Friday, September 23, 2016

September 22, 2016

 Goodness. It is once again late and I am tired and I need to wake up tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to sleeping in this weekend.

Today at work I did things. I got a decent amount of weeding done but had to spend almost an equal amount of time looking for books to try and replace some of the really old Egypt books that look like crap but are still checking out regularly. I was unsuccessful. Apparently there haven't been a lot of good Egypt books published recently. But even in the cases where we have a newer book on the same topic, the old book checks out more often. I think maybe the old ones are just good for school projects. I don't know. It's kind of a mystery.

I also did other random things throughout the day but I can't remember it all and I don't think any of it would be interesting to write about. I spent forty-five minutes not too long before I got off work helping a man make “no smoking” signs. It was a rough process. I could have made him a really good one in about five minutes but we scrolled forever on Google Images looking for what he wanted. For one he picked a bicycle with a world for one tire and a no-smoking symbol for the other. I didn't get it but whatever. For the other one I put a no-smoking symbol in Publisher and then did the text. I was just going to say “no smoking” but he also wanted the word “sign” on it. So in cursive letters it says “sign” above the symbol and “no smoking” below it. I don't know why he wanted the word “sign”. It's obviously a sign. There was also a bit of a struggle over the size. I started by making both of them the size of a piece of paper but then he started pointing around at the desk calendar and scrap paper saying he wanted it smaller like that. I grabbed a ruler so we could get an exact size and every time I tried to show him on the ruler how bit it would be he insisted on resizing it on the computer until it looked right, even though it wasn't to-scale on the computer. It was rough but we got there in the end.

After work I went and met my mom and sister at the realtor's office and we all went out to look at some condos/townhouses/duplexes or whatever. The first two were across the street from one another and I wasn't into either of them. The first had really steep stairs that weren't very deep so it felt like at any step I was going to slide off of them. The second one had a little yippy dog next door. As we were standing there waiting for the door to be unlocked the owner next door came out on the driveway to walk the dog and as soon as it saw us it started barking. So that's a no. I also didn't like that the garages were right next to each other. We also went two three just outside the west side of town that were pretty nice inside but the outside wasn't great on two of them because the neighborhood was really crammed. On those two the bathroom on the main floor could only be reached by walking through the master bedroom. I don't plan on entertaining a lot of company but it would be nice to have a “public” bathroom. The other one would probably end up in a flood zone due to all the construction in the area altering the terrain, and I imagine the population of the neighborhood is heavily military, which means there would be a lot of turnover. And, speaking of construction, not being around construction is on my list of things that would be nice because I'm tired of getting stuck behind dump trucks. There are also specials on all of those because they're so new and still paying off all the crap that specials cover.

The night ended looking at a couple old houses downtown. I liked the first one because it had a lot of character but it also needs a lot of work done. I don't know that I would have the motivation to do that work. And to spend the money on it after dropping all the money buying the house. The second old house was also pretty cool but it had a creepy dirt-floor basement and it would also require quite a bit of work.

In the middle of everything we went two three places that are now in my top three. The first is the one I've been watching since we first drove by it in June. I think it lived up to the photos online. I really liked it. The downsides are that the garage is pretty tiny, I would have to walk up a flight of stairs to get to the main level and then another flight of stairs to get to the bedrooms, the road leading to the area is kind of steep so it might suck in winter, there is a house on either side so it is boxed in (although it is wider than the other places so it doesn't feel claustrophobic), and there might have been a couple other things. On the plus side, it looks nice, has plenty of bathrooms, the neighborhood is kind of secluded and cool looking, and it lived up to my expectations.

The second is a place near one of the nursing homes I deliver to for homebound. It's got a double garage which is really nice. I would like to have room for my tools and maybe a workbench and area to work on stuff, which a double garage would provide. It also looked well taken care of and had plenty of room.

The third house was out past the east side of town. It was the most expensive of the three but like the first one, recently dropped about $10,000, probably because it has also been on the market for more than 130 days. It only had a single garage but I liked the layout inside. The shared wall included the living room and kitchen, with the bedrooms on the other side, so I wouldn't have to worry about hearing the neighbors when I was trying to go to bed. The basement was also really nice and open, definitely the biggest we saw. And it was the newest of the three places, only being twelve years old, rather than forty-five or thirty years old. The downsides for this one are dealing with the traffic on that side of town, which I've heard can be annoying. They are also on rural water out there and I'm not sure about the pros and cons of that. The basement also has a sump pump, which I'm not sure is good or bad. And there are still specials to pay. The neighborhood was pretty nice but it also required a bit of driving through it to get to the house. I would also need to check on the internet out there because the internet is kind of a big deal. I need it.

So those are my top three, not only for tonight but also last night. I really liked the garage of the one house with the workshop area in the back but the house didn't really grab me. I'm going to be thinking a lot of about these three and I'll start developing a proper list of pros and cons when I'm not so tired. I hope that none of them sell in the meantime but they have all been on the market for over a hundred days so hopefully that means my chances are good. Also, if one of them sells, that would make my decision a little bit easier. So that's a plus.

When we got done my mom and sister headed back to the house and I went to get Chipotle. I had to drive around the block a couple times but I did finally manage to get a parking spot. Turns out Chipotle is really busy at eight o'clock on Thursdays. After a decent wait in line I got up to order and I got a girl who understands the word “extra”. My bowl was brimming with rice and beans. I added a little bit of cheese to that and I ended up only getting charged for three sides. I occasionally get that but more often than not I get charged for the full veggie bowl. It's nice when I don't.

Over dinner and after dinner we discussed the places we had seen. My sister's top two were the first one and the third one. My mom's were the first one and the second one. And there was no clear winner for either of them. I need to ponder.

My green fleece jacket arrived today and it is great. The green is even better in person and it fits well. I'm really happy with it and I look forward to getting cold at work and being able to wear it.


And now I'm going to go to bed because good grief I'm tired. It is after 12:30AM and I am once again going to get less than a full night of sleep. Can't wait.

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