~Saturday~ I slept in this morning. Oh glorious weekend.
Today was all about the weather, as tornadoes whipped through the city, and I feel fortunate to have gotten through unscathed, as I live only 3 miles from downtown, where there was extensive damage in areas, including people being killed.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of Hurricane Fran, and my loss of about 40 trees, and about $10,000 worth of damage. PTSD.
I lost my power mid-afternoon and decided to use the time doing one of the very few things I could do without electricity, and that was to continue my clearing out and filing of paperwork.
As these things go when the power is out but one remains on autopilot, I did my share of flipping the light switch on in my closet whenever I went in there to get another hanging folder out of my file cabinet, and turning on the light in the bathroom when I went in there, and going to play my iPod in my Bose speaker system, which does not have a battery option—all to no avail, of course.
A couple of the more interesting folders were my “Legal” one and my “Halliwell House” one, where I found some things that brought back memories:
- The deed transfer of my current townhouse from joint ownership with Donna to my sole ownership as part of our divorce agreement.
- The deed transfer of our house in Jacksonville, NC from joint ownership with Donna to my sole ownership, also as part of our divorce agreement. (Yes, we had three houses at the time. In addition to those two, which we had in service as rental property and which I got, she got “the big house” that we shared in North Raleigh.)
- And later—yet another—deed transfer of that Jacksonville, NC house when I gave it, fully paid, to my niece and nephew, completing the transaction in 2000. It’s actually in trust to their mother until they’re both 21 years old, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.
- The “Release of Liability of Co-Borrower” on my house that I jointly owned with Rob Stephenson before we split in 2002. I just left 30 grand of my money in that house, and he said at the time, “If I ever sell it and make money on it, I’ll pay that back to you.” Just typing that makes me smile, as knowing Rob as I do, that will never happen, and I’m perfectly fine with that. I counted it as a loss the day I left.
After the storms passed, I called my gym, which is not too far from my house, to make sure their power was on, and since it was and mine wasn’t, I went and worked out from 6:00 – 7:00, doing 225 ab crunches, followed by 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical machine.
There was a detour along the way, and I figured it was due to flooding, but as it turned out (I saw on the way back), a huge oak tree had fallen completely across the road.
When I got home, my power still wasn’t on, so I called Joe to see if I could come hang out with him until we went out at 10:00.
On the way to his place, I stopped to grab some dinner, at the Olde Raleigh Village Quizno’s, where I tried their new Chicken Bacon Dipper, which was only so-so, and after which I was immediately sorry that I wasted the calories on it. Won’t be a repeat customer for that one.
I did get a chuckle out of the lady who fixed my sandwich, though. When she went to pour the cheese sauce, which comes as a side for dipping, she held the little soup bowl in her left hand and the pan with the sauce above it in her right hand. The sauce in the pan was very thick, and in an attempt to get it to pour a little faster, she actually shook the empty soup bowl instead of the of pan with the sauce in it, which of course did nothing to make the cheese sauce pour out any faster. I’m guessing she was left-handed.
I hung out a Joe’s until about 10:20, when we headed down to “Crisco Disco” night at Flex. They were giving out hankies at the door, along with a little card explaining the hanky codes on it that was in font so small that it called for my bifocals, which were in my car. I took a light blue one and put it in my left pocket—all to no avail.
Bill, Carl, and Chris T. were out, and later in the evening, Joe, Chris, and I went to Legends, and after that Joe and Chris went to CCs 313, where it was their official “opening night.” I’m still not willing to purchase a membership there, nor pay the $8 cover charge for non-members.