Historic Door

The house we bought was built in 1941.  It predates America's involvement in World War II, the atomic bomb, and Reganomics.  There are plenty of stories in this house that we will never know.  That's kind of the beauty of older houses.  They have stories.  Whether you know the stories or not, you know there have been plenty of things that have happened.  One thing that we do have is the door that leads down to the basement.  Someone, at one time, thought that it would be great to document some stuff on it.

Documentation that people lived here.  Families lived here.  The majority of the stuff written on here is kids' names, age, height.  Stuff like that.  It's like stuff you see in Rockwell paintings.  Hash marks and names.  It's cute.  The oldest date that we can find on here is from 1970.  There's marks from every decade since the 1970s.  It would have been awesome if there were dates older than 1970, but who knows, the door could have been replaced.  It doesn't seem as old as the house.  Most of the dates are in pen and will eventually fade over time.  There are some in pencil that are almost gone.  The smart people wrote in permanent marker.  We talked with the previous owners and they said that this door was one of the best features because of all the documentation.  There's another set of numbers of someone's pregnancy.  Weeks along and the circumference of the woman's stomach.  Sorry to use the word circumference, I don't know how to describe a woman's pregnant stomach without it sounding awkward.  

And here is our mark in the house.  I took this picture the day we got the keys to this house.  It was really the first thing we did here.  We added 'our first house' under the date.  We don't have kids to mark their heights.  I suppose we could mark the height of the cat?  It wouldn't change, but we still could.  That would be absolutely terrific for whomever owns this house after us.

This is the last up close of the door.  The last name is personal for me because it is a family name.  It is my mom's maiden name.  The funny thing is, my family is from Michigan.  And who knows, we could be related to this person in some way, shape, or form.  For those who believe in signs or fates or anything like that, if you saw a family name in a house that you were looking at, how could you not buy it?  We were convinced that we were going to buy this house before we saw the names and dates, but if this wasn't a sign from whatever you believe in, I don't know what would be.   

Housing Adventures

In the middle of June, my wife and I were faced with a dilemma.  The same dilemma we faced the year before.  Do we renew our rental lease or do we take the giant leap and look for a house of our own?  After considering the pros and cons, we made the decision to look for a house to buy.  It has been quite the adventure.  Not always in a good way, but an adventure nonetheless.  While we knew going in that it would take a while, and that it was not going to be as nice and tidy as they show on the HGTV network, it might have been just a little bit more than we originally thought.

There were several steps along the way.  The first big one was where we would be looking for a house.  Currently, my wife works about an hour south of the Twin Cities.  I work in the southern central part of the metro.  We live closer to her work than we do mine, but that was just where we moved because that is where we could find a place to live that wasn't the shitty apartment we found when we first moved to Minnesota.  We thought about staying in the city we are in now.  It is small enough that it reminds us of our hometown, but still close enough to the metro that you can get there in half an hour.  The problem is that everyone else is aware of this and the houses on the market are either too expensive or look like flop houses.  So we expanded our search in the hopes of finding somewhere near the middle to make our commutes similar.  We also took into account the fact that we both may not stay at our current jobs forever, more so her than me, that if either of us were looking for new employment, it would be closer to the metro, so to move a little bit further north made the most sense.

After we determined the general area of where we wanted to live, it was just a matter of finding a house.  Not just any house, not even the house.  Just one that would suit us.  It also had to fit into our budget, our wants for the house, you know stuff like that.  In the course of our house search, and after we made an offer on the one we are going to buy, we thought back to all the houses we saw.  To put it into context, we were driving about thirty minutes each way to go look at these houses, so we wanted to see three or four at a time just to make it worth our while.  Including the open houses we went to on weekends, we figured we saw between thirty to thirty five houses.  When we first started looking, we had a decent idea of what type of house we wanted, but weren't sure what we were looking for if that makes any sense.  We knew we wanted a house that pretty much move in ready but we wouldn't turn away from one that had small projects or anything like that.  The more we saw, the better idea of what we were looking for.  Some houses we wanted to see because we were going to be up there.

We found a house finally.  We put in an offer a few days after seeing it and the hard part was waiting.  It had just come on the market a few days before we saw it.  With the sellers waiting a few days to accept or negotiate or offer we figured they were waiting to see if they got any other offers.  Either they didn't or they thought our offer was good enough to deal with.  We negotiated a few times on the price and they accepted our second offer.  I figured negotiating the price was going to be the hardest part.  After our offer was accepted, the house inspection came next and of course there were many thing that came up.  We compiled a list of things that needed to be fixed.  What our realtor told us was to ask for them to fix as much as possible, they'll come back with what they'll fix, and you compromise on the list.  This was the most annoying part of the purchase, I thought.  We finally came to an agreement on what they would fix and what we would eventually take on.

After we came to an agreement, it was just a waiting game.  We had a closing date.  We had a last walk through date selected.  Our mortgage went to underwriting which was the worst part.  It was the worst because we weren't really involved in it.  We sent all our paperwork in and all the work was being done by people we hadn't ever met.  It was all very distant.  We'd get random emails from our mortgage person saying they needed a piece of paper from this or that.  Or we'd need to send them something else.  It was all repetitive and tedious.  And downright annoying.  They would need every single page, even if it was a line that just said one thing on it.

And finally, we were homeowners!  The grand adventure was over.  At least the first chapter was over and another was just beginning.   

Diversified Baseball

After the Kansas City Royals were eliminated from playoff contention in late September, it was guaranteed that the sport would have it's fifteen different champion in as many years. To me, that is a great thing.  Whether or not the team you routinely cheer for has made it into the post season, if you're a fan of the sport, you should enjoy this fact.  It's good for the sport because it brings in fans from cities and states that might not always be watching baseball in October.  Or watching it at all. 

With all that said, that does not mean that all the teams that are in the post season this year aren't there all the time, or on a consistent basis.  What it means is that you don't see repeat winners.  The closest the sport has had to back to back champions are the Royals who won it all last year and lost to San Fransisco the year before.  It's great to see teams like the Cubs and Indians make it to the playoffs because for some of the players, it's their first trip.  They get really excited about it.  Even if it is just for one series, even if they don't get to the World Series.  It gives them that experience they dreamt about as kids.  Anyone that played baseball as a kid had that dream about hitting a game winning home run in the playoffs or World Series.  This diversity that we see with all kinds of different teams making it to the playoffs let them relive that dream.  Kind of. 

Watching a team repeat as champions is the worst for fans of the game that are fans of the team.  Whenever the team that I root for, regardless of the sport, doesn't make it to the playoffs, I like to find the team that shouldn't be there.  The team that has had a surprising season or a team that has struggled for so long that you feel great for them just for making it to the playoffs.  It's like when a low seeded basketball team makes a deep run in the college basketball tournament.  You find yourself wanting them to knock off the big time teams.  It's the same with baseball.  You don't like seeing teams year after year winning the World Series (unless you root for them).  I like to see diversified post seasons.  Granted, it would be nice to see the Tigers in it every year, but with them out it does make it less stressful to watch. 

If a team makes it to the post season year after year, that does not always guarantee that they'll have a successful run.  One year they could be eliminated in the wild card game only to come back the following year and win it all.  And yes, it's nice to see that.  But I like seeing different teams win it every year.  It makes it that much more exciting.  If you think back to the late 90s and early 2000s, the Yankees were winning seemingly every year.  And weren't we all rooting for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001?  Let's all be honest.  And it wasn't all because it was the Yankees (okay, maybe it was), but wasn't it because we all wanted to see a different team win?  If it had been the Pittsburgh Pirates that were winning year after year, wouldn't you want to see someone else win?

An Unofficial and Horrifying Holiday

I feel like there is an unofficial holiday that has shown up at the beginning of Fall the past couple of years and it is starting to gain momentum.  It had a slow start and over the course of the past few years, it has started to gain momentum.  Almost to the point where you would think that people would start asking for the day off to celebrate.  I don't think there is a specific day that it starts, but maybe it has to do with the weather and the outside atmosphere.  It's the Pumpkin Spice Holiday. 

Yes folks, I am declaring that there is a nation holiday nightmare that is starting to take over and it smells of pumpkin and random spices.  It started out small, with a few things here and there with pumpkin flavoring.  Earlier this month, my wife texted me a picture of Pumpkin Spice oatmeal.  OATMEAL.  Stop it.  There is seemingly pumpkin spiced everything.  From consumable items like coffee, ice cream, and even beer to household items like candles, air fresheners, and potpourri.  It is starting to take over the gap between summer and Halloween.  I am expecting in the next year or two to walk into a Target and see an entire seasonal aisle run of nothing but pumpkin/pumpkin spice stuff.  To me that is a scary thing.  Now, I do like the smell of pumpkin, and even the taste of some pumpkin foods it's just becoming bigger than it should be.  

I know that when I think of fall, I think of smells.  It's a sensory season for me.  You step outside and there's something different in the air from the summer air.  I don't know if it's because of the temperature dropping and the leaves changing, but there's just something.  It's also a change in wardrobe for most people.  It's sweatpants, hoodies, and thermal long sleeve shirts.  It's comforting clothing.  Kinda like how there's comfort food, but it's comfort clothing.  Fall is my favorite season after winter.  One thing that is ruining it is pumpkin spice everything.  Stop ruining this time of the year for me!  And besides, if there is one type of food that should be associated with fall it should be apple. 

Post Season Pursuit

This season has been playing out a lot better for the Detroit Tigers than it did last year.  By this time last year, they were out of the playoff picture.  Hell, they were out of it by the All Star break.  The fans of the team came to the realization that they are going to be rebuilding over the next few years.  Especially after they traded away big names for prospects.  Much to my surprise, the Tigers find themselves in the hunt for the post season.  This is more exciting than the years that they were dominating the AL Central.  Was it nice when they were easily winning their division?  Yes, it was a guarantee they would be playing baseball into the end of September and October.  But the excitement and anxiety of each game just wasn't there.  Plus, the players know that every game counts.  They know that they have to go that extra mile and make that one extra play that could turn a lose into a win.  Now, every game matters as they battle back and forth with several teams for the playoffs. 

As I eluded to, after last season's disastrous end, I did not have many expectations for the Tigers.  I was hoping for a .500 record by seasons end as they worked the new prospects into the system.  They still have hold overs from their domination the past eight or nine seasons, but they also got younger.  With the emergence of some of the prospects throughout the season, the hopes of the fans grew.  This season is a great example of how baseball is a marathon and not a sprint.  In early May, the Tigers went on a horrendous run and lost eleven of thirteen games.  It was a dark time.  Many thought that they were going to dismiss Brad Ausmus as the manager.  If they had a more excitable or unsteady front office they might have.  They have also lost twelve of the thirteen games they have played against the divisional leader, Cleveland.  If you were to combine those two statistics, you would think that this team was dead in the water in June.  However, they are still within reach of the playoffs.  Most people think it will be through the wild card as opposed to the division.  They are five or six games back of Cleveland, which makes their struggles against that team that much more glaring.  Essentially, they have to win all the remaining games against Cleveland to have any shot at catching them.  Imagine if they had won just three more games against them!  They still have seven or eight games against Cleveland, and you know damn well that every broadcaster is going to bring up their struggles.  Let us hope that it doesn't get in the Tigers' head.  The wild card is now a two team play in game.  The Tigers are going back and forth with Baltimore for the second wild card spot, and they have a big series against them this weekend coming up.  That is where they could make their push for the playoffs.  If they sweep Baltimore, or get swept themselves, it could give a more clear playoff picture. 

The Tigers are not an excitable team.  You don't see them jumping out of the dugout after great plays.  They have that 'let's get this win and move on to the next one' approach.  That is a trait of their leadership.  Both the players and the management.  There are plenty of people out there that would like to see more emotion out of the team, but that's not their style.  Many like to point out that Brad Ausmus isn't a very excitable manager, and it's true.  Sure, it was amazing when he covered home plate with his hoodie earlier this year.  I saw that as his moment to show emotion and show the team that he's there for them, to have their backs.  It's like Jim Leyland's explosion all those years ago about the team just wanting to get on the plane after playing terribly against Cleveland (I believe it was).  All you fans know what I'm talking about. 

One thing I love about the Tigers is that they just have their expectations to drive them and their fan base.  They don't rely on a gimmick to drive the excitement.  They don't have a rally monkey or a rally mantis.  They have their solid play.  They have their experience to draw upon.  Even if the Tigers don't make it to the playoffs, it has been more entertaining this year to watch.  Yes, it's more stressful knowing that each lose puts them further back, but it also makes each win that much more important.  And just think, if they're playing this well now, how much better is the future once these rookies and prospects come into their own?