Orchids?

So... im staying out in Burleson, for reasons that have already been explained. My hosts are wonderful people, friends of the family, but I'm afraid that my hostess is one of those people that is completely inept with houseplants. She has killed several pothus for Gods sake. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the kitchen and found the outbid she received last mother's day still plugging along.


Of course, it's one of those phalenopsis that you get at home depot. It's been sitting in the kitchen window doing pretty much nothing. And as the "plant guy" I was immediately expected to come up with a plan.

Now... I don't do orchids. Not terribly impressed with them, and they don't stem terribly impressed with me either. I do know it's in the wrong kind of pot, and the dead bloom stems should have been snipped off. But, my dear hostess ( have I mentioned what wonderful people they are?) knowing her record wisely said to herself, " it ain't dying so leave well enough alone," which is probably pretty close to what I would have done.

I inspected closer, and found this.



The bloom stems ain't so dead. They're resprouting. Ive heard of this. Vaguely. Then I found this:



Appears to be another stem coming up.

Im voting for leaving it all be for the moment.

Just checking in

Currently, its fantastically warm here. It almozt feels like a nice summer day in three low 70's. To up date on the foreclosure... the eviction hearing is the 31st. Judge will sign the prospects and I will have 3 days to get out. I could actually leave now... but after the not so legal shenanigans this real estate agent has pulled im tempted to show up at the hearing and tell the judge I'm unemployed, have nowhere to go, and that they've been trying to evict me illegally. The paralegals tell me here could give more up to 90 extra days.

I guess our depends on how much of a pain in the ass i wanna be. Ans my opinion on that varies from moment to moment.

Anyway... well see what happens when the time comes.

Spent the night in Burleson, at the family friends house where I'll be staying for a few months and was woke up at 5 am with thunder snow. That's right... snow, with lightning and thunder. If it's weird weather, you can count on it happening in Texas.

Roads in this state are not made for this, so it's a mess. Of course, I've spent enough time up north to deal with it, but no matter how capable I am, it doesn't matter if there is suddenly a Buick skidding towards you.

Still, off to the flea soon. My hours have changed and I'll be working every Tuesday.

I officially declare a mental health day

Been at the danged flea almost every day this week. True, Saturday is one of our big sales days... but I don't really think my nerves can take it. But... here's some of the things at the market now that are easy cool...



These are sets of salt& pepper shakers. They're not mine... and I'm not a collector of such things... but let's face it, these are just too cool.




This is a vintage TV lamp. Lights up from behind.





This library table dates Rio about the 20's. Really, it's more of a desk, but the wide shelf under it is meant to store books, so it's called a library table. Very nice piece.


These are old metal file boxes... nothing too great, just way cool. They'd look great placed on the floor supporting a glass tabletop and calling themselves a coffee table.

And that's it for today...

How bout this...

So the thieves at the flea market have gotten to the point that we all insisting on security cameras.

Here's a few fun facts about shoplifters. Women with babies have been caught shoving jewelry into baby carriages and diaper bags and even the diapers their kids ate wearing. They are so blatant about it because they know that cops will usually refuse to arrest a woman with a child. But take my word for it... if the sales person insists on cooing over junior in the stroller, they might really like kids, but they might be checking out what else is in there.

If you by a case of toilet paper you cannot store it in the cabinet of the ladies room. Seriously, a case of toilet paper will disappear one roll at a time in the space of a day. You can store out in the men's room.

Men won't steal toilet paper. They will steal tools, knives, and women's shoes... I'm not sure I wanna think about the latter too much.

The other group we have to worry about are teenagers. There seems to be a certain subculture running around that consists of young boys stealing things to impress their girlfriends. There's actually no limit to what will disappear when these are involved.

And tag switchers. There's nothing like being at the counter when a package of king size sheets shows up, which usually sell for about 10 to 12 bucks, with a tag that says " crib sheets, 2.99" yesterday there was a " customer" ( and I'm using that word loosely) who had 11 items in their cart, and none of them were tagged right.

Since the economy has gotten worse, the problem has gotten worse. There's a study I heard about on NPR that says poverty doesn't create new thieves, but it makes petty thieves into major ones

I don't really know about that, but sometimes it seems I'm not really a customer service employee as much as a customer police man.

Oh well. Just feeling the grind I guess. I'll be my usual self again soon.

Testing

Testing

Just an update

So... a wonderful experience was had by all... got home from church with a notice on the door.  I think its finally the eviction notice.    Nope... the charming ( cough) lady ( cough, cough) who kinda illegally tried to get more out off tje house the week before Christmas has posted an vacancy post on tthedoor, which means she's declared it abandoned property.  Of course it's not.  So I spend tje day trying to get her to answer my call s.  No go.  Finally, I call the bank thats evidently the new owner.  They evidently have no record of this property or me or authorising any such action.  The title hasn't transferred yet, do they dont have the right to do this yet.  Now I cant afford a lawyer.  They bill by rhe hour for 5 minutes.  So I call 211, which in Texas is a state aid line, they connect me with a lawyer in human services and she finds all this VERY interesting.  She tells me to call info, get the # for the real estate co. Call and get a fax # & notify them tje house isn't vacant.

Get the #, call it, its disconnected.  Do internet search.  Same thing.  Charming  agent finally reforms call... and we both are excruciatingly polite in a totally fake way that southerners have patented, cause she knows she's on thin ice and Im waiting to hear more from lawyer before I commit too anything. 

Al that being said... I believe with all my heart that everything will work out for the best, and that next year will bring wondrous things.  I have every intention to have (x) amount of dollars sitting in a bank account by next December, and I can be very determined.

Wishing us all prosperity in the next year.  More virtual e- hugs Aall round...

Well... I guess I should just say it, huh?

I am now one of the many Americans who have been foreclosed on.  Oh well.  I inherited this house after my mom passed away and the whole deal, quite frankly, reaked.  I didnt really want it.  I'm three kind of guy who'd be perfectly happy in a trailer in the woods.  The whole responsibility of property ownership isn't for me.  Tried to remortgage, and they wouldn't let me.  Now the mortgage is about double whats the house is worth, and it needs close to 5 figures in repairs.  They want it?  Have at it. 
So, two weeks before Christmas, some female walks into the back yard, and announces t they'll be coming to squeeze tje property next week.  Which I was kinda expecting.  But after announcing that I es to vacate one week before Christmas, she then said "happy holidays"  which caught me off guard, and struck more as ludicrously rude.  Which is probably why I offered to perform an illegal mastectomy.  But not so politely termed.
Anyway, a. few phone calls to friends in the paralegal and real estate fields yielded this.  She didn't have a constable, she didn't have eviction papers, so I dont have to go nowhere.  Actually, I could have called a cop and filed Tresspassing charge.  She was basically trying to get me out without tje expense off filing.  Not gonna happen.
But, I know it's coming so the house is being gutted.  Furniture, antiques, appliances all at the flea market... and my sales have never been better.  Hell id pull out the air vents of i could get a buck out of them...
When it actually happens, I'll have tbree days to remove personal clothes and such to a friends where I'll be staying. Meanwhile. no Tresspassing signs are up, gays are locked, they never did come to seize anything, and I probably got a month before thw eviction papers go through... dint worry about me. Im good.

And Merry Christmas to all...

I've posted over the last few years that I truly prefer a quiet holiday... and I've even written fairly extensively about the reasons for that.  I'm not, therefore, going into it again. 

Lets face it... Yuletide Lugubriousness wears a little thin eventually. 

But I do want to take a moment to wish everyone out there the holiday they want and deserve, whatever that celebration is.

Big ole virtual e- hugs all around y'all!

Doings at the flea...

So... since everyone seems to enjoy the posts where I talk about things at the flea... here we go.

Now... I'm on my android, so arranging pics is very difficult. Theres a picture of a blue cabinet. It's actually a Lane Co. cedar linen safe, or linen hutch... basically it's a standing cedar chest witth roll out shelves for keeping folded linens, quilts and sweaters. The blue green enamel is a bit too much for me, but it's a nice piece, priced at 179.00, in truly excellent condition.

Theres also a small black table... specifically a rolling typewriter table that es layeted for the old manual typewriters. Wheels still roll, the side leaves still work properly... I priced it at 40 bucks. They're in high demands because they're funky and useful. But dont fall in love... it was on Craig's list for less than an hour before I got full price paid over the phone with a credit card.

Theres also am auto harp. This particular one has a jack for an amplifier... there are 3 of them in my booth. 100 to 150 each.

And thats what I've got to show for the moment.