October 2nd Already!

Time is going by so very fast and it makes me wish I required no sleep. Well, actually it's one o'clock in the morning, and I'm sitting here listening to Richard snore (yes, I'm jealous) and sleep is evading me. Thinking about all that there is to do in the upcoming weeks.

Today I finished removing all the old insulation from the new house, and am about 2/3rds of the way done replacing it. I've gone through about 5 cans of that Great Stuff, the insulation that comes in a can...love that stuff. I'm hitting every nook and cranny and hole and suspected hole...I told Richard that I was trying to make the house "tighter than a duck's behind"...I'm aspiring to an extremely low energy bill. We've replaced the heating system, are replacing the windows and I'm hanging new insulation. As far as I'm concerned, we shouldn't even have to turn on the heat or the a/c. The drywall guys will be coming on the 11th, which is perfect, as I'm leaving for New York on the 14th. After the drywall is done, the tub, sink and toilet can go into the bathroom, and as far as we're concerned, we can move in. Woo-hoo! (And, hopefully, by then the survey will have been done which will mean the town can issue our permit which will mean the fence will be installed!)

The dogs have been helping out as much as they can. As far as I can tell, Anthony is the supervisor. All the responsibility must be wearing him out. Mookie is our "nervous-Woody-Allen" dog, who constantly watches the neighborhood for any signs of neighbors.



Maggie and Roger moved in last weekend; yesterday is the day that we actually moved OUR stuff to the pod in the driveway (which will get picked up this week and moved to Smyrna); Richard and I are now in the guest room, and they have moved their stuff (and the cats) to the master bedroom. The dogs are thoroughly confused, poor things. They don't know which end is up, why we go on such long car trips to a house that has no rooms....why Mommy cries at the drop of a hat....then laughs hysterically, lol. (Not really, but maybe just a little bit.)

We've had two days of sun, and I've heard a nasty rumor that we're going to get rain again this week for FOUR WHOLE DAYS. I'm going to somehow have to get the Smyrna grass cut before the rain starts tomorrow, and leave a note for Mag and Rog to please mow the grass here. All summer no rain, and now we're getting two weeks' worth. Sigh.

Starting to coordinate our trip south for Christmas...it's looking like it's just going to be Richard, Anthony and I. Roger is going to have to work up until Christmas eve night; Max is not going to be able to take time from the new job. Very mixed emotions about all of this, but this trip is so important to my Mom and Dad. We've had one Christmas together in the last 12 years....and I miss them so very much. I know they love Florida, but I absolutely hate them being so far away. This year has been a rough one healthwise for my mom, and it's looking like my dad's crohn's disease is starting to flare again. 2011 just might be his year for surgery again. Sigh. If I could just be many places at one time, things would just be easier....

Fall evenings have finally arrived, and I get up every morning, joyfully shivering in the cold morning air....been waiting for this all summer. I actually put on a sweatshirt for a little while last week....

On a wonderful note, our Delmarva GEB region had our second graduate; Hawkeye graduated from the Heeling Autism Program on Thursday. His raisers, Sandy and Mike Calloway and their children attended, as did Barbara and Randy. Barb said that there weren't enough tissues in the whole kleenex factory for Sandy. What a wonderful/terrible day for them...but seeing Hawkeye with his new partner made it all worthwhile.




Anthony attended yet another community gathering at the Carlisle Fire Department in Milford; it was the beginning of Fire Prevention Week, and also the day before the big race in Dover. Patty and I accompanied Anthony, but nobody really paid any attention to us...only to the dog (which is the way we like it). We had lots of fun going through the fire house, and they had an actual Nascar driving simulator there, so we of course had to take a few spins around the track. All I'll say is that I'm keeping my day job.

It was a nice day with nice people....always good to meet people in the community.

We also got to go up to New Castle to Richard's office; Anthony was a perfect office dog. Unfortunately, no work was done when Richard took him on a tour of the plant.

It's been a hard couple of months for all of us; Richard looks so tired all the time, we're both a little on edge. But we knew going in that we'd go through this. We knew at the beginning that it was going to be hard to get this done, and it would be hard not to snipe at each other at times...but we're still a team; he's still my best friend and I'm his. We're starting to talk about the "after" time...when we can go back to sharing the crossword puzzle on Sunday, watching the football games together (right now we usually can catch the Sunday night game; we turn it on and promptly fall asleep about two minutes later). This will be a finished project, and we will be all the better for it. We're hoping for a two to three year time period before we will sell the Salisbury house, and then we'll have a nice house in Smyrna, no mortgage, no debt, (no worries?)...and maybe even a late model car for each of us.

The dogs, of course, will still have about 2.5 thousand toys.