Mishmash Musings

My uncle went out of town, so I’m doing some “virtual house sitting” for him. His home security system has a web feed that allows him to view the property online to make sure everything’s okay. The problem is, he’s going to be in a place with bad/poor Internet service and won’t have a reliable connection, so I’m checking in several times a day.

So far, so good. I was thinking of surprising him by looking up durham cleaning services (he lives in N.C.) and sending a crew out to the house so everything would be sparkling when he gets back. But then I realized the crew wouldn’t have any way to get in because I certainly wouldn’t want to reveal the location of the spare key. Foiled again by logistics!

Oh, well… it’s the thought that counts, right?

Wow, I haven’t been around here very much lately, have I? One reason for my lack of posts in the past week and a half is that I went on vacation with my family. We didn’t go anywhere special, but we did travel and were able to spend some quality time together, which was the point of the whole thing to begin with.

Another reason for my lack of posting is that I’ve been involved in various home improvement projects. We are thinking of selling our townhouse (even though this a buyer’s market) and looking for a single family home instead. So we’ve been prepping the place as if we’re definitely going to sell. This includes painting, getting the carpets professionally shampooed, replacing the quick step laminate flooring in the kitchen and basement, and making sure the gutters and shingles are in tiptop shape.

It’s a ton of work and it’s very expensive, but we figure that even if we don’t sell, we can still enjoy all these improvements ourselves. Total win-win situation for us!

Our local fire station is having an Open House today, so I’m thinking of taking my son over there. He has loved fire engines and firemen since he was tiny, and though he’s growing out of that stage bit by bit, I’m sure he would appreciate seeing the real thing.

I’m not sure what we can expect out of our visit. Back when I was a kid, we were allowed to slide down the pole, but I’m sure today’s litigious society makes that an impossibility. Hopefully we’ll at least get to see some training exercises, like two guys racing up several flights of stairs carrying a heavy industrial rubber hose like in Backdraft. I doubt it, though. It will probably just be the newest guy on the squad giving tours because no one else wants to do it!

Well, I’ve managed to catch a cold right before going on vacation. I’ll be headed out of town one week from now, and certainly don’t want to be coughing, sniffling, and sneezing the whole time. I always get sick near the beginning of the school year as I’m reintroduced to all the germs I spent the entire summer avoiding. Ugh… I feel miserable, but have so much to do that I can’t just hunker down under the covers for the foreseeable future. Guess I’ll have to chug some Nyquil and motor right along!

My life has been extremely stressful recently, both at work and with my family. Whenever things get this way, I dream of hitting the open road in a nice mid-size RV to just get away from it all and see what America has to offer. This has long been a dream of mine, but I don’t know if I can wait until retirement to make it a reality. I’ve seen some really good rates on rv loans recently, and am thinking maybe I should just bite the bullet and apply for one. The worst they can say is no, which would have zero effect (except maybe to drop my credit rating a few points). Should I do it???

I wrote last week that my aunt is in the hospital, and I’m sad to say that she’s still there. I’m not even 100 percent sure what the problem is, but she is scheduled to have some kind of electrosurgery procedure tomorrow morning. I think this has something to do with malignant skin lesions. Whatever the case, I would just like to reiterate my hopes that she gets better soon. She’s in her late 60′s, which is way too young for serious health problems. She needs to get back on her feet!

I just calculated my quarterly tax bill that’s due in a couple days, and it’s several hundred dollars more than expected. That really throws a wrench in our plans, because we were thinking of buying Energy subwoofer speakers and a couple other add-ons for our rec room. But now that I have to pay out so much money, it looks like our purchasing plans will have to be put on the back burner for a bit.

I am actually not at all upset about my tax bill. Yes, I have to pay more than I thought, but that only means I made more than I expected to in the first place, right? Higher taxes simply come with the territory, so I can accept that!

My aunt is in the hospital, so I ordered some flowers to be delivered to her room. I’m actually not at all pleased with my experience, because although the advertised price of the arrangement was $44.99, the total came to more than $65 after sales tax and some mysterious “service fee” was added. I was in a hurry, so I didn’t have the time to shop around at a different site otherwise I would have done so just on principle. I don’t know why these places don’t state the fees clearly right up front. What a crock.

Anyway, I hope my aunt gets better soon. She’s my mom’s sister, and my mom isn’t taking this too well. I wish I could be there in person to help out during these difficult times.