Damn, it's been cold!!  It's just too early for this shit.  But someone told me that Jim Flowers (a local long-time weatherman) said we are likely to have an early cold winter, then it will warm up and be decent in Feb.  But this seems extraordinarily early to me...

Mom really wants to sell the business, and even though I don't think she believes it, I'm with her on that count.  I do have reservations about it...  I'm sure her half will last her the rest of her life, I don't feel confident mine will.  And not that I'm opposed to working for some more years.  I can and I probably will, if anyone will have my old fat ass!  LOL!  But I'm ready to let someone younger, in better shape, more ambitious take it on.  I think with the right ambition and youth, the business could turn into a real money machine... SERIOUSLY!!  If I was 20 years younger, or if I had kids, I would buy Mom's half and continue on.  But I'm not, and I don't, and it needs to go to someone who can take it on and grow it into the cha-ching machine it could be. She's really putting the pressure on to sell, but I worry that brides will find out we're trying to sell and be concerned it will affect them.  We plan to stipulate to a new owner that bookings we have made will be honored in the way we've presented the package.  And I think there's a fair chance that someone might keep me on for awhile until they get their bearings and have a good feel for running the show...

LOL!! I just caught Spike sitting in the toilet bowl!  Our new toilet is one of those super low-flow toilets, so when it's done flushing, there's hardly any water left in the bowl.  So there he sits, getting a drink - not perched on the edge like a normal (full-grown) cat, but in the bowl.  So funny!  I told him he better be careful 'cuz if his sister figures out how to flush it, it's liable to suck him right down!  LOL!

My plants - well, not a whole lot going on with them right now.  I'm going to have to restart my biggest 'Pink Silver', which makes me kind of sad.  I've known it would have to happen sooner or later, because it's been in the same pot in the same soil for...geez, probably a dozen years.  I knew it would come to this sooner or later.  I can't seem to give it enough nutrients to sustain it anymore.  But I've got the one in the dining room, and I've started several cuttings off of the old one, too.  I'm going to do more whacking on it in the next few weeks until I get it out of there and the spot ready for the new one to go in the spring.  I know it will grow fast and look wonderful within a couple years, but I'll missing the rambling of the old one until the new one starts to do the same...It's one of my oldest and has a special place in my heart!

My Haemanthus albiflos decided to bloom recently...

I can't quite figure out what it takes to make this succulent bulb produce bulblets - I've had it for years and it has remained solitary, but I've seen pots with more than one.  

In October, the cactus club had a speaker from Colorado, Leo Chance, who came to talk about winter hardy cacti and to promote his book.  I bought the book and six winter hardy cacti/succulents to put out next spring.  I'm not sure where they will go, but I'm thinking for maximum sun, they should go out in front.  That means I'm going to have to figure out a way to kill the ever-growing patch of dill that's trying to take over out there.  What I may do is berm up that little area I've got cordoned off with the scalloped cement edging, right on either side of the steps.  Then I can put in these winter hardy cacti/succulents and hopefully, as they grow, they will fill those areas.  That's my thought at this point, anyway.  This is assuming, of course, that they make it through the winter in the GH!  Nice thing is that Chuck will probably be selling W/H cacti by then and I can always get more from him if I really like growing them...

So a couple days ago, I was trying to figure out how many different places I'd lived.  I had commented to someone I've lived in the same house now for nearly 27 years and I never care to move again because I moved around so much the first several years of my adult life.  I couldn't keep track of them all in a count in my head, so I'll figure it out here ("on paper" so to speak) so I can do a real count...

1) We start with the old farm house I grew up in a mile from Grandma & Grandpa's house in Iowa between Red Oak, Grant, Elliott, Villisca... I lived there until I was 13, so 1958-1972.  It was a drafty old house with space heaters and a crappy exterior until Grandma & Grandpa had it sided on 3 sides when I was maybe 8 or so.  (Three sides because you can't see the back from the road!!  How freakin' cheap!)   I have mostly good memories of this house, so the fact that we lived pretty dang poor wasn't really a big deal.  We always had food to eat, and everything else was just not that important... 

2) We moved to Jack Halbert's house in the summer of 1972 - Grandpa bought Jack's farm when Jack died, and we got to move into his house.  It was like moving to Shangri-la!  It was such a step up from the old, decrepit house we lived in before.  Merry & I shared the best room, upstairs, that faced east.  It was so beautifully flooded with sun in the mornings.  It was a feel-good room!

3) Mom and Dad divorced in the summer of 1974, and we moved to a little (I mean LITTLE!!) house in Harlan, Iowa.  Within a month, the owners sold the house out from under us and we had to move...

4) ...down the street to the house at the end of the same street, next to Mr. Lawson, a teacher. It was a much bigger house with a big living room, big kitchen and 3 bedrooms upstairs.  

5) Mom bought the house on Willow Street in Harlan... I'm gonna say it was spring of 1976, because I remember I went to the junior prom with Frank and we were in the process of fixing it up at that time.  (I'm pretty sure, anyway...)  Lived there until the next year when I graduated and married Paul in July, 1977...

6) ...and we moved into that little apartment he and Ann lived in when they were married.  I know, that's weird, right?  It is, sort of, but I always loved that apartment.  (Ann & I were friends with she and Paul were married and I spent a lot of time there...)  Paul was working for Variety Distributors, and he got on with Wheeler's through his brother, so we were only there for about a month or so.

7) Wheeler's gave him his first job in Seward, Nebraska.  We moved there in late August or early September, to an apartment above the Penney's on the town square.  It was a real dump, but cheap and it had BIG windows facing east, which I loved.  (I'm a morning person...)  I got a job at the hardware store within walking distance - by this time I was almost 19 years old...  We lived there about a year, then Wheeler's transferred Paul to the Grand Island store.

8) We moved to Aurora, to a mobile home, because Paul's brother lived in Aurora, and he commuted to GI to work.  I worked for a little motel that was in front of the trailer park, cleaning rooms.  But the commuting really wasn't working out so well, so we decided to move closer to his job.

9) We went out and bought a mobile home (new, I'm pretty sure) and put it in a nice park outside of Alda, which is kind of like Papillion in comparison to Omaha.  I went to work at my first office job in Alda at Leon Plastics after we lived there about 6 months.  We lived there a total of about 18 months.  Wes lived with us for awhile.  Then Paul decided to enlist in the Air Force.

10) I think I worked through January 1980, then we let the mobile home go back to the bank (which is allowed without affecting your credit when you enlist in the military) and I packed everything up and moved it to Paul's parent's house where they stored our furniture.  I stayed with Mom briefly until Paul got settled in in Biloxi, MS where he was doing training.  Wes and Herb helped me take my stuff, what we could pack in the car and Herb's van, down to Biloxi...

11) So February of 1980, we moved into an apartment in Biloxi, about 4 blocks from the Gulf.  It was even a worse dive than the apartment in Seward - the roaches were big enough to saddle up!  YIKES!  But we were young and it was an adventure.  We were there for 6 months while he trained and I worked with the 1980 census, which was a nightmare.  Southerners are not (or were not) very receptive to northerners, and I had more doors slammed in my face than I can remember!!

12) His first real orders were to Vandenberg AFB, CA.  We moved there in August, 1980, to an apartment in Lompoc.  There wasn't any base housing available when we got there, so once that came available, we moved to the base.

13) We got a really nice house on base a few months later.  It was big and probably just about the newest place I ever lived.  It had 3 bedrooms, hardwood floors, two bathrooms, a large living room, small dining room, nice kitchen with lots of storage, a nice patio, and an attached garage.  I worked at an insurance agency in Vandenberg Village, with a brief stint at an agency in Santa Maria, then back to the original agency in VI when they wanted me to come back.  We lived there until he got orders to Guam.

14) We arrived on Guam around March of 1982.  Initially, we found a cheap apartment in a little village called Toto.  Back to another dive, though it wasn't awful.  It had one bedroom, a large room that included living room and kitchen together, and a bathroom. It was furnished because we were waiting for our furniture to arrive. Very basic, just the essentials.  When our stuff arrived, we started looking for a better/bigger place to live.

15) We found what I'm sure was considered a posh (by Guam standards) apartment in a high-rise in Piti.  Up on a hill with nice views, though the apartment we had just had a view of the jungle.  Two bedrooms, one bath, large living room/dining room combo, small efficient kitchen, nice balcony.  The complex had a swimming pool and tennis court.  Here's a link to those apartments... Nimitz Towers, Piti, Guam  I worked at a little office in Agana as an Administrative Assistant.  I really enjoyed that job!  We lived there until he was discharged in March, 1984.

16) Back to Omaha, lived with Mom & Herb for about 6 months until we bought a house a few blocks away from them.

17) The house we bought was a big old house built, I'd guess, in the 1920's or 30's.  By the time we moved in there, I was working for River City Heating & Cooling.  We lived there together until we separated in Feb. 1986.  

18) I moved into an apartment on 76th and Blondo in March, 1986.  I think Paul and I officially divorced in June, which would have made our divorce final around the end of the year. I lived there for a year.  Mark was living with me (almost from the beginning...) and we started looking for a house to buy.

19) And finally, we moved into this house in May, 1987.  

So, that means I lived in 19 different places up until I was 28 - no wonder I have no desire to EVER move again!  LOL!  Of course, when you're young, these things can seem like a great adventure...  I don't remember ever thinking, "OMG, we have to move AGAIN?!"  It really didn't bother me, and each move seemed like a new chapter was beginning.  

But now I like being settled.  You know, I can get up in the middle of the night and walk around my house and recognize where I am by the sound of the squeaky floors.  I love my windows, my sunroom.  It's an OLD house, not efficient at all.  The utilities cost us a fortune.  But I wouldn't give two nickels for a new house unless I had it built THE OLD WAY.  With big wide woodwork.  I like plaster walls - I know, I'm weird!  But they feel SOLID.  Drywall feels cheap.  I like my high ceilings - they're almost 9'.  The rooms are a little smaller than I'd like, sure, but that's ok.  There's a lot of character in these old houses, and I love the fact that they have a history.  I'd love to go back and find out about all the people who have lived in this house - who they were, what kinds of lives they lived.  

Anyway, enough for now!