Moved!

Well, it's official. I woke up this morning in my old bed, but in my new home!
I'm sitting here at my computer, newly laid out (last night) next to Suzie's computer, both of which have a nice view of the front yard and driveway. I've got my coffee cup, sitting here in my bathrobe, and occasionally stopping to offer a loving scratch to Cookie, my "new" kittycat. We transferred the cable to this address yesterday, so her DSL will be discontinued soon in favor of the cable (it's all about speed baby!) internet instead. All of my stuff is here with the exception of the kitchen stuff. Can I find anything? I haven't been here long enough to need to find anything yet, but so far-so good.

We finished up our day really late last night. The last of the big items that I didn't need any longer sold yesterday: The living room set. We dragged them out at the end of my (old) driveway and put a sign on them, and not long after that the Pug Lady bought them.

Oh, I didn't tell you about the Pug Lady?

When we had the garage sale last weekend, we had a customer that lived nearby that seemed to be most interested in helping out a neighbor of hers that had recently moved in. "She has nothing," she said as she described her. That's a nice neighbor to have, no? Well, she kinda bothered me. She struck me as scatterbrained, but that wasn't really the issue.

It was her eyes.

You know how Pug dogs look? Their eyes are sort of looking "around" you instead of "at" you? That's her. She has short hair and those eyes. Although she was kinda dim and looked like a Pug, she was one of our best customers last Saturday. During the sale I mentioned that I also had a living room set, and she expressed an interest in that. Considering how long it took her to come up with the money to buy the dresser or whatever it was that she bought last weekend I was reluctant to allow her to become too interested in the living room set for fear that she would want me to hold it for X amount of time or something similar. We needed stuff gone NOW.

Imagine my surprise when just moments after driving by yesterday and seeing the set out at the end of the driveway, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to the Pug Lady waving a handful of cash at me. Like I said before, she's an awful nice neighbor to be shopping for someone else the way she does, but I'm just glad that I was able to move the last of the big items.

We spent the rest of the day alternating between moving loads, resting, and cleaning. The apartment is almost finished. Empty the kitchen, clean the kitchen, and clean the garage--That's it.

Here I am, in my new home!

Commending Suzie

I have to say that this is the strangest marriage I've ever heard of...

How many people have you ever heard of that experienced something similar to the following? You go visit your wife. You might eat dinner, you might go out for something to eat or drink, you catch up on the day's events, and then:
"Well, I guess I'll go home now."

Isn't that weird? Duh, of course it's weird! Well, that's about to finally come to an end. I expect to be out of my palace on Sunday, and will awake lost and disoriented in my new home on Monday morning. I will wake up with my wife next to me like I'm supposed to.

She has been doing a fantastic job of making room for me. Every day that I have taken a truck load (sometimes more than one) of my stuff over there, I return the following day and find that she has absorbed it all into her home. Don't get me wrong--It's there and you can see it, but it seems like when I drop off stuff and it fills the empty spaces to 90% capacity, I return the following day and it only looks like 10%. She is really making it happen.

In other news, I have to mention the two celebrity deaths that occurred yesterday. Suzie and I talked about it last night a little bit and both agreed: Although it's too bad that Micheal Jackson died, I think it's very unfortunate that the death of Farrah Fawcett had to take a back seat to the oddball king of pop. She suffered and clung to life for a long time before succumbing to her cancer. He, on the other hand, basically "winked out". Sure, they're both deaths and deaths are sad, but come on--Give her some respect and acknowledge her life. Don't make the amount of respect someone gets totally conditional on timing.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox now.

Sitting In An Empty Room

It's kinda weird sitting here this morning.

My computer still sits here like an island in a room largely devoid of anything else. And to add a small level of reassurance, it's still the same messy computer desk it always is. The same box of tissues on the corner, the same pens, receipts, fingernail clippers, and things that never find their way any further than where they are always sitting.

Over in the corner of the room sits a lamp, burning brightly, but lacking the table it spent its last several years on. It's as if it's saying, "I'm down here, but see? I can still function--Don't forget about me!" The desk is gone, the file cabinet, the bed--All gone. All the little crap that filled my closet--All gone.

Yes, the place is pretty empty. When Suz and I took the main bed out last night and put that up at her house it was pretty much necessity on her part. She had sold her bed and would otherwise be sleeping on her couch. I got to sleep in my guest bed last night, and that's fine because it's a good quality bed and almost new. It was weird being in a different room though.

Everywhere around me there are indentations in the carpet where things have sat undisturbed since they were first brought into this place. Believe me, there is the dust to go with it. This morning I had to chase down two of those speeding black spiders--Obviously wondering where all their hiding places have gone.

The downstairs has looked weird since I sold the kitchen table last week, but that's about all that looks different down there so far. It's mostly up here and in the garage.

It's time to post a few large items on Craigslist. I certainly don't want to be moving the couch and love seat or washer and dryer if I don't have to. I also hope there isn't much of a problem when I unbolt my safe from the closet floor. I know the carpet indents will be there--I just hope the floor is okay where the bolts are screwed in. Either way, I'll have to fix whatever is there, but I just want it to not be too difficult.

Yep, I'm almost outta here.

The Weekend Report

This was a weird weekend really. It was kind of a back and forth, up and down, fast and slow, yin and yang weekend.

At a time when all efforts should be concentrated on moving, we instead planned a garage sale on Saturday. On one hand it would have been good to just take a bunch of stuff to the Goodwill store and dump it--That would have freed up valuable time to move loads of stuff. On the other hand, you just hate to "dump" some stuff on the Goodwill, you know? Some stuff is more valuable than "free" but not worthy of putting it in an ad to sell by itself. Anyway, when all was said and done we netted a little over $60 and (this is a BIG and) got rid of a LOT of stuff (lots of free things). Even though it wasn't an earth-shattering day of productivity, considering how much stuff we got rid of it was a good day. To cap off the day we went to a local Mexican restaurant and blew half of it on a great meal and a couple of well-deserved margaritas. (Side note to self: Don't order "blended" next time... Too much brain freeze.)

Today was really all over the map, productivity-wise. Okay wait--The way I'm going here it's going to take forever to explain today. To make a long story short I'll try to condense the weekend:

Suzie spent all day Friday prepping a painting a room in her house that her son Dane used to reside in for the purpose of putting my stuff in. She also put an ad on Craigslist for the bed that was in that room.

We spent all day Saturday working the garage sale, yakking it up with garage sale customers, and general wheeling and dealing. My landlord's wife and son stopped by and we talked about the fact that their daughter is going to be living there after I leave. She took pictures of my washer & dryer, my living room set, and a bedroom set that I have for sale. Those are all my big items, and that would be so nice if they would buy them so we didn't have to move them! Afterward we went to a couple stores looking for a picture frame for me to give my dad for Father's Day.

Today we went back out for a picture frame, and I ended up getting the first one we had seen the other day. It was the best choice. I put two pictures in it from our wedding (me & dad, and mom & dad) in it, and it looked great. We stuffed my truck with a load to haul to her house, and stopped at my folks' house to give him his picture. He and mom both loved it! We continued to Suzie's house to unload.

She had placed an ad on Craigslist for Dane's old bed and it was sitting out waiting for someone that was supposed to show up to buy it. After we unloaded everything in the truck, I came back home. I, too, was awaiting a guy to show up to buy something--In my case an old audiophile-quality turntable I had for sale. At this point we were both in our respective homes awaiting deals to be completed. The deals involved a lot of time wasting waiting for people to show up, which was just as well really, because the weather turned crappy and we wouldn't have gotten much moved anyway. When all was said and done, she moved her extra bed for $40 and I sold my turntable for $260. As you might imagine, it was a very high-quality turntable...

Now I'm sitting in less and less of a home. There are huge holes and gaps everywhere where things used to be. Furniture missing and whole areas devoid of anything. We both feel very good about how well things are going. I'll be moved into my wife's house by the end of next week!

I Hate Moving

Everyone has moved at some point in their lives, and I'm sure everyone hates it just as much as I do. I guess what makes it worse for me this time is the fact that I have no real space to dump my, uh, stuff. I have to do a temporary "cram" jobs as I make deliveries to my new home. At least it's going... The garage is all but emptied, and that in itself is no small feat. I have (had) as much stuff in my garage as I did in my house. All that's left out there now are a few of the large items and a Harley.

Now on to moving the house stuff...

Sarah had a tonsillectomy yesterday. I don't know if that's the proper term for it or not, but let's just say she went under the knife to have them removed. She as had nothing but trouble with her tonsils for some time now, so it's about time it was finally addressed. I had the same sort of problems when I was a kid, but back then they were much quicker to hack, so I had mine out when I was much younger. She has pretty much exhausted all other avenues. I stopped by last night and took her some KFC potatoes and gravy (her request). She was pretty lethargic but seemed to be doing pretty well.

I had an interesting evening the other night. I had just driven up to Sue's (I have to start using "our") house with a huge load of garage stuff. The gate was open next to the house, but there were things in the way so I couldn't just drive back to the garage with it. I walked around back and there's Suzie--In the hot tub.
"Drop your clothes," she ordered, "I've got everything here." She motioned to the table next to her where beer, cheeses, crackers, olives, and pickled asparagus sat waiting.
"I need to get this unloaded," I protested, "It's a lot of stuff."
"It can wait," she said.
I took another look at the bare woman in the hot tub and stripped right there on the deck.
Now that's what I call a "welcome home" greeting!

I don't think I blogged my work chair did I? Last Friday at work I walked upstairs at lunch time with my sandwich like I always do--Ready to wolf it down and grab a nap.
My chair was gone.
I looked all around the general area, thinking at first that it was a joke and that someone had hidden it. I started to get a little annoyed at this point--After all, this was eating into my nap time. My search widened to the whole shop. Nothing. The word got out and others joined the search later on, and still nothing. I don't mind telling you: I was some kinda pissed. My lunch was ruined and my chair was gone. My chair, bought with my money for the sole purpose of enhancing my lunchtime experience. Well, the chair never produced itself, and yesterday I took a new chair to work. This one is a little more fancy--It's a folding recliner:



It's not quite a perfect fit for me because I'm fairly tall, but it's very comfortable nevertheless.

If this one is stolen I give up...

Weird Stuff

You know, it's funny... The stuff you see.

Today I made a run to the Goodwill to drop off some stuff. Right next door is a Rite Aid drug store so I figured I'd hit them and get some beer while I was in the area. As I was pulling into a parking spot, some guy goes blasting into the lot in a small delivery truck that said, "Mattress Depot" on the side of it. He was yakkin' on his cell phone the whole time he drove in.

I didn't pay him much mind.

I went into the store and wandered back to the beer department, made my selection and was being rung up by the cashier. About halfway through the process, the mattress guy comes up to the checkout, still talking on his cell phone. What did he buy?

A pack of false eyelashes. Seriously.

He made a special stop from whatever just so he could buy a little package containing two false eyelashes. I thought that was one of the strangest things... He never mentioned the eyelashes once during his conversation.

I wonder if they were for him?

My Daughter: The Graduate!

Yesterday Sarah graduated from Auburn Mountainview High School.

She graduated magna cum laude, which earned her the right to wear a silver cord, and was also Department Student of the Year in graphic design, which earned her the right to wear a blue cord as well.

I didn't get any distinctions read after my name when I graduated. Of course I didn't deserve any. Sarah did.

Her graduation from high school was the culmination of 13 years worth of hard work. The late nights of hustling to get a project finished before it was due the next day. Her projects were typically much more in-depth than the minimum required by the teacher, and therefore took much longer to complete. She was very detailed and took a lot of pride in all those things.

Last year was when such diligence became very apparent to me as a parent. That was when she started getting accolades from various teachers, and winning awards for various things. Her designs were being chosen for various things in the school, such as poster designs, t-shirts, etc. Last year was also when she won her first formal award--When the Mason's Lodge presented her with a small cash scholarship award.

This year there was much more.

This was the year she won her big scholarship. She won continuous acceptance of designs for various things around the school. Her name is even on the inside of the graduation ceremony booklet for the cover design. When she won the Department Student of the Year award, she was actually up for two of them: The graphic design department, and the art department. When that was found out, one of them had to go, so the teacher reluctantly withdrew her name from the art award. Graphic design is really Sarah's forte' anyway. She's going to go places with it. Okay, I'm finished gushing.

It was a great day for a graduation ceremony. Usually when there is a grad ceremony here it's either bordering on rain or sweltering hot. This year it was in the low 70's with a nice little breeze. I walked over (I live practically next door) and was about an hour early. Apparently I got there just as they had opened the gate, because there was a rapidly-disappearing line of people going in. I was glad I got there early because that place fills up. I mean really fills up. When I got there I really had no idea where to sit because there were two groups of empty chairs below for the grads to fill when they arrived. Which group would Sarah be in? I had no idea, so I just chose the first one and sat. I tried to figure out where best to park my ass so I could get the best pictures of everything that was going on. Apparently I chose pretty well. The crowd of people never stopped coming in. I kept an eye out for my mom but never did see her. I did see her when she was leaving after the thing was over, so she apparently beat me into the gate. Funny I didn't see her. I saw Teresa and her dad and brother come in though.

I was glad I had my long lens, because that was what I used mostly. I got some pretty good shots, all of which are now posted on our picture site (the link is over on the right) under the People category. There are many, many shots. I couldn't tell where Sarah was because I was shooting all the way across the football field so I just kept shooting. I knew she'd like to see them later anyway. As the grads formed two lines across the way to parade by twos to their seating area, it became apparent that I had chose well. There was Sarah across the way, and as usual, near the end of the line (the last name in the W's syndrome). She ended up sitting practically right in front of me! I caught her eye right away after she sat down, getting a big smile from her. She kept scanning the crowd (hence the concerned look on her face much of the time) for her mother, but never found her.

After the graduation ceremony, we made our way back to her house where we had a nice party in her honor that her mom set up. It went off very well. Lots to eat and drink and we all had a great time socializing. I just wish my wife was there. I missed her. Teresa had a few displays of Sarah's work set up, and I took a couple of pictures of that. I didn't include them on my picture site, so I put a couple here below:





As usual, none of these pictures do her art any justice. My favorite? The Bird of Paradise in the first one. It was all done with dusty pastels from a teeny 2-inch picture she found on the web.

Goodbye, Mountainview High School--Hello Pacific Lutheran University. Congratulations Sarah!

Rix Life: The NEW Part!

So much for Rix Life: Part V.

That is a past, old-news, short-lived chapter in my life. Actually, it was the shortest of the parts or chapters that have made up my life. Yes, as of yesterday afternoon, I am now a married man, and it's a good feeling!

To recap the parts that make up Rix Life:

Part I - Childhood (18 years worth)
Part II - The Military Years (6 years worth)
Part III - The Solo Years (7 years worth)
Part IV - The First Marriage Years (19 of them)
Part V - The Divorced Years (almost 3 years)
Part VI - The New Marriage Years

We had a great wedding. We got lucky and the weather held out, there were lots of great costumes, lots of great food, and lots of drink. Our 4pm wedding ended up stretching into the wee hours where we ended up sitting around the fire pit in her back yard until about 2am. Last night was the first time I ever stayed overnight at Suzie's house, and it didn't feel weird at all.

What is weird is the fact that we are back in our respective houses tonight. We both need sleep so bad, all of my stuff is still here, and well... We're just not ready for me to be there full time yet. I should say that most people would find it weird. It feels totally fine to us.

It's pretty cool though--Being married again. As much as I probably would have been fine staying single the rest of my life, we are a great fit. Our interests and personalities mesh well together.

Maybe I should put a rhyme to the tune of "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" by Billy Joel and call it "Say Goodbye to Bachelorhood"

Rix Life: Part VI... Here to stay!