Posted by
ScarletPimpernel on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 11:25:19 AM
What I did this summer:
The wife got ordained as a minister and will eventually continue work in her chosen field as a Chaplain. She has a degree in Divinity from Emory University - so she is academically divine. She got ordained by our Bishop - so she is faithfully divine. After she completes a year of residency she will become divine by the awesome power of the State of Georgia. After this third gauntlet, she'll be able to earn about 25% more as a certified Chaplain.
(This state certification stuff is ridiculous: I have to pay for a certificate every two years so that I may "Library" to people in my profession as a Librarian. Now, my wife has to pay up so that she may minister to people as a Chaplain. A state racket if you ask me.)
She is putting off being a full-time chaplain for now because she landed a full-time challenging job with great fringe benefits. Her husband is extremely happy. For several years, the last two as a married couple, we have been struggling to get our money right while doing worthwhile things with our lives. We didn't want our life to be all about the money - but it certainly doesn't hurt to have some. Now that we have much more income coming in - it's a whole new world. And, she is going to attempt to do her residency and her full-time job at the same time which means more money. I expect to have a 42 inch plasma HDTV with HD cable and home theater system in no time. I'll have to keep her photo handy to remember what she looks like while I watch football but we all have to make sacrifices.
Between graduating and getting ordained, I continued my role as St. Francis of Assisi. I was at work on a Saturday morning and, looking out the building windows, noticed that people kept examining our shrubbery. "My, they really love our landscaping" I thought. Well, a little later, I was walking to my car and heard a loud mewing sound. At first I thought it was some of our teens sitting in a car somewhere having fun with passersby. So, I ignored it and came back in. I soon looked out again to see a co-worker trying to feed crackers to the bushes. Being the bright guy that I am I concluded there really was a cat in the bushes.
I went out and saw a tiny kitten who would run from us every time we tried to get her. I've not been around cats too much so I was not thrilled at trying to reach in and get her. After 30 minutes of sweating in the sun trying to coax her out I decided enough was enough and I am a manly man afterall so I reached in to get her. She scratched me with her ferocious claws and razor teeth. This kitten had to be at least 6 inches long and weighed 4 or 5 ounces so you can see why I yanked my hand out quickly. I decided the thing to do was to call my wife, she'd know how to handle this beast. (I had been debating on getting her a cat anyway since she loves them). So she arrives on the scene and she and one of my co-workers (a woman) took about 3 seconds to get the feline under control.
Now, along with two big puppies Ringo and Huggy Bear, we have a kitten named Mischa. Mischa loves them and they love her. She is smaller than Ringo's head but she loves to swat them and they love to smell her and pin her down with their paws. Every now and then I have to say, "No, Huggy Bear." because he has her entire body in his mouth and he's looking around like "What?". These are the same dogs that can't wait to get at other dogs and cats but with her they are gentle giants. It is quite amusing watching them chase her around the house.
House? Did I mention a house? Well, thanks for asking. My wife and I finally have moved into a nice big house. We are doing what's called a lease purchase and are working with the buyer and a mortgage guy to buy it within a year. We got tired of paying rent and our credit is improving every month so the mortgage guy told us that we should try this route. So we signed a deal that got us into the house at a future fixed selling price. We put some money down and signed a lease. If the estimate of the house goes up in a year, we win. If it goes down, we buy it at the lower price or the owner can hold onto it and we get our downpayment back so we win again. The owner bought the house at the absolute worse time, last August, thinking that he was going to flip it quickly. A year later and he was doing everything possible to help us get into it. So now, we have a good size Colonial that has had a lot of remodeling done.
So, moving. I had said on our last move that I'm never going to lift anything heavy again in my life unless there is a medal involved. I was planning on paying someone to come and haul this stuff to our new place. The wife and I got to talking. Our bedroom set was nice but it was pretty old and she wanted a new one for the house. We figured that we couldn't fit it into any of the other bedrooms because of all the pieces. I started thinking, "Do I want to haul all of this old furniture to the new place since we're getting all new stuff anyway?" So we had a big sale on craigslist. Everything sold within a week and we made a nice pile of cash. We ended up renting a small truck and hauling mostly boxes to the house. That was the best move ever. It cost very little and I didn't get too worn out.
The downside is we have very little in our place right now. Our relatives worry about our mental condition. Who sells all their stuff at once? The only furniture we have is two antique chests, two beach chairs, a little plastic side table and our mattresses and frame. Fortunately, my wife and I have a sense of humor and a plan. As we sit there in our beach chairs in the great room, cracking up watching a comedy on our teeny tv that we bought for $10 from Goodwill, we look through catalogs and plan what room to fill up first. We are on a cash only basis now so everything we buy will be paid for up front. That is a really good feeling. I think we're going to have to go with the huge couch and comfy chairs first. That beach chair doesn't give the greatest back support.
We love the house, cobwebs and all. It was pretty much unoccupied for a year. We are discovering the thrill of imperfection. The owner has been good about fixing all the things that need fixing and there is a nice long list. We saw a leak in the garage that led to the HVAC unit. The plumber removed the pipe and water came pouring out. There was a clog and with a little digging we found some hair. That's odd, we thought. How did hair get into the AC vent pipe? A little more digging and more hair came out, and a tail, and some little feet. Yeaugggghh! And then one morning, I was laying in bed while the wife was still asleep. I heard some movement in the crawlspace part of the attic. Just as I was trying to determine how big of an animal it was that could make that heavy of a sound - Chupacabra? Bobcat? The Mack Daddy of Raccoons? - my wife's head popped up off the pillow with a startled "Squirrels!" She's under the impression that a house can be perfectly spotless and sanitary and pest-free at all times. Having lived in several houses with college classmates I know otherwise.
And I got to mow the grass for the first time in about 15 years. I went out and bought a push mower with a bag. We have a corner lot and the part by the main road is a bit of a ditch. A ditch I say. So, there I was mowing, sweating, straining, emptying bags o' grass, pulling weeds and loving it. Man and land. Just as God intended.
So that's a brief telling of my adventures this summer. Stay tuned as I attempt other house-based activities.