Hi. I'm sorry I haven't written lately. Been busy. Selling a house during a pandemic is surprisingly time consuming. Who would have thought it?
On the 17th, we rented a U-Haul truck/van at the Bayer's Lake depot, which is huge and sprawling as it occupies the space formerly owned by Rona. I drove it from there to the Valley house, with Patricia following me in the Soul. The men who were supposed to help us were quarantined so they were not able to help us. Due to a misunderstanding I will take responsibility for, the neighbours buying the property did not drop by to help, so Patricia and I, and a hand truck, loaded that van all by ourselves. Some pretty heavy items went into that van over the course of several hours.
Our bodies aching and sore, barely able to stand, we returned to the city around 6. The young men who mow our lawn and plow out our driveway in the Winter were both home. I hired them both to help us unload the contents of the van. They did the bulk of the work. They worked really hard and quickly. Took them an hour to get the stuff off the van and into the house. We were so happy and grateful that we paid them for two hours of work.
The house is full of stuff. It is even more full tonight as on Sunday we went back down to get a few more items, and returned yet again on Monday.
The closing date is the 29th, barely 24 hours from now. On that day, the property which has been in my family since my father built it some 60 years ago, will no longer be in the family. I have come to terms with that decision, and am even comfortable with it. But it took me years to get to that point.
And for those who think I am doing this for the money: shame on you. A pox on you. Frig you. Up your nose with a rubber hose. Kiss my grits. Sit on it. Whatever. My mother moved out of that house seven years ago, at which time I took over the full cost of keeping the house up and running. Imagine the monthly costs of oil, property taxes, power, insurance, a security system, an internet connection (which I disabled some time ago), cable (ditto), and even a satellite system (ditto again). Re-shingling the roof of the garage and the house as required. Hiring someone to plow out the driveway and to mow the lawn and do light landscaping duties. Various and other sundry costs. Now, consider that overall cost over the course of seven years. Do you think I am making a mint off the sale of this house? I assure you, I am not.
The time I have spent in recent months in preparation of this week's closing date has been more than considerable. I have had little downtime in recent months. Just work. House stuff. Sleep. Maybe watching some stuff on the PVR. Stress over the house and work and all the associated mental anguish. I cannot wait until it is all over.
Tomorrow awaits. It beckons like a lover, and I am drawn to its caresses. I think I will turn in.
Lots going on, on Tuesday.
See you soon.
Bevboy
Monday, April 27, 2020
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Post 3928 - A Few Weeks Later
Uh, yes. Here I am.
Sorry I haven't written lately. I have clearly got out of the habit of updating this here blog.
A few things have happened.
The house in the Valley is about to be sold. My parents' house. The one I grew up in. The closing date is April 29th. The last many weeks have been about cleaning out the place and trying to decide what things to keep. We are at the point where there are mostly just larger items to move out. A couple of bookcases. A bit of furniture. A couple of Patricia's kilns. Some odds and sods.
I had forgotten just now much WD-40 type stuff I own. I wanted to make sure that there was an adequate supply of the material, both here at Casa Bevboy, and the Valley house. I had cans of the stuff in strategic parts of the garage such that there would be one within easy reach. Ditto for the basement of the house. I suppose it was overkill. I have brought back 12 cans or so of the stuff, and I wonder what I will do with it all, given that I had several cans of it here already. I was worried about losing those little red straws that comes with the various types of water displacement products I own, so I put most of them in a standard non-business size envelope and keep it with the cans of those products, which I keep in a re-usable grocery bag. I likely have enough cans of that stuff to last me for quite few years. If there is a run on that stuff at the stores, because it is needed to combat the pandemic, then we are in good shape.
A bit of good news a couple of weeks ago. Remember that we had that flood last year? There was a $2000 deductible on the work, which was completed months ago. I finally managed to track down the new claim adjuster, because the old one left suddenly. She went through the file and because there had been some damage to the property (wrecked couch, and some other stuff), plus the work we did to mitigate the work of the people who tore the basement apart and put it back together again, that we had suffered enough. We will not get a bill for that deductible! That is $2000 I do not have to shell out, that I get to keep for a rainy day, that I get to keep in my savings account. I wrote her and told her that she had made my day. She wrote back and stated she was glad to be able to put a smile on someone's face in this day and age.
Yeah. Smiles are hard to come by these days, aren't they? Nova Scotia's numbers of people with the corona virus are up over 400. The number has doubled in... 10 days? Two people have died, and there will doubtless be more.
My editor at Frank wants us to work from home as much as possible, especially during the "off" weeks. Those are the non-deadline weeks. Even on deadline weeks we work from home a couple of days before assembling in "the bunker" for the last few days. I am happy to oblige. The commute down to the home office is pretty easy.
We are natural homebodies. By and large, staying at home is actually not difficult. If I were not selling the house I would be home that much more.
The government is telling us to "stay the blazes home". Other than work, and getting victuals, we mostly do. Shopping has become a chore, anyway. We have to wait to get inside. They have direction arrows in stores pointing us which way to walk. If you delay for more than a moment, you can get exasperated sighs from people. So we go get what we need and leave as soon as possible. Plus, we go as seldom as possible.
I can't help but think that when this is over, that this may be the new normal. Society has changed so much in the last 30 days that I am not sure it can just snap back to normal when they relax the rules for getting out. People may decide they don't need a closed full of shirts they will just end up donating to a thrift store. May as well wear them until they can no longer be worn. Then, remove the buttons from the shirts, and tear up the shirts for rags. That is what we did when we were growing up.
When this is all over, the world economy will be in such horrid condition that people will have no choice but to economize as much as they can. I think we are heading into a few years of people just having to make do. Which is what a huge percentage of the population has always had to do.
People are encouraging others to keep a diary of this pandemic. I suppose some folks are doing that. But they are doubtless full of comments dealing with being cooped up, and worried sick about how they will support themselves once this is over. I don't mind being cooped up. As for money, I still have a job, and am grateful for that. And, on top of that, I have a pension from my civil service job. If that folds up like a cheap tent, then there would be thousands of people, long since pensioned off, who would be at a huge disadvantage. And all the people in the civil service now, contributing to their pensions for the day when they can run out the door, would all of a sudden wonder why they were contributing to something that would never happen for them. The bottom line is that I am not worried about the state of our pension fund, or of the amount that I am getting paid every month. If something untoward happened to it, the government would have to prop it up somehow. Would not sit well with the electorate, but neither does eliminating pension benefits for everyone.
I have found that worrying needlessly, particularly over things you cannot control, accomplishes nothing. I have fallen prey to this fretting, but once again, it got me nowhere. The government is doing everything it reasonably can to make sure people do not starve and can pay their bills.
Some people seem to be falling through the cracks, though. On Facebook today I read someone's plea for help. She lost most, but not all, of her income due to COVID-19. As such, she will not qualify for the government's CERB program, which only helps you if you have lost 100% of your income due to the pandemic. Other than EI, I am not sure what is out there to help her. I am confident the government will think of people like her and do something for them.
We live in scary, scary times, ladies and gentlemen.
Tomorrow promises to be a busy day for me. I will be unable to write a blog post tomorrow night, but I will try really hard to produce one on Monday.
Let's try to make it a date, ok? I miss you guys.
Bevboy
Sorry I haven't written lately. I have clearly got out of the habit of updating this here blog.
A few things have happened.
The house in the Valley is about to be sold. My parents' house. The one I grew up in. The closing date is April 29th. The last many weeks have been about cleaning out the place and trying to decide what things to keep. We are at the point where there are mostly just larger items to move out. A couple of bookcases. A bit of furniture. A couple of Patricia's kilns. Some odds and sods.
I had forgotten just now much WD-40 type stuff I own. I wanted to make sure that there was an adequate supply of the material, both here at Casa Bevboy, and the Valley house. I had cans of the stuff in strategic parts of the garage such that there would be one within easy reach. Ditto for the basement of the house. I suppose it was overkill. I have brought back 12 cans or so of the stuff, and I wonder what I will do with it all, given that I had several cans of it here already. I was worried about losing those little red straws that comes with the various types of water displacement products I own, so I put most of them in a standard non-business size envelope and keep it with the cans of those products, which I keep in a re-usable grocery bag. I likely have enough cans of that stuff to last me for quite few years. If there is a run on that stuff at the stores, because it is needed to combat the pandemic, then we are in good shape.
A bit of good news a couple of weeks ago. Remember that we had that flood last year? There was a $2000 deductible on the work, which was completed months ago. I finally managed to track down the new claim adjuster, because the old one left suddenly. She went through the file and because there had been some damage to the property (wrecked couch, and some other stuff), plus the work we did to mitigate the work of the people who tore the basement apart and put it back together again, that we had suffered enough. We will not get a bill for that deductible! That is $2000 I do not have to shell out, that I get to keep for a rainy day, that I get to keep in my savings account. I wrote her and told her that she had made my day. She wrote back and stated she was glad to be able to put a smile on someone's face in this day and age.
Yeah. Smiles are hard to come by these days, aren't they? Nova Scotia's numbers of people with the corona virus are up over 400. The number has doubled in... 10 days? Two people have died, and there will doubtless be more.
My editor at Frank wants us to work from home as much as possible, especially during the "off" weeks. Those are the non-deadline weeks. Even on deadline weeks we work from home a couple of days before assembling in "the bunker" for the last few days. I am happy to oblige. The commute down to the home office is pretty easy.
We are natural homebodies. By and large, staying at home is actually not difficult. If I were not selling the house I would be home that much more.
The government is telling us to "stay the blazes home". Other than work, and getting victuals, we mostly do. Shopping has become a chore, anyway. We have to wait to get inside. They have direction arrows in stores pointing us which way to walk. If you delay for more than a moment, you can get exasperated sighs from people. So we go get what we need and leave as soon as possible. Plus, we go as seldom as possible.
I can't help but think that when this is over, that this may be the new normal. Society has changed so much in the last 30 days that I am not sure it can just snap back to normal when they relax the rules for getting out. People may decide they don't need a closed full of shirts they will just end up donating to a thrift store. May as well wear them until they can no longer be worn. Then, remove the buttons from the shirts, and tear up the shirts for rags. That is what we did when we were growing up.
When this is all over, the world economy will be in such horrid condition that people will have no choice but to economize as much as they can. I think we are heading into a few years of people just having to make do. Which is what a huge percentage of the population has always had to do.
People are encouraging others to keep a diary of this pandemic. I suppose some folks are doing that. But they are doubtless full of comments dealing with being cooped up, and worried sick about how they will support themselves once this is over. I don't mind being cooped up. As for money, I still have a job, and am grateful for that. And, on top of that, I have a pension from my civil service job. If that folds up like a cheap tent, then there would be thousands of people, long since pensioned off, who would be at a huge disadvantage. And all the people in the civil service now, contributing to their pensions for the day when they can run out the door, would all of a sudden wonder why they were contributing to something that would never happen for them. The bottom line is that I am not worried about the state of our pension fund, or of the amount that I am getting paid every month. If something untoward happened to it, the government would have to prop it up somehow. Would not sit well with the electorate, but neither does eliminating pension benefits for everyone.
I have found that worrying needlessly, particularly over things you cannot control, accomplishes nothing. I have fallen prey to this fretting, but once again, it got me nowhere. The government is doing everything it reasonably can to make sure people do not starve and can pay their bills.
Some people seem to be falling through the cracks, though. On Facebook today I read someone's plea for help. She lost most, but not all, of her income due to COVID-19. As such, she will not qualify for the government's CERB program, which only helps you if you have lost 100% of your income due to the pandemic. Other than EI, I am not sure what is out there to help her. I am confident the government will think of people like her and do something for them.
We live in scary, scary times, ladies and gentlemen.
Tomorrow promises to be a busy day for me. I will be unable to write a blog post tomorrow night, but I will try really hard to produce one on Monday.
Let's try to make it a date, ok? I miss you guys.
Bevboy
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