4/9/2014 – My workplace computer has software that blocks some screens in WordPress and not others. One interesting result is that I can add a post from Add New Post, but can’t edit it once I save it. I think I wrote the beginnings of something the other day, but I can’t see it now to finish it.
I can’t get into Xanga at all from the office.
Stuff going on:
Alicia recently discovered that she needs to get to Colombia in time for an event scheduled for April 21. This has meant scrambling for airfares and a place for her to stay while she’s there and last-minute purchases of gifts or items to sell. I was a bit stressed by it, because I had thought we had until May to arrange her travel, but then I discovered that airfares are considerably cheaper in April. So that helped counter the stress.
In the meantime, I have a work trip to Panama City, Florida starting this weekend. Rather than fly, I’m going to take a rental car. It saves my agency money, and this way I can take Alicia along. We’ll go up this Friday and stay until things are done, probably the next Thursday. Then we’ll rush back to Tampa in time for her to catch Friday morning flights to Ft. Lauderdale and Medellín.
While Alicia is gone, I’m planning to tear out the vinyl floor in the breakfast room and kitchen and put down tile. Then I’ll do the laundry room. After that, I’ll tape and paint the stairway walls. I want to get as much messy open-space work done as I can before her return, since she hates dust and disorder. I can work on bedroom remodels after she gets back, because I can simply close a door to keep the dust from spreading.
In early June, my younger daughters will visit from Dallas for a week, overlapping with my sister Jenny and niece Paige who will be visiting from Lincoln, NE. We might actually get to one of the Orlando theme parks.
Also on my mind:
Finances have been tight since my Texas lake house’s septic tank failed last year. The expense of a new tank and the loss of the renters mean that I struggle every month to pay my bills. I’ve had the house on the market but there have been no serious bites and very few visitors. I’m going to lower the price this week and see if it gets more attention. At some point I may have to dump it at a fire sale price and forget about recovering any equity. Buying it was one of the stupidest decisions of my life.
We have been planning to sell our Tampa house as soon as it is feasible. I hate the thought, because it really is my dream house, but a) we should be able to make some money on it and b) the circumstances that brought us to Tampa are changing. By the time I finish the upgrades, it will be a spectacular place, inside and out, so it should sell well.
Reading:
I am rereading my collection of Charles Williams novels. Brilliantly written. The closest thing I can think of in my very limited knowledge of modern American literature is Ted Dekker, but Dekker is considerably more flamboyant and sensationalistic. In Williams’s writing, I appreciate the quiet, confident, cheerful faith of the Archdeacon in War in Heaven, and of Stanhope in Descent into Hell. Perhaps Leif Enger’s Peace Like A River comes closer than Dekker in caliber of writing and the portrayal of faith, although Enger is not nearly as esoteric.
I have also read (from the lunchroom bookshelf at work) three Lee Child books about Reacher, a hobo who dispenses justice wherever he goes, using skills he learned as an MP in the army. Lots of fun, and usually a massive explosion or fire at the end.
Alicia and I have finished The Wind in the Willows and are reading Jingo! by Terry Pratchett. The translation to Spanish is quite good, although we run across terms from Spain that are unfamiliar to both of us. This is my third time to read Jingo! and I’m enjoying it just as much as the first.