Catching up

Wow...have I ever been neglecting you guys. I'm so sorry.

What have I been doing instead? Let's see. Math. That's right...intermediate algebra. I'm attempting to convince my subconscious that being afraid of math is a knee-jerk reaction to bad adolescent memories of my step-mother yelling at me from across the dining room table when I couldn't force my brain around geometry.

I've also been learning to knit, and crocheting. I found out that you can buy thrift-store sweaters and pull them apart for their yarn. Which means that suddenly I can afford something more than Red Heart acrylic. Whoo! There is something completely gratifying about spending two bucks on a wool sweater and pulling fifty bucks worth of yarn out of it. (Yes, yarn is really that expensive where I live!)

I've been accepted as a member of a group of people who will work toward state legislation aiding autistic people. The panel is made up of the parents of autistic children and autistic people themselves. I'm SO excited about this...I get to go to Carson City to the participate in the legislation this summer. There's a monthly week-end long planning session/class from now until September, in Las Vegas. I'm feeling more than a little guilty about agreeing to drive 500 miles a month to this thing, but I'm really going to try to make the trip count. The kids will come with me and visit their dad (Adrienne and Nick) and grandparents (Ruby.) I'm going to do a big grocery order while I'm there which will save money (a ton of it.) I'm also going to hit the thrift stores when I'm there.

I've decided to start stocking up on books and clothes and whatever else strikes my fancy for my someday-store. When summer comes, if it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to open a brick and mortar store after all, I can start selling online and make some money for the months when I'm not working. I found a kick ass vintage 70s sweater at our little local thrift today. I've decided to hit that store a couple of times a week. It's so tiny, I can get through in a minute or two, and every now and then they get vintage things in. They're book supply sucks eggs...which is good I guess, if I really do get a store opened.

I was offered a job this week as the editor of Nevada Rancher magazine. It's a monthly publication for...Nevada ranchers. I'm so tempted to take it. Editor in this case is a fancy word for a reporter who has no other editor. I'd have to travel quite a lot (at least one 500-mile round trip a week.) And it pays a salary of $13 for 40 hours a week, no matter how many hours I actually work. I was the only reporter when I worked for this company at their paper in Battle Mountain. I easily worked 60 hours a week, and I had a editor. So I'm pretty sure I'll say no. It's nice to be wanted, though.

As happens every spring, the gardening bug is biting me hard. I have my little seed catalogs all stacked up on the coffee table and I keep looking through them and planting my little garden in my mind. The fact that we don't have our own house and that the one we're renting is not really a long-term place for us makes me all pissed off all over again about the housing market. Obama was on the news today, giving his speech after winning South Carolina, and he mentioned helping people who are being foreclosed on. What about helping those of us who didn't get in over our heads, and now can't even get our ankles wet? Never any talk about that. If they help the potential buyers who are the real victims of this whole shit storm, there might not be so many foreclosures...I wonder if anyone has thought of that in Washington?

I might end up in therapy--housing bubble rage?--before this works itself out.

There's a little house in Ely that a friend of ours used to own. It's a one-story Victorian 1907 house with a wrap-around porch and a wood-burning fireplace. Our friend sold it in 2005 for $145,000. It was on the market again when we moved here for $160,000. It's had a "pending sale" sign more than once, but the sale keeps falling through. It just went on the market again for $95,000. It's a gorgeous house, I absolutely love it. It has a few problems though--the main one being a 5,000 square-foot lot. The lot is barely big enough for a tiny little veggie patch. It is across the street from the local community garden, though.

I know we should wait this market out. It's so damn hard.