Random thoughts on my holiday weekend and more

After the closing we drove to our new lake home.
We were so excited to finally be able to go to the lake all the time as opposed to the two weeks a year where we would bring our boat and rent a house.

As we stood on the deck over looking the water we popped a bottle of champagne to celebrate. A dream come true!
There was an enormous tree that the deck was built around.
It was a tulip elm that was messy and I hated it.
It left all kinds of sticky sappy crap all over the deck as well as leaves etc.
To me it was dirty. I who adore trees wanted this one gone.
That was a new thing for me.
It also obstructed the view from the inside to the lake.
The first words Rick uttered as he held up his glass was - "This tree is the first thing to go!"

We spent our first weekend there painting and peeling ugly old lady wall paper and attempting to make it look younger and feel like ours. (everything and I mean to tell you everything was dark, dark, dark- awful! nothing like you'd want a home on water to be.)

The 2nd day the tree which we hated got hit by lightening. It split the tree.
You could now see through the tree.
The lightening also put a hole in the side of the house - knocked out the power and burned up a brand new TV that was still on the floor and had only been plugged in and never watched.  I'll skip the horror of that day and fast forward.
The most important part for you to know is that the insurance company would not pay to take down the tree that you could now see through. The guy was an arrogant man who told us that our policy would not pay us for the damage to the tree. What? We didn't want paid for damage we wanted it taken down before something or someone was hurt.
He insisted it wasn't bad enough to come down yet.
We knew that this would fall on the house eventually.

"So you would rather pay for a new house than take down the tree?" Rick asked Mr. Insurance man

He laughed and said, "yes."

Later that afternoon around 5:30pm another storm rolled in. The wind was howling and making the tree actually creak. We ran off the deck.  Immdiately the tree fell on the house and thankfully it fell parallel to the house and shirred off the side of the roof and gutters etc.
The insurance man came back - they hired someone to come out and remove the tree from our deck and chop down what was left.
This is what remained -----

We have enjoyed this part of the tree over the years.
It was a great place for our drinks.
It was a great place to sit things - like a bowl of popcorn while staring at the lake.
Kids loved to sit on it for some reason.
But over the years it began to rot and it was falling in pieces and was no longer safe.
So it had to come down.  Rick spent a good portion of the day in 98 degree weather chopping it down and then attempting to cut the wood into small pieces for the fire pit.
Apparently tulip elm trees don't cut easily. (his swearing was my first indication)

We cleaned gutters and we did all kinds of maintenance on this property that was neglected for 7 months.
I did a lot of freshing up of the outdoor furniture with paint and the like.
The chairs you see above needed freshing up as well.
They could have gone another year honestly but people are paying us to stay at our home.
I want it to be nice. Nice=translates to work.

The wicker chairs on the lower level deck were spray painted red with new cushions.
I loved the final results. Rick picked those chairs off the curb that a neighbor was tossing out.
Not a bad price, only 2 cans of paint and some cushions on sale at the end of last year. (I knew I was going red with those)
My trash diving husband has also gotten me a table that I liked for the game room.

At the time honestly I want to kill him for bringing home more stuff that I didn't think we needed. Then he suggested this for the game room next to the book shelf of games. Okay so my hubby had a point. I really didn't want to fork over any more money.

When he brought it home the top was scratched beyond belief and it was in terrible need of refinishing. But it was a very heavy oak table and chairs.   I put on a green felt top like a poker table and it was like that for 2 yrs. Then I removed the felt and sanded it and painted it black. It looks great now. Hey would I have purchased this. No Way. But it was free. I couldn't pass it up. The top is flawless now - only needed sanded and restained or painted. I thought the oak looked dated so I painted it. Honestly the stuff he will see and bring home.  Sometimes it's good most times it's funny and I will make him purge.

Most days our garage looks like Sanford and Son. He came home with this gorgeous door.
I asked him why the hell he was bringing a door home.
"We have doors dear" was my actual comment.
He said I am going to make a head board from this. Sure enough he did.
We get more compliments on this head board than you can believe.
It still drives me crazy because we can't get cars in our garage!

Jumping tracks to another thoughts -

*Since I last wrote Alfred E. Newman won American Idol. Oh jeez. What did people see in this kid? I found him to be a one trick pony and creepy as all hell.

*My favorite tv shows are coming back. I love summer tv. The Big C is so good. If you haven't seen it because you don't have showtime I highly recommend getting it on Netflix, or whatever means possible. It's different and twisted, funny and sad. I like it! Hubby likes Shameless. I don't hate it but it's not something I have to have on the DVR. He thinks otherwise. Men of a Certain Age is also returning. Love, love, love that show. Since I am a woman of a certain age I can relate to them all in some way or another. Because basically they all are bemoaning the changes at 50. The changes  suck people.

*This past winter was a very difficult time business wise.
Things were slow and I applied to a few places to pick up some hours to supplement our income. I still have to put in the hours here but this was necessary. No one called me.
So now that business is back to normal and I am so very busy I hadn't really thought about it much. Then I got a call from Starbucks. I thought what the heck it will help us get caught up faster so I went to interview. 

The young woman who interviewed me was very ill prepared.
But I got through it or I think I should say, SHE got through it. 
She was odd as all get out.
Then I got a call last week that she wanted me to come in and meet with the shift manager to see if I would "fit in".
Okay so I went back.  All the while thinking I am not sure my hours and theirs are going to work now so I better just tell them right away that things have changed.

I went in and met with the Shift Manager and she was wonderful.
She used to be the manager but went back to grad school and needed less hours.
She did a proper interview and then we just sat and chatted.
I really really liked her and she would be nice to work with. No drama.
She wasn't a 20 year old and she was a straight up no chaser kind of gal. I liked that.
But I needed to voice my concerns about my hours.  I couldn't devote the hours a week right now until after labor day. Would that still work for them? She said YES. So I am thinking great. But I never heard back from them so I can only assume that I, 1. did not fit in. or 2. they didn't like my hour issues right now.

Oh well.  I have learned that even though it appears to be not what I wanted, it always ends up fine. Some days it is much harder to remember that than others though!