Oh, that house thing... The latest news it that there's no documentation saying that the seller was of sound mind when he signed over power of attorney to his daughter. They are trying to find a doctor who was treating him in August, 1997 when the power of attorney form was signed. Then the catch is to see if the doctor will sign something saying the seller was of sound mind in August, 1997. Then the power of attorney is valid and the deal on the house can close. Otherwise, I'm not sure what's going to happen with this house.

Whether the sale goes through or not, I still had to pack the kitchen. Ron, who never cooks, is remodeling the kitchen. On October 26, they start demolition. My goal was to have closed on my house & be moved the previous weekend so me & cats wouldn't be around for the chaos. It's looking like I won't make that goal. This weekend, I packed the kitchen. Of course, all the kitchen stuff was all mine. I think Ron had three forks and a knife his mother gave him out of pity several years ago. All the dishes/cookware is now in boxes in the living room.

I also started packing the books. I ran out of strapping tape for the boxes so I went to find a store this morning. The hardware near my house was inaccessible because of a street fair. I discovered that when I got caught in the traffic jam resulting from closed streets. I finally made my way to Stonestown Mall and found a store that sold packing tape. On the way back, I got a little bit lost. However, I found Muni (public transportation streetcar) tracks and decided to follow the track. I knew the line probably ended up at Balboa Park station which is somewhat near my house. I also knew it would be safe to drive over the tracks since Muni isn't the most reliable public transportation system. The chances of a train actually running on the tracks were quite slim.

I did, however, run into church. San Francisco is a city of no parking. Churches usually don't have parking lots so they use the street, instead. What was a two lane street often becomes a one lane road when church attendees leave their cars in the street while services are going on. And the funny thing is...this is legal.

The Bay Area is also the home of Mayor Brown. There's two of them: Willie Brown of San Francisco & Jerry Brown of Oakland. I can see potential for much confusion over the next few years.

Assuming the house goes through, I think it will be very easy to find a roommate for the downstairs room. So far, without any advertising, I've had several women call & tell me they're very interested. The first didn't bother to tell me she smoked. Holly is a friend of a friend. When I mentioned to the mutual friend that I'd talked with Holly about renting the downstairs room in this house, the mutual friend asked me if I minded living with someone who smokes. I asked Holly about it & she said she wasn't a heavy smoker. Well, any smoke it too much for me. I guess she was going to tell me about it eventually.

Stacey