It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here so I thought it was about time to do a general update…
Things have been crazy the past couple months as Holly and I ran in 10 different directions trying to decide where we were going to live in the coming months/years. We considered building our new “dream house” but suffered from a case of sticker shock, then thought about buying a house but suffered from thoughts of “that’s all we get for that price?,” while all along fixing up our house with the intention of selling. That was until we heard what the Realtor thought it would sell for. So, I think the plan at this point, as of today, is to live in our house for a little bit longer while making a plan to build soonish. We’ll also likely take advantage of the crazy-low mortgage rates to refinance into a 15 year mortgage in order to pay down the principal faster; believe it or not the low rates make this less than $100 more than our current payment. Now…if you ask again tomorrow and you might get a different answer.
Somewhere during the process of looking for money under various rocks I decided to sell my old Polaris snowmobile. It gave me years of hassle-free use but it was getting to the age where I just felt a big problem wasn’t too far off…so I decided it would be better in another person’s garage. When I got nearly as much as I paid for it years ago I immediately started looking for more stuff to throw on craigslist. If it isn’t nailed down it might be for sale soon!
Onto the dog…it seems like a couple months can’t go by without a trip to the Vet for Bailey. This time was a bit more concerning though as Holly found blood in his “stool.” The diagnosis this time is Colitis – swelling (inflammation) of the large intestine (colon). This was better than other things we thought it might be and should be controllable with food more suitable for a dog his age. It seems that his old food just isn’t bland enough for his aging digestive system, but with his lack of teeth soft food probably isn’t that far off!
As a general public service announcement: don’t ever try to make a “sparkler bomb!” Sure it looks fun in the youtube videos but playing with something that sounds and acts like a stick of dynamite really isn’t a good idea. Some minor property damage and a close call with some flying “material” left my brother and I in a state of shock, and me with a solid resolve to never put one of these together again….seriously; never.
Finally…I bought a used Howard Miller mantle clock (pictured above) today from someone at GVSU today. You might not think that is very cool or exciting but I was pretty thrilled to find such a treasure at such a reasonable cost. My dad must have passed his odd desire to collect clocks and pocket watches onto me, but there is just something about winding an old clock and hearing real chimes and gongs every 15 minutes. After hearing this even Holly agreed that she’d like to get a full-sized grandfather clock whenever we do end up in a new house!