Ride of the Valkyries

There's a radio station in my head. This morning when I woke up I heard "Ride of the Valkyries" in my head. My heart was pumping wildly. I put my hands over my ears and tried to think of some other melody.

Then my thoughts wandered off to the next task of the day. We need to sell the truck but can't find the title. If we get to the Secretary of State office early there won't be a long wait.

Sometimes I sing or think of songs when I'm trying to get motivated to get out of bed in the morning. Usually it's disco tunes like "Get Up and Boogie" or some other happy dance tune. As I got into the shower hounded by Valkyries shrieking in my head I started singing "Get Down Tonight" by KC and the Sunshine Band to chase them away. "...'cause that's the way uh-huh uh-huh I like it, uh-huh uh-huh..."

Then I looked online and found that the Secretary of State office doesn't open 'til 11am today. I'll shut up now and let Alfonse sleep in a little.

Sold! ...Riding Lawnmower

This is very unusual considering we have about 12" of snow on the ground. Most people have their snowmobiles out for sale right now. We had the opportunity to get rid of it, so we did. Of course, the guy had to buy our house, too. Yippee!

Next weekend we're going to look at houses in Florida. I'm so excited! I've got butterflies in my stomach, because we have to vacate our house in Michigan by the end of March.

Snowed In

We cancelled the Open House for this weekend, because of the big snow. My driveway isn't too user friendly. I think we got 8-12" of snow this week. Alfonze dug 2 tracks for the truck tires. We'll clear more later if we need to. I can't tell were the pond is, except for a few plants sticking out of the snow.

Showing No. 2

We had our second showing today since putting the house back on the market on February 1st. I was trying to remain cool, but felt spazzy inside. I couldn't figure out where to put a box that was in the way and starting crying. I wish the constant clean up and showing the house was over, but this is just beginning of the next round of showings.

Happy Valentines Day!

Cleaning Up Clutter & Getting Organized

We had a showing yesterday. I'm in "show me the money" mode. The house has been on the market on and off for about a year. Showing the house has been going on for so long that I can't get excited unless there's an offer.

The clean up process before showings isn't just about mopping the floor and dusting for cobwebs. It's also about decluttering the house and getting rid of stuff. We've been on a mission to do this for the past 3 years. I'm always amazed how the clutter re-accumulates.

I like this web site for de-cluttering and house cleaning without driving myself nuts or becoming too anal. The motto is "take baby steps."

FlyLady.net

I like author Julie Morgenstein. I recently read her book "Time Management from the Inside Out." It has helped me not be such a spaz about seemingly endless To Do lists. Now I'm reading her book about physically organizing space "Organizing from the Inside Out."

My latest de-clutter project was organizing our office supplies. We had a lot of stuff from the old shop in Monroe that was stuffed under workbenches, on bookshelves, and scattered boxes. There were about 5 or 6 jars (Mason, mayo, mustard, etc.) stuffed full of pens, pencils and highlighters. These were used on the workbenches at the old shop. I've never seen so many 3" pencil remnants. 2 weeks ago I took all this stuff and put it in sorted piles (for writing, printing, filing, mailing, etc.) on my living room floor. I cleared the shelves in my office, which was also a hodgepodge of stuff, to accomodate only office supplies. I brought the supplies back into the office as I used them. The stuff left over in the living room was to be either put into storage or gotten rid of. When we got the call on Thursday to schedule a showing for Saturday 11am there was still stuff all over the floor. It's gone now. It feels so good to have lightened that load! I think I'm learning skills that will be useful down the road, too.

It's nice to be able to open a closet without having stuff fall out. :-)

It hurts to breathe.

I go out into the deep freeze anyway, because I have things to get done. It hurt to breathe yesterday, so I held my fuzzy hood shut over my nose & mouth. I think we are in for a heat wave. We're out of single digits and headed for 20's in a few days. Never thought I'd be happy to see 18 degrees!

I was looking for more sweaters today and realized that I already gave a lot of them away. Didn't think I'd need them much after we moved south.

Long Underwear

It's cold enough for long underwear. The temps are in the single digits and wind chill is below zero. It's so dry that my hands feel like paper.

Toledo Museum of Art

We went to the Toledo Museum of Art today. It is good relief from cabin fever in the winter. I always find something new to be amazed with every time I go. It is easy to get lost in the galleries.

We saw the Glass Pavilion for the first time. It is across Monroe Street. There is an umbrella stand in each building where you can borrow an umbrella to go outside to cross the street. I was a little surprised that they chose to display their glass in this way, because direct sunlight can be bad for glass. They had gray curtains to compensate. Some of the interior rooms were darker. There was a gallery where they had their collection that was not yet set up to exhibit. The pieces weren't all labeled, but it was interesting just the same.

Where Do You Put House Guests When You Have No Furniture?

Grandma Apple and Carolyn drove up the Dixie Highway from Nashville to pay a visit this weekend. They went to a wedding in Ohio yesterday. It's kind of funny hosting house guests when you don't have much furniture. We had fun anyway. They slept on a blow-up mattress and on the couch. We watched a Beach Boys video called the Lost Concert. Carolyn sang along to the songs and even knew the words to songs that we couldn't understand.

Lots of Changes as the New Year Approaches

I've been very busy at the job. We're in the process of closing the Michigan business and opening the Florida business. Everything's the same as far as the customers are concerned. There's a heap of paperwork on my desk. I don't think it's gonna get done today. I have to be careful to keep the MI and the FL stuff separate so things don't get misfiled. I'm looking forward to getting together with friends this weekend.

New Cell Phone

I got a new cell phone today. Despite signing up for a flat rate for the land lines there are still a bunch of extra access fees and taxes. Do I really need 2 land lines anymore? I don't think so. I'm shutting down one of the land lines and replacing it with the new cell phone.

The cell phone can go with me as I travel. I can change the number to a Florida number after we move.

I took the free phone that came with a nationwide plan, although I really wanted something that could play mp3's for jogging. It's a huge upgrade from the old cell phone that we use mostly as a car phone. I'm having fun pushing all the buttons and playing with the features. Alfonze is getting sick of me playing with the ring tones.

Somebody's Sick for Christmas

It's going to be a quiet Christmas. Mom had surgery on her sinuses 4 days ago. She thought she'd be well enough to host a Christmas dinner, but she is really sick. I brought her some home made chicken soup this afternoon.

House Hunting Along the Dixie Highway

We were at the Florida end of the Dixie Highway (I-75) this weekend house hunting. We took advantage of off-season airfare. The housing market in Florida is as slow as in the Midwest. That helps even the playing field for us. We were able to narrow down price ranges and what areas that we liked. There was one house that we would have put an offer on if our house were sold. On our next trip we'll look at different types of property such as condos and townhouses instead of single family houses.

We stayed with Grandma Apple and had a good time. The weather was great. I was in shorts. (When we left Detroit it was snowing.) It was nice to sit on a veranda by the beach and watch the world go by.

Open Closets

I've really had enough of people parading through my house. Our house has been on the market since last spring. When it all first started a friend of mine asked me if it bothered me to have strangers walking through the house and looking inside my closets n stuff. It didn't until yesterday. A realtor came over to show the house. When we came back I noticed that the closet door in my bedroom was open. It bugged me. I wasn't embarassed about what someone might find inside. It just felt like an invasion of privacy and annoyed me that they didn't bother to shut it.

Telegraph Road

A colorful tree on Telegraph Road.

Telegraph Road (US24) runs parallel to Dixie Highway up in our neck of the woods. Further south in Toledo, Telegraph Road ends where it meets Dixie Highway at Laskey Road. US24 continues on as Detroit Avenue until it dead ends into River Road in Maumee, Ohio. If you follow the twisty turny path to cross the bridge from Maumee to Perrysburg, you can pick up another road called Dixie Highway that is US25. Where US25 goes from there is hard to follow. According the U.S. Highways historical web site it goes all the way to Brunswick, Georgia.

Why all this fascination with a physical description of a mythical road? It's like wondering where names come from, or local dialects, religious rituals, architecture and other aspects of a culture. It's so intanglible, because it's always changing. You want to be able to put your hands around it and say, "Aha, there it is!" It's hard to imagine that before the 1920's these roads didn't even exist. Since then, American culture has become deeply entrenched with things that have to do with cars. The automobile and the open road are symbols of freedom and that is what elevates them to the status of myth or legend. People write songs and tell stories about such things.

Living on the In-Betweens

The table is set for supper. I had to take a picture, because it's so funny. We sold our dining room set in anticipation of moving during the spring/summer months. We sit on opposite sides of a printer stand and wheel our desk chairs into the dining area. Sometimes we just stand around the kitchen and graze, like we're at a party. Looks like college living!

Hot Rod

We took the Hot Rod out on the road today, which is always a big deal. It's not street legal yet. This was a test drive for a short distance up and down the street. It always gets the neighbors' attention. There's no windshield, so if you're not wearing glasses you'll get tears blown along the sides of your head. The color of the car looks great in the sun.

Where is the Dixie Highway?

A road sign along M-125 (S. Dixie Hwy.) in Michigan.

I've been searching for roads named Dixie Highway on map web sites. Tonight I took a virtual trip from North to South down the Dixie Highway. I think that all that remains of the Dixie Highway is on local road signs. There were so many roads called Dixie Highway at one time or another that it can get confusing. Some of them run parallel. Maybe one road is older than the other and the new road is adopted as the latest Dixie Highway. There are also roads called "Old Dixie Highway." Most of them run nearly parallel to Interstate 75.

First Snow

We saw the first snow of the season today. That's early for around here, but not unheard of. Some of the snow flurries where so thick that it looked like fog. Little white tufts of snow were on the mums and the pumpkins.