Memorial Weekends and Historical thoughts~~~

Hello Sweet Things,

Yes I have been away from my Blog; I have to admit work, work, work.

And the insanity of some of my co-workers commitments to their children’s graduations parties and events, but I can understand the “fuss” of it all. In a way I missed the “fuss” of my graduation from college, even high school. Something which Dad and Mom regret in the last phone conversation I had with them.

But I told them to plan on a “Big To-do” for Baby Sis when it’s her time. I don’t want regrets, I want to build on what we are working on right now and that is a graduation of sorts.

If all we think about are regrets then all we will have is “missed yesterdays” and I do not want that, I want to think forward and build on the opportunities to come. I feel that is better in many ways.

Well again our weather here is doing its insanity again, first we have a record breaking (for the S.F. Bay Area) heat wave and then next we plunge into chilly temperatures, I don’t know whether to get out the summer clothes or keep wearing sweaters.

This last heat wave made me feel very “goofy”. I think because it was so sudden and overwhelming. But we did have fun with our “ice cream social”. And it was back to the gym for me.

I took the opportunity to go to one of my properties this last Memorial weekend and just get away from things; at least the weather inland was comfortable. I went to my Victorian house, taking up spare clothing and such to settle into my room. I had the opportunity to talk to my tenants in regards to some repairs on the front porch, nothing major, just a few steps and a banister to be replaced.

It also gave me a chance to look over the property again at greater length, they (the former owners now my tenants) have taken good care of the property and know all the local repair people, we talked about things to do in the future.

It is my intention to make sure that the house and land reflect the historical look of the area. And I think with the aid of the local historical society we may be able to do that, we had a get together to talk things over and they were very happy about my buying the property and my intention to preserve it. I have to say that my now tenants younger cousin was not happy, but that’s his problem.

Real Estate developers need not apply. (Not that the market would support it right now)

The Historical Society is in the process of buying the surrounding land around my property with the idea of working with the local community college and their agricultural classes. The idea is to show how farming and life was done at the turn of the last century, and also to acquaint students with the idea of “slow farming” using old methods that are less destructive to the land.

It’s still in the concept process, but obtaining the land now must be done and that is moving forward. There are a couple of people who do not have any heirs and are more than willing to leave their land and property to the historical society as a “Trust” which will help. I made a suggestion that it might be wise to place it in a “Trust” now and allow the people to continue to live on their property as “caretakers without pay” for as long as they wish or are able, with physical aid from volunteers and students to help maintain the properties.

Everyone including the current owners appeared to like the idea and with fundraisers to help maintain everything it would be viable. Fortunately there are a couple of lawyers on the Historical Society Board and they can look into all the legalities, but they felt it could be done.

I like the idea, although I believe that there will be times where I’m going to have to “share” my property for special events, but there is something about the concept that appeals to me.

But I am going to look into the legal side with a good lawyer from my point of view as well, I’m not going to just jump in without understand what legal problems I might be incurring.

I’m going to do it with this property, but with my own home and the other property I’m going to keep that in a separate trust for baby sis and what children she may have in the future.

But it was all fun too, the fire department had a “pancake breakfast” Sunday morning, there was a crafts street fair, music (great fiddling), a “old fashioned Snake Oil Salesman”, a couple of gunfight re-enactments, petting zoo of farm animals and a stage coach ride complete with hold-ups.

My tenants introduced me to a number of people in the community, and made some very good contacts with the leaders in the community. I now know where to get the best fruit and vegetables, freshest bread, a good doctor and dentist for emergencies, a (according to everyone) fantastic auto mechanic and where the best fishing is in the area.

I know that I’m the “newbie” in town, and as with everything it’s always wise to proceed slowly, according to what I’m hearing, they want to keep the “small town feel” but within it encourage good businesses that will help the community. They want to avoid development that would destroy the feeling of the place, so many things, buildings, locations, land and such have been placed on a historic register, made historic landmarks with plaques and signs, nothing can be done without a full public review.

A number of people told me they were worried about the property that I bought because of the former situation. But when they heard what I had done and suggested they felt more comfortable.

I could easily retire here, someday I might. But right now I have to make ‘money’.

Another gun show is coming up this weekend, and I have to make plans for the 4^th of July weekend as well, I’m thinking of driving down to my parents home during that time, Lillian will be fine up here she has her two sons and their families coming to visit so she will be busy.

Joe said he would be happy to “House sit” for me, since he’s renting and his landlord is planning to do some work on his apartment building, anything to avoid the noise.

But it’s early yet, I’ll have to see how my plans develop. Thank goodness the weather right now is mild, so back to work.

More later Sweet Things.

For Whom the Wind Blows~~It Blows for Thee and not an good wind either~~~

Hello Sweet Things,

Yes I have been out of touch but with good reason. First I had to catch up at work after getting back from my vacation with my Family and I can say that with happiness in my heart. I will continue the updates on the Easter vacation but first, I’ve been having a bit of business and drama here at home.

After I got back, we had a heat wave that climbed into the 90’s and now we are down into the mid to upper 40’s at night with very heavy breezes, so first we are cooking and now we are freezing---I just LOVE this Bay Area weather.

But this last weekend I had to go back to the Sierra’s to finish signing and notarizing the paper work on the two properties that I bought, I’m happy, they are happy and I Know the real estate agent is very happy. It was very chilly in the Gold Rush country they too went through the same dramatic temperature changes that we suffered with (and still are).

So I came back home late Sunday night, crashed into Bed. Those Sunday drivers are insane, especially along 880 from Benicia to past Berkeley—I think I’ll take the Cordellia Junction turn off when I’m coming from the North from now on, coming from the South there is nothing that is better---***sigh***.

But did I get a good night’s sleep?? Think again Sweet Things, the night winds whipped up so bad during the night that I awoke to the sound of a terrible crash. At first I thought that my home had been broken into and grabbed my Berretta from the auto lock safe. I waited a couple of minutes to listen to anyone walking, prepared to call the police and defend myself if I had too, but after 5 minutes not hearing anything except the wind I grabbed my LED flashlight and with gun and flashlight in hand started checking things out.

I was immediately stuck by the bone chilling cold, and the sound of wind, when I got to my living room I discovered what had happened; a large branch from my neighbors’ tree had crashed though the glass of my sliding doors that led out onto my balcony. To say it was a mess is an understatement.

I didn’t dare walk across the floor with all that broken glass, and since it wasn’t raining, I decided the best thing I could do was get my heavy comforter and go back to bed.

Getting up early in the morning, I was looking up the phone number to my Handyman when the doorbell rang, it was my neighbor very sheepish, he asked how bad the damaged was and I showed him.

I kept thinking of the scene that I saw in a movie in which a car dropped from the sky onto a person’s home, the owner running out with his hands on his head saying “Mamma Mia, Madre Dios” and other exclamations in that vein.

We took pictures, inside, outside, from his property and mine, exchanged information I said that it might be at least two bills maybe one more, one for the handyman to clean the mess up and put a board over the very big opening, another for the glass man and maybe one for a carpenter, and another for anything damaged or destroyed inside, at least my neighbor was understanding and asked me to give him copies of the bills and he would turn it into his home owners insurance, he had some damage done to his home as well, not as bad or as dramatic as mine, we were just glad that no one was hurt.

Lillian showed up after seeing the big branch hanging off of my balcony, half in and half out of the house; trust her to not miss out on the excitement. She didn’t waste any time and put on coffee and made toast while I phoned my work and the Handyman. Oh well I was going to be late, couldn’t be helped.

I had to get to work for a meeting at 1 p.m. that I couldn’t miss, so I left Lillian in charge with instructions. And this time I had to drive to work, which I really didn’t like doing but one has no choice.

After the meeting I phoned Lillian for an update, they had managed to remove the tree branch, and were in the process of clearing up the broken glass, she was looking for things of mine that might have been flung or broken by the crash, I warned her to be careful.

When I got home everything had been cleared away and a huge board put in place of what was once a sliding glass door, a long note from Mr. Handyman as to what he thought needed to be done and Lillian gleefully waiting for all the details, she ordered Chinese to be delivered when I called her and told her that I was at the 16th Ave turn off on 880.

I filled Lillian in on all the drama, and she showed me what had been damaged and broken, some lamps, a coffee table, an end table, the hardwood floor was badly scratched, the drapes and curtains shredded, I would need Coit cleaners to clean the couch and have the material on the over stuffed chair re-done, some knick knacks were smashed, but my beautiful oil painting that I have over the fireplace was unharmed, I was glad for that.

The food arrived delivered nice and hot, we don’t have too many places that deliver Chinese, but this place has very good food, so Lillian and I had dinner and over dinner I told her about the meeting and my work. My neighbor, he of the rampaging tree limb came over to see how I was doing and saw the cleaned up aftermath, he had an idea it was going to be a very big series of bills, and in front of Lillian said for me to give him copies the bills for all the damage that was repaired and any items that had to be replaced.

He asked if I have to stay in a hotel and I said no the rest of the house was fine it was just this one room, I told him what had been broken and damaged and he saw the boxes of broken things and the furniture so I just hope he follows through on this, he is a lawyer, so I’ll be taking more pictures now that I can see the damage more clearly, but I don’t think I’ll ask for anything for the knick knacks, but everything else, well it was his tree branch.

After he left Lillian reminded me about the upcoming Friends of the Library book sale and that I had to take her, I told her I would take her to that if she would come with me to the Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Cow Palace the next day and help me and my friend Yoshi with going over the room very thoroughly on Sunday to make sure there was no more broken glass and other stuff. She was very happy to do that, and I promised her that as soon as my new sliding glass door was installed and the hardwood floors redone we’d go shopping for drapes, curtains, and other things. She loves shopping.

After dinner since I didn’t want to use my living room, we went over to Lillian’s place and watched a DVD of this comic ventriloquist who has a vent doll called “Ahmed the Dead Terrorist” I never laughed so hard in my life and this was one of those occasions where laughter is the best medicine.

So now the glass man is here, and Lillian is coming over to take over while I go to work and put in a long day to make money to pay for the repairs while I wait on the insurance companies to repay me. Ahhh Life can be sooooo interesting. And I think Dinner will be Chinese again.

More Later Sweet Things.