Offer Accepted

The most significant thing that happened last week was that, I accepted an offer on my house.  The house went on the market around August 7, and I had initially listed the house for $169,000.  Nancy, my real estate agent, had done some homework on what houses in my neighborhood have been selling for, and once you adjust for the fact that my house is smaller than any of those, it seemed like $158,000 was about what we should expect.  It was also true that all the houses we compared it against had set an initial asking price way too high, and then let the house sit on the market for 150+ days, slowly reducing their price.  I didn't want to do that, so I tried to set my asking price low for a quick sale.  I also made sure I undercut the asking price of the only other house of a similar size that is currently for sale in the neighborhood.

I got an offer the day after I listed it for $155,000 minus $3,000 in closing costs.  That felt like an insult, but I countered with $162,000 minus $3,000.  They rejected that, so I moved on.  On Wednesday the 15th, we got another offer.  This one was for $165,000 minus $3,000.  I didn't have to take much time to think about it.  I accepted, and now the inspections/negotiations can begin.

As long as they don't find too much wrong with it, I should be able to close in the middle of September.  My friends have done a great job fixing the place up, so hopefully there isn't much to find.  In any event, I am very pleased that it only spent a week on the market, and hopefully this particular chore will soon be over.

Employment

I spent a lot of time last week on the phone with the disability people and with my boss, and I have decided to start working part time from home.  I don't really want to, and I'm not at all sure that I'm ready, but it will extend my disability payments, and it will give me a reason to get up in the morning.  I should start working sometime this week.  I'll start out working 3 hours a day.  I hope I can do it.

Sorry

Sorry I haven't posted sooner.  I've mentioned to a couple people in the last few days that I really don't like writing about what I did today unless what I did is exceptional.  Listing off my daily routine isn't very interesting to me, and I don't feel like it will be interesting to any of my readers.  Except my mom.

It is also a fact that I have been spending a lot of time lately on the couch.  I like sitting on the couch because it doesn't hurt my butt like sitting in the wheelchair does.  On the couch, I can just relax, be comfortable, and sleep if I feel like it.  I love sitting on the couch.  I'd like to get a new couch.  I learned in rehab that a leather one is nice because it's easy to slide around on.  It needs to be a firm one though.  It can't be one of these soft overstuffed ones.  I don't know if I'd be able to get back off one of those, and sliding around is tough when you sink in.

I don't know where I get a couch like I want.  I looked on craigslist, but all the ones I saw were overstuffed.  I'm not sure how I feel about a used couch anyway.  Unfortunately, going to furniture stores is going to be a pretty big chore for me at this point.

Anyway, once I get on the couch for the evening, it's a lot of work to get back in the wheelchair, so I've been lazy, and haven't been posting to the blog, even when I've got something to write about.  But I do have some stuff to write about from this week just past, so I'll try to get it done this week.  Stay tuned.

Kids

Yesterday, my sister made the trek down from Danville to bring her kids down to see me for the first time since the accident.  I had been wanting to see them, and I figured I've had plenty of other kids in my apartment, so why not them?

They've both gotten a lot bigger since I saw them last, and Kelly is talking in almost complete sentences now.  He's also pronouncing the letter J so he says "Uncle Jace" now instead of "Uncle Dace".  I miss Uncle Dace.

He did specifically ask if I could do upside-down (which he no longer pronounces uppayidesdown), which you may recall was something I was dreading.  I had to bite my lip, but I got through it.  I'm still worried he's going to think I'm boring, but I can only do what I can do.

Georgia is also getting big.  She seems huge, but Jessica says she's only in the 75th percentile height-wise.  She's certainly got more personality than the last time I saw her, and I don't think she screamed once at my place so that's a huge improvement.

Gus and Uyen and Evelyn came over too, and we all went to the playground in my neighborhood.  That was pretty fun.  I learned that pushing a wheelchair in wet mulch is extremely hard work.  That's why I got Kelly to help push me on the way home.

Maybe I can hire him on full-time

Trying to get a group picture with small children is like herding cats

Here's the rest of the pictures from our visit.

I'm very glad they came to visit, but it was exhausting.  Small children always are, even if I'm related.  Tonight, Brian and Kelly made me dinner, and brought over Brayden and Ashton.   Dinner was delicious, but they kids were exhausting.  I need a nap to recover.  I honestly don't know how anyone survives parenting small children 24 hours a day.

Kids love Buddha Bear

Since moving into this apartment, I have spent more time with kids than I have since I was one myself.  It's a bit of an adjustment, but I'd rather have people bring over their kids than not come at all.  It's just something I'll have to get used to I guess.

I Had a Dream

When I was in rehab, I made a decision that I wasn't going to think about walking.  I was going to accept my situation, and concentrate on being the best paraplegic I could be.  I thought that hoping to walk again would be bad for me.  A lot has happened since then, but my strategy remains the same.

Unfortunately, there's a part of my brain that isn't on board with the plan.  The last two nights, I have had very vivid dreams where I could miraculously walk again.  It felt completely real, and the relief at getting my legs back was intoxicating.  When I woke up, reality set back in.  It was incredibly depressing.

I thought I had skipped over the mourning period for what I've lost, but maybe it's still coming.  I hope not, and I hope I don't have to dream about walking for the rest of my life.  I'm not sure I can take it.

When I was in rehab, somebody told me that when you start having dreams where you're in the wheelchair, that's when you've really arrived as a paraplegic.  I'm not really looking forward to those dreams either.  Maybe I can just not dream for the rest of my life...

House For Sale

Thanks to an incredible amount of work by my friends and family, my house finally went on the market this week.  I thought I'd share the pictures I have.

You can also check out the zillow listing.

Lemme know if you want to buy it.  :)

I miss living here

Back to work?

Today I had a call with my manager where we discussed the idea of trying to do a little bit of work.  I would work from home, and I think I'd start out at around 10 hours per week.  I have been told that I can work part time and maintain disability payments based on how many hours I don't work, so I need to figure out how that works in detail this week.

My I still don't know where I'm going to find time in my schedule to do the actual work, but I'm hopeful that will work itself out.  My team is understaffed so they can use my help, and I'd like to help out if I can.  I just hope I can figure out how to work it into my schedule.

Speaking of my schedule, I've been lucky to be very busy with visitors the last couple days.  Yesterday was Sunday, and Cullen and Gus stopped by for lunch after going to my house to finish up a few tasks before it goes on the market.  We had a nice, if brief visit.

A little later that afternoon, Justin showed up.

My buds

We had a really nice visit, and Justin helped me out with a few things I'd been wanting to get done.  Then we had pizza.  I love pizza.

Justin stayed until pretty late and watched some Olympics with me.  Later in the evening, Brian showed up and helped watch Olympics too.  It was a good evening.

Justin helping me watch women's beach volleyball

Today was another busy one.  Bert stopped by for lunch on his way up from Laurinburg to see somebody at IBM today.  He and Gus and Evelyn shared leftover pizza with me.

Mmm... pizza...

And tonight, David and Kristen brought me delicious meatloaf and brownies and kept me company for several hours.  I had a great time, and I even had my first bourbon and coke since the accident.  Mmm... bourbon...

I'm expecting every day this week to be just as busy as today, so it should be a very good week if so.  I'm looking forward to it.