Blogging again after a long silence

I've been pretty quiet with blogging of late. I'd like to start again by blogging my excuse, which spanned from beginning of November to the end of May. Ann and I have been dealing with parental issues left and right. The easiest way to describe my state is my Adobe vacation hour balance: -23 hours. I've taken so much time off with medical procedure support in November, memorial services in December, moving, dealing with doctors, pharmacies, assisted living, and the other details of the affairs of others. I'm grateful to Adobe for a policy that allows vacation exceptions like this, as well as forbearance of my managers in people in my marketing group for my absence.

But we've made significant progress. Ann, sister Paula, cousin Jane, daughter Claire and I have spent time at Ann's mother's condominium in Muskegon to prepare it to be put on the market. Wallpaper was stripped, walls painted, electrical fixtures updated, belongings donated, etc.; I am particularly proud of changing an exterior door lock set in April, since I was unaware that I had this degree of mechanical skill. In the end, the condo looked wonderful when we put it on the market at the end of April. And we discovered that property that is in move-in condition and priced well does sell, even in the current market; the condo was under contract within two weeks; it closed earlier this week. And this is even more phenomenal as there were 3 other identical units within 1/10 mile. This is part luck, part preparation, part pricing, and part having a wonderful hard working realtor like Reggie Balcom.

We've had two shipments of goods and furniture from Muskegon. The first went to Ann's sister, Paula, who pciked up some great furniture and artwork. And, after our final cleanup in mid-May, the first week of our two week parental trip, we have a shipment of the remaining boxes, photo albums, artwork, etc. coming to California. It should arrive next week so we'll be spending some time preparing space in the garage.