Lousy rotten… Fi’s away Forgotten birthdays Monastery Tales This Lexifab entry brought to you…
Thanks Uncle Dave! I am pretty sure that story has been up on Otherleg since its dim and distant beginnings, having been written (I think) in the 1999-2000 Christmas holidays. Write a Monastery story! I am sure Androoo and myself will consider this a more than sufficient excuse not to write another novel this year... Have you noticed the Constructor stories? You will earn even more Otherleg brownie points by joining Androoo and I in the wild and wacky subculture of Stanislaw Lem fanfiction...
Yeah, but I don't think I can quite come at the Lem fanfic (amusingly thin though that slice of the geek pie is). The Trurl and...er, Whatshisname stories never had the resonance for me that they obviously did for the two of you. Besides, they're a bit too clever for me to properly pastiche (bear in mind previous comments re intellectual idleness).
Monday, August 23, 2004
Nobody bought the house this weekend. Again. In desperation, we called one of the people who seemed to be a likely prospect. She told us that she was not considering our place because the neighbours look a bit dodgy. Which we can hardly argue with, because they are a bit dodgy. Possibly very dodgy.
Be that as it may, we are still a bit mystified as to why nobody has even made us an offer on the place (except that one woman who flaked out on said offer within a day). At this point, we’d even considering an insulting offer, but even that seems to be wishing a bit much.
What makes things more stressful is that we can’t lower the price much more than our predetermined minimum price because we won’t then be able to afford the renovations that we want to make at the new house. On top of that, we don’t want to accept any less because the land it’s sitting on is worth considerably more than it was when we were figuring out the overall value. And in this location, land values keep going up and up, even against the flattening national trend. At the current rate in another year or two the land itself will be worth what we’re asking for the house.
Obviously, if we want to be really rich, one solution is to just hold onto it, rent out the new place and enjoy the capital growth on both properties. But the problem is that maintaining two mortgages is taking up just a little bit more than we make, and renting out the second house will probably not do much more than keep us above water. So we will end up being (asset rich but) extremely broke for at least another year.
Which bites, because it means that we can’t plan to make any overseas trips before 2006. And I probably won’t be able to afford skiing again next year. And we don’t have any idea where we’re going to get the money to replace the car when it dies sometime in the next couple of years. And…and…and…
This is the point at which Fi tells me just to write the next Great American Novel (she’s of the opinion that the Australian market is too small to keep her in the manner to which she wishes to become accustomed). Me, I think it’s going to take some sort of voodoo bank account switcheroo with Stephen King or Tom Clancy.
I dropped Fi off at the airport this morning for her three-day jaunt to Melbourne. The first flight of the morning from Canberra leaves at a stygian 6:00 am, meaning that we needed to get up at a quarter to five.
Now I feel like I’ve been awake forever.
Not that I forgot to mention it to him, but it was Mister ChrisT’s birthday on Friday. He is ancient and somewhat terrible, but he has the distinction of being the only person all year for whom I have bought a birthday present before said date. And probably only because Jimbo mentioned that it was coming up when we happened to be in the games store last week. Being thoughtful ahead of time is generally not my strong point.
[Aside: Not like Jimbo, who also thought to call me when he saw an uber-cheap copy of the Firefly DVD box in Woolworths, or someplace. It now had pride of place on the top of the TV, waiting for the end of the Olympics to be our new (if short term) after-work obsession.That is, if I don’t crack and watch “just one little episode” before then. Of course, I risk the Ire of Fi by doing so in her absence, which might dull the temptation.]
So, have I forgotten any birthdays before the next one I remember, Simon’s in October (which he won’t be back for, thus minimising the urgency for me to do anything about it)?
Herr Fellows has written a superb Monastery story as a response to the somewhat exuberant speculations of futurist Damien Broderick. Actually, for all I know he wrote it a couple of years ago, but the point is that it is funny and you should read it. Also, it’s good to see The Monastery concept getting a decent workout. Andrew and I came up with the concept as a sort of collaborative story setting a couple of years ago. Andrew set his 2002 NaNoWriMo story “Lotus thingy etc” there. Naturally, to date I have failed to fulfil any promises I may have made to actually write a Monastery story. Failure to expend effort is my default setting… But be that as it may, go read Chris’ rather good story. Oh, and Andrew’s, which I just noticed and is also quite neat.
…by the fact that all of my work now depends on other people getting stuff done, which they have yet to do. Oh, and now I find that the people with whom I will need to consult are out of contact for another week. Hmmm. This is a problem, yes?
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But a low-brow Monastery story I can probably manage.
