Musings of Two Creative Minds

" 'Cause, nothing ever goes as planned It's a hell of a notion Even Pharaohs turn to sand Like a drop in the ocean..." This is a snippet from the Styx song "Nothing Ever Goes as Planned", from their Paradise Theater album (one of my favorites albums I'll admit). Anyway, what does a Styx song have to do with today's topic for this blog entry? EVERYTHING! When we were still house hunting and came across what would become our new home, One of the things that really attracted us was the basement. It was set up almost like an old 1980's arcade, complete with black lights, an arcade game, a projector, and a black light carpet. See image below It was so wild when we had the black lights on, we started joking about holding 80's parties down in it. But of course... (cue the Styx song) That's right! You guessed it. Things didn't quite go the way we had been hoping. While we were in contract and had a home inspection done, it was discovered that...

  Well... this is my first post from our new home (shown above) in Washington State. It's been quite the journey to get here, as well as settle in. It's a whole new experience for all of us, and yet kind of familiar at the same time. At least for Helen, her brother, and their mother. They've all lived under the same roof together before. I'm the newbie in this case, aside from growing up with my own family of course.  Luckily, we got a pretty good idea of how we'd all click based on the Verbo places we all stayed in on our previous visits to Washington, during our house hunting. Mind you, none of this would've ever been possible for just Helen and me. Between health issues for both of us, (and me having had to retire due to disability) affording much less managing an entire house would've been a Herculean task.  However, after my mom took ill and before she passed last October, Helen's mother brought up an idea Helen had suggested a couple of years ago, ...