Yesterday I had the company that used to do the annual subterranean termite treatment at my old house out to my new place. I was interested in getting a quote to do the same for my new place as it is good peace of mind, subterranean termites can be very destructive. I have had the service for over 20 years and it cost me $350 a year to renew so I figured that was what it would cost me to get the service installed at the new place. I was wrong.
The upfront install price was $1000 plus which made me cringe. I pushed back on the guy telling him that was way more than I was expecting based on what I had been historically paying. He explained that the upfront install price is more, once I would start renewing every year the price would drop back down. I still pushed, asking if there was anything that could be done since I have been a customer for over 20 years. He said he would call his manager and see. After a very, very long time he came back in and offered me $100 off, not as much as I was hoping but it was at least something. I signed up and will have the protection installed later on today.
I also contacted FHIA yesterday, the company that installed my impact windows at the old house. I got an email about the kitchen and bath remodeling services they provide. I was more or less happy with the work they did on the windows so I figured I would get some numbers from them on doing the kitchen where I would have them reface the cabinets, install new countertops and backsplash. While the guy is there I may have him give me numbers for the work I want done in the bathrooms as well, can’t hurt.
Last night I played volleyball and had my best session so far since returning. I would dare say I played well. All of my core skills were solid. My team only lost one game out of the 6 or 7 we played. It felt good to not only perform at a decent level but also emerge without any significant physical ramifications. I play hard, despite a lot of the other players being more novice. No one comes off the court sandier than I am, ever.
Yesterday the wife of the couple that bought my house stopped in the office to grab the two garage remotes I had along with a spare key. I asked her how the move went and she said quite well. She said they are both very happy and their two huge dogs love the property as well which I was happy to hear. It makes me feel good how things have worked out all around. I said on my Friday night live stream if I wrote a script regarding how all of this worked out I don’t think I could have had a more optimal outcome. Well almost, if I am being honest.
I have a very long history of being in long term relationships for almost the entirety of my adult life, as anyone who is a regular reader of this blog already knows. In those relationships I have had many ups and downs with many issues being tied to my own actions, thoughts or behavior. I am far from perfect. However one thing I have never done is try to play games with people. Games are something I play online, not with other human beings feelings or emotions.
Over the last couple years I have been taught a lot of lessons from the school of hard knocks. The lessons keep coming, it’s a matter of me responding appropriately to what is being taught, regardless of how it pushes against my boundaries of comfort and my basic premise of doing onto others as you would want done to yourself.
I need to revel in my successful home transition, the opportunities that are ahead of me and a bright future. I don’t have the time or desire for games of that nature.
With the majority of boxes being unpacked this weekend I could turn my attention more towards upgrading and/or fixing things. Since the yard crew took care of mowing my grass and weed whacking Saturday morning I was free to get started earlier. I did the most physically demanding repair of the weekend first, which is my normal preference, replacing the garage door rubber seal.
The seal that was on there looked ancient, it was rock hard and had shrunk to the point where there was almost a foot wide gap on either side of the door when closed. After using some WD40 and pliers to get the old seal out I tried to insert the new rubber I had bought previously. Despite my struggle I could not get it in. When I grabbed a step ladder and got a close look I realized why. The old seal had a singular round bead channel, the replacement I bought was an I configuration which is what most modern doors use, shit.
So I went back to Home Depot to see if they sold a seal with the round bead, they didn’t. However what they did sell was a kit that included new aluminum rails with an I style frame with seal that is designed for this scenario. When I got home I was able to remove the old seal frame which was held on with a bunch of sheet metal screws and installed the new aluminum replacement. The new frame came in sections that you had to careful align, the last section had to be cut to length. Once the frame was installed the unfun part began, pulling the rubber seal through it.
I have done this task a couple times before but that experience didn’t make it go any faster. After feeding the first couple feet in easily it becomes a back and forth tug of war where you stuff some in the entry side and then pull on the other side. Each push and pull only moves the seal maybe a half foot at best. Since you need to cover 17-18 feet it takes awhile. I kept plugging away until the seal was covering the full length of the door. I was sweated through my shirt by the time I did my last pull.
Saturday afternoon I thought I would tackle installing the upgraded Xfinity X1 gateway that promised 10G wireless service. I have upgraded my gateway once before and it was literally plug and play. This was far from that. I initially tried activating it through an online chat. For some reason the Indian support rep just could not get it to work. After a frustrating 45 minutes I asked if a phone call would be better. He arranged to have his supervisor call me.
The supervisor had no better luck getting the gateway online after wasting another 30 minutes. During this phone call he revealed that unlike my previous upgrade, the 10G gateway would require me to redo every wifi connection I have in the house. The inability of the rep to get me online combined with this news drove me to tell him to just forget it, I would keep what I have. He was happy to oblige that request. I returned the brand new modem to the Xfinity store prior to going out to dinner. What a cluster F.
Late Saturday I also took the EX30 wheel out for it’s maiden voyage, a ride to the Dunkin Donuts. I took the back way for the first time which is likely the path I will take when I decide to take an EUC to work. It’s more scenic with less traffic albeit slightly longer. It was a great ride.
My sciatic pain was very problematic this weekend. I have become accustomed to my first 15 minutes being painful when I get out of bed during the morning but the last few days I have had pain off and on all day which is worrisome. I have been making sure to get in more of the stretching and exercises the chiropractor gave me. I think with moving I have not been able to focus on doing that. Now that I have a “normal” week I am hoping I can beat the pain down once again. It is intense when it is at it’s worst.
Sunday I again worked around the house, adding some automation. I replaced the switch that controls the exterior lights with a smart switch which allows me to put them on a schedule. I like the way the exterior lights look but having to rely on me remembering to flip a switch on and off every night just was not going to work. I also added a smart switch to control the kitchen recessed lighting which is great because I now can voice control them. I will add some more “intelligence” to the house as I find the need. I’m still in the dark regarding what some of the switches in the house control.
Later in the afternoon I loaded the EX30 up for a ride down to Marco to do some hill testing in the Indian Hill area, it was nice having the drive take half the time it used to. I did a total of 22 hills going over and back Indian Hill. The EX30 performed very well, as I expected it to.
The rest of my evening was chill, Elsa and I watched some Picard while I ate dinner as I reveled in how much I am enjoying this reboot of my everyday life experiences.
I did get an email from the new owners of my house on Friday. Evidently they wanted to fill the pool which was several inches low due to lack of rain and evaporation. Whenever I filled the pool I used water straight from the well which is smelly and has tanins which you correct with a lot of liquid chlorine. However the new owner did not know that and he instead used the hose connected to the RO system. The end result was he emptied the 300 gallon RO tank and had no water left for the house.
I apologized for not mentioning that to him during his orientation with me and filled him in on how it was supposed to go. I have a feeling it won’t be the last set of questions I get.
Last night I had the Tesla in the garage. The first time I did this I had it parked in front of the washer and dryer but the clearance is too tight. It needs to be to the left of the washer or dryer to fit comfortably. I am still using the Y splitter off my dryer outlet to charge the car and will continue to do so for now. It works fine, as long as I am not drying clothes and charging at the same time.
I have now put away enough stuff that I feel comfortable working on small upgrades/repairs. Yesterday I replaced the original doorbell with a sleek and low profile Ring doorbell. I plan to add a bunch of tech to the home over the next few months. I am still at the discovery stage however, I am not sure how everything works. There are switches in the house that I have no idea what they control. Trial and error will sort that out. I also bought a free standing kitchen pantry cabinet to ease some of the storage strain until a permanent pantry is built down the line.
My new proximity to work and the commuting time it saves me has some amazing benefits. I now get to sleep almost an hour later in the morning. Getting home nearly an hour earlier also makes me much more productive at night. I did the Ring install and a bunch of other small tasks before it was even 6:30. It’s such a game changer across different aspects of my existence.
When I was out in the yard with Elsa last night I spotted this baby bunny. It stayed as still as a statue which is how Elsa did not even notice it. I went back outside to get closer and take the picture, it didn’t move an inch, so cute.
Around 8PM, after a very productive evening I decided to take my OneWheel GT out for the first time in months. I rode up to the greenway path nearby which is not all that scenic and has no lighting. However the GT has a bright headlight and the wide path is great for big and slow carving. I rode more than 7 miles and really enjoyed it.
Yesterday I signed the paperwork related to the sale of my house. Unlike buying a house, selling one only required maybe 10 signatures, instead of 50. The actual closing occurs this morning. If all things go as planned the number in my savings account will grow exponentially by sometime this afternoon.
This weekend I plan to keep plugging away at new home related to do’s which will likely be the course of action for awhile. The difference with these to do’s are they are things I want to do instead of have to do. At this point I have everything in place I need to function normally. It’s awesome.
Yesterday was my last day off from my week long house transition “vacation”. During the morning I took what now seems like a long drive out to the old house to drop off some empty containers and boxes. I also wanted to just take a peek around the house to make sure everything was in good shape, it was.
For the second day in a row I played pickleball at lunch with my buddy Juan. Both days we have played singles which is much more physically demanding but my body held up thankfully. It took me 5 minutes to get there.
During the afternoon I packed up and shipped out the massive EX20S EUC that I have been trying to sell for awhile. I got less than I hoped for it but it still is a nice little chunk of money to put towards new home improvements/expenses. The box for the thing weighed 120lbs. Because of the size of the box there was no good way to lift it without putting a lot of pressure on my back.
During the down times during the day I worked on more unpacking. At this point I bet I have less than 10 boxes to empty which is incredible. I am still finding stuff to throw out, despite it making the journey to the new address. I am really pleased with the condition the house is in 5 days after moving in. I remember when Ali and I moved into the house we built, we had boxes in the garage for months.
My sciatic pain has been worsening the last few weeks. The first 15 minutes after getting out of bed is the most excruciating. I walk around like a cripple until it loosens up. Last night I had to get up to pee and wound up on my knees with my head on the rug for a few minutes to let that area relax, it’s out of hand.
Part of this is because I have been away from my normal daily routine which includes visits to the gym. Normally every day I am doing stretching which includes stretches for this issue. For whatever reason when I am not at work I find it very challenging to make myself set aside the time to do the stretching. I need to fix that as the level of pain in the morning is unreal at times. Once I am up and moving it subsides and as documented here I am still able to do things like play pickleball and volleyball. However I dread getting out of bed now. I am hoping returning to work and my new normal routine along with additional stretching at home will beat the pain back. If not I will schedule another visit with the chiropractor for some more extreme solutions.
Today I am signing the paperwork for the sale of my home. The closing is technically tomorrow but I am allowed to sign early so I am doing that today. By doing so I should be performing the last step in completing the sale of my home of 22 years which will be celebrated by a chunk of money getting wired into my savings account sometime tomorrow.
I can’t go into minutia about the move as there is a lot of blurring of timelines, so much has transpired in the last 5 days or so. Those of you that like to skip to the end, let’s just say it went well.
Thursday and Friday were a dash to get as many things ready to go as possible, both at my old house and the new one. All week I had been making shuttle runs with the truck getting smaller items that filled spaces like the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the closet already staged and ready to go. Friday all remaining tech was pulled down including the TV’s, the house was ready to go.
The plumbing was also fixed on Friday but I still had a big hole in the wall to fix. I talked to my neighbor about the repair, he has more drywall fixing experience than I did. The other issue was almost all of my tools were packed so we used a combination of my stuff, what I had left, and stuff I bought from the local hardware store AND Home Depot.
I used measurements to cut a piece that was approximately the right size and shape. I had to get the drywall from Home Depot. I was thrilled to see they sold 2′ x 2′ sections just for repairs instead of my having to buy a big huge sheet of drywall. Walt did the taping and mudding of the joint, which he did a total of three times. I did the finish work, sanding it down and eventually painting it. Because of some shitty things the builder did, the piece had a bit of a bow to it but we managed to hide it pretty well. The fact that it’s behind the washer makes it even less significant.
Walt also helped me get the washer and dryer from the old house in place. The dryer was actually wider than my Samsung dryer, requiring us to remove the laundry room door to squeeze in place. We eventually got it all in, reconnected, and tested, thank goodness.
I set my alarm for 6AM Saturday. The movers were supposed to arrive between 8:30 and 9:30. I zipped around the house, stripping the bed and grabbing the few remaining items I could see. As I walked around I paused for a few moments and tried to wrap my head around the idea that I would never sleep in this house again. The reality felt strange.
I heard the big truck pull up somewhere close to 9. Three guys hopped out, the crew lead Dante with two younger guys, Anthony and “A”. I took them around the house, showing them what was staying and going. They seemed pleased that a lot of the stuff was staying put, I didn’t blame them. They got busy, prior to moving a piece they enclosed it in a blanket and then used plastic wrap to seal it in which was nice. While they moved furniture I resumed my quest to button up anything that was left to do.
I assumed they would have a lift gate on the truck but they did not. Instead they just had a long ramp that they carted everything on, it seemed to work out well. The crew worked fast and in less than two hours the truck was loaded and ready to go. They said they would meet me there.
On the way to the new house I stopped at an ATM to grab cash to tip them which I assumed was customary. When I got to my house they were already there, setting up the ramp to unload. Once again I played traffic cop showing them where each piece was going as it came off. Unloading took less time than loading which was great. The other great thing is because things went so quickly my bill came in more than a third less than I was originally quoted, awesome.
Right as the movers were winding up Don showed up. He was going to drive me back to the old house so I could pick up my truck, I drove the Tesla to meet the movers. He did a quick walk through of the new place and understood why I like it. I told him I would buy him lunch for the favor so we stopped at Tacos and Tequilla on the way to the old house. It was a well needed break in the action. While we were at the house we loaded another set of smaller boxes into the back of Don’s Jeep which left enough stuff that I could grab in one more visit.
We unloaded at the new house and I told Don I was good to go, only I could really do the unpacking and make the decisions of what went where. I thanked him for his help and told him I will have him back over to hang once I am all settled in.
The next few days were just a constant stream of tasks. I tried to be somewhat focused, trying to handle one space at a time. The bathrooms and bedrooms were pretty straightforward. The garage was the staging ground where all of the boxes went, I just started pulling and emptying.
The most challenging room was the new hobby room/office. Not only was I combining functionality that was split across two rooms at the old house, I was putting it all into a room that is a smaller than either of those rooms at the old place, quite the challenge. It took some trial and error but eventually I came up with what you see in the picture and I am quite happy with it. I have one left over 6 foot workbench that I will wind up giving away but I should be able to do what I need to do.
I ran to Ace Hardware multiple times to grab things, it’s amazing to have it less than a mile from the house. This is a theme that has repeated itself many, many times over since I have been here, the joy of having everything I need in my nearby proximity. My first night sleeping here on Saturday went well, really well. I didn’t wake up until 8:30 from a combination of exhaustion and Unisom.
The work has continued at a steady but not frantic pace. The consistent effort has resulted in my being much further ahead in the task than I expected. Even the garage is looking pretty damn good at this point. I hung pegboard yesterday and cleaned up the rolling chest.
To charge the Tesla I am using a splitter cord off the dryer outlet for now until I get a permanent solution installed, it works which is all that matters, for now.
I even found the time to go out on a brief ride on my Sherman S. I had a ton of comments from viewers saying they can tell how happy I am. I’m glad it shows.
Yesterday I met my buddy at lunch to play pickleball, it took me 5 minutes to get there. I then played volleyball last night, it took less than 15 minutes to get there. You see the pattern. Tomorrow I am signing the papers for the sale of my house and then that’s that. It’s time to close the book on one two decade long chapter and begin a new one. 2023 is going to be great.
Of course I knew that moving was going to be crazy but yesterday was a testament to what I can expect for the next week or so. I am going to be utilizing the garage at the new place heavily to accommodate a lot of things. For this reason I needed to make sure that things that I don’t want or need are not in there. The old home owners left some old building supplies, plywood window covering and a garage fridge for me. It all needed to go.
I figured the quickest way to do this would be to list them on FB Marketplace, for free. Easy is relative because doing so opens the floodgates from both real and imaginary “buyers”. In total I have no doubt that I received over 50 inquiries. The good news is both the fridge and the huge pile of plywood were picked up by the end of the day. Being only 10 minutes away made it easy for me to run over there to facilitate the transfer.
The guys that picked up the wood did me a favor and helped me load the existing washer and dryer into the back of my truck since I am swapping units between homes. I probably gave them at least $500 worth of plywood. My plan is to get conventional hurricane window covers installed which are light and easily stored metal panels.
So last night my goal was to swap washer dryer sets. I can be stubborn and/or stupid at any given moment. I demonstrated both qualities during this process. I was too stubborn to ask fro help unloading the washer/dryer from my truck. Instead I used a motorcycle ramp to do it. I precariously balanced each unit on the ramp and slid them down, praying the ramp would not slip off the tailgate, which it almost did. Somehow I got them off in one piece.
So next I had to disconnect and pull out my Samsung units. I grabbed my slip joint pliers to disconnect the water lines. I first removed the hot line and moved to the cold side. This connection was more stubborn so I squeezed and turned harder. Then I heard it, CRACK, followed by the sound of rushing water, I had broken the feed pipe… I hauled ass outside and turned off the water to the house to stop the flow probably within 60 seconds. I was so pissed. I guess I should have held the fixture to provide some strain relief while cranking on it, I just never expected it to snap.
So now I had to find an emergency plumber. I made three calls before I found a place that was able to send someone out ASAP. The guy had to cut out a section of drywall to get to the damaged area. All he could do last night was plug the broken line so I could get water flowing again in the rest of the house. Someone will be coming back Friday to do a permanent repair, joy. It was quite the day/night already, but I was not done.
I had my neighbor help me load my Samsung units in my truck. I felt compelled to get them dropped off at the new place because I needed the bed of the truck empty to transport my 70 inch tv today. I only left my place a little before 9PM.
When I got to the new house my plan was to again try to muscle the washer/dryer off the truck myself. Luckily for me one of the neighbors saw me getting ready to attempt this lunacy and offered to help me lift them off which was awesome. His name was Randy, he and his wife live a couple doors down from me.
While I worked on getting the units hooked back up he gave me a lowdown about the community. He said they have lived there a couple years and have loved it. There are mostly retired people around us so it’s quiet most of the time. He invited me to a block party they are hosting at the end of the month which was nice. I’ll do my best to attend.
After hooking up power and water I fired up both units just to make sure they survived the trip which they did, thankfully. I looked at my watch and realized that if I hustled I could get to Home Depot before they closed at 10PM to grab some installation hardware I need for the TV. I can’t say I have ever been at Home Depot before when the store is closing in 5 minutes announcement came over the PA.
I collapsed into bed about 11PM, sore and tired, knowing I will be rinsing and repeating these crazy days for a little while. It’s coming together, slowly.
In anticipation for closing on the house Monday I loaded up the Tesla with crates to dump at the new place. With the rear seats folded down it can haul a decent amount of cargo. At noon we had the walk through of the new place. The sellers had only totally vacated earlier that morning so it was cutting it close.
It was weird walking into an empty home. Pulling everything out revealed a lot of patching/touch up painting that eventually will need to be done as there are dozens of holes in the walls where things used to be. That was one good thing about the way my place was done. Everything on the walls was pulled and holes patched before the painting was done, for this very reason.
The other good thing was to see the garage without it being stuffed with things. It allowed me to visualize the space better. There is a fridge and a huge collection of plywood and other scraps that they used as storm shutters. I plan to give all of that away to clear wall space. Otherwise everything about the place seemed as I remembered.
The closing on the house was at 2:30, right across the street from my office which was convenient. I was surprised so much “wet” signatures were still required in 2023 but I was signing documents for close to a half hour. Once it was done I headed back to the house to unload the Tesla. When I got there the realtor for the seller was there. When I was there earlier we noticed the garage door would not close unless you held the button down. My realtor contacted the sellers realtor and she had arranged to have a company come out to fix it, which was nice. The guy arrived while I was still unloading. He replaced both electric eyes and things were good to go. Since I have cleaners arriving this morning the stuff that I brought just stayed in the garage for now so they can clean out the cabinets and drawers before they are loaded up with things.
After work I ran home and immediately loaded up the truck with more of the storage containers that were filled over the weekend. I also loaded up Elsa, wanting to expose her to the new home for the first time. Once we got there I walked through the house and out into the back yard where she dropped her first deuce. She was nervous, as I would expect. Once we went back outside she immediately hopped back in the truck as I finished up with unloading. It will take her awhile to get adjusted.
After unloading we drove the 23 miles back and I loaded up more stuff but this time I left Elsa at home. I didn’t need to stress her out more. When I got back to the new place I unloaded and then handled a few housekeeping issues in the garage. I moved all of the spare wood together and put away spare shingles and ceramic tile which could be useful down the road. I am trying to clear as much of the perimeter walls as possible to allow me to bring in shelving and work benches where I can.
I was at the new place until about 9:30 putzing around. There will be countless putzing to come but I look forward to the end result.
Saturday morning I weed whacked and mowed the property for the FINAL time. Man did that feel strange. There have been so many tasks that have become reflex actions for me, yard maintenance is definitely one of them. I also boxed up the behemoth V13 and dropped it off at FedEx to be shipped to it’s next destination. I wanted to get these items checked off before I started on what I knew would more or less consume the rest of my weekend, packing.
My loose goal was to try to focus on one area at a time, clearing out cabinets, closets and corners. Doing this spurred another round of mass curbing of items that I just can’t see having the use or space for at the new place. I have a bunch of empty storage bins from my first round of purging so I used these bins primarily to hold the stuff I was taking. My plan is to take the bins to the new place, unpack them, and then reuse them to grab more stuff at my old house.
My brain is always planning ahead so it was choking on trying to come up with a logistics to handle everything that needs to be handled. I think the reality of trying to get a much bigger home with three external storage buildings into my new place with zero additional storage is going to be more challenging than I expected, even with the incredible amount of stuff that I have thrown/given away. I now have included in my possible scenarios having to rent a small storage space until I get a good handle on what I want to do. I do not want the new place to be stuffed with things. In addition to less space I also will have less furniture to put things in, compounding the challenge.
I kept working diligently but as the title implies, it felt like I was taking tiny bite size chunks out of a mountainous task. However I have come up against similar scenarios before and I always prevail, determination is something I do not lack.
I was exhausted by the end of Saturday, I slept like a rock, almost too much so. When I woke up and saw the clock said 8:45 I freaked out a bit, forgetting that daylight savings kicked in, bumping the clocks forward an hour. Regardless I had to hustle because the buyers for my house were scheduled to come do a walk through at 10. I literally pulled back in the driveway the same time as them with my Dunkin Donuts coffee.
I took close to an hour walking them through the property explaining whatever I could. They told me about their two wolfhound dogs, one weighing 135lbs and the other 185lbs, wow. They told me that they actually had possible plans to actually raise chickens and even add goats to the mix which would be awesome as long as they are ok with the associated work. Even taking as much time as I did there were a few things I forgot to tell them which I will try to include in a letter later. It was nice to meet the buyers, I am not sure if I will actually come face to face with the sellers of the home I am buying.
Once they left it was an all day grind-fest. I popped two sets of Advil along the way. I brought the various things that were boxed up already in the sheds up to the garage with more curbing of things that had survived round one of the purge. The overarching feeling of I need to take less with me drove me all day. Even so I still worry I just have too much. I pushed all day, finally calling it quits around 6:30 when I took my S22 to grab some coffee.
I have often mentioned how I prefer things to be orderly. I don’t like feeling things are in a chaotic state. Unfortunately with moving there is just no way to avoid that feeling. I have absolutely no desire to move again any time soon.
Today I do a final walk through of the new house at noon. I hope to find nothing significant has changed since I last saw it except for the garage being emptied out. I then have the closing on the transaction at 2:30. Assuming all goes as planned I then will start executing the migration plan, whatever part of it is actually formed in my head. I put the first set of containers in the Tesla last night and will likely drop them off at the new house later. I have a cleaning crew coming in tomorrow to get things bright and shiny as well.
My plan is to be running things back and forth between the two places during the week with the Tacoma as much as possible. My pie in the sky idea is to be sleeping there this Saturday night. Wish me luck, I’ll need it.
Some of my friends in LA made this “moving” tribute for me. It was cute.
So for awhile I have been getting warnings from GoDaddy that the version of PHP that was running on my WordPress sites was officially out of support range and was a potential security threat. Well no one wants that so as soon as I saw the message I tried to update my site to PHP 8 which is as easy as clicking a button in the GoDaddy console. However after clicking the button it caused my site to immediately crash and burn. I was able to push the button again to revert the change and all was well again, albeit with an outdated version of PHP up and running. I tried this upgrade several times and had the same results so I put it off, until yesterday.
So yesterday I was determined to figure out what the deal was. One of my sites was corrected by me disabling all plug ins, doing the PHP upgrade, and then reenabling the plug ins I needed. However this blog site still would crash when running PHP 8, even with all plug ins disabled. I placed a call with GoDaddy support to assist my troubleshooting. After some trial and error it was determined that the theme I was using for the blog was causing the crash. I probably should have been able to figure that one out on my own considering this theme is very old and has not been updated for around a half decade.
So now that I knew the problem I had to find another theme. I did not take tons of time to do this, I just wanted to find something that worked, which is what you are looking at currently. It’s a fresher, more modern look but has some bugs for me to still work out. One annoying bug for me is it appears the classic editor does not play nicely with this theme so I have been forced to write entries with the “block” editor which I have avoided up until this point despite it being out for years. It may grow on me.
So don’t be surprised if you tune in here and see a different theme in the future in case I decide I am not set on this one. In a way it’s appropriate that the look and feel of the blog changes after such a long time, considering all the other upheaval going on in my life right now.
Last night I had my last live stream ever in my current house. I talked about PEV things, the house transition and life in general. I had good audience participation that stretched the stream out to almost 3 hours. It will be interesting to see how/where streaming will take place at the new house.
Speaking of the new house, yesterday I contacted a lawn service that apparently services other homes in the area I will be living. I asked for a quote to maintain my yard. I was very pleased with the answer. For $160 a month they will come weekly to mow, weed whack, and trim bushes as needed. I instantly hired them. Not having to worry about keeping the yard in order is worth $40 a week to me, easily. It also dramatically reduces my need to keep anything other than simple yard maintenance equipment, a good thing with my new less spacious arrangements.
