Countdown

The countdown is on to closing. Originally, we thought we’d be delayed until Friday, but the inspection pieces fell into place and we are still on for Thursday morning. That means moving on Friday morning and settling in over the weekend, with assorted projects to get underway.

There are fires burning up across the Georgia state line. This morning, on the way to the insurance agent’s place to sign off on the homeowner’s insurance paperwork, the smoke was thick because the wind was from the north, pushing the haze our way. That blew off in the afternoon, but we’re expecting it again in the morning, since the fires are still burning up there.

But let’s go backwards in time, shall we?

For the past week, we have been out to the house almost twice a day, every day. Yesterday early, the pool guys were there after the safety inspection had been completed.

Every job has its own specialized tools. A couple of the guys were wearing these platforms on their shoes. The platforms have four pointed feet underneath, so they’re not leaving footprints in the sealant.

Here’s a gratuitous beefcake shot of a broad-backed worker for those interested. And you know who you are.

We also found to our surprise that the dumpster had been pulled.

As we were leaving, the worker bees from next door were pulling the trailer and the remaining fenceposts off the property and taking them to the other side. I suppose the builder must have had a word and indicated that we were getting close.

After taking some more photos, it was time to head out again. When we returned home, we found a coupe of birds doing that springtime dance. Love is in the air, indeed.

A couple hours later, it was time for a return trip, to check out the pool again. The workers had gone, and there was a snake in the pool.

Not really.

Water!

Slowly but surely, the pool was filling. I had neglected to both charge the battery in my camera and to bring the spare, so that was the final shot of the day. I wanted to take another shot from upstairs without the trailers and posts on the side, but alas, there was no juice. It will have to wait until tomorrow, assuming that I get over there.

Which is a question mark of sorts, as I have an appointment with the ENT in the early afternoon. Nothing terribly serious, but rather annoying: the scans are not showing any decrease in activity (but no increase either), and there’s a bit on tingly stuff from time to time. So, time for a visit to let the doc poke around. I always resist the temptation to chomp down on their fingers…

And finally, a recommendation: if you speak French, or can sit through a movie in French with English subtitles, see Amelie. I finally had the chance to watch the entire movie from start to finish, and it is an excellent movie, with some quite finely nuanced performances.

When I was your age…

There’s a certain beauty in moving out to the country. Open space, no houses bunched so closely together that you can read your neighbor’s paper while they’re sitting on the can, the peace and quiet, the option to either jump in the pool or work in the garden, or walk the trails in the preserve behind the house, or just loll around with a book while sitting under a tree.

But then, there is one downside that we’ve just discovered.

A downside, you say? How can that be? The idyllic life has nothing to mar it!

Except for those of us who fairly live on the Internet currently: there is no high speed access in the area. No DSL, and the cable company doesn’t even have basic cable service out there, which means we’re suddenly finding ourselves getting the satellite folks out. And resigning ourselves to life with dialup, at least until the gigantic development about six miles away grows up into houses with people in them, at which point the cable people will realize that service should indeed exist out our way.

Naturally, those of us of a certain age remember the days of dialup. Some of us of a certain age remember the first waves of dialup, plugging along at 300 baud. Since living without access is not an option, and since living without this property is not an option, dialup it will be. Fortunately, I am not streaming videos or music from my laptop to the Internet at large (heck, if I wanted to do that, I have a 1 Gps connection available to me at the NOC within our network there).

Since support issues are so very quiet these days – aggressive server management will do that for you – really all I do is check in and answer tickets, and do command line server maintenance things for work. For play – well, I suppose trying to bring up cuteoverload on dialup would be an adventure in pain, and I’ll have to reserve all my iTunes purchases for trips to the NOC so they can download there to my laptop while I’m setting up servers.

I expect to be spending more time away from my laptop then I have been lately, and instead of sitting around on my ass all day long doing this or that for work, I expect to be carving out time for enjoying life. Gardening. Cooking things from my garden. Canning. Swimming, for the first time in a couple of years (especially now that I no longer have a hole in my abdomen). Walking the trails in the forest. Landscaping. Experimenting with recipes for hot sauces and salsas and other things that maybe one day will be for sale.

That sort of thing.