Ray's House of Love Vol III

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Maryn

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Hi, yourself! I haven't been in here in too long.

I do keep in touch with Sassy, who has some good news which is hers to share. Kindly climb onto your tenterhooks. (What do you mean, you don't have any tenterhooks?)

I, on the other hand, have some sad news. You may remember that my brother died in October and I went to a memorial gathering in late January, at which his widow looked awful and was not eating hardly at all. Her older sister was there and staying for a time, and she bullied her into seeing a doctor who would do some tests rather than announcing it was depression.

She died last week. The diagnosis came the week after the memorial for her husband, and she lived only seven weeks more. They leave their daughter, who is married and has a support network there, thank goodness.

So we'll be flying out to California again, and today I'm going to contact the daughter offering to stay and help clear out her parents' house. She works and has two preschoolers, so I can't imagine her having the time. And I remember how painful it was for Mr. Maryn to go through his mother's things, which is why I did it for him. I expect her to refuse to let us because it's really too much, but I'm perfectly willing to do it and Mr. Maryn says he's on board.

In other, brighter news, today there is a yellow ball in the sky and the natives are filled with awe and fear. What could it be?

Maryn, way too used to gloom
 

Maryn

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It sounds terribly tacky of me to even be thinking it, much less saying it, but I suspect as the only child of people who were very comfortably retired and owned their home free and clear, the daughter is going to get a substantial inheritance. Not that it makes up for the loss, of course, but her kids are never going to have to worry about paying for college.

She lives in the same city, and if I were running her life (why nobody ever asks me to, I cannot imagine!) she would empty the parents' house of things she does not want to keep, paint, tile, carpet and otherwise customize it so it's no longer to her parents' tastes but hers (and is less filled with memories of them living there), and move in. The house is in good shape, the street is quiet, the view is nice, and it's both larger and in better condition than her own house.

Today we have our first warm day of the spring, with highs expected in the mid-70s. I have lots of yard clean-up to do, even though parts of it remain under water. And I suppose I need to spend a good bit on topsoil and mulch, since I skipped both last year. My trees' roots are above ground again, and most of the mulch of seasons past seems to have disappeared. It's a mystery!

Maryn, who would not read that mystery
 

travelgal

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That's good she and the kids are taken care of financially. It's certainly what I would do.

Gardening, ugh. So glad I don't have a yard to maintain. Why is some of it under water? We could do with rain here; I haven't heard a single frog this year or the last. Very bad. I imagine the disgusting air quality had also killed them off.
 

Maryn

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My suburb is jokingly referred to as The Brickyard because it has hard clay soil (and was once a source for bricks, like hundreds of years ago). A strong man with a shovel can dig down maybe four to six inches. Clay soil is somewhat porous, but when there's heavy rain, or snow melting, it takes a very long time for the water to filter through the clay to the water table below. The pond in back has been shrinking and I bet in another week it'll be gone and the grass will show.

Five or six years ago, when I decided I wanted a little garden in back, I had to hire a guy with digging equipment to till it to a depth of eight inches.

Yesterday I bought flower seeds. Today I'll buy garden soil so I can start them indoors, since there's danger of frost here for another month. We're going to have morning glories and moonflowers climbing various things, and with luck, some four o'clocks. They didn't do well last year, but I remain hopeful.

Maryn, dreamer with a black thumb
 

Komnena

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Morning, everybody.
I have gotten through another Lent.
Did some sorting of books this morning. I'm trying to make a list of the collection with the idea of digitizing from that list.
 

Lillian_Blaire

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I know nothing of Lent....but congrats? I don't know if that's the appropriate response. Please excuse my ignorance.

I love sorting books. It's my favorite pastime. Other than reading and writing and collecting them. lol
 

Maryn

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I a perfect world, my books, music, and movies would all be digitized in a searchable data base. I was doing IMDb on a very small scale before there was an IMDb. (Too many movies ruined by my being distracted. Who is that guy? I know him, but from what? Younger, wearing a suit, and bad. A businessman or politician, probably. Set in New York, not LA. Something about corruption... Meanwhile, the movie has moved on four or five scenes while I've tried in vain to place the guy.) That's why I started taking cast notes.

We have started cutting up the living room rug and tearing out furring strips. My hands are a mess, lots of abrasions and poked-by-a-staple cuts. The floor under the shabby rug looks to be in pretty good shape, and I still want area rugs, not wall to wall. The things we fight about, huh?
 

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Carpet, yuck; full of dust mites. Here, you don't have carpet because of the underfloor heating, which is extremely efficient. The floors tend to be yucky lino, though, and the building aesthetics or standards are subpar.

The frogs are finally alive and squawking; thanks to the rain in the last few days!
 

Maryn

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We've had a bunch of rain, too--our backyard is once again about a quarter under water. It'll sink in eventually.

My imaginary dream house has heated tile floors, among other things, but nice tile! It also has a heated driveway, which an online acquaintance in Colorado says is not unusual there. When it starts snowing he turns it on and the stuff melts before it can pile up. Oh, and it's mostly solar, and has an amazing view, and is miraculously clean. That's how you can tell it's in my imagination.

Maryn, quite cluttered all her adult life
 

travelgal

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A heated driveway to melt the snow? Wow. I hate the stuff.

The yellow dust has returned with a vengeance, and my students are turning up for their exams in their ugly white surgical masks. Why the cosmos they are white, I do not know; nothing white stays white for long. That's why I don't have any white clothes. Those things were invented in Europe in 1919 thanks to the Spanish influenza that killed more people in one year than the war did in four.

How the cosmos people can breathe in them I do not know, but I've never been able to breathe through my nose. :Shrug:
 

Lillian_Blaire

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I can't breathe with surgical masks on. Several years ago I was renovating an old cabin, putting up insulation, and had to wear a mask while working. It was hell. I cannot breathe through them at all.
 

Maryn

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When Mr. Maryn was ill and had no immunity due to what he had, we had to wear masks around him. They impede the flow of air enough that it's hard. And if you talk, you get a hefty dose of your own breath, not necessarily a good thing.

Our kids were of such ages that they liked their masks, because I carried a sharpie and would draw animal noses or a mustache on theirs. The nurses thought it was cute, too.

Maryn, still married, for the record
 

Lillian_Blaire

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Maryn, that doesn't sound fun for anyone, but what a creative way for you to make it more fun for the kids.

And congrats on still being married. That's quite the accomplishment these days.
 

Maryn

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Good morning, everyone. Nothing to report here except that for reasons unknown, instead of the local paper I received today's New York Times. Even skimming, that read took me an hour. And there are no comics or advice columns or anything that light.

Maryn, all educated now
 

Komnena

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I looked through the Wall Street Journal today and added scores of books to my reading list. Now I actually have to request them from the library then actually read them.
 

Lillian_Blaire

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That sounds awesome. I have a stack of books on my bedside table I need to read. I'm not sure when that's going to happen.
 

Maryn

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I have a stack in my bedroom, too, and I threw one in the car--and today I read about half of it and it' really good. I bought it like, what, five years ago, maybe. So eventually you get there.

Maryn, in Indiana tonight
 

Komnena

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I got through several books today, both physical and electronic. I replaced one physical book with an ebook. I bought my usual digital megapack.The megapacks are collections of oldtime classics.
 

Maryn

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I have told myself too many times to count that I will read more classics, but I rarely feel like it. I've never read Pride and Prejudice or any Sherlock Holmes, much less Moby Dick.

The word count on your NaNo masterpiece got a chuckle out of me.

Maryn, just back from travels
 

Maryn

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Hello! I am once again traveling, or I'd be giving the thread the occasional goose back to life.

Things to Know: San Francisco's airport has, on the way to baggage claim, a Yoga Room.
 

Komnena

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Hi Maryn!
I have just finally finished the day's reading. I also had a character pop into my head and demand that I work on his story which I have done to the tune of a handwritten page per day. I probably need to put what I have written into the computer but I'm afraid I'll lose focus if I do.
 
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