The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

greendragon

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So there are no rental houses in the area I need for my new job. Like nothing. At least nothing I want to live in.

So... we looked at two houses to buy. I never wanted to own a house again after taking 10 years to get rid of the last one (and renting it out the whole time and LOTS of stress and losing money). But I may not have much choice.

We looked at one - no AC, only wood stove heat. Which means the bank won't finance it, as the heat source must be manned.

The other one... is gorgeous. And clean. One owner for 46 years.

Sigh. Looks like I'll be putting an offer on a house soon.
 

greendragon

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And.... cue the nightmares about owning a house again.

The last house we bought (in 2005, height of housing bubble), and had to move out of state for a new job in 2009, just as it crashed. It took me 11 years and two horrible tenants to get rid of that house and I lost $60,000 in value as well as lots of cash and stress to finally sell it - in 2016. The wounds are still very fresh.

I have a bad habit of either losing or switching jobs every 2-3 years, so the idea of having this ball and chain again makes me VERY nervous. And the house is in the middle of rural NY, so difficult to sell/rent if I do have to move for work again.
 

E.F.B.

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*hugs* GD!


Camp has gotten off to a strong start and I'm enjoying editing my portal fantasy. It's amazing to look back at when I first started it in 2014 and think of how much I struggled with this first chapter. Now I'm able to rewrite it and do what I wasn't able to do back then, and I'm already loving the improvements.


Also, in super random news, I saw the Ghostbusters car...*googles*... excuse me... The "ECTOMOBILE" on the way home from the grocery store. No, really. It was in the intersection across from us and had all the thingies on top and the same paint job and the logo on the side and everything. It took so long to comprehend what I was seeing the light changed and I didn't get a chance to take a pic. That was not something I expected to see today. :p
 

frimble3

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And.... cue the nightmares about owning a house again.

The last house we bought (in 2005, height of housing bubble), and had to move out of state for a new job in 2009, just as it crashed. It took me 11 years and two horrible tenants to get rid of that house and I lost $60,000 in value as well as lots of cash and stress to finally sell it - in 2016. The wounds are still very fresh.

I have a bad habit of either losing or switching jobs every 2-3 years, so the idea of having this ball and chain again makes me VERY nervous. And the house is in the middle of rural NY, so difficult to sell/rent if I do have to move for work again.

AIR, this is the job that's about an hour away from your current location? There's a lot of people who have a worse commute, can you hang on for a while?
And, how big is the company you're going to be working for? If they're a good size, any chance that once you're there, you might be able to get a head's up about rentals from fellow employees who are planning to move? Or, don't like renting to strangers?
 

Friendly Frog

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Poor man. He doesn't even realize the REST of my plans! (evil laugh) this includes creating a large patch of wild clover for the deer and rabbits and will attract pollenators. A wildflower garden. Spaces for perennials. An herb garden. A strawberry patch. A nice little grotto in the yard complete with patio furniture and an outdoor fire pit, and tiki lamps. All of which will take a few years to get going. and that's pretty much all I've been doing besides work and client editing.
That all sounds awesome. I hope you get to have the garden you want. Your hubby is in for a few more surprises in future, by the sound of it. :)

In non writing news, over the weekend, I FINALLY announced via my newsletter the bookish theme of my upcoming Etsy collection, which means I'll announce it to the rest of the world on my shop's Instagram on Friday. The one downside to this being the first real collection I've ever made is I'm totally learning as I go and I feel like I don't have the best timing on anything yet. A fellow seller on an online Etsy group I'm part of said you should really only start teasing the current collection once it's already made and within a few weeks of launch. Meanwhile, you're working on making the next one. Uh... too late, given that I started teasing the theme for the current one while I was waiting for the materials for it to arrive. It also occurred to me too late that it would be nice to have a pretty physical copy of the classic book the collection is themed around for sake of fun social media pictures, so I ordered it over the weekend, but of course it probably won't get here by Friday and I'll have to use my graphic for the announcement. Le sigh. At least I'll have it for when I launch the collection, though.

Anyway, I did finish the biggest piece of the entire collection last night, so that's a nice thing to check off the to-do list.

And while I was typing this, I decided on something to do today. Off I go to get it done.
Running a business is a constant learning experience. But it sounds like you have it all wel under control.

And.... cue the nightmares about owning a house again.

The last house we bought (in 2005, height of housing bubble), and had to move out of state for a new job in 2009, just as it crashed. It took me 11 years and two horrible tenants to get rid of that house and I lost $60,000 in value as well as lots of cash and stress to finally sell it - in 2016. The wounds are still very fresh.

I have a bad habit of either losing or switching jobs every 2-3 years, so the idea of having this ball and chain again makes me VERY nervous. And the house is in the middle of rural NY, so difficult to sell/rent if I do have to move for work again.
I remember you talking of your house troubles before. I can imagine stuff like that takes time to heal. It sucks when there are no easy answers to such life-changing decisions. Hopefully this time it will work out better. :Hug2:
 

E.F.B.

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I'd wanted to get really focused and make great editing progress today, but dad decided to stare at the TV for HOURS. I have no idea why, he doesn't usually just sit there for that long without getting on the computer, going to the bathroom, or going to bed (which he only did literally a minute ago), and it's really difficult for me to focus on words coming in my eyeballs when there are different words coming in me ears. It's also kinda annoying to keep scrounging for something to watch when there isn't that much on and I don't want to be watching anything anyway. And no, I can't just go in another room, and have to be careful about putting on headphones because either one can hurt his feelings because that's how he is.

Well, guess I get to write through lunch now, which I don't like doing that much because I can't have both hands on the keyboard and eat at the same time, but at least a little progress must be made.
 

greendragon

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So I found out why no one lists their house for rent in places like Craigslist or at realtors. An honest realtor (imagine that?) told me that listing them would mean they couldn't discriminate over who came to see the house/buy it. Joy. So I'm moving into THAT sort of area. I knew it was heavily pro-Trump from all the signs and flags, and the fact that it's rural NY. But ugh.
 
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Brightdreamer

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EFB - Been there, done that, on having to "TV-sit" with relatives who take it the wrong way if you want to leave... would earbuds be less conspicuous than headphones at reducing the noise (or overlaying it with "white noise")?

greendragon - Fingers crossed that the job is worth the neighbors...

Saturday, a holiday that doesn't feel much like a holiday for Reasons. We were going to see family - just Mom's brother and sister - but that fell through.

So I'm just doing the usual Saturday stuff.

Later we're having BBQ burgers and potato salad. Whee.
 

Friendly Frog

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And no, I can't just go in another room, and have to be careful about putting on headphones because either one can hurt his feelings because that's how he is.

EFB - Been there, done that, on having to "TV-sit" with relatives who take it the wrong way if you want to leave... would earbuds be less conspicuous than headphones at reducing the noise (or overlaying it with "white noise")?

What I don't get is how many people like that there are.

So I found out why no one lists their house for rent in places like Craigslist or at realtors. An honest realtor (imagine that?) told me that listing them would mean they couldn't discriminate over who came to see the house/buy it. Joy. So I'm moving into THAT sort of area. I knew it was heavily pro-Trump from all the signs and flags, and the fact that it's rural NY. But ugh.
That's... something I didn't know existed, and was fine not knowing it was a thing. O.O

Seems like a lot of wasted effort. Just because someone can come and look at the house doesn't mean you have to rent/sell it. It just means you have made it a lot harder for prospective customers to find you.
 

Shadowflame

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*Waves*

Urg GD... That sucks.

Nothing new here. Dayjob continues. garden work continues. Although I've decided that 200 sq foot is a bit more than I can handle by myself. So part of the current garden will be converted into a raised strawberry patch, my herb garden, and my perennial garden. Again, more work, but those things will be mostly self sufficient after they are established. (hopefully) Right now I can't keep up with the weeds even though hubby bought me this amazing tool called a scuffle hoe. It's great. It runs under the roots and basically cuts them out. Then just toss the weeds and the soil in the compost heap. :D

Hope everyone had a good weekend. TTYL
 

Religion0

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I ain't doing so hot, you guys. Welfare state is working slowly (but surely?) on... something. I'm not entirely sure what it's going to wind up being. Meds aren't working real well, and the ones that helped them work were addictive, so I'm not allowed to be on them. Potty training is not going as well as could be hoped. Rosa sort of holds it for three hours mostly, but she just peed right behind me as I was picking up Minty to get them ready, and maintaining that sort of routine is hard. My body feels weirdly contorted.

Played Pathfinder again today, was real fun... except for the part where two of the other players butted heads loudly, which both the players and their characters are really prone to. They were just kinda too loud for me today, so it wasn't super fun, but I'm trying to remember that I really like playing it, and I'm working on getting my family to try it. I've gotten them to agree to one session.

Yesterday evening my parents took my dog Sofi and their dog, Lucy, on a walk to the river that's ten minutes away. While at the river the dogs' leashes got tangled and my dad accidentally dropped Sofi's leash. She has one of those retractable leashes with a plastic handle, so when the plastic handle hit the sidewalk, it frightened her so much she bolted. She apparently ran all the way home.
I hate those leashes. Hate them. I can't stand any single aspect of them apart from the carabiner, which is fairly standard for all leashes... but they're definitely losing points for being attached to those leashes.

Oh, my Nintendo Switch also came yesterday afternoon and was thankfully easy to set up. The only time I had trouble was figuring out how to get the thingy that displays it on the TV to actually do that, but then I found that section on the console that has a bunch of FAQ and troubleshooting stuff and that explained things clearly. I didn't have long to play with it yesterday, but did get into Breath of the Wild for about 30 minutes and am really liking that. My mom wasn't sure she was impressed with the graphics, but I thought they were fine. It may just be that she's not used to the Zelda animation style. The only problem I was having is that the buttons for certain actions are in a different places on the Switch controller than on Playstation controller and my brain kept defaulting to Playstation and almost getting Link beat up. I'll adjust eventually. :p
Woo! The Switch isn't a powerhouse like the Playstation, but Zelda looks really nice, even though it's humongous. It might be stylistic, but it's a lovely style.
Switching between games and their different controls is confusing as heck. I keep punching when I want to jump, jumping when I want to open the menu, and zooming in when I want to look at the map.

Sorry. I haven't been here, but it's been hectic trying to get my now-published book (Barney and Mr. Thomas) out. I won't be able to actually hold a print copy until the 30th because my mom shipped it to my grandpa's house. We're going to visit him soon and wouldn't be home if we ordered for the book to be delivered to our house.

I'm so happy that it's published!!!!! :D
Congrats! That's awesome!

To the rest of you: hi folks.

My current project is a fantasy novel, been picking up steam but I shut off my internal filter (and stopped researching things) in order to ensure I reach first draft completion by end of year. It's taking a lot of self-control to -- in a way, not have any self-control. :D

Happy writing, everyone. Hope you all get a bit of joy from your projects in these strange times.
Hi there! You're a newbie, aren't you? Welcome to the Cantina, home of smibbles, coffee hot tubs, a kraken, and no evil science labs. I suspect a chaotic neutral science lab is in the basement, but I haven't checked.

I used to do a lot of audiobooks, but I've become addicted to podcasts now. ;)
Me too. I've been marathoning Not Another DnD Podcast for the past week or so.
 

kinokonoronin

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Hi there! You're a newbie, aren't you? Welcome to the Cantina, home of smibbles, coffee hot tubs, a kraken, and no evil science labs. I suspect a chaotic neutral science lab is in the basement, but I haven't checked.

Appreciate it. Will investigate this issue of a lab. Could come in handy. :)
 

greendragon

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Yeah, FF, that's a thing. If a realtor shows a BIPOC a house, then they're IN the house, which evidently these people don't even want that, and in this state, you can't just turn down a legit house offer randomly. There has to be a financial reason... so, yeah.

I'm sure they'd be less than pleased that hubbie is part Native and we've marched for #BLM. Or that I'm a witch :D

Rel, I hope things improve soon! (virtual socially distanced hugs!)
 

MaeZe

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Yeah it's tricky, GD. Trying to predict the economy, where will the housing market be in the near future if the new job (or the neighborhood) don't work out. But all you can do is move forward and go for it. I've lived in a lot of different places, some of them when I look back I wonder why I was okay with the situations.
You're 26 and not married?
What do you mean you don't have a nurse's cap? Don't you want your status?
At work: Safeway has oranges on sale... conversation goes on and on about coupons and someone's new couch.
But there were always good things.

Any chance someone from your new work can help you find a suitable rental? I suppose you've thought of that.

Hang in there Religion0. Like kids, they do eventually figure it out. Summer's here. That should help your mood, maybe, hopefully.

Shadow: I use this thing, Grandpa's weed puller to attack the dandelions in my yard. It's satisfying to pull those roots up but I don't think I'm winning the war.

I'm going to be max stressed until Wed. Both my dogs are going in that day to get major teeth pulling. They're 16 now (I finally looked at their records). I just hope the dentist leaves enough teeth for them to chew. They love chewing biscuits. You have to sign if you want them resuscitated if things go wrong. Of course I do. But it's scary they are going under anesthesia.

My son is going to help me with the cost: ~$7,000 US for the two if them. He's offered to pay half. All that unemployment I'm getting will barely cover the other half. But at least I'm getting that extra money. As long as elective surgery and dentists are only beginning to get back to work, their calls for me for blood exposures are still slim to none.

But apparently, Amazon is doing great. My son works for Amazon.

It's the stress of my dogs going under anesthesia that is a problem. Fortunately I don't have serious financial issues.


On another depressing note, a gentleman I've known for years on another forum has gone into cardiac failure. People are talking about his funeral. He's really young. I don't understand why he isn't on the heart transplant list. And he's in the hospital in Florida while they are experiencing a high rate of COVID 19. It's awful.

Wish I could end this post on a positive note. :( Maybe Thursday.
 
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E.F.B.

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Morning, Cantina. *hugs* to those who need them, and it looks like quite a few do.

I made up for Friday's lost time. Editing IDTC by retyping the document and cutting/improving/etc is working really well. I'd been concerned over the fact that when I was still drafting it, I'd gone over approximately the first half of this story in the past (around a year or more ago?) to catch myself up on where I was before having taken a break from it to work on something else, and at the time I'd done some cutting of words while I was at it but wasn't able to cut much. Well, I guess finishing the story, taking more time away from it, and retyping it into a new doc was needed because I cut over 100 words from chapter 1, almost 1k from chapter 2, and almost 2k from chapter 3. (Yes, I'm very aware I'm an overwriter.) And I haven't even used Pro Writing Aid on it, yet, which always helps me cut more. So, guess I don't need to worry so much that there's not still story flab to cut. Getting this to or under 100k might not be so hard after all.


ION: We watched Hamilton on Disney+ the 4th and enjoyed it a lot. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a creative genius, IMHO.

Later that evening we watched fireworks on TV with the lights off, while outside, in every direction, you could hear civilians firing them off. This included the neighbor behind us who doesn't usually do that (thought I heard kids talking up there, so that's probably why they did it this year) and was using the ones that shoot up off the ground and are therefore ILLEGAL in VA. We couldn't believe they were shooting ones like that in such a confined space and they weren't even close to getting above the trees. Nothing caught on fire thankfully, but geez. We wondered if they didn't scare all their chickens to death, but heard clucking the next afternoon, so guess they're okay.

this amazing tool called a scuffle hoe.
Want.

Woo! The Switch isn't a powerhouse like the Playstation, but Zelda looks really nice, even though it's humongous. It might be stylistic, but it's a lovely style. Switching between games and their different controls is confusing as heck. I keep punching when I want to jump, jumping when I want to open the menu, and zooming in when I want to look at the map.
I'm loving the style, too. Yeah, I keep hitting the B button and running headlong into enemies when I was trying to jump to attack or backflip away, and using a rune when I was trying to use the shield, all of which result in Link being dead.
 

MaeZe

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Well, my buddies have both had their baths and are ready for their surgery tomorrow. I can't wait until the dog groomers open back up and are safe. It hurts my back to get the larger one into the utility sink. They still need brushing but I can do that after the ibuprofen kicks in.

I'm so worried, what are they going to think when they come home with mouth pain. I can't explain it to them. :cry: I hope the pain meds will keep them comfortable.
 
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Religion0

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Hang in there Religion0. Like kids, they do eventually figure it out. Summer's here. That should help your mood, maybe, hopefully.
Hopefully... I'm stressed and tired.

I'm going to be max stressed until Wed. Both my dogs are going in that day to get major teeth pulling. They're 16 now (I finally looked at their records). I just hope the dentist leaves enough teeth for them to chew. They love chewing biscuits. You have to sign if you want them resuscitated if things go wrong. Of course I do. But it's scary they are going under anesthesia.
Minty had two teeth pulled last year, and aside from being super groggy afterwards, she was just fine and didn't seem to be in any pain.

I'm loving the style, too. Yeah, I keep hitting the B button and running headlong into enemies when I was trying to jump to attack or backflip away, and using a rune when I was trying to use the shield, all of which result in Link being dead.
Lol, yeah, Link's gonna die a lot... my brother and I killed him roughly every ten-fifteen minutes when we first started playing.
 

JJ Litke

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Ugh, GD, I hear ya on the real estate deal. We had family in NY state, and KidJJ went to school in NJ, so I know the kind of thing you’re talking about. I hope things work out all right for y’all.

Rel, I hope you’re feeling better by now. Like MaeZe said, the potty training will happen eventually. I seem to recall that every time I start to think it’s never gonna happen. Then it’s like they suddenly get it, and it abruptly gets a lot easier.

And MaeZe, I hope your doggos are doing all right. As if it wasn’t bad enough to start with, it’s always extra stressful having any procedures done when they’re older.
 

MaeZe

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Poor things. I have my buddies back. They need to wear their cones for two weeks. They keep getting stuck on things they bump into.

They try to drink then they don't. I put three sizes of bowls of water out in case it was the cones but they still go to the water dishes then don't drink.

They both have stitches in their mouths where a fistula was repaired. They both have the same defect, maybe related to the fact they are litter mates. But they're home and hopefully they'll be better tomorrow.
 

Friendly Frog

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I saw my favourite butterfly yesterday and was so nostalgic when I realised it's the first one I saw all spring. Even I remember years when I saw dozens. I'm at a loss really how to get more of them. We've increased so many flowering plants over the years and I'm even growing nettles (!) for the caterpillars but they seem to prefer certain unknown conditions that I don't have in garden.

Yeah, FF, that's a thing. If a realtor shows a BIPOC a house, then they're IN the house, which evidently these people don't even want that, and in this state, you can't just turn down a legit house offer randomly. There has to be a financial reason... so, yeah.
I can sort of get the second one but the first...*mind boggles*

Hopefully... I'm stressed and tired.
:Hug2:

Poor things. I have my buddies back. They need to wear their cones for two weeks. They keep getting stuck on things they bump into.
Poor doggies! I hope they feel beter soon.
 

Shadowflame

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* Waves at everyone*

Just more dayjob and gardening here. I'm finally getting the main garden tamed by using the scuffle hoe and then laying down cardboard as a weed barrier. I've pulled back a few of the older ones and there's earthworms galore. Going to start tossing some of the compost in there so that the worms have more to eat!
The regular plants in the ground aren't doing so great. Georgia clay is notorious for packing so the roots don't go far. This will be better next year after I've added a lot of organics and have tilled things in well. (Yes even the cardboard that's there now.) A couple of truckloads of wood chips and bales of straw should get things started this fall. Then a cover crop for the winter. Till that back under EARLY spring, then cover with straw again until I'm ready to plant.
The things in the various buckets, planters, and makeshift boxes are doing well though. I have lovely flowers. :) And herbs! I'll take photos tonight.
 

E.F.B.

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@Maeze: I hope the doggies are doing better. *hugs*

Evening, Cantina. Camp still goes well, though I slowed down a bit over the weekend. I'm feeling pretty good about the first couple chapters of my WIP, but I'm not sure about the pacing of some of the other early ones. It's sort of a difficult balance because the MC is brand new to this alternate world and has to learn how to live in it, and I'm trying to mix actions into that learning, not just talking, but obviously, she has questions that need verbal answering, too. BUT I don't want her and her one ally sitting and talking TOO much, and that’s where I'm slowing down in editing. Just trying to think hard if there's a more active way to convey certain information, and if not, at least streamlining any talking as much as possible and making sure to notice and remove any repetitions of info. Sometimes it's hard, though.

Well, the other bit of writing news is that I've joined an online crit group so there will be actual human eyeballs on it to give some feedback before too long. Hopefully it turns out to be a good group and we work well together. I do have one online friend in the group at least, so that's nice.