Home Buying Community Ed

 #1 - Maybe it's because I've already done some other educational stuff recently for myself, but the Home Buying in the New Economy class that I took over community education tonight was really helpful/informative.  Previously I've found the whole topic overwhelming, tonight I was familiar enough with the basic terms I guess that the well organized class was engagable.

#2 - The instructor seemed like he'd be a good pick for a realtor.  Plus he was interested in and does canoe racing - not the racing part but the canoe connection is cool.

#3 - Michael and I had a good walk/talk about home ownership after, until he was trying to explain something to me with simple numbers. I was ok with using $100,000 for simplicity as a home price, but when he used the example of selling at $200,000 he lost me because that wasn't at all realistic.  He got impatient, he was just trying to explain a concept with easy math and said you could apply that concept to anything.  I said, "But I want to understand this in a realistic fashion."

"Well the $100,000 isn't realistic either,"   This part of the conversation led to him saying, "I don't know if I want to do this with you," meaning buy a house.  And then I felt hurt and our enjoyable conversation petered out.  

Later I realized how impatient my dad used to get, similarly, when he was trying to explain something mechanical/etc. that was obvious to him.  The gratitude here is before that I enjoyed the walk/talk, and I can understand his perspective of wanting to just explain to me using numbers that didn't require a calculator so I could transfer that knowledge later.  And I suppose this is where my teaching affinity comes to play in that I would likely tailor what I was teaching to help a student understand, and I wouldn't feel impatient because I enjoy helping people learn.

However it is not for everybody, and I certainly get impatient with other things.

#4 - My instinct to offer a birthday present for my sister-in-law of having my niece and nephew stay with me (as I'll be fully vaccinated in a month) seems to correspond to support a gift idea my brother has in mind.

#5 - My brother emailed me today asking about a red cargo net thing that my dad owned.  His car is on the smaller side and is cramped when they go camping, but he realized something my dad had would fit on his roof.  It had a red stretch netting to secure things and my brother asked if I knew what we did with it?

I did recall the item and thought we may have it, but I asked Michael and I guess we took a similar item but it was black and rectangular instead of square.  It didn't seem like something I would have gotten rid of, but there was so much to get rid of who knows.  Either I did get rid of it, or Scott thought had may have it in a box somewhere at his place.

I inherited my dad's car and the trunk has a little lower level storage area that still had some of my dad's things.  I looked thru it at least once last year, but for the most part I left the tools etc in there as is to deal with later.  Anyway, I've been meaning to go thru that stuff and today was a beautiful day so I went outside and lifted up the trunk flooring to show that compartment and there was the red net thing my brother needed!

38th and Chicago

#1 - I've been taking an online writing class with Natalie Golberg the past couple months.  We meet for 3 hours on Saturday and then mid-week there is an additional 1 hour meeting.  The mid-week meeting is a basic format that we do each week.

First we sit in silence for a few minutes.

Then we are giving a prompt and our job is to keep the pen moving, no thinking, no editing, just write.  The first prompt today was a 10 minute write with the prompt, "The rules I've broken..."

The second prompt was a 15 minute write on, "What am I trying to fix..."

Then we are split up into small groups of 4 people and we take turns reading what we've written today.  There is no commenting, no telling someone something is good or bad, no giving advice or comfort.  We are building our writing spines to read what we've written without looking for affirmation.

At the end we will often sit in silence for a few breaths.

I'm usually the last one to read as we go alphabetically.  Today, after I read I said, "Should we sit in silence for a few breaths?"

A woman came on and stated, "Ok, but could we first please say where we are writing from?"

"Sure."  There were two women in California, one in Michigan and I said, "Minneapolis."

This has been my 8th week doing this, and we have always previously shared our writing and then said thank you, made a little quiet time and good-bye.  Once in a while we will say where we are writing from, but that has never sparked a conversation.  Today the "Minneapolis" led to that woman asking, "How are things in Minneapolis?" Then another women responded for 5 minutes or so about her personal experience and her reaction to the George Floyd murder and trial.  It was a heartfelt, vulnerable and authentic sharing that all 3 of us listeners expanded on and appreciated.

 #2 - "This is the floor, this is the very basic floor of what should be done. But what led to that happening on 38th and Chicago were all the things we need to change." - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

#3 - "I would not call today's verdict justice however, because justice implies true restoration, but it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice.  And now the cause of justice is in your hands, and when I say your hands I mean the people of the United States." MN Attorney General Keith Ellison

https://youtu.be/R1Ely0LiKcI

 #4 - "This entire system is what needs to be put on trial. This entire system is what has to be interrupted."  Brittany Cunningham

 #5 - I'm scheduled for my first vaccine shot tomorrow.  

P.S. I want to add this song I came across yesterday, I mistakenly thought a song about a slave named Harriet would be Harriet Tubman.  This is instead about Harriet Jacbos whose book I have requested from the library

"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is also one of the few existing narratives written by a woman. It offers a unique perspective on the complex plight of the black woman as slave and as writer. In a story that merges the conventions of the slave narrative with the techniques of the sentimental novel,"

In a Way, Last Night

 #1 - I started a community education online fitness class for a half hour on Tuesdays from 12 - 12:30.  I wouldn't say it was fun, but it's some structured movement in my day, so for that I'm grateful.

#2 - Michael's eldest was able to go to la crosse practice tonight, and at least partially participate, despite her ankle injury from a few weeks back.  After being at home for most of the last year, that injury's timing was a bummer, and we'll see how the healing continues, but at least she is able to bear some weight.  #3 - She usually spends most of her time in the basement, but because of her injury, she's mostly avoided the stairs and hung out more in the living room.  It's been nice to have her in the living room, and I've been working in the basement which is a change of pace.

#4 - Last night Michael and I were talking about checking accounts for his daughters and how hard it was to get one for his eldest, which made me wonder how old I was when I got one.  I wasn't sure but I still have the notebook my dad set up so I went to my file cabinet to get it. 

I'm not sure if I got this notebook when I first opened the checking account, but if so it looks like I was 16.  At that point if I needed money for something, instead of asking my father to write me a check for school lunch, or groceries, or clothes or whatever.  He would deposit $500 in my checking account and then if there was something he would agree to pay for, we'd write it in the notebook, he'd initial approval and then I'd write the check.  I still have a record of all those things and how I learned to record and track to what I was spending money on.

#5 - So it's no surprise that I woke up this morning and then stayed in bed because my dad was in my dream.  I can't recall the dream now, it was neither a "bad" nor "good" one.  I think it did contain some confusion, as my dreams about him often do.  Had he died? And if so why he was alive now?  Those dreams have become much less frequent and I tear up just writing that, I'm glad he visited me, in a way, last night.

Sweetheartland

* I recently decided I should try to be the one cooking dinner on Tuesdays because that is when Womenfolk is on the local volunteer radio station from 4-6pm.  Last week I listened and there happened to be an interview with an acquaintance of mine! Hope Dunbar. Apparently she has a new album, Sweetheartland. She had a Facebook live in relation to its release tonight which Michael and I enjoyed.  I mentioned it to a couple friends who know her and I saw that one of them was watching and enjoying it as well.  She commented that it made her miss living in Nashville.

*I guess tomorrow I will miss the Womenfolk time slot because my sister-in-law is going to give me a haircut. Michael asked if she'd cut his hair too and I said, "Maybe my brother can cut yours at the same time."  (He cuts his own hair.)  My brother did agree to this, however, now Michael says he has too many other things to do.

 *I've been listening to the Chauvin (George Floyd) trial while I work.  I don't think I've ever listened to an actual trial before.  Today they had the Minneapolis police chief on.  I don't know much about him, but I do know that I find his tone and his attitude reassuring.

*Michael got a phonecall today to sign up for a vaccine.  He was skeptical and wondering how he knew it was who they said it was.  So they told him where to find the number on the internet and he called back and he already has an appointment this week!

*Finally, I emailed a friend of mine that I've been trying to contact on occasion the last couple of weeks to go for a walk.  I left a voicemail a couple times and then last few times I've called it has said, "This phone call can't be completed at this time, sorry for the inconvenience."  I was starting to get worried about him so I emailed today and found out he just has a new phone and number.