State Of The Union

I've not posted for six months and how our lives have changed. Instead of living in the well established neighborhood of Eldorado we now call Tucker Hill in north McKinney home. The picture below is of our house during a snowy winter weekend. As I write this I'm sitting in my new office, which is a definite step up from my previous workplace, I'm listening to President Obama's state of the union address. So many of the phrases seem familar and worn. The best we can hope is for some positive action and work follows the speech making.

Another reason I'm finally updating this blog is that I'm simply too tired to drag myself into the garage or dog kennel to do yet more work. So much of my energy has been directed toward creating a great space for our new dogs - Chloe, Zach and Blaze. We taken a small portion of our tandem garage and turned it into a kennel. I've built a new wall, an exterior door and a dutch door that connects the kennel to the master closet. Additionally I'm working on building out the garage by adding new cabinets and workspace area.

From that center of activity I plan to continue to build upon my new "handy man" label. Indeed I've jumped in with both feet, and with the help of a talented tennis friend named David, I'm quite surprized at what we've been able to accomplish. As I get more free time I'll post more details about what has been done.

So what is the state of Jo's and my union? We continue to work hard to make our new house a home. We certainly underestimated the impact that the move would have upon our lives. It took us fifteen years to turn Penny Lane into a home that sold in less than two weeks back in November. Its unrealistic to think that we can do the same here on Ripley Street in short order. It will need to be a long term effort and we can't kill ourselves doing it. Pushing myself so hard I have gained 20 pounds, have only played tennis a handful of times and need to be more productive at work. I keep telling myself "I'll do better after I finish this or that" but there is always something else to do. So I once again I need to fight for a more balanced life.