Month: March 2018

It’s 8 am. Emily is off to work. I finished breakfast. I had the little chocolate donuts. Love em. There is paraffin in the chocolate to keep them from melting at room temp. Really. Love them. I weighed today. 155.2 lbs. I deserve donuts.

I have a client dropping by at 9. Gotta shower and shave so I am ready to go. So what do I do first, sit and drink coffee and watch lame morning TV. And blog. The blogging is worthwhile. The TV show not so much.

Going to head to shower. Don’t want to greet the clients while naked and soapy. Though they may like it. No.

Clients came by. They were upset that their estimated taxes were so high. Weird. I told them to not pay the estimates if they did not like them. But clients are a pain. They wanted to change several deductions too. Ok. We amend the return.

Off to work. Another client had called to complain about some non issue. Which did not require a fix. But she took out her anger? on my employee who answered the phone. People get upset when they owe money and are quite irrational.

Spent the rest of the day and evening doing taxes. Not very exciting. Went home around 1115 pm. Dinner at midnight. 5 and a half hours sleep. Same as every other day.

Thursday was a wash, rinse, repeat of Wednesday. You expected different? The days are cookie cutter at best. I just work. Do the same things at the same time every day. One difference. I am very close to being caught up so I went home early, before 11. I had dinner and was in bed by 1145. Amazing. I have 5 appointments on Friday. So much for being caught up.

It is Sunday. I have only skipped one day and it was boring. On Saturday I got to work in the am. I left at 1115 pm. See, boring. One visitor, a crazy winery guy. Crazy. He spent an hour in the office. On a Saturday.

Today was half a day off. I slept as late as possible considering I was up till one am. Leisurely morning and leisurely breakfast. A few household chores. Off to work and there by noon. And work. Prep tax returns. But only till 530. Then home. Em and I will be having dinner together, first time in two weeks. I only see her for an hour in the morning usually.

Btw, no visitors at work. I had a long call with dad. Marika called too and we had a nice talk about starting a winery and venue for entertainment. We identified a property that looks good. Dreams are fun. They never go bad.

I am home now, got home at 6 or so. We did a few more chores and rearranged the front room. And brought in two pieces of furniture. The coffee table is in the front room now. My feet are on it. It doubles as an ottoman and I built it for that. It’s not be of my favorite pieces. I think my design was excellent. If I say so myself.

We get to have dinner together. Home made dinner even. Just burgers but so what. At least I’m not eating at midnight.

We had cocktails too. Emily had two. My limit is one. She is a little loopy. I mean more than usual.

Dinner was great. I think mostly because it’s not midnight and we are eating it together not a novel idea, but a novel idea.

I may get a good nights sleep too. Hard to avoid since I’m exhausted.

It’s Monday am. I did not get a lot of sleep. Emily wanted to watch tv till midnight. So I was awake. No rest for the weary.

Just realized I have a dr appt in 50 mins. I think I better shower and dress. Quick.

Late to the dr appt. Marika had an appointment as well but she forgot. Surprise. Went thru usual Dr crapola. I am cured!! Right.

Went to work. Prepared taxes for twelve hours. Met with clients through out the day. Spoke on the phone. I know. You want to be me. Personally, some days, I would rather work at the sewage treatment plant.

Left work at 1130. Pm. Home. Dinner. Up in 5 hours. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

After

Wow. It’s been seven days since my last post. Maybe I should say, forgive me father for I have sinned it has been seven days since my last post…Maybe. I have not skipped a week in, like, ever. Please forgive me as I have forgiven myself. Do you see the theme so far?

In the last seven days we finished the estate sale, cleaned out all leftover crap post sale, cleaned the house, made minor repairs and today I am moving the last couple things out of the old house to storage. Tomorrow I hand off the keys to new owner Rich. And we are done. End of an era. Emily is a bit sad about it. I really don’t care that much. I have moved many times in my life and I usually don’t miss the old address.

Right now I am sitting in my new living room. The landlords handyman was supposed to be here at 8 and he is late. I went out to put some stuff in my car and he pulled up right then. He came in and announced what he was fixing from my list. Turns out the property manager thinks a half working ice maker is just grand. Amazing. But now I remember why I never liked any of my former landlords. They suck.

Left the guy to his own devices and drove off to the old place. I stopped at the German bakery and bought pretzels for the office. I am a wonderful boss. Ask me sometime. I will tell you.

I have a nine o’clock appointment at the old house with a guy who has a trailer. This is how we move heavy large things like a full size arcade Frogger to storage. We also had a couple other things for the dump. Good news, when I got to the house, one of the estate sale customers was there finally picking up his shelves. Good thing, they were headed to the dump today. So we got all loaded up and went to the storage unit. I have two units, both 10×20, and I really need to throw more crap out. Or maybe invite the storage wars guys over to help. I don’t know. I have gotten rid of so much stuff in this move either thrown out, given away or sold at the estate sale. Does not mean I won’t get rid of more. I really want to get down to zero.

Anyhow, we got to storage and unloaded. He left for ge dump and I headed for the other dump (my office).

My day was barrels of fun and raucous action. Not. I sat down and prepared to returns till 1109pm. About 12.5 hours. No time off for good behavior.

The drive home was fantastic. Not. Though it did start to rain when I got a couple miles out from home. That was fun.

Really fantastic news, our friend Ana made us dinner. Some fried and lightly breaded chicken filets with cheesy noodles. Tasty. And, there is an and, Emily brought home leftovers from her dinner out with friend Melissa. A pile of excellent garlic fries and a taco. The taco was great. See, there was a reward at the end of the day for my Christian behavior and thoughts. Wait. That can’t be it. Well, I was rewarded.

I am going to bed. Been up since 6 and it’s 1225. And I took the time to blog the day because I was chastised by a reader for taking time off for work and moving. I am such a thoughtless jerk. Fortunately I am still good looking.

It’s Wednesday. Where do the days go. Well, they go by, one by one, filled with the mundane and ordinary movements of every day. So, that’s my Saturday through Tuesday whence I skipped blogging.

Past four days same crap. Moving, setting up the estate sale and trying to work and have appointments and get paid. From 6am to midnight every day. I will spare you the details. It is a grind. And a half.

Today I weighed 154lbs. I celebrated by getting a pastry at the German bakery along with my coffee. On the edge, as always. I had them nuke my java, it’s never hot enough for me. And, if u had not noticed, we still have no coffee maker in place. Which explains my trip to the local bakery.

I am sitting in my car in the open garage, having just returned, ate my pastry (hazelnut) and drinking coffee. The heater is on, and it’s cold outside. I am gonna load up my car to take crap to sale. It starts tomorrow. This is the last shot at it. We near the end on one thing. I think we will clear 15 to 20k on the sale. That would be sweet. Pay for the move, the storage, and next move. Gotta love that.

And, funny thing, the guy running the sale made the first purchase. He found an old rifle stuffed in the wood pile and had to have it. By old, over 100 yeas old. $100 to me. Things look good there finally.

Skip a few days, it’s friday morning. I am so busy I don’t blog. Marika came home last night and we fleshed out our itinerary for the big Europe trip this summer. We sat and followed a real paper map from our arrival through five countries. We figure 7 days in each country will do it. Em and I purchased our tickets too. Now we are committed. Or should be committed. I am switching gears. Going to start with the real Friday in another post.

Today is Friday at 922. Pm. I missed yesterday’s blog. This move is killing me. I can’t get time for anything, even the important stuff. Like blogging.

We really need to get all our boxes emptied. All of the stuff we use every day is still boxed. I feel like I am limping through the house, missing a leg. We plan on going through all the boxes tomorrow to decide on keep, sell etc.

I hate moving.

This morning, again, Emily and I went out for coffee. We have no coffee maker. Again we limp. I don’t make lunch for her, we have no food. I have no utensils to make any food. We have not made a meal all week.

So we fend for ourselves. I have enough bars to feed me all day and Emily goes out to lunch every day.

I went by the old house before going to work. The movers, it turns out, missed a few cabinets. I found all the stuff that was missed.

I went to the car repair next. They still have my car for maintenance. I managed to transfer all the stuff from the loaner to mine. Also, I should mention, my car was full of some of the missing essentials I had picked up on Tuesday. All my shaving supplies, my bathrobe, TP, all the good stuff. Plus some of Emilys as well. Took 20 minutes to get the whole transaction done. Long enough I was late for my first appointment of the day. Which ran into the next appointment and so on till I my last one.

The day was all appointments. I managed to finish only one return. Good thing it was worth $2k. It will keep me in groceries for awhile.

I did accomplish a few administrative tasks. And left work at about 6 or so. I went home or tried too. I took the old exit when I came up on it. Old habit. When I got straightened out I drove to vacaville and missed both of my exits. So I took a different one.

I got home and unpacked my car. Just like every night this week. Good news, friend of Emilys made dinner for us. So we didn’t have to go out. Food was pretty good. I also opened the bottle of wine my appointment from yesterday gave me. An ok Cabernet. Prob taste better tomorrow after it breathes for awhile. Dinner was awesome, we were both quite hungry.

We had four boxes marked “bar glasses” in he kitchen. After dinner I cleaned the bar and I unpacked the boxes and set up the bar, sans booze. We are getting there, bit by bit.

We still have no TV so we went to bed and watched a TV show on the computer for an hour. Then lights out.

We slept 30 mins past the alarm this morning. I should mention Emily has been sick with a flu/cold thing since Sunday and is still working. She is cray cray.

Finally out of bed. There is enough organization that we can feed dogs and us and shower and dress without once yelling “where is my…” so things are going well.

Today, on my out, I stopped for coffee at Pure Grains Bakery. I know, earth shattering. But hear me out. Years ago, and for many years, we used to come by here for ye pastry’s they make. The place is off the beaten path a bit but we had found it because Emily worked out nearby. She stopped using that gym and we quit the bakery. Well, I now drive right past it, within 50 feet, twice a day. Since we have no coffee maker, I stopped therefor the first time in 10 years. I went on a little spree, bear claw, marble cake, three pretzels, coffee. Ok. A big spree. I am going to have to go a little Soup Nazi on myself. No pastries, two years!! Great place. Be back for coffee in am.

Next stop, old house. I can not get the hell out of here. It’s like The Godfather, Michael screams “every time I try to leave they keep pulling me back in..”. Dramatic.

I spent a couple hours working on packing. No, really. It’s gonna drag over to tomorrow it sounds like. My mover is actually moving now too. He has to pack his house. It eats into his work day. At least we understand each other. But he believes he will be out Thursday early. Bout damn time.

I have been in contact every day with Granite Bay Estate Sales. They are worried I won’t be ready for the sale. They need to relax. Hey Tim, I’m ready, relax. Our sale is next Thursday through Saturday. I can hardly wait. That is the END of moving. Plus a little walk around money and $$ for mover Todd. And less to do every day. I think that’s a good thing.

I’m not sure I mentioned yet. This morning my loaner car was dead in the garage. Wonderful. The only good thing was it died at home. Everyone wants that. I have road service on my insurance, I called and they set it up. I got text messages from the company. They said 35 mins. I got an auto call later, voice says less than 5 mins so don’t call. Well, 15 mins later I called. Got the driver. He apologized for the whole bs system. He knew it would be 1 hour +. Somehow their system cant convey the truth. So I sat over an hour. He got here and I started the car. Easy peasy. Driver told me that he jumps a lot of brand new cars, this one has 7k miles, because they sit on a lot for 30 days without any long drives to recharge battery. Then placed in service and new owner does no long drives and bam! the battery craps. New knowledge, day is no longer a waste. This was the start of my day. So move this paragraph back in my day. In your mind.

After I left the house (old), missing first appointment, I headed to office for the balance of my day. I have more appointments and the usual. Life does not change, it just moves and gets different. I was at work till 7 I think, not to late. Again, doing that voodoo that do so well. Anyone watching would be asleep in moments. You say no way? Sorry, you are wrong. I have had, over the years, more than one person fall asleep in the office during an appointment. I wish I could do that at the doctors about the time he wants to make me a finger puppet. It would be useful.

I did go straight home. Old home. What else do I have to do? Picked up a few things and headed to new home.

Emily seems better. That’s nice. She had already eaten, it’s late. I ate leftovers since we have not made dinner here yet. Someday. We chatted for 10 mins and went to bed. Again, we live on the edge. It’s tiring there.

So, first time ever, I skipped blogging completely two days in a row, Sunday and Monday. Forgive me, but I am really trying to move my household and still hold on to work that needs to be done. Something had to give. It was you.

Sunday I spent at work trying very hard to get tax returns out the door. It is very tough to complete them and move them out at times. Other times I may finish 20 in a day. Weird business. Home late and spent a couple hours packing. We have too much crap. Emily had spent the day packing and she was in bed. Asleep. Which is where I went too.

Early Monday morn, Todd and the crew front All Pro Moving showed up. Todd has moved me three times and my office twice. He is actually my oldest client, I signed him up back in July 93. Sadly, he is moving himself to Ohio at the end of this month and quitting the Moving biz. It’s truly sad to see him go.

The guys worked all day and hauled a few loads to the house and a couple to storage. They also packed as well. Pack and move is the way to go.

Emily started packing again when she got home from work. Me to. It’s all we do.

I should mention how difficult this move is. Going from 4000+ sf down to 1100sf is a pain. Also, we are having an estate sale after all the stuff we want is out of here. That’s a pain. First Emily and I have to agree, keep or sell. Then we have tell movers what is staying and what is going to new house and what to storage. So there is a mess of things all over the house staying there for sale. So, in a normal move, an empty room means done. But this time it’s impossible to tell what done is.

So we worked into the evening packing and hauling. Which, you note, I keep saying. Cuz that’s all I do.

At end of evening we went to the new house and slept as well as expected in a new place with all our stuff in boxes. Feels like camping.

One thing, this morning I had to drop off my car at the shop for routine maintenance. And to fix the TPMS system the tire shop broke. The estimate had been 500$. Well, when I checked it in I had an add on for a squeal in the front and the abc mgr said it was time for valve timing. Poorly timed. Now est is 1200$. And two days so I got a loaner car. It’s a 2017 Honda Fit. Best performing car in the world – a rental. It will climb walls if needed. Never buy a former rental. Went to work. Worked all day. Never guess where I went and what I did after work? That’s right, to the house for more pick and move. I love this shit. But it is Tuesday so I stopped a the carniceria for vittles. Hey, traditions don’t end. Went home and then to old house for moving.

Oh yeah, I did fill my old car with stuff before I dropped it at the shop. Sposed to be a one day service. And the stuff in the car was the essentials we had forgot. Damn it.

Back to Tuesday, I worked till midnight and went home. Unpacked the car and went to bed. Party time, all the time.

Emily and I are both going to work today. Sad that we have to spend extra time on work when we can ill afford it. Oh well. Sucks to be us.

On my way to work I am going to drop by the storage place and see what they got. I need to get a place for my car, inside, and another unit for our junk. There is only so much room at the rental for our crap. It is damn difficult to downsize.

I just spoke to a place in West Sac and they want 125$ a month but they do keep the cars in shape. They start them up once a week and jump start if needed and do maintenance too. May be my only real choice. Some places have only outdoor uncovered parking spots. Not so good.

I stopped at the Dixon Mini Storage. They had a 10×20 available cheap. So I rented that. No enclosed storage for cars. The $125 place keeps looking better. I gotta call and ask them about access. And parking my other car there. We are going to start loading up there tomorrow. And moving into the Vacaville house. It’s ready.

I went to work after storage stop. I got there by 1130. Kinda late, I am really trying to get shit done and it would be nice to get in early. There is just too much to do at home.

Spent the day working on tax returns. Very exciting. I did have a visitor, Jason, he works for a doctor client. He is their controller and I had lots of questions on his financials. I should be good to go tomorrow on his crap. Jason’s visit was the most exciting part of my day. Yikes. I just kept on the returns till I left around 545.

Got home and Emily had spent quite a bit of time packing. We have storage boxes and new home boxes. And we can take them where hey go tomorrow. That will be fun. Finally making some headway will be fantastic. We are planning on being in the new house on Monday night. At least that’s the goal.

Emiky has already told me earlier we would be eating out tonight. We didn’t go out Friday. I suggested Dawson’s which is the bar and grill in downtown Dixon, recently remodeled and now operated by new owners. The food is pretty good. I ordered a glass of wine before dinner, took them forever to bring it and it turned out they were out. So the waiter said try something else and brought me a couple of tasters which were insanely large. Not complaining. I picked out the one I liked and got a glass to go with the other two “little tastes”. Food was very good. Funny thing, I ordered what Emily had last time and she ordered what I had last time. Mine was better.

We are home now. I am blogging and she is in the bathroom. She thinks she is getting sick. Hope not. Move starts in am. We have to be ready.

It’s after 9 so it must be bedtime. I’m ready, and I know Emily is.

Woke early this morning, and actually got up. 6am. Emily has to cart a bunch of food to school for Green Eggs and Ham Day and Breakfast with Books. The green egg thing is part of Dr Seuss week. BWB is a long ago creation of Emily’s. She brings food in before school, to he gym, kids show up with their favorite book and sit around reading and eating breakfast. Sounds simple and easy. It is neither. I have been the deliverer, pick up guy, bank for food, etc over the last twenty years. It’s expensive and time consuming. The kids love it. Which would be the point.

So she was out the door by seven and on her way. I stayed behind, had little chocolate donuts for brekkie, snatched from the BWB stash. Read my paper. Then made a few calls to switch over utilities and such to the new address. We move on Monday. Whilst doing all this Emily called me. I had to go pick up all the leftover food from the BWB. Emily buys a ton and there is usually leftover. There was one box of mini donuts and another of applesauce. Yum. I love the mini wax covered chocolate donuts. The fact there is paraffin in the chocolate does not ruin my joy.

I went to Starbucks on the way to school. I was sure Emily needed another cup of coffee. It turns out, she did. I am a mind reader.

Went home and forgot to unload the food from my car. So it remained there all day. It’s cold as hell so prob no problem. Though I should mention Emily grabbed the bag of corned beef when she grabbed all the food this morning. And took it with her to BWB. Amazing. So that was in my car all day.

I finished paying the monthly bills. Then headed off to work. I went by the Honda dealer on the way to get parts for my armrest. I have lost the bolt and cover that attach it to the seat. I had it off to get it upholstered in red leather. But then lost the parts.

Made my parts order and a service appointment as well and went to work. Got to love work.

The day was spent on tax appointments, phone calls, emails and preparing returns. I know how jealous everyone is. Not at all.

The weather was lousy all day. I watched the downpour and it was continuous. When I left for home it was still pouring down. Makes for a really fun drive. I went home via Northgate Blvd, a route I almost never use. But abclient called and wanted me to come by his new shop and see how it looked. He owns several other businesses sonone more is not to exciting.

I got home kinda late. Emily had already started on leftovers for dinner. Which is fine. We always go out to dinner on Friday night so I was surprised. We had a pleasant dinner and she was ready for bed. I cleaned up and now I am in bed too. Must be bedtime.

I am doing something, right now, that I haven’t done in over 30 years. It’s crazy. I am reading, and then signing, my new lease for the rental home I am moving to within the next 10 days. We are allowed to move crap into the garage on Sunday. And then official move in is Monday morning. I would say it’s exciting but it’s not. It’s just interesting. I signed it. I have known the property manager for twenty years so the process is relaxed. No pet deposit. No application. Easy peasy. We got lucky. I do have to still pay the rent. That part I don’t like.

I’m going to the gym. Marika is still in bed, she came last night so we could work on the summer vacay trip plans. I have the TV repair guys coming between 8 and 12. So I left her instructions and went to the gym.

Upon arrival I noted a problem. The workout room I use to do my warmups was occupied by workmen fixing the lights. So they disrupted my routine. I actually had to start with something else and work out of order. Lovely. I did a shortened workout and went home. Pain in the ass.

The TV guys were at the house. So much for calling before they get here. I went inside and the power was out. So these guys could not repair anything. We waited awhile for the power but no use. They left without fixing anything. Damn it. I will wait till after the move to get it done. The cable is out too. That’s gonna wait.

The power returned about ten minutes after repair guys left. Marika and I took the return of light as a sign and took to the travel sites to start our search for tickets to Europe. We are spending July running around Europe. It took some time to start finding trip details we liked. You have to choose where you leave from and where you want to go first. There are a lot of choices. We ended up with an Oakland to Heathrow itinerary. For two, Emily and I will be back east so we need to leave from the east coast. Probably from Manchester. We will be in Maine in June and leave from there

Either way, we managed to get the kids itinerary set. Marika is working on lodging next and is having some luck. She has found out what a pain in the ass that can be. Matching the where you are to where you think you will be is tough. If you screw it up you will have no place to stay when you get where you are going. She is in charge.

I left the house around noon. I had to cancel my noon appointment.

I did make it in time for my 2, 3 and 5 meetings. All were the usual tax time appointments. Nothing unusual. In the middle of it all I managed to get to two banks I needed to visit and make deposits. I had a busy day. Once all were gone I tried to finish a few other tax returns, made a few calls, the usual cutting edge to work.

Left for home around 630. The rain has little effect on the trip home, itv as quick.

At home Emily was working on treats for Dr Seuss week. She made “green eggs” out of green m &m s, white chocolate and pretzels. Cool. Barb was at the house too keeping her company.

Lucky for us, one of her parents made spaghetti for us so we had dinner without any work. It was good as well.

Emily had no wine with dinner, last night she drank most of a bottle of Chardonnay. Two nights in a row does not work.

It’s bedtime. Watch some TV. Sleep.