Catching up

So much has happened in the last month. Between closing the sale of the Kernersville house, and clinching the job with CMS, there were many "little things" to do.

We closed on the Kernersville house on May 25, the Friday before Memorial Day. With the money from the sale, I was able to pay off the VISA card, repay my sister for the money she lent me to replace the AC in my current home, and have the wooded area cleaned up along the left side of the house.

Having the lot cleaned up wasn't just for aesthetics, but for safety. There were six dead trees in that wooded area, one of them over 30 feet tall, too close to the house for safety. Having that side of the lot cleaned up really made a huge difference in the overall appearance of our property. I think the results were worth what it cost.

As for the job at CMS, they made an offer in early June. Then there was a lot of busy work to do before I could actually start working. There was a background check, fingerprinting, drug testing, health certification including a TB test, and a day-long pre-employment orientation session.

Although I didn't realize how much I had to do before actually being "cleared" to start work, fortunately I had requested my start date to be June 26 (this past Tuesday), so I had plenty of time to do all the CMS pre-employment tasks, plus take care of some things around the house that I'd been putting off for lack of money or motivation. Besides having the left side of our lot cleaned up, Frances and I also repaired the wood "skirts" along the bottom of the front porch posts.

Repairing the posts was the last task remaining to be done from the home inspection report I had done before I bought this house. The inspector noted that all of the posts but one had some wood that was rotting. The repairs weren't difficult, and we saved a lot of money by doing the work ourselves. Our friend Kerry helped by measuring and cutting the wood for us, and showed us what to do by repairing the first post himself. Then Frances and I took care of all the rest -- prying off the rotten boards, nailing up the new ones, caulking, and putting on primer. The only thing we haven't done is paint over the primer coat. I'm proud of the work we did.

As I've already said, my first day back to work was Tuesday. My first week at work couldn't have gone more smoothly. I'm riding the bus, and although I have to transfer buses downtown, the commute isn't as bad as I had anticipated. The morning commute, from the moment I step on the bus at home to the moment I step off the last bus in front of work, is less than 45 minutes. The evening commute is a little longer, only because of the timing of when the buses run, since I have to transfer.

As far as work goes, I feel really lucky. My team is one of those rare groups of folks who actually get along and pull together. There doesn't seem to be any sniping or in-fighting, so I feel truly blessed to have such a great working environment. These are the folks I'll spend most of my waking hours with, week in, week out, so how fortunate I feel to be working with them!