A Great Upheaval

Today we had our annual great upheaval at work. 

Said upheaval doesn't usually affect me.  The last time it did, we ended up with a different group leader.  You know him as Group Leader Fernando. 

Well, this year, said upheaval did affect me.  I'm going back to line 1.  Former Group Leader Rod will now be Group Leader Rod, and Group Leader Fernando will now be Former Group Leader Fernando.

Rod is happy about that.  Fernando, not so much. 

Usually, said upheaval includes all the summer temps being laid off, and today was no exception.  Yes, Cody was laid off.  He's not happy about that.  He'd only had three more weeks anyway, but still...

On the home front,

Get it?  Home front.  Uh, never mind...

I went to the bank yesterday and signed 5739 forms to get my mortgage started.  I still have to get a few papers together to take to them, one of which is the receipt proving that my taxes are up to date on the trailer.  I was looking for said receipt, and found every one from the year I bought this trailer, except for one.  Guess which one?  Right, the one I needed -- this year. 

No big deal.  I just ran up to the tax collector's office and they printed me out another one.  Now, I just need an insurance quote and the cancelled check from my earnest money, and I'll be good to go. 

I've got someone coming out tomorrow to look at the trailer.  Let's hope he decides to buy it.  What with them cutting out the overtime and all, I can't carry two notes.  It's a good sign that he already knows where it is.  He told me his mama lives on the same road -- at the other end, over the railroad tracks and past the cotton fields. 

Now, I reckon I ought to get to bed, so I can tidy up a bit before he gets here. 

Oh, did I mention they cut out all the overtime?  Yeah, it's going to be heaven sleeping in until 5:00! 

Dear CoWorker

I'm not quite sure I understand why you want picture of a teddy in red lace, but who am I to judge your life choices? 

Here you go.

Thank you.

That is all.

I Have A House!

The realtor sent me a text this afternoon.  The seller has accepted my offer!  I have a house!!!

Well, pending all the paperwork, red tape, and hoops I have to jump through, I have a house.  

Some of my Facebook friends and I are already planning my landscaping.  Probably after work tomorrow, I'm going to go into True Value (a hardware store), and get some paint cards, just to see what my options are.

It's going to be slow going, because I have some other debts to pay off first, but I'll eventually make this house my home.

You'll get to go through that journey with me.

I'm so excited!!

Sadness And Happiness

I took Gabriel's little tank down last night before I went to bed.  Every time I walked into the kitchen, I caught myself looking into it to talk to him, like I used to do.

Why talk to a fish?  They can't answer back.

But Gabriel did.  He is the one who insisted upon being named Gabriel.  I was going to call him Fishy, or something equally as witty and clever.  Then when I found out Group Leader Fernando's middle name is Gabriel, and I wanted to change my fish's name, he insisted I not give up on my friend. 

"He's not a bad sort," my Gabriel told me.  "He's just a little lost."

And when I was getting stressed and overwhelmed from house hunting, and wishing I had someone to lean on, it was Gabriel who said, "You have me."

Only now I don't have him any more.  Just a big empty spot where his tank used to be.

The good news is, I found a house!  It's small, but it's in the right area.  Not too far from where I live now.  The sellers are only asking $69 for it, and my realtor says we can probably talk them down to around $65.  The best part is, I just got off the phone with the loan officer at the bank.  They are going to approve my mortgage, even before I sell my trailer house!  I can go ahead and make an offer on it.

Of course, I'm still going to sell my trailer.  I just think it'll be easier to sell with me already moved out of it.  By the way, the person who said she was going to come look at it never showed, so I'm just going to turn the whole thing over to my realtor.  She is coming out tomorrow afternoon to take pictures and have me sign the papers.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting on:  Pictures!!

This is the living room.  It seemed kind of small, but really, it's about the same size as my living room in this house.

It's bigger than this picture shows, but because I don't know how to work a phone, I had my camera set to take square photos. 

This is the kitchen.  Not too fond of the yellow, but painting is easy. I will eventually replace all the cabinets, too. 

The door leads to a very large laundry room.  I will probably have some cabinets or shelves put in there, too. 

This is the dining area.  It has a separate door, so I'm thinking it used to have a wall between it and the kitchen.  That black thing is a wood burning heater.  I'm more than likely going to make this into a little sitting area instead of a dining room.  I'll do all my eating at the bar in the kitchen. 

I can just see myself on cold winter nights spinning or knitting by the fire. 

The main bathroom. 

The master bedroom.  The strange thing about this is that the moment I walked in, I felt like I was back in my Mammaw's house.

I don't know exactly why, but I did.  I think that is what told me I was home.

The half bath in the master bedroom.

All I need is somewhere to pee in the middle of the night. 

This is one of the small bedrooms.  The other one looks just like it, but was being used for storage. 

I actually kind of like the sideways paneling.  It gives it that rustic, log cabin feel. 

I think the previous owners were remodeling it a little at a time.  This room had brand new carpet in it.  It still had that new carpet smell.  The laminate flooring in the living room was brand new, too. 

And this is what really sold me on the house.  This huge back yard.

It's twice as big as any of the other back yards I was looking at.  According to the disclosure, the property extends beyond that back fence.  I'm not sure how far it goes, though. 

The shop on the right comes with it.  I didn't look inside when I was there the first time, but from the outside, it looks pretty big. 

Behind the shop, it had chicken coops.  They still have chickens in them.  I wonder if they will throw them in, too? 

It's close to work, close to church, and far away from the donut shop.  When all the dust settles, the payments will actually be a little lower than what I'm paying for my trailer house. 

I'm really excited about this.  Y'all just pray that everything works out, okay? 

Gabriel

 His little tank looks so forlorn and empty without him.

He was a good little fish.

I will miss him. 

Treasures

Back in the day, my grandma used to knit and crochet.

When I was three, she had a stroke which left her partially paralyzed for the rest of her life.  She tried to keep up with her hand crafting, despite having lost the use of her right hand.  My grandpa made her a block to hold her knitting needles and crochet hooks.  She would hold the yarn in her left hand and manipulate it around the needles or hooks.

Eventually she gave up knitting and stuck with crochet.  I reckon it was easier to do one handed.

I knew I had some of the things she'd made for me around here somewhere.  Yesterday, while cleaning out a corner of my bedroom, I found the box they were in.  There were a lot of my baby things in there, but I only got these out to show you.  My grandma made both of them.

There is this little knit cardigan.  It's nice and soft and squishy. 

And this little crochet dress.

The best part of that is I actually have a picture of me wearing it. 

Finally, this.  I don't know what it is, as I didn't even take it out of the bag. 

It is a work in progress, and I imagine it was something Grandma was working on when she had her stroke. 

As I was sitting here admiring her work, I realized that I am now the age she was when she had her stroke.

Kinda puts a little different perspective on it. 

Baking My Brains

You know it's hot outside when you rejoice that tomorrow's forecasted high has dropped to 98'.  It's been so hot at work that I think my brains have baked.  I was looking down the aisle at this guy doing something.  I don't even know what he was doing, but I was thinking to myself, "I wonder who that is.  He looks a lot like Fernando."

Then I realized it was Fernando.

I think I'm losing my mind.  No comments from the peanut gallery. 

Tuesday, I had to run into town to get some milk and flea stuff for the dogs.  I noticed my Jimmy was running hot.  Indeed, I barely made it home.  I went over to see if James would follow me to the mechanic to drive me back home.  He said, "Let's go look at it first and see what you have going on."

The good news is, it wasn't a leak or a faulty water pump.  My radiator was clogged up.  We flushed it out really well, and put some cleaner stuff into it.  It's doing OK now, but we're going to put two or three cycles of that cleaner stuff through it.  The instructions say drive for three to six hours.  Since I never really go anywhere, that'll take me several days, just to run one cycle.   

I'm hoping and praying that I might have found a buyer for my house.  She went to her bank, and said they are supposed to let her know Monday if they're going to approve her loan.  That they didn't pre-approve her right away kind of concerns me, but I'm hoping for the best.  If this falls through, I think I'm just going to turn the whole mess over to my realtor.  I really would like to get this all over and done with, and I'm trying to take care of it while working a 9 - 10 hour day.  And yes, we're still working 6 days a week.

We went yesterday and looked at one more house.  The realtor just loves the house, but the minute I walked in, I got this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I take that as a pretty good sign that it isn't the house for me.  I think I've found the house I want, though, and am ready to make an offer.  Just as soon as I can find a buyer for mine, and get a letter of intent from his/her bank to start my own mortgage process, I'm going to make an offer on one.

Well, I want to go look at it one more time, and if it still feels like home to me, I'll know it's the one.  I'll keep you posted.

More big news, Wal-mart has stopped carrying my hair gel and leave in treatment, so now I get to order them from Amazon.   I'm already ordering my lactose intolerance suppliments and some vitamins, so might as well.  But hey, they offer free wi-fi in the store now.  Yippee.

The point of all that is to tell you that I am totally geeked out by these POP! figurines, so when I ordered, I tossed the Fourth Doctor into my shopping cart.

Look, he's even got a little sonic screwdriver in his hand.  

"They're screwdrivers.  What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?"  Extra points if you can tell me who said that and in which episode.

These did not come from Amazon.

I was browsing one of my favorite Etsy shops --Treasure Cast-- and found a cloak pin and a broach that I absolutely loved.

Not being a broach wearer, nor having need of a cloak pin, I messaged the shop owner and asked him if there was any chance he could make it into a necklace.  He messaged me back and said that he already has that design in a necklace, and didn't realize he'd neglected to put it into his shop.

A few clicks later and voila!  I have the Celtic Dragon on the left.

The one on the left is a variation of a trinity knot that I've been admiring for some time.  I bought it to, in appreciation for the shop owner being so accommodating. 

Twenty Years

Walter Lee Gunstream, Jr. 

October 23, 1926 - July 14, 1995

Someone who lost a parent recently asked me how long before it stops hurting. 

I said, "Longer than 20 years." 

Music Monday

I haven't done one of these in a while, but I just had to do a Music Monday today, because I have not one, but two, yes two new favorite songs.  And here they are:

First up, King Of My Soul, by Matt Redman





Next, Flawless, by Mercy Me:




I'm still working on my spinning, and am starting to accumulate quite a bit of this practice yarn.  Yesterday, I decided I was going to do something with it.  But what? 

Hmmm, here's an idea!  Knit a gigantic scarf and felt it!  Yeah! 

I'm not going to completely felt it, just full it a bit.  I don't want it to be thick and stiff, but I do want it pretty fuzzy. 

Fuzzy enough to hide the inconsistencies, at least.

I Have A Baby!!

Back a week or so ago, someone on Facebook posted a video of Barney Fife reciting the Preamble to the Constitution.



I shared the video, with the comment that if Barney had had Schoolhouse Rock, he'd know that Preamble.  He wouldn't be able to recite it without bursting into song, but by golly he'd know it.

That got me thinking about Schoolhouse Rock, and how much I'd enjoyed it as a kid.  When Cody was little, I bought the complete set on VHS.  Now that my VCR has bit the dust, and I don't really want to spend the money to buy a new one right now, I can't watch them.  But surely they're available on DVD by now.

Off to Amazon I went.  Sure enough, it didn't take long at all to find what I was looking for. 

But look at what else found its way into my basket:

I love these Funko POP! Figurines.  I've seen them around, but these are the first ones I've actually bought.  So, naturally, the first one I buy is an adipose baby.

Isn't he cute!  I would be happy to donate some of my fat to foster an adipose baby for some lonely adipose couple.  If only it worked that way.

Smaug was a lot bigger than I thought he'd be.  I thought he'd be small like the adipose baby, but he's nearly twice as big. 

I love him, though.  He's even got the missing scale. 

Is it weird that I want to smooch his little nose?  Yes?  OK, then...

No Smaug Smooching allowed.

Speaking of weird, a couple of nights ago, I dreamed that I went to work with no pants on.  I was working away, with no pants, and no one seemed to notice.  I kept thinking I needed to go get some pants on, but I was so busy, I didn't have time to take a break.  Finally, one of my co-workers came and told me that Dr. Wilson (I have no idea) had called and told me that I was expelled from work.  I gathered up my stuff and left.  As I was getting into my Jimmy to come home, Supervisor Ronnie came running out after me.  He said, "Don't worry, I'll fix it.  I'll just tell them you didn't have enough money for pants." 

Don't ask.  I don't even know. 

A Whole Week Of Mayhem

That's what it has felt like, at least.  I won't go into the gory details.  Suffice it to say, work has been rough.  The only redeeming factor of this week is that it is Shark Week.

Yay, sharks!

I've always had a thing for sharks (and wolves and grizzly bears).  Because it's Shark Week, I dug out my old shark tooth necklace and have been wearing it.

We'd gone to the South Texas State Fair -- more commonly known as the Beaumont Fair -- and there was a table in one of the buildings that had these necklaces, and other similar items.  We looked a bit, then walked on.   After a minute, I looked back and noticed that my mother was still looking at that table.  I didn't think anything about it, until two months later, when I received this for my birthday.

I was wearing it at school one day, and I got into an argument with some of my classmates that the tooth wasn't very sharp.  It is pretty sharp, but is even more damaging when you put the shark's 1800 -2000 pounds per square inch of bite force behind it.  Yeah, it'll mess you up real quick.

Despite the mayhem and sharks, there has been knitting going on.  I finished this infant/toddler sized charity hat. 

I finally cast on something with that gigantic ball of yarn Beverly gave me a couple of months ago.  I'd thought I would warp the loom with it, and I still will, but I really wanted to knit something.  I found this pattern:  Celtic Lace. 

I didn't realize how annoying that gold thread would be, but I'm going to stick with it.  I think the result will be worth it.  The original pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, but it's working with this fingering weight.  It's making a light, airy scarf.  I think I'll like it.

I haven't had much chance to spin, but I am still plugging away at it.  I'm getting more consistent, but it's still not perfect. 

Finally, since I tried to push him in front of a forklift yesterday, I suppose I ought to share a coke with him today:

He he he...

Dear CoWorker

You may think it's cute or funny or whatever to try to push me until I snap, but let me warn you.  You came dangerously close to doing just that today.  If you keep pushing, you will eventually succeed, and it will not be pretty. 

You will regret it. 

So, you might want to re-think that before you find out that it won't be quite so funny once the dust settles. 

Thank you,

That is all.

Texting

This guy gave me his phone number and told me to send him a picture of my cat. 

Now, he's mad at me. 

I don't know why.  I only did what he asked me to.

Heh.