Monday, January 30, 2017

A Broken Record

I know, I know, over the past 6 months I sound like a broken record. That means this house selling stuff is still consuming the majority of our time. We have had the inspections and as expected there were a few items to be addressed. This has meant meeting various repairmen for estimates, repairs, etc., as well as working on things ourselves. This has also meant more paperwork and negotiations.

We saw this on our drive to the funeral. It had both military and police escorts.
What do you think it is?
In addition, we're finally working on cleaning up and moving our outside stuff from the shed and yard. Thankfully, Ward is taking the lead on this as it's cold out there and I don't do very well in the cold.

But the end is in sight. We have a closing date!! And I have scheduled the movers for the second part of our move. With the end in sight, my mind is starting to wander to the new house and how we might arrange the influx of furniture and some decorating ideas. As well as, some of the repairs and work our new house needs. It's nice to have a little extra mental energy to entertain these thoughts.

The only distraction from the all-house-all-the-time was a trip out of town for a couple of days to attend a family funeral. Although it was a sad occasion, it was good to reconnect with family.

So there it is. Another exciting week in my land of repairs and contracts. Until next time...

Note: If there are any young people out there reading this, I realize that you may not have the context to understand the broken record comment. Ask your parents about it. They will know exactly what I'm talking about.


16 comments:

  1. So many expressions that people might know and use without understanding where it came from... I read an article a few months back, detailing some of them, similar to this one: http://mentalfloss.com/article/64669/15-common-expressions-younger-generations-wont-understand

    It sounds like you're making a lot of progress on your house-related projects, congratulations! It's nice to see a light at the end of the tunnel, I'll bet.

    Condolences on your family's loss. I think there is a military drone under that tarp.

    Have a great week!

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    1. I'll have to check that Mental Floss article out. It sounds really interesting.

      I am very happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am so ready to be over this transition.

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  2. I am so sorry for your loss. May your family find peace as you grieve.

    As for the photo, it's a flying saucer, for sure. We've been invaded and it's only days until all of our minds have been reprogrammed for the Martians agenda. Okay, so maybe it's just a military drone, like Nathalie said. But I'd sure like the opportunity to visit another planet.

    Your house selling stuff is almost done. It takes lots of little steps to get there. But you're so close to the finish line, now. You and Ward should plan a weekend, when you don't do anything related to house-moving/selling, but just do all of the things you two enjoy, like visit a museum, take a hike, have a living room picnic.

    Have a great day, live and learn!

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    1. When we first drove up, we all thought it looked like a flying saucer. According to the employees there, the "government" contacted them ahead of time and told them when they would be there and what part of the parking lot to block off. That added to the mystery and the fun game we were playing to try to figure out what it was and where it was going.

      We definitely need a weekend with no house activities. We still have a few weeks to go, but you have a great idea to do something just for fun. I do know that I've been thinking about a vacation. Between Ward's illness and this house stuff, it's been a long year and I'm ready to get away. It also doesn't hurt that we have a lot of airline miles on our credit card that could get us a lot of places. One of the small benefits of this very expensive year we've had.

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  3. I am so sorry for your loss of a family member.
    Congratulations on seeing an end to the selling, moving and moving part 2. Now you can get about the business of making the new home truly home!
    And I am laughing about explaining the broken record reference!

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    1. I was in the middle of the post when I thought that the youngsters out there might not know what the expression means or at least where it came from. I would think so, but you never know.

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  4. Sorry about the loss of a loved one. I also have had the experience of the sadness of a funeral but mixed in with that, the enjoyable factor of seeing family together. It's a strange feeling, for sure.

    NO idea on the picture.

    Sadly, I'm old enough to understand "broken record". Glad you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

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    1. My uncle died after a very short illness, so my aunt and cousins were still reeling from it all. My uncle was a simple man and didn't want a service so we had two viewings/visitations. That atmosphere was much more conducive to taking with others. I saw some cousins that I hadn't seen in several years and had more intimate conversations with others than ever happen over Facebook. My uncle would have been happy about that.

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  5. My deepest sympathies on the loss of your uncle. It must have been a shock, but I'm glad you got to reconnect with other members of the family.

    Glad you have a closing date on the house and things are moving forward on that. I'm sure you'll be glad once everything is done and over!

    Some of the expressions we use must sound rather odd to the younger generation! I know I no longer say things like "a quarter past, half past, or a quarter to" the hour, because my daughter will look at me blankly when I do so!

    Oh, that's definitely a flying saucer, under the tarp! It has to be!

    Hope you have a lovely week ahead of you. :)

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    1. I was waiting for little green men to come out. :)

      I miss the quarter past, etc. when telling time. We really don't need to know things down to the minute most of the time.

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  6. That's funny, didn't even stop to think younger people might not understand the broken record reference. What do I think that is, in the photo? Of course, its a UFO headed to Area 51! What else? The house next door for sale sign is now gone. I think new neighbor move in is imminent. Have no clue who bought it.

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    1. I'm interested to see who your new neighbors are, but I bet not as interested as you.

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  7. June - Wait, chances are they will know what "broken record" means. Vinyl record sales are back up again. Go into a B&N that has music and movies - lots of vinyl records. http://fortune.com/2016/04/16/vinyl-sales-record-store-day/

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    1. I knew that vinyl was back, but I thought it was us buying them for nostalgia. But that shows you how out of it I am. I just asked Theo, who does not own any vinyl if he knew what it meant and he almost got it. He knew the meaning of the expression but thought the record player was broken instead of the record.

      You never know. One day at work we were talking about westerns and we asked the teenagers if they knew what western meant. Separately, they both said, "In what context?" I later asked Wally and Theo the same question thinking they surely knew what a western was, and they both said, "In what context?" No one our age asked that question and immediately knew what I was talking about.

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    2. My daughter E has a record player and a bunch of records, plus a few of our holdovers, that she likes to play, but I don't think she has experienced an actual "broken" record; warped maybe. She and her sister J once got a big kick out of a thrift-store "McArthur Park" LP by Dumbledore No. 1. I'll have to ask them about "westerns" but I expect their answers to be worse than from your "boys."

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    3. I just watched Dumbledore singing "MacArthur Park". That was interesting and my entertainment for the night. :)

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