One Step Closer

Today we inched a wee bit closer to sealing the deal with the house. I had to sign a bunch of paperwork and give it to my mortgage lady. It was basically a lot of disclosures and financial statements and whatnot. It was fun because I finally got to meet Mortgage Lady, who has been a treat to work with for her efficiency and knowledge - she's been great.

We talked about interest rates too. Today was the first day I could lock in a rate, as you can do that only thirty days before closing. Today it was at six and one quarter, which is higher than it was last week at five-point-eight. Everyone tells me the interest rates will drop after month-end, so I'm waiting. I'm just crossing my fingers that Greenspan won't come out and give one of his little 'talks.' Even before I was in the house market, he has always been quite reluctant to acknowledge the great rates with this latest housing boom. All he can muster is that it isn't going to last forever, and the bubble will eventually burst. What a party pooper.

I also got another couple of referrals to check out regarding homeowners' insurance. The first two were in the same price neighborhood but my mortgage lady (same one) said they seemed a bit high - to the tune of thirty dollars too high. She gave me a few names I'm definitely going to call upon tomorrow. The good news is either way I'll be getting equity instead of thirty days' priveledge of living somewhere.

Mortgage Lady also told me this has been a really good transaction thus far and that we are WAY ahead of schedule. She complimented me by saying she wished everyone were as on-top of their homebuying tasks as am I. My real estate agent had said the same thing a few days earlier, and I can't help but think either everyone else is completely lost and can't get their stuff together or they are just saying this to be nice. Then I thought about why I have been so quick to get things done - we still have a whole month before closing and we're almost done with all the administrative tasks. I've concluded it's probably because I'm so damned nervous about this whole thing. There's just something about going so far into debt, getting approved, picking the right neighborhood, the right school districts (resale value), the right quality structure, a trustworthy real-estate agent, mortgage lady, insurance underwriter, attorney, etc, etc... It's enough to make me grow a few gray ones.

But then I relax, think about that big back yard, a grill, a football game, a couple of cold ones and a couple more good friends all enjoying the break-'er-in party. Can't wait.

Congress And John McCain - The Game Remains A Game

BRAVES CLINCH! BRAVES CLINCH!

Ahem. That's fourteen in a row.

Let's see if we can get anything done in the post season this year.

The good news comes in the midst of an unsettling baseball week. I mean, how often is it that John McCain gets on SportsCenter? I must say, I called this one. See the past post I wrote about what was going to happen to the suspensions for steroid use. The Commish has proposed 50 games, and the players union proposed they'd be "willing to accept" harsher penalties. What's Congress' response? They seem amused by the fact a baseball players' union is even trying to attempt to negotiate with them. It's no play ball in this case guys. McCain was hinting at the fact that he was more concerned with three strikes and your out rather than whether or not its a twenty or fifty game suspension for the first offense.

What's more amusing is the union's response (which has been unbelievably delayed for SO long) comes just one day before the congressional committee's hearing, which of course McCain chairs.

It really is cracking me up. Here we have a group of distinguished gentlemen (no jokes please) who are voting on things such as healthcare reform, hurricanes, wars in all parts of the world, most favored nations, and what the hell to do about the UN, when along comes a bunch of the same damn athletes who used to make fun of guys like these in high school thinking they can debate with them, that they have half the intelligence to even negotiate with these guys, saying they are "willing to accept" harsher punishments. The MLBPA is clearly out of their league. You can just see it in McCain's amused eyes, "By God, you'll do what the hell we tell you to do or there will BE NO union, no league, no millions, .....just foreclosed-on MTV cribs."

And then came the response from McCain regarding the Palmeiro situation. I still hold my ground on this one. My ground is I don't know how to feel. I'm pissed at him, but I still have this guy's 1988 Donruss baseball card in a scrapbook from when I was a kid. How can you hate that? You can hate it by not voting him into the Hall of Fame. Mr. 3000 hits, no hall of fame. Go sit in the eternal dugout with Pete Rose. Now he's only made it worse by blaming Tejada. Just go home man, and don't come back until it's with an apology.

Oh what a week. The sport is in some dark days right now, and this is coming from a baseball freak. I listen to my podcasts: MLB daily, and also the ESPN radio podcast - and instead of talking about the amazing 51 homers Andruw Jones is hitting, the fourteen straight division titles, the Boston/New York showdown..again, the Angels scrapping down to the wire victory, the Indians' hysterical turnaround, the magic being thrown off the mound by old timers Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson, the 47 year old phenom Julio Franco, Barry pumping life back into the Giants - and fastballs -and all the great stuff in baseball this year, we are being forced to talk about the cheaters. The ones who are making our American game corrupt, impure and comical. It's just not right.

I'll be in favor of whatever punishment Congress imposes so long as the game remains the game. In the meantime, I'll be watching re-runs of real baseball. I've got the Little League World Series on DVR, Bull Durham on HBO, and The Natural on Showtime.

Good Times, GO VOLS - Not Another Weekend Post

I know I know. I have become somewhat of a weekend blogger. I"m sorry. I've got a lot going on. Fine....I'll talk about Monday too.

Saturday we did absolutely nothing. With the recently rather large purchase (about 1800 sq ft) we are in a bit of a pickle. We are broke. Well, at least until Friday. I've spent a lot of money to get this ball rolling. A thousand bucks of 'earnest money,' another two-hundred for the inspection, all my bills...it adds up. With that said, Saturday we kicked back, watched football and enjoyed the rainy yucky day inside.

Saturday night was AWESOME. We went to see Blue Highway. These guys have been one of my favorite bands for a long time, and to see them play in person was a real treat. I bought tickets shortly after they were available, and given the area I'm in bluegrass isn't exactly the most popular genre of music. We sat on the third row, just to the right of center stage (in the center section of course). Man that was great. We ended up buying their latest CD titled Marbletown. And it is great too. Go Blue Highway!

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday with one exception; no cool band. We didn't do a thing, and we struggled with being in relax mode for so long. It's funny, really. All week long we rush and we rush to get everything done so we can enjoy the weekend. But, when the weekend comes we can't turn it off. This weekend we were forced to, and I have to say, it feels nice on Monday when you really are rested. We did watch the movie from Netflix John Q. I really liked it. It made a pretty good point about how screwed up our healthcare system really is. Sunday night we just kept on watching T.V.

Ok, since this is NOT a weekend blogger....Monday was one awesome day. Work sucked, of course, because it was work. The day was awesome because the VOLS made one of the most impressive and memorable comebacks in school history Monday night. The game had been postponed to yesterday due to yet another hurricane. For the first time in thirty-five years, the Vols had to travel on the same day they played. Bad sign. First half we went down twenty one to nothing. Second half we tied it up at twenty-four. Overtime baby! LSU takes it in but can't get the TD. They had to settle for the field goal. All that's left is for Riggs to take over - he did - give him six - we win! Obviously, I was at work. However, I didn't do much work. We have a big screen TV in the break room and that's where I 'worked.' GO VOLS.

Monday was also the day I had to send the list of repairs I want made to the house before I buy. The seller has given us a one thousand dollar allowance for repairs. So I came up with my prioritized list based on the results of the inspection. No big deal, A/C, heating system, paint under the gutters, brick moulding - we've been through this before. See whatever previous post it was that had all that in it - if you're interested.

So, it was a good weekend plus Monday all in all. We saved money, we saw Blue Highway live, we watched a movie, the VOLS won, and although the Braves lost they could win the division today with a win - which will definitely warrant another post - and we are yet one step closer to getting all this house stuff completed so we can start the fun part, moving. Good times, good times.

Pizza and beer for anyone who wants to help move!

Inspect and Appraise

At 8:30 in the morning the inspection and appraisal of my future home began. My real estate agent got there to let them in, and had informed me I need not be there right at 8:30. I showed up at nine.

It was nice to be in the house again and to get another look. The yard is immense, and I can't help but think about those stifling hot July days next year on which I will be mowing the lawn. Maybe I'll be that annoying neighbor who mows the lawn during prime time.

At any rate, the inspection went quite well. Nothing was found wrong with the property that wasn't normal or expected. The inspector stated the things he's found wrong with this house are exactly what he finds with nine out of every ten he inspects.

The air conditioner unit needs to be serviced and cleaned, as the coils are dirty. The roof has some exposed nail heads which need to be sealed. There is a couple of spots where a vent touches shingle and wood which needs to be cut back in the attic. The jacuzzi drains slowly. One of the sinks is missing a stopper. A spot in the master shower needs to be sealed. The back yard wooden fence has a gate that is kind of shoddy - in my opinion it probably needs to be replaced. There are two windows that have water damage in the moulding - two pieces of wood need to be replaced. You get the picture? There is nothing extremely or expensively wrong with it, but as it is a lived-in house a good inspector can find a lot in want of reparation.

By 11:00 everything was done and I was headed back to the apartment. I made sure to snap a quick shot of the "SOLD" sign in the front yard. Then it was off to work - which was terrible yesterday for completely idiotic reasons. We had system problems, my boss is, well, a boss, and it ended up being a good twelve hour day on top of having been up and at 'em since before nine that morning. Hmmm, I woke up with a headache this morning.

Regardless of the day, I have an inspected and appraised house. Poop on work.

On The Corner Of A Cove

What a weekend! As I wake up Tuesday morning and some of this stuff starts to sink in, I look back and wonder what exactly the hell I just did.

I'll get to that part in just a minute. Right after I sulk a bit about the Vols losing to Florida. I mean, could we give them anything else? How about a win...o.k., we'll take it. I had a great time watching the game and the annual second-game TN/FL frenzy always marks the real start of our college football season, fall, cooler weather, holidays, MLB playoffs....

So, A and I have been mulling over our apartment lately. It's a really nice place, but it is an apartment. If you've ever lived in an apartment you know they aren't built with extraordinary quality parts in most cases and things tend to break. Like the A/C in July. The carpet is cheap, the paint marks up, etc, etc... Then you get the neighbors. A lady who lived across from us was really nice to us all the time; she woke up one morning to some official person with a gun serving her some type of notice from the apartment complex. We never saw her again. And of course there's the rug rats who like to see how loud they can yell before ten in the morning, but only on Saturdays and Sundays. How could I forget the guy who drives this 80s model beat-up pickup truck with flowmasters on it who refuses to drive in the normal entrance. He takes off through the field with his loud hunk and comes out right smack behind where we have to park. I love the cakes and layers of mud that have accumulated in our lot now. It looks like a construction site. I have hundreds more examples. There's the lady across the parking lot from us on the third floor who likes to drop her full trash bags off the balcony and down to the ground from three stories up. Then there's the guy who yells cuss words at the little kiddies I was talking about and any dog who barks before nine am. It's funny really. All's quiet in the complex. The sun glistens to welcome a new day. A dog playfully barks. A man yells SHUT THE *@#* UP.

Recently I was under the impression I was going to move soon with work. That didn't happen. The result was that I have been paying month-to-month rent for quite some time now.

Last Friday I spoke with my VP and asked if I was safe in assuming I was going to be here for at least two more years. I am enthusiastically "rock solid." Great.

I spoke with one of my peers at work who's sister is in the home loan business. That afternoon I was approved and was referred an agent by the mortgage lady. We looked at houses Saturday...all day.

No go. There was nothing in the area we like in my price range. We tell our agent what we'd like and she tells us to go look in a particular neighborhood nearby. We did.

There it was. The house. It sits on top of a 'hill' in the neighborhood on the corner of a cove. It struck A and me like a bolt of lightning all at once. We made an appointment with our agent to look at it Sunday afternoon.

We put a contract on the house, right there in the eat-in kitchen, and if all goes well we are closing at the end of next month and will take possession the day before Halloween.

At the risk of being blasphemous, somehow the weekend loss to the Gators seems to be less painful.

So now I'm just a busy bee. I've got inspectors to inspect, appraisers to appraise, paint to buy, furniture to wish for, a new T.V. to buy, a bedroom I have no idea what to do with, a dining room that will end up being an office most likely because hey, we don't have anything to dine ON, a lawnmower to lawnmow the huge yard I will have to take care of, and a ton of other 'little' things to do.

It's a weird time. With all the crazy stuff going on with work and the house and a huge amount of debt, my stomach has been in knots. Everyone keeps telling me I'm making a great investment - which I know I am. A and I are both so excited, and we've been challenged to fall asleep for thinking about the house. There's just something about laying all that money on the table and taking on so much more responsibility. I've got crap I have to take care of now. I can't just call the office and tell them to come fix a crappy air conditioner or have them tell some crazy man to stop yelling at kids.

I need to go. I have to make a trip to Home Depot and figure out what the hell I'm doing.

The Shortened Weekend

I guess the weekend post has been delayed so much because the weekend didn't feel like a weekend at all.

I had to work on Saturday. We have been extremely heavy on our inbound side, so I brought in a crew to catch up and get current - as well as be on call for any emergency hurricane-related orders. I went in around 9:30 am, workers came in at ten, and I let everybody leave at around four. We got a lot done.

Enough about work. Saturday afternoon I came back home and vegged out on the couch, watching college football the rest of the evening. It was AWESOME. Man I love college football. I'm not much of a pro football fan, but I enjoy watching my alma mater kick everyone's ass, usually. We'll see this weekend when they go to Gainesville how good they really are. Somewhere in the midst of all the football watching A squeezed in a trip to Outback for us. It was great food, but I had forgotten how completely normal their menu is and how overpriced they are.

Sunday morning I get a wake-up call from my work friend to go play golf with him. I jumped in the shower, threw on some clothes, grabbed my new clubs - which I love - and headed to the course. I played pretty well and the weather has cooled down just a tad, so it was nice. I'd never played the course either, so it was good to get a new round of eighteen. Sunday afternoon I came back home and A and I hung out. We sat around and watched T.V. Actually, we watched the movie The Incredibes. It was way cool. I just love Pixar. I wonder how good they'll be after the Disney split. I give it five stars. We also watched Sleepy Hollow, of course from Netflix. It was o.k. It was the one from several years ago with Johnny Depp - a bit weird but hey, it's sleepy hollow.

Then, it's back to work all of a sudden, and it's already Tuesday.

I need a vacation. I think I'm planning to take a few days in early October to make up for the lost Labor Day weekend holiday I had planned, and which Katrina desposed of.

Oh, Dreadful Clock Alarm

Yuk! Yuk, yuk, yuk, yuk, yuk!

I have to go to a training class today that starts at 8:30 in the AM. As a night owl, I haven't had to use that ugly piece of machinery they call an alarm clock in a couple of years. Too bad I remembered how. Now I know why I hated that thing so much.

Anyway, after waking up, and of course strapping on the I.V. that was injecting caffeine, I started reading the news. A man by the name of Aaron Broussard, a President of one of the parishes in Louisiana was quoted on CBS' Early Show. It was a damn good quote:

"Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."

Now I like that one. Problem is, he was mainly complaining about the bureaucracy - and that in itself dictates that it is extremely difficult to identify the "idiot."

Why is it so much easier to wake up early when I'm going to play golf instead of sit in an eight hour training class?

Katrina, You Bitch

Labor day weekend didn't end up being half of what I had expected. A downer really, but it was for a good cause - sort of.

I originally planned on making a four day weekend out of the holiday, taking Tuesday off after the given Labor Day Monday. I was headed back east to a camp reunion in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where I spent the summers of my college days working as a camp counselor. And yes, to those of you that are wondering, it is the perfect summer job. Hell, it's the perfect job for that matter.

Then reality struck. As we all are too much aware, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast last week. The result has been devastating beyond belief - and seems only recently to have gotten any better whatsoever. At any rate, (to see my real opinion on this mess see the previous post, "Wake Up") the effects of the storm on my life were minimal to say the least, but Katrina did put a damper on what would have been a happy time under normal circumstances. With a hauntingly real shortage of gasoline, and a need here for me to stay and help in the small way I can, I begrudgingly admitted to myself it was the wiser decision to stay put. A 500 + mile drive is not the type of adventure one wants to embark on when it starts with a challenge to fill up the tank.

I work for a healthcare company, and I must say we were excellent in putting together emergency volunteer crews to fill orders over the holiday weekend - all at the last minute. (Please excuse the bragging) We were able to have a small crew every day, Saturday, Sunday, and today, to fill the desperate orders that kept several field hospitals down in the New Orleans area up and running. Today at least, I am proud to be working for an organization in a position to help. At the beginning of the post I said it was for a "good cause - sort of." I said that because today was my day to cover the crew, and no emergency orders were transmitted. I guess the important thing was that we were there.

So, not being able to go home A and I tried to make the most of the weekend. Saturday marked the beginning of college football. Now normally I would be going nuts about this and it would dominate my posts, but with all that's going on it doesn't seem right. The VOLS won, and that made my day. I went over to a work friend's house to watch it and we had a blast. Saturday night we sat around and watched several other games and then went to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Sunday was another day of relaxation. We watched the Braves, cleaned up the apartment, and watched Finding Neverland. It was actually a pretty damn good movie. It is worth watching if you haven't seen it, and it wasn't exactly about what I thought it was going to be - another version of Peter Pan it was not. Sunday night we went downtown to our favorite watering hole and watched the end of the Virginia Tech/N.C. State game. Good times.

And of course today. We kicked off the morning by watching Spanglish, it was a smart film. I ended up really enjoying it, but the ending was kind of weak. Like I said, it was smart. Fast forward a couple of hours: It was my day to go in and cover the Katrina orders that didn't end up happening. I waited around for about forty five minutes or so and then turned everyone loose. I wasn't there for over an hour and a half. Meanwhile, A was chipping in and volunteering her efforts towards relief by manning the phones of various hotlines set up for victims from 4 pm until 8 pm. Good job A, I'm proud of you! So what did I do with the free time? I played nine holes of golf and very much enjoyed the late afternoon relaxation, all by myself. It was very calming.

Tonight we've basically ended the weekend on a slow note. We ate sushi and watched the FSU/Miami game. A fell asleep on the couch and I was glued to the T.V.

And that about does it for the weekend. Everything is going great except for the fact I missed out on family and friends over the weekend, but if that's all I have to complain about with all the horrible stuff going on I should consider myself blessed. I'm still horrified by the lack of coordination and logistics by this whole 'relief' effort. The shortfalls just keep getting worse, and it looks as if more and more it could have been at least partly avoided. What a disaster.

Wake Up!

I've been reading article after article about the situation on the Gulf Coast, particularly in New Orleans.

There have been reports of ambulances being shot at, rescuers being shot at, and an entire host of stores being looted completely. I've seen pictures of kids taking T.V.s out of stores. What the hell are you going to do with a T.V. in twenty feet of water? Wal-Mart opened its doors to victims for anything they needed. The first thing to go? The guns. A bunch of thugs went in and took all the guns. It's ridiculous. At this point it's so bad I have been reading reports of the mayor tasking the local police force with stopping the looting as opposed to saving people's lives. To get into a particular Rite-Aid, one idiot stole a forklift, drove it four blocks, and parked it inside the front door. You can imagine what happened after that.

There have been other reports of people taking safeguarding their homes and businesses into their own hands. One man had his own guns and was shooting at these punks trying to rob him. Good for him. He said two kids with machetes came up to him and said they wanted his generator. He responded with several reports from a .357. They scattered.

Martial law? What law is there at all? At first I was horrified that a state of martial law was declared, but in light of this stinking cesspool of humanity I now know why. In New York during 9/11 we had reports of assistance, of firefighters risking their lives to save others. People bonded together and there was a new sense of unity for everyone - even if only short-lived. With New Orleans, people aren't helping each other. They are shooting at red cross workers and ambulances. This is absolutely infuriating. Why would anyone do that?

Then you move to the effect this is having on the rest of the country. These greedy oil executives are chomping at the bits. Now they get their chance to play OPEC and cut down on oil production. Here in the mid-south as of last night gas prices were soaring to well over three dollars a gallon, with stations running out of gas all over the region. At least the feds decided to dip into the emergency reserve, which limited the damage. This situation is almost as bad as the looters, only this one involves wearing a suit. They say we have a shortage, that the Mississippi river is low due to a drought and is preventing barges from carrying as much oil. Now add the stoppage of production in the gulf, along with refinery problems, and we have a major national crisis looming. It's called wag-the-dog.

I could go on and on but I won't. I must comment however, on how this whole situation is being handled. It's almost as if the entire region is in chaos - even the officials. The Superdome residents were not allowed to leave, and there was no security inside. There have been reports of rapes, suicides, robbings, and a whole mess of other crimes taking place in the make-shift shelter. How do officials respond? There is no security force whatsoever, and people were not allowed to leave the building. Trash was piled up inside, toilets backed up and overflowed, and the heat continued to rise inside as there was no electricity at all. Great place, one man who had spent time in prison said the Superdome was worse than prison. At least in prison they have toilets and showers.

This is a horrible situation all around. On one hand it is hard to fathom how to provide any security, but on the other it is hard to fathom how we were not - at all - for a long period of time. And that's the situation. There is no security, no plan of action, no nothing. Just a mandate to get out. I guess that's the best plan at this point, get the hell out. I would advise never going back. Houston has done a wonderful job opening its gates, and I hope more cities continue to do the same. The fewer people left in New Orleans the better. Most of those that remain are up to no good anyway. And to make matters worse, we have huge commercial acts of exploitation, like the oil industry's.

Let's all hope for the best, and for my part I will send a donation to the Red Cross. Maybe they can buy some bullet proof vests and armoured vehicles with it. I guess when I look at the big picture I realize there is a huge need for society to wake up and look at what we are really doing to each other. In light of the worst natural disaster in a century we are talking about robbing a Wal-Mart instead of helping the helpless. We use this as an excuse to raise prices on everything from coffee to gas, and anything in between. Wake up people. Take a hit to your precious bottom line for once, and lend a helping hand.