One year ago today: May 18, 2015, a shaky Morse message.
Five years ago today: May 18, 2011, “with blonde hair and small knockers”.
Nine years ago today: May 18, 2007, spoiled cats, JFK, Chek soda.
Random years ago today: May 18, 2012, privilege vs. obligation.
MORNING
All business today, but you’ll want more information on the house. That’s the culmination of almost a year’s searching, and it was true adventure. Careful what I said. I mean that having troubles, which I did, was adventure, but only because my alternative was never to sit and home and avoid the world. People who do that do have fewer problems, but for totally the wrong reasons.
The Cussler novel, “The Striker” is a bestseller. I like it, as it captures the “shallower” way people thought before the television era made them all morons and the Internet turned them all back into Millennial geniuses. The book concerns the “good” Van Dorn detective agency and the “bad” Pinkerton. We know which one prevailed, don’t we?
This [long trip] gives me time to contemplate the next moves. I have no buyer’s regret whatsoever, I’m glad I have my own place now. It’s a relief, since nobody knows what is going to happen when the establishment gets its ass kicked this next election. Just now those contented bastards are wondering what hit them, but they are not going to give up without a fight. Just when they thought they had the system fine-tuned and running smoothly.
My logic stands as it did last May. If prices go up, I’m happy. If they fall, the most I can lose is around $10,000. I cannot be evicted, the taxes are trivial, and there is parking for six cars. Plus one on the street.
US-Mexico border.
NOON
Once back here, it took one phone call and one e-mail to set up the purchase in cash. Since no financing is needed, it is just a matter of waiting for the funds to arrive. Maybe a few days at most. So unless there is calamity, it’s a done deal. We already have a tentative guest by months end, but that’s a large part of what the place is for. And I’ve already priced out a Florida room, as there is no real dining area. I told you, it is a cabin.
Since I am daydreaming, how about a photo of the dream? This is a sunroom, and there is a place already on the structure where one of these would fit. Mind you, I would want something considerably nicer and more sturdier, as in heavy duty, a permanent part of the house. This is about the right size, and they have plenty of room for, what is that, a futon? I’ve seen those units with curved beams and plexi-glass, you know the ones I’m talking about. You see them in subdivisions. But mine would be 100% functional as an combo dining and living room. I priced this one out, installed, at $2,000
There is plenty of room for a 12 x 18 work shed, if I decide to go that route. I glanced at my old wish list and I want a weathervane. There’s a spot for a gazebo, but all this is sheer speculation. Like the cupola. In Texas, you gotta have a cupola, and not one of the Home Depot fake units. The kind that really ventilates the attic. And yes, I would like to take the place off the electric grid. I had lots of time to think.
I got JZ on the line, he’ll be out tomorrow to get plans for a weekend trip, what all we have to take along and make plans of what needs inspecting. We have the standard ten days to go over the place, but it is, trust me, 100% livable now. It is not, repeat not, a fixer-upper. A quick paint job on the exterior and it is the cabin of somebody’s dreams.
It’s already apparent we are going to need two trips in the same week, the second time for some furniture and chances are we’ll stick around. I’ll take my bicycle up there, but in reality I’ll need some kind of local transportation soon. Wheeling a sidecar around a small town is not the way to keep low-key and I’ve kind of already wrecked any chances of that. Blasting down main street in that rainstorm Monday night, well, it’s not like a motorcycle, the sidecar makes much bigger waves and not all of it is water.
Robert C. Hoagland: Astronomy, 1997. Bob’s the “face on Mars” guy, who also brought you news of NASA cover-ups, various lost civilizations, and found a black hole in Jupiter where a space vehicle crashed. All this without the help of a university education.
Bob has been described as “a unique mixture “ and is an avid Star Trek fan. But he did get the first space shuttle renamed.
All is in place money-wise, unless there is a screw-up. It’s by motorcycle on Friday, weather permitting. I did not realize it at the time, but May 17 is my traditional “extra” holiday, and that’s the day the contract was signed. Interesting how that day keeps cropping up in my life. I’m also investing in a security system and a few other goodies to take along. Next week with the truck will be a much bigger operation.
I’m reading an unusual Cussler mystery concerning the coal mining strikes and union problems of the early 1900s. That’s still the era of child labor and union-busting gangs. I brought back both the usual jet lag and a touch of a cold. It’s mild, but I’m enough sniffles and hoarse to stay put until I start back. Oh, before you go, this new place did fall into the parameter I told you about last October. That’s when JZ convinced me a small place to use as a base of operations was a good idea. Well, this one came cheap enough that I don’t absolutely have to move unless I want to.
That concept is only seven months old and became reality just overnight. I'm a Florida landowner.
ADDENDUM
Okay, that as JZ on the phone again. There is another $4,400 in renovation money from the place we did not get in Eagle Lake. That’s why I don’t like this “proof-of-funds” demand by the banks. The money gets locked up while they conduct their phony bid-rigging schemes. That cash just came back on-line. I’ll sleep contentedly tonight, gang.
I neglected to tell you there is a dead tree in the back yard. A widow-maker, and it is sixty feet high. That is coming down first. I’ve reserved a man with a cherry-picker, since there is no way to safely fell it without topping the thing first. I’ve also pushed ahead with replacing the tiny living room window with set three times the size. That’s why I like working with ship-lap.
The only visible sign of age I saw was some of the exterior paint was slightly flaking on the sunny side of the building. This is nothing for me to fix, recalling my college days with “Need’s Painting” and who remembers Bryne? We painted that condo in the Pines in one day. Because I don’t mind removing [electrical] plate covers and cutting in [corners]. I can keep ahead of two [paint] rollers. As for the new cabin, it does not require any repairs or painting that I could perceive in a half-hour of inspection.
The upcoming inspection will be a full day long. What a boon if the water is on when we get there. I don’t need electric now, and if I do, I’m friends already with the neighbors to the north. To run an extension cord for a few days. I’ve already calculated the payback on this cabin, which you don’t have enough information to go on, will be just 15 months. I’m taking propane lanterns just in case. I repeat I will never forget the three months without electricity over by the golf course. Nor forgive FPL [Florida Power & Light] for that one.
Last Laugh
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