Coffee heat rising

“SIZZLE!”

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You think I jest?

Nay, verily: it is SIZZLING hot out there, on the streets, in the park, in the grassy yards. Hoooleee maquerel!

Just staggered back in the house. Fortunately, I had enough presence of mind to NOT take the dawg with me when I left the Funny Farm a couple of hours ago.

That was because I’d planned to go by the nearby office of a lawyer-for-all-trades, as it were, and ask him to help ensure that, when I croak over, everything in my sticky little hands will transfer smoothly, quickly, and with ZERO hassle to my good son.

In theory, it should: I have no other heirs. None that I know of, anyway. But who knows? We’re talkin’ bucks here. What with the wonders of inflation, the house alone is worth in the vicinity of a million bucks. And I want every single one of those bucks to go straight to him.

Don’t you know that someone, somewhere will jump into that fray and try to rip off a chunk of that bread dough?

Yeah.

So. Get lawyer now. Get will scam-proofed. Get everything set up for my excellent son. 

Navigating to said lawyer’s office, in the absence of a car, entails traipsing through UNGAWDLY heat. And alas, at this point — a little after 4:00 in the afternoon — this old bat is in no shape to trudge over there right this minute.

Tomorrow.

Let’s hope I live until tomorrow, eh? 😀

I’ll charge over there in the morning, along about when I hope they open. Not open yet? Coffee shop lurks right next door!

My son’s father is a lawyer…of the retired variety. What I’m hoping is that I can set things up with this new guy, and then DXH can review whatever we come up with to be sure it’s OK. If not, the two can work together to make it OK.

This would evade any question of a conflict of interest. And yet still be sure someone who cares is overseeing things.

Í hope.

 

 

Survived to See Another Day

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Incredibly enough, dear Janie’s ministrations did NOT wreck the vacuum cleaner. Or if they did, the effects are yet to be seen. The thing seems to be working okay. At least for a few quick swipes.

One of the challenges that greets you in old age is that younger adults treat you like you were a non compos mentis kid. Fixing your vacuum cleaner when it doesn’t need to be fixed, for example. 😀  Or better yet, insisting on doing it herself when plainly any such job would need to done by a mechanic!

Honest to gawd!

Soooo….what does this imply?

Probably, it suggests that you need to build a small corps of repairmen who can fix things around your house: quickly and with minimal hassle. Preferably people who will come to your house, since it may be difficult to get some items to their shop.

Today, for example, the weather is moderately cozy: only 85 degrees in the sun, but NINETEEN PERCENT humidity. That slug of water in the air makes it feel like it’s hotter than the hubs out there! Without a car — my son having kiped mine — I would either have to pay an Uber guy to drive me to the nearby repair shop, or tote the vacuum over there myself.

Neither of those options appeals. But because I’m stuck without my car, I have no sensible choice. Either I make myself sick hauling the machine to the nearest appliance store on foot through the unholy heat, or I pay through the schnoz to get it over there, and pay again to get it home.

It just makes me so goddamn MAD that she messed with that expensive machine when I asked her not to!  Who the fuck does she think she is????

Anyway, just now it seems to be working OK. We shall see how long that lasts.

Otherwise, the day has been relatively quiet. Hot: very hot. But no inane crises going on. That’s refreshing.

I guess….

 

Another Gorgeous Day in Central Arizona…

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…and it IS gorgeous! My goodness, what a beautiful morning…high, lacy clouds, lovely sunrise, balmy temperature…gosh!

Ruby the Corgi and I have already circumnavigated the ‘Hood. And my, what a beautiful day in a beautiful space.

We are getting Olde, alas, and so many of the Regulars whom we visited and loved are long gone. The Ole Guy, as SDXB used to call him: he got brain cancer and was carted off. Fran, my lively old neighbor who was one of the ‘Hood’s original residents: vanished. Mrs. Wilson, wife of Phoenix’s original city manager: gone. The big, roiling Catholic family full of wonderful kids: gone. And much missed.

Soon enough, I’ll be long gone, too. My cute little dog no doubt will be missed. Me? Not so much: I’m not the noticeable type. 😀

My goodness! Here’s a whitewing dove who is SO BOLD he marches right up to the human, pecking at the ground in search of seeds & such. What a beautiful little bird!

And…ain’t THIS nice! /s/  Some idiot BUSTED my beautiful Mexican plant pot here on the side deck. Did they condescend to let me know?  No, just left it here for me to discover.

Dayum! I’ve had that for so long, I don’t even recall where I bought it. Noplace around here, that’s for sure. Probably in Nogales.

Thanks, Jerkowitz!

Doubt if I can find one like it around here.

Wait wait! Let us not forget the ever-effervescent Amazon!

Here’s one sorta, kinda, faintly like it. SEVENTY-FIVE BUCKS! Migawd.

Welp. I guess that’s one fewer plant we’ll have on the side porch.

***

Y’know, I would like NEVER TO HEAR another jet airplane roaring over my house. For unknown reasons, the Air Force has changed its flight pattern, and now every time I sit down to take the morning air, I get to take the morning racket.

***

A-n-n-d…to make everything perfect, it looks like one or maybe even both of my computers just went down.

Outta here!

Arrrgh!!!! I hate computers!!!!!

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Round and round and round and ROUND Robin Hood’s Barn trying to get back online and back into Funny about Money.

WHAT an AGGRAVATING time suck!!!!!!!

Dammit! Now I’m so frustrated and so upset, I’ve forgotten what I was gonna write about!!

LOL! I hate computers. 😀

Ohhh well….  On the subject of nothing much: Ruby and I hiked all over the ‘Hood this evening. Beautiful night. Beautiful houses. We’re incredibly lucky to have landed in this tract.

We walked by one especially lovely house that until recently was occupied by a gentleman who used to sit out in the front yard and putter. He was a sweetie! Apparently he and his wife moved, though…or, more ominously, one of them passed away. No sign of either resident lingers.

They are much missed.

As for their handsome house: it’s for sale.

Too close to Main Drag North for my taste — the noise would be interminable and obnoxious. So, even if I could afford it, I haven’t inquired. And believe me: that house, I could not afford! 😀

Most of the ‘Hood is well outside my price range. Ruby and I live in the low-rent precinct, which is on the top end of what I could afford. Actually, values have shot up since I bought here: what were once normal, middle-class tract houses are now priced on the high side of ridiculous.

Oh well: we’re brought back to the long-range goal: to pass this house along to M’hijito. If I can hang onto it…if I don’t get consigned to some prison for the elderly…he will inherit this paid-off shack, lock stock and proverbial barrel. That will present him with some appealing choices:

* To stay where he is (he has a nice, centrally located house) and sell or rent this house, thereby collecting several hundred grand

* To sell  his own place, get completely out of debt and move into this paid-off castle

* To sell his place, invest the proceeds in the stock market (or some such), move in here, and watch his investments grow

* To sell it all and RUN!

Interesting….

The Gentrification of the ‘Hood

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Well… Truth to tell, the ‘Hood started out gentrified.

This has always been an upper-middle-class urban neighborhood. But of late?  HOLEE maquerel!

Young people are buying up our 1950s and ’60’s ranch houses and turning them into freaking palaces. Give this trend another ten years, and real estate here is gonna be not just through the roof but hovering in the stratosphere. 

And THAT is a primary reason why I want to stay out of an old-folkerie and in my home: all the way up to the moment I die. BECAUSE I want my son to inherit what will no doubt be a very hot, very pricey piece of centrally located real estate.

Yeah: my guess is that in ten years this place will be worth twice its current value…and houses here are already absurdly overpriced.

So, whenever M’hijito gets this place, he’ll be able to move into Fancy Danville here, or sell the shack and move wherever he wants: debt-free. Yeah: the Funny Farm was paid off some years ago, over my financial advisor’s vociferous objections.

Looks like Financial Dude was wrong and I was right. If the present trend continues, these houses — now on the edge of one of the most upscale districts in the Valley — will be worth TONS of money. My son will be able to occupy a stylishly antique pile in a neighborhood of overpriced 1950s tract houses (overpriced when new! outrageous now…), or he can sell this place and retire on the proceeds.

In any event, it now appears we’ll have something to leave to M’hijito that will be worth a sh!tload of money. One way or the ‘tother: no matter what he chooses to do with it.

Another Day, Another Nightmare y-Cumin’ In

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Ugh! Here we go again! Another noxious day in lovely uptown Phoenix. Just what I need, eh?

Today, someone named “Janie” is supposed to show up here. Who she is and what she’s primed to do: those details escape me. I assume she’s a babysitter.

Just what I need: another nosey nuisance in my face all day!

Well…the vacuum cleaner busted. So one thing we can do with this lady is make her drive it over to the Worst Buy, where they’ll repair the thing. Failing that, I suppose I can buy another vacuum. Just what I wanna spend a hundred-fifty or two hundred bucks on.

{chortle!} Seriously: if it weren’t for having to spend time with my fellow humans, it is a GORGEOUS day. Nay verily: a SPECTACULARLY gorgeous day. Cool. Smog-free. Lovely dawn. A gentle breeze barely moving the trees.

HOW do I not want to get in someone’s car and traipse around the city, looking for someone to repair a vacuum cleaner?

So…I expect that will be the nightmare of the day. The main one, anyway.

{sigh}

What a gorgeous morning! Normally, in this kind of weather the dawg and I would be taking a nice walk through the neighborhood. But no…

The “Janie” creature hasn’t shown up. It’s only 7:30, so it’ll probably be another hour or so before she surfaces. And by then it’ll be too hot to traipse over the sun-baked asphalt roads. So that will mean Ruby and I will get no walk this morning.

Y’know, the problem with living as a lone wolf is that when you do have to interact with people, it’s annoying. Annoying as Hell, one might say.

I don’t want people around me — especially not at this hour, first thing in the morning. And I don’t want to have to negotiate my day’s activities around the comings and goings of someone else.

Ugh. Need to take a bath and wash my hair. But…noooooo. Can’t be lounging in the bathtub with my ears underwater when some woman shows up at the front door.

So that means to get cleaned up, I’ll have to wait till she’s here. And that means I won’t have any privacy to bathe and put on clothes.

Ugh and UGH.

What I really wanna do is go back to bed. But obviously: that ain’t gonna happen. Not with this woman showing up.

***********

LOL! Not to say ohhhh forgodsake! 

Janie the Wonder-Cleaning Lady takes it upon herself to CLEAN AND REPAIR MY VACUUM CLEANER! Nothing I say will dissuade her!

Now she’s pouring tap water over the parts.

So…we’ll be buying a new vacuum cleaner one of these days.

Jayzuz!

Now she’s taking the filter to “put it in the sun so it’ll dry.” Nevermind that the ….  Ohgawd, the poor soul is making so much chaos, I actually lost track of what I was scribbling here!!!!

😀

Please, God. Take me now!  

I hope heaven is free of helpful nuisances.