Bare-ly Here

The PODS left yesterday afternoon, loaded to the gills and with 16 sets of ratchet  straps to hold everything inside in place for... however long. The "kids" watched the process since we told them it would be interesting. Turns out it was even more so for us who saw the empty one arrive.

When it was delivered we were emphatically told that picking it up, being much more heavy then, would put the decorative brick lining on either side of the driveway (which kept it from being the full 12 feet wide they requested - oops) in serious danger of getting crushed as the big wheels rolled over them.

Turns out there is a solution for that. The cradle-thingie that backs up around the PODS container to move it , also known as Podzilla, was widened a bit more this time so it rolled over the yard instead of the decorative border. Then each time one set of post/wheels needed to get closer to the container, the operator lifted it up and over before setting it down again. It was after that  when the fun- the kind that impressed all of us - began. Once the long sides were close to the container, chains were pulled out from the sides at the container's bottom, hooked around horizontal bars in the Podzilla, and once all were in place, the container was lifted straight up. No movement forward, yet. It swung. It was lifted higher and higher and higher, until the truck maneuvered in the street to back up under the container and well between the framework sides of the cradle doing the work.  Podzilla didn't need to move while hoisting it, so no brick damage.

The driver got out, looked around a bit, made sure it was perfectly over his flatbed, and carefully lowered it onto it. Chains were released, then fastened to the underside of his truck to hold the container in place while it traveled. Now lightened of its load, the Podzilla was maneuvered back to fit on to the truck around our container, even with the wheels turned so not be wider than the truck was.

Off they went.

We're dealing with the absence of ... nearly everything, and yet seemingly way too much to fit into the car. Cleaning has commenced, and the first thing I discovered is that the old broom and dustpan got loaded. 

Dang! 

Well, at least we still have the little vacuum I picked up about a week ago. It will never fit in the car with all we'll be packing in it, but my friend who will be coming over Thursday night to clear out the fridge contents that would otherwise spoil has agreed to take that too. Plus about a dozen bottles and sprayers of cleaning supplies. I'm leaving a few as a greeting to the new owners (including a few TP rolls for the bathrooms for all of us) but much of the rest will go home with her. It's not like we stocked up ahead of time on dishwashing liquid or dishwasher powder, or extra toilet bowl cleaner, or rubbing alcohol when covid started, or...  Anyway, none of that, generically labeled "chemicals" can go in the PODS or on the plane back north with the kids. Most of it needs a new home.

Oh well, she's been a great friend, and welcomes whatever we throw her way that's useful. Her cost of living has gone up this year more than her income, so not having to stretch the budget for things you can't eat is received with gratitude.

What we can eat, once the kids are gone and there's no more help cleaning out staples, will get packed into the car. So will changes of clothes, last minute tools, even the kitchen microwave. Of the three we've had since moving down here, Steve and I like this one the best. It was inexpensive, but reliable and easy to use compared to others. The car will also get the bunches of citrus we've been blessed with to take north and share. "fresh off the tree". A couple other presents will get in there, a pillow, some clean rags, a newly opened pack of napkins, bottles of water and Steve's favorite beverage, Brisk. etc. I'm still unreasonably hopeful of having some kind of rear view while driving. Oh, did I forget the folding camping chair I'm sitting in?

The walls and floors are looking pretty bare. Tonight big boxes full of recycling go out, the dumpster will be getting a start on being filled - 12 cubic yards worth - and some last minute pieces of furniture will go onto the driveway to be picked up Friday, once we're done sleeping on them. Rich's friend has promised to pick up all his junk metal to haul off, presumably both because he has the truck for it and gets paid for what can be used or melted down again. The dumpster for us will be delivered today, between 5 AM and 5 PM. They didn't make the 5AM end. Missed 8 AM too so far .It goes away Friday between 5 AM and 5 PM. The way they "roll" it'll be dropped late and picked up early.

As soon as it leaves, so do we. Anything left we can't get into the car or persuade somebody else to take will be put in any of a dozen Hefty bags and left for Monday morning's garbage pickup. Friday night we'll be somewhere down the road. It will depend on whether the dumpster people arrive nearer the AM or PM part of their time slot, so no reservations have been made. 

Yet.

The wi-fi box will be dropped off on our way down the road. We drive right past it. I just hope they're still open if it's more the PM side of the day. Meanwhile I still have it for posting these and researching possible destinations to make reservations at, depending on time we leave. It might be only as far as Kingman. 

But it WILL HAVE BEDS!

Panic Mode

I make no secret among family that I've been getting about 4 hours of sleep a night. No sooner does my head hit the pillow than the brain churn begins.  What got done or didn't? What's the time schedule for each thing? How's everybody else's schedule going? If we pack into the PODS something somebody is sleeping on, then what do they sleep on for the next nights till we head out? Since we need something  to sleep on aside from a concrete floor up through Thursday night, and now the PODS will be gone, what do we do with the bed or chair or whatever before we leave? (I get a folding camp chair just for sitting, the kids get worn chairs which will go to the curb's free pile for two days and if not selected, dumpster.)

Who needs to be called, what do I need to do online before we send the wi-fi box back to the company? How can I make motel reservations for that first night when I don't know when the dumpster will be heading out and we have to be here until it's gone? That means any time between 5 AM and 5 PM. That makes a huge difference in road miles to our next destination.

I contacted Habitat For Humanity since they have a local ReStore and do pickups on furniture... or at least some furniture. They draw the line at lift chairs and that will be Steve's bed his last few nights. Just like mine will be a futon those same nights. They'll take the futon, as well as the couch and the bed that our family helpers currently are sleeping on. It's been Steve's but he hates hates HATES it, and will replace it when we are in our new place. Mattresses of course go in the dumpster, but my bed frame goes north and gets packed out before bedtime tonight so I'll be sleeping on the futon. So Restore gets three pieces of furniture and a local thrift store will take the lift chair. All of this happens Friday, and we're STUCK till the dumpster goes, but not till the furniture goes. It just needs to be on the driveway, even up close to the house, each piece labeled for who is to pick it up. We also need to have made appointments for that to happen that day. 

The thrift store needed a photo of the chair. I initially thought it was to see what kind of condition it was in before they could accept it, so I cleaned it up as well as I could, noted the wet spots were very dark in the photos, so reshot a few hours later, when Steve wasn't in it. I also sent them two, one lying back down, the other up high, just to prove the mechanism worked. Later it occurred to me they just wanted to be able to identify it when they stopped to pick it up. I'll have to call and ask, or drop by the store this week.

Some time.  When I have some time.

The car wasn't quite ready for a road trip. Friday I made an appointment to bring it in Saturday for a full set of tires and an oil change. The old tires weren't that bald, at least for the Phoenix area around town, no rain, no snow or ice, and never very far from help. But going over 2,000 miles as we visit family on our way, through mountains where snow is still very much a reality, I decided it was time for new ones. It was also a chance for an hour plus of alone time, plus, as it turned out, a nap. There were some comfy chairs in the waiting room.

When they quote you a price on tires, it's just to buy the tires. Then there's installation. balancing, new valve stems, balancing... and the bill goes up. At least in an oil change, they actually ask you if you want air filters replaced. Or at least this place did. Places where they just do oil changes usually show you a dirty filter and "suggest" strongly that you buy a new one from them. I love to take the filter, walk over to the nearest waste basket, and whack it a couple times on the rim so the leaves, etc., fall out. Then I smile and hand it back to them to put back in the car. Unless it's really dirty of course.

Everything on my car was finished in about an hour. (Yeah, short nap.) I got in the car, circled the small parking lot and returned to the door. My low tire pressure icon was lit on the dashboard. I heard a bit several times from several people about driving the car twenty miles and it "should go off by itself." 

Say what?  

First, I wasn't planning to drive twenty miles for a few days, and by the time I was, my schedule was too jammed to come back halfway across town just for a sensor light or whatever was causing it to trip. A woman employee actually listened to me and went to find one of the men working on tire installations, brought him over, explained my life to him, and he finally agreed to check my car out. Each tire was inspected for its actual pressure, settings were adjusted in the computer, and lo and behold, the light on the dash was out. The actual work took five minutes. They thought I should rely on fate and come back for that only if I was really really sure I needed to? I was sure before I left!

We took a break at the pool in the afternoon. We'd hit that wall where more packing needed to be done before things were ready to go into the PODS for it to be fully loaded. It's still not done, but things are collecting to get done now. However....

I came home exhausted from the pool, had a bite to eat, and went to bed. Or tried to, anyway. The "in bed" part happened, sleep didn't. Wheels started churning about what was left undone, so I got up, found a box, and emptied out the bathroom, sorting what heads north while in storage from what heads north in the car for use on the trip, like medications, toothbrush, hairbrush, etc., some of which is still in use and will hit the suitcases last minute on Friday. Steve looked at me with a question in his eyes, and I explained my usual current explanation for not sleeping: panic mode again.

This time he decided to do something about it, rounding up all the crew, who up to that point thought they were done for the day, and organized packing up the kitchen. Some stuff went back to Rich, some out to the curb under the "FREE" sign, some into boxes until bubble wrap ran out. At that point I pulled clothes out of the closet which were not needed for possibly a few months, and fragile things got wrapped inside them. We may have fewer shorts or long pants or whatever to wear over the months till we have our new home, but we can just do laundry more often. Besides, not all of our clothes will fit into the car anyway, along with everything else that MUST go up with us. 

It turns out I pulled out too many clothes for what was needed in the kitchen, so the excess will get their own box(es) packed as well, just as soon as everybody is awake and I can enter all the bedrooms to empty closets. Hangers take up way more space than clothes do without then included, or clothes make hangers take up way more space then necessary. Time to separate them. The basically useless hangers went out to the FREE pile, clothes were folded and filled up the clothes hampers first while there was room, then more will fill boxes later. Empty hangers, I found out, fill pillowcases just fine, and two full pillowcases fill a garbage bag just fine so everything stays organized. So far that's three garbage bags of them, but with closets yet to empty. There will be some queen sheet sets with no matching pillowcases, but then I'm downsizing my bed up north to a full, and after laundering the sheets from all their travel grime as they get used for furniture scratch protectors or space fillers, they'll be given away.

This morning things are calmer, though 6 hours of sleep seems to be my current version of a full night. Looking at the jumble of what was produced last night started me off in reorganizing some of it this morning. A few things needed to stay here to go in the car. Others needed their boxes filled. While I was busy it was time to empty all the wastebaskets into one garbage bag hanging from a kitchen drawer so the scattered waste baskets can be packed to go north themselves. 

Last night the "kids" were in their own quandary, trying to figure out how to make enough room to get everything into the PODS today in its final packing. I settled them down with an explanation of what didn't go, like two mattresses (dumpster), a futon, the bed they were sleeping on, the sofa and the lift chair (pick ups scheduled), and much of the pantry which would go into the car the way we usually travel, though the car stack would be significantly higher this last trip, and only in part because we had no dogs this time.

Monday will be more cleaning, Tuesday even more cleaning, plus painting and getting Rich's junk out into the dumpster while very able bodies were still around to help. Wednesday will be their trip back to the airport, and just three of us will be left for the final touches. Rich has a place to stay for a week (paying rent) and is supposed to have another person locating a storage unit for his stuff. I can't pack up the car till Friday morning because it might be needed for transporting his things... IF the friend comes through with locating a storage unit in time. It's been a week now and no word yet. No communication at all. I asked if I could help make calls, several times as the days passed, and each time he said it was being taken care of.

Really? 

He also has a friend in the junk business who has offered to take away all the metal trash for free. Just one stop, however, after all is gathered up in one place.

I have a friend coming over Friday night with her huge vehicle to take refrigerator items which would otherwise have to be tossed out, like margarine, uneaten frozen meals, etc. Since we can't take chemicals in the PODS, and there won't be room in the car, she will get a mess of cleaners in various quantities, etc., plus some fresh lemons and grapefruits from the neighbor's trees.

In a bit the kids will be back from wherever they took the car to, and they'll have to kick out all the things in the room they're using so Steve's stuff can get its final sort / pack.

And tonight we no longer have the TV for relaxation. It goes in the PODS. Steve's son is a Tetris King when it comes to organizing the PODS and while we're leaving it till nearly the last minute, it needs to be in a good location and not fighting for space with, say, Steve's lumpy scooter which a bad bump would propel through the screen despite protecting it

And I have been up for 6 hours already and need a break. 

From everything!

Losing My Good Will For Goodwill

I grew up  believing Goodwill Industries was one of the best companies on the planet. Or at least in this country. They took our gently used castoffs, hired people who really needed a job, hard to hire because of being underrated and unappreciated, and sold us things at reduced prices. If we shopped there we helped employ their people, and could feel good about doing a good thing for those less fortunate than we were. When my Mom needed a walker for a few months, they loaned her one, and didn't say a word when it was returned a month late. 

Recently I hears somebody talking about how the company wasn't doing such a good thing any more. Less hiring the handicapped, more profit oriented. I never pursued it, and have no clue if it's true or not. I reflected on how much we donated to them in the early years after moving down to Arizona, deciding even in the worst case I didn't regret supporting them, as opposed to holding garage sales trying to sell what I was giving away instead. One fairly short drive and two minutes to drop off as opposed to days of preparation and a day or two of sitting hoping to find people who wanted our stuff. Why change?

I did find thrift shops less than a mile from home, and for only that reason changed my donation habits, as well as thrift shopping habits. But cleaning out a house requires more than filling the back of the car, so there were also garage sales, spaced out over a few months. Donations were made after each of them, the even more lazy kind of putting things out at the curb with a "FREE" sign and watching them disappear. But that still didn't get rid of enough stuff. 

Now we're loading a PODS, into our second day. Packing is still ongoing, and the more we pack the less we're motivated to keep, even though younger family members are doing the heavy work. Steve and I look at each other, and decide something really wasn't necessary to keep. Curbside it goes. 

But there was a lot of stuff still that nobody wanted, so once again the car was loaded up and and I drove across town. We were running out of time and the local thrift shops weren't taking in donations this particular day. Goodwill it was then. But we were also running low on boxes. Much of what I was taking, like a lamp or glass plates, needed a box for in the car to prevent breakage. I determined to ask for the boxes back, even offered to take extras if they had some, as opposed to their having to send boxes to the dumpster and deal with people scrounging after hours, often leaving huge messes behind.

I was second in line when I pulled into Goodwill early this morning. As I came up to the door I got out and explained my need to have my boxes back. He didn't care. Pulling the next wheeled bin out from inside, he took each box, dumped it unceremoniously into the bin and handed me the box. I tried to pull individual items out and set them in with a bit of care, but he wasn't having any of  that. Reach, dump, hand back an empty box. Repeat.The final box had the fragile lamp in it. I looked at the mess and just told him he could keep this box. Since the stack in the bin reached the top, he set that box across the top of everything. For the moment at least, the lamp survived.

I drove away wondering how much of what was under the lamp had survived. He obviously didn't care a bit. Since I got there just after they opened, it couldn't have been a long tiring day for him, or any other excuse I could think of for that treatment. It brought to mind the complaint I'd heard but ignored about how the company had changed. To be fair, this was one person in one part of their day. But my experience did nothing to encourage me to donate to them again.

I may rethink that next time I have to move. Or maybe somebody else will be packing up all my things then because I'll no longer be around to care and nothing will matter about where extra stuff goes or how it's treated. If we land where I hope to up north, a whole different system of thrift stores is in about every other town anyway, with the nearest Goodwill, unless major changes have happened, over 40 miles away. But just every once in a while, I'll be wondering just what they're up to these days and how much of anybody's good will they are earning.

Chasing Moving Targets

Sorry for the cliche. But cliches become such because of how apt they are for so many people in so many situations. It's been much of my last week, and in several ways, many of them totally discouraging.

Our realtor wants the house empty before she shows it. We thought we'd like to stay here a few more weeks, but now we'll be out by the 3rd of March. So obviously I had to get busy. Not just that, but do it juggling everybody else's schedules, including, finally (so far anyway, we're not done yet) the fact that Monday was a holiday and places were closed.

Much didn't need adjusting. Plane tickets are purchased for a couple family members to come down for a week to help finish packing, loading, and cleaning. But with  the new hurry-hurry, plans just made had to  - or still have to due to the holiday - be remade.  Some of that is also misunderstandings.

We get a week of usage with having a dumpster brought in. I'd initially figured we could keep the PODS in the driveway a few more days than how it turned out before it has to go away to make room for the dumpster. There's only one driveway here, after all. They can't go side-by-side. So I wound up calling the PODS people back the day after telling them which day to haul it out, to have them haul it out two days earlier, since they are closed on Tuesdays. (Who does that?)  So two fewer days to load it, two fewer days to use certain pieces of furniture - like my recliner and bed. It might have been only one day difference but the company down here handling them is closed on Tuesdays. I would have been happy with having it pulled out Wednesday,  giving us a full week to leisurely load it, while taking the most advantage of our helpers. But the dumpster then could only have come on Thursday, and would have only gotten one day for loading. Well, maybe half a day since they can drop it as late as 5 PM, pick it up as early as 5 AM.

But we were paying for a week, right? So getting it for under one day? In addition, we would have to be responsible for any and everything that happened to that dumpster or was put into it with the possibility of very hefty fines. The dumpster has to come out Friday or sit in the driveway until Monday. We wouldn't be here to watch over it if we left Saturday so the house would be empty the 3rd. I wasn't going to accept responsibility without any control over what happened in my yard. So it has to be picked up Friday, the 1st. Perhaps as little as 12 hours to load a 12 cubic foot dumpster? Just Rich on his own, no help? Not gonna happen.

But if the PODS leaves next Monday, the dumpster could arrive Tuesday, the "kids" wouldn't fly back out until later Wednesday, so they could be a big help with loading it, in addition to cleaning, painting, and repairs in the mostly emptied house, leaving still one more day for the last crap to go into the dumpster.

Now the PODS leaving that early changed a bunch of other things. Start with beds. Who sleeps where? What goes north, what stays here to be used until we leave? If no bed is here, who sleeps on the floor? Not us geezers, certainly! Steve can sleep in his lift chair... if it isn't packed and gone in the PODS. Same with me in my chair. But I want my chair packed. I could manage a mattress, perhaps, on the floor because the mattress goes into the dumpster Friday anyway. (I want a different one, changing my storage bed from a queen to a double, easy enough to do with how the bed is put together.) Steve doesn't want the frame for his storage bed, so he can sleep on it after the "kids" leave, then put his mattress in the dumpster very early Friday morning and set the frame curbside to be taken away. But his lift chair won't have gone away in the PODS, so it will have to get curbside also with a pickup arranged for over the weekend also... IF we can! I need to make a phone call. Maybe more.

So deciding my recliner will have gone in the PODS Monday, so I will have a regular chair for the rest of the week, if one can call a steel frame and canvas folding camping chair a "regular" chair. It will at most be something to sit in. Because the sofa and futon and rolling chairs will be also out of the house. The folding chair will travel in the car. It has in the past so I know it fits, but what I don't know is what else has to be sacrificed to make room for it. Clothing? Food? Rear view visibility? At least this time we're not making room for any canine friends so more can be packed in that space.

Anyway, all these things to coordinate, as information filtered in after making other plans, meant more phone calls needed to be made and schedules changed. Depending on when the last things go away, we are even discussing spending a night or two locally in a motel, just to have a bed to sleep on which both of us can get in/out of. I know, $$$ ouch. A friend suggested that Habitat for Humanity, in the form of The Restore, would arrange to pick up furniture set at the curb for them. Maybe even on weekends! I'll have to call to confirm when things open.

That's just one kind of moving target(s). After getting the March 3 clearing out deadline from the realtor (so we can start selling on our schedule, remember) I started calling utilities and services to cancel as of March 4. We can put the last garbage out for final pickup that morning, whether we're here or not, for example. I called the water company to get that shut off, the gas company for a final reading and hard shut off. Our last recycle day will be the 4th Wednesday, and whatever is left after that will go out in the garbage for the 4th's final pick-up. Little stuff still usable but unwanted and unsold will go to thrift stores, which have different drop off days, so one or more is always accepting stuff on weekdays.

I sent an email to our realtor about the progress I was making, partly to reassure her we'd be out as scheduled so she could start work on the listing with confidence of having showings.

She almost freaked out! I got a very prompt email reply, sent before she even finished reading all my email. Turns out I can't shut off the utilities just because the house is empty. So long as it's for sale and until a final inspection is held, they must be functioning! Electricity, water, gas, all have to stay on. So I still have to pay for them. I can't shut down the power at the breaker box. So I have to call those companies back and admit being a fool, canceling the shut-offs. Yes, I can stop garbage and recycling, and we can (will!!!) let the wi-fi go back to the owner. Steve pays that particular bill so we found out how to do that - just still waiting for the address for a drop off. We can and will turn off the lights, keep the water heater on low, and I have finally secured our realtor's blessing to turn off the thermostat inside so long as power is still on. It can be turned on/off, switched to AC and heat, just to prove it works. She promised to check to make sure nobody left the furnace turned on or the AC turned way down. March and April are mild climate season anyway, so no frozen pipes to worry about, etc. All those things have to stay on while the house is still for sale, both for the people walking through so they can make sure all works as it should, but also for final inspection. Somebody apparently made it a law, even down here in we-don't-need-no-damn-stinkin-laws Arizona.

Our satellite TV company had the best news. We are to pack our DVR and move it with us. They will suspend our account for up to 9 months, giving us time to settle in to a new address, and we don't pay for it. As soon as we find a location and set up, they'll service it there and make sure our box sends the right signals to the right places so we can watch the same things we watch now. Our contract starts up again after 9 months even if we have no place to set it up, and we finish out our two (contracted)  years, or go longer if we choose. You know, if the competing company doesn't have a better offer by then.

Work on house repairs haven't exactly followed the original plan either. I'd called an electrician our realtor recommended. The carport outside light with motion sensor finally works again, thanks to his visit. Rich had made enough (unrequested) alterations to the original that nothing worked. As a result he ran an extension cord out under the door to power a different set-up. It also let bugs and outside temperature in, and kept the door from solidly locking most of the time since the weatherstripping resisted making room for that sturdy cord. Objects "mysteriously" disappeared from that room on a fairly regular basis. Today the cord is gone, the door locks, and best of all, the light fixture works, including the motion sensor! It just wasn't the electrician I'd called last week who came and did it.

I called the number given by our realtor as a referral, and the man who answered agreed that it was his name and he'd be out Monday morning at 8 AM, the same time, incidentally, as our bathroom restoration people, now already set up and making incredible noise. I needed to run an errand which would enable me to do more packing. By a bit after 9, he hadn't showed, so I called asking for his ETA so I could plan my timing.

He'd never heard of me! His name was different, but he had heard from my realtor that I was having him do the job and was hoping I would follow through. When could he come over? We agreed he would come right over, I'd run my errand, my two guys would point out what/where he was needed for, and I'd be back to pay him. I left wondering whether I'd have two electricians here when I returned, fighting over the job, or whether I'd been punked. Or if he had. Anyway the work was great, the price reasonable, and I still had a single check in my check pad to pay him with. (He didn't take credit cards, but Venmo??? LOL  Cash? OK then, a check.) Anyway, the rest of my checks are packed, so it's actual cash, credit card, or online bill paying from now on. Once north, and an address to use, I can get new checks which I'll need anyway now that my credit union merged and has a new name.  FYI the first check written on that check pad was in '20! Long time in use, eh?

The bathroom remodel won't be offering us a shower today as planned. We'll have to wait till Thursday, early morning. It seems that four of their customers have their shower doors on back order. Good news is all else will be functioning, the toilet is seated properly again  - already! -and water back on till the next bit of plumbing. The shower enclosure is gorgeous! And the slight delay actually gives the shower adhesives more time to dry and strengthen. They can pick up the doors at 5:30 AM and be here by 6, when I assured him we'd be up and moving, before they hit their next job just a few blocks away. We still will have the other shower functioning, so it's just a matter of scheduling who gets it when. With two toilets working again, we can figure it out even with 5 people for a week.

Richard is enjoying his budget from the moving sale. He has a place to go to for a week at least, once we're gone, funds to rent storage for a few months so he doesn't have to lose all his belongings, or at least not right away.

And even with all the rescheduling of plans, one thing was done well for timing. Steve and I changed our addresses to start on the 2nd. We might be here or have left late on the first. But the mail will be heading north. We won't miss any because something came after we left. And after a discussion, Steve and I may even leave Friday the 1st - after mail delivery - to get a head start on our trip out. We plan to stay a couple days with his brother, and the more of that which is on a weekend, the more we'll see of him and the kids who are mostly still in school, than we would on, say, a Monday and Tuesday.

But a  good friend just reminded me of the old saying about when you make plans, God just laughs.

Suddenly... Turbo Speed!

Today was ... OMG! I don't have better words at the moment, after 2 nights of about 2 hours sleep each. The first was my usual under stress. Big "performance" the next day and staying awake to practice what I needed to accomplish so I covered everything I wanted to teach and how I wanted it say it, not to mention taking along samples to illustrate successes and failures. The presentation? Making wind chimes, the fun way. There was a big audience and lots of praise for what was taught. I expect more use of kilns in the club.

Nuff said.

Last night? It starts with prepping for the moving sale, three days worth. Little got done over night, despite Rich's assurances. He fell asleep. I didn't much. I have already packed my 'white noise machine", aka hepa filter by the bed, so now I can hear what's going on in the rest of the house. The TV was on. Deciding I might as well be useful, I packed another box, vacuumed in the library after brushing and scraping termite tunnels they used to get to the books to munch on, and did a bit of painting the mostly bare bookshelves where wood boards painted without primer first (not my decision!) now showed yellow knotholes and tracks where books lifted off after sitting for 12 years took slivers of paint with them leaving brown stripes. Since I was spray painting, this required opening a couple of windows and flipping on an exhaust fan. I was still tired, but not sleepy, something that wasn't helpful whatsoever.

I woke up Rich, after a short discussion with Steve as to whether we should put off the sale another day or get busy hauling stuff out and just start the sale hours late. The few hours idea won, I woke Rich, and now energized he dove in to organizing and moving merchandise. I started hauling out "pretties" which needed a table braced against a sturdy wall so things wouldn't wobble and break. Boxes worth. More boxes. Other items overlooked and discovered later. 

Steve had decided to grab a nap while we were getting things ready, and I woke him just before Rich loaded the sale signs in the car and I drove him around the neighborhood to place them. It's been cold here for our usual winters, and our sale was likely the first of the season to take advantage of a snowbird customer base and warm weather. It went gangbusters! In fact, we've been "closed down" for two hours and the customers are still coming and buying! The sign is down, the car in the driveway, but on they come. 

That's not a complaint. I'm just tired and my feet ache.

One of the first morning customers came up to the car while we were loading the signs in it. He offered to buy the house today. No questions asked. Doing my best to be polite while we were getting delayed from doing our sign duty, I pled exhaustion as a reason I wasn't up to making that kind of a decision right then.

My real reason was I had arranged a realtor to come out to the house, tour it, and sit down with me to sign the contracts hiring her. We've been emailing for a couple weeks now. With my father being a realtor for many years, I have a great respect for the job they do and all the pitfalls, economic and legal, they can keep us out of. Me and some random nobody? Not a temptation. Besides, this realtor had been highly recommended by our new next door neighbor.

Now that I've sat down with her, filled out a bazillion forms in exquisite detail listing all the things we did to this house to fix and repair things, plus the when and who of them all, I was even more impressed. Luckily I had been keeping track of what and when, as well as most of the whys. Photos helped, since my cameras put in the metadata giving dates. Holly was impressed at how prepared I was.

Holly had some very firm opinions, aka answers to my questions, about what to spend or not spend more money on in order to get the best price for the house. For example, we have three rooms with painted concrete floors and area rugs. Dogs and shoes have worn some of the paint in places. She said do not repaint the floors. Let the new buyer decided what they want to do: paint, carpet, tile, etc. She suggested I not do the bathroom remodel until she heard first that it was starting Monday and was half paid for, and second it included repairs to make the room functional again. We discussed the gas fireplace in the lanai. It has not been used since we bought the house, except by the gas company each year we return when they turn on the gas to check everything lights properly and won't explode. It has been "yellow tagged" to prohibit use for the last few years since something somewhere is plugged up. Holly again advised we let the new owner decide. But an exterior light needs wiring replaced now that the old wiring doesn't quite reach far enough to  connect. She recommended two different choices in the area to fit that. 

We covered leases and contracts, what is assumable by the new owner - or not if they so decide - and she got all the information on those things. For example, the solar panels are on a lease agreement, not an outright purchase. The termite treatment has an annual contract to reinspect and spray if necessary, also assumable. The satellite company, same thing. Services are available, new owner can decide.

She knows we have family coming to assist loading up everything, or nearly everything. There will be more cleaning, reassembling things taken apart to fix, and all the other last minute things with a move. Steve and I just called our doctor's office to cancel late March appointments and find out how to transfer medical info to new docs we don't even know yet, and he'll have to change insurance since his is an AZ only plan, along with who knows what all else. We'll be here after they leave for a few days, with Rich to help load the last bed and chairs for example. There'll be other  last minute stuff like hiring a dumpster, final cleaning and packing, etc. Here's where she made the most strongly worded request, a demand (for our sakes) if you will. Houses sell better when empty. Since we have a place to go, likely with several stops on the way, we should get out of here before it goes on the market. Period. She set a date for the house to be empty, and she does mean EMPTY! As she put it, everything goes in one of three places: packed to go north, either sold or to a thrift store, and when neither of those work, into a dumpster. We need to be out of here on March 3rd!

So let me repeat: OMG!

By the way, just while writing this, four more shoppers stopped to shop our sale. $20 here, $15 there. The sun is setting, Steve is napping in his chair, I'm thinking about some food as well as organizing the last of the last things to be done and in what order. At least the chore of buying ratchet straps got done yesterday while running another errand, so I don't have to repeat that. Not painting floors takes that several days off the list. There will be extra food to pack than we planned during our last grocery pickup but perishables have a recipient. But I have to squeeze an oil change and new tires into the next couple weeks, and... and... and...

I need a nap!

Ticking More Boxes

Time is running short, a pressure than never leaves these days. Covid didn't help. Recent rains didn't help set up a sale. So we're playing catch-up.

A PODS has been ordered, with the surprising discovery that the one over twice the size of the small one isn't twice the cost. Not even close.  Originally I wanted the medium sized container but they only have those for local moving and/or storage. It's either 8' x 8' x 6' of space, or 8' x 8' x 16'. Our first thought was go little, sell off furniture and restock once north from thrift stores, or in Steve's case, get a quality storage bed new at the height he wants and delivered to wherever we wind up living. (Our two recliners, his a lift chair, and his scooter were never in doubt for going.) But PODS's version of little and my version of adequate while little do not match. So we'll keep most of the furniture, sell a few pieces, and count on all the younger relatives to assist later. 

That sounds like an excellent excuse for a pizza party, right?

Among the decisions which have changed are keeping the roll top desk, the hutch, the sofa and dining table, our patio table with a glass top, a lawyer's bookcase, and the oak low table made by my late father-in-law (on the Rosa side) back when he was a master carpenter, not yet a high school teacher, constructing it lovingly for his own two rowdy sons to play on. It needs a new finish after 75 years, and can then be handed down to my great grandkids, keeping this heirloom in the family. At least one of those is already rowdy enough to put it to very good use. I hear he destroyed a few TV sets before his parents mounted the latest (we all hope) one high on the wall. We'll leave the washer and dryer here, and all the built-ins, and offer the option of the  queen bed in the master bedroom which fits beautifully in that builtin-in wall-to-wall unit. Of course any queen bed would fit there, and I would happily take mine up north as it easily converts to a full for a smaller new home, while keeping the under-bed storage space. The connectors just become shorter.

There will still be two moving sales, the final one depending on when the house sells. My realtor assures me that it should sell quickly. March is a great month here for snowbirds who wish to return and hate rising rent prices and landlord uncertainties. It is when we bought after all.

There is much left to pack, and needs to be planned in stages. We will be using the microwave up to the end, relying on it so much we might just leave this one behind at the last minute or try to jam it into the car. It can be replaced easily. How many cooking utensils do we leave to the end? So we just give up and go fast food for a couple weeks? I, for one, am used to opening a can of a particular brand of soup with a pop top and eating it straight from the can. Cheap, nutritious, a good variety of flavors, and perfectly acceptable without heating, IMHO. Much good food doesn't need cooking, like dried or fresh fruits, bread and peanut butter, etc. We can get along with paper plates and plastic utensils, both of which I'd rather use than pack our supplies of. 

Once the PODS arrives, we have 30 days to pack it, all decisions being made, and have it removed. That's not a PODS policy. That's Sun City's. So we put it in the 21st, and have it taken away to storage March 21st at the latest.

Then there are the club deadlines. I have glass projects to finish, and am actually getting to the place where the end is in sight. Stuff can be packed. Classes can be taught. I have changed one thing, giving me lots more time and still getting the job done. Instead of 2-day workshops which are exhausting, and limited to two people each, I will hold a couple demos. These are only hands-on for me. I don't have to do a complete set, nor take half an hour to go over safety and basic glass cutting techniques. The people interested will either already have those skills from another glass teacher's class, or get the basic ideas and go take the other class to practice them and then switch to what I'm teaching, which is wind chimes. I dug out samples of chime pieces already made showing variations, and over this weekend took tag ends of glass to make what I didn't have as finished examples to show. Then I cut other pieces in the correct combinations to put together from raw glass to finished chimes. They'll see how to use U-clips, where and what to glue, how to decorate plain chimes in a second firing for one effect, or even in the first and only one for a different effect. Instead of 8 hours, it will take 2, getting done in one day, and since the demo uses no club supplies, it's free. I have even let them know I have no objection to them taking pictures or even video with their phones to help them remember how something is done for when they try it later. (I'd print something out, but the printer and the laptop which works with it are packed. Their box is buried in a stack of boxes somewhere.... )

The best part of that for me is I don't get exhausted by 4 hours each of two days walking all around overseeing my students for technique and safety. Besides price, the best part for them is they get to see what can be done with "known" glass. We started using donated glass to make wind chimes because the pieces mostly are big enough to make two or three of them each. But you can't add frit or stringers or mix colors because only same glass fuses together. Unknown glass is OK for practice but known gives more fun options. Why wait until you make your second or third one to get to play? 

I have a realtor lined up, and she'll be here next Thursday. We've been emailing back and forth, but it's time to sign a contract. I've been taking photos of some of the improvements made to the house, sending her both those and a list of what we've done and when. The photos can be a challenge when everything everywhere is stacks of boxes, painting isn't finished, doors are off, repairs aren't made.... She has recommended a couple electricians, and is impressed by the choice of new countertops in the kitchen. I cleared out the storage cubbies in the master's back wall, selected a few fancy display pieces to put in some for staging, made the bed (!!) and got some shots. I'll be looking the following week to get shots of the bathroom remodel, not just because it will be beautiful, but because I might try to do the same in the new place if it has a tub instead of a walk in shower. No way we'll be moving in until it's accessible! That means a bed Steve can get in/out of, a safe bathroom, and a ramp to the level of the car. In effect, it may mean I go in to a potential place, take all kinds of pictures and 360 degree video, and come back out to show him so a decision can be made.

Visit From The Auction Guy

There was so much stuff we hoped he'd come and take away for an auction. It would save us a lot of work and bring in a bit of money here and there.

He arrived with other ideas, and an SUV to haul away what he thought he could get a really good price on. Limited to what would fit in the back of it of course. There was no extra room in the front since his wife was driving while he waited for eye surgery.

Display cabinet? Nope. Tree Man? Yep, he could sell that and Rich could haul it out to his vehicle. I brought out the gazing globe which sat on its top. Roll top desk? Nobody wants those apparently. Wicker trunk? Wood and glass hutch? Contents? Nope, nope and nope. Not enough profit in them for him. Now if the glass pieces said Tiffany, like Louis Comfort and not Carl... but alas, no. (At least the stuff I make comes with love if not a famous name earned by a huge talent. Oh well.)

Native American pottery? Boy Howdy, you betcha! That was his primary prize. If you call him with something to sell, make sure it's either that or sterling silver, either flatware or jewelry would do. Kachinas have no market these days now that they come in huge numbers from China with plastic instead of leather and feather costumes, and while Steve's were from here, the market was overloaded, thus dead. At the very least they had lost any spiritual significance they might have had. Those got packed up to head north with full protection from their trip as soon as the auction guy's car vanished. Steve knows somebody who'd love them.

I'd had the forsight to print out the original list of my pottery I'd made back when I was collection them, containing pueblo of origin, description of the piece, and any info given at purchase like the artist's name. I had been getting pretty fussy about that as I got into collecting them. He pooh-poohed the list but took it anyway, saying there were experts at the auction company who could tell the pueblo of origin on sight of the design. Since he said  that while holding a Jemez pot done in the Acoma thin-line pattern, I held back a chuckle. I'll let them scratch their heads over the list when it all gets there, as it covers the entire collection and I'm selling off over half and keeping the rest. In Mata Ortiz alone there are two pots in a fish effigy pattern. I kept the one with the bigger fish. Let them figure it out. At least there is only one hummingbird sgraffito pot. I had two in "geometric" design as well, one kept, one gone to auction.

He did take some tea pots and cups, possibly Japanese, one a heavy metal one with a burner under it,the other nearly as heavy with no burner, and a matched pair of cloisonne dragon-design large vases which he said aren't actually cloisonne, "just enamel". They were in the original box, with the original stands. Then he took a wooden "arm dragon" and an antique iron which looked like a heavy pot with a handle, a very flat bottom which held hot coals.

After going over contract details, and making sure a check would head up north in care of my son, with whom we'll be staying until we get settled once the house sells, he started loading. His usual procedure is to roll pottery in packing blankets scattered across the back of his SUV. That means, since they tend to be round, that they are invited to roll free and clunk/crack into other pieces on their trip to the auction house. I offered about a dozen middling small boxes to pack them in plus old folded newspaper to wrap then in to protect them. He said no, his wife disagreed. So she and I had a wonderful chat while I hauled out boxes and newspaper and she wrapped up the pottery and set in boxes to protect it properly. The two of us had a very firm meeting of the minds on that topic, and discussed auctions in general to fill in any conversational gaps.

We all were somewhat disappointed by what was left. The auctions we all had worked at were in a small town and lots of inexpensive things were up for sale. On the other hand, were I selling my collectible pottery up there, there would be no market appreciating it. Looking around, we changed our minds yet again about what to move north and what to (try to) sell off at garage sale prices, mentally dropping the asking prices down to divest ourselves of things we didn't believe we'd have room for in our new smaller abode. We're looking at one less bathroom and one less bedroom, with no spillover room like we have here. Of course we can't actually use it here since Rich moved in, so there's that adjustment already made. We'll also have laundry space we can actually reach without climbing over piles of... whatever it all is. If we arrive north with too much stuff, especially furniture, we can get rid of it up there. I just hesitate to have to pay for a larger space to carry more stuff when we don't think we'll put it to good use.

The real change is not that we'll be getting lots less money, since the auction house will be both paying after we hope to leave town, as well as taking out a bigger chunk than Doug Auctions did from the profits. However there will be live internet bidding, good quality descriptions of the items, and they ship around the world instead of relying on just the locals to show up. But it's not just that. We'll have to be holding more garage sales in the next couple weeks. So... busy busy busy. 

And it's scheduled to rain this weekend. California is sharing their leftovers from the Pineapple Express. It's already sprinkled twice here today! Whoopee! Hard to set out wood furniture along the driveway to attract attention when it won't stay dry.

We do have unqualified good news however. Steve's oldest son and his wife are coming down for a week to help load, clean, paint, etc, so the work thus far delayed can get done. We timed their visit for the day after the second bathroom gets fixed/remodeled. Five people just don't share one bathroom comfortably!