I'm (almost) back!

[Mabus]

After waiting a month we have finally achieved mission "get the cable hooked up" at our new house, in our new state, half-way across the country from our family and friends! We moved to Maryland last month (it was a quick decision and a quick move) and have been without some of the amenities which we were accustom to having. Little things like a telephone, internet and cable television. We've been sitting up the new house, finishing up some client work back in Kansas and a month's worth of e-mail, not to mention that a few other set-backs (two weeks of sewage back-ups in the utility room and finding out that someone had ripped out the phone lines in the house when the phone guy got here to hook us up) and other priorities ( catching up on "The Wire" and KU basketball - thank you ESPN!) have delayed us getting back online more than a few minutes at a time.

Hopefully I'll be able to start watching KO with you all on a semi-regular basis again soon. We've finally got a stable wireless system so I can finally watch KO with my husband and have the laptop working. Tonight (and for the next week or so) our evening hours will be spent working on some stuff for clients back home.

[WolverineDG]

1. Yay!

Welcome home! :)

dg

[Mabus]

2. I've missed all you

and those witty/insightful/insane comments and stories throughout the show. I can't tell you how much I've missed all of you. I've also missed hearing/seeing KO. It has been like hell. We've had so many problems with the house that most of my days have been spent either waiting for someone to show up to show them what wasn't working or running to the library to use the computer to find out who to call about the latest mishap with the house. I think we've got most of the kinks out now.

I've learned a lesson about renting a house from a do-it-yourself'er who isn't very good at it. I think the first clues I will look for next time is the number of upside down electrical outlets and/or the number of electrical switches with no purpose. I feel like that guy in the commercial who asks his wife/girlfriend what this switch does. As he flips it up and down the neighbor's garage door is going crazy. There are four switches in the bathroom and we can only find one that does something.

It an ironic twist, the first thing I saw on cable was a commercial for some movie where a family moves into a house and then the house falls apart on them. All of a sudden it wasn't that funny of a premise for a movie. We're getting settled in and I think we've found all the holes in the fence that the dogs can fit through.

More than anything, those of you who post on the KO forum seem more rational than most of the rest of DU right now. I know it is primary season but it has really gotten ridiculous around here. Thank all of you for a sane refuge on DU.

[WolverineDG]

3. At least you're renting

I bought a house from a do-it-yourselfer who wasn't so good in that department. eek.

dg

[Mabus]

4. Originally he agreed to rent to us for one year and then we would think about buying it

About a week later we found out he was talking about selling the house to someone else. Now we know why he didn't want us to wait for a year before committing to buying it. When we decided to move we almost sold our house to get the down payment to buy this one. Thankfully for us the guy who talked to us about buying our old house had a financial set-back and wanted to delay the deal he offered us for a year.

Besides, by this time next year we'll know our way around enough and we will have figured out if we want to stay in this particular area or not. A couple of our friends have suggested other areas that we may like better. Coming from our laid-back home town and old Victorian house with a front porch (with the wooden swing) in a neighborhood with lots of other middle-aged hippies with front porches it has been a culture shock for us to be in the middle of backyard deck land.

We have a couple of friends back home who have houses out here that they are thinking about selling. One of them has a house in Bethesda and another one has several properties in the Crystal City area that he's thinking about selling now that he retired and moved back home to the Lawrence (KS) area.

This is a nice area but I miss being able to bop over to an organic food store or bumping into other liberals on the street. It's just weird. We've met some really nice people who describe themselves as progressive but, this is hard to explain, I'm used to people who are not only self-described progressives (and more often liberal) but who live it. There are just a few too many progressives I've run into out here who couldn't tell me where the local organic markets were or where the political happenings are. I guess I'm used to being part of a more active community. I'm sure there are some around here but I just haven't been able to hook up with them yet. We really need to get out more. I think I've spent way too much time waiting for someone to come by and fix something and less time exploring what's here. Hopefully that will change as time goes by.

Sometimes it feels like I left a bubble of blue sanity and landed in the middle of Pleasant Valley Sunday. I still have trouble spotting our house from a distance because it looks like every other house on the block. I'm used to a neighborhood where there is a variety of architecture and where you can use landmarks like "three houses south from the purple house" or "next door to the house with the lawn art". I swear I don't know the addresses of most our friends back home. I know how to get to their houses by their own unique character (Donna lives in the salmon colored house across the street from the aquamarine house with green and magenta highlights, Marty's house is the one with tin roof, rose bushes and white picket fence that's up the street from the old co-op while Mark lives in the old Blue Moon commune in the red house across the road from the stone barn house -otherwise known as Bob's old house) rather than an actual physical address. That's what I get for living in the community that I grew up in. I'm not used to moving to a whole new area with a different pace of lifestyle.

[SharonRB]

6. Welcome back!

I still haven't made a decision about TBA. My mom is still hanging on -- in fact, she was much more lucid this weekend. This may sound like a good thing, but is really much harder on everyone, including her. Saturday night she was fighting off the morphine and sedation and refused to fall asleep. Everytime we tried to leave, her eyes popped back open. It's so frustrating because she can't talk to us, but she's aware of us being there and can focus on us and comprehend what we're saying to her. We know she's frustrated and terrified. Yesterday she started crying while we were there. It's so hard to just watch her helplessly, knowing there's nothing we can do.

We met with a great palliative doctor yesterday and finally have someone to go to with questions and concerns. For example, out of the blue they started giving her liquid food beyond the hydration and basics they had been giving her before. We did not want them to do this. Then yesterday they started giving her insulin because her blood sugar went up (she's not diabetic) and potassium for her heart. We're really not trying to prolong things -- we just want them to do what's necessary to keep her comfortable and out of pain. The doctor was going to put something on her chart today not to start anything they aren't already doing.

[Mabus]

7. I've been thinking about so much

I was hoping the news would be better. Having gone through a similar experience with my mom I know what you mean and I have an idea how you're feeling. There were days when my mom was lucid and funny and then there were the days when she was aware but unable to communicate. More than once she said she was ready for her final sleep and she was frustrated when it didn't come.

I think there are a lot of us who understand what you are going through. The Admiral's parents passed away within 6 months of each other and he went through similar situations for both of them too. Having parents who spent their last days in the hospital going in and out of consciousness and up and down in health is something that I think more and more of us will experience. It is stressful on everyone, especially the poor person going through it.

I'm glad you've got a good doctor to talk to. I remember the hospital staff starting new procedures on my mom that she either didn't want or understand. There were a couple of people who would explain why there was a change in her treatment but most of them just came in, did their thing and then left. I just wanted to know so I could explain it to her.

Just remember that if you can come in March we'd love to have you. If you can't, believe me, we understand. We'll just have to put off meeting until another day. You will always be welcomed to stay with us whenever you are in the area, especially now that we know what most of the problems with the house are (crossing my fingers on this one) and that they are fixed and/or workable.

[SharonRB]

10. Thanks, Mabus

Hopefully I'll be able to make a decision in the next week or two and it won't be too late to register. I'm trying to decide if I should sign up for the dinner -- I'm leaning toward not doing the dinner, since it's a lot of money just for that one event, but I'm going to see what Nancy wants to do if she decides to come.

[Mabus]

11. If you don't sign up for the gala dinner

We'll have our own gala dinner that you won't have to dress up for. We've never gone to it. I'm sure it would be fun but it just seemed like a lot of money. Last year, we (me and evlbstrd) walked to a liquor store and then a Chinese restaurant and brought food back to the hotel for us, the Admiral and proud2Blib. We watched tv, ate and talked about who we saw and talked to throughout our day at the conference. I think we had a better time than if we had gone to the dinner. At the same time, I personally wouldn't mind going to one of them but we're not going to be able to afford it this year.

fwiw, if you don't go, we can gawk at the dinner attendees. In the past, the dinner guests would line up on their way to the banquet hall and you could see who was going in. You could sit on the patio and check out the people as they get there. As time for the dinner draws nearer you can sit on the patio, sip a beer and watch as the dinner line goes by and play "name that politico".

A couple of years ago Joe Wilson was in line to get into the dinner when I screwed up my courage and went to chat him up a bit. Last year I saw him the hallway (talking to Digby) and he waved at me. It was almost like he remembered me. He was probably thinking "there's that nut from last year" and thought waving at me would placate me. Who know? Of course, they may be doing the dinner thing differently this year since they are using a different hotel.

[SharonRB]

5. You and me both.

Talk about extra outlets! Oy!

[WolverineDG]

8. There are switches in this house

that even master electricians can't figure out! :crazy:

dg

[SharonRB]

9. We didn't actually buy ours from the do-it-yourselfer himself

He was a previous owner. We bought it from a lesbian couple who had had a waterbed upstairs and who had 25 watt lightbulbs everywhere -- the house was really dark. If CFLs had been around then, I'm sure they would have been the first to buy them.

There are outlets up at the top of the blinds in the living room -- we think he may have had drapes that opened and closed electrically at some point.