Room for rent

As of around 1330 today, I am finished completely with my apartment. Yesterday, I shampooed the carpeting all through the place, and so today all I had left to do was wipe out the fridge, and clean the kitchen floor. This was done quite easily, and once it was over, I slipped a note and a key under the caretaker’s door, left the other key and the cleaning checklist on the counter in the kitchen, and took my leave of Kenwood Acres Apartments.

I lived there for three years. It was a nice place. Clean, and quiet. Also, it bears the distinction of having been the first apartment I ever lived in that my mother liked. True, it was the nicest place I had ever had. One nice little bit of trivia about the building was that my mother had once had an apartment there. Back in 1979, or 1980, whenever the building had first been constructed, she had been the very second person to ever sign a lease and move in. Mom had lived in an efficiency unit on the second floor, though, whereas I had taken a two-bedroom on the first floor.

I never thought I’d have my own house. I only wish Mom could have seen it. Of course, if she were around to see it, I wouldn’t have it. This is the ugliest possible of catch-22’s. I do think she would be happy though, with my decision and the house itself.

A few more hurdles remain. I still need to find a job, but since the house is paid for and I paid several months worth of lot rent in advance, that’s not the most pressing of issues. I can go find a part-time job for now to handle my monthly bills. That’ll be kind of nice, not being forced to work at a full time job. Working part-time may allow me to get back into writing even more.

Another hurdle happens in a couple of days. Not so much a hurdle, really, as a milestone. I am shortly going to turn the big Four Zero. I remember when I turned thirty. I was a basket case for about a week. So far, the prospect of 40 hasn’t been a problem for me, but then again, it hasn’t quite arrived yet, has it?

Anyway, now that I’m out of the apartment completely, I can devote the next couple of days to getting Casa Bill in total order. I have a few boxes, bags, and piles of stuff left to put away. It could have been done already, but after going to work on the apartment every day, moving and/or cleaning, by the time I got home every evening, I just didn’t feel like doing anything except eating, watching TV, and surfing the old Intarwebz. So, this last project remains. I’m looking forward to it, though.

Next comes what I mentioned before, the installation of basic amenities such as towel racks and toilet paper holders. One or two small details after that, and I am well and truly Home.

Storming around

It’s only about 2 days or so until December, and we have yet to get any real snow around here. I’m not bemoaning this little factoid; I’m just stating it for the record. I’m at a point in my life where I don’t really care if we get a lot of snow or not. I don’t do the snowmobiling gig anymore, and I haven’t for about 25 years or so. That, and I’ve never been one for skiing or any other kind of winter sporting activity, so snow simply doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.

What I do find interesting is that today, November 28th, I woke up to a thunderboomer. I love thunderboomers. It’s just a bit strange (albeit not totally unheard of) to get one so far into the season, so close to winter. What made it kinda fun for me though, was that this was the first time in about 100 years or so that I actually was able to hear the storm quite clearly. In all my years of renting, my living spaces were always sheltered by the buildings in which I lived. I lived in the basement apartment of a house for about five years, and could never really enjoy the storms because of two factors: I was in the basement, so I could never hear the thunder or see the lightning, and the other reason was that the place was such a rathole, every single time it rained, my living room and bedroom would flood, and I would spend hours with a Shop-Vac™ sucking up water. Those were not fun times.

My previous apartment before I moved into this house was much nicer. I was on the ground level, and my windows provided a nice view outside. This place never flooded for any reason, either. I was able to enjoy the storms better, as I could hear the thunder and see the lightning, but being on the ground floor, I couldn’t hear the rain pelting the roof.

This is what I woke up to this morning. Wind and rain beating the roof and sides of the house. I was a bit disoriented, as this is not a typical occurrence for November, but it took mere seconds for me to re-acclimate to the effects. I looked out the window just in time to see some lightning, and hear some thunder. It was cool.

As I write this, it seems to have tapered off. Oh well, it provided a nice harbinger of what the summer might be like here. As it is, I have to get going soon; I’m on day 2 of cleaning the apartment. Yesterday was the bathroom, and all of the windows. Today will be vacuuming, and wiping down the walls and finishing the kitchen, and then tomorrow I shall rent a carpet shampooing device to finish the job. All is well on track right now.

I'm DONE moving

It’s about noon o’clock here on a Sunday at Casa Bill. I’m staying home today (good god, is this the first time I’ve referred to the house as ‘home?’ I’m adjusting!) because as the title of this entry states, I am FINALLY finished moving all my stuff out of the apartment.

It took me two final trips yesterday to get everything over here. This concludes 2 long weeks of driving back and forth, loading, hauling, and unloading. It may not have taken so long, but I was busy trying to put things away here at the house as I brought them in, so I wouldn’t have a huge project of getting this place in order once I got out of the other.

That came to a halt on this past Friday. I got SO sick of driving back and forth, loading, hauling and unloading, that I finally just started shoving the remaining items here into the house, so I could get the apartment empty. That happened yesterday, Saturday. All that is left at the apartment is stuff to be tossed, and cleaning supplies that I will use to get that place in order for my final departure later this week.

I’m not going over there today. The past two weeks have me so entirely burned out on the back and forth drive, that today I am going to put everything away here to get this house in order, and then tomorrow I will go over and begin cleaning the apartment. This entry is just to give me a chance to take a small break from what I’ve been doing here so far today.

I’m also trying out my washer and dryer today, as I need to do laundry, but don’t feel like going anywhere. It’s going to be an all-day job, simply because this washer is very tiny. I have no clue as to its actual capacity, but let me put it this way: My first load was exactly 2 pairs of jeans. The second load is better though, socks and shorts. I was able to get them all in there. My third load will be shirts. Maybe it won’t be an all-day job. Once I’m settled, though, I do plan to buy a bigger washer.

Thursday is the day I need to be completely out of the apartment. I should be able to get it clean enough by then. I hope so, anyway. The kitchen is already clean, thanks to the efforts of my cousin. My worst task will be the shampooing of the carpets.

Once I’m out, I then have actual household projects to do around here. I really can’t wait to begin them, believe it or not. For some reason, the previous owner of the house never had towel racks installed in either bathroom, nor did she have toilet paper holders. So, I will be buying and installing them. I also need to see what I can do about installing a medicine cabinet or two; neither bathroom has one of those, either. I’m not really keen on the idea of storing my toothpaste and razors and whatnot under the sink, nor do I like the idea of having them all on permanent display on the countertop. Never mind the fact that nobody else will be using the master bathroom; I simply don’t want my stuff arranged in that manner.

Anyway, I need to get back to my organizing and putting away. Have a pleasant Sunday, whatever you plan on doing.

I'm STILL moving

It’s 0952 on Saturday. I am so sick of moving. I’ve got all of the furniture and big stuff out of the apartment and here to the house, but there are still small piles of stuff here and there throughout the apartment. Stuff that simply cannot be moved quickly, as it requires numerous armload trips out to the pickup. I went from 3-4 loads a day down to 2.

I am HOPING that I can get the last of it hauled today. As it stands, I have stopped putting stuff away as I bring it here to the house, because I need the time to go back for more. I never realized I had so much stuff, and to think I spent a good deal of time at the beginning throwing a lot of it away.

I need to get it done quickly, so that I can get the place cleaned and be out by the end of the month. So, I really need to stop spending time on the blog, and get myself over there. At the same time, though, I realized it’s been a few days since I’ve updated this page, and I felt it was due.

I’m having coffee right now as I sit and type. I love the stuff, as I alluded to in an earlier entry, some time back. I’m back to having it daily right now, as this moving is really starting to get on my nerves.

I think what I need to do at the apartment is stop being delicate with everything. I need to just grab the piles of stuff that are left, and shove them into the back of the truck without any ceremony, and just haul. I think I’ll give that a try today. I can’t remember directly off the top of my head, but there can’t be that much stuff left after my two loads yesterday.

So, I think I’ll get this posted, grab me a shower, get over there, and work until the last is hauled out, no matter how long it takes me today.

Enjoy your weekend, everybody.

The real entry

As you may have gathered from yesterday’s entry, I am back on the old Intarwebz after a hiatus of. . . well, less than a day actually. Oh, God! Such is an Eternity! Well, not really.

Anyway, this was supposed to be my first official entry since formally moving into my house, but as I said yesterday, it was pre-empted by my adventures with the cable company.

So, here I am, sitting on a pillow on the floor of my new computer room. I’m not sitting at my desk because my desk is still at the apartment. Yes, I did say I have formally moved in. No, that doesn’t mean I’m finished moving stuff.

I have two, maybe three more pickup loads of stuff to get out of the apartment and bring here. I’m hoping I can accomplish that today and tomorrow. I’m taking Thursday off due to the holiday, and whatever little may be left to move will be done Friday. Then, I gotta clean that place, and I will finally be done with it. This will all be done by next Monday or Tuesday, should random factors operate in my favor.

I started staying here at the house on Sunday night. My bed was not completely put together, as my cordless drill/screwdriver ran out of juice. So, my first night in my new house was spent on the couch. Not a bad thing, but the couch is a couple of feet shorter than I am. I also slept on the couch last night. My bed will be put together this evening when my cousin comes over to assist me. Assembling the bedframe is really a two-person job; one has to do the screwing and adjusting whilst the other stands there holding stuff in place so it doesn’t slip. I’m really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed once again starting tonight.

The place is still new to me, and doesn’t quite yet feel like home. This worried me on my first night. My fears were laid to rest, however, when I made a quick trip back to the apartment on Monday afternoon, and now that place feels alien to me. This helped me realize that it won’t be long before this house feels truly mine.

I’ve been putting stuff away as I move it in, so that once I’m completely out of the apartment, I won’t suddenly have this place to contend with as another Herculean task. It’s helping me make the adjustments. The house is shaping up well as all of my belongings slowly take their place here and there throughout.

I have tons of stuff to do today and tomorrow, so I’m going to post this and get at it.

All lines are busy

Well, my cable is hooked up now in the new place. I am back on the Internet, and I was back with TV service, for a few minutes anyway. OK, that’s not entirely accurate. I have great cable TV service in the bedroom; it’s the living room that’s giving me a problem.

The cable guy arrived about 1030, and took a look around. I showed him where the new digital receiver was going in the master bedroom, and I showed him this room, the spare bedroom that I’ve designated as a computer room. This room had no cable jacks or outlets whatsoever. He agreed to install a cable outlet in the room, and went on to inspect the existing cable setup in the house.

Not up to code, I was informed. Whoever had initially installed cable in the house hadn’t bothered to install any outlets; all he/she did was drill holes in the floor and run the cables through. So, he was going to have to go around and not only install a cable outlet in the computer room, but also in the living room and master bedroom. This was not a problem. I bade him go at it.

It would have taken him a lot longer to do everything, but another cable guy showed up and gave him a hand. All of the outlets were installed, and the outside cable box was re-routed and brought up to specs. Now, all that remained was for me to get my TiVo® up and running.

The TiVo® unit was functioning fine on one end; it was sending its signal to the TV no problem. The problem was it was not receiving a signal from the digital cable box. After much rerouting and replacing of various cables, the cable TV signal finally went up to the TiVo® unit, and out to the TV. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that the regular TV signal was now going through an auxiliary channel, Line 3, on the TV, instead of coming through on Channel 3 like it always had before. I decided I could live with it.

I sat down after the cable guys left, and finished watching a program that I had recorded on the TiVo® unit a few days previously. By the time the program was finished, I had already decided that I wanted the signal back on Channel 3, like it always had been. On top of that, my new PlayStation 2® which had been running through Line 3 had been disconnected from the TV altogether in the commotion. So, I crawled behind the TV, and set about my task.

It was only a matter of rerouting the cables into different jacks, right? That’s what I thought. After a few minutes of messing about here and there, I not only was completely unable to get the signal to go anywhere but Line 3, but I managed to fix it all so that the signal ended up not going anywhere. I now have a fuzzy TV sound, and no picture whatsoever. Try as I might, I could not bring the signal back anywhere. At the risk of becoming extremely agitated, I turned off the TV, and left the entire mess as it is, and came in here to do this entry and take a break from the whole thing. After a while, I’ll go back out and calmly retrace my steps to see if I can correct the matter once and for all.

My cousin is supposed to be coming over after work today to help me finish putting my bed together; maybe I can convince him to go through all the cable mess and get it going again.

As far as the bed not being put together completely yet, that’s a story for another entry. Mayhap tomorrow or Wednesday as I get the time to do it. That whole entry has been pre-empted by this one.


EDIT, 17:40: Went to the store, bought some longer cables, came back, and tackled it again. After several minutes of swearing and beseeching various obscure deities, I am proud to say I finally got everything working, not only the way I want it to work, but also the way it’s supposed to work. TiVo® operates through the tv’s Channel 3; the PS2 operates through the Line 1 auxiliary video, and the DVD player through Line 3. I have nothing currently going through Lines 2 or 4. I’ll have to think of something.

Cancellations and renewals

I called the cable and phone companies today to see about getting my services switched over to my house. The cable company was awesome. They’ll have a guy at the house on Monday to look over all the connections, install a jack in the spare bedroom, and get me all hooked up and ready to go. By my figuring, I should be all moved over there sometime on Sunday, so that will leave no gap at all for me to be without TV or Internet.

The phone company was another story. I called my particular phone company to get the service switched, and was told that not only are they not switching anybody’s services to anywhere else, they are also not accepting any new customers at this time. So, I had to find a new phone company after being with this one for over 6 years. I emailed my cousin at his work, and got some recommendations, as he used to work in that industry. Today, I went to another company, and got signed up. However, due to the fact that I wish to keep my current phone number, it’s going to take anywhere from a week to 10 days for them to get me going. They first had me slated to be connected on December 1st. After a bit of haggling, I got it moved up a few days to the 28th of November. So, I will be without phone service for about a week and a half. This doesn’t really bug me, as I used to go for years without any phone service at all, and I do have my cell phone to use in the interim.

But, it also ticks me off, in that I have my cell phone to use in the interim. Any semi-regular reader of this blog knows that I have certain firm opinions about my cell phone. I just will have to keep calls to a bare minimum until such time as my house phone is reestablished.

The real pain about it, though, is the fact that my TV runs through TiVo®. TiVo®, for those of you unfamiliar with the technology, utilizes a house phone line in order to download program information from your cable or satellite provider, and uses this information to schedule your preferred recordings of television programming. So, for about a week and a half, or thereabouts, I won’t be able to use my TiVo® except to manually record TV shows, and after next Friday the 24th, I won’t have a new programming schedule until the phone line is active. What’s even more, is that I just bought a new TiVo® unit for the living room TV, as I plan to use my old one in the bedroom.

Oh well. These problems are really minor, and not really problems at all. They’re just small obstacles that will be overcome in due course. Once all is said and done, I’ll be up and running full steam ahead in my very own house.

I have a very busy three days ahead of me, not the least of which includes dismantling the computers and hauling them to the new house. As it stands, since I won’t have a cable connection for Internet purposes until sometime Monday, this entry stands unique as the very last one I will ever write in this apartment. But, don’t go away, as I will be resuming again very soon from within my new palatial house.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Now I'm REALLY moving

The closing on Friday went well. It was a pretty busy day after that. I had to go get insurance on the house, which was a lot cheaper than I had thought it would be. I am a first-time homeowner so a lot of the associated tasks are alien to me. The insurance on my house is actually cheaper than the insurance on my two vehicles. Those of you reading this who own houses will already know this, however.

I called the gas company to get the bill switched over to my name. I also went to the license bureau to transfer the house title into my name, but they were closed in observance of Saturday being Veteran’s Day. I suppose all those hard working people in that office are all veterans, and therefore deserving of an extra day off. I also called the electric company, but that office was closed as well, so the title and the electric company are two things I will have to do right away tomorrow, Monday.

Yesterday I moved all of my garage stuff from here to my new place, so that little bit is done. All that’s left in my garage here is my workbench, and the VW. Today I’m going to spend the day packing and hauling household stuff. On the plus side, almost everything that I took from my mother’s house has not yet found a permanent space here in the apartment. Due to my being a great procrastinator when it comes to organization of my home, all of that stuff is still in bags and piles throughout the apartment. I’ll be able to take that stuff and just put it all in the truck and start hauling.

Doing two or three truckloads a day this week should pretty much guarantee that I’m almost done by the weekend. By that time, all that should be left is the furniture. I’ll try to rent a truck for Saturday for that job, depending on whether or not I can recruit anybody to help me with the actual lifting of the furniture.

One of the bigger pains will come when I have my phone and cable switched to the new place. Switching them won’t be an actual problem, as much as the little things that will happen along with it. The phone company may make me change my number, as they did last time. I really hope not. Also, the spare bedroom in the house that I’ve designated as my computer room has no cable jack in it, so I’ll need to have one installed.

All in all, I should really be done with all of this in just a couple of weeks. Then I can say goodbye to the apartment, and start adjusting to my new place. It should all go well. I’m going to head off now and get the day started.

Mom, 5 1/2 months later

Mom would have been 64 today. That’s still nowhere near old enough to not be here anymore. It’s been roughly 5 ½ months since she left, and it’s still not getting any easier to deal with.

I know it’s been quite a while since I talked about my mom on this page, but she has been in my thoughts every single day. Every so often, I would sit down to write this particular piece, and my fingers would just freeze on the keyboard. I wasn’t ready to do it yet. Finally, I made a deal with myself. My fingers would be operable and I would be able to write this in time for posting on her birthday. Now I seem to be doing it.

I think I was about 10 or so when my folks split up. Why they did, I no longer think about, as it ultimately proved to be the best for everybody. I lived with my dad until I graduated high school, but Mom always lived close enough so that I could see her whenever I wanted.

Mom was always her own person. Pretty much everybody who knew her can attest to that. She was very strong willed, and never had any problem making her opinions known. Which is not to say that she was nasty about it; you just knew that her beliefs and opinions were basically set in stone.

I find myself focusing on the last year of her life, for the most part. Her husband, my stepfather, died in December of 2004. I knew it was going to be very rough on Mom, as they had been together for 25 years or thereabouts. Christmas Eve of that year, Mom and I went down to the Mille Lacs Grand Casino for the evening. I don’t remember exactly how we did, but I think I came out $80 ahead before stopping, and I’m pretty sure Mom had one of her huge wins of several hundred dollars or more.

I’ve never married, and I’ve never had kids. That is a topic for another time, but the point of my stating it here is that it made it very easy for me to spend most of the year 2005 with Mom. She spent a lot of time by herself in her house for the first few months, except for the days I would call or visit. I am so glad that I called and went over as often as I did. By my recollection, I was over at her house at least twice a week, and phoned at least twice on top of that. Mom and I have always been fairly close, since I am her only blood offspring, but the year 2005 saw us get even closer, and I will always be grateful for that.

In the second half of 2005, Mom started to come out of her grief enough to want to start interacting with the rest of the world, and she got herself two volunteer positions, one at the local Habitat for Humanity store, and another at our local public library. She seemed to enjoy both jobs, even though she confided in me that they were “kinda boring at times.”

Mom and I made our occasional trips to the casino again, and she always did better than I did, by a long shot. When I lost my job this past February, Mom was going to the casino once or twice a week on her own, and always coming home to report “another royal flush,” for a win anywhere between $1,000, and $4,000.

Then she started getting sick in late February, and early March. We thought it was the flu at first, as it came and went. Then, it got bad enough to where we received an initial diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome. But, it turned out not to be that, either. For those of you who have been following my blog since the days on MySpace, you know that April 14 of this year, Good Friday is the day we received word that Mom had pancreatic cancer. At that point though, I could still hope. It wasn’t until after a biopsy and a visit to an oncologist that we became aware there was just not much time left. My loss of employment turned out to be a good thing, as it left me all the time in the world to care for my Mom during her final weeks.

I still miss my Mom every single day. I’ve never experienced the loss of a parent until now, so I don’t know how long it will take my grief to pass, but I know she’s content where she is now; she is back with her husband, and they are now doing all of the things they weren’t able to do together.

Aloha Elizabeth Engen

November 10, 1942 -- May 21, 2006

Rest in Peace, Mom

Closer to closing

I’m doing my weekly hard drive maintenance, only 5 or 6 days late. I usually do it on Friday mornings, right after the weekly virus scan, but for some reason that I don’t remember, I didn’t get to it this past Friday. I doubt I’ll get to it this coming Friday either, for reasons I shall shortly delve into. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d knock out a quick entry.

I talked to the guy from the park yesterday, as you may recall, and got park approval to live there. Then, the guy from the realty company that is selling the house called me, and we have the closing scheduled for this Friday at 11 a.m. That’s where I’ll be. The house will be mine on Friday.

I’m freaking out a bit, ever since yesterday. This is one of the biggest steps I’ve ever taken, or will ever take, in my entire life. I know it’s the right thing to do, and it’s a wise thing to do, but I still can’t help feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. The fact that it’s happening on Friday the 10th of November is also a factor; that is my Mom’s birthday. She would have been 64. I’m just hoping that the seemingly arbitrary choice of that day for the closing is a good sign. In the meantime, I’m going about my business feeling like I’m going to simultaneously blow my lunch, and soil my pants.

I’m going to start my moving processes almost immediately after the closing, once I talk to the guy at the park and get the immediate lot rental needs settled. The lease on my apartment is up as of the end of this month, and I’ve already told my landlord of my plans, so it’ll be to everybody’s benefit for me to get the moving done as soon as possible. I’ll be able to haul a lot of the smaller stuff over in multiple loads between the pickup and the bug, and my cousin is planning on helping me with the bigger stuff. We’ll probably rent a truck, and do all the big stuff in one shot.

Today, once I get off this damn computer, is going to be devoted to cleaning and organizing this wreck of an apartment. It’s only a wreck because I haven’t done much in the way of cleaning lately, except for dishes and garbage. Almost all the stuff I brought here from Mom’s house when we emptied it is still sitting around in piles and bags everywhere. I’m a great procrastinator when it comes to putting stuff away. It ultimately reached the point where it was suggested to me that I not bother putting anything away until I know for sure whether or not I’ll be able to buy the house. If I get the house, I can just gather up the piles, and move them. If I didn’t get it, then I could put it all away. It seemed like reasonable advice, especially since it catered to my laziness for actually doing housework.

Tomorrow will be laundry day. I will also begin scouring local businesses for boxes so I can begin packing, to an extent. Plus, I have to go to the bank, and get a cashier’s check for the remainder of the payment for the house. Once that’s done, I’ll basically be sitting around nervously waiting for Friday the 10th, 11 a.m. to arrive.

Then, the new adventure begins.

Approved parking

As you may recall from an earlier post, I put earnest money down on my intended house this past Friday, and filled out the application for the park owner. I didn’t really expect to hear anything over the weekend about it, but as the day grew longer and longer yesterday without my phone ringing, I began to get nervous.

There are probably all kinds of reasons why my application wouldn’t get approved, but at the same time, there’s no real reason for it not to be, either. The strongest reason for disapproval right now would be the fact that I’m unemployed.

I’ve been nervous about all of this probably since Sunday afternoon, when I talked to my landlord here. I brought up the fact that my lease expires this month, and let him know that I probably would not be renewing it, due to buying this house. He understood, and wished me well, and I told him I’d let him know one way or the other as soon as possible.

So today arrived, Tuesday. The clock was crawling steadily toward noon, and my phone was dead silent. After consulting briefly with my realtor friends, I called the guy at the park to see what was going on.

He had looked at my credit rating (which I’ve always known to be horrible) and told me that he had a bit of concern over some late payments I’ve made on things in the past, but his main concern was that my rent be paid on time, and he found out that my rent is the one thing I’ve always taken care of, so he told me would go ahead and approve the application.

I called my realtor friends back, and they are going to call the guy selling the house, and try to arrange for a quick closing, hopefully this week. I hope so, anyway, I’m antsy as hell to begin moving, and get things settled.

Stay tuned.

Joyful news

Been waiting a while to make this post. Well, obviously I haven’t been waiting as long as the people involved, but you underst—oh, just forget it.

My friends, Tom and Sonia Adams live down in the general direction of the Twin Cities area. Tom and I grew up together basically, and we’ve always stayed in touch. This past Friday, the 3rd of November, at 5:41 p.m. they welcomed into the world Zane Palmer Adams, weighing in at 9 pounds, 8 ounces, and 21 inches long.

I just received the news last night about 8:30 or so, and thought I’d save this little write-up for this morning. From what I know, everybody is doing fine, and I hope I’m able to journey down there sometime in the next couple of weeks and meet the little guy.

Congrats all around to the happy family.

Earnest who?

Yesterday (Friday) I had a 10 a.m. appointment with my realtor friends and the realtor who is selling the house I want to buy. The meeting went VERY well; it took place at the house I want. I took another look around at the inside of the house, and was pleased to see that the tons of crap that had been stored in the garage were mostly gone.

Those of you who keep regular contact with me already know this, but for those of you who don’t see me often, or only know me through this blog or my MySpace page, I am going to formally announce that I am buying a trailer house. I am well aware of the social stigma that goes along with these structures, but to be honest, I really don’t care. With my horrible credit record, I would never be able to buy a regular house. Any regular house that I could afford to pay cash for would be a complete wreck. I am buying this trailer. I like it. That’s that.

All of stood around and talked for a few minutes, and then I wandered off to the office of the trailer park to get an application. I talked to the guy that runs the park, got my list of rules and regulations and the application, and went back to the house. While I was gone, my friends had managed to negotiate a percentage of the price down. I was ecstatic, because I’ve never bought a house before, and left to my own devices, the guy selling would probably have managed to negotiate the price upward in his favor.

I signed the purchase agreement, paid earnest money, and now all we have to do is wait for the guy at the park to process my application. I can’t really see any reason why I would be rejected. We should be closing the sale sometime this coming week.

On to other things. I went to a local discount retail store yesterday after this meeting, ostensibly to purchase new copies of three Christmas CDs that I dearly love. My own copies have been played every Christmas season to the point of disintegration. In order to celebrate the successful meeting on the house, I was going to treat myself to new copies. I grabbed them, and on my way to the checkout lanes, I spotted another CD that apparently was just released this week, and currently had a sale price going for it.

Coming back to those of you who know me well, you all know that The Who is my absolute favorite band ever. For the first time in 24 years, they have released a new album consisting of all brand new music. Well, I couldn’t pass this by, particularly at a sale price.

I was unable to listen to any of these CDs on my way home as I was driving the bug, which has no CD player. I had to wait until I got home, which kind of suited me anyway, as I had MUCH trepidation about this new album.

I listened to it once, and my expectations were pretty much satisfied. It’s not a Who album, to be honest, particularly since there are only two original members still alive, songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend, and singer Roger Daltrey. Their original drummer, Keith Moon has been dead since 1978, and their bass player, John Entwistle, arguably one of the top bass players in the music world passed on in 2002. I don’t really know what Keith Moon could have done with the material on this CD, but it really lacks something without the thundering bass of Entwistle.

Anyway, the whole album feels like a Pete Townshend solo album, with Roger Daltrey doing guest vocals. I won’t bore you with a detailed analysis, as most of you aren’t the rabid Who fans that I am, but hopefully for me, repeated listenings will help me to appreciate the album better. It’s not a bad piece of work; it’s just not what I had hoped for.

Until next time. . .

Too tired to think of a title

I was sitting here at the computer yesterday (Wednesday) working on my latest scheme to find gainful employment, namely the composition of cover letters to mail out to local businesses with my resume, in hopes that somebody will hire me. I had about five of them completed when my phone rang at about 10:30 a.m. It was my work coordinator from a temp agency here in town with which I have signed up to find work. She had a job for me, doing packing and shipping for a local manufacturing company, starting today (Thursday). The job would be Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. To start, I would not actually be working for the company itself, but rather for the temp agency, and then after a probationary period, the company would decide whether or not they wanted to hire me on as a permanent employee.

Apparently I was a bit jittery about starting a new job, because I ultimately got up at 4 a.m. this morning. I quickly showered, dressed, poured myself a cup of coffee, and went outside to have a smoke. I came back in, and channel surfed on the TV until about 6, when I left for work. It was about a half an hour drive. I arrived at the place and sat in my car waiting to go inside until about 6:45. I had been told to report to the receptionist’s desk when I arrived. I went inside, and there was a note taped to the door, addressed to me: “Bill – we are in a meeting, and will be with you shortly.” Fair enough. I stepped into the lobby, took down the note, and waited.

I didn’t wait long before somebody came in to meet me. It turned out to be the plant manager, although he never really did introduce himself. He gave me a pair of safety glasses, and told me where I could hang up my coat. I did so, and met him in the plant’s work area. He explained that it was the day of the monthly staff meeting, so everybody was going to be gone for the first hour or so of the day. He showed me to a small work area, and had me take a bunch of boxes of small parts and begin a task that he referred to as “de-burring.” The parts looked like small hose couplings. At one end, where the metal had been cut, there was a rough edge inside a hole, called a “burr” that needed to be smoothed out. My first task was to turn on a grinder-type machine with a large drill bit at the end, and do the de-burring. He told me to occupy myself with that until everybody was out of the meeting, then he would have me moved over to the packing and shipping section. I did not see the plant manager again for the rest of the day.

So, I sat, for an hour, de-burring parts. At 8 a.m., people started filtering into the work areas from the meeting. I looked around for somebody to show me to the pack and ship section, but nobody really seemed interested in my presence. One woman came over, saw what I was doing, and had me continue the de-burring. I ended up sitting there at that little machine, de-burring for the entire shift. I was told that we were to receive a 10-minute break at 10:30, and then at 12:30 we would get a 15-minute lunch. The break and lunch were kept short, I was told, so that everybody could go home at 3 instead of 3:30. Good enough, I thought.

I spent the day doing my little de-burring task, taking my break and lunch at the appointed times. By the time it was 3, I had de-burred 4,315 couplings, by my rough calculations, and I had one mother of a headache from all the noise in the place. Everybody packed up and headed out. I went out to the car, started it, and while it was warming up I turned on my cell phone to check for messages, as I was expecting a call or two today. The one call I got was not one that I expected. It was my coordinator at the temp agency; she had left the message on my voicemail at around 1:30.

Apparently, after putting me to work at the mindless task of de-burring for 8 hours and otherwise forgetting about me for the majority of the day, the plant manager had called the temp agency, and requested that I not be sent back to the plant, as it didn’t seem that I was “going to be a good fit.” Oookay. Totally clueless, I went back inside and found somebody to sign my timecard for the day, since I would not be returning.

I drove back to the temp agency to turn in the card, and asked my coordinator if any details had been given whatsoever. Not really, the plant manager had merely said that it “didn’t look as though it would work out.” I then detailed what exactly had happened for her benefit, so it wouldn’t look as though I had done anything wrong, and then I left. By now it was 4 p.m. I was tired, had a headache, I was hungry, and I was in a really pissy mood.

The one good part about them not wanting me back is the fact that I wasn’t really enjoying the place while I was there today anyway. I just think it was a bit presumptuous of the guy to place me at a work station, ignore me the rest of the day, and then decide that it wasn’t “working out.” Oh well, screw them.

On a more positive note, I did manage to make contact with my realtor friends this evening, and we’re going to meet tomorrow morning with the guy who’s selling the house that I want. I don’t really know when we’d have managed this if I were going to be working. So, things are looking up now for me to get the house that I want. But, it’s after midnight now, and we need to meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow, so I’m going to wrap this up and head to bed.

Grandpa, 5 years later

November 1, 2001 was a dark day in my life. My grandfather, Gerald C. Tomson died on this day. I will never forget the last few months of his life. The man was 95 years old, and yet for his entire life he remained mentally and physically sharp. It was only during the year of 2001 that his body began to fail him, and he began to grow progressively weaker, and much against all of our wishes, we had to put him into a nursing home.

That was devastating to me. I went to visit him there almost daily, but the prison-like atmosphere of the place made it extremely difficult for me. There wasn’t anything wrong with the facility itself, but as far as I was concerned, my Grandpa did not belong there. I hated that place, and I am not one to use the word “hate” lightly. It’s a very strong word, with very strong implications, and I just do not care to use it in everyday life. But, I digress.

Grandpa’s mind was still as sharp as ever during his short stay in the home. We discussed all kinds of things, from the events of 9/11, to the lousy food in the home’s kitchen. It was only his body making him a prisoner there. It was almost a silent relief to me when he became sick, and had to be transferred into the hospital. There, I could at least pretend that once he got well, he could go home, and I was able to put thoughts of that home out of my head.

Grandpa spent several weeks in the hospital before finally succumbing to his illness and his weakness and leaving us. His funeral, which he would have disliked intensely, such was his nature, was held on November 4, 2001. I was asked by the family to write a piece and read it at the funeral. I was able to write a small tribute to Grandpa, but I knew there was no way I would be able to stand before the assembled people and read it without breaking down, so the pastor ended up reading it on my behalf.

I’d like to think that my writing style has improved slightly in the time since I did this piece, but I still think it was a fitting tribute to such an amazing man. What follows is the piece that I wrote:

Grandpa

by

William Tomson

This task seems impossible. How do you summarize 95 years into a few short paragraphs and still do a man justice? Hopefully I can do it.

This may sound silly, but lately I’ve found myself comparing Grandpa to a tree. A tree has usually been around for a long time. A tree is incredibly strong. A tree has character. Most importantly, to me, a tree produces wood. Grandpa did amazing things with wood, and his creativity and skill in woodworking stand out most strongly in my mind.

All of my life I’ve watched Grandpa in his garage workshop, running his table saw and his lathe to effortlessly create beautiful and practical objects. Many people still have a plant stand in their home that was made by Grandpa. Of all the stands I remember seeing, no two were ever exactly the same. One may have been reminiscent of another, but each one was unique in its own way. Everybody who has one is able to boast that they have a one-of-a-kind Gerald Tomson creation. Plant stands were certainly not the only things he ever made, but I believe they were his most popular and most requested creations.

Grandpa was always a private man, but I have seen many displays that prove a truer friend could never exist. Most poignant in my memory is a few years ago when he was in the hospital for a major surgical ordeal. On the day I brought him home, he had discovered that his hospital roommate was a friend of his from years gone by. While I was waiting for the hospital to give me the official release to take him home, I was amazed, but not really surprised to see my 90 year old grandfather, fresh from surgery a day or two previously, down on one knee next to the bed, trying to spend a few minutes catching up with his old friend.

Grandpa was also in possession of a dry, almost sardonic wit. One example that stands out in my mind would be when he and I had lunch one day at the Barn in Brainerd. The waitress came to the table, and asked Grandpa if he would like some coffee. He did, and then she asked if he wanted regular or decaffeinated. Grandpa replied that either was fine, and once his cup was full and the waitress was gone, he winked at me and said, “It all comes out of one pot anyway.” I like to think I got my own sense of humor from him. There were countless times when either Grandpa or I would make a small joke about something, and only the two of us got the joke. Examples of his sense of humor would keep us here for days.

--2

Grandpa was also a very intelligent man. When I was in high school and attempting to do my homework in one subject or another, I could ask him any question on any topic, and he knew the answer. Math was nothing to him; he had the answer for me almost faster than I could ask the question. History and geography were also strong subjects for him, as he seemed to remember everything he had ever learned.

I could go on for pages and pages about Grandpa, and never cover everything I remember about him. He has left us now, and there is a void left not only in my heart, but also in the hearts of everybody else who knew him. There is no question that all who knew Gerald Tomson are richer for having done so, and we will never, could never, forget him.

Rest in peace, Grandpa. May you always watch over us and guide us.

It still rips me apart to go back and read this, even 5 years later. I can only be thankful that I have so many memories of my Grandpa. If I manage to live anywhere near his 95 years, I know I’ll always remember him.

Gerald Charles Tomson

6/16/06 -- 11/1/01

Continue to rest in peace, Grandpa