Unreal real estate

Since April, when I started tracking these sales, there have been 5 condos in this building that have sold (there are 102, total). Before this, we've had whole years when only one or two changed hands. Five a year is a big year. Five in 2 months is astounding. All have sold for way over asking and the asking has been high.

But, yesterday we broke the fucking bank. A unit, two floors below mine - one up from street noise and just over garage noise, 1105 square feet 1 bath, sold for $595,000. That's amazing to me but even more amazing... (for reference, my unit has a bath and a half and 1,244 sq feet and is on the 4th floor)

The unit was listed on May 11 with an asking price of $535,000.

So it went from listing to final sale in under two weeks at $60,000 over asking. The world has gone nuts. If I didn't already live here, I could never afford it. I don't think there are any more for sale in the building now which would probably kick up the price of the next one that goes on the market.

Wild.

The gym was a ghost town. I had the pool to myself until my last 2 laps. And the water was not opaque green - a step up from last week. It's cool and nice so far here in the house. No need to turn on the air conditioner yet which is nice. I do need to get out and water my geraniums before they fry in the sun.

I started a new knitting project last night - an entrelac hat. That makes 3 knitting projects within reach of this chair - a bear, a poncho and an antrelac hat. There is also 1/10th of a mobius scarf in a drawer and 1/3rd of a crocheted blanket in the closet. I have starter-itis. And I need to morph it into finish-ville. But, not really. I'll finish them all maybe or maybe not. No big deal.

I have a new shirt cut out and ready to assemble at the sewing machine. I will do it eventually. Today? Don't know.

It's both fun and empowering to be your own retired boss.

The Mariners play Boston again today and the game starts in mere minutes.

p.s. I got my nugget ice machine last year as the Summer was winding down. I can already tell that as much as I love it in Winter, I'm going to enjoy it more than ever in the hot weather. Off to get more ice tea before the kick off.

My tweets

• Sun, 09:44: Breakfast 0f champions @ The Florentine https://t.co/GkEcnSFWbC
• Sun, 09:56: Leftovers are the breakfast of cat champions @ The Florentine https://t.co/vnkJeA1Krj
• Sun, 11:45: RT @JoParkerBear: When Canadians fight on Twitter. https://t.co/kVyRYTOcQs

81 degrees...

So I cleaned out the freezer. Yep, pulled everything out and reorganized it. I think I had 8 plastic bags of 2-4 slices of bread. Plus one of about 14 slices. I don't need bread for a while. I only ended up tossing a couple of small items. I consolidated many. I put it all back in an orderly fashion. I have since opened the door twice to just admire my work. Oh yeah, don't tell me it isn't exciting around here!

The Mariners beat Boston. I'm not going to even apologize. And while they did that, I made great progress on my entrelac hat.



That's the brim there at the bottom. It's knit up to the top of the head. I like it but, of course, I already know how I'm going to do the next one differently.

I made a quick trip out to the library to pick up a hold and then, of course, had to come home via the MacDonald's drive thru. Turns out I was not the only one. The four cars in front of me all, like me, drove thru for a cold something. Mine was a Rolo McFlurrie. Delicious.

Now I'm finishing up CBS Sunday Morning and then I'm going to finish up Fargo.

The pool doesn't open til 8 tomorrow so I can stay up late! Whoo Hoo!!

Continued

There was a special guy on Tom's staff whose name was John Bergren but we always called him Bergren. He'd been at IBM a long time and at Santa Teresa a long time and had worked his way up to handle all of the operations for the lab. He was the one holdover from the former lab leader who stayed on with Tom.

Bergren common sense and working wisdom to burn. He invented chill. He was our rock. And he was blind. He had enough sight to move around in familiar places and he could see large blobs of color. "That's a lovely red top you have on." He'd say of my big scarf, honestly, I believe, just to let me know he could see something.

I reported directly to him and it was wonderful. He kept me sane and smart and full of excellent advice. Plus, I could sit across from him and use my face to react to what he was saying - even sticking my tongue out if I wanted - with impunity. (At one point, after a reorg, I was repositioned to report to another guy. One day I was in his office talking to him and, inadvertently, made a face to something he said and he just laughed and said "Susan! I'm not John. I can see your face!" Cracked me up.)

He came to me one morning to ask for my help. Tom wanted to convince John to move from Rochester and join us in California. But for a lot of political shenigian reasons, a refusal from John for any reason would have ramifications. So, did I feel comfortable sounding him out? OH yeah, baby. Success!

John had spent as much time in California as I had so having him to explore with was so much fun. We knew nothing. We checked out every nook and cranny. We'd head out Saturday or Sunday (or both) mornings for the adventure du jour. One of our great finds was a tiny roadside restaurant that specialized in fried artichokes outside the tiny town of Pescadero. The place was owned by a Greek guy and the only wine he served was Greek which wasn't very good but we always had to drink it or he would be insulted. It was a spot we always went back to.

We'd go north to San Francisco or South to Monterey or West to Half Moon Bay - every weekend. It was a great time. We also collected a gaggle of like minded folks and had an even better time trooping from here to there as a group.

A couple of times we rented a condo in Reno and half of us went skiing and the other half of us went gambling. Here's a shot of the group. I have no idea what's going on with my hair or why Dick got nearly cut totally out of the picture there on the right.



(Oddly, 3 of those 6 guys are now dead. Dick died of a brain tumor a few years ago. John, top left, died of an undiagnosed genetic disorder (hemochromatosis) in 2005 and the guy just in front of him, with the white hair, got early onset Alzheimer about a year after this picture was taken and died about 10 years later. Wild.)

This was really the only time in my life that I had a such a group of friends. In addition to those in the photo there were about 4 others in the group and we were tight. It was great fun and very interesting. It was amazing to have such a large and wonderfully diverse group of very best friends but it was not forever. Most of the ones still alive are still in California. One couple I do still hear from every Christmas. They now divides their time between New Mexico and South Carolina. I haven't spoken to any of the others in a lot of years now but my memories of that time are wonderful because of them.

To Be Continued