Another week goes by

Brian has been in Palmer all week at CDL school. He drove for a while today and has at least another day of driving before he can pass the test, but they are booked up there, so he will come home in the morning and practice his driving and take his test down here. His instructor actually lives just a couple miles from us, so they will schedule that when Jo is down here and can work with him. He likes it so far and has passed all his written tests.

Alicia and I have been busy all week. Monday we cleaned all day - you know how it is when your schedule gets all out of whack because an extra person is home - well our house looked like a bomb had gone off in the living room, so we worked and got lots cleaned up and put away. then Tuesday, we spent in town for payday and Family History. We are getting more patrons from the community to come in and that is always exciting and fun. then yesterday, we went to Soldotna to get our oil changed and our tires swapped - sigh- necessary pre-winter chores. Brian had his tires swapped in Palmer one night after class, so we are all set.

They have predicted that because of El Nino - we will either have warm rain or tons of snow. Not really an exact science, I guess. We haven't had snow yet down low - the mountain tops all got dumped on for a couple weeks. It's pretty up there. I don't mind if that is where it stays.....

We are bummed that Jeffrey won Project Runway instead of Michael, but what are you going to do???? Hate to admit in public that we watch reality TV, but we do !! Project runway and Top chef are our favs in reality TV. We don't watch survivor or fear factor or the bachelor shows. We have been watching lots of shows about flipping run down houses - at first it seems like a good idea, but they have been showing more honest examples lately, about people who miss out on the market or who end up with surprise bad news when they tear into the house. Our housing market here is too unpredictable for it to be a good business for us. Plus with the intense moisture you get in a coastal area, you never know how much mold and water damaged wood you will find - not to mention all the amatuer done electric and plumbing you will run into up here. Ahhh, no zoning or permits required..

We are fighting a real estate developer who wants to vacate the pretend street that fronts between our house and the little white house on the highway. We were all for the vacating until he presented it to the borough - showing that he gets all 70 feet of the vacation. So we stopped him this month and have another hearing to go to in November. He can vacate his half of the street and keep it, but he wanted to keep our half, too, without paying us a reasonable price for it. Obviously, he never tried to take land from a Carper before. the land is in our blood. at the hearing the other day, they read in our letter and said they couldn't vacate unless we agreed to it, so that felt better. No worries.

Well, take care and keep us in your prayers to find work soon. Love, Charlotte