Let me ‘splain

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Things have gone from bad to worse to just bad again with Mr. Feral regarding our current water damage. In an unexpected, very last minute development, his plumber will be in our home this morning, supposedly tracing out the pipe that leaked and capping it off. We’ll see if that actually happens—we made the offer to allow access to our home over a month ago but Mr. Feral didn’t move on it until Friday. We've also made it clear that we'll cover the ceiling repair costs but not anything having to do with his pipe. I suspect his plumber may think that we are going to pay for today's work. We are most definitely not paying for that work.  

Our own reconstruction starts Tuesday. We’ve signed our contract, sent deposit checks, and the floors were ordered and are ready to be installed. Bostonian will start with the walls, which should be about a three-day job. The job itself doesn't take three days (we don't have that large of a place) but the mudding compound has to dry. The floors are supposed to be replaced beginning Thursday and that part should be done by the close of business Friday.

I leave for Denver this morning, and I’ll get home Friday night. Even if Bostonian has to come back on Monday, that work shouldn't kick up construction debris into the air, so I should be OK to return.   

My lungs continue to improve, although I will confess I get impatient for faster progress. I'm holding steady at about 80—85% of where I’m supposed to be on the peak flow meter. Still, I’m really happy about that and hope that once all this construction is done, I will get all the way back to normal. You might already know how competitive I am, so I’m slightly driven to see that improvement.

On an unrelated note, I actually won something from one of my favorite sewist bloggers. Carolyn has a truly impressive stash—one I couldn’t duplicate ever because our apartment is so small—but even she reached her limit. She’d found some fabric that just didn’t do it for her anymore and offered them to her readers. Long story not so long, I won a piece! I love to read her blog because she’s absolutely fearless in what she makes and doesn't hesitate to take a pattern into a very different direction based on what she's creating. Sometimes I get a little too fixated on how a pattern is supposed to be rather than considering how it should be for me. She inspires me to take that step. 

There’s no place like home?

We had some friends (husband and wife) over Saturday night and at one point the conversation turned to the Midwest. Seems he feels obligated to go to Oklahoma to visit his mother, with whom he isn’t particularly close, and to bring his wife since they’ve never met. But he doesn’t want to go to Oklahoma and thinks they’ll have a rotten time because it’s Oklahoma.

I suspect his reluctance stems more from the less than stellar relationship with his mother. But he’s chosen to focus his distaste on Oklahoma. Among other issues, he complained about all the narrow-minded and bigoted viewpoints he thinks they’ll run into when/if they go. I think he thinks people just start out casual, social conversations with huge political stink bombs and let things devolve from there. I found it so strange. I think reluctance to visit—not move to, but just visit—a particular location is really weird and pretty narrow-minded.

One of the best things about my last job was the traveling I did to parts of the U.S. that I would normally never think about visiting. I went to Sheffield, Texas*, Tomah, Wisconsin, and Guernsey, Wyoming along with other places you might have actually heard of. And while I wouldn’t want to move to any of those three towns, I saw some incredible scenery and met some really nice people. I know myself well enough to know that I enjoy living in a more urban environment than those towns offer. I’m still glad I got to see them, and if I had a chance to visit other, similar places, you’d better believe I’d go.

*Sheffield is so small, it doesn't even have a Chamber of Commerce web site!