SOLD!

Yay! :D

We countered with $5K up, they came back with $2K less, and that means... we're done!

Now, no duplicate mortgage payments, at least not for very long, if at all. I expect a fast closing, and then we can cut all ties to New England, hopefully for the last time.

And talk about good timing! The movers are packing today, loading tomorrow, and then D heads West in the other car. So while they are lifting our load, we can also leave with yet another load lifted, thank God!

Out of Egypt - to the Promised Land!

Hmm... need to run to the store and pick up some milk and honey...

An Offer!!

Woooo!

And from just the kind of buyer we want:

pre-qualified for a loan
no house to sell
simple inspection requirements
desire fast closing to occupy quickly

and, a young couple just starting out... their first house... awww...

It's just that - we lowered the price $10K on Friday, and they came in $8,000 below that. :(

But we don't want to lose this kind of buyer, either, so...

we counter with another $5K up and see where we settle out.

Cross your fingers, toes, eyes...

we might just be done!

I'm in!

the new house...

Yes, it's like camping. Me and an air mattress. And soon, me and an air mattress, and... carpenters, electricians, flooring people. Ick.

At least there is one room in the place that no one is touching, and I can shut the door and hide. And! the internet is working, my wireless network on the Mac is up, and music is playing... so it's not like I'm cut off from civilization, exactly. ;)

The commute is down to 30 minutes as of this morning, too, so that seems a little better.

I just have to keep reminding myself - this is temporary, this is temporary. In a few months, everything will seem normal.

Almost there...

It was a nice two days back East, and a great trip cross-country so far, too. But 1000 miles and two days of hard driving and I'm ready to be done, even with a spanking new vehicle that befits a man like me (you know... classy, stylish, giving off a hint of virility without overstating it or grasping at youth - that kind of car.)

;)

So, with air mattress, sheets, towels, some kitchen things, shower curtain, etc.. and my trusty Mac.. I'm soon going to set up camp in the new house.

Closing is tomorrow (with realtor as trusted power of attorney), and occupancy by end of business day on Wednesday. By the weekend, "camp" should be organized, and the remodeling contractors set to work, too.

I'll whip this new place into shape before D & J1 (maybe J2?) arrive for Memorial Day weekend! They'll see! :)

One last trip

back East.

The last trip to a house I own there, anyway..

Tomorrow I fly out and then drive back (in a new set of wheels!)

It will be a whirlwind of chores, car shopping, catching up, conversation, planning, decisions, unpacking and packing up again... probably no time to relax, really.

So, the time on the road will be welcome. Some good music, a nice car, the open road ahead, a destination to look forward to... :)

Sounds nice.



Mmm, and another simple pleasure - the last of the boxes were put to death today at the office. :) Good thing, since the new house will be filled with them soon. :(

Sold!

Well, not the house...

but the car! :)

Some guy named Sergiy from Chicago bought it - for my full asking price, no less - and promptly paid his $500 deposit. Apparently he is a broker who buys cars in the US and resells them in Europe. Huh. Well, as long as his cashier's check clears..

I wonder what country he'll market this one in? I think... Italy. :) Oh, but it will probably be Lithuania or Romania or someplace where they eat cabbage and rutabagas.

But, you know what this means!!!

ooooooooooooooh...



Yeah, baby! Watch me go now... finally a little horsepower. Not to mention class.

One Thing Needful

Sunday I was back at my old church, and by the second song I was in tears already. I do so miss it there...

They sang an old Lutheran hymn, with somewhat altered lyrics, which I have always loved. It speaks of a single-mindedness about faith which I sorely lack. Such good counsel, but so hard for a pleasure-seeker like me to follow. :(

Thank God that He is merciful and full of grace. I experience that on a daily basis. And I'm not the only one who does...



One thing needful! This one treasure Teach me, Savior, to esteem;
Other things may promise pleasure, But are never what they seem;
They prove to be burdens that vex us and try us,
And true lasting happiness never provide us;
This one precious treasure, that all else exceeds,
Gives joy above measure and fills all my needs.

Seekest thou the One thing needful; Leave all cares that hind’ring prove;
Be of earthly joys unheedful; Fix thy heart on things above;
For where God and man both in one are united,
With God’s perfect fullness the heart is delighted;
There, there is the worthiest lot and the best;
My one and my all and my joy and my rest.

I have naught, my God, to offer Save the blood of Thy dear Son;
Graciously accept the proffer; Make His righteousness my own.
His holy life gave He, was crucified for me;
His righteousness perfect, He now pleads before Thee;
His own robe of righteousness, my highest good,
Shall clothe me in glory through faith in His blood.

Henceforth Thou alone, my Savior, Shalt be all in all to me.
Search my heart and my behavior; Cast out all hypocrisy.
Restrain me from wand’ring in pathways unholy,
And throughout life’s pilgrimage keep my heart lowly;
I’ll value but lightly earth’s treasure and store:
Thou art the One needful, and mine evermore!

Back to it

Vacation's over. :(

But it was really nice. Time well spent, and good memories.

So, back to work tomorrow, and soon after that one last trip to New England to pack one car full of guns, ammo and alcohol, and drive it to the Twin Cities. (!!!) I'd better not get pulled over! ;)

Hmm... but which car? Will the Cruiser sell by Monday? Hope so. I'm not sure she has another long trip in her, poor baby.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=006&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=160108740116&rd=1,1

Doctor, doctor, can you tell?

What will make poor Billy well?

I remember hearing that singsong rhyme growing up, and even trying to pick it out on the piano when I was little, since it's so catchy.

But in this case, my doctor is doing really well... at getting me well. :)

This week I did the required blood work and then saw her for the exam and interpretation of the results, and... yay! Such good news.

Cholesterol & triglyceride levels ideal. Better than ideal! Super.

Thyroid just right. No changes needed.

Testosterone a little high, but not much. Back off one squirt on the pump. It may help with mood volatility, too, she thinks.

Oh, and she said I shouldn't worry about throwing off lots of heat - she said it's very male, why men sleep with less on, do those silly polar bear event things, and why you see young guys barechested at winter sports events (well, it could be the beer, too.) But anyway, the more characteristic maleness, the more heat given off.

Mmmhmm, I like that answer! ;) So, in my best Barry White voice: "Ohhh, yeahhhh, baby, tell me that some more..."

My weight is down again (at an ideal pace), muscle mass up nicely. Ha - she even suggested that I revise my ideal weight goal *upward* to account for the better muscle definition.. oooh, this doctor is good for my self-esteem!

Not to mention that I'm living 700 miles closer to her now, and she won't be so hard to get to. So, no big changes to the regimen and meds, and... see you in late December, doc. Thanks for the pep talk!

Rrrrr.... may I thump my chest now?

Sell, sell, sell!

Back East, there is frenzied interest in the house. Over 25 potential buyers ccame through the open house last Sunday! One couple came back twice. :) The realtor called yesterday to say there is a couple who desperately wants to come through tonight, and could they have a showing? Fortunately D doesn't get back from Italy until 11PM, so no problem with that. And, she has a day to sleep off the jet lag before the next open house this Sunday.

Go, go, go! No duplicate mortage payments, please..

Oh, and - I put my car up for sale on eBay Motors. Yes, the Cruiser! Can you believe it? It's time..

And so far, bidding is up to $4,003. Not far from my reserve price. Oooh, that would be nice. Then I could do a cash deal on a new Dodge Charger in black. Rrrr...

Sell, baby, sell!

Vacation!

I love it. :)

With no immediate family even in the Western Hemisphere right now, I can't think of a better time to be out and about. Especially before the work on the new house begins to explode, I have no time to think, and have to sleep on an air mattress...

So, from major urban centers to rural hamlets, I'm making the rounds. So far, it's been great - absolutely great!

I wish I understood better what I love so much about autonomy. And I wish I knew how to make money at it. :) Being good at relationships is what helps you get paid well, regardless of your technical training. Not to mention it pays well in the intangibles of life. :) The better your relationships, the better your quality of life - even if you are a person who thrives on being autonomous. Like me.

In your face

...boxes! So there. :)

In the office tonight unpacking and putting away. The trash people will have their hands full tomorrow.

I've got to do this now before the next load arrives!

It'll be here when I get back to the office the first week of May, so... gotta make space now.

That won't be the only thing waiting for me when I get back. The local realtor is arranging for the home improvement contractors to get in the new house and measure stuff this week and next, so.. no doubt I'll have estimates to think over and decisions to make so they can start work right after closing.

But I can think about that later. :) As of noon tomorrow I'm off on vacation! It'll be the last one in quite a while, I think. Hmm... maybe a long weekend in late October. That might be nice.

The whole family is overseas! J2 is on choir tour in Germany and Austria, the rest are all in Italy. :( Ah, well... I'll find something to do that's memorable, I'm sure. :) Mmmhmm, definitely.

Ciao, bebe!

Boxes again

Much of what I shipped last week was waiting for me when I came in this morning to my new location.

What in the world do I do with this now? I think some evenings this week will be spent in here, unpacking.

Well, it keeps me off the streets, right? :)

But today, something fun! I go to see the registrar at seminary to talk about next fall's classes. Yay!

Spring!

After all the slogging through rain of this past week, it felt sooooo good yesterday to feel the sun on my face. Much as I try to avoid that, normally. :) Just goes to show how desperate I was.

And, after all that rain, and now the 70 degrees and sun, up come the daffodils! My favorite spring flower by far... they always seem to wave hello to me. :)

Plus, I vacated my temporary office in NE, never to return I hope! I'm so eager to move to the Twin Cities. Let me at it! A new life is starting for me, and I want to settle in to it. And by the end of May, that's exactly what I should be doing, settling in.

Next week I'm there for 4 days and then on vacation for awhile, having a wonderful time just poking around and enjoying Spring, like a farmer enjoys going out to see how his fields got through the winter. :) I sure hope winter is really over, both literally and metaphorically. We'll see. I'm hopeful.

I even test-drove a new car yesterday. I have the itch. Yes, I would even trade in my pride and joy! The new Dodge Charger is awfully hot. :) Hot hot hot!

That's a wrap

The last of the boxes from the NE office goes today to the Twin Cities. No doubt an enormous pile will be showing up next week when I'm there. Where I'll put them, I have no idea. At last count I'm up to 32 bankers' boxes, and this is after an extensive cleanout! I filled two dumpsters with throwaways. Really!

Some will go to the new house, but will have to sit at the office for a while until after closing on May 15, when I'll start to haul a few to the new place each night. But a few things I'm taking with me on the airplane Sunday, like speakers and an external hard drive with my iTunes library on it! Not one more day without it...

So the next time I set foot in the NE home office, I will truly be a visitor. And... that's good. :)

You know youthful manhood has passed...

when you cut yourself shaving, and its... your earlobe.

I remember cutting myself weekly in my 20s, as I perfected the art of shaving and got to know intimately every contour of my face. So okay, I guess I have a few new contours to learn now, as hair grows where it never has before (and in my opinion has no business growing...)

Sorry, God, but this is one of the aspects of physiology that makes me question the intelligence of this particular design I live with daily. What possible purpose is there to ear/nose/back hair that should cause it to flourish starting in mid-life? And before you tell me that it's an effect of The Fall of Man from Grace, the Scripture clearly teaches that it's the *ground* that was cursed to bring forth thistles and weeds, NOT MY EARS!

Now I'm walking around with a bandaid on my ear and if anyone asks, I'll just have to tell them that the piercing got infected. It'll sound like a young man's problem. ;)

But! I have a new young assistant as of today. :) Work-wife, as I call her, agreed by email yesterday (complete with little smiley emoticons) to come work for me. Soon she'll sit across the cubicle wall from me and I'll be able to hear her talk to her work-husband across the aisle from me all day long! How fun!

I bought a fan to generate some white noise. I think I'm going to need it.

Seven Laws of the Harvest

Last Sunday, the pastor referred to this list of cause/effect principles that anyone in an agrarian society (such as first century Palestine) would understand without discussion. They might not be quite so intuitive today.

1) We reap only what has been sown. Nothing comes up by itself except - weeds.

2) We reap the same kind as we sow. You plant corn, you get corn, not beans.

3) We reap in a different season than we sow. Results of our decisions, good or bad, are seldom immediate.

4) We always reap more than we sow. A little, planted, usually yields a lot.

5) We reap in proportion to what we sow. The more the activity, the more the result.

6) We will harvest the full harvest of the good only if we perservere. (through drought, weeds, pests, etc...)

7) We can't do anything about last year's harvest, but we can do something about this year's harvest. (But even then, some things remain outside our control.)

So... what am I harvesting in my life right now? And what will I harvest later on?

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."

----- Galatians 6:7-9

Packing and repacking

I am getting reaaaaallly tired of boxes.

Yesterday I needed to vacate my office in New England, to make room for a new hire. At least it wasn'tfor my replacement.. the two candidates they had for that internally were rejected, so they have to go outside and recruit now. Good luck with that!

So they move my workstation, phone, etc., to a new space in another building. But it's only for a few days. Friday is my last day in this location. And it was such a pretty office, too. :(

But I have a few days in peace now to go through my 30-some bankers' boxes that I packed on Saturday, sort, toss, tape shut, and ship them to the Twin Cities and my new office there. Not that there's room - there's not. Some will go to the basement of the new house once we take occupancy. My new space is smaller and not enclosed. But the people are nice, and the downtown is too. :)












Ha - there are boxes that were under my desk full of stuff from... 3 moves ago? Ridiculous. I didn't take the time to look through them then, and may not now, either. Leave it to my heirs! They will just shake their heads and say "just who was this man, again?" ;)

Wonder and reality

"...there are all sorts of things our hearts believe that don't make any sense to our heads. Love, for instance; we believe in love. Beauty. Jesus as God.

"It comforts me to think that if we are created beings, the thing that created us would have to be greater than us, so much greater, in fact, that we would not be able to understand it. It would have to be greater than the facts of our reality, and so it would seem to us, looking out from within our reality, that it would contradict reason. But reason itself would suggest it would have to be greater than reality, or it would not be reasonable.

"When we worship God we worship a Being our life experience does not give us the tools with which to understand. We may be able to wrap our heads around living forever (and we can do this only because none of us [still able to discuss it] has experienced death), but can we understand what it means to have never been born? I only say this to illustrate that we, as Christians, believe things we cannot explain. And so does everybody else.

"I have a friend who is a seminary student who criticizes certain Christian writers for embracing what he calls 'mysticism.' I asked him if his statement meant that he was not a mystic. Of course not, he told me. I asked him if he believed in the Trinity. He said he did. I asked him if he believed that the Trinity represented three separate persons who are also one. He said he did. I asked him if that would be considered a mystical idea. He just stood there thinking.

"You cannot be a Christian without being a mystic.

"One night I watched the sunset till the stars faded in and, while looking up, my mind, or my heart, I do not know which, realized how endless it all was. I laid myself down on some grass and reached my hand directly out toward where? I don't know. There is no up or down. There has never been an up and down. Things like up and down were invented so as not to scare children, so as to reduce mystery to math. The truth is we do not know there is an end to material existence. It may go on forever, which is something the mind cannot understand.

"I think we have two choices in the face of such big beauty: terror or awe. And this is precisely why we attempt to chart God, because we want to be able to predict Him, to dissect him, to carry Him around in our dog and pony show. We are too proud to feel awe and too fearful to feel terror. We reduce Him to math so we don't have to fear Him, and yet the Bible tells us fear is the appropriate response, that it is the beginning of wisdom. Does this mean God is trying to hurt us? No. But I stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon once, behind a railing, and though I was never going to fall off the edge, I feared the thought of it. It is that big of a place, that wonderful of a landscape."

----- Don Miller in "Blue Like Jazz"

Is the devil in the details, or...

is God in the math? The math of the universe, that is.

Today marks the 300th anniversary of Leonhard Euler's birth. Who was he? Only one of the top four mathematicians of all time.

NPR had a story on him yesterday:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9585232

He was the one who originally derived what I've always thought of as "the signature of God on the universe."

Here's how WIkipedia describes his "identity formula":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler's_identity

When I was going through the deep math needed to get my professional certification, I actually derived his same identity myself, without realizing that it had been done, oh, about 250 years before me! :) It was actually the first time I ever derived anything mathematical from scratch before, and it was instinctive. I thought about it like this: God wrote his initials on the universe somewhere, and two of the fundamental constants in the universe, pi and e, must be involved somewhere.

So I started playing with them and then stumbled on the idea of involving something paradoxical and mysterious, like God is, and what better concept than the idea of imaginary numbers? Imaginary numbers are something you can't grasp in reality. The idea of taking the square root of a negative number is... impossible. Inconcievable! It's a paradox. Unreal. It has to be imaginary. And yet... it's what ties everything together and makes a lot of the higher math that describes the universe possible.

Just like God to infuse reality with mystery, and to keep defining Himself just out of our reach.

I love Euler's identity. Not because I came up with it independently, but because..

It's God's signature on the original art that is the universe.