moving | BulgingButtons

June 27, 2014
by BulgingButtons 11 Comments

Friday Freakout and Happy Blogday to BulgingButtons

Movers are scheduled to arrive in 25 hours. As I look around I wonder how we’ll make it happen, but I know that we will. The good news is that I don’t HAVE to be completely out of here until Monday, so after they take the big stuff I can still finish up any odds and ends on Sunday. Still, I WANT to be done on Saturday. Um, I mean tomorrow. Right now it just seems a little unlikely, but if I keep breathing maybe it will all come together.

Oh, and BulgingButtons is officially ONE YEAR OLD! Happy Birthday Blog! I’ve decided that a Blogday is something to celebrate, even if only by eating a Weight Watchers raspberry ice cream bar for breakfast (only 2 points). See, in my mind celebrations still equals food. Old habits and mindsets are hard to break. Maybe we should celebrate with a splash in the pool or a bike ride around the neighborhood? That would be more in keeping with the original BulgingButtons mission, I think.

As of this morning BulgingButtons has 999 followers. Perhaps the 1,000th follow will be our blogday present? That would be wonderful. Even better than a raspberry ice cream bar. Really.

Have a fabulous Friday and party like a rock star in honor of one year of BulgingButtons. If you have any whiz bang moving tips to make my life calmer, easier, or less crazy feel free to share. I always learn so much from you. Of course if you have any moving horror stories, feel free to share those too (I’m afraid they’re all too common). We will all read them and nod slowly or stifle a giggle, or gasp appropriately, and we will commiserate with you. Then we will secretly thank the powers that be that it happened to you and not us. No offense, of course. So bring on those moving stories, I will try not to let them scare me too badly.

June 24, 2014
by BulgingButtons 4 Comments

Chaos in My Corner of the World

The Replacement Bulb

Did you know that halogen lightbulbs for pools installed in 1996 are difficult to come by? They are. There is one of them available in the United States right now, and it is currently in Dallas, Texas. I, however, am not currently in Dallas, Texas. It doesn’t matter though. I need that bulb. The bulb alone costs about $35.00, and then there’s the shipping cost. Of course if I want it in a hurry, it will cost more.

I have lived in this house for a little over two years and have never had a functioning pool light. Apparently I’ve been living on the edge, because this is a hazard, according to the inspection that was done on the house. It wasn’t a hazard back when my inspector looked at it, but now it is, and it’s up to me to remedy this situation so that my buyer doesn’t stub his toes in the dark when he goes night swimming. Having this responsibility makes me feel important, like I have a civic duty to keep my fellow human being safe from this apparently very real threat.

Why is it that when I’m the seller I have to bend over backward to change and fix everything, but when I’m the buyer I’m lucky if the air conditioning even works? The kicker is the house I’m selling is priced considerably less than the one I’m buying! Still, I’m really excited to say that I’m buying my next house. I found it last Friday, looked at it again on Sunday, and wrote an offer last night. This morning it was accepted. HOORAY! There are lots of good things about it, and a few things that are less great, but right now we’re not going there. Right now we’re trying to get out of THIS house. That means fixing a few things and packing a lot of things (well, everything actually) and doing lots of chores, like calling the utilities and setting up a forwarding address. What a pain.

I’m trying to remain calm and take things one step at a time. It’s tough, though, when all progress seems to grind to a halt over a single lightbulb (that I went to four stores to locate, then called two other places before, hopefully, finding it in Dallas). Hopefully the bulb issue will be resolved shortly, so that we can figure out why the new bathroom faucet is leaking. One step at a time. One step at a time.

March 8, 2014
by BulgingButtons 6 Comments

Hawai’i Revisited or Where Shall I Live?

This afternoon I came home to find the tv on public television. My son was in the other room playing a video game and my sweetheart was steaming the tile floor in the living room. It appeared that the dog was enjoying the show, though. I don’t blame her.

Our PBS station is doing one of their fund drives, and today they aired a beautiful show about Hawai’i. It was mainly just scenery with some Hawai’ian music and commentary from various authorities on different aspects of Hawai’i and Hawai’ian culture, such as historians, botanists, surfers, and so on. It was breath-taking.

The program took me right back to my winter vacation where I had the pleasure of visiting this paradise on earth. I loved it there. The climate, the scenery, the beaches, the people, all were incredible. I hope to go back someday.

The whole experience makes me think about why we live where we do. I live in the desert southwest. I wasn’t raised here. I was raised in a wonderful old rust belt city known for chicken wings and blizzards. It is a fantastic town and a great place to visit every summer. It does have a few issues, though, the snow being one of them.

Many years ago I decided that I didn’t want to live there anymore. I wanted to live in the sunshine. I wanted to live where people could make a living doing what they wanted to do without having to know twenty people to get a job. I wanted to live in a place where the economy was growing, not dying. Things change, including the economy, but I’ve never regretted my decision to leave my hometown.

I’ve been in my adopted state for over two decades, and I still love it, but I love Hawai’i too. Would I like to live there? I might. Yes, it’s pretty far from the rest of the world, but I imagine loved ones would make the effort to visit. Why wouldn’t they? Oh yes, the cost and distance. I like Texas too. I never spent much time there until I met my sweetheart, but since then we’ve been there three times, and each time I’ve liked it more. I could picture myself living there too, where the summers aren’t quite as harsh as they are here.

Still, this has become my home, and I really like it. My son was born here and his father and grandparents live here. I’m in no hurry to pull up stakes and start again elsewhere. I have friends here and a career. Still, maybe someday I’ll go somewhere else. I’m hardly a rolling stone, but I’m not rooted to one spot either.