Lots of News to Share

I have become the worst blogger in the world. I am sorry I didn't update sooner. Life just stays super busy and throws me surprises left and right. After Hurricane Sally, we had a few other threats, but everything stayed to the west (poor Louisiana!) Eta was a potential threat, but it looks like it made landfall in north-central Florida and is now heading out to the Atlantic. Hurricane season officially ends in 18 days, but with the way 2020 is going, I wouldn't be surprised to see storms forming right up until New Year's Eve.

In other news, April and her boyfriend broke up shortly after Hurricane Sally, and she decided to buy a house. That has been a whirlwind. She found a really cute house not too far from where I live and put an offer on it, but the seller was not really ready to sell and so he tried to give her the run-around to buy some time. She wasn't having any of that and instead put an offer on a house three or four doors down that is the exact same floorplan but is brand new and a bit less expensive. The only disadvantage to the new house is that the driveway is steep, much like the driveway we had in Belleuve. The upside is that we don't get snow here, so she will never have trouble getting into her garage. She also had to buy a refrigerator and will have to buy window coverings. Today at 9:00am was her walk through and she will close next Friday at 1:00pm. Understandably, she is happy, sad, and stressed all at once. She really loves her boyfriend and she wanted to marry him, but there are some issues that she just couldn't see past, so she decided to make the break. I think it is a good thing to be honest. He is a really nice guy and I like him, but I never felt that he was right for her. She wants to stay friends with him, but it is doubtful that they will since they will not see each other very often.

April has always been very financially responsible, so this big purchase also has her pretty stressed out. I suggested that maybe she could have Ben move in with her, but she was not excited about that idea after living with him in the apartment they shared last year. Let's just say that he is not a very good housekeeper. She started rethinking things and finally decided to ask him to move in with her late last week, so once again, Dan and I will be empty nesters as of next weekend. It really is the best situation for everyone. April and Ben can share expenses because if they each lived alone, they would be stretching themselves financially. Ben has a steady paycheck now, but he is at the lower end of making of living wage. April can afford the house, but she, too, would be stretched, so this is a good answer to the problem. I have already spoken with Ben about being a responsible roommate, and April is giving him some creative license with the house in an endeavor to give him the feeling that it is his home too. I think that as long as Ben holds up his end of the bargain, everything will work out fine.

Going out looking at houses with April really gave me the itch to do some remodeling, so I hit that head on. The first thing we did was replace my old refrigerator and stove (FINALLY!) I bought a refrigerator over a year ago, but it was delivered banged up and dusty, so we sent it back. After that I just kind of gave up. We also had to replace our HVAC system because there was a leak in the coil area that was spilling water into Ben's room. The timing was a bit unexpected, although we knew that eventually it would have to be done. We also had to replace the hot water heater because it has been acting up for some time. I finally got tired of not knowing whether I'd have hot water or not and persuaded Dan to replace it. Yesterday someone came to measure my counters because I want to get rid of the black granite countertops in my kitchen. It's not that I utterly hate them, but my whole kitchen was dark: black appliances, black countertops, and darkish cherrywood colored cabinets. On top of that, the living room floor is a darker-colored wood color, the front door had a stained-glass looking film on it for privacy (which I removed yesterday), and my back porch is screened in, so I do not get a ton of light in my house. After the beginning of the year, we are going to paint the walls and replace all of the floors except the bathrooms. Dan is thrilled to have such a big project coming up (she says facetiously, lol). I keep telling him that we can hire someone, he insists on doing it himself. Ben said he'd help, and I will do what I can, so I hope that it goes fairly smoothly.

So that is about all of my news except for one new piece that I got about three hours ago. My employer is making my position permanently remote, so I will not be going back to the office! It was very welcome news, but I have to admit that it feels a little weird to know that this is permanent. It is definitely a good thing, though, because one of my coworkers moved to Illinois a few months ago, and I think she was very hopeful that we would be allowed to continue working remotely so that she would not need to find a new job. I think that this covid thing has demonstrated to a lot of employers that people can work from home and remain productive. I think that it probably also helps with retention, and it definitely helps with expenses. People are going to save money on clothes, gas, and going out for lunch, and fewer people driving to work every day will help with the environmental footprint impact. I am not sure if all departments are going to be allowed to work from home, though. My director started advocating for us to work from home before covid, so the fact that we have proven we can do it likely helped her cause.

Well, my lunch break is over, so it's back to work for me. Based on my blogging record, I might as well wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year right now, lol. Love you all!