THE LIGHER SIDE CAFE WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 27

Yesterday I went into work to interview a wonderful young woman for a job in the presidents office. I really hope she takes the job as my colleague working there could sure use the help. The doggies also had their day at the spa yesterday getting groomed and cleaned up. They always come out looking adorable with bows in their hair for Daisy and bowties around their neck for Doug! Plus, they always smell heavenly. I wish I knew what kind of shampoo they used because I’d like some for myself! Last night I had the leftover Chinese food for dinner and DH picked up a salad at Panera. I had Moo Shu pork and some fried rice. After dinner, I FaceTime to with DDIL  for over an hour and we caught up on everything. She is still quarantining away from DS and our other DGS because of the CSV virus. Both two-year-old Aidan and DS have the virus and bad coughs and fevers. It’s always something!

I am debating whether I’ll drive into the office today. They are telling people to stay home and I might just listen to that. DH has gone into Boston. He’s a trooper. I am not.

Pam, I’m so glad your DH was finally able to get his shot. That was a long wait. I love your idea of making lasagna in small loaf pans. Brilliant!  As always, I so admire your energy levels and all that you get done particularly around the yard and garden as well as all the care for your DH and your hospice community. You are organization personified!! I agree with you that all these people listening to the extreme us about the virus vaccination and its sad impact on people at risk. So maddening! Our vaccination rate is very high here at about 70% now. Wish it were higher but we are doing better than many places.  

Sue, I hope your DH is feeling chipper today. I have no doubt it was your special oatmeal that was the cure! I hope you have more help at school today. It’s so hard to be that shorthanded and try to service the whole school. I notice here that many restaurants are only open a few hours a day due to lack of help. I feel badly because I think there is pent-up demand for people to get food from their favorite places.

Ann, sorry your visit brought up sadness. I’m so glad Benjamin is perking your lives up. You are such a kind thoughtful person to all, and I want that sadness to drift right on away. 🌈☀️

I have some very good news to report. The builder called yesterday. He was with the building inspector doing the final walk-through for the occupancy permit. Everything went without a hitch except for one detail concerning the kitchen stove exhaust fan. DH wanted a very powerful one and evidently it’s displacing too much air when it is on the highest setting. So we need to add another air duct for make up air. So I’m sure your DH knows all about these things! But the HVAC guy is coming out to do that and there are a few small things that need to get done. The builder is going to see if he can get a temporary occupancy permit for us so that we can move in right away. Oddly enough, the builder is more than pleasant now on the phone but I still keep it strictly business because we know he is unstable and prone to these crazy tirades.I told him to send us the final bill (probably the reason for his being happy), and we will start to process it once we get the OK from everything. I did not mention our independent inspection that will happen tomorrow. Hopefully that will all go well. Everything else has checked out with the plumbing electrical and building inspectors. The cleaning crew is coming in today to get the house move-in ready according to the builder. I still can’t believe that we really accomplished this overwhelming task of clearing out 100 years of stuff from the old Cape house, taking down the old house, designing our new house, working out every detail, cleaning out our current house and selling it and now we are on the brink of moving in! My big thoughts now have to do with my job once the reality of an hour and 15 minute commute hits me. The price of gas, the time in the car and  the general wear and tear on me physically make me realize it’s not a good option unless I can work from home four out of five days. We will see what happens.  I know my boss would like to keep me around and I am figuring if I can manage through December, that will be good.

Now we have to line up some movers to bring our stuff from storage containers into the house. A lot of what we are storing will not be going back so that’s another challenge to figure out what to do with everything. There is a lot of stuff. We kept all the good stuff from my parents, But, clearly, it will not fit into our new home scheme. Some of the pieces will. We both really want to embrace a more minimalist home with some empty spaces if you know what I mean. We have so many antiques stored away.And of course it’s always all the little stuff that drives you crazy. I’ve learned that I haven’t missed one thing while living in this hotel! None of it except maybe a nice TVs! Ha ha.

Have a great day all.