Mixed Bag

Yesterday, on my calendar, was to have been a Quiet day. NOT !

A welcome visitor to our front porch serenaded me with its lively tune all morning, as I worked on follow-up stuff for DAR. How do you describe a bird song with mere words? An internet site suggested "chirr-up, chirr-up..." but whatever description is given, nothing compares with the actual song. The little bird perched on top of the largest wind chime and sang its heart out for the longest kind of time ...until I disturbed him by going to the open front door to get a better look. The song was so cheerful and happy that I didn't even mind, too much, the 'calling card' he left on the porch floor.

From then on it was pretty much downhill the rest of the day. The 'verdict' on the Buick problem was not unexpected, but still to hear that your favorite vehicle is 'terminal' without major surgery is very disconcerting. The beautiful used car was my 75th birthday present from our children, and I have enjoyed every mile of its life since then. Now the dilemma is deciding if it's worth putting a whole new transmission in a car with its accrued miles, or not. And if not, how much to put into it to make it sellable? The Pollyanna in me is glad that the van is running nicely now, and we'll just adapt to being a one-car family for a while.

Then the County's four-year real estate property reappraisal notice arrived in the mail. Ludicrous, ridiculous, fantastic and just plain unreasonable. Whoever made the decision to increase the 'fair market value' of a 100-year-old house by over $100,000 must have been delusional. Just because there are 3 or 4 new houses built in the neighborhood last year (and still unsold), that should not affect our old house/property so adversely. Other homeowners nearby are reporting huge increases in their property values, too...but none as drastic as ours. We have an appointment later this week to take our paperwork and pictures to the Assessors office to seek relief of some degree.

The rest of the beautiful spring Monday was lack-luster in comparison. How much stress can one day offer anyway? It was late afternoon before I oould get to my recliner to finish an excellent Fern Michaels book. That took my mind off everything else for about 60 pages!