Home!

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

Okay, not permanent yet, but permanent-ish (Or permanent, but I’ll need to do an extended weekend visit to Colorado in a week or so.) and right now the house looks like a hastilly set up camp (inserts reminder that men are NOT simple, they’re just a different species*. WHO THE HECK PILES STUFF MARKED STORAGE ON THE STOVE? MEN THAT’S WHO.) It’s not their fault.

Speaking of, this house was inhabited by a single man for 10 to 15 years, which means I need to clean every surface. Twice.

So…. what happened? Well, younger son said he was going to deliver me here the 28th, then extended it to the 29th… and then a disaster occurred, (a real disaster, which took both of us 8 hours to fix.) And then yesterday…. (shifty eyes) there probably as no duct tape involved. We still had plastic wrap from the delicate furniture. However the words “I’m not going to live with a depressed writer for nobody” were uttered, and next thing I knew I was in the moving van and headed home. Look, he’s 6’4″. I’m a head smaller.

Anyway, he has arranged for people to do what I would normally have done. I still have — maybe — a day’s work there. But he says he’s going to do his damnedest to make sure I don’t have more than three/four days back there, before the thing is done. Most of it cleaning. He says he’ll pick me up next Saturday or Sunday. (I’ll leave posts scheduled for that time.)

So, give me a couple of days to be back to posting regularly, though I’ll do something every day, now I have internet. I’m just SO tired, and I’m going to have to set up the kitchen. Which is difficult as what this kitchen REALLY needs is to be demolished and redesigned. But that has to wait till the house sells, as we’ve run through our savings getting it set up. I still need “functional” until then. So, working on that. Probably a little today, as mostly I want to sit and doze. More tomorrow.

On the serious side, part of the reason our plans saved and son hotgtied convinced me to get in the van and come home is that I feel like I’m on the verge of serious illness. This had only happened twice in my life before, but then two days this week I got to the point I was so tired, I just kept getting colder and colder and shaking uncontrollably. And son is insistent I’m not allowed to just die.

So…. Trying to take it easy. Today we’ll probably still eat out, and I’ll take a lot of naps, I promise. Tomorrow I’d like to have a kitchen and office, though.

I have posts I want to write, but I’d probably fall asleep writing them. So, again, give me a couple of days. We’ll get there.

*Same species? PROVE IT. Heinlein made a good case for symbionts. Today I’m inclined to believe it.

152 thoughts on “Home!”

  1. Sounds like Covid…if you have a fever, watch it like a hawk and do everything you can to stave off pneumonia!!!!

    1. Everything sounds like covid. It appears that if you’re hospitalized, everything becomes covid. There’s data suggesting the CDC approved hospital covid protocol causes pneumonia which is, hence, diagnosed as covid.

      Me, I’d seek advice from a trusted medical practitioner, but avoid hospitals.

          1. I got the stupid-tired bit yesterday. Had to open a car garage door to get the tractor bay door open. Stashed the tractor after completing the handrail to $SPOUSE’s shop, and nicely closed the car’s garage door. We got a call from $NEIGHBOR saying that a garage door was still open.

            Yep, I forgot to close the tractor bay door. OTOH, the handrail project is *DONE*. Now for the ham radio setup, and hopefully the new gutters on the house. Still need to clean up the greenhouse; local trees loved the raised beds and sent roots 40 feet to swipe nutrients. New setup will have pots not contacting the ground. Big pots; modified muck-buckets.

          2. I just ran through three of what was supposed to be seven weekends of camping in a row. The third weekend also included three 15-hour days, no joke (yes, we had to start on Thursday.) Stupid tired is, indeed, the description.

            However, it’s no longer seven weekends of camping in a row, because weekend four got rescheduled due to weekend three having a staff member test positive for COVID, and even though 9/10 of the even was outside, council rules apply. (This is also why I stepped out of weekend five, because that’s the Cub Scout campout and ain’t nobody in that group vaccinated, so again, with council rules, I made the right decision. Not like my weekend got less busy because of it, but at least I get to sleep in my own bed.)

            (Oh, and I own a cot. It’s 35 pounds and it’s WONDERFUL, just a PITA to carry to the campsite.)

      2. how true

        Galen and Cyprian wrote down the symptoms of the disease now known as the plagues of Galen and Cyprian. Despite which there are still furious debates about whether they were the first outbreaks of measles and smallpox, and if so, which one was which.

      1. & yep different species, proven fact, males can live for weeks on pizza alone (Though I content beer is necessary as well, need to stay hydrated.).
        So!
        Suggest!
        Just rest.

      3. So so happy that the bulk of the move is done for you guys. The absolute relief my family felt when finally back to friendly lines was amazing. It was energizing though at times bitter sweet with the remembrance of long term friends. We lived in Illinois amongst family and friends for 27 years. Longer than I had lived anywhere in my life. But moving to middle TN was best decision ever.

        You will be back in the swing in short order and helping us all see the truth as well as the challenges ahead. Take your time, nothing needs to be done in a day!

      4. I have been there. Can confirm that low blood sugar (non-diabetic kind) and exhaustion can make you feel like crud scraped off the bottom of a graveyard.

        And then you eat and sleep, and life gets brighter. Even if still tired.

        1. low blood sugar (non-diabetic kind) and exhaustion

          –
          Yes! Hello invisible unmovable solid wall … Been there. Done that. It is not fun.

    4. It sounds like every respiratory illness since time began. The Swiss protocol is Quercetin and Zinc, both available OTC. Add that to supplements, water, and rest and all will be well.

      1. Quercetin and Zinc? Cool! That’s what I wound up getting last year when I was looking for a non-prescription substitute for Hydroxychloroquine. It’s good to know that someone somewhere endorses that combination.

        1. Add another endorsement. My daily regimen is a regular (men’s) multivitamin, Quercetin with Bromelain, zinc, D3, vitamin E, and a kelp capsule.

          D3 is also for the immune system, you might want to consider adding that unless you get a healthy dose of sunlight daily. (Kelp is because I absolutely cannot stand seafood except for a very occasional tuna salad sandwich. I also use kosher salt in cooking, which isn’t iodized.)

        2. I love the fact that we’ve yet to get a double-blind study on zinc … because they can’t come up with a placebo that tastes as nasty for a true double-blind study.

      2. Mom Red had the cough-crud two weeks ago. Several of my students were out with bronchitis (not the Coof). Tis the season.

  2. Get some rest. If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything. ‘Checks hand for sixth finger’

  3. Those symptoms are a bit worrisome. I don’t they’re thyroid or immune system; but may be cardio-vascular issues. I’d recommend a general checkup and a referral to a specialist. Just my 2 cents. God be with you.

    1. After the several months’ assault on her immune system, her spiritual system, and her mind, I think all will be well with good treatment (Swiss protocol if needed) and rest. And lots of time with Dan.

  5. Yes! Great Work by your “little baby”! 😀

    (Hope he doesn’t try to whack me for the little baby comment.) 😉

  6. Good man. Well done, Sarah’s Younger Son. (I forgot which order the names are.)

    My heart lightened when I saw the post title and frankly it sounded like you needed somebody to be doing what you would normally do before I heard you were sick. Get well soon.

      1. For practical purposes, in the short term, not much of a difference between the two.
        Prayers and well wishes for you and yours.
        (I’ve moved 30+ times in my life. It never gets easier.)

      2. Yeah; that was me yesterday. We’re watching nephew dog for in-laws who are out of state for funeral. Nephew dog gets anxious and whines and barks. Last night was better; discovered dog sleeps if you sleep in the room with him.

        On a side note, ceiling is now mostly fixed from last hurricane season’s mild leak. Perhaps this guy isn’t as good as the last guy, but he can show up. Last guy was overbooked.

        1. Kat the border collie puppy needs somebody to be in sight or she gets really upset. At least now, we can eat in the dining room and she’ll snooze at the baby gate blocking the kitchen entrance.

          She’s perfectly willing to sleep in her crate, but dislikes it if both of us are out of sight. Getting better, though.

          1. Yeah, Sugar, our new pug mix, does not like it when we leave the house without her, especially my wife. I now have a very clear image of what a lost soul in Hell sounds like. And my presence alone is not enough, especially if I’m working.

            My experience with rescue dogs (3 so far) says that eventually the doggo will realize that even if we leave, they have food and water and we will come back, so this behavior fades out.

  8. It sounds like your son is a wise young man who loves his mother (proving he was raised well 🙂 ). Having been packed off to an emergency room because I was too stubborn to go on my own by my daughters at least once I comprehend the issue. Please take care of yourself and if those symptoms keep up I’m with Mr Houst, cost be darned go get looked at by someone, body shivering is your body telling you its having issues maintaining homeostasis.

  9. Yay, you’re alive and hopefully over the worst challenges. Also, as to who piles goofs labeled on the stove, if you use professional movers, you will discover that many of them don’t read English, so the best of plans self destruct almost immediately.

  10. Would it be crazy to hire cleaning people at both ends of the move? I had friends moving to N Georgia recently and simply could not get up there to clean the place and as a housewarming present hired a cleaner. $200 and their house was gleaming when I finally got up there on Sunday the night before they were coming in just ahead of the movers. I brought up loo paper, paper towels, condiments and coffee fixings. The cleaner was magnificent. Even the tops of doors were clean.

    1. Your symptoms sound most of all like exhaustion. So please abandon ideas of doing much work today or tomorrow and get some rest. Total exhaustion also leads to high cortisol levels and can generate damage to things like spinal discs, something I’ve been through. So please rest.

      1. It does indeed sound like exhaustion and/or stress. After my grandmother’s final hospitalization and death, my aunt who was with her at the time spent the next week wearing heavy sweaters everywhere because she was so cold. It was August in SoCal.

      1. Doing disaster rebuild a few years ago we worked in a double-wide that had dirty dishes stashed in the oven. I forget how many bags of trash we pulled out. Fortunately cleanup was not our job.
        (My theory was the owner was depressed and overwhelmed).

        1. Or filthy. We knew someone who piled trash and unwashed dishes everywhere including the floor, the sink, the stove, until the only place he could get water was the bathtub and cooking was impossible.

          2. Very possible. She became a minor legend in the volunteer team.
            Do take care.
            Tried to pick up Barbarella today but local store had sold out.

      2. Let your body get the rest it so clearly needs. Sometimes you drive yourself too hard. Cut yourself some slack. Quit trying to be Superwoman.

  11. Home! Home! It’s an incredible thing to walk into a house and pronounce it, “Home!” And what everyone else said. Sleep well with more oxygen.

  12. Happy thoughts, take as much of a break as you can, see if you can hit your local drop in clinic or something similar just to rule out any of the usual suspects (thyroid, heart issues, etc, etc, etc).

  13. Oh, boy … sounds like fun.
    Sounds like the house that we moved into in Spain, which had been a summer rental for years. The stove was clean enough on the outside, but OMG … the oven was caked with decades of greasy olive oil crud. I emptied three cans of oven cleaner on it, and it was still filthy. I honestly believed after that experience that aerosol oven cleaner was simply unknown in Spain…
    The Daughter Unit and I are recovering, finally, from the Commie Crud. Still a bit tired and lethargic, and something of a cough, still … but the pneumonia is knocked out, and we actually can stay awake for more than three hours at a time.

    1. Glad to hear you are both on the mend.

      A local acquaintance told of buying a lovely old Victorian, and discovering that the paintwork on the trim wasn’t beige as they had thought. Rather, it was years of nicotine/smoke staining.

      1. Sounds like a townhouse that was my first purchase. The brown vinyl tile with black trim was actually off-white tile with light brown trim. The stove was, er, interesting. I hates cockroaches!

    2. Glad you’re getting better!

      ….Also reminded to be grateful we went from apartment complexes that got professionally gone over between tenants to a house purchased from a lady with, uh, better housecleaning maintenance than I tend to manage.

    3. You brilliant and beautiful woman, thank you for reminding me we’re getting to the cool end of the year, wherein I can use the oven’s self-cleaning feature.

      Which I bought specifically because of an incident of someone using the oven to get cosmoline out of a gun, and then not cleaning it afterward.

    4. My wife’s daughters run a cleaning business.
      Cleaning a move-out, they discovered the renters had been using the (electric) oven as a grill, just putting meat on the grates and letting the grease drip to the bottom.
      Took hours to make it somewhat presentable – cleaning it properly would have needed disassembly and media blasting.

  15. “Speaking of, this house was inhabited by a single man for 10 to 15 years, which means I need to clean every surface. Twice.”

    Same here — our tenant was here since 2007. And worse, he’s a friend of mine since we were freshmen in high school, so I couldn’t really chew his ass very much about it. So on top of the trying to fit ten pounds of sh*t in a five pound bag aspect, we had to clean the damn place stem to stern, too. Unbelievable. I never want to be a landlord again.

    We’re finally starting to get settled in. I hope you can do the same, now 🙂

    1. Landlords are different species. Being a landlord sucks. Agree. Never, never, ever, again.

      Although to be fair, renting sucks.

  16. Boxes on the stove? [shudders]

    I remember the time my stove turned into a zombie. (You think it’s off, but it’s nooooot ..)

    I came down one morning and the teakettle was dry. Hot, too. I thought I hadn’t turned it all the way off, so I twisted the knob and refilled the kettle. Didn’t work.

    The switch behind the knob had cracked and was letting through a trickle charge in the off position. Not enough to boil, but a cup and a half of water had evaporated overnight. If it had been something that burned, instead of the teakettle, it would have.

      1. Loathe electric stoves/ovens. So happy to have a gas one. It is especially great when there is an extended power outage.

        1. the only electric stove type I like is induction, and I prefer them to be small and portable. The built-ins are overpriced and repairs are too high.
          I have had someone whine “But you need special pots and pans for those”
          I prefer cast iron.

          1. We own two portable induction burners. My husband uses them outside when he’s cooking the super-hot peppers, so he doesn’t tear-gas the house.

            1. I presume by super-hot, the low end are habaneros and only go up from there. What kind of stuff are the super-hot peppers used to make?

              Also if you have any interest in store-bought super-hot pepper salsas, Jardines makes a couple of really, really hot ones; a ghost pepper salsa and a Carolina Reaper salsa.

    3. We have a neighbor who lost most of her house and two of her dogs earlier this year because of a zombie stove, with a burner which turned itself on … caught something on the stovetop on fire, while she popped out to the grocery, after fixing tacos for supper. She had turned off the burner … but it turned itself on again, while she was out of the house.

      1. I had an electric stove short out and shoot a lightening bolt through the pan and into the ceiling! Dramatic evening! We ordered pizza…

        1. Not the ceiling, but from one pan to a second pan and back into the stove. I turned off the stove, discovered the pans were spot-welded to the burners, and then called Campus Security to find out where the breaker was (in dorm) to throw it.

    4. NOTHING goes on a stove but pots and pans!

      My stove disaster took place a few years ago. I’d been smelling a whiff of gas around the stove for a while, but not coming from the burners and never enough to track down. One evening I turned on the left front burner to boil water for spaghetti. There was a big WHOOF! of flames around the back burner and then a fire behind the stove where I couldn’t get to it, or the valve. Grabbed a crescent wrench, ran outside and shut off the gas at the meter. Waited for the fire to starve and go out.

      Investigation showed many, many problems with the stove gas supply. Previous owners had done a kitchen addition and had their own…unique ways of doing things. Such as stringing at least four 5-foot flex gas lines together to feed the stove. Every gas flex line has a label on it warning you that there can be only one flex line, from the valve to the appliance.

      But that wasn’t the problem. At some point, a cat had got up on the counter and sprayed behind the stove somehow, and over time cat piss ate its way through the last gas flex line, ahead of the valve. Shutting that valve off wouldn’t have worked even if I could have reached it. Eventually, the leak got big enough for a cloud of gas to reach the burners and light off. Fortunately, it faced the back of the stove so the fire only scorched some paint and scared the shit out of me.

      I had no gas for a week, until I picked up the correct flexible gas tubing and fittings, removed as many of the old flex lines as I could reach, and installed a proper gas supply and valve for the stove, along with a new flex line. None of the old ones were in a fit state to use.

      Some folks are just nowhere near as smart as they think they are.

      2. That sounds even worse than the piping for my boiler. I remember the first time the guys from the oil company came by and I got to watch the senior tech pause and start tracing pipes with his finger to try and figure out what went where and (theoretically) did what. I don’t think any plumbing work in the house’s 130 years was installed by a professional, and every time it gets a new boiler, they just add more piping if the existing stuff doesn’t line up with the new one. We also have what looks like an electric water heater, but which has no powerlines to it and no on/off switches. No one has any idea what it could possibly be for, although it is sort-of hooked into the hot water line from the boiler. I try not to think about the steam pipes.

        If/When we replace it, they’ll be chopping out tens of feet of pipe before putting the new one in.

        1. Could it be a steam water heater, fed from the boiler? We had those on board ship. They’re extremely efficient.

          We also had steam kettles in the ship’s galley. They could cook up a lot of stuff really fast.

          1. Welll, the system is steam, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to keep water warm once it gets there, the steam doesn’t go there, just the hot water off the boiler (maybe) and my oil burner guys have seen a lot of old jury rigged stuff and still have no clue.

            As I’ve said, when it’s due for replacement I’ll just have the whole mess done, get a lot of
            floor space back, and enjoy a system that makes sense.

  17. Oh best wishes for the new home, and settling in.

    I have a theory. When you move to a new place, you always get sick because your body has to adjust to all the new biological systems. So fortify yourself, doze, and let the adjustment happen without thinking that you’re weak because you got sick. It is inevitable. Then you get strong and the new place bows before you, all systems conquered and docile.

  18. Welcome home to your new lair!

    Which is more needed:
    A celebratory libation?
    Or the cash that would otherwise be spent on it?

            1. The old saw is dogs have owners, Cats have Staff. I left the house the other day to do some errands and get a new primary care physician. My Void cat Hiccup has been sitting on the bed in my office watching me during working hours both Thursday and today. Apparently I need a great deal of supervision…

  19. Same species but the Designer went high end with the dimorphism (something about not just *wanting* but needing each other? I never read the manual until something breaks.

    Congrats to both his parents for raising a mist excellent prodigy, and to son for grabbing the opportunity with both hands and running with it.

  25. Good work, Son the Younger!! Sarah I’m very glad you’re home with Dan and getting some much needed rest. Please take care of yourself.

  26. Thank you to younger son. I don’t think I could cope with a dying Sarah at this point.

    I’m really glad you’re there, and you’re with your people. Please, rest, care for your body and spirit. I need you.

  27. Men are not a different species, but there are a lot of little design quirks between the sexes, that prove the Designer had a sense of humour. Like, women are thermal vampires, and men are heat sources.

    Enjoy snuggling your Hands & Feet Of Ice +2 against your poor husband’s tender, vulnerable, warmth!

    1. I was somewhat Annoyed with my husband a few years back, and he’d gone to bed well ahead of me. So after my shower, I wrapped up in a bathrobe, stood barefoot on the porch for three minutes by the stopwatch, padded inside, and snuggled up.

      1. Not anymore, as I’m warmer than hubby (as in too hot … covers on/covers off/stick foot out/repeat). But when we were still doing the adult leadership thing, the one comment hubby could make that would make scouts settle down was “dang it woman, get your feet off off mine”. Would get giggles and the youth would (finally) settled down. Pulled it when we weren’t zipping our bags together (primarily because while good for my cold feet, not so good for the rest of me, his shoulders were a tad bigger leaving a cold draft into the bags between us); shared a tent (which is/was(?) controversial, even though married).

  28. This place was fairly clean moving in – except the tops of the refrigerators. Apparently the previous tenants were short. The walls still need repainting, though.

    Good luck and don’t sweat the small stuff!

  29. Looks Like the FICUS is a first year lame duck. Can’t carry his own party and his staff won’t let him take questions from his own party. They’re saying that a member was live blogging so they couldn’t risk it.

    Children, drunks, and the United States of America

  31. You were worried about getting out of Colorado before the Bad Things(tm) happened, and it appears you were able to do so. Good to hear.

    I’ve been listening to a biography of Mao recently. Even including a certain amount of caution regarding the author (I’m aware of an item that the author solely attributes to a suspected Communist mole, while another source listed a number of individuals who were pushing for it, and this discrepancy makes me just a tad cautious with the author’s enthusiasm in blaming everything bad either on Mao, or communist moles), and it’s very, very depressing. When combined with all of the stuff going on right now, I even have had a couple of instances in which I had to just turn the audiobook off for a bit.

    On the other hand, it has made certain things blatantly clear about the people we’re dealing with right now. Though that, too, is somewhat depressing.

      1. You should do fine in this market. Just get it listed and don’t sweat the small stuff. My in-laws just sold their house for asking, no contingencies in 3 days. Their kitchen is noon functional, and it’s decorated in 80s glamour. So just lost and don’t fix anything! You should put the info up here and see if we have any friends of a friend and save the realtor commission!

            1. I have some books that were in a fire… fellow had filled up his entire house with books, and when he ran out of space, also stuffed them into the oven… don’t recall who turned on the oven, but ooops.

    2. Even if you just go with what the current (OK pre Pooh) CCP admits happened, Mao’s era is enough to make my stomach churn.

    3. Random note on China, was reading something from the business news yesterday that made me sit up and pay attention.
      https://morningporridge.com/blog/china/part-2-whats-the-driving-force-in-china/

      TL/DR, there are three factions in the CCP. The Shanghai Gang, aka the elite, the Chinese Commmunist Youth League aka the peasants who worked their way up the hard way, and since lately the Xi Gang.

      The Xi Gang is winning right now. Xi is crashing Evergrande Property Management on purpose with regulatory attacks, because Evergrande is part of the Shanghai Gang. Same with Jack Ma, etc.

      So, the reason China is reeling like a punch-drunk fighter is factional infighting. They don’t give a shit what happens to anybody else, as long as their faction wins. This includes crashing the economy or going to war with the USA.

      1. So, pretty much like the Democrats. Everything they do is political posturing at each other.

        1. My initial impulse was to disagree, but then I thought about Minneapolis last year, and Detroit, and Portland, and California. So yes, just like the Dems they will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs during their factional fighting and not even care a damn.

          That’s what killed 60 million Chinese people in the Great Leap Forward. Factions at war DID NOT CARE HOW MANY PEASANTS DIED. One million, ten million, sixty million, it didn’t make any difference to them.

          1. Apparently it came down to Mao himself. Mao didn’t care one bit about the peasants. He was sending food to the other communist nations in exchange for industrial supplies (needed to accelerate the PRC’s rise to superpower status), and good will. This left the peasantry in a precarious state, particularly since Mao banned emigration from the rural to the urban areas. Mao was aware of this, but the only actions he took were to suggest seizing ever more food to send away. However, a few years before the great famine started, the Chinese Politburo actually balked at how far Mao had taken things, and the desperate situation of the peasantry, and was able to successfully reduce the amount of food that was being sent out of the country over Mao’s opposition. This happened to coincide with the creation of the Collectives.

            Unfortunately, Mao promptly set to work undermining the limits that the Politburo had put in place.

            1. I’ve heard a very plausible argument that the Cultural Revolution was retribution against those who stopped the Great Leap Forward famine.

              1. Wouldn’t surprise me. Mao appears to have been extremely vindictive, and had the memory of an elephant when it came to grudges.

                1. If you had to live with Madame Mao you’d probably be almighty peevish, too.

                  Yeah, some couples just deserve one another … but we no longer need concern ourselves with Bill & The Big Loser.
                  ~

                  1. Any domestic conflicts with his wife were his own fault. Madame Mao was his fourth wife. His first wife died after a year. But his second and third wives were basically abandoned. And he apparently had no compunctions against sleeping with other women even while he was living with his second, third, and fourth wives.

                    His second wife was executed by the Nationalists when a Communist army under Mao attacked the city she was living in. The third was sent to Moscow for treatment, and apparently suffered a mental collapse.

      2. Not to be overly obnoxious, but…

        What you’re describing is essentially “Old Power”, “New Power”, and “The Leader’s Sycophants”. That’s a more or less universal situation in all but the smallest polities. The item of note here is that the Leader’s Sycophants group has gathered enough strength that it feels it can securely operate independent of the other two groups.

        I will note that based on what I’ve read, the politicians and business leaders in Shanghai are easily the most corrupt in the entirety of China. This is hidden from foreigners to a certain extent as Shanghai is also the city that’s presented to outsiders as the shining example of China’s modern magnificence.

        1. Just wait until you seen what’s coming. All those local governments are running on, technically illegal, debt carried off balance sheet funded by property sales. China is the most indebted country on earth. On balance sheet, Chine has ¥46 trillion or so external debt or $7 trillion US. That’s about 50% of GDP. Total on balance private sheet debt is another 300% of GDP. Goldman estimates that there is about the same again in off balance sheet debt. The vast majority of this is backed by real estate to one degree or another and the estimate is that there is vacant housing for 90 million people already built.

          For perspective, China holds around $850 Billion of US debt and another $300B from poor countries through their belt and road looting. I don’t know how much European debt they hyoid.

          That’s why Evergrande is so important. It’s the canary. Somehow it seems to have been swept under the rug till now. how long that will last is the great question particularly as the demographic bomb in China begins to go off.

          Ignore the power shortage thing, that was a bureaucratic bun fight between the army officers who run the power plants and the army officers that run the coal mines. The power companies had to deliver power at a fixed price but the price of coal was variable so they were all going under. a higher up general simply wrote the losses off. At some point we’ll figure out who took the losses.

          Just think of China as the 5 mafia families and it all makes sense.

          1. Yeah, I read an article on the power mess that claimed that power shortages like this one happen every so often for the exact reason you described.

            It’s probably also worth noting that the only reason why the RMB holds much value outside of China is because of that US debt that you mentioned. If China were to call it in in an attempt to deal with their internal debt problems, they’d likely just make things worse (even if the US honored the debt – which it might be tempted not to do).

            We’ll see.

  33. > I’m just SO tired, and I’m going to have to set up the kitchen.

    The kitchen isn’t going anywhere. Dan can figure out how not to starve. Grab a kitty, pull the blanket over your head, and see if you can sleep 12 hours straight.

    1. Might not work. I think that Sarah has something like me – absolutely cannot rest without an at least functional kitchen and office. (Last time I moved, fortunately when I was in my 40s, I was up for nearly three days straight to get those two rooms working.)

    2. Here at Temporary Place, the kitchen was the second thing I set up. First I had to make the bed with an Allen wrench. I had the instructions, which helped a lot.

  35. I have the opposite issue. I’m at the new house, he is packing/cleaning the old one. We are greatly missing each other, but I have it easier – I am cleaning, organizing, buying provisions (including clothing – he somehow managed to miss packing the ONE box I had ready with enough clothes, shoes, UNDERWEAR, and other things that would hold me until he returned in another month). Also busy setting up the office. I’ve installed the security system, am organizing the kitchen the way that I want it (he usually does that), and am fighting insomnia (just a few months until our 48th anniversary – you get used to having that body on the other side of the bed).

    1. You could have him ship you that box – it doesn’t seem like there’s anything breakable in it. It would also mean it wouldn’t be forgotten a second time.

  36. Grateful to younger son for taking care of you. I’ve been there with the shakes and chills, even immersed in hot water. Not fun. Take care of yourself.

  37. Again, feeling your pain. Of course, I took today off, probably gonna shirk tomorrow too!
    Just a bit of tile to lay in the bathroom of the sold home and I’ll be done with it, other than perhaps one more grass cutting before closing.

    Sometimes you have to think of yourself. Believe me when I tell you it ain’t easy!

  39. Glad you’re safe and good on your younger son too! A house lived in by a single man for 10-15 years, though? My place resembles that, with the added bonus of six cats at one time in here! Yeah, that probably knocked a few ten thousands off what I could get for it, sadly. Good luck from me and the four kitties I have, hope you enjoyed C’s newest picture on that note, and let me know some tips for dealing with that mess. The more I can take care of in advance the better.

  41. This “I’m not going to live with a depressed writer for nobody” made me laugh which was sorely needed. Thank you. I hope the rest of the move is easy.

  42. Sarah, Blessings on you, Blessings and Thank Yous! to your son for intervening on your behalf. When I read your headline, I literally clapped my hands in joy! Even if you still feel the urge to clean and organize instead of sleeping, it will be for YOUR future ease, not someone else’s.

    We won’t be “home” in our soon-to-be-ours new house for at least three more weeks, and as I continue packing and sorting and tossing and shredding and packing some more, I keep thinking “I never realized we owned so much STUFF!” Most of which we are taking with for – reasons. *sigh* But we will get there, eventually.

    And then the fun of un-packing begins. 😉

    Take care!

      1. Dad and I went through the garage, and decided that if Someone had not opened boxes with lecture notes, slides, and teaching films since they were packed in 198[low number], the boxes could go. So they went. After sitting in the garage here for *coughcough* years.

        1. Most of these are old books… I have a huge collection of mostly first edition paperback SF/F. I cannot bring myself to put books and du— er, that place in the same sentence.

      2. I know! Right! For us only 35 years. Although I know what is in (most) of it … well ALL of my stuff, just no place to put it out with the cats roaming.

        We inherited boxes from FIL garage when he died. Hubby and son went through it, one summer when kid was in college. A lot of it went to the HS program that builds electric carts to race. When hubby dies, that is where most the rest of it will go (provided the program still exists then). Then there are the (very old) wood furniture building tools from hubby’s grandfather and great-grandfather …

      3. I have boxes of yarn and craft supplies in my closet that were packed when we sold our WA property 17 years ago. They represent POTENTIAL and are never to be carelessly disposed of, you understand.

        The majority of books in the house, and those stored in the garage for the past 14+ years, belong to spouse, and are thus sacrosanct. I, on the other hand, guard my treasure trove of exotic and domestic-from-our-WA-property woods like a dragon guards its horde. POTENTIAL, you know.

        Although even I have been forced in recent years to part with many boxes and boards. Just yesterday a woodturning friend, who teaches teens and young adults on the spectrum, came to the house and drove away very happily with several hundred pounds of well-seasoned mesquite, ash, olive, alder, and other species, including two very large chunks of a Sissoo crotch that together probably weighed close to 100 pounds. (Son hefted those into the van.)

        Then there were a couple dozen 2″x4″x4′ sticks of assorted unidentified Indonesian hardwoods that I purchased up in Portland, OR, almost 20 years ago, and have been carting around since then. Plus a galvanized trash can a third full of red alder half-log pieces, and a smaller sealable barrel of western red cedar log pieces with olive-greenish dried lichens still clinging to the bark. and many many very thin growth rings visible in their five inch diameters. Both were packed two moves ago. As I said, he was VERY pleased with the haul.

        It is the third or fourth time I have donated to this group, and I always make sure to give them well-seasoned high-quality wood. That it goes to making beautiful hand-crafted items appeases the dragon somewhat. 😉 And reduces the number of boxes I need to schlepp to $NEXTHOME.

  43. “what this kitchen REALLY needs is to be demolished and redesigned.”

    Years ago, when we were under imminent threat of eminent domain forced move we found a house, a gorgeous Queen Anne with carriage house apartment on four acres, that wasn’t on the market – its owner had bought it then left it sitting idle for some ten years or so. We had our realtor contact the owner; there was interest in a possible sale, sufficient to permit a tour of the property – which proved the place a damned near dream house suited to our purposes. Ample space, lovely design, some marvelously useful nooks, with sewing room, library, and child’s playroom, spaces for abundant storage, and a quite capacious kitchen that was gutted, permitting a purchaser to design it from the hardwood floor up with all the appliances of which a foodie could dream.

    Alas, the owner’s asking price was what we reckoned would be the market value of the property after all improvements were made. So, no deal struck although the expressed interest apparently moved the owner to grant his adult son (a hairdresser, wink*wink) move in and bring it up to standard (although our subsequent drive-bys led us to consider some of his choices to be overly flamboyant, if you get my drift. We’d have kept the white exterior and eschewed the pastels, for one. Still: not our house, not our choices to make.)

    But dang .,, that kitchen would have been wonderful when we finished with it.
    ~

  45. I am so happy you are HOME!!!! Your health and happiness is more important than that house you are leaving. And yes, men are a different species– and I won’t back down from that theory. 🙂 If you have to go back, whatever you can get done, it is finished. DO NOT GO BACK!!!!! after that.

    Sending you happiness and health.

  46. Random observation, it is hard to get work done when you’re sicker than shit.

    Rest is more time-efficient than holy-crap-I’m-sick! plus recovery time. In my experience, anyway. ~:D

  47. ” WHO THE HECK PILES STUFF MARKED STORAGE ON THE STOVE? MEN THAT’S WHO.) ”

    Well, yeah. Everything on the stove is by definition there temporarily. (Unless it’s my stove, where the two big pots seem to have taken root.) Stuff going to Storage is in transit. Therefore it’s perfectly logical to put it in a Temporary spot.

    Wimmen logic, now, would have been to put stuff marked Storage in the hallway, or under the bed, or– Ow! where did this carp come from??

    1. Doesn’t everyone have two pots (nested) and a teakettle on the stove top at all times? I thought that was how they came from the factory.

      1. No. Not on my glass cook top. That the way to get said item thrown at you. Hubby and son are lucky my aim sucks. Anywhere else on the counter, fine; I’ll whine, grumble, and plead.

        1. But with a glass cooktop, it’s much easier to stuff several pots and a teakettle side by side without anything falling off!!

          Tho I use it so seldom for cooking, it might as well be a countertop…

  48. Miss Sarah; are you still interested in guest posts? I couldn’t sleep at 3 AM this morning had too many things swirling in my head.. If you’re still open, can I please get that email again?

      1. Give it a few days. I mean, you’ve barely been there long enough to sleep, much less to go a’roving by the light of the moon, when the Jellicoe cats come out…

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