First of August

Cycling-wise, the last week of July didn't turn out as I'd hoped. I didn't break 800 miles for the month--fell short by less than twenty-five miles. I got to ride to work one day this week--Tuesday--and rode another ten miles or so proctoring a road test for the New Rider Clinic my friend David taught at Iroquois Park.

Oh, well, it gives me a goal for some other month. I'll just have to remember to ride a few centuries that month.

On the other hand, by driving I saved a paltry few minutes that allowed me to work a bit more on the former house. Our lease on the house we were renting in St Matthews expired at the end of July, and getting our stuff out of there came down to the last minute.

But we now have (almost) all of our stuff out of there. There are a couple things outside that I'll sneak back to fetch in the coming week or so, but if I don't get them, I won't worry too much.

I had to work, so Jenn did the walk-through with the agent. It turned out to be a pretty cursory inspection--we aren't sure but what the guy expected to find things a certain way given the sort of tenants we'd been, saw it looked close to that and didn't look any closer, or if they really aren't worried about wear and tear on the house.

Our house, on the other hand, is over-full of stuff. Boxes and boxes of stuff. Piles of stuff. FAR more stuff than we need, or particularly want, let alone want to maneuver around in the course of doing what we do at home. I can't just get a bike out of the garage--I have to move a few things first, and put them sort-of back before I close the garage door.

I've always heard that folks use a move to cull stuff from their personal inventories. We wanted to do this, but the last four months have been packed with other time-taking tasks and we had little time to reduce the amount of stuff we had. Now that we are in our house, we have extra incentive for getting rid of some of the things we don't use enough to justify keeping.

I have some black-and-white photography gear that is about twenty years into obsolescence. I have a few old computer towers that will be missing their hard drives but will be going to a recycling place (along with a few CRT monitors). I'll probably donate some of the clothing I no longer wear (like most of the blue jeans and other long trousers I own...).

Adding to the confusion in the house, a friend who moved out of state needed a foster home for her two cats. She had been trying to find someone who would help her, but could not--other than us. We now have five cats in our house. There is the usual occasional hissing discussion, but no real fighting so far.

Oh, and my stepdaughter arrived home from her father's house last night. I briefly got to meet her half-sister, but there was not enough interaction to give me any impression of who she is as a person. I don't feel compelled to know her--she has more importance to my stepdaughters than to me.

Overall, I'm enjoying the interactions with my stepdaughters. I've told each of them that my goal is to have a positive relationship with each of them and both of them, however our mutual definition of that evolves over time. I'm not so worried about whether they like me--I cannot control that. I figure that if I am myself, and am consistent in who I am and how I treat them as people, things will work out okay. So far, that seems to be working.