Hi Honey,
Well, this was supposed to be a day of celebration, a day when I finally sell the house and get to move on. Unfortunately, it’s turned out to be a day of aggravation, irritation, stress and mourning, not that I didn’t finally close on the house, but that I learned that everything our Realtor told us was a lie from Day One. He never told the buyers anything that I asked him to find out. He STILL was saying he didn’t know what time the closing was until 10:00 this morning, though I learned later he had been informed back on April 7. Worse, he told me it was at 2:00 when in fact it was at 11:00. He told me everything was on track, when in fact, there were problems with the inspection, which I didn’t even know happened. I told my Realtor from Day One that this would be an “as is” sale, and he told me that was the way it was set up, that everyone knew that, yet I finally found out that the inspection required almost $10,000 in repairs, and that I was on the hook for it. The realtor told me he didn’t know anything about it, but that was a lie, too, he knew weeks ago, but didn’t tell me. It was a horrible, horrible day. I figured the whole closing was off, so I started working on putting a new base on my recliner, then suddenly I get a text saying they were going ahead with the closing. I did manage to get the realtors to cut their commissions by a tiny bit, but that was nothing compared to the hit I had to take. I almost didn’t go through with it, I was so close. Then to top it off, that idiot realtor first gave me the wrong office to go to for the closing, so I had to drive to two different places, then he didn’t even show up! What kind of realtor doesn’t show up at a closing? I’ll tell you what kind, the kind that lie and lie and lie and lie and don’t want to be faced with being exposed! I’ll be filing multiple complaints, believe me! I didn’t want to go through with it, but I just want this whole mess to be over with, which is exactly what this guy depends on, which makes it all that much more maddening!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRR! I hate this, I really do. I’m so mad, I’m so beside myself! And now I can’t even depend on the realtor’s promise that he has a place for me to consign whatever furniture is left over after the weekend. So I may literally not have any place to put this stuff. Then what do I do? I’m not about to donate $1900 recliners to Goodwill! But I’m not going to hang around here for weeks trying to sell them either, nor am I going to put them in storage, you know how THAT road goes! I’m so upset, I don’t know what to do. I did finally meet the buyer at the house, showed him a few things, tried not to be too upset, but that was really hard, didn’t get back to the camp until after 8:00, then I had to finish up the chair base, which took me another hour. And to top it off, Lola didn’t get any exercise today, and there’s a storm moving in, so I’m likely not to get any sleep tonight either, she’ll be scratching at the door (though she was good last night, I had a good night sleep, only to be faced with this horrible day), and I have to get up early and move all the furniture into the garage, which is the only place the new buyer will let me keep it for a few days. Work, work, work, I can’t wait to get a day off!! I’m so tired. I’m sorry for ranting, but I’m really in a state right now. I’ll quit now and go to be before I explode, and hope I can get some sleep. Not likely, but I’ll try. Still love you! Good night!

Hey Babe,
Had a bad night sleep, Lola kept waking me up every couple of hours, scratching at the bedroom partition, or the other door or just meandering and trying to fluff everything she could, her bed, the boot map, everything. She was just about to know over the trash on the dining room bench seat when I finally got up and let her out, even though I had let her out twice before bed. Grrr! Suffice to say I woke up grouchy from lack of sleep! The only thing I sold today was the floor jack, to a guy that met me at the trash dump down on the corner at Fred Lusk Rd. I still don’t have the final word on whether I can keep clearing out the house on the weekend, but it’s becoming a moot point, since I don’t have the time to finish it before then. The closing is supposed to be tomorrow, but I still don’t have when or where, sigh… When I got home from my trip, I got out the sewing machine I traded and played around with it a bit until I got it working to my satisfaction, then I decided to fix the living room drape. I was in such a hurry when I first made it, the whole thing was crooked and the hem was uneven, so I stripped it down and started again, this time getting it a lot better. Not perfect, but better. I had planned on getting another yard of that same material and making one for the dining room window, since that one throws a lot of glare onto the TV, but of course, the fabric store is closed because of the pandemic, and I haven’t been able to get any. I hope I can get it before I leave this time! Afterward, I took Lola for a walk and playtime, hoping she gets enough exercise tonight, because if she gets restless, I’m just going to have to put her in the truck, and with the cold nights, I really don’t want to do that. It’s not supposed to get quite as cold tonight, but I’d really rather she settle down, she’s been so good until the last week, I think she’s just bored and under-exercised, a condition I’ll only be able to solve when we leave here and are in a horse camp somewhere. I ended up falling asleep for more than an hour while watching TV, so now I’m off to bed, hoping against hope that Lola behaves herself tonight! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had a bad night sleep, Lola kept waking me up every couple of hours, scratching at the bedroom partition, or the other door or just meandering and trying to fluff everything she could, her bed, the boot map, everything. She was just about to know over the trash on the dining room bench seat when I finally got up and let her out, even though I had let her out twice before bed. Grrr! Suffice to say I woke up grouchy from lack of sleep! The only thing I sold today was the floor jack, to a guy that met me at the trash dump down on the corner at Fred Lusk Rd. I still don’t have the final word on whether I can keep clearing out the house on the weekend, but it’s becoming a moot point, since I don’t have the time to finish it before then. The closing is supposed to be tomorrow, but I still don’t have when or where, sigh… When I got home from my trip, I got out the sewing maching I traded and played around with it a bit until I got it working to my satisfaction, then I decided to fix the living room drape. I was in such a hurry when I first made it, the whole thing was crooked and the hem was unevern, so I stripped it down and started again, this time getting it a lot better. Not perfect, but better. I had planned on getting another yard of that same material and making one for the dining room window, since that one throws a lot of glare onto the TV, but of course, the fabric store is closed because of the pandemic, and I haven’t been able to get any. I hope I can get it before I leave this time! Afterward, I took Lola for a walk and playtime, hoping she gets enough exercise tonight, because if she gets restless, I’m just going to have to put her in the truck, and with the cold nights, I really don’t want to do that. It’s not supposed to get quite as cold tonight, but I’d really rather she settle down, she’s been so good until the last week, I think she’s just bored and under-exercised, a condition I’ll only be able to solve when we leave here and are in a horse camp somewhere. I ended up falling asleep for more than an hour while watching TV, so now I’m off to bed, hoping against hope that Lola behaves herself tonight! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Another day, another load gone! Didn’t sell as much, though I did get rid of the plastic patio table and chairs, though the lady I sold them to had a hard time describing to me where she lived so I got lost. The big load, though, was to the University of the South theatre. I decided that all of the rest of the theatre stuff, the props, lighting, chess table, etc. should go to them, so I wrote to the head of the theatre dept. and arranged to drop those off. It’s getting down to slim pickings now, with mostly just the big furniture, the MG and the box trailer left. Our realtor seems to think I can try to sell those over the weekend, but if not, then I’m planning on taking them to a furniture consignment store early next week. I was hoping to have all this done before the closing on Friday, but I’m just running out of time and energy. Sigh… Anyway, several people that want things couldn’t get organized enough to meet me, so I may have some more to do tomorrow, we’ll see. As soon as I got back I got busy sewing Flash’s horse blanket. He evidently got it caught on something sharp, because this morning when I fed them it had long sections that had been torn. I tried to use the sewing machine I traded for the other day, but it didn’t work very well, or rather, it had too many layers that had to be sewn so I had to do it by hand. That took almost two hours to do. By then it was time to put the blanket on, since it’s going down to freezing again tonight, wouldn’t you know, and settle down for the evening. I’ve decided to start watching Star Trek Voyager, a series we never watched before. It’s not the best in the series, the acting is pretty basic, and the characters are taking a long time to develop, but the story lines are occasionally interesting, though they’re a bit pat, not a lot of tension like in TO Star Trek. It’s a change though, and I needed that. So, time to get Lola in, take my shower and go to bed. Good night, my love!

Hi Babe,
Well, Lola was restless again last night, so it took awhile to get to sleep, she kept scratching on the bedroom partition and her nails kept tapping back and forth on the floor. It’s likely because she’s not getting enough exercise, but I have been pretty busy lately! Woke up to very cold temps, near freezing today, and for some reason the fireplace didn’t quite keep the place warm last night. I eventually crawled out of my warm bed, but it was tough! I didn’t have anything in particular planned today, except having that large potted plant picked up, and then I went to Manchester to meet someone for the ironing board and iron, but he never showed up. First time that’s happened, actually. I also took a couple of propane tanks down to Tractor Supply to get them filled, for some reason I thought they were close to empty, but it turned out that wasn’t the case, so I only had to top off one and fill another one that was pretty low, the other two still seemed good. I topped off the fuel at Walmart, then made a pickup at Home Depot. I had ordered what is advertised as a table top, but am going to use it as a new base on my chair. You remember the old replacement broke along the grain of the wood because I put it on going the wrong way, and even though I glued it back together and rotated it, it eventually gave up the ghost. I found another one, but this one isn’t wood, it’s more of a laminate, so I’m hoping it will be a better fit. I learned a lot from the last one about how to drill it properly, the depth and all, so I’m hoping this one will come out better and last longer, fingers crossed! It was only mid-afternoon when I got back, so I put the horses out in the yard, with Apollo on a tied down anchor and Flash free to go wherever, since I know he won’t go far without Apollo. The wind was so cold, I left their winter blankets on again, and there’s a freeze warming overnight. As usual, I’m in the wrong place for unusual weather! It’s supposed to get a little better next week, we’ll see. I had finally made a reservation at Chickasaw, only to have the governor extend the state park closings until May 1, so I guess I’m stuck here, unless I want to go someplace private like Circle E or Loretta Lynn’s, neither of which appeal that much to me. I think Land Between the Lakes might still be open, but I wasn’t thrilled about their trails, either, and frankly, I want to go to NEW places, not ones we’ve been to before. I’m also looking at Mammoth Cave as a possibility, but I’m not sure if they’re open either. I may stay on here for a few more days, because the weekend seems to be the best time to sell stuff, and if the new owners of the house don’t mind, I just may keep doing that, since everybody seems to be on their computers on the weekend! I’ve made a lot of progress emptying the house, but I still have a lot of the big stuff left, the home theater, the recliners (all four of them), the piano, the desk, both bedroom suites, and so on. If I can get them sold this weekend, or down to a consignment store early next week, I’ll feel like I’ve done the best I can and leave it at that. Anyway, I fell asleep in my chair this afternoon, which tells me just how tired I’m getting, I can’t wait to get someplace where I can really rest and wind down, hopefully soon! I maybe I can finally find time to really play with Lola, ride my horses and get on with life! Speaking of, time to get on to bed! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hi Darlin’!
What a night! After raining non-stop all day long (my wheelbarrow was ¾ full this morning!), the wind picked up something fierce during the night, whipping the trailer so hard we were rocking and rolling! I was woken up by it around 3:30 and had a hard time going back to sleep, it was so loud and violent. Fortunately no tornadoes touched down in the county, though the counties east of us got some which caused some damage. That meant I had a shortened night sleep, and though I did finally get back to sleep for a short while, I woke up tired. Unfortunate since I had a very busy day! After getting up when the 7:00 alarm went off, I fed the horses and threw frisbee for Lola, grabbed a quick breakfast and headed over to the house, where a fireman was waiting to buy the chainsaw. I was relieved yesterday when a guy was able to crank it up and start it, and I was grateful it did the same today. He bought that right away. More than an hour later, another guy came to look at the gooseneck jack. You remember we carried around the original for awhile before I put it in the garage? It was up in the hayloft/attic, which was unnecessary weight until I took it out of there. Anyway, the next guy that came along bought that. Several hours later (and much later than planned) a guy and his wife showed up to look at the MG, but after much discussion, I wasn’t willing to drop the price as much as he wanted me to, so we arrived at an impasse, sorry to say. Well, at least they had a nice drive down here. Once they left I quickly loaded up the trailer with all the stuff I had promised to deliver today (I had been waiting for the drizzle to stop, but it was still wet heavy air when I started to load), but I managed to manhandle everything, including that large bookshelf, into the trailer and headed to McMinnville. First the bookshelf, then the bar stools, then the extension ladder. Other than furniture, it’s really getting less cluttered in the house. I’m hoping for some more action, but I think the momentum of the weekend has slowed. We’ll see. I’ve managed to put a few dollars back in my pocket, which is as important as clearing the house out. After picking up a couple of forgotten items at Walmart, I finally got back to camp and settled down for the evening. It’s supposed to get near freezing tonight, so the horses are semi-permanently in their winter blankets until it starts to warm up. Way too cold for this time of year!! Figures. Anyway, time for shower and bed, and with no wind or rain tonight, just cold, I’m hoping to snuggle up and get a good night sleep! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Well the rain started coming in early this morning, and it looked like it was going to sock us in all day, so I intended to relax today, but other things took precedence. I started listing more stuff on Marketplace, and started getting answers immediately, which surprised my a bit given that it is Easter Sunday. Of course, with the pandemic, all the churches are closed, so I guess everyone’s staying at home on the computer! Regardless, I got responses to the MG, but more pictures were required, then I got someone interested in the air compressor, and at the last minute they wanted to meet in Viola (at a new Dollar Store they just build down there, would you believe), so I went to the house, took more pictures, loaded up the air compressor and headed down to Viola, where I met the guy and sold the compressor. I headed back to camp after that, and literally spent the rest of the afternoon on the computer listing items, then responding to the plethora of responses that I received all day. I have a long list of things I need to do, people to meet, items to deliver and so on, so tomorrow is going to be a very busy day! I did some laundry, too, just for fun. It rained practically non-stop all day long, and was lucky to have about a five minute break just to let Lola outside before her bedtime before it started up again. Lots of wind earlier, but most of the day was just rain, rain, rain. So my day off turned into a busy day, but the good news is, I’ll be selling a lot of stuff tomorrow, for which I am very grateful. I even have a guy driving down from KY to look at the MGB, so maybe I’ll even be able to give that a new life, which would be much preferable to sitting around in Jeff’s yard for who know how long. No offense to Jeff, he just doesn’t have the room to store it or the money and time to restore it, so I’d rather see is on the road in good hands. This guy apparently does this as a serious hobby, so fingers crossed he’ll take it. Anyway, time for my shower and bed! Gotta get up early tomorrow! Good night, my love!

Hi Honey!
Well it did get nice and cold last night, but finally warmed up nicely during the day. Short-lived though, we’re expecting storms overnight tonight. Anyway, after chores I went over to the house and sorted a few things out, too, some more pictures and posted a bunch of stuff on Marketplace. It seems that you either get an immediate response or you get nothing on that site, but I did manage to get one couple to the house, and they bought the wheelbarrow and shop vac (guess I won’t be doing much more cleaning in the garage!), and I gave them some little gardening tools. Sherri the neighbor came over for a while and we chatted, then after she left, I got a call for the deep freezer I had just posted. I offered to deliver it to them in Woodbury for an extra $25 and they agreed, so I closed up the house and managed to wrangle the beast up on the trailer with the hand truck (which I had already disconnected, so I had to reconnect it. Lesson learned!), and took a nice drive up there. A beautiful day so I didn’t mind. I stopped to pick up some milk at a Dollar Market (that’s right, they’ve expanded into an actual grocery store in Woodbury), and then couldn’t resist topping off my tank at the coop where the diesel was priced at $2.05 a gallon! Unbelievable! By the time I got back to camp, all the spaces were taken so I had to improvise and park the little trailer out front. When I let Lola out, one of the other campers, who has a small kid who loves Lola, wanted to play with her, so I let them wear her out for awhile. I bundled the horses back up in their winter blankets for the night, and came it to settle down for the evening. Not a bad day, managed to sell a few things and make a little money, I just hope I can keep the momentum going for the next few days. Every little bit helps! Congress passed a huge bailout bill last week in response to the coronavirus, and every taxpayer is supposed to be automatically getting “stimulus” bonus deposited into their accounts. While I don’t necessarily agree with the principle behind it, I can’t say it won’t come in handy while I wait for the social security survivor’s benefits to kick in. I just hope they’ll be able to reschedule my Vegas job before too long! My Michigan job seems to still be on track, so I should be able to hang on until then. And if the closing goes all right next week, I’ll have some more money to invest, and with the stock market so down right now, there are some bargains out there to be had. Might just be a boon once the economy starts to pick up again! Anyway, time to quit for the day. Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hey Sweetie,
Had a great night sleep, Lola slept through the night and didn’t bother me in the least, yay! I woke up this morning, and for the first time in YEARS, I didn’t have something I absolutely had to do, nothing, nada. I contemplated doing some computer but otherwise taking the day off when I got a call from Jeff saying he had decided NOT to come up and get anything, mostly because of the coronavirus, so that meant I could start listing the rest of the items I was holding on to for him. I started by listing the Cub Cadet riding lawnmower we just bought before we went back on the road, with less than 30 hours on it, and within 30 minutes I had someone offer to buy it, if I could deliver it to him, at a place that was almost two hours away. He offered me more than what I was asking, so how could I turn that down? It was a cold but beautifully sunny day, a perfect day for a drive, so I thought, why not? Didn’t have anything else I absolutely had to do, so I headed over the house, hooked up the little trailer, loaded up the Cubby, which started without any trouble since I had put the battery on charge a couple of days ago, and voila! We were off and running! I stopped at Walmart for diesel and paid the unbelievable price of $2.16 a gallon! I even saw gas station later in the day that had regular gas for as low as $1.18 a gallon! I haven’t seen prices like this since I was in college a hundred years ago, amazing! Anyway, while I was driving toward Lewisburg, I thought about the horse expo in Murfreesboro we went to a few years ago, and our vendor neighbor who called herself the crazy goat lady, who made the most wonderful lavender hand cream, which I had used up a few months ago. I knew she lived somewhere in that area, so I quickly googled her, found her and called her, and as good fortune would have it, she welcomed my visit. So I dropped off the Cubby with no problem, then went out to visit her, and we had a nice chat and I picked up a couple cakes of lavender soap and hand cream, then she reminded me about the fudge spoons she made, I had almost forgotten about those! You remember those delicious varieties of goat fudge on a spoon? I still had ONE in the freezer from when we saw her over two years ago! So I stocked up on a bunch of them, too, in a whole selection of flavors. She gave me a tour of her little goat farm, it was lovely! I finally had to head home, which took almost two hours, but it was a beautiful drive, and got back only to find there were no open places to park, though my neighbor moved his truck so I could park the truck and trailer without blocking anyone else. I didn’t worry about the horses, they have plenty of hay, and I left their winter blankets on since it’s getting near to freezing again tonight. So I settled in for the night, and decided to watch the seasons of Madame Secretary that were made after we quite watching it on the networks (when we ditched the dish in favor of Netflix and Amazon Prime!), saw a couple of episodes of that (with Lola in my lap, which she’s taken to doing lately), so now I’m headed to shower and bed, as usual. So, good night now, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Well, not surprisingly, Lola was very anxious when the storms came in last night (which included some hail, though no damage to anything), I ended up having to give her a pill, which I should have done earlier, but the storm moved through quickly and she settled down after that. She tried hard to come up into the bed, and I had to turn backwards so I could pet and comfort her, it was the only thing that settled her down until it all passed. This morning I finally had my conversation with the Social Security people about the survivors benefits on your pension, I made the appointment way back in January for a phone interview today! We managed to get it all settled, so at least I’ll have that little bit coming in. Afterward I ran down to McMinnville to do some shopping, feed for the horses, a new dryer vent for the trailer and some 2×10 boards for leveling the trailer. I’ve broken most of the smaller boards, they were just too small and narrow for the task, hopefully this will work better. Then finally a stop at Walmart for everything else. They actually had a lane of shopping carts outside the door to form a line in order to limit the number of people in the store (what they’re calling “social distancing” in an effort to keep people at least 6 feet away from each other. You would be astounded at how quickly people’s behavior has changed in the last month, it’s downright shocking (including me)! Fortunately there was no line and I went straight in, got everything I needed and got out of there, though I, too, wore a facemask and latex gloves while I was in there. Gas is down to $1.29 a gallon, and that’s in McMinnville! I saw one place where diesel was $2.15, but I’m waiting till I go to Manchester in a few days, where I’m sure it will be even cheaper! There’s a glut, the Saudis cranked up their production last month, and of course, there are a lot less vehicles on the road since everyone’s supposed to be staying home. The wonders of supply and demand! When I got back, I ran out to the house because I had gotten a call from someone about a couple of the items I posted on Marketplace and managed to sell a couple of things to the family that moved in and started a junkyard up the road. That’s what the other neighbors are calling it, the junkyard, another Harmon special. The first one, as I recall. Anyway, it’s money in my pocket and less stuff around the house, which is all good. It was too late to let the horses out when I got back, which has become my habit this week, but I did put their winter blankets on because the temps are supposed to get down to almost freezing overnight! Not the spring I was hoping for, but it has been nice since I’ve arrived, and is supposed to warm up again next week, so I can withstand a cold front. Anyway, settled down for the evening, thought I’d give Madmen another try, started from the beginning and quickly remembered why we had abandoned it (though others seemed to like it, it’s not my cup of tea!), so I’ll have to find something else tomorrow. Been doing a lot of reading lately, so much so my eyes hurt me sometimes, just another sign of aging, I guess! Jeff still hasn’t decided when (or even if) he’s coming up, and it’s driving me crazy. There’s stuff he wants, but if he doesn’t come till the last minute, I won’t have much time to sell them and I’ll have to let them go to consignment and I won’t get much out of that. I may have to do that anyway, everyone around here is hanging on to every penny since so many folks are out of work because of the virus. Bad timing on that one! Still, the day of closing is drawing nearer, and I do whatever is necessary to get out of here asap! Still don’t have any place confirmed where I can go, still looking… Well, Lola’s back in from her nightly ablutions and I still have to take my shower, so I’m off! Love you, darlin’! Good night!