#28 - Aria returns - June 29, 2012

Today, my week is almost over.  I got up early this morning to find the front door locked.  It appears I was the first one up.  I left the house and went to work, cleaned up my email box to the 20s.  I had received an email back from one of the moms in church and knew I had to pick up Aria around noon.

I left the office at 10:40 to go to the house and meet with the seller.  She's a very nice woman, short, maybe 50, very athletic.  We walked through the house, she showed me the moving they were doing.  The Lego area is already clear.  She is leaving the paint that matches, the work tables, and we talked about the furniture she wants to leave.  So I bought her bedroom set for Christian and Libby to use: 2 nightstands, a dresser, an armoire, a hope chest, and a queen bed.  Very nice, and quite large enough for 2 kids to split it.

I also bought a round kitchen table she had, with tablecloth and chairs, as well as an automatic pool vacuum. I offered to help in the evenings, she wasn't clear if she would want that or not.  We'll keep in touch.  I explained the oil tank thing having to be removed from contract and offered to pay her right now.  She said no, later would be fine.  She did want the furniture paid for, so she could pay someone to help her move out.  So I wrote her a check and left.  She's reasonable in person.  Less so on the phone.

Then I went to Whaley lake to pick up Aria.  She had had a great week.  We got in Gortja and she talked for half an hour straight.  It was excellent.  I love it when my kids are happy.  We stopped at a pizza place for lunch, then I took her to the office so I could finish my workday.

We left just after 4, stopped by the storage unit to drop off everything we could - Tim's bike, camping gear, a box of food.  Then we went to the train station to see our train pulling out as we pulled in.  A quick check of the schedule, however showed that an odd train was coming.  Trains are usually every hour, but another train was coming in 20 minutes.  So we finished parking, walked down the hill, paid for parking, bought our tickets, and waited for 10 minutes.  There was plenty of room on the train filled with Yankee fans. Must be a Yankee game tonight.

Hundreds and hundreds of people in blue shirts.  I've never seen anything like it.  And they all got off at 125th St, and the train was empty.  When we got to Grand Central, we talked about dinner.  Aria was okay with a pretzel and ice cream, so we set off to find both.  The pretzel was easy, but the cart was a charcoal grill cart.  Aria said the pretzel tasted like ash, so she tossed it.  We continued on our search for a MrSoftee by walking uptown on Madison Avenue.  In a few blocks we found a frozen yogurt cart.  He only sold vanilla and plain, but you can get fruit topping on it for free.  Aria got blueberries, I got blueberries and strawberries.

I have pictures of this, but I don't have an easy way to get them on this computer right now.  They'll show up when I get back home.

We were thirsty, and asked several places for a drinking fountain.  No luck.  We wandered into Trump Tower, though, and there was a bathroom.  So we took a break, filled our water bottles in the sink, and went on our way.  We found the subway stop at 60th and Park Ave, and had an uneventful rest of the ride to Aki's place.  We ate some dinner, watched Gravity Falls (a new cartoon about some kids in the a cabin in Oregon), and set up for sleeping.

A very nice day.  Sleep for everyone, swimming tomorrow!

#27 - The saga continues - June 28, 2012

Today I finalized the last pieces of our loan paperwork.  Homeowner's insurance, motorhome documentation, what I thought were the last pieces.  The lender has put someone else in charge of gathering the final pieces of information, and she is not clear on what I need to do.

But I learned that splitting the oil tank cost can't be in the contract.  The underwriter sees that as an additional concession, so it has to be removed.  I called the seller and emailed her.  We agreed to meet at the house at 11am tomorrow to look at furniture that she wants to sell.  I'll ask her about the oil tank funding as well.  We'll have to write her a separate check for it.  No big deal.

Work was nothing special.  I've been able to knock out more long-term things this week as other projects complete or start to propel themselves forward with less effort from me.

For the evening, I got things done - I went to the mall.  I needed a new laptop backpack for about a year.  This week I had the time to buy it, and BestBuy had almost exactly what I wanted.  I shopped for TVs there.    Waiting for TV sales seems silly to me.  If you look at Walmart, Sam's Club, Costco, and BestBuy, one of those places will have a TV that meets your needs at a great price.  It's pretty simple.  BestBuy had the best deal on a 60" that I've seen so far.  I went to JCPenny to pick up a bunch of shirts I ordered a few weeks back.  And I also went to Target to get a laundry bag.  I have all my dirty laundry sitting in a pile on the floor inside the closet now, which is not where it belongs.

I got home to an empty house, went to my room and turned on the AC.  Then I relaxed.  The family was at a friends barbeque.  Some blogging, a couple games of football, some reading.  During my downtime, I heard a little slapping sound.  It didn't stop, and when I investigated, I found that the AC unit was leaking condensation into the room.  I placed my water  cup to catch the drip and got back to my relaxing.  The cup filled in a couple hours.  I didn't want to leave the room.  So I drank the water quickly.  It was the grossest thing I've ever consumed.  It tasted like mold.

I had some stomach queasies that I suspected were mental, put the cup back, and went back to my football game.  Eventually, it was time to sleep.  So I turned off the AC and slept.  It was a hot night, and the AC had done a good job of cooling the room down, but it was still too hot to sleep well.  I tossed and turned a lot.

#26 - life at home, but not mine - June 27, 2012

Work was a normal day.  Tim had breakfast with Jack, and mentioned our housing situation.  So Jack immediately called me and sent me an email inviting us to stay with him.  Really.  The kindness that has poured out on us here is astonishing.

I had received an email from someone at work who wanted to spend some informal time.  So I went over to his place and we talked for 4 hours.  After that I went home.  My colleague and his son were out at baseball practice, so I helped his fiance make enchiladas.  We talked about just about everything.  She's very sweet, smart.  A really great person.

The guys got home eventually.  The enchiladas were excellent.  We sat around the living room and ate and talked until 10:30.  Far later than I thought.  Perfectly relaxing and peaceful.  Really a nice time.

And then I went to sleep, after finding out that my parents had FAXed the paperwork for the motorhome sale.  Another good day.

#25 - Signatures! - June 26, 2012

Today we officially breached the gap that has eluded us for 4 months.  We saw a signed contract.

I got back from work about 2am again, slept for a few hours, worked on packing the hotel.  I took Aria to girls' camp, went back to the hotel, and loaded up Gortja with everything that was ready to go (which went pretty well, actually).  On my way back in to the hotel on one trip, I got a call from my attorney, asking if we would be willing to split the cost of the new oil tank.  I asked Katrina, called her back and we had then met the last condition.  The negotiation was finally done.  About 4pm, the contract came to my inbox, and I forwarded it to our lender.

We had an actual, fully executed contract.  The kind we could use to get the kids in their new schools.  Work was pretty normal - I tried to stay awake and mostly succeeded.  And once work was over, I went to my new place to get settled.

Which is something  I missed when writing yesterday. I saw a month-to-month apartment yesterday morning for a reasonable price, about a mile from the office.  It was a really cool place.  Much more than I wanted to pay, but it was huge and nice.  And the landlady is a sweet Irish woman named Mary.  But at lunch someone from my team at work offered me a room at his place.  It's a small room, but it's in a house, and I wouldn't be alone.  And it would be cheaper, and no contracts or anything.  It was not too hard of a decision.  I went to stay with my colleague.

So after work I went home.  Katrina and the kids had arrived safely in Queens.  I was exhausted and went to sleep.  I slept well.  Lots accomplished, and lots of luck.

#24 - Moving forward with the house - June 25, 2012

This week I am focused on finishing the house purchase.  By Friday, I want there to be nothing else I have to do. 

So today I followed up on some paperwork for the motorhome sale.  Dad hasn't had the time to work up anything yet, so I'm trying to make it easier for them both. 

The thing I'm focused on today is staying awake enough to function and be alive.  I got home from work at about 3am, and slept until 5.  Got up, went to passdown, and came back to the hotel.  We're leaving the hotel tomorrow, and much cleaning and packing needs to be done.  But I was not very functional after 3 nights of almost no sleep, and 2 days of physical activity.  I took the kids down to breakfast, then went to the rental unit to buy some boxes, and got home about 9:30, barely able to hold the boxes up. 

Then I went to work for a few minutes, and Katrina called to ask me to figure out Aria's immunization records.  I was able to figure out a way to get them that day: I walked into the clinic and asked for them.  They asked for her doctor and her name, but that was it.  I could have gotten anybody's shot records.  They never asked for my name or ID.  If it was more important information, I'd expect to be asked to provide some more personal information.  It was a little weird (and stupidly easy) nonetheless.  I got off about 3, picked up Aria and went shopping.  We spent 5 hours together before we were done - Wal-Mart, the dollar store, Shop Rite, and the storage unit.  By the end, she had all of her girls camp stuff put together. 

We got home at 8, and after getting the kids to bed, I tried to sleep from 9-11, but it didn't work.  I didn't drop off at all, I don't think.  And then it was in to work again from midnight-2.

Random pic of the day is for Katrina: this truck was 1 block off Grand Central when I got in on Saturday night.  I was short on time, so I didn't buy one, but it was there!  Tim also mentioned that he thought we were crazy about Mr Softee, but then he saw a truck and understood what we were talking about.

The Mr Softee truck is on the far side of the street in front of Citibank.

#23 - A real workout #2 - June 24, 2012

I woke up this morning a little after sunrise, having slept better than I had in 3 days.  And I was also sore in both my arms, and some areas of my legs.  And I had to move furniture from the 4th floor to a moving truck.  My theme for the day: dig in and get it done.  I don't have to do much more than move a mouse most days, and this weekend was to be 1 huge exception.  Embrace it.  And win the day.  Thanks, Chip Kelley.

We were both up by 8, took showers, took several trips down stairs to get a jump on it.  Tim cooked a "what I have left" egg scramble which was quite tasty, and his phone rang.  It was the mover guy.  He thought the move was supposed to start at 10.  We were planning on 11.  So we got after it, and by 10:45, the guy had showed up and we had started loading.  Tim had planned the day quite well. 

By the time we had finished loading the truck, we were both sweaty and beat.  We all scrunched into the cab of the moving truck and drove to the storage unit.  The storage unit turned out to have its own set of problems.  We were able to fit all of his stuff in it, but the elevator door had a 5-second closing timer, making it extremely difficult to load. 

We finished loading the unit at 12:15.  Then Tim realized he had forgotten his lock at the apartment.  And the office at the place was out of locks.  So he went to get a lock.  At 12:45, we left the place and went to get lunch.  We settled on Janelle's, a Caribbean place.  I got ox tail because I could.  Tim got the curried goat.  And then we were off to pick up the Toyota Tacoma Zip Car.  We went back to Tim's, loaded the rest of his stuff, cleared out all the garbage, and drove to Aki's.  We took the desk back up 3 flights of stairs to her office room, and got back in the truck to return it.

That brown stuff on the left?  Genuine ox tail.  Tasty.
Everything was tasty, actually.

I have rarely been so tired and relaxed. 

We returned the truck, I put on my backpack, and Tim guided his bicycle to Prospect Park.  We sat there in the shade and talked for a few hours.  In a different forum, I need to write about our talks.  Tim is a deep-thinking and caring individual.  He's not perfect, but he really does want to do the right thing, even if it's not the easy thing. 

The park is amazing.  Large open spaces, lots of people having fun, lots of trees.  Evidently, the designers had made Central Park first, and they thought they did a better job on Prospect Park.  There are dirt trails through the trees, old ponds, private places where you won't see another person.  In the middle of Brooklyn.  The park is so large that the entire Borough would have to be there at once for it to be crowded.  Unbelievable. 

At 5, it was time for me to start heading home.  Tim had persuaded me to borrow his bicycle while he was in Oregon (which was easy), and so I adjusted the seat and headed out of the park.  Tim thought I was crazy to ride through downtown and midtown Manhattan because the drivers are crazy.  But that's what makes them so nice.  The ride directions were easy once I got onto Bergen St.  At Court St, there were signs to the Brooklyn Bridge. 

The Manhattan skyline is probably something I'll never get used to.  The middle of the frame there has the mostly-finished World Trade Center tower.  I got other shots that had the Empire State Building, and of course the Statue of Liberty was easy to see.  The bridge is really very scenic. 

Once off the bridge, the streets flow together - Market st, Center Ave, Lafayette Ave, 4th Ave.  Keeping up with the cars is easy because they have to stop all the time and they can rarely go more than the 15mph that I was going.  Passing cars is easy because they are stopped all the time, so I split lanes.  Everyone expects taxis to stop in the middle of the street, they expect people to be parking, and they expect me to go around those cars.  Never had a close call.  Much safer, I think, than riding the country roads in Washington County that I used to ride. 

4th Ave leads right to Grand Central at 42nd Street, and I was there.  10 minutes in Brooklyn, 25 minutes in Manhattan, 5.3 miles.  10mph including stop lights and checking for directions.  Good time.

I grabbed a couple pretzels and a Sunkist for dinner, cooled down on the marble inside the station for a few minutes, and got on my train.  Lots of space for the bike, and I was able to relax on the way home. 

The ride was simple, short, and exhilirating.  I've always loved riding in cities - Osaka, Kobe, Portland, and now New York.  I love riding with the cars, how aware of everything you have to be, trying to flow with the traffic.  It requires complete attention, and I love the zen of doing it.  At the end, I was a little tired, but my legs would have been fine for another 10 miles.  Some hydration and some calories were all I needed to feel good again.

I got back to the hotel, said hi to the kids, took a shower, and headed in to work.  I needed to talk to some people, and night shift was the time to do it.  I got home after midnight.  What a day.

#22 - More camping goodness - June 23

Today I woke up with the sun and promptly tried to go back to my fitful sleep.  It worked for a bit, but I could only put off getting out of the sleeping bag for so long. 

I found the boys awake and over at another brother's fire, roasting marshmallows.  I had told them they could - it wasn't fair to make them wait until a late breakfast.  The rain had given way to sun - my phone told me the forecast was 80 and sunny.  So I set the sleeping bag, rain fly, bed roll, etc, all in places where they could dry, and chatted with the boys.  The campout has a second phase, which is a service project at the campground.  Today's projects were to remove and rebuild the roof of an outbuilding at the camp and to demolish and clean up a huge gazebo.  The men were to do the work with help from the teenage boys, and the younger boys were supposed to play.  So Christian and Jake helped me for a few minutes, and then they went off.

And here I must comment on their maturity and growth.  When the boys are together in a setting where they have to rely on each other, they do really well.  Christian and Jake stayed together, had fun, and were kind.  I didn't have issues with Jake doing crazy things or running off.  He followed directions, and he followed Christian.  And Christian didn't run too fast.  Christian has his moments where he is overwrought about some minor thing, but he is a very sensible, responsible, respectful, helpful person.  He is a genuine pleasure to be around.  I think being with him is what excites me the most about scouting.  We're going to get a lot of stuff done together. 

I worked on the gazebo, hauling large and heavy pieces of wood down a hilll to a huge dumpster and then trudging back up the hill.  My legs were fine, but my arms tired quickly. I sweated up a storm, and when I couldn't safely lift things any more, I cleaned up our camp site.  When I went back to help, the job was largely done. 

The boys had explored the whole place, found where the frogs were hiding, gone swimming, and wanted to get in the canoes.  The lake was amazing.  I got in with my cargo shorts.  The water was warm, there were fish swimming around, and the area is large enough to really stretch out and enjoy.  Plus the bank is sandy, not rocky.  Perfect.  By 1, we had done the canoe thing and the boys were toast.  Jakers went to sleep in the back of Gortja, and Christian and I hung out.  Sometimes together shooting hoops in the gym, sometimes separately with me reading. Eventually the girls showed up without swimsuits.  I took them out on the canoe, and we had a great barbeque.  It was a great experience, but I'll have to write about it separately.

Then I took off and caught the train to Grand Central.  I got to Tim's place about 9:30, we talked until 11 or so, and then I went to sleep.  The morning found me all too soon.

Here are a few pictures of camping.

Jake on Saturday afternoon.  He slept for 4 hours.

Always frogs.  Christian has a knack for finding them.

Whaley Lake, looking South from the dock.  What a perfect day.

The roof on this building was one of the projects.