March 03, 2009

12:09 p.m.

Snow

Well, I'm feeling not quite so fraught with Ick (the fish parasite kind, not the "Christ the King Sovereign Priest" kind) today, emotionally speaking, though my back is taking a long time to get better. I'm off the big painkillers anyway, though very stiff and groany, like an old tree. Dang. I wonder what brought it on.

There has been a little movement around the house -- Rose was given the cell phone number of the son of the deceased guy, and we know he's coming up from Kentucky at the end of March. Marc is going to wait a few days and then casually call him to see what his plans and timetable are. His girlfriend's mom (Rose's patient) said he was very glad to hear someone was interested in the house. Marc wants us to be very wary of acting too eager. Rose and I asked him to initiate the dialogue, as he's the cleverest one among us with this sort of thing and he has a better idea of what various repairs will cost. We are going to make it clear that there's no rush. I feel like we're all going about whistling nonchalantly as though there is nothing on our minds.

Meanwhile the next door neighbor on the street, whose address is officially in between Rose's and the White House, told them a little about Old Deceased Guy. Apparently he was thought of as a real b*stard in the neighborhood, an angry drunk and troublemaker. Well, if you had moved your entire house up the hill and cleared your woods for a commercial building and then been denied a permit, and if your other son had killed himself in your driveway... wouldn't you be an angry drunk? The neighbor cited instances where he'd be speeding drunk in the town and the cops would be chasing him, and he'd make it into his driveway and sit there sneering at the cop because I guess once on his own property they couldn't ticket him. What an unhappy man.

Anyway, Rose went out and cut the cable that was strangling the one huge tree in the side yard. Now at least it will live to witness happier things. We figured it had been used to tie up the dog that died a long time ago.

I think there will be no more secret recons to the house until the most recent snow melts. We don't want to leave evidence! They probably got over a foot there, and we got 9 or 10" here.

I was able to shovel around my car yesterday so I could join the family for dinner. Fortunately it doesn't seem to have hurt my back any, and I suspect it was good to just get a little exercise for a change. It sure is stiff, still, though. Today I plan to get a little more exercise and clean this apartment The floors are just awful and I sense grime and dust everywhere! It affects my mind when it's this disorganized, so enough procrastination. It'll make everything else easier.