Thank you Karen Moran

I am learning that when you write a blog, you are exposing yourself.  NEWA Experience is a diary of my experience of moving to NEWA, building a new and ‘different’ home, and caring about my family and our future.  At first you think you are documenting the progress for yourself and so what if anyone else reads it.  But of course you want others to read what you are writing, it becomes more important as time progresses.  Isn’t that why you are setting it ‘out there’?  To become part of the World Wide Web?  

This hit home the other day when my mother tells me that she got a letter from her friend Karen Moran.  She shared it with me and it was the nicest letter.  Karen Moran is reading my blog!  Karen Moran is actually enjoying reading my blog and if she doesn’t exaggerate, she looks forward to it!  I cannot tell you how much this made my day.  I was thrilled.  

There’s a group of you, and you know who you are - who read my blog regularly and semi-regularly.  Theresa, Anita, Carol, Lori, De, Mike, Tammi, Jeff, Deb, Nat, Gene, Debi, Claud and maybe others, Sue, I think, I hope.  (Oh, and Merm!)  But you guys are part of my family, my history, my life.  Karen Moran is a virtual stranger!  LOL.  I hope you understand what that means.  It means in MY heart that I do have something to say, that what I say just might be interesting enough to be read.  This is a real compliment to someone who has had no formal writing classes and just hopes she might be noticed for her words.  Can you see me smiling? 

 

The insulators are back today.  It is really noisy around here.  To get ready for them, Don put up the ceiling in my upstairs bathroom this weekend in hopes of finishing the solar tube so that the insulation would not be hindered or get in the way of finishing it.  Well, as things go, the solar tube is about six inches too short.  This caused a revamp of tubing, then after much discussion, a separation of the pipe above the insulation to be completed later.  I ordered a new section this morning.

 

The wood stove also arrived!  She’s a beauty, but the door is back-ordered, there was a flaw in the ash removal system and the hole in the roof wasn’t cut to the satisfaction of the installers.  We were trying to get the stove pipe completely installed again to avoid problems with the insulation.  So that didn’t happen either.  We worked out the dilemma and the wood stove will be completely installed next week, the insulators are working around the pipe and the back-ordered door and repaired ash removal tray will all be right as rain.

Speaking of rain, it did that all night last night.  Everything was so green and pretty this morning.  Don decided that since the weather was dreary that he would drive to Nevada for a ‘load’ (cabinets, tractor, whatever fits).  As soon as Daniel got on the school bus and Don headed down the road, the sun came out and it’s actually turning out to be a gorgeous day.

 

Last Friday night we attended a back-to-school barbecue and the Northport (Mustangs) High School football game (Mustangs won 41-16).  We met several local people and had a really good time.  We met the local club ladies, the bus driver who is a neighbor, the local firewood guy and the couple who own Sweet Pee (portable toilets) and the garbage collection company (yes, way out here) AND the husband also happens to be Northport’s Mayor!  Don’t you love small towns?

Since I am cluing you in on all the happenings, tomorrow we are looking forward to the arrival of mom’s second propane tank (first one too small – nobody told us (Gene) that they only fill them up 80% - not even the lady on the phone).  Then later in the week mom’s new stove will be in at Sears.  We did not like the one that came with her park model because it’s like those old fashioned ones where the pilot lights stay lit all the time.  Safety issues and a waste of fuel, I think.  The lady at Sears told mom she would have no problem selling it as people in the woods want the kind of stove that doesn’t require electricity to work.  I hope we don’t regret parting with it.

Did I mention in the midst of all of this that I am having dental work done?  I had to get a tooth fixed before we left Nevada and I waited too long so the dentist told me to have it crowned when we got here.  I am in the middle of that process (temporary on) and today it is sort of aching.  Or is it the one next to it?  Damn, I hope not.

Toothache or not, I’m smiling today because of Karen Moran and the rest of you who think reading me is worthwhile.  Thank you.  You make my heart smile.