To me, Thanksgiving represents not just a “vacation” day, but rather a day to reflect on the past year — no matter how bad — and be thankful for what life has given to us. Every year I look forward to celebrating two days with my family and friends; selfishly, the first day (my birthday) is all about me. And, as you can guess, the second day I look forward to comes on the fourth Thursday in November....
[][1]Fred enjoying Dunkin' Donuts Yeni and I started early — very early — Saturday morning. After loading the truck and topping off the tank, we hit I-94 somewhere around 4 am. It was BEYOND cold with the truck showing outside temperatures ranging from 10 – 15 degrees. Normally, I make as few stops as humanly possible; combing fuel stops with rest breaks (and yes, “rest breaks” means exactly what it sounds like)....
Woke up this morning around 8am, and we visited the Gainesville DD. Two coffees later and we are headed to south florida. Yeni has never been to the everglades, so we are taking the long way. Oh, in case Mami is reading we are bringing a little something.
The plan was (originally) to quickly stop by the house in Gainesville, check on it’s condition, and continue on to South Florida. The new plan is to arrive in Hogtowne around 2 AM and crash for a few hours. Our day started at 3 AM in Ann Arbor, so a little rest will be nice. Yeni’s set on driving until she hits Florida so she can have driven all through Georgia....
Normally, October is my favorite month. This year, nay nay. My sister summed it up quite simply — “Sounds like you had a super crappy October, so I’m happy that it’s November now.” Well said. Well said. So, this is November and tomorrow morning we may very well have a new President-elect. This year I voted for… oh yeah, I didn’t get to vote. What? Huh? Why? Atypically, I will make this a short story....
GAINESVILLE, FL — So for the last few weeks, I’ve been working hard to get the house “ready to sell.” With the help of Orlando, Linda, and Richard (aka J4 Cruisers), the kitchen, master bedroom, and living room have been painted. When no wood flooring was available to repair the living room I had two options — (a) replace the entire wood floor (over 1000 sq ft) or (b) carpet the living room....
Yellow Crowbar, Utility Knife… Punk bands from the 80’s? Spackle, Measuring Fee… Things you bought at Home Depot And we have a winner. 🙂 Home Depot has carpet marked significantly lower than my previous estimate. They are running a 199 whole home installation (plus 15 bucks to move furniture)… and promised to have it done before next Friday. I’m as optimistic as life allows. Now it’s off to Larry’s Subs to join Mr....
First… let me tell you how big the Spiders are in Gainesville. They are what I like to call HFS big… (Holy Fucking Shit Big). Except for Peter Parker, I’ve never liked spiders… but at least growing up they were managable annoyances. Spiders in the South are large and in-charge. They are huge… beyond big… they have zip codes and in some counties can even vote. Anyway, the point here is (1) not liking spiders + (2) HFS big = scared Fred....
Well, there are three main rooms that need to be painted. The Kitchen, the Master Bedroom, and the Living Room. The Kitchen was mostly a second coat. The lovely former real estate agent had her “handy man” paint the room, however they did at best what I’d call “half assed” work. Half-assed at best. So, I started painted and the realization of my painting skills became immediately apparent. I do not paint well....
GAINESVILLE, FL — So I’m back in Gainesville trying to get the house ready for selling. I had chosen a realtor who made some amazing decisions that would be sure to get me that “quick” sale. Here’s the short story: Apparently my built-in entertainment center was something that made the house un-sellable, and according to the realtor impossible for anyone to imagine their furniture in my house. So, Ms. Realtor and her hired handyman remove the entertainment center, leaving some big ol’ holes in the wall and about 40 sq....