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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Semi-Wordless Wicked Wednesday



Well here we are, it is finally All Hallow's Eve! It is nearly perfect here in my neck of the woods. The clear skies are gone and gray clouds and even a bit of howling wind has replaced the the sunshine and singing birds of yesterday. The threat of rain adds that chill to the air that makes it seem officially Autumn. As I sip my pumpkin tea, candles that sit in sparkly skeleton hands and black glass skulls cast eerie glows to the walls of my apartment and prepare me to settle in with a stack of spooky movies and ghost shows to set the tone for the night. To further that along, I have as my last offering to you, very eerie photos... ones that I have collected all month and hope they may aide you in some of your own ghost stories that you may be telling tonight. Hope you have a spooktacular evening! 














Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Just Because

Sometimes you just have to
get out of the four walls. 


As promised a bonus post. Sunday hubby insisted that we leave the four walls. I really did not wish to. Wanted to wallow a bit and watch HGTV all day, but I could see he needed to get out, so I got dressed and put my make up on and we headed out. We had no real plans as to what to do. We went and drove some areas we were thinking we might look for homes, actually drove by, and got out at one and peeked in the windows, not for us, but worth a look- see. Hunger pains calling, but all places too crowded on a Sunday at noonish, we popped into Denny's for a bite to eat and then headed off to IKEA... a place we often just mindlessly walk around when there is nothing else to do. After making the rounds, grabbing a few small things we "thought" we needed, we decided we would head to our favorite place to have a late day drink, the Delta King at their bar and watch the late day sun sparkle on the water to just decompress; turns out there was a lot of people with very small children with the same plan, so did not get to decompress so much. While there, wincing each time a child near by screamed and trying to enjoy our drinks, the siren of the near by bridge sounded the alarm that a large boat was on it's way towards us. Turns out we were there just in time to see the Hawaiian Chieftain come to dock! So eager for a photo op, I took a few snaps while hubby paid the bill and then we went for the short walk to the next ramp to get a better view. I did not wish to get close to the crowd that had gathered, so we stayed at our lofty vantage point and snapped a few more pics and then hubby took a few of me to share my new hair cut.... just because. 
* more info on The Hawaiian Chieftain ... here and here


The bridge rises to let the ship in to the dock area....

Backing in....

Lining up... 

Nearly there.... 
Sorry for the blur... have no idea what caused it.

 Warning (giggle).... Not very 1920's or 1930's in
style... that is hard to keep up on a daily basis,
but of course it is always in my heart. 
Hubby takes over the camera...









Monday, October 29, 2012

Shut That Door....

Sometimes life just does
not go as you want it to.


It seems in poor taste to write a blog about not getting a home that we tried for not once, but twice, when many on the East Coast of the United States may very well loose their homes and much more as the Frankenstorm named "Sandy" makes it way to land, however I know that I do have followers unaffected and who are waiting on an update. Obviously from what I have written already, you know the outcome. When we got the call to say that the third in the series of lenders had yet another outcome, and we let the owner's agent know our final offer, we knew the outcome in our minds and hearts quite quickly, two days later that was confirmed. The sentence "The answer is 'no', not at this time." though expected still hit us both hard. Tears were shed, well on my part. Regrets for even trying twice, wasting time, not just ours but that of the owners...allowing myself to get attached again in hopes that a miracle would happen; the answer summed it all up in a neat little package of heartbreak. 

Never a more perfect quote. 

It is back to the portals for us. Sadly there is nothing out there to even go look at. So many of the homes popping up are bank owned or short sale and they all are seeking cash or conventional, seeking investors/flippers. The few privately owned homes that are out there are looking for the same. The fear that we have missed our pocket of affordability in the area(s) we wish to live is now realized and compounded by the need to go FHA as well as now not having as much to work with as we once thought. My husband says in January we can qualify for more, and in June, nearly July he can then be on the loan and we may be able to go conventional and have more money to pay down to make our monthly payments affordable, even if the home costs more. My husband is an optimist. I am a realist. I have watched the market and the trends and seen what has been going on for the last year, day in and day out reading everything I can get my eyes on, talking to professionals... they all offer optimistic hope, but also caution that they could be wrong. That is so very hard to hinge your hopes and dreams and wishes on. 

So many nights have I recited this,
along with prayers to God. Nothing
has been answered in all this time,
and when I thought they had, then
as quickly as they were granted they were taken away. 


I am truly at a loss as to how to keep going in our pursuit of being a home owner again. Each time, if we are lucky enough to find a home that fits our price range and will accept our loan, we know it will mean a bidding war against others, if we are lucky enough to win that bidding war, it means paying yet again for the FHA appraisal and if too many repairs are needed, we are out 400.00 each and every time. Each time we spend that it is a risk that too many repairs will be listed to proceed or it will all be on us to pay for and do the work, again with a risk and the fear that the home will not be ours when the dust settles, that what just happened to us TWICE will happen again. We have already now gone through four times of becoming attached and loosing out in the end. Even the strongest of people have a hard time getting up as fast as they did the time before.  I am not saying I/we won't, just that each time I look at a home, and I did yesterday, I am so gun shy I do not even wish to try to throw my hat in the ring. I am struggling with trying to figure out if it is all worth it. The list of pros and cons are endless between being a renter and being an owner.  

It just all boggles the mind that it
has to be this way. 

Right now I am just trying to figure out how to feel "at home" in yet another temporary space. It had taken me nearly two years to feel at home in our last apartment, I may not have liked it there, but it was home and it was comfortable. This apartment is nice, and yes the sunsets with the view are stunning, as many have pointed out, but with many of our belongings a few miles away in storage and blank walls and no curtains hung in fear that it would just be wasted money, I still feel as if I am in a glorified hotel, only there is no maid service and no one is turning down my covers and leaving me a mint on the pillow. I have tried nesting, even yesterday my husband bought me a new glass case from IKEA for my dolls that my Mom gave me (1920's bed doll, pin cushion dolls and the Betty Boop my hubby gave me) so that I could bring them out of storage, but there is still so many of my treasure still wrapped up and away as it could only hold so much. I know they are just things, and I am grateful we found this apartment so quickly and can afford to live here and maintain the storage fee, but when you have lost or parted with so many things, the few you have left is what creates the sense of home. 

Needing to feel a sense of home,
is something most people can relate to
needing. 

I fear that I shall struggle with these feelings quite a bit more as the holidays approach. There is not enough room for a proper Thanksgiving. At this point I feel like skipping it. Our family has decided this year, with two daughters married who have new families to spend Christmas with, we will not be celebrating. This is the time of year when memories are made and that sense of home becomes a stronger pull within myself, especially since loosing our dear cottage ( been three years since we moved out nearly to the day!), I have a feeling it is going to be a very tough one this go round. My goal, just do my best.. whatever that means at the time. 





Bonus post tomorrow, sharing a few pics hubby took of me and my new pixie hair cut recently taken in Old Town Sacramento and a "pirate ship" that was docked there at the time. Then Wednesday more spooky pics in celebration of Halloween!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Semi-Wordless Wicked Wednesday



I can hardly believe it is Wednesday again, and in exactly one week it will be Halloween! Normally I would be decorating the exterior of where we live and buying loads of candy and picking out a costume to wear to spook the kids when I open the door, but being in limbo with this house thing really has taken that part of the holiday out of it for me. However in the spirit (hehe get it??) of us trying to buy this house for a second time, I thought today's post would be a perfect one to share really spooky photos of what could be haunted houses and a spooktacular time to include other various creepy outdoor areas. 

Having dated a young man that lived in a very haunted house when I was a girl, then having lived near a very haunted swamp, later having experiences at a theater we were putting a play on at and living in a haunted house myself I have a never ending fascination for such homes.. so that said, without further ado ... turn off all the lights, close the curtains and step into a world of what ifs.....