was $10, which almost had me reconsidering my dedication to leaving the bins empty for my buyers. Almost. I bought the bags. I ended up using one.

Before visiting the customer service counter for the valuable purple overflow garbage bags, I visited the paper serving ware aisle. In the thoroughness of packing the kitchen, which began at 5:30 this morning, I neglected to leave out a coffee mug for my coffee substitute beverage of choice, instant chai latte. Duh. 

The partyware aisle had packages of 80 cups, 40 cups, 30 cups, all more than I need. I decided to go to Family Dollar and buy a reusable coffee mug, even though I know from having just packed them, that I own about 10,000 frigging coffee mugs. But a reusable mug could accommodate any liquid and go into the microwave while also meeting the desire to not generate more trash.

Family Dollar was painful. There was a kid chattering away in full blown outdoor voice, a couple aisles away. She started yelling/singing about getting a backpack. As I looked at greeting cards, said child came into the same aisle I was in, which also holds craft and school supplies. Holding two backpacks, the youngling started filing one of them with items. Giant bottles of Elmer’s Glue, packs of colored markers which were gushed over with admiration, crayons, a jar of something pink, whatever. All were stuffed into the backpack I chose a couple cards and went to the coffee cups, the source of my mission.

There were mugs for $3 with sayings on them – “Wake up and be awesome!” and “Hello Sunshine” and such. I got on that says “Choose Happy.” It seems like a good reminder.

As I proceeded towards the register, there was screaming. Apparently, the adult in charge of the backpack child had other ideas about the purchase, and the kid was wailing “I want a backpack!” and “I don’t want to leave” and other protests. The kid had quite a set of lungs. The cashier looked unfazed. The customer ahead of me seemed unbothered. I probably looked calm, but I was dying to see how the drama would unfold.

The adult didn’t blink, and continued paying for the sanctioned items. There was no negotiating, just a “no.” Then the rest of the party, adult woman in a nice dress, teenage girl in a red dress, and young boy in long pants and a shirt headed for the door. The wailing girl child wouldn’t budge from the checkout, and when she finally did, she bolted towards the door, slapping backpack set on a chair at the checkout displays on the way, then slapped the door with both hands a couple times, entered the vestibule, turned around and reentered the store, and headed back towards the main backpack display that sparked her desire. The rest of her party began walking across the parking lot. The still sobbing and wailing kid finally left the store under her own power.

When I went outside, the kid was sitting in the spot where the access road into the parking lot forms a T with the road running along the storefronts. There was crying and the stamping of feet and hands on the ground. Live kids theater (of this caliber) in the parking lot a Family Dollar was a first for me. The adult stood by calmly, looking at her phone. The teenager and young boy were already at the edge of the plaza, turning onto the sidewalk.

I don’t think I would ever have done that as a child, but mostly because sitting on the ground was gross and I would have been afraid of messing up my perfect little coordinated shorts and top outfit. This girl was not concerned about messing her very cute and sassy shorts and top outfit, she was committed to the drama and definitely choosing not happy.

If there hadn’t been 10,000 things needing doing at the house I might have sat in my car watching for the resolution to the histrionics. Instead, I avoided running over the child sitting on the pavement by turning away and looping through the nearly empty parking area. Then it was vacuuming and dusting baseboards, kind of a warmup for doing the same thing in a different house next weekend.

random thoughts – Day 1,957 – (Saturday) –full day

‘Twas a full day. There was performance preparation (hair, makeup, costume parts that are okay to drive in), driving (1 hour and 20 minutes), carpooling to the festival site, final preparations in one of the dancer's office (the spangly costume parts), dancing our dances, chatting with friends who attended festival and saw our performance, carpooling, driving back home (1 hour and 20 minutes). The weather was less humid than recent days and it was lovely. In all, the dancing and related activities were a 5.5 hour chunk of the day. 

After changing into shorts and tee shirt, there was more packing. A visit to the shed to gauge the volume of stuff (too much) led to the discovery of a couple large boxes and packing paper. The lawn was mowed for the final time.

At nearly 9:00, during a quick text break with my sister, I realized I forgot to visit Home Depot to buy a TV box. Luckily, they were still open for another hour and I dashed out into the world to accomplish the task.

At 10:00 while packing the kitchen, I discovered some microwave containers that had been set aside and tucked into a corner of a cabinet. The leftover pasta and vegetables was transferred from the pot in the refrigerator to the container and it was too small. To solve the problem, I heated up some of the pasta and ate it. It felt very European and vacation-y eating supper so late.  

Then it was back to the packing. The kitchen is now closed, except for microwavable leftovers. The boxes from the shed are large, and that makes then unwieldy when full. At east the new ones bought with the TV box had handle cutouts on the sides.

Tomorrow is the final loading phase. That will be a relief.

random thoughts – Day 1,956 – (Friday) – still packing it in

It is the home stretch for life-size Tetris - The Build. The box gets picked up Monday, so it needs to be loaded and locked Sunday. Productive quality time today was spent rearranging some of the placements done last weekend, now that the questionable items have been decided and there is a clearer picture of exactly what is coming with me and needs to be packed.

Still packing it in.

The packing tape ran out again, requiring a trip to Family Dollar. All the smaller boxes have been used up (again) as I built up the back wall. Three bookcases were relocated from a side wall to the center back to square the load off. The bookcases were emptied in the house and brought to the cube, then refilled with books, boxes, whatever fit. Today, they were emptied at least enough to slide, walk, rotate, whatever maneuver it took to set them in a different place a few feet away. There are still odd-sized spaces in need of items. There are odd-sized items in need of boxes.

There are three large, sturdy, awkward boxes that need to be placed in the cube and then filled (one person job), or filled in the house and brought into the cube (with help). Plus an armchair, the home office desk and chair, file cabinet, random chairs, and some other things. 

There was a known casualty today. I was placing a box containing a soup tureen, tray, and ladle, plus a Pyrex baking dish with a lid that used to be Mummu’s. As I stood on a chair in the cube and raised the box to place it, it slipped, grazed the scar on my wrist (ow!) and landed on the floor. It was cushioned a bit by a bag of soft items on the floor but when I picked it up again, there was some rattling. It was taken back into the house and opened. Better to check out the situation now instead of getting surprised and sliced during unpacking. The lid was shattered into a gajillion shards.

Pieces of broken glass were removed and wrapped for the trash. And now I’ll be searching for a lid for my 1961 2.5-quart white Gourmet black leaf casserole dish. It’s fun to have quests. Today, life-size Tetris, a week from now, reverse Tetris and unpacking a million boxes, and in a couple weeks, the hunt for a Pyrex lid to replace the broken one.

Angel hair, veggies, pesto.

With 99% of the kitchen packed, preparing food has become interesting. Today’s freezer purge resulted in a supper of frozen Brussels sprouts and mixed vegetables with chopped salami ends and angel hair pasta tossed with a jar of pesto. It was delicious, and there was a ton of it, which ended up in the fridge still in the cooking pot because all the microwave and storage containers are packed. 

Saturday morning is blocked out for a dance break as Salaamati World Dance performs at Riverfest in Jafffrey, New Hampshire. According to Waze, it’s an hour and 21 minutes from The BungaLowell. As long as I remember to do the eye liner before too much coffee makes my hand shake, I’ll be all set.

random thoughts – Day 1,955 – (Thursday) – eating, packing, meeting

Breakfast sammie.

The current rhythm of the day begins like the working life days with the alarm still going off at 6:15, followed immediately by one tap of “snooze” before getting up ten minutes later to start the coffee. Coffee is taken with a side of Wordle, Words with Friends, and Duolingo (except when I forget, which is a lot lately). Today there was a breakfast sandwich of fried egg with cheese and salami on toast rounds, under the plan to reduce the freezer holdings. 

Before, the routine was to sit at a desk and work. Now, it’s organizing and packing boxes and loading them into the cube. There are at least 1,000 daily rounds of “where is the tape?”, “where are the scissors?”, “where is the Sharpie?”, “where is the [cup, plate, whatever] I just had in my hand?”

The day’s entertainment had a big detour after an email from the closing attorney’s office. There were also two messages from yesterday that I missed because of the way Gmail nests messages (which I hate) and the segregation of messages to “Primary” and “Promotions” (which I also hate). The law office needed my signature on the documents for the closing. I could print, sign, have notarized, and mail them to the office – or I could go to the office in Worcester. The absence of access to a printer was a big impediment, so I chose to go to the office.

That’s when I discovered some bad guesses when setting some clothes aside last week for the next couple weeks and packing everything else into the cube. Two pairs of shorts, jeans, and camo pants with some tee shirts and a white shirt covered only a couple bases and none of them were “visit a law office.” I also neglected to keep aside a skirt so I could dress like a civilian on the way to and from our dance performance Saturday morning. Too late now!

The volume of traffic on 495 was heavy. Thanks to typing in the address wrong (225 Park Ave), Waze directed me to the middle of Elm Park. Oops. A quick stop in the nearly empty Price Chopper lot let me check email for the correct number (255) and then I was on my way to the Parkview Office Tower, located close to where I lived in Worcester once upon a lifetime ago. Like, around the corner and down the street. 

The very quick signing meeting today means I don’t have to attend the closing next Wednesday, so that is a nice benefit. After the meeting, I drove down Elm Street intending to go past my old apartment building, then I wondered why exactly, thought about traffic, and turned down a side street that runs along the park and continued homeward instead.

The traffic home was worse than the traffic earlier, but the Emerson radio station was playing some great songs from ages ago mixed in with the new stuff. Today’s trip down musical memory lane included The Neighborhoods and one of my favorite songs from the 90s, “Prettiest Girl.” I sang my way up 495 with the radio playing LOUD and it was an enjoyable stretch of approximately three minutes. Then the volume was reduced to the regular level for the rest of the ride.  

random thoughts – Day 1,954 – (Wednesday) – chipping away

Several tasks were knocked out today and the overly full plate is beginning to feel a smidge more manageable. Boxes were sourced and brought to the house, and I got to visit with former colleagues for a minute in the process.

The futon frame, wood dining chairs, and glider are now spoken for. It’s a relief no longer having to worry about what to do with them. Next up, addressing the patio table and umbrella and a racing bike. And maybe the slightly cracked white leather chairs.

Luckily, the new address has the same providers for electric and Internet/cable and service has been scheduled to be transferred to the new address. The change of address has been filed with the Postal Service. The gas account is set up with a final service date and now I can shift the worry to the learning curve and burning my food all over again like when I had an electric stove in Tennessee. My future stove is a glass top which will be a whole new world of cooking and potential stovetop breakage. I wonder which will be my favorite burner at the next house. And how many times I’ll set something that can melt on a hot stovetop. Kitchen fun times ahead!

The state of the cube.

Everyday bowls were wrapped, boxed, and labeled. The rest of what has turned out to be a large collection of Ace bandages, physical therapy bands, and heating pads are now packed. Even though boxes of things like dishes and toiletries are being packed in an order with the most frequently used being done last, the placement in the cube is along the strategy of what fits where, so boxes with dishes and flatware may not emerge along the optimal timeline. No worries, there is delivery pizza and Chinese food in the new little city. 

Day by day, the daily-use items disappear into boxes and routine actions become more comical. Things like repeatedly and habitually reaching for utensils in now empty drawers and for spices in an empty cabinet is starting to feel crazy.

The freezer food reduction plan is underway. Tonight there was maple syrup on raspberry ice cream. Potential weird main dishes on the horizon may include frozen brussels sprouts on toast with shooters of vegetable broth. Could be a new taste sensation.

Tomorrow morning is the fire department inspection of the detectors and one more thing will be chipped away from the list. 

random thoughts – Day 1,953 – (Tuesday) – frazzled

My brain, which had been flirting with mushiness for months leading up to the bank merger, became fully scrambled in the days surrounding June 30, my last day of work. In a six-day span immediately around that date, a lot of big things happened. There was an offer on the house which was in the process of being negotiated, another new showing, and an unexpected offer from a new, second party. The house next door to Mom’s, which she and I had been keeping an eye on for months, came on the market and I saw it privately and again at an open house two days later. The offer on my house from the second party was accepted, which provided the figures to frame the offer on the house next to Mom’s, which was accepted. Whew!

The first day of being job-free featured filing for unemployment (as counseled during an unemployment workshop in the waning days of work) and starting the weekly tasks associated with that. There have been inspections, paperwork, repairs, deposits, packing, loading, stressing, waking up at insane hours of the night, brain fog, and more. When I say I’ve been tired for a month, it is not even a tiny exaggeration, and likely an understatement. 

Still chaotic.

For the bare walls and the small amount of furnishings left in the house, the continued level of chaos is shocking. The cabinets are mostly empty. The closets are mostly empty. My brain is a hot tangled paralyzed mess that is mostly absent of the usual logic and systematic functioning. 

The pickup of the moving cube from Lowell and the delivery to Gardner are scheduled. There are still decisions pending concerning six wood dining chairs, four leather dining chairs (with hairline cracks and flaking), the wood futon, the patio table and umbrella, and the racing bike. I didn’t reach out to my first-choice organization for mattress disposal soon enough and when I did, learned they pick up only one day a week and are booked up for several weeks ahead. The other available options are unfortunately exponentially more expensive. Now I have a clue why people dump stuff on the side of the road. Sheesh!

There will be a couple days with no manual labor required as the household goods are in transit with a couple days in a storage yard before the closing on the next place. After the closing, the plan is to get busy cleaning and prepping, and now that I'm practically a professional painter, maybe I'll do a bit of that before the furniture goes in, although all of the rooms are in good colors already. Maybe I'll just veg as if I'm on vacation. Too bad all the swimwear and hiking things are packed in the cube.

random thoughts – Day 1,952 – (Monday) – trash and timing

For years, the biweekly Monday recycle pickup would be done by 8:00 am, and trash would be picked up much later in the afternoon. It worked out great, because I would often gather my Monday morning coffee grounds and other incidentals from tidying up and run them out to the barrels during the day. Some weeks I never even rolled out the bins due to trash holding barely a half bag of trash and next to nothing in the recycling. Today was my last recycling pickup and the next to last trash pickup before closing, deep in the crunch time of generating more trash than usual, and today, both pickups were done before 9:00 am. WHY?!?!?!? Half of my day was built on discarding more things before the usual trash pickup time. Even the mail was several hours early, but that was a neutral event.

Many moons ago, when I bought The BungaLowell, my closing took place before a long holiday weekend, and at the alleged “final walkthrough” the house wasn’t fully emptied yet, but the barrels were empty. There was a sticky note on the door that the occupant would be back to finish up, which was not my understanding of how the final walkthrough was supposed to work. The following day, when I returned to the house after the closing, ready to get to work changing the locks, cleaning, and ripping out wall to wall carpeting, the barrels were so full I couldn’t have fit a single straw in either one and trash day was four or five days out. So rude. And no, I’m not doing that to my buyers, which has resulted me fixating on frigging trash pickups for weeks and like never before.

There was still more organizing and packing and schlepping, mostly in the kitchen and bathroom. Pictures were requested of the completed FHA mandated work to possibly avoid the appraiser needing to come back out to check it in person.

Midday egg salad sustenance.

Thanks to buying hard cooked eggs yesterday and a strategic desire to use up the rest of the jar of mayonnaise, an egg salad sandwich was made for lunch today. So quick and yummy. The two-pack of hard cooked eggs is one of my favorite $1.29 Market Basket items. 

There were errands to the bank to deposit the rolled coins and then Family Dollar to buy the 1,000^th roll of packing tape and some very handy smaller plastic totes that are working for things like batteries/hardware, first aid, and the extensive dance accessory hair flower collection which oddly doesn’t include the color I need for the show on Saturday morning. Of course, because it’s been a few weeks and the Universe must think I need one more thing on my overloaded plate, the low tire pressure light came on again in the car. I just need to get through the next couple weeks and things should calm down. I hope. It’s been totally mental since June 30^th and I’m not sure how long it will be before I totally snap.

random thoughts – Day 1,951 – (Sunday) –coffee, coins, and chores

There was an interesting start to the day when the coffee maker was set up. I noticed the sound was a little different as it brewed, but didn't go back to investigate. That was a mistake. When I finally returned to the kitchen, there were coffee grounds splattered on the top of the carafe and down the side of it. Inside, there was a lot of water in the funnel part. That's when I realized I had forgotten to put in the filter for the grounds. It wasn't the end of the world, and the coffee tasted okay. The real test will be tomorrow when the coffee maker either works or not.

Ready to roll.

Random tasks were handled today but the common theme was getting ready for the move. A small chunk of time was invested in rolling the coins from the big vintage glass jug so it can be delivered into the bank account instead of the new house and then a bank branch. There were several sets of two pennies that were firmly stuck to each other. So weird. Now I have a million pounds of rolled coins to take to the bank tomorrow that will help finance the next trip to a home improvement store. 

There was a quick trip to St Vincent de Paul to drop off more clothes and shoes and some desk organizing items. Halfway there, I realized that with the several trips to the car, I had forgotten my purse in the house, leaving me without my phone and wallet. I returned to grab it, because the plan also included a stop at Market Basket for a couple provisions.

I popped inside quickly to look for storage containers in the housewares area, but there weren’t any this week. Market Basket was a speed shop for Greek Yogurt, half and half, a small salad, and some ice cream. While I was standing in the checkout line, patiently waiting for my turn to check out, a woman with an inaccurate concept of space and manners body slammed me aside so she could look at the register candy display. 

Then it was back to the house and more pre-moving labor. There are still many items needing a place in a box. The bathroom was a challenge. There is a lot of makeup and hair flowers, and it wasn’t as simple as gathering them up to go into a box and the cube, because the dance troupe is performing on Saturday morning. That means I needed to guess what makeup and hair I’ll feel like doing that morning and hope I gathered all the right elements.

The space under the kitchen sink was addressed. Cleaning and pantry items will be spirited away to the home of my new neighbor (also known as Mom) in a couple days. That way, I can get busy with cleaning before I even open the box.

My sister took shovels, rakes, and other items from the shed on Saturday and delivered them for a brief stay in Mom’s shed. I love that Mom and Sis are developing solid, helpful solutions. I was concerned about having canned goods and baking supplies in the moving cube in the summer heat.  

After the rain.

The forecast for today mentioned rain, but it didn’t roll through until 7:00 this evening. There was pounding rain that caused puddling at the end of the street when the storm drain couldn’t keep pace. At the same time, it was oddly light and bright, thunder crashed nearby, and emergency vehicle sirens wailed. And then it was over and quiet, and I had to go outside and wheel the trash and recycle bins through and around the puddles. 

random thoughts – Day 1,950 – (Saturday) – packing it in

The cavalry arrived and kicked butt today. My sister and my friends carried the day and all deserve medals. There was much schlepping and stacking. Drawers were carried downstairs from dressers. Dresser shells, a desk, and loaded suitcases were skillfully brought down the stairs, out through the sliders and onto the deck, down some more steps and into the big box where they were reunited with their contents and draped with blankets, rugs, and in one case, a yoga mat. There are so many (too many?) books. 

My friend and my sister teamed up and continued the life-size Tetris marathon and they ruled supreme. Furniture pieces and boxes were strategically layered and stacked and soft things were stuffed into places to cushion woods, fill gaps, and help level things.

Pizza was eaten for lunch and my friends introduced my sister and me to a new flavor combination. It turns out banana peppers and pineapple on pizza is a great combo. I wouldn’t have thought of that one on my own, but the sweet and fiery worked well together. Water and Gatorade were consumed because hydration is important. Much sweat was sweated. 

It was a productive day and most of the biggest items are placed. There are still smaller things that need to be loaded, which I’ll do during the week. There are still things to be packed, but I’m nearly out of boxes again. A few empties and small shelving pieces were set back in the cube for the night, spoiling the beauty and balance of the available center space that allows access to continue stacking and space for the remaining items.

Tick tock, it’s crunch time. Now some decisions need to be made. What day should the box be picked up? Do I keep the futon, a furniture style I don’t love, in the wood color I like, or donate it and finally get something else? Ditto for the bentwood chair. And the four white dining chairs with the slightly cracked leather seats – keep and find a leather repair place, or donate? And crap, I need to finalize the mattress and box spring removal. And transfer the Internet and cable account. And finish packing the kitchen. And change the mailing address. And, and, and .... Oh, and breathe.

random thoughts – Day 1,949 – (Friday) – life size tetris

 It was a day when I was awake at 4:22 and got up at 5:15. After making coffee, I was outside painting by 6:00 and conquered the rest of the shed. Then there was the drinking of more coffee and the packing of boxes. The remaining coffee beans were ground so the grinder could be packed with the other small kitchen gadgets like the spiralizer and food chopper. English fine bone china from the first marriage was carefully wrapped and packed. Small coffee cups and saucers from Mummu that are from Finland were wrapped and boxed. By the time my sister arrived to help there were a sufficient number of boxes to be loaded into the cube.

Sis and I made huge progress adding more boxes to the cube without using any additional floor space because this is basically real life size Tetris and she is the absolute master of packing shapes and making things fit. Once we had a solid backwall of boxes and tubs, we added a couple big pieces.

Weird dining room.

The dining table was dismantled and the top installed against a side wall in the cube and now the room looks simultaneously freakishly empty and full of stuff. Loading the table cleared the dining room for the passage of all other furniture en route to the egress. The cedar chest was emptied and wrangled downstairs, across the deck and into the cube in front of the table top. Then we refilled the chest with its former contents. 

After several hours of labor, we called it a day and poured some wine. It was comfortable outside so we sat on the deck for a well-deserved break. Tomorrow, we’re back at it, with reinforcements in the form of a couple friends and we'll be back to another round of real life Tetris. It’s ten days to closing on the sale and twelve days to the buy, so it’s go time.

random thoughts – Day 1,948 – (Thursday) – progress and searching

Sleep was interrupted too many times Wednesday night. The alarm blared for me to get up and paint the shed and I got up tired. All day, I felt kind of spacey and slightly off kilter. Good times.

Things got done. The handyman company contacted yesterday arrived this morning. The project, to achieve FHA compliance for the Lowell buyer’s mortgage, was a handrail in the interior staircase, a handrail for the basement stairs, and sanding and painting of the bulkhead.

The stairways never had handrails when I bought the house. It was a suggestion by my inspector but not a requirement for my conventional mortgage and it never felt urgent. FHA has stricter standards which, in this case, means handrails are in and peeling paint is out. The bulkhead had been installed and painted about six or seven years ago, and the sun and weather beating on it seem to have taken a toll.

The shed also had peeling paint, which is why I’ve been outside painting the past couple mornings at 6:45 before the day gets hell hot. Two sides are done, and if I dig deep and rally it could probably be finished tomorrow morning, humidity depending. 

The two remaining sides are in better shape than the two that are done. That would allow for the appraiser to return to sign off on the repairs. Then I can stop worrying about that and focus on packing and loading the cube, scheduling the pickup and delivery dates, and 500 other details.

Encroaching greenery.

While the handyman was busy at work sanding and spraying, fashioning and installing, I was busy combing through job postings and trying to decode the corporate speak and wade through the company sales pitches to try and ferret out what the job entails. Then  it was viewing, saving and organizing my yearly payroll summaries, W2s, and the last few pay statements from the bank payroll processor site. Later, I packed a couple boxes with glass serving bowls, baking dishes, and cookware. 

When the sun got low, it was back out to the shed to trim back the greenery growing over the fence and reaching for the shed. Things were pulled from the ground on my side of the fence, and overhang was cut in preparation for painting in the morning. That will be one less thing to deal with before the painting begins.

random thoughts – Day 1,947 – (Wednesday) – paint, sweat, and snacks

Morning work.

The countdown is on. The closing on The BungaLowell is in two weeks. Holy crap, how did it creep up so quickly? There is still a ton of packing to be done and furniture to be loaded into the moving cube, but the day started with a very productive hour spent with paint and a roller during the cool of the morning. 

Fueled by a mere half cup of coffee, one long side of the shed was painted, a start on meeting one of the buyer's FHA mortgage requirements. It was quiet, cool, shady, and pleasant. Tomorrow morning, another side will be conquered, maybe two, weather depending. The forecast calls for temperatures in the high 70s and humid in the morning.

After a refreshing shower and an attempt to remove paint from my arms and even my legs which were covered by long pants (huh?), I drove to Chelmsford. The mission was a bank check for the second deposit on the house, which was then delivered to the realty office down the street. That triggered the release of the P&S document, so things are proceeding with both houses. 

My realtor arrived at the house to change out the smoke detectors with updated units and we had a chance to visit and collaborate on the list of FHA requirements. It's only four items, but they need to be done quickly. A handyman company is now scheduled  for Thursday morning. 

Throughout the day, we fielded questions from the Lowell buyer about the average cost of the gas and electric bills, followed by questions about the water bill. I have an excel workbook going back many years and can pull the actual and average amounts for almost anything. The tricky one was the water bill, because I swore a new one had recently arrived and couldn’t find it in my files. I couldn’t look it up online because the bill number is required to do so and it's different every month. I finally called the water department and learned the water bills were just mailed yesterday, so it wasn't misplaced, it wasn't even received yet. Who knows what bill I was thinking of. 

After all the busy-ness, there was a multi-part mission downtown. First, I needed to collect some boxes for moving (thanks Mark!!). I was meeting friends at Fuse Bistro for drinks and snacks and arrived downtown early. After parking the car on the street and engaging with a parking kiosk, which was an entirely new experience and made me miss my employee garage parking pass, I stopped in at LaLa Books. I’ve been absent from the monthly Tuesday Boozy Book Club for months due to dance group and the impossibility of being in two places at once, and wanted to make sure I had a chance to say goodbye to Laura at the shop.  I got extra chatty, and suddenly I was late for Fuse. Oops.

Summer refreshment.

Fuse was fun. I tried the (refreshing) Carlson Orchard Raspberry Shandy because I couldn’t remember the summer drink I used to like there that had blueberry and bourbon or something. We had fun conversations about personal art collections, pets, the ghastly chore of moving, aging, past jobs, experiences in food service, and more. After some deliberation, we chose appetizers of garlic lemon chicken wings, hummus, and spinach artichoke dip for sharing. It was a great time.  

Back at home, it's time to get back to moving details. Only one box was packed today amongst all the other activity. There is some catching up to be done, but now I have fresh boxes for the task.

random thoughts – Day 1,946 – (Tuesday) – lost time and ladder

Time is doing it’s freaky flying past thing again and it’s mind-boggling that July is already half over. It’s now into week three of being unemployed and I don’t feel like I’ve caught my breath yet. Someone please make it slow down.

This morning began with heading straight to the computer to take care of some unemployment filing stuff. It was immediately followed by updating/customizing a resume and writing a cover letter for a job posting that three people messaged me about. Those two tasks extracted four hours out of the day and felt harder and more tiring than any day at the most recent job. They also ate up all the shady, cooler morning time that I had intended to spend starting to paint the shed.  

Ghost of a long ago job.

After lunch there was a trip to the bank to deposit some checks that came in yesterday’s mail. I paused in the building's vestibule to make a phone call and realized I was sitting in a branch of my most recent former job and looking at a fire alarm control panel from Simplex, an even earlier former job. It felt kind of weird in a literary, ghostly, haunted kind of way. 

Review files for the Purchase and Sale agreement on my future place came in, and there  was other paperwork to be completed. Around 4:00, the final document of the P&S arrived for signature, which triggers the second deposit on the property, but it was too late to dash out to Chelmsford to hand deliver the check to the realty office. That task is now slated for the morning, and if that imaginative and ambitious plan transpires, I will have one side of the shed painted first thing in the day. We’ll see.

Around 5:00 as I was dashing around to change and head to dance group, there was an unfamiliar vehicle parked out front and a knock at the door. Two people had arrived to measure the property for the buyers which kind of threw me off balance. I changed for dance, then got brain paralyzed by something else that was just one thing too many for the day. The next thing I knew it was too late to get to dance on time without becoming totally spastic and I messaged the group with regrets. A short while later, I was outside in the heat, removing more paint from the shed and fighting with a ladder that has three sets of joints so it can be configured into different arrangements.

The ladder was bought at a yard sale seven or eight years ago and never used. Part of the reason is that I haven’t really needed it. Tonight, I finally needed it and hauled it from the shed. It easily moved into an M shape (or W if viewed from the opposite direction). Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to get the buttons to release at the hinges to allow the parts to move into a shape more immediately useful. I stood in the yard, sweating in the heat, searching the Internet on my phone for help on how operate a ladder with multiple joints (without luck). I couldn’t find my type of ladder online.

Ladder ready for the morning.

The process that finally worked was to lay it on its side and step on a button, then flip it over and step on the button on the opposite side to extend the parts. That is probably not the real process, but it worked. 

Now the ladder is in the pointy shape, positioned next to the shed on the side that will be shaded in the morning. The forecast is for temperatures from 73 to 79 from 7 am to 9am and that will be the target time, after which, it will start climbing into the low 90s.

random thoughts – Day 1,945 – (Monday) – food and labor

It was a pretty good day for a Monday. The buyer’s appraisal was at 11:00 this morning. I had intended to be gone from the house and my realtor, who is a former appraiser, was on site. Our goal was to learn as soon as possible the list of required alterations to the house for the buyer’s mortgage. I ended up staying through the process. 

Lunch at Kimball's.

There was a plan to meet for lunch with a friend at Kimball’s Ice Cream in Westford, postponed from last week. The place was hopping! We got fried haddock sandwiches and fried clams and it was delicious. The food was great, and it was a relaxing treat to sit under the canopy and talk and eat. I probably talked too much. I don’t socialize enough, then when I do, I sometimes turn into a chatterbox. 

On the way home, there was a stop at Lowe’s for some paint for the shed, one of the items on the appraiser’s list. My realtor had said the shed should be painted on her first visit to the house months ago, and for various reasons, it didn’t happen. She was kind enough to not say “I told you so” and I love her for that.

The paint counter was very busy this afternoon with one customer after another, and for the first time in three visits the attendant was helpful. He suggested painting when the temperature is lower than 85 degrees, which is definitely not something I would have thought to consider.  While my paint was being mixed, I wandered over to the major appliances and then lighting. My future house has a dining room pendant light featuring roosters and little plaid lampshades of which I am not a fan, but there was nothing in Lowe’s that I liked even a little bit.

In the evening, when the sun had lowered and wasn’t blasting the back yard, the scraping of the shed began. The scraper didn’t do much as far as the paint was concerned, and it was easier to peel it off like wallpaper. It was about an hour of sweaty, meditative work, peeling off strips of old paint as high as I could reach and tossing them onto a plastic tarp. Two and a half sides saw progress before the task had to shift to cutting back some viney, straggling growth that had grown over the fence from the neighbor’s yard and blocked access to the rest of the shed. 

Blue sky, pink clouds.

After a break spent drinking ice water, I remembered to look outside. The clouds were pale pink, which deepened against the blue sky as I stood on the deck. 

Tomorrow the very many selling and moving related chores will resume. There are more clothes, books, and glassware bagged and in the car, ready to be dropped off at St. Vincent de Paul. There are questions about utilities in the new place and curtains to be taken down, laundered, and packed, and at least 10,000 other things.

random thoughts – Day 1,944 – (Sunday) – dance and food

Red, itchy, and swollen.

Saturday’s wasp sting became Sunday’s red, itchy, swollen palm pad, knuckle, and space between the pinky finger and ring finger. It’s the same hand with the tiny bone chip in the pinky side of the wrist which also swells, and overall, it’s a very weird sensation from fingers to wrist bone. My medical studies (i.e., five minutes of Internet search and reading) reassure me that the rash, itching, and swelling are all elements of a normal reaction. 

In other news of the unusual, we had a rehearsal for an upcoming performance with the Sunday dance group. We don’t usually dance in the summer, but this year the troupe is performing at events in July and August and slipping in rehearsals when we can. The drive was easy and the rehearsal went well. On a sad note, it was probably our last time dancing in our beautiful practice space in Townsend because the building was sold recently. Luckily, we have found a new practice space in a nearby town.

Matzo brie
comfort food.

The afternoon's lunch was a treat I was introduced to during marriage number one. I loved going to New York to visit the in-laws and eating my mother-in-law's cooking including noodle kugel, stuffed breast of veal, and matzo brie. Matzo brie (eggs scrambled with broken up matzo cracker) is easy enough to make and the dish I resort to on occasion. 

Today was one such matzo brie comfort food day, partly due to the deliberate skipping of grocery shopping and attempts to reduce the plentiful pantry reserves in preparation of moving. There will be a lag between the moving cube being picked up and it being unpacked, and the previous practice of building the pantry reserves has been thrown into reverse.

random thoughts – Day 1,943 – (Saturday) – sting of nature

There was a wasp on the screen of the casement window over the sink this afternoon. Because the windows crank out, the screens are on the inside. Last month there was a fuzzy round bumble bee in the same predicament, crawling on the screen trying to get outside. I cranked a window out, twisted the four little knobs to move the little levers that hold the screen in place, brought the screen in, and hoped the bee would find its way to the open window and its path back to nature. It did.

The process was repeated today for the wasp with its tiny, nearly nonexistent waist that inspired the name of the corseted wasp-waist fashion silhouette of the late 19^th century. As the wasp crawled on the screen of the left window, I removed the screen in the right window (felt safer). The wasp didn’t find the open window, despite my cheering it on, “keep going, little buddy, you’re almost there.” It left the screen and walked on the window frame, so I took the left screen out, but as I did so, the wasp flew and landed back on the screen, which I shifted to the open window so it could fly out.

Except it didn’t fly out. It fell into my hand and stung my ring finger where it meets the palm. It was an instant and surprisingly intense pain of the swear-inducing variety, disproportionate to the size of the creature. If any neighbors were outside, they surely heard some colorful language.

A sprint was made to the bathroom to the tweezers to check for and remove a stinger (none was found). An online search was done for wasp sting treatment and the site was washed. There was a rummage of the medicine cabinet for Benadryl or something like it because I don’t know if I’m allergic to bee/wasp stings and don’t recall ever having one before. Two slightly expired antihistamine tablets were found and taken. Back in the kitchen, there was no sign of the wasp and the assumption (hope) was made that it succeeded in its quest for freedom and the great outdoors. The screens were returned to their rightful places. Hours later, the sting site was still red and tender.

Later, when the back yard was shaded and I ventured out to the great outdoors to mow the yard, I was on high alert for stinging critters. Luckily, none were seen. 

After the mow, 7-12-25.

It was a quick mow, with the front and back yards completed in about 30 minutes. While traversing the yard with the mowing mantra of “walk, walk, walk, walk, walk …. pivot,” I wondered how many more mows there would be at this address, and how long it will take to mow the yard at the next address. The back yard there is presently much smaller with a lot of ferns and goldenrod having crept towards the house, and the front yard is much larger than that at The BungaLowell. I won’t have to wonder about it too long, because by next month at this time, I’ll be in the next home, sorting through boxes and starting the next chapter. I hope the wasps in the new neighborhood are kind to me.

random thoughts – Day 1,942 – (Friday) – tv mimosas

This week’s Netflix binge has been a series called Sullivan’s Crossing. It’s a Canadian romantic drama set mostly in Nova Scotia and partly in Boston. One of the lead characters is the actor who played Luke on Gilmore Girls, and it's a little bit sappy and formulaic with characters who mean well and mess up, and others who are a bit shady. There is overly dramatic background music filled with violins designed to pluck at your heartstrings and guide your reactions and it can get annoying, but that might just be me.

Anyway, those aren’t even the things that annoyed me the most. 

The thing that stuck in my cranium was a detail in a scene in an episode watched earlier this week that seemed wrong. The main character, Maggie, returned to Boston and was at a restaurant with her mother, who had also invited Maggie’s boyfriend (without telling her, as usual). Mimosas had been ordered by the mother, and it was sort of a big deal. 

When the mimosas arrived at the table, they didn’t look like a single one of the many, many, many mimosas I have enjoyed in countless establishments in multiple states, and a couple foreign countries. Now, I’m not claiming to be an absolute expert on mimosas, but as I understand it and confirmed with several recipe sites, they are made with orange juice and either champagne or prosecco, and are orange in color. Simple. Tasty. Refreshing. 

Maggie's mother with a not orange mimosa.

The alleged mimosas in the restaurant scene were not orange, they were red. Were the mimosas sunburnt?  embarrassed? Did this party receive another table’s drink order by mistake? Or maybe they were made with blood oranges? In any event, I was focusing on the drinks and fretting over the color. 

Noticing things like this, and the differing volume of liquid in glasses and bottles from shot to shot, and the placement of hair in front of the shoulder (or ear), behind the shoulder (or ear), and so on, makes it very hard to relax and just watch a show. It feels like a curse. It’s probably good that I’m usually multitasking -- writing, playing a game on my phone, or scrolling through socials while “watching” a show or I might totally lose my mind.

random thoughts – Day 1,941 – (Thursday) –house and furniture

The inspection on the house I’m buying was this morning. The inspector was very nice, very thorough, and explained everything. He, my realtor, and I are now intimately acquainted with the house from rooftop to crawlspace. I arrived a few minutes early, but the inspector and realtor were even earlier.

It was raining and the inspector told us to stay inside while he inspected the outside. It was a nice opportunity to chat with my realtor and long-time friend. Then he went through the inside, calling us over to show us things like the breaker box, outlets, mechanicals, and well, literally everything.

It stopped raining during the inside inspection and we all went outside and he explained everything he had noted on the outside and what he could see in the crawlspace. There were no major issues inside or out, and what seemed to me like a long list of minor things, but which my realtor said are just normal, especially with the age of the house.

My head was spinning by the time we finished more than three hours later, but that might have been because I had forgotten breakfast in my haste to get out the door and on my way  to the 9:00 appointment.

Fuzzy bathrobe couch!

After the inspection, I went next door to Mom’s to collect some boxes she had for me, then she and I went out for lunch. Fortified by food, we visited the Gardner Furniture Outlet to check out the sofas. 

Most of the sofas and sectionals looked exactly like everything I’d already seen at three other stores, with two exceptions, notable for the material covering them. One was cream, the other was black, and both were in plush fabrics that screamed fuzzy bathrobes, giant pet beds, or stuffed animals. I cannot imagine the fabric holding up well in real life. Both sofas looked like they had grand potential for becoming matted and needing to be combed daily. 

On the way back to Lowell, I stopped at a very cluttered antique shop that is like a claustrophobic treasure hunt. There were lots of pieces in black lacquer with mother of pearl inlay and gorgeous wood inlays and patterns. And no prices on most of the stuff, my least favorite aspect of any shop. 

It was fun to wander the store in my brain-fogged, headachey daze, just looking and not really having to process any information. I took my phone out to take a picture of the semi-organized chaos of the shop and saw I had missed a text. It was from a friend confirming our planned ice cream meetup at 5:30 which I had unfortunately forgotten about. I felt like a total schmuck, but heading to Westford felt impossible and we rescheduled.

It took a couple hours to relax, clear the cobwebs, and regain cranial function, but it happened. Now I can get busy packing things again.

random thoughts – Day 1,940 – (Wednesday) – closet purge

Before the day's purge.

Progress for moving is slow going but steady, with hiccups and side quests. The curtains that hung outside the closet were taken down, laundered, and packed yesterday, exposing the contents. Today, there was another wave of purging that involved trying on more items, evaluating when they were worn (if ever), and if not worn, why not. There is a lot of guesswork taking place. Will I ever need an office jacket again? I dunno. 

A recent fashion trend was the reason for today’s excommunication of a stack of skirts and dresses, not worn for several years, since the big shift to bare legs became a marker of age and only old ladies were still wearing panty hose or tights. There are many reasons why I don’t go barelegged in work dresses and skirts and they include office air condition that always had me freezing, perpetually pasty, pale lower legs with scars, fat knees, and a hatred of being barefoot in shoes or the alternative, no show socks that dig into my feet or keep popping off.

Rather than looking like a relic in my beloved pantyhose with light support that evened out the leg skin tone and smoothed out bumps, I stopped wearing my beloved dresses and skirts to the office when the rest of womankind stopped wearing hosiery. I wore long pants and capris and waited and hoped the legwear fashion cycle pendulum would swing my way again, but I have now given up hope. It seems pointless to keep dedicating space in the closet for things that most likely will never be worn again.

Now, there are just a few very select knee length dresses and skirts remaining after today’s elimination round (just in case). So far, the long summer dresses and skirts have survived a series of cuts, but they are on borrowed time.

The shoes got a tiny inventory trim today, too. Pumps that were worn with the purged pencil shirts, some sandals, and a pair of boots were set into the donation bag. Baby steps.

Downstairs, there had been a critical evaluation of coffee mugs and drinking glasses for a couple days. A set of juice glasses from Mummu, in my possession for decades and never used, were wrapped and packed. Mummu’s old beer mugs were tested against a more modern mug. The lone factor under consideration was capacity, and the mug that holds the most would stay. It was a tie, so the newer mugs with no sentimental ties were wrapped for donation. A few coffee mugs were weeded out, along with four drinking glasses I never use. The glassware was easier to evaluate than the closet contents.

Both bags of items were delivered to the bins at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store before there was time to reconsider. A quick trip through the store led to the discovery of a tiered spice rack for the pantry in the new-to-me kitchen, and two sheer storage boxes with lids because there are never enough of those. Another thing there seems to be never enough of is moving boxes. Dang, they fill up fast.

There also needs to be a shedding of some larger stuff in the shed. The racing bike I had to have while in Tennessee has seen thousands of miles, but only ten of them involved actual riding and the rest were logged while on the bike rack on the back of the car. And the fate of an outdoor chair, a patio set, and few other things may be decided by a coin toss.

random thoughts – Day 1,939 – (Tuesday) – sparkles and ice cream

Ahh, Tuesday night dance group. It’s only been a couple weeks since we danced in our show, but I’ve missed you. The traffic was basically nonexistent and I would like to take this time to express my sincere thanks to everyone who is currently on vacation and was not traveling on Route 495 tonight. I appreciate you.

Silk and sparkle.

In addition to stretching and dancing, another benefit to dance group is the sparkly things. Most weeks, our dance leader brings in a bunch of dance costume items available for sale and most weeks I have discovered a pretty, sparkly treasure. Tonight, it was a cream-colored Indian silk veil with embroidery in metallic thread and sequins. Yes, please.

The veil is a bit short to use for a proper veil dance, but would make a great costume element or even a shawl at a fancy and elegant garden party I will likely attend only in my imagination. The more likely fate might be as a delicate window treatment, which isn’t a bad thing and means I could admire it daily.

The easy ride home had a quick pit stop at Market Basket. Here has been an orange juice craving lately but none in the house. Thoughts of ice cream danced through my head and I lack the patience to hold on until a Thursday night ice cream meetup. Blueberries for my Greek yogurt rounded out the order.

The store was as lightly populated as the ride home and it was a delight except for the lady standing in the ice cream cooler with the door propped open with her shoulder, phone in hand, talking to someone and showing them every container of Turkey Hill ice cream. Cripes. It’s ice cream, not rocket science. There aren’t many wrong answers. Pick one and get out the way please.

Despite the ice cream delay, I was in and out in a few minutes, no lines, no waiting. It didn’t keep it from being slightly weird, though. The cashier, a complete stranger of roughly high school age, instead of saying “Hi,” said, “How do you stay so young looking?”

    Me: “Denial.”

    Puzzled Bagger, who screwed up his face in confusion: “Huh?”

    Me to Puzzled Bagger: “He knows I’m old but thinks I look young.”

    Puzzled Bagger: “Sometimes that can be genetic.”

    Me to Both: “It helps I looked 12 until I was nearly 30. Young genes and denial run in my family.”

Then, we wished each other a good night and I departed for home and a bowl of Heavenly Hash ice cream. It's not my favorite flavor like when I was younger, but my only really wrong ice cream choices involve cookie dough. Yuck. Current preferences lean more towards caramel swirl, maple walnut., or cherry with chocolate chunks.

random thoughts – Day 1,938 – (Monday) – flashback monday

Flashback Monday.

This morning began at the home office desk, like it would have on a work from home day. There were emails needing attention, the auto insurance policy renewal needing a premium payment, bills needing online payments, and information to review concerning the bank stock transition and shares payout and health coverage and other things that are easier to read and deal with on a laptop than on the tiny screen of a cell phone. 

Just like a once upon a time regular work day, there were crossed wires and missing information. The insurance agent sent the link to make the premium payment on the insurance company portal but not the policy number which is the first nugget of info requested on the portal. The healthcare task had a portal sign-up requirement that was a hellscape loop of required info fields and error messages. There were problems downloading files from emails. Online statements and bills needed to be hunted down and made me really miss paper statements.

The headache and swearing set in about as quickly as it would have on a Monday workday, too. The whole thing felt like a flashback, and not in a soft-focus, nostalgic film way and more of a horror movie, what in the actual hell kind of way.

Unlike any of the work days of the past nine years, I somehow managed to forget about breakfast and lunch. It was early afternoon before I thought about food. It felt like a benefit of this temporarily disrupted and unemployed life now focused on annual insurance renewals and unusual events like selling a house and buying another one and packing things. Once housing is dealt with, the full throttle and unusual activity of searching for a job can begin.