Wednesday, July 10, 2013

House Cleaning

Longtime readers may have noticed the absence of activity on this blog for the past month or two. But it's actually good news because we finally sold our vacation house (not really a vacation house, just a fancy way of saying we were paying two mortgages after we moved)! The contract had been signed in early May which meant that I spent two months staring out the window wondering how it would fall apart. Even now with a fistful of cash, I keep thinking a hand will reach out from the ground and take if from me.

And so ends an era in the lives of St. Pauli Girl and myself. With that in mind, I decided to clean up the blog a bit. The first change was the background image. Originally it was a photo of mountains in New Mexico. That didn't seem fair so I changed it to an image which better describes where we now live. The image is a “haboob” which happens several times a year in these parts. Granted the background doesn't do the image justice, so you can click on the “haboob” link on the right side for a live action video of a haboob.

We now live in a more urban area in west Texas which means fewer snakes, less yardwork, fewer meth addicts, and less gunfire but more haboobs. St. Pauli Girl has successfully transitioned back to Professor Pauli Girl. It's a bigger town but have no fear, I am still the real America.

I have removed a lot of the restaurant references because I never wrote as much about it as I thought I would. But there's a wealth of stories to mine from there should it become necessary.

When we closed our restaurant in 2009, we saved three of the most expensive bottles of wine. We opened one on 1/1/2010 for good luck and learned that even really expensive wine won't necessarily change your luck. We opened the second one in March 2012 when we sold our first restaurant effectively getting out of the restaurant business altogether. Finally, we opened the last bottle this past weekend to celebrate the sale of the house and the end of an era.

At one point, St. Pauli Girl asked, “What are you most looking forward to?”

“Being able to walk around without having to constantly look at the ground for snakes and scorpions and being able to use 'haboob' in everyday conversations.”

12 comments:

  1. That looks really scary, funny word aside. Congrats on the sale!

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    1. It's even worse when the haboob starts raining because then it's just raining mud. Thanks for the comment!

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  2. Hey Riot Kitty is over here!!!

    That haboob looks scary!!! I had never heard that term. During our years in Dallas...it had it's issues but big scary dust storms weren't among them. I am sure it's just a matter of time before haboobs show up in Kansas as Kansas is currently seeking every bizarre weather condition possible to put on it's resume.

    Congrats on the sale of the vaca house (I understand that 2 mortgages isn't actually a vaca but I applaud your attempt at spinning a positive slant to it).

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    1. Actually, we left most of the furniture in the house we were trying to sell to help it show better. So when we did go down there it really did feel like a vacation. But once we got most of the furniture out, it felt more like a pain than a vacation. Thanks for the comment!

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  3. Firstly, congratulations on the sale. I take it that you're convinced by now that a large hand isn't going to appear out of the ground and grab it from you; I hope one doesn't reach out from a nearby bank! The waiting for settlement would have been unsettling!

    I've only experienced one dust storm (about six years ago) and all around was very eerie - and as for the dust....ugh!! For months later I was finding dust where dust should never have been!

    Some great music has come out of your area. I love the music of West Texas...when you run into Willie, say "G'day" from me! ;)

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    1. That's true about west Texas music. I guess it's because there's nothing else to do. It's amazing how many international travelers will come visit the Buddy Holly center especially British people. Americans prefer not to go west of Dallas. Thanks for the comment.

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    2. Well, they; don't know what they're missing out on, Dexter. I'm a big fan of Kimmie Rhodes, too. Her "West Texas Heaven", released in 1996, still remains one of my favourite albums to this day. When I play that CD, I always have Willie Nelson's "Spirit" in the player, as well. Both CDs go together so well. I never play one without the other. Both were released around the same time. Magic stuff!

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  4. I'm a little confused, Dexter. I keep trying to add your blog to my own blog list but the only thing that comes up when I try to add your blog is the following: "Google Operating System"...never your blog.

    I've just added another blog to my list, so everything is obviously working okay in other instances, but not when I try to add you to my list. Have you any idea why I can't do so?

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    1. How odd. Wish I had an answer but I guess I'm just cursed. Seems like that happened to me once before but I don't remember the exact circumstances. I think restarting the browser or rebooting pc solved it, if either of those really, truly solved it. Just another example of google taking over the world I guess.

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    2. It's gotten me beaten, Dexter. I've just tried it again a few times...and finally, it comes up on my list, but when I clicked on it..."Google Operating System" comes up!! Weird!

      Anyway...no worries...I'll leave for now...and try again at a later date.

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