nail biting time

Tomorrow the FHA appraiser is coming to do the appraisal on my house for the buyer's loan.  My logical mind tells me that the house is not overpriced and it will appraise with no problems. Unfortunately my worry genes seem to have overridden my logical mind. I am beset with "what ifs" and the worst part is I won't know the results of the appraisal until sometime next week. What if the house doesn't appraise and the deal falls apart after I've moved out? What if the appraiser decides I need to install a new septic system? (I recently heard a horror story about that happening to a seller.) What if I just go to bed now and hope for the best? I think I'll go with plan C.

great idea but it confuses the customers

I went to a movie today with some friends.  We went to Coldwater Crossing and saw "A Walk in the Woods", an excellent movie with some amazing views of the Appalachian Trail. It brought back memories of camping in the Smoky Mountains.  I think the aging heroes made it even more appealing to people of my age.  Lots of good humor, however we weren't laughing so much at the seating arrangement.  This is the second time I have attend a movie at Coldwater Crossing since they installed their super new plushy reclining seats, really very comfortable. The seats are wonderful but the requirement to select your seat from a chart when you buy your tickets slows down the ticket buying process. The next problem is the way the seats are marked.  The seat numbers are posted on the ends of the armrests which caused a certain amount of confusion - I was assigned seat 8 in row I - is this the seat to the right or left of the number 8? Add that to the fact that the letters identifying the rows are small and hard to see, especially if you come in after the previews start and the fact that some of the seats were evidently sold twice, made for an entertaining show for those of us already seated as people searched for their seats. The movie was great, the seats are really comfortable, but I don't see the necessity for assigned seats.  Ah well, nobody asked me.

Boxing

Not the kind where you hit people, the kind where you load stuff into them.  I am beginning to have a very fine collection of boxes sitting around my house. After selling and donating and trashing 4/5ths of everything I owned, how can I still have so much stuff?  And now I'm at the point that I don't really want to get rid of anything more.  So I'll just keep boxing and hope that all that closet space in my apartment will be enough.  Several years ago my dad downsized from a 3 bedroom house with a full basement (and I do mean full) to a tiny studio apartment in an assisted living facility. Of course he was 86 at the time.  I read recently of a woman who downsized to the point that she only owned 100 items. Hah, I have more than that in flatware and glasses.  To top it off, I spent some time today making a list of things I "need" to buy.  I guess I'm not really clear on the concept of downsizing.

Well, I've broken the ice...

...metaphorically speaking. Here it is early in September and I've actually ordered my first Christmas gift for this year. Nothing like needing to buy stuff for my granddaughters' fundraiser to get me motivated.  One down, many, many to go.

Saying goodbye slowly

I'm moving to my apartment in two weeks. I've been envisioning a slightly sad moment as I drive away from the "cow house" for the last time. Until I discovered that I had to come back the very next day  at 8:00am to let the window installers in, and the day after that to let the cleaning crew in.  Ah well, sooner or later I'll say that farewell. In the meantime I'm eyeing the apple tree which is loaded with apples this year and trying to decide if I have time to make one more batch of applebutter. Oops, just remembered, I've already packed my cookbooks.  I may have to make applebutter in my new apartment. Decisions, decisions....

Things I'm not allowed to stay

I picked up two of my granddaughters after school today as I do every Wednesday and Thursday.  In conversation as we were driving home I was informed that I am too old to use words like cool, awesome, rad, dude, etc. All right. I have a broad enough vocabulary to struggle along without ordinary expletives. However this is the last straw.  After receiving a funny e-mail from the older of the two aforementioned granddaughters I responded LOL only to learn that I'm no longer allowed to use LOL. Really?? None of my super cool, rad awesome friends of my own age have ever complained.

Do I sound like a lush?

I scheduled a bone density scan today.  This is one of my favorite physical tests.  You just lie on a flat surface while a machine hums above you, no pain, no discomfort.  As opposed to, say, a colonoscopy or endoscopy (same thing I think). Prep for that test, which I have coming up in October, is not fun. But back to the bone scan. In preparation for the test this Thursday I needed to answer several questions. I'm happy to say I knew all the answers but I was brought up short when the lady on the phone asked me if I smoke or drink alcohol. My first impulse was to say no, which is still the correct answer for the smoking question, but then I remembered that I have been drinking a glass of red wine every evening after supper. Dr. Oz says it's good for me.  So I told the lady "Yes, I drink one glass of wine each evening." To which she responded "Uh huh." Such a skeptic. It's a good thing she didn't ask about my chocolate covered almonds habit.