Now More Than Ever

Inspirational song: Pride (In the Name of Love) (U2)

Not really sure what is going to come out of me here. I'm sore and wiped-out tired, sitting in my car while the rest of my group continues to walk around Pride Fest. It was great, but after two hours plus on my feet, I couldn't do it anymore. I had to find a place I could sit and stay. From here I can hear speeches and music from the main stage. I can't peruse the booths anymore, but I think I picked up all the stickers, flags, and pins I can carry. I never found anyone selling a piece of jewelry in the form I wanted, so it is just as well.

I have so many big feelings about this issue, but very few ideas how to express them. Pride should be a vestigial celebration, yet another excuse to have a fun party. Instead it remains necessary for people to reclaim the right to live authentically. How is it that in this day and age, people are still trying to shame and persecute whole segments of the population for merely being their true selves? Wild accusations get thrown around by folks who don't seem to turn a critical eye on themselves, particularly when it comes to the idea of harming young people. Love and acceptance of the whole person go a lot farther in harm reduction than anger and threats.

Yeah, I let myself get overly tired. None of my thoughts are coming out clearly. Maybe I should have just bought the "drag is not a crime" t-shirt, taken a selfie in it, and stopped at that point. 

Kids had a blast running around waving flags and getting stickers and temp tattoos.

Inconvenient Tech

Inspirational song: That's Amore (Dean Martin)

Tech was not my friend today. I started a long continuing education course online, and three units into a twelve unit class, my laptop forgot how to internet. I tried and tried to get to the quiz for that third section, and it absolutely refused to go to the page. I plugged it in to charge and took an hour long break. I went back and it was still fighting me. I investigated and found it was on the slow version of our wifi, and wasn't showing any internet connection. I switched it to the 5G, and at least then I was connected, but I was also running out of time. I needed to go to the hardware store and bank, and be back to meet the new tenants at the house. The continuing education class will have to wait until tomorrow.

I got back with a little time to spare, and prepared to print out the lease for them to sign. I woke up the computer, and found it started running updates while I was making copies of keys. I groaned and tried to stand around and wait for it to be ready for me. I had to give up and go meet the tenants, and explain that I was about to hurl my laptop into the sun. I let them look around the house while I came back to print my documents. It was then that my old nemesis came back to taunt me. The lease fought me on printing, and when it finally did, it was spitting magenta ink all over the page, like it used to years ago. Why? Did it have to act up right then?

My consolation was getting to spend a couple hours with the most soul-soothing tenants. Two of them are just lovely. The third is the embodiment of joy. She bounced around the place, picturing herself living there, smiling the whole time. At one point while we were all talking, I caught her just hugging the wall near the pantry. I hope all this house love means they will like it enough next year that they want to renew their lease. 

Bunnies

Inspirational song: I Wanna Rock (Twisted Sister)

I've hit a wall. I had been having a highly productive few weeks, but by the end of the second trip to the airport in under 12 hours, I was worn through. I'd had just enough coffee to make it home alive, so I had to be up and twiddle about while I waited for the post-caffeine crash. Ran a couple of loads of laundry and patted myself on the back for being good. I napped, and almost immediately after waking, I was invited to grocery shop with the kids. I've been limping along until bedtime ever since, and now that it has arrived, I am greeting it as a dear old friend.

As I turn off lights and take my bedtime pills, enjoy a picture of the bunnies I saw in the Dutch Bros drive through, while getting the coffee that kept me awake long enough to reach my home.

Open to Change

Inspirational song: Dear Friend (Fish)

Wild turn of events today. I thought I was going to dedicate all of my column space tonight to the changing of the guard at Rotary. The leadership has changed, in more ways than one. We have just transitioned from a solo president for one year to a co-presidency for two. I think I'm going to like it. I certainly like the two Rotarians who are taking over, so I will call it a positive change.

We had a post-meeting get-together for drinks at a historic local landmark that has just changed hands as well. The Dickens Opera House has been here just about as long as this town has existed. The new owners renovated and completely changed the menu and I'm very excited to have this place open. It seems wonderful so far. We got a tour of the whole building to see the updates they made. The decorating choices were right up my alley. The blood orange margarita I had was a new favorite as well.

Once I got home, my evening took a surprise left turn. I got a call from one of my close friends from college whom I have not seen since the first year we were back in Colorado. She had an unexpected overnight layover (hinky things happened with her flight), and she had a choice of getting a hotel near the airport or calling someone for a fun blast-from-the-past night. She made the right choice. I raced down to the airport and whisked her back up here for dinner at my favorite restaurant and an evening of catching up. Not where I thought the day would go when I woke, but boy am I glad to get here.

Ex Chrysalis

Inspirational song: Grace Kelly (Mika)

I needed a celebratory change of appearance. I decided to have my daughter cut off a bunch of my hair, bleach the bottom bits, and cover it with a couple of different purples, blended together. As I'm starting to write, I'm sitting with the purple still glopped in my hair, waiting for it to soak in enough to hold up to shampoos. I will pause halfway through writing and go rinse it out and see what's left.

It took hours to get to the level we are at now. I went to her house mid-afternoon, and we started with the first rough cut around 5:30. Then we bleached, the first time. I left that in longer than usual, and rinsed it out in her shower. We did the cut, and as often happens, it ended up way shorter than we intended. We needed to wait for it to dry, so we could put another round of bleach in, after cutting most of it off. We loaded the kids into my car and went to Freddy's for ice cream. Once back, we bleached again, and then loaded me up with purple. By then, it was kid bedtime, and after they were in jammies with clean teeth, I wrapped a towel around my goopy hair and drove home. I'll pause here to wash the purple out and see what has happened to me thus far.

Okay, I am post-washout. It took quite a bit of water, and even after rinsing out conditioner, the water still wasn't running clear. My hair is a lot wavier, now that it's missing five or six inches of weight. That was one of the benefits I was seeking. The two colors appeared to have mixed together more than I thought they would, but that's okay. This is experimental at this point. I can finesse it once the proof of concept pleases me. I asked Mr S-P whether he could tell it was two purples, and he said no, it was wet, thus it was merely "dark." Until it dries, I'm going to wear another of my hair-dyeing t-shirts (different than the one I destroyed with bleach earler), and wait to see what happens. Then I'll see how hard it is to get a cute picture.

Three's Company Redux

Inspirational song: Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) (The Doors)

After a week like that, it took zero arm-twisting to agree when Mr S-P suggested we head to Spirit Hound Distillery for the drinks for wildlife night. Every so often, an area eating or drinking establishment will allow representatives from Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center to set up a table and receive a portion of the till for that night. I haven't been to Spirit Hound in a solid four years, so I was more than happy to go. Our cocktails were exquisite, our food truck dinner was satisfying, and our chat with the distillery founder was entertaining. An excellent evening. Also, we now know they are expanding and under construction for a whole new, fancy building. We must return there, soon and often.

I have a verbal agreement from the folks who will be our tenants. In my mind I call them the Three's Company crew, because it is two girls and a guy, all apparently in their 20s. I guess that makes us the Ropers. I saw a meme circulating last week of a big event where everyone showed up dressed as Mrs Roper, in curly hair and wild print caftans. I need a caftan now. I will meet up to sign the lease on paper with the (can I say kids? they are younger than my children) ...tenants this week, and get things moving. I'm so excited about this crew. Their genuine joy at seeing the house made me feel so good. I want them to like living here.

It was a babysitting day. The kids were on point today. They were funny and interactive. I am about 90% sure that when we pointed at Harvey and Alfred, and clearly enunciated "cat," that Dmitri understood and repeated "gad." Well, I described it as an indeterminate hard gutteral consonant + AT. The Qatar equivalent of saying cat, as it were. Both kids played hard in a splashy pool in the backyard. When Dmitri came in, he went down for a nap in under five minutes. A little later, Valerie sat in my lap, watching music videos from the 80s. She was fine through the Twisted Sister ones she likes, but Adam Ant and Toni Basil bored her just enough that she conked out against me. Too much fun followed by too much new wave silliness.

 

Rank

Inspirational song: The Dance (Garth Brooks)

Showings are done. I cut them off this afternoon, and have given my regrets to those who wrote in too late to attend. I've filtered the applications down to a top 5, and I know how they are ranked in my head. I've tried to get in contact with the one I consider the preliminary winner, to verify that they are still in the race. So far, I haven't gotten through. The ones I spoke to had jobs that might be keeping them busy, so I'm not giving up. I told everybody to expect an answer from me on Sunday.

I'm so glad I don't have to put on my speaks-to-strangers face tomorrow. It's exhausting. I have had involuntary naps every day this week. I just have to contact a winner, thank the runners up, and play with children. No sweat.

Now that Dmitri can stand up on his own and toddle a few steps, he is unstoppable. He shows off all the time. (As someone whose quadriceps have decided they just don't have to work anymore, I'm understandably jealous.) He has also discovered that butts are funny, as everyone does early on in their lives. He was mooning his sister, while she was building rocket ships out of blocks. Watch out, Dmitri, before she thinks to send that rocket ship to the moon.

Ghosts of the Past

Inspirational song: Come and Knock on Our Door (Ray Charles & Julia Rinker)

I had flashbacks to early in my real estate career today. I used to volunteer to do open houses on other agents' listings in my brokerage. It was an opportunity to fish for buyer clients, and a few times I got nibbles. Once I made it all the way to a closing. Not all open houses went so well. I often had very poorly attended events, and a few times I had absolutely no one show up. It was so boring, and frankly physically painful when it was held in an empty house. I would have nowhere I could sit, and I would pace so that I wouldn't hurt from just standing still. I would ache and be so tired when I went home.

There were four appointments scheduled for today, at 11, 12, 1, and 2. I went next door at 10:45, and left at 2:30. The only place I could sit was on the brick hearth, where I couldn't lean back. The first two appointments were no-shows. I was sort of glad at first, because I wad already struggling with making a short list from many well-qualified applicants. But once I had been pacing the empty house for 2 hours, the bad feelings of open houses past started creeping in. The third appointment did show, and they had a lot of good things to say about the place. The final group wasn't there long. They didn't seem impressed, and politely declined to continue once they learned there was no air conditioning. I was relieved not to have another application to add to the pile, and I packed up to go home.

I needed someone else to make my dinner, so Saoirse and I loaded up in the car to go acquire sandwiches. We were both somewhat disappointed. I had a gluten-free Cuban from Snarfs that left me feeling yucky. She got a double cheeseburger meal from McDonald's that she ate reluctantly. She liked the fries more than the burgers, and I will keep that in mind for the future.

This is all so mentally and physically taxing, all the pacing on hard floors and masking my usual social awkwardness when I have to interact with people. There isn't one night this week that I haven't just collapsed with total fatigue. I have two more showings left, and then I can deactivate the listing and stop answering requests. Once the lease is signed, and funds are deposited, I am going to sleep for days on end.

Measuring Contest

Inspirational song: Movin' On Up (Ja'Net DuBois)

Hoo-ee, look at us, moving into the 2020s. The right impetus finally arrived for the Mr to replace the 12 year old television downstairs with one made in this decade. Granted, this was the very last one of this series left at the Costco, being a model from a couple years ago, so it was marked down to an even 400 bucks. The even older TV they had been using for Civil Air Patrol gave up the ghost, so he elected to donate our old one to them and get a more functional one for us. In 2011, that was a really smart TV. In current day equivalent, it graduated from grade school, but went no further. I'll finally have one that can stream all the right things so that my bedroom will no longer be the only effective TV room. 

Naturally, he texted a photo of the TV to our old neighbor, who responded that his was bigger. You can imagine how that conversation devolved.

I just spent an hour or so cleaning downstairs (made very little progress) while he took down the old one, unboxed the new, and learned that the old wall mount isn't quite appropriate for the new TV. My opinion is we should get a new mount. His is to try to get replacement screws that fit the new TV. We try his way first, and mine if/when that doesn't work.

I'm still getting new applications on the house. I need to figure out how to pull it off the market without hamstringing the folks already in the pipeline. I had three more tours today, and I liked all of them too. This is hard, knowing I will only be able to select one person or group. One thing is clear, the rental market here is serious as a heart attack. People need a place to live.

Draw Heart

Inspirational song: Destroyer (The Kinks)

This is a celebration day. It's not just the summer solstice. It's our younger daughter's birthday. By virtue of living in the same town, we get to celebrate with her more often than we do with our first born. Today we went out to lunch at a newish pho restaurant, and then joined a group of their friends this evening for games and sweets. I gave her the presents that Valerie and I picked out Monday, and she even liked the silly inside joke one. I made sure to tell her how valuable Valerie's input was.

I can remember waiting for my daughter to take her first independent steps. For all these years, I have sworn that her first hands-free walk was on the day she turned one, toward her godmother, who was offering her a bite of her chocolate birthday cake. So nice to be able to recreate the photo I captured that day, of smeared chocolate frosting on my friend's leg, and my daughter's messy face. This time it was Dmitri making sure his grandpa knew where to put the lemon cake.

I had three appointments for showings next door today, and one was a no-show. I'm not mad. There are more than enough other interested parties that I won't miss one. In fact, when I got home from my kids' house, I saw another tour request. I think by Friday I will have to mark it as not accepting more requests. We expect to be done with tours Saturday, and make our selection by Sunday. I tell you, this is a hopping business. If I can get owner clients, I will have no shortage of tenants. 

Wild Ride

Inspirational song: Walk of Life (Dire Straits)

Last night I said there was a lot more that I couldn't fit into one post. Well, the overstuffed news of the day was I was able to go live on my first listing. I posted the house at 9:30 last night, and by 9:40 I had my first appointment for a showing set. Now, 24 hours later, I have five of them scheduled, two applications submitted, two people I'm waiting to hear back from on selecting a time to view the property, and three or four new requests that I will open in the morning. I'm already facing that small business owner's dilemma of when do I consider myself off the clock? I've been going all day. I think after 6 pm was an okay time to stop, since I had important things to go do.

Those important things were to pick up the Mr who returned from California this evening, stop and have dinner at the Post (and finally get to try fried pickles, because they were GF), and then drop by to cuddle the kids before they went to bed. He hadn't seen them in almost a week, so this was necessary and right. He brought souvenirs from Disneyland and the La Brea Tarpits for Valerie. She got a Mirabel t-shirt, and a wooly mammoth plushie that she won't receive until we have shown her the movie Ice Age. Dmitri didn't get a toy, but he is too young to notice yet.

He isn't too young to show off new skills though. While we were at the restaurant, we got an excited message announcing that he has walked! He took about five unassisted steps, and we were alerted. This was the impetus behind us stopping by on our way home. Not only did he show off for grandma and grandpa by taking several steps for us, over and over, but he also demonstrated that he can stand up in the middle of the floor with nothing to pull up on. We made it to the big time!

Is Potato

Inspirational song: We're Not Gonna Take It (Twisted Sister)

Oops. I appear to have gotten Valerie into her first hair metal band. She was in the kitchen, playing with off-brand Lego blocks, and she was mumbling something that sounded like "not going to take it anymore." I didn't ask where she learned that. I'm assuming from one of her movies. But immediately, I started singing that rock anthem from the 80s. She smiled at that, and once I showed her the video, she loved it and wanted me to play it over and over. I tried going through a few other bands, like Ratt, Whitesnake, and the like, but other than tolerating a minute of Bon Jovi, she just wanted me to go back to Twisted Sister. 

I wasn't supposed to have child care duties while grandpa was gone, but you know how I am. I made it to Monday, and then informed my daughter that I would be taking Valerie shopping, and it might be all day. Her (my daughter's) birthday is this week, so Valerie and I needed to pick out a gift from us. It took three stores and several hours to get it all put together. I still need a gift bag, but we found things that will seem meaningful from the two of us. I think we did all right.

We were going to meet when my daughter was supposed to mail a package at the USPS location inside of Ace Hardware, and then get frozen yogurt on the other side of the parking lot. Signals got crossed. I was looking for them in Ace, while they had already gone over for fro-yo. (The post office was closed. Neither one of us remembered it was Juneteenth.) While wandering in the garden section, I found the holy grail. I have been trying to find Supertunia Vista Jazzberry since last growing season. Nowhere in town had it, and the Proven Winners website was sold out. But there it was, in my local Ace, three pots of it, on buy-2-get-1 sale. I nearly shrieked when I saw it. I'm still giddy.

Valerie and I made potato soup together, because I had half a gallon of milk that wasn't getting any younger. While she was watching me chop Yukon gold potatoes, she was offering comments like, "that's a kiwi." Deadpan, I said to her, "Is potato." She later suggested it was avocado. Again, in that deep Stephen Colbert fake Russian accent voice, I said, "No. Is potato." Pretty sure my comedy was wasted on her.

There is a ton more to report from today, but I think I will save some for tomorrow. Is bed time.

(I told the family, Dmitri is a man of letters.)