It's been a while. We're coming up on the 3rd anniversary of your death. It is so conflicting for me to say that I am sort of glad you're not around to witness the current administration and the absolute bullshit they're pulling right now. That's especially true given the fact that messing around with Tesla stock was a contributing factor to the other things that pushed you over the edge. I am fully convinced that you would have tried to go after someone if you were still here, and I would not have been able to stop you.
Fortunately, I feel pretty well prepared thanks to your tutelage. I have a supply of food. I replaced appliances that needed replacing before everything got going. We're trying (not well - your daughter is expensive!) to minimize spending but I'm doing my best to stick to essentials only. I took an inventory of the silver but I wish we had more gold. Then again, I forget about all the scrap jewelry that's floating around here.
OK, well, enough of that - on to some brighter topics. We're still keeping the tradition of travel on the anniversary. This year, it's just a quick weekend trip to NYC, because S really wants to go. I do too, since I've never been. Should be fun. Will definitely be exhausting.
Speaking of S, it's all drama, all the time around here. She broke up with her boyfriend before Christmas - he was being shady. They're sort of back together, but it seems to be just for convenience on her part. Half of her friend group seems to have turned on her. She's very angry with them. We'll see how that shakes out as they have a lot of plans coming up, including 2 trips.
In better news, she has received the Veteran's scholarship, so she can get her 4 years of undergrad for free tuition. She's waiting for the fancy school responses before she officially accepts. Yale, Northwestern, and a couple others should be coming soon. But she'll probably take the scholarship.
She is still working 2 jobs. She has a lot of travel planned - NYC, then Chicago (if she's still going with friends - I'll be going to watch my sister's dogs while she and her husband are in Iceland), then, after graduation, she'll be off on her senior trip to Italy and Greece. When she gets back from that, she's supposed to go to Miami with her friends (that's a whole other story) but I don't know if that will still be on. I was looking at a week at Hale Koa in Honolulu before she went off to school but the timeline was too tight. Maybe I will go on my own.
Your youngest sister's daughter was playing volleyball at a school near us, so she invited S to go and watch. I went too - your mom was there. It was nice to see them. Your mom was trying to get your sister to go get ice cream afterward - it's funny to watch your sister totally ignore hints like the ones your mom was dropping.
Remember that essentials only spending? Well, I almost bought Norman's 3 acres. I guess his wife died last year and his kids moved him out pretty quickly after. The property went up for auction with your favorite auction house. As usual, they continue to obscure information about the property. That guy is a dick. Anyway, I was prepared to pay a lot for the land and house until I went to the open house. The floors are massively uneven. It looked like the ceilings were asbestos. The porch was separating from the house. The drain from the upstairs bathroom was fully visible in one of the rooms. It's got city water but a septic system. And you know all the barking for which you were always calling the police? His wife bred collies. They had 3 dog runs in the back and 8 kennels in the (dark, depressing) basement. It would have been a very expensive reno. I am sort of waiting for that dick to contact me. I bid $175K. Before the open house, it sat at $104K. After, the bid went up in $2000 increments from one bidder to just under my max. After listening to you during all your years on eBay, it looked like someone was trying to find my limit to push the price up. I wasn't sure if they would keep going - I was pretty anxious that I would actually have to buy the place. But, fortunately, they ended at $1000 over my max. So, if this was a shill bidder trying to inflate the price, I would imagine they'll contact me to say the bidder backed out. Well, I might be willing to pay $104K for the property. I think I could redo the place with a $70K budget. But I'm relieved that it won't be my responsibility. We'll see who shows up to work on the place.
Half of the basement dog kennels. Don't know how to rotate the image.
Meanwhile, since Deportation Don is destroying society as we know it, I am mildly concerned that my lawn service might be gone. I am pretty sure the guy is at least a legal permanent resident - his business seems to be properly registered. But since no one really speaks English, I have to wonder. It hasn't really been great for grass growth yet, so I will wait until things get growing before I text the guy. I have to put out the crabgrass preventer fertilizer once more today. I think the pine trees need some iron too. I probably also need iron, so that's an easy way to get some.
Yesterday, I was out doing yard work. First, our most hated neighbor was out. You would enjoy the schadenfreude of how fat she has become. As a strictly appearance-based person, it must pain her to look in the mirror. That melts some of the icicles in my cold, dead heart. 😈 I bought some peonies to put on the spite berm. I hope they make it! I planted some tulips last fall - they're starting to come up. I also got some bleeding heart for the thoroughly shaded "vegetable garden" that now just has hostas, a burning bush, a bunch of columbine, and some other plant that might be primrose between the trees. I keep planting stuff to try and overtake the weeds. I also managed to pull out one of the dead creeping junipers that was on the one retaining wall. It was a struggle, but I got it done. Your daughter, the previous evening, told me I needed to start going to the gym so I don't get old and feeble. I assured her that I am getting some exercise, between the calisthenics, housework, and yardwork, not to mention the odd session of aerobics and the daily dog walking. She was, nevertheless, horrified to see me all sweaty and red-faced, trying to pull that stupid bush out. I managed it though. I planted a common lilac in its place, which will provide lovely scents and additional screening from the neighbors. All my previous lilacs have been in the wrong place, and you're not here to stop me from putting it where I want! I may put more in front of the deck. They'll be the compact version, though. However, I need to kill off the prairie grass and get the deck and patio redone, so that's a future project.
I have more stories for you but I guess I will save them for later. Missing you as always, but also relieved you don't have to try to deal with Season 2 of this horrifying reality/horror show.
Love,
A
