Make Gatorade

I saw something sad on the news last night. It was about this new company that was created out of the economic slump. The company goes into bank owned/repo homes to clean them up. The occupants generally just pick up what they can carry and abandon the home. Many cannot afford to rent a U-haul and even if they did, they have no where to put the stuff, they are living in a shelter or their car. BUT they were showing some of the homes and in one room that belonged to a child they showed some of the child's artwork. It was a picture of an alligator and some bottled drink and said "When life gives you gators, make Gatorade" ... Loved that. Optimism amongst the chaos.
The girls and I straightened up the house yesterday as the landlord and his plumber were coming over in the evening. He also wanted to go over the details of our departure from this house. He was very kind as I knew he would be. He offered to lower our rent, which did not surprise me, but I was touched by that. Of course he does not want to lose good tenants like us(his words). I told him how much I appreciated the gesture, but there were more factors in this decision than just cheaper rent. As I trudged out to my cold un-garaged car this morning in the rain and piles of pine needles, I remembered one of the big factors of why I am moving... a garage for my car. Heaven...
As I was putting the final touches on the house and finally sat down for a second to look at my e mails, the doorbell rang. The man at the door introduced himself as my neighbor that lives directly behind me. He asked me if we were aware of a fallen pine tree branch that was hanging precariously from another limb and threatening to break down our common fence? I was not. I thanked him, told him I would look into it and that it was nice to meet him. I have seen and heard plenty of him and his wife in the last year to feel as though I have already met him. They are a childless couple with an annoying dog that are working in their yard all of the time, they cook outdoors every night in the summer, when they prune, they throw it into our yard, they chat across the fence to another neighbor in a high volume and share their entire menu with that neighbor, she cuts his hair outside, luckily they like jazz because you hear that all summer too.
So, Bob comes up from the man cave and asks me what all that was about, and I tell him about the tree limb. We go look immediatley and really have a lot of trouble finding it. No wonder we were not aware of it! It is not a limb or branch but a twig, seriously. It would not hurt a squirrel if were to land on it. This guy is a busy body with no life. This is why I felt I must begin the description of him as having no children. He has nothing constructive to occupy his time other than his pristine, manicured, entertaining outdoor space. So I am sitting here in the dining room, posting and looking at the branch...errr..twig. I will try to take a picture of it to post. If I can even focus in on it.




So the new landlord calls the old landlord and it sounds like it was a Hewitson Love Fest. I was not too worried. When I have to turn on the charm, there is no stopping the love that people have for me. It amazes me how much of that Bob can turn on to when he wants to. I wish he would use that charm on me more at times because I might actually fall for it once in a while.
We will sign lease papers and have our walk through on Wednesday evening. I would post pictures but if I show you the outside right now you would weep for me. Winter has not been kind to the landscape around here(except for my neighbor's backyard) and the outdoors of this house need some TLC. So when it gets all spiffy I will post. I will shoot some pics of the lake view we have and the inside as it is cool. Hardwood floors and a looooong rock fireplace, retro green kitchen cabinets, retro vintage aqua hall bathroom that I love, tile and all. My mom cracked up at it, it reminded her of my grandparents bathroom. All new carpet in the bedrooms, fresh paint, etc. and the garage and 2000 sq.ft. basement. Love that.
The girls are bickering back and forth about who gets what room and all that, poor things, they think that they actually have a choice... Let em worry a bit and debate it a little longer and then I will squash their dreams like a giant tree limb falling on the fence.
So it is back to packing and all that jazz. Ugh... Forgive me, as I will bring this up about 10 million more times and you can just scroll thru that part of the post.
I am off to do that thing I do on Mondays, bank, grocery, etc. Have a great week, and watch for falling trees.