Tales from Texas

The air conditioner at our Houston house stopped blasting out cold air one day last week. Fortunately, we have a one-year homeowner warranty that was included when we bought the place, so the cost to repair the unit was covered. We were only without a/c for about 22 hours, but with the temperature in the upper 90s and the high humidity, it was like living in a steam room for a day. I'd love to say that I sweated off a few pounds, but for some reason that didn't happen.

Jim, Jacob, and I drove out to visit Jean and Jenna on Saturday. It was nice to see familiar faces, and we had a great time. The kids went swimming in Jean's awesome apartment pool while we adults sat in the oppressive heat watching and perspiring. We then went to check out the Katy Mills Mall, and especially liked the huge food court & the Texas-themed store there. Adam is flying to town from Colorado for the upcoming Labor Day weekend, and we plan to get together with Jean and Jen again. It is fun to have family nearby when we are so far from "home."

We have Bananas

Jim, Jacob, and I departed Colorado Sunday afternoon and pulled into the driveway of our Texas house Monday evening. Upon our arrival, Jim was eager to show us the fruit that he had recently discovered growing on our banana tree. The three of us scurried to the backyard to marvel at the wonder of nature - imagine, our banana tree was actually producing bananas! Well, one clump anyway. As we stood admiring the splendor, I began to feel stings on my flip-flop-covered feet. I glanced down and noticed that ants - many, many fire ants - had crawled onto the bare skin of my feet and were having a field day biting or stinging or whatever it is they do. I hopped off of the grass swatting at the critters, and saw that Jacob was doing the exact same dance simultaneously. Jim, wearing shoes and socks, looked on amused and without sympathy. He did go out and purchase some fire ant repellent to put on the lawn. Note to self: watch where you walk and never go barefoot.

Other than dealing with creepy bugs in Texas, we are having a great time down here. Our pool temperature hovers around 90 degrees, and contrary to popular belief, that does cool you off. We have had a number of chores to take care of both inside and out, and it is especially nice to jump into the water after working in the sweltering yard. Among other things, the wooden pole holding up our mailbox rotted, broke, and tipped over the other day, so we had to go out to buy a new post last night. Until Jim finds time to install it, our mailbox is out at the curb precariously perched on two old milk crates. Yes, we are the classy neighbors.

The bananas.

We got in 18 holes of putt-putt before we left Colorado.

Go West Young Man

Ten days ago, Adam hopped into his loaded-down Jeep and headed west on I-80. He had much to do prior to the start of his grad school year in Colorado. Besides the normal college orientation & registration stuff, he also had to get a Colorado driver's license, buy Colorado insurance & plates for his vehicle, sign the lease at his apartment, switch his address at the bank, arrange for his utilities, etc. He has been busy from the minute he stepped foot in his new hometown.

Five days ago, Jim, Jacob, and I hopped into our loaded-down (mostly with Adam's stuff) CRV and traced Adam's western trek. We met up with him in Colorado and have been shopping and helping him move into his new apartment ever since. His unit is very nice, but a bit disheveled at the moment. I like the fact, though, that now it is Adam's turn to declutter and organize his belongings. I have certainly had enough moving and unpacking to last me for a while!

Adam left from the condo on the 12th.

Here is Adam sitting in his new, barren research office in Colorado.

A room with a view - this is looking west from Adam's office window. See our CRV in the parking lot!

The Substitute

This year's birthday party for Jim and Eric was set to begin at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday at Jean's house. Jim was due to fly in from Houston for the shindig that morning. We purposely booked him on the first Delta flight out that day so if there was any sort of delay, he would at least arrive in Detroit mid-afternoon on the second flight. Almost as if we were experiencing some sort of self-fulfilled prophecy, the aircraft for Jim's early a.m. flight developed a mechanical problem before take-off and the passengers were shuffled back into the terminal to await further information. There were still hours until the next Houston-Detroit flight was scheduled, so we were confident that the issue with the first plane would be fixed long before we had to concern ourselves with rebooking Jim. When the mechanical problem lingered on without resolve for 30 minutes, then 60 minutes, then 90 minutes, I began to check out alternate flights for Jim on the internet. Unfortunately, I noticed that the second IAH-DTW flight was already running three hours late that day. Jim then phoned to inform me that his original flight had just been officially canceled and he was in a huge line waiting to rebook. I suggested that he either call Delta or wander down to a different gate agent. A short time later, he let me know that he had successfully confirmed himself onto the next flight - but, wait a minute, that was the one that was delayed three hours. By then, Jim was tired of waiting in lines, so he simply phoned Delta and was able to rebook onto the third Detroit-bound flight of the day, which didn't arrive until 6:34 p.m., but that was still earlier than the second, now-delayed flight. Whew!

So, the party started at 2:00 p.m. without one of the birthday boys. We ate, chatted, and laughed. Eric opened his presents, while Jim's gifts sat in a pile awaiting his arrival. We had cake, with Jacob sitting in to pinch hit for Jim during the ritual singing of "Happy Birthday." Jim's flight got in around 6:45 p.m., and he joined in the festivities around 7:30 p.m. He received a Delta voucher for his troubles, but can you really be properly compensated for missing your own birthday party?

Jacob blew out Jim's candles in his absence. We then sent this picture to Jim's cell phone. He was still in Houston at the time.

Freed

After six nights in the hospital - five of them in either Critical Care or Intermediate Care - Richie was discharged Wednesday evening. Once his condition began to improve, he rallied dramatically. Besides his blood clots, he also endured an episode of atrial fibrillation, the installation of a "central line" into his jugular vein, numerous new medications, etc. Apparently, the doctors at U of M decided that Richie's embolisms will dissolve on their own in time, and are not in danger of leaving his lungs. Jacob loves being a caregiver, and was able to spend a lot of time with Richie in the hospital. He plans to sleep over at Richie's house until his parents arrive from Missouri sometime this weekend.

CCU

Bilateral Pulmonary Embolism

Sorry I don't have time to write a more thorough update about Richie's crappy medical condition, but it has been a very long two days. It is almost 2:00 a.m., and I am going to try to get some sleep tonight because I think another long day is in store for Saturday.

In a nutshell, Jake and I brought Richie to the ER on Thursday because he was very short of breath. After a few hours, he was diagnosed with Bilateral Pulmonary Embolism - blood clots in the lungs. His immediate course of treatment was to begin a blood thinner to discourage any new clots from forming. The next step was to try to discover where the clots - yes, more than one in each lung - had come from. Lastly, it still needs to be determined how best to get rid of the clots already there. (Option 1: allow them to dissolve. Option 2: use clot-busting drugs. Option 3: thread a catheter to the lungs to remove them. Each option, of course, has pros and cons.) The shortness of breath came on quite suddenly for Richie, beginning last weekend, and growing progressively worse each day.

The doctors tried all day Friday to stabilize Richie's vitals, but his O2 level is just too low, even with supplemental oxygen. He has a nasty cough and is not allowed to eat or drink anything. He was moved to the Respiratory Critical Care Unit just before midnight.

Jake and Richie in his original room. Richie has proclaimed hospital beds to be hideously uncomfortable.

Real Estate Blues

We received another bid on our long-for-sale house last Friday. Things were looking good with the offer until we spoke to our relocation representative today. We will find out more information on Wednesday, but I am no longer confident that this latest transaction will pan out. Jim and I have decided that if it falls through, we will just take the buy-out money. Then I will whine about how many times I cleaned and scrubbed that house for showings, only to end up handing it over to the company. It is too bad that we had to put our home on the market during the worst economic downturn in recent history. With so many foreclosures out there, who would buy a full-priced house? (Apparently not many people!) We'll see how things go tomorrow, but I suspect that I will not be doing any happy dances. I'll let you know what happens.

More Surprises

On Sunday, Jim and I were emptying the last of the cupboards & closets at our house. We were placing junk into "throw away" piles and treasures into "keep" piles. Things were looking quite unkempt when my phone rang. It was our realtor's office informing us that an agent would be bringing a client to the house for a showing in nine minutes.

Say what?!

I glanced at the clutter sitting all over the floors and countertops, and asked exactly when our house had gone back on the market. Apparently our realtor had re-listed the home, but failed to let us in on this news. Ugh. Jim and I quickly tossed everything back into cupboards & closets and left. In the days since then, we have had quite a few showings, received numerous positive comments, and have been told that a written offer is on the way. So much for houses selling better with furniture in them! We should have moved our stuff out months ago.

Now, if only we could teach real estate agents to actually lock the doors after they show our house, we would be all set. One agent left all of our doors - including the doorwalls - wide open. We have always found it humorous when potential buyers have left on all the lights, rifled through drawers, and obviously used our toilets. Today a realtor turned our air conditioning down to 64 degrees and the house was absolutely freezing when I went over to check on it later! In our search for a home and a condo over this past year we have looked at scores of dwellings, yet we have never found it necessary to change someone's thermostat setting. Strange.

Our condo is still in a state of disarray, but I am ever-so-slowly chipping away at the piles of things that have followed us from the house. I bought some begonias and impatiens to put out front, so if I keep the garage door closed, the exterior of the place looks fairly decent.

This is our neighbor's pesky cat, Madison, who would not go away the whole time I was planting my flowers at the condo. She was friendly and affectionate (ick), and was not the least bit intimidated by my hissing and foot stomping.

Swamped

Over the past 10 days, Jim and I have been busy signing, notarizing, and Fed-Ex-ing sales contracts back and forth between Michigan and Texas. For whatever reason, we were required to turn our home over to Jim's relocation company in order to complete our long-awaited house sale. I knew, though, that I shouldn't have mentioned publicly that we had sold the place and had a closing date, because one thing lead to another and our buyers backed out of the deal. We will find out on Monday if Jim's company will just pay us for the house, or if we need to put it back on the market. Either way, we have to get the entire house emptied and cleaned out ASAP. When I peeked around the other day at all of the closets and cupboards still loaded with stuff, I felt totally defeated. How would I ever clear all of that out myself?

Shortly after that, Jim phoned from Texas with the news that the roof of the house down there had a leak. Knowing nothing about clay tile roofs, he called a specialist. Fortunately, the news was not as bad as we anticipated - the roofer was able to fix the tiles without too much trouble. He is sending his bill in the mail.

When we bought our condo back in May, we knew the sale was "as is," meaning whatever needed fixing was our responsibility. The hot water heater has given us problems since we closed on the place, and after numerous parts and a gas valve cleaning, it was determined that we should just buy a new tank. It was recently installed, and I no longer have to boil water for laundry & dishes or run over to the house for showers. Hurray for working water heaters!

Unfortunately, the condo furnace (actually the part that runs the air conditioner) spent two days creating puddles on our laundry room floor last week. After 48 hours of alternately mopping up the water, then drying the soaked towels, I arranged for a repairman to come look at it. The leak mysteriously stopped before the guy ever came over. I wonder what that was all about?

During an unusually heavy downpour the other day, rainwater began to trickle from the tops of all three of the big westerly-facing windows in our condo kitchen. The seepage soon became a flow, and Jacob and I hastily placed towels underneath the windows and all over the floor. Feeling totally overwhelmed, I did what any wife would do - I sent out a whining plea to Jim in Texas to pleeeaaase come home this weekend to help. He hopped on a plane Friday afternoon and was back in Michigan just in time to accompany me to the wedding of a friend's daughter on Friday evening. (And that was tons of fun and a very nice break from the chaos that has ruled my life lately!)

We ended up having quite a productive day today. Right after breakfast, Jim and I attempted to reorganize the condo so that we could fit the rest of the things from the house inside of the unit. With the help of Jacob, Adam, Nancy, and Richie, we almost completely cleared the house and hauled box after box after box to the condo. I am finally confident that we will be able to empty the old homestead within a few days. What awaits me now are mounds of clothes and household goods that need sorting and their own place at the condo. Maybe I will even be able to fit the car into the garage before winter arrives.

Camping

Our annual camping trip took place over the weekend. Some of our regular campers, including Jim, were absent this year. (Which makes me appreciate my husband even more - geez, it is a lot of physical work to pack the car, set up the tent, actually paddle during the canoe trip, clean, etc.!) The weather was beautiful right up until it was time to go home on Sunday afternoon. We enjoyed beach time, canoeing, and lots of chit-chat around the campfire. And, yes, Jacob logged plenty of driving miles on the back forty at the farm. All of the other young teens (Jenna, Nick, and Corey) got some driving practice in as well.

Once again, some hearty souls went on an hours-long hike across the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Adam and Julia discussed wind velocity and wave swells. And the Care Bears.

The hikers met the non-hikers at the beach after their trek.

Surprise Move

Ever since our house has been on the market, we have had to make sure that it maintained a "lived in" look. Apparently, research studies have shown that homes with furniture in them sell better than empty houses. (Although when we were looking at houses and condos, I much preferred touring the ones that were vacant.) We abided by the rules set by Jim's company's relocation representatives because they were the people who would be buying our house from us if we didn't sell it on our own. Having a buyout offer as a back-up, even though it was a lower price than we had hoped, was a relief. So we kept our furniture in the house, and Jacob and I stayed there whenever we were in town. I cleaned and cleaned the place each time we went out the door in case a potential buyer breezed through for a peek. After almost 100 showings, no one wanted to buy it. (Ok, we did have a few offers, but none were above the company's buyout price.)

Last week when we were in the Upper Peninsula, our realtor called to inform us that we had received a decent offer on the house. As we drove down I-75 towards home on Friday afternoon, Jim was finally able to get the consent from his company to move our furniture to the condo. Jim was due to fly back to Texas on Sunday, so that left us one day to move all of our stuff. We rented a truck on Saturday morning, and Richie, Fatty, Rob, & Nancy came over to help us. Even with over half of our couches, dressers, and beds in Texas, it was still a grueling job! We managed to get all of the large items out of the house, leaving only small, lift-able things for Adam, Jacob, and I to finish moving. The house is still under contract with the pending offer, Jim is back to work in Houston, and the condo is now quite messy & unorganized. My fingers are crossed that all goes well with the sale, which is due to be finalized before the end of July.