Oh, the mountains!

If you click on the picture you can see a better view. These are the mountains that are just So. of where I live now. Mighty pretty huh? I can see a bit of them out my kitchen window. All is going well. Talked to hubby today back in Mo. and he says movers are scheduled to load his sister up in the morning. Then they will head out Sat. and get in here on Sun. Will be good to all be in one spot again. The landscapers are getting her back yard into shape with a rock border all around the inside of the fence, sprinkler system installed and they will lay the sod in a few days. Then they will start on our back yard. Getting tired of taking the dog across the street to some grass several times a day. Somehow dogs seem to prefer to poop on grass instead of dirt!

Fri 13th

These pictures were taken when I crossed the great mountains on Fri the 13th by myself! Beautiful huh?

E-mail, almost there

Big accomplishment today, I got my e-mail to work on my new computer. The instructions were very helpful till it got the the last step, which they left off. But my new best friends, the computer guy and his wife got it going. I so wanted to do it myself! Now I have to find a copy of MS Office 03 to load (without having to pay thru the nose) My friend saved all my old outlook express info but it won't run with this Vista Lady. I will live without it and get used to the new program, but dang I loved that old Outlook and I had so many files stored on it. So if anyone wants my new e-mail you already have my yahoo address, just send me a message and I will give it to you. Oh, I don't like yahoo e-mail format either.

New PLAN: I will learn how to do a back up disc for all my hard drive info.

Home At Last, and on line too

Here I am, safe and sound. Also to be noted that I have a new computer and this is my first day back on line. First about the computer, my old one bit the dust. It was bad timing but I think it will work out great. I got some good advice from a really nice computer guy and went to Office Depot and got a new 17 in. laptop by Toshiba. He was able to download my hard drive and put it on this new computer. It has the Vista program and I am going to give it a go, so far it seems easy to use. What the heck I think I will get a wireless router later on. You can't say we aren't doing all we can to help the economy.

Now about my trip back alone. One whole day to get across Kansas, stayed all nite in Colby Ks. and kept getting weather reports about a snow/sleet mix moving into that area after midnight. Well needless to say I didn't sleep very well. Ended up getting up real early and by 4:20 AM I was on the road and the sleet was just starting. Of course, coming west, I was driving into it. I feel sure that if I had waited till 6 or 7 AM I would have been to chicken to head out and would have been stuck there for a couple of days. As a storm was coming over the mountains west of Denver for later that evening. Anyway to make a long story short. I managed to get on some black ice and slid off in the ditch. I was very lucky, as no one was around to run into me, and the ditch was wide and only 2 or 3 feet lower than the highway. After I sat and got my heart to slow down, I just turned the wheels and drove along the side of the highway till I was back up on it. I drove with my flashers on and stayed on the shoulder for at least 10 miles till I saw that traffic was moving along and the road was more clear. I finally drove out of it, but it took me 3 1/2 hrs to go 130 miles. Boy I was ready for breakfast and a break! But the rest of the day went well and I got home before dark.

So I got here on Fri the 13th, Hubby left out on the 18th and is now back in Mo. helping finish up packing his sister up (I think I got about 90% of it done the week I was there). The movers come next Fri and they will make the trip back here to HOME.

I think I will like it here. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful. Ran into a gal at Office Depot who has a weekly "estate" sale locally. Think I will check it out. She takes stuff from all over the area and sells it on consignment. I know a sister-in-law who is moving way tooooooo much stuff that she won't have room for. Dang with all the stuff we got rid of I don't have room either, But I love my house and have just decided that there is still alot of stuff that may have to go. Sometimes less is better.

So thats my thought for the day:: Less is better

Oh, my! I'm not in Kansas anymore Toto!

What a month this has been. Not sure where to start except to say my computer blew up! Can't believe it. I have had a computer for years and this is the first one that a bug got into and blew it up for me. When I took it in they thought the hard drive was still intact. So I will get it rebuilt but it will be probably at least 3 weeks before I get back on line. Gee I hope I didn't loose all my "favorites"

Well where to start. We got moved to Co. 2 weeks ago today. Made the trip over the mountain OK. I spent a week there to start unpacking, and get a little organized. Then I took a bus, yes I said a bus, back to Mo. as we left our pickup here. I got in here last Sun. and am staying with my SIL and helping her get packed. She closes on the sale of here house here on Tue. Then closes on the house she bought in Co. just a block from us later in the week, then I am out of here to drive home if the weather is good for me to travel over the mountains. 2 day trip all by myself!! Then hubby will come back by bus about the 18th and stay with his sister and drive her to Co. after the movers load her out on the 27th.

So far things have been falling into place pretty well for us. Hard to believe really. For us to finally get the farm sold in Oct. Then to sell 2 houses and buy 2 within 2 months. I think someones hand was on us for sure.

Now just don't know why the darn computer had to shoot craps on me. Been on line trying to make sure that I have all my accounts switched to my yahoo act. Am going to try to transfer my Outlook Express info to Yahoo. Anyone know if that can be done??? I have alot of saved folders there that I believe will be lost when I close out that act. next week with my IP.

OK, I said goodbye to my little store today. Feel sort of sad as Teresa is running it now and she will be fine. Doesn't know much about books though, but she has half of the store for her antiques and collectibles and is advertising. In exchange for letting her use half of the store and I pay the utilities and all as I did before, she will ring up my sales, weekly give my sales for the week to my brother who will deposit them for me. I think it is a fair deal.

Well that's it for today and I won't be back for awhile again. Seems funny to not have access to a computer daily. I am using my brothers today while I am here in town.

Thought for the day: Every path has a few puddles.

Last DAY

Today is my last official day in my store. (wipes a tear) I will be back the first couple weeks of Feb and do some blogging then, but for now this is it.

I was very lucky to find a young lady to share my store. She will be selling country collectibles!! Doesn't that just fit with use books! I will maintain everything in the store, utilities ect. and she will be here 6 hrs. a day 5 days a week. I have been working with her for 3 days to teach her how I handle my books, the trade in system, and all. My brother will pick up money weekly and deposit it for me. She will hopefully sell her stuff. She has a hubby who drives semi and is gone most of the week. So she is excited and I am too. This will work out for us. So thats it for now. Will not be around on line till about the 2nd of Feb.

Please send up a little prayer for me for good roads for our mountain crossing next Thursday!

Nut Case?

I know that doesn't sound "Nice", but since the guy called himself that I guess it is OK to refer him to a Nut Case.

This was a customer who came in yesterday. Just a little scary. Here is a description of him:
Big guy, very pale blue eyes, big glasses, dark stringy hair down past his shoulders, bandanna tied around his forehead, front teeth broken and decayed. Nothing to unusual you say, Well he had a bushy beard about 10 in long, BUT only on half of his face!! Duh do you think? He came right out and said he just got out of the Nut House. Of course he was in there against his will and had to take the psyc drugs or they would never have let him out. He talked for 20 min. or more and I just tried to act natural and slightly interested. Because I really just wanted him to leave. Anyway he told me he was a minister of (I think I have this mostly right) Church of Christ and the Arriayn (I don't even know how to spell that) Brotherhood. He said the face thing was his political and religious statement. He has run for governor, you know they are all crazy that run the government, and he was on his way to the local City Council meeting. Oh, Boy, I was glad to see him leave. Wonder if he is the Nut that burned down the Pub down the street a couple weeks ago?

Thought for the day: The statistics on sanity is that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends--if they're okay, then it's you!

Me?

AQUARIUS - The Sweetheart (Jan 20 - Feb 18) Optimistic and honest. Sweet personality. Very independent. Inventive and intelligent. Friendly and loyal. Can seem unemotional. Can be a bit rebellious. Very stubborn, but original and unique. Attractive on the inside and out. Eccentric personality.

Yup that me! LOL

Got a contract on SIL's house this weekend!
Now just need to find someone to share my store and get that settled

Thought for the day: My mind works like Lightening
One brilliant flash and it is gone!

Good Advice! Please read

This message was sent to me but I am not e-mailing it on to folks, but thought it worth while to put in here. I have always had a feeling that alot of this junk we send around to each other is not a good thing. In fact I delete alot without even opening. And now feel I will stop forwarding anything at all. No wonder we get so much junk mail from all sorts of sites.



Advice from Snopes:
If any of you are wondering why I didn't return something to you that said something like "if I don't get this back I'll....or, "See how many flowers you can get back", or " Forward this to 10 people in the next 5 mins. or something bad will happen to you", etc.The following is why I don't send them back.Advice from Snopes.com http://snopes.com/1

Any time you see an E-Mail that says forward this on to '10' of your friends, or sign this petition, or you'll get bad luck, good luck, or whatever, it almost always has an E-Mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and E-Mails of those folks you forward to.The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of 'active' E-Mails to use in SPAM E-Mails, or sell to other spammers.

Almost all E-Mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guiness Book of Records for the most cards.All it was, and all any of this type of E-Mail is, is a way to get names and 'cookie ' tracking information for telemarketers and spammers - - to validate active E-Mail accounts for their own profitable purposes.


There was more to this but didn't want to bore anyone to death, but I think you get the idea.

Sleepless In Mo.

Still not knowing for sure about SIL's house, they are still countering each other, but I think they are finding a meeting ground. Hope so as the folks in Co. won't hold the house out there for her many more weeks. Its all enough to keep you awake at night. We were worried that her house would sell first and we would be sitting her and she can't move and be there alone.

I just have faith that this will work out just fine. And with the housing market we need to be really thankful to have found buyers so quickly.

Thought for the day: Memory is the Personal Journalism of the Soul:
Richard Schickel

Just a Weaver

I clipped this from the news paper recently, and since I consider myself a weaver I fell in love with it. The poem is by Benjamine Malachi Franklin

My life is but a weaving,
between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors,
He worketh steadily.

Ofttimes he weaveth sorrow,
and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper,
and I the underside.

Not till the loom is silent,
and the shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas,
and explain the reasons why

The dark threads are as needful
in the skillful weaver's hand
As threads of gold and silver
in the pattern He has planned.

New buyers?

Sister In Law got that low offer on her house Sun Nite. So she has countered and will know today what the deal will be. Come on, I know its a buyers market now but don't be insulting!

Starting to feel a panic, well sort of, about my store, Will save that till tomorrow.

Thought for the day: No one can arrange anther's happiness.

Bid on my elk hide!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=110333516933 Here is the site on e-bay if I did it right. Go see and bid it up!!

Ahhhhhh!

Went to a new massage therapist this morning. Boy what a difference from the one I had been going to. I asked for the deep tissue massage and that's sure what I got. Had to come home and take some Tylenol and put ice pack on. But I got what I needed. Just too many muscles in knots, they started hurting in the night again this past week. Couldn't be that I am working to hard, think? Spent all day Sun packing boxes. About have the kitchen and dining room done. Just enough left out to get by for the next couple weeks. Hubby has done great with the garage, has sorted and finally gotten rid of all the plumbing, electrical, and alot of gardening stuff. We pick up something to pack and say "do we really need that or plan to use it ever?" if the answer is no, then it goes. The auctioneer will miss us. Been taking stuff to an old guy so. of town that holds an auction every Fri PM. Been averaging about $100 a week. Better than messing with a garage sale.

Sister in Law got an offer on her house last nite, but it was rather insulting. She is going to do a counter offer then wait and see. She had already listed it way below value then they asked for $30,000 less. So will see. She can't move till the end of Feb anyway so that will be in her counter offer. Need to give us time to get our move done, me come back to help her pack, then hubby come back to drive her after the movers come.
OK enough for today. Will save something for tomorrow.

Thought for the day: Only in America do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke. Well for me it used to be a Snicker bar with a diet pepsi!

Postal Rates, so confusing

Now I remember why I don't usually ship outside of the US. I sold a jacket on e-bay and let a guy in Switzerland win it on the understanding he would pay the extra postage. All was fine, then I let him know I had another one that was real nice and a little heavier. Sent him pictures and he wanted it too. So I added a couple dollars to my shipping cost. Duh< Never assume anything. This coat weighed 11 oz over the limit and had to go priority at 17$ more than I quoted him. So had to offer to refund or let him pay more which ever he wants.

Lesson learned: 4 lbs is the cut off then the price goes UP!! But I don't' think I will do this again unless I just charge some outrageous postal fee and let them bid away. Getting ready to put a big elk hide, fur and all on line today. Its beautiful but not very practical unless you live in a lodge in the mountains.

They're burning the Roadhouse down!

I think thats how the song goes. Last Sat. nite they burned the "Pub" down. Just two doors down from my book store. Now I'm not in a bar neighborhood, its just a very small town.

Seems a "mental" guy was in earlier and got nasty and the bartender had to make him leave. As he left he said "You'll be sorry" So around 2 AM he threw gas against one side of the building and it was a very old building, so it went up pretty fast. I hadn't realized that it was 104 years old. It was the old train station. My sister and her husband owned it a few years ago and named it The ---- Station and the recent owners collected alot of old train stuff in there. Here is a picture of it now.

A Challenge

I have accepted a challenge from a favorite person to blog daily for the new year. Well I won't be able to do it daily as I only have access to my computer 5 days a week at least for the next couple months, then after I get moved I should have daily access.

All is going well with the transition: At least I think so. We took possession of our new home yesterday. Sort of anti-climatic since were were sitting here in another state. Oh the wonders of the internet and over-nite mail.

Our good friend and Realtor in Co. did the walk thru for us.

I was having a horrible feeling about the gal who said she would manage my store for me. I think I mentioned that she had fallen from her sulky and fractured some ribs. But after she finally called to tell me that was why I hadn't heard from her and she would be in to see me that next week, she didn't come in for over 2 weeks and didn't return my phone calls.

So now she is coming in next Tue to start training with me. But we need to sit down and have a real heart to heart talk about what my expectations are and how she will be able to meet them.

Dang it this is my baby here and I am having a hard time turning it over to someone else. But I will take the risk as apposed to converting it to an apartment.

Well I best shut up or I won't have any info for those daily posts!!


Thought for the day: Life is too short to wake up with regrets

Quote

A slip of the foot you may soon recover,
But a slip of the tongue you may never get over---
Benjamin Franklin

Two Posts in one day?

Before I forget, which could happen at any moment.

Not sure if I had mentioned what I was planning to do with my book store. Well Brother and I had been making up plans for how to convert it into a studio apartment because I own the building and don't want to sell it. Would like to continue to get a little income from it while I am gone. ( I will return one day)

The week before Thanksgiving a gal came in ( she had talked to me last summer about this too).
She said she had heard that I was closing the store and she wanted to see if I would consider letting her run it. I assured her that I could not make it worth her while financially. We seems she is looking for a place to open a quilting guild. She just wants an area to set up her stuff and do her quilting here and teach classes and have other gals come in to quilt together!! Do you see a WIN-WIN situation here? She wants me to teach her how I do my book sales and trade ins. She wants no income, just the use of the space and wants to help pay the utilities too. I got really jazzed up about this.

We went to Co. and was gone a week, I got back and tried to call her and got no answer. I left messages for 2 weeks. I was beginning to panic because I had been sorting books, hauling culls off to auction or donating to a little local library. Even took down one whole wall of bookshelves.

She finally called me last Sat. Seems she was driving her horse ( she has a sulky ) The horse got spooked and threw her out and she fractured a couple ribs and has been laid up. She still wants to do this, and should be in soon to help me start making firm plans for her space and teaching her. She will be able to work part time in the store thru the winter and then full time by spring, so that should fit my schedule fine, as I will be coming back after we move to stay with my sister in law for a couple months at least. ( hope her house sells in that time)

So I am back to sorting books, getting rid of all the hardbacks and "junk" books. Want to have only the best Used books available for resale.

Gotta get busy with paper work now. Want to get taxes done early this year. Groooown..

Am I Sick?

Do you ever get Christmas Paralysis? I seem to catch it every year in December. At first it seems like Christmas is along way off, then all of a sudden its only 7 days, and you find you have done nothing. And this year I mean absolutely nothing, no cards, no gifts, nadda. I am really sick this year.

I could blame it on selling one house and buying another in the month of Dec. Plus arranging movers, utilities, packing, and the endless lists on my counter because I can't remember squat anymore without my lists! But I do love it when I cross things off the list as done. Guess that's one satisfaction.

So if no one hears from me this year, give me a break, maybe I won't get "sick" next year. But I don't guarantee it. I think it is something I have had since about 1980.

So I will say Merry Christmas.
Be kind to one another.
Kiss the kids, cause its really their time.