greg3d

kind of like old times

I was going to take Scott up to Sea-Tac so he could catch the link to go stay with friends, so I thought I would look up what movies were playing in the vicinity. I found two rare old movies playing at the Grand Illusion up in Seattle: Lord Love A Duck and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. Duck was just weird, a 1960's black comedy and Dr. Goldfoot was totally silly. Arthur and I used to do this kind of thing all the time. It was fun, but not quite the same without him. Still, I would like to get back into the Seattle film circuit.

out and about in Seattle

Scott and I were supposed to spend the day up in Seattle geocaching, but the holiday eating caught up with him and he decided to spend the day enthroned, as it were. He instead encouraged me to go by myself, which is to say he kicked me out of the house. So, I made a day of it. First stop was the Rabbit, Rodent and Ferret House for some Timothy hay for the guinea pig. Next stop was Scarecrow Video where i indulged myself and loaded up on cheap used laserdiscs. Good haul of some unusual stuff, such as Pedro Amaldovar's Law of Desire and Akurosawa's Ran. Scott and I had started a geocache sometime ago and only got to the first of five caches. we lost the instructions for the second cache, so I got the coordinates and went tramping through the woods to find the first cache again. Fortuntely it was still there and complete. By then I was getting hungry so I stopped at Uwajimaya for some Asian cooking supplies and a quick lunch. I finished the day at the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park for some 3D photography.

Not a bad day's adventure.

the computer is slow, and that isn't all

Haven't really been motivated to blog. Facebook and it's brief posts have been easy to do. I've done pictures and I've done videos and when the mood has been upon me I've phoned in a report. Writing takes a functioning brain, which I have not had of late.

I'm done with the estate. I hope. The last bit of banking has been done. All Arthur's affairs have been put in order. It will, I hope, be easier to move on from here on out. I've been going through old pictures and it's been more pleasure than pain. Trips I'd forgotten, people I hadn't thought of in years. It's my past, after all, and I want to remember it with pleasure and not pain. Last month was hard, leading up to the first anniversary, but I felt better once it had past. I still think of Arthur a lot. He's still a presence.

AWSC this weekend. WAAC the next. A week after that is my Ring cycle. Labor Day after that and maybe some free time. I have some trips in mind if the money works out. A bit of economy now can mean some fun later.Really would like to go to New York in December. I have the germ of a plan, but I don't know yet whether it's feasable.

I have to get back into blogging. Trouble is, by the time I've dispensed with distractions its late at night and I'm too tired to string words together.

better

I don't know why, but my mood has lifted. Yesterday was difficult, but today that black cloud was just gone.

quiet close

Low key day today. We finished a trip with dinner in the ships elegant upscale restaurant. There were a couple of glitches which didn't please my father, but I enjoyed my meal. The parents decided not to go into Victoria. I was going to, but was caught off guard by a major Arthur episode. I had never been to Victoria without him and I started thinking about the things we had done there together and lost it. I ended up leaving the ship and walking out to the jetty for some pictures. The cruise ships do not dock within walking distance of downtown and I didn't feel like the hassle of a shuttle. I will come back to Victoria soon and deal with my feelings. There are a couple of things I always wanted to do that Arthur wouldn't agree to, but those would not have been possible today. I will make a trip this summer.

Home tomorrow. The bags are packed and outside the stateroom for pickup. All I have is my camera bag for the remianing few items left. I'm wearing the clothes I will wear tomorrow. Mortimer is picking us up at the terminal and then it's back to normal life.

stage one complete

The cleaners came in yesterday and got through the living room, bathroom and kitchen. Thursday they do some more of the kitchen and the basement.

This is so worth it. It just makes me feel better. It's not perfect, which is not the cleaners fault, it's just that there are things that need to be repaired or repainted. The floors need to be refinished. But for now, this is good. I can have someone walk in the door ands not have to apologize for the appearance. Of course I haev to change some of my little habits, like covering any flat surface in junk mail and magazines. Knowing the cleaners are coming every two weeks will help that, I think.

Alateen tonight. I'm cooking dinner for a change. Came up with an idea for fast Indian food. We'll see how it turns out. It certainly smells good.

Progress. Perfection is for someone else.

I still have some things to do to get things ready for the cleaners tomorrow. If I don't get to them all, well, the crew is prepared for that. Mostly its some boxes that I need to find a place for. I'm off to a slow start. Maybe once the coffee kicks in. I am just now finishing it.

After the cleaning, I can bring someone in to replace the damaged laminate in the kitchen and reglue the flooring. I may or may not do the painting myself, we'll see. I need flooring in the dining room and the hardwood floor in the living room needs to be refinished. It's all an investment in peace of mind.

I'm going to a dinner this afternoon. No idea what it is. Audrey was invited to a banquet and is taking along several of her friends including me. It's an outing with friends. All I need to do is show up.

Ok, coffee is activating. Let me get this show on the road.

biting the bullet isn't so bad

I did it. I hired a cleaning service. They are going to come through and scrub the place top to bottom. It still won't look like Better Homes and Gardens but at least it won't be totally nasty. I can even afford to have them come in twice a month. I also hired someone to come in and clean out the garden. It's gotten totally over grown in the last year.

I finally got it through my head that I don't even begin to have time to do these things. It's called denial. Whats more, I don't even want to. This will make life easier and I can concentrate on rebuilding my life.

I have a lot to do this weekend to get the place ready for cleaning. There are lots of boxes I have to put into storage and things to throw out. I have a mission and a deadline. Good incentive. The car goes into the shop for maintenance so I won't be able to wander off.

I cleared one area this evening. Tomorrow the rest of the kitchen. I give myself permission to relax a bit before bed.

another milestone

I was notified today the probate of Arthur's estate is officially closed. I checked the County website and the house is listed in my name only. Another step ahead. I still have some financial stuff to take care of that I couldn't do till the estate closed. Hopefully that won't take very long.

yet another bout of rain

Supposed to rain all week. grrrr We had some teaser sunshine yesterday, but it wasn't really warm.

One good thing, I got my car back. It was in teh shop getting some body work. I had an unfortunate incident with a curb, which probably wouldn't have been a problem with many other cars, but mine is so low the bumper gets hung up on things like curbs. I came up on a particularly high one and it tore the underparts away when I backed up. Then there was the incident with the bamboo that did a number on the rear bumper. But it looks brand new now and I hope to keep it that way.

This weekend I organized a fundraiser for the Alateen Conference. The Spokane crew came out for the committee meeting and we worked our butts off to put on a good meal. As far as fundraising goes, it was a complete bust. It turned out there was a large competing event, and all we ended up with was 6 people. We just barely made expenses. Oh well, the spaghetti was good and we had fun. Our speakers were speaking for the first time and they were awesome. Yay Erin and Megan!

I took another step forward yesterday. When I made the bed after doing laundry I made it up as I always have, with two pillows. I looked at it for a minute and then I took the other pillow and put it away. Arthur's not going to need it anymore and niether do I.