well, maybe things will work out for you

To quote my father. Who used to say that to us pretty regularly. Using a very dubious tone. I think things may actually be working out at last, though. I’ve had the car back for a week and it seems fine, and the house trauma is….{drum roll} OVER!!! As of yesterday. Except for the rug in the basement being ripped up and piled in a corner, and the sea of mud around the side and back of the house which will be there till it quits raining, which is probably going to be another fifty years or so the way things are looking weatherwise. And the piles of everything that was in the basement scattered all over the rest of the house now so there’s a few months of organizing to do.

Oh, and the big steel thing holding up the basement wall which is the wrong big steel thing and should have been an MC something steel channel but was in fact a plain old C channel and although if it were horizontal it wouldn’t matter but it’s vertical and it does matter because the plain old C channel is not as strong as the MC channel. Which was in fact specified on the invoice when it was ordered so the shop gave them the wrong thing, intentionally or accidentally. No, I really don’t have any idea what I’m talking about, but fortunately the structural engineer does and he discovered it. So they’ve got to come replace it at some point, but it’s just kind of bolted to the wall so won’t be a big deal to replace.

The structural engineer also had the foreman jack the house up around two inches, so now it’s almost level and the slant is hardly noticeable – you don’t feel like you’re going to topple through the patio door and off the deck when you walk across the livingroom anymore! This is quite exciting, since it’s the one visible improvement we have after spending all this horrific amount of money. We have scads of non-visible improvement, like the house will no longer continue to settle and shift until it is uninhabitable and must be condemned, but nothing you can actually see, except the noticeable closer-to-level-ness. Which is more something you can feel. Or, really, not feel. There’s still some slant but it’s like it was when we bought it. More charming than disturbing.

So, it’s finally over – hard to believe. And… best of all…. Stella gets to come home tomorrow! We actually started to go get her tonight, after work, but I never could get in touch with Kim and I was afraid she was working tonight so didn’t want to go down there and then not be able to get in the house. And I tried to call her last night and couldn’t get her or leave a message because she will NEVER clean out her voicemail, so her home phone voicemail is always full and her cell phone voicemail is always full and it’s kind of annoying if I really need to talk to her. Finally got her today – kind of – but never could get beyond "Hi, we’re coming down toni…alfas 9aoie oaurawpe upu auapoaje ….." and then we’d get cut off. Hours later finally got enough of a connection to find out she’s in Franklin, of all places – there’s nothing but tourist trap "gem mines" in Franklin – and she was supposed to call me back tonight but never has. But, whatever. She’s off tomorrow, but going to Bele Chere , which is French for "horrendous crowds, overpriced food, even more overpriced crafts, shuttle buses, music you don’t care anything about, and no alcohol. And nightmare crowds. And no alcohol."

Bele Chere is actually a really big deal, and used to be a lot of fun. Before it became a big deal, causing it to become overpriced and ridiculously crowded. But my point was we want to avoid Bele Chere at all costs, so I’m not sure what we’ll do – but we’ll get Stella somehow, finally!!! 

And now I really must go. Job is still wonderful, and my predecessor’s last day was today. It was sad, but also good since now I’ll have my own space and not be shifting desks around and sharing a computer. Good stories are already developing, too. But more on that later.