What a difference a day makes

This morning my cell phone rang at about quarter to 8:00, and instead of being a kid in trouble as I feared, it was the owner of the construction company that's doing the remodel at my supper club house - he'd been out of town. We went over and took a look at things this morning, and essentially the HVAC guys were right, moving the ducts to the front of the chimney is what needs to be done. So, ouch, more money than I intended to spend, but in the end I will have the window (and the cool new stove, and more cabinets and counter) - and the boss is back, and the job is moving forward again, probably even more important.

His wife tipped him off to my discontent - she read the blog post where I was bitching about the job - totally embarrassing, but it worked ... not sure what that says about blogging as a form of communication - is it passive aggressive to kvetch on your 'blog? or, if you're self-centered enough to simply assume that "everyone" is reading you, maybe it's being forthright - but you're a self-centered, self-important jerk ...

And CraigsList rocks. Yesterday at about 5:00, I posted the stove that I am replacing at the supper club house, for sale, and the firewood from the big branch that came down while we were in Anaheim for ALA, for free. In 15 minutes the doorbell rang and a guy came and took all the wood away. Within an hour, I had two emails from people interested in the stove. I met one of them at the house this afternoon, she brought her boyfriend, they paid cash, and I didn't even have to get my renter to move her truck (it's parked right close up to the garage, so that the carpenter for the kitchen remodel can get in) - the boyfriend biked back to their place a few blocks away, and came back with a buddy and an appliance dolly, and they wheeled it off down the street.

The other thing that's cool about this CraigsList experience is it's using the big, global Internet to connect with people right down the street. I guess the same could be said about my bitchy 'blog post as well. Maybe that makes it better - I'm not a self-centered jerk, I only expect my closest friends and relatives to read my 'blog.