Moving Day!

FRIDAY August 29th, the New Family closed the sale of their home and had to physically vacate the premises before the buyer's final walk through. Dad picked up the 26' rental straight truck the evening before.

Dad thinks, "It drives like a truck on steel springs. Ugh!"

It is too long to fit in the driveway in front of the garage.

At 8:44 the loaders finally showed and began packing the Family's stuff into the box. Dad was grateful he reserved the largest truck available. Once loaded, the Family's stuff occupied 3/4 of the truck.

Once packed, fueled and out of Illinois, Dad took some pictures from behind the wheel. Mom and the Twins rode in the chase car following Dad.

At the rest area, Dad had to park with the big trucks while Mom and Twins were able to park in the car parking lot.

Four hours later they arrived at their hotel where they spent the night. The next day they met the unloaders to pack all of their stuff into storage for a month while they wait to close on their new home.

On Saturday, Strong Like Bull, the unloaders, got to work on unloading the truck. Dad appreciated the fact that they were early, worked diligently for the 2 hours he had retained them, and didn't want to charge him for an additional hour becuase the unloading went into the third hour. Dad will definitely be using them again to move all of their stuff into the house once it is ready.

At the storage facility, Mom entertained the kids. Above, they play is dry water retention area.

The kids get bored easily, so Dad let them play big truck driver in the rental's cab. Good thing he purchased the damage insurance because EJ  spilled a can of Coke.

Dad was curious about the engine so he tilted the hood to have a look. It is an 8.1 liter V-8 manufactured by GM. Since it is gas, it lacked enough horsepower to maintain 65 m.p.h. on some of the hillier terrain of I-65 between Indianapolis and Merrilville. 

The unloaders really packed the first storage shed tightly. Dad had doped to not have to use the second storage shed, but alas there was just too much stuff.

 Mom and kids ham for the cam.

The nice thing about the storage facility is that it is also a full service U - Haul dealer so Dad did not have to incur additional time, mileage, or fuel to return the truck.

Total gas cost was $105.65. The truck rental, one way from Illinois (very expensive to leave Illinois, much less so to move there), was $653. That included blanket rental and damage insurance.

Loaders are about $80/hour with a two hour minimum. Fees to drive to your site vary from as little as $17 to as much as $65. The loaders took four hours to load; the unloaders to 2 hours.

After off loading, the New Family headed across I-70 to journey to the Grandparents house in Overland Park Kansas where they will stay until closing.

Getting Ready to Move

THE New Family's home buyer requested that the fireplace mantel be reomved before buyer occupies the home, so the job fell to Dad to remove it and restore the wall to original condition.

Rear of mantle shows Opa's repairs.

An ugly wall.

The kid's kitchen will hide it until Dad completes the job.

Primed, painted, and new trim installed.

Workplace Violence

BUGGY was kicked! That's workplace violence! Her job as a child is to play, learn, grow and so her workplace is wherever she happens to be doing those activities, ergo, workplace violence.

Dad took the twins to Uptight Moms park because they had not been there in a while and Buggy enjoys climbing in the spider web. While there he noticed a well dressed man and his granddaughters enjoying the park. The man was on the phone and unavailable to his granddaughters.

One of them, an older girl, tried to interact with Buggy. Buggy rebuffed her and began to climb into the web. The girl persisted and climbed into there positioning herself above Buggy. Dad casually observed nearby.

When Buggy reached above her to grab the rope, the other girl put her foot on Buggy's hand and knocked it away. Buggy reached up again and began to hoist herself up. The girl tentatively reached out and placed her foot on Buggy's chest and pushed ever so slightly. Buggy was undeterred.

Dad has seen this scenario before. Children fight, hit, and act disagreeably. Put he had yet to see it end as it did.

Finally the reclining girl raised her knee and thrust with all of her might and connected with Buggy's chest. Her body shuddered from the blow.

Dad stilled himself on the swing, rose, cleared his throat and spoke using his deep, authoritarian voice, "Don't kick her."

The little girl's eyes grew wide. She had been caught. She had no idea anyone else was watching her. Her first to attempts didn't elicit any protective measures from a nearby parent, so Buggy must have been a ripe target of opportunity.

At that point, Buggy began to sob and ran to Dad for comfort.

Grandpa, sensing something was wrong but not knowing what and not really wanting to stick around and take responsibility, quickly herded the grand kids out of the park.

Folks, if you go to the park and are not available to parent your kids, Dad will be more than happy to parent them for you, though you may not like his choice of parenting tool.

When Serenity is Not Serene

HERE is a nice serene picture.

So why would Dad, normally laid back and unknown to get excited, be feeling uneasy about this? Buggy loves to throw things into the water. Notice she has EJ's toy in her hands.

Now on this occasion, the toy did not wind up in the water. But on other occasions, whatever she held did end up in the water.

Grandma, her perennial defender, might say, "But Daddy, she just wanted to see if it would float."

New Blog Post

DAD is sorry that it has been so long since the last blog post. There is always something to be done, and the thought of incurring the opportunity cost of updating the blog over packing, painting, scheduling professional services, or any one of the dozens of other tasks he has performed and still needs to perform has made posting undesirable.

The sale of their home progresses forward without problem. Of course there is almost always a problem at the last minute when there are few options to choose from to resolve it.

Their current plans are still to relocate to Hamilton county and obtain temporary housing while they continue to house hunt. However, they did make an offer on a home. If accepted it would add additional complexity to their move since they have a rental apartment as well as storage unit on hold, and have appointments with certain professionals that would be disappointed to cancel their services.

Here is the home.

It is certainly not to the liking of everyone, and Dad notes many of its faults.

Back of house

Looking at back yard from the deck.

Many people would look at the wooded back yard and find caring for trees undesirable. Trees drop stuff and not just leaves, but berries and nuts too. While back there, Mom thought she heard the beginning of a rain storm. It was actually what appeared to be an elderberry tree dropping berries in such a large quantity that it sounded like rain. The lack of grass too doesn't provide the Twins much area to play. Bug spray would be necessary for every venture into the back yard.

Dad likes red brick on all four sides, so that was a compromise he made if the offer is accepted or negotiations ensue to mutual assent of a contract. Brick faced homes with siding on the remaining three sides seems pretentious. A four sided vinyl home is more desirable in Dad's opinion.

Also, the kitchen appears to have never been updated. The range is electric and there is no gas line run to the stove. The cabinets are of fair quality. The counter tops are damaged. The tiled floor is in need of repair.

Yes fellow foodies Dad went ahead with an offer despite all of that. The reason is simple, he would tear it all out and replace it with better materials and high quality appliances. What Dad cannot do is change the size of the kitchen. The kitchen is large enough, and the home nice enough, to make spending money on a kitchen redo worth while assuming he can get into it at the right price.

On the positive side, it is on a cul-de-sac. Dad envisions the Twins spending time riding their bikes and play games there. There is also a play park nearby. Out back behind the property line is a trail available for exploration. And there is a fire-pit in the back yard for little campers to enjoy.

Also it does have a small basement and it does have natural gas service, thus Dad could plumb for gas to the stove and clothes dryer.

So right now where they are going on the 29th of this month is unknown.

Cooking Low and Slow in Water and Plastic Bags

Sous-vide startup wants to take the tech-industry’s kitchen darling mainstream

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/08/sous-vide-startup-wants-to-take-the-tech-industrys-kitchen-darling-mainstream/

And the Winner is...

THE New Family has likely visited its last area to evaluate for relocation because Mom and Dad think they have found the ideal place given their criteria. That area is the Carmel, Fishers, Westfield, Noblesville Indiana area just north of Indianapolis. The choice was easy. The area is most similar to their current home area in regard to available retail, school quality, and per capita income. The family will be giving up little except the high cost of living and gain a higher quality of life in a single family home.

They have looked at a number of homes from the modest, to the grand. Variables and factors outside of their control may ultimately determine what home they choose.

Didn't like this one. No backyard.

Liked this one, but seller won't sell. Listing agent won't return calls.

Liked this one, but didn't like neighbor's barking dogs.

This one is okay, but needs work.

No. Full sized in ground pool in back leaves little room to play.

Chores

DAD believes children should have chores, regular areas of responsibility to help contribute to the family's well being. He was taking out the trash by himself by age ten. He was expected to do it on his own without being told. When the trash was full his parents expected him to notice it and pull it out of the can, haul it outside, and replace the bag. Once he "owned" the chore, he took pride in doing it. He wants his children to have the same experience, pride of ownership.

And free labor ain't bad either.

Dad thinks it is not too early to start training the Twins. So when he noticed some packing material that needed to go out, he made a game of it. The object was to get the box down to the dumpster. Each child was to take turns, or both were to help each other carry it to its destination. Dad would do the final lifting and heaving into the dumpster.

The trash to be taken to down was a box their bike came in. At first there was discord. They fought over understanding the directions. They fought over how to accomplish the task. Dad let them fight. He only made it clear that this was the task, they were to accomplish it, they were to figure it out, and he was only there to monitor their labor while he figuratively drank Mai Tais from the hammock. They can work together, they have done so before, but this instance differed because Dad asked them to do it. They had not mutually agreed to do it before making the effort. The reader should understand that when they want to cooperate, to get into the kitchen for example, they can shame Seal Team Six in their silence, efficiency, and efficacy. Taking an empty box out should be a minor task for them.

Each tried handling it on their own. EJ, as is his nature, gave up easily. There was little incentive for him to move it the 100 yards by himslef. Buggy as is hers, tried to show him how to do it and then direct him to do it. They fought, made efforts, and bickered some more. Dad was undeterred. The task was not accomplished, his drink (being patience) was emptying fast, and soon the sun would move into position where he was no longer shaded by the silver leaf maple while lying in his hammock in the court yard. He called the troops to order and demonstrated how they could both work together to get the unwieldy box moved.

Not five minutes later they were managing to move it down toward the goal.

Dad put more effort into getting them to take out the trash than he would have just doing it on his own, but the lesson was eminently more valuable.

Everbody get Naked!

JUST like no Parent need give the command, "Everyone act wild and crazy!" for the Twins to actually run around and act wild and crazy, no one need give the order for them to disrobe. The Twins do it on their own accord for reasons that Dad just does not know. It is the new two-year-old thing he guesses.

Early today Dad dressed them for the day and set about cleaning up while they watched a little TV. His antennae went up though as he progressed through his chores. The placid environment alarmed him. Something was wrong. There should have been at least a chirp, squeal, bark, or squabble. That there was none meant that both were mesmerized by the stupid show on TV they both dislike, or they had found a new and inappropriate way to entertain themselves.

Clothes? On the floor.

Diapers? Don't ask, but the same place.

Sit on Dad's couch again? Only after heavy disinfecting.

The blankets were washed and children reprimanded.

Developing so Fast

THE following are pictures of the Twins mastering climbing obstacles they were not able to complete just a few short weeks ago.

Buggy asks, "What's the rope for Daddy?"
Dad dryly responds, "Boys."

Dad's heart swelled with pride. She had attempted this three times before today and given up in frustration. She doesn't like giving up. Dad doesn't like to hear her whine when she gives up and gets frustrated. Then, on another day she impressed him again.

Going up the climbing wall at Rocket Ship park, she gave up half way up. She'll be up and over it before the New Family leaves though. She is determined and has a strong will. Meanwhile on the other side of the park.

EJ was intimidated by this climb down before. Today though he decided it was time to cross this off of his bucket list.

EJ is not as motivated to master climbing as is his sister so Dad was happy to see him attempt it and complete this climb down. Check out the distance between the rungs. That is no small gap for three foot tall kid.

Buggy, having seen her brother do it, decided she had to do it too. Once down, she had to go back up it.

The spacing of the rungs present the biggest challenge on the arc ladder, it was a pretty far step for a little stride. But it was easy for them because they could see their next step. All they needed to do is look and tentatively place their foot out onto the next rung and then shift their balance forward. The real challenge would come a moment later on a different part of the playground equipment.

The difficulty of this climb down is that the child has to turn around and come down blind and butt first. She cannot see the rung below her. She has to rely on upper body strength to hold on while she feels for the rung below with her foot.  Buggy's upper body strength is no where near as strong as EJ's, so this is a real test for her. And should she decide to abort the climb while her body weight is dangling over the edge, she would have to pull herself back up. Dad ain't gonna help. He is too busy listening to and smirking at Uptight Moms telling their five-year-olds, "No, no, Millard, that is for big boys." He might laugh if she falls, but lend a hand to help her complete her failure? No.

It took some doing on her part, but she accomplished it. Dad offered a high five. She ignored him and ran off to play elsewhere. Fortunately Dad got some huggy-lovey from EJ later.