Sigh.

First my son got married.  Then my daughter got married.  Same year.  Then the son and his wife decided to buy a bigger coop apt in manhattan and renovate it.  Loaned them some $$ to help.  Got repaid when smaller apt. was sold.  Then daughter had a baby boy.  Then son's wife had a baby boy.  Two grandsons, within 30 days of each other.  Me, with grandsons, who thought I'd always just have grand-dogs.  Anyway, moving right along, daughter and son-in-law faced prospect of homelessness when landlord announced he needed their apt for his sister this summer.  So D and SIL started looking for new home.  And found it.  And placed an offer to purchase.  And was accepted.   But they need my/our help with down payment.  So have promised them as  much as they need.  But will do whatever it takes.  Because she's my only daughter and she's the mom of my wonderful grandson, and that what parents are supposed to do.  I love her to pieces.  And I want to protect them from mistakes and pain and sorrow and other unhappinesses.  But I'm just her mother, and I had to let that go a long time ago.  Sigh.

Barnum & Bailey Circus elephants

Today the elephants and the ponies and horses and some clowns paraded thru Southwest DC to 3rd Street on their way to the Verizon Centre for a week's run of the circus. And I went to see them as they walked along. Sat on the wall that surrounds the American Indian Museum waiting and waiting and waiting in the most welcome Spring sunshine. More people joined me, some with little pre-school size kids, some clearly taking an extended lunch break from the office. After a very long wait, I could see the tops of their heads and backs above the Botanic Gardens' wall - then they reached the corner and turned onto 3rd Street with their police escort (just like every president has had, but without the black SUVs), and everyone jumped off the wall and headed for the wide wide street.

Smart circus people - they had redshirted fellows carrying a rope walking alongside the elephants keeping us fans at a safe distance.

But best of all is this photograph with the great white dome of the Capitol above three of the great beasties.  It had been clear to me that the reason for taking them up 3rd Street was to pose them with the Capitol in the background.  Too bad I couldn't get close enough to get all 7 or 8 of these huge creatures in one photograph. 


It was a nice thing to do on a very welcome warm early Spring day.

Sometimes I take a great notion . . .

Every now and then a great weariness overtakes me. Usually when work has many interruptions that leave me feeling like the tennis ball in a doubles match. That's when I start doing things goofy. Like getting on the Metro going the wrong way. Like being so hungry and frazzled that I forgot my electronic key when I ran down to get some lunch. Like forgetting where I've put parts of a file or my notary seal or anything else important. Sometimes it seems that EVERYTHING is important, that there are no small, unimportant things when I'm dealing with other folks' home purchase transactions. Sometimes I just want to lie down in the dark under my desk.

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.