a decision, mating rituals, corn

Today Pam and I went to look again at one of the first houses we looked at. She had narrowed it down to three floor plans from what we had seen in person and on-line so far and she decided that this was the one, no need to look further.

Here's the floor plan, 15.2' x 76'. It has some nice features like a small utility room as opposed to a niche or closet, a nice walk in pantry, cabinets that are 11” deep (all the others we looked at the cabinets were 9 1/2” deep), adequate counter space, a window in the kitchen (the only house we looked at I think that had that), double windows (regular window and storm window), air and heat vents are in the ceiling instead of the floor, carpet in the master bedroom and bedroom 3 and vinyl everywhere else. The master bath is arranged a little differently in the house we're buying but essentially the same.

I took these pictures off the website (because obviously this is not her furniture) since the ones I took today weren't that great.

her house doesn't have that wood panel in the middle of the far living room accent wall and the color is brown instead of gray in our house and all the other walls are an off-white

The guy is getting the paperwork together and coming out Tuesday evening to do his site survey...look over the lot and the street and ditches and the cedar tree by the gate that we are probably going to have to trim some branches off of so as to get the house in, and where we have it staked off for the house to go. Next, it turns out I don't really need a pad but it's an extremely good idea so that water won't collect under the house and to make sure the ground is stable so I have to see to that. I thought we could put the meter box on the house instead of having to have a meter pole since there is a pole about 25' from where the house will be but he says that can't be done so we will have to get a meter box pole and I need to check with the electric company to make sure the transformer across the street can accommodate another 200 amp service. As soon as we have the pad we can arrange to have the house moved onto the property, then the meter box pole, septic system, and hooking up the house to all the utilities (water, septic, electricity). Once all that is done the seller comes out and inspects everything and then installs the HVAC system.

Grandgirl Autumn finished the last exam of her third year of college and hopped the bus and came to visit her folks for a few days before she heads back Sunday for her Memorial Day weekend 'date' with her he's-not-my-boyfriend male companion who she's been going out with for several months. Relationships/friendships between girls and boys is very different now from when I grew up. They don't date the way we used to. Well, they don't date as far as I can tell, at least they don't call it that and  they communicate by text. Not even my daughter (no cell phones though), just one generation removed. I don't think she ever went on a car date where the guy comes and picks you up and you go out somewhere and then brings you back home at curfew. Or even a double date. They went out in groups or gathered at some appointed place. She went to her prom with two girlfriends. That would not have been allowed in my time. You had a date with a person of the opposite sex or you couldn't go. Wouldn't go! As soon as a girl managed to attract a member of the opposite sex, she had a boyfriend and he a girlfriend, she's looking for the best possible mate, he's hoping for sex. because women, girls had very few choices or options back then. Women's wealth in life was determined by the guy she married since all of our jobs were the same...stay home, have babies, keep house, if you were wealthy you could oversee the 'help'. If you were wealthy you could spend your time on charitable pursuits. That's sort of the future that I was expecting though my parents urged, expected, us girls to go to college, and it was the future for my older sister who like many of our contemporaries went for one year, found a husband, and then started having babies. I was on the same track but then the 60s happened, had been happening, and I embraced it. And then mating rituals changed to say the least. Anyway, I digress.

Autumn was here, her mom working in the city yesterday, so I picked her up and we drove out to Boling, another very small nearby town to get some fresh local sweet corn because their corn guy was set up at the 4-way stop, some to eat now, some to freeze, some for me, some for Sarah. So Autumn and I put up 11 cups of cut corn. 

My vacuum sealer would suck the air out but wouldn't seal so it did actually suck so I had to suck the air out of the ziplock bags with a straw because did the grocery store or Walmart have a new one I could buy? No, no they did not. I'll repackage the corn when the new vacuum sealer I ordered on-line gets here. Marc had been online to see if he could find some repair info but they wanted $5 to text with a tech.

I noticed our corn man, who is usually at the farmer's market which is canceled now because guess why but I don't expect it will come back because it was struggling for vendors as it was, was set up on the way to Walmart so I'll get some corn from him too. Turns out his wife is a cousin of our neighbor Leonard which doesn't surprise me in the least since I swear he and his wife Judy are related to just about everyone in town and are distant cousins themselves. And once again I digress.

Sarah came to pick up Autumn and had grandgirl Robin with her who was also spending the weekend with her folks and we had had enough of no hugs and I hugged both grandgirls and my daughter. I knowhopeknow they have been careful and aren't sick.