Sneaking up on normalcy

The hell of the last couple weeks is now in the rearview mirror (but the little writing on the mirror keeps reminding me that all that hassle is still Closer Than It Appears.)

What am I talking about?  Some of y'all have heard some of this, so I'll keep it fairly brief...

Had to pull up the tent pegs and make a fairly hasty move to a new casa.  I wasn't financially or mentally prepared, but it had to be done.  See, a few months ago, one of my pooches got out while I was at church.  The neighbor lady tried to be helpful and shepherd him back home.  Pooch didn't like the way the neighbor lady was approaching the front door so he gave her a little nip on the arm.

Neighbor lady is quite elderly.  I've been taught never to guess a lady's age or weight, but she lives with her retired daughter, so I gotta be thinking she's in her mid 80s.  That little nip would have done almost nothing to me, but her skin didn't cope with it as well and she had to get stitches.

Which makes my dog Potentially Dangerous.  Oooh, that sounds scary!  The City of Corvallis said I had to post a $100k bond to keep him in the city.  I couldn't find any insurance company who would write a policy for a dog that already has a bite history.  So it was either get rid of the dog or move.  We chose "move."

So the last few weeks have been a mad scramble of scraping up cash, finding a place, and moving into it.  The move-in is mostly done.  Still have some stuff at the old place and a TON of cleaning to do.  But things are starting to feel closer to normal.  Now we're a couple miles outside of Corvallis and the City statutes don't apply out there.  Ha.  My next-door neighbor has horses and chickens and is already pushing his yummy farm-fresh eggs on me.  We can hear the coyotes howl at night and the stars are a lot brighter.  The drive to work only takes 3 more minutes than it used to.  There are apple and plum trees in the backyard (which is VASTLY larger than what I had before) and also some grapes.  More like "jam" grapes than "eating" grapes, but they're still pretty good.  And, of course, an abundance of blackberries for those who can stand them. (I cannot).  There's even a swing hanging off a tree limb which the granddaughter thinks is the best thing ever. 

I gave up a few square feet of interior, and the well water tastes slightly sulfurous, but all-in-all it has been a worthy upgrade.  I feel like I can start thinking about blogging more frequently now. 

There are a few things that are bugging me, though.  For one, my Giants are on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs by the freekin' Cincy Reds.  Ugh.  And the starting QB for my undefeated #10-ranked Beavs is hurt and out indefinitely.  Needs surgery on his knee.  Double-Ugh.  The backup competed for the starting spot back in fall camp, so hopefully there won't be too much drop-off at that position. 

Anyway...  That's the news!