Prairie Dog Blog

I am a stranger in my own house. Here I sit in my professionally cleaned, tidied and decluttered, ready-to-be-shown house. I am afraid to do anything here for fear I will make a mess or dirty it up. How will I feel once it is sold....?

There are eight appointments booked for tomorrow(Saturday) between 10 am and 8 pm and I am hightailing it out of here early in the morning. I figure I've done all I can to prepare this house for the market and now I should make myself scarce so that the prospective buyers can feel more comfortable looking over the house. So I am driving up to Gimli for the day with my friend, W.

On Sunday we have an open house and we may have more appointments that day, too. My agent assures me we'll have lots of offers. We take offers until Monday.

Yesterday, the weather forecast was for a winter storm or possibly a blizzard for today and tomorrow. I was quite anxious that it might cause some cancellations of appointments to view the house. But the weather advisory has now been lifted. It seems we won't have that storm after all and I am so relieved.

It's a pity that he's not here to experience the mixture of sadness and excitement of selling our home.

Happy belated birthday to Charlene. Hope Lyn is feeling better these days. Congratulations on the new car, David.

Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future. ~Gail Lumet Buckley
Stranger In My Own House

Why is it that Murphey's Law kicks in as soon as you are into something important? This morning I woke up at 5 AM. Anxious to get the jump on marketing the house, I guess. Couldn't get back to sleep, so I washed walls in the basement for a couple of hours. When they are anxious men pace; women clean. Then, my burglar alarm system started to beep and the "trouble" light went on. Tried to use the phone, lots of static. People would phone me and get sent to my voice mail when I was home. Long story short - I thought I was going to be without my phone just at the time when my house was going on the market. Not the most enviable position to be in. The techie from MTS came and told me the phone in the computer room that was plugged into the computer was shorting out the whole system!
Okay, that was good - one problem solved. I just disconnected it and surprise - everything SEEMS to be working just fine! Off I went to sub at Burland School. Easy peasy. But it was the lull before the You-know.

Then as I was eating my dinner, a huge piece of a filling fell out of my mouth! Dr. Rick just repaired that filling three weeks ago! Luckily he can see me at nine tomorrow morning. But I will be missing part of the agents' open house. There will be agents looking over my house from 10:00 to 12:00 tomorrow morning.

Dare I go out and start my car tomorrow morning to get to the dentist? Or should I just take a cab? With the way my luck has been running, I will get halfway there and the car will just quit on me. Well, if you don't laugh, you'll cry. If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all.

More updates coming. Wish me luck - or just the non-theatrical, everyday equivalent of "break a leg." Oh, no, not that...!

Keep laughing.

The more I attempted to "be me" the more "me's" I found there were.I now see that "being me" means acknowledging all that I feel at the moment,and then taking responsibility for my actions by consciously choosing which level of my feelings I am going to respond to.... Hugh PratherNotes to Myself : My Struggle to Become a Person (This sounds intriguing)
What's Up With Murphey?

Bouquet, Little House for Sale

Our cold snap continues. We joke about the cold winters here in "Winterpeg" but it really is no joking matter. Today's paper carried a story about a woman who went to take out her garbage, fell and froze to death in her back yard a few days ago. Her neighbours found her body the next day. And the surprising part? She was not a senior citizen - she was 33 years old! When the temperature gets down to minus 40 and 50, it gets dangerous.
Speaking of cold, I have a medical condition called Raynaud's syndrome in which my circulation in my fingers and toes goes down to nothing and my fingers get white. These days my fingers sometimes get so cold I can't grab anything or feel anything. It doesn't matter what kind of gloves or mitts I wear, my hands get so cold I have to soak them in hot water for a few minutes when I get indoors. I just spent two days searching for something to keep my fingers warm, but finding nothing. I went to a medical supply store, drugstores, department stores. Why doesn't somebody invent a type of glove with those bean thingys inside that could be heated up in the microwave like in the "Magic Bag?" The closest thing I found was a little bag that is meant to go into a slipper that can be heated up in a microwave. When I put it into my mitts it keeps my fingers warm for about 15 -20 minutes. I just can't be outside (or even in the car) for much longer.
This problem is just another reason why I should be moving to a warmer place like Vancouver. Although I have noticed that my fingers can get white even in the spring and fall. The temperature doesn't have to be below freezing. But perhaps it won't be quite as bad or as often.
I have been to quite few movies lately. Some thumbnail reviews: Notes on a Scandal - great acting, exploration of an evil personality and a victim. Venus - Seventy-something O'Toole lusts after an eighteen-year-old. Disturbing, unattractive, masterful job of creating an unlikeable character. Best line of the movie: (spoken by O'Toole's character) "I'm near the end of my life and I still don't know who I am." The audience knows, though. He's a scuzzy, self-centred, irresponsible old man. Flushed Away - hilarious, baby-boomer-aimed humor, puns, visual jokes, little gems satirizing movies, the kind of movie you know you will find things you missed first time around if you watch it again.
My house goes on the market one week from tomorrow! It's getting close. I had a look at some Vancouver apartments for rent online again today. So many good ones!

Keep warm! Happy Valentine's Day on Wednesday.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments: love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds. ~ William Shakespeare
Extreme Cold, Movie Reviews, Trying to Keep Warm

The cold snap continues here in Winnipeg. Predicted high for today with wind chill -31 degrees Celsius! I hope it gets a little milder by the 19th when my house goes on the market.

Here is Dennis' Christmas cactus blooming. Last year it did not bloom at all. It seems to me to be one of Nature's miracles that it has survived at all.

We never kept many plants because I have always had whatever is the opposite of a green thumb. I just had to look at a plant and it died. So any plants we did have were his responsibility.

The plant was not watered for the three weeks I was in BC in December and I think that may actually be the reason it has bloomed this year. I found out that this type of plant likes desert conditions and should not be watered more often than once every month! I think last year I overwatered it and that's why it didn't bloom. I am surprised it survived at all. I almost killed it with kindness.

Yesterday I subbed in a grade three class. Tomorrow I work in a grade six class. This morning I had all the junk from the basement hauled away. The basement rec room is so empty, if I speak out loud I can hear an echo. It was just like that when we moved into the house.

I remember thinking that the house seemed so empty when we first moved in, but over the years we filled it up and then some. I used to joke that the house was so big compared to the apartments we had lived in, that Dennis and I could be in far apart rooms and not be able to hear each other. It is only a 1200 square foot bungalow, but it seemed huge to us. Dennis used to say it was a four plug house. By that he meant we had to plug the vacuum cleaner into four different outlets in order to vacuum the whole house.

It felt good to see all that junk leaving the basement. Tears came to my eyes when they carried out the old brown leatherette rocker. When I was pregnant Dennis used to sit in it and hold me in his lap. When I was feeling blue or scared he rocked me. He was so gentle and concerned for my well-being when I was pregnant that I knew he was going to be a great Dad.

It will be hard to leave this house for the last time. My heart is so full of memories.

This afternoon I am going to see a movie. I need to cheer myself up. There are still some good movies out there that I haven't seen. I am eagerly anticipating the Oscars this year. There have been some excellent movies that deserve awards.

Take good care of each other. Keep warm!

It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home. ~Author Unknown

Blooming Plant, Empty Basement, Full Heart

Wedding, Minus 40! and Virus