Archives January 2023

Yesterday was a very long day.  I spent the day mostly at the house in case I was needed but I also popped out periodically for sanity breaks.  I was under the impression that the painting crew was going to be bigger than last week for the exterior painting.  I thought there could be 10 people inside the house.  Instead Frank had less than last week.  He was actually one person down from what he planned because someone could not make it.  With the amount of work to be done, it was a lot to ask for a crew of five or six.

They had to paint all of the ceilings, they had to patch the dozens of holes that I left from stripping the walls naked of any hardware.  Then, and only then could they start painting the walls. Oh and don’t forget the garage that was painted as well.  It was a tremendous amount of work.  As the day drug on I could tell they were trying to press to get it done that day.  As daylight faded it makes it very tough to accurately judge how the paint is applied.  I turned on every light I had available.

As the crew was feverishly trying to complete the master bedroom and bathroom I started trying to help clean up the main living area.  Despite drop cloths being used there was a lot of debris on the tile as well as a lot of small white paint splatters from painting the ceiling.  They were easy enough to clean up with a rag and alcohol but there was a bunch of spots.  The work finally wrapped up somewhere close to 7. I paid Frank with the understanding that there was a good chance that when daylight hits I could see some spots that need attention.  He said that was no problem and if I saw anything he will take care of it.

The transformation of the house was pretty dramatic. Having a lighter color on the walls changes the feel of the space, opening it up more.  I think it is a change that I like and a change that potential buyers will like as well.  After the crew left I had absolutely zero interest in starting the massive project of moving all of the shit I pulled out of the space, back in.  Nope, I already decided I was going to go to a bar to watch the Eagles playoff game against the Giants since I did not have a functioning TV in the house currently. However before doing that I had one stop to make.

Pulling some of the heavy pieces of the furniture out of the main living space revealed that when the color of the grout was changed from grey to black years ago it was not done in those spots under the furniture.  Well that would look like shit to a buyer so I knew it had to be addressed.  I also knew that I wanted to move everything back in Sunday so I really needed to fix this sooner rather than later.  There was black grout still left in the utility room but when I opened the container I found the grout had transformed into cement.  So I took a picture of the label and headed out to Home Depot to find some.  Luckily Home Depot still carries that brand and I was able to get the exact color that was used before.

With grout in hand I felt able to finally do something non-house related and headed to Brooks Burgers.  I got there a little after 8:30 and was shocked how empty the place was.  I figured a Saturday night with NFL playoffs going on would bring in a crowd, nope.  When I sat down at the bar it was me and three other people at the bar.  Well I wasn’t there to socialize, I was there to eat, drink and watch the game.

I did something for the first time ever, ordered an appetizer AFTER I ate my coconut shrimp meal.  I was still a bit hungry, was still watching the game, and it fell in line with my “bulking” strategy I have been doing the last few weeks.  Basically I have been trying to eat much more than I normally would to try to bring up the number on the scale that has sunk to right around my all time lows as an adult.  The scale has been moving up slowly so I keep eating, a lot. The Eagles dominated the game, crushing the Giants in every way imaginable.  The final score of 38-7 tells you all you need to know.  I can only hope this momentum carries through to next week.

So even though I did not get home until well after 11, I had committed mentally to getting the spots that needed to be grouted done.  It was the only thing that made sense, to me.  There were five total spots that needed to be addressed.  It was a slow and messy process that left me with two black stained hands.  It took longer than expected, I did not get into the shower until after 1AM, yes, 1AM.  I was exhausted.

Despite the stupid late grouting session I had my alarm set for 6:30.  I wanted the house back in some sort of order and I wanted it sooner rather than later.  I started working on the important things first, like getting the furniture in the main living space back in place and then getting the TV rewired and connected.  I was very fortunate that Kerri offered to help me move things back into the house.  Her help made what would have been another miserable chapter in the book of house painting, much, much better.  In a couple hours most of the big items were back in place which was fantastic.  I was extremely grateful for the help.

The rest of the day I tended to getting smaller things back in order, pulling back some but not all of the things that I moved to the small shed and old coop.  A LOT of the stuff is still out there and at this point I am thinking I may just leave it that way unless something that comes up where I would have to move some things back into the house.  Right now my mindset is if it’s in a box, leave it there if at all possible.  The end result of this is the house being backfilled with far less stuff than it had a couple weeks ago which is a good thing.  Even though the items I was dealing with were small, they were numerous.  I found myself feeling pretty wiped by 5PM.  Of course getting 5 hours of sleep could be partially responsible as well.  Despite being tired I truly felt like I was finally over the hump, and it felt, great…

I went and grabbed an evening coffee on my way to Home Depot where I bought a TON of new wall plates.  Most of the plates in the house look shitty with wear and marks from previous painting when the plates were not pulled off the wall.  In total I came home with something around 40 replacements.  Like the true genius I am, I did this without counting my actual need, instead estimating how many of each type I will need.  It will be interesting to see how close I am when I install them all tomorrow.

I still need to do some of my normal weekend tasks like paying my bills.  As of this morning my computer was not even set up so that, and several other things have gotten pushed off their normal time slot and you know what, it’s fine.  Tomorrow I will do something else that got pushed, grocery shopping, as well as going back up to pick up Elsa.  I think she will be happier to come to both the house and her dad being a little more stable.

As I said earlier, it feels like I just crested a mountain of this 2-3 week time period where so much focus was put on just how I was going to make this all work.  I truly feel like the worst is over, at least in the short term, and it feels damn good.  I now am sitting in a house that has transformed dramatically thanks to dollars and effort.  My hope is the end result is setting me up for the next chapter of my life, where ever that may be.

My day off yesterday was taken to try to get everything inside the house as ready as possible in preparation for the interior being painted this weekend.  When I got up in the morning I saw a bunch of grey, potentially menacing clouds.  When I looked at my weather app I saw that there was a 40% chance of rain.  When I came up with the plan to use the lanai as a storage dump there was no precipitation in the forecast.  As a result I had some things in the uncovered area which I then had to shove back underneath, just in case.  Luckily no rain fell and I was able to push things back out into the open, I had no choice.

I tried to be systematic, as much as possible, focusing on one room/area at a time.  When I could, I opted to move furniture outside if I could as less is more in this scenario.  Before very long the amount of things that were piled up outside were approaching hoarder like visuals.

I took a break around lunch time to go play pickleball with the gang which was a nice distraction from the chaos at home.  Since I was off I was able to stay longer than normal, playing a couple games of singles with Jeff. I was totally on fumes by the end.  By the time I got home I only had maybe 90 minutes of time to do more work before I had to take Elsa up to Babcock Ranch so she could stay with Ali and Shugs for the weekend.  I made a stupid decision and left the house about 4:20 which inserted me right into the absolute worst time of rush hour.  I sat in stop and go traffic on I-75 forever.  I was frustrated with myself for not planning my timing better.

Elsa was thrilled to see Ali and Shugs.  She has been stressed out by the upheaval in the house without a doubt.  Seeing familiar faces in a familiar surrounding was good for her.  Sadie came out when she heard me for a bit but then quickly returned to the bed where she spends most of her time.  She has made a slight rebound from the low point she had earlier in the week. It was good to see her.  Ali invited me to stay for pizza which would have been nice but I still had a bunch of stuff to do at the house so I had to reverse direction quickly.

The final push last night was grueling.  I just was tired both physically and mentally but I labored on as there was no other choice.  I made the commitment, I had to finish.  The pile of things on the lanai kept swelling to the point where I only had narrow pathways through it.  About 9:30 at night I called it.  There were a handful of things left to do but I set an early alarm to knock them out.  With no TV on the wall anymore my laptop and YouTube were my substitute.  Before I went to bed I did one walk through of the house with my phone to establish the BEFORE scenario.

I have a very long track record of taking on big projects solo fueled by determination or stupidity, depending on the scenario.  However as I walked throughout the house even I could hardly believe that this was done almost entirely by myself.  The amount of stupid determination just leveled up. Throughout this process there have been numerous times where I felt like I was tossed into the deep end, it’s a good thing I know how to swim.

Of course the fun has only begun.  Once the painting has completed I then have to bring everything back inside the house.  Taking stuff out was not a surgical process, it was blunt force.  Not much care was taken when I was ripping things out so setting things back up is likely going to take even longer than pulling it out.  I am already anticipating now taking Monday off as well to give me ample time to do the work.

Franks crew showed up on time again at 7 this morning.  He was impressed by how much I got cleared and his people started working immediately.  I am sort of in a weird place where I feel like I should be around but the inside of the house is basically uninhabitable right now as everything is covered in plastic and paint rollers are moving everywhere.  When I asked him if he thought this could once again be a one day job he wouldn’t say yes but he didn’t say no.

Since there is a good chance I will not have an operational TV tonight I am thinking about just going to the bar at Brooks to drink some of my stress away while I watch the Eagles/Giants game at 8:15.  I have a couple friends that have offered to come help me on Sunday bring the big stuff back into the house which will be a large help.  Asking for help is something I have never been good at, in any regard.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day.  They asked me what my Chinese zodiac sign was.  I had no clue, I only know my normal western zodiac sign is Sagittarius. I gave my birthday and year and was told that I am a Fire Goat. The Chinese Zodiac is a bit more specific where the year of your birth is significant and the day then adds additional detail.  When I looked at the description of a fire goat it was a bit scary how on point it was in regards to my strengths and weaknesses.  One of the things mentioned was a crazy level of determination when it comes to getting things done, imagine that.  It was interesting reading about the different animals in the Chinese Zodiac and how they relate to one another.  Do I believe this stuff is always true or accurate?  Who knows, it is as believable as much of the other things that mankind has subscribed to throughout history. Look up your sign and see what you think.

Back to work…..

Last night when I got home I wanted to do some more prep for the painting that starts bright and early Saturday morning.  Frank stressed to me that the less stuff that is in the living space, the better in terms of knocking everything out efficiently.  After looking at the weather forecast for the next few days that appear precipitation free I decided that one way I could clear space was by moving some furniture out to the covered part of the lanai. I moved furniture from the guest bedroom and office out there last night.  The stuff that remains in those spaces should be able to moved as needed without major hassle for the painters.

I plan to move more stuff out there between tonight and tomorrow, which I took off.  Of course moving furniture requires some grunt work.  I utilized furniture sliders for most of it.  With the few really heavy pieces that I will keep in the house I plan to put sliders under them so the painters can move things pretty easily. It’s taken some time to be drawn up on my mental whiteboard but I think I have a workable plan in place to get to the painting finish line.

During my last riding video I spoke about the house situation and how I feel like I am getting to the light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel in this case being the house painted and put back together.  I also talked about the longer term goal of finding/moving into a new home with less demands and more convenient geography which will add to my overall quality of life.

Much like I’ve experienced with the house prep, at this point there are a lot of question marks as to how I will get to the final goal.  I used an EUC riding analogy.  When learning to ride the advice I have given repeatedly is to look up, look forward towards where you are going.  When you look down at your feet it causes instability and a potential loss of control.  When you look ahead your body takes over and the mind takes the co-pilot seat.  At this point in regards to my future living situation I am focusing on the intent I have and less on the ins and outs of how I will arrive there.

I have been continuing to run scenarios in my head on how the interior painting is going to go this weekend.  To be proactive I took Friday off to allow me time to move whatever furniture that still needs it.  I will also be doing a last minute clearing out of the pantry and master closet.  I have not quite figured out where I will shove all that stuff yet.  I will also be taking Elsa to Ali’s place for the weekend so she will not be in the middle of what surely will be chaos.  I haven’t quite figured out what I am going to be doing while there is an army of painters in the house.  I am thinking I will have my laptop set up outside and get some yard work done as I need to be available as needed if something pops up.  When the painting wraps up I need to then reorient/refurnish the house, albeit a much more minimalist version of it.  Once that is done, I can finally sit down, take a deep breath and evaluate.

I have had conversations with friends about the house scenario.  In those conversations I have expressed some of my reservations about selling/moving, much of which centers around the unknown outcomes.  The saying, “a bird in hand is better than two in a bush” is famous for a reason.  In this case, I have a home that I love and know.  More than one of my friends have suggested that there is no reason I have to sell, and they are right.  Maybe a fresh face on the house and tremendously less amount of things in it should be enough of a change, for now.  Of course I have thought about that scenario.  However when I do I have equated it to someone fearful of jumping off the high dive climbing to the top of the platform, sticking their toes over the edge, look down, and then retreat back to the ladder, climbing down to the firm ground that they are familiar with.  I have come this far, it seems stupid to not jump at this point, to me.  One of my favorite sayings is “do the hard thing, the power will come”.  I am putting trust in those words.

I once again have rolled into a prolonged period of time where my quality of sleep has been lacking.  The simple act of falling asleep can be challenging unless I am absolutely exhausted.  The maddening scenario is when I wake up around 3-4 AM and my mind clicks on, refusing to quiet down no matter how much I want to go back to sleep.  I have always had a big focus on health and wellness.  Inadequate sleep is an anchor that can drag everything else down with it.  Sure I prop myself up artificially with caffeine during the day but that is certainly not treating the problem, just the symptoms.

I got a report from Ali that Sadie likely had another seizure and her ability to stand and support her own weight continues to go downhill.  I think we will have to make an emotionally crushing but necessary decision, soon.

My Monday had a lot of similarities to my Saturday and Sunday where the tedious process of deciding what does/doesn’t matter and then acting accordingly is repeated hundreds of time.  This process resulted in a huge pile of things by the street to be freely taken by whomever wanted them, a bunch of things that were not thrown being relocated to the small shed, and the garage and utility room having most of the stuff removed from them.  I also temporarily relocated all of my PEVs to the chicken coop until the painting is done.

The biggest hurdle I am going to have is trying to move furniture to enable them to paint certain rooms. I may try to temporarily stick some furniture on the covered part of the lanai to make it more workable. There will also be a last minute rush to empty the closet and pantry so those areas can be painted.  It’s weird but in some ways it feels like this part of the journey might be more bumpy than the move itself since I have already done a substantial amount of heavy lifting when it comes to simply getting rid of stuff, the hardest part of any move.

Late in the afternoon I went on another stress relieving ride, this time on my Begode T4.  It’s 16 inch form factor is a lot of fun to zip around on.  During the ride I talked about my incoming Sherman S and the state of the house prep work.  It felt good to get out of the house and just do something I enjoy.

I saw in my USPS informed delivery email that I have a citation coming from the city of Downey, one last annoying reminder of the shit show which was the AirBnB that we stayed at.  The citation is because the rental car was left on the street during the street cleaning day, something I was not made aware of by the AirBnB host until the day of the cleaning, after I was already out of the area.  I can hardly wait to pay my citation.

This past weekend was the Naples Half Marathon, for many years this was one of the most stressful times of the year when I was the race timer for the running club.  This was the most prestigious event we held with people coming from all over the country and world to participate.  It was a tremendous responsibility that I took very seriously.  Well one year I had an unmitigated disaster where I failed in upholding that responsibility.

Without getting too technical, the timing devices that were used have a unique code associated with them.  Each one of these devices is assigned to a runner bib number which is associated to a runner.  When setting up the timing system for a race there is a file that gets loaded that has all of these codes in them.  You get this file from the chip vendor when you buy chips.  It’s not a complicated process and I did it for every race before without issue which perhaps made me too complacent.

So as the first elite runner crossed the finish line I noticed a chip code for the runner popped up instead of the runners name, odd.  I also was running a manual timer as a back up where you hit a button as a runner crosses.  However once large amounts of runners start coming across simultaneously it becomes unreliable.  As more elite runners started crossing and all I saw was codes I felt sick to my stomach, something was screwed up.  This was my worst case scenario.

Distance runners care about how they did against their competition and the way they do that is via the official race timing, which I could not provide.  I had other club members shielding me from questions as I feverishly tried to figure out what happened, which I finally did.  The code file I got from the vendor was incorrect causing the mismatch.  I desperately tried getting someone from their support to see if they had the ability to send me the correct chip file which would have allowed me to correct the issue, they could not provide it to me.  I was dead in the water, I had failed.  So although the error was from the vendor, the cold truth was I could have scanned a few chips before the race just to verify everything looked ok.  I could have caught it.

So we did a half ass awards ceremony where we were only able to hand out a few awards based on the manual timing we captured at the finish.  I am the type of person that takes any responsibility I agree to take on seriously, failing that responsibility to thousands of runners hit me hard. The club got a letter from the mayor at the time, who was also a runner, complaining about how disappointed he was that the race results were not available.  Similar complaints rained in over the next several days and I deserved every one of them.  That feeling of failure ate at me and even though the race was over and the damage was done I was still trying to figure out a way to make things right.  I then came up with an idea.

There was a race photographer at the event that took a picture of every finisher.  I asked him if he would be willing to let me have those finish line shots.  He said I could but was curious what I wanted them for.  I told him I was going to use them to provide race results, manually. He was a bit shocked but sent me the thousands of pictures.  What followed was hours upon hours of work where I was cross referencing the timing data that I captured with the finish line photos which allowed me to associate a runner bib number with the chip code.  In the end I was able to formulate nearly complete results for every participant, albeit a week late.  It was one of my biggest failures but also turned out to be a one of my biggest triumphs as a race timer in the end.  I don’t give up.

As expected my weekend has been pretty stuffed with precious few breaks.  On Friday night after eating pizza I turned my attention to the office.  I set my sights on getting my old desk ripped down, out to the curb and replaced by the glass desk that has sat unused in the office for a year and a half.  My desk had a lot of shit on and in it.  I used it as an opportunity to do some more culling, tossing out things that had no viable use anymore.

After clearing the desk getting it out to the curb actually was not that bad, a well utilized hand truck can make all things possible.  Ripping out the old desk was actually a little easier than figuring out how to reestablish my core workstation on the new smaller glass desk.  I probably spent a solid hour getting everything hooked back up in a way that was acceptable to me.  The good news is when it comes time to move things for interior painting next weekend this desk has wheels.  Unplugging a couple things from the wall should be all that is needed to make my computer portable.

Elsa was not a fan of me removing the old desk as she always liked hiding under there by my feet.  I have come up with a workaround with the new desk that allows her to go under there if she wants although the experience is clearly not the same.

I set my alarm for 6:15 Saturday morning in anticipation of Frank’s painting crew.  When I moved my Tesla out of the garage there was already a car in the driveway with some of the crew even though it was only 6:45.  Hey I’ll always be a fan of being early instead of late.  The rest of the crew showed up within a few minutes.  No time was wasted at all as there was paint getting put on the walls a few minutes after 7 AM.  It was interesting seeing how the crew of 6 or 7 worked.  There were guys with the pole rollers that were covering large sections of wall but stopping a couple inches from the top and bottom.  Others were the detail painters who would do those last couple inches as well as the tricky spots like around the window casings.

Frank was inside the house early sanding down the spots on the ceiling he repaired last week.  The repair looks good now, unfortunately the work unleashed a storm of plaster dust that covered a large area in the main living space.  I don’t really think it could be avoided, sanding sort of does that.  I ran out to do a couple errands with Elsa.  When I got back I was amazed at just how far they had gotten.  When the house was last painted it was by spray gun, I couldn’t believe they did this with rollers and paint brushes.

When I first saw the main color applied to the walls I had a bit of hesitation as it looked very close to the color of the metal roof, the lack of contrast concerned me a bit.  However as it dried and the second coat was applied the paint color lightened a bit, leaving me with an end result I really liked. The crew was completely done by 2:30 PM.  For some reason I thought this was going to be a multiple day job, I was very, very wrong.

I paid Frank and thanked him for the good work.  We talked about next weekend and the need for me to make sure as much stuff as possible is out of their way since he will have an even larger crew doing the work this time.  I assured him I will do as much as I can but there is no way to avoid having to move some things around as the paint is applied.  If I wasn’t still living here it would be a different story.  He said worse case if a lot of moving needs to be done he could charge me a relatively small amount for the extra time/effort needed which was fine with me.

Once they left I wasted little time heading out to the lanai to install the new fan that was picked out earlier in the week.  It’s a more modern black fan that looks great against the new grey base color.  Installation was pretty simple compared to some of the numerous fan installs I have done over the years.  I think it looks good.

Despite a very long day I had a live stream scheduled for Saturday night.  It was the first time I had done a conventional style stream from home in awhile.  What wasn’t conventional was the visual.  I was using the new desk, a new camera, the mic was converted to a tabletop style, and the furniture in the room was mostly missing.  It was a long stream that touched 3 hours.  There were a lot of funny moments along the way.

I was tired, staying in bed until almost 8AM this morning, late for me.  When I took Elsa out to the bathroom I did a quick double take, forgetting for a second that the house was just painted.  I like the color combo even more on day two which was a good feeling.  My bill paying session was terrible because I had the credit card statement from Christmas to reconcile which is always the most brutal and lengthy of the year.  I then also had all of the charges from the PA trip and California so in total I was working on bills/reconciliation for at least an hour and a half.  After returning from the coffee/Home Depot run with Elsa I turned my attention indoors.

Frank had made the suggestion I get some fresh white weather stripping for the freshly painted front door.  He said it will help give that fresh appearance when someone walks in the front door.  I appreciated the suggestion and popped the new strips in.  He was right, it makes a difference.

I then turned my attention to the main living space that had a layer of dust on most surfaces.  I thoroughly cleaned all of the counters, vacuumed the floor and then followed up with the steam cleaner to grab whatever was left.  The space felt and looked cleaner than it has in quite awhile which was welcomed.  The visual chaos that has been associated with this process has been one of the more unpleasant aspects of it all.  The cleaning swung the needle back the other way a little bit.

During the afternoon my main focus became the garage which also needed to be cleared for painting.  I came up with what I thought was a good plan, utilizing the small shed for temporary storage.  However when I went into the small shed I discovered another treasure trove of unwanted/unneeded items. Much like other areas of the house, I never did a thorough clean up of the shed in the last 18 months so I was able to clear up a TON of space.  Much of it went straight to the curb where several curb shoppers helped themselves to the items almost immediately which was great.

So with this additional space cleared I started the process of moving things I DID still want in the garage to the small shed which will make painting the garage much cleaner.  I made a good dent in the garage and plan to continue the strategy tomorrow as well as doing something similar with all the stuff that is in the laundry room.  Evaluate, curb, throw out and whatever I deem worthy can go in the small shed for now until painting is done.  It actually is working pretty well.  I am utilizing the wheelbarrow to make each trip more impactful.

I also went around and put things back on the exterior of the house like the hose hangers and some additional gutter down spout where I pulled the water barrel from.  The only Ring camera I reattached was the front door camera.  The devices on the east and west side of the structure are going in a box for now.  It was a very productive day.  I’m hoping for similar results tomorrow.

Although my churn and burn attitude has remained mostly intact doing this massive clean up there have been a few moments where I have sputtered.  There were a couple times on Saturday while the painting was being done where I just sort of sat and stared at the space, feeling a bit lost.  Luckily those moments were relatively brief until my inner taskmaster was back on my shoulder telling me to get back to work.  There just isn’t time for reflection at this point and time.  Maybe once the house painting is done I can pull the foot off the gas and coast, just a little bit.

Yesterday morning I went out to to feed the two office black cats as I do every morning.  The more dominant cat that has white paws will always come over to me as I  put the food down.  Yesterday he did not.  Instead he was laying on the outdoor pet bed I got them last year and was just looking at me.  I was concerned something was wrong with him.  I got closer and did not see any physical signs of an issue.  I put the food down anyway which the other cat quickly started eating and went back inside, concerned.

Throughout the morning I kept glancing out the window to see if white paws came over to the food, I did not see him.  Mid-afternoon I went back out to check on him.  He was still on the pet bed.  I plopped myself down on the cement pad next to where his bed was and just hung with him a bit to observe.  A few times he stretched his legs and crossed them while he sort of turned his head into the bed, something I associate with a cat being happy/content, not sick.  The second cat came closer than normal and laid down, not wanting to miss out on our first ever cat hang out session. I was probably out there for 10 minutes but got the sense he was ok, just tired for some reason.  When I went back out today he came over to eat so hopefully all is well.

Yesterday I played pickleball at lunch and after work out at the park by the house.  At the end of the session last night I played two competitive singles games against Jeff that included a ton of hard charging, stop and go action that left my knees feeling like hamburger at the end of play. I love playing but I also love walking without a limp so I need to be a bit smarter when it comes to walking that line as to how much is too much.

Last night marked the third night in a row where I didn’t do anything significant in terms of continuing the prep of the house for sale.  I have found my motivation reserves on the low side this week which is less than ideal timing considering what lies ahead of me.  Tomorrow the exterior of the house is due to be painted, I only a have a few tasks to complete to facilitate that luckily.  Inside I came up with the idea of dismantling/disposing of my huge, ugly, but effective computer desk.  I have a smaller/cleaner glass style desk in the room that I should be able to migrate my stuff to which should be more visually appealing to show the house.  I have an extended three day weekend so I will need to kick myself in the ass and take advantage of that time to get the interior of the house as ready as possible for painting the following weekend.  My goal is to have anything and everything I can do short of pulling clothes out of the closets done before I return to work on Tuesday.

I have a lot of navigation to do to figure out how this potential transition is going to eventually work out.  I need to run scenarios, come up with multiple solutions depending on circumstances, while doing my best to maintain a stable platform to keep the rest of my life moving forward as normally as possible.  Of course I have ample experience knowing that whatever you think/plan is going to happen quite often gets thrown out the window.  It’s in those times where improvisation becomes a valuable skill.

My sanitation driver(s) are very thoughtful.  Routinely I come home on trash day and find one or both trash cans in the middle of the driveway.  I completely understand why taking an extra 5-10 seconds to put the cans down with the robotic arm on the truck on the side of the driveway would be impractical for them.  It’s much faster and fun to start moving as the can is being returned to block the home owners driveway.  I feel badly I forgot to give them a Christmas card.

Last night after work I had my second evening in a row where I did absolutely nothing related to prepping the house for sale.  Instead I headed down to East Naples to play some pickleball, playing both singles and doubles.  My singles game has been pretty solid recently, doubles can be hit and miss.  I have always preferred singles as I like the challenge of 1 on 1 competition.  However doubles are significantly less punishing physically which is something I should give more weight to as I get older.  With doubles I feel myself getting more frustrated when I make a mistake because I also feel like I am letting down my partner.  Even though it was on the chilly side I lost my sweatshirt after the first game.  I didn’t get home until around 10 but felt my time was well spent.

Yesterday I talked to my dad, it was his 76th birthday.  During the call he gave me some sad news, his longtime friend Jay of more than 50 years had recently passed away.  Growing up we used to visit Jay and Jerry with my parents although I think the last time I saw Jay was at my sister Meg’s wedding many years ago. The two things that I remembered about Jay growing up was his Austin Healy Bugeye Sprite and his amazing model train set up. I could tell my dad was affected heavily by the loss and understandably so.

A couple days ago I also saw that the brother of a friend of mine from school recently passed away, he was 56 years old, a scarce year older than I am.  I’m getting to the age that this is going to happen more and more frequently but seeing his passing gave me pause.

It made me think about how you never really know how long you are going to be walking this planet and why it is important to make the most of your time that is gifted upon you.  That is part of why I have put new found effort into trying to connect with people in meaningful ways instead of surface only platitudes.  I feel the risk of putting myself out there is worth the potential reward.  I want my time left to be memorable, with more laughs, love and adventures than I know what to do with.

Last night after work I picked up a new fan for the covered area outside the slider to the lanai.  Years ago I put another fan out there that was specifically for outdoors.  The main component that made it that way were plastic blades that supposedly resisted the droop and sag conventional blades suffer from when placed outdoors exposed to heat and moisture.  Well guess what, they still have wilted like an old flower, making the fan look unattractive.  With listing the house I want things to look appealing not droopy so the modern black fan I will be replacing it with should have more eye appeal.  It was dark when I got home so I wasn’t going to try to swap the fan by flashlight.

I had a lazy mindset last night, not doing anything significant regarding house prep. I was tired, my trashcan was stuffed to the brim and out at the curb so I used that as an opportunity to just have a “normal” evening.  It felt odd. Now that I will be returning home to an empty trash container the festivities can resume.