Summertime and the Livin' Ain't Easy

We are now the proud owners of a house in Webster, NY, East of Rochester. According to New York State Tourism, we are in the Finger Lakes Region. The nearest Finger Lake is about an hour away. Lake Ontario is only about two miles away. I think it takes about seven minutes to get there. The closing went well in the sense that we paid the money and got the deed, but I don't like the way they do things up there. Everyone makes a concerted effort to see that the buyers and sellers never meet. The realtors claim that they can relay any questions between the parties. Yeah, sure. The sellers don't come to the walk through nor to the closing. The realtors don't even come to the closing. I was surprised that I wasn't told to just leave the check at the front desk and that they would mail the deed to us. I had some issues and questions and the sellers' paralegal said she didn't know if she could get in touch with them as they were in transit to Florida. That was the wrong thing to say to me. I told her that if she didn't get in touch with them I would be in transit back to New Jersey with my check. The burden is on the buyer to accept whatever conditions he finds or walk away. No one is at the closing who can answer any questions.

Anyway, we are happy with the house and we even met several neighbors who were very friendly and welcoming. Two couples were younger with children and one was a man who was retired and sixty one years old. Why do people care so much about age? I don't care how old he is. Anytime someone dies or gets their name in the paper there is a great need to tell how old the person was or is. Who cares? The only time age is important to me is when it comes to Scotch.

Yesterday I was Lawnmower Man. Today I was Pool Boy. We got the cover off the pool and I started on the chemical sequence. I went to Leslie's Pool Supplies to get the water tested. I made it in just in a nick of time because everyone else who wasn't driving to the shore came in right after. Tomorrow I have to clean the chairs, tables and grill in preparation for Sunday's Memorial Day parade past our house and our picnic. I thought that last year was going to be our last picnic here. I guess not. I hope this one is. As you can see, there is no rest for the wicked.

The Lawnmower Man

That's me, the lawnmower man. At least that's the way I feel about now. We closed on our new home in Webster, NY and I thought that we needed some way to keep the lawn mowed, like hire a lawn service until we moved there. We spoke to one of Anne's brothers and he volunteered to cut the grass for us. He has an older, spare, riding mower that he thought he would bring there even though the lawn is small. Ever since he fell off a barn roof several years ago, fractured both feet and the doctors told him he would never walk again, he finds walking long distance or standing for long periods irritating, so he likes his riding mowers. Before we went up there I had studied Consumers' Reports about electric cordless mowers and had a couple in mind that were rated good. The idea is to get away from the gas, oil and pull starting and to be more environmentally friendly. Anne's brother thought a small mower would be good for places he couldn't reach with the larger mower. So, we went out to the store and the next store and the next store and couldn't find the mowers I had selected. We did find a Worx mower, designed in Italy and made in China. In the store I had no way to check Consumers' Reports to see how it is rated, so I found the side of the box that had some English words and read all about it. We bought it and after one mowing, I'm pleased with it. I hope it is reliable over time.

We returned home last night and found that the lawn here had grown by leaps and bounds since we left on Sunday, so, today, I got out our thirteen year old, self propelled Craftsman and proceeded to get control of the grass. We pretty much need a self propelled model here because our grass is rather thick. I was proceeding along getting control when, all of a sudden, I heard a snap sound and the self propelled mower was being only propelled by me. I decided to finish the back yard the way it was and then have a look to see what was the matter. The matter was that the cable controlling the self propelled part broke. Oh great, now what to do. I didn't want to buy another mower for here that I wouldn't need for our new home (read the paragraph above, in case you missed the story of the lawnmower purchase for our new home). I thought about a lawn service, but the lawn really needed cutting and we do have the house listed for sale. Someone could possibly come to look at it. I thought about lugging it to a repair shop, but was afraid I wouldn't see it again until December. I went on line and found that Sears, in fact, stocked the part and could send it to me by priority shipping for Tuesday delivery. Then I read further that the part may be available at a local Sears store. I called the parts department in Middletown and, wonder of wonders, they had two in stock and the nice lady said she would put one aside for me. Taking the old part with me, I quickly made my way to Middletown, not that I thought that there would be a run on control cable assemblies for a thirteen year old mower, but, you never know. I got the thing. It was only $34.95, plus tax and it went on the mower as easy as pie (I don't really know what pie has to do with things being hard or easy, but people say that, so...).

Now you can understand why I am the lawnmower man. My back also hurts (from typing, I think), so I will stop now and report other adventures as they happen.

Good Friend Jim

Our good friend Jim Ciskowski died. We visited him in the hospital in New Brunswick on Wednesday. He was on a lot of pain medication to combat the effects of his pancreatic cancer. He had been diagnosed about a year ago. He packed a lot into his final year. He started finishing up projects that he started around the house, hauled a loads of his firewood to his son, cooked dinner for us one night with his wife, Alice, danced at his son's wedding and called us to go kayaking on the Navesink. He always had a smile on his face and never complained. When asked, he would say when things weren't going well, but took it all in stride.

Jim was an avid gardener and was even talking about it with Anne three days before he died. He had a huge vegetable garden in his back yard, a couple of grills and a smoker. He even showed us how to pet bees. Jim was an inspiration on how to live with cancer and how to die with it. Godspeed Jim. You will be missed.

Dizzy Me

I know that some of my readers would not raise an eyebrow to hear that I was and am dizzy, but I raised an eyebrow. Last evening, Anne and I went to a play at the local Presbyterian church. She knows one of the men who was in it. The group is called Spotlight Players and they do a dessert show where you sit at tables and during intermission the have a very nice cake and coffee spread. Anyway, the place isn't very big and you get to sit very close. When I got up to go for the dessert I felt like I had had a couple of drinks and was unsteady on my feet. My first thought was that if anyone was looking at me they would think I was drunk. I made a pretty good effort to get my chocolate cake, whipped cream and strawberriesand get back to my seat without incident. When I woke up this morning I still felt an equilibrium problem. We remembered that our daughter had some sort of a similar problem a while ago and we found out from her that it was probably caused by allergies causing an infection in the inner ear. Taking allergy and seasickness medicine seemed to work for her. I took some allergy medicine this morning, but don't have any seasickness medicine on hand.

My mother had equilibrium problems, but I have nmever experienced anything like that before now. Anne looked up "dizziness" in one of her books and it said that it effected mainly elderly people. Well, I know that has nothing to do with me, so we'll stick with the allergy approach for now.

Let's see, what else is going on. Our Rochester closing was scheduled for May 20th with the sellers moving out on May 21st. I said, "No, that won't do at all." Now they are moving out on the weekend and we are closing on the 23rd. In New York the sellers don't attend the closing apparently and they're not there for the walk through either. You don't get to talk to them at all. I would much rather be able to talk with them and learn any things they can tell us after having built the house and lived there for thirty years. So, we'll see what happens. Still no activity on our buyers' house, so we are going to list with a realtor if there isn't some action by the time we close on the house up north.

Today is a gray day outside and there is a forecast of possible showers. I have to be doing something, so I had better get to work looking for things to pack or sort or something. Trouble is that I have taken the antihistamine which is beginning to make me feel drowsy.  I don't want to fall asleep on the job. Oh hum!