Month: January 2016

Dad has either 6 or 7 weeks left at Marshfield Clinic (he will decide once he sees how it plays out with insurance costs, etc.). He is so ready to be done with that place. I’m glad he got to work in a hospital setting for a while, but I don’t think it was as great as he thought it would be. And I know it didn’t use his best skills. I hope he can find something way more enjoyable in Tennessee!

Just one example: he thought he was on call this past week, because that was what the schedule he accessed said. Then the boss today said, “Woops, it wasn’t you that was on call; it was so-and-so.” So he spent the entire week glued to his cell phone and didn’t get paid for it and now this week he is actually on call. It is stuff like that…

We have a lot to do before he can leave, but he got quite a bit done this past weekend. He needed to open up the wall in the recording room and take out a window and an exhaust fan, because lots of air was getting in there. Then he insulated it and closed it up. Then he also had to move the pipes to the front bathroom that keep freezing. He put them under the floor – essentially in the basement, though only about a foot from where they were. He still has to do the final hookup. But those were two “big” projects that needed doing and it only took the one weekend. He is also working just about every day on emptying out The Garage. Another HUGE project!

Pray for him, if you think of it. He is both excited and conflicted about leaving his job and often overwhelmed with what all needs doing.

Prepare to be unimpressed. We did, after all, only pay a little for it. But imagine…

First, from the back. Look at that view!!

Then, the dining room/ kitchen opened up. Needs a lot of work, I know!

How about a picture of the backyard?  Ours just goes from the fence to the end of the rock walls – it is triangular in shape.

Then a shot looking toward the front from the same place. A couple of those trees will go.

A few from the inside, but remember it is a complete gut-job!

We are home safe and exhausted. But back to work today. My day was great. I was training the new gal and she is going to be so good for the place. I’m excited to see what new things she will bring in. I will be teaching one more exercise class – tai chi tomorrow, then I’ll be done with that and only doing music things. Plus getting ready for the move.  Should be fun.

Looking forward to warmer temperatures later this week, but it is beautiful out today, if you are inside looking out!

Last night was the final night for The Garage and it certainly went out with a bang! Jeff ran a thank-you in the Alert and mentioned we were having free pizza and pop, plus they did a front page article with big picture, so people turned out. At one point, Dad counted 65 kids, plus over 10 adults. It was noisy!  We got the pizza from Walmart for $5.00 a piece – 20 of them, and heated them up, one after the other, all night! 35 liters of pop, too, plus a bunch of cookies. And we gave away candy bars as Bingo prizes. We also had over 30 door prizes, so we drew names and gave away things like basketballs, Kwik Trip gift cards, etc. It was quite the bash. The paper came a took a picture of all the kids in a group, and it was quite the crowd.

We didn’t get packed for our trip, because we didn’t know until yesterday if we were going to be able to close on the house, because of some sort of a glitch with the sellers and the estate the house had been part of. It was inherited by two brothers… Anyway, they got it cleared up, so now we know what tools to bring, so we will finish packing this a.m. My packing didn’t get done because I had an accompaniment that was given me yesterday for an audition right after we get back, so I spent a while getting that put together into a booklet and practicing it some, then she emailed and said they wouldn’t need me after all. But it had already made a big hole in my already busy day, which also included lessons, then the party. But we aren’t on any sort of a schedule, and it is now 6:15, so we’ll get off by 9:00, I would say.

We’ll keep you posted via phone texts!

We’ll be heading down to Bristol again on Saturday morning. We’ll probably drive to about Indianapolis on Saturday, then finish the trip on Sunday. We have an appointment at 1800 Windsor Ave at 9:00 on Monday morning to do a walk through with the home inspection guy and the realtor.  We already know a lot about what we are going to find, both from pictures and from emails from the owner to his realtor that are forwarded to us. The water and electric are off at the boxes, because work has been started and not finished, so turning either on could be catastrophic at this point. Hopefully we will be able to tell if things are fixable, although I have no reason to doubt that they will be. The seller seems to be pretty straightforward about things, and he does have a bible verse at the end of his emails. (Of course, we are talking “down south” and maybe everyone does that! We know we have a lot to learn about Tennessee culture.)

We are excited to be moving forward again on this anticipated relocation.

We spent New Year’s Eve the same as we have for the past 6, 7, I don’t remember, years. We had a party at the senior center. I called Bingo, then stumped them with my Wheel of Fortune puzzles – a quote from Dr. Suess, anyone? (“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” Just in case you were wondering.)  Dad’s team creamed the others, but it wasn’t because I gave him a look at the puzzles ahead of time, as some were beginning to wonder. He had another couple with him, who happen to be brilliant, and could pull the large amounts of money out of the pot (we don’t have a wheel to spin, so we draw out of a pot.)

We ate fudge and pistachio salad and mixed nuts and drank that sparkling grape juice they make for such occasions. All in all, it was a great time, but I was exhausted when we got home around 8:30. Then we watched “Drum Line” together before heading to bed well before midnight.

We started the year with waffles for breakfast, then have spent the day getting things organized and such. Nothing too special. Dad is opening The Garage tonight. It is the 3rd to last night it will be open, so he didn’t want to be closed because of the holiday. Next Friday is the last day we will be open. We are having a big party that night.  Then heading to Bristol the next morning. I can’t wait to see this house that we have an accepted offer on. I sure hope it is all we expect it to be. We’ve been poring over the pictures on line and planning what we are going to do to improve the layout. It is small (no way 940 square feet can’t be small), but has potential to be a comfortable 2 bedroom with plenty of storage if we do some creative things with the 3rd bedroom. More later (after we see it in person!)