Mr. Ed is making me answer some of your questions about the Craig's list table story

Mr. Ed called me yesterday with a few questions about the entire Craig's list, patio table selling fiasco.

Do you know who Mr. Ed is?

If you don't...well...he's a talking horse...from a TV show back in the dark ages...and he was always pretty informative in a ... well ... horsey kind of way. I don't think this particular series is going to see the light of day again...but, hey, I was wrong about Hawaii 5-0, too!

BUT...

Mr. Ed told me to answer some of the most common questions from my two part story. Mr. Ed is pretty persuasive. I think it's those big, yellow teeth.

So.

Ahem...Mr. Ed. This post is for you.

We live in an old residential area with some yards having lots up to TWO acres. We are allowed to have chickens, goats and horses on our lots. Many of our neighbors have these things. We do not. Our only livestock here is Oskar, the weiner dog.

The crazy looking ticked-off lady with wild red hair and her husband, the surveyor, have a huge lot. They have horse sheds and I'm pretty sure they own the obnoxious rooster in the immediate neighborhood...Grrrrr...

We can't see into that alley from anywhere in our yard and we only go into that alley when we need to haul something out of the far back, back yard.

Speaking of which...I designed our yard to be a series of 'rooms'. You can see parts of each yard from the other, but never the whole yard at the same time. It's a cool layout. Works well for parties. There are five separate components to our back yard...the yard by the kitchen, the yard by the pool, the side yard where the herb gardens are, the middle yard where the tire swing is and, finally, the back, back yard. Just because you asked.

But...

All those yards won't matter much anymore because we sold our house.

!!!

It was a surprise to me, too.

Remember when Mr. Jenny and I went away to Winslow (to stand on the corner) in early November? When we left home, all was well in our business world. When we returned, all was not. Minor understatement.

Long, weepy, crazy story made short ... the major part of our business tanked. We've both been self-employed since almost forever. When stuff like this happens in your small business, you have to make hard decisions...fast...with your head and not your heart.

I told my heart to shut up, called the bank and a realtor and the house was sold right after Thanksgiving. In one day. Boy, there are stories about that, too. Especially about the family that bought the house. But...Mr. Ed won't like it if I stray from what this post is supposed to be about. Obviously, Mr. Ed doesn't understand the 'off on a tangent' way my mind works...

But...

We've been in this lovely home a good long while but change is good...and a house is still just a collection of things and memories. We'll take the memories with us, but a lot of the stuff has to go...thus the garage sales and the Craig's list sales.

We are going to move closer to our Grandlittle's, rent a house for a year or two and regroup.

My biggest battle with the whole 'selling the house thing' was HAVING to sell versus DECIDING to sell. But, really, that's just a matter of pride and feeling out of control.

And since pride and control are so often self-saboteurs of sanity, I told myself to quit being a whiner, this happens to many people every day, I wasn't so special as to avoid such icky things, and to move on. Literally and figuratively.

To do so, I've been interviewing for some virtual customer service jobs. I need to get a 'real' job for awhile as we regroup, but health issues make it difficult for me to be away from home some days. If you know of anyone hiring for positions like that, let me know!

I've also been packing two boxes a day and sorting through stuff in the process. So far I think we've donated about 200 books and haven't really put a dent in the pile. I shudder to think where all the rest of the stuff packed away in closets and cupboards came from. Who the heck put all that stuff there anyway?

If they neighbors haven't put up some kind of a fence keeping their horses in their yard and out of the alley by this weekend, Mr. Jenny and I will go to the neighbors together (without a plate of cookies) and tell them their horses will continue to get out as we use that gate. And maybe I will shovel up a little of that horse manure and pile it in the side of the garden. The people moving in are gardeners and I suspect that would be a great house-warming gift for them.

Anyway...I have a two box packing quote to meet AND I have a phone interview with a company out of Cincinnatti who uses Virtual customer service agents!

Mr. Ed say's I've written enough now and I'm free to go!

Thanks for reading my little story. I'm still laughing over the whole thing. It just makes me laugh! Life is good, my friends!

Hugs from...


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