Prep Monday—To Jinx or Not to Jinx


Well. We found another property—we’ve been looking since September, so almost six months. We’ve put in offers on two places; the first was a cluster from the get-go, and we ended up being the back-up contract, and it looks like it’s a no-go. The second place received five offers the same day, including ours, and we lost it too. Turned out to be a good thing—a hoarder’s house. That explained why so much interior had been removed from the cabin!

This new one, well, we were supposed to go look at it today, except snow happened. Lots of snow. And it’s bad here in the metro area, so I can only imagine what it’s like on the back roads . . .

Rather than wait, and lose out again, we, um, put in an offer last night. Sight unseen. Are we nuts?? Wait, don’t answer that yet!

See, the new place is 35 acres; it has a barn, a clean barn, with steel trusses. An old house, not worth much at all, which is by the country road with the barn. The drive goes back between them to the house—smack in the middle of the property, in the woods.

The house is 900 square feet, with one big bedroom, a bath, and a kitchen/living area. We can work with this. Even has a dishwasher, which I wasn’t planning on.

There IS some clean-up work to do—the elderly gentleman who just moved out has a lot of stuff—NOT hoarder-stuff, just stuff. He may have an auction; he may not. Doesn’t matter to us, either way.

Everything works, everything is clean. The property is a little farther out than I wanted, but in my husband’s mind, since it has a pond that evens things out. Still trying to make sense of that!

He said his first thing to do is call the conservation department and get the pond stocked.

*I* said his first thing to do was move the light fixture over the kitchen sink—it’s about 8 inches off!

 

 

Fan Friday—What Do I Do All Day?


Well, first I get up. I mean, doesn’t everyone? Then I get coffee. Again, doesn’t everyone? And then I work—my job, business, whatever you want to call it. All the promo, answering emails, checking my calendar. Oh, and social media and reading the news. Usually I eat breakfast: two slices of bacon.

And take my drugs. Legal ones, that is. Blood pressure meds, because the doc insisted; I did talk him down from 40mg to 20mg. I don’t take everything at once. I’m weird. I space them out. The thought of all of them rolling around in my stomach at once makes me feel a little icky.

And of course, by now, I’ve had a second and maybe a third cup of coffee. Well, my husband doesn’t call the stuff I drink “coffee.” It’s that instant orange cappuccino. Love it. Get crabby without it.

Snack time: homemade granola. In case fish oil—blech— doesn’t bring down my cholesterol. In the summer, I might substitute a smoothie. Not one of those gross “throw all the green crap in the blender” smoothies, but one made with fruit and low-fat frozen yogurt. See, I’m not a complete heathen.

At some point, and I shoot for 9:00 but it doesn’t always happen, I shower and dress. Usually sweats, unless I’m going somewhere, but still. It counts. Oh, if I’m going somewhere? Jeans and boots. I have a reputation, you know.

I do aerobics throughout the day (often while waiting for coffee) and stretches and some special exercises for the parts that are getting creaky. I take a walk as long as the temp is above 32 and I play soccer with the puppy outside. I also walk to the mailbox.

The rest of the my morning is spent answering more emails, messages, filling orders, and editing/formatting. In between, I jump up and do the dishes, make the bed, clean a little, pick up cat and dog messes, etc.

Glamorous and exciting, no? “No” is indeed the correct answer here.

After lunch (leftovers), I often take a nap. I’ve already put in about 6 hours at this point, and I don’t really sleep well at night. I thought I was just being a lazy bum until I tracked my sleep time for a month. Turns out that I get 7 1/2 hours of sleep each day—WITH a nap! Yay, justification!

From 2:00 or 2:30, I drink more coffee, take care of family and household stuff, and then I work some more. I finally, finally got to the point where I try to shut it down by 6:00 p.m. After dinner, we mostly just watch TV, unless I have an event or something. Movies. The fewer rating stars, the better!

During that, I’m usually on the phone, finishing up a few things or texting for a bit. Not much of a bit. Texting tends to annoy me unless it’s a quick note. I do NOT like texting conversations—just call me already!

So that’s the long, extended, boring version of my workdays. Six days a week. The only variation is if I have an errand or two to run, an appointment of some sort, or just feel like doing something different.

I’d like to say, “And on the seventh day, she rested,” but that wouldn’t be strictly true. I try to do “nothing,” but somehow all the daily tasks still fall to me. And while I do write during the week, a couple days at least, Sunday is my blogging day, the day I Google myself to make sure there’s nothing, er, embarrassing out there, and the day we often drive out and look for our future property.

Gee, I sound like an old fogey—Sunday drives! And now that I write it all down, my life does sound extremely dull. So let’s think for a moment. What else do I like to do?

I like to dance. Once in a while, we put on music and pour the wine and dance in the living room. Good luck getting my husband to actually go anywhere to do this. Of course, we’re better at it if we’re drinking, like everyone, right? Unless it’s ballroom—yes, we do ballroom dancing. We took lessons a while back, for a solid year. Our instructor was 90 years old—he could dance circles around me!

I also play the guitar and the organ and do leather crafting. And I garden; well, not right now, but soon! I do a lot of cooking—from scratch—love to cook. I bake and I can or dehydrate the stuff I grow.

Oh, yes, of course I read—I have over 1,000 books, even if the majority of my reading these days consists of manuscripts. But I read books sometimes 2-3 times, and I never, ever give them away.

And I shoot. I can hit the target too. Generally in the center.

We camp often, March through October at least. I like to try to make “regular stuff” over the fire, especially in cast iron. And yes, we camp in a tent. We have firebuckets and a handwashing station—good ol’ Girl Scout training. We hike and sit around the fire and sometimes play our “special” version of a parachute game . . .

So, what do YOU like to do? How do you spend your days?