Looking Glass

 This day, September 23rd, 2015 my mother's house will be completely void of her ownership; living or deceased. I signed the papers to sell the house yesterday. Of course, the phone calls to the family a month ago sealed our decision to take the offer, despite it being 29k under asking. (Purchaser got a hell of a deal.)  I have already called businesses and started cancelling things like insurance, garbage service, notifying the association of the development in title. I contacted the attorney a week ago to review the real estate docs and start closing the estate. He reviewed the documents but said it was pointless to start paperwork until the sale was a "done deal.." The bank accounts will be a piece of cake as I have managed them well and have a plan thought out for sending final documents to my family. The unbound fact is this sale will alleviate many bricks from my shoulder. However, my Executorship won't be completely over until tax season next year a...

 Do you ever get stuck in that space between motivation and accomplishment? That void where you are over thinking choices too much and using that in itself as an excuse to procrastinate more? Or allowing the indecisiveness of where to step next tumble through your brain to the point of overwhelm?  Those are the thoughts for me lately. As much as I love the basement apartment where I live...for cheap...with a great water view...with a nice landlady...I have felt the shortcomings lately...this third year of living here. I miss not having an oven to bake muffins or cookies or a baked chicken. I miss having a dishwasher, although that really isn't major. I miss not having my "stuff," the couch, my end tables and artwork, my bulk of art supplies. I really miss the lack of storage. As I weigh these items to decide about my next abode, I create a scale of pros and cons without it tipping either way, easily.  I can't decide if I've become ungrateful for...

  The title of this post is definitely not literal.  It is quite the opposite. June broke into sunny warm days that  started the month and it exited the year by leaving hotter weather behind it. July barely had winds at all,  which is the nod to the ironic title.  The winds of July reference the surprises and activities that the month held in store for me after a pleasant visit with my nephew at the end of June. Six years has spanned our last meeting at a family reunion. He is thin, tall and bears a smile easily on a face resembling his mother, my sister Mary.  He talks happily of life with a family and a chiropractic practice despite some hard years not so long ago. His two boys are the prime ages of five and eight and they still like hanging out with mom and dad (smile here).The "family man" characteristics definitely exist for him.  He had a friend on his coattails during the three day stay at my house and thanks...

 I have noted in many blog posts of writing about my life's history in order to lead readers up to the beginning of this blog, five years ago. I opted not to start at the beginning of my time, although that is important to write about at some point; childhood memories, family happenings and the like. But, not today.  I debated about starting at the middle of my life which would peg me at 27 years of age, as I turn 54 this year.  At that point in time, I gave birth to my third child, had been married for 7 years and was a "stay at home mom," raising the kids and that first husband. Despite the importance of that year in my life, I didn't want to start there today either.  I chose not to start at the beginning nor the middle, but at a pivotal time in my young life; age fifteen. It was the year my mother uprooted me from my family and hometown in Minnesota to move across the country to Washington state. This seeme...

 Bring on the wine!  My friend KP and I had another one of our long evenings together. The kind of evening where we had cause to celebrate, converse, laugh and of course, drink wine...two bottles to be exact. (smile here).  Our cause of celebrating stemmed from her victory in placing first at a division speech contest via Toastmasters International. The event was predicated from weeks of hard work, practice and placing first in two prior contests. From her original speech and help from a few friends, it was rewritten several times over. She and I had spent hours rehearsing. I was her audience and evaluator. I timed her speech so she could trim it down to the 7 minute speech it needed to be, in order to qualify at the contests. She nailed it and then some!  "There Must Be a Way" was the title. The speech told the story of her stuttering issues from childhood to adulthood, and eventual, intense speech therapy at age 30. Overcoming ...

I just found out last night through a classy well thought facebook post, that one of my friends from my former little town, drowned while vacationing in Hawaii. Now her husband has to return from vacation to Washington with a casket rather than his wife sitting next to him.  I can't even imagine.