Hi,
You may have chuckled at my last post about needing daffodils for the house...but my madness paid off. The house is sold. I owe it all to the daffodils. Never underestimate the necessity for crazy people in your life. We make things happen, sometimes even for the good.
Our home wasn't even on the market for 48 hours before we had an offer. It's now off the market and all that is left to do is an inspection and some paperwork. Big huge sigh of relief. I no longer have to hide the garbage bins or pretend that Martha Stewart is my best friend and guru. It's like finally getting out of that tight girdle after a very long Bar Mitzvah with too much food. Oy, that feels so much better.
My next mission is to find a new place to put all our stuff. This mission is to be in a city I am totally unfamiliar with, in a land far, far away... Kansas City. All I know about KC is that is where the Royals play, they take their bar-b-que seriously and there is that song about going there..... Which everyone hums but no one seems to know the lyrics. I'm learning to hate that tune.
Now we are in purge-mode. We are going to down-size, right-size and resize our lives. It's the possession diet. Rid ourselves of all those unwanted tons of stuff that we never use, don't need and forget we even ever owned. Let someone else dust it, move it, use it, love it or chuck it. "Less is more" is my new mantra. It's freeing and a wonderful feeling. I just can't keep track of a large inventory in my head any more, nor do I want to. All I keep picturing is the size of a coffin ( morbid, I know) and that all that fits in it is one body, the rest we leave behind.
My bube (grandmother) started giving me her things when she was about my age. Pieces of china, jewelery, chachkas, anything I ever mentioned that I liked ended up coming home with me. I thought she was overly generous but a little nuts. Why did she want to part with all her cool stuff? I now know why. It's is so much nicer to see your things go to the next person who truly wants or needs them. Doing it once your dead deprives you of the pleasure of seeing that look on their face as you pass it on. I am now finding that even more fun than acquiring the stuff in the first place. I get it! She was one smart cookie.
Our move date is now the end of June. I have lots to do before then but it is with joy and relief. The house is sold and another chapter begins.... With less baggage.
Xox
M
Day Lily!
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
Daffodil rescue
Hi,
I think I have hit an all-time crazy. It is 3:00am and I can't sleep but it's not really a good excuse for what I just did.
Our home is for sale, it hit the market yesterday at 5:00pm and by 5:30 we had three phone calls making viewing appointments for today. I suppose that is a very good sign that there are buyers out there interested in the property. I should be excited but I am mostly filled with dread. I truly dislike showing our house. It is part of the process but it creeps me out having strangers peer into our lives and judge it, and they do. Do they like your taste in decorating? Do they approve of the books on your shelves? Have you enough toilet paper left on the roll in the bathroom? Yes, this makes me loose my mind.
In my hyper-nutty state all I could think about was "where can I get more daffodils?" I know this makes absolutely no sense and people have been committed to institutions for less, but the thought would not go away.... So I dealt with it and at 3:00am I was out roaming the neighbourhood. Why do I need more daffodils at 3:00am? Good question. For decor of course. In order to win the hearts, minds and payout of potential home buyers I pull out every stop I can think of. All is fair in love, war, and real estate market.
The house is cleaned and staged to within an inch of its life. My poor husband is badgered to death about where his shoes should not be, mainly anywhere within sight. If I could make the garden grow any faster I would but they took away my Mother Nature wand since that last tsunami. Am I obsessed with this? You betcha! I know home buyers do not think with any part of their brains, it is all emotional. They forget that they are not getting the furniture, rugs and art work. That paint can be covered to any shade they really would prefer. I do not plan to stay behind and keep this place spotless for them..... But I give the impression I might.
Back to the daffodils.... Fresh flowers are a necessary part of the evil plan to sway home buyers. Unfortunately I used up most of what was in our garden for the photo shoot the other day and they were past their prime. The good news is there were more out there, the bad news is they weren't in our yard. I went and borrowed some that were growing by the side of the road. Daffodils do grow all over the place around here. This particular patch is not really on anyones property. I only took about a dozen, leaving the other three dozen to grace the ground. No one caught me, I wore my best daffodil stealing black outfit. I know I will go to hell for this but desperation leads men down dangerous paths and me into flower beds that aren't necessarily my own. I will pray for forgiveness and a return to sanity.... Later.
Right now I have to bake muffins to fill the house with that yummy smell that will convince these buyers to sign the cheque, today, before the daffodils start to wilt.
M
I think I have hit an all-time crazy. It is 3:00am and I can't sleep but it's not really a good excuse for what I just did.
Our home is for sale, it hit the market yesterday at 5:00pm and by 5:30 we had three phone calls making viewing appointments for today. I suppose that is a very good sign that there are buyers out there interested in the property. I should be excited but I am mostly filled with dread. I truly dislike showing our house. It is part of the process but it creeps me out having strangers peer into our lives and judge it, and they do. Do they like your taste in decorating? Do they approve of the books on your shelves? Have you enough toilet paper left on the roll in the bathroom? Yes, this makes me loose my mind.
In my hyper-nutty state all I could think about was "where can I get more daffodils?" I know this makes absolutely no sense and people have been committed to institutions for less, but the thought would not go away.... So I dealt with it and at 3:00am I was out roaming the neighbourhood. Why do I need more daffodils at 3:00am? Good question. For decor of course. In order to win the hearts, minds and payout of potential home buyers I pull out every stop I can think of. All is fair in love, war, and real estate market.
The house is cleaned and staged to within an inch of its life. My poor husband is badgered to death about where his shoes should not be, mainly anywhere within sight. If I could make the garden grow any faster I would but they took away my Mother Nature wand since that last tsunami. Am I obsessed with this? You betcha! I know home buyers do not think with any part of their brains, it is all emotional. They forget that they are not getting the furniture, rugs and art work. That paint can be covered to any shade they really would prefer. I do not plan to stay behind and keep this place spotless for them..... But I give the impression I might.
Back to the daffodils.... Fresh flowers are a necessary part of the evil plan to sway home buyers. Unfortunately I used up most of what was in our garden for the photo shoot the other day and they were past their prime. The good news is there were more out there, the bad news is they weren't in our yard. I went and borrowed some that were growing by the side of the road. Daffodils do grow all over the place around here. This particular patch is not really on anyones property. I only took about a dozen, leaving the other three dozen to grace the ground. No one caught me, I wore my best daffodil stealing black outfit. I know I will go to hell for this but desperation leads men down dangerous paths and me into flower beds that aren't necessarily my own. I will pray for forgiveness and a return to sanity.... Later.
Right now I have to bake muffins to fill the house with that yummy smell that will convince these buyers to sign the cheque, today, before the daffodils start to wilt.
M
Sunday, April 13, 2014
A Dolphin Adieu
Hi,
Today is my final day on Marco Island and everyone came out to say goodbye.
The wildlife was teaming everywhere.
Dolphins, pelicans, blue herons, an osprey with a sheepshead in its claws, ibis, egret, terns, cormorants, a baby hammer head shark washed ashore, star fish, crabs, a black snake even wiggled across the sand. The place was practically packed with animals, birds & fish.
This week was also a bonus seashell week. The storm on Tuesday blew everything up off the bottom. There were so many sand dollars it wasn't even fun looking for them, more like shooting fish in a barrel. I stopped picking them up after the first fifty and gave most of them away to kids on the beach.
My favorite are still the dolphins. When they are out playing in the Gulf there is nothing more fun to watch. This morning there must have been over a dozen frolicking in the shallows at the end of Tigertail Beach. There was only one other woman walking on the shore and we were the sole audience for their show. Jumping, splashing, blowing bubbles, leaping, rolling, we saw all their tricks.
Forget the zoo. Seeing wildlife in its natural habitat is the best.
Xox
M
Today is my final day on Marco Island and everyone came out to say goodbye.
The wildlife was teaming everywhere.
Dolphins, pelicans, blue herons, an osprey with a sheepshead in its claws, ibis, egret, terns, cormorants, a baby hammer head shark washed ashore, star fish, crabs, a black snake even wiggled across the sand. The place was practically packed with animals, birds & fish.
This week was also a bonus seashell week. The storm on Tuesday blew everything up off the bottom. There were so many sand dollars it wasn't even fun looking for them, more like shooting fish in a barrel. I stopped picking them up after the first fifty and gave most of them away to kids on the beach.
My favorite are still the dolphins. When they are out playing in the Gulf there is nothing more fun to watch. This morning there must have been over a dozen frolicking in the shallows at the end of Tigertail Beach. There was only one other woman walking on the shore and we were the sole audience for their show. Jumping, splashing, blowing bubbles, leaping, rolling, we saw all their tricks.
Forget the zoo. Seeing wildlife in its natural habitat is the best.
Xox
M
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Sea Hare
Hi,
It's so ugly, it's almost cute. Well, all most. The Sea Hare.
I learned about the Sea Hare yesterday morning from Professor Ed. He runs the beach on Marco island every morning and over the years we have become student-teacher buddies. Before he retired he really was a professor of economics, now his passion is the wildlife around the island. Ed volunteers at the nature center and gives lectures about the ecosystem and it's life.
Mornings when I walk the beach, Ed is out running his five miles. Almost every time we pass he will stop and have some fascinating tidbit about something that has washed up on the shore. The Sea Hare was yesterday's lesson. It looks like a giant snail without a shell. The ones washed up were almost 9-10" long. They have rhino-like horns on their head but someone thought they looked like rabbit ears, hence their name. Sea Hare produce a magenta ink when spooked, they are hermaphrodites (look that one up if you weren't paying attention in 9th grade biology) and the move with side slow side fins that make then look like something from a Star Trek episode. They also squirt a white goo to startle anything that thinks they should be on the menu, blinding their aggressor. They don't move very fast so this goo is nasty stuff, not toxic, just hard to get off. Ed is a wealth of facts.
I also got to hear about Sea Pork. It's even uglier than the Sea Hare, which, in its self is no easy feat. The Pork is a gluttonous mass with many sea creatures in it. Sort of like a condo for mini animal life. It looks like something a whale threw up. Gray, hard jelly with little bits of stuff in it. Totally gross looking but fascinating when Ed introduces it to you. I get my mini lectures while we walk a bit together. Ed picks up these things, does his schpeil, then tosses them back into the Gulf for them to live another day. It's fun to go to school on the beach....especially when I get a private tutorial from Ed. It makes the flotsam on the shore more beautiful to me.
Xox
M
It's so ugly, it's almost cute. Well, all most. The Sea Hare.
I learned about the Sea Hare yesterday morning from Professor Ed. He runs the beach on Marco island every morning and over the years we have become student-teacher buddies. Before he retired he really was a professor of economics, now his passion is the wildlife around the island. Ed volunteers at the nature center and gives lectures about the ecosystem and it's life.
Mornings when I walk the beach, Ed is out running his five miles. Almost every time we pass he will stop and have some fascinating tidbit about something that has washed up on the shore. The Sea Hare was yesterday's lesson. It looks like a giant snail without a shell. The ones washed up were almost 9-10" long. They have rhino-like horns on their head but someone thought they looked like rabbit ears, hence their name. Sea Hare produce a magenta ink when spooked, they are hermaphrodites (look that one up if you weren't paying attention in 9th grade biology) and the move with side slow side fins that make then look like something from a Star Trek episode. They also squirt a white goo to startle anything that thinks they should be on the menu, blinding their aggressor. They don't move very fast so this goo is nasty stuff, not toxic, just hard to get off. Ed is a wealth of facts.
I also got to hear about Sea Pork. It's even uglier than the Sea Hare, which, in its self is no easy feat. The Pork is a gluttonous mass with many sea creatures in it. Sort of like a condo for mini animal life. It looks like something a whale threw up. Gray, hard jelly with little bits of stuff in it. Totally gross looking but fascinating when Ed introduces it to you. I get my mini lectures while we walk a bit together. Ed picks up these things, does his schpeil, then tosses them back into the Gulf for them to live another day. It's fun to go to school on the beach....especially when I get a private tutorial from Ed. It makes the flotsam on the shore more beautiful to me.
Xox
M
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