Things moving fast.

 Lots of stuff happened today, pretty much all of it good:

- Dental checkup went well, I don't have to go back for six months

- Got in to get the oil changed on my car, it turns out it was the fifth oil change, so it was FREE. Of course, the shop was slammed so I had to sit there for the better part of 2 hours, but they also checked the issue I had been having with the antilock brake light going on and told me it wasn't a danger UNLESS I was driving fast on wet pavement - apparently something in the steering is sending it bad information and it turns itself off. I'll have to take the car in later to get it looked at/fixed, but again - that's a thing for later when I have the money and the ability to deal with logistics again, this home renovation has kind of used up all my "spoons" in that regard.

- I had gotten an $83 refund check from State Farm (because I had the impact resistant roof for a couple months before my policy rolled over

- I got out to a small organic farm operation south of town that has a farm store - it's a pretty simple set up, big bins of vegetables and freezers for the meat they raise (pork, beef, and I guess chicken, though I don't think they had any today). There's also a case where they keep eggs but I didn't need any eggs today. It's all pasture-raised and organically grown, and the meat is processed at a place in Munster Texas that I'm familiar with and is well-respected. I bought some ground beef (it really wasn't any more than the good quality grocery store ground beef, and I think less per pound than Kroger's grass-fed ground beef) and some smoked sausage - these were all frozen so it would be convenient to stock up - and I bought a few potatoes. The woman working there said they would have sweet potatoes later in the fall, too. I definitely want to try to get back out there; they are only open Tuesday and Friday afternoons but I don't teach either of those afternoons so I could do that.

- And just now, Martin-the-Painter showed up with color chips, the green he said he liked best was the one I would have picked for the trim. The guys are priming the house now and apparently painting is going to happen next week (or maybe some tomorrow? Martin alluded to "I'm gonna send a couple guys tomorrow to clean up all this mess" indicating the bits of cut siding and some of the insulation they pulled out)

Also, he said next week he's going to do the indoor repairs - which means I should probably spend my weekend moving as much as I can out of the kitchen so he can take up the floor, and I need to at least move some stuff in the sewing room so he can cut out the bad drywall - unlike the GC, he does not think it ALL needs to be replaced, he knocked on it with his knuckles and said "yeah this is the only part that's bad, the rest of this is sound, it would be simpler and less disruptive for me to just patch"

- Martin asked me "are you happy we didn't have to take the windows out" and OH MY GOSH I AM. This also tells me they won't have to, so I can start putting everything I moved *back* - I dismantled the bookcases in the guest room to make space for them to work if they needed it but those can go back now, and ....well, if I had the time and the money I could buy another bookcase for my bedroom to store the extra books on there (now that the Papasan chair is gone. Then again - I need that space to store stuff from the sewing room while Martin works in THERE so maybe that's a later thing.

Maybe that's a "treat for another time" - I can live for a while with the books just boxed up and once I have the energy and the money I could get some larger bookcases and put them in there. I do want to move the low "below the window" ones into my guest room space,leaving room under the bedroom window for the eventual purchase of a small, simple loveseat sort of thing. But again, that's a future thing.

- if the bid doesn't have to go up, I should be able to have it  90-95% paid off by August, and can slowly pay the remaining couple thousand once my paychecks start coming back in....I don't like being in debt so it makes me feel good that I can do that.

But they may well be done by the end of next week - which will give me a very precious couple of days before the meetings/classes start; I could take the 15th, 16th, or 17th and go up to Chickasaw for the day (I already got to the yarn shop)

I will be SO glad when this is done.

Martin ALSO offered to scrape and paint the front door, apparently for no extra charge, which is wonderful - I wonder if there's some way I could tip him separately, or is that not done? I don't know. This is the first time I've ever negotiated this.