Memorial Day 2015

On a December morning about two weeks before Christmas, mu Uncle Steve went to the closet and got out his 30.06 hunting rifle, say down in his chair, put the muzzle in his mouth and pulled the trigger with his toe.
He left behind an ugly mess of brains and blood on the wall behind him.
He also left behind a wife and six kids.
Uncle Steve had been shot through the jaw on d-day in Normandy. It took away a good bit of his jawbone ans some of his tongue. The managed to reconstruct his jawbone and give him dentures for his mossing teeth, but he was never a complete person afterwards.
Afterwards he was never the same. He dragged his wife and kids all over the west coast of the U.S., never settled in one place for long. More than his jawbone was shattered on that June morning.
So this is dedicated to the forgotten casuaties of war. The ones who gave their lives for their country, maybe not on the battlefield, but nonetheless because of it.
Here's to the broken men that come back from war, but never return home, who struggle with their experiences and never quite heal. To those who, in the stillness of the night contemplate the cold round circle, the blue barrel or the bottle of pills.
They died for your freedom just as surely as if they had died on the battlefield.

Once more into the breach Horatio!

We have another offer on the house.
It isn't anything spectacular, but it will meet my needs.
My goal in all this is to get enough to pay cash for the place on Johnson Creek road in Sequim,
This offer meets my criteria. Barely.
By the time I pay closing costs and pay the movers, we will have used up most of our available cash.
We will have to play it pretty cautious for the next couple of months.
The only hurdle left for us is to get through the home inspection. I know there are still some minor things to be done, but I have addressed all of the major things. The only thing of any consequence is that the stone fascia on part of the front of the house needs to be replaced. I was concerned about the cost, since I had no idea if it would cost a couple of hundred to fix, or God knows how much to replace.
I had a contractor over to give me an estimate, and he gave me a verbal estimate of $900 to replace the whole fascia. He was not sure when he could get to it, but figured around the middle of June. The only problem is that closing is June 16th.
Nothing like cutting it close.
The prior offer never felt right to me. And I couldn't stand their Agent. This time it just feels right.
Hopefully we will be moving in a month.

Three weeks later

Still a lot of activity on the house.
We actually had an offer, which we accepted. It got as far as the home inspection, when the people backed out.
The major point of contention was that there is a Zinsco circuit breaker panel in the master bedroom. Zinsco is an older design, and is no longer made. There have been reports of fires from malfunctioning panels. Bit there has never been a recall and they are not an imminent danger. I have always known it would be brought up at the time of inspection, but figured I would throw in replacing the panel as an incentive. Well, it never got as far as the negotiation. The people just walked off.
I am a little bit pissed that they wasted my time.
I am still on the hook to buy the house in Sequim, but the option runs out at the end of the month. We would hate to lose the option on the property, but it would not be the end of the world if we do.
Three showings yesterday, two today.
Hope things proceed with a sale.