The window

Quick update on the unemployment claim. When I finally got through to them today, I was told that whoever I talked to yesterday didn't forward my claim to the feds either. This guy said he did it, and also told me there was a number I could fax my records to, but never gave it to me. Think I'll brave their stupid phone system on Friday, just to make sure. It will still be several weeks before they can straighten it out.

I know form time to time I have complained about the people who last had this house. How they painted all the window shut. How half the screens were missing when we moved in, and there were no windows in the living room at all, just 2 glass doors for light. How it was all mowed, an inefficient house in a blazing hot field.

When we stopped mowing, I expected pines. It's what shows up first in central or eastern NC. Stop mowing, and a year later, you have a field of pine seedlings. Not so here. I was wondering if the grasses would ever yield to the trees. Finally, three years later, the transformation is starting. A stray oaks, but mostly sumac trees are sprouting up at the edges. Hardwoods aren't going to sprout in an area with no shade, so without the pines, the change is gradual, but the open areas are shrinking. Next spring, we will decide what we want to keep clear and mow it once, to keep the trees out. The rest will become forest.

And we finally have a window we can open in the living room. Only one of the doors opened anyway, so we ditched the other and put in a double hung window. Actually, we switched the two doors too, since the one that did open was in bad shape. Eventually, the house will work right. Maybe.