Rants, Raves, and Randoms

I’ve been meaning to write about this, and Sarah’s latest blog reminded me that I haven’t yet.

Our new house is bigger than our old apartment.  That was part of the motivation to buy the place (to buy almost anything).  The floor plan is, of course, different than any other place we’ve lived.  In trying to figure out how to arrange all of our stuff (with so much space!), we decided to do something kind of drastic.  The details will follow soon, but the end result is that we sold our TV!

Basically, as we were trying to decide on what and where we realized that it seemed silly to organize all 1400 square feet around a tiny box with a screen on it.  Is the TV really the point of the house?  So, we kept putting off the “Where’s the TV going to go?” question.  By the time we were ready to answer it, the only place that made any sense was right in front of the fireplace…but of course that doesn’t really make sense.  We liked how and where everything was situated, so, instead of re-thinking everything to make room for the idiot-box, we decided to just sell the thing.

It wasn’t that great of a TV anyway, and all we used it for (most of the time) was to watch DVDs.  In fact, our 24” iMac has a bigger screen than the TV did, so it’s better to watch them on that thing…

So, the story more or less ends with us selling a 19” TV, a digital converter box, and a TV stand for $50 on Craigslist.  Maybe now I’ll get around to reading those bookshelves filled with I-thought-I’d-have-more-time-to-read books.

While we were sitting at dinner our almost-ten-month-old son was in his room, acting a little anxious.  This instigated a really funny conversation between my four-year-old daughter and me.

“What’s wrong with him?  Is he scared?”

“Maybe.”  I said.

“What is he afraid of?”

“I don’t know.”

“But what is is scared of?”

“Scary monsters.”

“Scary monsters?”

“Yeah.  Scary monsters and super creeps.”

“What are super creeps?”

“I don’t know…”

I even got her to sing this song:

Everything has felt so disorganized lately, it’s about all I can do to keep my head above water.  If you haven’t noticed, I am like that…ridiculously obsessed with things being organized.  Sometimes I describe the way things have been feeling as a “whirlwind,” and if any of you have been hip to Southern California weather over the last week, you know how accurate that description is as of late.

Toward the end of last week, the house actually started to feel like a “home,” a place where we can feel comfortable and relaxed.  There are still a few little things that need doing scattered about, but mostly, we’re talking living in the “final product.”

Last weekend we took my in-laws out to Coronado to see if we could catch a quick glimpse of the sunset.  Here is what we saw:

It’s funny how something like that kind of forces you to contemplate.  When we moved down here I told myself (and my wife) that I was really going to take advantage of living in such a beautiful place.  I was going to go to the beach at least once a week (which, until Thanksgiving, I was pretty faithful about doing), make at least bi-monthly visits to Balboa Park, frequent visits to the mission, Old Town, Coronado, La Jolla, etc.  Of course, though, I get too caught up in trying to pay for living here, and I forget about all of those things.

I really want to spend more time contemplating, meditating, simply absorbing things.  I picked up John Cage’s Silence the other day, and was reading his “Lecture on Nothing.”  I need more nothing in my daily routine…

You’re all quite a bit hipper than me, I imagine, so you may have heard this already.  But, I just got this the other day, and I am finding this to be more and more interesting with each listen.

Amazon was having a “Buy an mp3 album @ $7.99 and get a $5 album free” sale a few weeks ago.  I bought Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years (which is amazing, and probably deserves its own blog post as well…and Paul Simon deserves some of your support…), and forgot that that meant I got a free album until the last day of the promotion.  I looked through the $5 offerings and nothing really hit me (leave it to me to be ridiculously picky, even when it’s free) as something I wanted.  Then I saw The Bird and the Bee’s first album (called the bird and the bee).  I’d heard a few of their songs through KCRW and iTunes freebies, and I liked what I’d heard.  I think that their version of “Carol of the Bells” is one of the most innovative arrangements I’ve heard in a long time.

Anyway, I got it and I’m really excited about it.  Here is a sample track…great stuff!

“Again & Again” (from the bird and the bee) by The Bird and the Bee:

1. I just uploaded a new podcast.  You can check it out here.

2. I have to go back to work tomorrow, can you believe that?

Here’s a really quick update:

house:

• all of the nonsense about the former owner of our house is over
• all of the flooring has been replaced
• I did the bottom floor myself!
• the whole thing has been painted
• all new appliances
• original fireplace ripped out, new one installed
• most of the original light fixtures replaced
• was fumigated this weekend, so we moved out…again

family:

• my wife is 31 now
• my son is nine months old
• my son has five teeth

surfing:

• haven’t surfed in over a month
• starting to get a little anxious
• going snowboarding in the morning…somewhat of a consolation

music:

• I have a new podcast that’ll be uploaded very soon

dissertation:

• um, I’ve thought about it

random:

• I had jury duty last week. I rode my skateboard to the trolley station, and rode the trolley to the courthouse. When I arrived at the courthouse, the security guard looked at me like I was some sort of idiot for thinking it’d be ok to take a skateboard in. I had to leave it outside behind a trash can…I should have told him it wasn’t loaded.

I’ll be back soon.

We officially closed escrow on the house on Tuesday, and recorded the sale with county on Wednesday.  That means we “own” the place (or we will after 360 payments).  So, since we haven’t moved in yet, you’d think the house would be vacant…you’d be wrong.  The former owner is still there.  He signed a document stating that he’d be out by 7:00 AM this morning, but he’s still there (it’s 11:30 PM), as is most of his stuff.  That 7:00 AM deadline was after we’d allowed him to stay for an extra 24 hours longer than originally agreed.

The house isn’t really ready to be “moved in to;” it needs new carpeting, new paint, and several other fixes.  We have to move out of our apartment on Saturday.  We have already extended out move-out date three times.  We realized that the house wouldn’t be ready for us by then, so we planned on just moving into the garage and spending the first part of next week getting all of those things done.  Then, after Christmas, we’d be able to actually move in and enjoy the place.

Those plans, however, were contingent upon being able to (1) get in there in the first place, and (2) get started on all of the work that needs to be done ASAP.

We scheduled a contractor to begin working on retexturing the ceilings today, and we would more or less follow him through the house, painting.  The carpet layers are coming next Wednesday, so we hoped to have all of the painting done.  But, we are now a day behind, the contractor lost a day of work, and the former owner is still in the house.  We now owe the contractor for a lost day of work, and are no closer to being able to move in.

I am not one to open my mouth in confrontations, so you’d have to get me pretty p!5$3d to hear my opinion(s).  When we went down there at 5:00 (with a new lock in hand) and he was still there, I let the guy have it.  He said “Just give me 45 minutes.”  “45 minutes!” I said, “You were supposed to be out of here 10 hours ago!”  I told him it would probably take me 40 minutes to get the locks changed, so he had that much time to get his stuff together.  I fiddled with the locks for half an hour or so, at which point he came to me and said, “I need just another half hour.”  I looked around and saw that he had made virtually no progress.  I again let him have it.  I told him that I wasn’t going to make any more “deals” with him, that enough was enough.

He told me about how he didn’t have any money (until today) to rent a truck or to hire movers.  A truck costs about $50.  Certainly he has a credit card that he could charge $50 to…especially knowing that he is going to rake in $250,000 from this deal once escrow closed.  Also, escrow was supposed to close on November 19…almost a month ago.  Now, why he wasn’t making these sorts of arrangements during that extra month, I really can’t say.

I am planning on going over to the house in the morning.  It is pretty much a given that he will still be there.  In fact, he told me he would be.  I said, “Tomorrow?!  Are you kidding?  You said 45 minutes…what’s this ’tomorrow?’”

It might sound like I am over-reacting.  Maybe I am, but I think you have to see the place (and the guy), and go through everything that has gone one over the last two months to really get how I am feeling.  Maybe a photo will help.  Here is the kitchen 3½ hours after said former was supposed to have vacated:

I am trying really hard to see that guy as a good person, as a person with some flaws, but someone who has some strengths… but, man this guy is making it hard!

Here’s why you might not hear anything for awhile…

I just stumbled across this article.  It’s great, check it out!

I’ll summarize for all the lazy folks out there.  Basically, this guy goes into all of the silliness that is musical “hipness.”  He goes on about how he avoided Country Music like it was some sort of contagious disease simply because it was so uncool.  Then he discusses how ridiculous some of us can get about what music we decide is “good,” and how simply being in the top 100 negates any good qualities something might have.  I still find my swinging toward the musical elite crowd, decrying bands simply because they are popular, but I’m trying to do better.

And here’s some good Country Music for good measure.
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Hank Williams:

We signed the loan documents for our (soon-to-be) new house yesterday.  This has been one of the most stressful and horrible experiences of my life.  If all goes as planned, we should close escrow on Monday or Tuesday and then get the keys to the place the next day.  Of course, then the fun of reflooring, painting and getting the place ready to move in begins…

Oh, and I will then be 3x further in debt than I am now—just 360 payments left!