Elections in Springtime, Part II

I hurried to post that previous entry because we've been blowing circuits on a daily basis around here with so much equipment (the stuff the masons use plus the house appliances) being plugged in to so few (still just one) outlets.

Anyway, I want to know: are you all fairly happy with the election results in your neck of the woods? It's been an issue around here that will hopefully become an all-out debate in the years to come regarding the city mayor: whether the position should, more applicably, be a county post rather than just a city election. See, in order to vote for the mayor, you have to live within the city limits. And, everyone who lives within a 65-mile radius north, east, and west of the city uses our little town for pretty much everything (shopping, entertainment, etc.). So, the choice of mayor does not affect only the city but, in all actuality, the entire county! Anyway, this year (WHEW!), the idiot who's been in office and completely screwing up our town for the last couple of years is OUT (yayyyy!), and a good, solid woman who was raised here (as were generations before her) and KNOWS the town and its history is in office! 'Bout time!

With no small amount of chagrin, I realize that I have not properly thanked the people who busted their you-know-whats to make our move from Hastings-on-the-Lake up here to the Swamp River Ridge House possible. And, I prefer to not use names on this blog for privacy reasons, but, in this case, I think that mentioning folks by their first name is completely warranted!

First and foremost, my folks did a HUGE (huge!) amount of work! Dad - only a week or so into his final school year - would come out each night and take at least one large load up in the high-sided trailer. My mom came out during the days and packed and packed and cleaned and cleaned. Then, Shrek and Lisle (okay, so those aren't their real names), just COMPLETELY bailed our butts out, and moved the real bulk of our possessions for us into the wee hours of the morning (4:00 AM) . . . and long after Tom and I had collapsed into bed! And, that's not even including all the packing that Lisle did for me. Then, completely unannounced, Heather - who we don't even know that well - showed up one evening near the end, rolled up her sleeves, and said, "Okay, where do we start?!" Sweet Lonnie made a trip down to the west end of the county for us that would have been so hard for us to squeeze into our nonexistent time schedule. And then, Ms. Silverstein (she knows who she is) FABULOUSLY showed up - again, unexpectedly - on that last horrible day straight from a flight in from a business trip in Canada. She fed us, she wined and dined us, she worked SO hard.

Finally, it was time to go to the closing, but the house still wasn't finished. The amazing Ms. Silverstein and my mom - the two final troopers - gave us some private time to say goodbye to our first little house together, and then they STAYED and finished EVERYTHING while we high-tailed it into town (me, crying all the way). Words cannot properly express how fortunate, privileged, and just down-right HAPPY we are to have these people in our lives.

So, especially to them, but also to everyone who helped us in every little way during those last couple of weeks (even if it was just verbal encouragement from those who couldn't physically be here), THANK YOU, MERCI, and GRASSY-ASS. ;)