Well, the weather turned nice for a change, blue skies and sunshine... this old house sure seems empty now that Wingnut is gone. Bad enough when me mum passed away, but really empty with Little Wing absent. I wish he hadn't gone and gotten busted, but I suppose it's all for the best, I have this major life-altering relocation coming up and I may have to do it without any animals. I was looking to rehome Wing anyway, and the director of the facility herself took a liking to the varmint, so I reckon he'll be alright. I have a sneaking suspicion that the director may take Wingnut home with her, she seemed sweet on him already, LOL. Trust Little Wing to fall into a pile of $h#t and come up smelling like roses...
Dixie, now, I'm gonna have a hard time taking her down to the shelter this week, as I believe I will. She does NOT travel well, the poor ol' girl, and the shelter is practically devoid of cats at this time: with her nice luxurious winter coat, she will stand a better chance of being adopted, and the P.A.W.S. folks are pretty good about making a sincere effort to rehome animals. Some folks like tortie cats, and Dixie does have a sweet disposition, just toward humans and not other cats, LOL. The director of the facility called it "tortie-tude"---I guess torties have a tendency to display this sort of temperament. Ever since I adopted her & Sage from two different homes on back-to-back days, they have NEVER gotten along, except to sleep near one another.
Sage, he's my cat, and I'm REALLY gonna have a hard time relinquishing him, but I might not have to do this... I may be able to take Sage with me, as traveling with one cat would be much easier. I don't know yet, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I still think Dixie stands a better overall chance of finding a new home in Coronado now that the shelter is "low on cats"---and she hates traveling on the road, she gets all gripped as soon as the vehicle starts rolling. Not the kind of distraction I need while tooling down the road for 1700 miles. I could put her in the towed car though, and she'd ultimately survive the trip, an option I'm still considering.
But I think it'll probably just be Sage and me in the rental truck, or Sage in the towed rig and me in the rental truck. One cat would be easier to sneak into motel rooms or whatever, but Sage is pretty vocal and he might still get busted. So I'm back to wondering if I should just try to rehome all the cats here in Coronado, make the trip alone as I've done hundreds of times while trucking, then adopt a kitten or two once I'm established at the other end of my relocation. Maybe a cat or two Wingnut's age, which is one year and eight months... cats nearing the two year mark are usually in prime health. I'm still mulling all the options here, relinquishment seems like betrayal after all these years together.
I had no choice with Wingnut, and I'm not really worried about him, he's a handsome devil, young and vigorous, and he'll find a new home soon enough. These two older cats are a different story, though they both could be adopted, perhaps by seniors who don't want a cat that's too wild. Sage was pretty wild in his youth, but he has mellowed with age, though he's still a scrapper and he taught Wingnut everything he knows. It was funny, watching Sage cop an attitude and school the larger Wingnut in recent months... like a Kung Fu/slash/Zen master schooling an unruly disciple. Sage has always been King of the 'Hood, but Wingnut has learned much from him about scrapping, and Wing will be a formidable opponent to other cats in territorial disputes.
Anyway, I'm taking it easy today, just drinking a hot cup of coffee while considering what to do next. I've been clearing this old house for nearly three months: I started while me beloved mum was lying in what would become her deathbed, and now the interior of the house is stripped down to bare bones. Family members have taken some things as agreed, and everything I'll be taking is still here... there are also several large stacks or piles of stuff we're gonna put out in our upcoming yard sale. It's really an estate sale, but we're holding it on the front patio, so WTF, I call it a yard sale. Whatever doesn't get sold out of that lot will be donated immediately afterward. Then the house will only contain the stuff I'm taking with me, and it'll be time to put the ol' hacienda on the market.
Speaking of that, I have my eye on a sweet little 10-acre spread over in northern Arkansas, a prime piece of property in beautiful Ozark country. The place is f#%g unreal, I could build a BAD@$$ MONKEYBIKE TRACK there, LOL. I'm not joking, either, I'm gonna build a primo track once I've relocated, as a way of meeting other riders in that area, 10-4? The land has open woodland, plenty of trees but not too dense, and there are open meadow areas with all kinds of room for growing stuff and also building a track. Two mobile homes in the center, a double-wide and a single, both in good shape with sturdy metal rooves, beefed-up Old West style porches and decks, primo woodburning stoves (important when the electric power goes out), big ol' propane tank behind one home, a barn for stock when I get around to that whole scene, etc., etc.
The buildings are centrally located on the property, with two dirt entrance roads leading to the cluster, one road from the north and one from the west. I could incorporate those roads into my track, then build some big ol' back-to-back berms in some of the open areas, and run the track roundabout through the wooded parts. I'm thinking I could find some dump truck outfit to drop a few loads of fill dirt on the property for free, placing each load where I want it, then doing the rest with shovel, wheelbarrow, BobCat, whatever. I could build berms in among the trees too, using the barrow or maybe the BobCat, the trees are not so densely situated, there are all kinds of avenues through them which I could lace together to make a primo track winding through the woods. The trees are beautiful too, a track built among them would be RADICAL.
I also intend to build that snake run I mentioned, big ol' back-to-back berms at least 6'-8' high, just like an old school skatepark back in the day. I'll work on those berms until they practically go vertical, LOL... good thing I have a lot of experience from my BMX and skateboarding days. If I get enough free fill dirt, building the berms won't be a problem, it'll just take time, like any decent project. Of course, I'll have to build a few jumps along the track, maybe a big ol' 30' Baja Drop-Off, LOL. Just kidding... but I WILL have some kick@$$ jumps on my track, my friends and I always did like building trick jumps over obstacles and whatnot. I reckon once I start building my track and inviting a few folks over to ride, they'll help me with further construction in exchange for riding privileges, LOL. Those too lazy to help will get drop-kicked like I'm STARRIN' in the NFL, 10-4???
Anyway, that's my dream, and it's getting closer every day... I sure hope that property doesn't sell before I have the $55K to buy it outright. Get this: with the homestead credit (which just means you live there, as opposed to renting or flipping the property), the yearly taxes are something like $15, LOL. Without the credit, taxes are $362, and that's on 10 acres. I have to think about things like that in this Brave New Third World, AYE??? I could live in one mobile and rent the other too, a viable option since both homes are in pretty good shape. The barn is serviceable, though it could use some repair; the mobiles have minor cosmetic repair issues here and there, but nothing major, and I like the stout Old West style porches and decks, as well as the woodburning stoves. County water, with a pond on the property too, I can't remember if there's a well, but the place is on county water, so who cares? If SHTF, I'll boil the pond water, the crud in it will be like "roughage" (LOL).
Meh, I guess I should get off my @$$ and start working here, I have more nooks & crannies to clear inside this old house, but thankfully the worst of the clearing is done. Some of that dust was funky too, I had to wear a dust mask for the nasty cr@p that had been lying there for decades, LOL. Might as well have been opening some goddam Egyptian tomb... the Tomb of the Freakin' Hantavirus Pharaoh, LOL. Forget the goddam ANCIENT CURSE, we'll set ya up with a DEADLY VIRUS, 10-4??? Yeah, I'm glad that part's over, though I still have the shotgun shack carport to deal with later, and there's some funky $h#t out in that main compartment, stuff that's going straight into another dumpster when I get around to renting one. First the house, which is just about done, then the shotgun shack, which will be dust mask & eye pro city. If I had any sense, I'd just burn down the goddam shack, but it might set the house on fire and delay the sale.
Damn, I want to go riding this week, and I may in this nice weather, but my elbow has been giving me billy h£ll for some reason, must be all the heavy lifting lately, or the dragging of heavy boxes or furniture from awkward corners. I don't remember banging it that hard, so it must be the lifting or dragging. Another reason I'll be glad to finish this monumental task of clearing the house... never knew so much cr@p had piled up here over the years. My room's different, I like my feng shui and I'm big on open space in rooms, my new digs will be totally uncluttered, nothing like the other rooms of this house which I've been slowly clearing. 36 large EDCO bins this week and counting, not to mention one 3-yard dumpster jam-packed with sawn-up old junk furniture, and five rounds of donations to AmVets, mostly cr@ppy old books that nobody here wants. I found one book that was 100 years old, I kid you not, the thing was published during WWI, go figure. It was a handbook of chemistry & physics.
Alright, Boyz, I'm outta here, I reckon I've bent your goddam ears long enough... I'm a long-winded b@stard once I get started, LOL, but to know me is to love me, 10-4??? That's what my ex-girlfriends say... no, wait, it's the OTHER @$$holes who say that, the ones who show up and drink all the goddam beer in my fridge. Hmm, a cold beer for breakfast sounds pretty good right about now, I think there are three bottles of Stella Artois left over from last night, one of 'em may have my name on it. Good ol' Stella, one broad who'll never let ya down, LOL. I believe I still have some chronic in my room as well, some nuclear bud called "HALO OG"---I bought an OZ for my friend the other day, using my weed card, and whenever I do that he always tosses me a few big ol' nugs. Gotta love the weed delivery right to my door, makes things easier and I don't have to waste any fuel or time. A bong hit of the Halo might put me in a better mood to tackle more funky house-clearing.
HASTA LUEGO, YOUSE CRUSTY AUSTRALIAN DEMONS O' DIRT & MONKEYBIKING HEROES!!! :action-smiley-003:
