Monthly Archives: May 2012

Moving Out, Moving In, Moving Out

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 1 Comment

As you might have guessed by these several years of blogs, we don’t do anything simply. We moved out of one tower next door but also had stuff we haven’t seen in over three years shipped up from Houston.

The kitchen is jam-packed and I can’t open any more boxes until we build some kind of pantry this weekend. We’re under a time crunch because my m-i-l and 9 year-old nephew arrive to visit for several days late next week.

We have to make enough room to take things to storage, shred papers, and donate books and clothing.

In essence, we’ve moved everything in, now we have to get rid of as much as possible before guests descend in 8 days. Forget getting pictures up on the wall. All the books we’re keeping are in bookcases but we really need to do a lot so I can work this weekend and fill my car with donates and shreds. I’ve papers from 15 years ago. Even the IRS doesn’t follow folks that far back!

Now I hear we’re being charged an extra $80 from the furniture rental company, let’s say it, Cort Furniture, because they found a few dog hairs on the sofa and chair, that could have come from our pants or socks. The management office here says they took photos so I’ll go see them in the morning and decide whether to fight it or not. We’re repeat customers and this is NO WAY to get us back or have us to refer them to other consultants who need to furnish a high-end place quickly for a short period of time. They’re not on my Santa “nice” list right now.

All I can say is if there is “excessive dog hair” on ours it is a few hairs, because I went over there and dusted all the furniture and checked it out that morning. Plus the sofa stank of smoke for two of the three months we lived there, and neither we nor our our guests smoke. If the sofa is a different color, if the dog hair is a different color, there’s trouble brewing in Dee-Land.

Everything in this move has been a problem, from taking a header in the garage after twisting my ankle being chased downhill by a hotel cart, to everything else like changing cable service (five hours, three on the phone and two here) and we’re next door! That’s DirecTV, folks. The technicians have to call the customer line and listen to awful Muzak for 20-30 minutes to have their questions answered and they didn’t even know this was an installation so didn’t bring the right boxes.

It’s time to build a pantry and donate, shred and store things. Even the movers said “you’ve got more coolers than anyone we’ve ever seen!” Yeah, that’s because we move and have stuff in storage and just buy another. I think we’ll donate four and keep the six-pack cooler with our dog’s name on it for taking her food wherever it needs to go, and the big one for picnics and keep it in storage.

It’s always an adventure! Cheers, Dee

 

 

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The Mansion and the Honda

Posted on May 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

I don’t say it out loud, even my dear husband may not know, but I make up stories in my mind when I find something interesting.

In our new place we look down on a gorgeous mansion with five chimneys, at least three floors and well over 10,000 s.f. Before we moved in here and could see it from above, we walked through a public park and saw it.

It was in disrepair, the grass is not mowed, weeds are not taken care of, and the occupants probably can no longer use their access to several patios and probably the beach below.

There was a Honda parked in the port-cochere, where one would have hoped to see a Bentley or Rolls Royce when it was built. Is a grandchild taking care of it, perhaps living in 1-2 rooms on the first floor while the ceilings fall in because of years of neglect?

What are the taxes on this property? They have to be enormous, and no-one can afford these properties any more, especially fixer-uppers. It’s in a great location, but the trees have matured so much that they probably can’t even see Lake Michigan any more.

Right below us is an interior design firm in a lovely building whose stone work is Romanesque, the building gothic, and around the entrance there is hearty French tracery stonework (tracery is not supposed to be hearty) I’ve seen at Melrose Abbey in Scotland. Fascinating.

I think (when we get all the boxes out of here) that my m-i-l will love some of the architecture in the homes along the shoreline. And living in the flat lands of Texas, I doubt she’s ever seen a seagull fly by her window!

Please send good thoughts. A family member is in the hospital with an undiagnosed illness and needs all the prayers and good karma around to get well. Thanks so much, Dee

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Niceness and the Midwest

Posted on May 30, 2012 | 1 Comment

Myth? I’ve had more horns blown at me in under three months than in my entire life. When you slow down at a crosswalk (there are signs everywhere that it is State Law to stop at crosswalks) they yell at you for braking too slowly, others who are on their cell phones awaiting crossing yell at you because they’re busy so why are you stupid people stopping your car!

I don’t get it. All I hear at night now from the 15th floor facing East is honking, brakes squealing, sirens and Harleys. I understand Harleys as we’re in the home of the Harley-Davidson.

Why is everyone so angry? People in the building are generally nice, and we’ve even had a culinary get-together with fellow “newbies” where we each brought a dish. Another is coming up and we’re doing an international wine tasting for 20. We each picked a country out of a hat, and we got Greece. I’m supposed to bring one dish and two bottles of wine. Doing some research on the wine and red is the obvious choice, unless I want to subject them to Retsina!

For dishes I’ll make spanakopita, keftadakia (meatballs, baked), and my own blend of marinated Kalamata olives.

Someone told me that everyone here grew up here and has family here and chose to stay here and raise their children, so they don’t want to meet anyone new. They have their circle and everyone else is outside of it so they just yell at us, honk at us and act sub-human.

My thought is that we’re also in the Rust Belt and many folks may be out of work. Still, you catch more jobs with honey than vinegar. I just don’t understand the vitriol every time I’m in traffic or walking along the street. If I ever let my “glass half full” demeanor go, let me go with it. Put me to rest.

I AM these people. I grew up in the Great Lakes in a town that has only a football and hockey team to cheer for, we all left decades ago because there are no jobs. Strict Germanic upbringing, Catholic Mass every week, CCD every Wednesday. I still maintain a positive attitude and don’t even know where my car horn is and have had my current car for five years.

Let go of the hate, folks. It does you no good, and it poisons the atmosphere of everyone you run into. Thanks, from a fellow Great Lakes gal. Dee

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Twine

Posted on May 30, 2012 | 1 Comment

According to me, I have just added over three years to my life. Over ten years ago I bought a cone of linen kitchen twine (the type to tie roasts and chickens). I said to my husband that when it’s gone, I can die. It was a $10 cone and I’ve already had it for ten years, so it’s paid for itself. I keep a plastic bag over it to keep it from collecting dust.

So, it’s been in storage for over three years and I haven’t been using it so there’s three more years for me! I would probably be in my 90′s anyway.

Today they’re supposed to put in shades, but it’s cloudy so I can write, normally I can’t do so until after noon. They’re gonna kick themselves when they realize they could have done this a month ago when this place was empty, now there are boxes everywhere and everything will have to be moved.

We still don’t have enough space to designate store, keep, donate or shred. I’m thinking of hiring movers on Saturday to deal with storage. As long as we can load my car, I can deal with donate and shred as I made all those calls yesterday.

The ankle is doing better after the fall I took when a cart hit my heel and tumbled me in the garage. Still awaiting visible bruises on legs, hips and arms.

The irony is that we got ALL our stuff, from everywhere, in here, and now all I want to do is move as much of it OUT as I can! I’m limited by physical constraints and Jim (husband) is limited by work, and I can’t call movers until everything is organized and I can’t organize until we at least get rid of the obvious (bringing flattened boxes to storage next door so that their other tenants can take them). I brought the packing peanuts there yesterday, 70 cubic feet, I looked like Santa Claus! And I set up the new shower curtain in the guest bath.

Now I’ll go downstairs and find out when the blinds people will be here, because I have to move boxes and keep the dog occupied. Then I’ll go to the store and find out what to cook with no knives and no pantry ingredients. They’re all in boxes and can’t be unpacked until we find a storage solution.

Ain’t moving grand? Dee

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Random Acts of Kindness

Posted on May 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

We moved all weekend and looked for an elusive mattress pad ’til we finally had to go out and buy one, and outfit the guest bath as well.

I looked at something I liked and a lady came up and said I see it up there, but can’t find it down there. Thirty seconds and we found what she came for. So I said, in a jolly voice, “Good, now you can help me!”Well, she did. And she came back to change my choice of liner.

I got what I wanted, a neutral curtain for the guest bath that has sea shells, letters, butterflies and aspen leaves et al for a very calming experience. And a liner that is fabric and can be thrown in the wash from time to time.

Even though I’ve lost my keys to our new place (that hurt when I lost my “flying up” wings to Girl Scouts from Brownies and Girl Scouts had a really bad leader so I quit) and hope that doesn’t happen again. Hope it’s not a bad omen.

I’ve worked the phones all day today to get us set and haven’t touched a box or suitcase. It feels so good to work at a chair most of the day and use my brain, for a change, and not be charged by an errant cart and hit the pavement. Cheers! Dee

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Ultimate Recycling

Posted on May 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

I can’t get to work here in our new place until I get rid of some things. So instead of physical labor (I took a header in the garage yesterday when a cart attacked my right heel, and twisted my ankle) I’m motoring through donation sites et al for stuff we haven’t seen for three years.

So, our storage place will take packing “peanuts” and sell them, so I walked a 70 cubic foot (Santa sleigh size) bag of them, tied with string, in heavy winds to our storage place, almost took off! I couldn’t get into our storage space to get our down comforter out because in the move I lost my keys, but that’s done. Then, they’ll take all our broken down moving boxes for customers to pick from. I can’t do that job alone because much more has to go to storage and some must come out as well.

Like my favorite jean jacket.  In any case, the more we get out of here, the better I can work getting rid of the remaining boxes. I’d like to actually have a place to LIVE!

Life shouldn’t be about moving and boxes, it should be about watching the seagulls fly by the window, and seeing the water change by the minute. Taking your dog out for a walk. Writing to you on this blog.

Today, I’m power-moving, arranging things that will make our lives easier and get rid of boxes. When I find the camera I’ll take some shots for you of the Lake and the old water tower. Cheers, Dee

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We’re In!

Posted on May 28, 2012 | 5 Comments

Happy Memorial Day! We’ve spent four entire days moving from the North Tower to the South Tower. It’s more complicated than that. We’ve stuff in storage here, rented furniture package, two moving companies and an ABF truck to move 15 linear feet of our “stuff” from Texas where it’s been for the past 3.5 years!

Let me tell you a little secret. Don’t ever let all your belongings be in storage for that long. And don’t let my husband and his cohorts pack them. I think we have 40 new moving blankets, all folded up except for a few that need to be unpacked. Then he wrapped cling wrap all over everything. For all that, I must say that only one dish and three glasses broke.

7.500 pounds of stuff to place in 1,250 sf in a different configuration than it was purchased for. Books are unloaded and many being donated. Tons of boxes unloaded and ready for a needy mover to take on, plus a tub with a huge plastic bag of packing “peanuts” ready to give away.

I’ve files from 15 years ago and must go through many boxes and have a professional document shredder get rid of most of it.

Then we’ve got donation items and I’ve many clothes to go through to get that done but have researched and contacted the right people to find the right place to get that done.

Then we have to move things like Christmas stuff to storage and building a pantry and maybe kitchen shelving as well because it’s a small kitchen and I’ve used up every inch of space and don’t have a place for a pantry.

So my husband just hooked up my computer and I’m at the window with a great view, right now of a storm over Lake Michigan. Lightning et al, I love watching storms! The seagulls fly by our windows and we’ll finally get shades on Wednesday.

We put together our bed today, all but the comforter and cover which are in storage here. We have been sleeping in someone else’s bed for 3.5 years and had to go out and get an expensive mattress pad today because we couldn’t find ours. It would be nice to sleep through the night and only worry about boxes, dusting the Cort furniture in our old place and bringing back their laundry basket I had to use for moving today.

Oh, and it would be nice to find my keys to the new place. They were on my purse on the counter and probably fell into a pantry box. Or I left them in the door and someone will turn them in. Oh, well, no move, even one as complicated as ours, is problem-free! Cheers! Dee

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Taking A Stand

Posted on May 23, 2012 | 2 Comments

As a spouse, a feminist homemaker, I pay all the bills, take the dog to the vet, let my husband take my car when he needs snow tires as I leave mine on.

I take care of business, Aretha. And I need a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

We’re moving this week and I’m not allowed to do a change of address on accounts I set up here three months ago. No, sorry, you must have your husband on the phone before you are allowed to move next door and change your billing address.

How do spouses get on joint accounts and be able to do simple things. They’ll let me pay a bill, just not change our address, and they treat me badly in the process as if we’re in the middle of a horrific divorce when we both are just moving next door.

What happened? I need a 15 page Power of Attorney to change the address of our 401(k)’s. All because I’m “just the wife.” The printer ran out of ink and we don’t live near any store that has our printer cartridges. We’re moving on Friday and my husband is at clients every day and I can’t even call him.

We need a better system, people. Life doesn’t work like Orange Level post 9/11 Bush world wants it to. We are real people who have to live our boring, mundane lives and need access to information to make those lives possible.

Change of address. Our government didn’t think twice when they allowed terrorists to learn to steer a plane but not to take off and land. Hello! All I’m trying to do is change our address to next door. Dee

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You say Hello, I say Goodwill

Posted on May 23, 2012 | 3 Comments

Great Beatles song, backwards, I know. Someone wrote me today that I would welcome all the stuff we haven’t seen in over three years.

Furnishings and art, yes, we’re minimalist. Clothing, no. Anything that doesn’t fit will go immediately to charity. I’m talking about interview clothing for tall men. And I’ve asked the source of this piece about the better charities in town, where our gift will do the most good for those in need. And I called the volunteer coordinator at the local volunteer center to find out who needs things.

They have been very helpful and I’ll just have to have boxes ready to take things to our local charity for resale or gifts. It helps to know the right folks in town to do our best for our new community. Thanks y’all for helping us prior to the move. Cheers! Dee

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Facing West

Posted on May 23, 2012 | 2 Comments

I’ve loved the West. I met my husband there, lived in So Cal 15 years, in the Rockies for three. Pacific Northwest, we’ve visited and love it and have gear for snow, rain, anything so would go there in a heartbeat.

Right now we’re up high facing west. I see the weather coming in. I know that if the roof on Miller Stadium is closed it’s probably going to rain. Just saw a gaggle of geese fly by our windows. Often we see and hear individual seagulls just outside.

Later this week we move to a NE view, with the Lake. And hopefully shades will be in by then because 5:08 a.m. is when the dog is trying to get me to take her out these days. “Hey, I’m bored, lets go out and see some squirrels!”

It’s going to be even brighter, earlier facing East so please get our shades in asap!

As to living, this is my husband’s first Northeast experience, he’s a Texan born & bred. I’m a great lakes gal but don’t want to slip back into the accent I lost at age 12 surrounded by military brats near D.C.

He’s still got a bit of drawl going on but nothing like his parents and brother. For the first few months we were together if his dad or brother called, I had never met them and couldn’t understand a word! So I knew that when we lived in Scotland, folks from Edinborough and Glasgow became easy to understand right off the bat, but the further out of town you go, if you’re in a taxi and can’t see the driver’s face, if you get every third word you’re lucky!

That said, I do love the American West. There’s something about mountains and bad weather that attracts me. All I can say for now is that my husband has a good job, we’re meeting neighbors, moving and my fingers aren’t cracking due to living 6,500 feet above sea level with zero humidity.

Utah Formal (our term) clothing will be reserved for weekends and I only hope that the bankerly clothing we have had in storage for over three years still fits my husband. Luckily as it’s around 60 degrees today he’s changed from his cossack hat (wind and snow) to Indiana Jones (keeps sun off his face).

I will miss seeing the weather come in and looking at all the trees that are finally green, but we’ll gain a guest room/office and have a view of a really big lake that is not man-made (sorry, Texas joke). And we’ve guests for two weeks right after the move, in shifts. I have to menu plan and find places and events. After the move! Cheers to looking East! Dee

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