Worried

I don't like to admit it, but I'm worried about my post-March-31st life. The office seems to function well enough - the staff know what to do. Even though I think that some of them could do better. SF should look at the contracts to make sure they're signed by everyone - She's pretty good at determining that she has the right sale price and names of parties and property address/description. JC thinks he's on the ball getting binders done well in advance, and prepping our docs prior to closing. But he seems to not want to get a case scheduled if it looks like a bit more work for him that day. PS just will not let go of a case until she's ready, even to the extent of keeping clients waiting in the reception room and me tapping my foot impatiently while she adds some last minute flourish.

And KS - who has never enjoyed very good health - has been out for an entire week with bronchitis and maybe flu on top of all that. Today is my day at home - once a week I stay at home - but today I worry about the office. I don't want KS to come to work if she's sick. It's not going to help her get well and it may infect the office staff. She does have to report the payroll information for Friday's payday. But she could do that from home.

Anyway, it's been harder for me the past week including yesterday while she was out - more work dealing with title binders and/or questions, phone requests, doing settlements and all the post-settlement details. So I'm glad to have today off.

Finally, the sun has returned

Snow on Feb. 3d. Much more snow on Feb. 5 and 6. And then again on Feb. 9 and 10. But yesterday the sun came out. We are tired of digging our way out of the stuff. The front steps. The back steps. The driveway. The two cars. My car was finally set free yesterday afternoon.





Looks good, right? But look at the house and the piles of snow.













I took a walk around the neighborhood. The table and chairs? Outside Scoops Beauregard, but not really set up for sidewalk dining.





I do like the pic of these folks climbing back up the sledding hill. It's between Lexington Street and the newly-rebuilt Walter Reed School/Westover library building.

Snowmageddon

It was snowing. It has snowed. It is no longer snowing. It was snowing from Friday morning and it is now Saturday evening and the snowing has finally CEASED. That's ceased - as in stopped. It's finally over, finished, maybe the stars will shine tonight.



Maybe tomorrow we can dig out. All day long. There's a lot of snow out there. This morning I cleared the front steps and down to the sidewalk so I could put my feet into the great holes that Joe's feet left and get out to the nicely plowed street and take a walk to look around and shoot some photos. And later in the afternoon, I cleared the steps again and this time dug a path out to the nicely plowed street, and even created a snow-shovel-wide gap in the waist-high barrier that the plowtrucks left behind. Then I took a nap.

Snow surprise

Yesterday morning I spent 2+ hours at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden and in Lafayette Park. In a snowstorm. Learning about trees. And then spent about 40 minutes stuck on I-66 - in the snow - waiting for an accident to be cleared away. The less said about that morning, the happier I will be.

Snow continued all day, right up to dusk. We stayed in the house most of that time. Of course, I would, having foolishly spent too much time out of the house and out in the weather. Even though I learned some things I'd wanted to learn.

No, the big surprise was this morning. My husband, without anyone [me] saying a word, got the snow shovel and cleared out the end of the driveway and the sidewalk that runs in front of our yard. This same man in past years has, after many another snowstorm, sat in a chair by the front windows and watched as his wife cleared out the aforementioned driveway and sidewalk. A very nice surprise - almost better than chocolate.

big crocodile

The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation sent a notice yesterday that the "one and only saltwater crocodile on the island was found dead on the East River Trail at SCCF, possibly a victim of the lengthy cold of January". This croc was a female, was known to be on the island for 25-plus years. In the words of the notice, "she helped define our community as one dedicated to living with wildlife, even the big, beautiful scary ones."

She was unique - there are lots of alligators on the island but no other crocodiles. Don't ask me the diffference - they are both big and both scary animals. But it was kind of nice to have seen this reptilian giant one sunny January day in 2007 in the wildlife refuge. She was just lying on the grass next to a water channel, sunning herself with her great scary mouth open. I took the photograph at the top of this piece.

Sanibel shore birds

We spent a few days on the Gulf of Mexico. Here is a video of white ibises feeding at the water's edge on Sanibel Island (not bay side, this is definitely the Gulf), January 8, 2010.

Another video is of herring gulls - the most common large sea gull on the East Coast, these two seem to be having noisy conversation.

Dull, duller, dullest

Monday and no meaningful or non-meaningful work has crossed my desk for hours now. I have had 3 phone conversations with clients, read one email rant against another title company's shortcomings, had 2 face-to-face talks about inconsequential matters, and eaten my lunch. The sun is shining briefly and I should be outside walking in it. But I am waiting for an anxious client to phone me for a "closing via telephone" - - she has the documents, and wants me to stand by so that she can be sure of what she is signing. After that, I'm free to wander off and be happy.

3:26 p.m. - phone closing was late but is finished, so I'm off for a bit - the sun is hidden - too bad. But I'm still off for a bit.

Back 20 min later - great grey clouds with small openings edged with bright sunlit white opening to blue blue. But windy & not warm.

Shortly thereafter arrived the documents from anxious client - faxed 8-9 to loan processor. Once the fax went through I was out of there, just before 5 & hoping for 30 min. drive home - foiled on Whitehurst Fwy because up on Key Bridge, outbound, were the flashing lights of police and first&rescue in the outside lane. So 3 lanes squeezed to 2 and looky-looks drove slowly by. Big raindrops splatted on the windshied as I sped up past the last police car, and hard rain quickly followed - all the way home. Pork chops & mashed potatoes & mushy peas made for a good hearty dinner, with some red wine for me.

Tuesday: my day off. Joe said there's a big truck & crane putting something up on the roof of the library. I went to see, and it's a large stone carving of an acanthus leaf(?) hoisted onto the brick/concrete platform at the library streetcorner. A young man videoing the procedure said the sculpture is from the Abbey Mausoleum which was on the grounds of land Arlington County bought from ?Ft. Myer in 2004. There's also 2 pair of Tiffany windows from same place going into the library sometime soon. The young man and I like the way the county is reusing architectural elements as amenities to new construction. (Have some photos to post).

The Abbey Mausoleum I had never heard of. Best information came from a United Daughters of the Confederacy article about moving the remains of the widow of Confederate General George Pickett from the long-abandoned Abbey Mausoleum. It was located adjacent to Henderson Hall, the US Marine Corps. facility at the south edge of Arlington National Cemetary. It seems to have been a prestigious site for interrment of prominent persons (politicians mostly?) but was abandoned in the 1950s to vandalism and deterioration. The county purchased the property after the Corps had removed the remains to other burial places.