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.