A Drunk Man Smiles at a Thistle

Inspirational song: Poet's Moon (Fish)

This morning, a certain bearded gentleman and I were pondering the rules and customs that govern how early in the day an adult can start consuming alcohol. At around 9 am, he sighed audibly after walking away from calling every roofing contractor in the metro area, and he asked, "Is it too early for a beer?" I assured him that I would not judge him, by admitting I had just stirred a teaspoon of amaretto into my yogurt (just for flavor, you know.) I reasoned that Sundays were for bloody Marys, so maybe Mondays were for amaretto coffee. We concluded that if you are keeping track of the days of the week by what alcoholic beverage you consume, there's probably an underlying problem. And then we spent most of the day sober (until this evening).

The seller's agent was at the brick house when a roofing contractor was finally located who could assess the damage and offer a bid. This is a good thing. He was able to hear the derision in the contractor's voice and the proclamation that whoever did the "repair" that made the entire structure unsafe should lose his license. I will not have complete assurance that the roof will be repaired and we will not have to pay for it until it us completely done and the bill is paid. But I think now there is a stronger possibility that the seller will realize he has little choice and will cooperate with getting it done so we can proceed with the purchase. These were the sticking points that had us heading for the door on this deal in the first place. We have until tomorrow to learn whether this sale will happen or not. If it does, it might even happen on time, in two weeks. What a stressful two weeks it will be.

For the record, the field house had 30 offers on it, several of which had escalate clauses in them, and more than one waived the requirement for an appraisal. We suspect that the 1065 square foot house, built in 1953, with a detached one-car garage that needs to be scraped off and rebuilt, went for over $300,000. Let that sink in for a while. There was no way we were going to win over people with that sort of cash on hand.

I am ready to have a yard again, in the worst way. It's not just the space for dogs to run or to act as a buffer between us and neighbors. I need to get my hands dirty and soon. I spent almost an hour in my bestie's rock garden, rooting out thistles and snipping aspen tree suckers that weren't going to grow into strong trees. I had to stop and buy new pruners, gloves, and a trowel on the way over there, because all of my equipment is in a storage unit somewhere. It was so worth it. I have several more days worth of work to go over there before her rock garden looks groomed, but what else am I going to do until the house closes? Besides, I have now identified my new enemy. Poison ivy is so yesterday. Now thistles are the devil. I'm on this.