August 2011
Arrived and Online
Submitted by jlpowers on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 10:00pmAfter much work, angst and adventure, I arrived in Texas early Thursday morning. Unpacking the truck took all day Thursday, as it was 104-degrees out. Not fun.
Since then we have all been unpacking, sorting and arranging. Finally, today, I found the box with my computer cables, so I'm back online.
Much to do. Many adjustments to make. But, it's good to be with my folks, and #1-son and #2-son. Today we all went down to visit with two of my three brothers and their families, so that's nice, too.
I miss #3-son and #4-son, though. :-(
#3-son is off to college and having a grand time, so I can handle that.
But I haven't been away from #4-son for more than the two-weeks he went on vacation last year, so this is going to be a challenge. I haven't had a chance to do more than text with him a couple times, but now that I'm finally back online, I should be able to talk to him more, which will be nice.
Now that my computer is together and I've said 'hi' to everybody online, I'd best get this place cleaned back up and head to bed. The lack of sleep and stress from the last couple weeks is catching up with me, and I'm exhausted, but all-in-all, I'm doing really well.
My First Acknowledgement
Submitted by jlpowers on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 8:34pmI am so tickled! Adrienne Giordano's second book, "A Just Deception", is about to be released from Carina Press and she passed along the finalized copy and see what it says in the acknowledgements:
I must, must, must acknowledge Jackie Powers and her wonderful insight when working through early characterization issues. Your advice helped me dig deep and I’m so grateful.
She wanted to surprise me, and I was surpirsed, and gratified.
Thanks, Adrienne! I had a great time talking with you, I didn't expect this, and I'm really looking forward to reading the final draft. :-)
Wow!! **grin**
Living Room Packed
Submitted by jlpowers on Tue, 08/09/2011 - 9:06pmI realized for a lot of you, depending upon your definition of living room, the packing of my living room may not sound like a big deal. But my living room included 55-linear-feet of books that needed to be weeded, plus the DVDs and CDs. Granted the DVDs and CDs were mostly done when I started this afternoon, so it wasn't the chore it could have been, but it was still enough to be exhausting.
The big issue was the books, as these were my oldest antique books and my old encyclopedias that I use for historic reference, plus the fact that I really HATE getting rid of books. So there was a lot of resistance in the process. "Do I really need to keep this set of encyclopedias, since I have another set from five years later?" (no) "Yes, I bought this set of how-to books from 1920 because they were really cool, do I need to keep them?" (yes) and so on.
The good news is that I packed up 10.5 paper-boxes of books to take to the library used book sale. Granted the boxes aren't stuffed completely full, as I kept the encyclopedia sets together, but I'm still impressed with myself. I should have taken a before picture to compare. :-)
Tomorrow I attack the art room, and I will take "before" pictures, because it's an impressive mess.
Since #4-son and I did his bedroom last week, and the attic and garage were emptied for the garage sale, this makes four rooms that are done. Which leaves 9 rooms, plus basement, to go.
It's going to be a busy week and a half.
Recovered From Garage Sale
Submitted by jlpowers on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 7:48pmThe garage sale was held Friday and Saturday. Sunday was a day of useless exhaustion, and today was beginning to recover and catch up on stuff.
Note to self... only people who come to garage sales on Friday have money. We sold a bunch of little things on Saturday, but made less than 1/4 of what we made on Friday. And both days together didn't make even the smallest dent in the amount of stuff that needed to go. *sigh*
For a few minutes, I debated having another sale next weekend, but then I remembered that it would only be #1-son and me home, and sanity quickly set in. So, I shall call Goodwill this week and have them send a truck to pick up stuff.
Also finally admitted I need to weed more books. I calculated out that current books and bookcases are going to take up 1/3 of the space in the moving van. *sigh* Not good. So, I gotta weed. Which will mean I shall also call the library and have them send a truck. :-) I wonder if they really do that. Huh. It's a good idea; I'll have to check. :-)
This week's plan: weed, sort, organize, pack, clean.
Twelve days and counting. :-)
Garage Sale First Day
Submitted by jlpowers on Sat, 08/06/2011 - 7:54amYesterday, my garage sale went very well. With the awesome, and priceless, help from chosen-family, everything got sorted onto shelves or tables or rods, and priced. The weather was about as perfect as the beginning of August gets, not too hot, and semi-cloudy. Made decent money for a garage sale, and got rid of some stuff that I thought might not go... but barely made a dent in the amount of stuff that was out there. Then with the help of my sons, moved stuff into the garage, and what we couldn't move we tarped over.
Today, it's raining. *sigh*
If the rain stops (and looks like it'll stay stopped), sons and I will go back out and get it set up, otherwise... don't know. We shall see.
Going Away Parties
Submitted by jlpowers on Wed, 08/03/2011 - 12:23pmThese last couple weeks are going to be full of going-away gatherings and that is kind of neat and kind of sad.
It's neat to meet with these people and to be able to tell them what they have meant to me. But it's most especially nice to hear what I have meant to them. Most of the time, I don't see myself as anything special, or that I do anything very useful for people. I know it's silly, but it's a case of: I can do it, therefore anybody can do it, so it must not be special or important. So, it's really nice to hear people say what I have done for them.
But these gatherings are also sad. I have lots of friends who I'm going to miss seeing in-person.
The one nice thing about this move, that I haven't had in any other move, is the internet... and skype.
I LOVE skype. I'm not fond of communicating by email or phone, because I can't see the other person to see how they are reacting to things I'm saying. So skype is great because I can see them, and I can see how they are reacting, which for me makes communicating long distances much more comfortable. I'm hoping that the wonderful invention of skype will let me keep in touch with people up here that I otherwise would have lost touch with.
And... if you want to get together, I'd love to, just let me know. :-) I'm always ready for a break from packing and sorting. :-)
Getting Ready For Garage Sale
Submitted by jlpowers on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 10:53amThe date is set for the move: Aug 20th. Which means the date is set for the garage sale: Aug 5-6... this weekend. Which means I'm frantically going through the house getting things sorted.
The big issue here is that all my other moves have been corporate moves, where I throw out some obvious stuff, but for the most part, the movers pack the whole of the house, and it takes as much space as it takes. This time, I'm paying for the move myself, and space equates to money directly out of my pocket... so stuff has to go.
Some of this sorting is helped because when I moved after the divorce, I only brought the stuff that I wanted or that was my half of the marital-stuff, and left the rest in the old house. So, it's not nearly as bad as it could be. But in nine years, I've gone from having 7yo-12yo's to 16yo-23yo's, so the house now holds all the stuff from all those in-between ages.
This whole task would be much more pleasant if I had central air conditioning... but I don't. I have two small-ish window units on the main floor. Which have been plenty for the other summers we've lived in the house. In fact, there have been some summers that I've only turned the A/C units on only a couple days during the whole summer. But not this summer. *sigh* (Read more)