Edition #1.5

Yes, Edition 1.5 because I have already lost edition #1 by trying to include Location.  Sent me to an error page I could not get out of.  Anyway...

Blog.  Say stuff.  Maybe other people will read it but probably not unless you tell them about it.  Then, maybe you don't want to your friends to read it because then I think it might stifle what I have to say as I tend to be graphically honest.  If friends are reading, I'm sure they'll think I'm talking about them.  Yeah, what a dilemma, eh?

So why does one even attempt to write such a thing as a blog?  For me, it is to keep track of my life at this point in time.  Journaling, I suppose, in a way.  Along that way, though, I'll include whatever sort of interactive inserts to keep us informed and amused.

It has been a sobering week for me.  Tuesday I had a prostate biopsy.  That was the worst two hours of my life.  I have a romantic interest who told me, basically, to quit whining.  Females are poked and prodded, scraped and poked some more by doctors.  She said, "Once you get your feet up into the stirrups..."  The next day I went to work but felt like shit.  I called the doctor to find out what the symptoms of a reaction to the biopsy were.  After describing my symptoms, he told me to come down to the clinic ASAP.  I teach and left my class in the hands of the counselor.  I went to the clinic walk-in facility.  I got there at 5PM and walked out the door at 9PM, having given urine, three blood samples, and being fed antibiotics through an IV.  I stayed home the next day and just sat around.  I was leaking blood from the wrong places.

Today is Saturday, December 8, 2012.  I live in East Wenatchee, WA.  It is a good place to live.  I've had the same job for 21 years.  In 4.5 years, I will retire.  My mind is thinking at maximum drive speed.  I'm trying to slow it down.  How does that work?

To sum me up at this particular moment in the continuum, I am a 60 year-old white male, single, but not legally divorced yet due to financial constraints.  That particular issue causes the romantic interest to be slow and cautious with me.  I've explained, ad nauseum, the reason for not being legal.  Yes, it's the house.  I have been separated for two years, gone through all the stages of grief, can now talk to ex congenially.  I filed for divorce in April of 2012.  Since neither of the parties involved could afford to use lawyers, we did it ourselves.  "Divorce With Dignity," was the theme of our divorce.  Neither of us could walk away from the house without going bankrupt.  The Federal Government, particularly the FHA, came out with a refinance program called Streamline Refinance.  Basically, they take your old FHA mortgage and switch it out with another FHA mortgage at lower interest rates.  Save money, afford staying in the house.  Problem is FHA found out we were getting divorced and would not process the loan UNLESS we both lived in the house (not going to happen,) or we stayed married.  The mortgage broker really hammered away on this.  "It will just add four months to your divorce. One month for the loan to process, then you file and wait the ninety days."

I was convinced Lani, my ex wife, would not go for it.  It was just days until the divorce was final.  I talked to her.  She agreed. After all, her name was, and is, on the mortgage. What was next?  I had to file for a Motion for Dismissal of the Motion for Divorce.  The ironic piece in this is that the day the divorce was to be final, July 10, 2012, I was at the courthouse filing for dismissal.  The loan went through.

Through procrastination and the fact that I kept spending the money I had set aside to file, I didn't get around to filing again until late October, early November.  Now the divorce is final on 2-12-13, Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  See the irony there?  Lincoln freed the slaves, right?

It certainly puts a crimp in the social interactions with females.  We have fun but when I explain my marital status, I become invisible.  Know the feeling?  I know my marital status.  I'm single.  My ex knows about my romantic interest.  She's cool with that.  I think it might make her feel better about things, about me, that I am moving on.  I am surmising because it is something that will never be discussed.

While the romantic interest is fond of me and has been affectionate, I have only visited her once, but that was enough for me.  Since we live halfway across the country from each other, meetups are rare, in this case only once so far.  So, I have been trying to weezle an invite for the Holiday Break.  I'm not sure that I'm wanted, although that has been assured but not worked out yet.  Seems that she doesn't want me to come down if she has to work.  i reassured her that I was capable of keeping myself occupied.  Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN., is only three hours south of her.  I could then travel up to Minnetonka to see Mel Jacobsen, a very good and opinionated studio potter.  I could keep myself occupied and be home in time to greet my gal at the door.  She doesn't see it that way.  Says it would be too distracting knowing that I'm there and she has to work and can't be with me.  Really, that's quite a compliment.  I guess I just look at it differently.  She's peach, though, and I'll hang on as long it goes.  It is good to go slow.  I've always been is such a hurry.  To nowhere mostly but still in a hurry to get there.

The next steps?  Right now, I'm in the kitchen, typing with my new Macbook Air, the sun is shining brightly through the bay window, the kitten is on the table grooming, the dog is laying at my feet on the floor.  I need to work in the studio today.  I have someone else's bowls to fire and I have to hard wire my kiln.  Haven't been able to hit the temp I need.  After talking to the kiln guy, Eric, at Seattle Pottery Supply, we think hard wiring the kiln might work.  I won't know unless I get out there and do it.

The divorce is final, done, kaput, finis, no more a legally binding contract in 66 days.  I will be officially "available" to women in the dating scene.  I am avoiding that scene more or less as I am in love with romantic interest and will give that my full attention.

Sounds idealistic, doesn't it?