After The Wave

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

The area of Portugal I grew up in, or rather the part of the ocean accessible from it — when I was little an excruciating 2 hour trip through the city on overcrowded, irregularly spaced buses, now 15 minutes up the highway — is known for sudden and incredibly impressive waves. So impressive it’s become a surfing paradise, drawing people from all over the world.

When I was eight — I think — I drowned. Oh, no, not really. Not even to the point of stopping breathing and needing resuscitation. But … Let me explain.

I was eight and playing in the very shallow part of the ocean. I had my back to the main part of the ocean. And suddenly, out of nowhere, a wave lifted me off my feet and rolled me. My eyes were open, and it was beautiful greeny yellow inside and I inhaled some water, and I couldn’t tell which way was up and–

My dad must have been very close, saw me go under, and dove in before I was dragged out to see, and pulled me back. My first words to him coughing and spluttering and spitting were “I died.” He still quotes this as one of the funniest things I’ve ever said. And it’s probably true.

It’s true in the sense that wave changed me. it showed me that things are unpredictable, and also that the beautiful can be deadly. And in that moment of upsideownness (totally a word) the mind somehow changed and the world with it.

There have been other waves in my life, including the pneumonia that almost killed me at 33, the concussion at 40 and– other times. Including the year of the five moves, five years ago.

This wave…. The move from hell or house purgatory or escape from Colorado…. whatever you want to call it, might be bigger than all of those, or in retrospect it might prove to have been just a few minutes of being rolled around. Right now, we don’t know. There is danger still, though perhaps not as great as my paranoid mind perceives (I have money/security issues. Always had. Knowing I have them is no cure.)

We should have been done two months ago. We should. Except this has been house fix up from Murphy.

There are always things that go wrong, particularly when trying out a new process/way of fixing something/whatever. This one…

Part of it is the unvailability/unreliability of supplies, and part of it: like, stain two floors, made of the same thing with the exact same mixture, varnish with same varnish and how in heck is one greenish and one RED. Like the reddest wood I’ve ever seen? And no, it’s not the wood (it really was the same, same batch.) the stain? Possibly. It was a different batch, and yet….

More importantly, we’ve had stain that didn’t stick. Wood that was deffective and had to be torn out, varnish that inexplicably turned the floor coal-black. Contractors that were unreliable, etc. etc. etc.

Now? Almost done. Effectively “listed” though pictures will be taken next monday, and it will be officially up for sale on the Friday after that.

Younger son and husband had me come home last night. I mean last night. We drove through the night and got in at 3 am. Younger son went back to touch up a dozen small things and supervise cleaners.

I’m terrified it won’t sell fast. We spent our savings and overextended, because once things started going wrong, we had to finish it. You can’t sell a construction site. Or at least not do it and recoup.

I’m trying not to worry. Of course I do.

A lot of you are being run off jobs by the Juden-frei vaccine “mandates” of our serene Fuhrer Zhu Bai Den. My gut tells me there will be a giant economic crash. As in, massive. And I don’t know what that means for selling the albatross.

Trying not to worry.

Came home to a mostly-packed house, though my office is setup (good move on my part.)

And I’m dead.

As in, I feel like when I came home after pneumonia and 11 days in ICU. I am not sick, but I don’t feel well. Husband sent me up to bed, so I’m writing this post from bed. Taking in account how difficult this is, it’s probably right. He’s also insisting he cooks tonight.

I look pale and gaunt, and like I just had a great illness. And I worry about not being there for the final clean and “zipping up.” Though son is probably okay with it. I mean, he is the clone.

Prayers are requested for house to sell as fast as possible. Crazy person walking in with a cash bid above our wildest dreams first day it’s up would be GREAT.

I feel guilty I’m not writing or editing, but I do realize I’m “ill” or at least recovering. And tomorrow might not be much better. Against all my instincts and screaming internal sense, it’s too early to take that breath. I’d only drown faster.

The world has changed in the months I was head down in this, and I’m not sure I like the hints I’m getting, nor do I think I should look just yet.

Meanwhile and in an interesting development, About halfway through the day on Monday my brain decided I was done with the house stuff. I literally couldn’t think about it. Instead, plots and character voices too up all my brain. That’s still there. It will be worked on.

For now, though, I went for a gentle lunch break walk with husband, in the park next door, with the sun and the nice bench to rest in (seriously, I think we walked like 200 ft. I’m TIRED) and now I’m here, on the bed,with the laptop. Some friends on social media. Looking out the window t the beautiful golden trees.

The dye is cast. The Rubicon is crossed. On the other end, there will be time for fear, and work and determination.

For now there’s the bed. There’s Havelock cat sleeping next to me. (He is very determined I’m not allowed to get up. Going for the lunch walk got me a yelling at.)

In a way, I’ve died. (Just leaving my home-of-the-heart is a death, in a way.)

I just don’t know what comes next.

402 thoughts on “After The Wave”

  1. Sending hopes that the house sells quickly.
    Anecdotally, we put our previous house on the market early Dec 2019 and had a cash(!) offer before the month was out. It wasn’t in the best of neighborhoods, it’s a small house, but it sold.

      1. With the number of people bailing out of California and into Colorado, it will hopefully sell quickly and for a better-than-expected price. I throw all the good wishes I’ve got toward that outcome!

        1. The best thing that happened for the speed and price of the resale was Reichsfuhrer Newsom not being recalled; that will definitely drive more people out of California.

          1. I sold my house last fall in two weeks. Got a new one right before it all went nuts. Good friend listed her condo on Friday; got cash offer on Sunday night. I live in S Florida but I work for a company w/offices in several states and I hear similar stories. Sell fast! The crash is coming but I think you’re near the crest of the peak.

            Cheers!

        2. Despicable Kate Brown has done what she could to slow movement from California to Oregon. She acts like she’s trying to be Noisome’s evil twin sister, going along with any bad idea from Cal as well as some lunatic ideas from Washington.

          So, for the CalExit refugees, Colorado might look pretty attractive.

              1. If you don’t mind, why “suck me” as a commenter name. I mean, I don’t know how many people here speak Portuguese but given this group, probably half speak a close enough language to get it.

                1. Spanish, too– there’s a LOT of folks here who are enough into Cryptids to catch it, even if they don’t have :cough: construction worker slang involving eggs rattling around in their heads.

      2. FWIW, my online book club this afternoon (including one member who just went through the selling-and-moving thing) thinks houses are in general selling very quickly these days. Especially in areas that attract refugees from California. I hope they’re right about yours!

      3. The way the housing market is right now, I think you’ll be good. I had a good offer on mine within a week of listing it.

          1. Would it be stupid to list it so we can refer it? Or a GoFundMe for moving expenses? And since someone says to lock in before interest rates move, how about an NFT for $X to lock a right of first refusal for 60 days?

        2. Everybody who can, is trying to lock in before the Prime Rate heads moonward.

          At least, they are if they have any sense.

          Too many probably don’t.
          I don’t think my bank would keep shoving offers of refinancing to cash out equity (with the *minor* detail of switching from fixed to adjustable rate buried in the fine print) if everybody just ignored the missives.

          Fingers crossed.
          Hearts to God, and hands to work.

        3. In my subdivision, we have people going door to door, flooding the mailbox, etc. with “Pleeeeese sell us your house” flyers. And don’t get me started on the phone spam.

          1. I get at least two of those targeted postcards a month begging me to either sell them or allow them to broker the sale of my fairly modest and definitely older (50-60 y o) home.
            But Huntsville is definitely a seller’s market right now with a population surge of at least 20k over the next couple of years. Of course the infrastructure is already demonstrating its inadequacy to handle the increased load.

              1. Yes! Definitely not TX.
                Used to have to travel to Houston several times a year on business, MSFC to JSC don’t you know, and learned early on when asked where I was from to specify Huntsville Alabama as Huntsville Texas in well known there as the home of the state pen and not much else.

            3. Getting the flyers regularly. Both outright buy, and brokers. So is mom. Neither of us are getting spam phone calls, yet (at least we aren’t, mom hasn’t mentioned any).

              Yea, I know. I probably just angered the spam gods. 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 … and I’ll start getting them.

              OTOH we don’t answer unknown numbers …

            4. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t get a voice mail or text asking me whether I would sell my house.

              Unfortunately, it isn’t MY house – the addresses are all up in the north and northwest of the metro Tucson area – and I live in the southeast corner, near the airbase. Must be someone with the same name?

              I wish they would call me about MY house; it would be amusing to see how far I could dicker them up to. (Not selling, yet. Not quite time for the “Escape From Tucson.” The Great Brown Vagina has been keeping her idiot head down for quite a while now, and Kelly is looking like he might be a one term wonder.)

          3. I’ve been getting at least three flyers, three or four phone calls, and about ten to twelve texts a week about selling my house, and they somehow know my address tied to my cell number. I’ve given up answering the phone, it’s worse than polling calls before the election.

            1. Sometimes they scrape the property owner records– makes things “interesting” if you only have a cellphone and that state requires a phone number on the closing documents, and then you move.

              1. Ah Ha. We have a winner. Our closing documents are 33 years old. Tied to the old house number. Which we dropped 20 years ago. Don’t know if the county has our correct primary number anymore.

              2. Yeah, if I’d known that was going to be a problem I would have picked up a burner phone before I did the refi. Hopefully won’t have to do another one, but if so the lesson has been learned.

  3. I’m seeing signs that frighten the heck out of me myself (some of it has bled into my comments on my few posts here), but… knowing you’re safely home is a comfort, and knowing that you’ve got a man sensible enough to send you to bed is a comfort further. I shall pray for your success.

    I also had not known the term judenfrei, so thank you for that as well. According to Hoyt: It’s Educational!

    (of course, most of the education is the completely wild historical tangents the commenters get into. I’ll admit my eyes glaze when y’all start talking weapons or troop movements, but man have I gotten a lot of other stuff from y’all)

      1. Some of the planes are flying to Mexico, then back in the middle of the night. Wonder what they’re bringing in?

            1. Thing is, I can assume that is some form of misinformation, and still be angry enough to be thinking about remedies.

              1. Can’t be misinformation. Not even ‘Russian disinformation’. Airplanes have to file flight plans. Where they go, and when, is a matter of public record.

                Psaki, the Secretary In Charge Of Not Answering Questions, claims they’re flying deported illegal aliens to Mexico. Really? Why would they start now? Why do the planes return in the middle of the night and stop where nobody can see what, if anything, they unload?

                Yup, I’m cynical and suspicious by nature. So what?
                ———————————
                Biden-und-Harris were not elected; they were installed, like a toilet and a bidet.
                Unlike them, the plumbing fixtures would at least be useful.

                1. Yes it can.

                  When things break in certain ways, false information could be inserted into systems where false information really should not be entered.

                  1. It looks like there are trackers. Try a search on “airplane tracking”. There’s at least a few, and I’ve seen screenshots on occasion.

                    Jen the spokescreep was asked about flights in the middle of the night, and she promptly went into hairsplitting mode to avoid answering the question. Apparently, 2:30AM is “early” and doesn’t qualify as “the middle of the night”.

                3. I could actually see this, since using flights late at night would probably be less expensive (the airline probably has planes that otherwise don’t get used at night).

                  On the other hand, asking me to believe that this administration is flying planeloads of illegals out is a bit much.

              2. The realities, if they are ever known, are like to be worse, based on the things that have been admitted and leaked just in my lifetime. I try to have low expectations of politicians in general and democrats in specific, socialists in *very* specific. The fact that I’ve continually *overestimated* their competence, intelligence, and moral fiber concerns me. That this doesn’t all end in wrath and blood and tears will take the miracle that I am praying for. That’s what I’m worried about, anyway. Right now.

      2. Did you hear about the WaPo editorial complaining that we’re spoiled brats for expecting the supply issues to be fixed?

        1. Ooooh yeah.

          To which I want to use unprintable language. I have certain health issues, there are many things I cannot eat, I like having a decent stock of what I can eat.

          I waffled between “this is punitive” and “these idiots don’t know that you can’t just stop and start shipping” before deciding I didn’t have to choose – it’s both.

          …I want to see Pelosi facing down no $12 a pint ice cream, then cry to me about being spoiled.

          1. Don’t worry. Pelosi will send a military jet to the factory that makes the ice cream to score a few pints for her.

            2. Until the ice cream factory can’t get milk, or sugar, or cocoa powder, or…

              The elitists might be the last ones to get bit, but get bit they will. They don’t have the first clue that they are completely dependent on that whole ‘basket of deplorables’ they barely realize exist.

              Wait until their plumbing backs up and they can’t get a plumber. If the whole sewer system went down, I could dig a pit and build an outhouse from scrap lumber.

                  1. >> “I walked because of an editorial directive that came down after the election”

                    What happened? Did they demand you pretend the election was legit?

                    1. Well, not to mention it wasn’t. “Because we don’t want to sound like sour losers.” The real reason was not to be banned as a site on social media, which I COMPLETELY understand. (I actually loved my editor there. She wasn’t happy about it, either, just making the best of a bad thing.) I couldn’t stomach it, however.

                    4. DGM, I don’t know post audit. I haven’t been working for them, so I don’t get editorial.
                      Shortly after I walked I got the Barbarella gig, which takes up the same time and pays better, so–
                      Again, though, I don’t have anything against the site and I LOVED my editor. It’s just we all have our internal “walk points” and that was mine.

          2. It’s punitive. Because FICUS could use the Commerce Clause for it’s intended purpose and override CA’s stupid regulations cutting down on the number of available trucks and drivers.

            Let’s Go Brandon!

            1. No, FICUS coudn’t. Congress would have to do it. With Pelosi in the Speakers chair.
              Still, it would be a very good idea to have such a bill drafted and introduced to force Nancy to publicly block it.
              It would be easy to draft.
              “No State or subdivision thereof may restrict the operation of trucks licensed in any other State from their roads or cargo transfer facilities.
              No State may interfere with the terms of employment, including self-employment, of any truck operator who is a citizen of another State.”

              1. He could do it under any of several laws already passed, which allow the Executive that authority in an “emergency”. That’s why it’s punitive. They tell us that WuFlu is an emergency requiring a fast track vaccine that everyone has to take, they could override the regulations on the same damn basis.

        2. Oh, I saw that! “Lower your expectations!” WTF? And my mind goes to, what happens when the land of plenty becomes a land of famine? I’m very worried.

          1. land of plenty becomes a land of famine

            –
            As already pointed out on other posts on this blog – “When the US has to go without, the rest of the world starves.”

            1. I expect the pinch to become so obvious it can no longer be denied by even the most uninformed of the public right around this coming holiday season. Look for Thanksgiving and Christmas to be a stone beyatch for we common folk. And the elites will be inconvenienced to the point where their privileged lifestyles will become blatantly obvious with repetitions of the recent case where FICUS had to call an ER nurse to get his friend’s wife preferential treatment at a hospital.
              Never fear, push comes to shove, our self appointed elites will always make sure they get theirs first.
              Let’s go Brandon indeed.

            2. Yep. I don’t know what Emperor Xi is using for a brain – but he hasn’t ordered his minion Asterisk to do what is necessary. He apparently thinks that this will weaken the US even further. It will, somewhat, but what does he think will happen to his export dependent economy when the orders don’t come in next year?

              No matter what the price that inflation will let Walmart sell things at, they’re not going to order more if they don’t have things to sell when the previous shipments are still sitting off of Long Beach come November.

              1. Maybe attributing all of Pretendant Biden’s actions to orders from Emperor Xi is a bit much.

                After all, at some point, when asking “If Pretendant Biden was solely a puppet of Emperor Xi, what would he be doing differently?” we start to get to answers like “Scale it back a notch or two, because Emperor Xi would want to maintain believability and plausable deniability” and “Make decisions that harm the US, but not US-China relations, and particularly not trade between the two countries”, among other things.

                1. “Emperor” is used after deliberation.

                  Emperors are not always (historically, very rarely) rational actors. The Empress Cixi certainly was not – diverting most of the naval funds to build a jade houseboat – which led to the loss of Taiwan and Korea as Japan began to flex its infant muscles.

                  Mao certainly wasn’t quite right in the head, either.

                  The policies that Xi is following in his own country – can you call those rational, if you want an actually powerful nation?

                  1. Mao certainly wasn’t quite right in the head, either.

                    –
                    You have a funny way of spelling ‘was a raving fruitcake’. 😛

                    if you want an actually powerful nation?

                    –
                    But none of them do. What they want is direct, authoritarian power over as many people as possible. Allowing those people to have power is a threat. Breaking others down has priority over building themselves up.

          3. If my expectations get much lower, the expectations will not include any reason to refrain from killing the em effers, as Buckman and Vorhees intended.

            1. Well, there’s that whole thing about murderers being on that list you don’t want to be on. (Surely I can infer some fine print, but still.)

      3. It’s not at night! It’s in the morning! Press Secretary Psaki told us that!

        (2:30 in the morning, in this case)

        2. As ever was. When caught in an outrageous offense they always revert to arguing over semantics.
          From as far back as a debate over what the definition of “is” is.

  4. Living is good 🙂

    Though I expect I’m going to have to make some fun and discomforting choice on my own, as least we’re reasonably secure here, I think.

  6. Story of my last few years… and still not quite out. Prayers for yours to go smoothly and well. And yes, all that lovely beach? The tsunami is coming.

  7. Younger son and husband had me come home last night. I mean last night. We drove through the night and got in at 3 am. Younger son went back to touch up a dozen small things and supervise cleaners.

    GOOD.

    That’s one thing off the worry-list.

    Progress!

  8. Dear Hostess I will keep your house issues in my prayers. I hope leaving the home of your heart heals over time. I can’t imagine what it would be like. Perhaps I would feel similar if I had to leave New England as assorted relatives have been living here for well nigh on 4 centuries. As for Havelock cat he sounds like a very good kitty. If you won’t listen to the humans telling you to take a break, listen to the wisdom of a feline. As truthfully who ever heard of a cat overworking itself 🙂 ?

    1. I know she’s known low thyroid, from it being mentioned on here as a funky sort, but it’s probably overwork and autoimmune right now.

      Her recovery when at Better Place was relatively fast last time, so here’s hoping!

      1. And altitude. Just taking it easy for a few days at low altitude could do a world of good.

      1. Stress is always hard on thyroid issues. Altitude is hard too. Adrenal issues can cause thyroid issues, and–I’m learning they can be very wonky. Adrenal fatigue has its own unique set of unfortunate consequences and doesn’t respond well to caffeine. There are things you can take to make it less of a factor, though–and they do work quite well. Anyway, something to bring up with your favorite medical professional.

        As for the timeline issues on selling your house, I think you’re okay for now.

        February might be a different story. It’s quite possible that this current house of cards won’t make it to March. Of course, if the Chinese invade Taiwan sooner, all bets are off, but they may also wait till spring on that…

        1. Apparently one of the indications that I had undiagnosed thyroid issues for YEARS is that when I get really tired I lose my voice and become congested. Eh.
          I’m hoping the issues better at low altitude. They seem to.

          1. They usually do get better – when you stay there. This going back and forth is actually worse for exhaustion than just being at the higher altitude. Found that out just going back and forth a couple thousand feet between Tucson and my home town when my mother needed periodic visits. I was MUCH younger then, too – but a few weeks of that just completely wiped me out. (I had a comparison when older – going back and forth from Tucson to Phoenix didn’t do the same thing to me.)

  10. Yeah, I’ve been a little crippled with freak outs lately.

    I’m definitely feeling something, but the usual caveat about distinguishing that from noise. (IE, I am nuts, and have weird physical health issues.)

    I’m not forecasting, but there is a sense. The sense might be measurement error.

  11. I think we all go thru times when we need to shut down the flood of details bombarding our life. Even for just a short bit of time. I’ve had to do it during snapshots in my life when there was no one to pick up the slack, and everything still carried on. Sounds like your son and hubby are good at knowing when to take the reigns.

    Don’t know physical situation of your CO house, but I found that having a “coming soon” sign up before it’s fully ready helped generate early interest.

    Take care of yourself.

  12. People are flooding out of California by the day, and they’re buying here in Colorado (and elsewhere). It’s frightening to see, in some ways, but these expat Calis are leaving the dystopian nightmare that was their beloved State. Maybe they’ll vote accordingly, and not for the same failed communist ideas they’re fleeing from.

    At any rate, they need homes. May there be a bidding war for yours.

      1. Elkhart, Indiana is listed on the WSJ/ Realtor.com as the hottest current market. Elkhart. We were just there a few weeks ago. But it’s a sign of change…

        And meanwhile, may a California buyer walk into your place and exclaim, “I just LOVE it!”

      2. Greater Chicago area as well. And not just fleeing the city, but leaving Illinois all together.
        It’s the sort of situation where the pressure of high crime and taxes builds with no reaction for a time until a threshold is reached, then the dam bursts and folks can no longer find a U-haul trailer to save themselves.

          2. Reportedly a federal judge just told Illinois that their redistricting map violated equal protection. I can’t remember a judge ever rejecting a redistricting in a blue state.

            1. They don’t. Expect a lot of Democratic Party federal judges ordering Democratic Party friendly redistricting with Democrats using lawfare to fix the maps in their favor and to tie up the appeals until it is too late for the maps to be thrown out for 2022.

              Democrats are all in on stealing the 2021 state and 2022 federal elections which is why they don;t care about how unpopular their policies and ideology are. What the people want doesn’t matter when elections are rigged.

        2. Dave Freer says the Jews are always the first to flee. The Portuguese the last and often too late.
          This means I strike a happy medium( Of course, she’s not so happy after I strike her.) if you consider genetics.
          Those of you still in CO take heed. Now is the time.

          1. Sarah, I’ve always liked your writing. This was GREAT! :

            “This means I strike a happy medium( Of course, she’s not so happy after I strike her.)”

          2. >> “This means I strike a happy medium( Of course, she’s not so happy after I strike her.)”

            And speaking of striking a woman, hold still while I aim the carpzooka…

      3. Alot of the flow out of NYC seems to have headed for Vermont. Brother in law is there with his wife and has been for ~10 years. They built as a weekend home, and had an apartment in Boston until ~2017. At that point his law firm bought him out and they moved permanently to VT. Prices of land/ homes have been going up precipitously since summer 2020 and the number of NY plates you see is huge. This makes life kind of hard on the native Vermonters. They already had a hippie influx in the 70’s so their politics has been weird for a while (C.F. Bernie) but the hippie artsy types didn’t mangle the housing economy. The New Yorkers are used to VERY high prices and see even ludicrous prices as cheap. A few of the New York types have been bagged by the locals. Apparently selling land that is nearly all granite under the topsoil for building has happened and the NYC types are astounded by how much it costs to blast a full cellar and annoyed that the septic field and well are even more expensive 🙂 .

        1. Denver is their #1 destination. I can sort of see why. I told a friend headed from NYC to FL “I can’t understand why they’d want to come to a place as repressive as Denver.”
          When he was done laughing his head off, he told me “you have no idea how free you are compared to us.”
          And then I remembered driving to the NE last year, and how free OHIO was when we stopped to have dinner with friends. OHIO.
          F*ck this time line. It’s insane.

          1. Yeah Much of New England decided 1984 was a manual not a dystopia in the 90’sor so. There are still outlying parts (e.g. NH North of Manchester, Much of VT NOT Burlington or similar largish city, ME North and West of 95 and north of Boothbay Harbor, CT outside the I95 corridor and greater Hartford and other mid size cities, MA outside the 495 belt and not in the cities) that look like what it was when I was a kid. I can see why the NYC types like VT its kind of Colorado lite (smaller mountains slightly less snow)
            I think much of New England’s change started in the 60’s when Manufacturing moved south to avoid Labor laws and Unions and get lower costs. Lots of Blue collar folk went with their jobs. High tech and finance dominated NE in the 80’s and into the 90’s. That’s 1% (well 2%) income territory. So you end up with severe town and gown type stuff as the 2% depend on all the other folk for services, and the other folk resent it as many of the high income folks are out and out assholes (please pardon my French). VT is getting more of that as the NYC types move in, but as I said some of the locals are getting the last laugh, the country bumpkins are far more astute than the NYC types think.

            1. I hate what happened to New England. Husband is New England bred, with 10 generations of New Englander behind him, and the land is SO MUCH like the North of Portugal (If a trifle colder) that it makes my heart ache that we couldn’t settle down there and raise the kids there because of politics.

              1. Our Hostess said:
                “with 10 generations of New Englander behind him”
                Interesting, any Kelsey or Kinsley ( see https://www.thekelseykindred.org/) in that? They’re all over
                CT, some parts of MA and oddly NJ (New Haven was originally a NJ colony…) in the 17th and 18th centuries. If so we’re cousins of some (Likely LARGE) degree

                1. I haven’t looked through his genealogy. His family was one of the starting ones in Norwalk, CT and our son is the first Hoyt in that line born in America but NOT in Norwalk.

                  1. My mother’s family name can be traced back to one of the first property owners in Watertown, MA, arriving in 1634. It’s why I consider my ethnicity to be “American” rather than English or Scotch-Irish (father’s side).

                  2. So quick look, William Kelsey had 9 children that lived to adulthood and reproduced (and reproduce they did with nearly 60 Grand children that made it to adulthood). The family moved to Hartford in the 1630’s, and it looks like one of the sons (and family) joined the John and Mary ship party that was one of the founding groups for Norwalk. So Maybe. Some days we forget how few people were in the early colonies. One family with many surviving children can really become dominant (E.G. The Aldens of John and Priscilla fame in Plymouth have a similar effect in Massachusetts). The other issue is inbreeding, there are 2 (or maybe three) times in my ancestry that a Kelsey marries a Kelsey. Often 2nd cousins but its not clear that one of the sets isn’t first cousins in the late 1600/early 1700 period, there just wasn’t anyone else to marry…

                    1. there are 2 (or maybe three) times in my ancestry that a Kelsey marries a Kelsey. Often 2nd cousins but its not clear that one of the sets isn’t first cousins in the late 1600/early 1700 period, there just wasn’t anyone else to marry…

                      –
                      Not my direct line, but extended family, where cousins, at least 2nd, or 2nd once removed, married. Didn’t know they were cousins until sometime afterwards. But that is exactly what happens when 3 brothers bring their wives and, combined, 36 children across the prairie. Grandma, 4th generation down (born 1908), remarked that growing up she didn’t go to school with any other children Other than her cousins until she went off to Normal School for Teaching.

          2. Most of the Midwest is free – except for the largest cities (particularly those with universities). I just moved to Lorain, OH. It’s mostly a quiet little town.

    2. Too many of them are locusts. They flee from an area they have destroyed, and then set about doing the exact same thing to the new place.
      ———————————
      “But I wasn’t going to compare Congress to the Yakuza. Not to his face.”

      1. Needs a certain concentration and urbanization for it to tip over. The state capitols are fecked. Major cities, too. They don’t do well in small towns and rural areas. Not enough folks to form a mob, too small to cheat and not get caught, too many folks that constitutionally (and Constitutionally) cannot put up with their bullcrap.

        Find a way to teach the urbanized populations of the benefits of being free and the whole thing collapses under its rotten weight.

        1. Thinking I need to practice my Southron accent with the catch phrase, “Y’all ain’t from around here is you?”

          1. Spend a few weeks in any area with proper Southrons speaking, and it’ll infect you right quick. Even had Yankees speaking more like the locals after a year or two of residence before. *grin*

            There are a few nice places left in the backwoods not too far from the towns yet. Places where the neighbors are friendly but mind their own business. Places where you can get farm fresh veggies and meat without having to drive half the day to get them. Places where shooting at targets off your back porch is unlikely to raise an eyebrow, let alone a call to the local sheriff as long as you’ve the sense to have a proper backstop hill.

            I’m currently in the nasty citified part of the South looking for work again, but it’s still a sight less onerous than Big City living. Avoid places like Outer DC, Atlanta, and the like- you’ll be fine pretty much anywhere else.

            1. One of my uncles did that. Moved from CT to Atlanta GA Suburbs sometime in the early 60’s. Given my Grandad and my other uncle’s accents (Blue Collar CT sort of a mix of Boston/Down East with hints of Brooklynn and Bronx, and FAST talking) it must have been interesting when he got there. By early 70’s he had a “Southern” accent, but it was some mix of the original and period Georgia blue collar. One of the most weird ass accents I’ve ever heard…

              1. It amused my late father no end, that fifteen years after I took up residence in Texas, that he claimed to hear a sort of Southern rising lilt in the way that my daughter and I talked.
                Guess it grows on you – like moss and lichen.

                1. Yeah one of the distinctives of his unique accent was rate of speech. To much of the Northeast southern speech seems SLOW (there’s a reason we call it a drawl 🙂 ). My uncle was neither fish nor fowl, his talking felt slow to us NE types, seemed frenetic to the native Atlanta folks.

          2. I would try to coach you a little, but I can’t tell Raleigh from Charlotte anymore by accent. I’m not sure I ever could; oddly enough I could Long Island from New York City, but perhaps that’s not an accomplishment. Let me see if I can find that website. Hmmm. I couldn’t. Try this from 2008 (Charlotte):

        2. And don’t forget that they don’t get next-day delivery if they move out of the major metros 😀

          1. Depends on how *far* you move out, at that. There’s a lovely little bit of land out next to the National Forest that gets next day deliveries. Where you’re more like to have deer in the yard than the neighbor’s dog, and the closest sound of civilization is the railroad that runs through the next holler.

            But don’t tell the urbanites that. Not even any internet service out there, why no, and no creature comforts either!

            1. “when the world around you gots to shit, go high, go cold, go north. the people who cant survive there are the problem you are escapting.”

              1. Heh. I *do* have relatives that make their way deicing planes in Alaska. That and Texas are options should it get too crowded in my little mountains.

          2. Out here, in our new home maybe 45 minutes from downtown Cincinnati, we haven’t yet seen deer in our yard but we have seen them in the neighborhood. I was surprised to find that the base-level internet service measures out to about ten times faster than what I had back in the California Bay Area (and cheaper, too). I can get lots of things next-day delivery if I want. There are quite a few State Parks and Nature Preserves within an hour’s drive. But those are just extras. I really moved here to get closer to my kids and out of the insanity.

            1. The mountains south of the Bay Area are beautiful and I miss them a lot, but escaping Kommiefornia is one of the best things I ever did.

            2. Twenty minutes from downtown Cincinnati I spot deer running through my subdivision and hopping fences between yards.

            4. Halfway between the downtowns of Cincinnati and Dayton here, about 25 minutes each way — deer and raccoons (and drunken hornets) help themselves to fallen crabapples in my front yard, foxes and coyotes can be seen wandering in the early morning. Box turtles in our little woods, and a 2’ diameter snapping turtle wanders across the road between the drainage ponds.

              We moved to Cincinnati twice — first in 1981 when Mr. Wife as hired by the big international company, and then again after five years in Europe when it brought us back again. Cincinnati may not have the cachet of those big fancy cities that are fun to visit, but it has at least one of all the things that make life happy, and sometimes more.

  13. Sarah, for the first time ever I came looking for a new post from you. This morning. Saw nothing and thought “Oh, OK. I didn’t miss it.” You matter, your work matters.
    I’m grateful you know how to care for yourself, and that you share your wisdom with me, with all of us.
    I woke up this morning so terrified all I could do was bawl and cancel every appointment I had. Having to leave WA, being nearly broke, between heartache and my insecurities about place/cash/income, I empathize with what’s tearing you apart.

    All this is very, very fucked up. The enemy is taking this all the way. No surprise and devastating at the same time.

    I’m so glad you wrote something, and that your kitten is holding you accountable.

    It’s going to be ugly. But? We fight. We win. Whatever it takes.

    The Republic is our home.

    And your place is going to sell so high and hot you’ll cry. Believe me. 🙂

  14. Congratulations on the move and prayers for a quick sale of the old. I foresee dark Times ahead. Possibly as early as next month when the normies can’t find their preferred holiday fare. Keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

  15. All the housing indicators in Colorado look really strong still. Vertical in fact. Knock wood, you’ll be OK but that will not, cannot last forever. “Sunshine” Charlie Mitchell, the Chairman of what is now Citibank and one of the major players in the 1929 crash used to wear a watch fob shaped like a pig to remind him of the oldest Wall Street wisdom. Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs don’t make money.

    Good luck.

      1. List and go. I had similar problems when I downsized out of the “forever” house. I think the houses are sad they are being abandoned and create all sorts of problems! Mine certainly did.
        Sorry you are leaving Colorado, but glad for you, and fingers crossed for the market to take a big jump in time for you to sell!

        1. THAT is precisely my feeling, which is why I walked around yesterday mumbling “you’re a good house, we just have to go.”
          it IS a good and beautiful house, and we thought it might be our last one. Obviously not….

          2. Ghod’s truth. You did not leave Colorado.
            Colorado left you!
            Welcome to the Heartland my fine Portagee.

      2. $SPOUSE and I had a few spirited disagreements over what had to be done to make the San Jose place listable. She won most of them (the exterior of the house needed repainting, and so forth), but I drew the line at sanding and refinishing the living room and master bedroom floors. It was going to eat into time we were going to need to move. The floors were Good Enough, and it would have added a couple of weeks or more to do the job.

        The house sold within a week of listing (this was 2003) and we got the move complete on Halloween, two days before a snowstorm good enough to get our attention. (The 6 hour power failure when we were doing a Costco run freaked out the dogs, but it didn’t get too cold. Mercifully. Protip: If one crashes into a power pole and drop a wire, going back to get a purse could be the last thing you’ll ever do. We developed great respect for winter roads here.)

  16. Good that you can take a breath, and recoup. I’m so sorry that you had such issues with refitting your former house for sale.
    It helps to take a walk, and just revel in simple pleasures. And there are simple pleasures, still out there for us. I wrote about it here –
    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/66774.html

    The Daughter Unit and I are stocking up, though – not just on food items, but things for our various hobbies.

    1. I have THREE BOXES of crochet thread. Because that’s my most basic hobby.
      If house sells fast, I’m buying half a cow. And a generator, to keep the things frozen. Even if it runs two hours a day.And a ton of canned.

      1. If you’re in a place that gets plenty of sun, it might make sense to put in solar panels and battery backup. Fuel costs are only going up.

        1. We’re considering that. AGAIN if house sells fast and well. Just for supplement. Also indoor kerosene heaters, because this will be a hard winter. We couldn’t use them high altitude, but here it’s possible.
          Eventually I want a wood stove, but that will probably be a year,b ecause it will take BUILDING.

          1. That’s one reason I got a house with a fireplace. Two, actually. There’s enough trash wood around here I could do without heat and electricity for however long, if needs must. Still want to keep water and sewer service in perpetuity. I do *not* want to go back to handwashing clothes in the cold and using an outhouse. Nope. BTDT.

          2. Buy an indoor/outdoor thermometer. The kind with wireless sensors you stick outside. Stick it in your freezer(s) instead. In a power failure it will take the guesswork out of when it is time to plug the ‘fridge into the generator or inverter (or start eating the ice cream).

            Also arrange the plug (or a short high amp extension cord) to the fridge so you don’t have to move it away from the wall during an emergency.

            1. Instead of a frozen cow you can buy country hams and just hang them in the pantry or attic. Mmmm .. far better than city ham. Assuming you aren’t on a low salt diet.

      2. We’re contemplating buying part of a cow as well. My dad used to do it when we were growing up. I don’t think he should have brought the liver home, though. Yes. The liver. The whole liver. Ewwww….

        1. I just did that. Went to an Amish butcher and bought a side of beef. It was cut into steaks, roasts, and ground and fills a whole freezer. $5.79 a pound. Really good quality too — well marbled, grass fed angus.

        2. Do not talk about Organ Meat. Eww, Ewww, Ewwwwwwwww. Mom used to try to tell us it was steak … Nope. Ours was Deer, and Elk. Rarely Beef (Aunt & Uncle raised).

          We get half a pig that one of the guys hubby golf with raises. I tell the butcher, every year, “No Organs. Don’t care who gets them.”

          Hubby says he loves Liver & Onions. The ONLY way he gets them, in 42 years and 10 months, is if he buys the liver, cooks it, somewhere, NOT in our house, or orders it at a restaurant when I’m not there.

              1. I like liver and onions, add bacon and it’s a very dainty dish. I also like skirts and kidneys and for that matter packet and tripe. I suppose it’s what you get used to. Call it tripes a la mode de Caen or Callos Madrilenos and people will eat it.

                1. My opinion for liver and onions matches my late grandmother’s for Grampa Pete’s kale. When he wanted it, there was a hotplate in the detached garage.

                  Mom was eating liver once a week on a Weightwatcher’s diet a long time ago. I’d join up with some buddies and we’d get hamburgers at the steak & burger place.

                  1. “Weightwatcher’s Diet”

                    Yes. To get the “Iron” vitamin … As teens.

                    Note. Not that we should have been on a diet back then … And no, it was not my choice. But water, bridge, and all that.

                    Although it was also supposedly a treat at hunting camp, with fresh liver … Nope.

                    “To the hunter goes the treat of the liver and heart.” … Fine by me. They can have my share.

                2. I ought to try beef liver again. Tried some once and it was fine but for some reason I was intimidated by the leftovers.

                  Later I tried my mother-in-law’s fried chicken livers. Glorious.

                  1. In my youth, Mom would use the turkey “things” for stuffing addons. I didn’t mind the turkey liver, and come to think of it, I didn’t mind liver sausage. (Haven’t had any in decades, though.) The additional fat made the liver tolerable.

                    I recall some liver cooked to the consistancy (and taste) of shoe sole leather. Mom, Grandma, and at least one of her sisters tended to overcook things. Mom’s and Aunt B’s liver dinners were excruciating. I never felt the urge to find the perfect preparation for liver (at least one that didn’t involve a catapult).

                    1. I never felt the urge to find the perfect preparation for liver (at least one that didn’t involve a catapult).

                      –
                      Hmmmm.

                      Nope. Only because I can’t get that close to the slimy stuff (at least as presented in most groceries) to purchase it.

                    2. The secret is: Thin sliced, no more than 1/4 inch, get it up to room temperature before cooking. Coat thoroughly with flour, and drop it into a cast iron skillet with bacon drippings at a temperature just below where they start to pop. Sear one side for about 30 seconds, turn, cover for three or four minutes.

                      Saute the onions separately, in a bit of butter (approximately two tablespoons for a medium sized onion), not bacon drippings. Pour the sauteed onions with the butter over the meat when serving.

                      I also make white gravy in the skillet with the left over flour and milk. Whisk the milk into the flour before pouring it into the hot pan, and stir constantly until thickened.

                      Not that the “secret preparation” will ever convert someone to my side of the fence. Believe me, I’ve tried…

                  2. *gag* I rather like chicken liver pate from a recipe in the Sunset Provincial France cookbook. Good stuff, lovely on fresh bread. It was one of my long-ago pregnancy cravings, which I suppose indicated some sort of vitamin deficiency … but calf liver? Liver and onions? It was one of my mom’s regular dishes and I could barely gag it down. I have not eaten calf liver in any form since departing from the parental homestead. I may have even refused it before then, on occasion. Revolting stuff. And I don’t care how much it might be cooked with bacon.
                    *gag*

                  1. Had some once. Fresh made in a Scottish cooking class. Spouse washed out the sheep’s stomach.
                    Once was enough.
                    We still make rumblethump, though.

                  2. Had some once. Freshly made in a Scottish coo,cooking class.
                    Once was enough (though it was better than I expected).
                    I still make rumblethump, though.

                    1. “Rumbledethumps,” maybe? Had to look that one up, and part of my heritage is Scottish. Must not have survived the melting pot.

                      Looks good, I’ll put it on my list to try on the family.

                4. My mum loved liver so we had it once in a while. Liver, onions, mashed potatoes. You take a small piece of liver, pile it with onions and mashed potato, and dip it in ketchup, then hold your nose while you chew. You almost can’t taste it. Then my mother banned us from holding our noses while eating at her table.

                  1. banned us from holding our noses while eating at her table.

                    –
                    Mine too. She also banned gagging sounds … So unfair.

                    Seriously though. The table, food, issues we had growing up were a large part of what formulated how we handled our child’s eating. The older generation called him “picky” and us indulgent parents (until he went on the determined to bankrupt mom and dad see food diet at age 14). OTOH he doesn’t have any food issues.

                    The OTHER part of what formatted our policy, that no one on dad’s side of the family could refute, was the constant battle with my cousin to eat anything. I remember mom’s battle in making her eat anything other than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, etc., when she’d stay with us. At first during the birth of her little sister, then the long hospital stay of same little sister (survived until age 14, severe birth defects). Eventually, when cousin, as an young adult it was discovered She had a minor birth defect. She had trouble swallowing (??? the cure/solution). She would only eat items she could eat. This was discovered before we had children ourselves. It had an influence.

          2. I’ve heard that soaking liver in milk will extract a lot of the bitter-tasting compounds. Tried it once and the taste was definitely improved, but it still had the underlying taste of liver. Liver might be nature’s multivitamin, but I still don’t enjoy it.

            1. I’ve heard the soak milk in liver too. Haven’t tried it. But texture is just as bad.

              Comes to it … It gets That bad … Yes. I’ll eat it, and keep it down. BUT we are a very, very, long way from that.

            3. Recalls liver at Aunt B’s. Nope. Not enough ketchup in the house to cure that. See comment above about overcooking…

            4. As rick Cooks “Wiz” Zumwalt would say “Even rat Sashimi is tolerable, if you have enough wasabi…”

          4. I had cow stomach once, prepared by a Chinese immigrant friend of mine. On the one hand, I had no trouble eating it, and it tasted fine. On the other hand, standard cuts of beef are so much more flavorful and easily available that there’s really no reason to eat the stomach.

        3. I have an amazing recipe for liver pate that involves orange juice concentrate, a pound of bacon, and plenty of onions. My kids love it–and they don’t like/won’t eat liver otherwise.

          The thing about liver is that you have to know how to cook it. Soaking it in milk for several hours helps (although not if you’re making pate), but like other organ meats, the taste and texture is usually better the next day.

          2. Would you be willing to email me that recipe? My first name, dot, my last name, at gmail dot com. I still want to find a liver recipe I can tolerate, because it really does have so many hard-to-find-elsewhere vitamins.

      3. If you’re lucky enough to have natural gas, get a multi-fuel generator, and hard-plumb the generator into the gas line. Come to it, natural gas is the last modern fuel to run out. (My sister had to do this cuz the power is unreliable where she’s at, and it can be out long enough for her boiler to freeze up. So now it’s automatic switch to the generator, and on the fuel that requires no attention.)

        Side note: on Friday, Sam’s Club had nice Angus sirloin steaks cheaper than hamburger. $4.26/lb. Costco was out of toilet paper, but had bales and bales of kleenix.

        1. But don’t try to flush the facial tissues, unless you like giving money to plumbers.

          1. I wondered about that. I’m on a septic with over 100 feet of barely-sloped pipe, definitely does not need anything that likes to stick together helping clog up the works.

            1. Toilet paper is specifically designed to fall apart. Other paper products are not, though I expect facial tissues are less durable than, say, paper napkins or pages of newspaper.

        2. When we were moving into our new place six years ago, I bargain-hunted like a fiend. Four or five stores on grocery day to find bulk buys and stuff on clearance, scouring the Goodwill for Useful Books and other oddities, etc. I was usually gone from 8-4 on my shopping day, and it’s more exhausting than you might think. I was so enjoying a period of “eh, swing by the nearest store and pick up the week’s necessities” that took ONE hour, but now I’m back in Paranoid Shopping mode.

  18. Rest, get well… I suspected that you were running on fumes and was even on the last drop in your tank. Take it easy. I’m sure you will sell the house quickly.

  19. As always, good luck from me and the kitties (and the most recent picture even has the elusive H the Chunky Butt too if you need a kitty break)! A lot of things do sound worrisome all around and since the main thing going on with my attempt to escape is delays, well… No wonder I was a brain fogged mess today, even on two cups of King Harv’s Jupiter. Take care of yourself and hope all goes well!

  20. I have the same financial anxiety. I solve it by buying books which isn’t exactly the best response. Revel in your day in bed and let rest heal you. Prayers for a strong sale of house and comfort for your heart on leaving your much-loved home.

    1. I recently forced myself to mask up to go into the local library and renew my card, since the library allows ebook lending via Libby (the new Overdrive-powered app). Almost no indie rep in libraries, but I can read old SF/F again, the backlist ones tradpub is trying to sell for $12.99 a pop.

      1. If you’re looking for mysteries, I recc’ this guy, Steven F. Havill.

        And if you can find some of his older books – look for this one.

        Doctor ends up deputized to track down the guys who started an anthrax epidemic. One of the best “Westerns” I’ve read – though it’s more a mystery set as a Western.

        1. Yay! An author I have never heard of and the library has 40 of his books, most available on ebook. Downloaded Heartshot (the first book in the series) and now regret having to go to work at noon. But the bills have to be paid. OTOH I have some unplanned and enforced time off from my regular job so lots of time to read. Here is the list of his books and the order in which one should read them.

          https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/steven-f-havill/

          1. *G* I bet you’ll love the bit in one book where a deputy gets him on the radio and asks directly for his help, “you should be right above me”.

            “How do you know it’s me?”

            “…Sir, you’re the only person who drives all the roads of this county at an idle.”

        2. I notice you got 2 links working in the same comment. What exactly did you copy-paste them from?

            1. Thanks, but I meant more precisely than that. I’ve tried to figure out the rules for why WP sometimes allows multiple links in a comment and the only consistent way I’ve found is with the exact link you get from YouTube’s embed button.

              Did you just copy-paste from the address bar?

              1. Yes, I did. And generally WP puts anything with more than one link into moderation, and the blog owner has to approve it before it shows up. Which is exactly what happened with mine – our hostess had to approve the comment before it would appear. If I’d made two separate comments with 1 link each, that probably would have sailed through untouched.

  21. Best wishes on getting that house sold fast. I too have spent the summer uneasy — with our luck, I fully expected things to blow right in the middle of our big sales trip and leave us stranded somewhere between home and Tampa. But we got through it safely, and now our only remaining out-of-town convention is in Grand Rapids, which is only a few hours’ drive north of here. Given the shaky state of things, maybe it’s just as well that Youmacon dumped us, because I’m just as glad not to be going to Detroit.

    At the moment, our biggest uncertainty is setting up next year’s convention roster. Our two biggest conventions are now under new management, and the new promoter hasn’t announced booth prices or even *dates* for next year. So we’re going ahead and buying into other conventions and hoping we won’t have a conflict — and hoping that having all that working capital hung tied up won’t bite us in the butts when the big rupture finally does come.

    At least sales were good this year. People came to conventions intending to spend, and we haven’t had a single flop (unlike 2019, in which we had four cons that flopped hard on us). I’m using some of the money to knock down debt, and I’m working on getting us the wherewithal to put by more food. All we can do is wait and see what happens, and hope that what we have on the other side of this upheaval isn’t a culture super hostile to nerds and misfits.

      1. AmaCon, LibertyCon would have been if the venue hadn’t balked [reason unspecified], a lot of the regional Cons in states that allow it are in-person again. FenCon in the D/FW area was in person.

        1. Hamilton County has political issues, far as I can recall. One of the few TN places that reliably votes D, along with Memphis and Nashville. The mayor has been in a constant tizzy over the mask-R-aide. In state buildings. In public. Social distancing. And so on. Would it surprise you that it put the kibosh on tourism and the like, too?

      2. For us, InConJunction, Tampa Bay Comic Con, ATL Comic Con, Grand Rapids Summer Bash, Archon and Indiana Comic Con already this year, and It’s Not A Con (brand new gaming convention just down the street from us) and Grand Rapids Comic Con in the next few weeks. When they first started up, I didn’t really trust they’d happen until I was actually loaded in, set up, and dealing with customers (I was very afraid that we’d drive all the way to Tampa only to get the message that it had been canceled, and then have to turn around and drive back for nothing).

        I’m hoping next year’s cons happen as scheduled. I have already scheduled Hall of Heroes Comic Con, Grand Rapids Spring Fling, Visioncon, and JAFAX, and just sent money in for next year’s Archon.

        1. Clownfish TV did streams from two Pittsburgh-area conventions (more on the comic con side), and there are a few more. Indiana Comic con was last weekend.

          OVFF is the last weekend of the month, but they are requiring “proof of vaccination.” Which is on the concom. Bah.

          And singing/playing with a mask on, because Columbus is just as dumb about “indoor areas accessible to the public” as Dayton is.

          1. Given the general health problems frequently found among filkers, and given imposed constant masking, I’m betting that someone will faint, and probably more than just one. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a heart attack, honestly.

            1. Anyway, I won’t be at OVFF, because I’m working and because I’m too tired to go. But honestly, I don’t think people are aware of how much this is going to exhaust them and fill them with CO2.

  23. Sarah,

    Prayers for you and yours. As soon as the listing is on the inter webs, link it, ok? Would you sell your house to a refugee from the formerly free state of Victoria in the formerly free country of Australia?

    1. Not sure about linking it, but will send the link pm (I don’t need enemy action on the house.)
      The big advantage of the house is that though it’s in deep blue Denver, it’s in the best neighborhood we’ve ever lived in, between two marines, and in a street where everyone ACTIVELY looks out for the other. So much so I was talking to husband about “when we go back for closing, we should take neighbors out for a nice dinner, because they pitched in BIG TIME for us.”

      1. Wow. You expose your true heart to us in ways that I am both astounded by and grateful for. My prayers are for your speedily getting to a new and better normal and for a fantastic sale.
        The feeling you describe is the spinning out of control of all that we have held dear. Our liberty, Even our faith. Fear not, as we all seem to agree, and those I speak with daily, we win, they lose.
        We left Cali in ’93 to the midwest to raise our children in a sane and humane place. Now have left behind that now toxic home to a new adventure in a state my family explored and settled in the 1780s. Feels like a homecoming. Son and I going to look at some BO properties this week end. Where can community be rebuilt? Not in any city I fear.
        I think the reckoning is soon.

      2. I found its old listing (and if you don’t know how, I ain’t tellin’). It’s a very, very nice house, and for being in a metro, can’t beat the setting. It’ll sell to the first high bidder who can swing it. From my mouth to G0d’s ear, eh??

  24. I have taken the liberty of adding you to my congregation’s misheberach list. The misheberach is a community prayer for those in need of physical and/or spiritual healing and peace.

    2. Not gonna lie, I have no idea how “misheberach” is pronounced but for some reason the first place my mind went to is this:

      Though I guess that man IS in dire need of “physical and/or spiritual healing and peace.”

  25. Cutting off supply lines seems to be a step toward an act of aggression – it’s not Christmas toys and treadmills that are backed up. But the impact is not felt until later, so I guess it’s more of a passive thing. Newsom is too focused on vaccinating school kids, except for his own, to think about suspending the trucking rules that contribute to the problems.

    1. Baking supplies – Michaels was out of Halloween sprinkles, frosting, and all that sort of stuff. Among other things. one of the big grocery stores was out of frosting, and flour is sparse. Some grocery stores lack brand-name sodapop. My drug store has lowered the shelves (no more top shelf) on all the aisles but one, and some vitamins in some brands are hard to find. Frozen veggies are also getting thin as far as number of kinds.

      1. The Democratic Party media arm is doing the prep work for the Soviet style economy that the Democrats are creating with THREE op-eds in the Washington Post telling people they need to lower expectations and :”accept” supply chain woes>

        Don’t be surprised if the supply chain and the economy completely collapse very quickly, like a building that is falling apart that suddenly collapses. It’s going to get a lot worse, especially as Team HarrisBiden and the Democrats entire policy agenda makes the supply chains and economy worse.

          1. It’s erratic. Half a week ago, there was a problem with the brand of lactose-free milk I drink (in several stores), but it’s back now.

            1. It’s the way the supply chain works at a time like this. Only a certain percentage of the “normal” level of goods is available. But there isn’t an across the board reduction of all goods. Instead, each week certain goods – seemingly picked at random, at least to an outside observer – are just flat out not available, while everything else is present at much higher levels.

              It’s been like that since the pre-shutdown run on products (such as toilet paper and rice), though at least part of the reason for the shortages has changed since then.

            1. Last week our Kroger was unable to get produce bags (the plastic bags for bulk vegetables and fruits). They had a nice sign apologizing for the inconvenience, instead of — oh, I don’t know — maybe putting some plastic shopping bags out in their place? But no, everyone had a cart of mixed produce rolling around amidst the cans and boxes, which all had to be sorted out at check-out…

              1. There aren’t enough plastic shopping bags. If the grocery store did make them available to use in the produce and meat departments, they’d quickly run out, and everyone would be in even worse shape.

            2. I’m not really surprised. Fred Meyer (Kroger) has been running low on yogurt for months, though regional brands (Tillamook) and other national brands (Mountain High, a General Mills brand) are in decent supply. The latter was short a couple of months ago, but the supply is now pretty good.

              Locally, the hay harvest in our area has been pretty bad due to drought.

              I’m seeing spot shortages of various things; this week the supply of tomato sauce was limited, and the Santiam brand of canned goods disappeared last year. (The parent company has had financial problems, too.) At least one issue is a shortage of tin cans because China.

              1. The calendars showed up in September in the number they usually appear in July.

                And they are only just picking up.

                This has always been my gauge for the economy: how much selection there is in calendars.

                It has never been so poor.

                1. >> “This has always been my gauge for the economy: how much selection there is in calendars.”

                  Why calendars, specifically?

            4. Homemade yoghurt:

              Heat 1 quart of milk for a few minutes to between 180-220*F to sterilize. Then cool down to 80*F degrees, add 1 Tbsp starter (fresh Greek yoghurt is fine), ferment in a warm oven at 100-110*F for 8-24 hours.

        2. Last couple of weeks my local WalMart Neighborhood Market has run out of many of their store brand products. Name brand equivalents still available, but of course at a significantly higher price.
          And of course there is the steady escalation of gas prices.
          Gee, thanks Joe. Let’s go Brandon.

          1. After a letter purportedly (it was faked) from the Canadian government came out that banned “Let’s go Brandon” someone suggested “Let’s go Wheat Kings” since the WK hockey team is from Brandon, Manitoba. No matter how ridiculous the government gets we can make them seem even more so. Can you imagine telling people you can’t cheer for a small hockey team because it’s offensive? I might even take a bit of my cash and buy a Wheat Kings hockey jersey. (Just checked, sold out of XL hoodies. Darn it!)

            1. Virginia Tech is trying to suppress the FJB chant by limiting attendance. Good luck with that…

          1. Not so bad here, either. Oddly, the only canned item that I have not found for weeks is spinach. Everything else in cans (at least that we buy) has been in good supply.

            Not a spinach shortage, either – fresh spinach is copious, and frozen is too.

    2. What worries me is the thought of containers full of illegals out there for months, with maybe a week’s worth of food and water…

      2. Donner, party of ten…Donner, party of nine…Donner, party of eight…

        Sorry, couldn’t resist.

    3. Copypasta for those who haven’t heard:
      ===

      You’ve heard how container ships are piling up outside of California’s harbors, for lack of truckers to haul off those imported goods?

      Here’s the real reason:

      https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2021/10/19/bidens-boat-parade-trucker-shortage-exacerbating-u-s-port-congestion/

      theconservativetreehouse DOT com/blog/2021/10/14/the-california-version-of-the-green-new-deal-and-an-october-16-2020-epa-settlement-with-transportation-is-whats-creating-the-container-shipping-backlog-working-ca-ports-24-7-will-not-help-here/

      “On October 16, 2020, the EPA reached a settlement agreement with California Air Resource Board to shut down semi tractor rigs that were non-compliant with new California emission standards:”

      CA does apportioned licensing, so an 18-wheeler needs a CA permit to operate in CA. To get that permit it needs to pass strict new emissions standards. Those standards exclude all big rigs more than 11 years old, and a lot of ’em more than 3 years old. (BTW this also applies to pickup trucks, since in CA, even mini pickup trucks are legally “commercial vehicles” classed the same as 18-wheelers.) This is not enforced against CA-based union truckers, but it IS enforced against independent owner-operators, which means nearly all the long-haulers based in other states.

      Which means about 75% of all the trucks in the U.S. can no longer operate in California. And all that freight which otherwise would have been trucked out of state… sits there in the ocean off Long Beach harbor, the docks being already clogged to the sky. (Normally there are 3 or 4 container ships in queue. Last I heard there were over 60.)

      On the plus side, it’s gotta be doing a number on China’s economy.
      ===

      1. Hundreds of thousands of cargo containers are sitting around full of stuff that’s not getting where it’s supposed to go, so those containers are not going back to China to get filled up with more stuff. The backup has only begun.
        ———————————
        “The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.”

        1. a lot of cans were also returned empty ASAP instead of being filled, because it paid to ship them back empty than to wait for them to be filled, but again, that means box cars are full instead of empty to receive the goods that’re in the containers being spread across the neighborhoods in Long beach

      2. There are no train cars available, either. They are sitting in switching yards and sidings waiting to be unloaded.

        What happens when there are no train cars to transport this year’s harvest, which starts…right about now?
        (Hint: see the appropriate chapter of Atlas Shrugged)
        ———————————
        There are forms of stupidity businesses can’t indulge in. There are no such limitations on the stupidity of government.

        1. Railroads are very different now than they were in the Atlas Shrugged era in a way that matters.

          Then stuff was shipped in boxcars, boxcars, or more boxcars. Grain has its own type of hopper now and has for decades. In fact most commodities have their own specialized types of railcar.

          That doesn’t mean you can’t have problems. It just means that particular catastrophe can’t happen.

          1. LTL containers are not being unloaded as fast as the box cars and flats a lot would go into/onto are not being unloaded to go into LTL containers. This is a double issue as outgoing trade is slowed, and empty containers get returned because it pays, short term, to send them back empty, but once filled where are they going to go?
            What a mess, and why oh why do we have to live in a a John Ringo world?

            1. Yes I am well aware of that. But well cars getting jammed up does not create a shortage of covered hoppers. Thus a harvest catastrophe has to come from somewhere else, maybe locomotive shortages due to DEF sensors or something.

              1. doesn’t matter what plugs the rail yard, all train cars are then affected. If every siding and yard has cars waiting for offloads or loading where do you split out the tanks and hoppers? What a mess.

                1. When you are that jammed up, if you are smart you start sticking the backed up trains on storage tracks.

                  100% of the rolling stock is on the tracks at all times. The question is *where* it is. Intermodal trains waiting in the yard don’t mean anything to unit grain trains as long as they don’t jam up the actual path from elevator to elevator.

                  1. yeah, but nowdays the trains are so intermixed there is too much need to break out cars in yard, and then start running out of storage space too.
                    Also, bet a lot is running inwards, towards the river or Lakes to be shipped out that way, but then you run out of capacity in those elevators, need more barges, and until you get it to the coast, are limited in the freighter size not to mention The Witch Of November is acomin’ on the Lakes.
                    Egad, gotta stop thinking of this, it gets worse the more I do.

          2. When I was working at the (coal-fired) powerplant, we had to build up the coal stockpile mid summer because we would have an ‘unforseen’ shortage of hopper cars during harvest season. Once the car dearth was relieved, it was interesting to see how much grain would be mixed in with the coal that came out of the hoppers on the first incoming string.

        2. Well, I live in a railroad town, and I’m seeing roughly normal traffic, and a lot of grain cars and cattle cars. No flatbeds with cargo containers, tho, and come to think of it, none of those cars that haul bales of plywood etc. even tho we have a mill here that ships out the stuff.

          But it’s taken til now for the toilet paper shortage to reach my part of the world, so we’re probably last on everything else, too. Once in a while some specific item (usually bulky, like cereal) is absent from the store shelves, but otherwise it’s been pretty normal.

          1. Last weekend, while I was downtown for Indiana Comic Con, I parked at a lot that backs up to a rail line. I saw plenty of cargo containers going by, some stacked two deep. So they may be flowing better in some areas (we probably get stuff railed in from Atlantic and Gulf ports, or down the St. Lawrence Seaway to Great Lakes ports).

            1. Doublestacks is what railroads try to run whenever possible. Intermodal is about squeezing every drop of efficiency out of the system because otherwise the truckers will eat your lunch.

              The only time you will see single stack containers as a regular event is in some places where old tunnels haven’t been expanded yet to allow taller equipment.

          2. cattle cars

            I’m not sure what you were seeing, but unless something *YUGE* has changed it wasn’t that. Cattle hasn’t been shipped by rail in the better part of a century.

            Autoracks perhaps?

              2. Seen plenty of them while on the road to and from convention, although pigs are the more typical cargo around here, hence the CB nickname “pigpen” for a livestock hauler.

      3. Assuming that we get a Republican House, Senate, and Presidency in 2024, the first thing they need to do is pass nationwide uniform truck and rail legislation. Then tell California, “Supremacy Clause, motherf**kers. Interstate commerce, look it up.” Because this is an issue of national security and CARB needs to just go away.

        1. You’re assuming there will be elections next year. That’s cute.

          The ‘winners’ will not depend on how many ballots were filled out.

          1. We’ll see. In my more despairing moments, I agree, but despair is a sin.

            I suspect that if there’s blatant cheating in the midterms, there’s going to be a whole lot of righteous anger out there. The LIVs and wishy-washy moderates will see that it wasn’t just an “emergency” measure to “fortify” the election against the “fascist” OMB.

              1. Congressional elections are not statewide, and so there’s much less ability for the One Big Blue City to skew them. Plus, redistricting favors the Republicans. Senate elections are different, of course, but the One Big Blue City factor is mostly priced into the model already, and the Senate changes at the margins.

                Also, have you noticed how Democratic bigwigs and pundits are panicking lately? If they had an invincible fraud machine, they’d be much more confident.

                  1. You don’t do what Democrats are doing in Virginia, which is suing after voting is already underway, to change the rules of the election to expand mail in ballots and eliminate signature verification requirements, unless you already have a plan in place to use those changes to commit fraud to steal the election. Period.

                3. Agree. I think they can fraud in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, and some other states, at least the Senate Seats, Governess, but not ALL the congress seats. But a lot of states, who have been quietly cleaning up the problems, or publicly screaming about them, will flip back. I think enough elections will be clean, or they can’t fraud enough, to keep even their slim margins and the house and senate flip. Which get rid of Pelosi at the top. Even the Demorats, and the pet media, are starting to whisper about Biden’s “decline“. (I think Edith #2 has ended her run … It isn’t the “VP” running behind the scenes.) If we can keep the newly elevated President from getting a VP, get HER out (Kamala gets the trifecta: first woman VP, first woman president, first woman president impeached, and convicted/resigned), we’ll have a Republican President before 2024. (Hey I can dream? Right? The LAST thing we want is the first woman vice president/president assassinated; Nope, not a chance, just NO.)

                  1. Sadly, after the recall here in California, I have my doubts whether the Dems need extra fraud to win here.

                    Won’t keep me away from the voting booth, though.

                    And we did manage to keep the tattered remains of Prop 209 (bans governmental affirmative action… which just means that the public institutions have had to find other rules to allow their racial segregation) alive in 2020 despite a strong attempt to get rid of it.

                    1. Do you believe 62% of the ACTUAL people ACTUALLY voted to keep Herr Fuehrer Newsome? Especially after they found that carload of 1,000 blank fraud-by-mail ballots?

                      Maybe the sheeple will wake up when the Democrats ‘win’ the Virginia governor election. I’m not holding my breath.
                      ———————————
                      My grandpa voted Republican until the day he died — but he’s been voting Democrat ever since.

                  2. Agreed on the no assassination — that would only make her a martyr. Other than impeachment and conviction or her resignation in disgrace, the only removal I would want to see would be an eldritch portal opening beside her and a tentacle reaching out to yank her through. On live TV, so everyone can see.

                    1. …and that hideous Wicked Witch Of The West Coast cackle is the last sound we hear before the portal to the Old Ones snaps shut…

                      Even worse, the portal opens again and Kommie Harridan is dumped back through, followed by monstrous gagging noises…

                    2. Note, the only reason I didn’t use “Martyr” is I couldn’t get the stupid spelling close enough to pick it up off on the stupid correct spelling list …

              1. I keep HOPING we do not need to open that last box.
                And I really, REALLY hope that it doesn’t SomeHow Get Worse.
                Because *OX* know some DAMNNASTY chemistry…

                And, if *ox* know how to WP…
                And mustard agent…
                And….

                Well, the Humans (at least some of them) are MUCH smarter than ox.
                Cornered humans are FAR more dangerous than sweaty dynamite.
                If you leave the dynamite sit there… it generally just sits there.

                  1. Around when did science texts start going downhill? There might be some good stuff out of copyright available.

                    And is there any good stuff still coming out these days that take modern discoveries into account? Or is it pretty much all crap now?

                    2. I’ve seen it posited that whle there might have a slow decline earlier, Oct. 4 1957 (Sputnk) caused a Panic that made various folks desire to Do Something – and that Something happened to be to take a functional, if imperfect, educational/schooling system and make it far LESS effective. All the really good texts I’ve seen have publication dates in the mid-195’s or earlier seems to confirm that. HOPEFULLY, the HomeSchool and Indie Publishing trends are at least starting to begin to rectify that.

                    3. >> “Oct. 4 1957 (Sputnk) caused a Panic”

                      So our enemies launch a satellite and the “solution” is to dumb our own population down? Sounds about right for statists, I guess.

                      >> “All the really good texts I’ve seen have publication dates in the mid-195’s or earlier”

                      Hmm… If I understand it correctly then only works up through 1925 are unambiguously in the public domain. Later works would depend on whether copyright/renewal was applied for. So anything free to read is probably hideously out-of-date by now in terms of new discoveries.

                      But if you know of anything in the public domain that’s good despite that, I wouldn’t mind hearing about it.

                      >> “HOPEFULLY, the HomeSchool and Indie Publishing trends are at least starting to begin to rectify that.”

                      I seem to recall people here mentioning that better history books (compared to the Zinn stuff) have come out lately, though I can’t remember the author they were talking about. I can’t remember if there were any similar recommendations in the hard sciences department, though.

                      I think I’ve suggested this before, but it would be nice if there were a list of hun/hoyden-recommended non-fiction books. I’d offer to maintain it myself if Sarah’s e-mail didn’t hate me so much.

                    4. >> “I’d offer to maintain it myself if Sarah’s e-mail didn’t hate me so much.”

                      Actually… Now that I think about it, we wouldn’t NEED a private communications channel for something like this, would we? It’s not like we’d care about spoilers or someone else grabbing a copy. Which means I could just put each update on a free file-sharing service somewhere, post the link in a comment here and then Sarah could grab it at her leisure.

                      We could do this, if there’s any interest.

                2. Collateral damage. Civilian casualties. Urban warfare. Insurgency. Clean words. Ugly, vile things in reality. Let’s not open that box, shall we? Not until all the avenues that *don’t* end in mass death and misery are explored.

                  1. Aye.
                    Know how… and even Can do…
                    Are NOT at ALL “have desire to go and do”

                    Gee, when the MONSTER says “Bad Idea” maybe, just MAYBE, you shouldn’t oughta do dat!

                    1. *nod* The ability to do monstrous things and think monstrous thoughts does not a monster in truth make. Too many are those monsters in human skin that seek to corrupt those around them, and most especially those that oppose them.

                  2. Our enemies are doing everything possible to blow up all those other avenues. The rubble is piled higher than a monster truck.

          1. I think the Democrats will continue to f**k everything up so badly that even the Big Blue City fraud machine can’t keep up. Remember, even with all the blatant and obvious fraud, they only just barely “won”.

            1. even with all the blatant and obvious fraud, they only just barely “won”.

              –
              States are cleaning up. Sure OUR states, Oregon and Washington, are screwed, at least at the Senate level, and our congress representatives (because I’m in Eugene). But the rest of the state?

              1. The gerrymander looks pretty nasty, especially after the Speaker of the House reneged on off the deal that the GOPers thought they had with her.

              2. Given the ascension (I think highly likely) of Fagan to the Most High Governorship next year, particularly with the letter she sent out regarding NO AUDITS EVER, and also the shenaniganry of our new “districts” for the House …. Everything south of Eugene and east of the Cascades (particularly since the new districts cover the entire coastline) is absolutely FECKED.

                STATE OF JEFFERSON

          2. Well that is that flood of deplorables taking over the precincts.

            Does that make the fraud stop? Doubtful. But it certainly won’t help the Enemy.

  27. Fingers and toes crossed for you. And…

    And.

    I’m still trying to apply for jobs. When Sisyphus goes “man, you’ve got a load I wouldn’t even try,” you get discouraged. All the jobs I can find that want me NOW are warehouse work, “customer service” (the state job guy is trying to get me “front-facing” counter jobs and I’m having to tell him “I would probably murder someone in a month doing that.” He’s still putting these jobs out to me), own-car delivery work…and you just get discouraged.

    Psychiatrist is wanting to see my blood pressure drop before letting me reorder my ADD medication. Said ADD medication is the one that lets me be able to work. Which means an adjustment of my blood pressure medication-despite trying to work on my diet, exercise, etc, etc, etc, etc…changed it today and I now have this sensation of “everything hurts,” and I realize that it’s all stress tension releasing.

    And, I keep getting well-meaning advise that I am using. But, I can’t say why because I’m living with Martians. They look at me like I’m mad when I try to explain these things. And, I’m the only person here that says how naked the Emperor is.

    I’m looking at the long-ass commute again, if not worse, because the only CSU school that can let me finish my degree program in one semester is SFSU. And, because they probably have a “butts-in-seat” requirement, unless we have another “stay in place” disaster, I’ll have to do that.

    And, the squeezing of my fingers on the bridge of my nose because I can’t explain things to Martians. We’re having backups in the ports-all because of new clean-air rules for California and AB5 keeping independent owner/operators from running their trucks. Did we also forget to mention that they have to transition to electric trucks in the next 5-10 years…that don’t exist and probably won’t any time soon? Oh, new state law that bans two-stroke motors-in a state with massive forest fire hazards. “Oh, they can use electric tools, they make them!” Show them YouTube videos of two chainsaws that should be able to do the same job-one gas, one battery electric and how the electric one fails so very quickly…”well, now that there’s a market, they’ll make better ones!”

    Count the number of things on a firetruck that use a gas motor-and actually work out that there’s no less than six different types of batteries on those things-all incompatible with each other, all proprietary, and to get enough run-time to handle recharging the batteries for near-continuous work, you have to carry more batteries than you would cans of gas. And, you need to charge them SOMEHOW…and cans of gas are easier than having a firetruck there all the time…”Well, that’s what a new specification is for when fire departments order new equipment!”

    You lose hope at times. I am surrounded by madness.

            1. *nod* Any time that phrase is used is *highly* suspect. If there’s something you definitely don’t want being questioned or can’t have investigated it is always “for the children.” *spit*

            2. Sister mine, don’t go on a rampage without me. If you get to the point of going “I’ve had enough and I’m not going to take it anymore” call me. I’ll ride shotgun. (Just remind me to change out of the reading glasses, or I won’t hit anything.)

          1. H Beam Piper’s TerroHuman Federation future history and his Paratime stories posited that humanity was descended from Martians who migrated here when Mars became uninhabitable.

      1. You listen to these people, and you just want to go full “American Psycho” on them. Complete blood-on-the-walls justifiable murder because the only sane act you can commit is absolute madness.

      2. California is already banning small gas engines. I can’t wait to see the reaction when CalFire starts using battery operated chainsaws. Sadly, we’re downwind of the more fire prone areas in Cali, so their screwups foul our air.

    5. Oh, new state law that bans two-stroke motors-in a state with massive forest fire hazards.

      Ah, so that’s why Tractor Supply is now selling a relatively inexpensive 4 cycle chainsaw!

  29. *Crosses fingers, knocks on wood that your house sells with no problem!* Yeah. The rumblings in the ether are not good.

    Had a few minor health scares, and now I’m grumpily eyeing the fact that part of my problem may be carbs – a couple days with no starches and little sugar seems to have helped a lot – while I still have to cook for someone who adores them and is, to say the least, not thrilled when I say I’m avoiding them myself for now.

    Mind, I never said I wouldn’t cook and serve them! But the fact that I’m not eating them seems to have set off the Annoyed. Oy.

    Just One More Thing on top of the list of jobhunting, trying to edit, trying to write draft of book 2, etc. And the current craziness.

    But 2 days cutting them let my brain get back to writing draft, so… cutting it is.

  30. Glad to hear you wrapped things up at the old place and have made it home safely. I hope you feel better soon.

      1. You’ve finished your direct hands on part of it, though, so try to relax and recuperate. Running yourself into the ground, or worrying too much, does nobody good, least of all yourself.

  31. It was SUCH a relief to open your website and see a post for today! And to read that you are back home and resting with your feline attendants. May the CO house sell quickly and for more than you are asking. Lots more. 😉

    May the plots and characters suddently filling your brain be a sign that you have run the course, done the hard work, and it is now okay for you to go back to doing what you enjoy doing most.

    I myself am in the near-panic stage of packing – the “I can’t believe I have this much stuff! I can’t believe I still have this much stuff I have not even started packing. I can’t believe I have to have everything going in the BIG $truck packed and ready to load by $morning.” If I am lucky, in another day or two I will be too numb from mental fatigue and DOMS to even think about panicking.

    On the other hand, a few of hours of paper planning is currently working out beautifully for the loading of my shop into a $cube. With the exception of one cabinet the height of which I managed to mis-measure at least three times (!) everything is fitting in as I plotted it. And ditching that cabinet (it was not supposed to hold anything anyway as it would be on its side and I have no key to lock the pull-down doors in place) made room instead for a few more large power tools. Still have another 3-4 hours of work to get everything inside. If I can pull that off before the $cube is picked up tomorrow, I get to start consolidating all the smaller pieces of wood into larger boxes for easier loading on the BIG $truck.

    It’s like craft supplies. You put them in smaller containers and trays and jars on your shelves by type or color or whatever, so you can easily see what you have. I did the same with my wood, by species. Now I have to start dumping all those smaller containers into big boxes, and as full as I can make them. Never mind that the hawthorne gets mixed with the pink ivory, and the buttonbush with the African blackwood clarinet bell blanks. I can have the joy of sorting them out again on the other end. Eventually, Some day. Real Soon Now.

    As soon as I recuperate from this move. 😉

  32. Everyone who has sold here in Northwest Arkansas in the past few years has sold fast and over asking price. Development neighborhoods are selling out before the homes are completed. Rental apartments cannot be built fast enough.
    It looks like you got it onto the market in time to beat the crash. Besides, the crash is going to start on the coasts and work their way in.

  33. Have you buried a small plastic St. Joseph upside down in the lawn? We found two in our house’s lawn. I could send you one. 😉

    Definitely it sells and sells in a bidding war!

    1. No. I’ve put one in the cupboard, where previous owners left two bottles of oil from Greece which I didn’t find till the move cleanup. Right side up, so he keeps an eye on things till it sells.
      Might be a good idea to start a novena, too, now you mention it.

      1. I had to go look up this ritual… whereupon I found: “Once your home is sold, you are to remove the statue, otherwise the it will sell over and over again.” tho this only seems to apply to those that were buried.

        1. :theologically pained expression:

          …miracles really don’t work that way… same way you’re not going to threaten a saint into doing miracles on demand by being rude to a picture of him.

          I mean, seriously, Catholic Saints. AKA, the guys who collect New And Interesting ways to die, or fail to die. :facepalms:

  34. Glad to see you’re back to posting. I knew you were busy with moving stuff, but the not feeling well on top if it was a bit worrisome. I just came back from a week in Utah, running an errand and visiting family and friends, but the “work” I left at home kept waking my up in the middle of the night demanding attention. Sometimes parts of the brain, notably the “creative/writing” part, the “paying attention to what’s going on around me” part, and the “running the rest of the body” part, just won’t synch up.

    1. And Sarah, you always have been an inspiration to me, since I first read your blog or your science fiction.

      Don’t let the devil wear you down. God is stronger than anything the world can throw at us. And He loves us.

  36. You can probably sell it to one of the Californian who are bringing their absurd house sale proceeds to Colorado, along with their votes for the same policies that made California uninhabitable.

  37. In my not particularly affluent or gentrified Seattle neighborhood, the two houses on my block that went on sale are both pending after only 6 days on the market, and I expect some of those days were just because they wanted to accumulate as many offers as possible. I don’t know yet if or by how much they went over asking price.

  38. By the way, someone on Instapundit open thread posted this a few days ago, and I don’t think I’ve seen it here.

    “Chilling” does not begin to describe it. But now that more and more US jurisdictions are moving to a “papers please” regime (Seattle on 10/25, with no indication of when they’ll even consider stopping), it’s frighteningly conceivable:

  39. Rest up. Relax. And when you are feeling up to things… get (fictional) me to Goldport. So wanna read it. And the INSTANT it his a PRINT edition, I am buying a few copies for relatives that don’t do the on-line thing much. And if 98 yro still lives (stage 5 kidney issues… but he had stage 4 for DECADES, so…) a copy for him as well.

  40. May Himself ease your worries and grant you the strength to bear up under your burdens. May a worthy family find your former home and make it their own, and may they ever be a thorn in the side to Polis and his ilk!

  41. Why do we do it? You and me, Sarah, we buy an okay house in a good neighborhood and live modestly for years until it’s time to sell, then we feel compelled to do all the upgrades we never did while we lived there. Why?

    I tell my wife, “We have to make the house nice for the new people so we get a good offer.” She asks, “We’re always making the house nice for the new people. When do WE get to be the new people?”

    You know, she’s got a point. Your house in Denver is ready for the new people. They’re thrilled with how it looks and they will pay more than the asking price to get it. Then they’ll start their own remodeling – those bushes out front simply must go and that color of paint, what was Sarah thinking?

    Deep breath. Let it out slow. Download “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” to your Kindle. Spend two hours regaining your sanity. You are worth it. The boxes will wait.

    1. Yeah, this. I need to renovate my upstairs bathroom and my kitchen. Have wanted it for 22 years. Now thinking I might (crossed fingers not) need to sell and move in the next few months and thinking I HAVE to do them because otherwise the house might not be as saleable.

      1. IF the other house sells fast and well (please G-d), we’re redoing this house over time to be exactly what we want.
        The kitchen might take a year, but it will happen. I CAN AND WILL write myself a new kitchen.

        1. If only you could do that…

          A couple of hours in bed with a computer, writing up the perfect kitchen, then go downstairs and there it is!

              1. Or dream one. “Honey, did you have nightmares last night?” “Yeah, how did you know?” “The kitchen is purple again.”

    2. My aunt didn’t want to buy the house she and my uncle lived out the rest of their days in because she didn’t like the color . . . unc- “Color comes in a bucket! We can fix that in a few days.” but instead it came in a box, and they decided to put the shake siding looking vinyl siding on instead. but the trim was painted her prefered maroon.

    3. “When do WE get to be the new people?”

      –
      ^^THIS^^

      If we ever decide to sell the criteria is “Move in Ready, everything working, solid and clean”. No remodels. The latter is for the new owners. Might attract flippers, but they won’t make a lot of money out of the changes.

  43. I can only imagine your anxiety and frustration at this point. Moving 5 times (not all in one year, spread over 3) and being very willfully opposed to asking for help of any kind, I almost feel a fraction of your pain. Sending prayers and good vibes across the web-ways to you and your family, with hopes of a ridiculously speedy sale of the former homestead!

  45. My sympathy, just sold my forever home.
    The more I think about it the more dissatisfied I get..
    I really have no reason to stay in the new place. Just hitting the road seems more attractive every day.
    I suspect when my collections are gathered back to my basement cave at the ‘new’ (1954) house I’ll be grabbing a few guitars and loading up the RV for an extended vacation.
    Hope you do better with your new location…

      1. Retired, can’t decide whether I hate this town, miss my big dogs and tiny ranch, or am just a bit more depressed than usually for the last nine months…
        I’ll probably just grab another book and put off thinking for a while longer…

      2. Inlaws do that, kind of.

        They sold their condo on the Columbia, and big boat (used on the Columbia). Bought a motorhome, which they kept on a rented RV lot near his work until retirement. Then as retirement neared he was approached to get setup a maintenance bay on northern Oregon coast (worked for Pacific Power as mechanic). They offered them “housing allowance”, since their house was mobile, they negotiated the allowance based on that. When he finally retired, they moved all the not-mobile stuff to a new shed on property at her mothers home here in Eugene as a base. Was suppose to be, spend 6 months snow birding down south, and the other 6 months, ish, camp hosting somewhere, depending on the season. That worked for awhile until two things happened. 1) Her mother fell and broke her hip, badly; 2) Her Paternal 96 year old Uncle needed a place to stay; and now 3) Her brother is too disabled for her 91 year old mother to deal with. So now their latest Snow Bird property has been sold, they aren’t leaving for more than 2 weeks at a time. Granted some of the lack of camphosting, this year, has been the smoke and heat, which she couldn’t tolerate this last summer. But mostly is she has 3 people she has to deal with daily, that can’t be left alone super long periods of time. Oh and BIL’s wife is 68 years old. BIL is 73.

  46. Hurrah! I’m so happy to hear all the good news, that your part of the house project is done, that your stories are back, and that you are home to rest. Hoping and praying that the process finishes well and soon!

  47. Hang in there. We moved last year out of our 40-year home and it wasn’t a picnic, but it gets better. New place is bigger and for the first time, no mortgage or equity loan. Our marvelous realtor handled the fixup, but it did cost a chunk of our sales profits.

    A plus: still in California but well into the Red Zone. Were in a Blue Zone before. Happiness is U.S. and Trump flags on huge pickup trucks.

    Rest and get better.

    1. This place is smaller, but one kid has moved out and the other one expects to. For the two of us it’s massive. But we have two home offices, and a ah “Creative room” for hobbies, so….

  48. Having apparently exposed yourself to some volatile hydrocarbons with all that varnish, if you’re still pale and wan tomorrow you should consider getting a blood count (CBC). Those nasty chemicals that lead to the “use in well ventilated area only” warnings in small print can do a number on your bone marrow. The potential contaminants in the home you might have unleashed can also be not so good for you.

    Hope its just fatigue and sleep deprivation.

    Get well!

  50. Your tiredness sounds similar to feelings described by ladies I know who were ultimately diagnosed with low thyroid activity. Just thought a mention here may help if that has never come up. Doctors can be blind (or rushed) sometimes.

    1. Sigh. I have thyroid problems, but in this case the tiredness is natural, not pathological. I’ve been mostly away from husband for a month. I don’t sleep away from husband. And I’ve been painting/cleaning/fixing.

  51. I’m not sending hopes, or good thoughts. Father, I ask that You would show Yourself strong and mighty on behalf of Sarah and her family. It is a small thing for You Father. But, let’s face it Lord, there are no big things for You! I would ask that You give Sarah and her family peace and a sense of Your presence and purpose for what You are already doing to bring a blessed result for them in regards the sale of their house and the founding of a new home from which You will bless them as well. I ask this because of the great love Christ demonstrated to us while we were still sinners… that He would deem it a joy to die for us that we might be His and Yours. It is in His precious name (by the power of the Holy Spirit) I ask. Amen… may it be so!

  52. I’m thinking of The Big Short – the end of the bubble was endlessly delayed, for months and months. The guys who saw this coming could NOT understand why it was taking so long.
    It was happening then, as it is happening now – the Big Money hasn’t pulled their own stake out, yet. They are artificially holding it up, working to get THEIR money out, before they pull the tablecloth out from under the dishes. At which point, they will step aside, and let it all crash.
    So, you probably have some time. I wouldn’t wait TOO long, but you likely have some time.

  53. Good God, woman! Aren’t you from a mostly Catholic country? Did the nuns teach you nothing? I’m a Jew and I know how to get a house sold: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Saint-Joseph-Home-Seller-Kit-with-Prayer-Card-and-Instructions-3-Inch/103986144?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1208&adid=22222222222080400314&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=s&wl2=c&wl3=83562885486307&wl4=pla-4587162511733487&wl5=&wl6=&wl7=&wl10=Walmart&wl11=Online&wl12=103986144_10000001093&wl14=st%20joseph%20home%20selling%20figurine&veh=sem&msclkid=8ec8fd6fa83419bf20c29c1f6c761fb4

      1. What’s really funny is the 8 or so “St Joseph Home Seller kits” that show in “related items”. Splurge and get the $25 one. 4 times the price must mean 4 times the oomph, Right?

    2. For the record, when I was in Mensa (look, I was young and stupid) one of my best friends was Jewish.
      There was this game we played where people gave answers and the opposing team had to guess who did it. We were bizarrely effective, because everyone guessed my answers belonged to the Jewish guy and his to the Catholic girl. And no, we weren’t doing it on purpose. And these people KNEW us.

  54. Congrats! Housing is crazy-hot right now. When we listed our house near Sacramento last year, I asked our realtor if we could get $X for it, and she said, “Oh, no, I’m listing it at $X*1.3”. And we had four offers within a week. And SOLD it for a little higher than THAT.

    Sit back and relax. You’ve made it out of Colorado, and presumably you did NOT move to Cacafornia or the Irish state O’Regan, so I’m guessing you’re in a long-term safe place.

  55. Just over a year ago, I, too, fled a blue state and a very, very toxic work situation to move to Texas, where I had been offered a job. Much of what you write here seems familiar to me, except for me it felt in some ways like I was secretly fleeing a repressive place for a freer one.
    Because my employer was facing COVID budget cutbacks and was looking for ways to reduce expenses, I had the option of taking a severance payment when I left my toxic job. I decided to do that, but didn’t want to tell anyone I worked with that I had already lined up a new job, so I told almost no one outside of immediate family members on the other side of the country where I was going or why. I only told a few friends and neighbors that I was moving just a few days before I moved. To make matters even more interesting and stressful, I am single with an aging dog who hates car rides, and my new employer didn’t give me a lot of time to move. So packing and getting all the logistics of the move figured out quickly all on my own was almost overwhelming. Fortunately, I was able to rent a place from afar and I ended up listing and selling the house after I moved. The housing market there was very strong, and I was able to get a full-price offer after just five days on the market.
    After five months in Texas, I closed on a house here, and two months later I had completely moved into the house. I’ve been in the house about six months already, but still haven’t finished unpacking some of the boxes I so hastily packed as I prepared for my stressful move. Needless to say, things can and do work out. Just “keep on swimming” and have faith and you will find the strength to make it through.

    1. It does feel very much like I’m running in the night with all my stuff in a wheelbarrow. Also new state is “lower status” so we keep getting everyone going “Why would you move here from CO?” or better the friends in CO “you’re moving away, are you nuts?”
      But I feel like I’m just ahead of the deluge.

      1. House down the street went on the market. Everyone knew it was coming up, as it was part of an estate sale. Seems like the sign was up for weeks, but it had a “coming” on it. One open house on Saturday, don’t know how many private showings before market. Proposals had to be submitted the following Monday by 5 PM. Sold for $50k over asking. Three offers.

        BIL’s mothers house went on market. Again one Saturday open house. Proposals due following Wednesday by 8 AM. Sold for $120k over asking (Lake Oswego Oregon). Advantage was one of the few properties <$1 million in Lake Oswego, even with up bid. Actually going on the market was determine when the daughter who was living there (to keep it from being empty while grandma was in dementia elderly care, until she passed away) found and closed on her own home.

      2. ‘Lower status’ by what measure? Maybe they just mean it has a lower I.Q. (Insanity Quotient)

        2. Less Democrat politicians in public and private office screwing around with economic and financial numbers to defraud people.

          The go along to get alongs take those numbers at face value. They also think that wealth is cool.

          So there is undue prestige being ascribed, that doesn’t take the broader view.

      4. We got a lot of that when we moved from NJ to MO….. Why are you moving *there*? The answer we usually gave was ‘more space and lower cost of living, and we can afford a nice house’ which was generally sufficient because the insanity of NJ real estate prices are well known.

        We kept ‘so we don’t have to skin you and eat you in 5 years when everything collapses because the population density is too high’ (we were ~40 mins from NYC) to the inner voice. Grannypants losing in ’16 pushed back the timetable but we’re making up for lost time now…..

    2. Yeah, we still have stuff in boxes after a year! I’m not sure what happened; the new house is 400sqft bigger than the California house was, so I’m not sure what happened to the space. Clearly, not yet arranged properly.

      Fortunately, our LOT is a bunch bigger; we went from 1/6th acre to 2 acres, half undeveloped and wooded. With our own herd of 20 deer and a den of foxes. I _LOVE_ being retired!

  57. Deus vaya con voce. Nao preocuparse, tudo vai estar bom. (sorry about the portuñol, it is what we Uruguayans speak nowadays) .;-)

Comments are closed.