Three weeks

Good Morning!  We've been here three full weeks as of last night.  Those three weeks seem more like three months, actually.  It's pretty incredible to think of everything that happened in the last three weeks. Well, it's time for one of our patented rambles and meanders here on Da Blog. 

Soooo....whazzup now?  We sure enjoyed yesterday's Holiday in Atlanta.  We really needed that.  Plus, it was Half-Price Day at all of Indiana's Goodwill thrift stores.  Even though we have been dealing with mountains of stuff, we did manage to buy a lot of "new" stuff.  You know how we are about t-stores.  One of the key items we bought is a large suitcase.  We got the really nice suitcase, a rice cooker, a hat and a soup bowl for a mere 81 cents.  Yep, you read that right.  The Goodwill system here is amazing--they are actually better than Deseret Industries back out west and light years better than the Goodwill stores in Phoenix.  Believe it or not, they actually build new thrift stores from scratch and they are just like a real department store.  They even have plastic "rewards" cards that they scan whenever you donate stuff so you can manage your itemization and tax records online.  Well, when you donate stuff, you get credits on your card.  We've been donating so much stuff, we've built up quite a credit with Goodwill, hence the 81 cent purchase on that stuff.  We went to a second Goodwill and bought six really great wool sweaters.  It's going to get real cold here again soon--our "faux spring" here in January will end this week.  Anyway, the sweaters are good enough quality to actually bring back to Arizona and Idaho.

The suitcase will hold some of the stuff we want to save from Mom's Estate.  We're only bringing back photos and some mementos from Dad's Prisoner of War days.  Even so, there will be a few boxes of stuff to ship or carry on the plane.  That's our big goal this week--get all that stuff packed and shipped or prepped for American Airlines.  Friday we sold all of the contents of the house for one flat price to a couple of "stuff dealers."  They will have it all out of the house no later than Tuesday.  We also have now sold and transferred title on both vehicles.  We paid the termite people $1500 Friday to spend 8 hours treating the house.  The termites basically owned Mom's house but $1500 will set those termites back in their tunnels.  The guy who did all the drilling and so forth said he used over 300 gallons of the chemical solution on the house. 

This week, the house should be totally cleaned (such as it can be cleaned) and completely empty of everything except stray dust.  By the end of the week, we hope to have had the place professionally inspected, documented, appraised and listed for sale at a giveaway liquidation price.  There's a lot of damage to the house, especially the roof and also the termite damage.  It's going to need an entirely new kitchen. The hardwood floors are trashed and will need to be replaced.  We're estimating the bare minimum of repairs and rehabilitation will cost well in excess of $50,000, possibly much higher depending on how extensive the damage is to the roof rafters and ceiling joists.   Nobody's gonna want to buy a house in such disrepair unless the asking price is cheap-cheap-cheap!

We're going to a huge gun show at the State fairgrounds down in Indianapolis Friday and will undoubtedly have a busy weekend next week, too.  At this point, it looks like we will be able to return to Ol' Airy Zonie roughly about January 21.  That's barring any unforeseen circumstances, of course.  The next two weeks should be a lot less stressful than the last two weeks.

We have a couple of special stories to tell.  One is about the 39 Chevy and the other is about Cousin Ginny.  Both of the stories require separate, stand-alone blog posts.

Oh, here's a couple of interesting notes.  DF& LBR Terry M. totally finished his travel book yesterday.  That means it's actually printed and bound and exists in a form that you can pick up and read.  Congratulations, Terry, your perseverance has been (and will forever be) a HUGE inspiration!  Terry informed us that we show up on the Idaho Falls Parks & Recreation Commission roster as having been reappointed to serve until December 2014.  We hadn't expected to be reappointed so that's Big News.  Thanks for passing the news along, Terry.  And, by the way, it appears that Susun has been appointed to the Idaho Falls Beautification Commission where she will get to serve alongside Terry, too.  What fun!  No doubt Terry & Susun will hatch some plans to really beautify River City, eh, Terry?

That's all for now.  Have a great day & Many Cheers, jp