Sunday, August 3, 2014

My pretty desktop photo is the front walkway of Miss Helen’s house.

Can you believe it?

“Believe what?” you ask.

Can you believe it’s August already? The kids will be starting back to school pretty soon and from there it’s only a hop, skip and jump to Christmas!

“Peg, you’re rushing it!”

It’ll be here before we know it.



I realized (after I had already sent it) that last weeks letter read kind of funny at one point.

“What part?” you wonder.

I was talking about taking Mr. Zee and Miss Helen shopping and I called Miss Helen “my other lady”. I wasn’t implying that Mr. Zee was a lady and Miss Helen was the other one, as it could have been read. I was thinking about Margaret and Miss Helen would be my other lady. But you couldn’t have known what I was thinking and I should have written it different.

But alas! None of you called me on it.

Something else that no one called me on was the set of eyes I used in my story last week about my brother Michael.

“Weren’t they Michael’s eyes?” you ask.

That’s what I wanted you to think. But what I wanted to have happen was for Momma to say, “Peggy, those aren’t Michael’s eyes.”

No, they’re not. I had a bet with one of my brothers that our mother could tell who the picture was-just by the eyes.

Lost that one, didn’t I?

I have some news for you.

“What’s that?” you ask.

Most of you know that we had a deal pending on our Missouri property. A couple of guys were going to give us a lot of money to run this place for us and eventually they would own it, but the deal fell through.

“What happened?” you wonder.

Well, it’s a little bit complicated, but hang in there with me and I’ll tell you what happened.

These two guys came to us a year ago, wanting to buy the place but couldn’t get their finances in order. Then a few months ago they came back to us again. They had the money and wanted to make the deal. We saw the first draft of the contract, sent it back to them with a few minor changes, got the second draft and sent that to our lawyer for review, but before we could sign papers, they wanted us to reduce the price. Now mind you, the price was never in question before this!

“What changed their minds?” you wonder.

And that’s where the complications set in.

On the corner of our block, two new bars are being built. Our property is shaped sort of like a pot with the long, thin handle extending behind these two properties. In order to build their business they have to cross our strip of land.

We just had our entire parking lot, along with that piece of land, resealed and re-striped. It was like new!

“You have to make my property back to what it was before you started,” Mike told them, and they agreed-in writing. They would repair all damage, reseal and repaint it to it’s pre-construction state.

Then they wanted to put the utility easement on us!

Well, since Mike and I were not planning on being here much longer, we thought we would let the new guys make that deal.

“But with an easement, you can never build on that piece of property!”

That’s true, but it is a long, narrow strip of land and needs to remain an egress and exit from our property. Therefore an easement wouldn’t matter that much to us. It isn’t big enough to build on and you can drive on an easement.

When our guys talked to those guys, one or both of them said that this property was offered to them last year for a lot less money. So our guys came back to us wanting us to reduce the price.

“It isn’t true,” Mike told them. “It was never offered to anyone at that price.”

They chose to walk.

Sigh!

Mike and I were looking forward to moving on with our lives and doing something else for a while but it wasn’t meant to be.

Even so, I am not totally unhappy with this turn of events. We get to spend more time with this little character right here.

“Is that Andrew?” you ask.

Yes, that’s our little grandson Andrew. We got to spend the day with him yesterday and we had a good time too, but that may well be another story!

There is not a doubt that sooner or later, someone will come along and want this piece of property, and it will be worth more then.

I had the girls out for a walk the other day when I spotted a family, sitting at a sidewalk establishment, with a beautiful Great Dane at the woman’s side.

Gosh! I love the Danes!

Luckily I saw the dog before Itsy and Ginger did. That is always a good thing because then I can corral my girls. I pick Itsy up and divert her gaze so she doesn’t see the dog and bark her fool head off, and I can shorten Ginger’s lead so she has to stay closer to me. It just makes my life a whole lot easier.

“Pretty dog,” I told the lady as she watched us walk past. Her Dane was very well behaved and just watched too.

“She’s a big baby,” the lady said. “She’d be afraid of your dogs.”

I didn’t say anything, I just kept going. She must have assumed I thought her Dane would eat my Yorkies but that was never the issue.

I did something I haven’t done in a few years.

“What’s that?” you ask.

I put a jig saw puzzle together!

“Are all the pieces here?” I asked the lady when I bought this at a flea market.

“Yeah,” she said.

Guess what?

“What?” you answer.

She lied to me! I was getting down to the end and knew that at least two pieces were missing. It didn’t stop me though, I still I kept going.

“Peg! Be kind!” I admonished myself. “Maybe she didn’t know and just said yes.” I think I would rather believe that than to believe she deliberately lied to me.

“What did you think she would say?” you ask and are you laughing at me?

If she would have said there were a couple of pieces missing and I could have it for half price (50 cents) I might have bought it anyway. My mother can make replacement pieces so good you can’t even see them!

I finished the puzzle this morning and there were four pieces missing! FOUR!

Hmmmmm.

I had been using a small lap quilt to cover the puzzle in an effort to keep the cats from knocking the pieces to the floor, and Baby Blue had claimed it for her own. Every time I turned around she was sitting on my quilt-covered table, even though she knows she isn’t supposed to be on the table! The quilt seemed to change the rules for her. I started checking around and I found one piece on the newspapers that were relegated to the chair instead of the corner of the table where they would normally sit until I got around to reading them. There was a partially packed box (from our afore mentioned, impending move) sitting on the floor by the table, and I found two pieces right beside it! Yay! Jackpot! I thought to myself. Only one piece missing! I can live with that. Then I decided to unloaded the box and I found the last piece!

She didn’t lie to me!

My faith in mankind is restored!

Let’s call this one done.

Lots and lots of love,

Peg and Mike