Patience is not one of my virtues

House update:
The house two doors down from me listed about the same time mine did, for $225,000!!The guy bought it for $214,000 about 3-4 years ago.
The sign is down and a moving truck was there on Friday!
I was miffed!!! I called my realtor!!!
So what....he had a garage (1600 sq.feet) as opposed to my 1400 sq. ft. and no garage.
The interior pics looked like something out of a catalog: laminate floors, white furniture and the requisite appropriate dust collector centerpiece on the wood and glass coffee table.
(oops, do I sound bitter?)
My realtor called me today and said it sold for $200,000.
(He lost money!)
This house was found thru a Busch relocation service for someone who works at Busch.
(So, the InBev people are moving in!)
[sidebar: InBev is a Belgain (?) company that bought Anheuser-Busch last year.]

My realtor still thinks I’m priced right. I guess I do too.
If that sold for 200, then I will appraise well too.
I cannot leave until the end of November anyway, so it’s ok.
I’m just so surprised that it sold so quickly.
My realtor is also happy that now I’m the only one on the block with a For Sale sign.

(sigh)

Encounters

I was working at my part-time job today as a Hospice “companion” in our local Hospice House.
I was introduced to a new volunteer.
I shared with her that my house is for sale.
Then she shared with me that she and her husband were looking at a house with a family member in Oregon. The men were in the basement looking at the furnace. She was upstairs alone and began looking around and noticing that they were in a “Witch’s House”! (gasp!)
I nodded and smiled. A thousand thoughts racing thru my head.
She shared that there were “stuffed ravens and tarot cards” all around. (gasp!)
She said [paraphrased] that it kind of “creeped her out”.
I smiled and nodded. A thousand thoughts raced thru my head.
I had just met this woman, I don’t know her, I am in the conservative South and a conservative town. (sigh)
I smiled and nodded and said: “Well, I think folks should take some of that stuff down if they’re trying to sell a house.” [I did!!]
She said: “Well, I’m sure you’re not Wiccan.” [with a nonchalant wave of her hand] (Don’t make assumptions!)
A thousand thoughts raced thru my head.
It would freak her out if I told her I was “Wiccan” /Pagan!!! I didn’t want to get into that conversation. I don’t want to hide my spirituality, but something told be that non-disclosure was the better part of valor in this instance. (sigh)
The something distracted me, and the conversation was dropped.

Another incident: I recently had someone ask me out and when they discovered I was Pagan they told me they wouldn’t date a “NON-Christian”. Not very "Christian" of him was it? And probably a good idea not to go out with them anyway!

And, oddly enough, here I am “blogging” about this because it does bother me!
I have encountered this mind-set too often recently. (sigh)

Local Tourist

I took a small tour of Colonial Williamsburg today. If you live here you can obtain a “Good Neighbor” pass. Present a utility bill and pay $10.00 and you can get into CW all year long! Sweet deal!
I went for the sole purpose of seeing the Governor’s Palace and gardens and maze. I was told by my friend, Selena, that the center of the maze is a portal. She attended W&M in the 1960‘s and would climb over the brick wall to the gardens and discovered the maze’s “secret”. (I found the wall the climb over too!) I endured the guided tour of the Palace itself with the usual amount of parents, precocious (or bored) kids, and annoying photographers. Take time to look folks, instead of taking pics! (Yes, I forgot my camera.) Finally getting out to the gardens, I strolled along. I went into the maze (it’s small) and wandered the whole thing. The hedges are about 7’ high. One cannot really get lost in it, as over the years, shortcuts have been walked between the established paths, through the hedges, and it’s almost difficult to tell is a path or is it a shortcut? I stayed in there long enough to know I was the last one in there, despite what some kids said as they were running out: “We’re the last ones in there!” [no, you’re not]. I had a few moments of quiet in the maze’s center. I took some appreciative breaths and gave thanks for many things, with a few wishes and hopes. I would enjoy the maze and gardens on a moonlit night, but alas I doubt CW allows such activity!
After I left the maze, I began wandering the gardens, taking paths I believed to be less traveled. I discovered the pond by the Palace and the path around it. A great find! It was peaceful, sunlit, green with late summer. I saw a turtle sunning itself on a branch in the middle of the pond. Tree limbs brushed the water. Dragon flies galore. Plunks at the water’s edge from frogs or fish. Benches along the path invited quiet time. This is a place where parents do not take their children. No one on a schedule to see CW would come here. This is a new favorite place, and with my Good Neighbor pass I can come back anytime and watch the seasons change.