Lumberpick

Got back from Charlotte Friday night at about 11 PM. Made for a long day. The flight was a pretty cool show. The plane took off and flew right past some huge fluffy clouds with lightning flashing sporadically all around us. Very cool to watch.. a little nerve-racking at first.

We put an offer on a house in south-eastern Aurora which is a suburb of Denver. We received a counter-offer close to the offer we had proposed and so we accepted. I guess we'll be in a new house towards the end of May if all goes well. I walked with the home inspector as he checked our potential new house. It was very interesting. This is our third house but the first time I've done the home inspection walk through with the inspector. He said he prefers the new home owner to walk with him and it was interesting to listen to because things arent' exactly the same here as they are in the Midwest as far as concerns go. i.e. bentonite in the soil, sprinkler systems (pretty standard in for many Denver area homes) ... etc. The inspection took a little longer than 3 hours and the inspector went through the house thoroughly checking for rot and issues with the appliances, furnace, etc... all the while giving pointers on home upkeep. I'm familiar with almost everything he said but I would say that it was still worth hearing it again as a reminder of some of the things that should be done to keep the house in good condition.

I'm a little anxiety-filled with the new home purchase. We've leaned toward the more modest homes in the past. This was due partly to the fact that homes have been incredibly over-priced and our income flow couldn't support much more than that. This house isn't "not" modest but it's more than we're used to in both square footage and ammenities which is part of the anxiety. I don't know if it's that I've always felt undeserving of a nice house or if the increase in sticker price (although a manageable percentage of our income) has me feeling uncomfortable.

Anyway the house has a huge/newer composite deck in the back with lights on the deck posts and a newer hottub, which doesn't help the feeling of uneasiness. I'm definitely excited... I'm just not used to having very many nice things other than my bike, which for some people wouldn't really be considered that nice and my.....well that's all I can think of. I guess it's my small town upbringing : ) Which by the way I never realized is such an odd thing but when you think about it most of the population grew up in metro areas. Lately when I've mention I grew up in a town of 10,000 I get reactions of suprise like it's a novelty to have lived that childhood.

One of the few downsides to where we're most likely moving to is that it's 10 miles further away from our church which we really like. We've been working on getting hooked up with a church small group. It's been a slow process but we've finally talked to some folks about getting that started. I talked to the guy over the phone who is doing some of the organizing for our potential group and I offered whatever house we're in as a place to host the small group. This guy was from Milwaukee so we talked about the Midwest a little. I told him I was from Platteville and he said he dated a girl that went there and he asked me what year I graduated. I told him '98 and he said "oh she was there after that".

I've had quite a few reminders about my age lately. I was on the same plane to Georgia as one of my co-workers so I sat down and talked with her for about 5 minutes. She grew up and lived in Atlanta so I mentioned I lived there for a month during the Olympics in '96 while I was in college working security. She was suprised that I was old enough to have been there in college because she was in high school then. Another example: One of the developers at work who grew up in India saw the pictures of my kids on my desk and asked me if they were nephews. I explained that no those were my boys to which he replied he didn't think I looked old enough to have kids that age which I laughed at. I've been hearing that a lot lately which is both a good thing in that I look younger but bad in that I look younger than an age that I actually am. 'actually am' as in being 33 going on 34 is pushing middle age. I forget it sometime. I joke around with some of the young guys at work who just graduated from college and it's hard for me to grasp that these guys are over 10 years younger than me. I feel like they're contemporaries of mine but the sad truth is... well that of course it is not the truth... they're not my contemporaries. That's OK. I'll keep living the lie for as long as I can or until my hair starts falling out or turning gray.