On Changes 2 weeks 2 days

Saturday, June 26 - current temp 74F
Weather today was hot and humid -

Katie, Phil and I have been living on Changes for over 2 weeks now. Overall it's working ok. Last Friday and Saturday, we had our moving sale. It went pretty good, and I'm thankful that my sister-in-law, Kathleen was there. She was very soothing for me - helping me to emotionally let go of some of the belongings. Phil had NO problem letting go :) I guess we're at different stages in our lives that way. The last week has been spent with me going to work - for the Mentor Alt home Central team this time (actually I'm going to be split between alt home East and Central) and Phil working with the person who use to clean my house - in cleaning out the rest of the belongings and cleaning the house. It's been quite a week with it's up and down moments. I guess that's to be expected. The Up moments were dinner at Capps, signing the papers at the clubhouse on Thursday, and me working. The down moments was realizing again and again at the most inopportune times - in the middle of the night - while driving in the car - that once again, I forgot to save something that I wanted and it's gone forever. Some tears were in order on my part on and off. It's one thing to choose to let something go - and something else when something is gone because it didn't get put in the van or the trailer to be put in storage. Sigh! I guess it's just a part of letting go. Phil and I have both been stressed - me by wanting to save what I can - and Phil by just wanting to get rid of everything else and to be done with it. I guess it's a guy/girl thing. I hope that I'll be able to look on this period with some humor looking back. I just remember that it's a process, this too shall pass and we'll get on the other side. We are both looking forward to it being July!!! when this stage will be over.

This morning Phil left on US Airways to fly to Burmuda to help Captain Dave Block, his son Michael David, and 2 other gentlemen, transport a Benateau 42'sailboat to Cape Cod. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and they'll leave tomorrow morning and make landfall in 4-5 days. Then they'll drive home. I'm hoping that I'll hear something from Louisa, Cpt. Dave's girlfriend at some point in the trip. If I do, I'll post the results.

Another slight down, was that the Buyers didn't sign the papers on Thursday as they had originally planned to do. One of the Mother-in-Laws fell and broke her leg so the plan is for them to sign on Monday. Hope it doesn't postpone the closing. They also would like to start moving their belongings in on Monday before title transfer. On the way back from the airport - I stopped off at the Chardon home, to sign the paper and drop it off at the Realtor's office. They will assume responsibility if anything happens to the house. I also took a look through the house and am glad that I did, as the wooden chairs that Phil had wanted to save were in the basement. I put them in the van. Another down is I found that the shower and window curtains and the curtain rods in the bathroom were taken down and are gone permanently. Very upsetting as they were to have been with the house. The rest of the valences are still there. Why they didn't leave those, I'll never know. We had a few text message back and forth between me and the cleaner with me being told that the helpers didn't see the curtains in the first place. They're gone and the buyers will have to put something in immediately. Too bad.

Once I returned to the boat, I decided to take advantage of our friends George and Pat Schlauch being gone making what they call their sailing "Dinner Tour" to empty the horizontal dock box on their dock site and try to organize it. I took everything out - put in the shelf that Phil made - and after buying a couple crates, put it back in again a little more organized. I could still use a couple crates and may get them tomorrow at Walmart. I also worked on getting the belongings I had stored in the back of the van (knew that this would be handy) and put on the deck in preparation of getting items in Chardon, off the deck. Almost done, understanding that's a relative term. After relaxing a little, Katie and I had lunch/supper at Sammy's in Grand River.

After we came back, I took a nap since we woke at about 315am today. Then Katie and I went to see the new Karate Kid movie at the new and renovated Great Lakes Mall movie theater. Actually it was pretty good - filmed in China so had some beautiful scenery. We couldn't pass up an opportunity, so we went to Great Lakes Mall buying 2 swimsuits and capris for me and getting a couple tops and a pair of capris for Katie. Hey - I saved money! Saved $159 on the items I purchased. Of course whenever I tell Phil I've saved money, he says but I spent money.

I met some guests that are docking here for the weekend - Pat and Charlie Browning on a Beneteau 34' - Sailaway. They were kind enough to show me down below. I'm jealous as Pat has an aft head and a slightly bigger galley. She has a great whole cloth quilt in her V-berth - I love the quilting on it - so may change my mind about what I quilt on my new V-berth quilt. It's vertical rows of stitching and then the outline of different sea shells spaced evenly.

My posting wouldn't be complete without some pictures so below is Katie in her favorite non-school activity - reading!!
Tomorrow I need to take the wood chairs in my van to Kay's house and some other items so that I can get our outdoor living space decluttered before my understanding fellow yacht club members are tired of being understanding and think they'll be living with hill billies the entire summer.

Our dock mates, Lee and Betty Booth are down for the weekend and have their new toy fox terrier puppy "Boo" with them. He's so cute and is now starting to get acclimated. It was funny how we was biting my jean pant leg and pulling - and you couldn't hardly feel it. He definately friskier and I understand he has a mind of his own. When he wants something, he is very focused on getting it. but here he looks cute.

Boo last weekend in his favorite place - the cubby for the winch handles.

Me holding Boo at last Friday's Potluck.

Back from Denver - June 14

June 14, 2010

Katie return to Dayton and I return to Cleveland Airport. We had a good trip - was able to see Rachel Saturday and Sunday. but it did rain a lot and was cold. Good thing that we checked out the internet weather, because Katie and I were prepared. The weekend started with a Tornado warning on Friday at Denver Int'l Airport after I landed and just before Katie was suppose to land. This is a picture of the storm coming in. There was cloud rotation, but it never developed into a funnel cloud. But we got lucky in that her plane circled around the storm and after it passed she was able to land by 530pm. One woman on the plane back to Ohio said that they were diverted to Colorado Springs and she didn't make it to Denver until 1am. Here is a picture of Rachel and Katie at the airport.We had supper at Mimi's Cafe and enjoyed great food. Too much to eat there, so we took the extras home as Katie and I had a kitchenette in the hotel that included a refrigerator.

JR, Katie, myself and Rachel after we had eaten.

We spent Saturday at the Denver Downtown Aquarium. It was a good aquarium, but it also was cold - 49F and rainy. They say that Denver gets about 16inches of rain - well I think we got half of that this weekend - only kidding about the amount -but it did rain enough that there was standing water in the driveway at Rachel's apartment. It never did warm up. Funny how last time I was in Denver - they had a record high - and this time I don't think it was a record low - but sure was opposite from what they usually have.
Sunday, It was girls day and we went on Banjo Billy's Bus Tour of Denver. It was very interesting; Rachel and Katie enjoyed it and we learned some Denver history. Denverites love their public art, so 1% of the new building budgets have to be appropriated to public art. The Big Blue Bear is one of them. Blue Bear is 40 ft tall and on the opposite side of the building, there are 2 people which are 60ft tall. Unfortunately, we never saw them.

Banjo Billy's Bus, which is a renovated school bus. It's kind of hippy looking inside.

Notice the drink holder on the wall of the bus? I think it's a great idea to copy-only on a large scale- in the head to make a small waste basket that I'll line with plastic garbage bags only Phil will make a bar of wood to hold to the wall instead of screws and washers.
As you can see, Rachel and Katie got very comfortable seats on the bus. Afterward we rented a movie at Redbox, ate leftovers from our many dinners out over the weekend and relaxed in our hotel room.

Time for me to take a shower - very important to good sleeping especially when you're outside - get sticky. Also makes it easier getting ready in the morning. Will post more later about the move.