somewhere in the depths of summer
lawns got mowed, swims got swum
kids came and went
there was music and light
lots of paint and constructing
in preparation for the seasons
and the years
to come
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Fall has settled in
yep, so it is...has been a beautiful summer here, the weather so breezy and fine, plenty of sun..this now having given forth to rain, not quite in buckets yet, but still, a good bit of it, things having greened up from the prospect, I do wonder about the numbers of animals at my home...another dog, Gino, who came to us as a casualty of the highway. he's doing well. just had a little drink of water as I sit here in the Visitor's Center, having put out the sandwich board announcing 'tourist information' and the arrow at the lower end of the board pointing to the open sign and the entry door...yep, it's wet and drizzly and there's changes afoot. the little couple that rents Michelina Haus are looking for new quarters. The piano never made it to the 'reef' and is still encased in the garage at Michelina Haus..well, they have a new baby now and it's all a bit much on them, being responsible for that place..so I have to decide how to manage it, if I should move back there, as the 'reef' isn't quite the 'reef' without some children in it...my large-bodied foster son having returned to his biofamily early in the summer..did get it approved for residency, however, the 'reef' and I think it would be the better of the two locations, but that begs the question of what to do with Michelina Haus..as it doesn't seem possible to actually sell it in this market, being as there are places for sale but few for rent. I haven't had the best of luck renting it, this current couple well, they were tidy enough in the main house but the garage with the things stored there was chronically out of hand most of the time...looking like a great jumble of stuff with ripe garbage here and there...and, whatever, was fun to redo the floors, still need more work there as I located some floor tile for the kitchen to replace the kitchen carpet in that area, but I found this longtime leak under the floor in the laundry, no doubt coming from the pipe to the washing machine, so that will have to be fixed...and the bathroom sink drain is slow again, want to pour some drano down that, but then again, I want to see how my handiwork turned out in the bookroom, where I restored the hardwood floor and varathaned..haven't been back to see how it looks because I haven't been able to communicate with the young couple, they're holed up in there, not talking, which is a difficult situation because I can't find the lease agreement we all signed...I just have to sort papers for a day and it'll turn up I think, meanwhile, I miss having kids in the house, it's very quiet at home with the dogs and the roughed up cat, who was also hit by a car and now has this ludicrous appendage for a tail since it seems it's been destroyed by the injury and is wanting to drop right off. Cat is much better, fed several times a day small meals and lots of sleep has gotten him restored but he's definitely shaken to the core and I can't see him having the tail surgically removed without a great shock to his already weak system. So we let him lay about, resting as he will, getting many pets and encouragement. He couldn't walk at first, like the little dog, but they're both up and about now, steadily building strength.
There was another young couple interested in buying Michelina Haus but in talking to their extended family I wonder if they could actually see it through. I suppose I ought to get in touch with my brother's friend, the realtor in Port Angeles and see about listing it as my broker here is very busy with a substitute teaching position in Neah Bay for the next few months. She had advised me to find a young family for that house and they'd probably end up buying it, which I thought was going to be the case but has turned out rather unpleasantly instead, so I think maybe just list it and let it go. I went round and round on this topic just this morning with a financial advisor who kind of put the ball in my court as far as being aggressive about it but I don't know that I have a clear understanding of it all even yet, as I drive by the house and see it occupied but with no guarantee of how things will be resolved.
Meanwhile, I have been attending EMT training and going out on ambulance calls. This day I am wearing a radio with microphone in case an alarm goes off. Just checked it to see that I'm getting the signal properly and I am. Yesterday was at the firehall helping inventory stock in both ambulances. There was a discussion of rate of pay for going on a call and it sounds like ten dollars a volunteer per trip. So far I've been on about five of those but I'm thinking as a volunteer student, I probably don't get that as yet. Here comes some visitors to the Visitor Center, 'hello'...
I tell them about the Slip Point lighthouse installation, that isn't really a lighthouse but is a grand old dormitory type building housing two families currently that avails itself of some parking and beachcombing which they say they've seen but didn't find an actual lighthouse structure, which there isn't. The weather continues overcast and I've been here just short of an hour already. Sunset is at 6:50 p.m. today, sunrise having been at 7:20 a.m., which is pretty darn late after the 5:30 am sunrises of the summer. I've had a late breakfast/early luncheon of banana bread and vanilla ice cream with my conversational friend and I don't feel the need of sustenance although if for lack of anything better to do, I might want some.
I've just put out the donations jar which I thought of doing while the visitors were here but don't want to seem aggressive about it. I realize I've forgotten the novel I was given to read at the chatty friend house and wonder if I'm up for lolling with a book in hand when there's so much to be done at Mermaid's Reef/Willison Cottage, which has had a new version of the roof installed in the late end of summer and still bleeds from the gills in regret of my apprentice skills. I'm happy with the ceiling in the affected bedroom but now that the cool weather is upon us, I feel the need to brace myself for the chill to come, so I'll be looking at the wiring under the house in terms of how in the heck did the dishwasher get installed? and while at it, plan the application of insulation to the areas affected by the coolness. There's also a drainfield to install under the front windows, along the foundation, where I have a wonderfully green flexible (sort of)hose to lay to catch water wanting to roll under the house and instead be tubed to the backyard and a catchment already in place there. All summer the creek was cleaned and cleared and fortified along its banks and it's doing well except for one spot where I planted forsythia in hopes I could garden prettily there next summer. I still have some rugged frame boards to put up on the back eve of the little garage (Willison's Cottage, I suppose I could call it) but I tremor at the thought of being on a ladder there with those heavy boards, although I did put up twenty' fascia on the back of the house while working on the roof, so I know I could do it. There's a gutter needing to go there as well and the garage itself has a dresser that needs to go in the bedroom off the kitchen, some carpeting that might do under the house till I get to the insulation business but that capped wire that was running the dishwasher off a 110 outlet, well, when I found out what had been done there, I disabled that arrangement and it needs to be done properly, so there's a matter of priority in how all this is achieved, of course.
Not thinking of returning to Michelina Haus but am thinking about the trip to Phoenix coming up for the delivery of my daughter's baby. I'd want any foster kids that come into my care before then to be properly supervised and that has been achieved in that there is a person standing by for that assignment and she says she'd stay there with the kids while I was away being the new grandmother. However, the kids aren't with me as yet so I don't know if that will come about before I have to be in Phoenix. And with the weather the way it now is, I'd as soon as go now as later, but my daughter wants me to help her become a new mother, assist with the new baby needs, and that wouldn't be necessary until the baby is home. Home for him at the moment is still riding around in his mother's womb. Frankly, she sounds a little fatigued at this point though she plans to continue to work until she delivers. She's feeling rather large now, I think, by the way she talks, her feet hurt and she says she thinks about foot massages a lot.
So I could fly down and rub her feet or I could wait until a little closer to the due date, which is the current plan. Meanwhile, I want to get my house in order for new foster kids, it pretty much is, having gone through the home inspection and visit from the licensing person, who's very nice. I don't have my renewed license in hand as yet but I'm sure it will be along shortly, as my training requires and so on are more than adequate. I do feel a little uneasy at the state Michelina Haus is currently in and last night at the firehall I sat next to my former neighbor when I lived in that residence. I felt uneasy being next to her as I find her somewhat of a burden these days with her overwhelming ability to be outspoken on any subject. It was unnerving. I listened to her for years, she was a good neighbor to me but she has always been like that and I have so much more rapport with my new neighbors. We're always doing fun things together, not like this neighbor, who has to run off and work 'in her room' at school most of the time. I think she hides there but that's her choice. Now it's the young couple soon to be gone that are in MH and with that in mind I wonder what's next for that house.
and it's quarter after one. i have a meeting at 7 at the Sekiu Center, I could put in a good block of time at Mermaid's Reef putting the other desk actually it's the Graham desk in the area where I now I have the computer, filing papers according to subject and not to convenience, setting up some groundrules for myself on what bills to pay (hehe, like there's funds to do that!!) always worrying about money more than I should...well, so be it..I could close up here now that I've had some visitors...decisions, decisions...
There was another young couple interested in buying Michelina Haus but in talking to their extended family I wonder if they could actually see it through. I suppose I ought to get in touch with my brother's friend, the realtor in Port Angeles and see about listing it as my broker here is very busy with a substitute teaching position in Neah Bay for the next few months. She had advised me to find a young family for that house and they'd probably end up buying it, which I thought was going to be the case but has turned out rather unpleasantly instead, so I think maybe just list it and let it go. I went round and round on this topic just this morning with a financial advisor who kind of put the ball in my court as far as being aggressive about it but I don't know that I have a clear understanding of it all even yet, as I drive by the house and see it occupied but with no guarantee of how things will be resolved.
Meanwhile, I have been attending EMT training and going out on ambulance calls. This day I am wearing a radio with microphone in case an alarm goes off. Just checked it to see that I'm getting the signal properly and I am. Yesterday was at the firehall helping inventory stock in both ambulances. There was a discussion of rate of pay for going on a call and it sounds like ten dollars a volunteer per trip. So far I've been on about five of those but I'm thinking as a volunteer student, I probably don't get that as yet. Here comes some visitors to the Visitor Center, 'hello'...
I tell them about the Slip Point lighthouse installation, that isn't really a lighthouse but is a grand old dormitory type building housing two families currently that avails itself of some parking and beachcombing which they say they've seen but didn't find an actual lighthouse structure, which there isn't. The weather continues overcast and I've been here just short of an hour already. Sunset is at 6:50 p.m. today, sunrise having been at 7:20 a.m., which is pretty darn late after the 5:30 am sunrises of the summer. I've had a late breakfast/early luncheon of banana bread and vanilla ice cream with my conversational friend and I don't feel the need of sustenance although if for lack of anything better to do, I might want some.
I've just put out the donations jar which I thought of doing while the visitors were here but don't want to seem aggressive about it. I realize I've forgotten the novel I was given to read at the chatty friend house and wonder if I'm up for lolling with a book in hand when there's so much to be done at Mermaid's Reef/Willison Cottage, which has had a new version of the roof installed in the late end of summer and still bleeds from the gills in regret of my apprentice skills. I'm happy with the ceiling in the affected bedroom but now that the cool weather is upon us, I feel the need to brace myself for the chill to come, so I'll be looking at the wiring under the house in terms of how in the heck did the dishwasher get installed? and while at it, plan the application of insulation to the areas affected by the coolness. There's also a drainfield to install under the front windows, along the foundation, where I have a wonderfully green flexible (sort of)hose to lay to catch water wanting to roll under the house and instead be tubed to the backyard and a catchment already in place there. All summer the creek was cleaned and cleared and fortified along its banks and it's doing well except for one spot where I planted forsythia in hopes I could garden prettily there next summer. I still have some rugged frame boards to put up on the back eve of the little garage (Willison's Cottage, I suppose I could call it) but I tremor at the thought of being on a ladder there with those heavy boards, although I did put up twenty' fascia on the back of the house while working on the roof, so I know I could do it. There's a gutter needing to go there as well and the garage itself has a dresser that needs to go in the bedroom off the kitchen, some carpeting that might do under the house till I get to the insulation business but that capped wire that was running the dishwasher off a 110 outlet, well, when I found out what had been done there, I disabled that arrangement and it needs to be done properly, so there's a matter of priority in how all this is achieved, of course.
Not thinking of returning to Michelina Haus but am thinking about the trip to Phoenix coming up for the delivery of my daughter's baby. I'd want any foster kids that come into my care before then to be properly supervised and that has been achieved in that there is a person standing by for that assignment and she says she'd stay there with the kids while I was away being the new grandmother. However, the kids aren't with me as yet so I don't know if that will come about before I have to be in Phoenix. And with the weather the way it now is, I'd as soon as go now as later, but my daughter wants me to help her become a new mother, assist with the new baby needs, and that wouldn't be necessary until the baby is home. Home for him at the moment is still riding around in his mother's womb. Frankly, she sounds a little fatigued at this point though she plans to continue to work until she delivers. She's feeling rather large now, I think, by the way she talks, her feet hurt and she says she thinks about foot massages a lot.
So I could fly down and rub her feet or I could wait until a little closer to the due date, which is the current plan. Meanwhile, I want to get my house in order for new foster kids, it pretty much is, having gone through the home inspection and visit from the licensing person, who's very nice. I don't have my renewed license in hand as yet but I'm sure it will be along shortly, as my training requires and so on are more than adequate. I do feel a little uneasy at the state Michelina Haus is currently in and last night at the firehall I sat next to my former neighbor when I lived in that residence. I felt uneasy being next to her as I find her somewhat of a burden these days with her overwhelming ability to be outspoken on any subject. It was unnerving. I listened to her for years, she was a good neighbor to me but she has always been like that and I have so much more rapport with my new neighbors. We're always doing fun things together, not like this neighbor, who has to run off and work 'in her room' at school most of the time. I think she hides there but that's her choice. Now it's the young couple soon to be gone that are in MH and with that in mind I wonder what's next for that house.
and it's quarter after one. i have a meeting at 7 at the Sekiu Center, I could put in a good block of time at Mermaid's Reef putting the other desk actually it's the Graham desk in the area where I now I have the computer, filing papers according to subject and not to convenience, setting up some groundrules for myself on what bills to pay (hehe, like there's funds to do that!!) always worrying about money more than I should...well, so be it..I could close up here now that I've had some visitors...decisions, decisions...
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