Hand wash in cool water.

I have been back in Indiana this past weekend, seeing to the old house. I had a 20 yard dumpster delivered and set in the driveway, and Sweetie and I filled it up with cardboard boxes, broken furniture, rusted curtain rods and all sorts of junk. It was exhausting, but it was good to have so much stuff cleared out. The house has been 'empty' for almost a year, and the previous renters left food in the pantry and a filthy stove. Doing all this work was deja vu. We did the same thing when we moved there in 1994, and that made me so sad. I fought back tears more than once, let me tell ya. Since I am no longer on my mood stabilizer, my emotions are very close to the surface, and this trip was emotional. But I fought through it, I felt the sadness but I kept going.

We have a trusted contractor painting the house and repairing windows and doors. We have someone keeping the grass cut. We are paying the water, sewer, and electric bill. And don't forget about the taxes and insurance. What a thief a house can be.

The original goal was to get the house in good enough shape to put it on the market, maybe by fall, but we may have found a couple to rent it. We are told they are good Christian people, but we will rent to them in spite of that. I love how someone being a 'good Christian person' is supposed to be some sort of vouchsafe.

Don't get me started.

So. Here are some photos.

I painted this in 1999 with plain old craft paint.

We stayed in a motel instead of the house, as the plumbing was broken yet again, which was an unexpected expense. Then Sweetie inadvertently pulled back the bottom sheet and pad on the bed and found a dirty pair of thong panties. Size small. I do not wear a small anything. I wrapped them in a hand towel and presented them to the manager upon check out, saying that maybe housekeeping was getting a little sloppy. Got a discount on the room for both nights. Sweetie was a great deal more skeezed out about the whole thing than I was, and really wanted to forget about it and throw the panties in the trash, but I have spent too much time talking to customer service at Frontier and AT&T. I finally learned how to turn my dissatisfaction into a plus.

Anyway. Looking forward to some sort of a normal day tomorrow.