Jabulani Jonny

Well, if you’ve read this blog much at all, which is not many folks and has probably grown fewer with my recent absence, you know I fiddle with my computer a lot.  I used to tweak the mess out of XP with all kinds of shell replacement programs (changes the way XP looks), tried to install OSX on my Dell laptop, tried several versions of Linux.  Through all that I dog cussed Windows and was counting down the days I could get a Mac. 

Well, I still want a Mac….but, I upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate about 3 weeks ago.  Ummmm, I’m not quite sure how to say this, but I, uh, well…I really dig it.  There I said it.  Of course, I’ve only got limited exposure to Macs and OSX, but I know the interoperability of the programs and how intuitive they are.  I have to say that Vista has really made some major strides in user-friendliness and its usability.  Not to mention some of the great eye-candy features available if you’ve got the hardware to support it, and luckily I do. 

It’s really been a breath of fresh air.  Unlike Linux where I had to work so doggone hard just to do anything, I mean, just to get my mouse to work.  My experience on Vista has been nothing but plug-n-play bliss, on all fronts.  So as much as it’s like pulling teeth….good job Redmond.  Atleast for this home user you’ve put together a great functioning, fun to use OS.  Now, I still need a Mac.

Well from my last couple of posts you can see things have been a little crazy around the house.  Things are settling in a little bit about the baby.  We still have our moments of doubt and some fear, but I know that everything will turn out ok.  So what’s new?

Well, with a new baby on the way, one with possible heart issues, I want us to be closer to town, closer to a hospital, closer to me during the day.  So we made the decision to get our house ready to put on the market.  There are a few things that still needed to be done, ie. paint the garage, finish the bonus room, and I’ve been working like a fiend since we decided to put it on the market. 

On Saturday, whilst I was building a new wellhouse, some folks that run a tree farm on the next property pull up.  They get to the point quickly and say that they heard we were going to put our house on the market and they were interested in buying it before we get a realtor involved.  WOW.  We just decided to move to Columbus and we’ve already got what looks like an extrremely motivated buyer.  We took them on a tour of the house and they absolutely loved it.  Everything, loved it. 

So, an appraiser comes out next week to appraise the house and we’ve got to settle on a price.  See, we have to get a certain amount out of this house in order for us to move to living off one paycheck when we move to Columbus.  I want Sunette to be able to stay home with the baby indefinitely and that’s going to take some adjustments, primarily a lower mortgage.  We built our current house, with us doing the sub-contracting and lots of the work, which means we’ve got a good chunk of equity in it right now.  My plan all along was to sell it in about 5 years. 

It looks like the time is hear and there are definitely some pangs of sadness with selling this house. It is absolutely perfect for us, situated on 5 wooded acres, plenty big with lots of great features.  The only problem is that it ‘s  30 minutes from everything and one paycheck won’t carry us and the mortgage.  So we gotta move. 

So if we didn’t have enough going on with the baby due in August, now we’ve decided to move before the baby gets here.  That’s a lot on our plate, but I’m actually really excited about the move.  I’m excited about being closer to my friends, and a 10 minute drive instead of 30 minute drive everywhere.  May not sound like much of a difference, but it is. 

So hold on big city, the country Payne’s are movin’ in.